docsconz

There is a natural tendency towards nationalistic bias. I would bet, however, that if one took fine experienced cooks cooking a regional based cuisine and held a blind tasting that there would be no or at most marginal differences based on the cook's nationality.

The results of my first experiment are in. They were neither a total success nor a complete disaster. It was a learning experience. I discovered that the machine really is pretty incredible. The chicken was ready much sooner than I expected, such that I let it sit for a couple of hours in the "sell" mode before having it for dinner with my family. The chicken and potatoes in the oven just before I removed them. The fully cooked chicken and potatoes. The carved bird and potatoes ready for family style service. The chicken was indeed fully cooked. I had set the controls on the high end of their recommendation which was a temperature of 150 degrees F, set at constant cook with a browning set point of 10 corresponding to 350 degrees F. The skin was perfectly browned and crisped, however, the meat, especially the breast meat was quite dry and overdone. Next time I will try lowering the doneness temperature and keep the browning point at 10. I will also not allot quite as much time as I did. The potatoes, OTOH were quite delicious. though they could have been served hotter. Overall, this first attempt was quite encouraging.

There is no question that the Rocas are higher in the technoemotional pantheon than Ruscalleda, but Sant pau is no slouch. I haven't been to the new Can Roca space yet, but the space at Sant Pau is much more attractive than the old Can Roca. FWIW, I have had the best composed cheese course in my experience at Sant Pau. I am not really pushing for one over the other, just trying to be objective and lay out the details so that you can decide based on your preferences and situation, mbernstein. If I was already going to be in Gerona and Sant Pau was otherwise out of my way, there is no question but that I would choose Can Roca. if the situation were reversed, I would choose Sant Pau between the two.

Great and fascinating thread, Rob. This should make for an interesting and (hopefully) happy birthday(!) I applaud you for taking the steps that you took with the goats. While I have not personally raised any of my meat, I don't have any conceptual problems with doing so. I have, however, like you with your bison, ordered whole or shared animals from local farms. While I haven't necessarily known the animals personally, knowing the farmers who raised them is the next best thing.

In the course of doing some upgrading to our home, including various kitchen features, I took advantage of advantageous mortgage rates to get some things that I really wanted. Ever since I saw it in action at the Starchefs International Chefs Congress in NYC I wanted a Winston Industries C-Vap Cook & Hold ove. You can see a demo of the product here. These machines are not currently designed for the domestic kitchen. They are at present a product aimed squarely at professionals, which I am not, but decided to do anyway. My wife doesn't like the idea of cooking food in plastic, so this would likely be the closest I could come to cooking sous vide at home, with the added potential of doing much, much more. My machine, the C-Vap Cook & Hold 503, arrived earlier in the week and my contractor hooked it up for me in a good spot in our basement. This is not something that one can simply bring home and plug in a regular wall outlet. The electrical requirements, for one, are heavy duty. My builder needed to install a new 230 volt outlet for me with a special plug receptacle. Since the device depends on water vapor to exert its magic, a dedicated water source is handy, though not required as the water can be added manually. We installed ours next to a sink in the basement. The builder was able to plug directly into the plumbing, however, the water needs to be emptied from a spigot in the front. Another plus for the basement location is the space necessary for ventilation around the oven. Of course, the basement has its disadvantages too. The main one being the need to schlep the food back and forth from the kitchen. I have started the process this morning of making my first meal with this oven. I am roasting a chicken and potatoes according to guidelines provided by the company. These guidelines are quite general, so I am essentially winging it. The company suggested a doneness temperature of 140-150 degrees F for the chicken with a browning level of 10 to cook for two hours and hold at 150 for one to four hours. The recommended settings for the potatoes were essentially the same, so I am cooking them together. The chicken itself is a local free range chicken from Brookside farm and the potatoes, blue potatoes from Sheldon Farm in Salem, N.Y. The product quality is top notch, so if the food is not great that will not have been the issue. Chances are if it is not great, it will likely be my inexperience with the device that is the issue. OTOH, if it is great, it will be despite my inexperience. I will record my trials in this topic, but will welcome accounts and advice from others with experience using these machines as well as questions.If anyone wishes to contribute tips or recipes, they are welcome as well.

That is a a stretch. Certainly the Rocas are closely aligned with Adria, but their restaurant is very different from elBulli. While Sant Pau may be more like Can Fabes than Can Roca is, I believe that difference is negligible as Sant Pau really is nothing like Can Fabes. All of these are great restaurants and all are really unique displaying the personalities of their major players. I wouldn't recommend over-analyzing them. Go to the one that most intrigues you. If that is Can Fabes, you should go there. If CR or SP, then do that one, especially if you can't do a number of them.

Lenski knows of what he speaks. they are both great restaurants. I would suggest, if you could only try one, to go to the one that is more convenient for you.

It does take awhile for these things to happen, doesn't it. I would rather see them open when they are ready and not rushed, no matter how impatient I may be.

Add Susur to Paul Liebrandt and the restaurant coming from George Mendes, the extremely talented former chef de cuisine at Toqueville to my most anticipated restaurants coming to NYC. Hopefully they will all open in 2008.

