slkinsey

Was the first time what your parents remarked upon being told they had a healthy baby boy?

Since his recent Q&A piqued my interest in acquiring another Gary Regan book, I picked up a copy of The Joy of Mixology the other day. Although there are things in there that will be of little interest to the amateur cocktail enthusiast, I thought it would make a great resource for beginners who have maybe one or two cocktails they like and want to branch out. To this end, there is a series of very interesting charts in the middle of the book where cocktails are grouped according to certain styles ("New Orleans Sours," "French-Italian Family" and so on). So, someone who really likes Cosmopolitans, for instance, can see that it's a "New Orleans Sour" made with citrus vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice. Something closely similar would be a Rosebud cocktail made with grapefruit juice instead of cranberry. Or, moving a little further away but still closely related would be a Footloose cocktail, made with raspberry vodka, triple sec, lime juice and Peychaud's bitters. One could move from these vodka-based drinks to NO Sours with other base liquors, like the brandy-based Sidecar, the rum-based Mount Gay Rumrita or the Gin-based Pegu Club Cocktail. All told, around 25 other drinks which are fundamentally related to the Cosmopolitan to one degree or another.

Andrea Strong has some good things to say about Landmarc in "The Strong Buzz" on April 3 (scroll down for Landmarc):

The main difficulty I experienced with mokas during my pre-Rancilio days is that they are too small for the typical American gas burner. This is to say that the flame was always significantly larger than the moka itsself, so you had to position the moka kind-of on the side of the burner. It was inetivable that you would end up heating the metal that forms the upper chamber. No matter what you did, there would be significant heat going up the side of the moka. With the "crema" models like the Brikka, which let all the water through in one go, if the top of moka got too hot the coffee would boil furiously as it shot out of the pipe and shoot all over the kitchen. I never had this problem in the kitchens of the various pensioni and appartamenti where I have stayed, because the burners were typically quite small.

Good! Hopefully this will inspire the Italian restaurants in the City to step up to the plate. Another interesting question: given that the new reviewer presumably has an outlook that is not so married to the French restaurant model and might be more sympathetic to the Italian model, might we start seeing a break in France's stranglehold on the top rankings?

Maybe this has been indicated somewhere and I missed it... are we sure that Asimov is, in fact, giving up "$25 and Under?" My understanding is that he has been reluctant to do give it up in the past (it's a bit of a franchise for him), and I'm not quite sure why he couldn't do that and the wine thing.

Awwwwwwwwww yea! I have been to the mountan top. 6 shots of freshly roasted espresso. Sweetened condensed milk. Chocolate syrup. Plenty of ice. Shook it up in a cocktail shaker until the ice started breaking up and poured it into a glass. Delicious! And I just want to say... if lovin' this iced coffee is wrong, I don't want to be right! It's sexual chocolate! In other news... it's 11:30, I am not the least bit sleepy and... well, I don't mind telling you that I'm little jittery.

Vietnamese Coffee Thread Basically, what you got is this little coffee brewer the Vietnamese use that sits over a coffee cup with condensed milk in it. Its brewed very strong and it takes like 10 minutes for it to drip into the cup. Once all the coffee essence is extracted, you mix it up with the condensed milk, yeilding a very sweet, very strong coffee(usually flavored with chickory) that is then poured over a glass of ice. Yep. Mine is pretty much the same thing, only I use leftover press-pot coffee instead of brewing it in a special brewer. My press-pot coffee is very strong. The big difference is that I like to add a dollop of chocolate syrup. Sweetened condensed milk is key, though. I just got in 20 lbs of Liquid Amber green beens from Sweet Maria's today, and I need to calibrate my new doserless Rocky grinder. This means pulling something like 10 shots. I predict a pretty awesome glass of iced espresso when I'm finished.

This is an interesting topic for discussion, Stan, and I hope we see some dood debate here. Certainly it is a fact that a chef's work normally has to evolve in order for that chef to continue to be current and currently great. I'm not sure that the underlying philosophy has to change, but the implementation of that idea has to grow. It's much the same way with composers. Take Verdi, for example, he came up with one of the all-time best Italian operas ever, Rigoletto, fairly early on in 1851. Now, had he stuck with the style of Rigoletto for the rest of his compositional life (another 42 years!), the operas he was turning out in the late 19th century wouldn't be so interesting. This is not to say that Rigoletto wouldn't still be a great opera, or that Verdi wouldn't still have been one of the great composers of the 1850s -- but maybe he wouldn't be considered one of the great composers of the entire 19th century, or indeed of the entire classical tradition. Instead, he built on his underlying ideas about opera and drama and grew with them. Not only were his actual underlying ideas influenced by the overall changes in music and singing that were happening, but perhaps more importantly, the way he expressed those ideas in his compositions changed with the times. He continued to be relevant and current, while at the same time not changing his philosophies with every emerging trend. This, in my opinion, is the kind of thing that a chef must do if he/she would like to continue to be great, to have relevancy and currency. A chef with unique and important ideas which are expressed a certain way in 1970 loses something if he continues to express his ideas through the same dishes in 1990. This is not to say that the 1970 dishes aren't still great... but they're not as great in 1990 as they were in 1970. To continue the example from above, if Verdi wrote an opera just like Rigoletto in 1871, it wouldn't be as great as it was in 1851. So, looking at it that way, while is true that certain culinary philosophies have more long-term staying power than others, I am not sure that a chef's underlying philosophies have to evolve all that much. What does need to evolve is the expression of those philosophies. To make an example, one element of Batali's style is the glorification of offal and traditionally "poor" meats. This is a philosophy that can easily grow with the times, and can be just as current in ten years as it is right now. But, if the expression of his philosophy hasn't grown past the fennel-dusted sweetbreads, then I would say that his cuisine won't be as "successful" in 2014 as it is right now.

