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The Best Bit


godito

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What interests me about this thread is how much it's about textures -- we're all about crispy and oozy, with, preferably, a bitter edge to set off the fat.

Except the person who craves stale peeps. That's just.......words fail me.

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Der Knust of a freshly baked loaf of bread. (My family is German, I would have to explain this deliccy to my friends with "The knust, you know, the end piece of bread").

In my family we call it the karychikle aka the heel. It's my favorite part of the loaf. The best is rye bread so fresh that it's still warm. :wub:

Other favorites are....

....the corner piece of a potato kugel which has twice the crust

....the remaining fried onions slightly stuck at the bottom of the pan

....roasted chicken necks

....licking the batter off spatulas/beaters/bowls

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Anypart near the bone. The bone part of a pork/lamb chop, the ribs of the roast duck, chicken and duck necks. It's where all the seasonings are concentrated and the meats muscular yet juicy.

Pork trotters, especially from a whole roasted pig. We save that for making congee. The ears from the roast pig.

The juices that pool at the bottom of the dish after steaming a whole organic chicken, what my mum calls "chicken essence".

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I shouldn't be telling you all this, but this thread is so good I just can't hold back. You have a right to know about this best bit among best bits.

At Nobu, at the end of service, they make "The BFR."

The BFR is a maki roll like none other. One of the sushi chefs goes around to all the other sushi chefs' stations at the sushi bar and collects their leftover bits and pieces -- the oddly shaped ends and such that couldn't quite be made into saleable sushi, plus whatever isn't going to be held over until the next day. He takes a massive piece of nori and spreads it with sushi rice. He then begins to construct the BFR.

Strips, slices, cubes, triangles, and other odds and ends of fish get piled high into the BFR in a multicolored latticework of fish. Then everything is rolled into a maki roll that is easily 6 inches in diameter. The roll is sliced into thick wedges, and each sushi chef gets one. This is dinner.

Once, just once, I was given a piece of BFR. It was the ultimate sushi experience. Masa has nothing on the BFR.

BFR, by the way, stands for "Big Fucking Roll."

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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One of my most treasured best-bits experiences was when a group of went, a couple of years ago, to the Dominican restaurant Margot on Broadway near 159th Street. By the standards of the establishment, we were big spenders -- really, really big spenders -- but my fantasy is that our enthusiasm for the cuisine was what earned us "the crust of the moro."

Moro is a rice-beans-vegetables dish common to several Latin nations. As with those Korean rice dishes that are finished in iron pots, moro has a tendency to develop a wonderful crust at the bottom of the cooking vessel.

We so enjoyed our moro that, at the end of the moro consumption period, the owner of the restaurant came out with the pot and served us each some of the crust, all the while assuring us (quite convincingly) that this was something usually reserved for special guests, family, and heads of state.

This has got to be the same thing that godito is referring to above as cocolon. The phenomenon seems to be somewhat universal to rice casserole-type dishes: that leftover crusty part always manages to have a special status.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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there is a fish in hawaii known as "nabeta". you can't find it at the market as usually, the fishermen keep it for themselves.

the interesting thing about this fish is that you don't scale it. you simply clean it, season it and fry it. the skin is so delicious.

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The delectable bits of Dungeness crab found at the bottom of the butter bowl,

artichoke hearts and dusty, late summer blackberries.

Edited by petite tête de chou (log)

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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The crispy bits that end up in the botom of a basket of fried chicken or batter-fred fish.

Traditionally you could always get these from a British Fish and chip shop, either for free or for a few pence. They were known as 'scraps'

I love animals.

They are delicious.

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I believe the Long John Silver's chain (which is in my opinion one of the best fast-food chains out there) artificially produces "scraps" so that every plate served at the restaurant can be lined with a disproportionate helping of them.

A limited amount of this sort of behavior -- creating the best bits by design, rather than as a side effect -- can be beneficial. But I think when you get to the point where you're selling sacks of rice crust or you're doing a whole best-bits menu, you start to devalue the best bits. The best bits don't exist in a vacuum. In many cases, their excellence can only be truly experienced as a contrast.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Another collapsed malted milk ball fan.

