Philadelphia Tasters' Club

[Vadouvan]

Today's Steak Tasting Quiz......

What do you get when you mix my two favourite things to eat ?

My two favourite things to eat are Gnocchi and Creamed Spinach.

The answer is *one* word.

Toodle oo.....

Edited February 6, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Pontormo]

I've just finished reading through this entire thread. It's inspirational and a whole lot of fun.

Question: Was there a consensus about "the best" in terms of oils, first, but second, preferred flavor components?

I realize that you were struggling with finding vocabulary beyond the tips Judith offered from her own classes on olive-oil tastings, but at the beginning of the thread one of the stated goals was to reach a conclusion about merit.

Quibble: This is purely a matter of opinion, but the suggestion of a simple puréed soup made with white beans was good. I am guessing it is based on something similar to Marcella Hazan's recipe that calls for cannellini, garlic, water and lots of olive oil. Perfect for times like these.

[Pontormo]

Are Residents of D.C. allowed?

Today's Steak Tasting Quiz......

What do you get when you mix my two favourite things to eat ?

My two favourite things to eat are Gnocchi and Creamed Spinach.

The answer is *one* word.

Toodle oo.....

←

Gnudi.

[Vadouvan]

What do you get when you mix my two favourite things to eat ?

My two favourite things to eat are Gnocchi and Creamed Spinach.

The answer is *one* word.

Trick question: There are two answers.

The obvious one is..............GNUDI.

The old school eyetalian one (leave it to the brilliant italophile Professor Fentoni ).........is MALFATTI.

On the subject of gnudi Andrew.....everyone in NY raves about the ones at the spotted pig and they are just soooooo bad, it's like baby food.

Since we know Philadining is the king of food porn, perhaps we can convince him to shoot some Gnudi pics this time around.....

Edited February 6, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Pontormo]

Well, please excuse us brilliant Italophiles down a lot more to the south for being so damned obvious You may have red sauce, but we've been seeing other forms of red just a little too long...

[dagordon]

Steaks will be cooked old-school parisian style.

No broiling rubbish

French Black Steel Pans.

Halen-Mon Sea Salt

Pondicherry Black Peppercorns after tasting them naked.

Any other thoughts Gordon ?

←

Sounds good to me. Pondicherry Peppercorns -- that's new to me. Google tells me nothing. Are those like Tellicherry peppercorns? Maybe they're Tellicherry peppercorns from Pondicherry (Tellicherry is, as far as I know, just a grade of peppercorns -- larger and riper than "Malbar"). Or is this a separate grade entirely?

[Vadouvan]

Sounds good to me. Pondicherry Peppercorns -- that's new to me. Google tells me nothing. Are those like Tellicherry peppercorns? Maybe they're Tellicherry peppercorns from Pondicherry (Tellicherry is, as far as I know, just a grade of peppercorns -- larger and riper than "Malbar"). Or is this a separate grade entirely?

Dave.....

There is this banging steak frites I eat once a year at an undisclosed location in gay pahreee, we asked the chef what the secret was to the tasty crust and he specified a ratio (I swore I would never tell) of Pondicherry black peppercorns and toasted high grade coriander, in snoops word it is indeed the shizzy.

There is this Frenchie dude Olivier wo has a company that imports them among other goodies.

By the way Tourondel (the macdonalds of fine dining) has a similarly delicious steak using the same pepper in NYC.

BLT Steak and BLT PRime.

I hear Laurent the king of steaks plans on a world wide expansion...

BLT Falafel in Haifa

BLT Sushi in Kyoto

BLThai in Phu-ket.........

BLT Jerk in Ocho-rios

BLTruffles in Alba

BLTartetatin in Place Vendome

BLTomatos in San marzano

BLThyme in the herb counter in your supermaket

BLTrump at that new condo in Tribeca

Edited February 6, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Mummer]

Today's Steak Tasting Quiz......

What do you get when you mix my two favourite things to eat ?

My two favourite things to eat are Gnocchi and Creamed Spinach.

The answer is *one* word.

Toodle oo.....

←

They're certainly not those gawdawful Irish potato confections that appear this time of year.

