ChrisBuono
New member
Freedom of speech means a lot more to me than a $100 worth of coral, and I hope it does to everyone else as well.
That aside, I openned this thread and would still like to hear about your positive experiences at various LFSs.
Eddie's
- Thread starter ChrisBuono
- Start date
Freedom of speech means a lot more to me than a $100 worth of coral, and I hope it does to everyone else as well.
That aside, I openned this thread and would still like to hear about your positive experiences at various LFSs.
Ken668
New member
Chris,
It's not a matter of suppressing anything. It's about when and where to express your opinion. I'll be the first one to tell ALL about my experiences, but unfortunately a public forum that is frequented by our sponsors is not the place for it.
A free coral here and there might not mean much to you, but those corals help us to raise money for the club to do activities, more raffle items, etc. But it goes beyond that. Wouldn't it be nice if several of the LFS you go to would always give you say.....10% off all your purchases? That can add up to a lot of money in this hobby! Well I can tell you, bad mouthing them won't ever get us there, or any kind of perks to speak of.
But the point is, there is nothing to gain from posting negatively here. Honestly, don't take anyones word for it. Go to all the LFS and make a decision for yourself.
It's not a matter of suppressing anything. It's about when and where to express your opinion. I'll be the first one to tell ALL about my experiences, but unfortunately a public forum that is frequented by our sponsors is not the place for it.
A free coral here and there might not mean much to you, but those corals help us to raise money for the club to do activities, more raffle items, etc. But it goes beyond that. Wouldn't it be nice if several of the LFS you go to would always give you say.....10% off all your purchases? That can add up to a lot of money in this hobby! Well I can tell you, bad mouthing them won't ever get us there, or any kind of perks to speak of.
But the point is, there is nothing to gain from posting negatively here. Honestly, don't take anyones word for it. Go to all the LFS and make a decision for yourself.
BANANAS FOSTER
A quintessential New Orleans dessert, and a favorite among most locals.
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 bananas
2 oz. banana liqueur
4 oz. dark rum
Ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
This dish cannot be prepared in the kitchen. It must be performed, in front of your guests. Use a chafing dish, and some kind of portable heat like Sterno. Don't be sloppy, and keep a fire extinguisher handy. There's no need to burn the house down just for dessert, but this really must be done right. I learned to cook this dish from Chef Joe Cahn at the New Orleans School of Cooking, and he spun dire tales of what befell those who dared sequester themselves in the kitchen when making Bananas Foster. Seriously, bad gris-gris will befall you if you deprive your guests of the spectacle. Plus, they'll talk for years about how cool you are to have made this for their dessert.
First, you should make some preparations. Peel a thin strip of peel from the bananas, and use your knife to slice the banana crossways into coins. Then replace the banana peel so that it looks untouched (as best as you can, anyway). This way, you can pretend to "peel" your bananas, and dump them into the put already cut, as if by magic. Cheesy, you ask? Well, it still looks cool, particularly if you're really nonchalant when you do this in front of your guests. If you insist, you can slice the bananas the classical way, quartering them by slicing thm lengthwise and then in half. I still think the other way is cooler.
Put your ground cinnamon into some kind of non-standard container, or even a little muslin bag, the better to "convince" your guests that it is, in fact, not cinnamon but voodoo dust, scraped from the tomb of Marie Laveau at midnight on All Soul's Day ... some kind of delightfully corny crap like that. Also, I recommend taking a cinnamon stick and grinding it fresh in a spice or coffee grinder instead of using pre-ground cinnamon. Sieve the result through a tea ball strainer to remove the larger pieces which won't grind finely. This will maximize the fresh, aromatic cinnamon flavor. If you use your coffee grinder, it'll also make your coffee taste great.
Now, to business ...
Melt the butter and add the brown sugar to form a creamy paste. Let this mixture caramelize over the heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the banana liqueur. Heat until the liquor is warmed, about three minutes. Add the bananas, add the rum (preferably warmed), then ignite with a flourish and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes. Here's the showiest way to do this:
Using a long, bent-handled ladle, scoop up some of the warm liquor. Hold it a foot or two above the chafing dish and ignite the liquor in the ladle. VERY CAREFULLY, pour the liquor into the dish. A column of flame will descend from the ladle into the dish, which will ignite with a marvelous *poof*! Keep a pal nearby, subtly wielding a fire extinguisher. Try not to become a human torch in the process.
