Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Arnold, your host of Cooking Issues, coming to you live from the heart of Manhattan, New York City, Rockefeller Center, New Stance Studios, joined as usual with Joe Hazen. How you doing? I'm doing well, man. Great to see you.
Good to see you. Yeah, we do not have John. He had to unfortunately go to a funeral in Belgium, but at least he got to go to Belgium, which is a fantastic place. He's gonna bring us back some fancy mustard maybe for next week when he comes back. We also don't have Quinn, I don't think.
He's still sick. We have Quinn. We have Quinn from the upper upper left corner. Great, always great to hear from you. Miss you while you've been sick.
Always good to have Quinn on the air. And then moving down the left-hand coast, we got uh Nastasia the Hammer Lopez in LA. How you doing? Good, thank you. Good, good.
And uh Jackie Molecules also in uh Los Angeles. I feel like if I could move to Los Angeles, I'm not saying I would move to Los Angeles, but I'm saying if it were possible. I mean, I hate the sun, but I do like the plants you guys have. You know what I'm saying? Wait, you should announce you're gonna be here next week.
We're doing uh what did it what are the kids call it? You told me yesterday. Post up. We're posting up at Thunderbolt LA. Yeah, right.
Yeah. So it's like, yeah, we so for those uh other who like Patreon folks or people to listen, I have to go to uh we'll talk, we'll talk about it later. I'm going to uh film something with the Mamafuku Empire next week, and then uh which we can talk about and we can sing the Star Wars theme and all that. Uh but uh today in the studio, I am super pumped. We uh we're gonna have her on earlier and uh we had to cancel uh for sickness reasons.
Sola L. Whaley is here, author of Start Here, Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook, uh Internet Cooking Superstar, HBO Max, but beep book like that. Uh right of well, welcome. Thanks for having me. I like my arms.
Yeah. Do you know that? Like apparently my wife tells me that. So like I was doing like kind of weird robot arms there, and um, when we were visiting uh schools for my younger son Dax, I walked outside trying to find my wife, and I did the robot arms using my like hands to look for her as though my hands have eyeballs, and she was like, You look like a freaking nut. What are you doing?
I'm like, I don't know. I can't, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what my body does. You know what I mean? You can't look like a nut here.
That's the great thing about New York. Do you know, way back in the day before 9-11, you could literally walk around New York with a so like a sword, and people would just people would just not look at you. They would just actively not look at you. Uh-huh. You know what I'm saying?
Good way to become invisible. Yeah. Carry a sword. Carry a sword and nobody looks at you. You know what I mean?
We used to literally go to the Highline and set off giant pyrotechnics, and no one would come bother you. New York was an entirely different place back in the day. Uh and not better necessarily, different. Uh-huh. You know what I mean?
Like, we definitely had our problems too. But anyway, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah. So uh, and wait, I wait.
So we have someone also behind us. And I know she doesn't have a mic, but sir, we have Serena here. Selena. Selena, Selena, I just want to have you acknowledge that you're here because I hate not acknowledging people that are in the studio. You can shout and maybe they could hear you on the Yeah.
So, you know, listen. She's dying right now. She's shrinking. If we, you know, listen, if if you're in the studio, you have an opinion. Uh-huh.
That's my feeling. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
Or if you're on the teleophone, uh, as uh Nastasia Quinn and oh, and I was gonna say, call in your questions uh for Sola 2, 917-410-1507. That's 917-410-1507 if you're a Patreon member, but apparently someone has already called in. So call her, you're on the air. Hey Dave, this is Wes Hendrickson living in Washington State. How you doing?
I doing great. Um we had some sunny weather, and I was making the hatchback the other day, which was delicious, and it got me thinking about grapefruit. And I wanted to try making the Saratoga Paloma, and I can't get out to New York to get any of that water. And I was just wondering, anything I can do to get somewhat close to that. No.
No, I'm just okay. I'm just messing with you. Uh so uh for those of you that don't know, hatchback is uh it's like uh it's grapefruit and uh tequila and compari and I forget what else. It was uh Karen Jarman's uh first drink on the menu at Booker and Dax back in 2012. Carbonated.
Great drink. Sold a lot of those suckers. Yeah, um too. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Clary lime.
I gotta love clearly lime. Uh and the Saratoga Paloma is just uh this crazy uh crazy water from Saratoga, Hathorne Springs number three, that is like the saltiest water. It's like it's like uh a third of the way to ocean salty, but not but even funkier, like weird. When it comes out of the ground, it's carbonated, but also kind of um got a little bit of uh sulfur funk. So you gotta like flash it off, and then you you you add a little bit of that because too much makes you kind of go to the bathroom because it's you know, it's like Epsom salsa or like fossil soda for those of you that have ever had to uh have a colonoscopy.
So you don't put that much of it in there. You put a little bit in, but it's got a very, uh, very, very strong flavor. You know what? I bet you if you put not just black I have black salt. Yeah, no, not so they see that that sulfur is gonna be too much sulf sulfur.
Like it's not like a panapuri situation. Did you you had the Saratoga Paloma back in the day, right? Or no? I've never had it. Oh.
Well, so then I could tell you anything, and you would think it's the same drink. Yes, no, absolutely. You could just lie to me. Yeah, I can just lie, but maybe I will. Uh I was gonna say, uh, maybe um my memory is is that it's about a third as salty as the ocean, but it's got a lot of f stuff in it that for instance it turns red when it decarbonates because there's a lot of iron in it.
So there's not so much iron that tastes like sucking on a nail the way that like uh big a keen, you know, the uh not big, the uh whatever the ferroquina, which is I I don't like it. I don't like I don't like irony tasting things. Anyway, maybe some nigari. Use some nigari, like a little bit of nigari uh along with regular salt, because that's gonna add a lot of those other weird minerals. And you know, it's like it's stronger than Vishicatalon by a lot.
You could just maybe use more Vichy Catalan, but I don't know. Anyway, I uh wish I could be more helpful. What you need to do is go to Saratoga. Is it is it agar grapefruit? It's a centrifuge grapefruit.
So we we always use center fruge grapefruit, uh with agar grapefruit. Uh if I don't remember whether I put simple in it, but you scale the simple back and up the grapefruit. Okay. Yeah. All right.
Good luck with this. Let us know. Let us know. But of course it would be easier if you would have the original. You know what I'm saying?
Anyway. It would be. Yeah. I don't know. I'll I guess it'll either taste good or not, and I won't know if it's legit.
That's right. All right. It's like it's it's like maybe I want to find a Samoan restaurant or a Samoan person who can make me these coconut rolls so I know whether they're good before I make them on my own. The poggy po poggy poepo. But I'm gonna make them the way that I want them, which isn't right.
I want it, I mean, it's not wrong, but it's also I want to see what it's supposed to taste like anyway. You're gonna have to go there. Oh man, I'm never gonna go there. My whole life I'm never gonna go there. You know, I've never been to Hawaii and my wife was born in Hawaii.