I'd rather have a famine!

[MarketStEl]

BLT Steak and BLT PRime.

I hear Laurent the king of steaks plans on a world wide expansion...

BLT Falafel in Haifa

BLT Sushi in Kyoto

BLThai in Phu-ket.........

BLT Jerk in Ocho-rios

BLTruffles  in Alba

BLTartetatin in Place Vendome

BLTomatos in San marzano

BLThyme in the herb counter in your supermaket

BLTrump at that new condo in Tribeca

←

And (BLT)^2 at a diner near you?

[Gruzia]

Tasting #2.

Where is the beef.

Contenders are as follows.

1. Wegmans            Dry Aged Strip

2. Whole Foods (and a whole lot of politics and Bullshit)  Dry Aged Strip

3. Harry Ochs          Dry Aged Strip or Porterhouse.

4. Peter Lugers  Dry Aged Porterhouse

5. Lobels    Dry Aged Porterhouse

6. Wolfe Neck  Dry Aged Strip

7. D'artagnan    Wagyu Bone-in Strip   

8. George Wells  Dry Aged Strip

9. Espositos  Dry Aged Strip

←

Have you thought about the Food Source (on Lancaster Ave in Bryn Mawr) dry aged porterhouse? I haven't tried it but one of my friends swore it was the best steak in the area.

[cdh]

Today's Steak Tasting Quiz......

What do you get when you mix my two favourite things to eat ?

My two favourite things to eat are Gnocchi and Creamed Spinach.

The answer is *one* word.

Toodle oo.....

←

What about rabaton? Ricotta-gnocci-like dough with greenery added then extruded into thin rods, excellent with white truffles shaved over them. A fond memory from my jaunt to Alba and Asti...

Edited February 7, 2007 by cdh (log)

[Vadouvan]

Have you thought about the Food Source (on Lancaster Ave in Bryn Mawr) dry aged porterhouse? I haven't tried it but one of my friends swore it was the best steak in the area.

Thanks for the tip Gruzia.

Actually I did some research to find out where they get thier meat and we are procuring from as close to source as possible.

[shacke]

Tasting #2.

The schnoz is officially back from the shop. There's never a supplicating smiley when you need one.....

[Diann]

Looks like I’m late for the tasting note tea party – let me throw out some observations about the olive oil and then we can get back to the serious business of BEEF.

- The amplifier was a great idea; in many cases, I thought the oil’s “nose” was more distinctive than the taste. Olfactorily speaking (yeah… that’s probably not a word) my favorite, by far, was the Aguibal Manzanilla, which smelled like oil-cured black olives (or art supplies if you ask dagordon’s girlfriend ).

- I was surprised by how much I liked the Frutatto. It’s snobbery – you see all those other expensive oils on the table and you expect the “house brand” to be pleasant but undistinguished. But I’d be totally happy using the Frutatto all day, every day… generally speaking, I like my olive oils grassy and peppery (vs. fruity/buttery/creamy), and like others have said before, this one had a loooong pepper finish.

- Other personal favorites: Novello (once you shake it up – I have to taste more of this stuff so I can properly describe it); the Aguibal Arbequina (I love arbequina olive oils – they are so floral and pretty-tasting); and the Planeta, which was big and brawny, but also, interestingly, dry. If oils can be dry.

- By the way, the ceviche was damn tasty on its own. The onaga (red snapper) was firm and slightly chewy, almost like octopus, and the sorbet (cold, bright, sweet) made the perfect match. The olive oil just rounded out some of the sharper flavors of citrus.

Other thoughts on food --

- Buratta, lots of rich, creamy, buttery Carm, sprinkle of sea salt, drizzle of balsamic vinegar: totally luxurious.

- Risotto: I used Per Me -- delicate, didn't overwhelm the simple/pure flavors of the rice -- this dish was so ridiculously tasty. Just good stock and properly cooked rice, but good risotto is so hard to find...

- Intensely flavored stew (lots of smoked paprika) needed a big olive oil, so I went with the Planeta. Makes sense to use a spanish olive oil for that one, though...

