Lemon Curry's Profile
El Bulli 2010 Reservations
Actually, this year they explicitly stated that any requests submitted between January 1st and the middle of the month would be considered in the same light ("as having been sent in the first moment" is the way they phrased it). Perhaps that's the reason for the unusual delay - the window fr applications was much longer than years past?
El Bulli 2010 Reservations
Thanks for the interpretation - it suggests there is still hope!
Nonetheless, has no one heard (or heard of someone hearing) about getting in this year?!
For the last 3 or 4 years, acceptances have started to trickle out a month after the application deadline (an acceptance on 12/5 last year would have been one of the later ones).
El Bulli 2010 Reservations
Has anyone had anything but rejections so far? Any friends-of-friends who've got in? Unlike in years past, it seems that absolutely no one (here, on egullet, or anywhere else online, as far as I can tell) has had a positive reply, and it's been 1 1/2 months since the application period ended (by which point most people have usually heard).
A friend and I have unanswered requests, so I emailed Luis to see when acceptances were due to go out and, amazingly, he actually replied (message below).
Short version: it seems that they are now booked up for the year.
So is that it? No online foodies managed to get in at all this year?! The announcement of the temporary closure came after the deadline, and usually elbulli are great at replying to every single request.
Any thoughts?
We are living a big problem since there are not enough options for all the people who try to visit us for the first time as well as the customers who wish to return. We try to look for the most possible of solutions and taking the problem with a lot of care and respect, but our capacity for one season is very limited and we are surpassed by the demand that we received even at the first moment.
Now we do not have any more options but we must confirm all the reservations ten days in advance. We will take care full time to see if there are changes that permit us to find some solutions more. A waiting-list is not possible because it would be endless but, if you wish, we will be at your disposal to check the situation.
Consuming Carnivores
Raising carnivores is also more feed-intensive than raising herbivores: instead of feeding on relatively plentiful vegetation, they have to be fed on the animals which eat the vegetation and then concentrate those calories into meat. So, overall, you get a smaller mass of meat at the end with the carnivores then if you were just eating the herbivores. This inefficiency could be one reason the practice of raising carnivores for food never really took off.
How did the chef make it?
also, willpowder.net sells sodium alginate and calcium chloride, for a lot cheaper. I did an edible demo of this ( http://willpowder.net/caviar.html ) mango caviar last weekend for a kids' national chemistry week event, and they were really blown away by how cool and tasty spherification can be.
The Alinea cookbook that just came out has recipes for large-scale spheres, rather than caviar: For exampe, ginger spheres made by filling hemispherical molds with ginger juice and calcium lactate mixture, then placing the frozen hemispheres in a warm sodium alginate bath, gelling the outside as it thaws.
What odd or unusual foods to you eat?
Or to bypass any effort whatsoever, an open jar of fluff and an open jar of peanut butter, and a spoon.Tastes like Monday afternoon!
How did the chef make it?
If it's not one of the methods moh mentioned, it could be some sort of "spherification" a la el bulli using sodium alginate and a calcium chloride bath, but if the outside was crusty they may have done something in addition to alginating the outside.
What Food Job Would You Like?
and I bet your employee discount makes for some sweet shopping, too.
What Food Job Would You Like?
I want to be Herve This, the French chemist who with Nicholas Kurti invented molecular gastronomy (the academic pursuit, not the culinary movement). Make science all day long and use it to help people understand why food is the way it is, and cool new things to do with it. And also collaborate with a bunch of really creative, forward-thinking chefs.
Won't You Be My (Chef/Foodie) Neighbor?
Dufresne would be awesome, and I wouldn't mind moving to the English countryside if I could live next door to Heston Blumenthal- "hey, try this insane thing I just invented! and here, have some triple cooked chips to go with it!" and then we would have a pint at his pub.
Success! Homemade “Fage” Yogurt! Easy! Cheap!
Wow! I'll have to try this, if I can hide it from my boyfriend who is terrified of milk. Thanks for sharing all your work!
I always enjoy _____, no matter how bad it is.
oh man, mediocre, microwaved apple pie with mediocre vanilla ice cream is so good you can hardly tell it's bad.
Also, pudding. Even terrible pudding is still ok, and brings me back to my snack-pack childhood...
