slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Do you heat the pan up before adding the mushrooms?
Yes. This is crucial.
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Steven: I'd call the beginning of the frying process of any fatty food that is expected to cook in its own fat "rendering" followed by "frying in its own fat."
This is fundamentally different from what happens when one dry-frys mushrooms or scallops, which give off water but no fat. To me, anyway, "dry frying" involves cooking a food that does not render its own fat.
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I think it works well, but only with certain foods -- those being ones that have a pronounced tendency to weep liquid. Mushrooms and scallops come immediately to mind as candidates. The technique works especially well with mushrooms because it concentrates the mushroom liquid directly back into the mushrooms. Not so sure there are that many other candidates for dry-frying, though.
ETA: I think what makes dry-frying work for mushrooms is that it actually reduces the amount of thermal transfer to the mushrooms. So, since the mushrooms aren't getting hit with a ton of heat, the liquid exuding from them evaporates more or less immediately (that's the squeaking noise) and they slowly dehydrate and Maillardize.
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Good point, Steven. I have also never once had a single dish prepared with dragon, lucky or otherwise.
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Today's NY Times ran an Op-Ed by Eric Schlosser entitled Penny Foolish:
THE migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation’s most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries and unloads two tons of tomatoes. For their efforts, this holiday season many of them are about to get a 40 percent pay cut.[. . .]
In 2005, Florida tomato pickers gained their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s when Taco Bell ended a consumer boycott by agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound for its tomatoes, with the extra cent going directly to the farm workers. Last April, McDonald's agreed to a similar arrangement, increasing the wages of its tomato pickers to about 77 cents per bucket. But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny — and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald's.
Like I needed any more reasons to avoid eating there.
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Great NY Noodletown is best known for non-noodle dishes.
Although it is not in the name, I would argue that Otto is ostensibly a pizzeria and yet pizza is the weakest thing on the menu (I'd be happy to go there for a meal that didn't involve any pizza).
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Special salts really only have an effect on flavor when they are used as "finishing salts" and find their way into the taster's mouth undissolved. Kosher salt is simply regular mined salt milled to a larger grain size, and sea salts are by law something like 99% sodium chloride. The unique sensations of eating different sea salts come primarily from the size and shape rather than the chemical composition of the salts.
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One cooking instructor told me that many cooks tend to develop tolerance, and a type of palate burnout (especially among those who smoke) and they tend to over-salt more.
Smoking and alcohol consumption does dull one's sense of salinity... I'd be curious to know which NYC chefs smoke (or their line cooks) and whether it correlates with the levels of saltiness in their food.
Do you have any scientific support for this?
I ask because the last time I did some poking around as to the effect of smoking on flavor perceptions (flavor being the combined impression of taste, smell, temperature, mouthfeel, common chemical sense, etc.) the indications were that smoking does not particularly affect taste. Here's what I wrote:
Interestingly, there appears to be little evidence that smoking has an effect on the taste receptors. Smell is a different story, however. Smokers do seem to have a reduced ability to identify certain odors. One major factor seems to be that exposure to smoke causes increased death rates of olfactory sensory neurons to such a degree that this overwhelms the olfactory epithelium's ability to regenerate. The result is lower numbers of olfactory sensory neurons, resulting in a less acute sense of smell. Since smell is often regarded as the most important contributing sense to flavor, it makes sense that quitting smoking can have a big effect on the intensity and quality of flavor.Since salt is one of the five tastes detected by the taste receptors, I don't think smoking should affect sensitivity to salinity.
With respect to alcohol, I don't think I've ever read anything scientific demonstrating that habitual alcohol consumption affects the sensitivity of taste receptors. Exposing the tongue to high proof spirits can have a temporary anesthetizing effect on the taste receptors, but this is relatively short lived (very cold temperatures have a similar and similarly short-lived effect).
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I think of Pink Gin somewhat the same way I think of Death in the Gulf Stream (although DITGS is a longer and more intensely flavored drink): as a digestive or perhaps as a short, bracing stimulant for the appetite.