- Mozz ice cream: Opened up new… eating experience territory for me. As mrbigjas said, this stuff is more mozzarella-y than actual mozzarella.

To sum it up? TOTALLY awesome night. Thank you so much to V for researching, organizing, cooking, hosting, etc.

P.S. Lesson learned: apparently I’ve never eaten real chicken; I’ve just been eating watery chicken-flavored protein substances for 23 years. The bluefoot was more intensely chickeny than any chicken I’ve ever had before (and also physically denser). I know I’m being harsh on the Eberly, which is a perfectly good bird, but I can’t wait to roast a bluefoot…

P.P.S. I really like scase's idea about using varietal olive oils in the next tasting; I can tell the difference between olives when it comes to single-varietal oils, but I have no idea what causes the peppery finish or grassy nose or whathaveyou when it comes to a blended oil.

Edited February 7, 2007 by Diann (log)

[shacke]

V

Since you mentioned Lobel's, I will mention another - Bryan Flannery out in SF. It's not inexpensive by any stretch but I hear it is among the best dry aged beef available.

[Vadouvan]

T minus 28hrs.

1.A. Esposito Dry Aged NYStrip

2.Wolfe Neck New York Strip

3.George Wells Choice Dry Aged Strip

4.George Wells (CAB) Dry Aged Strip

5.Peter Luger (Gachot+Gachot) Dry Aged Portehouse.

6.Lobel$$$ Dry Aged Porterhouse

7.Harry Ochs Dry Aged Porterhouse

8.Whole Foods Dry Aged Strip

9.Dibruno Brothers Dry Aged Strip

10.Piccinini Brothers Dry Aged Strip

11.D'artagnan Wagyu New York Strip

Formidable competition indeed.

For purposes of future discussion

(CAB) refers to Certified Angus Beef.

More tommorow....

Edited February 7, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Vadouvan]

Mr Gordon.....how about you make a slight detour on your way to Holland tunnel and pick up a pain levain from Balthazar......

Edited February 7, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[cdh]

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

[Mummer]

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

←

6:30 at the Spifford-Luxe, cdh.

Just tell the maitre 'd you're there for the meat tasting...

...there's an old musicians' story about Joe Venuti calling several bassists, asking them to meet him at Hollywood & Vine for a gig...

[dagordon]

Mr Gordon.....how about you make a slight detour on your way to  Holland  tunnel and pick up a pain levain from Balthazar......

←

OK. Anything else?

[Vadouvan]

OK. Anything else?

Perhaps if it isnt too late, ome of that fabulous "Beurre De Charents" from Lescure.

The one with the crunchy FDS in it.

I just got back to philly and I am off to score some quality grapeseed oil.

see ya

[cdh]

I'm clearly not one of the cool kids, as that whole post sailed right over my head.

Give my best to the maitre 'd, and do report back in detail on the beef...

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

←

6:30 at the Spifford-Luxe, cdh.

Just tell the maitre 'd you're there for the meat tasting...

...there's an old musicians' story about Joe Venuti calling several bassists, asking them to meet him at Hollywood & Vine for a gig...

←

[Vadouvan]

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

Hi chris.

So here is the deal.

If you read my initial post at the start of this thread.......

So I was thinking people, while I am all about free speech on E-gullet, I feel some of these discussions are exceeding thier life spans with not even a mirage of a conclusion on the horizon.

All fine and good, but wouldnt it be nice if we all could agree or even disagree on something every now and then ?

Here is what we are going to do about it, wouldnt it be fun and informative to actually try to figure out on some pseudo sceintific basis the quality and flavor differences of particular locally accessible products and other fancy food ingredients. If nothing else it should at least spark some conversation and inspiration for all cooks proficient or otherwise.

So over the next few months, we pick an ingredient, source it (hopefully for free), assemble a panel of interested tasters and see what we come up with.

As to the sourcing of ingredients, I am straight up soliciting businesses who sell the stuff in Philly to donate it for FREE for the tastings as it would be too expensive otherwise. There will be no collusion or shilling. The only benefit aforementioned businesses will get is perhaps increased sales and customer awareness from the results. Seems to me like a fair trade off unless somebody wants to pay for it ?

