RetiredChef's Profile
"Least Favorite Vegetable" Poll
#1 Brussels Sprouts - a joke played on us by god, he laughs every time one is consumed ;-)
#2 Cardoon
#3 Lima Beans
Your favorite 'road trip' food
No food in the car, only water, if hunger pangs are too much before a scheduled stop at a food destination than some fruit, nuts, celery sticks are eaten at a vantage point.
Best Chain Breakfast?
IHOP excels at breakfast, their food quality from the crispy on the outside yet al dente in the middle hash browns to the unique breakfast items like savory crepes puts them miles ahead of other chains.
Just FYI, Mimi's offers some of the most unhealthful breakfasts (total calories, fat, sodium, etc.)
meat and seafood in Spokane?
Jay K,
Thanks for the tip, I have only been to the north store and was thinking you were on drugs (lol) until I read the last line, will be heading out to the valley to check them out.
Everything is relative. Olive Garden can be the best you've got. Does it matter?
Cooking at home is an option for those who inclined to do so, however the majority of Americans (not CH's) do not. Also as Dee pointed out getting ingredients can be problematic.
My post was really meant to convey that the average non-cooking American who is presented with Olive Garden food will probably like it, place that person in a smaller community with few if any decent Italian places and Olive Garden will seem like a higher end and very authentic Italian dining experience.
Favorite cheap meats?
Pork is still the king of cheap cuts due to the high demand of pork bellies and low demand for the rest of the animal. Pork tenderloins can regularly be found for 2.99 a lb and most port butt or special trimmings in the 1.49 and under category near me.
No-one has mentioned commercial cow tenders - can usually get them at the oriental market or split a case with a neighbor for about 3.99. Select tenderloins are at my local market for 5.99 a pound.
Flat Iron steaks were on sale locally at 3.99 a lb and is one of the more flavorfull and easy to cook steaks for the public.
Beef Ball tips are also a good piece of meat that is underutilized and can generally be gotten in the $2 range.
Flap meat seems to fluctuate widely but I have seen it as low as 1.79 and then up to 4.99 but it is very flavorful.
Also check out Tri-Tips, Brisket, and of course Chicken.
Del Taco
Del Taco - the closest one is 30 miles away but when I drive out that way I do have a craving.
Grilled chicken burrito is the tastiest thing on the so-called Mexican side of the menu and the spicy chx burrito is pretty good too. However it is their hamburgers that really stand out and the crinkle cut fries. Years ago in California we used to do blind taste tests and when we did hamburgers Del Taco's would come in #1 or #2 beating In-N-Out easily.
Everything is relative. Olive Garden can be the best you've got. Does it matter?
Everything is totally relative to your expectations, tastes and experiences. I have been to Italy on two professional chef tours and I did my apprenticeship in Nice near the Italian border so I find Olive Garden to be a bastardization of the food I know from Italy. However to people who think Lipton Alfredo noodles and Ravioli's are good then the olive Garden is the Pièce de résistance.
This point was hammered home when I retired and moved from Los Angeles to a much smaller city in the pacific northwest. You would have never caught me in a PF Changs (which resembles goopy, greasy mall food) when I lived in LA but up here it is probably the second best oriental style restaurant in the whole city, the third is panda express. So I can totally relate to a person who grew up in Grand Forks thinking that the olive garden (which is probably the #3 Italian restaurant where I live) is a really good place to eat.
Try this for more juice from lemons and limes
As other people have mentioned - the person did not weight the lemon before juicing so there is no proof that this works.
What does work is microwaving the lemon 10-15 seconds before you juice it.
In-N-Out Burger sucks (moved from L.A. board)
In two different blind taste tests that we conducted INO burgers performed poorly when compared to other fast food burgers.
