slkinsey

Suze is very interesting, albeit an acquired taste. To me there is a definite mold or old socks component to the aftertaste, but others don't agree. I have had several cocktails made with Suze at Pegu Club -- the one that sticks in my mind was called a "White Negroni." Hee hee hee!

Kevin, I think it's hard to get the temperature high enough with an electric oven. With gas, you have the advantage that you can put the stone on the oven floor so the gas jets fire directly up into the stone. After preheating a gas oven to 550F for an hour, the pizza stone should be significantly hotter than 550F. That said, even with the massive stones I use (I've been using a heavy piece of slate) there is some temperature and performance loss after the first few pizzas. All that opening of the oven door combined with the thermal energy conducted into each pizza means that the fourth pizza can never be as good as the first, unless you program 15 or 30 minutes between each pizza. There's a reason real retained heat pizza ovens are so massive.

This is a problem with baking pizza in regular home ovens. Unless you have a very thick pizza stone on the floor of a gas oven that you preheat for a long time on the highest heat setting, the pizza cooks too slowly and by the time the pizza is cooked all the moisture has cooked out of the thin dough, any initial oven spring has collapsed and you are left with a hard, cracker-like crust. This is especially problematic if the pizza is burdened with too much topping. In my experience, this is about as much topping as a home pizza can sustain and still have a good crust: Shitakii mushrooms, guanciale, tomato, fresh mozzarella

That's just part of the fun.

My family has had a house in the mountains outside Black Mountain since before I was born... I know Black Mountain a bit. This is an easy question: There is no Italian in Black Mountain, so it's Asheville or nothing. If you want something more Black Mountainesque, give the folks at the Red Rocker Inn a call. It's not exactly sophisticated and urbane (although presumably you're not in Black Mountain for those things anyway), but it is excellent. The best place in Black Mountain, I'd say. In Asheville, you might consider Gabrielle's in the Richmond Hill Inn.

Or, get a mini bottle of Angostura bitters, dump out the Angostura and refill with orange bitters. But an eyedropper bottle is smaller and easier to use, I think.

Get an eyedropper bottle.

Hey, an alcoholic drink that inhibits the herpes virus! You might have really stumbled onto a gold mine there.

You're right about both M&H and ESC. They open at 9:00.

I've been known to stick with either a Martini or a glass of Wild Turkey at Peter Luger.

I had the impression that that's what this place is. Is it not? Granted, I haven't been there myself, but the impression I get from pictures and comments is that it's "updated red sauce Italian-American." FWIW, while I suppose it is possible to get an oustanding experience in a fundamentally flawed restaurant by only sticking to one area of the menu, that still makes it a flawed restaurant. Staying entirely or mostly away from non-pasta dishes is not quite the same thing as not ordering the pad thai at Sripraphai or making sure you stick with Sichuan dishes at Grand Sichuan, where certain dishes that are not the restaurants' forte have been retained on the menu to satisfy certain expectations and exconomic realities. I should add, while I am at it, that I absolutely do not subscribe to the premise that the non-pasta dishes at Babbo are in any way inferior to the pasta dishes. They may be less familiar to those who are not experienced in the Italian way with protein and have more Italian-American influenced expectations about dinner at Babbo, but I think many of the secondi at Babbo are excellent and the fennel-dusted sweetbread in particular is one of the best preparations of its kind in the City. Regardless, even if someone prefers Batali's pasta dishes over his protein dishes, I don't think one would observe what, based on gaf's pictures and descriptions describe, seems to be a fairly dramatic drop-off between primi and secondi.

If you're going to save the olive oil (something I am not at all sure is a good idea), you should keep it well sealed in the freezer. Poaching in olive oil is expensive, which is one reason it's great to use sous vide techniques for olive oil poaching. A very small and economical amount of olive oil can completely surround the fish when it's in a sous vide bag.

I think most bartenders, at the higher end places anyway, share tips with the barbacks, etc. Also, practically no bartender that is in a position to be serving that many drinks per shift works 5 days a week. I know of one person who works that many days at that level, and everyone thinks he's some combination of insane and Superman to sustain that level. A typical Saturday night bar shift at one of these places is going to be around 8 hours on your feet with no break, shaking constantly. That takes a tremendous toll on the body. It's not clear to me that a bartender on a busy Saturday night necessarily expects a three dollar tip on a vodka tonic. But perhaps not unreasonable for a specialty cocktail prepared by an expert. That said, three dollars strikes me as a bit steep if one is going to tip on a per-drink basis, unless it's a $16 dollar cocktail. This is one reason I think it makes more sense to tip a percentage of the tab. This also goes back to my earlier remarks as to what you're getting and what kind of place you're in. If I pay eight bucks for a beer where all the bartender has had to do is pop the top off the bottle, a dollar strikes me as pretty reasonable. If I'm paying twelve dollars for an expertly mixed cocktail, two dollars (or 20%) also strikes me as pretty reasonable. As for volume, it doesn't make too much difference to me as long as I am getting good service and a quality libation. Do we tip a smaller percentage in restaurants that turn more tables?

