bigwino
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Posts posted by bigwino
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I'll second the recommendation of Providence Oyster Bar. My wife and I were there a few months back and had a fun time. It was very loud, but the oysters and the mains were all very good.
I would strongly recommend Gracie's. We had a truly excellent meal there. Service was strong, wine list was good, the food was superb. They do tasting menus during the week that sounded like a lot of fun. Gracie's Website
We went to Al Forno and ended up leaving after having a drink at the bar. The place seemed a bit tired and the menu items all seemed quite heavy, which wasn't what we were looking for that evening. I intend to go back and make another attempt, but it didn't strike me as the destination that it is considered.
We also had good Thai food at Pakarang on South Main. I wouldn't say you should make a point of going, but if you're in the neighborhood at lunchtime, it was good.
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Add nine more for me.
From the Williams-Sonoma Savoring series:
Spain & Portugal
Tuscany
Mexico
China
The Oxford Companion to Food
A New Way to Cook by Schneider
The Whole Beast
Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating
Are You Really Going to Eat that by Walsh
Is anyone else a fan of the Savoring books from Williams-Sonoma? I've had dishes from several of the books and they've been home runs every time. They're a bit of a pain because of their size, but I love them so far.
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For the fine dining experience, I'd have to concur with Bruce.
If you're talking food quality alone, I'd say they're tied. Of course, at that price, the whole experience should count, right?
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I'll second the recommendation of Blue Ribbon over Redbones. I also concur on the East Coast Grill rec. That place just kicks ass every time.
I wasn't an Uncle Pete's fan, but to be fair I bet I haven't been in almost 10 years.
If you enjoy Turkish, perhaps you might try The Helmand for Afghani food. It's been a while since I've been but I still hear good things. It's in Cambridge and wouldn't be too far off your path after Logan.
Enjoy your trip.
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Four days is dead for a while?
I think you'll find the recs pretty up to date here.
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I use my instant read thermometer for home cooking all the time. There are many times in a home environment when a probe doesn't work well. Bleachboy, unfortunately I think broiling is one of them. The probes fry pretty easily at very high temperatures. High temp grilling is another place where the probe is likely to die.
On the other hand, I think the Thermapen is too expensive for typical home cooking use. I have a digital one from Taylor that works fine. It's slower to come to a final reading than the Thermapen, but I'll keep the $60 or so difference and deal with the inaccuracy (which hasn't presented a problem for me yet) and the lack of speed.
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FG, do you think the consumer-level probes are inaccurate enough to really matter for normal home cooking? Are they off 10+ degrees in the digital forms? I've heard many an indictment of the dial thermometers, but not about the digital ones.
If we're talking about a couple of degrees, I wonder how much it matters. If I pull the roast at 120 or 116 or 124 I don't mind so much. If I pull it with 10+ degrees of variation, I care more.
For the small cost of them, I'd recommend a second and perhaps third Polder unit. The extra timer(s) and thermometer(s) are very handy. Even if they are crap.
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Dedicated timers don't make much sense to me anymore after getting two of these timer/thermometer combos. The readout is large, they seem to stick quite well and they've lasted several years so far. Damn, now I just guaranteed they'll both break soon.
There are several competitors to these by Polder, etc.
They may not be "best of breed" but there is less clutter in the kitchen from these multi-taskers.
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A quick Google and I see that there are at least a couple of places that sell it online. I don't know if it's legal to ship it to your state, but it might be worth the call.
Barrilito is a great rum, but I have very little luck finding it.
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Pad thai. I still can't quite get the one I want. Either the flavor balance isn't quite there or the rice sticks are too soft and fall apart during the cooking.
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Did anyone see that Hobart is now selling a home mixer through Williams-Sonoma?
It's a 5 quart capacity mixer for a mere $2,000!
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I received my copy yesterday and I have to say I was surprised a bit. After hearing about the lovely photos and the reshoots, I was expecting more in the way of graphic design and appearance.
That being said, I'm still happy I bought it. The recipes and writing style are great.