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Nice! I've been meaning to post about this place as well. I've been there three times, and I think there's a good chance that Eric's been there... oh, I don't know... maybe 25 times since his first post to the thread. It's all outstanding.
I can confirm that the razor clams are off the hook delicious, and also remarked to Eric that I thought the dumplings were unusually tender and juicy. Another must-have in my experience is the ox tongue and tripe with roasted chili/crushed peanut vinaigrette cold appetizer. Even people who would ordinarily not like either tongue or tripe loved this dish. Eric's beloved diced rabbit and peanuts with chili garlic black bean jam is also a must-try appetizer.
In the main dishes, I've had the lamb iteration of the fish fillet dish Steven describes above. It's more or less the same as GSIM's braised beef fillets with chili sauce, only it's possible to get it with beef, pork, lamb or fish. Eric, like Steven, has also had the fish version and reports it as outstanding. Don't miss out on the braised whole bass with spicy hot chili and scallions. I saw several other tables eating this and couldn't resist. It's rewarding. They have another, less spicy version of the dish with Sichuan chili miso that sounds interesting.
I've also had what I think was stir fried fresh pork belly with chili leeks. It could have been double cooked sliced pork belly with chili leeks. . . or at least it was similar to other "double cooked" pork belly dishes I've had. In any event, their preparation is outstanding. Definitely more savory and delicious than the iteration at GSIM.
I do miss the gigantic menu and some of the more poetic dishes at GSMI, and Szechuan Gourmet doesn't have (or at least doesn't advertise) fresh killed poultry. But so far everything I've tried there has been at least comparable to GSIM, and several items have been better. I expect I'll be back many more times.
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To me there's a bit of irony that modern "Speakeasies" are at the forefront of this rule making.
Were the Speakeasies of the 1920s and 30s places of refinement and gentle conversation?
[. . .]
I'm all for the elevation of cocktail arts and its practitioners. I think, though, that modern libation artists should recognize that they are trying to create something new and not encourage false histories and a nostalgia for an age that never existed.
I don't think these are "speakeasies" in any sense other than (usually) being small and not copiously signed/advertised. And I think the "modern speakeasy" meme is one picked up by the press more than deliberately promulgated by cocktail bar owners. Dave Kaplan of D&C touches on this when he explains that some places have rules "because speak-easies had them and speak-easies are in vogue " on the one hand or because they're "simple guidelines of etiquette" on the other hand. -- the implication I take from this is that the former is silly and the latter is useful.
Of course speakeasies (which is to say, places to get illegal booze during the Volstead Act from 1920 to 1933) were likely horrible places to get a drink after stocks of pre-Prohibition booze ran out. But I'm not sure that modern cocktail spots are trying to emulate them so much as some of them are trying to evoke a time still associated with quality mixology in America. This is mistakenly thought to be the Jazz Age, but more often than not the actual iconography comes from the post-Prohibition period (e.g., the Thin Man movies) or from the (Nineteen) Teens.
As to your larger point, I'm sure that many a saloon was a rough and ready place back to whichever day one would like to harken. But I don't get the impression that anyone is furthering the belief that cocktail bars during the previous great cocktail ages were like monastaries. Sam Ross at M&H/Little Branch does say, "Everything we do is a throwback to the early 20th century . . . The bartenders are inspired to bar-tend at a different level . . . We're seen as a draw for the place." But I don't see that as quite the same thing as creating a false mythology.
I'm not so sure if this is the case. At least based on what I read in the article about some of the bars in Los Angeles. There were references to the types of shirts and pants people were wearing in one place, plus another mention about the doorman keeping people out who don't belong. How does the doorman know if you are the type to order a Negroni or a Red Bull and Vodka? Does he ask? I somehow doubt that.I assume you are thinking of this:
"I like policies," said Sang Yoon, who is opening a second Father's Office, in Culver City, planned for December. "It gives us choices; 'that place is for me, that place isn't.' " And for bar owners, it's saying, 'Here's who we are, and here's who we want our customers to be.' You can't say, 'No schmucks.' "At SBE Entertainment Group's new Philippe Starck-designed S-Bar in Hollywood, there aren't any rules per se, but the "schmucks" might be discouraged not only by the doorman and velvet ropes but also by the price of a cocktail -- $20 for an Imperial Prince of Wales (Cognac, Benedictine, angostura bitters and brut Champagne) or $19 for a horseradish and pomegranate margarita.
