Medellitin

As far as food blog meme's go, Khymos' "They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT)" contest. Martin Lersch (it's his blog), is one of those smart, sciencey food guys. He way more scientist than chef, but if you read me, then you clearly don't care about that. I like reading him because he doesn't dumb anything down. And when people don't dumb things down, it means you have to smarten up. You should be reading his blog in general, but what I really wanted to talk about was TGRWT. Once a month, Martin announces two ingredients that well, go really well together. Some flavor-pairings are really counter-intuitive. Here is his description: The name refers to flavour pairing of ingredients based on their content of volatile aroma compounds. The idea behind flavour pairing is that if two (or more) foods have one or more volatile compounds in common, chances are good that they might taste well together. Click for a list of other flavour pairings and to read...

I have a fatal attraction to unusual product. Even worse, I recently bought the bizarre at the bazaar and promptly forget its name: In attempts to do research, i typed "tuber that looks like a maggot". Instead I found this video: [vodpod id=Groupvideo.1859815&w=425&h=350&fv=] more about " Maggot Lives Inside Woman's Head ", posted with vodpod Then "tuber maggot". The results were not promising. I had a vague memory of the sign. Whatever these little nuggets were called, it began with the letter C. Let's refine our approach. This was a tuber. A tuber is a root vegetable. Let's zip on over Wikipedia , and look at my options. Wikipedia tubers that begin with a C: Chufa and Crosne. A couple of google searches later and we are confirmed. They are Crosnes. The Internet also suggests simple preparations. Butter, salt and pepper. Boiled. Pickled (Chinese preparations). Raw (Crunchy in salads). First attempt had them...

I have been slowly transcribing notes from a number of food talks i've been to dating back about five months now. I have seen: Alex and Aki from Ideas In Food (Liquid Nitrogen) Wylie DuFresne and David Zuddas at the French Institute Ferran Adria at the NYPL Grant Achatz and Nathan Myhrvold also at the NYPL Thomas Keller and Michael Ruhlman promoting Under Pressure Since I have already written about Liquid Nitrogen and Under Pressure , I suppose I only owe you Achatz, Myhrvold, Adria, DuFresne and Zuddas. I don't know if this is intentional or by accident, but all of the remaining talks really focused on food as art and/or the future of food. That is a ridiculous amount of knowledge and culinary perspective to absorb.  While each one incrementally changed how I thought about food, getting such a high dose of foodthought in a short period of time has forever altered how I interact with food.   Did I mention that, in one trip to Chicago, I experienced Moto, Alinea, Blackb...

Everyone has experiences that change the way they perceive one of their five senses. Altered Tastes is an ongoing feature where I discuss culinary moments that rewire my sense of taste forever. Without further adieu... I love mushrooms. Love them. I will judge any produce section by the variety and quality of their mushrooms. Usually, I am into the exotics. Mushrooms that can't be easily cultivated. You know, the good stuff. But I digress, because today, I discuss: The garden-variety, white button mushroom. The vanilla of fungus, found plastic-wrapped in produce aisles at every grocery store. Sliced raw atop all the most uninspired salads I have eaten. I've never given this mushroom much consideration. In fact, I am generally prejudiced against them. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a mushroom farm. Walking past a steaming pile of compost, and I mean steaming , we entered one of the pens. Mushroom studded compost pallets extended as far as the eye can see. ...

Ruhlman wrote a piece on food allergies calling America A Nation Of Culinary Sissies . In his self described rant, he talks about the number of people who alert servers about food allergies vs. the number of people who actually have a food allergy. A comment-storm erupted, with people choosing sides and bickering. It is, after all, the Internet. Eventually, it devolved but there was one salient point that I think merits further discussion: Some patrons lie to get the chef to do what they want. And, of course, that pisses a lot of servers, chefs and restauranteurs off. Because what they really want is to have their already difficult jobs not made more difficult, and of course, everyone involved wants to be able to continue to work and make a living. How is their life made easier when someone comes in and asks them to change the way they do things? I used to be a vegetarian. I would start by telling a server that I was a vegetarian. Some knew what the term meant, others would say ...

I went to see Michael Ruhlman and Thomas Keller converse about sous vide at the Astor Center . I think it was worth going to if you didn't know much about the subject. I have become far more literate on the subject than I had thought. The space and facilities at Astor Center continue to make for the best venue to attend food related events in New York City. Ruhlman and Keller were fun to watch, even if Ruhlman did occaisionally sound like the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer from Saturday Night Live: "Mr. Keller, you mean to tell me that you seal food in plastic bags and put them in hot water? Won't we die of botulism or PVC poisoning? Your modern cooking techniques frighten and confuse me. Which demons did you sell your soul to in order to remove all of the oxygen from that bag." Yes, I know, this was a softball so that Keller could hit a home run on the safety answer for a crowd that probably does think like The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. It was still entertaining. Usu...

I have vague memories of the first time I saw liquid nitrogen in use. I think I was in my junior high school auditorium and there was some speaker they brought in to try and get us excited about science. He was a typical science pitch-man. His lab coat partially concealing a plaid shirt and cheap slacks, thick glasses elevated by a sense of humor that came in two forms: the pun and the science joke. His routine, somewhere between David Copperfield and a birthday clown, climaxes when he attempts to bounce a rubber ball that was frozen in liquid nitrogen. You could hear the ball shatter like glass. I didn't really think much about liquid nitrogen again. Puberty happened, and then I had to get a job. Having finally recovered from the realization that I will not be getting any taller and that I will likely have to work until I die, I found myself at the Astor Center, attending "Cold Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen" with Ideas In Food chefs Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Ta...

