The Food and Drink Thread

[Dammit Victor]

"Michael's all fucking juiced about it, so you guys are even getting the expensive pink hot dogs."

May be the best text I've ever sent.

 

[The Butcher]

I put some homemade peanut sauce on a grill cheese sandwich for dinner tonight. It was pretty decent.

Mind to share the peanut sauce recipe? A local upscale Chinese place makes an amazing one.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Mind to share the peanut sauce recipe? A local upscale Chinese place makes an amazing one.

Here's a link to the Recipe: https://pinchofyum.com/sesame-zoodles
It's part of the "Zoodle" Tofu recipe and it's called Chili Sesame Sauce, but to my limited culinary knowledge it's the same as Peanut Sauce.

 

[3rik]

I added mole coloradito (from Oaxaca) and mole rosa (from Taxco, Guerrero) to my list of moles I have tried. ¡Riquísimos!

 

[The Butcher]

Finally cracked the seal on the Ardbeg 10yr sample.

Smoke and brine blast you right off the bat, plus some herbal thingie (camphor?) with a faint backing of lemon and honey on the mid-palate. Full body smoothies out the alcohol burn; the aftertaste is all smoke and brine again, maybe with a dash of white pepper.

Good stuff! But Talisker remains my favorite smoky scotch.

 

[King Ghidorah]

Finally cracked the seal on the Ardbeg 10yr sample.

Smoke and brine blast you right off the bat, plus some herbal thingie (camphor?) with a faint backing of lemon and honey on the mid-palate. Full body smoothies out the alcohol burn; the aftertaste is all smoke and brine again, maybe with a dash of white pepper.

Good stuff! But Talisker remains my favorite smoky scotch.

Thanks for the review. Islay whisky is the best. I still like the Macallan 12 (and 18, finances permitting), but that Islay peaty kick is hard to shake once you've had it.

Laphroaig 10 remains my go-to poison, but I've been meaning to get around to Ardbeg. Shall try now.

 

[The Butcher]

Thanks for the kind words.

Islay scotch — single malt scotch in general, TBH — is fiendishly hard to get around here, both at bars and liquor stores. I feel lucky enough that someone started a web site that delivers whisky samples. Macallan 12 (the sherry oak one, of course) is also on my "must taste" list.

As someone who drinks very little, samples are a great way to expand my palate and knowledge.

I have a standing promise from a gaming friend (the same who got me into scotch, with a dram of Balvenie Double Wood 12yr) of a taste from his open bottle of Laphroaig 10yr. I also intend to track down a sample of Lagavulin 16yr — can't call myself a scotch enthusiast without sampling the Islay big three, right?

I have more or less taken upon myself, because of space and budgetary constraints, to own no more than six full-sized bottles of whisky at any time; right now I have only three, a Bulleit (seldom sip, sometimes mix), a Monkey Shoulder (just as likely to sip or mix) and a Talisker 10yr (sipper only, a lovely, lovely peated malt).

I want the next three to be a smoky scotch (see contenders above, though Talisker arguably placates my appetite for peat), a sherry bomb (trying to decide between Bunnahabhain and Glendronach, with closed samples of Glenfarclas and Dalmore set to further muddy up the issue) and an Irish single pot still whiskey (this is surprisingly tricky to find samples of).

When I finish the Monkey Shoulder a new spot opens up and I'll probably be hunting down a good Campbelltown, or maybe a Japanese whisky. But that's a bit further down the line...

 

[The Butcher]

The Butcher’s Ultimate Mango Chutney

2 mangoes, ripe, cubed
1 red onion, diced
1/2 cup ginger, fresh, mandolin ground
4 red chiles, diced
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp turmeric

In a pan, low heat, sweat the chiles and onion. Remove when browned. Keep under low heat, bloom the spices, then add sugar and ginger. When sugar melts add fruit and vinegar. Bring heat up until boiling, then lower heat again and simmer until consistency feels right. Transfer to a sterilized glass container and it should keep for a couple of weeks (or so I’m told; never lasts this long with me.)

