SanFran88
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Posts posted by SanFran88
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Absolutely. Demeyere only has a thin external magnetic layer. With Mauviel Induc'Inox the entire inner thermal layer is magnetic.
Couple more questions. And thanks in advance for your patience
. The InducInox doesn't come with a stockpot sized pot. Believe the largest is 11 QTs and it is shaped more like a slightly taller rondeau. Is there a stockpot you would recommend for induction? Second question: the InducInox has brass handles. I've never seen this before. Is there anything special re: cleanup? Can it go in the dishwasher? Do I need to use Barkeeper's Friend on the handles? -
Thanks so much. And it looks like La Cuisine here in Alexandria stocks it. If I want to try a piece out to get the feel of it, will it work on my current electric cooktop (I understand it isn't optimized)?
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Over the Demeyere sirocco?
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I'm going to be redoing my kitchen and gas is not an option so I'm thinking of putting in an induction cooktop. What brands and lines would you recommend?
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I took my mother to the Tasting Room for an early mother's day dinner and I echo Simdelish on some of the new menu choices.
There were several amuses: A rhubarb mousse with serrano, a little cheese flan, and a deviled quail's egg with caviar. The rhubarb mousse was my favorite. Also a wonderful little cup of mushroom soup. Then I had the lobster creme brulee with a lobster and fennel salad. This is one of my all time favorite dishes. I could probably eat a pint of it like ice cream.
My mom had beautiful prawns with a mint and tangerine salad. Next up was OOO, a pate brisee containter filled with oysters and onions in a cream sauce and topped with caviar. Very tasty with a glass of champagne (we were doing wine pairings because all I know about wine is I like to drink it). As Simdelish said, the skate with clams is wonderful, as is the lamb tasting. Nine course also had the wonderful fois with a tiny brioche tete and I think a kumquat reduction. Oh, and sweetbreads that were perfect, crunchy on the outside and unctuous on the inside. My mother, who thinks salt and pepper are exotic spices, loved both the lamb kidney from the tasting and the sweetbreads. I didn't tell her what they were.... Dinner was followed by a stilton flan (mom did a cheese plate) and an apple dessert. My mother did the apricot baked alaska. The Tasting Room remains, I think, absolutely the best value (at $95 for nine courses) for this level of food in the area. Todd did his usual fine job matching wines and he's put together a mint julep fizz that I could drink all night. Another wonderful meal with wonderful service (our waitress boxed up a strawberry shortcake and some extra chocolates for my wife and four-year old daughter at home). I spoke with Cathal on the way out, and the Bistro menu will change to reflect spring on Tuesday. Hopefully the weather will reflect spring as well.... What Cathal, Todd, Meshe, Nate, and everyone else at Eve have been able to accomplish in what seems like a very short year is truly wonderful. -
Get thee to Cheesetique in Del Ray.
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If you are looking for gelatine sheets again, they stock it at LaCuisine in Alexandria. I use four sheets equals one package of gelatine as a ratio.
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I've been using the book and I wouldn't say any of the recipes are particularly difficult. The chef recipes are separated for the most part either by technique or ingredient from Bitmann's, but aren't necessarily hard unless you tried to replicate them exactly. For example: the Danko recipe for duck two ways is absurdly easy if you buy the duck confit and demi from D'Artagnan. It is more time consuming, obviously, if you try to make them yourself. Similarly, Suzanne Goin's recipe for poulet au pot is very simple, provided you can find caul fat (I got some from a chef who is a friend and took pity on me) to wrap the boned out chicken legs. (Same issue with the pork shoulder confit. Not hard, you just have to score a couple quarts of duck fat!) Even the Boulud lamb extravaganza is not particularly hard unless you tried to do all four dishes at once, as he does, or you are hell-bent on using the same exotic fruits he stuffs the saddle with, or you're a masochist and tried to bone out the saddle yourself. My point being, they have played up the competition aspect of the book/show as a hook, but all the recipes -- not just Bitmann's -- are doable.
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Stupid question, but why use a water bath if you're baking at low heat in a convection oven?
