slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Perhaps a more relevant question would be: how would retrograding the starch possibly help in a potato soup?
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I actually think that subbing coconut milk for cream of coconut was the bad idea. Sugar content isn't the only difference. There is way more richness and coconut flavor in cream of coconut.
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The reason it's apples to oranges is that the deli employee is being paid at least the going minimum wage directly by the establishment. The restaurant server is not, and relies upon tips to make up the difference. So, in New York State, the deli employee is being paid a minimum of $7.25 an hour by the deli whereas the server is being paid $2.13 an hour by the restaurant.
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times In other words, your bill was 15 bucks, you gave a $20 bill and got back only $3 in change. You were "short-changed" to the tune of two bucks.
The problem is that I've actually been shortchanged to the tune of $11 on a $6 tab. It's not frequent and the tip in question is quite small, but it's sufficiently commonplace that I now double-check my change every time I pay in cash.
You gave them a $20 bill and only got back 3? This seems unlikely to me. More likely that you were shorted ten bucks, which makes some sense if you figure that they made a mistake and thought you had given them a $10 bill.
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The problem with many of the situations you describe, is that it's difficult to be certain whose fault it is, exactly. Unfortunately, the only people you can "punish" are the waitstaff. Many times, however, it's not their fault. Looking through your described complaints...
1. Inattentiveness. Requiring a few minutes' wait is fine; however, it should not be necessary to flag you down with orange cones airport-style to place an order. My metric for acceptability is the wait at an over-capacity bar during World Cup finals. If you can't equal their quality of service, then you're just not trying.I would say that this depends upon the price point and the style of the restaurant. I've been in plenty of busy, low-cost restaurants where it took a long time to get service. Meanwhile, I'm curious as to what timeframe you're talking about. It could easily take 30 minutes in an over-capacity bar to wait for service (in fact, I'd suggest this would be a good wait time). Are you saying that you've experienced waits of 30+ minutes for service at restaurants of a high-enough price point that this should never happen? (I don't know where you live, but in my world 17 bucks for a steak doesn't exactly equate to an expectation of flawless service.)
Also, sometimes the wait for service is long because the restaurant is under-staffed, or because someone is in the weeds and the waitstaff has to cover, or because the table was seated and the appropriate server wasn't notified properly, or due to a whole host of other reasons other than "this is the fault of this server, who I am now going to punish by stiffing on the tip." I'm not saying that it's never the fault of the waitstaff, I'm just saying that it's not always easy to determine whose fault it is.
2. Short-changing. A few dollars is fine. Accidentally tripling my bill, not so much. Either you're dishonest, inattentive, or flat-out stupid; regardless, no tip for you.I'm not sure what you're saying here. "Short-changing" means that you weren't given back the appropriate amount of change for your purchase. In other words, your bill was 15 bucks, you gave a $20 bill and got back only $3 in change. You were "short-changed" to the tune of two bucks. This is something that should never happen, of course. But, again, there is a question as to whose fault it is. In plenty of places, the waitstaff may be dropping off your money with someone else, bringing out food to another table (or whatever) then swinging back to pick up your change. Depending on the restaurant and how it operates, it seems unreasonable to expect busy waitstaff to re-count your change on the way back to your table when someone is already supposed to have done it for them. So, again, it could be the server's fault but isn't necessarily the server's fault. How can you tell? I don't know. But you know who you're punishing: the waitstaff.
3. Serving the wrong food. This is of particular significance as a good friend of mine is vegetarian and several others have mild food allergies. Accidentally serving me a medium-well steak instead of a medium-rare is excusable; giving a devout Buddhist a plate of carpaccio, not so much.Again, this depends on how the restaurant is set up. Generally speaking, you pick up the order for Table 4 at the pass and bring it out. Especially if it's busy. Are you saying that the carpaccio wasn't ordered by your table at all? Or that it was simply served to the wrong person at the table? Either one is not so great, but hardly a hanging offense. Meanwhile, your "devout Buddhist" friend can't get over having a plate of carpaccio set down on the table? Really? I note, by the way, that you magnanimously state that you wouldn't punish the server for an error 100% attributable to the kitchen: a medium-well steak instead of a medium-rare steak. So, again, we have a situation where it's not always clear who is at fault, but you know who you're punishing: the waitstaff.
