slkinsey

We'll make a day of it: a morning of tacos de cesos, the to the E. Village for spleen sandwiches; for lunch, mixed grill at Pampa(?); and an all-offal dinner at a Batali place. For dessert, we'll have to creative. Baba au pig's blood? But seriously, I'd love to go mid-March, when my temping ends. Is Noche Mex still tiny? Whoa, Nellie! Youse mind an interloper on this excursion? Sounds like something worth coming up to NYC for. Absolutely, dude. Look for an announcement of Sam 'n' JJ's NYC Guts Tour coming sometime in mid-March. I am leaning towards "Gutapalooza," but there is some popular sentiment for calling it "The Offal Truth."

GREAT post, Rachel! The poached eggs would be perfect for a tiny frisée aux lardons-inspired salad in a multi-course meal. As for you, Cool Hand Shaw, what we got here is a failure to communicate. You throw down the gauntlet and there's gonna be a deviled quail egg eating contest.

If I may make a plug for my omelette-making implement of preference, a French steel purpose-designed (and cheap) omelette pan, this pan almost always provides a very light browning.

After reading Steven's excellent unit on omelettes, I thought I would demonstrate a slightly differnet classic technique. Now, I actually prefer Steven's JC-influenced "jerk and pull" technique, but those who prefer a drier omelette without browning the eggs might prefer to give this one a try. This afternoon I decided to make some caramelized shallot omelettes. I beat the eggs with a little water, salt and white pepper. I use a French steel omelette pan. It is technically a "three egg omelette pan," but I find that this means three medium eggs or two extra large eggs. I used two extra large. To use a French steel pan , you heat it up on the stove and pour in a little oil. Then take the pan off the heat and wipe it out out completely. A little butter into a lukewarm pan over medium high heat. When the butter is completely melted and the foaming has subsided, the pan is ready. In go the eggs. Here is where the technique differs. At this point the eggs are rapidly scrambled into small curds with the tines of a fork held parallel to the surface of the pan until around 3/4 done. On go the shallots. Reverse the grip to a palm-up, thumb-towards-the-body grip, tilt the pan and bang on the handle. This causes the eggs to slide towards the away lip of the pan, which is steeply curved in a classic omelette pan. As the eggs slide up the curve of the pan, the far side of the omelette flops back over onto the eggs. Turn out onto a warm plate. The finished omelette. As you can see, the curds are apparent and the exterior is not as smooth as the omelettes prepared by the other method. Ordinarily the exterior would be more uniform, but I let the curds set up a little too much while taking the pictures. Omelette making is a speed-cooking procedure. Here it is dressed with a little Red Devil hot sauce. You can see that the interior is nicely dry (the liquid on the plate is from the hot sauce -- there was no oozing from the omelette).

We love Noche Mexicana. It's our go-to place in the nabe for Mexican. Cheap, good and only a few blocks away. Another interesting place is Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana on Amsterdam and 108th. They feature, among other things, tripe tacos, pig ear tacos, beef tongue tacos and beef brain tacos. JJ, when are we going?

This is totally cool, and definitely a uniquely UK thing. I am curious... what would you all say are the defining characteristics of a gastro pub, what constitutes a good one, and are there any dishes that are classic "must have on the menu" pub dishes?

Getting this bad boy. Fully stainless. Grinds 260 lbs. per hour. Weighs 70 lbs. 1 HP/650 watts. 300 bucks. Seems plenty powerful for what I need to do, without having to worry that it will choke on poultry and small game bones. The more expensive/powerful ones just seemed like overkill, since I don't have plans to grind up up 400 pounds of elk sausage in my Manhattan apartment any time soon.

Sounds very tasty! BTW, if you search PR Newswire for an article and then right click on the appropriate search result to "open in a new window" you get a unique URL for each release, like this one. The whole six-column, slow-drip filtration thing makes me suspect that they end up with something that is, for all intents and purposes, completely flavorless ethanol at the end -- which is probably a good thing when one is planning on adding other flavors. I am curious about this text, however: "Flavored with elixir of ___" strikes me as code for "we dump in a few gallons of ____ flavoring," don't you think? I mean, if it were infused with roses, etc. don't you think they would have said "infused?" Then again, I suppose there is some question as to whether infusion is the best vodka flavoring process, or is practicable on an industrial scale.

Grinder ordered. Will report back on results.

Since I am about to purchase a fairly powerful meat grinder, I plan to experiment with grinding all the ingredients finely (especially the bones) before adding the water and proceeding with the stock. My guess is that the flavor extraction will be faster and the gelatin extraction will be much greater.

And I say: mucilaginalicious! Yes. Andrew: YOU I like. Sam: Wait, he says "mucilaginalicious" and you like him better than me?! Aw, jeez...

I think a warm plate makes a big difference, too. Omelettes are really at their most fluffy when plated just slightly underdone. When the omelette is plated on a warm plate, the gentle warmth of the plate itself finished the cooking of the eggs.

