slkinsey

Toby has impressive knowledge and technique, he's also got some of the best body control I've seen behind the bar and just the right touch of understated flair.

Exactly. It was Eagan's. Excellent back bar, but no one there who had the faintest idea how to make use of it and they don't have rudimentary tools such as jiggers on hand. I'll also add that, while the bar is well-stocked, the back bar is more designed as decoration than as a cocktail bar that takes advantage of that inventory (you shouldn't have to climb up a ladder to get at the Luxardo). That said, they do seem enthusiastic and interested, they have the right clientele, and I think there is potential there. Yea. Really what it takes is for someone dedicated to start a trend. Anyplace that already has a respectable number of people in the right demographic (and Eagan's certainly fits that bill) can only benefit by becoming known as a temple of the cocktail. WRT jiggers, the most common justification for free-pouring I hear is that it's much faster than using a jigger. Well, I'll put up the NYC jiggering crowd (which pretty much consists of anyone coming out of the Flatiron-Pegu-Milk & Honey school) against any free-pouring bartender on specialty cocktails and be confident that the jiggering guys will at least match the free-pouring bartenders on speed and kill them on consistency.

It's worth noting, however, that there is some fluctuation in the price of this, and all oils at Fairway. I don't recall buying it for more than around 20, but have definitely bought it for less in the past.

Oh yea, the finish holds up fine. However, for 100% anodized aluminum, I find that those spots tend to be "sticky spots" on the pan. This is one reason I no longer cook on anodized aluminum surfaces (I do have some nonstick with anodized aluminum exteriors).

WRT salad dressing: I agree, if we're talking about the kinds of salad dressings we're likely to make these days (which tend to be lower in oil and to emphasize vinegar and other strong flavorings). The Italian way of dressing salad tends to be a lot more like what Steven suiggests: the greens are mostly dressed with oil, and then a little vinegar is added as a counterbalance. The point is to taste the oil. WRT similarities to cooking with wine: There is definitely something there. Certainly it wouldn't make sense to cook with a $40/liter olive oil, because everything that makes the oil special would be lost in the cooking process. However, there are some instances where it does make sense to cook with one wine over another wine (perhaps one wine has really heavy tannins and you either do/don't want that in your dish). At the high end, the things that distinguish olive oils from one another are fairly subtle "top note" qualities that are likely to be lost in cooking. However, between the middle range (let's say $13-$20/liter) and the bargain basement there are often larger, more obvious differences. I've never found an olive oil selling at 10 bucks a liter that can compete with middle range oils such as the Barbera oils or the various Fairway oils (which are excellent) on intensity and depth of flavor, and that has to carry through cooking to some degree, just like it would if you chose a strongly flavored wine over a weak and watery wine. This is especially true if, as I suggest upthread, you add a little raw oil at the end (if I'm watching the fat content, I prefer to be miserly with the oil I use for cooking so I can add the balance raw at the end). Of course, there are certain instances where it doesn't make sense to use any kind of olive oil at all. If I'm browning meat at high temperature, I'll just use something neutral and high-temperature stable like grapeseed oil. This is perhaps getting a little off topic, but I wonder if others have this experience. As I've grown older I've started paying more attention to my fat consumption, and actively worked to reduce it. This has led me to various techniques where I try to get the maximum flavor impact out of my fat calories (such as the "adding some back in raw" technique I describe above) and has led me to the practice of using different fats, both animal- and plant-derived, in order to take advantage of their various properties and flavors. As a result, I find that I am much more sensitive to the flavor contributions of various fats than I have been in the past. There are certain dishes where I might previously have reached automatically for olive oil where I will now use a different fat because I don't want the olive flavor that now seems to come through so strongly. For example, unless I am specifically going for an Italian or Spanish effect, I don't cook eggs in olive oil (or even any of the filling ingredients if I am making an omelet).

Yerba maté isn't particularly bitter unless it is infused into boiling water. I would say it's somewhat similar to green or oolong tea, only without the bitterness and astringency.

