jlee 
A lot has changed since my last post in Feb 2016. Although I no longer have time to spend on complex recipes, the current COVID-19 pandemic has created a renewed focus on cooking at home. Going forward, I’ll be posting recipes with a high deliciousness/effort ratio. Jook is an excuse to make soy sauce eggs. … Read more
World-class dining costs a lot, but there are some bargains to be had. I collected tasting menu prices for the The World’s Best 50 Restaurants 2015 and plotted the data. The best bang for your buck comes from making a tour of Latin America and Bangkok, Thailand. Mexico City, Mexico (#16 Pujol, #35 Quintonil, #37 Biko) Lima, … Read more
ChefSteps has a unique recipe for dark matter: chocolate made with coffee beans instead of cocoa beans. After making the chocolate, I’d like to discuss three issues I encountered: Affordable Melanger You need a melanger to conche and refine the ingredients for dark matter into a silky smooth texture. However, a chocolate melanger is too specialized … Read more
Edit Sep 14, 2016: I’ve created a diamond-focused site with new tools: www.diamondscreener.com This post is intended to be an intermediate-level guide after you’ve gotten serious about buying a ring. It covers the practical aspects of setting a budget and finding the best deal via the cost-efficiency frontier (interactive tool screenshot above). Hopefully it will help you cut … Read more
My dream home has a fully automated aquaponics system that grows tilapia and vegetables in the backyard. Alas, I live in San Francisco, so the closest I can get to experimenting with food self-sufficiency is this Back to the Roots Water Garden. Aquaponic farming is a closed system that captures the complete nitrogen cycle to … Read more
The eternal question: Vitamix or Blendtec? Behold this chimera of a Vitamix base with a special Blendtec Rebel+ Jar. It’s the best of both worlds. The Blendtec jar is great – so great that Vitamix copied it. It’s short, easy to pour, and easy to clean. However, the controls on the Blendtec Total Blender are … Read more
Spring is rhubarb season. A rhubarb gin fizz with miracle berry is my variation of iNG Restaurant’s rhubarb whiskey sour. It starts sour then turns sweet, thanks to the miracle berry. The gin fizz is a laborious cocktail to make. It requires vigorously shaking a cocktail shaker to build up a good foam. Modernist tools … Read more
The treachery of food at WD-50, where an egg is not an egg. The egg whites are coconut milk infused with cardamom. The yolks are carrot juice and smoked maple syrup. The texture is remarkably similar to a real sunny side up egg. Recipe from Modernist Cuisine. For the egg yolks: For the egg whites: … Read more
Akelare cooks a lobster dish tableside in a coffee vacuum siphon. Here’s the recipe as listed in the Akelare book. My notes and substitutions are in parentheses. Ingredients: Special Equipment: Start by preparing the lobster stock. Humanely kill the lobster by slicing through the brain lengthwise. Dip the lobster into boiling water for 15 seconds … Read more
Chef David Chang made Momofuku Ko’s Puffed Egg in episode 9 of The Mind of a Chef, but the show did not provide a complete recipe. After some research and experimentation, here’s the recipe I compiled for my adaptation: The bacon dashi recipe is from the Momofuku book. You’ll need: For the puffed egg you’ll … Read more