"You can't do it with pricing," Yoon said. "You get rich schmucks."
Yoon has rules, but they're not written anywhere. "The way I set rules is by not offering certain choices," he said. "You rid yourself of pitchers of beer, or light beer. No beer from a bottle."
And no vodka. You won't find any on his cocktail menu at the new Father's Office. . .
I think you may be misreading this part. They're not talking about a doorman making arbitrary choices based on appearance to keep out the Red Bull and Vodka drinkers. They're talking about keeping out the Red Bull and Vodka drinkers by not offering any vodka and not offering any Red Bull (among other things).
I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that they are regulating shirts and pants and things like that (one customer at PDT made a joke about Oxford shirts). All I see is that some places ask men to take off their hats or disallow baseball hats.
The size limit rule is obnoxious-it really depends on the size of the space. I have a favorite, very tiny, cocktail bar that I don't even like to go to with more than 1 other person. I have another favorite that's fairly roomy and has no trouble accomodating six people at one table. And I do frequently go there with a group of 5 others, since we we often go out to a nice dinner with 2 other couples, and we like to have good drinks after. Why should we be relegated to the crappy bars and badly made drinks, just because we are 6? Should good restaurants impose this limit too?kiliki, no cocktail bar of which I am aware has group size limits that are arbitrary or capricious. Rather, they are simply not willing to cram too many people into the space in order to accommodate requests that they accept parties larger than they can handle. I understand that this is somewhat different from most bars that adopt a "cram as many people in there as possible" approach -- but I, for one, am grateful for the limitations.
I guess I don't quite understand what your example is supposed to be showing. Are you saying that the larger of your two preferred cocktail bars will seat a table of 5 but won't seat a table of 6? If so, this may simply come down to a difference of opinion -- you may think the table can accommodate 6 but they may not agree that it can accommodate a party that large at their standards. Certainly at good restaurants, there is a limit to how many people they are willing to cram in around a table.
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Honestly, these standards aren't generally particularly high. They're only considered high compared to the deplorably low bar set by behavior in most bars. Compared to generally-accepted standards for behavior at any restaurant operating at a similar price point or luxury point (or really anything North of a roadside oil-barrel barbecue pit) the expectations at these cocktail bars are quite reasonable and not particularly stringent.
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Audrey Saunders has been known as the Queen of the Tom & Jerry around here for some years. I've seen her make up the batter a time or two, which she does quite nicely using a food processor. Her adaptation can be found in Dave Wondrich's amazing new book, Imbibe!
As I recall (I don't have the book in front of me) the yolks are beaten up with sugar, spices, etc. and the whites are beaten up separately. The two are then combined to constitute the batter. Nothing is cooked. Individual portions are made by putting some batter in a cup with the booze, and then adding boiling milk.
bostonapothecary: Thinking of your zabaglione/spiced rum concoction (and leaving aside the fact that I believe the main spirit in a T&J is cognac), it seems like a lot more trouble than Audrey's method, and sounds like it wouldn't be as good. Perhaps this is for long-term stability purposes that you propose this method? I think the method I have described is stable for as long as a day.
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I think there are a number of reasons why these rules exist in cocktail spots. These are the most important two:
First and foremost would be the society-wide decline in mannerly behavior and understanding of how to conduct one's self appropriately in different settings. It's sad that a cocktail bar striving for a refined and civilized atmosphere has to caution customers against "hooting and hollering" and hitting on women at the other tables, but it's also a fact that they do have to caution customers against these behaviors.
