docsconz

It's a lot easier to tell people to just throw out a bag of spinach than to explain about cooking it; that's especially true if the spinach in question is the baby kind that's marketed as salad greens. If I were NBC or the FDA or whoever, I'd rather have people throw out a $3 bag of spinach than risk being confused and getting sick, or dying. ← Andrew, that is precisely the reason I wrote the last three sentences of my post that you didn't quote. The reality though is that they are giving out misinformation and contributing to a mass hysteria so as to avoid the potential for liability.

I suspect that the plan was to have him, but for whatever reason, they wound up substituting Sandoval. Tengan una buena fiesta!

According to NBC's Today Show, if the e. coli was in the irrigation water and that water and e.coli is absorbed into the plant, simple washing of the spinach would not be sufficient to remove the e.coli. I still don't understand why they are not simply recommending that the spinach be cooked! That should be sufficient to do the job as Mimi mentioned above. While this strain of e.coli is quite serious if one gets infected with it, this strikes meas more hysterical over-reaction - not that therre are warnings, but of the extreme nature of the warnings. I believe that this is another manifestation of issues of liability, this time affecting our food supply. No one wants to take the chance that someone might still get this strain of e.coli. It is easier just to say to avoid the product altogether than worry about whether people would heed warnings.

I very much enjoyed my meal at Pujol. I will have to remember to try and record it. Thanks for the heads up! ← Please do try and catch the show -- one of the few things I miss is not being able to see certain TV apperances by my favorite chefs. As a point of interest, I always wanted to catch the Rick Bayless season 2006 that featured 2 episodes dealing with the Distrito Federal (AKA Mexico City) one was "Mothers of Invention" which was filmed at El Bajio restaurant and had Carmen "Titita" Ramirez Degollado and other women chefs. The second episode was "Condesa -- Capital of Hip" my own neighborhood! Well of course no one I know has yet to master recording from a TV and when I inquired of www.fronteragrill.com THOSE WERE THE ONLY 2 EPISODES NOT INCLUDED IN THE BOXED SET FOR SALE!!! What gives??? ← Reminder that Chef Olvera will be on NBC's Today tomorrow. ← Well, I recorded the show on DVR and just finished watching it. I am sorely disappointed to say that Chef Olvera was not on the show. Richard Sandoval was on instead. Nothing against Sandoval - his dishes looked tasty, at least from the very quick peak we were given of them - but I was looking for Olvera.

Thanks, Rogelio. This place has landed on my must visit list next time I am in the area. It looks to be a beautiful setting, too. Interesting that your cod dish had the pil-pil. While it may have been there, it is not apparent in Andy's photo. Your red mullet looks perfect!

I assume that since the fish was cooked the taino was not alive. As such, even if you had ingested it, the likelihood of it causing problems for you would be very small.

Don't worry the nitrites in the bacon probably killed the bugs.

Since I never heard of spaghetti alla chiummenzana I searched for it in google italian, it is a dish from Capri and chiummenzana refers to a concasse of tomatoes and oregano. But I'll ask around. ← Very interesting. Thanks.

That's not so bad. All you need to do is sub duck or something similar for the beef and ditch the bacon. How about a roasted pineapple-vanilla dipping sauce instead of the miso/chocolate? ← I've been playing with the idea of a vanila flavored dipping sauce instead for the one diner but can't figure out how to make it without dairy. Ideas? ← One thought would be to take a roast pineapple, puree it with vanilla and thin or thicken it to your desired consistency. You can strain it or not. Perhaps you could take the strained juice and make vanilla-pineapple spheres to be eaten along with a piece of fruit and have them burst open in the diner's mouth. you would probably have a better sense how to accomplish this than I would.

I suspect that it won't be too long before you won't have to. remember, you don't need to fill a lot of seats. It seems to me that the main reason that you are doing this right now (and please correct me if I am wrong in my assessment) is the desire to continue to hone your skills and instincts, build a reputation, turn people on and have some fun. The hard part is getting started.

That's not so bad. All you need to do is sub duck or something similar for the beef and ditch the bacon. How about a roasted pineapple-vanilla dipping sauce instead of the miso/chocolate?

I would guess that it was eaten raw, as cooked spinach should have killed the e. coli. Unfortunately the article was pretty devoid of detailed information.

Given where you are coming from I think you would very much appreciate the cooking of David McMillen. By all accounts probably the best place to experience that right now is Joe Beef.