You have even more reason to go there. I I know more than the average person. Yeah, yeah, I know. And she's never been back. She's a military kid.
It's time to go. I know. But it's so far. Uh, you know, you're gonna go to California. Yes.
So tack it on. You're like almost there. Yeah. You're like 90% of the way there. I would never have it.
Yeah, that's uh that's Nastasia saying that would never have. Oh, so now that we're now that we're here, we can so yes, uh Nastasia. So we're we're like this is the portion of the show where we uh spend a little time shooting the breeze over things we have cooked in the last week, or in this case two, because we didn't that we weren't here last week. Uh uh, did you have anything interesting or things we're gonna do? Like we're gonna go, I'm gonna go to LA.
Nastasia and I are gonna shoot some stuff uh with uh, you know, uh with uh maybe with Dave Chang, maybe not, but at the Momafuku stuff, major domo. And uh that that's all is that all blown over now? All the chili crunchness, the crunch? Is the crunch crunched out or not? Like uh I don't know.
Yeah, you're not are you following the I am following the crunch story, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so funny. It's like everything ping-pongs back and forth, but like I can imagine it happening. Like having been behind the scenes at you know, Momafuku before some lawyer somewhere was like, you know what? Ain't nobody trademarked the word crunch with the word chili attached to it.
It just hasn't been trademarked. I see an opportunity. Let me trademark it. Because they trademark anything and everything, like any lawyer. They get they get anxious, but then everyone there has a killer instinct.
So when someone says, Hey, maybe you shouldn't have done that, their first instinct is to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I could do what I want. You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh. But then it takes a while for them to back down.
You know what I'm saying? Because I feel like they're gonna make more money in the long run just being like, my bad, chili crunch is for anybody. You know what I mean? That's more long-term money. You know what I mean?
Uh-huh. Anyway, that's my feeling. I mean, I don't know. We'll see what happens. Yeah.
I mean, look, of all the things, you really think that that the word crunch is gonna bring down David Jane? No. No. That's not gonna happen. You never know.
I guess that's true. You never know. We'll just we're just here to watch the show. Yeah. Yeah.
Wait, so you're you say you're you so you you you're just holding out, you're holding out judgment. You're withholding judgment based on not knowing, or based on you have a judgment but you don't want to say it. The second one. I love it. I love it.
You know what? Prudent. Mm-hmm. Prudent. That's why Selena's here.
Yeah. To keep you prudent. All right. All right. Uh so did you have anything interesting over the past week that you've been uh making or doing uh different from the normal all the things that you do or well I'm kind of on like a chicken cutlet journey.
I don't like chicken breast. You know why? Why? Because they're not as good. They're not as good.
No, but like we we always get a whole chicken and then my husband eats the breast and I eat everything good. This is like the opposite of my my wife. My wife prefers, she doesn't prefer white meat like but she like for chicken salad, she prefers for health. No, no, hell no. Okay.
I think that's the main reason why people eat chicken breast. I don't know. For chicken salad, she likes the white. Where are you on on the other end of the line, where you guys sit for like a for for white meat, dark meat, and then also separately for chicken salad. Because I had to make chicken salad last week.
Uh-huh. What what do you guys meat guy? Dark meat guy? Stas? I'm dark meat.
Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Dark meat, yeah. Quinn.
I mean, I would say I I like the breast for cutlets. Because it really gets really thin and you know, there's no variation in texture. So you can get like a nice thin, consistent cutlet. Also, in terms of like using it up and like grinding it with duck fat and chicken hurt to make a gr a ground. That's very quin.
That's very quin. Alright, so wait with these with these in mind, so talk about what your cutlet experiments with apparently non or were you using breast meat, or were you is this a use for the breast meat, in other words, or were you doing thigh cutlets? I'm trying to see if there's a world where I could like chicken breast. Oh yeah, yeah. Without like I I like it if it's uh dry brine.
I hate we're gonna get into this later. You hate dry brine? I hate the word. It's salting. Yeah, I know.
It's so stupid. But it's the time. But people have salted for a long time. Yeah, it's just long, long, long time. Explain to people that they have to wait.
Salt. Wait. It's very hard to get people to salt it. No, well, okay. So as a recipe developer, it's really, really, really tough to tell someone you gotta wait twenty-four hours.
If they get so mad, they'll move on to the next recipe. No, it's the cell. It's the marketing. It's the chili crunch. I hate it so much.
I hate it so much. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know I get it, but you gotta just it's salting. You need to make people feel like it's a lot of it. Wet salting?
Yeah. That sounds disgusting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Wet salt. Yay, baby. Wet salt. I don't want to go to that party. The wet salt party.
It's just it's you gotta sell it. You gotta convince people that there is a point to this. So sometimes you need to add a like a little term that maybe doesn't need to be there, but it makes you feel sophisticated. I dry brind this turkey. It just makes me it just.
I understand. I understand. Yeah. But I want people to do it. You want people to salt?
I want people to salt for an extended period of time. Uh-huh. Give it long and long enough time that you know it dissolves, reabsorbs, becomes dry. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. We have a question on this. Uh, I think uh later.
Wait, so so was there a world? Yes. Wait, if you salt the hell out of a chicken breast and then fry it real quick, it does taste good. It does taste good. I was trying to do it without the the salt because people want a same day.
Well, thinner spontaneous recipe. Breaded and fried is what I tried francese, picata, and like classic panko. Yeah. Picada's one of the few words that where it tastes good and sounds cool. Picado's good.
Frances is not. No. I don't want the egg. No. So here's what I do.
See what you think. Have you tested this one? Uh when I so like when I take a breast, I'm gonna do this. You know, I put it down, triangle shape, right? I take the knife and I cut flap over, cut flap over.
So now it's like a bigger triangle. Uh-huh. Then I salt it before I pound it, and I pound the salt into it. Oh, I haven't tried that. I've been salting after.
Yeah. I salt it and then it also like it breaks up the fiber a little bit. You can see it like oh my god, what are you doing? Plastic wrap over. Do you plastic wrap over yours?
Uh-huh. Yeah, because it's real messy. Yeah. You frying pan or do you have a mallet? Uh or something else.
What do I rolling pin? Oh, rolling pin. Mean, you're mean. Is that mean? Yeah.
Cause it's not because it's like, cause you think about it. You hit somebody and it's got a smaller point of contact. It's many, many small hits. Yeah. Really break down that chicken.
You know, that's how life gets at you. Lots of little You're like, uh, you're like couponing this thing. I like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, try see what see whether you see a different salting beforehand. Yeah, I'm gonna try that. I also put a little sugar in. Because I'm always uh like uh I don't know, for some reason for years and years we were two one on stuff, you know, for like you know, the the hand mixture was like two salt, one sugar to for like fish and whatnot. So I just got in a habit also with chicken, not with beef, pork, chicken, fish.
