oarnura's Profile
Real Biryani in the Bay Area
Real Biryani is like asking for Real BBQ. There are just so many variants.
To me Real Biryani is rice par cooked, the meat and spices with gravy cooked separately. Multiple layers of rice (drizzled with saffron infused milk) and meat gravy then finished in an Oven (or Dum).
I don't think you get there anywhere in the Bay Area.
I like the following:
Tastebuds for South Indian Home style With boiled egg.
Pakwan in Fremont makes a good lamb biryani with side of Mirch Ka Salan.
Amber Mountain View.
the best hamburger...where is it?
In-N-Out Fries Medium-Well is a happy medium for me. :-)
Bourdain - Egypt - last one of the season!
I recall he liked the whole desert experience and that he didn't have 5 days to spend and doubted if it could happen to a person like him.
His voice-over is just him being a smart ass pretending he is doing certain things just to please his producers. He did the same thing in Florida.
Bourdain - Egypt - last one of the season!
Yeah most of those structures were older than Christianity is today before Christ was even born. Think about that for a second. They are 1200 years older than Moses. Those structures and cities are over 4500 years old. They are still there today. In contrast go to Jersey City or Detroit, filthy!
To see something that has withstood and seen empires and religions come and go must be very humbling. I really want to visit Egypt and Bourdain made me want to do it more.
The scene where he goes to someone's house for food and the beauty of the simple joy on the faces of the children was very moving. I doubt you would ever find that in the US anywhere.
Bourdain - Egypt - last one of the season!
Have you ever seen parts of New York, Balitmore, Philly on TV? Every city has dirty parts.
Cairo is one of the oldest cities in the world not like the US where every thing was built much much more recently.
Compared to some of the newer cities in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, most cities in the US are down right filthy.
Bourdain - Egypt - last one of the season!
Is driving to vacation or sight seeing a waste of gas and pollution by your definition? What about flying just to visit some place for no reason but to vacation there?
Bourdain - Egypt - last one of the season!
I thought the food looked fantastic. Having lived in the middle east it brought back some good memories. I wouldn't judge food or a place for that matter by how it looks on TV.
Recent Manresa Report, a bit long
We just went to Manresa for our anniversary this week. The tasting menu had a few differences. We didn't get the Lavender mint amuse bouche, we only had 4. The other difference was the squab was substituted for sweet breads morel soubise and lemon grass. We had a black sesame cake with figs and lime sorbet ( it was visually stunning and excellent) instead of the monkeybread.
Was the cheese course a supplement because we didn't get it?
This was our first time at Manresa and trying sweet breads. Absolutely the best meal so far. We did L'Atelier in Vegas for the same money Manresa hands down was a better meal in its creativity.
My first In-N-Out Burger experience - questions
They have a link on their website to a subset of the "secret" menu.
http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp
You can also ask for fries light-well which is a happy median between regular and well done.
"San Francisco/Napa Trip Next Week: What to Order?" or "Guide Me Through Your Culinary Wonderland!"
Just one more bit of information.. Mark Denham was not in the kitchen that day. I just looked up a picture and can attest that the kitchen was under the control of two of the younger sous chefs. That might explain why things didn't live up to all the raves.
"San Francisco/Napa Trip Next Week: What to Order?" or "Guide Me Through Your Culinary Wonderland!"
I could have been an off night. The cocktails were decent, the Margarita Picante was pretty good. But I expect to taste the alcohol the drink is based on especially when the first ingredient on the description is alcohol.
The kitchen staff made a batch of Patatas Bravas for themselves and it looked much better than the one we were served. The seasoning seemed lighter and the potatoes seemed plumper. Were were sitting in the corner booth right in front of the kitchen, they had it on the pass and were eating from it. :-(
I just expected the dishes to be executed with a bit more refinement. May be my expectations were unreasonable. I love Range and I end up paying about the same as I did at Laiola and have consistently great meals there.
"San Francisco/Napa Trip Next Week: What to Order?" or "Guide Me Through Your Culinary Wonderland!"
I just had a very disappointing meal at Laiola, first time. Of the 4 dishes we ordered only 1 was barely acceptable. The Patatas Bravas was a huge disappointment overly coated with a thick layer of flavorless seasoning. The potatoes were shriveled and had a bad texture. The bacon wrapped Medjool dates were very unbalanced, the overly sweet dates overpowered the wafer thin bacon and chorizo. The Piperade with Jamon bread was greasy and tasted mostly of bread and peppers the Jamon was lost. The lamb was passable, cooked well but the peas it came with were tad overcooked and not properly seasoned. The cocktails were very watered down. My wife usually gets very buzzed with one cocktail or a glass of wine but she had two and didn't feel anything. From what I read they must be inconsistent.
I adore Canteen though so may be Sentinel for lunch would be my suggestion. If you do want to do basque/tapas i'd suggest bocadillos.
Meat Thermometer vs. Probe Thermometer
I realize this is too late since you have already made your purchase. But If you are looking for a thermometer to instantly check steaks, burgers and generally stuff on the grill or pan, I would highly recommend the thermoworks thermapen.
http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/tpen_home.html
An objective review: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=95&title=Kitchen+Thermometers
It is a little expensive but I think the thermapen is definitely worth the price and works as advertised. I haven't used a polder but having used a cheap pyrex thermometer that broke in less than two months and the thermapen there is no contest.