 

[King Ghidorah]

Thanks for the kind words.

Islay scotch — single malt scotch in general, TBH — is fiendishly hard to get around here, both at bars and liquor stores. I feel lucky enough that someone started a web site that delivers whisky samples. Macallan 12 (the sherry oak one, of course) is also on my "must taste" list.

As someone who drinks very little, samples are a great way to expand my palate and knowledge.

I have a standing promise from a gaming friend (the same who got me into scotch, with a dram of Balvenie Double Wood 12yr) of a taste from his open bottle of Laphroaig 10yr. I also intend to track down a sample of Lagavulin 16yr — can't call myself a scotch enthusiast without sampling the Islay big three, right?

I have more or less taken upon myself, because of space and budgetary constraints, to own no more than six full-sized bottles of whisky at any time; right now I have only three, a Bulleit (seldom sip, sometimes mix), a Monkey Shoulder (just as likely to sip or mix) and a Talisker 10yr (sipper only, a lovely, lovely peated malt).

I want the next three to be a smoky scotch (see contenders above, though Talisker arguably placates my appetite for peat), a sherry bomb (trying to decide between Bunnahabhain and Glendronach, with closed samples of Glenfarclas and Dalmore set to further muddy up the issue) and an Irish single pot still whiskey (this is surprisingly tricky to find samples of).

When I finish the Monkey Shoulder a new spot opens up and I'll probably be hunting down a good Campbelltown, or maybe a Japanese whisky. But that's a bit further down the line...

Bulleit is great; I have a bottle in the cabinet. (The rye; I'm more of a rye than a bourbon guy... not that I'll turn down a good bourbon.)

Haven't tried Monkey Shoulder, but I'll take a look. For mixes and casual affairs like game night I tend to fall back on good old Johnnie Walker Black. It's a solid blend you can drink on the rocks, and if it was good enough for Christopher Hitchens, it's good enough for me. (Then again, given how Hitchens ended up, maybe he should have laid off the stuff a bit.)

You can't go wrong with any of the Islays you mention. I default to Laphroiag 10 not only from personal preference, but also because it's my wife's favorite. (A lady who modeled for one of the Vampire LARP books... and she drinks scotch? Put a ring on that, pronto.)

IME, a Japanese whisky is another good choice. After getting a bonus from a successful project at work, I treated myself to Hibiki Harmony, and based on that I have to say the Japanese distilleries deserve the accolades they're currently getting. IIRC it's the only Japanese whisky I've tried, but I'd certainly give it a thumbs up.

I'll have to explore the sherry bombs you mention. The Macallan sherry-casks have always scratched my sherry itch, but I should stretch myself a bit more.

 

[The Butcher]

Bulleit is great; I have a bottle in the cabinet. (The rye; I'm more of a rye than a bourbon guy... not that I'll turn down a good bourbon.)

Not a lot of bourbon for sale down here. It was this or Woodford Reserve. (Tried WR later and liked it better TBH.) Not my favorite sipper but a fantastic mixer.

Haven't tried Monkey Shoulder, but I'll take a look. For mixes and casual affairs like game night I tend to fall back on good old Johnnie Walker Black. It's a solid blend you can drink on the rocks, and if it was good enough for Christopher Hitchens, it's good enough for me. (Then again, given how Hitchens ended up, maybe he should have laid off the stuff a bit.)

JW Black definitely covers the same bases, but MS is such amazing value. It's an all-malt blend and it's got Balvenie in it, which I dig. Punches above its price tag IMHO.

Next time I'm in the US I'll try and bring back a bottle of great (not just good) bourbon (hopefully under $100). Thinking WR Double Oak, Blanton's, Michter's, maybe even Eagle Rare. Weller if I'm lucky enough to find it for anything close to MSRP.

You can't go wrong with any of the Islays you mention. I default to Laphroiag 10 not only from personal preference, but also because it's my wife's favorite. (A lady who modeled for one of the Vampire LARP books... and she drinks scotch? Put a ring on that, pronto.)

