Torshi

Rhone1998- that is a beyond respectful vegetarian main! That is a full on, winter formal dish. (disclaimer, got paywalled so was reading "behind" the messy stuff up front). They were getting down and trimming mushroom gills (which I was worried about for retaining moisture and sogging up the crust)! Do this, please! It looks like holiday level work, not heck ya wednesday lets knock this out! Seriously, if people need animal, just throw some turkey stuff in the oven and let the Wellington Rule!!

We are doing a Cuban leaning Thanksgiving- among the sides, we are going to do a vegan version of frijoles negros and we are including plantains. Only if your vegans want to really go off roading. I like though how the lentil/tarragon dish links to the fennel in the turkey. It might be a keeper based on continuity alone. Another idea is if there is a side that "behaves" or "serves" like a main protein- festive presentation. Some layered vegetable thing that is served lasagna or pomme anna style, stuffed vegetable thing. Braised leeks or endive. I was also considering a winter salad- kale, pomegranate, pistachio, radicchio, yellow raisin if you want (a bean could go here if you want). I do like the idea of something of an acid pop. Thanksgiving can get muddy, heavy- so this really helps with menu balance. Happy holidays

Super, thanks! I am going to experiment with the above as well. It is that dense fudge-ness that I am going for. I want to do "Americana" for kids (well, adults too) deserts at holiday. I was also thinking dirt cups and rice krispy treats. Thanks everyone!

Greetings- in anticipation of travel and things that one just does not find abroad. I want a very solid brownie recipe- that rides more to the fudge side than the cake. The Cream Cheese Brownie at Baked and Wired is out of this world- so something along those lines. [simple google did not get me there] I don't bake often, so I do not even know the building techniques of making such a brownie- so really almost any help is appreciated! Thanks! Stephanie/Torshi Sorry guys- it is not as much of a lazy question as it may seem. Do I need to do some ganache action or is it a waste of effort, etc. So it is more than just a "here is a recipe" question. I just saw some lady on HO says to hell with it and dumps chocolate chips into box mix when she needs a fix (not judging and might do it myself). So, it is kind of a "Cooks Illustrated" style exercise to be answered with your personal experience if that makes sense.

Last night KBG- 5 courses. The extra course was a two scallop dish- with it. The first course- three things. A spinach and something ravioli in a lemon grass based broth with mushrooms (okay, ravioli skin well done- thinner and not heavy pasta- I much prefer this style when the highlight of the dish is the underlying ingredients). Well done, not really a rock my world thing but I liked the attention to the ravioli skin, maintaining the freshness and texture of the spinach. It almost needed an acid or something for a pop. Beets with an undetermined puree (I thought it was a spiraled beet based thing- translation issue she told me the light brown stuff was beet- no, it was not yellow beets certainly something else- go figure it was good. It was adorned with fish roe (forget name- the big orangy ones) It worked VERY well- I was really a touch doubtful- is it another case of throwing caviar type things because it looks fancy? No- the texture worked well. Not sure of the chef was controlling the how the caviar popped 😜 Suprised by it. A raw fish with herbs in an acid (the joy of travel and not knowing what the heck fish you are eating! a white fish, not oily, clean taste). Fuzzy memory- scallops were good. Skate- nice to have because I never really order it. It is often served with noisette- this dish headed in that direction. Nothing asian about it. Meat- here is where things got crazy. The dish was good in concept. The section that looked like it was pulled from a shank was great. The part that I think she was trying to explain has a sous vide element to the cooking- but something went wrong. Was it the piece of meat itself, was the pan not hot enough for a finishing sear that it kind of steamed and toughened up? Certainly not a deal breaker on KBG. I was trying to figure out the sauce- there was some olive around, but why the heck was some flavor reminding me of Sauerbraten? I guess I will never get to the bottom of it- the waitress said a lot of spices, I thought she said "allspice" that would have given some explanation. Hmmm, mystery sauce. Desert. TWO presentations. I am not that into desert. There were very well thought out. Both heavy though. Each had an accompanying ice cream- chestnut and pistachio. Chocolate in both. I preferred the dark chocolate/chestnut one more. The other one was a crispy merengue with a filling- just way too much a super bomb on the tongue for me. Price 59 without supplement, maybe 75 with. Glad I took the supplement. BTW, I used to love to study wine, do wine tastings, geek out on the whole thing. My doctors took my wine away so I am a bit obsessed with food flavors and tea. The tried to take away raw cheeses- but we don't talk about that! Shopping- okay so Kamala went for the pots. And for the outrage about it- I could have cremated 500 in pots in a blink of an eye! She bought French and shared a family recipe for Thanksgiving- I thought it was a well communicated message. My Kriptonite- those things you buy when traveling, when you stop thinking about price- the Japanese Knife Company. It is so naughty- I was poking around and yes- I asked to see one from "that" case. I held her. The weight balance between the handle and the blade, the fit of the handle, the exact curve (lots of chopping with a santoku drives me nuts). And yeah d*mn she is pretty. So I went up to Honore and Cambon- hah those shoes are more than my knife, that silly thing over there, more than my knife. I knew she would bring me much joy. I rushed back (please do not let her have been sold!) and she is MINE MINE MINE. I am going to hide her in my kitchen- she is my secret affair that no one my touch, use or even handle. I swear to God if I see soap or (the absolute volcanic eruption) my knife in a dishwasher- lets just not go there. NB- I was hanging with a chef that brought back some super special knives from Japan. His wife took it to something frozen. Yeah, he had to do a funeral dirge around block...bye bye knife. hate typos- sorry not an idiot. especially my who/that mess up. ug

