top chef-ardy [part 7]

a.k.a. - i kinda cook, too - sorta, kinda ...

our top chefardy marked the end of thursday & friday chats about complete strangers' abilities to cook, despite the fact that no food was ever sampled.

(SIDE NOTE: soon, thursday & friday chats will be about complete strangers' abilities to design and sew garments, as well as memorable quotes. but i digress.)

as if we knew the cheftestants and as if we knew how yummy or sh***y halo halo tastes. (o.k. i chose that for the brethren (filipino) theme.) not so much. however, vicarious living can happen and can get a bit mixed-up with the real world.

just need to share that one of the four chefardy work horses crossed paths with one of the actual cheftestants, jen (of the former jen & zoi) during SF's pride weekend. chefardy work horse ALMOST greeted jen as if ... as if they were buddies. AS IF. as chefardy work horse approached the zoi-less jen (perhaps with the intent of outstretched arms to console her), jen's lack of acknowledgment and recognition of chefardy work horse was a clue. just a little clue.

anyway ... chefardy made me think about my own cooking efforts. sure, i may not be as fabu as any of the cheftestants (with or without fauxhawks), and sure i wasn't one of the tie-breaker-folks ... but i have my subscription to fine cooking, a few new kitchen gadgets, can cook bistek (a l'il filipino food over there in the pic to the left), and a blog.

what does this mean? ... this means i can engage in the narcissistic exercise of fauxtalk about how kinda fabu i am in the kitchen ... sorta kinda. kinda sorta. and if bronze medalist fauxhawk r.blais gets to yap it up, so can i. simple folk, i am. simple folk.

What's your favorite new ingredient?
. my salt - sea salt and kosher salt

What's the most versatile spice?
. uh ...? salt?

What's the most underused spice?
. in my cupboard, anise. i have no idea why i purchased it and in what recipe it was used. (time to throw out the anise.)

What items should be in every pantry?
. uh ...? salt, broth (chicken or veggie), saimin noodles

What's your favorite knife?
. my wüsthof classic 8" cook's knife (thanks to lori)

What's your favorite pan?
. for now, my 10-inch fry pan, which i currently use for as a sauté pan UNTIL i get a sauté pan, of course

What's your favorite place to buy equipment?
. equipment? cooking stuff is called equipment? i dunno. sur la table and target?

What's your favorite mail-order source?
. huh? i'm suppose to have a favorite mail-order source? for cooking stuff? o.k. ... i agree with r.blais? - the dow chemical company, for methylcellulose and gellan gum. (or maybe kelco.)

What's the kitchen appliance you wish for most?
. now that i have my little chopper (which may not be considered an appliance), how about a nice little mini-food processor from either kitchenaid or cuisinart?

If you could design one piece of serving equipment, what would it be?
. a smell-o-rama something or other

What's the best restaurant dish you ate in 2005 2008?
. haven't yet had a "best" yet for this year

What's your favorite sushi place?
. ono sushi in san diego for the combo of atmosphere, food, people, laughter-out-loud factor, and people watching

What restaurant would you want to eat in once a week?
. vagabond kitchen in san diego's south park area

If you were going to open a fast-food place, what kind of food would you serve?
. food that sounds healthy. for starters - sweet potato fries

Are there any dining trends you see on the rise?
. hmmm ... fusion tapas stuff (or did i miss that trend, already?)

A lot of chefs are getting into doing things completely from scratch, like making cheese. What would you like to make from scratch?
. l.a.g.'s rhubarb-mango yum-yum dessert!

On a scale of one to 10, with one representing an emphasis on using in-season ingredients as simply as possible and 10 championing high-tech, scientific cooking, where do you rank yourself?
. uh, 3 ... ?

If you could upgrade one piece of equipment in your kitchen, what would it be?
. the mini-food processor that i do not yet own (?)

Which newfangled piece of equipment (i.e., sous vide equipment, the Pacojet, the Thermomix or a dehydrator) do you think will gain a real place in home kitchens?
. WTF?! (how about just an old school rice cooker?)

