Ruth Lafler's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
Cardamom orgy at Damavand market
Yes, the Fard is the baklava I buy there. What did you think of the baklava you bought? I've never had any trouble parking there -- it may depend on whether you go during a meal time where the restaurants nearby are busy.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
It's kind of scary that I remembered all that! ;-)
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
No, the final elimination takes place at the same location during the same filming period as the final-final. The first two seasons they had a final two, and the finale for S1 was Las Vegas, where Dave was eliminated in the first round (finalists Harold and Tiffani); the finale for S2 was Hawaii, where Sam and Elia were eliminated in the first round (finalists Marcel and Illan). After that they went to a three-person final-final. The finale for S3 was in Colorado, where Brian was eliminated in the first round (finalists Dale, Casey and Hung); the finale for S4 was in Puerto Rico, where Antonia was eliminated in the first round (finalists Stephanie, Richard and Lisa); the finale for S5 was in New Orleans, where Fabio was eliminated in the first round (finalists Hosea, Stefan and Carla).
Chowhound Post
Where Can I Buy Kosher Heritage Turkey in Bay Area?
Kosher is the method of slaughter and heritage is the breed of turkey, so they are completely independent of each other. There are turkeys that are both heritage and kosher, but they're a very small subset of an already small market segment.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
It depends on what you mean by "final." In the past, the finales have had two challenges, and one (or more) competitor(s) was eliminated after the first one. (S1=Dave; S2=Sam and Elia; S3=Brian; S4=Antonia; S5=Fabio).
Chowhound Post
Potentially embarassing question: Kosher salt versus sea salt?
What's confusing about the iodine issue?
Chowhound Post
Bay Area Trip Help
Since you mentioned, foie gras, I'll note that foie gras is often mentioned as a standout at Gary Danko. If you're going to do the full fine dining experience, then really go for it!
What kinds of food do your kids like? Oakland Chinatown is just a block from 12th St. BART. It might be fun just to walk around with the boys and buy whatever strikes your fancy. There's lots of stuff you can graze on (bakeries with both sweet and savory baked goods, take-out dim sum, BBQ, etc.). You could do sit-down dim sum, too, at any one of several places (I'm not sure which place is currently at the top of its game).
What day are you going to be in Oakland? There's a good farmers' market a couple of blocks from the 12th St. BART station on Friday mornings (9th and Clay, 8-2), that's also fun for grazaing. ScreamSorbet has a stand there, for something sweet with wow factor (it's expensive, but a small serving is usually enough, and they're generous with samples).
Chowhound Post
Where Can I Buy Kosher Heritage Turkey in Bay Area?
Today? Probably not. I'm guessing you would have had to special order/reserve one in advance.
Chowhound Post
Potentially embarassing question: Kosher salt versus sea salt?
I think NYchowcook (who posted that almost two years ago) probably was thinking of sea salts like fleur de sel (or similar), which can be very expensive. Plain sea salt isn't necessarily more expensive than "regular" or Kosher salt (I buy it in bulk for about 29 cents a pound). The fancy sea salts are indeed for adding to finished dishes, where they retain their unique texture and where any subtle differences in flavor are more readily apparent. If you're going to cook salt into a dish or otherwise dissolve it, there's no reason to use a large-flaked sea salt.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
I hope you weren't referring to me! I've said repeatedly that I have a lot of respect for the Volt bros. skills, and that Michael's food in particular appeals to me a lot. As I said above, may the best dish win!
Chowhound Post
Searching for Leaf Lard in East Bay
I'd try a place like the Pasta Shop. Fatted Calf has leaf lard -- you could probably call them and request that they save some for you to be picked up at the farmers market.
Chowhound Post
Berkeley Bowl West - The promised land ... west of Eden
It's Thanksgiving week -- amateur week for cooks, when people who haven't cooked all year decide they have to cook a huge traditional meal using all the family recipes that they have no idea how to make, let alone shop for. Plus, a lot of people are having guests and need to make sure they're stocked on booze, snacks, etc.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
I've stated in earlier threads that despite the fact I find his personality unappealing, Mike's food appeals to me a lot and I'd be interested to eat in his restaurant. There's a difference, though, between being a fan of the food and being a fan of the person. May the best dish win, regardless of who created it!
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
I never used the word "biased" (okay, I used the word "skewed"). I was simply conjecturing that the poster was a fan of Bryan's because s/he has personally experienced his cooking. I don't think there's anything wrong with that -- if a chef whose restaurant I had eaten at and loved was on Top Chef I'd be rooting for them, too. I think it only crosses over in to bad sportsmanship when you start denigrating the competition to elevate your favored competitor. Jaydred is certainly a Bryan fan. Whether it's because s/he has actually eaten Bryan's food, or simply because he's the home town boy, or just because s/he likes his style is really irrelevent. Several people have posted this season specifically saying they'd eaten at Bryan's restaurant and how much they loved it, so it seemed plausible that a DC poster would be a fan for that reason.
Chowhound Post
A good friend to Chowhound – food writer Jonathan Kauffman leaves Berkeley for Seattle.
