What are you cooking tonight?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by mugen shiyo, Sep 18, 2011.

  1. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    Dinner for @big soft moose if he ever comes for a visit :bigtongue::

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    FTFY
     
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  3. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Yup. Like I said earlier, plate it, don't floor it, and I'm happy.
     
  4. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    My cooking looks best when it's face down.
     
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  5. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    Even sunny side up eggs? :eek:;):)
     
  6. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Well, there are exceptions. They exist to avoid topological nightmares. How did Mobius like his eggs, anyway?
     
  7. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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  8. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Tonight? Dunno, but as I was getting my lunch together (salad and hardboiled eggs) I noticed we were out of salad dressing. Well, almost, my mini-bottle that I take to work had.... noooot quite enough for one salad. 2/3rds or so of enough. Caesar, too. So either just dump and rinse and make a quick vinegar and oil, or find out what the hell Caesar actually is so that I can put some stuff in to stretch it out.

    Stretched it out. Not half bad, but now I'm stuck with a recipe that consists of "Take two tablespoons of Kewpie Caesar salad dressing. Add one squirt of mayonnaise and a couple of little scoops of some sort of mustard that the label came off the jar but may be german cuz it's got seeds in it, and a splash of apple cider vinegar because that was the first one I laid hands on (used all my rice wine vinegar on biltong yesterday and Saturday).
     
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  9. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    The Mr. Kelly and I went out for a run this afternoon (58 degrees and sunny!). Someone in the neighborhood was grilling and it smelled so good that we agreed dinner tonight will be going to a local beer & burger joint.
     
  10. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    That works. If you had lemon juice, that would be a bit closer to Caesar.

    I had a similar salad dressing SNAFU. I was planning to make a salad with horseradish ranch dressing but discovered the buttermilk's "use by" date was the 15th, and it had solidified. I'd already mixed the mayo and horseradish but didn't have anything to thin it with (I use almond milk in my coffee, so no milk). So, I added a little sour cream and made crudite and dip instead of salad. (Crudite was cucumber, broccoli, yellow squash, baby carrots) Less chopping, so it worked out.

    To go with it, I made two kinds of flatbread pizza so I'd have leftovers. Pizza #1 is hot sausage, onions, and red pepper flakes, then when it came out of the oven I tossed a handful of baby spinach on it and put it back in the oven 'til the spinach wilted. (Then drizzled on a bit of olive oil when it came out.) Pizza #2 is hot sausage, onions, green bell peppers, and black olives. ETA: Cheap mozzarella on both, because it's the only Italian cheese my allergy will let me eat. No sauce on either.

    It's trash day, so it was clean out the fridge day.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2018
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  11. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Kill and barbecue while on the go. Highly convenient. :p
    Ripley.jpg
     
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  12. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, a good (to my tastes) Caesar salad dressing is on my list of things to learn to make. I'd kill for Bleu Cheese or Ranch dressing, but buttermilk is simply not a thing in Japan, and I'm not paying $3 a pint for cream to convert into teaspoons full of the stuff.
     
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  13. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    That's a blast from the past. I think it's egg yolk, lemon juice, minced garlic, oil, white wine vinegar, Worcester, Tabasco, anchovie paste, and mustard seed. Never done it tableside before, but it's still a thing that people talk about.
     
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  14. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Caesar dressing and roasted sesame dressing are pretty much defaults here. Not done tableside, just that's what's served. Sesame oil with salt makes an excellent dressing too, I may have to do some of that once I've emptied the current mini-bottle.
     
  15. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    ETA: Yep, Homes, that's it. An old-school recipe I have says to crush the garlic, then mash it with a fork with anchovy fillets and a little salt into a paste in the bottom of a wooden salad bowl you've rubbed with a cut garlic clove, then proceed with the rest. That's how Musso & Frank used to do it tableside.

    Musso & Frank in Hollywood used to do it tableside but unfortunately don't anymore. The first time I ever went to Musso's the infamous Louie was my server and made it with flair. (I wasn't yet allergic to cheese). He's been there since 1957. Dan Tana's still makes it tableside, according to Musso & Frank's when I just called to ask.

    @Iain Aschendale the ranch recipe I use (no packets) takes 1/2 cup of buttermilk and is pretty addictive, if that helps justify the cost of cream for you. (ETA: Or are you saying a pint of cream converts down to a minuscule amount of buttermilk? Extremely dyslexic today.) Aaaanyway, allegedly this recipe is the original one from the Hidden Valley Ranch resort, minus the MSG I leave out.