This makes more sense. I'm still excited.

Bad news for Toronto, great news for NY. I'm excited.

Some Alinea is certainly better than no Alinea.

Good luck! We're in the midst of a minor kitchen renovation as well. We replaced a Jenn-Air electric cooktop with downdraft with a GE Induction cooktop and Faber hood. Our contractor did a great job. The induction cooktop is sooo much better than what we had, as is the new hood. We still have to do some re-vamping of the lighting, which shouldn't be too much of a problem (knock on wood). This project is part of a bigger one involving various home renovation issues. I am awaiting delivery of a C-Vap Cook-and-hold, which we will put in our basement for space reasons. That should be interesting.

I will offer a defense of Nimmy and Paul having recently met them at their home, whilst also having enjoyed a cooking demonstration and wonderful meal. Both Nimmy and Paul are extremely friendly and gracious. Their operation is small, but justly popular as their abilities as hosts, teachers and cooks are in fact exceptional. I would take Nimmy's comments above at face value as she strives to accommodate as many as possible in their small operation even though a private lesson may have been more lucrative in the end. Had they done so they would have left some people disappointed. Unfortunately, there desire to please left at least the two customers above displeased. For those who are interested, Nimmy was featured on this season's Diary of a Foodie episode on South Indian cooking. She has also come over to the CIA Greystones World of Flavors Conference several times. I would agree that the variety of cooking styles reflecting ethnic and religious groups in kerala is quite fascinating and delicious!

Clearly that article is tongue-in-cheek satire, simply a way to promote the cause by pretending to attack it! It is simply too ridiculous to consider it any other way. BTW, Kurt, I did enjoy your defense of Slow Food, which I believe is certainly not tongue-in-cheek and absolutely on the mark!

Good suggestion, though Fiamma is not a standard Italian restaurant either.

I'm jealous!

Amen! Delicious ----If you can find it! ← I recently returned from India, where "mutton" refers not to adult sheep, but to goat. It was delicious. Now goat is not easy to find outside of certain ethnic markets.

Medallions are a good idea. (Paillard) Alternatively, why not sear the entire loin (seasoned) in a cast iron or stainless steel skillet and transfer to the oven to finish? Then make a simple pan sauce to while the loin rests. ← This is precisely what I am planning to do, although I doubt they will need much if any time in the oven. My tenderloins are currently marinating in mint, sage, thyme, peppercorn, garlic, cumin, porcini, salt and yogurt. I'll serve them with sauteed spinach and cumin-dusted roasted fingerling potatoes.

I would agree that it is likely better than the alternatives that you mentioned,but I think that sometimes we try too hard to insulate ourselves from the world and it becomes counterproductive. It is the idea of trying to make everything germ-free that I am questioning. When we sterilize things, we get rid of "good" germs along with the "bad." I am all for common sense and basic hygiene, but this along with the various washes and chemicals appears to me to be excessive - at least for routine use.

Do we really need to isolate our immune systems even more?

Lamb is plentiful where I live in upstate NY. I suspect one reason it is difficult to find in the Heartland is the primacy of beef there. If one can't find lamb at the supermarket, the internet is the great equalizer. D'Artagnan has excellent lamb as does 3 Corner Field Farm, both of which are available online.

It sounds like you have a relationship with your doctor that works. However, there are plenty of people who in your situation would have been given a course of medication to lower their blood sugar. That's when the "epidemic of diagnoses" gets scary. ← I've been of this thread for a little bit and am jumping back in here. If this is the case that meds are prescribed as a first line approach for borderline to mild diabetics, this is simply bad medicine. Bad medicine, unfortunately happens, but this is not the norm. People who are borderline diabetic should never be treated with meds off the bat or even at all, unless they rise above borderline and the basic standards of diet and exercise are not working. One element that this discussion has erroneously been focusing on in relation to diabetes is the assumption that a static blood glucose is significant. It isn't. What is of much greater significance is blood glucose over time as measured by the hemoglobin A1C test. As someone who tries to keep my blood glucose reasonable but is not obsessive about it, I actually was relieved by the American study you cited, Steven, that showed no benefit to tight control and possibly even harm so much so that the study was stopped. Interestingly though, those results were contradicted by an even larger on-going European study, so who's really to know at this time? Despite that and assuming that the American study is correct, that does not mean that diabetes is not a significant nor a growing health issue. What it says is that trying to keep blood sugar very tightly normalized in diabetics may be more risk than it is worth for any number of reasons that are as yet unknown. So I continue trying to maintain reasonable blood glucose levels, but don't worry about every little thing I eat. I think sometimes, the stress of worrying about things is worse than the items worried about in the first place. People who are diagnosed as mild or borderline diabetics should not freak out about it. The value of an early diagnosis is that perhaps those people can do something positive to prevent a full-blown course before it is too late. That should not mean medications unless the disease has worsened and conservative measures haven't helped.

I would have left a message, but the voicemail inbox was full. I'll try again. Thanks.

Any particularly good times for calling for reservation? I tried several times, but got the full voice mailbox.