Tag Archives: cooking

I blame Crocodile Dundee

Make no mistake. No Reservations is a show primarily about food. That doesn’t mean that every episode is only about food or that the entire length of the program is centered around food. Sometimes an episode focuses more on the people, culture, history, geography, or various other aspects of a location – instead of only the food.

No Reservations Australia was about food. Not necessarily Australian food either. More like food that happened to be made in Australia. Like so many other places on this planet, globalization is in full effect in Melbourne, Australia. The food is heavily influenced, if not outright made and served by, people from other cultures around the world. This episode, rather than focusing on the Australia we all think we know (shrimp on a barbie, Aborigines eating bats in the outback, and kangaroos) it focused on the side of Australia we probably never knew was there. I blame Crocodile Dundee for my skewed view of Australia.

I suppose Tony’s little black book being chocked full of amazing chefs all over the world helps – since we undoubtedly saw a side of Melbourne cuisine that most of us probably couldn’t afford. But I’m ok with that. No Reservations is the world through Tony’s eyes – not mine. Through Tony’s contacts, budget, and experience – not mine. And every single week I look forward to that… whether or not it depicts an experience that I could ever have or not.

Shrimp over pasta

I decided to make something a little different for this episode. Yes, I made shrimp but I decided to add a little bit of an Italian flare (read: make my own basic tomato sauce and throw it over pasta). There was no indication that Italy has had any real effect on the food in Melbourne, Australia in this episode (although I’m sure it has)… but there was a lot of showing many other areas that obviously have had a huge impact. British, Lebanese, and Sichuan influences were highlighted the most. I need some Sichuan food at my next opportunity.

When No Reservations focuses on food everything else seems to fall into place.

Aren’t Mondays the greatest?

Mondays are notoriously the least favorite day of the week. The end of the weekend. The beginning of the work week – no matter how you look at it, it isn’t good. Which is why I love that No Reservations is on Monday night.

What better way to cap off an otherwise crappy day? Tune into the Travel Channel and be whisked away by Anthony Bourdain to someplace you’ve probably never been, learn facts about that place that you’ve probably never known, and watch him experience peoples and foods that you’ve probably never experienced yourself.

No Reservations Chile

The opening few minutes of No Reservations – Chile, for me, weren’t that great. I’ve watched the episode twice now and I still think the beginning could have used a punch up in the first few minutes somehow. That being said, the rest of the episode was fantastic.

Empanadas

I don’t know about you, but every time I watch No Reservations I end up drooling, stomach making gurgling sounds, ever wanting a dish of whatever Tony is eating. Not this time. This time my lovely wife Eliza whipped up some empanadas for us to enjoy. We were both surprised when empanadas were not in this episode… but wait – they were. One of the missing scenes was mouthwatering empanadas. We had ours baked not fried as Tony does. I don’t know how Tony isn’t 300lbs.

Patagonia. I think the No Reservations crew are using some new lenses this year because, while Patagonia looks like one of the most beautiful coastal areas on the planet, it looked altogether real or three-dimensional on my HD TV. I could smell the seawater. Whatever lenses you’re using – keep it up. Chile is one of the most gorgeous episodes to date (Venice is high up on this list).

Twice during this episode Tony remarked how he could see himself somehow delegating the job of host to someone else. He jested that he’d just like to sit back, relax, and enjoy his food without “worrying about the cameras”. He has to be kidding right? Although I believe he’s a hard working man, a man that does his job well, puts a lot of effort into making what could be just a good show a great one – I also believe he really loves his job. But, if he wants to experiment a little – I’m available for a trip or two. There are several places on earth I’m dying to get to, to explore, to enjoy, to photograph, to eat.

I bet with Tony’s job I’d come to love Mondays.

Next up: Australia. Having had kangaroo I’m looking forward to Tony’s take on what I think is some of the best meat in the world.

AuRants, opening soon in Duryea, PA.

Our friends Dave Ciminelli (master chef) and Mike Matosky are opening a restaurant in Duryea, Pennsylvania – soon. It is called AuRants and to say that I’m excited about the opening wouldn’t be enough.

They plan on taking full advantage of both Facebook and Twitter with their new venture to make announcements, share deals, and generally keep everyone up to date with new things going on at the restaurant.

If you want to see the type of talent that Dave has, here is an episode of Eat Weird that features his talents.

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Several episodes of Eat Weird feature Dave’s dishes so be sure to check them out. Enjoy and see you at AuRants this summer.

I love me some sushi

First of all, I’d eat just about anything. Lets get that out there right off the bat. I mean, I helped a friend start a show called Eat Weird. That is how much I adore trying new things.

Yes I have been known to eat fish eggs right out of the fish. I don’t do this for shock factor – I do it because I truly enjoy trying out new things to see if l like them. Side note: The fish eggs right out of the fish tasted to me a lot like grits with a sprinkle of salt.

Which is my I’m proclaiming my love for sushi. I’ve mentioned sushi here before but I’ve never just come out and say that I love it. Or, jot down the reasons why. Oh, and by the way – the photos that spurred this post on are photos from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market that I saw linked to from the Flickr Blog. Tell me that place doesn’t look like a fish-lovers Graceland.

I suppose I love sushi because it is nearly unadulterated. Most sushi is first frozen to kill any potential parasites or whozawhatsits – but besides that you’re getting fresh, raw, unblemished fish from the ocean into your mouth. Most of the time the tastes from sushi are subtle. Many people like to spice up their sushi with wasabi and soy mixes – and I do too on occasion – but I truly do enjoy the subtle tastes in sushi all by itself.