4. Unwillingness to move my table due to inclement conditions. This has yet to actually happen, though I suspect it will soon enough. While a crying infant or boisterous drinkers aren't a big deal, if I'm paying $17 for a steak I expect to enjoy it without water dripping on my head. (This, sadly, has happened. In the last week.)What makes you think that moving tables is at the discretion of your server? I can think of very few situations in which this would be the case, and certainly not in any restaurant at a price point where flawless service could be expected. But, again, you know who you're punishing: the waitstaff.
5. Not serving me at all. A few days ago, I was informed that may waiter forgot to dispatch my requests to the kitchen in the forty minutes between when I made them and when it closed, leading to significant embarrassment in front of some rather nice people I had hoped to impress. This falls into the category of "I want telepathically strangle you in the manner of Darth Vader" level unacceptability. (Thankfully, I occasionally am privileged to write a newspaper review for a student paper, so I suspect the loss of reputation will be soon repaid in turn.)This is the one instance where I think you have a legitimate and unequivocally attributable grievance -- although this is a mistake anyone could make. However, since you weren't charged anything (presumably) you can't punish the waitstaff by stiffing on the tip.
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I've found that the easiest thing to make mayonnaise with is the small bowl of my KA food processor. Just drop in one egg yolk, a hefty pinch of salt and the juice of half a lemon, then start the motor and slowly drizzle in a cup of oil (I like 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and 3/4 cup grapeseed oil). At the end I like to blend in the zest of the lemon. Has literally never failed, whereas I have multiple failures trying to use blenders and other such machines. Something about the food processor seems to whisk it at the right speed for me.
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You could make a 20th Century
Tell me more.
It's gin, Lillet blanc, crème de cacao and lemon juice. You can either go 1 1/2 for the gin and 3/4 for everything else (2:1:1:1), or 2 for the gin and 1/2 for everything else (4:1:1:1), or 2 for the gin, 3/4 for the lemon and lillet, and 1/2 for the crème de cacao.
Samuel - how would you describe the taste of this? Sounds like an odd combination.
That's the beauty of it! You think to yourself, "gin, Lillet, lemon and . . . chocolate?" And that's pretty much the experience you have when drinking it. When it's balanced right, the chocolate kind of sneaks up on you during the finish.
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I've had a couple of versions of something called a Summer Negroni -- equal parts gin, Aperol, and Lillet (or go slightly heavier on the gin, if you like). They're very refreshing; I might like them better than regular Negronis.
Yael Vengroff had a variation at Pegu Club called the Spring Negroni that was very, very good -- but it was a more complicated affair involving both Bols Genever and dry gin, and both Aperol and Campari.
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That looks interesting.
Forgot to mention - I do have some Grand Marnier in my cooking stuff - pegu club could use it?
Yes, you could use Grand Marnier as the orange curaçao in a Pegu Club cocktail. But, again, I don't find that it balances with lime juice at 1:1. You will probably have to experiment with ratios to find a balance you like. My PC recipe is usually 2 oz of gin with ¾ oz each of lime juice and Marie Brizard orange curaçao, plus dashes of Angostura and orange bitters. With Grand Marnier in place of the MB curaçao, I'd probably start out by scaling back the lime to 1/2 ounce and see how that does.
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Kerry,
I'd think about a Pegu Club, subbing Aperol for orange liqueur:
1 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz lime
2 dashes Angostura
Shake, strain, up
Won't know until it's tried, but I wouldn't think that Aperol and lime juice would balance at 1:1.
Besides, with Aperol I'd think that the Intro to Aperol is a no-brainer, and it's very approachable for those not experienced in cocktails.
2 oz Aperol
1 oz (Beefeater) Gin
¾ oz Lemon Juice
¼ oz Simple Syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters
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You could make a 20th Century
Tell me more.
