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Jbeatty's Journal

jbeatty
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07/18/2011 00:25 #54729

Fresh Start
Category: boston
It would be tough to know this since I haven't posted much about it here. But my family and I moved to Boston yesterday/today. Not only did we want to be closer to my wife's family, but I needed some fresh career opportunities as well. As much as I enjoyed my 4 years in Buffalo I always knew that it wouldn't be where I settled. As of right now I can't say that Boston will be either, but for the first time in my life I feel like I'm settled. I'm excited to explore this city and raise our daughter here. I'm happy that she will grow up near her grandparents like I did.

I'm pretty excited to start my new job next week. I will be working at a very large research hospital that I probably shouldn't name but I will say that its right next to Harvard Medical School(for those that are familiar with the area). I hope my foot in the door there will lead to bigger and better things.

I will miss many things about Buffalo. My life's biggest milestones happened there. Pretty strange considering I didn't live there between the ages of 3 months and 28 years. I met some great people that I will miss, and am happy that I took the most important ones with me.

metalpeter - 07/18/11 18:11
I wish you and the family luck.....

I have never been to Boston So I can't say but I've heard it is a great city... It being a city means you get all that great city stuff and events and concerts come there.... On a side note you also just got an upgrade in sports teams (mostly) and can go see Major league teams with out traveling..... I'm a sports go so.... Even if you don't like said team you can go for whom they play.......
jbeatty - 07/18/11 15:47
Thank you. I am so ready for fresh Lobster Rolls on a frequent basis. I can't wait to find all the good markets and restaurants!
tinypliny - 07/18/11 11:09
Congratulations! This is splendid news!!!!! :-)) All the very very best and keep in touch with us!
leetee - 07/18/11 10:17
I wish you and your family luck and happiness in your new home!
paul - 07/18/11 09:40
Ya, good luck. Boston sounds like it would be such a fun city and so much closer to fresh seafood.
heidi - 07/18/11 00:28
Good luck!!

06/24/2011 21:48 #54570

Books on cooking
Category: cooking
I have been baking a hell of a lot of bread lately. My brother gave me a book called Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. It's all about the the different ratios used in cooking. The bread ratio is 5:3 Flour, water. Apparently the amount of yeast is negotiable. Less gives a slower rise and more gives a quick rise but you lose some complexity in the flavor. Obviously salt is needed too but not the important part of the ratio. It's a very useful book for making bread, cookies, and pies off the cuff. I have always liked creating non-baked dishes without a recipe, but this book is allowing me to do way more in terms of baking.

I wish I had taken pictures of the bread I made last night. There was a recommendation to bake the bread in a dutch oven. This is supposed to trap all the moisture that the bread releases. It was super easy and worked perfectly. According to the book, professional baking ovens have a feature that allow you to inject moisture. He recommends compensating for this deficiency in home ovens by placing a cast iron skillet on the rack when you preheat it and then pour water into the hot pan when you start baking. I have noticed a huge difference in the texture of the crust when I do this. I have been getting some of the crustiest bread I have ever made.

While I love the texture I think the taste may need some improvements. There is a sourness that fresh bakery bread has that mine just doesn't. I want to try making a starter and letting it grow in my fridge for a while. Although that might be a little hardcore for home baking I just want to see if that would make a difference.