Thanks to my powers of persuasion, I managed to procure 18 bottles of various Olive oils in the last 36 hrs from various generous entities. I didnt think it would be this easy.

Tastees already or soon will know themselves.

Remember that Bottarga question ?

First tasting scheduled for next week.

Tasting 101 : OLIVE OIL.

Other fun topics to follow.

Stay Tuned.

This whole endeavor really started spontaneously and I really had no Idea that it would become so popular. Basically the first few responders came to the olive oil tasting. I in fact did PM you to ask if you were interested.

Even on the day of the Olive oil Gig, 4 people cancelled which left a total of 6.

In fact we then decided that 6 was a much better number to streamline things without it resorting into a party and no cohesive conversation.

At the end of the olive oil tasting, it was decided that the next one would be a Steak tasting and right there on the spot, nobody wanted to give up thier spots.

One certainly cannot dis-invite the original people who made the effort.

We made two rules.....

1. If you cant make it, you will be replaced.

2. If you dont post your thoughts, you will be 86'ed. The point of the thread is for conclusive conversations about food to inspire everyone, thus all attendees need to discuss thier thoughts.

The steak tasting was already pretty much a done deal during the olive oil tasting.

My point is this whole endeavor is still pretty disorganized in terms of scheduleing attendance and who attends, I assure you there is no elitism or Clique factor.

I am trying to devise a somewhat democratic way to do it but havent reached any conclusions yet. It actually takes way more work than I have time for to assemble any one of this tastings not to mention all the driving around two states to procure the products.

So perhaps communication needs to be worked on.

Apologies to anyone who feels slighted.

We are currently researching a rentable location to do larger tastings for up to 16 people more in the vein of Tria's fermentation school.

The fermentation school is limited to wine, beer and cheese and while it is a great endeavor, it is extremely limited in scope regarding specialty consumables and technique/execution of cooking.

We want to do things like....

Vinegar and the importance of acidity to cooking.

Pork ......Berkshire Vs Farm Vs Generic

Salt Varietals........Important distinctions or marketing bullshit.

Risotto........Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, Baldo, Bomba.

Bread........Carangi,Amoroso,Amy, La Brea, Le Bus, Metro,Eli, Blue ribbon,Sarcones...ect ect.

So you see there is much more fun stuff coming up besides boring hunks of meat.....

The thought has been expressed by someone to initiate discussions with one of the local restaurant schools in the area.

Stay tuned.

Unfortunately we all have day jobs too........

Edited February 8, 2007 by Vadouvan (log)

[Mummer]

Sorry, folks. I could have called my goof establishment the SPOOFord-Luxe, but I thought that would be too obvious.

I didn't think telling a maitre 'd that one was there for a meat tasting could be taken seriously, either. Honest.

Then I added a story about a practical joke. Perhaps you don't find a gaggle of double bassists and their instruments milling around at Hollywood and Vine very funny.

I didn't use smileys because nothing was double-edged and I thought that would be too obvious for a sophisticated food board like this.

If I really wanted to go to this event, I would have sent a PM to Vadouvan to see if there were a space for me. That didn't work when I told them I wanted to ride to New York with the Prince of Wales. (I'm joking, I'm joking! About the Prince, not about the meat.)

And anybody who makes his own beer is pretty cool in my book, cdh. (And I caught the tongue-in-cheek, without a smiley.)

I'm clearly not one of the cool kids, as that whole post sailed right over my head.

Give my best to the maitre 'd, and do report back in detail on the beef...

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

←

6:30 at the Spifford-Luxe, cdh.

Just tell the maitre 'd you're there for the meat tasting...

...there's an old musicians' story about Joe Venuti calling several bassists, asking them to meet him at Hollywood & Vine for a gig...

←

←

Edited February 9, 2007 by Mummer (log)

[MarketStEl]

How does one get an invite to this shindig?

Hi chris.

So here is the deal.

If you read my initial post at the start of this thread.......

So I was thinking people, while I am all about free speech on E-gullet, I feel some of these discussions are exceeding thier life spans with not even a mirage of a conclusion on the horizon.