Otherwise, if you're too chicken (and I would never make fun of you for being too chicken to mess around with flaming alcohol), just ignite the rum in the chafing dish. It's safer.
Agitate to keep the flame burning, and add a few pinches of "voodoo dust" to the flame. The cinnamon will sparkle orange in the blue flame, and looks really neat.
Let the flames go out. Serve over ice cream if you wish, but some hardcores like me like it just like it is. Yum.
Variations: one may substitute any fruit for this dish that has a correspondingly flavored liqueur -- peaches, pears, whatever.
A quintessential New Orleans dessert, and a favorite among most locals.
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 bananas
2 oz. banana liqueur
4 oz. dark rum
Ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
This dish cannot be prepared in the kitchen. It must be performed, in front of your guests. Use a chafing dish, and some kind of portable heat like Sterno. Don't be sloppy, and keep a fire extinguisher handy. There's no need to burn the house down just for dessert, but this really must be done right. I learned to cook this dish from Chef Joe Cahn at the New Orleans School of Cooking, and he spun dire tales of what befell those who dared sequester themselves in the kitchen when making Bananas Foster. Seriously, bad gris-gris will befall you if you deprive your guests of the spectacle. Plus, they'll talk for years about how cool you are to have made this for their dessert.
First, you should make some preparations. Peel a thin strip of peel from the bananas, and use your knife to slice the banana crossways into coins. Then replace the banana peel so that it looks untouched (as best as you can, anyway). This way, you can pretend to "peel" your bananas, and dump them into the put already cut, as if by magic. Cheesy, you ask? Well, it still looks cool, particularly if you're really nonchalant when you do this in front of your guests. If you insist, you can slice the bananas the classical way, quartering them by slicing thm lengthwise and then in half. I still think the other way is cooler.
Put your ground cinnamon into some kind of non-standard container, or even a little muslin bag, the better to "convince" your guests that it is, in fact, not cinnamon but voodoo dust, scraped from the tomb of Marie Laveau at midnight on All Soul's Day ... some kind of delightfully corny crap like that. Also, I recommend taking a cinnamon stick and grinding it fresh in a spice or coffee grinder instead of using pre-ground cinnamon. Sieve the result through a tea ball strainer to remove the larger pieces which won't grind finely. This will maximize the fresh, aromatic cinnamon flavor. If you use your coffee grinder, it'll also make your coffee taste great.
Now, to business ...
Melt the butter and add the brown sugar to form a creamy paste. Let this mixture caramelize over the heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the banana liqueur. Heat until the liquor is warmed, about three minutes. Add the bananas, add the rum (preferably warmed), then ignite with a flourish and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes. Here's the showiest way to do this:
Using a long, bent-handled ladle, scoop up some of the warm liquor. Hold it a foot or two above the chafing dish and ignite the liquor in the ladle. VERY CAREFULLY, pour the liquor into the dish. A column of flame will descend from the ladle into the dish, which will ignite with a marvelous *poof*! Keep a pal nearby, subtly wielding a fire extinguisher. Try not to become a human torch in the process.
Otherwise, if you're too chicken (and I would never make fun of you for being too chicken to mess around with flaming alcohol), just ignite the rum in the chafing dish. It's safer.
Agitate to keep the flame burning, and add a few pinches of "voodoo dust" to the flame. The cinnamon will sparkle orange in the blue flame, and looks really neat.
Let the flames go out. Serve over ice cream if you wish, but some hardcores like me like it just like it is. Yum.
Variations: one may substitute any fruit for this dish that has a correspondingly flavored liqueur -- peaches, pears, whatever.
ChrisBuono
New member
I've moved past this healthy debate, I hope you can.
I openned this thread and would still like to hear about your positive experiences at various LFSs.
PS - Dave, thanks for the recipe. I love to cook and Bananas Foster is a fantantic dessert.
I openned this thread and would still like to hear about your positive experiences at various LFSs.
PS - Dave, thanks for the recipe. I love to cook and Bananas Foster is a fantantic dessert.
