Question Of The Day #12

Calling things "Asian" but not specifying what kind of asian. There is a gigantic difference between chinese/japanese/korean/indian/thai/etc. just adding soy sauce or fish sauce doesn't make it something all new and other worldly.

Michael_Simpson_42855

Anything that is "Seattle style" having so much cream cheese you can not taste anything but the cream cheese. Why is "Seattle style" always cream cheese i would think salmon or apples would be a better fit for Seattle.

Michael_Simpson_42855

I love strong craft beer! but light roasted coffee makes me think i should have just got real coffee and added water.

michaelnatkin

I'm with you, man. I've tried the cream cheese on a hot dog thing (vegetarian Field Roast dog obviously) and I just don't get it ... even if I was several drinks in, the cream cheese doesn't appeal to me.

michaelnatkin

Ooh I'm with you on the latter. I'm not really interested in my coffee tasting like grapefruit or shoepolish or granola with hints of roasted oyster mushroom. I kinda like my coffee to have hints of well, chocolate or caramel or... coffee.

michaelnatkin

I'm tempted to say beet salads. Which is weird because I love beet salads. But man, for years now I can't remember being in a nice restaurant that didn't have one, and mostly all the same.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I will add "balsamic" anything to this list. Unless I'm getting the real deal OG balsamic that costs a fortune I'd rather not have the sysco branded crap that they're trying to play off a some authentic ingredient.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Bacon. Stop putting bacon in aftershave. Stop making bowls out of bacon. Stop making chocolate with bacon. Just stop.

Baco-mania has taken one of the grandest forms of artisanal charcuterie and reduced it to a comedy sidekick.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

To the gluten-free point, I've really had it up to my eyeballs with marketers taking advantage of people being obsessed by the thing that isn't really a thing and advertising as 'gluten free' products that never had gluten in the first place, like rice or even water.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Wasabi mash and sesame crusted tuna.

A_L_Esterling_35269

I’m with you, Michael. And I love beet salads. Snore.

Seth_Ratner_91225

You get points if you can find one without goat cheese

Todd_Shewman_38102

Enter http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beet-sphere-and-goat-cheese

So it may be many of these things are on their way out......or on their way to mature to something fabulous. Maybe some food trends are entering puberty (fooderty... ;-)..). If it's on their way out, let's take it apart and make it different/better?

I was kinda hoping Turkey for thanksgiving would be on it's way out........

Matthew_Snyder_68770

I had a vendor at a local farmers market offer up a sample of what she called "the best balsamic in the world". I told her I spent my 35th birthday in Modena, Italy, and that I found her claim suspect. She didn't press the point.

To that point, when I buy a bottle of grocery store balsamic, I immediately dump it into a saucepan and reduce it to about 15% of its original volume. Can't give you the complexity of real tradizionale, but you can at least have some of the texture.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I like to do the same thing. Try putting in a tablespoon of your favorite fruit preserves, it makes a pretty tasty dipping sauce.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I mean, we do live in a society where we have to label coffee cups as containing a hot beverage.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

In Emilia-Romagna, there are places where they actually sip the real stuff as a digestivo.

omgitsjulian

There's lot's of scientific evidence pointing to simple carbohydrates being culprit of gluten intolerance. People however, are more apt to employ a gluten free diet rather than a carb free diet.

omgitsjulian

Somewhat food related; but naming your restaurant "__ &__ " or "___ & the ___"

Though i do want to open a BBQ House and call it "Butt & Cheeks". But after that, lets move on to another naming convention dudes!

Merridith_McCarthy_84343

"Molten chocolate cake", "lava cake" or what ever else you want to call that gross lump of cloying sweetness with more grossness oozing out of the center. This thing is utterly boring, overdone chocolateness and the vanilla bean (or whatever) ice cream or creme anglaise does not help to make it better. This was the "it" food at least 14 years ago and it was disgusting then. It has gotten no less disgusting over the years. Come on people, can't we think of something more interesting/original now? I think Betty Crocker even makes a version of this now. ICKY!!!

Merridith_McCarthy_84343

I made a ton of jam this summer using balsamics as my acid instead of the usual lemon juice. It was particularly good with the berry jams.

TODD_ANDERSON_36806

I'm also sick of all this gluten free S#*t!!! Most people that request it don't even have celiacs disease.

Jane_SnP_113293

I remember my vacation in Korea last year. At first, I find the dishes really weird because they tasted different compare to Western dishes.