For sure cooking makes a difference in the way olive oils are perceived. And I think it's true that the more the oil is cooked, the more the oil's unique qualities are obscured. It would have been interesting if you had done a control sample with the potatoes using a neutral oil such as grapeseed oil. Now, that said... To a certain extent, I do wonder whether using a better quality olive oil or an olive oil with certain properties contributes to the overall quality and characteristics of a dish in some undefinable way (this is what markk is talking about). For example, if you have two people making a pasta sauce and one person uses low priced but reasonably good supermarket-level olive oil, canned tomatoes, onions, garlic and fresh thyme from those little plastic containers, and the other person uses Frantoia Barbera, DOP San Marzano canned tomatoes, onions on the stem and hardneck garlic and fresh thyme from the greenmarket... The second guy's tomato sauce is going to taste a lot better. The thing is that any one of these ingredients on its own would be unlikely to make a big difference in the quality of the dish. Rather, it was the layering of one higher-quality ingredient on top of the other that made the difference. Like markk, I think I can taste the difference in simple preparations between using one oil or another. But, more than anything else, I choose what I think of as a middle-priced olive oil as my everyday oil because I like to add a little raw oil off the heat and I'd rather not be bothered with having to use stock 5 different grades of olive oil. As Steven pointed out, a quick light drizzle of oil off the heat is the best way to showcase the qualities of an olive oil. I find that this practice greatly enhances the deliciousness of a dish (as does a quick swirl of raw butter off the heat in other dishes) and so I use this technique extensively. Something like Frantoia Barbera is excellent quality for use as a raw "finishing oil" for family meals at home, and really adds a lot. I'm only breaking out the $50/liter or hand-schlepped-from-Italy stuff for company and special occasions, and I don't care to use lesser grades of oil this way.

MC is still thicker than Stainless. But it's not as thick as it used to be. I have a bunch of 17 year old calphalon, and the cooking surfaces have gotten beaten to hell ... knicks, dents, dings, and faded anodizing. But the outside surfaces, including the parts that get banged and scraped across stove grates, have held up beautifully. It's curious. I find that oil and high temperature cooking inevitably equals spots on the exterior of an anodized aluminum pan that are far more tenacious than the worst tarnish I've ever got on the outside of a copper pan. Some spots can be tenacious on the outside of stainless as well, but with stainless you can always just spray the pan down with oven cleaner and leave it in a plastic bag overnight. You can't do this with anodized aluminum without ruining the pan.

The thing to do would be to determine exactly how much 1:1 (or 2:1) simple syrup has the same weight of sugar as a half teaspoon of superfine. Then have someone else make two Daiquiris (several Daiquiris would provide a more convincing result, but would be wasteful) and serve them to you. See if you can taste a difference between the two.

Not vastly different. But when you're measuring sugar this precisely and in these small amounts, it's difficult to do with simple syrup. How do you get a half teaspoon's worth of sugar out of a 1:1 simple syrup?

For the record: My article is due for some updating in a few areas, and this is one of them. All-Clad has changed its specifications since I got my data, and the aluminum in the MC line in particular seems to be quite a bit thinner. Also, fwiw, I think anodized aluminum is a much bigger maintenance hassle than stainless.

How close does someplace need to be to Lincoln Center to have a reasonably-paced after-work dinner and still make an 8PM (or occasional 7:30PM) curtain?

Yea, I suppose that's true. Lucky us. Still, 16 bucks for a liter of extra virgin olive oil definitely seems less expensive to someone living in NYC than it does someone living in, e.g., Akron.

adey73, to answer your question as to temperature: There are certainly temperature differences based on bean variety and/or blend (remember that espresso is always a blend), roast and roasting technique, and brewing method. Going back to your earlier question, it is not the case that good espresso machines have a higher temperature that others can't provide. In fact, the opposite is usually true. Cheap "steam toy" machines that depend on the pressure of steam to force the water through the beans (as opposed to a pump) have to brew at higher temperatures and produce a characteristically "burnt" flavor profile. What distinguishes the better machines can largely be summed up into two things: First, pressure (how hard can the pump pump). Second, temperature and temperature stability (at what temperature does the machine brew the coffee, and how much variability is there in brewing temperature from shot-to-shot). By modifying the Silvia with a PID controller, we are attempting to greatly enhance the second characteristic of a better espresso machines: temperature (you can choose your own temperatures with a remarkable degree of accuracy) and temperature stability (the digital readout is handy, but I believe PIDed machines also recover back to the target temperature more rapidly).

This is not merely a question of age. You're talking about a clientele composed largely of opera-going individuals of a certain age, at a certain level of affluence and with priorities that incline them to have an expensive meal on the Grand Tier as opposed to any of the other locally-available choices at a similar price point. And, on top of that, you're dealing with food-delivery logistics that make it, for all intents and purposes, a catering operation. Or, you might take the reports of people who have been there a number of times and reported it to be mediocre-to-terrible in quality to mean that the quality has historically been mediocre-to-horrible. Whatever reasons people may be giving for supposing the food is the way that it is, everyone on this thread who has been there thus far says that it's not been very good. Who exactly are do you think Patina Group took over from? The name of the business is "Restaurant Associates-Patina Group." It's since been renamed as "Patina Restaurant Group" but there's not much indication that anything is different at the Grand Tier Restaurant. Indeed, this press release from Lincoln Center suggests that the makeover of the Grand Tier Restaurant isn't scheduled to happen until Fall 2009, and as far as I can tell the executive chef, Martin Burge, has been there since at least last season. Milnes had a rather precipitous fall-off in the concluding years of his performing career, but could (and, in this case, did) still pull off the occasional excellent performance in a signature role as late as the early 1990s. I won't bother quibbling about individual tastes (some people never liked Luciano, after all), but one cannot dispute that Milnes was at the very top of his field in the 70s and 80s. 1993 was past his best years, but not so far into his decline that there wasn't something worth listening to. My point, however, was simply that these ladies had spend multiple hundreds of dollars on tickets to an opera featuring at the very least a legendary Cavaradossi still in his prime and a legendary Scarpia somewhat past his prime, and yet they came only to hear the aria from the not-legendary Tosca. This is not indicative of the kind of mind set that would prioritize having an outstanding meal before an opera performance over convenient, unchallenging food -- but it is indicative of a financial situation that doesn't mind paying high prices for the latter.

