slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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I only listed places in my "main list" that I thought were legitimately steakhouse restaurants. I could have greatly expanded that list. If a place like Table 31 is a "steakhouse plus" (presumably on the basis of offering 6 different steaks on their dinner menu, which is by no means steak-centric). then so would be a place like Landmarc (with 5 steaks on the menu) and countless others. Even sticking to places listed in menupages under "steakhouse" I see Del Frisco's, Demonico's, Fairway Cafe, Landmarc, Les Halles, Michael Jordan's, Post House, Primehouse New York, etc. -- all of which have large, diverse but neverthelese steak-centric menus.
If steakhouses and "steakhouse plus" restaurants (which would describe pretty much all of the ones that have opened here in the last 10 years or so) don't figure highly in the overall NYC dining scene and culture among "serious foodes," I would argue that this is more a reflection of the overall wide selection of high quality restaurants available in NYC. A "steakhouse plus" is not likely to get the same level of attention as, say, Momofuku Ssam bar because there is only so interesting and innovative that a steakhouse can be. This would also be reflected in the reviews these places receive. None of the foregoing, however, obscures the fact that there has been a huge explosion of modern "steakhouse plus" type restaurants in NYC over the last decade or so, nor does it negate the fact that the combination of economics and dining customs means that NYC gets by far the highest proportion of top quality prime aged meat in the country.
Don't get me wrong... I think it's cool if there are a handful of these "steakhouse plus" restaurants in Philadelphia. I simply take exception with the suggestion that this is not a major feature of the NYC culinary landscape. The reason the idea that this is a unique and "better than NYC" trend in Philadelphia is somewhat risible is that, by any reasonable and realistic measure, NYC is the steakhouse capital of the world. So, to the extent that this has become a cool trend in Philadelphia in the last three years or so, it's a trend that was born in NYC and has been underway here for perhaps as many as 10 years.
None of which takes anything away from however cool it may be in Philadelphia. I don't mean to "pop your bubble of something Philadelphia is doing better than our rival up north" so much as I don't understand why this would be a criterion for local pride in the first place. But, if you're going to pick something, steakhouses is probably not the way to go.
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Aren't they all great moments?
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Steakhouses, pace that Brooklyn temple of beef whose name escapes me, have never been that big a deal in NYC, or at least they weren't when I left in 2000.
Are you kidding?!
Not only is NYC the premiere American-style steakhouse city in the world, but there has been a veritable explosion of steakhouses in the last 5 years. Just off the top of my head, I can think of:
Ben Benson's
BLT Prime
BLT Steak
Craftsteak
MarkJoseph
The Palm
Peter Luger
Prime Grill
Smith & Wollensky
Sparks
STK
Strip House
Wolfgang's
And this isn't even getting into places like Frankie & Johnnie's, Keen's, Sammy's Roumanian and the like.
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This drink (from Phil Ward at Mayahuel) goes over ice in a Highball glass, and is meant to be a light refresher. Somehow the Chartreuse and celery bitters potentiate one another. It doesn't need more than one dash of bitters.
This is really the most successful use of the BT celery bitters of which I am aware, most likely due to the bitters-Chartreuse interaction. If I have any criticism of the otherwise excellent Bitter Truth products, it is that they are far less intensely flavored than any other bitters I use, often taking 5 to 7 dashes to equal the same level of impact one might get from one or two dashes of Angostura, Regan's, Peychaud's or a Fee Brothers product.
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At $5 per slice, you're buying part of a $40 pizza. I find this funny because (a) no way do I think Di Fara's pizza is worth $40 for a whole pizza; and (b) at the same time we hear people decrying a $40 pizza at Lucali like it's highway robbery.
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Have a look over here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86148
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Show up at 6?
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Actually, I highly doubt that getting something like this will be less expensive than doing it myself, as I have seen 20 gallon, induction-compatible, aluminum-disk-bottom stainless steel stock pots for sale in the area of 150 to 180 bucks. Unless my modifications would cost in the neighborhood of 200 dollars, I will do better than most homebrewing outfits are charging.