That's a difficult one to estimate. On a busy Saturday night at someplace like Pegu or Flatiron it could be as many as 300, maybe more. On a slow Tuesday night it would likely be significantly fewer than 100. These are only guesses, though, based on my observations and doing some quick math. Others in these forums are in a position to ofter more definitive data. The point is, I think, that a good bartender at the right place can make several hundred dollars in tips on a busy weekend night, but he/she will also have to come in on slow nights when there isn't that much money to be made. Not too many bars are going to allow a bartender to only work shifts on the busy money-making nights. As with tipping on wine in a restaurant, I think there has to be some reasonable adjustment made if you're getting something that involved minimal service. Pouring a snifter of scotch or bringing out an iced bottle of champagne isn't quite the same thing as shaking up a perfectly balanced specialty cocktail. That said, as with a restaurant, one should figure into the tip the level of service that led to that scotch or champagne being served. There are plenty of places where you can order a $30 glass of scotch where the bartender is doing little more than pouring the malt you ask for. At other places, like the Brandy Library, the "spirits sommelier" is going through the list with you and helping you choose just the right cognac from their repertoire of several hundred. This means that I'm likely to leave a higher percentage tip at Brandy Library than I am at Macduff's Tavern. I actually rarely tip exactly 20%, although that's my general rule of thumb. I'm likely to tip 20% if it's a straight situation of "I ordered ABC and XYZ and was billed the standard amount for ABC and XYZ." Since I tend to frequent bars where I'm known and where I have friends or personal recommendations, I'll find myself in situations where my bill doesn't reflect what I've poured into my liver. Any time I've benefitted from someone's generosity I try to be as generous in return as my circumstances allow, and often wish my finances allowed me to leave more. If no one's taking my money, I like to leave at least $20. I often worry that I should leave more. Personally, I think a good bartender deserves at least as much as a waiter in a restaurant, considering that he/she is sommelier, waiter, cook and busboy all in one.

From a related NY Magazine Aubust, 2000 article entitled: Tipping Points : If it's true that money talks, what are your tips saying about you? we have this interesting tidbit:

There's an interesting little bit in the current NY Magazine entitled Why $1 Isn’t Enough : Bartenders have been getting tipped a buck a drink since the sixties. They want more. There are also some interesting quotes from several street interviews. I especially like the one from the girl who says she tips "maybe a dollar" because "it's not like they have to work that hard." She might think of staying out of the bars for a while. So... what are your tipping practices in bars? I have to admit that I am likely to tip a dollar a drink if I'm in a place where the person behind the bar is just pouring me a few drafts. In cocktail bars, though, I try to tip at least 20%.

What's Hotaling's going for at retail?

What is the difference between low and high quality high proof grain alcohol? Is it really just a matter of filtering as with cheap vodka? There's a little more to it than that. Vodka starts out, more or less, as cheap shitty high proof alcohol. That alcohol is then rectified (a process of diluting and selectively re-distilling the alcohol) and filtered, both with the goal of removing as many as possible of the substances in the wash that are not ethyl alcohol. These include things like ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, fusel oils like 1-propanol, 2-propanol, butanol, amyl alcohol and furfural, methanol and other such things. In an unaged raw alcohol, these substances produce off-flavors, solvent-like aromas and a harsh, hot bite. In the end, the vodka producer ends up with a fairly pure solution of ethyl alcohol and water at around 95% abv. This is then diluted down to bottle proof with water (and tiny amounts of other things the vodka producers don't want you to know about). This is why vodka producers like to tell you how many times their vodka is distilled (rectified) and filtered: more rectification and filtering equals a smoother liquor with less bite and fewer off flavors/aromas. Now. . . read back up to the top of the paragraph. See where I write, "cheap shitty high proof alcohol?" That's the stuff they sell in stores as 190 proof grain alcohol. If you could get the filtered and rectified stuff before it's diluted down to bottle proof, like the commercial producers do, that would be even better. But since we can't get that, 100 proof vodka is a good compromise.

Yea, that's my sense as well. If there are gradations that are sold at different costs, then I have a hard time understanding why they wouldn't have those gradations listed in their pricing guide. I don't really know enough about farmed salmon to have an understanding of whether there could be significant differences between two salmons of the same size and weight from the same farm. But if this is possible, I have to assume that Acme has certain specifications for the salmon they are purchasing -- which would tend to result in uniformity.

I'm saying why not zest AND juice? Simple: Because then it wouldn't be limoncello. Limoncello is a liqueur containing lemon oil, alcohol, water and sugar. The addition of lemon juice would completely change the character of the liqueur. In addition, lemon juice doesn't have such good storage properties. Eventually the lemon juice will throw off a brown cloudy sediment that would have to be filtered out (this is what my family does every year with the Fish House Punch we make ahead of time and age a year for our Xmas party). This is more or less the way "real" limoncello is made. Commercial producers use high proof grain alcohol to extract the lemon oils, add sugar and dilute down to bottle proof with water. The problem with doing this at home is that it is very difficult to get decent quality high proof grain alcohol at retail -- most of it is swill. Using a decent quality 100 proof vodka seems like a reasonable compromise: it should be considerably smoother than the high proof grain alcohol and it extracts at a slower rate due to the lower proof, which provides a larger margin of error for the nonprofessional in deciding when to stop the extraction.