It's gin, Lillet blanc, crème de cacao and lemon juice. You can either go 1 1/2 for the gin and 3/4 for everything else (2:1:1:1), or 2 for the gin and 1/2 for everything else (4:1:1:1), or 2 for the gin, 3/4 for the lemon and lillet, and 1/2 for the crème de cacao.
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You could make a 20th Century
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The WorkSharp Knife & Tool Sharpener works great, although it can be a little aggressive.
(The WorkSharp 3000 is great for chisels and plane irons, by the way.)
Interesting product! It's too bad that the sharpening angles aren't configurable, and that the smallest angle you can get is a total angle of 40 degrees.
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Chris and others have reported favorably on the Ultra Pride Wet and Dry Grinder.
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What do you call this thing? It keeps the bag of English muffins or whatever closed. I think it's pretty great.
The Kwick Lok bread clip. Was apparently never patented, but the inventor did patent a number of methods for manufacturing and using it (See: Plastic Bag With Integral Closing Facility). According to Wikipedia, a portion of the proceeds from each Kwick Lok bread clip goes to the (ugh) John Birch Society.
Can anybody think of a product that comes in both cans and aseptic packaging -- exact same product -- that I can compare side-by-side? Tuna is the one I'm thinking of so far.The problem with doing this kind of comparison is whether or not (and if so, how) the product is processed differently for the two kinds of packaging. Looking at tuna, for example, presumably the tuna for the aseptic packaging is cooked in a similar way to tuna for can packaging. If there is a difference, it might be that the aseptic packaging doesn't contain either water or oil (i.e., that it's more "ready to use" compared to canned), but this may or may not reflect aspects of the packaging technology so much as it reflects the products that they chose to sell in the different packages.
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I suppose it depends on what you want to use the tomatoes for. If anyone has a copy of Modernist Cuisine handy, I believe there is something in there about a flavor compound that only develops in tomatoes when they're cooked a certain amount -- and that a preference for this flavor is a reason many (most?) people prefer canned tomatoes over fresh for cooked tomato sauces.
Whether or not Pomi's perceived "freshness" (which may simply be a lack of development of this chemical) is necessarily an advantage is a meaningful question. If you have to cook the Pomi tomatoes longer to get the right flavor, then I see this as a disadvantage. I don't particularly care for the flavor profile of Pomi straight out of the box, which shares some similarities with what I don't like about the flavor of uncooked tomato paste. And when I want "fresh flavor" in a tomato prep my usual method is to use, yanno, fresh tomatoes.
None of which is to say that there's anything necessarily worse about this flavor profile. It's just not the one that I prefer. On the other hand, one could say similar things going in the other direction. There's nothing necessarily better about the flavor profile of aseptic packaged tomatoes either. I haven't had the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison of canned and aseptic packed top quality San Marzano tomatoes, but needless to say that if the aseptic packed tomatoes still had that "not quite cooked enough" flavor profile, I would prefer the canned ones.
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What are the names of the new coatings?
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For example, can we hear it for aseptic boxes? I don't actually understand the technology, but stuff in them generally tastes much better than stuff in cans.
Yea? I'm not so sure about that.
I mean, sure, I suppose milk in a box tastes better than canned milk. But it's still horrible. And while some Pomi tomato products in aseptic packaging tastes better than some brands of canned tomatoes, there are plenty of brands of canned tomatoes that taste 100 times better than Pomi. The only other stuff I'd consider edible that's typically packaged in aseptic boxes is juice, and as a general rule I can't stomach juice that I don't extract from the fruit myself.
What stuff can you think of that does well in aseptic boxes compared to the other usual methods? Stocks and broths seem to do well in aseptic boxes, although I'm not sure they do any better in boxes than they do in cans (I'd have to taste the same brand side-by-side). It's certainly more convenient in a box.
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I don't see why it would be bad. After all, vermouth is simply wine with aromatics added. iirc, Julia Child recommended white vermouth instead of white wine in many instances.
Just make sure you use a dry white vermouth of quality such as Noilly Prat or Dolin. I'd probably add some vegetables to the poaching medium as well.
