vegetarians are creeeeeepy part ii

This is an ad for an Austrian vegetarian restaurant.  Really weird if I do say so myself.  I saw this and just had to post it.  It's actually a few years old.  But apparently we as humans eat shit?  At least by the looks of the food chain.  Still they forgot to show us where the shit came from.  Wait!  Are they trying to tell me I eat my own shit? (hehe)

I thought this was fitting to go with the last picture.  I would say my sentiments exactly.  (hehe)

momentous occasions... just for the halibut

Alright not much going on here.  Not really a big deal.  I cut up my first whole halibut.  Hooray right(sarcasm is to be noted).  Well I have cut up tons of different fish(not an expert), but somehow never a whole 60lb halibut(hence the nostalgic looking photo).

Seriously though even these tiny seemingly insignificant milestones are worth noting.  Every moment of our lives contributes to the next, big or small.  There was always a first time for everything.  I don't think it's such a bad thing to record a few of these moments in our brains.  These are the momentous occasions I love.  Especially such a zen like artful task of cleaning fish or even making pasta.   These are the everyday tasks that make us what we are in the kitchen.  That make us feel like we do.  That make us yearn to do what we do.

up in smoke

As you have probably noticed I've been all smoke happy for awhile now.  Here is some lamb bacon using the scrap from the racks(also with some help of activa).  Thy sat for two weeks will a dry cure of sugar and salt etc.  The two front ones received a little spice of smoked hot paprika and cayenne.  Lamb bacon is easy and a great way to utilize your scraps.

While I had the smoker fired up I always try to throw something else there for fun.  Besides the beet cured arctic char I smoked, I threw in some dark chocolate pistoles to cold smoke.  They still melted, but I still call it a success.  The chocolate received a really subtle deliciously appropriate smokey flavor.  Maybe I'll make a smoked chocolate sorbet.

thanks for the snack

 This is the last sous chef's final contribution to the kitchen before he left town.  Nothing like ordering a freezer full of shit we can't use.  Two months later we're still indulging lol.  Thanks buddy for the final parting gift.  We didn't have any marinara so I grabbed some left over roasted red pepper & sambuca bisque to dunk these deliciously disgusting fried sticks of cheese in.  You know they're done just right when the cheese starts to bubble out ha!

so sad i've got the bleus

Yea so I've always got the blues, but today I got the bleus.  A three course tasting menu using bleu cheese.  I love bleu cheese and so decided to have a tasting of bleu last week.   

First up, the grilled bleu caesar salad.  Of course I fired up the smoker and cold smoked some delicious bleu.  The romaine head is doused in butter and s+p and thrown on the grill to char a little(mmm it's like the lettuce that falls off your big mac lol).  Toss it with some black garlic and pepper dressing and caramelized onions.  Meanwhile deep fry some polenta croutons that got a little smoked bleu cheese love. Top it with some more crumbles and there you have your salad.

Main course, is grilled bison NY strip with a yukon gold potato rosti, brown buttered brussels sprouts and a bleu cheese fondue.  My micros lady just dropped off some daikon sprouts so they made it in to the picture as well.

For dessert, the killer, black sambuca layer cake with bleu cheese buttercream frosting.  Odd combination, but seriously it's so f'n delicious.  Throw a little blueberry couli and some fresh berries and crumbles to finish it off.  No doubt the highlight of the prix fixe.  I will be using this again only next time serving it up with a black garlic ice cream.

food cares? we're all gonna fry anyways

From the beginning I asked myself the whys, and I 

continue to ask myself. - Feran Adria

What's the point right?  Why do we do any of it anyways?  I'm so tired in general(by the way this is my blog so I'll write whatever I want and you can read whatever you want lol).  Sooner or later your left wondering when the recognition will come.  When will I get appreciated?  Reality is most of our efforts go on thankless.  But every corner leads to a turn(whatever that means).

The measure of achievements is not winning awards.  It's doing 

something you appreciate, something you believe to be

worthwhile.  - Julia Child

So it's for the love?  For the self satisfying pleasure, the inner gratification.  It's who we are.  Imagine this though.  Take away everything you love.  What's left?  Besides the depressing nature of it all.  What's left of you?  What are you?  Who are you now?  The obvious truth is we our love.  I love to cook therefore I am.  I love my support system(family), therefore I stand.  I guess what I am saying is without a love in our hearts and souls we have no identity.  We have no purpose.  I suppose that is why I get frightened by the future.  Frightened that I could fall out of love with myself(my profession).  Self doubt is a nasty foe, and I know I'll never be finished fighting those battles.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does.

Love is a battle, love is a war;  love is growing up. - James Baldwin

I feel it inside now.  I feel as if I am doing what I love.  Cooking is like breathing for me(and who doesn't love to breath lol).  And whether or not I like it life will send me curve balls.  Love will come and go.  I just hope I love whoever I am tomorrow as much as who I was yesterday.

We must become the change we want to see. - Ghandi

i'll trade you my ken griffey jr. rookie card for your teenage mutant ninja turtles lunch box!

I love cookbooks.  It's like collecting baseball cards of your favorite players.  The difference being of course I can recreate all kinds of amazing dishes.  I can flip through all the amazing photographs.  Learn new ideas and techniques I've never seen before.  It's like looking into the chef's diary or notebook of recipes.  I can only hope one day to have my own cookbook to express myself in yet another way to the public.

And when I find out about new cookbooks to be released, I get really excited.  More specifically I speak now of Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook by Christina Tosi(milk bar pastry genius).  It comes out this fall on October 25th.  I preordered mine already!

Another highly anticipated cookbook comes from one of the most acclaimed and widely recognized modern restaurants, Eleven Madison Park of New York City.  I was (and am) so freaking pumped when I heard about this one.  I don't think I can wait until November 1st.

Jennifer McLagan, author of two of my favorites, Fat and Bones, has done it again.  I will definitely pick this one up following the trend of nose to tail eating.  Odd Bites:  How To Cook The Rest Of The Animal becomes available September 13th.

Honorable Mentions:  Heston At Home by Heston Blumenthal Oct. 25,  The Meatball Shop Cookbook Nov 1, Ritz Paris: Haute Cuisine Oct 18, The Kimchi Chronicles: Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen Aug 2, The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts Oct 11.

And don't worry for all you ewoks and grilling fanatics Emeril and Flay have yet more cookbooks to try to sell you before the year's end.  And if your really good and watch the Food Network everyday Miss Paula might have one for you by January. (hehehe)