What ingredient used by avant-garde chefs (i.e., agar agar, transglutaminase, methylcellulose) do you think will make its way to home kitchens?
. r.blais response: The whole line of gums: xanthan gum, locust-bean gum and modified starch. They thicken foods without changing the food's taste. You can use gums in place of corn starch and flour. There's some debate now about the safety of handling liquid nitrogen, but it's really only as dangerous as frying oil. ... my response - xanthan gum - simply because a good friend of mine used to work for kelco, . all sorts of stuff about xanthan gum - molecular structure, product info, options, and fancy-schmancy xanthan gum

What's your favorite cookbook?
. oh, i'm so simple and a novice - i have two ... the new basics cookbook and essentials of classic italian cooking. now the question is - how often do i actually use them? (although i do make a point to cook stuff out of fine cooking magazine)

From whom would you most like to take a cooking class?
. my friend lori ... and chefs at parallel 33 (san diego)

Spanish chef Ferran Adrià has been a big influence on chefs recently; what or who do you think will take his place?
. eh? que?

If you were given $1,000 to spend on food, equipment, travel or a restaurant meal, what would you buy? What about with $10?
. with $1,000, i would "combo" my choices - travel to vancouver b.c./canada, eat at a noodle house, eat at a fine dining place, purchase a food processer, and spend the rest of the money on my vacation. with $10, i'd get ahi poke.

Do you have any favorite insider spots in airports?
. at OAK, the smoothie place (terminal 1) and peet's (terminal 2). at SAN, rubio's (terminal 1). at DEN, rocky mountain chocolate factory (concourse b)

Do you have any good stories about your regulars?
. not that kinda gal, thank you very much

Do you have any food-related superstitions?
. i like to pronounce correctly (eventually) the food that i eat, so in case i get food poisoning ...

Are you planning on backing anyone in new ventures?
. yes. lori!

so ends the top chefardy saga

(was fun while it lasted!)

top chef-ardy [part 2]

[part 1] is over here. and i figure a few visuals of the features & benefits that were talked about would help.

our top chef-ardy board ... currently set up for regular top chef-ardy (aka round 1) with the yellow cards and double top chef-ardy (aka round 2) with the pink cards.

... take a break and get artsy-fartsy-craftsy. YOU can make one as well, or buy one of those 'photo boards' from an arts/crafts store. make one? ... board, fabric, ribbon, buttons and/or whatever (tacks, pins, staples, tape, nails, ...). clever use, eh?!

top chefardy work horses ... four gals IN FRONT of the partition served as the work horses.

from left to right ... shirlsd (aka vanna),

pony-tail-gal (scorekeeper),
commish (timekeeper),
and CahHh (aka alex).
in the background,
an interloper
(aka l.a.g.)

and we did have a camera man, also.


top chef-ardy answers ... for the record, CahHh came up with the answers for both rounds, with a little help over here. and let me tell ya - there were a few that were really pretty good Qs - several, in fact, that neither of the die-hard tie-breaker-participants were able to figure out. i was CahHh's sidekick and props person, despite my misplacing one of the important (relatively speaking) props just before heading over to the venue where we hosted our top chef-oolery! nevertheless, this was the crew for the top chef-ardy-aganza.

props? yes, props (and supplies) ... these included daily double stuff, some more prizes, and other needed accessories. here are some of the more important items.
from left to right ...

• BACK ROW (for the daily double): plastic containers , EVOO(-ish), syrup(-ish), syrup (maple syrup), EVOO
  
• MIDDLE: solo plastic container
• FRONT ROW: winner's tiara/crown, buzzer #1, filler packets (soy sauces), loser's 2nd place winner's tiara/crown.
  

other props included: watch, buzzer #2 (errr ... more like squeaky/obnoxious toy), white board (for scorekeeper), tape, cardboard, bandanas, ribbons, pens, paper, and stuff. most importantly, CahHh kept one of the props in line with the top chef freakin' product placement theme and the drum . beat . of . one . of . the . sponsors . no - NOT her, but this blah-blah-blah.

about the daily doubles ... there was one in each round. and if you haven't figured it out yet, it was a taste test of "which is the higher grade between the two mystery liquids?" syrup was in round 1 and EVOO in round 2.