    Ranch Dressing:


    1/2 cup mayo
    1/2 cup buttermilk
    1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (you want the dried, not fresh for this so you don't end up with slimy parsley)
    1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
    1/8 teaspoon onion powder
    1/4 teaspoon MSG, aka "Accent" (optional. I leave it out.)

    Whisk all together & chill for several hours. Overnight is best. Makes 1 cup.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2018
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  16. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, that's classy but a fabulous misuse of labor. Can't imagine devoting that much time and resources to something as petty as salad dressing anymore, despite the style points. Shit, I can barely get a server to frame a salad properly, let alone make the fucking dressing tableside.
     
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  17. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Loss-leaders have got to be the most complicated part of accounting. How many of the people who walked in the door because they heard about the tableside Kool-Aid mixing would have just hit a vending machine and spent 0yen at your place if it weren't there. The thing that pisses me off as a customer is flair bartending and mojitos. A beer costs 500yen and takes about a minute to pour, a mojito costs maybe 600 yen and uses up an entire bartender for five minutes, meanwhile some other jackass back there is throwing the bottles instead of pouring from them and fuckit, there's a beer machine across the street.

    A friend of mine shared this picture, he's pretty proud of his cooking and plating skills :)

    31178449_2155775871116079_384096172207243264_n.jpg
     
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  18. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    I won't ask what you think about Lawry's spinning salad then...I do wonder in their case, if the novelty brings enough people in to offset all that labor cost?

    But here ya go, have fun geeking out with the stats from the kitchen of the original in Beverly Hills :):

     
  19. Shenanigator

    Shenanigator Has the Vocabulary of a Well-Educated Sailor. Contributor

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    You just reminded me of a salad question I've been forgetting to ask you for ages. To what point are salads in restaurants pre-assembled in the kitchen before the customer orders it? Is the cheese element already in there? There are a lot of places I can't order salads from because every fucking one of the salads on the menu has some kind of cheese: goat, feta, cheddar...So, not wanting to be that customer, I don't order salad unless it's a place that charges extra for the goat cheese. I try not to put the kitchen through hell for my stupid allergy. But I always wonder if I could order a salad without the goat cheese at some places. (I always assume the ones with feta and cheddar already have it in there.)
     
  20. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    That is how normal normal people plate food, then they pick up the fork and screw it all up. :)
     
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  21. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Sure. Anything's possible in an urban area... you can have a waitstaff that only walks on their hands in a 3 million+ market.

    I've never seen them prepped beforehand unless it's a banquet or wedding or something. Even in joints where a garden salad comes with the every entree, they're still made to order. About the only thing that's prepared would be the lettuce mixture if applicable. They turn to shit and lose their "fluffiness" pretty quickly.

    I can't imagine anyone caring about you omitting cheese. That's very common... especially with goat and feta. Temperamental chefs might get annoyed if someone wants to omit a key ingredient in an entree, but I've never met one that cared about salads. Come to think of it, nobody cares about salads.

    And that guest isn't annoying. Gluten free guest who doesn't have celiac is more annoying (oh, I can have a little). Food network scumbag guest is even worse (um, I don't think the grain is cut properly). And the less said about my-ribeye-is-too-fatty/my-cosmo-is-to-strong-guest the better. Know what you're ordering before you order it.

    ETA: oh, and Instagram every plate on the table is my least favorite.
     
  22. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    What about those jerks that send things back? From what I understand
    that is a pain in the ass on the staff.
     
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  23. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, it's a pain, but if the dish is not prepared correctly, they have every right to request another one. It's a different story if the guest doesn't know what they're talking about, but we'll still re-fire it. This obviously happens with temps on burgers and steaks all the time. There's plenty of people who don't know what medium rare is (red, warm center at 126F for the size and cut we use), so that's annoying as fuck... but whatever. The guest is not always right, but the guest always wins. I can't tell you how many times I say that on a given day. I pound it into the heads of the servers: You. Aren't. Allowed. To. Win.

    The key to avoiding all of this is to steer the guests away from things they're inclined to dislike. When someone says, "I don't really like seafood" don't let them order a fucking cioppino. Or if they say, "I prefer white wine" don't try to convince them to pair a cabernet with their steak. Listen to what people are telling you and have a plan already in place. Kill the problem before it's a problem. I've found that most people either know how read other people or they don't... it's not a skill that can be taught.
     
  24. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    @Homer Potvin

    Do you have an opinion on tips? Do you think the American model is better than the European model and for who is it better?
     
  25. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    To be honest, I feel like it's the same way here in a lot of restaurants (obviously not all).
     

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