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Yes, this is for making beer. Although I would use the stock pot for other things as well. What I'm trying to do is (1) avoid having to buy an outdoor gas-powered burner, (2) have the convenience and portability of a stand-alone heater, (3) have a device I can use for other things, and (4) be able to bring 15 gallons of wort to a boil within some reasonable timeframe.
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Can anyone here recommend a shop that can do some modifications to a stock pot for me. What I want to do is drill a hole in the side near the bottom and install an external ball-valve spigot connected to an internal slotted pipe manifold. And I want them to both be removable for cleaning. And I would like it done so that I can just screw a plug into the hole if I want to use it that way.
I don't think any of this is rocket science (bending a piece of stainless pipe and cutting in the slots being the most difficult part). But it is beyond my capabilities with what I have at home.
Any suggestions/recommendations? How much should I expect to pay for something like this?
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I'm with e-monster. I typically do medium-rare beef sous vide to around 54C, and that's how it comes out: bang-on medium rare.
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Well, that and I think it is reasonable to expect a bit more privacy and quiet on a street than an avenue.
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57C plus 10 minutes in a 90C oven plus subsequent resting time (especially if the meat rested in the pan you had previously had in the oven) could take the temperature of the beef up another 14 degrees. And then you're right at the temperature of hammered-through well done.
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My Italian neighbors who can tomatoes blanch them in stockpots that size over propane burners in their backyards. An induction burner sounds a lot safer.
And cheaper and easier. That's my thinking.
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I'm considering buying a stand-alone induction burner.
Here's what I'm wondering: Can anyone recommend a make/model that (a) runs on standard US home electricity; and (b) is capable of bringing 15 gallons of liquid in a stockpot to a rolling boil (in a reasonable period of time)?
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[...] At any level that would include the Mai Tai -- which, with all due respect to Tiki fans, does not rise to the same "level of classic" as the Martini, Manhattan and Margarita -- I think most of the drinks above qualify. Certainly the Bronx and Brooklyn would, and probably Between the Sheets as well.
Dude, are you on crack?
The Mai Tai doesn't rise to the same "level of classic" as the Between the Sheets (equal parts brandy, cointreau, and rum with a dash of lemon=diabetic coma!), Bronx (fine when you get that one good sour orange, once a year), Bellini (not even a cocktail!), and Blue Blazer (more a gimmick than a proper drink!)?
I wasn't necessarily saying anything about whether they were any good. Besides, I didn't say that the Mai Tai didn't rise to the same level of classic as those drinks -- I said it didn't rise to the same level of classic as the Martini, Manhattan and Margarita.
FWIW, I think one could add the Monkey Gland in the "M" column.
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Bacardi Cocktail
Bamboo
Barbara West
Barnum (Was Right)
Bebbo
Bellini
Between the Sheets
Blackthorne
Blood and Sand
Bloody Mary
Blue Blazer
Blue Moon
Bobby Burns
Brandy Crusta
Bronx
Brooklyn
Of these, I would say only the Bellini, Blood & Sand & Bloody Mary count as classic cocktails. Of course, if we want to go with stuff that's far more obscure, there are many more M cocktails.
Depending on how restrictive you are with your definition of "classic" there are only around a dozen of them -- in which case, of course "M" wins by virtue of having Manhattan, Margarita and Martini. At any level that would include the Mai Tai -- which, with all due respect to Tiki fans, does not rise to the same "level of classic" as the Martini, Manhattan and Margarita -- I think most of the drinks above qualify. Certainly the Bronx and Brooklyn would, and probably Between the Sheets as well.
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Bacardi Cocktail
Bamboo
Barbara West
Barnum (Was Right)
Bebbo
Bellini
Between the Sheets
Blackthorne
Blood and Sand
Bloody Mary
Blue Blazer
Blue Moon
Bobby Burns
Brandy Crusta
Bronx
Brooklyn
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I have actually replaced all those pour tops. Pour tops for syrups only really work when you're going through a lot of syrup, where the pour tops can be cleaned frequently, and when the syrup is not poured at refrigerator temperature (i.e., in a bar). Nowadays, I just keep the bottles sealed with rubber corks.