Aven when you're talking about, say, Atlantic salmon, one side of salmon is not equal to every other side of salmon. So I suppose it's possible that there are gradations of smoked salmon within a given style that businesses can buy from Acme. It's possible, for example, that Zabar's could be paying more for fattier salmon from Acme compared to Fairway.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I agree with this. I've been drinking a lot of long fizz drinks over the last year, and while I started out thinking that a proper fizz needs a good several ounces of fizz water, my friends in the biz have demonstrated to me that many a fizz needs only around an ounce. I find this to be especially true of silver fizzes (i.e., those shaken with egg white).

When life gives you egg yolks, make egg yolk pasta.

For those who are interested, here is the article. Mentioned are: The Office Bar, Hoonah (Alaska) You’re having: A bottle of Rainier. La Mariana Sailing Club, Honolulu You’re having: Mai Tais at sundown. Zig Zag Cafe, Seattle You’re having: A Deshler cocktail. Fu Kun Wu, Seattle You’re having: On a date, anything with the aphrodisiac yohimbine in it. The Owl Tree, San Francisco You’re having: A rye Manhattan with bitters—early, before the orders pile up. Vesuvio, San Francisco You’re having: A pint of Anchor Steam. Zeitgeist, San Francisco You’re having: A Bloody Mary. Musso & Frank Grill, Hollywood You’re having: A Martini before dinner. The Polo Lounge, Beverly Hills You’re having: Scotch, on the rocks La Gitana, Arivaca (Arizona) You’re having: A beer and a shot, Sunday afternoon. Double Down Saloon, Las Vegas You’re not having: Ass Juice. Beach Ball, Newport Beach (California) You’re having: A White Russian for breakfast. Petrossian Bar, Las Vegas You’re having: A sidecar. The 49er Lounge, Gallup (New Mexico) You’re having: Whiskey, rocks. Charlie B's, Missoula (Montana) You’re having: A very stiff drink. Cruise Room, Denver You’re having: A gin Martini. Donn's Depot, Austin You’re having: A Shiner. The Bars of Silver Street, Hurley (Wisconsin) You’re having: A Leinie's or a Hamm's. The Inwood Lounge, Dallas You’re having: A Tanqueray and Tonic. Nye's Polonaise Room, Minneapolis You’re having: A Manhattan, rocks. Half Time Rec, St. Paul You’re having: A round of Guinness. Holler House, Milwaukee You’re having: Beer all night long. Los Ojos, Jemez Springe (New Mexico) You’re having: A tequila shot with a beer back. The Red Lion Pub, Chicago You’re having: A beer with the beans on toast. Bungalow, Chicago You’re having: A Manhattan. The Matchbox, Chicago You’re having: A Lemon Drop. Hideout, Chicago You’re having: A Whiskey Sour. Chipp Inn, Chicago You’re having: Honker's Ale. The Bar at Tujague's, New Orleans You’re having: A Sazerac at sundown. Fritzel's European Jazz Pub, New Orleans You’re having: Beer, when the band's all warmed up. Pinkie Master's Lounge, Savannah You’re having: A gin Martini in a plastic cup. Churchill's Pub, Miami You’re having: Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please. Robert's Western World, Nashville You’re having: A PBR and a burger. The Tune Inn, Washington DC You’re having: A ten-dollar pitcher of Miller with a burger. The Grey Lodge, Philadelphia You’re having: A pint of Flying Bison once things start to pick up a bit. El Chapultepec, Denver You’re having: A Bud and a shot of Jack at 8:45, right before the show starts. Southwark, Philadelphia You’re having: A rye Old-Fashioned. Dee's Cafe, Pittsburgh You’re having: Yuengling, late. 21 Club, New york City You’re having: a Southside. Nicky Blaine's, Indianapolis You’re having: The Dean Martini. Shamrock Club, Baltimore You’re having: A Guinness. Freddy's Bar & Backroom, Brooklyn You’re having: A pint and a whiskey back. Grassroots Tavern, New York City You’re having: A pitcher of Bass. Bill's Gay 90s, New York City You’re having: A Rob Roy. The Hotel Bar (anywhere) You’re having: Another. Napoleon House, New Orleans You’re having: A Sazerac as early in the day as you can make it over. Julius', New York City You’re having: Anything in a bottle. Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, Queens You’re having: A pitcher of Staropramen with Saturday brunch. No. 9 Park, Boston You’re having: An old-fashioned Old-Fashioned. Pegu Club, New York You’re having: A Manhattan. Doyle's Cafe, Jamaica Plain (Massachusetts) You’re having: A pint of Guinness with a Jameson back.

My friend and fellow eGullet member windelse has had a longstanding theory that there is a secret network of pipes under Manhattan pumping the same crappy "cold sesame noodles" to 90% of the Chinese restaurants in the City.