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From Serious Eats

Giveaway: Win a Free All-Natural Bell & Evans Turkey from Pat LaFrieda

The ultimate green bean casserole does sound rather, well, ultimate. And that's always a "gotta have" dish for me.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Latin Grilling'

Corn all the way. I love the elotes you can buy on the street in the Mission, but the CI recipe makes one that can compete if you have a good source for fresh ears.

From Talk

House-smoked, House-brewed, House-this, House-that

I love trying items made start to finish in house but I think the "house made" designation is getting more than a little tired. Isn't that what you train servers to educate people about? And I'd be dubious of any beginning distillery- that's a whole different art than brewing or cooking. That being said, I used to work at a Mix't Greens, which has a Gramercy alum, Andrew Swallow, as Executive Chef, and the recipes he developed were great. We made all the dressings and menu items from pretty carefully calibrated formulas, and I still use their fabulous blue cheese dressing recipe.
I've had the good fortune to do a fair amount of in house brewing, but never made anything tasty enough to be anything other than (end of) shift beers. However, SF abounds with awesome house charcuterie. Consistency, however, is what separates the cooks from the wannabes. If you can't serve something the way it's supposed to be every time, you probably should reconsider putting it on the menu. Just because a cook got a wild hair and salt cured 20 lbs of goat testicles or whatever 6 months ago doesn't mean I want to have some server try to offload it onto me at $10/oz. Some projects just don't turn out, and you need to be prepared to handle that.

From Serious Eats

Photo of the Day: Lobster Dog

That's just wrong. No two ways about it. Utter fail.

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Recent Posts

From Talk

camping with vegans and very little gear...

From Talk

Your favorite tahini salad dressing recipe?

From Talk

Do you have a unique song you sing when you make a special dish?

From Talk

a source for loquats?

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From Serious Eats: New York

Ravara answered "Get a sitter. " to Kids at Fancy Restaurants: Yay or Nay?

Recent Quizzes

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 70% correct on Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Tropical Fruits?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Regional Sandwiches?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Beer?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on Winter Vegetables Quiz

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Recent Comments

From Serious Eats

Giveaway: Win a Free All-Natural Bell & Evans Turkey from Pat LaFrieda

The ultimate green bean casserole does sound rather, well, ultimate. And that's always a "gotta have" dish for me.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Latin Grilling'

Corn all the way. I love the elotes you can buy on the street in the Mission, but the CI recipe makes one that can compete if you have a good source for fresh ears.

From Talk

House-smoked, House-brewed, House-this, House-that

I love trying items made start to finish in house but I think the "house made" designation is getting more than a little tired. Isn't that what you train servers to educate people about? And I'd be dubious of any beginning distillery- that's a whole different art than brewing or cooking. That being said, I used to work at a Mix't Greens, which has a Gramercy alum, Andrew Swallow, as Executive Chef, and the recipes he developed were great. We made all the dressings and menu items from pretty carefully calibrated formulas, and I still use their fabulous blue cheese dressing recipe.
I've had the good fortune to do a fair amount of in house brewing, but never made anything tasty enough to be anything other than (end of) shift beers. However, SF abounds with awesome house charcuterie. Consistency, however, is what separates the cooks from the wannabes. If you can't serve something the way it's supposed to be every time, you probably should reconsider putting it on the menu. Just because a cook got a wild hair and salt cured 20 lbs of goat testicles or whatever 6 months ago doesn't mean I want to have some server try to offload it onto me at $10/oz. Some projects just don't turn out, and you need to be prepared to handle that.

From Serious Eats

Photo of the Day: Lobster Dog

That's just wrong. No two ways about it. Utter fail.

From Sweets

Cakespy: Chocolate Log Cookies

All right, I'm not usually a big cakespy fan but dang if you didn't get me with that "Log" song. I love buche de noel and those definitely look better than bad. I may just have to make it.
Oh, and I'll just leave this here- in case the cake doesn't make you happy enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNajFYPljQ&feature=related

From Serious Eats

Sauce-Injected McNuggets

Haha, good one jedd.
Just tell Ed you're testing the "there really IS crack in the sauce" theory of food-like-product addiction.

From A Hamburger Today

San Francisco: The Juicy Lucy Butter Burger at Maverick

Wow, I guess no one here has heard of Maverick. I think their kitchen is amazing, and if there were such a thing as a balanced chicken fried steak burger with mash, these would be the guys that pulled it off. I take no issue at all with them charging $20 with a glass of Pinot, it seems to me that their biggest mistake is doing it on Tuesday, when Rosamunde does amazing burgers, too. I may celebrate my exceptional cholesterol screening with one of these now that I am no longer a dedicated vegetarian.

From Talk

Pot Holder Recipes?

