Ling

Some insight as to why my Bouchon pate choux didn't look as regular. I used a convection oven that time. explanation?

^Just use the 8" and put some of the leftover batter in a cupcake tin (and take those out of the oven earlier, obviously.) I made the "Peanuttiest Blondies" to go alongside a really dark, rich chocolate sorbet (made with 8z of chocolate and a cup of cocoa!) The Blondies were a hit with the guests. I decreased the amount of white sugar by 1/2 a cup. If I were to make them again, I would have to make a peanut butter-based frosting or ganache...I think they could've been peanuttier.

To some degree, yes, piping does matter. However, I piped the Bouchon ones extra carefully, as we had a big name chef over for dinner. To me, they looked pretty textbook perfect--certainly just as good (if not better) than the ones I make with the Pichet Ong dough. But maybe I'm just being picky...

The diver sea scallop dish looks so elegant. Everything looks great--I miss Momofuku Ssam!

Mistral, Seattle (May?) French Laundry, Yountville (April) Bouley, New York (December) Chez Panisse, Berkeley (April) Rare, Vancouver (3rd and 4th visit equally good--July and September?) Jean Georges, New York (December) Mistral, Seattle (October) Gordon Ramsey, New York (December) West, Vancouver (June) Veil (1st visit--April) and Union (August) *tie (both in Seattle) For a top 20 list, I would include places like Providence in LA (June), Tartine Bakery and Bouchon Bakery (for sheer enjoyment), hole-in-the-wall Chinese places up in Richmond BC, a drunken escapade at Momofuku Ssam, and a charcuterie/cheese/baguette picnic on Granville Island on a perfectly sunny day, the duck ragu pasta at Bistro Don Giovanni, and a disgustingly gluttonous meal at Crush (Seattle) where the chef just kept sending out food, including a portion of foie gras that I first mistook as a 8-9 oz steak!

Try to find a bakery (or restaurant) that keeps the shells separate from the filling and waits until each cannoli is ordered before they addd the filling. I've been consistently disappointed in cannoli - even from Italian-Americn bakeries - until I stumbled across a small shop that did them this way. ← Kind of off-topic, but DiLaurenti will fill your cannoli fresh when you order. Haven't tried one yet, so can't recommend.

So many beautiful meals here, but oh that sauce-- --I want to drink it!

The pinenut crust is good, but my favourite nuts to use with the lemon tart are macadamia (probably b/c I reduce the sugar a little to make it extra-tangy, and the super buttery nuts soften the tang a bit.) I think the texture is also better with macadamia--super crumbly and more delicate. Bryan: How did you like the choux pastry in the Bouchon book? I've used it once, making a few minor adjustments (I think I used a tbsp. or two less water and slightly more butter, to make it more in line with proportions I'm familiar with). They tasted good, but puffed up a bit irregularly--not as perfectly round as the Pichet Ong recipe, which calls for a bit of condensed milk.

We did the Momofuku pork butt at home for a few friends on NY's Eve. I used the recipe johnder linked in Donbert's foodblog, except we slow-roasted it at 200F instead of 300F for 7 hours, and added miso to the brine and the rub. It was pretty good. It would have been better if our pork butts were fattier! I'll upload the pic tomorrow.

Awesome blog...I learned so much! The taro "football" is one of my favourite dim sum items. There's a place in Richmond (BC) where they come with some curried mustard sauce and a slice of scallop. Mmm...

A local food writer read the discussion on page 1 about Tall Grass bread and told me that their bread used to be better, but has recently become overly dense (which echoes my complaint.) I've only been in Seattle for a few months, so it might be that I've only had their bread when it took a bit of a nosedive...we bought one of their baguettes this week to give it another shot, and I still don't enjoy it very much.

That's great! Your arm is famous, and now we have the missing pic of some of our Pegu Club cocktails! kiliki: The more hours to stay awake, the more hours there are to eat... What's funny is I sent my mom the link to our Flickr pictures, and she only looked at our Day 1 pics and was astounded at how much food we put away. Then I had to tell her that was just the first day...

Thanks for the recommendations...we loved that fatty pork broth! The pork was also very nice, and had a nice amount of fat on it.

If your wife dresses up those jeans like BryanZ suggested, I'm pretty sure she won't feel out of place in JG (especially at lunch.) At $250-300 a pair, some of those jeans deserve to be taken out to someplace fancy!

What an assortment! Bravo!

I enjoyed my recent lunch at Jean Georges more than Gordon Ramsey, though both are solid picks.

The 18 pound roast turned out very nicely--200 F convection for 4 hours, 40 minutes until it hit 120 degrees, then took it out of the oven and cranked it to 500 F. It went back in for 10 minutes, then it rested for an hour until it hit 130. I took the center piece, which was still a little too cooked for my taste, but it was incredibly juicy and tender all the way through. No over-cooked ring of gray-ish meat around the outer portion of the roast. There was almost no juice in the pan, and we lost very little juice when we started carving. Very good, though I'll probably take it out at 110 degrees next time. Everyone loved this method, though.

Thanks for your help, Alana. I'll take the roast out when it reaches 120 degrees. (If it's not blue, it won't matter too much, since the meat is so fatty. ) Merry Christmas!

I know, but the ham and pineapple needed some colour. BTW, "Hawaiian" pizza was my favourite kind of pizza as a kid...one local place served it with BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce. What a treat... judiu: I didn't serve SPAM, but I also did a French project at school where you were supposed to make up a new, exciting club and try to recruit your fellow classmates. I set up a "SPAM carving" club and carved sports cars and even a human head out of SPAM...such a weird idea now when I think back on it, but my teacher loved it!

beautiful!

I just read through the entire 4 pages...lots of good info here. I pre-salted and dry-rubbed a 18 pounder overnight in the fridge, and plan on doing the low heat cooking + high temp sear at the end, only because I've always done it the other way around (high temp sear first) and want to see if I prefer one method over the other. Some of the diners tonight (like my mom) want their meat medium, while others prefer it rare. Does pulling it at 120 degrees still sound good? (It's a pretty big roast--should I let it cook to 110 instead, with the thought that the ends would be medium?) How long will it take for it to cook to 110=120 degrees? (I'm cooking it at 200 degrees. It's 9:40 a.m. here and I'd like dinner to be served around 7pm.) Does a 45 minute resting time sound about right? (I usually let it rest for 1/2 hr. for a 12-14 pounder.) Thanks!

Ack, I didn't get the snowball. I only got the bear's claw, a lemon danish, a ham and cheese croissant, and a pecan sticky bun. I'll have to trek out to Columbia City again for the snowball.

Lovely! I am in Vancouver visiting my family and it's freezing. Thanks for the ray of sunshine. I remember doing a project on ancient Polynesia in grade 6, and I served poi and fake Hawaiian food at the end of my presentation (toothpicks with canned pineapple, honey ham, and a maraschino cherry skewered on them.) Guess which one everyone liked...

Had the Columbia City Bakery panettone yesterday. (Boy, I visit a lot of bakeries. ) The imports still reign supreme!

I don't know--the server set the dessert down and the photographer started snapping pictures so she didn't get a chance to explain what the components were. I think Henry ate the gelee, because I don't remember eating it. Maybe it was kirsch...I remember berry flavours, but that could've been from the layer of raspberry underneath the cremeux.