First- Solo dining during COVID slow down can be so much fun (but I am not tone- deaf- I feel for these restaurants). I have been really focusing on younger chefs. This is a very hard time to be opening restaurants and no certainly with COVID and deeply fluctuating tourist traffic. Not to mention income insecurities that are keeping people out of restaurants. So I have gotten to meet some fantastic people- from the chef to the dedicated staff trying to push through these times. Husb and kids not here yet so I am having lots of food fun. Saturday night- Octave. Newish restaurant, korean/french fusion. There is lots of fabulous food in Paris- I give this a very good. It is not a food temple and yeah there were somethings that were a bit of a miss for me. I like the concept of raising the bar for compressed fish bars of food, pan fried (elevated fish cake)- it was not my thing, but certainly deserved attention. She really cares about the food. There was only one other table :-(. The Som was great to chat with- he almost had an anthropological view of cultural approaches to wine. Kind of a riff on the idea that Eskimos have a ton of words for shades of "white". It was a darn fun conversation and a blast to hear his thoughts on experiencing wine. Monday Alliance. Oh this place made me happy. A great value on the tasting menu. Very well done cuisine without feeling you are getting some kind of sacrament when they put the plate down. Black foot chicken with lobster roe stuffed under the skin was a dish. If you are in Paris before the 23rd and swing it- a table by Celine Pham at Petrossian was an experience. It is supposed to be Vietnamese/French/high cuisine- but some other "asian" stuff makes it in. I have only very basic French, but even with our fumbling attempts to communicate what was going on with each dish I was happy as ever. High style kimchi is way yummy. It is a very balanced tasting menu- I liked the lighter dishes, but the heavier dishes would keep any appetite eater happy. (It was really good and an adventure). Toyo- I messed up here. Sorry, don't bother. I do not want to go through a point by point direction of what happened/was eaten. Upgraded tasting was 10 euros less than Alliance. If you must go- no upgrades!! Base price menu is 99, upgrade 180. Oh and I do not drink alcohol- they charged me 9 euros from some seriously cr*appy dishwater tea that had no leaf in sight. I could have grabbed something from Monopix and used the hot water from my nespresso and done better. I respect him and his place, but I think they are asleep over there and the food is kind of nasty. Last night I called to cancel Rech. I just was not getting excited about it. I can take my husb and kids there. I hauled out to Chocho- open one month. Absolutely adorable crew, a chef who is really celebrating what he is doing. During my dinner, I secured a Saturday chef seat booking because I need to get through more of the menu. I had jerusalem artichokes (much more exciting than it sounds). A turnip tart (because hey lets see what he can do with a turnip!) Pastry awesome (and no other pastry on the menu, hmm?). Plate sauces- a goat cheese thing and a blended kimchi. Main deer/venison/rudolph- a juniper infused sauce that really looked like a big spoonful of demi glace, but thankfully was not and a very nice thick soft. Christmas taste Tea- Mariage Frères and Lupicia. I am sure I will have much more- kids and husb soon, so I cannot go around the city chasing young emerging chefs, philosophical Soms and wonderful people trying to survive in the restaurant industry during these awful times. I also love talking to my Uber drivers- they send me all over the city. I might embark on a Kebab adventure. Of course the crew at chow is a wonderful source, but booking late and other reasons encouraged my to get off the grid. Check out the young hungry and inspired and visit some old favorites. Ideas from- timeout.fr, sortiraparis and doitinparis. Make your way through, it but you must use the French version. The English has different content (ie. avoid, the good stuff is not there). Okay- I am going to hit the streets before the last weekend before the holiday hits. It is going to be very interesting this weekend. Hotels have warned me that a lot of guest bookings have cancelled. Opportunistic me says maybe comb cancellations at some of the Temples (there is another Ducasse pop up with some young chefs, but entry is at 380 or so if I remember correctly)- I think I am going to try to keep moving in the direction of the young guns in the kitchen. Who knows- you could get a Jackson Pollock or a Basquiat. For a lot of reasons (and maybe in myself) I feel a shift in the restaurant industry on many levels Enjoy all- S

