Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Have been reading the DallasFood.org series on gianduia and getting very frustrated not being able to find a lot of the best in the world. Anyone know if some of their favorite gianduia candies are available by mail order? Here's the list:

http://dallasfood.org/2011/08/gianduia-gianduja-nutella-part-30/

Gerla
Giordano
Gobino
Castagna

It's worth noting that if someone isn't boiling the beef sous vide that they really should salt and season the liquid otherwise much of the flavor will leech out in the boiling process. It depends of course. If they're not curing their own briskets but instead using a commercial, store-bought brisket, it will probably be overly salty and might even need a couple washes in plain water to de-salt it.

btw, I find it much more effective to put the beef in the water cold, bring it up to temp, and then turn down the heat.

Good article overall. The suggestion to use saltpeter is a bad one and there should be a distinction made between sodium nitrite and pink salt which has 6.25% sodium nitrite with the rest regular salt. It's easier to find and safer to work with.

My thanks as well.

I've been bitching about this article at PortlandFood.org and on twitter since it came out. The Portland rec was acceptable, though I doubt many banh mi lovers in Portland would call it the best in town, but I couldn't believe there wasn't a single rec from Orange County, which easily has the highest concentration of Vietnamese in the country. In some of the towns it's something like 30% and totals for the county put it close to the top numbers, if not the top, for a region. Best he could come up with was Lee's Sandwiches in the South Bay? San Jose is the city with the most Vietnamese BY FAR in the USA and Lee's was a welcome chain when it popped up, but nowadays it's easy to find better. I was aghast that Houston, one of the top 5 cities for Vietnamese, was nowhere to be found either. I'm disappointed Robb Walsh hasn't popped up on his blog yet to decry it.

Personally, I think this guy culled Yelp and little else for his research. The guy has no credibility.

Further, I don't know if you guys caught this article by him:

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/best-in-the-northwest-village-kornblatts-deli-portland/

But I was amazed when I saw that it was the same person. He brags about Thumann's corned beef. Kornblatt's isn't bad, but it's C-level Jewish delicatessen*. I'd be surprised if you could find any credible local who would agree with him.

They need to take Michelman off the food beat.

* Note: I co-own a competing Jewish deli in Portland.

I've probably eaten at 90% of the hot dog joints in Portland and I think you missed the two best: Superdog and Zach's Shack. While I think Otto's does a damn nice job on the sausage and grilling them, both Superdog and Zach's Shack use top quality weiners while paying attention to details, like quality buns, tasty topppings, good combinations of flavors, etc. Also, Mojo Crepes does Japanese-style hot dogs that rival the Japadogs in BC.

PS: I think Pink's is 80% gimmick, 20% quality dog.

You guys would serve your readers well if you actually put in a from-scratch alternative. The only difference between what Baked gives you and what you'd do from scratch, from what I can see, is that the baking powder, salt, sugar, and flour are already mixed together. Not much of a savings for a huge cost difference.

I'm not so hardcore as to say you should have these "mixed" reviews, but don't be Slashfood; educate the readers, please.

ALEX!!!

Congrats on the piece, Alex. Alex is the sweater king! He was an early cook at Kenny & Zuke's and still fondly remembered by all who worked with him!

Yeah, this was just gross. Please skip the next blog post about the Two Cups phenomenon, please. Just because something is eaten, doesn't mean it belongs on a food site.

@FromTheFuture
It totally IS NOT worth it. I've done it. 1) It's hard to find sugar pumpkins, 2) it's a pain in the ass and rarely comes out as good. The only time I make my own filling is if I want something a little different, like acorn or butternut squash.

@J Kenji
Hmm, sometimes CI gets on my nerves. They cover the same terrain so often that I think they just come up with new recipes and techniques to come up with new recipes and techniques -- something to publish. Some of their stuff can be ridiculously elaborate for little payoff. (It should be noted I'm generally a big fan, though, TIVO their shows and have several of their books, plus an online account.) I'm guessing this is one of those cases. I think I'd like the cleaner pumpkin flavor of the 1993 recipe rather than the 2008 recipe. The latter is probably tasty, but it's almost not a pumpkin pie anymore with 1/4 cup of maple syrup and half the custard being sweet potatoes. It's a half sweet potato, half pumpkin pie. It's a different animal.