ChrisBuono
New member
Huh?
Dude. I'm past this. Yet you keep hanging on.
I would still like to hear about your (or anyone's) positive experiences at various LFSs.
Dude. I'm past this. Yet you keep hanging on.
I would still like to hear about your (or anyone's) positive experiences at various LFSs.
This seems like an appropriate time for a reminder of the primary reason why we started a governing body for this club in the first place:
To maintain a civil and respectful environment Nice and simple!
While everyone discusses fairness, free frags, and freedom of speech, it seems this primary goal has been forgotten. Regardless of why people think this "rule" is wrong, talking about local stores has PROVEN time and time again to go against our main goal:
To maintain a civil and respectful environment
I agree with deepblue, maybe we should not talk online about the stores at all. Once someone says "I get great fish from Eddie's", there is going to be huge temptation for people to respond with "I got a sick fish from Eddie's and it crashed my tank", or "I was in Eddie's yesterday and their fish were covered with Ich". Most of us know what happens next.
To maintain a civil and respectful environment Nice and simple!
While everyone discusses fairness, free frags, and freedom of speech, it seems this primary goal has been forgotten. Regardless of why people think this "rule" is wrong, talking about local stores has PROVEN time and time again to go against our main goal:
To maintain a civil and respectful environment
I agree with deepblue, maybe we should not talk online about the stores at all. Once someone says "I get great fish from Eddie's", there is going to be huge temptation for people to respond with "I got a sick fish from Eddie's and it crashed my tank", or "I was in Eddie's yesterday and their fish were covered with Ich". Most of us know what happens next.
ChrisBuono
New member
That sounds like a good, fair policy to me - especially in light of donations, advertising, etc.
I agree with Xian
Matt is always very helpful & great to work with. I often visit, sometimes to just trade a fish that no longer fits in or frag corals for discounts or credit. When in a pinch they stock most dry goods, frozen foods, bulbs you name it.
When i got my halide fixture w/ a bad 96w actinic Pc bulb and desperatly in need of one ASAP! Sure enough they had one
Never a bad experience with Eddie's.
Thier 155 gal Bow is Awesome for a FO tank setup. Looks great.
Matt is always very helpful & great to work with. I often visit, sometimes to just trade a fish that no longer fits in or frag corals for discounts or credit. When in a pinch they stock most dry goods, frozen foods, bulbs you name it.
When i got my halide fixture w/ a bad 96w actinic Pc bulb and desperatly in need of one ASAP! Sure enough they had one
Never a bad experience with Eddie's.
Thier 155 gal Bow is Awesome for a FO tank setup. Looks great.
DanConnor
Active member
The problem with having our own forum with a private section is what to do about employees of the local stores, exclude them? That wouldn't be right.
Maybe the best rule is to talk about the store as you would talk to the owner of the store face-to-face.
Even if the stores aren't really doing anything specific to support us, it's still nicer to be on good terms with them. I don't really buy the philosophy that they will improve in any way through a public flogging. Most can be reached by email if you want to tell them something.
That said, I've bought most of my fish from eddies, and have good experiences with them. I think Matt has always been good in his assessment of the health of the fish, and I can tell you his eye is better than mine.
I don't buy that much coral there, but mostly because I like the harder to find stuff that can only be gotten online. They do often have a nice selection of ORA corals, and the proces are competitive on those.
Maybe the best rule is to talk about the store as you would talk to the owner of the store face-to-face.
Even if the stores aren't really doing anything specific to support us, it's still nicer to be on good terms with them. I don't really buy the philosophy that they will improve in any way through a public flogging. Most can be reached by email if you want to tell them something.
That said, I've bought most of my fish from eddies, and have good experiences with them. I think Matt has always been good in his assessment of the health of the fish, and I can tell you his eye is better than mine.
I don't buy that much coral there, but mostly because I like the harder to find stuff that can only be gotten online. They do often have a nice selection of ORA corals, and the proces are competitive on those.
ChrisBuono
New member
Me too.
Jill (Powderblue518) has it. She made some the other night! 
Very Yummie. Maybe she will post it later.
Very Yummie. Maybe she will post it later.