This brings me directly to the second major factor, which is that for most people a bar is not thought of as a place for a culinary experience so much as it is thought of as a place to get intoxicated, and it is valued more for its ancillary accoutrements (great jukebox/DJ/live music, pool tables, pickup scene, scantily clad women dancing on the bar) than the quality and variety of the libations it provides. This inclines some customers towards certain behaviors that they would never practice in a restaurant (see above-mentioned hooting, hollering and inter-table wooing).
When these two issues are combined, the proprietor of a "really great, comfortable, inviting place to get a very well made cocktail" is inevitably confronted with prospective patrons who are not there for the right reasons and who aren't able or willing to conduct themselves in a way that allows the other patrons to enjoy the space and have a very well made cocktail. Sadly, many such individuals are neither aware that they should behave differently nor even conversant in how to conduct themselves appropriately in such a setting.
To respond briefly and generally to other points raised in the thread: These expectations, either explicitly stated or understood and "enforced" as needed, have nothing to do with the "velvet rope" practices of certain nightclubs. A serious cocktail bar may not admit a bunch of half-in-the-bag girls in cutoffs and bikini tops, but they're not going to admit people based on how attractive they are, or the brand of a man's jacket. I should also point out that some of the cocktail bars that have limitations on the size of a party they will accept are the size of a postage stamp and simply cannot accommodate a larger party.
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Considering the thread we had recently on a customer who was asked to stop using a laptop in a cocktail spot, this recent LA Times article on "rules" in cocktail spots strikes me as timely and interesting:
IF you're going to join the cult of the cocktail, then you ought to familiarize yourself with the rules. No more than four people in a group (this applies to celebrities too). No standing. No loud talking. No cellphones. Gentlemen, don't approach the ladies -- and don't forget to take off your hats. No name-dropping -- that's tough in this town. And please (sometimes this one's unwritten) do not commit the faux pas of ordering vodka, especially vodka and cranberry juice.The age of the cocktail parlor -- the modern speak-easy -- is here, and patrons are requested, nay, required, to behave accordingly. Bartenders are going to the trouble of making their own bitters, sourcing obscure vermouths, hand-chipping ice, precision-stirring and wearing dapper vests, and in return, they're asking that their customers show some manners, in appreciation of a great cocktail. To enforce etiquette, they've made rules. And these rules, more and more common in New York, are starting to show up in Los Angeles.
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Gianduja chocolate is, more or less, a paste made of chocolate and hazelnuts (and sometimes almonds). Nutella is a brand name for the gianduja made by the company Ferrero. It was originally called "Pasta Gianduja," was then rebranded as "Supercrema" and then rebranded as "Nutella."
Nutella is distinguished by being a creamy and spreadable gianduja. Other iterations of gianduja are much more dense.
Gianduja is also the name of a commedia dell'arte character.
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There is little doubt that across-the-river Jersey is part of metro-NYC. It's unfortunate that it's in a different state, else the NY subway system would likely have naturally expanded in that direction as well, and traveling over there would be no different than travel to Queens.
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I should point out, for the sake of accuracy and perspective, that it's around a 2 hour round trip by subway from Mitch's apartment and Sripraphai.
I should also point out that, while I may be taking the opposite side of Steven's argument in some cases or pointing out where I think he's minimizing the public transportation hassle, I am doing this in a general way. Personally, I am not at all immune to the allure of culinary trips to Jersey. I've gone there on profitable and fun trips with Steven many times, and would do so again. Not so sure I'd make the trip of my own volition via public transportation, though.
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And I'd say those travel-time estimates are nearly double the amount of time similar trips have taken me. From the Lower East Side, F or V to West 4th. For PATH you get out and walk 3 blocks to the 9th Street PATH station.
Let's examine this...
The "Tube" program I have on my Palm Pilot, which is updated on synchronization and has proven very reliable over the years, estimates 15 minutes from Mitch's station to the West 4th Street station (including waiting time). Figure 10 minutes walking time from Mitch's door to the subway station. Figure another 10 minutes of walking/waiting time to get from the West 4th Street station onto a PATH train to Hoboken. PATH says it's 10 minutes from the 9th Street PATH station to the Hoboken PATH station. Figure another 10 minutes minimum walking time to a Hoboken culinary destination. That's 55 minutes one way from Mitch's door to a Hoboken culinary destination, for an approximate round-trip time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. An hour of eating and/or shopping brings the round-trip commitment to right around 3 hours (+/- 30 minutes for transportation karma).