Yah, I know. Two things wrong with the title. First, most people who fall under the category MG, hate the phrase. Second, isn't it oxymoronic? I mean, Raw Veganism is hippie rabbit food. A diet already restricted by veganism compounded with the inability to heat anything past 104 °F (40 °C) to 115 °F (46 °C). Salads and juices, oh my! Contrast that with the Modernists, Molecular Chefs, Molecular Gastronomers, what ever they want to be called often cook with ingredients whose usage was pioneered in the industrial food industry. Kitchens like laboratories. Ingredients like Hydrocolloids, Transglutaminase, Tapioca Maltodextrin, and Xanthan Gum. And first glance these forms of cuisine seem to have nothing in common. New Age Hippies vs. the Avante Garde. Let's dig into some similarities: Creativity. I think creativity comes from two places: constriction or freedom. Modernism frees you. New textures, new techniques, new, new new. Raw constricts you. Trying to consi...

I generally shy away from fish that is on sale at any fishmonger. The only reason I can think of for reducing the price of something is because you want to get rid of it. And there are only two reasons you are trying to get rid of something. You have more than you want of it or there is something wrong with it. But, you know, I was at Whole Foods. I figured that whatever I was purchasing couldn't be that bad. So, with that rationalization trumping my better judgement, I purchased two pounds of skate. Skates are bottom dwelling Chondrichthyes, similar to Rays, like a Sting Ray, Manta Ray or Sugar Ray (Well, at least the bottom dwelling part). Which you don't really think of as delicious. But it can be. My issue with Skate is that it is alway prepared the same way. Brown butter, capers and a squeeze of lemon. Awesome the first time, horrifically boring the umpteenth time. However, I had an idea in my head (ideas that I have in my pancreas I don't usually act on) th...

Last night I watched Bourdain's At The Table, which, according to comments on his blog, didn't go over well with his fanbase. The format of the show is simple enough. Take five food and journalist industry veterans, plop them down at wd~50, and ask them a bunch of questions, round-table style. It could work. It really really could. It is like John Favreau's Dinner For Five, only with debaucherous restauranteurs, authors and tv stars. I truly believe there is value in this show. But first: Why it didn't work Bourdain is not a natural facilitator. This is a surprisingly difficult task, and not everyone is suited for it. Let's face it, he is typically in a role where he is central to his books or tv shows. The hardest part about this job is stepping out of the way. In his defense, he may not have been able to do this because: Most of the guests didn't do their job. Guests on this type of show are obligated to be interesting. It was pretty obvious t...

** Old-Me has joined the chat room "SousVide:TheNewNotTooHotness" ** Future-Me has joined the chat room "SousVide:TheNewNotTooHotness" Hey... look who it is... Me... again. So glad that in the future the only person I talk to is myself. What the heck is Sous Vide? No time for shenanigans. You need to know this. Sous-vide, French for totally delicious, or possibly under vacuum. It is a cooking technique where food is vacuum sealed in plastic bags and "poached" in a temperature controlled water bath. Originally developed in the 70s as a way of reducing the loss of weight in foie gras during traditional cooking techniques, sous-vide has had widespread applications ranging from industrial food preparation to use in some of the most highly regarded restaurants in the world.There are several benefits for cooking with sous-vide:  1. Consistency. Sous-vide takes a lot of the guesswork out of knowing when a food is done cooking. Imagine a world where everyti...

**UPDATE:** They refunded my money and sent me tablets. While a frustrating experience, they did ultimately make me whole. On June 3rd, Grub Street published a blog post entitled “Miracle Fruit Dealers Will Take You ‘Flavor Tripping’”. In it, they talk about the Miracle Fruit, a berry of West African origin that will temporarily invert your taste of sour for somewhere between 30 minutes - two hours. Obviously, that makes people like me excited. They also mention a New York based company, Miracle Connect , that would deliver the berries to you within a week. That makes people like me incredibly excited. Buying temperature sufficiently raised, I purchased the berries through the website. On June 20th, I still did not have my berries. I sent in a status request. Here was the reply: Hey, We’re getting more berries in two weeks! Sorry for the delay, we sold out after the Times and NY Mag stories. Best, NS > Dear Miracle Connect: > > Can I get a quick status on my order? My receipt...

**UPDATE:** They refunded my money and sent me tablets. While a frustrating experience, they did ultimately make me whole. On June 3rd,  Grub Street  published a blog post entitled “Miracle Fruit Dealers Will Take You ‘Flavor Tripping’”. In it, they talk about the Miracle Fruit, a berry of West African origin that will temporarily invert your taste of sour for somewhere between 30 minutes - two hours. Obviously, that makes people like me excited. They also mention a New York based company,  Miracle Connect , that would deliver the berries to you within a week. That makes people like me incredibly excited. Buying temperature sufficiently raised, I purchased the berries through the website. On June 20th, I still did not have my berries. I sent in a status request. Here was the reply: Hey, We’re getting more berries in two weeks! Sorry for the delay, we sold out after the Times and NY Mag stories. Best, NS > Dear Miracle Connect: > > Can I get a quick status on my order? My recei...