Even die hard INO fans were surprised that they didn't pick them.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Actually the names should mean something
A Bistro is a small moderately priced restaurant that usually has a menu that changes quite frequently. They almost always serve wine and are smaller than a full blown restaurant
A Cafe is similar to a small diner/family style restaurant that serves inexpensive meals and focuses on coffee as the drink of choice.
A Grill is a restaurant that should have most of its entrees cooked on grills or broilers.
I find that many places try to follow these definitions but there is no requirement to do so.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
The nearest metro area to me is Spokane, it's a culinary wasteland but three of the best restaurants in Spokane/CDA all have tea-smoked items on it. I also saw it in San Diego, Los Angeles and Hawaii, all at non-Asian restaurants in the past 90 days. One of my sons lives in Pittsburgh and says their local Mediterranean restaurant has added a tea-smoked entree after featuring many tea smoked appetizers.
I am not putting down the technique but just like my comment before this about street tacos, it seems all sorts of non-Asian restaurants are beginning to do it because it's a 'new / in' trend.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Tea smoked items everywhere
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
LOL - I agree - "Panini is one of the most abused words in the food world. It has come to mean a generic sandwich that’s been squashed together and burned to a crisp."
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
excellant point- that too, along with 34 degree white wine (shudder)
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Forgot that one since I have been complaining about it for years
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Kimchi in non-Korean restaurants - it's firkin everywhere
Panini's - They went away and starting in fall of 2011 everyone was doing them again. Even the greasy spoon diner finally bought a Panini press.
Street tacos - done well at a taqueria fine - but when everyone else is doing them.
Cheese plates that have ordinary cheese and stale crackers - really people
Herb Ice creams (Basil, lemon thyme, rosemary, etc)
Homemade ketchup that is served with everything
Soapbox - not food related
Lax or nonexistent dress codes for restaurant workers. High end restaurant - manager wearing torn jeans with grass stains, a wrinkled shirt and dirty sneakers, in another restaurant servers could wear whatever they wanted and some looked like they dressed for their second job working the street corner.
BTW to the OP bad crab cakes have been around for decades and will, unfortunately always be around (sigh)
+1 for:
Braised Short Ribs
Truffle fries
Really fancy burgers
Pickled everything
Do you caramelize or brown ?
Technically speaking browning (Maillard reaction) is caused by a reaction between sugars and amino acid aided by heat. Carmelization is when you heat sugar and it begins to decompose due to the theat.
Carmelization releases chemicals that produce the familiar Carmel flavor, which is slightly bitter and if you caramelize sugar too long you will end up with carbon.
In browning the flavor is varied because different sugars are reacting with different amino acids and it is this ratio that gives the flavor. If you continue browning all that happens is the food will get more and more complex flavor, unless you burn it which is just creating carbon/extreme carmelization, hence the bitter taste of burnt food.
What is your favorite "ethnic" food to make?
Favorite to make can be different than favorite to eat:
Indian - because it's so easy to make and it wows people.
BBQ - The real stuff cooked over hardwoods (Hot Smoking) because the actual results when done correctly are sublime.
French cuisine - It's still the crème de la crème of cooking imho, I tend to combine and blend Nouvelle with classique.
Five Guys vs. In-N-Out? [moved from Los Angeles board]
Wow - that's interesting about the buns since I think INO's wonderbread-esque bun is pretty crappy, however they get a plus for toasting them. Does FG's have a better bun than INO - absolutely and I have never had one fall apart on me. Personally I like the thicker denser bun at FG's and the small amount of sweetness is nice.
Here is what I posted on another board in response to a reviewer:
I read you review, very nicely done btw, but in 'almost' every instance I kept scratching my head and wondering if you got the two mixed up.
1) The Bun
FG: Bun is almost perfect, nice, a little dense due to the egg and slightly sweet but good flavor
INO: wonder bread like, flavorless and too light, seems like the cheapest bun you can buy
2) Meat
FG: Thick, fresh, lean, very strong beef flavor - mmmmmm good
INO: Thin, very salty, fatty, bland tasting except for saltiness
3) Cheese
FG: Melted, nice quality with good flavor, one of the better Swiss cheeses and of course different choices
INO: Yuck, pasty, coats your mouth, cross between Velveeta and cheddar flavor, not something I would want to eat again. No choices except pasty yellow cheese or nothing.
