Fish - - Page 14

by gansie

More From the Fantastic Four

My dream breakfast would probably be a few rounds of food. And coffee. And maybe coke. Sometimes a bloody mary. Never a mimosa. (Unless it’s from freshly squeezed orange juice.)

One would be an over-medium fried egg with swiss cheese on toasted, buttered rye. It’s a given there’s salt and pepper. (Side fries. Home fries/hash browns don’t really do it for me.)

And another round would include, in some order: sunny side up egg, avocado, cream cheese, smoked salmon.

Here is my past body of work, just so you know that I’m not kidding:

Lox, Avocado and Feta Pita

Lox, Avocado, Feta and Fried Egg Pita

Lox and Quark Omelet

Lox, Tomato, Avocado and Egg Sandwich

Lox, Tomato, Avocado, Hummus and Cream Cheese Platter

I know. I’m the most unoriginal blogger out there. Well, or the most committed. Some might call this an overkill of rich flavors. But I think the cool cream of the avocado and the tang of the smoked salmon and the saltiness of the cream cheese and the richness of the egg combine for a certain impactful (sp) bite.

Post jump is my latest way to combine my star ingredients by way of capturing a normally sweet batter and turning it into a savory device.

by tvff

Screw You, Placopecten Magellanicus

I have serious issues with scallops.

Mrs. TVFF loves them. She orders them every time we got to some fancy-pants restaurant. This is because she says that scallops from a quality restaurant are “sooooo delicious,” and that it’s a sign of a good restaurant if they do them well. I love her, but she’s wrong about the second point (the correct litmus test is, of course, duck). However, I dutifully try them and they are, for the most part, a perfectly reasonable meal.

It’s clear that many people absolutely love the things. They will tell you that they brown nicely, they’re a healthy source of protein and they serve as a wonderful canvas upon which you can create your dish. That’s one way of looking at it.

Another way to look at it is that scallops are a highly overrated ingredient and are, quite often, a major disappointment. And possibly a serious threat to our reality television contestants and Hollywood personalities. So I take it upon myself to do what is necessary — to put scallops in their place.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. And, no, I’m not being irrational, either. So I present to you a six-point argument explaining why these bottom-dwelling bivalves need to be taken down a peg or two:

in Bacon / Celebs / Fish / Rants & Raves / TV 11 comments

by BS

Show Us Your Pics

Have you concocted something crazy in your kitchen, dined out on the best meal ever, or maybe even seen a D-List celebrity putting something in their mouth? Well don’t just sit there! Share with ES!

Join the ES Flickr Pool and upload your favorite food photos. The best of the best (like these crazy-amazing Bloody Mary Test Tubes by Marco Veringa) will be featured on Endless Simmer.

Browse through some other great shots in the pool.

in Drinks / Fish / Photos 1 comments

by BS

Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 7

Sorry Top Chef fans, it wasn’t a bad dream. They really did replace Gail Simmons with this very unfunny Simon Cowell wannabe. But don’t worry, Endless Simmer is here to help you understand what the eff this guy was talking about. Our interview with the chefs kicked off in last night’s double-elimination Top Chef smorgasbord…after the jump.

in Fish / TV 1 comments

by BS

Take Olive Me

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on ES before, but I went through a long, torturous process before I was able to like olives. You see, I was a picky eater as a kid (I didn’t like meat or vegetables), but have slowly grown into the food-obsessed person you know and love, eager to eat anything and everything. I take an undue amount of pride in that, so when I dislike something, I get really ashamed of it.

So a few years ago, olives were left as one of the only mainstream foods left that I didn’t like, but I kept convincing myself that I had to, and that my taste buds were still just maturing. So I went about it slowly but surely, first adding bland ones to salads and pizzas, then getting more into strongly-tasting olives, until today, when I could eat an entire jar, down a dirty martini, and put olives on anything.

Back to the point—for our big family Christmas, I was assigned dips. I wanted to do something new, and stumbled upon the idea of doing an olive tapenade type thing. Like the best dips, it’s super easy and people are unduly impressed by it. For Christmas, I made a green olive-red pepper-red onion dip. I found the onions didn’t really add that much to it, so for New Years, I revisited it and replaced the onions with pine nuts. So, the following recipe is basically just a slightly blended mix of my four favorite foods: Roasted red peppers, pine nuts, olives, and garlic. Don’t know why I never thought of this before. You just have to pulse everything in the food processor a couple of times–there’s no work at all–it’s almost Sandra Lee-ish…

in Fish / Personal / Recipe / Veggie 5 comments

by gansie

Friday Fuck Ups: Date Night

Editors Note: If you’ve ever met me in real life, you know that I’ll eventually start talking about food and the blog. I mean, well, what else is there to talk about. Actually, one time my sister even noted how the conversation remarkably went from well, I don’t remember, and magically back to food. Anyway, it’s no surprise that I’ve gotten my coworkers hooked on ES. Trip J is one of them. And while I usually direct her in the right culinary direction, I may have gotten her off track for this last kitchen adventure. My bad! Here’s Trip J’s side of the story.

Gansie is my go-to girl for all date dining emergencies. I think she should be a dating culinary consultant. When I have to plan a spectacular meal that is certain to land me a husband after he eats it, she’s who I ask. Kidding (about the husband part). But, I do want the meal to be good and she hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

This time, the date menu plan was tilapia, squash, and potatoes. So, she pulled a wide range of ES recipes and we checked out other cooking sites – G. Garvin is a favorite of mine. At any rate, I speed read through the recipes so I could rush home and cook a decadent meal. And I was on a time crunch because he was arriving late, and then had to leave early to go to work.

Date Night Menu post jump

in Fish / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments

by gansie

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie

breathing fish: From a sentence in your recent review – fish so fresh it was breathing when it hit the table. I’m no vegetarian, or member of PETA, but that’s just wrong. It’s morally wrong. While I do believe in animals being a source of food, as higher-intelligent beings aware of concepts like pain and suffering, I think we’re ethically bound to dispatch our food as quickly and as humanely as possible. I don’t care if it is your job to experience all types of culture and cuisine, sometimes a line should be drawn. Sometimes you should refuse. I’m disgusted. And the fish wasn’t breathing, it was struggling as it suffocated. Really disgusted.

Tom Sietsema: Sorry to offend you, reader. But that’s the way the food was offered up to me in the Chinese restaurant. The fish had been “stunned” by a quick dip in boiling water before being brought to the table.

I’m curious if others were/are offended by such?

Disgusted? : Nope, not a bit. While I agree animals we consume should be treated humanely and raised in an eco manner, I don’t think you can always pursue that in your current capacity nor do I believe you should have to. If you -personally- were offended you should have left. Since you weren’t you did the right thing and reported things as they happened. Kudos.

gansie: Now I think most people are pretty desensitized to the whole eating crazy shit trend, with popular shows such as No Reservations, Bizarre Foods and Man v. Food. But my whole issue is: why do people care so much about what other people do, eating or otherwise. Gay rights? Abortion? Veganism? Why does it matter if Britt wants to cook a loving, albeit limited, dinner for his boyfriend?

But then I hear myself say obnoxious things like:

in Fish 9 comments