I always pause when I see green in my garlic, wondering whether or not to bother picking it out. I recently saw a highly regarded chef - perhaps Passard but I can't swear to it - pick out even unsprouted germ, deeming it inedable. Leave it to you, to celebrate it!

I don't know why, but the day-glo cabbage is a lot more appetizing looking than the luminous green pasta. That green is NOT good! Couldn't you have just used pesto or something? Pesto mac and cheese tastes good and looks like food. Or maybe it's just that food coloring looks bad to me in general (don't get me started on red velvet cake made with artificial color rather than traditional red Dutched cocao). The plating is nice overall. You do some lovely art, but I like it when a platter of beef looks like a platter of beef. :) Too bad you couldn't make the pulled pork more attractive (I think it actually looks better in a pot with sauce, which is none too pretty), but the planks of rice and beans are winners! When you get them to stick together like that does it change the way it chews and feels in the mouth? Or maybe they're not as rigid as they look?

Even when they're not 100% come hither, your food stylings are always interesting. Thanks for sharing. :)

I love that your food is musical notes (garlic) and dancing arms (and faces, last one) to the eyes. Pretty good. Dang great!

Well speaking for my own comment, it was not intended as critical in the least, if that's what you're getting at, Robert.

I've actually thought to post a question about sprouted garlic to see who removes the green. I do, for the most part, but only because that's what "they" say to do, not because I've ever noticed it to be offensive. I had certainly never heard of removing the white germ before watching the video I referenced. I'll try to find it again when I have more time.

Mine was. Critical. I often heap loads of high praise on Dcarch for great triumphs, and simple praise for more ordinary accomplishments, but that would be meaningless if I didn't also share when it doesn't do it for me. Unalloyed applause is a social nicety, but useless to an artist, and can be annoying in quantity. Since the medium is food, I want it to look like something I'd want to eat, rather than just an intellectually interesting design. Like there's some Modern music which is intellectually well motivated but is not pleasant to actually sit and hear. Since we can't smell or taste the food, appetizingness is as close as we can come.

no worries Robert, dcarch knows what we're like and who we are.

For better or for worse... ;-)

There will be a day I will be very offended if anyone tries
to criticize me; that’s the day when I finally reached perfection in everything
I do.

But before that, please do be as honest as you can be, take
the time to take me apart. Don’t worry about being polite to me, and don’t
worry about hurting my feelings.

dcarch

I know that its not nice to play favorites, but dcarch is my favorite poster and lindac, whom I really miss, and who liked to slap dcarch around on occasion, was my second. I bet he misses her too.

I did not mind LindaC's interactions with me at all. We had lots of fun. No bad feelings on my part. As a matter of fact, I had written many times privately to GardenWeb asking them to un-ban her. (Tamara, if you are reading this.)

dcarch

At this point, if you're banned, you can come back. I know Bill who was a Hot Topics poster, and is a professional on Houzz, was told he could if he played nicely. He only dropped in to say hi over there. Linda is on Facebook though. I miss her too.

Dcarch, I don't always comment on your posts. I do like them, there are some that aren't my type, but not everyone can be pleased. I'm glad to know that you aren't offended if someone makes a fairly negative comment. No one is nasty though, which is good.

I too miss Linda, and Hawk.

Like Rob mentioned Iike the garlic "notes". I didn't notice the happy dancing faces till she mentioned it. Yep, I like those too!

I too, cut out the green sprouts, because we're supposed to. I honestly don't know if they're bitter or not. I would think they wouldn't have an impact on taste in the whole dish, so I probably won't bother from now on. :-)

I have vowed that if I find any green spouts on garlic cloves, I will plant them. I have never removed them and have not found them any more distasteful than the green parts of onions.

Food dyed green for St. Patrick is often unappetizing to me, and I did find the green macaroni to make a bizarre contrast to the corned beef, causing the beef to look almost magenta in juxtaposition. The rest was lovely, however, and I especially liked the asparagus and the cabbage.

I miss Linda, but not Hawk.

Lars

Not sure why we, or me, felt programed in the past to trim off, or not use certain parts of veggies. I suppose you would not purchase garlic at the market sprouting at full price, ...a sign that it is elder, but if it sprouts at home i look at it as useful. Plant it or use it as dcarch did.