I find that I enjoy subtleties in most of my foods. Wine, for example, is something I enjoy even more when the fruit of the wine isn’t altogether apparent, but you need to search for the tastes, usually on the finish, to figure it out. I was given a lovely homemade apple wine from a friend not too long ago and the taste of the apples was so subtle that I found the wine extraordinary. Some would sip the wine, expect to be hit with the flavor of apple all over their palate, and be disappointed when that didn’t happen. I, on the other hand, actually am pleasantly surprised when that doesn’t happen.

The subtleties found in sushi are many. The taste of sushi is, at least for this novice, extremely hard to articulate. On the one hand, you have the combination of raw, nearly tasteless, meat combining with the taste of some of the best rice you’ve ever had. Sushi rice is typically prepared with a dabble of vinegar to keep the rice loose – which brings an altogether “freshness” to the sushi. I suppose one of the main tastes of good sushi is, well, freshness. It tastes like you’re eating something brand new.

Other tastes seem to come from the type of fish that it is. The subtle differences between red snapper and salmon, as an example, seem to be more in texture and density than in taste. I can tell the difference between the two blind-folded (I think) but it’d be more based on the feel of the fish than the taste itself. Most sushi has a base taste. That base taste is spread out over all the difference kinds of sushi and then subtle hints are thrown in to mix it up. I suppose that base taste could be best described as the ocean. Not overpowering, mind you – but just enough for you to know where it came from.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. I love sushi. If you’ve never tried it. Do yourself a favor and try something new just to see if you like it. Maybe you won’t catch a fish in a lake and eat the eggs out of it like I did – but perhaps you can have a nice sushi chef make you a few pieces of heaven to try the next time you have the chance.

The new SimplyRecipes.com

Simply Recipes, which used to live at elise.com/recipes/, now has it’s own domain SimplyRecipes.com. It also has a slightly updated design, information architecture, and more.

One thing I did like was that when the update was announced, they had taken steps to make sure that everyone’s feed subscription didn’t go stale. However, I don’t like that both elise.com/recipes and SimplyRecipes.com are one in the same. One should forward to the other. Google doesn’t like duplicate URLs (no matter what Jesse her web guy told her).

That’d be my only suggestion.

The reason I’m linking to this site, though, is really that I’ve been using Simply Recipes to find excellent recipes for a long time and I thought I’d throw it into my suggested tag.

Source: Simply Recipes.

Review: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

For the past several weeks we’ve been interviewing for various positions at Viddler. We’ve gone through several resumes, conducted a few interviews, probed referrals for information about the interviewees, sent follow-up questions, and generally debated the fate of our would-be potential new team members for what seems like weeks. This is an interesting process on both sides of the table. I’ve been on the other side of the table more times than I care to recount, but it really is an interesting process to pour over one’s career (or lack thereof) to somehow build an opinion of someone.

It is somewhat disingenious to be sure. We could never really, really get to know this person based on a one-page document that they probably threw together the night before their interview. “Experiences? Why yes, I have those! X, Y, and Z. I’m familiar with them.” Seldom do resumes reveal the extent of that familiarity. Did the person take the time to prioritize the things they are experienced in based on the amount of time they’ve spent with them? Or, did they list them in order of the supposed importance for the job at hand? Or, did they write down anything they thought might be good to know for the job? No one can be sure – really – at least for the first few weeks they are on the job.

Then there is the entire struggle to really get to know who someone is. To peel away the nerves, the front they are showing in order to impress us, the bullet points on the resume, and the clothes they wore to the interview to reveal who the person is after they’ve known us for a few years. Do they like to cook? Have they traveled? Do they want to? What do they think about family? Religion? The state of the economy? Are they really a morning person or are they just saying that they are? Time, it seems, is the only tool that can be used to find out the answers to these questions.

Sorry. I’m ranting. That isn’t what this post was supposed to be about.

I wanted to review Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I just finished it the other day. The book reminded me of this process. Kitchen Confidential, it could be said, is the resume of Anthony Bourdain – a New York City chef that has 30+ years experience working in what he calls “The under belly”. The book begins with his first experience eating a raw oyster in French waters when he was just 9 years old. That one, raw, delicious oyster changed his entire life. I’m guessing it would be the first bullet point on his resume.

But this book serves as something much better than a resume. Resumes are cold, factual, and do not leave room for too much expression. The “story”, if there is really a story in this book, is revealed to us in a rather haphazard way. He bounces around through his career to slowly describe who he is through what he experienced. Want to know his thoughts on meat? You’ll slowly begin to draw that picture based on several experiences he had at many of his jobs. Tip: Don’t ask for your meat to be well done. Want to know when to order seafood? Learn from the guy who buys the stuff in the hundreds of pounds. Hint: Not on Monday or Tuesday. What about his thoughts about personal work ethic? Immigrant labor? Race? Gender? Or even about who should or should definitely not own a restaurant? You’ll need to read the entire book to find out.

I’m not sure what I find fascinating about Anthony Bourdain other than his style of thought. It is obvious, when he’s given the opportunity, that he chooses his words fairly carefully. I suppose I see an older version of myself somewhere in there. Someone who notices the little things, enjoys the fine things, can only afford the not-so-fine things, and yet has the privilege to once and a while dip my hand into the “fine things cookie jar”. A self-reflective kinda dude. It could be that I would love to have his job (not the chef bit, but the traveling eater raconteur bit). Either way, I’m enjoying my attempt to glean as much experience vicariously through Anthony Bourdain as I can. His show, his books, his blog are all my tools in building my own food, travel, and writing resume without the expense.

Kitchen Confidential, for some one that even remotely enjoys food, the restraunt business, or interesting people, is an essential addition to the book shelf. It has inspired me to continue to do what I love, to be willing to have my mind madeover later in life when my ideals are proven incorrect, to learn as much as I can from every single job that I do in order to make the next one better, to build a list of hard working people that I wouldn’t mind working with again in the future, and to eat weird in hope of epiphany.