So do you in your salt cellar, do you have it already mixed with salt like with sugar? No, I should, but I I don't. I used to, but like the I can't I can't keep uh I can't keep things that you can touch anymore because sorry to he doesn't listen, so it's fine, blow up his but booker, my older son will just like go into it with fish hands. And so like, you know, things get clumpy, and he'll also like he'll he'll like grab into the sugar bowl, like and then like lift it with the sugar, like over my shelf, over my coffee machine, over everything, over the floor, and then over where he has like how old is he? Twenty-two.
Twenty-two. Twenty-two. No, twenty-two. So uh anyway, so salt and sugar in my house are in diner and diner pours. You know, like the R the R2D2 diner pour?
Yeah. Which sucks. They suck to cook out of. Because you what you want to do is go. Yeah.
I'm interested to see how I have to change my life because our kid's seven months. It all depends on the kid. Can't do anything yet. Depends on the kid. Right now she just hangs out in a cage.
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. That's the best time. Yeah. Yeah.
Like it all depends on the kid. Yeah, I'll see. Yeah. That's the that's the that's the joy of being a parent. You find out that uh kids are individuals.
22, though. He's not even in your your house anymore. Oh, yeah, he is. Oh, okay. I was like, go back to the salt cellar.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Long story. Uh anyway.
So uh so that was what you're doing? Chickens? Jesus, just chickens trying to like chicken breast. What I don't like is paying extra for chicken breast. Any any MSG in your chicken salt uh situation?
Sometimes, yeah. You use MSG in the book. He really helps the breast. Yeah, it just makes it taste meatier. So Quinn's basically saying that it doesn't have its own flavor and requires MSG.
I'm just messing with you, Quinn. I'm just messing with you. Anything to make it taste better is fine. You know what I'm saying? But uh, yeah.
Yeah. Uh all right. So uh what about you, Quinn? You always have something you like to cook. Uh let's see.
The other week we did do a smoked prime rib. Oh my god, it turns out pretty good. Now, do you want smoke? Does it turn out that you want smoke on your prime rib? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's definitely, especially the leftovers, they're very came.
But um, I think we got the you know the ratio of like how fast you cooked in terms of getting just like you know, a subtle smoke on the beef. And it was it was good. All right. Sounds good. What about you guys, California?
Anything good? I uh I went to this new Persian place um here in Silver Lake on Sunset called Azizam. I think that's how to pronounce it. And they served this meatball. It's like a braised beef and rice meatball stuffed with I think stone fruit, and it was the size of a softball.
I've never seen a larger meatball in my life. Uh it was very good. So it wasn't like what the hell so big? It wasn't like like you weren't like, what the what the hell's happening here? Meatball so big.
I was when they served it, you know. They could too. They're like, Oh, it's it's a big portion. And I was like, Okay, cool. They shrugged their shoulders.
I always assume what someone's gonna do it, they're like, they're like, so big po it's a big portion. Speak. You know what I mean? Like no, no shrug. Yeah, yeah.
Well, we we we ran into the the LA Times, um, what's his name? Bill from the LA Times, the food critic, and he was like, Oh, I really recommend the meatball. It's it and he also said it's big, and I was like, Okay. So it's not lying. I was still surprised.
Still surprised when it when it got to the table. Like I said, literally the size of a softball. Is is that as the dish is normally made, or are they like, this is America, meatballs gotta be big? Uh that's a good question. And I don't know.
Someone'll have to tell me that. It's the the name of the dish was the kafta tabrizi. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but I don't know either. Uh so I have a similar story from a couple of weeks ago. I went to our storage unit, and uh afterwards, uh, you know, we went to this uh Mexican place in Stanford.
Do you know that Stanford has the worst architecture in the entire country? Stanford, Connecticut. Yeah. I don't know this. It's true.
Uh do you ever drive up by 95? I haven't driven in years. Oh. Well, if someone ever drives uh you or you take the train up when you're going through Stanford, which is where Nastasia is when she's here, it's uh it's like a museum for bad architecture. Do they like wear this title with pride?
They should. Yeah, yeah. So, like uh um that's where Purdue Pharma like started that that that whole thing in what we like to call the upside down murder castle, which is like every architectural thing gone wrong. Nastasia lives in a nicer Stanford. Nastasia, back me up on this.
The buildings in Stanford are a nightmare. She's not gonna back me up, she's not gonna back this up. Yeah, yeah. Uh so but I we went to this restaurant and it was uh it was a Mexican restaurant, you know, um style, you know, like fat fast food. But they were doing some sort of stuff.
Why would you get why would you get Mexican in Connecticut? Okay, because I had just worked somebody like a dog for eight hours and they were dying of hunger and they needed to pee. He looked up on the phone. We asked a guy at the storage place, and he said some other place, and the person I was with looked up on their phone and said, I want to go here. And so I say, wherever you want, because you've just helped me, right?
Yeah. So anyway, so we go there and they had these like Mexican Arantini, right? These like stuffed fried rice balls, but they were the size of your head. They were the biggest things I've ever seen in my life. What's inside?
I I didn't, I didn't dare to order one. I did I I I should have just ordered one and thrown the money away. Like ordered it, and but like who wants a rice ball that big? I mean, the the the ratio of crunch to to mush is just wrong. Yeah, unless it was like a very thin, unless they did it like Nastasia's mom's tamale style, which is like thin masa, a lot of filling, but then it's a lot of filling.
You know what I mean? I feel like I feel like a rice ball can be anywhere from like golf to like like lacrosse ball. Anything bigger than lacrosse ball, I think is kind of a lot. I really like when they're when they're just like poppable. You like a popable rice ball?
Like a like a little ping pong ball. Yeah. Because it's just so much crunch. Yeah. And like a little bit of cheese in the middle or something.
Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like a rice ball.
I do. I first had them on my honeymoon. Maybe that's why. Where was your honeymoon? Italy.
Well, we we went to Rome and like we just went to a crap hole. This is in 90s, like 95. So back when you could still go to Italy and be like, oh my God. You know what I mean? Uh-huh.
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So yeah, we were in Rome and we were like, I hear they have rice balls. And we got one.
We're like, yeah, good. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I feel like when you have something somewhere else in like a romantic moment, it's just like attached to you. Yeah.
This nostalgia. Well, speaking of cutlets, another thing we had there, of course, was veal, but we rarely make it with veal because who's got the cash? Uh, is uh salt and boca. Uh huh. I had that in in the I was gonna try that.
You should, you know why? Delicious. Yeah. Real good. Can you make it with chicken?
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
There are a lot of things you can pull trify, Italian stuff you can polterify. You ever do the turkey asabuco? Turkey asavuco, no. Good. With like the leg?
Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea. Pull tendon. Christmas or Thanksgiving? Yeah, although then I would get the veal because my mom would, I would be with my mom and she would look at me cross-eyed if I did that.