They would be awesome with chicken or veal chops. Just roast 'em up at high temperature per FG above.

This is probably a great application for cold-brewed coffee extract.

It's getting warmer, and in Springtime a young man's fancy turns to iced coffee. Today I almost achieved iced coffee nirvana. Tall Glass Fill 2/3with leftover extra-strong presspot coffee Add plentiful sweetened condensed milk Add a slug of U-Bet chocolate syrup Add ice Stir Enjoy The two things that would improve on this, as I see it, would be frozen coffee cubes instead of ice, and some of that Ghirardelli chocolate syrup Alacarte pointed out. Some people like to use espresso as the coffee base, but at the volume I drink I'd be getting something like 14 shots per serving. So...? How do you do it?

Just a reminder, guys. This is a thread about Compass, not about Amanda Hesser. Please discuss the review here insofar as it concerns Compass. Go over to Food Media & News for broader discussion of Amanda Hesser's writing and reviewing skills, etc. There you will find any number of threads in which you can discuss such things. Since we already had a problem with the Spice Market thread veering widely off topic and turning into an Amanda Hesser thread, I will be acting aggressively to keep this one on topic. I communicate this to you that, having due notice thereof, you may govern yourselves accordingly.

Jaymes, is that glaze in RecipeGullet??? Edit: Ha! Found it! Famous Meatloaf Glaze by Jaymes Well, it's famous in MY family anyway. Oh, it's famous allright!

Hmmm... interesting suggestion. I have to admit that I'm reluctant to try it because I never know where my brown bags have been (nor what chemicals might be in them) and I haven't thus far experienced a moisture problem (I bake to "just done through" temperature rather than to time).

With last year's being the absolute worst candy known to civilized man ever ... how they ever thought they could pass them off on the hapless consumer is beyond me .... like I said, this year one last chance in my house!!! How could you not like such a delicius confection with such wholesome ingredients: Um... titanium dioxide?!

Sounds like Amaro Nonino, which is really nice but unfortunately difficult for me to find here in NYC. Don't forget to check out Craig Camp's amaro TDG article, along with its associated discussion thread.

Mmmmmm... meatloaf. Must make meatloaf. I like to mold mine in a loaf pan and then turn it out onto a sheet pan for cooking so the outside gets crispy and the fat can drain away. Cold meatloaf sandwiches for me have pickle slices, mild onion and grain mustard.

Hmmm... I think Carne's okay, and a good addition to the 'hood for sure. But there's little doubt in my mind that I am getting better beef and much more food for my money at Fairway. Your point is, of course, well made with respect to the service issues at Fairway. But, as I touched on above, my experiences at Carne haven't been stellar in that regard either.

Waitasecond - are you saying that today is Moby dumbass day? I could've sworn it was tomorrow. Dude... isn't that every day? The 9.5 inch sauteuse evasee is the largest Mauviel does, AFAIK. They also don't seem to make a curved sauteuse evasee in 2.5 mm. Both Bourgeat and Falk Culinair do make a curved sauteuse evasee up to 11 inches. My Falk Culinair 11 inch curved sauteuse evasee is the most used pan in the kitchen. According to this page, Falk also seems to make a regular, straight-sided sauteuse evasee at 11 inches (28 cm). Almost any 11 inch saute pan worth having is going to be pretty heavy, especially when filled with ingredients. Ultimately, you shouldn't have to lift it into the air all that often. Just shake it back and forth over the heat and let design work for you. "Flipping" the food is definitely a two-handed enterprise.

Hey they stole eGullet's policy! Well, the complete eGullet plan for "mushroom management" is: keep everyone in the dark, covered in shit... and if anyone sticks their head up, cut it off!

Yea, it's an interesting place, although we think they're trying a bit too hard to be hip. The first time I went there, maybe a month after they opened, the service was so bad that I didn't go back for over a year. I've since been back a numbe of times. My overall impression is that it's a bit too expensive for the quality and location. 28 bucks for a shell steak at Carne strikes me as too much given the fact that you can get a much better cut of meat plus a salad and sides for around 7 dollars more at the Fairway Steakhouse 30 blocks South. The best things to get there are, IMO, the skirt or flank steak and the double cut pork chop. These are flavorful and a good value.

Once at a gathething of the Kinsey family at my parent's house down in Houston, by brother opened the refrigerator and asked where they had bought the "chee-HU-a-HU-a" beer. At first, I thought it might be a beer from Hawaii, but it turned out to be a Mexican beer (Chihuahua). One note of caution in re to funny mispronunciations: make sure the mispronouncer has a sense of humor before bringing it up. Back in my college days, I was out walking with the young woman with whom I lived at the time, and we passed a pet store where she remarked on the cute "dash-hounds" (in fact, dachshunds) I swear... if I were to call her up today and say nothing but the word "dash-hound" she would A) instantly know who it was, B) tell me to fuck off, and C) hang up.

That seems very odd. Could you provide a picture? A few questions: What did you scrub it with? And does it look like you might have scrubbed away >2 mm of copper (i.e., is there a dent in the copper)?

Just last night I heard "Vogner" (viognier). You sure they weren't making a musical suggestion?