So just to add a little more context. I know it's an older thread, but nonetheless....

To me, there are at least five levels of tortillas, in ascending quality:

1) Commercial tortillas: Dry and tasting chemically from preservatives
2) Tortilleria tortillas from masa harina: Still a bit dry, but usually lacking the metallic and sour flours you can get from the ones on the grocery store shelf.
3) Homemade/Handmade tortillas from masa harina: Good flavor, decent texture, some moistness
4) Tortilleria tortillas made from masa: Really good flavor, better texture with a little flakiness and chew, though often a bit dry
5) Homemade/Handmade tortillas from masa: Really good flavor, excellent texture with nice layered flakiness and stretch, almost as if they had gluten (which they don't), with less common issues of moistness.

So that's why masa vs masa harina is important. Certainly homemade tortillas made with masa harina (eg, Maseca) is much better than the commercial grocery store tortillas and even a little better than tortilleria tortillas, but they are a significant step down from the most traditional forms of tortilla. (You know, masa harina wasn't invented until the 20th century. I highly recommend the book Que Vivan Los Tamales, which gives a post-conquest history of Mexican food, including some of the politics and cultural shifts involved.) I'd say it's like comparing Safeway's or Kroger's "artisan" bread to that from your local true artisan baker. Sure, those who haven't had anything but commercial tortillas all their lives may be blown away by handmade tortillas of any sort, but it should be apparent to even them that there's a difference between those made with masa harina and those made with fresh masa. And once you get used to the latter -- if you're a food lover -- it's hard to go back to the former. (Hey, I can't even eat Scharffen Berger chocolate now, that's how much of a food snob I am.)

btw, here's a video I did in San Diego of hand-patted tortillas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIpO54-JmTw

On the issue of puffing.... Steve is absolutely right: it's a good thing! It's the closest you can get to mimicking the layered texture of a fresh masa tortilla, which puff much easier than masa harina tortillas. I'd say mine puff less than 50% of the time, but when they do, compare one to a non-puffed verson. You'll see that the puffed one has a much better, more delicate and flaky texture. If they're puffing for you, keep doing whatever you're doing. Some people add a little baking soda to encourage it, but that gives them an off taste.

Finally, best results with masa harina, imo, can be had from doing two flips, not just one. Here's how it usually goes for me:

* Medium-hot cast iron comal
* Put down the tortilla until it is able to release, usually just after steam really starts to come out from it (45 seconds to a minute)
* Maybe 30 to 45 seconds on the other side, you don't want it to start to crack
* Another flip. This is usually where it will puff. Get it some nice color.

If you want to see tortillas puffing, see this video I shot recently in Mexico City at Beatracita. (Those of you who ACTUALLY speak Spanish can make fun of mine, too.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v3hXmmyKjI

Maybe because greasy burgers in dive bars are shit. I know there's a tendency for people to be contrarian, nostalgic, and against anything that costs more or tries to take some populist food and make it better, but the truth is most burgers are made with crap ingredients. Using a house-made bun or bun from an artisan bakery, flavorful aged cheddars or imported swiss, house-made pickles, local grass-fed beef, thick-cut bacon, etc, etc, isn't just being fancy for fanciness's sake. It's taking something mediocre eaten because it's fast and cheap and showing that it can be truly good.

btw, here are some photos and reports from Foster Burger:

http://portlandfood.org/index.php?/topic/10035-foster-burger

Yeah, Scott from DallasFood.org put up some great vids from Hermosillo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ErfUgDFPI
http://www.youtube.com/user/DallasFood#p/u/2/hHXPQEJKX5U

Really makes me want to go.

Step 1: Buy this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RDFH?tag=extramsgcom-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00004RDFH&adid=02WHA7BD1MD84BP06KP6&

Step 2: Pull lever.