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December 27, 2013 by Kevin Murphy

I picked up a few tricks in the last couple of months. Some of them are pretty good, but I’m not sure any meet the cupcake sandwich standard.

Pizza Leftovers
 My wife insists leftover pizza is best eaten cold. I disagree. It’s best eaten with a crisp crust, and just warmed through enough that the cheese is soft. To accomplish this, drop a cold slice of pizza into a cold skillet or frying pan. Set the burner to medium-high. and weight about 3-5 minutes until the cheese has softened and warm. The bottom of the crust will have a very thin crisp layer on it, and everything else will have just the right temperature and consistency.

Char Grilled Streak
 Looking for a nice char on the outside of the steak like you would get if you could get your oven/grill/range to 900 degrees? Try roughing up the surface of the steak. Take a sharp knife and slice dozens of tiny scores, barely breaking the surface of the steak. the rougher you can get the surface, the more great little brown bits you’ll get at relatively low temperatures. You end up with a nice carmelized exterior without overcooking the steak.

Make Anything a Bowl
 For years I used upside down muffin tins to form a bowl-shaped crust for a favorite apple dessert. The recent bacon bowl TV ads inspired me to try a few more items.  You can take Japanese sticky rice, from it over the tin and you get a great rice bowl with a little bit of crispness around the edges. And no, you don’t have to buy the bacon bowl, as seen on TV, a muffin tin works just fine, but be sure to place a hotel pan or cookie sheet or  underneath it to catch the drippings.

Slicing an Avocado
This one seems super simple, but I see people slicing avocados wrong all the time.  Slice the avocado before peeling it. RUn you knife through the meat just until the tip hits the skin. Don’t slice through the skin. Then just peel the skin back or run a large spoon between the meat and the skin.

Peel just About Anything
I’ve only tried this with potatoes and roasted chiles but I bet it works for many other things as well.  Steam or bake the item that you want peeled, then drop it in an ice bath.the peel usually slides off cleanly in one big sheet.

 

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Getting Kicked Out of a Vegas Mall and Beer Ignorance

March 26, 2013 by Kevin Murphy

About two weeks ago I was in Vegas for the day — about 7 hours. I had some meetings late in the afternoon, but based on flight schedules I arrived around 10:00 a.m.

It had been a while since I was in Vegas. Last time I was there was just before the opening of CityCenter. Since I had some time to kill before my first meeting I decided I’d go explore. After checking out the basics, I need to go catch up on some work. Vegas being Vegas, the hotel lobbies don’t have easily accessible power outlets, but I noticed a very comfortable bench with an outlet next to it across from Harry Winston inside the Crystal Mall. This was a Wednesday morning and the place was empty.  It probably was obvious that I wasn’t there to buy a $250,000 watch, I was wearing a sport coat and slacks. Not the usual Vegas wear, but not a total slob either.

I sat down to work and after about 10 minutes a very large man in a black suit that was nice enough to have been purchased at the mall and not JC Penney approached me and said “Our electricity is not for public use.” This caught me as a little odd since their Wi-Fi is public.

I decided not to mess with the man, walked downstairs and found a coffee stand. I grabbed the cup of coffee and sat down on another bench just outside the coffee stand and opened up my laptop. As I finished my coffee and tossed it in the nearby gold-plated trash can, a different security guard approached. Similar black suit, but also an earpiece in his right ear. “We already told you that wasn’t allowed. I must ask you to leave the premises.”

I was then escorted out by the man in black, with a second equally well dressed UNLV lineman following behind us about 20 paces.

Rather than test my luck again. I hopped into the Todd English gastropub and taphouse for a sandwich and a beer, where I heard the waitress tell the table next to me that an IPA was just like an amber.

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Random Food Observations, Part 23

January 27, 2013 by Kevin Murphy

Micah Camden’s catsup mixed with a little horseradish and a squeeze of lime makes a fantastic cocktail sauce.

 

Crinkle cut fries are the worst fries. The best fries, in order, are shoestring, regular,  steak, home, waffle and then crinkle cut. And, if you widen the fried potato spectrum, many other items come before crinkle cut fries.

 

Bacon ground up in a hamburger patty or sausage is a waste of good bacon. Bacon should be crisped and accompany or surround the primary meat object, not be ground in it. Same goes for bacon in chocolate. I’m ready for that to no longer be a thing.

 

The quality of coleslaw in BBQ shacks, fish shacks, chicken shacks and dive bars has really declined in recent years. Coleslaw should not just be the Sysco shredded cabbage and carrot bag with some bland mayonnaise mixed in.

 

The more reviews on Yelp, the more likely the place will have four stars. The aggregate review score seems to be more related to the number of reviews than the quality of the food.

 

We might not have to sneak as many Koi Fusion burritos into JELD-WEN Field this season. Rumors have it that the food cart program is coming back and at least one permanent concession stand behind section 108 will offer bacon and bleu cheese tater tots.

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