The same way i use celery leaves and cilantro stems. Chard kale spinach stems. Lots of good in all of it, just longer, or different cooking times.

I look at my garden a bit differently than i did 15yrs ago...trying more parts of the plants that are tender, and bits that are iffy i give it a go in a separate saute pan, so if it ends up a bit tough i've not ruined an invented dish.

dcarch plating is always a pleasure and not always something i find appetizing. It is off the cuff obsessive and artistically spot on 'the moment'...never feels planned ahead like a well designed platting at a restaurant. (with multiple chefs and sous fellas and chopping people and the clean-up crew). But often is beyond the visual appeal of so many that try it...and then sometimes looks like room temp leftovers. Then so often is a passionate artistic zen outlet of expression.

Don't stop doing what you do and sharing.

Some look at food as fuel to get through the day. As i do most days.

Thanks everyone!

Fast food chains spend a huge amount of money in behavioral research. Everything, every detail is studied and tested. It has been found that blue/green food color and decoration in design are not very appetizing. That's why you don't see blue lobsters in stores even it is possible to farm blue lobsters. But blue Mc & Cheese is OK for St. Pat's Day. No one expects St. Pat's Day's food to taste good anyway (Hahaa! kidding, sorry, my strange sense of humor).

I am not sure why I can't edit my first post, but this was the plating of corned beef on green M&C, to be next to the sous vided chicken on asparagus, as a pair. The corned beef seasoning package was used to sous vide the chicken.

Spring asparagus was incredible.

MC's M&C is highly recommended. (Modernist Cuisine's M&C method).

I have to go to work now. More later.

dcarch

I used to remove the green parts from sprouting garlic too... always wondered about it, and then decided they're nothing but baby garlic scapes, so now just use it with no ill effect. :) I grow my own garlic though. I've read that store-bought garlic has been treated with a growth inhibitor to stop it from sprouting (and make it virtually useless for planting).

"It has been found that blue/green food color and decoration in design are not very appetizing."

Market research has led to blue being the #1 color of M&M's with green in 2nd or 3rd place depending on the variety. Green doesn't surprise me because it makes you horny, but blue kind of does. Almost 20 years since their introduction, I still look at them as outsiders!

When you say green isn't appetizing, do you mean green food coloring or green food? I'd take issue with the latter, given how ubiquitous it is in garnish, even where not intended to be eaten.

"But blue Mc & Cheese is OK for St. Pat's Day."

And green would be even better. (Typo, I know! I just love to give you a hard time!)

dcarch, you should have gone with spinach-pasta. lol!

I agree that blue is the most unappetizing color! I love seeing green though -- but perhaps only in food that normally is, or should be, green. :O)

Ulysses butterflies are poisonous and it's their blue color that tells the birds not to eat them. We probably have genetic memory that blue is a bad color to eat. :) Though I think densely sugary candy is an exception, especially when it looks like plastic.

BTW, it was only the color of the dye that I objected to. As I said, the plating with the asparagus looked nice, especially in that the corned beef looks like a plate of beef, albeit well composed. The corned beefed chicken looks nice too.

So give us a hint? What makes MC's M&C special? It doesn't look saucy, so I'm guessing the pasta is drained in a vacuum chamber into which you introduce a fog of cheese essence which bonds at the molecular level?

MC's M&C recipe remains creamy, not oily, thick or thin, new or refrigerated many days later, reheated many times..

dcarch

Thanks!

BTW, the reason you couldn't edit the top post is that there's a limit to how long you can edit it. I think it's to keep people from eviscerating the OP post after there's a whole thread wagging behind it.

The "secret" is sodium citrate as an emulsifier. Here's the recipe.

foodonastump, The "secret" is sodium citrate as an emulsifier. Here's the recipe.

And no green food coloring. :-)

dcarch

Thanks! I think I actually have some in my pantry. :)

Dcarch, you've inspired me! I got a can of red Dutched cocoa powder, to make a red velvet cake after Passover. It will be a nice reddish cake, not one of these beet red horrors that people have been showing on TV!

I've got some in my pantry, too. One pound less 16.5 grams. I'll have to try it again. Last time (first time) I managed to mess something up despite it being an incrediby simple recipe. I think I was doing 1.5x the recipe and messed up some math somewhere along the line. According to my writing on the jar that was two years ago. Time to try again! I guess I've been inspired, too.