February 7th, 2010
Posted by johngl
You may have noticed from my last post that I’ve been on the road: the most glorious spousal unit and I headed over to Galveston to catch a boat. So for the past several days we have been in and around the ports of Galveston, Progreso, and Cozumel. We took this particular boat because it offered me a chance to see Chichen Itza, a city that was once a regional capital of the Mayan civilization.
Temple of Kukulkan: El Castillo
There is nothing that works up an appetite quite like tromping about the ruins of an ancient civilization where human sacrifice was the order of the day. As coincidence would have it, we’d secured a couple of seats at the Chef’s Table for dinner — back on the boat not at the ruins. Offered only to a dozen passengers on each of two evenings of the cruise, this is a pretty big deal. None of that ordinary fare for us. No way.
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Tags: Reviews
Posted in Reviews | 3 Comments »
February 1st, 2010
Posted by johngl
Three years ago, at about this time of year, most glorious spousal unit and I discovered Bistro LeCroy located at The Strand Historic District in Galveston. We were impressed enough to look for it again, hoping that it would still be there.
We made our way down Strand and lo and behold, there it was!
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Tags: Reviews
Posted in Galveston, TX, Restaurants, Reviews | 1 Comment »
January 29th, 2010
Posted by johngl
The Flavia Flav faded into history faster than a bad rapper. It’s metallic tasting, gut wrenching, weak tasting badness failed to impress the masses.
Out with the old; in with the new:
As the quest for the ultimate hot beverage dispensary continues, we find that we have some pretty serious shortcomings. Apparently techies aren’t smart enough to know the difference between a half cup icon and a full cup icon. We require additional signage.
But why bother with a cup at all…
just stick your hand in there and go for direct injection.
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Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 24th, 2010
Posted by johngl
The Buenos Aires Cafe’s (south) location, at 2414 S. First Street, quietly nestles it between a large pawn shop and a liquor store. On our visit yesterday, it didn’t look like much either with it’s pale olive-green exterior and loose polyethylene flapping in the breeze, put there, I presume, to protect it’s outdoor seating area from the chilly temps mother nature has foisted upon us these past few weeks. As I pulled into the alleyway to find a parking spot, I glanced over at the most glorious one, wondering if she had lost her freaking mind. Even the couple we met there for lunch were eyeballing me and I had to admit, out loud, that if I was just walking down the street, I probably wouldn’t just stroll in here for a bite to eat.
Most glorious knew the pressure was on; this was her recommendation and I’m betting she thought I was going to be hyper-critical. However, I’ve had really good food in some really weird-looking places, some of which had bars on the doors, others had no doors at all (or even walls). We’ve been married for close to two decades and I’ve learned to trust her judgment (most of the time).
Slow Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri, Mashed Potatoes, and Organic Spinach Salad with Feta Cheese, Black Olives, and Roasted Pecans
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Tags: Reviews, Wine
Posted in Austin, TX, Restaurants, Reviews, Wine | 2 Comments »
January 23rd, 2010
Posted by johngl
My, aren’t we pretentious.
In nearly every workplace these days, especially in the tech world, break rooms (or are they employee lounges now?) are dotted with numerous kinds of coffees and, in some cases, fancy espresso machines.
The other day, this piece of equipment showed up:
Isn’t that just fabulous?
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Tags: coffee
Posted in Equipment | 2 Comments »
January 17th, 2010
Posted by johngl
Another chilly weekend, another slow-cooked offering from the most glorious spousal unit!
This is a Pork Loin Roast Braised with White Beans, Rosemary, and Sage.
She calls it cooking. I can’t complain.
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Tags: meat, pork, slow-cooker
Posted in Meat, Recipes: Eats, Techniques | No Comments »
January 16th, 2010
Posted by johngl
Since the release of Julie & Julia, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has come back as a best seller. Beyond that, lots of food bloggers have now taken up following the pattern: cook every recipe in a cookbook and hope for a movie deal. Maybe I should try that with a Thomas Keller cookbook.
Not. A. Chance. We don’t operate like that here at the Alcoholian campus.
Julia’s Boeuf à la Bourguignonne is simply a classic and when I was asked to attend a Burgundy Wine Salon (a future post to be sure), it seemed like a natural especially since I would be cooking for over 30 people. So I fished out my very old 1983 paperback edition of Julia’s most famous work and got to it. Sorta. I’m not very good at following recipes. They are like stop lights: suggestions.
