EricMM's Profile
Peter Luger Drink $$$'s
Don't remember the price, but the one time I went to PL, I got a martini. It was not very impressive. Good, but definitely not up to the standards I expect from a steakhouse.
Frozen lobster tails: meat sticks to shell
"cold water" lobster tails usually come from the southern hemisphere. Canadian lobster tails might actually be bigger than Maine tails, because Maine caps the size of lobsters to be harvested. My guess is that these are southern lobsters...are they very flat? Could be slipper lobsters...I've tried them and had the sticking issue.
cooking live spot prawns
I've already eaten them a few times this season, despite the high price...they are the best crustacean around, and I love crustaceans! I keep it as simple as possible: boil salted water, drop the live shrimp in, when it begins to return to a boil I drain them. that's it! I peel the carapace off carefully, to keep all the head meat and juices. Unbelievable!
Puffers!
I simply dredge them in flour and fry in butter...very briefly. Also good in mixed seafood sautes. I'm thinking of cooking them the way I make frog's legs, in caramelized shallot sauce. They are very similar to frog's legs, and that way I could get my wife to eat a delicious dish she would otherwise refuse.
Soft Shell Crabs
I will only buy ss crabs when I can see that they are alive, can tell that they are soft, and I always clean them myself. I will not eat them any other way...had too many sick nights with a cramping stomach when I just trusted the fish monger. Its been over 20 years since that happened...cleaning the ones I know are alive has never made me sick. Even if they die after I buy them, they have been dead for too short a time. (rarely more than an hour) to go bad.
Bamboo shoot question
Yes, since writing my first post, I was able to look it up. Similar to apricot pits. So, beginning with today's harvest, I'll boil the bamboo a few minutes before sauteeing it with broccoli. My wife is getting sick of all this bamboo, but I love it. And otherwise, I'd soon have no yard left.
soft shell crab
I love soft shell crabs far too much to bury in a sandwich. I just clean them myself, dip them in milk, then dredge them in flour. Sauteed briefly in butter, maybe with a split or crushed garlic clove. Then all they need is a sprinkle of lemon. I could see putting the tougher ones in a sandwich....but its the softest ones possible that I go for.
Bamboo shoot question
A few years ago I made the mistake of planting black bamboo. However, I have found the secret of controlling its spread- eat it! So I am now at the peak of my bamboo season, eating sauteed, stir-fried, etc bamboo a few times a week. But I've always wondered....what is it in bamboo that gives that weird mouth feel? I can't eat it raw because of that feeling...not quite metallic, not quite astringent....just weird and hard to describe. I still get the feeling from cooked bamboo, but not as severe, although one of my son's still finds it too strong to enjoy. It's the only problem with what is otherwise an ideal vegetable.
Lake Pavilion, new Chinese in Flushing
Went there today, just to look around. Picked up a menu, and got some stuff from the take-out section, which has a separate entrance. Got a duck (the drier, split kind), some char-siu pork, and a cuttlefish. Excellent! Especially the duck and char-siu.. Extremely tasty, yet not as overly salty as these things can be. Bill was cheaper than what I usually pay at Rice and Tea in Elmhurst. I'm looking forward to eating there soon. By the way, looking at the menu, what do they mean by "screw clams" ?
Soft shell crab sightings?
Not true. If soft shells are removed from the water, they cannot harden their shells. They need dissolved calcium in the water. No water, no supply of calcium. Dead crabs deteriorate very quickly. I have a lot of experience with softies, and I only buy them from stores that allow me to inspect them closely to make sure they are alive, and I insist on cleaning them myself. The really soft ones, which are the best, will have limited movement, but they do have movement....a twitching antenna, a curling leg joint. They will be very plump.I used to get really sick many times when I just trusted fish mongers on their softies...since I've insisted on inspecting them, I've never gotten sick.
Soft shell crab sightings?
Just picked up a few of the first softies I've seen this season, at the fish market on Austin St in Forest Hills. Will eat them later, but they are very lively and felt soft enough.
NY Times Ethics of Meat Eating
Damn! I was going to expand my original post on the first CH thread into an essay....but its one of those things that, if you don't do it right away when you are inspired, you just don't do it. Oh well.
Spicy Tuna Roll--Salmonella Outbreak--Seafood "pink slime"?
AFIK, spicy tuna (or spicy yellowtail, spicy salmon, etc) is made with the scraps of the fish. In other words, the ends of the loin pieces that may have more connective tissue. I have also heard that some places make it from the tuna that is less fresh...not stale, still fresh enough to eat, but not at its peak. Most raw sushi (all in many places) is deep frozen first. I wouldn't be surprised if its made from the unsold tuna that can't be refrozen and would go bad otherwise. I myself have given up on any of the "spicy" stuff made from raw fish. Too many times when it just tasted off, or had scales/bone fragments.
Steaming Crabs: Season the Water or the Crabs?
I don't use Old Bay, maybe just a tiny bit, because I feel its overpowering, especially for blue crabs, which have a good flavor on their own. I just add some salt, peppercorns, mustard seed, coriander, and hot pepper.....and I also use beer. For Dungeness crabs, which are a bit blander, I'll add more seasoning and salt. But I always add it to the water.