Yay! Although maybe now I'll have to stop boycotting the SF Weekly for their appalling lack of journalistic ethics. :-(
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
My feeling that jaydreb was biased toward Bryan was based on comments about Kevin not doing something "worthy" of the Bocuse d'Or "yet he won" and his assertion that if Bryan had done something "simple like Kevin" he would have had "no trouble" cooking the lamb properly (which is only a supposition -- even finalists on Top Chef have miscooked their proteins). It sounded sounded like he was pitting Bryan specifically against Kevin and suggesting that Kevin didn't deserve the win and by extrapolation that Bryan did (someone had to win, and the only two people being discussed were Kevin and Bryan), even though the execution of Bryan's dish was not worthy of the Bocuse d'Or either.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
Actually, from what Tom said in his blog, they all did pretty well (except for Eli, whose lamb was considered inedible, and whose garnishes they didn't like, either). They didn't execute Bocuse d'Or worthy dishes, but they weren't working under Bocuse d'Or conditions: months to prepare, hone their dishes and practice, coached by the greatest chefs in the world. So yes, they fell short of perfection, but under conditions where perfection wasn't a goal that anyone thought was possible to achieve.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
There's a difference between saying you like Bryan's food and feeling the need to defend him over this particular dish. I like Bryan fine. From what I've seen he's an excellent chef. That doesn't mean he deserves to win a specific challenge he didn't execute well nor that it's fair to run down the chef who did win. Bryan may be an excellent sport, but the people who feel the need to put down the other chefs in order to make excuses for Bryan aren't.
Chowhound Post
"can't save edits" monster rears its ugly head again
I've been trying to make edits to this post: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/669250
After hitting save I get a collapsed post with "saving..." in little red letters that just sits there. After five minutes I went back to the board, called up the post, and the edits aren't there. This has happened twice, and neither set of edits saved.
Let's try editing this one. These edits seem to have saved -- some kind of glitch in original post?
Chowhound Post
Cardamom orgy at Damavand market
I had an errand to run in Newark Sunday, so I took the opportunity to stop into Damavand market and indulge my passion for cardamom. There's so much good stuff packed into this tiny market. My friend and I marvelled over the spices (I bought some highly aromatic black cumin seeds), argued over what turned out to be bulk jaggery (solidified raw sugar, similar to piloncillo), and were seduced into buying four different cardamom-scented items.
Old favorites were the Afghan sweet called "shir-para" -- a kind of cooked milk fondant with ground walnuts, pistachios and cardamom, and the Persian-style bakalava (one of several they carry, recognizable because of it's thinner, less flaky and cut into small diamond shapes) that's make with almond paste and scented with cardamom and rosewater. In addition, I bought some cardamom-scented tea (Sadaf brand, says "blended and packed in Sri Lanka"); I drink my black tea with lots of milk, and the bright, citrusy flavor of the cardamom really shines through. And, at the insistance of the man ahead of me in the check-out line, something called Roat "cookie bread" (ingredients: whole wheat, eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, milk and natural spices). "Natural spices" unfortunately does not identify the small black seeds scattered across the top. The man in line said they were poppy seeds, but I don't think so, as they are slightly larger, tear-drop shaped rather than round, and don't taste like poppy seeds. After tasting one, I believe they may be nigella seeds ( http://www.chow.com/ingredients/309 ). At any rate, this "cookie bread" -- which is more like an inch-thick dry cake -- has a light cardamom flavor as well. It's going really well with my cardamom tea (it's clearly designed to be eaten with tea or coffee).
In other news, the Indian restauarant in the strip mall across the street has changed its name and is no longer Mughal Cuisine but the more prosaic Kabab and Curry. Don't know if it's the same ownership.
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
The Volt Brothers seem to have a passionate posse who post in their defense on these boards (and others, you should have seen the indignant comments about how hurtful the blog was to Micheals wife and children on one blog where the blogger was fantasizing about how hot Michael is). Jaydreb posts on the DC boards, so I assume he's eaten at Bryan's restaurant and perhaps even knows him; thus he has a somewhat skewed perspective.
Chowhound Post
The French Laundry-Yountville
I just read a post on the NY board about someone who couldn't make their reservation for tonight at Momofuku Ko and was trying to get someone to take their reservation so they wouldn't have to pay the $300!!!!! cancellation fee!
Chowhound Post
Top Chef - Las Vegas - Ep. #12 - 11/18/09 (Spoilers)
Actually, I think Tom did say Kevin's dish would be dismissed immediately. After all, they wouldn't know about the bone in the salmon until they tried it. They did say the bone in the salmon would have disqualified the dish.
Regardless, as Tom pointed out in his blog, Kevin showed his intelligence in the way he approached the challenge. Knowing that it was impossible to make a perfect Bocuse d'Or dish in the time he had, he chose to make a simple dish well rather than a complicated dish poorly, and the judges chose to reward that. In the end, as Tom pointed out, judging for the Bocuse d'Or is 2/3 taste, 1/3 presentation, so choosing a dish that was delicious rather than one Tom described as "pretty bad" and saved only because Eli's was worse, isn't unreasonable.
Chowhound Post
The French Laundry-Yountville
What "behavior" is this? Not installing a call center to handle dozens of phone calls at the same time? The French Laundry does not demand that you call at any specific time -- if you call some afternoon and they have a reservation open you can have it -- as was pointed out in other posts, there are some slots showing right now on Open Table. The fact that if you don't call by a specific time is not caused by the restaurant but by the fact that people call in and snap up the limited number of reservations when they become available. Sure, they could open the books up farther in advance, but that would just lead to someone calling and being told that they can have a reservation in the summer of 2010. At least this way people have a shot at getting a reservation at a specific date when they're in the area.
Chowhound Post
Brioche Bakery Breakfast Pastries (SF)
They used to sell at Old Oakland, too, under the name Crepe & Brioche Bakery.
Chowhound Post
The French Laundry-Yountville
There are just a few reservations available on Open Table: one for lunch, I think, and two for dinner.
Let's put it this way: it isn't the French Laundry who makes you make the reservation the first minute it's available, it's all the other people who want it more than you do.
Chowhound Post
The French Laundry-Yountville
How do you suggest they deal with the fact that they have fewer seatings available than people who want them? What ever they do, once the seats are filled, they are filled.