You know what I mean? You know, I always have to come up with a new way to do turkey every year, no matter what. So maybe it'll be asubuku easy. Listen, uh, the trick always for me is uh it's a little messier than real asebuco because their turkey legs, you know what I mean? Uh you have to pull the tendons after.
You know what I mean? Unless like someday somebody will pull the tendons before, but it's never happened to me. So my thing this week was it's Daz earmuffs because I know it's gonna bother you. I made another pie uh over the last week. So a listener wrote in uh uh and said, So I do this thing where I adjust fruit juice to have the same acidity as lemon or lime, and I do it for cocktails, right?
Acid adjusting. And so this person was like, Can you acid adjust juice to make a key lime pie? Such a good idea. I know. Yeah, it was the it's the best idea I've heard, like in years.
So, like, uh, so I've just did been doing it constantly. Okay, right, constantly. And uh Quinn made a calculator on on our Patreon site that will like automatically calculate because key limes are a little more acidic than regular limes, which is why when you make it with regular lime juice, it's too sweet. Because regular limes are about six percent acidity, more or less, give or take, and key limes are like seven, right? So it's like, you know, more anyway.
So uh I did a uh pineapple chiffon, which you know, if we have time later, we can talk about this pineapple recipe that I was showing you before. So I was doing a pineapple chiffon, but uh instead of leaving it just sweet, I acid adjusted it up to lime, so it was like a real tart pineapple chiffon. Do you do that with just citric acid? No. I use a mixture of citric malic and succinic to have it really hit.
You could just do it with citric, but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be as limey. It would just, it would taste less like it would taste less like lime. What was the third acid? Sixinic. I don't know what that is.
I don't know what that is. It's a tiny so it's it's uh it's a it's an acid that on its own tastes like bad. Like uh like uh what I always say my description is like uh you bit your tongue after you were eating an oyster shell, or like you cut your tongue on an oyster shell, so kind of mineral and bloody. You know what I mean? But a tiny bit of it.
We're talking like a tiny, tiny bit, like 0.04%, like tiny. Uh we I I make an 8% solution and then just you know add like a half milliliter to every hundred mils of juice. And but that little bit gives it that kind of back of the throat peely lime hit. Oh. Okay.
And it lasts forever. You buy a container, a little packet of it at at uh what's it called, Modern's Pantry, and you use so little of it that it lasts forever. Speaking of Modern's Pantry, I heard you got a spinzall. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I did.
Really excited to use it. Don't know when that's gonna happen. Don't know where, don't know when. But I think the crazy thing is we ordered it before I was even pregnant. We waited longer for the spinzall than the baby.
Okay, well, get this. Nastasia has always felt there's some sort of baby food juju with it, but we've never figured it out, right, S. Yeah. Yeah. We just don't know what it is.
Maybe you should use it for that. I don't know. Do you know that I'll tell you a secret about the spinzall? It's not a secret. I'll tell anyone that that will listen.
But uh there, so my mom's a cardiologist, just recently retired, pediatric cardiologist. And they had a patient where the baby couldn't have uh fat for the first several months of its life, couldn't have fat. Um I forget why, I forget what the condition is. But it turns out that a spinzall can spin the fat out of human breast milk so that the mother can still do breast, not technically breastfeeding, but can you know all the benefits of breastfeeding other than the social ones, um with the spinzall, and then we gave it to another person. So now we're trying to figure out how to push this into the hospital market.
It's like every every OBGYN you owner should have one so that in case you have a baby, all of a sudden you could you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Because you could just hand it off to a person and let them take it home for the couple of months they need it and then hand it back to the hospital. You know what I mean?
I feel like that would never work. What do you mean? There's so much like bureaucracy. Uh uh just getting her social security number was a nightmare. I don't think they could handle a spinzall.
Oh, the hospital does that for you? It's like buying a car now, they give you the social security number in the hospital. They're supposed to. They're supposed to set it up for you, and you're supposed to call them and get it back, and then you can set up your insurance. That really is like getting a car.
I can't imagine if they had to do like a spinzall program. Management. Well, it's only it's very rare. It's only when they it's it's it's it's when there's a lot of intervention. So usually you're you have a pretty on-point person at that at that point.
What you should do is set it up with the insurance company to get them to cover it. Like they do with the breast pumps. Oh, they they cover breast pumps now? Yeah. Really?
Uh huh. Wow. One, I believe. Well, how many do you need? Yeah, how many are are those pumps still as bad as they used to be?
I mean, I don't know what they were like, but I know I I hated it. They make a crazy noise. Aside from anything else, like they're like make create used to make crazy noises. Well, and they just make you feel terrible. So I was I I stopped at six months and I'm like a person again.
It's really exciting. Yeah. I'm back. Yeah. But the first thing we wanted to make in the spin saw was there was like a banana drink you had at the front.
That was our favorite. Oh, nice. Oh, beautiful. So we're gonna clarify banana. Bananas Dino, that's the way to do it.
That's what it was called. Yeah. I I had a lot of this. Nice. Well appreciate it.
Well, you know, maybe soon. I don't know if we're gonna put that up. We should put that on the menu again. So like Fabulous and Jeremiah from Contra, who are we're gonna do a bar program with them. Uh I'm like, let me put some oldies but goodies on.
And Jeremiah's like, I don't know, maybe it should be all new. I'm like, I don't think it has to all be new. Do a throwback menu. Yeah. I mean, just sometimes special pop-up.
Yeah, yeah. People would be excited about that. You know what a nightmare pop is. They are nightmares. Yeah, they are.
But they're fun. I mean I feel like it's always worth it. Okay. Maybe not a day, do like a week. Because a day is stupid.
Yeah. I hate like single day pop-ups. Absolute nightmare. You set up an entire restaurant for a day. Yeah.
But who makes money in a pop-up? Nobody does. It's just fun marketing, branding. For the record, eyes rolled when uh she said fun. Uh yeah.
All right. All right. So let me get to some questions for you before we run out of time. Uh so this is a uh this is a chicken clean cleaning question. Okay.
Are you are you interested in chicken cleaning? Yeah, theories on it. I don't know. Now I'm worried. Dave Kleinman.
Uh so I have an issue uh with not cleaning chicken, i.e., in other words, doesn't like it when people don't clean chicken. Like wash it. Correct. Uh-huh. Yeah.
And this is McGee's new thing is that uh there's a whole thing. Do you familiar with the whole thing? This is like like the chili crunch thing. I don't know the whole thing. So there was backlash against washing chicken put out by the USDA because they put like images of like cartoons of like like spatter of like salmonella fill spatter getting all over the kitchen.
But then further research shows that you know that's not the case. And so, you know, McGee is a wash if you want to kind of a guy. Okay. I recently got internet backlash for telling people not to wash their chicken. Well, so you are part, you are like uh a party to the to the to the bull crap.
