mimolette's Profile
pork shoulder vs pork loin
If you want rich flavour and don't want the fat try look for pork that is dark in color. Another thing you can do is to cut the pork thinly, apply some corn starch and salt and a little liquid, the starch will help the meat to retain moisture and prevent the meat fibers to tighten up. It works very very well but only suitable for some recipes. Also, try to find a place with a large selection. The fat content can vary dramatically. I have found pork belly with nearly nothing but fat and pork belly with nearly all muscle and no fat and everything in between. the light colored lean cuts simply cannot withstand prolonged cooking. Also notice the fat distribution, if the fat is mostly in large blocks between muscles you can remove it easily. If the fat is within the muscle it will require very low and slow cooking to render it all out. For example, duck is extremely fatty but almost all the fat is right between skin and meat, you can simply peel all of it off after cooking.
Are there things you eat/avoid every day to be healthy?
btw, I don't eat breakfast, so in a sense I don't eat meat for breakfast.
Are there things you eat/avoid every day to be healthy?
what can I say, I feel unfulfilled without some meat :)
Wow - my tastes are really changing as I get older...anyone else?
That may be the reason in some cases, but not all. I believe some sensations can't be enjoyed until one can allow them to pass the initial negative impact. I can't word it properly, it is as if the brain finally get a chance to understand the mixture of flavors and allow it to trigger a pleasurable response. Ginger used to be something I hated and avoided. But one day I was making some pork, and I noticed the pork smelled in a way I did not like. It has not gone bad, it was not gamy, just a stronger meat smell that did not agree with me. So I added a little little bit of ginger. It masked or changed the smell, and from then on I regularly cook with ginger and actually enjoy it quite a bit in the right context.
Ranch Dressing, what is up with that?
I do love ranch dressing, but only on greens. I think some people like the way it works with other foods while some people simply need a way to make the ranch dressing chewable.
Are there things you eat/avoid every day to be healthy?
every morning I eat an orange or grapefruit, followed by an apple, once in a while a pear if I can't find a good apple. I do eat other fruits too, but I usually eat them after a meal if I feel like it. I always eat some meat and vegetables in every meal. I eat a handful of nuts nearly everyday. I have coffee after lunch and have tea after dinner. I always have some chocolate everyday. Well, the truth is I LOVE eating all the above, they just happen to be healthy, I think. I avoid eating extremely oily dishes but I don't actually avoid any type of fat other than transfat and canola - it smells fishy to me. I do tend to select sweet potatoes over potatoes since I like them equally but sweet potatoes are probably slightly healthier. I don't eat an enormous amount of starch during the meals, in other words, I eat them but I treat them more or less like other items on the plate, almost never make it the main role. But I do like very good sweets, in moderation, because in the back of my mind I know it all will have to be worked out, literally, next morning. I don't drink sugary soda, not enough enjoyment for the amount of calories they contain, instead, sometimes I drink pepsi max and diet sierra mist ruby red flavor. I eat cheeses everyday, but again, never a block of cheese, probably about or less than 2 onces a day or so. In general I eat quite a lot of different kinds of food daily, but not an enormous amount of any single one of them and I do avoid extremely fatty, greasy stuff, and naturally prefer zesty, exciting flavors more.
Do you tend to eat with your hands?
of course fingers should be everyone's first choice but unfortunately only when no one is looking - unless the food is too hot or too slippery. You are merely in touch with your natural instinct. The advantage in efficiency is indisputable!
Least appetizing food ads?
I hate all of McDonald's commercials because that jingle is about as irritating as they come. That and the dance beat in the 6 flags great adventure commercials. I find them so repulsive I wish I could forget about ever hearing them completely. Maybe if they are shown side by side they could cancel each other out?
Am I crazy for thinking that Magnolia cupcakes suck?
I got a piece of the chestnut chocolate cake last week. It is nothing like the way it used to be. I was very disappointed.
French porcelain vs bone china - can't decide!
I have many pieces from the Bernardaud Flirt set. They are really adorable. I also have Pillvuyt's bakeware. I love them too. Pillvuyt is more rustic but not stoneware rustic, in fact the Rectangular plates I have are rather modern and streamlined in appearance. They are narrow and long, I use them to serve 3 very small appetizers.
