plug and socket slappy hollerween!

my birfsday tomorrow

its my birfday tomorrow. twenty nine years young. halloween party tonight - YEAH BABY, my favorito time of the year.

other things ive been up to:

• my old college roomate, Tadd, came to visit about 2 weeks ago. he works on alaskan fishing boats counting the diff. species of fish they catch. this last boat was a mackerel fish.
• i like mackerel. the japanese cook a bangin mackerel..oily fish with a lot of flavor. ive ordered it cooked and raw from japanese restaurants, and it tastes the same both ways.
• india coming soon. my buddy john from work old me that the one emperor who built the Taj Mahal originally planned an identical black Taj dead across from the white one. i can't wait to see it - one of the 7 wonders of the world...
• reading the new haruki murakami short story book, "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". REALLY good. highly recommended.
• using this super delicious finishing salt, fleur de sel (flower of the salt) on everything...
• bout to cop a new chef knife, courtesy of my lovely sister, erica, for a bday present she got me, a gift certificate to a knife store...thanks, slick.

audi five gees

farmers market in autumn

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS DAY TODAY! farmers market. chanterelle mushrooms, squash, radishes, locally raised pork products, tons of super fresh amazing fall harvest items..

SICK new concepts from el Bulli

The #1 restaurant in the WORLD - el Bulli has these serious idealogies/concepts for their food styles - taken from their website, www.elbulli.com :

Synthesis of elBulli cuisine. In the mid-1990s a new style of cuisine began to be forged. Today, this style has been wholly consolidated and may be defined in the following terms:

1. Cooking is a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation and culture.

2. The use of top quality products and technical knowledge to prepare them properly are taken for granted.

3. All products have the same gastronomic value, regardless of their price.

4. Preference is given to vegetables and seafood, with a key role also being played by dairy products, nuts and other products that make up a light form of cooking. In recent years red meat and large cuts of poultry have been very sparingly used.

5. Although the characteristics of the products may be modified (temperature, texture, shape, etc.), the aim is always to preserve the purity of their original flavour, except for processes that call for long cooking or seek the nuances of particular reactions such as the Maillard reaction.

6. Cooking techniques, both classic and modern, are a heritage that the cook has to know how to exploit to the maximum.

7. As has occurred in most fields of human evolution down the ages, new technologies are a resource for the progress of cooking.

8. The family of stocks is being extended. Together with the classic ones, lighter stocks performing an identical function are now being used (waters, broths, consommés, clarified vegetable juses, nut milk, etc.).

9. The information given off by a dish is enjoyed through the senses; it is also enjoyed and interpreted by reflection.

10. Taste is not the only sense that can be stimulated: touch can also be played with (contrasts of temperatures and textures), as well as smell, sight (colours, shapes, trompe d’oeil, etc.), whereby the five senses become one of the main points of reference in the creative cooking process.

11. The technique-concept search is the apex of the creative pyramid.

12. Creation involves teamwork. In addition, research has become consolidated as a new feature of the culinary creative process.

13. The barriers between the sweet and savoury world are being broken down. Importance is being given to a new cold cuisine, particularly in the creation of the frozen savoury world.


14. The classical structure of dishes is being broken down: a veritable revolution is underway in first courses and desserts, closely bound up with the concept of symbiosis between the sweet and savoury world; in main dishes the "product-garnish-sauce" hierarchy is being broken down.

15. A new way of serving food is being promoted. The dishes are finished in the dining room by the serving staff. In other cases the diners themselves participate in this process.

16. Regional cuisine as a style is an expression of its own geographical and cultural context as well as its culinary traditions. Its bond with nature complements and enriches this relationship with its environment.

17. Products and preparations from other countries are subjected to one's particular style of cooking.

18. There are two main paths towards attaining harmony of products and flavours: through memory (connection with regional cooking traditions, adaptation, deconstruction, former modern recipes), or through new combinations.

19. A culinary language is being created which is becoming more and more ordered, that on some occasions establishes a relationship with the world and language of art.

20. Recipes are designed to ensure that harmony is to be found in small servings.

21. Decontextualisation, irony, spectacle, performance are completely legitimate, as long as they are not superficial but respond to, or are closely bound up with, a process of gastronomic reflection.

22. The menu de dégustation is the finest expression of avant-garde cooking. The structure is alive and subject to changes. Concepts such as snacks, tapas, pre-desserts, morphs, etc., are coming into their own.

23. Knowledge and/or collaboration with experts from different fields (gastronomic culture, history, industrial design, etc.,) is essential for progress in cooking. In particular collaboration with the food industry and the scientific world has brought about fundamental advances. Sharing this knowledge among cooking professionals has contributed to this evolution.