To the no don't wash? To the either way. Either way, if someone like that's why like I just shut up about it. Uh-huh. Yeah.
I just shut up. I still don't want to deal with it. The one thing, okay. Even if you're not spreading salmonella, it does make it harder to see her. Well, it depends on how long you're gonna wait.
Huh? After you salt it. Yeah, yeah. Am I right? The dry the dry brighting.
Okay. So I really have an issue with not washing chicken, which often comes with factory odors, off smells, who knows else what's growing on it. By the way, a lot of factory odors are from bags, and just opening the bags will make the odor go away. Like on meat, that sulfur smell flashes off. That's just my three cents.
I use a special outside sink just to wash raw stuff. Well, isn't that nice, Dave? Wouldn't that be nice to have an outdoors? Um anyway, uh, and the entire area gets sanitized after I soak my raw meats. Uh I've done the weighing test, and honestly, the meats, fish, and poultry I've soaked haven't gained any significant weight during the soaking.
Furthermore, if they did so, they lose it again if I hang them to dry in the fridge for a few days with Koji spices or even nothing on them. So just asking, really? Discuss further. So apparently they were maybe maybe Dave was part of this whole McGilla with you and the washing not washing. Yeah, a lot of people yelled at me.
And I and I did some more research and I I don't care anymore. There you go. I don't care. Do whatever you want. Okay.
Yes. But it also made me realize that I don't get the kind of chicken most people get. Because I'm usually going to a butcher. So it's not often put in a bag. Right.
So I don't have the same off smell. And I know that 90% of people don't get chicken like that. They do not. So they're getting in a puffy thing with that little absorbent McGill underneath. Yeah.
So my bad. I'm sorry to the world. I made everybody mad. Yeah. So I had a butcher, and his assistant's name was Ray.
And uh Michael was his name. And I was just made you made me think about buying chicken from a butcher because I haven't in so many years. I haven't had a butcher in like my own butcher. I haven't had my own butcher in like 12 years. And you could bring this back into your life.
This is in New York. But there's always a butcher nearby. I know, but like, I don't know. I just felt I didn't find a new one when I moved because like, you know, I knew him, I knew his family, like we bought each other, like I bought him a wedding gift. You know what I mean?
It's like, yeah. And uh and Ray could rip the skin off of a chicken leg in under two seconds using his apron. And he would just sit there going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, whole box of chicken. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I need a butcher again. You need a new Ray. Where do you live? I live in the East Village. Okay.
There's a lot of. But it's like, didn't you say in the book you couldn't get diamond where you are? Diamond Crystal Kosher? Yeah. Not until recently.
Now Fresh Direct has it. You read the book? Yes, but you couldn't. Nobody reads the book before. Hey man.
But like you like you can't go to like a key foods or something? They don't have the diamond. Uh no, no. It's you, it's there has been in the last like year or two, but it's usually been Morton. Yeah, I hate it.
But now there's diamond at like the bodega. Yeah, I hate Morton like a lot. Yeah, I do too. Yeah. But also, people yell at me for that.
So I don't care. No, no, listen, look, listen. No, but that that's not really a matter of opinion. Morton's just not as good. You okay.
Because it's like it tastes the same, but it it does doesn't hold as well. It's harder to use. Yeah. And and and like it slows you down. Because I want to be able to take a fistful of salt and season like a whole tray of stuff.
Yeah. And you can't. You need to be able to you need to be able to do it, and you can't judge. You're gonna you're you're either gonna go over or under with Morton's. It's really hard to gauge how much salt you're putting on something when you're dry brining.
You're a killer. I'm gonna try and use it as many times as possible. You're a killer. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah. There's just not as good of a product. I'm just getting sick of getting yelled at on the internet. But why would anyone yell at you about Morton's? Because it just people yell at me about everything.
It's just objectively worse to cook with. Yeah, yeah. I agree. We're on the same page, but for the But I don't really think that's opinion. Like, okay.
Anyway, but one thing you do say is that, and and I'm curious when you handed in the copy that you say you enjoy seeing the crystal diamond box, and they changed the freaking box. I hate the new box. It's taller than it used to be, it doesn't fit where it used to fit. What are your feelings on the new diamond box? First of all, why change an iconic box?
Yeah, so I was really mad at first. And same thing, I had to move the storage. It had to go to a different shelf because it didn't fit anymore. Yeah. So like that I had to fully rearrange my pantry because I always have at least three boxes.
But it's grown on me. Really? It's grown on me. I've been looking at it a lot. I'm over it.
I okay. I can't, I can't. I can't even. There's a pattern on it now, and I can't even look at it. I don't even know what the pattern is because it makes me so angry.
So you're saying I should chill and just like stare at the box for a while? Yeah, just stare at the box for a while. And I I like I like it now. I really hated it, but I it's grown on me. And then on the back they have these like line drawings of how to use salt, which I think is kind of cute.
So just put it like somewhere you can see stare at it for a while, and you'll you're gonna like it. Now I actually think it looks more classic and retro than the old design. The old design looks more 90s. This is, I feel like it's taking us to the 60s. Ah.
And I now I have to go back and look at like every year of more of a diamond uh crystal box. Anyway, uh so uh Dave had a couple more questions about washing. So, and you we do a lot, you do a lot of rice work in the book. If you're interested in rice, you do a lot of rice book. And by the way, before I even get to his question, you mentioned something that I've never had the guts to try.
So in your risotto, you're like, you could use so you're like carnaroli or borrio, sushi rice. And I was like, it's good. I'm not I'm not saying it's not, but I've never had the guts to try it. And I have sacks of like coco rows like sitting around because Booker loves sushi rice, and you know he that's one of the things he knows how to make again giant mess. But uh, you know, with the fanning and all nightmare.
But the um but I've never tried it. Was there a difference? Is it different but good, or is it just pretty much similar? I feel like it's very similar. Yeah.
Especially if you take the time and like toast it. Yeah. Um, and we often have sushi rice, but we don't always have risotto rice because we have a lot more sushi rice. It is overpriced. And I think it's fine.
Just like use some tamaki gold. Yeah. The very, very, very good sushi rice is still not nearly as expensive as okay carnarolier or borrio. Because it's branding, because it's Italian. If you say dry brine again, I'm just uh whoops.
Um so yeah, so because I I made a uh style of risotto uh last week. So uh that's what that's the thing I was gonna say last week, other than the pie. So uh we had JJ with uh what was it? What was JJ's book called? The rice uh the rice book when he came on, what's his book called?
I'll get it. Anyway, from Field Trip Restaurant, and so he was talking about John John mushrooms, which is a Haitian mushroom, and I'd never had it before. He came on the show, and I've been buying it. It's really expensive though. It's like $14 for a little bag at Calustian's, but it tastes delicious.