Mine is deconstructed:
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Tags: beef, meat
Posted in Meat, Recipes: Eats, Techniques | 3 Comments »
January 10th, 2010
Posted by johngl
I just happened to have a big hunk of dry-aged chuck taking up space in the fridge when the most glorious spousal unit decided upon making a pot roast. To be sure, she’s the queen of the slow-cooker and I wasn’t about to issue a protest. It didn’t hurt that we’re experiencing a damn serious cold-snap — courtesy of the bowels of the Arctic. There is a reason they call it comfort food.
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Tags: dry-aged, meat, slow-cooker
Posted in Meat | 1 Comment »
January 3rd, 2010
Posted by johngl
In my recent past, some have called me the Hyphenator; now you know one of the reasons. But, since this is a food-centered blog, I won’t get into my propensity for pernicious punctuation (or even multi-syllabic alliterations).
Onward, to the food:
Dry-Aged Sous-Vide Ribeye with Pan-Seared Roasted Potatoes
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Tags: meat, potato, ribeye, sous vide
Posted in Meat, Techniques | 6 Comments »
January 3rd, 2010
Posted by johngl
There has been a lot of interest lately in my sous-vide posts, especially the ribeye, posted just a couple of weeks ago, and the lobster, posted about a year ago. I’m not complaining; these were really very worthwhile experiments.
As my regular readers know by now, my sous-vide rig is a Rube Goldberg blend of a Rival 16 quart electric roasting pan ($50 tops) and an Auber Controller (about $150 with shipping). Born out of my desire to cook sous-vide style without investing over $1000 in an immersion circulator, this rig has done me well.
Now, it seems, a manufacturer has put these together into a single unit called the SousVide Supreme.
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Tags: sous vide
Posted in Equipment, Techniques | 4 Comments »
December 27th, 2009
Posted by johngl
If you are a regular reader of the Alcoholian, you’ve seen my many ramblings about the Dai Due (pronounced: die do-ay) Supper Club. Jesse Griffiths and Tamara Mayfield, the founders of Dai Due, are the personification of the term locavore. I have profound respect and admiration for the work they do. Changing the way people think about their food and where it comes from is no easy task, yet Jesse and Tamara are shining examples of what a couple of folks can do if they put their minds to it.
And so it came to pass that one week ago, on December 20, 2009, I ate like a little piggy at the Dai Due gathering hosted by Emmett and Lisa Fox at their top-rated restaurant, FINO.
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Tags: Dai Due
Posted in Profiles | No Comments »
December 26th, 2009
Posted by johngl
Coming off an unusually wicked week, I was ready for relaxing with friends, sharing a couple of bottles of wine, and dining upon some really great food. The Carillon seemed just the ticket. More so than the Carillon, it was the food creations of Chef Josh Watkins that I wanted my friends to experience.
By now, Chef Watkins is probably thinking that I am stalking him. I took a great cooking class from him at Central Market, we’ve met up at numerous events (Big Reds & Bubbles, Chefs Under Fire, etc), and I even introduced him to my most glorious mother-in-law on Thanksgiving Day where I somehow got roped into committing to cooking a dinner for him (no pressure there) at some point in the near future.
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Tags: Reviews, Wine
Posted in Austin, TX, Restaurants, Reviews, Wine | 5 Comments »
December 20th, 2009
Posted by johngl
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had a large uncooked hunk of the bone-in rib roast left over from Max’s “Thank You!” dinner. For a week, it was just sitting in the fridge I reserve for dry-aging meat. It was, uh, well…dry-aging. So, yesterday, after I finished writing the post, I got the brilliant idea of applying the sous-vide technique to the roast instead of the individual steaks. Out of the frying pan and into the…hmmm…water (so to speak).
This was a good-sized piece of meat and bone, probably 7-1/2 pounds, far and away the largest single piece of meat I’ve ever tried to sous-vide.
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Tags: meat, roast, sous vide
Posted in Meat, Techniques | 1 Comment »
December 19th, 2009
Posted by johngl
When I was thinking about ways to thank Max for all of his help keeping Alcoholian.com up and running, and knowing that ribeye is his favorite cut, feeding him came to mind. And, since I like to experiment with my sous-vide rig, this seemed like a natural progression.
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Tags: meat, ribeye, sous vide
Posted in Equipment, Techniques | 2 Comments »
December 13th, 2009
Posted by johngl
At no time and at no place in the history of the legal recreational consumables industry has there been an event such as this: a vertical tasting of 20 years of Dominus.
At least to my knowledge.
For those neophytes that do not know of this particular nectar of the gods, please depart immediately, there is nothing for you here. Then again, perhaps you should stay and learn something.
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Tags: Food, Wine
Posted in Wine | 5 Comments »