I have also been cooking quite a bit out of the Spice cookbook by Ana Sortun. She is the Chef/Owner of Oleana and Sofra in Boston. It is a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern cookbook with her own twist. There are some really amazing recipes in this book. So many different ingredients I had never even heard of. My biggest problem is finding some of them. I do end up cooking a lot of vegetarian dished these days due to a couple of food poisoning incidents with my wife. I am 100% for eating vegetarian as long as it isn't that faux meat shit. Tofurky and smart dogs aren't food. I would definitely recommend this book for the Turkish Cheese Pancakes, Eggplant Souffle, and Flatbread with Za'atar alone. But the Crispy Chicken under a brick is the finest chicken dish I have ever made.
tinypliny - 06/25/11 11:46
I really like making bread but I don't have the patience for either recipes or kneading. So I go the no-knead-long-rise route. Takes some planning but is very little effort and takes almost ZERO adherence to any recipe because the results are uniformly good (with a bit of variety thrown in if you vary things). Try the sourdough no-knead bread: :::link::: This was mine.. with a Moroccan twist: :::link:::(or-something...).html
ladycroft - 06/25/11 04:21
Mmmm, now eggplant souffle sounds delicious! Good luck with the bread making. I just pine for the day I actually have a kitchen again so I can cook real food.

04/19/2011 09:35 #54094

Fuck You Buffalo Rising!
This morning I read a "restaurant review" in Buffalo Rising about Left Bank. It was a typical fluff piece that they write for all of their advertisers. I felt the need to comment because it was so poorly written and just screamed of being edited to death. Right after I found the original much more honest review on the author's blog here: and posted it to Buffalo Rising's comments. Both of my comments were promptly erased and my login is now denied!

Buffalo Rising is such shit really. They are worried only about advertising dollars. When I worked at a restaurant and served BR's reviewer I was told to comp the whole bill. Not only did we know we were being reviewed we gave them the fucking meal for free! They aren't reviewing anything. They are advertising.

Not that it's really much different at the Buffalo News, although at least they don't get the meal comped. But every chef in Buffalo knows what Janice Okun looks like. Not much of a surprise that everyone gets high marks. Although I don't necessarily agree with these two all the time at least they follow ethical standards. Neither of which BR or the News adhere to.
npage148 - 12/08/11 10:53
Found your post. I read BRO as a time killer just to see what's going on I might have missed. I was also just deleted and banned from BRO for questioning their piece about Templeton Landing. Despite years (decades?) of horrible reviews, his glowing review looks beyond questionable. They never post a negative or even neutral reviews of the place and they should just be honest about their sponsored posts. It does nothing for their credibility or Buffalo as a whole when people go to one of their promoted restaurants and it sucks.
tinypliny - 04/19/11 17:10
Ironically, just looking at their grease-ridden pics of Left Bank fare in that article makes me not want to eat there. Pictures speak volumes and often cannot lie very well.
tinypliny - 04/19/11 17:07
To be fair, I do occasionally stumble upon things in downtown Buffalo because of Buffalo Rising. They may not be the most objective of sources, but at least they do a good job of promoting new ventures and new stuff around downtown - commercial or not. If I am wondering about some new place that opened up or some new service that is being offered in the city (within walking distance of my place), chances are that a google search turns up a top hit in their reviews. Something is always better than nothing.

It's a pity that they are not very objective and do not respond well to constructive criticism.
scott - 04/19/11 10:36
Wow. People actually read Buffalo Rising?
jason - 04/19/11 10:02
Oh yeah, and about Buffalo Chow - they should stick to what they "know"......reviewing food......it annoys the hell out of me when non-technical people give other non-technical people bad advice about technical issues.
jason - 04/19/11 09:38
Yeah, that blows. Notice how she went and edited her own blog explaining her shilling....ERRR....."cognitive dissonance". I like Josh's reviews far better. The Mighty Taco one was legendary.

04/18/2011 10:32 #54083

Spar's Chocolate Bacon
Category: food
A couple of weeks ago I was Spar's Sausage on Amherst St. and noticed a large jar of chocolate covered bacon on the counter. I had to try it considering my love of both.

image

As much as I love everything about Spar's, really everything they make is absolutely great. The bacon was one of the most foul things I have ever eaten. I have had bacon as a dessert before ie. (candied bacon, caramel corn with bits of rendered bacon) and loved it. But this stuff was totally inedible. The second piece ended up in the trash.

