What's Cooking

[six-point socket II]

Tonight's home made burger(s)

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[GoingMyWay]

My wife made chicken noodle soup last night.

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[MikeDVB]

My wife made chicken noodle soup last night.

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Looks good!  Now I'm hungry!

 

[GoingMyWay]

Thanks

Looks good!  Now I'm hungry!

Thanks!  I'm having a bowl for lunch today.  What are you having for lunch?

 

[MikeDVB]

Thanks

Looks good!  Now I'm hungry!

Thanks!  I'm having a bowl for lunch today.  What are you having for lunch?

Right now, a cup of coffee.  It's been a long couple of days.

 

[six-point socket II]

Hi!

We had the neighbors over yesterday, just a little get-together. We offered a really small but delicious buffet. Ordered a salmon and two roast beefs from one of our favorite restaurants, prepared two salads ourselves, and got a nice wheel of (dark) buns from the bakery. For dessert there was tiramisu, and 2 bowls of chocolate mousse one from white chocolate one from dark chocolate - also from one of our favorite restaurants. Sorry there are no pictures of the desserts, because we kept them refrigerated (obviously) until they were needed and then I was to slow ...

Enough talking, pictures:

"How wonderful that all of you showed up" (Napkins)

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Cheese]

Maybe this is way off base and most people are not at all interested. But I thought I'd give it a go.

Well, with 207 posts and over 13,000 reads in  just 2 months... I think you nailed it. [thumbs up]

 

[Cheese]

Hey Oliver...salmon & prawns ...sounds nummy.

The beef looks delicious. Is that a blue cheese sauce that’s in the bowl?

I’ve never seen rolls like that. Sesame seed, caraway seed but what’s the blue?

 

[six-point socket II]

Thanks [member=44099]Cheese[/member]

It's a dijon mustard (seed style) sauce.

Those are poppy seeds.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[GoingMyWay]

Well, with 207 posts and over 13,000 reads in  just 2 months... I think you nailed it. [thumbs up]

I must say I have been pleasantly surprised by the interest and response to this thread  [big grin].

I’ve never seen rolls like that. Sesame seed, caraway seed but what’s the blue?

I was also gonna comment that those were some interesting looking rolls.  I like that there are a variety of different rolls.  The real question is - which roll was the best??

 

[six-point socket II]

Personally I like the "mixed bag of seeds" best. (Front row, between the sesame and poppy seeds)

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[GoingMyWay]

Oh yeah those do look good.  I actually hadn't even noticed that roll - it looks very similar to the caraway and sesame rolls.

Seeing the poppy seed roll remdined me of the Russian Poppy Seed Roll/Cake.

 

[GoingMyWay]

This isn't really cooking per se, but today we went to check out a new Balducci's that recently opened by us.  In case you don't know, Balducci's is a gourmet market.

They had a nice big selection of Xochitl chips on display.

[attachimg=1]

They even had some Halloween colored chips [cool]!

[attachimg=2]

I'm a big sucker for buying seasonally colored food products like Halloween or Christsmas Oreos or Rice Krispies or other items like that.  I know it's just food coloring, but something about the seasonality of it entices me to buy it when I normally would just pass.

I haven't been in a Balducci's in several years.  Back in the late 80s/90s I used to go with my dad every Saturday to Sutton Place Gourmet (before it merged with Balducci's).

This new store is really next level in terms of gourmet:

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I don't recall seeing any local grocery store selling A5 Wagyu beef.  I was really tempted to buy the steak slice that had already been cut.  It weighed about 3/4lb so it was about $100.  I had looked at getting a whole loin of A5 Wagyu from Costco, but that's over $1k+.  I had also looked at buying a similarly sized steak (actually a couple of ounces lighter) from Grand Western Reserve, but that would be 60% more ~$250.  The other concern I had about buying online is that the picture's marbling may look nothing like the steak they actually send.  At least I knew for sure what I'd be getting at Balducci's.  We had real Kobe beef in Kobe Japan 3 years ago and I feel like the one I saw at Balducci's might actually be better (or at least better looking) than what we had in Japan.  Here's a picture of the Kobe steak from Japan for reference.

[attachimg=7]

We ended up buying the Dry Aged Tomahawk for $60.  I've always bought my Tomahawk steaks from Whole Foods when they have them, but I don't believe they are dry aged so this should be a treat.

Maybe the most remarkable discovery that I made at Balducci's today was the Table 87 Margarita Pizza.

[attachimg=6]

I have literally been looking for this pizza for the last 3 years since I saw it on Shark Tank.  Every time I go to a Whole Foods I'd check to see if they had it.  I almost ordered it from Goldbely a few months ago, but it was too expensive for how little we'd get.  Seeing it and buying a frozen slice was like a dream come true.  I haven't tried it yet so the verdict is still out on how good it actually is.  I suspect I'm not gonna like it, but at least I can say I've tried it  [tongue].

 

[peter halle]

As a moderator (hiss - boo) I am surprised by this thread.  But then honestly happy as heck.  Working with wood and cooking have many common strategies.  Rather than ask questions instead of going out to eat try to cook on your own.

Rock on Festoolichefs!

