Deek The Geek

Flock test

2008-07-02T18:57:00.001-06:00

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Testing Zemanta Firefox plug-in

2008-06-26T13:10:00.002-06:00

Image via WikipediaLooks like a pretty cool tool for blogging. Changes the Blogger interface when creating a post. Options include adding pictures, links to related articles, Wikipedia links and more. Reposting a GFC article here to see what options it gives me.

So you're a busy forgetful procrastinating slacker. You forgot to get your dad a Father's Day gift. Here's a great excuse - tell him it hasn't arrived yet. Even better, tell him it hasn't arrived because the gift you ordered isn't even in stores yet!

I mean, sure for Father's Day you could have gotten pop the predictable 10th Anniversary Edition of the The Barbecue! Bible or Weber's Real Grilling or one of the many other cookbooks associated with the holiday, but that's not very GFC. You wanted to get him something extra special, so you ordered one of the many amazing books coming out later this year. But what book to choose?

First we have a book we told you about a couple of months back - Grant Achatz' Alinea Book . It includes over 600 recipes to make 100 of Alinea's most famous dishes and includes over 600 stunning photos. Sure you may not have a cold smoking gun or an anti-griddle, but the pictures are pretty enough to justify the price. And to sweeten the pot, buying the book gets you access to the Alinea mosaic site "containing bonus recipes, demonstration videos, supplementary images, and a behind the scene perspective". Be sure to impress your dad by mentioning Grant Achatz is a 3 time James Beard Foundation Award winner.

Next up is the first new book from Thomas Keller since the Bouchon Cookbook. Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide will cover cooking food, you guessed it..., "sous-vide"; the almost now passé molecular gastronomy trend of cooking food "under vacuum". I'm actually really excited about this book as I've been on the hunt for an economical sous-vide setup for months. This book might help justify spending a little more money on a proper immersion circulator bath.

And finally we have the book from the second best restaurant in the world - The Fat Duck. In The Big Fat Duck Cookbook , Heston Blumenthal covers a lot of the back story behind the huge success of his restaurant along with documenting over 50 signature recipes in a massive 500+ page book. Now you too can make Snail Porridge, Nitro-scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream, and " Hot and Iced Tea ".

Oh, alright, I'll throw in a couple more IOU books just because they're so darn cool.

Do I really need to say much more about this book? I mean the title says it all - Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes . Are you kidding me? A book about fat! Endorsing the use of fat in all it's glory. Duck fat. Caul fat. Leaf lard. Bacon. Ghee. Suet. Schmaltz. Cracklings. Hell yeah. And that covershot - foodporn if I ever saw it.

I'm a little bit surprised about this next one, because I didn't think A16 had been around that long. I know it's a hot spot and all and Nate Appleman has gotten a lot of praise, but he seems to have gotten himself a book deal pretty quickly. Congrats to him. The book, A16: Food & Wine , focuses on rustic recipes of Southern Italy and sounds pretty intriguing.

Finally, if your dad has more of a sweet tooth, you can get him Dessert FourPlay: Sweet Quartets from a Four-Star Pastry Chef - the first cookbook written by rockstar pastry chef, Johnny Iuzzini . Iuzzini is one of maybe 10 pastry chefs I could name off the top of my head, and one of the few "modern" pastry chefs who has written a book recently. The last modern pastry book I can think of is Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts .

Of course you could always just tell your dad you were working on your own book .

2006-10-11T12:12:00.000-06:00

This is a blog post
I made it in Writely
Bold
Emphisis

eGullet

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test

2005-04-08T13:21:00.000-06:00

Heitz Cellar Dinner at The Tasting Room.

Tasting notes coming soon.

This was basically a practice session for my wife and I to take pictures and notes while dining. We're going to Chicago in June and want to have a moderate idea of what works and what doesn't to chronicle our culinary adventures.

The pictures were surprisingly the easy part. Granted our first dish was poorly captured, but after I figured out that the focus needed to be manually adjusted (using the Macro mode on our digital camera), the rest of the pictures turned out pretty well. Granted they don't have the style and composition that's going to land me in Gourmet anytime soon.

Taking notes and documenting the experience, however, was surprisingly difficult. I'll be leaving this task to my wife who has a far better vocabulary and an uncanny ability to nail down exactly what she's tasting in a precise and descript manner. Do you know how hard it is to pick out the subtle taste of nutmeg in a dish heavily spiced with cinnamon? Plus the fact that I can't read my own handwriting....

So without further ado, we present our very first photo journalistic submission to Gastronomic Fight Club.

The Bistro turned Dining Room

Seared Scallop marinated in Sake

Braised Pork Belly w/ Apple Vanilla Risotto Cake

Roasted Fennel Salad w/ Seared Tuna & Saffron Sorbet

Seared Tenderloin Beef w/ Tomato Confit on top of Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onion Potato Gratin

Chocolate Dessert

KEYWORDS:

2005-03-23T11:34:00.000-06:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

My First Post

2005-03-15T15:51:00.000-06:00

Just testing the BlogSpot goodness.