nataku's Profile

Probably a sous vide machine. A great way to guarantee meat is cooked properly.

Love ATK and their scientific approach to explaining their choices and their research, all for recipes that can be replicated at home fairly easily. Coming from a science and engineering background, their show is always enjoyable.

I spent 10 days in Sydney last year for vacation and enjoyed the very good Thai food, kangaroo (hopefully not overcooked), and Australian wine. A friend had me bring back all varieties of Tim Tams I could find at the time (seven different ones) as well... The lamington in the pic for this post is nice, if you like pound cake with jam covered in chocolate and coconut.

Someone in line for the Blue Bottle in the SF Ferry Building recommended the Gibraltar to me this past weekend. Definitely an easy to drink fast jolt of coffee if you don't have time to sip a hot espresso.

I live in an area that is constantly in the 60°F range so proofing bread dough has always been a difficult to manage. If I baked more bread, this might be tempting to pick up...

All butter for me, but I'm most concerned with the flavor. Lard and/or shortening would probably yield a more tender and flaky crust though.

I used a mix of golden delicious and gala apples last week since I had some on hand. I had honey crisp apples too, but I like eating them as is too much to use them for pie. Pie turned out great.

@paulh: I have custom molded ultimate ears UE11 in ear monitors for precisedly what you suggested. Better sound isolation due to a good seal of the ear canal allows me to listen to music at a lower volume and still hear all the details. Most universal IEM's do a pretty mediocre job of isolating ambient sounds, so people end up turning up their music too loud to try to drown it out.

Cantillon Classic Geuze is so hard to find on the west coast with the prominence of craft beer fans over here nowadays. Usually sells out as soon as it hits the shelves. Definitely easier to get in New England.

Cuvee Renee Geuze from Lindemans is the better choice over their regular one, and is easily found.

Another fairly easy to find geuze is Oud Beersel's Oude Geuze Vieille.

I think baking in general is very meditative for me. Working with your hands to actively create something has always appealed to me. I made a sweet cherry pie with some of the last cherries of the season and it turned out great. Cherries that barely needed any sugar added to the filling made for a great combination of fruit and buttery tender crust.