Peter

 

[Bob Marino]

This isn't really cooking per se, but today we went to check out a new Balducci's that recently opened by us.  In case you don't know, Balducci's is a gourmet market.

They had a nice big selection of Xochitl chips on display.

[attachimg=1]

They even had some Halloween colored chips [cool]!

[attachimg=2]

I'm a big sucker for buying seasonally colored food products like Halloween or Christsmas Oreos or Rice Krispies or other items like that.  I know it's just food coloring, but something about the seasonality of it entices me to buy it when I normally would just pass.

I haven't been in a Balducci's in several years.  Back in the late 80s/90s I used to go with my dad every Saturday to Sutton Place Gourmet (before it merged with Balducci's).

This new store is really next level in terms of gourmet:

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

I don't recall seeing any local grocery store selling A5 Wagyu beef.  I was really tempted to buy the steak slice that had already been cut.  It weighed about 3/4lb so it was about $100.  I had looked at getting a whole loin of A5 Wagyu from Costco, but that's over $1k+.  I had also looked at buying a similarly sized steak (actually a couple of ounces lighter) from Grand Western Reserve, but that would be 60% more ~$250.  The other concern I had about buying online is that the picture's marbling may look nothing like the steak they actually send.  At least I knew for sure what I'd be getting at Balducci's.  We had real Kobe beef in Kobe Japan 3 years ago and I feel like the one I saw at Balducci's might actually be better (or at least better looking) than what we had in Japan.  Here's a picture of the Kobe steak from Japan for reference.

[attachimg=7]

We ended up buying the Dry Aged Tomahawk for $60.  I've always bought my Tomahawk steaks from Whole Foods when they have them, but I don't believe they are dry aged so this should be a treat.

Maybe the most remarkable discovery that I made at Balducci's today was the Table 87 Margarita Pizza.

[attachimg=6]

I have literally been looking for this pizza for the last 3 years since I saw it on Shark Tank.  Every time I go to a Whole Foods I'd check to see if they had it.  I almost ordered it from Goldbely a few months ago, but it was too expensive for how little we'd get.  Seeing it and buying a frozen slice was like a dream come true.  I haven't tried it yet so the verdict is still out on how good it actually is.  I suspect I'm not gonna like it, but at least I can say I've tried it  [tongue].

I remember well the Balducci's store on 6th Ave (10th st?) as I used to work around there in the late 80's and 90's and bought there often. Incredible store - at that time about the best in the city.
Those steaks look amazing. I have never tasted real Wagyu beef, but let us know how those Tomahawks taste.

 

[deepcreek]

Since one of the moderators (love you guys) commented on the nature of this thread, I thought I'd tie it back into woodworking.

I routinely save my Mesquite and Pecan cutoffs for the smoker but I'm currently working with rift-sawn Cherry.

Has anyone tried smoking meat with Cherry?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[peter halle]

Cherry is a great smoking wood.  More delicate than say mesquite and can be used for any meat really.  When I am using my large smoker I am generally using up dead wood from my trees and cherry is in the mix.  Smells great as it is doing its job.

Peter

 

[GoingMyWay]

Tonight's dinner was the previously mentioned dry aged tomahawk steak along with a frozen strip steak with baked potato and frozen veggies from Trader Joe's.

I believe this is the first time cooking a dry aged steak sous vide. In the past we have cooked both frozen and fresh choice vs prime strip steaks from Costco, but I honestly didn't notice much difference.

Both steaks were cooked at 124 degrees for 90 minutes and then seared in 500 degree avocado oil for about 90 seconds a side.

The dry aged steak was noticeably more tender, granted it was ribeye vs strip. Nevertheless, the dry aged tomahawk was much more tender than the regular tomahawk that we have bought from Whole Foods in the past. The dry aged steak also had a lot more flavor, sort of a fermented taste, but not at all in a bad way.

I think the dry aged steak from Balducci's was definitely worth the extra money.

[attachimg=1]

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[attachimg=10]

 

[Cheese]

First off, a tomahawk steak just looks like a good marbilized prime...Kobe...Waygu...Akaushi steak. Am I missing something?

It’s my understanding that Kobe beef is a particular group of cattle from Kobe Japan. Much the same way Champagne is a beverage from a particular region in France and the same style bubbly from Italy is called Proseco.

So, in the USA, we imported the same Japanese cattle but because they were not pastured in Kobe, from an FDA point of view, we had to call them Waygu or Akaushi.

The principal price point of Waygu or Akaushi is in the $30-40 range per pound which isn’t much off of the typical Prime range of $30-35 per pound.

Our local store carries both Akaushi and prime and I’ll choose Akaushi every time. If you’re purchasing a flank steak the prime version costs $10.99 per pound, the Akaushi version costs $12.99 per pound.

If you’re only buying a pound of meat, the $2 is insignificant.

The difference in flavor is huge.

 

[GoingMyWay]

The tomahawk steak we got didn't have any where near the level of marbling as a Kobe or Wagyu.  I think the pictures might have made the level of marbling appear deceiving.

That's a great explanation of the difference between Kobe and Wagyu.

I really want that Wagyu steak now [drooling]!!!!