ChristDriven's Profile
Tom Colicchio Visits!
You really don't think he will be running the pass at all?
I guess he wouldn't be able to sit and rub elbows if he was checking dishes.
Jonathan
Tom Colicchio Visits!
Really guys? You know he's stretched thin with his numerous establishments. The James Beard award certainly did not make his schedule any lighter! Maybe if they worded it like he would be _present_ to personally prepare the November 1st wine dinner, it wouldn't come off as so alien.
But I'm still with you on this one. You guys are hard on him and I like it =)
Get back in the kitchen, Colicchio!
Jonathan
Best Sandwich in Jacksonville (?)
Hmm...I must give the pastrami on rye a go.
For the two times I've been to Metro Diner, I was just blinded by their special shrimp and grits and Yo Hala on the Square.
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Metro Diner
3302 Hendricks Ave, Jacksonville, FL 32207
One Day/Night in Tampa - give me your best suggestions!
Is it wrong to say that the food scene is bad if it is, truly in fact, bad? We all have opinions on food based off of our past experiences. I don't think it is fair to say "please don't say the food scene here sucks." I believe there just needs to be more transparency with what it is compared to.
For example: The food scene here sucks compared to NYC but you may find some nice (grouper, Cuban, etc.).
I'm from California, moved to Jacksonville because of the Navy, and when I went to Tampa, I enjoyed the food there very much so. To be transparent, I would say California > Tampa > Jacksonville.
Salted Caramel in Jacksonville/Orlando (or in between)
You are right. I didn't get a hard look at the quantity. I am on a work computer that doesn't allow Flash so I couldn't actually see a picture. I agree now that I am more educated concerning the product.
I wonder what the verde one tastes like...
Salted Caramel in Jacksonville/Orlando (or in between)
They better be good for those prices. I wish I knew about Vosges when I was in Chicago. Note taken.
Salted Caramel in Jacksonville/Orlando (or in between)
Salted chocolates sound nice but what about caramels? I know his chocolatier lineage demands chocolate but does Peter do any caramels? I am very interested in this and do plan to check it out. Thank you!
Salted Caramel in Jacksonville/Orlando (or in between)
I was in bed earlier listening to KCRW's Good Food podcast and in a moment of zoning out, I had a real urge for salted caramel. I am interested in anything that is or contains salted caramel...ice cream, confectionery, whatever. I'm quite sure I can make some myself as well but am interested in other renditions where my time and money could be spent on instead of doing it myself.
As the title states, I am looking for the delectable treat in the areas of Jacksonville, Orlando, or in between the two.
I appreciate the help!
Jonathan
Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2010 (Orlando)
Laura,
Lots of good info. My wife and I did the Epcot Food & Wine Festival last year and it was fun. As is it is perceived from your post, the dishes were not all hits but not all misses either.
From last year's experience, I found the $9/$13 Culinary Demonstrations held a lot of good value. There was a discussion about the wine from the vineyard's wine presenter and the featured pastry/dessert chef would make one item. You were then able to taste both and given a printed sheet with information regarding both items. A question and answer portion followed after. I was able to chat/get a picture with Wolfgang Puck at one of the Culinary Demonstrations.
All in all, it is just a fun time with like-minded people. I agree about money better spent elsewhere but the variety is a real draw.
Jonathan
Chef's Table - An excellent gourmet meal in an unexpected location - Orlando/Winter Garden
Southie_chick,
I am seriously considering visiting this restaurant. Another couple, my wife, and I are going to Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival in November. I am going to try to convince them to stop here on the way down from Jacksonville. I will definitely post up pictures with a review if we do end up going.
Scott Joseph's site looks like a great resource. I'll bookmark it. Thanks!
Jonathan
Cabbage powder - what now? (NOT soup or smoothies)
How fine is it? Is it anything like flakes at all or is it really straight-up powdered?
Touching the fingerprint of your pinky with your tongue to moisten it a little bit and take a dab of that powder and taste it. Is it very strong with very obvious cabbage flavor?
I am biased towards Vietnamese food and I am thinking of renditions of canh bắp cải nhồi thịt (picture attached from Wandering Chopsticks' blog - http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2009/11/canh-bap-cai-nhoi-thit-vietnamese.html).