However, after a week, I get used to it . My favorite dishes are kimchi or Chili Pickled Cabbage, Samgyeopsal - the grilled fatty slices of pork belly, the Hangover Stew or the Haejangguk, red Rice Cakes and sushi rice.

I begin to love these dishes and right now, I'm craving for it!

lfmichaud

There is a fun little history of Michel Bras's molten chocolate cake in Lucky Peach number 3...

Carl_Axel_Hallgren_28490

Could not disagree more about light roasted coffee, love natural processed coffee with loads of berry tasting stuff.

Michelle_Giannone_113999

I'm over Truffle oil. I think it's overdone, overrated and misused.

ttpoker

You need to take a coffee cupping class Michael, it will change your opinion fast! The taste of a perfectly made pourover far exceeds that of a perfect cup of espresso. Mark my words, I predict the fine dining industry will move towards embracing pourvers very quickly over the next five years. Noma lead the way, we will see this change occur as chefs open their eyes to the fact that their customers have a wonderful palate pleasing experience for the prior two hours - only to be finished by a bitter coffee which impairs the ability to remember the experience. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE me a perfect espresso, but a pourover is the better pairing to a fine meal - and teas are increasingly becoming a very strong option as well.

ttpoker

I agree, but I also think the real issue is education - we have done a poor job of educating customers that their gluten free bread that they are ordering because they think it is healthier - is actually filled with sugars and fillings that they may not want. If the cooking industry imparted some guilt on eating gluten free by showing how these options are not necessarily "better" for those without celiacs, then the problem would solve itself over time.

ttpoker

Really glad nobody in this thread said "molecular". But truth is, I have grown tired of showy "molecular" cuisine - yes, I am looking at you straight in the face Humaro Cantu of Moto and all the young chefs who are adding modernist techniques without the understanding that the gourmand experience requires a fine touch. I am not impressed by your caviars and spheres when that is the entire dish, but I am impressed when I don't even realize that the dish contains modernist touches until I am deep into the dining experience. The dish needs to be the priority, the technique is just the method to get to the end result - the technique should not be the priority. When Ferran Adria started introduced the world to foams it was done with a gentle touch, this was the right way to serve a modernist innovation even though it seemed like every dish contained a foam it was done in a way that did not interfere with the meal and actually enhanced each dish.

</soapbox>

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

CUPCAKES...........just because.

Catherine_110236

I don't know. We ate at Tickets Bar in Barcelona about two years ago and those "olives" were one of the best things we've ever eaten. But you knew every minute that it was MG. Didn't detract at all.

TODD_ANDERSON_36806

Agreed!!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Racism

Johan_Edstrom_5586

And I'll reply to my own post. With a French style finished Korean broth made by a Swede living in the US.

Finished - https://plus.google.com/u/0/112827635720941213700/posts/CnvQHtNtfPB

Clear - https://plus.google.com/u/0/112827635720941213700/posts/3RGsRtMtJcD

Starting - https://plus.google.com/u/0/112827635720941213700/posts/Rvj8Bx8MaYb

Eddie_115259

First, I'm grateful I found this app! It's a godsend. I used to cook in NYC, and now I'm in cleveland...Anyway...

New American, Globally influenced cuisine.

Is it a cop out? Or should we truly be taking full advantage of our (almost entirellimitless supply

Brendan_Lee_56950

They aren't even the size of a cup anymore, they're more like grapefruit cakes these days.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I'm just tired of the word "molecular". It's an elitist sounding work that I don't think does the style of cooking justice. I refuse to use it in any way and instead choose to use modern or modernist cooking to describe these techniques.

Damn you Herve This.

michaelnatkin

You may well be right... I have had the occasional pourover that I've enjoyed, but even there I tend to prefer the roastier flavors over the bright and acidic ones. But yeah, I'm sure education might change my feeling.

michaelnatkin

I agree with this wholeheartedly. There are certainly exceptions, but for the most part high-end restaurants are still so heavily American with "touches" of other cuisines, instead of really deeply understanding and implementing those other cuisines.

ttpoker

AGREEEEEEEED! I personally describe our movement as modernist in thought process, it is forward thinking and embracing of innovation without boundaries. Modernism is about letting go of constraints of technique, while still embracing the classics.

ttpoker

Thats an olive, and it's brilliant - I agree! In fact I ate at Tickets last Saturday and had these very same olives (both versions). But it's brilliant because this dish is an olive that happens to be a sphere, whereas in the hands of the wrong person a sphere is primarily a sphere. PLUS Adria was the chef that created this brilliant execution, as the innovator he should rightfully be able to use this as his calling card - whereas anyone else tossing spheres around are just mimicking Albert and Ferran Adria.