For Us Cooks: As You Cook Up A Storm, How Do You Keep Your Kitchen Clean?
It's simply a matter of self discipline. Do what's sensible. It's a balance between neatness and speed. The way I see it, unless you can afford to hire someone to clean, if you can't stand the mess and are unwilling to clean it, then don't cook. Sounds harsh, but isn't it obvious?
Am I crazy for thinking that Magnolia cupcakes suck?
Most people can't tell a scallop from a piece of tofu, hype is nearly everything. I am not particularly fond of most cakes to begin with, have even less patience for cupcakes. My rec is to skip cupcakes, get a piece of double chocolate souffle at Mitchel London or better yet get the intense chocolate cakes from La Maison du Chocolat, especially the chestnut one. Even Mr. London himself could not stop raving about them. I don't often indulge in high cal sweet desserts, because most of them just make me cringe. But everytime I had La Maison du chocolat's chocolate cake, I get mesmerized by it. It is very sweet but very intense and sublime, so I only take very small bites and don't let anything distract me while I submit myself to its magic. It has been a few years though, I hope they still carry it.
-----
La Maison du Chocolat
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020
What's wrong with all the cooking shows on TV?
It takes a lot more time to cook than they seem to suggest. Washing takes a while, getting the right containers, this and that all add up. While it is best to have everything ready, it is not the most efficient way to do things. What they do is always under the best case scenerio and frankly it takes some time to get there. When I am expecting guests I do my best to finish all the prep work before I start so there is little chance of messing things up, such as over browning while trying to find that wine to deglaze that somehow disappeared behind 5 other bottles of syrup.... On the other hand it is of little benefit to me to watch them do things like washing parsley, looking for the lid... etc, lol. What I would like to see more of is the actual recipe development process, as in what exactly are the things the chefs think about as they sit down to make a new recipe, going to the store, what goes through their mind, how they select the produce, the meat, even taking the cost into consideration. What goes well with what, what don't mix well together, the cooking techniques to bring things together, what goes wrong, what can go wrong, what is tricky, what is too much work and not worth the gain, possible plating ideas, etc. Also I would like to see more classic dishes done the most authetic way, like a cooking school instructor would teach a student the "proper" way.
now that i've moved to nyc, if i'm not careful, i'm going to get fat
You may or may not gain weight. The thing about eating good meals is you are much less likely to have any desires to eat junk food as they simply taste unworthy of your appetite. And as you crave for the best, the amount of food one can afford begins to shrink as well. Walking does help a bit... unless you are basically walking from one food store to the next, then in that case no amount of walking will ever be able to compensate for the uptake of calories.... believe me, I know, several times a week I walk from the villege to chinatown and then lower eastside and then zigzag all the way up to the uppereast or upperwest in the 90s and then after work sometimes walk back down to the 42 st. port authority if it is not too late. And that is not counting what I do in the morning starting at 6 am sharp.... 2200 calories worth cardio plus 3 miles of walking after to stretch out. I do eat quite a bit but not nearly as much as one would imagine.
What would you do with a cheese hater?
I eat quite a variety of cheeses now but I was not born that way. The flavours can be extremely complex but somehow they all work together to give a mesmerizing effect, similiar to chocolate. However, I remember one time I had a really bad stomach infection after eating at a restaurant. It was so bad I felt like someone was cutting the inside of my stomach, which was quite a shock to me because I just about never ever get sick. For several days I could barely eat a thing not only because food made my stomach feel even worse but the taste was totally different in the worst way. In the end only 2 things I tried were not too horrible, banana and coconut water. And one of the worst tasting things was... CHEESE. It was incredibly foul and bitter, nasty nasty rotten stuff. Perhaps that is the true taste of food without the filter of a good appetite. So, to answer your question, I probably would not try too hard to turn them into cheese lovers, it might be truely nasty to them. On the other hand, I also have another theory. I believe that without the ability to at least differentiate some of the different components in a particular food it is perhaps impossible to enjoy. In sound, we would hear a cluster of sound as dissonance which basically functions as noise, typically annoying. But, the same cluster of sound when heard by someone with the ability to actually hear each tone independently, and appreicate the way it is being put together it might be very beautiful, especially when it is introduced in a coherent setting. So, this means it should be possible to turn a non cheese lover into one by somehow sharpening the taster's ability to differentiate different flavours. I think this is why a dog would stick its nose in places we consider too nasty. It actually loves the complexity that we lack the ability to understand. Do I make any sense?
