It's a continuum.

I'm curious as to how an iPad menu can be less efficient. It's certainly more efficient for the restaurant in that menus can be continuously updated with basically no cost.

Whenever this happens I usually say something like "is it pronounced x? I always thought it was pronounced y. Maybe it's pronounced x. I don't know. Let's Google it", which I think is a lot easier for a person to accept then "you're saying it wrong, it's pronounced y".

Isn't it heavily dependent on freshness and quality? I always assumed I wouldn't be able to get that in Chicago. I'm likely wrong now that I think about it, though.

Uni. Sounds so intriguing.

I'm curious as to how much that matters given that bananas have a peel.

Used judiciously I think anchovy paste and fish sauce can provide what's usually referred to as "body" or "umami" (without being noticeably fishy).

Maybe this is frowned upon on Chowhound, but as someone who visits both this site and eGullet, eGullet is a much better site if you want to talk to people who use SV or learn about SV. As you've mentioned, sous vide has a pretty weak presence on this site (but not on eGullet).

Lift (weights). It'll release whatever wonderful chemicals working out releases. Maybe that anger will fuel better maxes.

Spread on toast with sardines, olive oil, salt, pepper, and vinegar or lemon juice. If you have sumac lying around, that's good too.

I was actually talking to my mom (my parents are from south India) about this recently. I asked what exactly curry leaves contribute to a dish. It's never an issue for us to use them because we have an enormous curry leaf plant in our house, but I pointed out that they don't really taste like anything more than "sort of medicinal" raw and they're not eaten when cooked. She said she'd always assumed they were added for health reasons. So I don't think they're worth scouting out if you don't have them.

I'm currently reading this book. Great stuff, super readable, and pretty well answers all of the questions I posted. Thanks for the tip.

I have a few of these, but only because I use a towel to handle hot stuff, which is fine for light things like aluminum pans but bad for heavy things like a carbon steel pan that's been in a hot oven. It's the combined pressure and heat that does it.

Age: 21

City: Chicago

Profession: Currently a third-year math major undergrad (hence my name), hoping to do a math Ph.D after I graduate

Fun fact: All facts about me are sober and serious

I've seen several (supposedly) behind-the-scenes videos for the kitchens at places like el Bulli, Alinea, and noma. What surprises me is 1. the number of people working there (el Bulli and Alinea especially have veritable armies) and 2. how young everyone looks.

So my question is: who are these cooks, and what do they end up doing? Are they unpaid and working for the name on the resume? Are they getting in a year or two before striking out on their own? The fact that nobody looks very old seems to indicate that "high-end line cook" isn't much of a viable career. Or is it? The economics here intrigue me.

(An interesting special case is kaiseki restaurants, at least one of which is apparently located on a campus where all of the cooks live, too.)

The first thing that came to my mind was Raita, which is an Indian/south Asian dish with a yogurt base and many variations. The one I know uses tomatoes and onions and coriander.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raita

I'm reluctant to speak ill of sous vide since I think many of its detractors have nebulous luddite reasons for opposing it, and it's capable of producing food that is difficult/impossible to make with other methods. On the other hand I think sous vide's greatest applicability is in a restaurant setting, where consistent, exacting quality in large portions is important. I'm less convinced that it will ever attain anywhere near microwave levels of home use, since it's not all that convenient and I think you have to care about food to really appreciate the things it can do.

This is not so much a soup as a stew, but I know that bouillabaisse often uses chopped fennel fronds. I really like this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

I also agree with previous posters that fennel fronds are good (and pretty) chopped finely over a dish in which you're using fennel bulbs, since I don't think the fronds have that strong a flavor.

I know you didn't ask for this, but there's a fun clip from Adventure Time that's very appropriate here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVvKb...

Over the past year or so Chicago Reader's been doing a YouTube series of 3-6 minute videos where a chef at a Chicago restaurant does a dish using a certain ingredient. The concept is that after doing the ingredient the chef "challenges" another Chicago chef with a different ingredient.

It's fun if you (like me) enjoy watching cooks figure out how to approach an ingredient. Sort of like Chopped, except they get a while to think about ingredients and play with them. There are apparently dozens of videos, and you can find them here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/chicagore...

...or if Chowhound doesn't like direct links searching "Chicago reader key ingredient" will probably get you into them.

I'm 21 and male and I started cooking a couple of years ago *because* I'd heard women found it attractive. I think this is overstated, but I ended up with a hobby I love so I can't complain too much.

Thanks for the responses everyone, I've decided to just keep it in the fridge and taste a bit before any time I use it to make sure it hasn't gone too far.

I cook a romantic meal for two and then refrigerate the other half.

It's made by some brand called "Bandit" wines and I only bought it because I needed red wine for braising but don't have a bottle opener. But now I still have at least a bottle's worth left. I don't drink, so I'll only be using it for cooking. How should I store it (fridge or not?) and roughly how long would it be okay to use it in braises, deglazing, etc.?

Also, it's merlot, although I can't see how that would matter.

Thanks.

Tonight I braised some lamb shoulder chops in red wine for about an hour in a 300-degree oven. When they came out they were fine - tender enough to eat with a fork and spoon alone. However, I was wondering what would have happened if I'd left them in longer. I'm guessing if I left them in there for days or something they'd burn - right? Or no?

Essentially, what I'm looking for is a (necessarily rough) timeline of what goes on in a braise, specifically for a cut like lamb shoulder if that helps any. Connective tissue and fats break down, things gelatinize, but can anyone go into more detail about when this might happen? This is a Modernist Cuisine type question, but unfortunately I don't have that book.

The post is fine, I didn't interpret it as name-dropping at all. Just a list of cool experiences.

To me fennel seeds and very dark chocolate pair up pretty well.

Not to be gauche or anything, but I'm curious as to what one has to do to get a cooking class from Eric Ripert. I didn't think "big fish" chefs did cooking classes.

Some variant of "I know, right?" as I continue eating is usually absurdist enough to end that line of conversation.

In other words, if you had an unlimited budget for ingredients, what would things be like?

The most notable change to my cooking would be using much more fresh fish and seafood. Really nice, fresh fish, crabs, scallops, clams, etc. Maybe some grass-fed beef or lamb every now and then. I can't imagine my fruit or vegetable consumption would change all that much. Maybe a better caliber of mushroom.