Catherine_110236

Ah, thanks for elaborating. BTW Adria was in the kitchen that night and it was special to get to meet him.

Oops, Albert not Adria

Jens_H_rup_67763

Liquorice in desserts - It has been used in all kind of desserts in Scandinavia over the past 3 years but it do obfuscate the taste so it must go :-)

Todd_Shewman_38102

Then you might not be doing it right. LOL ;-)

Oliver_Coysh_109844

Sorry. I love it too, but when it's under developed for Espresso, it's very annoying .

Todd_Shewman_38102

Not quite. With the change (increase) in chromasomal makeup of whea et al it's a bit more complex. Not that simple (high glycemic) things are not a problem (they are), but the gluten proteins have undergone a drastic change.

Todd_Shewman_38102

Just down the road in Columbus and go where your mind takes you wrt cuisine. For me, many turns, all enjoyable.

James_9654

I'm hoping it's chefs "foraging" and adding odd ingredients to dishes for no other reason than because they could.

Jonathan_105240

But don't expect that any soon... it is profitable to have uneducated clients on some matters, having them think that it is healthier to eat gluten-free products. More sales!

James_9654

Bacon aftershave? I WANT!

Catherine_110236

Not being argumentative at all but would you make that same comment about, say, a French restaurant in France or a Vietnamese restaurant in Vietnam? Or perhaps I didn't understand you.

TheEffinChef_115570

Gluten free. Your not gluten intolerant, you just feel you should be.

michaelnatkin

Well, I'm definitely speaking primarily of what I see in America, since that is where I do 99% of my eating. The high-end, fine dining scene here is still heavily dominated by European and American traditions. There are tons of nods to flavors and techniques from other parts of the world, but it is usually pretty lightweight and clunky. Not to say there aren't exceptions; e.g. Floyd Cardoz among others certainly has brought real Indian cooking to a fine dining restaurant. But there is plenty of scope for improvement.

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

Hallelujah.

Karen_Taylor_Quinn_36329

Cupcakes. uuugggghhh.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Wouldn't that pretty much involve waitstaff smacking customers on the head?

Kersten_Rienow_115738

Cup cakes as well as the avantgarde cuisine are out. Here in Germany vegan and alcohol free sparkling beverages is the most talked about here now. If a restaurant does not offer vegetarian or vegan dishes - you are out. To no surprise quinoa/ amaranth or fresh buckwheat noodles are on the top buying list.

Sparkling apple cidre (european version) oder cuvees of pear, grape and apple taste fantastic with 0 vol. % And, if all items are purchased regional you are trendy.

Ellie_Paget_63010

Searing Salmon skin off, like wtf are you trying to do!

Ed_Mejia_116763

Gourmet burgers

Jo_o_81757

Definitely this gluten-free nonsense.

Mary_Stanley_117846

we never have liquorice or anise flavored anything here. My customers don't even know what it is and usually reject it.

Mary_Stanley_117846

it's the because they can part that ruins it. If it really adds something then good.

Mary_Stanley_117846

only use Urbani and only a touch.

Jens_H_rup_67763

Ok, here we have it everywhere. In desserts, with fish, in chocolate, cheese and the latest I tried was liquorice salt.

Kay__118477

Hopefully chocolate fountains.... If people knew how recycled that stuff is.....OH? and did anyone mention messy? kind of like chocolatey paw prints scattered around a 3 foot radius of chocolate carnage, haha!

Emmett_Barton_12803

The New Yorker covered this recently. Great journalism on the gluten-free trend. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/grain

Mike_Minh_Truong_54120

So sad to say this but, Sous Vide. We're all saving our money to transition into a true temperature controlled combi oven.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I think that is hard to call a food trend though.... It is just a cooking method dating back to the 70's, nothing says everything has to be cooked that way. I guess I see sous-vide as just another tool in the bag.

Theo_129732

I'm sorry India, but adding cinnamon to savory foods is completely repulsive to me.

Firgosdu_1093549

new ideas?)

riiupw_1250042

I often communicate on dating sites https://girlsdating.asia/how-to-find-a-vietnamese-girlfriend-for-a-long-term-relationship/. And met many eastern girls there. They taught me to cook different eastern meals. I would never dare to combine such ingredients on my own. They allowed me to look at cooking from an entirely different angle. Great experience.