My sister has a plate in her house that came from her boyfriend, and it is one of those kinds that you can draw, write, or print onto and then laminate. It has a recipe for a chocolate chiffon pie that apparently was his uncle's favorite or something like that. I've considered trying it, bu don't want to lug my baking stuff to my sister's house or drive a frosted cake up a mountain road. The recipe looked appropriate, but Matt makes a good point- they are, by necessity, brief, and not particularly helpful on the finer points. I do find that recipes printed on boxes are generally successful- does King's cornstarch still come with that lemon meringue pie recipe? My grandmother and I used to use it.

From Talk

Foie Fear

I assume Shari has already left, but I thought I'd add that I think foie is creamy and delicious, and I HATE calves' livers. In fact, calves' livers are the only thing I typically refuse to eat, since I have found them universally loathsome. I can sometimes appreciate a well made chicken liver pate, particularly one made with plenty of schmaltz, but even to me a piece of seared foie on brioche toast with a tart/sweet component is a glorious thing. I hope she tries it!

From Talk

Goodbye, Food Pyramid! Hello, Plate.

Hah, yes seriousb, but I fear that even that diagram may prove too literate for the masses. At least this one is very visually clear that at least half of your food should be plants.

From Talk

Goodbye, Food Pyramid! Hello, Plate.

I like the new diagram, I think it's much more pragmatic. I have no love for the USDA, but I think many people would have a great improvement in their wellbeing if they increased their unprocessed fruit and veg consumption- I know I have. I remember the much prettier blocked and illustrated pyramid of the '80s but though its last incarnation was useless. The guideline will always reflect the USDA's agenda, of course, but I think this new revamp refects some sensitivity- the dairy is cordoned off, and "grains" and "protein" are both informative and neutral. I also approve of the removal of the "salt, sugar, and oils" category- it seems to me that many salts, sugars, and fats are easily acquired by many well seasoned dishes, and I have little need for an additional "dessert" category, at least nutritionally speaking.

From Drinks

Behind the Scenes at 3 Top Coffee Roasters in San Francisco

I must be one of about five people in SF that doesn't particularly like coffee, but I've never heard of Sight Glass. I've worked for a couple places that served Four Barrel, and they have an excellent product and good education and quality control for vendors. Ritual was always a little too cool for me, although their Valencia mother ship is always a fun scene, especially if you can catch Doc Pop yo-yoing. I would have brought up Blue Bottle or Mr. Espresso (both popular restaurant vendors with locally roasted quality product) instead. I like that most roasters here produce a lighter and less bitter/acidic (it seems to me) product- I hate "seattle style". I do love Humphrey Slocombe's Vietnamese (Blue Bottle French roast) coffee flavor though!

From Slice

The Ultimate Cheeseburger Pizza and How NOT to Make It

I'm all for some hot carb on carb action, but croutons on pizza just seems wrong. As far as beef on pizza goes, I like my favorite place's meatball approach- cook, then thinly slice and scatter. Works great for meatballs.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch'

Here in SF my gardens are all community gardens- mostly Hayes Valley Farm these days. But I'll be leaving on my WWOOF internship soon, and then I'll be on the farm, surrounded by olives, apples, citrus, blueberries, and a huge raised bed veggie garden!

From Serious Eats

Weekend Book Giveaway: 'Roadfood'

Redrum (nee Murder) Burger in Davis- I've stopped there so many times on the way to or from Sacramento, I just can't pass it by.

From A Hamburger Today

AHT Weekend Book Giveaway: 'Hamburger America' by George Motz

I'd love to try out the east coast burgers and see what the competition is up to. And the shake shack fries look so good!

From Talk

Shrimp

It's not a vein so much as an intestine, so no- unless you buy them already prepped, they will always have a "vein", otherwise they would never reach market size. I like to use a (sharp!!) paring knife and a crochet hook. A "cleanse" diet (aka starving the poor buggers) is useful to purge snails (escargot), but I think every shrimp needs to be "deveined"- unless you're working with less than about 51-60s in a casual environment. Otherwise, there will be grit, and I find that unforgivable anywhere I'm paying a premium.

From Talk

Do you like getting a cone?

Oh, and a standard wafer cone is, in my mind, only useful for baking "ice cream sundae" cupcakes. My mom used to make them for me on my birthday :) Way cuter than a paper liner, and eleventy times as tasty!

From Talk

Do you like getting a cone?

I think a sugar cone is an obligatory part of almost any ice cream. Waffles are nice once in a while if you want to spend extra from a jumbo, but I agree with Keller- a crisp, brown, two scoop sugar cone is the platonic ideal, and the best thing Baskin has going for it since they stopped making daiquiri ice. Oh, wait, I just checked their site, and it's back! This may require a bus trip..

From Talk

Yerba mate drinkers- question!

