Ling

Thanks...this is good to know! I haven't tried their Harvest Loaf (I usually just buy bread at Macrina) but that's next on my list. And the Rustic potato loaf too...I love potato bread, and that's also my bf's favourite bread at Macrina.

^Does the recipe in the book make a loaf that tastes just the same as the Macrina ones? I haven't tried it, but that recipe sounds interesting. I highly recommend the buttermilk biscuit recipe. I followed the directions exactly in the book, except I used butter instead of shortening. Absolutely delicious--flaky crisp, moist on the inside. I usually don't like buttermilk biscuit recipes so much (not rich enough) but use good butter and you'll really taste it.

In every instance that I've had pork in a western restaurant in the past several years (with the exception of it being braised, obviously) it's been served medium. I thought this was fairly standard nowadays. I've only had medium-rare pork served in a restaurant once--it was definitely pink in the center 1/3 of the medallion, and it was tasty and juicy.

I just had a pretty good lunch at Shiki. Haven't eaten in many Japanese restaurants in Seattle yet, but the sashimi (particularly the aji, hamachi, and uni) is very fresh. Henry had the tonkatsu and it was a full 2" thick, and juicy. Inexpensive too! And apparently Ken is the only chef licensed to do fugu in Seattle...? Looking forward to trying Saito's next.

Did they use lemon pie filling? I assumed they made the lemon curd from scratch. Crushed Oreo crumbs isn't a bad product--I use it sometimes as well, and it certainly fits into the diner theme. Lemon and chocolate is a pretty classic pairing--Pierre Herme has lemon/chocolate desserts in his books as well. This dessert didn't bother me as much as the watermelon and blue cheese dessert. Watermelon + blue cheese might be fine, but turning the cheese into a creamy sauce is disgusting.

I agree with you--the venison is a bit over-cooked (medium) for that cut, and the Cabrales foam is a little strong for the dish. Scallops are also cooked more than what I prefer, but it's still a good dish. (And yeah--we tried to copy it when we got home. ) The hamachi starter is probably what I enjoyed most of the dishes we tried.

I didn't like Marcel much at the beginning, but his strangeness is starting to grow on me. That, and I also think his plate presentations are almost consistently the most attractive (besides the coffee grounds mess around his steak and eggs plate). And yes, I do feel really bad about the way he's being treated by the other players. I don't know if I posted this already, but a friend worked with him at Robuchon (and also is friends with Elia) so I've known who's in the final four for the past month or so...and I know the big *shock* that's to come next week, as well. Anyone who's simply dying of suspense can PM me if they want to know. I was rooting for either Sam and Ilan all the way, but Ilan's cooking seems to have been less impressive of late, and both are being portrayed as incredibly rude and immature. I especially hate how Sam tried to blame his outburst on his Sicilian background--as if that's any excuse. I'm glad Michael's gone. He might have been a pretty nice guy, but he's not a great cook.

No one would make fun of you for that (unless you're using table salt )--chocolate and salt is a popular pairing. I've been craving creamy, fatty things that don't require much chewing...the Fage Total greek yogurt, peanut butter, tonkotsu broth....

^Was it tender after a only hour? We braise ours for 4 hours, and the pieces are cubed into about 1" x 2" pieces. We check it periodically after 3 hours, and it always seems to take a full 4 hours to get that melty-fatty texture we like.

High praise from a pro photographer! Thank-you!

I remember Abra telling me about this yogurt when I first moved down to Seattle, but I kept forgetting to add it to the grocery list until this week! I tried the non-fat (with a tiny drizzle of honey) and it has a nice, thick consistency, but I really much prefer the Fage Total yogurt, with all 300 calories and 23 grams of fat! I eat that plain. So good...

Having not had the original, I can't offer any suggestions but ours was not as moist as I expected it to be. Our pork butts were quite lean, unfortunately, so I did moisten the shredded pork with rendered bacon grease before serving. That was just a quick fix--next time, I'll probably try braising it before slow-roasting.

^Awesome meal, Daniel! Someone sure loves his meat! We did the Momofuku Ssam pork butt recently, with a few modifications. Here it is with the kimchi and lettuce in the background. We ate at Jean Georges last month, so we tried to do an interpretation of his signature scallop, cauliflower, and raisin-caper emulsion. Scallops were huge! Also had a plate of kumamoto oysters each. Homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and a bottle of wine rounded out the meal.

Here's one of our pork butts, shredded. We did two 3 pounders at 200 for about 6-7 hours.

Sometimes restaurants modify a recipe they publish to make it simpler for the home cook. I'm not saying this is the case here, but it's a possibility. We did use miso on our pork shoulder.

There were 11 of us. Oh ok. I thought it was split between you, John, and Sneakeater! DAYAM that would have been a lot of food! ← We coulda done that. ← I don't doubt that.

Yes, that was me. I love the macadamia nut crust!

I walk by this restaurant almost everyday. And it always smells good, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet. It seems like business is picking up for them!

Hey Lucy, I've improved the recipe since I last made it for the cook-off. I use panko instead of brioche now (crispier, and it really doesn't need the extra grease), and only toast it under the broiler until it's golden brown (2 min?) instead of baking it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. The sauce is extra creamy this way.

There were 11 of us. Oh ok. I thought it was split between you, John, and Sneakeater! DAYAM that would have been a lot of food!

Having spent some time yesterday wandering around a kitchen supply store, I can say that at least from the are labeled there, china caps have small holes in stainless steel, while chinois have a very, very fine wire mesh. Only a chinois would get the silky smooth texture Tom et al were looking for. ← Thanks for clearing that up. Anyway, I am glad Betty left--I thought she was one of the least talented of the bunch, and found her constant yelling/whining really annoying. And the idea for the soups in champagne flutes was awful--unwieldly, messy (who wants to see soup chunks in their glass?) and kind of pretentious. It's something I'd expect a Rachel Ray foodie to serve at her hoity-toity New Year's Eve dinner.

^No problem...thanks for the comments!

I liked Marcel more after this episode. I didn't see him being overly snarky to anyone, and I definitely think Betty has influenced the way others see Marcel. They ragged on Betty for the unstrained soups--didn't we see her put it through a chinois? I'm 100% sure I did (or at least, she strained the red pepper/beet soup. She called the cone-shaped strainer a "china cap" and told Tom that she didn't put it through a chinois. Aren't those two terms interchangable? (And shouldn't Tom know that as well?)

What did you think of the way the food tasted?

I was just posting about this today in the Bouchon thread...I think my pate choux looked less regular (exactly how you described them) because I used a convection that day. I've always left the convection off when I baked the Pichet Ong recipe, and they are perfectly round and do not expand as much.