Why does organic milk taste "richer" than non-organic milk?
Totally. What I was referring to above were, basically, what you just said: possible perceived differences based on a few different things: total ration of fat, protein, etc, versus microscale structures of fat and protein, or the presence of various organic compounds which could give, say, a grassy or oniony note. It sounds like you have a lot more practical experience in this area than me, who is waiting for the day when I can do this rather than read about it.
anyways, science is awesome. but not as awesome as eating!
Impulse buy- salt cod- now what?! Help!
Bacalao al Pil-Pil! Its Basque! Basically, you very slowly poach soaked salt cod in garlic infused-oil, and the gelatin that comes out of it helps emulsify the oil into a sauce.
see http://www.saveur.com/article/Food/Salt-Cod-in-Garlic-Sauce
Why does organic milk taste "richer" than non-organic milk?
I haven't done double-blind or anything, but I have noticed your initial assertion before, too. If I may ask, where was your milk from (I see you we are both east coast, but likely have quite different milk supplies)? It would be interesting to see if someone could identify what causes this phenomenon- my hunch is either concrete differences in protein/fat content, or differences is the colloidal microstructure of the milk, or perhaps, as Maria Lorraine pointed out, an actual flavor difference.
Anyways, thank you for sticking up for your assertion and also edifying us!
Why does organic milk taste "richer" than non-organic milk?
Perhaps a quibble, but:
If there is a non-"placebo effect" taste/texture difference between two similar products, this arises from a difference in physical or chemical composition and thus is, in fact, a scientific difference. The two burgers, for example, may have different levels of denaturation of muscle proteins, and the stored carrot will certainly have undergone changes in sugar and water levels in three weeks. Our tongue, our taste buds, and our olfactory receptors are all, essentially, highly sensitive instruments to differences of these types. Flavor and texture all arise from physical makeup and chemistry, and differences in them are in fact measurable if you know what to look for and have the right equipment.
Regarding Organic vs. Conventional milk, it could easily be the case that two samples may appear "identical" via rough analysis of protein, water, and fat content, but a rough analysis doesn't take into account specifics of individual groups of molecules, or of microstructure (this is how the melamine-tainted milk scandal happened in China: basic tests for, say, protein content look for Nitrogen, which melamine also contains, but don't go much more specific than that because it gets expensive). So, one or the other may have a different microstructure of fat bubble size, or may contain very small amounts of organic compounds which would be expensive to identify but are nonetheless perceptible in small amounts to the human palate.
Have you ever given yourself food poisoning?
If you are not in the habit of autoclaving your chili, then it is not bacteria-free. BUT, as long as what you are eating does not contain or has not come into contact with undercooked poultry, you are unlikely to have an environment where salmonella or campylobacter (responsible together for 79% of cases of food poisoning) will propagate. So, personally, I don't sweat it, but I realize I am still living somewhat dangerously.
Ice cream thickeners?
you're welcome! I'm happy to encourage any kind of open-minded culinary exploration, and I can sympathize with your budget-consciousness as well.
Tax and Tip in the UK? (Question from a traveling New Yorker)
Cool. thanks for the advice, I thought VAT might be included but couldn't remember from my last trip which was a while ago.. And I'll be sure to leave my tip in cash! (I try to do it in NYC too, where waiters are supposed to get all their tips but some managers skim off the top...)
Tax and Tip in the UK? (Question from a traveling New Yorker)
I'm taking advantage of a trip to England this fall and will be eating at the Fat Duck in Bray. I'm a student with a tiny income so it will be something of a splurge-meal for me, which is cool, but I'd like to be able to plan for a budget that won't leave me broke for the rest of the trip. What I'm wondering is, in high-end restaurants in the UK, what does tax and tip usually come to on top of the bill? I live in New York so I'm used to adding 25% to the top of the food total; is it like that at restaurants in England too?
Ice cream thickeners?
Hydrocolloids are a family of substances made up of polymers, long-chain molecules which form a network in water and give it thickened or gel-like properties. Some more popular ones are gelatin, tapioca, cornstarch, and agar-agar, which many of you probably have in your kitchens, especially if you cook cold desserts or certain Asian cuisines. Some more "exotic" ones are xanthan gum, carrageenan, methylcellulose, guar gum, etc. The majority of these are derived from natural sources - agar-agar and carrageenan are from seaweed, guar gum from beans, gelatin from rendered animal bones. A number of these have been in use for centuries: agar-agar and konjac flour in Japan, for example.
