ducphat30

I have never had a bad experience at The Korean Restaurant on west Lawrence Avenue. This could be because I've never been there before 2 am. It is a 24 hour restaurant that is packed with people of Korean descent at 3 in the morning. It is the craziest thing, and if you need a cab, you let the waitress know, 5 minutes later some guy in a minivan shows up and will take you where ever you need to go for 10 bucks. Korean friends of mine said that it was very typical Korean street food vs. being actual restaurant food.

Take a look at the skin, if it is extremely thick, some types of snapper and halibut for example, will curl on you when you go to crisp it. make sure that your filet is "squeegeed" and hit it with a little bit of salt. I would pull the filets out 30 minutes before you are ready to cook them. Make sure that the pan is hot, not screaming, a thin coating of oil and place them in gently. Use a fish spatula to hold them down if they start to curl. It will take up to 2 minutes before you should even think about peaking at the skin. I would leave it skin side down and finish it in a hot oven. Another way is a la "plancha". If you have a pancake griddle, get it good and hot. Dry the filet, brush with oil, season with salt and sear on the griddle, you will have to hold them down if they start to curl and cook them the majority of the way on the skin side. This works great for thinner filets of fish, fresh sardines, red mullet, small snappers, black bass. You flip them over and give the other side a kiss and call it day. Now you could take the skin off your filet, scrape it with a spoon. Spray it with the fat of your choice, place it between two flat sheet pans, silpats work great for this, and bake at 200 degrees until crispy. Season it when it comes out and while it is still hot there is some pliability, so you can cut it into shapes. This works really great for salmon skin, small cod skin, even striped bass skin. Play with your fats, and you can get some great flavors, ie bacon fat, really good olive oil, sesame oil. Hope this helps.

I would lightly butter the cling wrap. When you have several layers of wrap it becomes a little more stiff and easier to work with than just one layer. You might want to experiment with other types of fats as your lubricant. What about porcini oil, or and herb infused oil may lend a nice touch. Not knocking butter, but giving you some more options. This is what I am referring to in terms of poking holes. It will make weighting the terrine down a lot easier. With weighting the terrine down, this is not a sealed terrine. That involves other stuff. That we could get into if you wanted to. But try first with making the terrine this way first, it is a little bit easier. Try using some liver, even duck or chicken livers, it adds a depth of flavor to the terrine that would be missing by omitting it.

Some suggestions for success: 1) Definitely use cling wrap, but do 5-6 layers, buttered, yes, but not aggressively. 2) I would weight it down. Make a press by cutting out a piece of cardboard just under the size of your mold. Whatever type of mold you use, pyrex, whatever. 3) Think of your terrine as an emulsion, like a flan, a little more protein laden? yes, but it is an emulsion of proteins so you don't want to overcook it, because it will turn out yucky either way, nor do you want it to cook to quickly. Think low and slow. 4) In a waterbath in a 250 degree oven, use a digital thermometer and take it to 150 degrees. Allow it to rest to room temperature. Place a few holes in the plastic wrap, weigh it down with the press and weights, and place in the refrigerator to cool completely, preferably overnight. Its best to let the terrine hang out for a day. Then its really tasty with some cornichon, and baguette.

Sorry this is what I meant to quote.

I meant to say pretty good for the greater Lansing area.

That's true, the speed limit is 70 mph. IMHO, being a former employee, I liked the concept of Villegas a lot, and the food for the most part pretty good, but it seems to lack cohesion in terms of menu idea and the concept. The dining room is beautiful, and I haven't been there in 8 years so maybe things have gotten better, food wise, but I found better cooking the further east and west of Lansing I went. Love Cafe Cortina Farmington Hills (I think), there was a little place, Emily in Northville, Too Chez, Tribute. My travels have not taken me through the heart of Michigan in a while, so it is possible that things have gotten better.

It sure seems to be the case in the greater Lansing/East Lansing area. It's scary to think one of the best restaurant management schools in the country is in the center of it all, but you have to drive an hour to eat something without Minor's base in it. IMO.

It is a great way to cook an egg, you have the warm yolk, texturally the same as soft poached egg, and a custard-translucently-cream white. For restaurant use, we poach them before service and keep them in a hotbox around 150-160 degrees and have not had a problem with coagulation. I know that WD-50 picks them up on the order by dropping them back into a 150 degree water bath. As with all things the better quality product the better end result with all other things being the same. One other note, on the Gagnaire website, it looks like they poach it in a glass, if you keep it in the shell it stays more translucent, and we did not have a problem with the some one "accidentally" turning the hotbox up to 180, I am assuming that the shell and the water bath acted as buffers against the heat.