I hate to say it - but back in the day when I ate cheetos, I'd occasionally find one that was sort of burned. Not truly burned, but definitely darker, harder, crispier than a normal cheeto. Mmmmmm. (I haven't had cheetos in years!)

Of course, the beaters from any sweet concoction.

The middle sweet roll of a round pan of rolls - the one with no crust and extra frosting - but my sister always remembered to call it before me.

The browned cheese from any cheesey good item - grilled cheese, pizza, quesidilla.

The milk shake/malt left in the metal cannister. Yah, I know, it's the same stuff from the glass. But, there's something special about the "extra shake."

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fried chicken hearts. necks, too. the skin of a roasted turkey. turkey and chicken "oysters". crispy fat, crispy potatoes. crispy melted cheese.

and, if it hasn't been removed prior to cooking, the membrane off of spare ribs... after its cooked it gets crispy and very tasty.

Born Free, Now Expensive

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The best bits don't exist in a vacuum. In many cases, their excellence can only be truly experienced as a contrast.

I'd agree that Best Bits don't exist in a vacuum, but does their specialness reside in contrast -- with, it's to be assumed, less stratospherically delicious stuff -- or in their specialness, in their conferring on the eater a sense of having gotten something the other eaters are missing out on?

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One of the gems from Paul Lukas' "Beer Frame" (a zine focusing on "inconspicuous consumption") was about Twinkies, ring dings etc. The types that have a piece of cardboard supporting the cake. And how you take your finger and run it over the cardboard to lift off the residual gunky bits of crumbs. How that stuff is, for many, the best bit, but a bit that's eaten almost unconsciously.

"Tis no man. Tis a remorseless eating machine."

-Captain McAllister of The Frying Dutchmen, on Homer Simpson

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The carmelized top of a creme brulee, the heart of an artichoke swathed in butter and sea salt, and the boundary between crisp and still sweaty julienned fennel and leeks that have been slowly baked on a cookie sheet for an hour.... uhhhhhh.

And if you are Anthony Bourdain in the Moroccan desert, to follow this thread's invocation of guidance by the locals, the privates of a young pit roasted lamb.

I'll take his word for it.

"Food is an essential part of a balanced diet."

Fran Lebowitz

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The crispy rice at the bottom of the pot you cook it in, either scraped directly off the pot, or softened with hot soup or water.

Also, nibbling and sucking on the little burnt bits on the edges of Chinese barbecue pork. mmmm....it's sweet and salty, with a smoky and bitter taste aroma to it.

The tiny little pieces of french fries that you find near the end of the box, and are always the crunchiest.

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The shards of cheese at the bottom of the bowl of freshly grated perorino romano that managed to escape the grater.....

I love the rind of various cheeses- especially when "ashy"

“Seeing is deceiving. It's eating that's believing.”

James Thurber (1894-1961), American writer and cartoonist.

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Crispi fried salmon skin, broiled chicken hearts and as Fido Dido mentioned the crispi rice at the bottom of the pan, specially if it is flavored rice, like chicken or pork or even better, paella. In some Latin American countries is called "pegado".

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I hate to say it - but back in the day when I ate cheetos, I'd occasionally find one that was sort of burned. Not truly burned, but definitely darker, harder, crispier than a normal cheeto. Mmmmmm. (I haven't had cheetos in years!)

why on earth would you stop eating cheetos?

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The best bits don't exist in a vacuum. In many cases, their excellence can only be truly experienced as a contrast.

I'd agree that Best Bits don't exist in a vacuum, but does their specialness reside in contrast -- with, it's to be assumed, less stratospherically delicious stuff -- or in their specialness, in their conferring on the eater a sense of having gotten something the other eaters are missing out on?

There's also some pulling-for-the-underdog triumph in the feeling that the best bit is sometimes the part everyone else has rejected.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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