docsconz

Practice is definitely a factor for making good tortillas. It is not as easy as it looks until one gets the hang of the technique. One can make very good tortillas with the packaged masa, but not overwhelmingly great ones. For those, I think fresh ground masa may be necessary. Nevertheless the fresh tortillas will certainly beat the pre-packaged. Nice demo.

How does it compare to a more traditional preparation in terms of taste and texture? It must certainly be quicker than the traditional recipe since one avoids the necessity of slicing and cooking the potatoes. This dish was a staple of my childhood growing up in an Italian-American home. This is not likely a coincidence as my heritage is Sicilian and Neapolitan, both areas at one time ruled by Spain.

We had dinner at Alinea this past Sunday night. I am happy to report that I found it as wonderful as ever in every respect. I find it particularly amazing that Chef Achatz and his crew continue to turn over the menu with fabulous new creations. I arrived early for our reservation. Chef G was kind enough to allow me to take a few photos of the kitchen in action. I will share them here: Food photos to follow.

Thanks. Next time I try it I might do so with fresh tuna. I suspect that the result may be slightly different, but also delicious.

Uh, did you read all of that, doc? Sweet. Less toxic than what? ← Presumably than plastic, but that is a good question!

Last week I finally made my first recipe from the book, Tuna Omelet with a Twist on page 177 of the English edition. The recipe says that the traditional Spanish way is to use good quality canned tuna (in olive oil), but that fresh tuna is more readily available in the US. It actually gives full directions for using the fresh, but describes what to do with canned as well. We actually had Spanish ventresca tuna in our pantry that needed to be used. The rest of the mise en place consisted of: Eggs. The recipe called for 6 large eggs. Since these were not so large I added an extra. Chives. The recipe called for two tablespoons chopped and 1/2 teaspoon of chive flowers. 4 Tablespoons olive oil from a can of tuna or anchovies. Since I was using the canned tuna and not fresh that needed to be cooked I managed with slightly less. 1/4 large Spanish onion, peeled and thinly sliced. Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling. The recipe called for Spanish, but since I was all out of that, I used Italian. The onions were fried over medium heat until translucent then added to the egg and chive mixture along with a little salt. I added the mixture to the pan and cooked over low heat until the tops were still a little runny. The omelet was transferred open faced to a plate with the tuna, chive flowers and additional olive oil added at that time. I made five individual servings for my famiy. We served toasted baguette rubbed with olive oil and tomato to accompany the omelets. This was a very simple recipe to prepare and quite tasty!

Chorizo is not the term used to describe all different types of sausages--this would be embutido. There are many types of sausage that are not chorizo: fuet, salchichón, salchichas, morcilla, butifarra, sobrasada... Most chorizo does has pimentón, but not all. Chorizo blanco doesn't have pimentón... Also, longaniza often does have pimentón (sometimes it is like a longer chorizo, other times it is completely different--like the longaniza in parts of Asturias). In fact, the word chorizo long predates the presence of peppers in Spain, which I'm sure accounts for the fact that there is such variety. That, and the fact that Spain is a very geographically and culturally diverse country. ← This is why this is so confusing, albeit enlightening. I thought I had a pretty reasonable sense of Spanish food and foodstuffs from direct experience and reading, but I can see I am really only aware of the tip of the iceberg!

I saw these spoons made from potatos at The Ferry Market Plaza. While not edible, they are fully compostable.

I have spent some time with Chef Bayless over recent months including this past weekend and I never heard him mention anything of the sort. Of course it might not be something that he might not be talking about in public and I do not know him well enough that he would necessarily confide something like that to me even if it were true. I would have to think that if he were to open a restaurant in Mexico that that location would not be foremost on his list. I suspect that he is busy enough as it is.

Being the one that said that, I can't imagine his statement having any other meaning. It couldn't be that he considers the combinations of ingredients, flavors and presentations as well-worn classics, because they most certainly do not fit into that category. Chef Achatz's food is not mother's cooking, but it is comforting and , yes, delicious.. I had the tremendous good fortune to dine at Alinea Sunday night with Ronnie and Yellow Truffle. The meal was everything Ron said and maybe more. My personal favorite was the langoustine, a truly extraordinary dish! I will post photos from the meal in a little while. I imagine YT may as well as we had dueling cameras. I better get mine up though before his blow them away!

As always, nice report and great photos! I am very happy to see that Susur is not losing anything as I had one of the better and more memorable meals of my life there so far.

This is a very different question and point than what I was addressing, though no less interesting a question.