mrmike - 04/19/11 10:41
Picture looks good
jbeatty - 04/19/11 10:36
I feel bad for not liking it. Especially since I love Spar's, but it just didn't taste good to me at all.
paul - 04/18/11 20:35
I would have guessed it was awesome - but totally inedible, huh?
metalpeter - 04/18/11 17:10
Was It that that Bacon was bad or was it that it didn't taste right with the chocolate? With out being a chef I can say that some like Bacon Crisp and hard and some soft and flaccid and then there is the middle ground and everyone is different. I would assume that Crisp would be best to dip in chocolate or maybe there is some way they cook them both.... My point is maybe there is some other way to make it so it tastes great..... Assuming the bacon is how one likes it.... I guess my point is see what happens if you try to make it at home......
enknot - 04/18/11 16:21
For all you bacon lovers out there. I suggest you try the bacon bloody mary at Blue Monk Brunch. It is sooooooo so good.
libertad - 04/18/11 14:49
I was so excited when I saw the title and so let down when I saw your review. Maybe it went rancid or something and it is normally very good?

Your paella in your last journal looks so good.
leetee - 04/18/11 11:13
ha ha ha... i read the title of your post and i thought you were going to say how much you loved it.

I was recently peer pressured into eating bacon... *hangs head in slightly delighted shame*

04/18/2011 10:25 #54082

Paella
Category: cooking
I love watching the cooking shows on PBS Saturdays. I know I should probably be productive but I learn so much by watching these guys. It also usually inspires me as to what I'm going to cook that week.

One of my favorites is "Avec Eric" which is Eric Ripert's cooking show. He usually has a couple of segments one usually is him either with a farmer, cultivator or artisan of some sort and the other he cooks something. Frequently his preparations use expensive ingredients, which most cooking shows do, and last week was no exception. On this particular episode he made Paella. I had never made it prior to last week and never realized how easy it is. It is however pretty freaking expensive given the price of seafood and saffron, but totally worth it for a special occasion.

I more or less followed his recipe but deviated a little bit.
I didn't use authentic bomba rice, not only because I haven't a clue as to where to procure that in Buffalo but because frankly I doubt I would notice a difference from any quality short grain rice that is available to me anyway. If I made it again I would definitely not even bother with the saffron at all. I don't really see what people love about saffron. It has a strange plastic taste to me. Considering the cost I don't really see any reason to use it ever again. I also think it would taste a little better if I had used homemade chicken stock, but I can't be bothered to boil chicken bones constantly.

I would like to make it for a large group and think it would be so much cooler if it were cooked over and open flame. Totally a dinner for company you want to impress with your cooking skills. Anyway here is the final result:

image
jason - 04/19/11 09:40
This entry is right in my wheelhouse. I also love PBS on Saturdays although I haven't seen Avec Eric yet. Would love to check out his restaurant one day. Also agree that Paella is most fun outdoors, with friends. Lastly, I don't get saffron either. Ain't all that.
terry - 04/18/11 15:54
That looks absolutely fabulous. Way to go!
leetee - 04/18/11 11:12
i heart Eric Ripert!

Oh, and your dish looks very pretty! :D
jbeatty - 04/18/11 11:00
I used Saffron from Spain. This recipe called for 1/2 Tbsp of saffron. Probably way too much in retrospect. I have always wanted to try Iranian Saffron because it is also supposed to be great. But I was a little turned off by Saffron in general after this. The white shell around the outside are little neck clams and the black ones on the inside are mussels. This is the recipe I used: :::link:::
tinypliny - 04/18/11 10:34
Are those shells seafood of some kind? What was the recipe?
tinypliny - 04/18/11 10:32
Saffron from Kashmir is the best spice ever. You only need 3-4 strands for the entire dish like that. Are you sure you didn't use too much. The power of saffron lies in how subtle its taste it.. I love saffron milk where you just put in 1-2 strands in boiling milk, add some honey and black pepper and drink it. :)