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. . . First they try to ban trans fat. Remember how McDonald's fries tasted years ago? When they were fried in beef tallow? . . .
Um... I hate to rain on your parade, but beef tallow is not very high in trans fats. And regardless, McDonald's went away from beef tallow long before anyone had even heard of trans fats. And for that matter, McDonald's could easily go back to using beef tallow if they wanted to. Most of the strictest trans fat bans, such as New York City's ban, only restrict the use of fats containing artificial trans fats above 0.5 g per serving.
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I think I got every last one of them at the Container Store.
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. . . As I've stated a few times in this thread, I've had several pies at UPN, and they all were pretty wet in the center, but not white and flabby and soggy. I think I was a little surprised about even that level of wetness the first time I encountered that style, but I quickly got over it. So I think I get the concept, I haven't been bothered by it at other places. At Keste, it bothered me/us.
Count me among those who like UPN on the one hand, but don't exactly find it to be a reproduction of Da Michele on the other.
I wouldn't discount the possibility that this one was underdone in the middle, and if you didn't like it that's legitimate. I'm just saying that I've had pizza in Napoli that's been wet to the point of being soupy. I like it that way sometimes. But other people find it offputting. Hey, Alan Richman thinks Neapolitan pizza isn't very good, and while I vehemently disagree, he's no slouch.
But given all this talk about how these pizzas are "supposed" to be eaten, why does Keste cut them into slices?I don't know. I actually wish they wouldn't. But I suppose it is a concession to the fact that Americans expect their pizza to be pre-cut into slices, and the reality that most people are sharing among several.
I will allow that I probably wouldn't be happy if that was the only piece of that pizza I got. However, if that were "my pizza" I wouldn't have minded having it that way. Let us be reminded that Neapolitan style pizza is not designed to be split up into slices and distributed among several people, but eaten as a whole by a single person. I don't count it as a "fault" if one part of a pizza designed to be eaten as a complete whole isn't to someone's palate when eaten "out of context." It's taking a well-charred steak from the grill, slicing off the outside and eating only that part, and then complaining that it was a bad steak. It wasn't a bad steak, it's just that the part you got eaten all alone wasn't good. That's a salient difference, in my opinion.The problem with this analogy is that in the case of a steak, the outside charred portion is an intentional, highly-desired feature of the steak, which single bites of the steak are intended to incorporate. In the case of our lardo pizza, are you claiming that the condition of the piece on the right was intentional, that its sorry condition was providing some kind of intended counterpoint to the other, less burnt/browned/whatever and actually topped slices? This seems pretty hard to believe. It sounds like what you're saying is that since there were three other slices, and given that one person is supposed to eat the whole pie, that one of the slices wasn't so good isn't such a big deal. Which isn't really the point.
I'm saying it is an inherrent feature of this style of pizza that there will be some variability. It's a natural product, and sometimes parts of the pizza are going to bubble up and cook more than other parts. Take a look at this pizza from Una Pizza Napoletana. Fully one quarter of the cornicione is not only charred, but actually burnt -- and not in a few spots, either. It's 100% burnt, with no un-burnt crust peeking out. So what? It still looks like a good pizza. What about this one from UPN? For a place that's being held up as the pinacle of Neapolitan pizza by guys who don't like heavy char, there are an awaful lot of pictures out there of UPN pizzas with a heavily blackened cornicione. Maybe you'd just throw away the cornicione and call it good? That strikes me as not really what eating this style of pizza is supposed to be about.
But, more to the point, and as demonstrated by the UPN pizzas as well, this is the way it works out sometimes. You top the pizza evenly, you slide it into the oven, and sometimes it comes out the way it came out for you guys. That's the way it works. Indeed, most of the pizzas at a place like Keste seem to go in the oven with evenly-distributed toppings, and emerge with unevenly-distributed toppings due to the way the dough blew up in the oven. I count this as a good thing, not a bad thing.
So, no... I don't think it went in the oven with the idea that one slice of it would cook a lot more than the others. But I think it always goes in there with the possibility that that might happen, and it's not counted a failure if and when it does.
