playa del carmen and tulum were fantastic. i'm not sure i will ever eat as many avacados and ceviche mixto in my life.

Inspired by mrw and cashy to also make a cured salmon.

Salmon mi cuit, crispy skin, greek yogurt





Cured 1/2. Other 1/2 seared with caper brown butter


Interior shot

Good lord that caper brown butter one looks phenomenal

Burger at The Porch in Dallas is legit IMO

salmon looks incredible.

no kidding, they all look great, amoeba continues to impress

thx for the tip, thats right down the street from me. While I've eaten there several times, I've never tried the burger

I just brought home ~30 lbs of salmon fillets from a fishing trip. Those pics look fantastic! Would you mind posting the full recipe and steps?

The cured salmon is pretty much the chefsteps salmon mi cuit recipe

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/salmon-mi-cuit

I scaled a fillet then removed the skin. Dried the skin between 2 paper towels. Salted. Then air dried in the fridge about 30 min before pan frying on medium high in a bit of olive oil. Make sure you press down with a large spatula as soon as skin goes in the pan to prevent curling.

The yogurt i mixed a 2% greek yogurt with salt, pepper, dill and then placed in a paper towel that i twist up at the top in to a small package. Place in bowl in fridge for at least 30 min. Drain the bowl occasionally. Shape in to quenelles.

Veggies, do whatever you like.

Seared salmon.

Salt salmon fillet. Pat dry. Heat pan. Place 50 50 butter/olive oil in pan. Let pan heat further on medium high.

Place salmon in pan. Continually baste top side with melted butter. Add herbs 1/2 way through. Continually baste with hot butter mixture. Once crust on bottom is well formed, if you have been continually basting and salmon is of 1 inch or less thickness, then it should be done with only one side contacting pan. If thicker flip and cook for 20 to 30 seconds. Turn heat to medium. Remove fish from pan. Add capers to pan. More herbs (ehatever you want though i like any mixture of chives, dill, parseley) . Lemon juice. Pepper. Salt to taste. Pour mixture over fish.

For shallot rings. I cut small shallots side to side so rings are intact. Sear in a bit of oil until charred. Remove from heat. Cut off root and top end and you get rings with a charred edge to them. Mine probably could have cooked longer but i was pressed for time.

Amoeba,

When you go to a fine dining restaurant now do you usually enjoy the experience more because you can appreciate the technique/effort more, or are you more often underwhelmed thinking you can easily make similar stuff yourself?

I enjoy places where I cant figure out how they do a dish or places where a dish is so perfect in execution that i know i cant pull it off.

Whereas places that tries to coast by using run of the mill tricks of the trade, i dont really enjoy as much.

I tend to eat a lot of ethnic food. There is a lot of time consuming, difficult ethnic food that can be very affordable due to the advantage of volume. I am never making dim sum at home for example. I can get world quality bbq and not pay more than $20 a person.

Its kind of like how most of the steak thread regulars feel about steak restaurants most likely.

Awesome - thank you amoeba!

Thats how you do that!

Ida Claire is my #1 go-to place to take a date right now. I've had the Nashville hot chicken (the pimento cheese bread is crazy good), beef short rib (excellent), chicken biscuit (about as good as a chicken biscuit can get i suppose), as well as the crawfish beignets (excellent). The drinks are about what you would expect from a place like this. We also got comped the vice cake because of a bartender error, and it's quite good even though I'm not a huge dessert person.

In addition to the air stream, they have bar seats outside which I enjoyed a lot when the weather was a little cooler. They also have normal patio tables, or the inside has a cool vibe. I enjoy it a lot.

My experience with Tei An is a little weird. I went a couple years ago with a group of maybe 15ish guys and we credit card rouletted the $1200 bill. Got a wide array of dishes and ordered seconds of the stuff we liked. Overall it was good. You pay for the ambience a little.

The second time I took my girlfriend, and she's not a super adventurous eater. So we ordered like sashimi, the crab and urchin risotto, some sort of soba alfredo, tempura shrimp, some grilled pork belly or something. It was all very good, but I'd really like to go back and get the omakase for like $100 or whatever.

I can't find a drink menu online, but I had some cocktail with sake and fresh muddled berries that was really awesome.

This salmon looks sublime. No other way to put it.

good stuff, I haven't been to either of those places but now they're on my list

Does Tei An make their soba in house with 100% buckwheat flour?

If so, i will definitely go the next time I am in Dallas.

I have been avoiding the Austin branch of Velvet Taco sice the menu seemed a bit too out there but with the reviews in this thread, maybe I will give it a try.

Ossobucco with saffron risotto, Gremolata, Gremolata Chip, Gremolata puree, Gremolata "flat cake" and sweet-sour onion


little plating mistake(components too fart apart and not centered enough) which makes it look a bit too chaotic

I love ossobuco. Nice plate cashy. You always impress.

Is there marrow in the bones?

yes + sauce
bone marrow

What do you do to actually cook the shank itself, braise?

Jep. The core of the dish is very classical, ossobucco braised with mirepoix/white whine(without tomato) + gremolata on top. Just added a few textures, colors and nuances of flavor.

Cashy,

How was the garnish to osso bucco ratio there? Good or heavy on the garnish?

just about perfect I would say
portion itself very small obviously, fitting for a 5-8 course meal