which makes it almost $ 72.00 a Gallon - 'inexpensive' ? I don't think so For decent quality olive oil, absolutely. As I said before, if I were going to be deep-frying in extra virgin olive oil I'd choose a less expensive brand. But for an everyday olive oil, I think this is reasonably priced for what you get. And, to be clear, what you get is an oil that's priced low enough that you don't feel like you're lighting your cigars with hundred dollar bills if you use it to soften garlic and onions for a tomato sauce, and yet has a good enough flavor that you can radically improve that same tomato sauce by drizzling on some raw oil off the heat and can use it to dress a tender green salad. This is something you can't do with, say, Bertoli or Colavita and obtain anywhere near the same quality result I like the convenience of not having to stock 50 different grades of olive oil and I like having something reasonably high in quality for raw use at family meals when I don't want to break out the expensive Tuscan oil I hand-schlepped back from Italy. Personally, I don't like cooking with an oil I wouldn't be happy to use raw. As for whether using a good quality olive oil makes a difference when you use it as a cooking oil, all I can suggest is that you try it out and see for yourself. I've done side-by-side experiments and concluded that it does make a difference (and an even bigger difference if you use some raw oil at the end). Styles of cooking may make a big difference, of course. A tomato sauce with sausage, dried herbs and loads of garlic is much more likely to obscure differences in oil quality than a simple sauce with softened onion, San Marzano tomatoes and fresh parsley. Then again, if price is the major concern, I have to wonder how much difference one could taste in that first sauce between cheap olive oil and even cheaper vegetable oil. One of the things I especially like about Frantoia Barbera is that it has a big, "olivey" flavor that comes through even when it's used as a cooking oil. Whether or not seventy bucks a gallon for olive oil is expensive is a matter of perspective. Looking at Steven's example, if I were using so much extra virgin olive oil in family cooking that the difference between Frantoia Barbera and Edda was costing me four hundred bucks a year, I think the difference in flavor would be even more worth the money than if I were only using enough to make a forty dollar difference. I also happen to think it's worth paying five bucks for a kilo of artisinal dry pasta compared to 89 cents a pound for Ronzoni, and the expensive stuff is still remarkably cheap on a per-serving basis. For what it's worth, we also have to acknowledge that prices that seem reasonable to those of us who live and earn in the greater NYC area are often way higher than people in other areas of the country would find acceptable. This is a city where a half-million dollars for a 600 square foot studio in the right neighborhood is thought of as a bargain. Most likely, the same oil would be priced significantly lower in other cities.

I wonder a bit about Austin, which I perceive (perhaps wrongly?) as largely dominated by the college scene. College kids, by and large, aren't going to spend ten bucks on a cocktail and probably aren't ready to appreciate a perfectly made Sidecar. Houston may have some possibilities. One of the things I see as a potential problem for Houston, which is true of many automobile-age American cities, is that it is very spread out and required automobile travel. There is (hopefully) no driving for 45 minutes after a three cocktail evening. On the other hand, there are some places where restaurants and homes are within comfortable walking distance or a short taxi ride from potential good cocktail bar locations. The Rice Village comes to mind, for example. One place in Houston that would seem ready for a cocktail bar would be Houston Heights, which is a reasonably affluent (and rapidly gentrifying), young (but not too young), fairly close-together, "hip" community. Boston maybe? There is certainly the necessary affluence, culture and public transportation there. But, on the other hand, that city (where I grew up) has always been somewhat frustrating in its inability to sustain things one would think would be naturals. For example, Boston has never had the restaurant or social community one would think it should have, and one would think that a city with the Boston Symphony could sustain at minimum a high-level regional opera company. How about Milwaukee or Madison? There is certainly a spirits culture up in Wisconsin, and the last time I was in Milwaukee I went to a bar & grill place across the street from the opera house that had a liquor inventory any cocktail bar would be proud to have. The place was packed, and people were drinking cocktails. And yet, there literally wasn't a jigger to be found in the place and, despite having a bottle of Luxardo, no one had ever heard of the Aviation. I remember thinking that that place was one committed, cocktail-tradition-savvy manager away from being a serious cocktail spot.