"gourmet" foods you liked as a kid
I was a lucky child. I cannot even think of something that I have now that I didn't have as a child. I mean, pheasant, shark fin, abalone, oyster, smoked oyster, smoked salmon, veal cold cuts, bird's nest, duck, goose, quail, matsutake, Italian cured meats....... I was not picky but I could always tell when a dish or an ingredient was extraordinary and would remember the taste extremely well even years and years later.
What shocked you the first time you ate it?
Beaujolais nouveau, it was incredibly horrible.
Would you eat gulf shrimp
I thought of exactly the same thing. Following the world trade attacks I kept hearing on news that the official word was the air was safe but I looked at the images and thought it could not be right. I mentioned but no one I knew seemed to care, and now, well, apparently it probably was not safe after all. Not really making a comment on the gulf shrimp, but I just feel sometimes things are not always as transparent as they should be.
Bo Ky – Good Chiu Chow Noodle and BBQ Restaurant in Chinatown
I am so glad you wrote up this review. Off and on I have been going there for almost 20 years now, the stewed duck has always been wonderful and so are the chili sauces, red and green. There used to be another chao chow restaurant nearby that served stewed goose and was my first choice but unfortunately closed over a decade ago. I reallyt miss it.....
Rendering fat and then cooking the protein in its own fat - do other people do this?
I often cut off a piece of fat then let it melt in some other cooking oil before adding the meat to brown.
Dang, I can't score these chestnuts!
I have an inexpensive chef's knife that I don't mind doing bad things to. I use my wrist to swing the knife downward toward the shell and that worked everytime. But I get a feeling it may not be something others should try because it could be dangerous if you lose your grip while you swing the knife.
How do you eat tinned sardines?
sardines, oil from the tin, olive oil, scallions or red onions, pasta, olive paste, capers, lemon juice, parsley, and shaved fennel, mix it all together, eat cold or room temp. really easy, really good.
Do you have a favorite I'm-alone-now-so-nobody-will-know favorite dish?
a few things i can think of right now. Really good cheese and bread, canned sardines, especially the small lightly smoked ones, smoked oysters with crackers, smoked duck breast, smoked salmon, so yes i like smoky foods. I often add smoked paprika and capers to the smoked seafood. But there is something i do no one does as far as i know: I dice up taro into very small pieces. The taro has to come from big taro roots with striking purple veins, not the tiny korean or japanese ones as they are nearly flavorless. cook it in the microwave for a few mins with water. then i mash up the taro with a fork or spoon somewhat, add fast cooking oatmeal, microwave again, stir in some sugar, a very tiny pinch of salt, add a little milk to cool it, and there, a really delicious, nutrutious fast and warming easy dessert. btw i eat this particular oatmeal on the thin side, enough oats to bring out the taro fragrance not enough to kill it. so basically i am using oatmeal as the main body as well as thickener but taro as flavouring. I have tried splenda to replace sugar and it worked. I would imagine perhaps condensed milk or coconut milk would do well too. The thing is I always eat this thing myself, and unless there is already a can of condensed milk or coconut milk already open, I never wanted to go through the trouble to open them just for this purpose. Another very simple thing i like that I doubt most people like as much as I do is oven roasted hazelnuts, I think they have the best texture of all the nuts. I like other nuts a lot too, but almonds, a little hard, chestnut, well, somewhat like a woody potato, brazil nuts...not buttery enough, macadamia nuts are too oily, walnuts are too soft and pecans are too crashable and a tad too oily, cashews are too milky.
Foods you eat strangely
It's not a habit but I doubt too many people do this: I discovered the baby swiss cheese Madrigal does not melt easily. So I cut it into slices and bake them on a cookie sheet. They turn into cheese puffs, neat snack.
Green Dragon Apple
I saw this apple for the first time. Anyone having issues with tart apples must give this a try. I ate one that was sweet all the way, incredible. But I must confess, it is not my kind of apple, it is a little boring for me.
Enormously, tremendously, stupendously huge turkey advice?
Is the cavity big enough to stick your head in to take a really good, close look? Actually you could stuff it with a smaller turkey perhaps, and a cornish hen inside the smaller turkey.