The picture itself is a spin off of the soup itself. Take a new approach even further and mix some of the powder with the pork and the rest of the ingredients and steam the casing-less sausages. Or sear/grill them and serve with rice and nước chấm as a little extra dressing.
Vietnamese shrimp and cabbage salads are nice and refreshing. Perhaps something along those lines?
I hope this helps.
Jonathan
You know you're a Chowhound when....
When you're doing what I am doing right now and are heavily distracted by this thread instead of filling out my university applications which should be way more important!
When you're somewhere unplanned and are having a difficult time finding a suitable place to eat on Chowhound on your cellphone, you resort to Yelp very hesitantly and with great disdain. You may also take that rated Yelp restaurant and cross reference it to Chowhound if you were unable to find it in your initial searches.
And with that, you find UrbanSpooners and Yelpers to just not be good enough.
Jonathan
You know you're a Chowhound when....
More pictures of food/pages from cookbooks on your phone than of family/people, sights, non-food related subjects...combined!
When you're planning for travel, you spend more time going through 75 printed pages (condensed and edited down to save paper) of Chowhound threads compared to researching sights to see.
With going through those pages, you do what I do and make custom Google Maps layers for every travel destination and detail restaurants on them. Each restaurant/food spot on my custom maps have notes of links to menus, hours, phone numbers and other pertinent information. All of this work so I can look this up on my Android cell phone when we're out and about.
Jonathan
You know you're a Chowhound when....
Ugh...allergies. Can't stand people with them! ; )
(In terms of food, of course.)
Jonathan
Chef's Table - An excellent gourmet meal in an unexpected location - Orlando/Winter Garden
YosemiteSam,
Nice report, mate. Sounds delightful, really. Your emphasis on the atmosphere and experience of it all makes me yearn to try this place.
Looking at the website's sample prix fixe menu, I saw foie gras creme brulee. I have never even heard of such a dish. I can only imagine what it is like. Probably very creamy and worth tucking in for.
The price sounds right for what you get too!
Any pictures from your meal there?
Jonathan
Chef's Table - An excellent gourmet meal in an unexpected location - Orlando/Winter Garden
southie_chick,
Not 100% confirmed about the chef's wife association with Victoria & Albert's but according to Chef's Table's website, Chef Kevin Tarter did "come from the kitchen" of Victoria and Albert's.
From http://www.chefstableattheedgewater.com/ :
"With over 20 years restaurant experience, Chef/Owner Kevin Tarter comes from the kitchens of Disney’s prestigious Victoria & Albert’s and New Orlean’s Arnaud’s."
Not too sure how deep he was into Victoria & Albert's but some experience is better than no experience.
Jonathan
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Victoria and Albert's
, Orlando, FL 32830
Chef's Table
99 W Plant St, Winter Garden, FL 34787
bahn mi in orlando, florida
THANK YOU for saying something! If no one did it, I was going to step in and do it. It just makes it that much more difficult to use the search function if the spelling is not correct. Hopefully this thread will still be found through the search.
Jonathan
Be honest...is it 'uncouth' to share an entree in a (nice) restaurant?
May I suggest something? It is quite normal for restaurants to consider salads by themselves as entrees. Maybe you should order an entree and your husband order a salad. When they come, split them both. Generally the salad won't be as filling as a standard entree and you will both get vegetables in! =)
I am Vietnamese and have come to terms that I have not been eating as many vegetables as I did when I was a child and mum made dinner. As Michael Pollan says, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Doing the above helps me get back to my Vietnamese eating style.
Splitting a salad and entree will:
1. Help you get your vegetables in.
2. Avoid having to imply that you're not wasting the waitstaff's time as squatters.
3. Let the waitstaff know that you are just like any other full-entree-eating customer and are tipping accordingly.
3. Avoid paying a plate charge.
4. Allow you to enjoy a variety! (I love this one!)
Hope this helps!
Jonathan
Just moved to JAX... need to eat! =0)
Funny you say that because despite all I've eaten...::lowers voice::...i _like_ chicken fried steak. =D
Thai Garden will be an option we'll look towards when we're up for Thai again.
