Dinner tonight - or last night.

I've had that in Fukuoka sidewalk noodle joints a couple of times. Delish! There's a Korean version, but as far as I can recall I've only seen the instant kind.

I went to a Japanese ramen chain resto on the weekend.

The white pork broth really is amazing.

http://www.ajisen.ca/



I might have moaned as I had the first few ladles of it.

OK, that sounds just too familiar. Today I'm going to be on a mission to find out what variety of that we have here. Will report back, unless I forget.

Oxtail instead of pork bones:

good stuff? I'll go look for it in Koreatown.

It was my fave for a while, but it's not spicy, so I moved on. I need noodles that can appease the fire gods.

I'm doing another chicken recipe besides Bugialli's, except that it is quite similar to his, except for this and that, so similar that this is silly, especially if I break down and add some roasted poblanos or at least chile flakes to it. Plus I already added 5 diced garlic cloves to the oven pan.. I can't have rosemary without garlic, can I? (your opinion welcomed)

Giuliano Bugialli's recipe here, for those who haven't seen me hawk it over and over: http://able2know.org/topic/41268-1
I spelled his name incorrectly in the link, and cited the wrong book. Oh, well.
The correct book is his Foods of Italy.

Tonight's recipe here, nabbed from Saveur a few years ago -

Kotopoulo me Dendrolivano (Rosemary Chicken)
Credit: Todd Coleman
SERVES 2–4
INGREDIENTS
4 whole skin-on chicken legs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup flour, for dredging
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup white wine
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 fresh bay leaves
Juice of 1 lemon

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat oven to 425˚. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Put flour on a plate and dredge chicken in flour to coat, shaking off excess. Heat oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once, until browned, about 10 minutes. Add wine, rosemary, and bay leaves. Return pan to heat and cook until wine reduces by half, about 2 minutes. Add 1½ cups water and bring to a boil.

2. Cover skillet, transfer to oven, and cook until chicken is tender, about 45 minutes. Uncover and let chicken skin crisp, 5 minutes. Remove chicken from the oven; stir in lemon juice. Serve chicken with the pan sauce.

For those of you with good taste buds and senses of smell (my sense of smell is about non existent, and my tastebuds great to me, but what do I know?), have you read, as I have, that it is a waste to use good/expensive olive oil with any kind of high heat as it degrades promptly, sort of like throwing away money. So, I don't, I just use "pure olive oil" for cooking.

Do you use the good stuff in cooking, and if so, at what heat?
Opinions?

I use extra virgin olive oil for grilling and frying - very hot temperatures - seems okay to me flavourwise, but I'm no expert.

Me either, re expert. I have a friend, originally from New Hampshire, who lived in Italy for nine years and can tell a good olive oil with a whiff. I'm her opposite.. I don't even smell roses, or gasoline, or much else. But I swear I can taste, or if I can't, I've a good thing of my own going on. (I've been tested on all this, I'm right, I can't smell much.)

My own grocery store doesn't proffer many bottles of the "pure" type, lots of the cold press stuff. What I used to read, was use the expensivo bottled olive oil for salads and dips..
I'm wondering if that is all true.

I buy the best Italian virgin olive oil I can afford and use it for everything - on crusty bread instead of butter, as a salad dressing, grilling, frying ... all sorts of applications. I don't like the smell of the less expensive oils I've tried - it might be wasteful, but I enjoy it.

the really best olive oils have a really great scent and taste at room temp

I would never use those for cooking but I can't afford them on a regular basis so I don't think about it much. When it's on the table at a good Greek resto - or my pal George gets me some from the family vineyard - I just savour it with good bread and balsamic.

Generally speaking, I don't like to use any of the nicely flavoured oils at very high temps. What's the point of killing off he flavour. Inexpensive blended oils work fine for high heat cooking (for me).

Not having a great deal of confidence in my culinary skills after being absent from the kitchen for a number of years for various reasons, I follow recipe books religiously when I make meals, and the ones I follow do seem to use extra virgin olive oil. Heating the oil enough to seal meat or give onions a little colour doesn't seem to alter the flavour. But I'll give another type a try - will look around this weekend, see what's on the shelves.

Olive oil is set to go up in price, (if it hasn't already,) following a bad harvest in 2014.

I'll buy a case of it - does it store well or go off?

I'd go by the best before date. I'm not really the right person to ask.

So you don't particularly notice it tastes less good after hot frying? not an accusation, just wondering.. I get it that it still tastes better than the others.

I wonder if it's like wine? Some of it costs as much - if not more!

I don't really do any pan frying - just grilling or sauteing - and to me it tastes better, less oily. But palates are all individual so perhaps that's just me?

Thanks, all.