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Yes. Don't brush it off. A fine but thorough dusting is what you want. Also, how fresh is your Activa?
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I should probably point out that the name "Painkiller" was never the official name, the business name nor the D/B/A name of the establishment. It was (and will probably continue to be) an informal name for the bar. Yes, the name was used on some menus, and yes, everyone called the bar "Painkiller." But the street signage simply said "Tiki Bar." So, effectively, all this means it that they won't put "Painkiller" on the menus and will sell the drink under a different name if they're not using Pusser's to make it. I should also point out that a big reason the bar was never actually named "Painkiller" is because it would have been against the code in New York, which prohibits the sale of booze under a name that implies medicinal use.
I have it on good authority that this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion in the blogosphere, that it was all meaningfully resolved with a friendly telephone conversation, and that the PKNY guys and the Pusser's guys are perfectly friendly with each other.
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Without opening my home office copy of Architectural Graphics Standards I can assure you that 18" to the underside of the wall mounted cabinet is pretty much the norm for a 36" counter top in a room with an 8' ceiling. . .
I wonder how much this has to do with things. I grew up in turn of the 20th century construction and live today in a building that is a little more than 100 years old. Rooms with 8-foot ceilings seem positively cave-like to me. It's been a while since I measured, but I'm pretty sure that our apartment has 12-foot ceilings. This means that there is not only ample room between the countertops and the upper cabinets, but there is a good 3 feet (at least) between the top of the upper cabinets and the ceiling. On the other hand, if you have 8-foot ceilings and want to have standard sized three-shelf cabinets, the cabinets probably have to go all the way to the ceiling and the space between the countertop and the bottom of the upper cabinets probably has to be pretty short.
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I'm a little curious as to why hangar steak is listed as both a "tender cut" and a "tough cut" in the two tables (I don't have them in front of me right now). Also, if I recall correctly, the "preferred temperature" on the "tender cut" chart is several degrees higher than the preferred temperature on the "tough cut" chart. Any explanation?
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Make sure you heat the plate.
Help for a Couple of Cocktail Novices (Part 1)
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
I think the twist is not that bad for a first try! If I may give a few pointers that may make things easier for the future:
First, as a generality a twist should only include the peel and none of the flesh underneath. The goal is to slice off a piece of peel from the outside of the fruit without actually cutting into the flesh of the fruit itself. Sometimes this may be difficult if it is a particularly thin-skinned citrus, in which case it is probably not well suited to using for twists. As a generality, thicker-skinned, pebbly-textured oranges are better for twists than thinner-skinned, smooth-textured oranges. So the technique is to use a sharp paring knife and try to slice off just a thin piece of peel with the smallest amount of pith as you can manage. As a matter of practicality, sometimes it's easier to slice off a piece with more pith on the back and then just trim off the pith if you're concerned about excess bitterness in the drink. Another, easier, technique is just to swipe off a strip of peel using a sharp vegetable peeler.
Second, I'd say that your twist is overall too narrow. If you're going for the long type of twist, I'd say that you want a strip of peel approximately 1/2 inch wide. The very thin strips of peel you have there, and elsewhere above, look more like 1/8 inch wide and possibly (probably?) made with a channel knife. This is not a width one would tend to use as an "all purpose cocktail twist." Rather, it's the width one normally sees in something called a "horse's neck" type of garnish, which is an extra-long thin spiral of peel that's usually slid down the side of a highball glass. More to the point, it's difficult to actually "twist" a peel so diminutive and get any oil out of it onto the surface of the drink.
Third, long isn't the only peel configuration for twists. A disk-shaped orange or lemon twist is one that's used by many of the best cocktail bars for "up cocktails" (the long type does tend to be more attractive in Old Fashioned-type and other rocks drinks where it can be slid in alongside the ice). Making the disk type is easy: just slice a round piece of peel off the side of the citrus. One advantage to this kind of twist is that it's easy to hold in one hand and bend over the drink, thereby shooting plenty of oil out of the twist and onto the surface of the drink. Here you can see Pegu Club's Kenta Goto using this type of twist over a Fitty-Fitty Martini.