For Vietnamese, we stumbled upon Saigon Cafe (622 Cassat Ave.) from a previous Jacksonville post. I didn't have pho but my wife did. She enjoyed it. I tasted a bit of it but I wasn't up for pho that day so my opinion was biased. Decor was okay (not great) and prices are a bit more than in Westminster, CA (which is where mmtrinh1223 and I are from). The prices were still very reasonable considering the small population of Vietnamese in Jacksonville. My general rules for mom and pop Vietnamese restaurants are that the decor SHOULD be bad. If I see a "fusion" Vietnamese restaurant with trendy decor, I generally stay away because their market focus is not on the Vietnamese-everyman/woman. That upscale decor also signifies high prices for food that is NOT supposed to be expensive.
I'm taking note of 13 Gypsies joint. Spanish tapas are also one of my most favorite cuisines (grammar check, anyone?).
Anyone else who is serious about food, check out Coulter Kirkpatrick's blog (http://www.jacksonville.com/interact/blog/coulter_kirkpatrick) at the Florida-Times Union website. He seems to be as serious about food as anyone else. If you do decide to read his blog, I comment on there as JonathanN.
Cheap and Good - Newport, Rhode Island in January!
Thank you for all your inputs. I was surprised by how nice and quaint the area was during the winter. I had a day trip in Manhattan for one of the days I was in the area so all in all, I ate at two Newport establishments.
I ate at the Brick Alley Restaurant and went with the clam chowder and Portuguese Littlenecks. Thank you for that recommendation! The sky was giving us freezing rain that day and to have the littlenecks with some bread to sop some of the broth up was very nice. The ambiance was a little kitsch on the salad buffet bar side. I'm not a connoisseur of chowder so I can't quite comment for everyone but I would have it again. There was a decent amount of clams that were cut to bite sizes. Our waitress was friendly and very flexible as she split the check for the 5 of us.
For an even more casual dinner, I ate at Pour Judgement. I really wish I had tried Salas' but Yelp's 3 dollar sign rating made me factor my budget a bit more heavily. I walked to Salvation Cafe and after looking at its menu, decided on Pour Judgement based on money (I did some surprise shopping for my wife).
I really wish I had Salvation Cafe or Salas' instead! Pour Judgement...how do I describe it? It's family friendly even though they're still a bar. I guess it's because the place is a bar and grill. The woman tending the bar seemed to ignore me entirely as I stood by the window to be seated. I waited for about 2 minutes with a smile. I tried getting her attention...not from the table by the window but by actually walking up and down the bar and attempting to get a menu and her attention. I thought we made eye contact and she knew that I wasn't ordering alcohol but food. I decided to sit back down at the table by the door and wait for her to present a menu. With hopeful eyes, I watched as she had finally started walking from around the bar with some menus in hand and then give the menus to a family of 3 which had come in after me. I was a little saddened but still patient. I decided to be a bit more forceful and try my hand at the bar to get a menu again. I politely asked for a menu and she replied by not making eye-contact, not saying ANYTHING to me, and tossing menu in front of me instead of handing it to me. I was saddened even further. I didn't know what was going on. Everyone in Newport seems to be so kind and friendly but my experience with this woman was not quaint at all.
She finally came over and got my drink order. I had the spiced macaroni and cheese with chorizo. Ugh. I should have gotten something else. It was milky and lacked cheese flavor. I ended up getting a stomach ache and rushing to a toilet about 45 minutes later after I left the establishment. I wish I had gotten the woman's name but a younger waitress took care of me for the latter half of my meal. If memory serves me right, the very non-Rhode Island lady was in her 30s-40s and had dark hair. Be aware.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Rhode Island. Thanks for the memories!
Just moved to JAX... need to eat! =0)
Well mmtrinh1223 is my wife and well to be frank, I just got off the toilet after eating its food. Now to those who think I can't handle my "spicy/ethnic" food, just let me tell you that I'm a first-generation Vietnamese guy who grew up in Orange County, California eating Vietnamese dishes created by my mum (yes, that means tripe, duck's/pig's blood, and other beautiful offal prepared beautifully). I'm 22 years old and have eaten in hole-in-the-wall establishments in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, England, France, Spain, and halal street food in Manhattan. I eat food on naval ships for months on end so I've had some of the worst and some of the best. I can handle most gastronomical endeavors.