I was interested to note that the NYT article mentioned that all white truffle oil is synthetic, not that all truffle oil is synthetic. I wonder what this means about black truffle oil?

One thing that I can definitely say about the UWS restaurant scene is that practically every halfway decent middlebrowor higher restaurant to upen there in the last 5 years or so has been a huge success. This, I think, speaks to the desire of UWSers to have a better dining experience nearby. Now, that said, I do think it's true that UWSers -- especially those with money -- are used to traveling to "destination" restaurants, and this may color their receptiveness to such places in the 'hood. What I think the UWS really wants is more places like SQC and Aix, not so much places like Daniel or Mix.

As my favorite talking alligator would say: oog! No. Sam's golden rule of food #1: never eat something that can be described as mucilaginous.

Personally, I think these are both horrible methods for making a martini. If one is going to use so little vermouth (that would be, what, 20:1 if not higher?), then there is no point in using vermouth at all. I would be willing to bet that no one can taste the difference between an "in out" or "wash" martini and straight gin stirred with ice and strained. 8:1 is, IMO, the highest reasonable ratio for a gin martini -- and I reserve that ratio only for very delicate gins and/or strong vermouths. Typically, I'll go 6:1 or even 5:1.

Last PM Eric Malson, bergerka and I decided to make some martinis and compare Hendrick's to Citadelle. All martinis used Vya white vermouth and were mixed at an 8:1 ratio of gin to vermouth (this seems like a vrey high ratio, but Vya is a very flavorful vermouth). So... we got our materials together Into the cocktail mixer for a light stir Garnish with cucumber slices (these are the Hendrick's martinis) Et voila! The cloudy appearance is due to frost on the glass, which had just come out of the freezer. The results were interesting. We all, I think, liked Hendrick's better. It seemed more subtly flavored, more refined and had a silkier texture. The mild cucumber flavor was right there in the front of the mouth, and there was an interesting hint of rose in the finish. Interestingly, we all agreed that, while Hendrick's does not have an immediately identifiable juniper flavor or aroma, it still had a taste that was immediately recognizable as "gin." Citadelle, on the other hand, was more upfront with the juniper. We liked Citadelle as well, but I think we all felt that it was less complex amd a little clunky and unsubtle compared to Hendrick's. Citadelle did not have the silky texture that Hendrick's had, and there was a definite, although not unpleasant, alcohol taste which Hendrick's did not have (interesting, since both are 88 proof). This is not to say that Citadelle isn't a good gin. It has a nicely heavy mouthfeel and, perhaps due to its more assertive flavoring, a good finish.

I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food). I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable". Does it have a reverse function? No but it also has never jammed...not even while feeding chicken quarters (bones and all) through it. I can't imagine that just meat would cause it to jam up. Okay, good to know. As detailed in my first post above, I want a grinder specifically for grinding up poultry, etc. including the bones. What you describe is exactly what I would like to be able to do: quarter a chicken and feed the quarters right through, bones and all. It's interesting that the lower priced grinder has a reverse function while the stainless model does not.

I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food). I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable". Does it have a reverse function?

I actually thought their tasting was ridiculous. They did them at room temperature! One reads comments like "hot" or harsh." Well, duh! Some aspects that might seem hot or harsh or too strong at room temperature might be just right at martini temperature. I don't see any reason to judge any liquor at a temperature other than the one at which it will be served. It's just as silly as tasting a bunch of chilled (or heated) Bordeaux and writing up a comparative review. What's the point?

You're on. But you'll have to bring some Hendrick's too, we're fresh out.

To give credit where it's due, I ripped off the entire garnish and accompaniment idea from the bar at Town, Geoffrey Zakarian's place in midtown Manhattan. As an interesting touch, the cocktail is not even stirred! The bartender simply poured the ingredients into an ice-filled individual cocktail mixer and then bedded the mixer down in a large tub of ice while he prepared the garnish and accompaniment. When they were done, he poured the drink -- no shaking, no stirring.

Um... isn't there an omlette thing associated with Denver?

For Boston, I think you're better off with scrod than anything else. No one particularly eats baked beans there, and clam chowder is really more regional than local. Folks in Wisconsin would probably dispute giving the bratwurst nod to Milwaukee, as Sheboygan is really the Mecca of bratwurst. A lot of places are going to end up with barbeque as the specialty. Certainly North Carolina is famous for two different styles (Western and Eastern), and Memphis, Kansas City, and even Chicago have barbeque styles for which they are justly famous. San Antonio is very well known for Tex-Mex, and "puffy tacos" are a specialty. What about smaller cities that are associated with famous foods? One could argue that the top places for NC and TX barbeque are not found on your list (not to mention the top place for bratwurst, as previously mentioned).

Hendrick's is actually one of the martini gins of perference around the slkinsey household, along with Plymouth and Boodle's. For a Hendrick's martini I like to use 8 parts Hendrick's to one part Vya white vermouth. For the garnish I float a translucently-thin slice of English cucumber in the glass (really need a mandoline for this), and I serve it with a little dish of sliced cucumber sprinkled with Maldon salt.