That's pretty cool! I hope I can eventually get my wife to warm up to whisky.

IME, a Japanese whisky is another good choice. After getting a bonus from a successful project at work, I treated myself to Hibiki Harmony, and based on that I have to say the Japanese distilleries deserve the accolades they're currently getting. IIRC it's the only Japanese whisky I've tried, but I'd certainly give it a thumbs up.

That's what I'm most likely to get at the local airport duty-free store.

I'll have to explore the sherry bombs you mention. The Macallan sherry-casks have always scratched my sherry itch, but I should stretch myself a bit more.

Talisker got me to love peat, but Bunnahabhain and Glendronach are turning me into a sherry fiend. It doesn't help that I'm a wine person first and a whisky person second.

 

[Ronin]

As I have spoken before. I'm a scotch drinker. But I really don't care for the Islay stuff. I prefer Speyside myself. If you like the sherry cask stuff. Try Glenlivet 18 year old. Or I think you would like the 15 year old as well. If your going for Bourbon, I like the Evan Williams Single Barrel. Don't let the Evan Williams name scare you off. The single barrel is very good. I also think Wild Turkey is a good bourbon. Get the 101 proof. Even if your not a fan of it. It will give you a dock walloping buzz. Hillbilly rocket fuel my friends. Then last but not least its hard to go wrong with Makers Mark. Which reminds me I need to go visit my barrel. Being a Maker's Mark ambassador and all.

 

[spittingimage]

SO took me to an American store yesterday to try and find a spice mix her mother likes. And lemme tell ya -- Americans fucking love salsa. There had to be a dozen different brands there.

 

[Ronin]

SO took me to an American store yesterday to try and find a spice mix her mother likes. And lemme tell ya -- Americans fucking love salsa. There had to be a dozen different brands there.

Salsa and hot sauce, you know being savage colonials and all

 

[Dumarest]

Cooking up some pan-seared salmon with garlic, soy, and ginger seasoning, along with some baby blonde potatoes seasoned with garlic and paprika, to be accompanied by a nice Spanish red:

​

The wine comes from a region of Spain very close to where we trace our family name.

 

[noman]

I'm overjoyed to see this thread still active.

 

[The Butcher]

Sometimes you arrive home late, tired and all you want for dinner is eggs Benedict. Sometimes you have no muffins or even brioches, but you do have corn bread, and you don’t really care about the hollandaise.

 

[spittingimage]

I just had a couple of poached eggs on toast and now I'm pondering a mystery. How can one egg be overcooked when they're both the same size, come from the same batch, added to the water in the exact same moment, and lifted out only a handful of seconds apart?

 

[The Butcher]

I just had a couple of poached eggs on toast and now I'm pondering a mystery. How can one egg be overcooked when they're both the same size, come from the same batch, added to the water in the exact same moment, and lifted out only a handful of seconds apart?

Uneven heat distribution in your pan?

 

[Supervisor194]

Simple, one of those eggs had a +2 modifier to its heat resistance.

 

[soltakss]

I just had a couple of poached eggs on toast and now I'm pondering a mystery. How can one egg be overcooked when they're both the same size, come from the same batch, added to the water in the exact same moment, and lifted out only a handful of seconds apart?

Failed Cooking roll?

 

[Harl Quinn]

I just had a couple of poached eggs on toast and now I'm pondering a mystery. How can one egg be overcooked when they're both the same size, come from the same batch, added to the water in the exact same moment, and lifted out only a handful of seconds apart?

Uneven heat distribution in your pan?

That's the only thing I can think of (logically), but the gaming cook in me prefers Supervisor194 and soltakss' answers. To be honest, I know I have a habit of setting a pan or pot on the flame so the heat's not dead-center a lot of times. Sometimes it does result in what spittingimage ran into, though with different dishes (I've never poached an egg in my life).