Hi, A very good friend's wife is celebrating her birthday this weekend, and has expressed some homesickness. So I thought that I would approach the egullet board in the south pacific and see what ideas they could bring to the proverbial table. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Bummer, total bummer. Smokin woody's it is!!!

Smokin Woody's is tasty, but have you tried N and N smoke house on Irving Park just west of Ashland? I haven't been in a couple of years, ( I hope they are still open?!), but they had some of the most bone-lickinest, lip-smakinest ( yes those words are in the BBQ dictionary) tastiest barbecue I've tried in Chicago. The soul food is tasty too! I hope they are still open, because now I have a hankerin for some of those ribs.

Thanks for the info, hoping to get to Europe in the next year and am starting to put together a list of destinations that I "need" to get to. If any questions I'll post later.

Hi all across the pond, I am trying to find a couple of websites, and not their relais-chateaux designation. I am looking for restaurant Arpege and Berastugie (spelling?) If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it. Thanks for you help.

Heard very good things about the pigs from Gunthorpe Farms in Indiana. They have a website pig farm I know they also do suckling pigs. I have not tried them myself, but a couple of people told me that they are very good. They are grass-fed, organic pigs. If your interested in pricing, PM me. Wish I could help you with the cooking vessel, You could always go suckling, and fit it on a weber?!

Is Acupulco Joe's still around. I remember them having good margaritas and very tasty salsas. Although the last time I went was probably 12-13 years ago. Damn, time flies!

I can't imagine a very dry boodles martini without blue cheese stuffed olives. And when did carnations start coming in blue cheese, talk about edible flowers?!

I know this may sound crazy, as a reccommendation, but it tastes great: For that brisket your using, Season it liberally with salt, pepper and sweet smoked paprika 5-6 white onions, thickly sliced into rings 1/2 cup dried cherries 2 12oz cans of coca-cola 1/4 cup white vinegar marinate overnite slowly braise it until fork tender, with all this stuff While the meat rests Reduce all the liquid until it becomes very thick, like a chutney It's better with a little bit fattier cut of meat, and best on the smoker sans the paprika, but when it is too damn cold out to fire up the smoker ( or you live in the city, and the condo association is going to fine you $150 bucks if you use your smoker again) this works great. PS two words, crock pot.

I recently ate at Trio, Tour de Force, with the wine pairings. First of all, there is no way that we would have been able to match the wines with the foods ourselves, in terms of the scope of beverages we had the opportunity to try. I would like to stress that at no time did any of us ever feel like we were being overserved or underserved in terms of quantity. What we did recieve were, to quote "My Cousin Vinny"," dead-on-balls-accurate" pairings with the courses that enhanced our overall dining experience. I'd like to think that I know a little bit about wine, but when you put yourself in the hands of experts it makes the evening that more enjoyable. So if you're "going out", especially to celebrate I cannot reccommend highly enough to put yourself in the incredible hands that are the dining room staff at Trio.

At Fox and Obel, here in Chicago, they had an amazing cabrales, wish I could remember the name. It went incredibly well with their nut and dried fruit bread. IMO their bakery is doing some of the best bread in the city right now. To keep with the theme, my wife and I opened a nice bottle of rioja and sat in front of the fire........ for about 4 minutes before the baby started screaming and while we were gone the dog ate the bread. Thank God the wine and cheese were left. They still tasted pretty good over the kitchen sink with carr's crackers.

Truer words could not be spoken. THe glove works pretty well, at the Four Seasons we were required to wear them, but the Benriner sliced through it a couple of times, thank God it slowed down enough to realize that you should really stop and no stitches were ever needed. The benriner rocks, for quick and ease of cleaning, but the matfer is great if you have a lot to do, you set it up and start pounding away. Plus sharpening the blade is rather easy. The guard for it doesn't work so well. The kitchen towel is definitely a plus. Paying attention to what your doing is probably #1.

Great looking website, I showed people at work and they were asking is this a new patisserie? Although I don't know you, I wish you continued success wherever your endeavors take you. What a shame it is for Chicago to lose you. Have you tried the Ritz Carlton in Chicago? En Ming Hsu is extremely talented, as well and runs a great kitchen. Best of luck in your search.

When Jacques and Julia made bernaise, different sauce same mama, he used whole butter (melted). The solids add a lot of butter flavor. I also found that the sauce has a nice viscosity with the whole butter melted vs. it being warm mayonaissy (sp?) with straight clarified.

Just foie. bacon foie, prime rib foie, duck foie, crispy chicken foie, etc... God, I'm starting to feel like homer simpson.

Seville oranges are not readily available here in CHicago, but I am wondering if anyone has tried to cure them, Moroccan style, seeing as they are very tart?