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Had a wonderful dish today at lunch. I believe it will be part of the celebration of all things Irish tonight in the Tasting Room, but it definitely deserves to be reincarnated in some form. I don't what Cathal's calling it, but it consists of a wonderful, earthy circle of black pudding topped with seared fois gras surrounded by a jus made from veal stock, apple cider, rosemary, and a touch of vinegar. Garnished with a little apple brunois. Truly lick the plate fabulous. In other news, the spring menu should be trotted out in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will feel like spring by then.
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Anyone been to the Bistro lately. Is the menu that is online pretty close to what is currently being offered? What is Thrashers drink du jour?
They haven't updated the website. The menu posted is fairly old; on the other hand, it is kind of representative of the sort of things you will see and some of the dishes remain with different garnishes, etc.
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I think you make a good point. Steve Klc has often written in this forum of the need to look at what a restaraunt is trying to do/be at its particular price point, etc. But who are the "critics" you are referring too?
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Already there is hype with respect to "the hype."
Which of course begs the question: is there any way "The Hype" can live up to the hype?
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I see that Todd is reading this thread. I only hope it gives him inspiration to develop a new cocktail and name it "the hype."
Ahhh...and now we've moved onto something productive: what should be in "The Hype" cocktail and more importantly, when can I get one? (Also, if the Bistro is hyped, does that the Tasting Room is 9 courses of hype? Is it hype operating at another level?)
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If commenting on poor wine service to the manager is considered rude then I am guilty. If honestly stating the food was good but not great is being obnoxious, I am guilty of that also.
Whatever happened, happened. My only point, before this degenerates into name calling, is that there are any number of reasons why you might have had a bad experience that do not involve the restaraunt's reputation being nothing more than "hype." As Mark pointed out, that leaves those of us who enjoy Eve and have said so as appearing either dishonest or too ignorant ourselves to be able to separate "hype" from a genuinely fine dining experience.
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Well...he may not be able to get what he wants, but of course, if he tries sometime, he might find he gets what he needs....
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We visited Restaurant Eve last evening with another couple with very high expectations given all the “hype” we have heard about the place. Unfortunately we left with the feeling that RE was a bit more hype than substance.
I have several issues with this:
1) In order for Eve to be more hype than substance, it would require collusion on the part of Tom Sietsema, e-gullet, chowhound, etc. Probably not a conspiracy to promote the restaurant.
2) While I don't doubt that there may have been problems, all restaurants have issues on any given night. (Everyone in their chosen profession has issues on any given night.) So the question then becomes how to resolve it. If a place has a good reputation and something is not up to snuff, one would -- it seems to me -- bring this up with the management to be resolved. I'm sure Cathal, Meshelle, Todd etc. would love the chance to address issues before they get anonymously blasted into cyberspace. Unless a place is just truly bad and no attempt is made to resolve the issue, what is the point in a public trashing beyond...
3) The offputting practice of posts that essentially read "I ate at French Laundry, Per Se, Daniel, Maestro, ADNY, Tru, (pick a restaurant), and I eat at these places all the time and I didn't think it was so great."
I'm not questioning cigarnv's version of events, nor was I there like Don, but I do question this sort of drive by trashing of restaurants, which unfortunately is all too common on these sorts of forums.
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The Bistro Menu has changed up again as of this past Wed. Several highlights from the last few days include a tremendous braised shortrib done with red wine and served with root vegetables, a Portugese style fish stew with chorizo and tripe that is lick-the-bowl good and a butter poached cod filet with lobster and lobster cream that is love on a plate. Several other changes in garnishes, etc., such as substituting yorkshire pudding for the pommes mousseline that accompanied the ribeye, and the monkfish being done with the "clam chowder" finish that has been on the menu previously, though I think with cod.
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If the Christmas Goose special is available, go for it. It's absolutely delicious. Breast meat with crisped skin that crackles and shatters covering succulent slices of rare flesh. The sliced breast sits atop a bed of cabbage, carmelized apple, mushrooms, and confited leg of goose. Really a spectacular dish.
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I got the certificate as well. If I remember correctly, in your bill at Jaleo, Oyamel, etc. is a little card you can fill out to be added to the mailing list.
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Not sure Tony, Susan, if you have or have not gone to Epcot yet, but we just returned from our weekend down there. Tony, if you did Sweet Sunday on the 3rd, was that Roland Mesnier? I'm interested in feedback about this new concept and also if others found their PFTS enjoyable...the festival is longer this year, there are so many different chefs flying in for a short time and then leaving, the demos probably varied a bit as anything in life, the best one can really offer is a snapshot of what their little part of the festival was like, so I hope everyone else's was as good as ours.