 

[The Butcher]

That's the only thing I can think of (logically), but the gaming cook in me prefers Supervisor194 and soltakss' answers. To be honest, I know I have a habit of setting a pan or pot on the flame so the heat's not dead-center a lot of times. Sometimes it does result in what spittingimage ran into, though with different dishes (I've never poached an egg in my life).

You should. Tastes great, looks great and you feel like a badass doing it.

Use a thermometer.

Fill a shallow pan to water and warm it to 60-70 degrees Celsius (no idea what that is in Fahrenheit), or as hot as you can without getting bubbles. A rolling boil will disperse the white and make a mess of your eggs.

Before cracking the eggs, punch a tiny hole on the bottom with a needle and let them sit in the hot water for a minute or so; you don't want to boil them, but you do want the white to come out a bit firmer. (Bonus if you keep them in the fridge.)

Fish them out of the water, put them under cold running water so you can handle them, and crack them carefully (I tap with a spoon).

Drop them in the water from as short a height as possible, as fast as possible.

DO NOT swirl the water, add vinegar or other clickbait "life hack" bullshit. If you're going to Youtube, look up Julia Child's show. Lady knows her shit.

I think mine took between 5 and 10 minutes. Just eyeball the whites and allow for 2-3 more minutes for the yolk to get a little firmer.

 

[spittingimage]

I fixed my poached egg issue by switching to scrambled.

I use the Gordon Ramsay method: put the egg mixture in a hot thick-based saucepan then immediately remove from the heat and keep the eggs moving until they're cooked through.

 

[Dumarest]

Any time I screw up eggs, I toss in some ham, onions, avocado, cheese, potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes and call it a California omelette.

​

 

[The Butcher]

I fixed my poached egg issue by switching to scrambled.

I use the Gordon Ramsay method: put the egg mixture in a hot thick-based saucepan then immediately remove from the heat and keep the eggs moving until they're cooked through.

Ironically I can't seem to get scrambled eggs, which should be the easiest, quite right. I'll look up Gordon Ramsay's method. (Hopefully better than his horrid charred stakes.)

 

[spittingimage]

Grilled cheese with anchovies, served with my favourite condiment: whiskey.

• 2 slices wholewheat bread
• Enough cheddar cheese to cover 1 slice
• 1 anchovy fillet
• 2 tsp mayonnaise
• 1 small tomato
• Dash smoked paprika
• Twist of pepper

I diced the fillet up finely and mixed into the mayonnaise. Normally I don't use mayonnaise on grilled cheese, but this time I was following a recipe I found on the internet. SO's mayo is sweeter than I like, but it tasted okay with the fish mixed in. I normally forgo tomato as well, but the recipe called for it so I cored it to prevent soggy bread and sliced it into small pieces.

End result: pretty good. Next time I'll skip the mayonnaise and tomato and just smear the diced anchovy across the cheese. Maybe add some yellow onion too.

 

[The Butcher]

View attachment 6914

Grilled cheese with anchovies, served with my favourite condiment: whiskey.

• 2 slices wholewheat bread
• Enough cheddar cheese to cover 1 slice
• 1 anchovy fillet
• 2 tsp mayonnaise
• 1 small tomato
• Dash smoked paprika
• Twist of pepper

I diced the fillet up finely and mixed into the mayonnaise. Normally I don't use mayonnaise on grilled cheese, but this time I was following a recipe I found on the internet. SO's mayo is sweeter than I like, but it tasted okay with the fish mixed in. I normally forgo tomato as well, but the recipe called for it so I cored it to prevent soggy bread and sliced it into small pieces.

End result: pretty good. Next time I'll skip the mayonnaise and tomato and just smear the diced anchovy across the cheese. Maybe add some yellow onion too.

Nice.

What's in your glass?

Just popped open a couple of whisky samples here myself.

 

[spittingimage]

Nice.

What's in your glass?