I'd modify your #1 by saying that it's best if it's a thriving culinary community for locals, and it's even better if there is a significant presence of middlebrow and higher level restaurants that are patronized by locals. Tourist trade is not going to sustain a cocktailian community in a town like it can restaurants, and cocktail culture is consumed more by people who have an interest in a "white tablecloth" trattoria or bistro as opposed to those whose interests are more centered on barbecue or a really good Italian beef sandwic. They need to be willing to spend $9-$12 on a cocktail, and not be primarily interested in getting loaded for a low price. I'd add: 5. It helps if the town has a tradition connected to spirits and cocktails. 6. Good public transportation/taxi availability helps. 7. Overall, cocktail culture may fall on more fertile ground in a town that it is not a "blue collar town" and if there is some interest in so-called "highbrow culture." With cocktail culture and high-end cocktails, we're still talking about the leading edge of the curve -- so we're talking about early adopters.

This will to a certain extend be affected by the BTU output of the stove. If it's a restaurant-style burner, one can easily maintain an appropriately high temperature with a copper saute pan (or a carbon steel saute pan for that matter). With a home stove, however, in order to maintain those high sauteing temperatures that will keep pieces of meat jumping around in the pan and browning on all sides without giving up too much liquid and starting to boil in their juices, I think it's beneficial to have the higher thermal capacity an extra-thick aluminum base provides. Otherwise, the food must be cooked in small batches in order to keep the temperature up. In my book that's not easier or more enjoyable.

The text in the poster appears to be Dutch. Zuivere Druiven in the upper left hand corner means "pure grapes." Versterkende Bloedwijn means "fortified bloodwine" -- indications are that Bloedwijn is an older name for a red herbal aperitif wine including cinchona. Gewaarborgde Zuivere en Versterkende Kinawijn "Kloek" en "Sterk" means "guaranteed pure and fortified kina-wine 'brave' and 'strong'". That's as much as I can figure out with my limited abilities. All signs point to something like red Dubonnet or Lillet being a good substitute, perhaps with an additional pinch of cinchona.

Spoken like someone who doesn't quite understand this segment of the Metropolitan Opera audience. If most diners at the Grand Tier Restaurant were the type to be dining at places like Café Boulud -- which is to say, people who were genuinely interested in having a great dining experience before their evening at the opera -- they would know that there are plenty of much better choices conveniently close to the Met. Josephina and Rosa Mexicana, to name a few right off the top of my head that are steps away from Lincoln Center, are significantly better in quality. The Metropolitan Opera audience, especially in any sections priced higher than the Family Circle or Balcony, trends fairly old already. And a casual glance at the Grand Tier restaurant reveals that its clientele tends to be older still. Regardless, people who have been to the Grand Tier restaurant many times (although none this season yet) universally say that they serve boring, overcooked/underseasoned, catering-quality "old people food." There is a mindset among a certain (primary retired) segment of the Metropolitan Opera audience that isn't easy for me to understand. For example: I can remember getting a comp ticket in the Grand Tier for a performance of Tosca. This was around 1993. The Cavaradossi was Placido Domingo, the Scarpia Sherrill Milnes -- both legendary in these roles. The Tosca was Maria Guleghina. I noticed that there were two aisle seats in the second row that remained empty for the entire first act. For the second act, they were occupied by two elderly women who stayed until the famous soprano aria Vissi d'arte and then promptly got up and left. If you've ever eaten in the grand tier restaurant, this is an example of the kind of people you will find there.

but making the pan sauce often does! How so? I don't see how making a pan sauce would require a level of responsiveness beyond what is achievable in a saute pan with a 7 mm thick aluminum base. Again, we're not talking about something like cast iron with low thermal conductivity. Aluminium has excellent thermal conductivity, and my experience is that aluminum pans with a 7 mm base are responsive enough for the kinds of things one does in a saute pan. After all, we're not tempering chocolate or making Hollandaise sauce in an eleven-inch saute pan.

Paul makes a good point regarding thickness and responsivity. That said, if what you really would like to do is saute, which is a high heat cooking task that doesn't require particularly fast responsiveness, I think it makes sense to go with an extra-thick aluminum pad. A 7 mm aluminum base has a very large thermal capacity which means that you won't lose peak heat when you're shaking a lot of ingredients around in the pan, and also means that you'll get a good result searing steaks and other large cuts of meat. Because the base is aluminum and not something like iron, it will still be plenty responsive for the tasks one is likely to want to do in a saute pan. On the other hand, most home cooks don't really saute.

Interesting link, bainesy. Are you aware of anyone else selling PID kits for the Silvia?

Re the green walnut liqueur: there is an extensive thread on the subject of nocino. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=13996