The PATH from 9th Street to Newark takes around 35 minutes, so that makes the round trip door-to-door transportation time around 3 hours for a total trip of around 4 hours including an hour of shopping and/or eating (+/- 30 minutes for transportation karma).
For Port Authority you change to the A, C or E to get right into Port Authority. I can't imagine a 3- or 4-hour round-trip scenario absent a blizzard plus every possible missed connection both ways."Tube" estimates 30 minutes from Mitch's station to the Port Authority Station. Figure 10 minutes walking time from Mitch's door to his subway station and another 10 minutes to get from the Port Authority subway platform to the Mitsuwa shuttle bus. The Mitsuwa shuttle bus leaves around once an hour on weekdays and around twice an hour on weekends, so tack on another 10 minutes of waiting time. At this point, it's 60 minutes from Mitch's door to sitting in a departing Mitsuwa shuttle bus. Mapquest estimates around 25 minutes from Port Authority to Mitsuwa in perfect traffic. Let's call it 30 minutes in typical traffic. At this point, it's a 90 minute door-to-door trip, which works out to a round-trip time of 3 hours. Let's say +/- 30 minutes for transportation karma, and the round trip transportation time is between 2.5 and 3.5 hours. Figure an hour of shopping and 15 minutes waiting for the return shuttle bus (which is an inevitable minimum, due to the scheduling of the bus) and we're talking about a 3:45 to 4:45 time commitment to go to a Japanese grocery store.
One can argue that these are "just estimates" but they are estimates based on published information and the +/- 30 minutes should easily handle any reasonable variability (I'm not saying that it couldn't happen maybe an hour faster on a "miracle day" when every train/bus is waiting for you in the station and there is no traffic, but that's an atypical outlier).
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Doesn't mesquite gum contain tannins?
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I've done creamed onions a few times, loosely following a Julia Child recipe for glazed pearl onions where the onions are cooked in stock until the stock evaporates away and glazes the onions. Finish with a little white sauce*, cream and grated nutmeg and it's a done deal. Works very well in hash as leftovers, too.
I wonder if this dish is less commonly made these days due to (1) bad memories of bland, mushy 1950's influenced "white food" and, (2) the hassle of peeling so many tiny little onions.
* Extra-thick thick béchamel freezes well, and only needs to be whisked into a little hot milk or cream for situations where you only want a little bit of it and might otherwise be disinclined to make such a small amount from scratch.
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Here are some posts from 2001-2003: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=3900
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I could see the point of a bar that might serve multiple dozens of Ramos Fizzes during weekend brunch might invest in a paint shaker modified for cocktail shakers. But, this contraption would hardly stand up to such use. I also have my doubts as to how well the appliance could really shake a cocktail.
As for prasantrin's hypothetical example of a cocktailian with such debilitating carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, or rotator cuff problems that shaking was impossible, I'd suggest that handing the shaker to a friend would be a better solution. Failing that, I'd stick to stirred cocktails (most traditionally shaken cocktails that do not include egg or cream turn out reasonably well if stirred). And, actually, even stirring is not strictly required. I've done Martinis using cracked ice where I've simply let the spirits sit on the ice for a little while, given it a single stir and strained into the glass.
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I'm sure there are certain cocktailian applications for which pastis is a better choice than absinthe, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Also, with respect to Herbsaint (and with all due respect to it's city of origin) I'd put this one fairly near the bottom of my list as an absinthe substitute, which is how pastis and pastis-like spirits are typically used in cocktails. If you can't get actual absinthe, I'd suggest Absente brand as a good substitute (certainly much better than Herbsaint, IMO).
The Behmor 1600 - New Coffee Roasting Appliance
in Coffee & Tea
Posted
I was excited to read about the larger capacity and smoke-handling capability. But I read that it's not good for dark roasting, and I roast almost exclusively for espresso.