Aki Kamozawa is her name. She and her husband, H. Alexander Talbot currently work at Keyah grande in southwest Colorado, although they have recently said in their blog, Ideas in Food that they are planning on uprooting and moving back east. I look forward to having a better opportunity to sample their cooking. Not to belabor the point, but I still question the validity of the statement about a disproportionate number of men in the "avant-garde" pastry kitchen. That there may not be any women creating along those lines that are as well known as the men previously mentioned, doesn't mean they aren't in the kitchen working in that vein. While Chefs Adria, Balaguer Mason, Stupack, Goldfarb and Demers are all quite deserving of their accolades (and I have had the excellent fortune to have sampled each of their work), it doesn't mean that there aren't women who may also be deserving of them but are as yet underpublicized or under-recognized for whatever reasons. Then again, the assertion may in fact be true Where does someone like Gale Gand fit into this equation?

This can spawn a whole new topic about items that are quite diverse in their home countries but are known only within a narrow range in others.

Is this in fact true? While the best known "avant-garde" pastry chefs may be men, is there in fact a disproportionate number of men creating desserts with this approach and vice versa. While it may turn out to be so, I would be very hesitant in accepting this statement at face value.

Brooks, your love affair with okra has been well-chronicled here over the years. Is there a post with your or your mother's recipe anywhere? RecipeGullet perhaps?

What was special about his lasagna? How did it differ from others you have had? Have you trie to replicate it? Have you been succesful? ← Tough question doc. Jeez I really don't know. It was a simple lasagna and maybe it was special only in my mind. But I would like to believe it was special because it was prepared with love. This was a time when restaurant's stood on food alone before the need of gimmicks which may also play into the attraction it had on me. ← Clearly not all lasagne are created equally and love is certainly as important an ingredient as anything else. i am sure that was an essential compoinent in my mother's crab sauce as well. I was just curious if there was anything in particular that made it stand out for you. By the way, IMO restaurants still need to stand out on food alone, although other elements can and do add to the experience.

What was special about his lasagna? How did it differ from others you have had? Have you trie to replicate it? Have you been succesful?

Oh doc, How I wish I was your childhood buddy. Wow no doubt where your love of food came from. ← Thanks, Robert. I clearly owe a lot to my parents. I benefitted from a lot of good food growing up. I can make a reasonable facsimile of that dish, but while close, I just can't get it just so. part of the problem is that it is extremely difficult and rare for me to get fresh live blue crabs where I live. As a result it is hard to consistently make the fine adjustments necessary to perfect it. That crab dish at El Bulli though really sealed the deal for me there. I was having a fantastic meal before and after, but with that one dish it became ethereal, other-worldly and the stuff of personal legend. Because of the whole experience and especially that dish and the surprise of encountering that mother of all flavors (for me) at El Bulli and in that dish, I can't imagine any other meal surpassing that one for me.

As with any restaurant it is always interesting to read the various opinions for and against. I had a terrible meal at Gagnaire yet I could see that the restaurant can be truly great even as the particular meal did not suit my fancy. While I respect John Talbott's opinion as much as anyone's and more than just about anyone else's , I have to add that my lunch at L'Astrance was the best meal I have ever had in Paris. It was thoroughly enjoyable in an absolute sense. Of course, my sample size in Paris is extremely limited compared to his and many others and by no means can I nor do I mean to imply that it is the best restaurant in Paris. I am just very happy that I included it in our itinerary. There are many others I would have liked to as well. My point is that I do not know of one restaurant anywhere that is universally beloved. I do think, however, that it fits the description of what you are looking for.

This one is easy. for me it is my mother's stuffed blue crab tomato sauce with perciatelli pasta. The blue crabs are opened, cleaned and stuffed with a mixture of bread crumbs, herbs and locatelli cheese then reassembled and trussed before simmering for several hours in the tomato sauce. The sauce just has that wonderful crabby sweetness made more complex by the stuffing constituents. To this day that flavor is my very favorite. Interestingly I encountered that very same flavor in a different crab preparation at El Bulli last summer. It was incredible!

This is so cool, Chris. I can show you around Rachel Ray's backyard if you are interested in a general sense that is

I'm not really surprised that therre are so many different styles, although I am surprised that the styles are so widely divergent. In the US at least I think it is fair to say that "Spanish-style chorizo" means a cured chorizo, while "Mexican-style" means a fresh pork sausage. Of course, that is not to say that all "mexican chorizo" is all of the same style or flavoring either.

actually, just using the phrase "old fuddy-duddy" makes you an old fuddy-duddy. i knew that as I wrote it, but if the shoe fits... I don't mind a good scene, but that is never what I go to a restaurant for. If it happens to come along with great food, that's fine. to me the scene is in the kitchen.

looks good, Jason. USC has always been a place for good solid American cooking, nothing too adventurous, but good nevertheless. In would be much more excited about it if I lived in NYC or if it was in a different city itself.