I highly recommend the John John. So I did a cold soak because cold soaks taste better on mushrooms. I'm sorry. Cold soak just tastes better. You can heat it afterwards, but you gotta cold soak it for a while.
I've done some tests, that's my opinion. You can have it, you can leave it. And uh I made a risotto where instead of broth, I used uh John John. Oh, and that was it. Yeah.
Well that was flavorful enough. Uh well, you know, you you I I grind up parsley and and and garlic and and shallots and and thyme. I didn't put the clove in and onion and butter. Okay, so it was like everything. And chanjon mushrooms.
John John mushrooms. But instead of using like stuff and you know, white wine. But instead of instead of using and it's like this like cool black color. Uh-huh. Yeah.
So I guess black risotto. Okay, I'm gonna try these. Yeah, yeah, yeah. John John. And it's I love the word Janjan.
DJ ON. If you keep talking about it, it's only gonna get more expensive. I doubt it could get how it's gonna get more expensive. Everything's a lie. Pricing is a scam.
That's true. You ever deal with liquor people? It's the worst. Yeah. Yeah.
It's a complete, it's just they're like, we don't know how much we want to charge for this yet. We gotta figure out which person we want to buy it, and that's how much we're gonna charge for it. Really? They're like, yeah. I'm like, gross.
Uh so on rice. As for rice, uh, back to Dave. It's obvious that it should get washed as you insist, but rice can be full of all sorts of contaminants, such as rodent feces and whatnot. Gross. Gross.
Uh I've never seen rodent feces in my rice. Although I did have a whole bag of rice, like a 15 10 or 15-pound bag unopened that had weevils in it. So something had gotten in it, and because I had not opened the bag, I didn't vac it down. Nightmare. Wait, do you vacuum seal everything after you open it?
Uh I get like 50-pound sacks of grain. So sometimes the grain is like staying around. Where do you live? Uh so this is a bone of contention in my family. Oh, okay.
Yeah, like so. I'm only allowed to have a certain amount, but I I buy the half-gallon mason jars and I seal down half gallon mason jars with it because that it's enough to kill and nothing, nothing ever grows. And so since I started doing that, I've never had weevils ever. And I have a lot of grain in the house. You know, I've had problems with hams getting attacked by bugs.
Anything I used to keep open in large containers or whatever. Like it's you know what? It's okay till it's not. So if anything goes down and there's a food shortage, we all go to your house. Yeah, yeah.
You're you're ready. We're good. I got the as long as we have power, I've got the grinder and we're we're good to go. Okay. Um it's obvious you should get washes, you insist rodent feces.
So to me, uh that would seem like uh also a can uh cross contamination risk. It just seems a little contradictory. So they're still on this whole don't watch chicken thing. Still talking about the jig. I don't know where you're getting rice with rodent feces, like buy your rice somewhere else.
Yeah that's my only advice. Well, I have to say, when you get 50 pound sacks of grain, sometimes they're real clean and sometimes they're not. It's really weird. It's like sometimes they're really clean and sometimes they're really not. Well, you know how I buy chicken in a way, most people don't.
You buy green in a way, most people don't. Accurate. You know, accurate. Uh, but on another note, is this the same guy? Same guy.
On another note, uh he appreciates your encyclopedic cooking knowledge that they always seem to turn to in your former position at the magazine that will not be named. Uh so I know you've been doing 101 style vids for the uh, you know, for the because of the book, but some of us would love to see some of your more advanced and difficult techniques or tricks as well on the tubes. I mean, I want to do like a a part two, like a harder book. Would that be a uh two uh keep going? Yeah, so but but like yeah, yeah, like but what would you call it?
Like uh I don't know. Level up, level up. Oh, there you go. But they said no one would buy that. Who said that?
The publishers. They said no one buys advanced cookbooks. Listen, listen. You can do whatever you want. At this point, you can do whatever you want.
I don't think so. I think at this point you can do whatever you want. I think so. You know, I'd still like to make a living. I'd like the book to sell.
And it's I think people will buy it. You think people will buy a billion people bought Kenji's first book, right? Uh-huh. Food lab. And then he's like, I want to write a thousand page book on walks.
Mm-hmm. Right? And did it sell as much as Food lab? No, but it sold because he's Kenji and everybody had Food lab. You could do what you want.
Uh-huh. Yeah. I don't know. I'll think about it. But yeah, I would like to.
Yeah. People appreciate honesty from people. You're honest in this book. You'd be honest in the other book. People appreciate it.
Mm-hmm. I think. That's my opinion. Now, I'm not rich, so don't listen to me. But uh, that's just my feeling.
Uh Jason Lynn, uh, hey, so I've been a huge fan since the series eats days. My question is, has your approach to recipe development changed with the shifts in the way that people predominantly access food media? And if so, in what ways? Thinking along the lines of print recipes to digital articles to long and short video formats. And if you want to like TikTok lunacy.
I mean, I think I have a different strategy for every outlet. Um like with some of like New York Times, they want easy weeknight meals. Stuff that you use minimal bowls and happens in 40 minutes. So because it's like people who are looking to New York Times cooking food, they just like need help on a Wednesday night. So I go really simple.
Um, and then for like the book, I was kind of thinking more about teaching. Because when you have a book, you can like sit down and take more time with it. It's not just like I need something right now, I need to get dinner on the table now. So that's why it's a lot of the recipes in the book maybe take a little bit longer. There's the writing is a little bit longer.
I go more into detail because I want it to be more about teaching you instead of just like here's a quick recipe. And then with Instagram and TikTok, I think you just have to like get people's attention. And it doesn't necessarily have to be executable dishes for for a you know, people just want to see you do something. Like one of my biggest TikTok videos is just me making pie crust that no one is gonna make, but people just like seeing how this mass of flakes turned into a dough. They just watch it with no it's more entertainment.
Huh. I think TikTok and Instagram's entertainment, the book is teaching, and then other outlets like New York Times, Bon Appetit, it's more like a resource. Yeah. I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense to me. I don't know if it makes sense to I don't know if I answered that question. I think you answered it. Uh Azoo writes in uh Hey Solo, big fan. Uh was sorry to hear about the annoying gatekeeping comments you get when you put out brown recipes.
You could talk about that if you would like to. My girlfriend is from uh Bangladesh and has always been excited by the prospect of getting to see more uh Bangladeshi recipes from you due to lack of English resources. Uh any plans for uh future recipes in that vein, would completely understand if you felt it wasn't worth the baggage of dealing with toxic randos on the internet, food content on Instagram students to have some of the most toxic comment sections I've seen anywhere. And also, would you happen to know, or would you be willing to say if you do happen to know anything if uh Stella Parks, that's Brave Tart for those of you that don't know people's names and monikers, is ever coming back. I don't know if I'm allowed to speak for her.
Yeah. Well, she is alive and well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's doing great. Stay tuned.