Sala Thai was a default after stopping at Sangria House and realizing it was closed on Mondays after we checked its website on my mobile.
I will elaborate on what my wife has said.
Papaya salad: Really? Really now?! How hard is it to throttle back on the fish sauce. I'm Vietnamese. We KNOW fish sauce and we use it like its going out of style (which it apparently hasn't). Find a balance, Sala Thai! Dousing the salad with the fish sauce doesn't tout your Asian-ness.
Tom Yum Goong/Kung: It was weak with quartered button mushrooms. I was confused. Very weak with lemongrass notes pattering away.
Black bean snapper: As is true with southern states that serve seafood; it was battered and fried. Not crispy as if it were scored and submerged/ladled with hot oil to cook. This was the only thing worth eating (that and the rice it was served with).
Thai tea: It was a bit sweet but it was quite acceptable. My palate isn't as skilled for this drink.
Thai coffee: I've never had it and I had to ask. It sounded interesting. Best way to describe it? Dirty rendition of thai tea with coffee instead of tea.
The ambiance was not too bad (I don't really care about an establishment's ambiance in general) but the lighting (which I do mind) was a bit too dark for me. The waitstaff was extremely courteous.
The dishes we had at Sala Thai would NOT be considered Chowhound worthy.
Cheap and Good - Newport, Rhode Island in January!
Wow! Thanks for the information. Sounds like you're a local or at least close enough to be in the know.
I was particularly interested in the Portuguese food! Any other ethnic eats? Vietnamese? Thank you again!
Cheap and Good - Newport, Rhode Island in January!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'm a 22 year old, southern California-raised boy who is going to be in the Newport, Rhode Island area in about a week from today. I'm looking for good, cheap with a charming "hole-in-the-wall" quality. If it's not necessarily cheap or "hole-in-the-wall", that's fine too...just post away.
I'm mainly posting this thread because I'm not from the area but I do have friends who were there and said that this particular season is not palatable for tourists (read: I heard it gets cold). I essentially don't know what's even open!
All in all, the criteria is:
1. Cheap (Optional but preferable)
2. Good
3. Hole-in-the-wall (optional but preferable)
4. NOT closed because of the tourism off-season.
5. No vehicle (sad face) but if anyone is interested in picking me up...inquire within!
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot people!
Alton's mise en place
I've tried searching the interweb with no real solid direction or information. I am looking for the mise en place containers that Alton Brown uses. I'm not talking about the small, round glass ones that are regularly featured.
If memory serves me right, they are white and rectangular in shape. When they are stacked, the bottom of the top container doesn't slide into the container below it. I remembered that he would stack them and then put a plastic lid on the top one and then put them all in the refrigerator, thereby keeping them covered for later use.
Anyone know where I can find such gems?
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
Need a new roasting pan
Well it sounds like you put your roasting pan into good use. How are the warranties? Will they suffice for what you're doing?
Overall, I think the size is a very big factor. How big of a turkey are you planning to cook? How well will it fit in your oven? Will it be so big that hot air will have a hard time moving around it?
Sorry for not giving your a straight answer as to one or the other but it really is a personal preference.
Is 'Corn' and its by products dominating North American diets?
Just continue showing America our interests by our wallets. I go through great lengths to avoid high fructose corn syrup. Very true about the subsidies. People just don't know or care much about the food bill in America.
Hotel Room Cooking Revisited
Stunning Sherri. You reminded me of Alton Brown when you mentioned the fishing lure box. I'm frugal and hearing your planning provides plenty of possibilities is quite encouraging.
It's amazing what people are willing to give you if you just simply ask.
Hotel Room Cooking Revisited
I think the toaster oven would have been a good idea but a burner would need something to cook in (saucepan, etc.) which means more stuff to carry and more things to clean.
Duck: Choices, choices and the lack thereof
I got a duck sitting frozen and nice in my freezer right now and I have a pretty good plan set for what to do with the bird (sear it, cook potatoes in its rendered fat, make soup out of its collagen-laden spine, etc.)...all except for the gizzards, heart, and liver.
I'm not really planning to buy a container of livers [to make pate] or any other additional duck parts and accessories (it's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't; I live in Japan).
What do my fellow foodies/gourmands say?
ChristDriven
