Stuff unrelated to food, wine & spirits that I just feel like posting.
If it weren’t for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we’d still be eating frozen radio dinners.” – Johnny Carson Buenos Aires – Liquid nitrogen is cold. Really cold. To paraphrase Wikipedia: “It is a cryogenic fluid which is potentially capable of causing instant frostbite on contact with living tissue. When appropriately insulated from ambient… Read More The Deep Freeze
Changes to nature do not occur in a vacuum.” – Kevin Lafferty, scientist Buenos Aires – Though I know what Dr. Lafferty means, and I’m sure he went on to clarify this in regard to whatever he was talking about, he clearly hadn’t attended a class on vacuum cooking. Now, the first thought that popped… Read More Smoke and Mirrors
We may never understand the full story behind the snap, crackle, and pop, because finding money for experiments on cereal noises isn’t easy.” – Corey Binns, Live Science Buenos Aires – I realized I forgot to post up notes from the class nearly two weeks ago, along with last week’s which I knew I was… Read More Snap, Crackle, Pop
Tea is the language and art of hospitality.” – Inés Berton, Tealosophy Buenos Aires – I once went to afternoon tea at some fancy hotel in London, and I know I went once or twice over the years at different hotels in Manhattan – I recall The Plaza having a nice one. But that’s about… Read More What to do at Five O’Clock
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria.” – Dr. Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters Buenos Aires – People who cook will understand this. People who don’t cook may sympathize, based on their attachments to wherever their workspace is, but they won’t understand it. Not at a visceral level. My kitchen, to the casual observer,… Read More The Urge to Strangle
I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it … I always want to see the third dimension of something … I want to come alive with the object.” – Andrew Wyeth, American realist painter Buenos Aires – As I mentioned last week, our cocina de vanguardia class… Read More Textures
Oh Fatherland, Fatherland, Show us the sign Your children have waited to see. The morning will come When the world is mine. Tomorrow belongs to me! – Chorus from Tomorrow Belongs to Me, Cabaret Buenos Aires – Recently I’ve decided it’s time to get back into theater mode – I mean going to as opposed… Read More Tomorrow Belongs…
Animal jelly; glutinous material obtained from animal tissues by prolonged boiling. Specifically, a nitrogeneous colloid, not existing as such in the animal body, but formed by the hydrating action of boiling water on the collagen of various kinds of connective tissue (as tendons, bones, ligaments, etc.). Its distinguishing character is that of dissolving in hot… Read More There’s Always Room for Gel…