That is bizarre! I would think that there would have to be some common thread between the spinach packages such as the same farm, packaging plant or distributor. i doubt that strictly local arrangements would be an issue other than by chance.

I think the "no-glass" case aspect is particularly positive from an aesthetic viewpoint when ordering an omekase as it heightens the surprise and anticipation. One never really knows what is to come. I like glass cases when I am ordering specific fish, though.

I very much enjoyed my meal at Pujol. I will have to remember to try and record it. Thanks for the heads up! ← Please do try and catch the show -- one of the few things I miss is not being able to see certain TV apperances by my favorite chefs. As a point of interest, I always wanted to catch the Rick Bayless season 2006 that featured 2 episodes dealing with the Distrito Federal (AKA Mexico City) one was "Mothers of Invention" which was filmed at El Bajio restaurant and had Carmen "Titita" Ramirez Degollado and other women chefs. The second episode was "Condesa -- Capital of Hip" my own neighborhood! Well of course no one I know has yet to master recording from a TV and when I inquired of www.fronteragrill.com THOSE WERE THE ONLY 2 EPISODES NOT INCLUDED IN THE BOXED SET FOR SALE!!! What gives??? ← Reminder that Chef Olvera will be on NBC's Today tomorrow.

thanks. I learned something. Since you mentioned capri, I wonder if that is their variety of cherry tomato. strictly speaking, I believe piennolini are from the slopes of Vesuvius. They (piennolini) remain the best cherry tomatoes I have ever tasted and a simple sauce of jarred piennolini with olive oil over fresh homemade pasta served to me and my son at Agriturismo Seliano in Paestum one of the most memorable dishes I have ever had.

The cookbook is a cheapie (E 3.99), published by Bonechi, and entitledLa Cucina di Campania. I'd never heard the word before running into it in this book, though googling pulls up over 100 hits, and also suggests that it's a Caprese dish. ← Does the word specifically mean "cherry tomato" or does it have another meaning that is applied to this dish that sets it apart from other tomato dishes?

I am more interested to see where Lefevbre winds up. Will he stay in L.A.?

I scribbled the name down at the time, but of course, lost it. Does anyone know the name of it? ← I just finished the article and enjoyed it very much, especially the closing thoughts at the Galician restaurant. Bittman seemed almost surprised that a man of Adrià's caliber would simply be "eating and drinking", but I wasn't surprised at all. I think it best sums up the way the Spanish look at their own cuisine. Today's version may be more sophisticated, but they always go back to their roots. They adore their food and their ingredients. Many of the dishes can be shockingly simple, but unparalleled in quality. What did surprise me was the "Champagne"? Not Cava? I thought to myself, in Barcelona? That's almost sacrilege! But you never know. As for the name of the Galician restaurant, I couldn't tell you, especially since I'm not very familiar with restaurants in Barcelona, but it ould have been one of many. Galician restaurants in big cities are quite common and often highly regarded. The best octopus I've probably ever tried is at a restaurant in Madrid. The place is pretty well-known among Madrileños, but it's still a fairly straightfoward Galician restaurant. You can't get any more inland than that, doc! ← Brian, you make a great point about the "Champagne." I would have to think that was a mistake by Bittman, but then maybe not. As for Bittman sounding surprised that Adria was just "eating and drinking", my take was that he was making a point to all those people who think Ferran is only about esoteric foods and techniques, that he is still a regular human being (almost)

Isn't there a place in Vic with a strong reputation?

When did Anthony leave Blue Hill?

While eggplant is not my favorite dish, Andrew, yours looks pretty good too. What book were you using for the "Chiummenzana"? I don't ever recall hearing that word in Naples or environs for cherry tomatoes, though my experience and knowledge is far from exhaustive. The terms I am familiar with are either pomodorini or piennolini.

Actually, now that you mentioned it, I was confusing Mas Pau with Sant Pau. That is an excellent suggestion!

Mark Bittman has written a great article on Ferran Adria and El Bulli available online in today's New York Times (registration required). Bittman talks about his experiences at El Bulli this year and years past. He describes Adria's cuisine as becoming more accessible without losing the sense of experimentation. He also describes a meal he had with the Adrias in Barcelona during which they ate Rafa's like cuisine. In discussing this year's meal at El Bulli, Bittman had this to say: This is one of the best articles I have ever read about Adria and El Bulli.