Fresh fish in Jackson Heights?
The salmon, tilapia, hybrid bass, catfish, and barramundi are farmed, as is this very pretty and bizarre looking freshwater fish, which I believe is a kind of goby. In other words, the usual suspects. The shrimp, mussels and oysters are also farmed, and they occasionally have the farmed cod that have those white tags in their mouth. All the other fresh fish- snapper, sea bass, porgies, etc. are wild. The frozen fish, mostly pomfrets and milkfish, are farmed, at least the milkfish is. They are now carrying live spot prawns (wild) from the west coast....very expensive, but absolutely delicious. I look forward to their arrival in spring even more than the arrival of soft-shell crabs.
sufflok county clam hunt
Braun's To Go in Cutchogue has fried clam bellies. They always have cherrystones, sometimes they have steamer clam bellies. There's also Billy's By the Bay in Greenport.....but I wouldn't recommend that place.
Fresh fish in Jackson Heights?
I like Hong Kong...it usually has pretty good stuff. I got a really nice grouper there yesterday. But Pacific Market is the pits.
Fresh fish in Jackson Heights?
Go down Broadway a few blocks into Elmhurst, and you can get much better fish/seafood at Hong Kong or NY Markets. There's another good one whose name I can never remember at B'way near Queens Blvd.
Soft shell crab sightings?
Because soft shell's are so expensive and irregular early in the season, I find that a lot of markets won't carry them until May when they can be a regular item, and a little lower in price.
Soft shell crab sightings?
Are they turning up in markets yet? I prefer to cook them myself. That way I know they were good, soft, and lively in the first place.
The best steakhouse on LI
Is there any difference between the Elbow Room in Jamesport and the Elbow Too in Laurel? I haven't been to either, but I think the one in Laurel looks really cute, and I like the way it's situated just off the road. I've only been to the Elbow East, which I gather is different ownership. I like it, but it's nothing I'd make a special trip for.
Carp anyone?
You must take my response with a grain of salt, because I do not like freshwater fish in general. I remember my grandmother baking a carp. It tasted awful. There are several problems with wild carp. First of all, they tolerate warmer, eutrophic waters....the kind that are green and muddy. This does not contribute to good flavor in fish. In fact, it tends to make the fish taste just like the muddy pond water they live in. You do not mention your area. In general, freshwater fish are more likely to harbor toxins than salt water fish, so mercury and PCBs, dioxins, are a big problem in many areas. In many bodies of freshwater in NY state, Conn., and Mass. there are lots of lakes in which you are simply not allowed to eat the fish due to contamination. Now, maybe if you live in one of the western states, or parts of Minn. or Wis., it may be less of a problem. But carp grow big (check out the website monstercarps.com if it still exists), and are fatty...a recipe for toxicity in poor water. That said.....the traditional method of carp fishing is with doughballs, corn, or simply compressed damp bread. I have had luck simply with worms. In my college days, I caught an 18 lb carp with a worm on 6 lb test line. Took me half an hour to bring in. When I saw it, I was so disgusted that I just cut it free after weighing it. It was hideous. My father couldn't understand why I would release such a delicious fish....................................
Kaffir lime leaves - do you really eat them?
During the winter I keep it in a sunny spot in a cold room. Early in the spring (most likely this weekend) i move it outdoors to a spot that gets morning sun, but is shaded after 1:00. I bring it inside sometime in either late October or November when temps go down to the 30's consistently. I have never gotten flowers, so no fruit.
Kaffir lime leaves - do you really eat them?
I grow my own kaffir lime. Before that, I used frozen. I found that I could add the frozen leaves just like bay leaves, and they were very flavorful and aromatic. However, with the fresh leaves, I find that I either have to sliver/shred them, or pound them all over and bruise them to release the flavor. Either way, I never eat them.
What's the Longest Anyone Has Ever Had to Wait to be Seated at a Restaurant in Queens?
Thanks for all these warnings. I don't care how good the food is at a restaurant. Life is too short for me to wait longer than the time I would actually spend eating and relaxing. There are so many good restaurants out there that I am far more interested in the places that don't make me wait an unreasonable amount of time.
Let's talk about cooking fish...
Your preference is so good that it also goes well with "lean" fish...although blackfish is pretty lean. I use your basic recipe on cod with great results. (I just leave out the oregano.....not to my taste.)
Let's talk about cooking fish...
First of all, don't worry about the type of fish specified in a recipe. If the recipe calls for red snapper, but the sea bass looks better, get the bass. In general, black sea bass, red/vermilion snapper, porgies, branzino, small grouper, can all be used interchangeably. Eventually you will recognize the differences between the fish and decide on your own preferences...which are better grilled, which are better broiled, etc. Tilapia is a farmed freshwater fish, so it will taste very different. (Some people- myself included- despise it, other people love it.) You could probably interchange tilapia with farmed striped bass, maybe farmed barramundi. Oilier fish include mackeral, and herrings (including shad), Again, you can treat them interchangeably in many recipes. Bluefish can go in either the snapper group or the mackeral group...it is somewhat oily, but not as much as mackeral. So read a great sounding recipe, then try it, and don't worry so much about which fish you use....just buy the one that looks best on that day.