Um I like making a Bangladeshi cookbook is something that I also thought about because I think it'd be great to do something kind of like Rick Martinez going through the different regions of Bangladesh, because it is a lot of people, their perspective on it is they they don't know what's different from it compared to Indian food. And they and what little they know about Bangladeshi food, it's like a monolith. And it's not, it's very divided by all these rivers. There's very unique uh cuisine and culture in every little corner. Um, but I am afraid of getting ill at like I'm just I'm I'm so tired of it.
And that's why I don't make as much Bangladeshi food on the internet. Um, every time it's just like such a headache that I'm like, maybe I should just make pasta. Well, do you think it's like the kind of more reach you get, the more A-holes you also have to deal with, or like is it like this sort of like punishment, like the bigger you're reached, like the the more you have to get like this thick skin against a holes? Yeah, well, I mean, I also kind of get where they're coming from because it is an underrepresented cuisine, so they really want to see it showcased in the way they know it, you know, they really want to see the corma their mom made. But the fact is there's a million kinds of corma.
Oh, so you're getting it from both sides or one side. Who's who's causing you the most problems? What do you mean? Who's oh so the gatekeeping? You're saying that like from the from the Bangladeshi community, yeah, yeah.
It's it's the Bangladeshi community. Like, like I'll I'll spell a word slightly different than the spelling they might know. But the fact is Bangla translated to English, it's like there's a lot of ways to go with it. You know, the words don't directly translate, the sounds aren't exactly overlapping. So I but I understand because you want to see it presented the way you know it.
Yeah. And I totally get that, but I can't beat everybody's Bangladeshi person. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, I mean, like uh, you know, the Museum of Food and Drink, which is you know the project I've been on forever. Um, like that we've always kind of fought against someone saying that any one person has to represent some sort of weird false authenticity.
Everybody's experience is authentic to their experience and to where they come from. So it's it's weird to have to stand in for everybody's experience. Yeah, yeah. It's bizarre. Yeah, yeah.
But I mean, I understand because there's just not enough people out there representing this cuisine. Right. It's also difficult because I'm Bangladeshi, but I grew up in LA. I was like born and raised in LA. So my Is there a big community there?
Huge. So my perspective on the food is shaped around the ingredients available there. You know, it's not authentic to someone growing up in Taca. And I'm sorry for everyone there who's mad at me. Right, but like you're yeah, but that's the thing is like um I mean, cuisine is supposed to change when it moves.
Yes. That's how everything happens. It always has throughout history and time. But I think it's scary now because it's happening at a faster pace than it's like how you're talking about Italy in 1995 versus Italy now. Yeah.
Like I the first time I went to Italy, it was like 2003, and it was like a life-changing. I don't remember having a smartphone. I feel like I had to use a map to get around. Can you imagine? Yeah, right.
And everything, every single like place I went in Italy, like Rome was different from Cincitari, was different from uh Florence, and now everything's just an Instagram filter of Italy. So I but I feel like it's kind of what's happening with food. Everything's kind of like blending together and it's making people more protective of their perspective on it, if that makes sense. Right. Although, yeah, some people have always been that way though.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean they have a voice now. Yeah. Uh MJ oh, what do you think that is?
10,021. I'm gonna say that's how MJ pronounces it. Uh hello. I'm working on my Karaage recipe and I'm trying to get a crisp exterior uh exterior that stays crispy longer. Uh compared to my uh Karayage Karayage, I can't ever pronounce that right.
Some that I have seen seems much air. I generally use potato starch. And once the marinated chicken wets out the starch, I give it one more dunk before uh dropping into the hot oil. Other than different starches, is there anything uh that you think I can try to get an airier and longer lasting crunch? Thanks.
Other than different starches. My first thought was crisp coat. Yeah. People buy a lot that a lot now. Crisp coat's good.
I mean, I feel like we try everything at home with it. It does make a difference. But um what percentage? Because remember, like not being not being industrial means you can use a lot more of these expensive starches than you know, a regular industrial concern can because they cost a lot more, but not that much more compared to what you're doing in your life. You know what I mean?
So what do you think? I just eyeball it. Eyeball it with a spoon. Because it used to be, they used to say national starch, which is now ingredients, whatever they call themselves now. Janet Carver is still running that.
I would like to have her on the show one day. Anyway, uh I think they used to say 10%. Oh. But I feel like we all use more than 10%. I definitely use more than that.
Yeah. But I mean, besides starch, my other thought is just like oil temp. Yeah, what's your what's your I mean, like my feeling is it's hard to give any advice unless you know all of their steps because there are 30 ways to crispy. You know what I mean? But like how the like just intervening in the fifth step to crispy is not necessarily gonna help somebody unless you know what the first four steps and the next four steps are.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's my feeling. Yeah. It's hard.
Yeah. It's like people like, it's like uh you know, why isn't this working? I don't know. Tell me everything you did. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like, tell me all the things. Like did you dry bride in the chicken? Oh my God, you're killing me. Arturo says, and I don't know which El Pastor place Arturo is referring to, but have you been to the tacos El Pastor place yet?
Which one? Is it like this is like I think I know which one they're talking about. All right. Which one are they talking about? Uh I recently did a podcast about El Pastor, like the history of it and my husband went to that place in Greenpoint.
Okay. Was it any good? It's incredible. I can't remember what it's called though. The Alto El Pastor Place in Greenpoint.
There you go. It is have you been there? No have to go. Do they have the pineapple on top with the cut? Yes.
And and the they uh they dry brine their meat. First of all, is it is it is it lam is it laminated up on the big thing? So it's really cool. So instead of doing slices like most people do and stack it up they cut it like an accordion style so it's one giant sheet of meat. Okay.
Sheet of meat that's my next band. Uh-huh and then they like fold it ripple it together and then uh they also do a dry brine marinade so it kind of is like a sausage vibe where it combines so when they slice it it doesn't all fall apart. It kind of sticks together and it gets so crisp. It's so flavorful. I think it's like you've been to Tacos Numerono right?
Which one's that is that the one in Chelsea markets. This this is miles above that and I love tacos and Marono. Yeah I mean to me El Pastor is a a volume trick. If you're not serving a crap ton of it. If you're not constantly cutting off of it and using a high heat, it's not going to be as good.
You know what I mean? Like yeah, yeah, definitely. I make a great Alpes door. Really? How many do you serve?
Like 10 an hour. Nope. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like this doesn't work.
Oh, speaking of it, you made me remind me. Jack, I forgot to ask you when you told me how big that meatball was. Texture of the meatball, was it meatloaf texture? Like so I how bound was the meat in the meatball? Because like I I don't like it when it's overbound.
No, it wasn't overbound. It was maybe somewhere between meatloaf and like a smaller, you know, regular meatball. Okay. So but like so they hadn't over over salted and worked the meat before they formed it into a ball. No, I don't think so.
