unforum

[reagan88]

Shape on the pan

[Melampus]

I agree - the shape of the final dish seems contrived (by the chef); and, the most likely guess is that it's a geographical shape, a location.

I know this sounds silly, but it almost looks like (lower) Michigan to me; like an... oven mitt. Does anyone else see that?

The right side of the shape looks like a 'thumb' to a mitt.

EDIT: Ok, don't think it's Michigan; but, it still looks like a mitt.

[Horned1]

Actually, what if it IS an oven mitt? The dark area at the bottom looks like an opening for the hand. Perhaps someone played a joke on the chef by putting an oven mitt on his baking tray?

Just trying to think outside the box.

[Melampus]

Any chefs out there? The closest I come to cooking is watching Top Chef, and reheating things.

Is it common to have a dish - w/these (types of) ingredients - that's chilled every step of the way?

EDIT: Also, anyone in Japan (or who has been to Japan, or bought groceries from a Japanese store, etc.): Can you buy crabmeat in a way (serving sizes) that would make sense of that ingredient? Obviously, it cannot mean that you put a whole crab into the chilled sauce... but, if it's standard to buy crabmeat in such a way that "one" would make sense...??

[reagan88]

How about that item in the lower left hand portion. Look like clear plastic wrapped around something - a gift basket perhaps. Why would this chef guy have a gift basket? Does he make them? Did he receive one? Is so, from whom?

[Nighthawk]

[Melampus]

The things wrapped in plastic in the foreground look like apples, or vegetables; not a gift-basket (at least, I don't think so). Also, the machine looks like a Cuisinart.

The fact that he's standing in front of an open fridge, and everything in the recipe needs to be chilled - that certainly stands out. I've sent the recipe to a friend who is a chef and asked if it seems real/possible, or just plain weird.

Meanwhile... at the start of the message (on the back of the photo), it says:

"Everybody, thank you for viewing!"

Is this a reference to a t.v. show? Or, is it just a weird translation and it refers to the picture itself...? "this week's delicious recipe" makes me think t.v. show. Hurm...

And, the mixture "becomes" cold by putting it in a fridge.

[ScottBrosius]

I'm not a chef per se, but I've worked in kitchens and cook quite a bit. These are my thoughts on some of the questions that have come up:
- In the fridge, container full of small white "balls": These look like industrial garlic cloves. Since it's time consuming to peel whole garlic cloves in a restaurant, most kitchens will have whole garlic cloves in water already peeled, so that they can be used efficiently.
- Chiling ingredients - if you're making a cold dish, then yes, it's typical to chill the ingredients as you're cooking. The recipe seems to be for a cold chicken and seafood noodle dish. You'd chill the ingredients so that they don't overcook themselves, or cook the other ingredients (the mushrooms, watercress, etc). THe sauce, I imagine would be heated, and mixed until the sugar is dissolved, then chilled, again, a missing point in the recipe.
- The crab - typically a recipe would call for "the meat of one crab" or give you reccommendations on how to prep the crab before adding it to the sauce. I think that this stands out more than anything. I have a few friends who work for cooking light, and the crab cooking instructions would be very necessary (I was told a story about a letter asking if lemons could be substituted for eggs, because they had a similar shape, I'm not kidding). I think that the ambiguous nature of the crab as an ingredient stands out.
-

[ScottBrosius]

Re: Ocean Bottom Crab

[avpruler]

ARGH!!! THE IRONY!!!!!!!!!!!!
we've been saying in the beginning that this was godzilla,

and now some japanese clue, AND NOONE HERE SPEAKS FLUENT JAPANESE!

[Euchre]

There's no timestamp because that's not a photograph per se.
That's a recipe card.

The text on the back is printed there. Look at how even it is, with consistent font changes.
I've gotten these kind of recipe cards at food festivals. They are usually 3x5 or 4x6. Photo prints come in 4x6 as well, so it'd be the same size as a given set of prints.
So, if this is a recipe card and it's in Japanese, somebody has already BEEN to Japan obviously. Was it Rob? Is that where Teddy is now? Is it someone else from our 7 characters?

Ask yourself who this card belongs to, and you'll have a better idea of why it's there.

Edit: The back of the card is also more tan or yellow, unlike all the photos. (I'm on a Mac with an LCD, the native color profiles of Macs are MUCH brighter and shading sensitive.)

[MrToasty]

^^^
I would have to agree that this is a recipe card, not a photo like the others on the site. I would think though that they would use a picture of the dish on the front and not a blurry shot of the chef holding it, plus I would expect the name of the dish to be included with the recipe, but who's gonna argue with new content?

[Clover]

[Cthulhu]

Gian Crab statue, in.....

[Duckie]

Something interesting.

For my computer at least, the old photo file /photos_8.swf is loading WITHOUT the OishiChef picture.

To me, this implies that this is not a photo from the same source as the others (supporting the "recipe card" idea).

Can anyone find out what flash file IS loading OishiChef?