This isn't a great plan for the long term (too time consuming and hard on the gourd) but have you tried washing it and then drying it out with a blow drier, like for your hair? Also, if the gourd has very thick walls, they can sometimes hold too much moisture- could it stand to have a little more of the flesh scraped out? It seems to me that you just need a little more insurance against bogies before you get your daily rotation going. Good luck!

From Serious Eats

Is $5 Too Much To Pay For a Coke?

I've happily paid $3 for a MexiCoke (though I would never do so for a corn syrup Coke) here in SF, but $5 does seem gouge-y. I got used to brown bagging it at the movies and such a long time ago (when I was a kid seeing a movie with my mom meant smuggling in 2 bottles of coke, a fifth of Crown, and some candy), although now that it's $10 to see the latest piece of crap the last mainstream movie I saw in a regular theater was Batman in '08. What really blew my mind was how many $3+tax cans of soda I sold at Neiman Marcus' fast casual counter. Needless Markup indeed! Actually, scratch that, the most mind blowing was working Giants games and having a huge line for $8.25 light beer. Some people really do have more money than sense.

From Serious Eats

3 Initiatives Improving Food Access in Food Deserts

@Joe- Hardly. None of the groups I described are compelled by anything other than their better natures. I don't want the government telling my bakery what to bake and when, or want publicly held, nationally run farms. But if you think the means of food production aren't publicly held to some extent, you need only look at the FDA and USDA, not to mention the trees and soil around you. I just think it's ridiculous that a country with a reported %40 food waste can't manage to feed the maybe %10 of the population who would otherwise go hungry. I believe human beings inherently deserve to be fed, regardless of ability to pay. If that makes me a Socialist, I'll go put on my beard and unattractive shirt right now.

From Serious Eats

3 Initiatives Improving Food Access in Food Deserts

Here where I live, in San Francisco, I have a hard time seeing these initiatives helping to actually feed the many people who genuinely are hungry, malnourished, or food insecure. I mean, really, a CSA that will take your food stamps? Who is that really helping? I'm glad all of the farmer's markets here take my SNAP benefits, but it doesn't seem like I have a lot of company. Some people may be forgetting that food stamps cover food products only- no soap, pans, paper dishes, towels, power, gas, charcoal, nothing. Many poor don't have kitchens. It seems like the MoGro project is doing well helping a remote outpost, but I have doubts about any inner city projects that thinks the majority of hungry people can or should cook for themselves.
Secondly, I'm all for urban gardening and creating an edible landscape, but at this point, we need to be real about how many people these kinds of projects are capable of feeding. Farming is hard work, it takes strength and skill.
The third has got to be the most laughable, though. Yes, let's make doctors the gatekeepers for healthy food! All the chronically broke and hungry poor people I know see them all the time! I guess I can get behind this for country clinics seeing a lot of obese patients, but really, the whole thing irritates me. "And since you are so fat, here's a dollar to buy some celery or something with." Hmph.
OK, so what do I think does work? It's a really radical idea- just give the food away. Shockingly, it doesn't take a doctorate to do this. My friend has been doing it for about 10 years: http://freefarmstand.org/
I set up a donation so that they get all the leftover bread from the day before from a great place I used to work. The farmers market people give them the end of the day stuff, and they glean local trees and set up local gardens. I've also been impressed at how churches here in the city have put their money where their mouth is and feed free hot meals to anyone willing to wait in line for them. I think to truly feed those who can't feed themselves, we need to move beyond the systems of capitalism to some extent.

From Drinks

The Great Vodka Tournament: Vodka Under $10

I also find Popov undrinkable, but surprised UV wasn't tested- it's not terrible, and about $6/pint in these parts, looks like it's in NY too. I used to enjoy and entertain with Bartlett's, or something like that, from TJ's, and it was cheaper than cheap- about $6/750 I think. Do they still have that? I infused sometimes, but they also made a passable lemon variety.
And for all you Brita fans out there- doesn't that kinda defy the purpose of buying the extra-cheap stuff? The filters aren't free.

/I know, I sound like an alcoholic...

From Serious Eats

Recipes for April 20th

I think your brownie recipe is missing an ingredient..

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Recent Posts

From Talk

camping with vegans and very little gear...

From Talk

Your favorite tahini salad dressing recipe?

From Talk

Do you have a unique song you sing when you make a special dish?

From Talk

a source for loquats?

See more posts by Ravara »

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Polls

From Serious Eats: New York

Ravara answered "Get a sitter. " to Kids at Fancy Restaurants: Yay or Nay?

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Quizzes

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 70% correct on Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Tropical Fruits?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Regional Sandwiches?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Beer?

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 62% correct on Winter Vegetables Quiz

From Serious Eats

Ravara got 100% correct on How Much Do You Know About Vegan Substitutes?

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