No. No, don't you hate when they overwork when they overwork a meat like that and then they dry it out? I hate that. I'm sorry, right behind you. Selena pulled up the name of the taco class.
Oh, what's the name of the plastic? All right. So see, we have the internet. We can't, we can do this. Yeah.
Uh and so I can get to it before we start uh saying ask my own questions. Uh Sam Silverman wants to know when's big brunch coming back, which is with uh Oh, I don't I don't think it's coffee back. What's he like to work with? Is he a okay guy? Yeah, I know I know Will, but I don't know, Dan.
Obviously, I don't know. No, it actually like uh I think everyone was surprised by how well the three of us got along. Um just like clicks. It was a very good, I don't know, I guess that's what uh what is that called, where you talk and they see if you like each other. I don't know.
I've never chemistry tests. I guess that's why is that a thing? Yeah, yeah. Before whenever you do a show with other people, you do like a zoom together and you just hang out to see if you guys like click, vibe, or hate each other. This is why nothing I ever try to do works.
I failed the chemistry test. Um yeah, all right. Uh I haven't I I I mean, I haven't. I should check it out. It's on HBO.
I have HBO. Yeah, check it out. Tell your friends. Maybe it'll come back. I don't know.
I don't know. These things are. I don't know. All right. So, oh, I don't remember where it is because this is something I read the last time we're gonna come on.
Bone to pick before we, you know, we have five minutes left. Bone to pick. I feel if you don't like pressure cookers, it's because you're following somebody else's technique that's not right with the pressure cooker. Okay, tell me about pressure cookers. I understand what you're saying.
I forget the exact term that you use, but I said that I feel like when you cook meat in a pressure cooker, the the sauce tastes better than the meat. So I prefer just like low and right. Like I was uh the vibe I got was like you're like, I don't want it to taste like pot de feu. I want it to taste like you know what I mean? Uh-huh.
Yeah. So you have to drastically reduce the liquids. Yeah. And then figure out a way to not get it to scorch. So it's like, you know, like it's just easier to just not do that.
No, but I love I love the way, like when like properly done, but I don't like beans in a pressure cooker because beans require evaporation. Very few dishes I think require the evaporation. They just require good. This is the book I was supposed to be writing, moisture management. This require good moisture management.
Uh-huh. Right. Wait, are you writing a book called Moisture Management? Yes, but I put it on pause to do the 10th anniversary of the cocktail book, and then I gotta get back to moisture management. Everyone says I shouldn't call everyone who listens to this show says I should call it moisture management, and everybody call it moisture management.
Everyone says like just listen to me with the branding and the marketing. It just sounds like how about this? Yeah. About this. Ready?
Uh-huh. The miracle of moisture management. No, no. It just doesn't sound like it's about food. The miracle of moisture management.
No? No? All right. Uh anyway, I feel like, you know, um, I go through a lot to kind of get the moisture levels to come out right when you open it so it doesn't taste like you've done a braise with too much liquid. You know what I mean?
Or a stew. I know you go into the difference between braise and stews. The wavy line between. No. I was look worried about you.
I don't know, because you know what you're talking about. Yeah, no, but no, I like like look, I think there's like there's obviously any any cook you're gonna agree with and disagree with thing, but I love I love the approach. And I like, you know, most of it. So like for instance, this sushi thing blew me away. And also I want to know because I have never made halva, and you're like, you're like American's halva game blows anyway.
Because we don't know anything about it. So like, and I was gonna ask you, because you call out some uh brands of tahini, which actually aren't easy to get locally. I don't think the ones that that what do you do when you get a tahini that is just like a brick with the oil on top? Is there any decent way to stir that back together or it just sucks? Uh you have to take it out of the jar.
Like right up. Like you can't do it in the jar. It's annoying, but I'll put it in a bowl and whisk it. Yeah. Yeah.
But it's worth it. Because once you take it a second, do it well, it'll hold for a little bit. Freaking hate that. Because is there anything stiffer than when you try to jam the spoon into the bottom and then try to get that anything stiffer than that? No, it doesn't, it doesn't work with you just gotta make a bowl dirty.
Yeah. So you call out like uh like chickpea halvas. Have you ever uh tried any of those? Like what are those other ones like the texture of those? Um I tried one, I tried a chickpea one recently.
Good. And it was delicious. I couldn't nail the texture. I've only tried it once. I need to try it again, but uh really, really good flavor.
You you kind of make a roux with chickpea flour and key, and then you add the I was trying to do the pulled halva. So I um I tried to you have to set the sugar in like a mold, like a ring mold so it it it cools down at an even rate. We have two minutes and then you pull it, but I like poured it on a still pat so the edges crystallize, but the flavor is so amazing. Yeah, you try it again. Oh, uh are you gonna post are you gonna post a recipe for it?
I don't know. People don't do a lot of these things in private. Oh yeah, all right, all right. I mean that's the kind of stuff that that's the kind of content I'm like, ooh, chipy hava. Like uh, because I'm also fascinated with this idea of like the interchangeability in Italian cuisine in like southern Italian cuisine of like chestnuts and chickpeas.
You know what I mean? Like like we make this cookie with with chestnuts or chickpeas if we don't have chestnuts. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Interesting.
Uh when you were at Del Posto, were you savory side or pastry side? Savory. Savory side. That's where I made those tiny aranchinis. Yeah, there you go.
Oh, yeah, those are gonna happen. Did you have to put the gold dust all over them? Yeah. Those were really hard because the center were completely molten. Yeah.
So it's pretty tough to roll, but you know, you get yelled at enough, you figure it out. Uh hopefully. Hopefully you're hopefully you're being yelled at by people days is over. Hopefully that is over in the kitchen in general. Homemade mayo, you actually think it's worth it, huh?
Uh-huh. Come on. What if I'm gonna add a bunch of flavor to it? Then not, right? I still think it's worth it.
Okay. You have to convince me. Here's an idea. Here's an idea whose time has come. Deviled egg dip.
What? What? Because nobody wants to pick up I do. I'll eat a whole plate of deviled eggs myself because deviled eggs are delicious. Uh-huh.
But like this devil egg dip, I thought this was a genius idea. Are people going crazy for deviled egg dip? Does people even pick up on the fact that you could make deviled eggs into the flavor of deviled egg into a dip? I noticed no paprika instead, like the akura, but that's fine. Uh-huh.
Like we can be different. Yeah. You know what I mean? But like, have people picked up on this? I I believe so.
Yeah, I think so. Alright, nice. Uh Joe's gonna good Joe's gonna kick me off the air before I get to all my questions. But listen, Sola, come back anytime you want. Okay, cool.
The book is Start Here, Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sola L. Whaley. Buy it anywhere you buy fine books. It's uh I think we have it for our Patreon people on discount at Kitchen Arts and Letters, where I hope you buy your books if you're from New York City. Thanks for being on.
Cooking issues.
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