It's not clear to me, I should hasten to add, that I wouldn't like that part of the pizza. I might not like it if that were the only part of the pizza I had to eat, but looking at that pizza it doesn't look like something I would be disappointed to eat, and I don't think I'd have to choke down the well done part. But, to each his own...
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Yes, the pizzas in Exhibits B and C look good. But is anyone really defending the burnt slice on the right in Exhibit A? I mean, it's all char.
Let's be realistic here. It clearly is not all char. There are a few charred places, and a large proportion of well-browned (not the same as charred, which implies a slight burning).
. . . seriously Sam and Steven, that one looks good to you? with a quarter of it basically having no toppings at all?. . .I will allow that I probably wouldn't be happy if that was the only piece of that pizza I got. However, if that were "my pizza" I wouldn't have minded having it that way. Let us be reminded that Neapolitan style pizza is not designed to be split up into slices and distributed among several people, but eaten as a whole by a single person. I don't count it as a "fault" if one part of a pizza designed to be eaten as a complete whole isn't to someone's palate when eaten "out of context." It's taking a well-charred steak from the grill, slicing off the outside and eating only that part, and then complaining that it was a bad steak. It wasn't a bad steak, it's just that the part you got eaten all alone wasn't good. That's a salient difference, in my opinion.
The problems with the Margherita and Marinara aren't readily ascertainable by looking at the photos. They were indeed soggy in the middle. I'm familiar with the style, but that pies of this style are supposed to be wet (to a degree) in the middle does not excuse any degree of sogginess or underdoneness.Now, if the dough was truly raw in the middle, that is a problem. But your remarks as to the "sogginess" and wetness of the pizza make me question how well you really understand the Neapolitan style rather than the typical American imitation of the Neapolitan style. There are plenty of pizzerias in America claiming to make "Neapolitan-style" pizza, but very few of them actually come close to making something that is true to the original (I should hasten to point out that the single-serving wood-oven pizzas found throughout most of Italy aren't all that smiliar to Neapolitan pizza either -- I'd call it more of a Roman-style dough in a Neapolitan-style shape). In America, a lack of proper wetness is definitely a major difference. There's a reason one eats pizza Napoletana with a knife and fork. It's because it's impossible to eat with the hands.
But don't take my word for it. A brief google search of Italian-language web sites for pizza Napoletana shows lots and lots of extremely wet pizza.
Part of my problem with this pie is that I was expecting thin slices of (uncooked) lardo to be draped over the pie, instead of the burnt-to-a-crisp bits that we got. It seems like such a crime to do this to lardo.I probably would have expected this as well, but that doesn't mean it would be "correct" that way. Indeed, a lardo pizza is not anything I would call traditional in my experience. That said, most of the Italian-language examples I can find do seem to indicate that it's cooked on the pizza. I think we're probably guilty of being influenced by Batali's lardo pizza at Otto in forming the idea that that's the way it's "supposed to be." It's possible I wouldn't have liked it, but it's also possible I might have. Regardless, if you expect one thing and get something different, it can be disappointing for anyone.
As I said earlier, I think Keste pushes the envelope as to wetness of toppings and softness of the dough. Some people aren't going to like it. That's legitimate, I think. Anyplace that's an outlier isn't going to be loved by everyone.
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I think his crust is exquisite, no matter what toppings are involved!
I'm legitimately curious, is there anyone who believes this that went back to back with a UPN pie?
This seems like a moot point. Anthony Mangieri sold UPN and is moving to San Francisco.
Pasta Shapes
in Cooking
Posted
For me, my favorites are pretty simple: I like bucatini, vermicelli and spaghetti alla chitarra best for strand dry pasta; I like penne (either rigate or lisce, and in the larger sizes favored by the artisinal producers) best as a chunky short tubular pasta. For special shapes I like orecchiete and strozzapreti. Oh, and I also like ditalini/ditaloni.
I really only like the extra-wide flat shapes in fresh pasta, and short shapes like fusili, cavatappi and farfalle never are quite the kind of al dente I like.