Just popped open a couple of whisky samples here myself.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Shame on all you Mayo de-railers on the Non-Traditional RPG Genre's thread!
Dipping Fries into Plain-Jane Mayo is uncouth and barbaric! Mayo is an ingredient/binding agent and should be used solely for making various other sauces including the holy two: Fry Sauce and Tartar Sauce (hallowed be their names).
Other acceptable uses for Mayo are putting them on the bread of Sandwiches and buns of Burgers.

 

[EmperorNorton]

No mayo on burgers. Terrible.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

No mayo on burgers. Terrible.

Un-American!
But seriously, what is your ideal burger?

 

[EmperorNorton]

Fried Egg, Caramelized Onions, Jalapeños, Pepperjack Cheese, Mustard.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Bananas...and.....mayo? I didn't know it was possible to ruin bananas. Now I see it can be done.

Don't knock it till you try it!
I eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, most folks think it's gross without ever trying it.
That being said Bananas and Mayo is one of the most unusual food combinations I've ever heard of.
Gotta ask EmperorNorton how did you come across this combination?

 

[EmperorNorton]

Mayo and banana sandwiches is a rural poor southern US thing. My dad (who is 80 now) grew up the son of a rural Georgia farmer and mayo and banana was just a thing. Cornbread and milk is also from the same background (which my son just looked at me in horror when I did that one recently). (has to be the right kind of cornbread, proper corn pone baked in an cast iron skillet, not some of that weird shit you get elsewhere that has whole corn still in it).

 

[The Butcher]

Un-American!
But seriously, what is your ideal burger?

Brioche bun, ground beef patty (20% fat), a lot of Swiss cheese, oven-baked bacon (crisp, red-golden, but still slightly chewy), and my personal touch — a dollop of homemade mango chutney.

Salt and vinegar chips on the side.

Paired with a good malty beer or a tall glass of ice-cold Coca-Cola.

 

[noman]

How about some 80s cheese!

i don't know what to say about this other than I understand times are hard for dairy farmers right now and SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

 

[EmperorNorton]

Brioche bun, ground beef patty (20% fat), a lot of Swiss cheese, oven-baked bacon (crisp, red-golden, but still slightly chewy), and my personal touch — a dollop of homemade mango chutney..

That sounds like a good burger too. I'm a huge fan of mango in general.

Another favorite of mine is a blackened burger, breaded and deep fried jalapenos, cream cheese, and pepper jam. Its like a jalapeno popper and a burger had a baby.

 

[soltakss]

Around our way, they smother chips (fries to you Americans) in sauces of various kinds, mayo, curry sauce and even mushy peas. Where I'm from, they didn't used to do that, you got a bag of ships and maybe some fish or a sausage, covered it in salt and vinegar and that was that. Move a few miles, though, and you are in mayo or curry sauce territory.

 

[The Butcher]

Wine is amazing, cocktails are fun, spirits are enticing, but sometimes all you need is a beer.

I have always been a reluctant beer drinker, sticking to mass-marketed stuff (here in Brazil that’d be corn-heavy American Lager-ish, so-called “Pilsens”, which can be nicely light-bodied when drank ice-cold when it’s hot), having been driven away from craft beer by too many overhopped IPA/APA/NEIPA/etc. specimens.

A friend’s stag party at a local craft beer pub got me intrigued as I sampled an IPA I didn’t hate, followed by the most amazing barleywine.

Now I’m buying a new beer a week and trying it at home, usually when my father-in-law (who boasts of his reputation of drinking “wine like a Papist and beer like a Protestant” when living in France decades ago) swings by. Barleywines, bocks/doppelbocks, Belgian strong ales, dark lagers and Irish red ales are my favorite styles right now.

 

[Ronin]

See I'm kind of running opposite of that, but for the same reasons. I'm tired of the super over hopped IPAs. I've been gravitating to craft pilsner. So no the mass market stuff, but a good high quality pilsner. Any of you folks in the mid to lower michigan, or the chicago area. I recommend Speakerswagon Pilsner by Haymarket Brewery. Its real good stuff.