4) Produce
FG - Lots of choices all about average quality
INO - Basics but very good quality and fresh.
5) Condiments
FG - Again lots of choices all of them good.
INO - 1000 island with extra pickle relish - the extra relish seems to overpower what little taste the meat has but it does compliment the produce rather well.
6)Fries
FG - Larger, cooked crisp in peanut oil, and you can get them Cajun style but eat them while they are warm and
INO - Smaller, usually limp and greasy, even cooking them extra crispy doesn't help much, plus you have a bout a 2 minute window to consume them after that they seem disgusting.
The Decision:
The meat, bun, toppings, cheese, fries and condiments are all better at 5G while INO wins in produce and price. If you want a good burger that highlights the meat and you can choose to top how you want and don't mind spending some $$ than FG wins hands down. If you want a burger that tastes mostly of sauce and produce with not much meat flavor, except salt and you don't have much money INO is the place to go.
SIDEBAR: When I lived in California we used to do blind taste tests on a regular basis and one time we did fast food hamburgers. There were many people who were INO aficionados there that claimed it would win hands down. It didn't, in actuality INO placed in the bottom half each time we did a blind taste test. (A interesting comment from one of the tasters hat loved INO, he identified the burger as INO but said we were pulling a fast one on him and had removed the meat, we hadn't.) I also did a sneaky thing on some relatives from Europe, they had heard that INO was the best burgers in the world and wanted to try it so I bought some INO and Carl's Jr. burgers on the way over to meet them but switched the wrappers. Guess which one they loved - the one in the INO wrapper. My conclusion from that is INO is mostly about low price and hype.
NOTE: FG's depends on the franchisee, some are good some are not so good so YMMV. INO does not have that problem the burger is the same everywhere.
Cracker Barrel - Best bang for your buck?
I have eaten at 3 different Cracker Barrels and I would not consider their food well prepared at all - therefore there was no relative value. And what I do remember was that their food was more expensive than say a greasy spoon diner where you would have gotten about the same quality.
Five Guys vs. In-N-Out
I read you review, very nicely done btw, but in 'almost' every instance I kept scratching my head and wondering if you got the two mixed up.
1) The Bun
FG: Bun is almost perfect, nice, a little dense due to the egg and slightly sweet but good flavor
INO: wonder bread like, flavorless and too light, seems like the cheapest bun you can buy
2) Meat
FG: Thick, fresh, lean, very strong beef flavor - mmmmmm good
INO: Thin, very salty, fatty, bland tasting except for saltiness
3) Cheese
FG: Melted, nice quality with good flavor, one of the better Swiss cheeses and of course different choices
INO: Yuck, pasty, coats your mouth, cross between Velveeta and cheddar flavor, not something I would want to eat again. No choices except pasty yellow cheese or nothing.
4) Produce
FG - Lots of choices all about average quality
INO - Basics but very good quality and fresh.
5) Condiments
FG - Again lots of choices all of them good.
INO - 1000 island with extra pickle relish - the extra relish seems to overpower what little taste the meat has but it does compliment the produce rather well.
6)Fries
FG - Larger, cooked crisp in peanut oil, and you can get them Cajun style but eat them while they are warm and
INO - Smaller, usually limp and greasy, even cooking them extra crispy doesn't help much, plus you have a bout a 2 minute window to consume them after that they seem disgusting.
The Decision:
The meat, bun, toppings, cheese, fries and condiments are all better at 5G while INO wins in produce and price. If you want a good burger that highlights the meat and you can choose to top how you want and don't mind spending some $$ than FG wins hands down. If you want a burger that tastes mostly of sauce and produce with not much meat flavor, except salt and you don't have much money INO is the place to go.