On the topic of thickeners in ice creams, one of the oldest frozen desserts still being consumed is the Turkish/Mediterranean ice cream Maras Dondurma, which traditionally uses the long-chain carbohydrates found in certain orchid roots as a thickener instead of eggs. It's difficult to find the ingredients outside of Turkey, but I've made it and it works quite well. And the concentration of thickener is very small - around the scale of a teaspoon for a quart of ice cream. I don't have any resources for other types of thickeners but I believe there are a number of websites dealing with them online - this one http://www.cybercolloids.net/recipes/details.php?id=1 seems like more of an industrial-type formulation of ice cream, but you can see that the concentrations of hydrocolloids needed is very low.
One website which is a good resource for unusual specialty products is http://www.willpowder.net/ which sells things like xanthan gum, methylcellulose, and agar-agar, as well as other interesting chemicals like sodium alginate for spherifying liquids.
I don't often buy commercial ice cream because frequently, additives are overused so that an inferior product can be passed off as a richer, creamier, better-made one. However, these products have interesting specific properties which, when used responsibly and for a specific purpose along with other high-quality ingredients, can achieve delicious foods. For example, an excellent, thick ice cream which does not taste like egg, if that is what you are looking for, or a gelatin which does not melt at high temperatures. The important thing is to keep an open mind, keep exploring, and recognize that irresponsible overuse of products is not the same as a bad product.
Halal Carts in NYC
The Sammy's Halal cart on Broadway and east 4th does an excellent sandwich. I've detected a definite ginger note in their chicken, along with the already-mentioned spices.
Ice cream thickeners?
don't fear the hydrocolloids! I don't know specific preparations/amounts/brands you should use as thickeners, but in NYC both Ciao Bella and Il Laboratorio del Gelato use (I believe) carrageenan instead of eggs to get REALLY delicious, dense, fantastic ice cream that isn't eggy.
I would challenge anyone who thinks thickeners have no place in good ice cream to take a trip down to orchard street and prove me wrong.
Where to Eat Near the Queensboro Bridge
This was exactly what I was looking for. I stumbled across Rosa Mexicano with a visitor last week and we ate about $25 worth of guacamole, and I can't wait to go to Tony Dragona's, as I am a big fan of Sammy's Halal downtown and carts in general. When I get a bit more liquid I'll be sure to check out Jubilee for mussels.
thanks!
Where to Eat Near the Queensboro Bridge
Having recently relocated the northeastern edge of midtown from the East Village, I am now a little lost when it comes to where to grab a bite, and there isn't a ton of info out there about everyday eating in this particular area.
So, I am looking for suggestions in the 50's and 60's roughly east of lexington: anywhere from best hole-in-the-wall sandwich shops and diners to fancier fare. Really, I don't even know where to get good coffee (no Mud truck, I presume).
I know about ess-a-bagel and the Indian row on 58th. Some other place I've seen (but not tried yet) are the Moonstruck Diner on 58th, Les Sans Culottes East, Bruce's Bakery on 56th & 1st.... are these any good?
So, my esteemed colleagues in eating, please steer me in the right direction!
Relaxed lounge-y places for tea?
Think Coffee (3rd and Mercer), mentioned above, has pretty good tea and pastries, and well-made, strong coffee. A caveat, though; they tend to run out of food and get taken over by students and freelancers in the afternoon. Like, no chance of a table, thus not very loungey. So, go in the morning.
How Important to You is Pronunciation? (vis-a-vis Food)
Sometimes I order Pain Au Chocolat only to have the server look at me blankly until I say "Chocolate Croissant"
My friends sometimes make me say "croissant" repeatedly when we're out since apparently not saying it "Cruhsant" is hilarious
Pseu-dondurma a la japonaise (without salep)
do you have a source you could post for these? I too am interested in the dondurma-related qualities of konjac.
thanks!
How/Why did you pick your screen name?
"Vermont Curry" ; what an odd choice for a brand name
Favorite recipes from Bittman's How To Cook Everything
Never made the chicken adobo, but the Pork Loin with Mustard Curry came out really well for me.