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i love this. i'm trying to study these concepts and seriously hypothesize on them. i'm a little crushed right now though after a few happy hour pitchers of mcmenamins terminator stout...

asia, here i come again...

rumor has it that i might be headed to india, vietnam and thailand in early december.

holler at your boy.

ok go

in case you havent seen this ok go video yet, its hilarious and i still dig watching it from time to time:

culinary tour de france

my cooking class at in good taste was definitely a night to remember. one of portland's best chefs (tom hurley) paired w/ portland's freshest sommelier, ken collura.

things i learned/knew but was reinforced/took new outlook on:

• while eating a fine meal (or any meal where you truly want to taste your food), breathe solely through your mouth
• begin meals with cold dishes, as your flavor profile changes
• blanching in salt water then moving to the ice bath shocks green veggies, stops them from cooking, locks bright green chlorophyl color in
• different foods absorb diff. elements in diff. fashions, i.e., when dressing a salad, oil adheres better to some foods while vinegar adheres better to others, egg whites help this, etc.
• foie gras is amazing. fuck all those sissies worried about the geese and their livers.
• all grapes have white juice
• fleur de salt is an amazing finishing salt...i picked some up and actually overdid it with it tonihgt in this chicken and oyster mushroom dish i made w/ onions, red wine, thyme and chicken stock
• tom hurley served foie gras protestors chocolate chip cookies made w/ some foie gras fat!!!
• quenelle is an egg shape? we had these awesome quenelles of halibut in a lobster sauce. it reminded me of a fishy matzah ball
• adea and coleman are ken's favorite small-shop local pinot noirs
• pinots should be flexible, can go w/ fish, chicken or red meat
• best chicken ever for tom hurley is seared first then roasted @ 425.
• anything is great seared first then roasted in the oven.
• tom cooks fish, scallops, and other shellfish with avocado oil
• his lobster stock has lobster and shrimp shells in it along w/ white wine, coriander, brandy, thyme, onions, carrots, celery, fennel and tarragon?
• all of the french countryside is gorgeous.
• ken and tom both grew up in NY
• the #1 restaurant in the entire world is el Bulli in Spain.
• the el Bulli cookbook costs $350 at In Good Taste
• I flipped through it. it's INSANE!!! Many of the cool dishes at The French Laundry and Alana (the dope chicago restaurant w/ the chef is kinda like a mean scientist also) seem to come from the likes of this cookbook...
• Farce is a blend of 70% meat (duck, chicken, bacon, etc.) and 30% fat (pork/duck, etc). we ate some pheasant breasts stuffed with a farce, then wrapped in caul fat, seared then roasted.
• Caul fat is the lining of a pig's stomach. It looks like netting or white, ripped, pantyhose. It tastes amazing when you wrap other meats in it. I bet its off the wall to wrap scallops or shrimp in caul fat..it melts away leaving an incredible pork/bacon flavor in whatever you cover it in.. I was told it freezes well too.
• supposedly city market here in portland sells foie gras as well as caul fat
• im going to make stinke and mecca eat foie gras and caul fat on thanksgiving
• confit means to cook ini fat
• i have a dope recipe for duck confit. its a duck leg cooked in duck fat. it supposedly tastes like heaven.
• what did the french chef say to the american chef? he said "more salt. more butter." ha!
• 1st category meats are tender, like the tenderloin
• 2nd category meats are more like sirloins
• 3rd are shoulders, necks, shanks. bacon is a 3rd category. these need to be cooked slow at a low temp to break down all the fat and muscle holding the meat together.
• supposedly you can cook bacon in butter and the bacon wont absorb it. it cant absorb any more fat, supposedly the butter removes the fat in the bacon? tom said this...
• cut onions with the grain, not against it in an onion ring fashion. notice the difference in the smell and your eyes not watering.
• ken thinks the best pinot noirs are made in the burgundy region. then 2nd place is here in oregon. france thinks so too. the french come here more and more...worried.
• dont cook caul fat too fast, you want the flavor to seep in your food...
• season every component of the food.
• dont eat different foods on your plate, take a bite and get a piece of everything, all the food should blend well together.
• a great holiday meal would be sage and thinly sliced walnuts underneat the skin of the chicken/turkey. sear then slowly roast.
• sweet pea emulsion: peas + pea husks +salt + pepper + truffle oil
• rose petal jam is phenomenal

hbo's "The Wire"

although i fronted on HBO's "The Wire" for a few years because tim and bean loved it so much, i now admit i played myself. i bit off my nose to spite my face.

the wire is amazing. def. in the top t or 4 tv shows ever.

check out THE WIRE

crater lake video from july 4th weekend

october

• eagles are currently rocking the packers
• i got melenie a laptop for our anniversary
• she got me an amazing french cooking class
• temp has dropped into the 60s here
• leaves are changing colors
• i got the lamb chops at timberline lodge
• we went swimming in a heated pool, it was amazing to have mt hood behind us, at 11,249 feet elevation... gorgeous view...cool from the shouders up, but in a nice warm pool shoulders down....
• 2 bottles of bubbly..some tattinger and some moet...
• nice local pears and apples, some good brie & chevre...
• hiking in the morning after breakfast...
• now eagles crushing the packers...and wireless internet finally in the crib.
• october is my favorite month. fall is here. as of october 29th (my bday), it will have been 1 year that we've been living in oregon...