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Sunday Nite Dinner
Twitter: sundaydinner
URL: Sunday Nite Dinner
Twitters about: Food and life in San Francisco

@fotocuisine Regarding Food Gawker, we are definitely rejecting submissions. The photo quality will continue to increase (to get onto Food Gawker) as the quantity of posts increases.

As far as image resizing is concerned, we are just cropping and not resizing similar to TS. The occasional pixelation that you are seeing is due to a reduction of image quality to 94%. We just upped it to 96%. Since we aren't monetizing the site currently and paying for hosting on our on dime, we need to stay wary of our hosting bandwidth usage. We hope to not reduce image quality in the near future.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has visited the site. The response has been really positive so far!

I was wondering why they weren't updating the site since yesterday morning. I know some people have complained in the past about their images being posted without consent and incorrect/no attribution. I'm guessing they pissed off someone with deep pockets.

My favorite brownie is the bouchon from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. It's a cork-shaped cake like brownie with a crispy outside, soft middle and bits of gooey chocolate chips. The recipe is also used in a larger version at Keller's Ad Hoc restaurant in Napa. There the brownie is drizzled with a caramel sauce and vanilla whipped cream. Words cannot describe how amazingly good these brownies are!

I made the brownies recently and had a bouchon battle using Valrhona and Scharffen Berger chocolate. Valrhona won, but you can't go wrong with either chocolate brownie!!!

Born in Vietnam and immigrated to the US at the age of 4. I grew up in Pennsylvania and also went to Penn State. luswim06... WE ARE...

I lived in Tucson for a few years and finally settled in San Francisco 10 years ago. I love living in the Bay Area for the freshness of the produce and the diversity of the food.

As far as my stomach is concerned, it doesn't care where I am in the world, as long as I fill it with good homemade food, it's happy!

Like PerkyMac, I hide mine too in between uses. My stone also has ugly black stains all over it, but that is inevitable as any drop of grease/oil will cause a stain. Just use warm water to scrub the stone after using it.

The stone can also be left in the oven all the time as it will help retain heat, lessen the effects of hots spots and temperature fluctuations. If you do keep it in the oven full-time, place it on a lower rack with some foil over it to prevent drippings and staining of the stone.

The flavors and aroma of homemade curry paste is hands down superior to canned paste. I've made green curry pastes many times and this green curry paste recipe (scroll down) is my favorite.

The recipe is from Kasma Loha-unchit, who teaches Thai cooking classes in the Bay Area. Here is her philosophy on making a curry paste from scratch. She prefers a mortar and pestle to crush the ingredients...

"A food processor mainly chops and shreds, and unless liquid is added, you end up with a coarsely chopped mixture, not a paste. Grinding and pounding with a heavy mortar and pestle, on the other hand, crush the fibers of herbs, releasing the essential oils that hold the flavors and aromas. That is why herbs that appear fibrous and dry become very moist when pounded. A pounded paste is immensely aromatic and has a breadth and depth of flavor lacking in a processed mixture."

While I understand her point, I only use a mortar and pestle to grind the peppercorn and seeds. I usually make a very large amount of paste and a food processor saves a lot of time. The curry paste still turns out great in the processor.

Here's my green curry with braised chicken using Kasma Loha-unchit's paste recipe. It was the best green curry I've made to date!

Anything with habaneros in it. I usually have a fresh chili pepper with every meal and will bring my own chilies to restaurants, if I can remember. My favorite spicy foods are...

- Thai green curry
- Vietnamese pho - with a lot of sriracha
- Mexican habanero salsas
- Hot Italian sausage

I've never had turducken, but I've seen the cajun version made on TV many times and it didn't look that appetizing.

However, I recently saw a turducken prepared on the show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and it looked really good. The duck and chicken skin is lightly cooked on the grill first, then between each bird there is a layer of cornbread stuffing with sage sausage, spinach stuffing, Andouille sausage and fresh roasted red bell peppers. The turducken was made at Alpine Steakhouse in Sarasota, FL.

Over the holidays when I visit my folks in Orlando, I may have to take a drive to Sarasota, check the place out and order a plate of turducken.

Curry Cauliflower Soup with Honey - it's a roasted cauliflower soup that is puréed. The curry and cayenne gives the soup some spiciness, which is contrasted by the soothing, sweet honey. I'm not sure if this is hearty enough for you, but it will definitely warm you up on a cold day!

I use a Canon SD500 point and shoot. There's no image stabilization (IS), so one key is to have a steady hand or prop the camera on a solid platform. I often use a gorrillapod to take shots. All the pictures on my food blog, Sunday Nite Dinner , are taken with the SD500

If you are looking for a very good point and shoot camera, I would recommend the Canon SD850 IS. It's a nice compact camera with IS. The cost is around $250 right now.

I'm in the process of researching DSLRs and looking into Canon Rebel XTi or the 30D. Obviously, a DSLR will produce better quality pictures, but a compact point and shoot allows for more discretion at a restaurant.

Another vote for the ricer. It takes a little longer than a masher or mixer, but I think the ricer produces the lightest, airiest mashed potatoes. I'm looking forward to turkey day now.