mrbigjas

there were certainly more people than that wheni was there about 145 or so today. got a nice sirloin tip roast from harry ochs, our veggies for the week from iovines, some other supplies from 12th street... i hope it's successful enough for them to consider continuing it, even though the terminal is kinda weird when it's not all open and full of people.

i'm in as well if you need someone else. there should be a new pinned thread: ISO: SPECIALTY ITEM ORDER SHARING PARTNERS

if sharing a booth with a gently glowing phallus between you on the table doesn't qualify as romantic, then i don't know what to tell you guys...

if money's no object, i would definitely go to morimoto given the choice--having been to most of them it sounds like it would fit the bill best for this situation...

yeah, what he said! i've never had lamb sweetbreads, and most of the sources i read said that they're not as readily available in the US. i'd be interested to try them sometime--later rather than sooner, though, since while i agree with you that they make me happy, my doctor might disagree that that's all there is to consider....

i did not know that. thanks for that tip--i'll definitely check into the situation...

yep

dill freezes well, so i don't bother with it dried. i mean, the texture does get destroyed, so it's not for putting the fronds over a fresh piece of salmon, but for cooking up some nice dill bread or something the flavor is pretty much all there when you freeze it.

i agree with spikemom--i really like martin's sausages. however, the following people also all make excellent italian sausage; i think it's just a matter of whose you like best: --sonny d'angelo --cappuccio's meats at like 9th & league --fiorella's at 8xx christian

this is what i was talking about in my last post. i think of mint as really two different herbs. the fresh version is better as a last minute garnish and for mint juleps and mojitos and the like--it's got all those volatile scents that are destroyed by heat and exposure to air. but dried mint is a totally legit herb in its own right, and tastes totally different. it's got a grassy, almost earthy flavor with a slight medicinal edge. fresh mint wouldn't taste right in those middle eastern dishes where you use dried mint, in the same way as sprinkling dried mint in your mojito would be... ok that's just nasty.

i actually considered posting in the ISO dining partners thread, but then i thought: what if i screw it up and they suck? what wine does accompany this sort of thing? i drank a rhone from saint joseph from domaine vallet, and while i love the wine itself i'm not sure it was right with the meal. now i'm thinking i could have gone with something a little less rhone-y, like one of the pinot noirs i picked up in oregon that's meant to be drunk young. but that could be the hazlenuts talking. so anyway, to sum up, if cdh is still reading: you can get sweetbreads at harry ochs. they come in 1 lb packages and are $10.99 a pound. the packages are vacuum sealed and will keep very well for at least a couple of days.

the verdict: sweetbreads are delicious, and not good for you. i poached and pressed 2/3 of them last night. today i breaded and sauteed them, with a coating of ground roasted hazlenuts, salt & pepper, and wondra (yes i said wondra. it kicks flour's ass for this sort of thing, producing a crisper, lighter crust with less cooking necessary. it rules. wondra might be better for frying than it is for gravying.) a simple sauce of sherry vinegar and reduced stock. the folks at harry ochs assured me that the vacuum sealing would preserve the sweetbreads for up to a week in the fridge. then everything i read in like five cookbooks said EXTREMELY PERISHABLE! COOK THE DAY YOU BUY THEM! well, i bought them saturday, poached monday night, and fried tuesday, and they were just fine. i'll be doing this again, but with slightly more planning, since a pound of sweetbreads is actually a whole hell of a lot of them, even after they shrink a ton when you poach and clean them and then press them. so it would be way better to have people over for this sort of meal...

come on down, rebecca, you're welcome. bring your statins.

jacques pepin says those other 20% are what you serve to the staff as fried potatoes.

i'm kind of thinking out loud right now, but how about thinking of herbs as two different things: the fresh and dried versions? where the difference is not quality or a value judgment, but straight up chemistry: the volatile oils that are destroyed when the herbs are either cooked or dried, or for that matter chopped and then left to sit? i'm thinking of things like dried cilantro and parsley and basil (where so much of their essence is the volatile oil that dissipates so quickly when chopped and/or heated that there's practically no purpose to them) compared to herbs like thyme or rosemary or savory (which do taste different dried vs fresh, but they have much more assertive flavors dried than the former). and sometimes, the non-volatile essence of the herb is what you're looking for. does that make any sense? that herbs have two sets of flavors in varying proportions?

wow, that looks like a perfect dinner. exactly my kinda thing. i love those watermelon radishes, too. nice job!

ok anyone wanna help me with other parts of the menu? sweetbreads, fried, with a sauce made of ... (i don't have veal stock at the moment; only beef, chicken and lobster). i'm thinking of a dish i had a few months ago at a restaurant around here called pif, where the sauce was verjus-based. but i don't know if i can get verjus on the way home. but because the sweetbreads are so rich, the tanginess of verjus really complemented them nicely. i have some nice chanterelles and other wild mushrooms (big thick white stem, small grayish brown cap, not porcini, but i forget what the name was)--i was going to maybe roast them but maybe i'll grill them. starch? vegetable? any thoughts?

same reason they'd pay fifty bucks for a splatter screen.

holy crap, 10 pounds of sweetbreads! how long does it take you to go through them?

trader joe's carries an italian grapefruit soda which is great.

charlie, you're making me hungry.

i miss the pommes souffle at the jockey club. where does one even get pommes souffle anymore? it was also the first place i had foie gras, a seared little slab on top of a filet that probably cost more than i made in a week back then. i don't really miss the jockey club. but i miss the pommes souffle.

bumping this thread up because i got sweetbreads yesterday from a butcher here. but they came in a just-under-1-lb vacuum-sealed package. me and the mrs sure don't need to eat a whole pound of sweetbreads right now--can i freeze them, or will that ruin them? edited to update: well, I took two of the pieces and soaked, poached, cleaned and pressed them. i vacuum sealed the other and froze it, so we'll see what'll happens with the freezing. i think i'm going to crust them with ground hazlenuts before frying.

oh! that explains why their slices cost the same... by george used to sell a potato and caramelized onion pizza that i loved, but they don't have it anymore, and no one knows what i'm talking about when i ask for it. i feel like i'm in the twilight zone or something. i love their pizza. i'd like to get a fresh one made sometime and eat it directly out of the oven--i suspect it would stand up to some of the best pizza places in town--but at this point i've only had slices.

i don't believe they're giving me special treatment, so i'ma let you guys in on a little secret: they'll do a combo if you ask them. so you wanna try the beef but don't want to miss out on the pork? get a half beef and half pork. the other thing about dinics that a lot of people overlook is that they make a great italian sausage sandwich. i don't know where they get their sausage from (martins maybe? it's right there after all. i'll ask next time) but it's damn good.