Baked Lemon Ricotta in Trader Joes flyer for the holidays. Just in case the craving is still around.

So this is a bit of a free association- but a great sound board to just drop in and share, vent etc. Agh- why are the insides of my dishwashing gloves wet when I am trying to clean silver at 6 am!! Why does my non-cooking daughter fight with me about making mac and cheese when I warn her the sauce is going to break and I cannot help her when I am doing everything else- go easier! Plus, I need my kitchen! Cook it any other darn time. Let loose kids!!! Woes of the Bathroom. Do not put disposable hand drying things in the bathroom- NO NO. Someone will try to flush it. That would be from the chapter on Self Defense in Entertaining. Never let drunk people try to dry crystal!! No husband it is not cold enough. Don't you dare try to light a fire in the fireplace and smoke out the house. "Why are you eating dinner with a dessert fork!?!" Agh- find, shine and clean up more desert forks, glare at clean unused dinner fork. Animals!

I am so solid at researching that this is driving me crazy- I am going to beat this question into submission. It is rustic, but the tasting menu looked like it could hit 500- I remembering thinking, darn- hotel plus meal, and it spoke of driving there (car situation) that is kind of ouchie on the price front. I dropped it because the logistics looked complicated and it got very expensive quick when you add three kids with us (me, friend and three girls). I am off to Paris next month and hope to get things organized enough to settle in for the summer- probably when I will do countryside excursions. Hopefully, I do not become such a crazed creature of habit that I can contribute to this subject of the board. Bucket list #1 the perfect consommé! Then strike a deal with the kitchen to sneak me a pint so I can go home and eat it in my jammies/silk caftan in my beautiful apartment and feel like Auntie Mame!

More like dining near Paris. I have been scouring Chow and here for a post that mentions a place about 1 hour + from Paris. There is a well known restaurant kind of in the country with a hotel that also has these little separate units with log fire heaters. In the separate cottages and possibly in the in the units, they drop off eggs from the farm. The son has started a restaurant/farm near by and in the middle of the two is a simple cafe/restaurant of theirs in the town. I have scoured, I have Googled. I swear it must be in front of me, but it hides! This is not for lack of efforts. I will keep working on this and report back if I find anything. I do not recall if any stars are involved but the tasting menu was on the pricey side. Agh!! If I had just written it down and not thought to myself I would not forget. I promise some reports later my next trip.

That looks awesome! Did you use vegan cream cheese? If so, which one? Never had much luck.

Sorry about fur baby. Never good. With regard to Pete's, and I have not been there in ages, I liked that you could do two different toppings on a fresh pie. The kids could get something simple and the adults could get more fun stuff. I usually do not like the rolled up pizza thing as they under cook it. Not sure if they have worked that out. My aunt is in Penn and the stromboli is awesome- so maybe I am picky.

You cannot eat in at Shanghai Lounge these days. I do not drive around too much- so I do not have a good answer for Rockville or Alexandria. Not sure I would take a one trip for their dumplings. If you get into Rockville, there is so much. I would head out to Rockville make a project of it and go nuts- travel without travel.

This is local to me. I usually use the pick up window, but I think Doordash delivered yesterday. Their version of soup dumpling is Shanghai Pork Steam Bun, but not sure it travels well. The fish dish, I believe is A11 Sichuan Chili Boiled Fish. Dry Hot Pot is great, but can be a bit potato heavy- I still recommend it. Not sure which protein to pick, because my husband eats that part. They have many interesting things on the menu and would recommend. They are a small place so not sure when they could even consider inside dining.

Should have replied earlier. If you have the patience for the process, look up recipes for Torrisi Turkey. I think I used the NYT recipe as I figured it would be the most authentic (NYT also has the technique), but maybe it is not the best. With your sv gadget you could just put the breast in the sealed bag and skip all the mummifying. There are tons of copy cat recipes. Hope you had good luck in the meantime.