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I bought a Great Outdoors Smoky Mountain gas smoker at Costco recently. It has been great for smoke roasting, but my one attempt so far at real BBQ, a pulled pork recipe, was slightly disappointing. In order to keep the temp down to the appropriate heat for real BBQ-ness, it was slow to generate smoke, especially when reloading with fresh wood chips. The end result was nice and tender but had less smokiness than on previous attempts done with a charcoal grill/smoker.
The convenience of gas for maintaining a temp is unbeatable, but I'm not so sure about the potential for nice, smoky BBQ.
I may attempt a brisket this weekend before opting to convert the unit to charcoal. One change I may do is to crank the gas up when I put in new chips and once the smoke is rolling, bring the gas back down.
Anyone have any tips to try?
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Golden Boy is another very well respected brand.
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What was disappointing about Fore Street?
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My local Borders in Boston lists it as in stock. If the weather wasn't awful, I'd walk over and pick it up. Amazon lists it as available, too.
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Pesce Blue on Congress St is a nice place. I would call it both casual and romantic. Italian seafood is their thing. Their website
There isn't much in the way of restaurants on the water. Poco's Bow Street Cantina has some water views. The food is OK. They do have a bar downstairs and I can recommend their margaritas.
Portsmouth is all eminently walkable, so I'd recommend you map out some time for a stroll to take a look at other restaurant menus to see what appeals to you. Don't expect lots of excellent dining experiences, though. It is mostly a tourist town. Pesce Blue is, IMHO, the best restaurant in town.
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One thing I always remembered about Jeff Smith and the Boy Toy was that they visited many countries, but perhaps more importantly lots of ethnic markets in the States. As a culinarily sheltered Bostonian youngster, it was really interesting to see all these stores that were likely similar to ones near me.
He never really influenced my cooking per se (I watched the show before I really got into cooking and never bought one of his books), but I do think he pushed me and probably many others into venturing into our first asian, hispanic or italian markets.
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I'd be perfectly overjoyed if foams would go away.
Edit: Oh yeah, raw food, too.
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I just picked up the Immigrant Ancestors book at a library sale. It looks interesting and pretty far ranging in terms of the number of nationalities covered. Specifically, I was interested in the Ethiopian recipes. I wouldn't pay retail for his books, but for $2 I figured what the heck.
I haven't made anything out of it yet, but will attempt to find this discussion and post when I do.
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Library benefit sale!
The Thrill of the Grill by Schlesinger & Willoughby
License to Grill by Schlesinger & Willoughby (can you tell I like them?)
All About Meat by Leon & Stanley Lobel
Joy of Cooking (from the 70's)
Frugal Gourmet's Immigrant Ancestors
Thank you Half.com
Simply Ming by Ming Tsai
Simply Ming is my new favorite cookbook.
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Oh yeah, it's still going. Maine Lobsterfest
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Wasn't the Aureole cookbook brought up somewhere here as an example of how NOT to do a cookbook? If I'm remembering the right one, it's full of odd colors, angles and typefaces.
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Zuni Cafe Style - especially useful if it's Sunday you're going for.
Rinse and thoroughly dry the bird. Salt and pepper very liberally and stuff some fresh thyme under the skin on the breasts and thighs. Put on plate or pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Wait till Sunday.
Preheat the oven to 450. Put a cast iron pan on a medium burner for a few minutes. Plop bird on hit pan breast side down. Plop pan with chicken into the oven and let go 30 minutes. At 30, flip bird onto back and roast another 20. At 20, flip back onto breast for last 10 minutes. This timing works for a 3.5-4 lb. bird.
Take out, check the temp for doneness (if the bird is small or your oven runs hot you might do this after the 20 minutes on the back, too). Breast should be 160 or so. Let the bird rest a bit and then your in for a tasty chicken.
I often use the cast iron pan with the drippings for roasting some asparagus or sauteing some greens. The fat, salt and pepper as well as the brown bits make for a great side of veggies.
Enjoy.
Spices in Boston
in New England: Cooking & Baking
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This is helpful. I gave up and went all mail order for my spices some time ago. I'd love to be able to go to a good shop to get my spices. Thanks!