daily double outcome? ... NEITHER of the we obviously have sh**ty palates tie-breaker-give-me-my-prize-folks scored on the daily double, therefore losing points they wagered. no bragging rights for either of them. (wah-wah-wah) but it was good to have them EACH chose a daily double. made it easier to make fun of both of them.

their souvenir for daily double? ... as part of the homage to miss flavors of asian cuisine (no, not the gaysian), they did, however, get little astro/neon souvenirs.

top chef-ardy gang returns from venue ... we certainly had fun and bonded a little over this healthy, lunch time break spent over at marathon plaza (over on 2nd/folsom in SF). it was actually a sunny day - tho' from this pic where we are flashing our secret top chef signs, you'd think it was winter!

(part 3 later)

top chef-ardy [part 1]

well ... i didn't quite finish posting the frivolity from our prw-air activities (and i will do so ... eventually. really. i. will.)

top chef-o-rama ... however, we did continue our frivolity with top chef. nearly a dozen of us participated in our "forecasting" of the top chef winners (and losers) for each show. a point system was created. a commish (aka commissioner) and scorekeeper kept us in check. there were a bunch of rules.

prize to the winner of the tie breaker ... when all was said and done, there was a tie. a frackin' tie. a tie between two folks. how the hell could there be a tie?!

regardless - HENCE, the need for a tie breaker.
which we did. today. in public.
and the tie breaker resulted in a winner who got a little congrats prize.

the main prize.
a $1.50 (USD) + tax (in california) prize.

a little set of cooking utensils

(well, sort of, i guess)

teaser-ish ... in short, it was all about TOP CHEF-ARDY. yup, top chef via jeopardy. features and benefits included:

• 3 rounds
• regular jeopardy
• double jeopardy
• final jeopardy
  
• 4 categories - true/false, quotes, gossip, potpourri
• 4 questions for each category
• 2 daily doubles - one in each round
• in honor of top chef, taste tests for the daily doubles
  
• a point system - round 1 at 100/200/300/400 and round 2 at 200/400/600/800
• buzzing in via ... a taboo buzzer and a little squeaky toy
• four top chef-ardy work horses and an assistant camera man
  
• an alex - host and answerer-sayer
• scorekeeper - writer-downer of scores and math wiz
  
• a vanna - index-card-hander-over to alex and point-presenter to scorekeeper
  
• timekeeper - buzzer, sound effects, and speeder-upper
• prize(s) for the winner

so ... about the main prize

the best part ever of this set,
in my opinion (and others)?
[click on the picture]
nice english translations, eh?!

ENJOY!!!

the current past time at the day job ...

thursday in the morning at the day job has typically been about a wednesday night t.v. viewing and some jocularity would abound - folks whispering words like homage and points. (and yes i still have to post more pictures from last year) ... homage moments over here.

prw has ended. the current thursday (and friday - for re-run watchers) obssesion? it's all about cheftestants ... no homage cooking among the watchers. just plain "forecasting" to see who is the best "forecaster" - no betting going on at the day job. none whatsoever.

so the 2 blogs i check out for the voices-in-my-head-conversations while i chuckle in cubeopolis during my break (yes. my break.) ...

• amuse-biatch ... with photoessays that are awesomely clever and crazy-funny posts and just overall clever/witty - for which the posts are efficiently circulated among the other forecasters (especially the one with the padma crush)
  
• top chef episode recaps by david dust (thanks to sacto floyd!) - HOWEVER, after my first read of other posts on dd's blog, i have decided that in my head, i have a virtual-tv-watching-gay-buddy with whom i'm going to make friends (in my head 'cuz i can't stalk him). those who have heard me whine about being in the 'burbs after years of a fabu life in SD's mission hills/hillcrest area know i'm more than a quart low on m'gay culture in my 'burb existence.
  (oh! there's a straight man out there - somewhere - who can appreciate a night(s) in front of the t.v., feels comfortable with his sexuality and acknowledges other men's washboard abs, and makes catty and witty comments whenever!)
  

... and then i just surf whatever other links are on these sites.

and on a side note - i'm a BAD forecaster!
not doing so well in accumulated points.