SIDEBAR: When I lived in California we used to do blind taste tests on a regular basis and one time we did fast food hamburgers. There were many people who were INO aficionados there that claimed it would win hands down. It didn't, in actuality INO placed in the bottom half each time we did a blind taste test. (A interesting comment from one of the tasters hat loved INO, he identified the burger as INO but said we were pulling a fast one on him and had removed the meat, we hadn't.) I also did a sneaky thing on some relatives from Europe, they had heard that INO was the best burgers in the world and wanted to try it so I bought some INO and Carl's Jr. burgers on the way over to meet them but switched the wrappers. Guess which one they loved - the one in the INO wrapper. My conclusion from that is INO is mostly about low price and hype.
Making risotto vs. fresh pasta
That's hilarious - One of the worst Risotto's I have ever had in a restaurant was at the original Spago's on the Sunset Strip in the late 80's when Puck was still in the kitchen. One of my dining partners, another chef, made the comment that someone really needs to give Wolfie a lesson on how to make rissotto.
Risotto keeps coming out brown ?
I third the vote for Pecorino Romano or Grana Padano over Parm - much better tastes and if you want a whitish risotto stay away from black pepper and use white instead.
What are YOUR predictions for 2012 food trends?
Val,
My comments about gluten intolerance comes from 30+ years in the industry and watching all forms of trendy diseases or intolerances creep into the eating public. It is NOT meant to belittle those who truly are inflicted but instead to belittle those who claim they are afflicted falsely.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-real-diseases-that-have-somehow-become-trendy/
""It's becoming extremely fashionable to the point that it's almost alarming," says Dr. Stefano Guandalini, founder and director of the Celiac Disease Center at the University of Chicago. He and other gluten gurus say most people on gluten-free diets don't actually need to be: they've either jumped on the bandwagon or misdiagnosed themselves as gluten-sensitive"
According to the CDC the chance of someone being gluten intolerant is about 1 in 245, however in a recent AMA study showing disease trends among Americans 1 in 18 are claiming to be gluten intolerant. That means out of 14 out of 245 people are claiming they have this yet empirical studies say only 1 does.
"A recent survey by market-research firm Packaged Facts showed that only 8% to 12% of people who purchased gluten-free products did so because of gluten intolerance. Most simply thought these products were healthier or of higher quality or could help them manage their weight."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2071129,00.html#ixzz1k1ggEKYV
Trendy diseases come and go and I remember the following food related ones in my restaurants very clearly:
Lactose intolerance
Strawberry allergy
Tomato allergy
MSG intolerance
It's just something you learn to deal with but I tend to (roll my eyes) at a regular patron who is allergic to strawberries one year yet gorging themselves on them the next.
Food Franchises That Don't Suck
Went to three different Panera's - first in Ohio and then two in Pittsburgh all three had scowling employees that rolled their eyes or sighed audibly if you asked a question. Food was thrown on the pickup counter so things went flying, internet service didn't work in 2 out of the 3 and was told by an employee that if I didn't know how to log on then it was my problem - all the other customers couldn't log on either. Funny thing manager was overseeing the ordering process in one and he had the biggest scowl on his face. I made several comments to other customers and they all said that was normal for Panera's (internet not working, scowls, nasty attitudes, food being thrown up, etc.).
Glad to hear it isn't but we would never step foot in one after that.
I have eaten at 4 different Macaroni Grill's in 3 different states - in all cases everyone agreed that the food was sub-par with the exception of pizzas which were regarded as average. A interesting note is 2 out the 4 locations have subsequently closed and I heard the third one may close also. Ironically I ate the original Romano's in Texas before Brinker brought them out and was very impressed. Usually Brinker International does a very good job with restaurants chains imho but they really dropped the ball with the Macaroni Grill and it appears that GGC isn't doing any better since the acquired them.