Steve,
Sorry, I just noticed this. We did the two Party for the Senses on the 2nd and the 9th. For various reasons we didn't go on the 3rd to the Sweet Sunday event, which was Chef Mesnier. I was very bummed; I especially wanted to talk to him about his rather unusual Pate Sucre in Dessert University. I thought the physical layout of the PftS this year was much better than before, as you mentioned. I remember the scrum last year once 600 people all descended on the little dessert encampment. The pastry chefs looked like they were in a scene from an old western with the wagons circled. I thought the 2nd was good, but oddly the dishes on the 9th were almost universally better. Just a good night I guess. We weren't able to spend as much "fun" time as normal as we were also dealing with helping my in-laws fix hurricane damage.
We did go to California Grill twice and Artist Point and Jiko's once each. Didn't make it to Flying Fish. I have only eaten once at La Cellier a number of years ago. We will have to add it to our list on your recommendation.
Party for the Senses is, I think, an unbelievable value. It really is a great night and they have done a nice job of expanding some things (scotch tasting this year along with the wine for instance) and adjusting the physical layout and entertainment. I don't have enough experience with the other special dinners to comment; I went to one last year and wasn't thrilled, but obviously a lot depends on the chef and the menu in question. Ours was a chocolate in every course dinner, and some of the dishes were a bit forced for my taste. But that's just me.
BTW, my wife still thinks the rice pudding you did last year at PftS is the single best dessert she has ever had.
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This was an amazing night. The food was incredible. Of the initial canapes, the salmon with lemon cream and the quail egg were my personal favorites, but all were delicious. The jerusalem artichoke soup we had as an amuse was spectacular. Though the lobster creme brulee is one of the best things I've ever eaten, I skipped it this time in favor of trying the Oyster, Oyster, Oyster, which comes off like a creamy hit of the sea. The marlin with black trumpet mushroom flan was a wonderful mix of meaty fish and earthy, creamy mushroom that Todd paired with, I think, a Pinot Noir. I had the rabbit stew for the main course. When they presented it at the table the top of the squash was removed and the aroma was just wonderful. As was the dish. I skipped the lamb three ways during this course in favor of the rabbit, since I had had the lamb dish before -- I thought. But as Mark noted later, it seemed to be done three different ways from the way we'd each had it before. I loved the rabbit, but I was casting covetous glances. (I do have to admit our servers dissertation on the eco-friendly, humanely-ended lamb kept making me smile and think of the Monty Python sketch where the crunchy frogs are described as being "lightly killed"....)
The cheese course seems greatly expanded from the last time I was in the Tasting Room and more in line with a restaurant of this high caliber. The vacherin was particularly good. I think the cheeses may be coming from Cheesetique in Del Ray, but I'm not sure. And I finished with the trio of pears.
Several of the wines were knockouts. In some ways, I thought the wine service was the most unexpected (and probably difficult) part of the night for the restaurant to attempt. We were all ordering different things and Todd was doing a sensational job of matching wines with dishes. I believe Walrus has pictures of some of the truly outstanding labels...my mind was blurring. One smelled for all the world like passion fruit, and the Hungarian dessert wine was like a glass of honey with lemon.
All in all, a wonderful night full of multiple foodasms made more special by getting to meet so many warm and interesting people for the first time. (And match faces names.) Thanks to Mark for setting this up and to Cathal, Nate, Todd, Meshe, Tami, Tyffany, and all the rest of the Eve family for putting on such a spectacular show.
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Based on the tone and content of the first question in Tom Sietsema's chat this morning, as well as the "anonymous" early leaking of the Nectar story (and trust me, the story broke several hours before it should have), I smell a rat.
Just to satisfy my own curiousity, what might the "rat" be up to? Is this just piling on and score settling? I don't understand what might be gained by leaking the news other than not allowing the owners to control the release themselves? Same with the post in the chat, which seemed not only nastily gratuitous, but almost laughably planted by someone with a serious ax to grind.
Q&A -- Understanding Stovetop Cookware
in The eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI)
Posted
Thanks, I was afraid you'd say that. Guess it's about time to convert my four year old from a unit of consumption to a unit of labor