All fine and good, but wouldnt it be nice if we all could agree or even disagree on something every now and then ?

Here is what we are going to do about it, wouldnt it be fun and informative to actually try to figure out on some pseudo sceintific basis the quality and flavor differences of particular locally accessible products and other fancy food ingredients. If nothing else it should at least spark some conversation and inspiration for all cooks proficient or otherwise.

So over the next few months, we pick an ingredient, source it (hopefully for free), assemble a panel of interested tasters and see what we come up with.

As to the sourcing of ingredients, I am straight up soliciting businesses who sell the stuff in Philly to donate it for FREE for the tastings as it would be too expensive otherwise. There will be no collusion or shilling. The only benefit aforementioned businesses will get is perhaps increased sales and customer awareness from the results. Seems to me like a fair trade off unless somebody wants to pay for it ?

Thanks to my powers of persuasion, I managed to procure 18 bottles of various Olive oils in the last 36 hrs from various generous entities. I didnt think it would be this easy.

Tastees already or soon will know themselves.

Remember that Bottarga question ?

First tasting scheduled for next week.

Tasting 101 : OLIVE OIL.

Other fun topics to follow.

Stay Tuned.

This whole endeavor really started spontaneously and I really had no Idea that it would become so popular. Basically the first few responders came to the olive oil tasting. I in fact did PM you to ask if you were interested.

Even on the day of the Olive oil Gig, 4 people cancelled which left a total of 6.

In fact we then decided that 6 was a much better number to streamline things without it resorting into a party and no cohesive conversation.

At the end of the olive oil tasting, it was decided that the next one would be a Steak tasting and right there on the spot, nobody wanted to give up thier spots.

One certainly cannot dis-invite the original people who made the effort.

We made two rules.....

1. If you cant make it, you will be replaced.

2. If you dont post your thoughts, you will be 86'ed. The point of the thread is for conclusive conversations about food to inspire everyone, thus all attendees need to discuss thier thoughts.

The steak tasting was already pretty much a done deal during the olive oil tasting.

My point is this whole endeavor is still pretty disorganized in terms of scheduleing attendance and who attends, I assure you there is no elitism or Clique factor.

I am trying to devise a somewhat democratic way to do it but havent reached any conclusions yet. It actually takes way more work than I have time for to assemble any one of this tastings not to mention all the driving around two states to procure the products.

So perhaps communication needs to be worked on.

Apologies to anyone who feels slighted.

We are currently researching a rentable location to do larger tastings for up to 16 people more in the vein of Tria's fermentation school.

The fermentation school is limited to wine, beer and cheese and while it is a great endeavor, it is extremely limited in scope regarding specialty consumables and technique/execution of cooking.

We want to do things like....

Vinegar and the importance of acidity to cooking.

Pork ......Berkshire Vs Farm Vs Generic

Salt Varietals........Important distinctions or marketing bullshit.

Risotto........Arborio, Carnaroli, Vialone Nano, Baldo, Bomba.

Bread........Carangi,Amoroso,Amy, La Brea, Le Bus, Metro,Eli, Blue ribbon,Sarcones...ect ect.

So you see there is much more fun stuff coming up besides boring hunks of meat.....

The thought has been expressed by someone to initiate discussions with one of the local restaurant schools in the area.

Stay tuned.

Unfortunately we all have day jobs too........

←

Hunks of meat "boring"?

I'd never use that word to describe hunks of meat, in either sense of the term "hunk of meat."

And thanks for the explanation. Obviously, there are a bunch of us who were/are interested in participating in this--I expressed interest in the steak taste-off both on the thread that led to this one and in Post 12 on this topic, but as I said nothing about olive oil, I guess you flew right past that one--and some sort of scheme that would allow the rest of us to participate, perhaps on a rotating basis, would be welcome. And I'm sure that you could get everyone involved to help defray costs if that becomes necessary.

In the meantime, we with our noses pressed to the glass (or the LCD display) will have to settle for reports from the rest of you starting tomorrow. I'll also gladly accept table scraps from anyone who has any.