Fat Guy

Interesting. I see from some online photos that the thing may be installed 90 degrees wrong. I'll have to see if it's easy to change or impossible.

Specifically the model is "Hansgrohe 'Swing C' Single Handle Pullout Kitchen Faucet, 2 Spray Modes (06128)."

The indicator is stationary.

So is the idea that you use it to cut segments out of a half a grapefruit?

Here's the device: Every other fixture in the house is hot-left/cold-right. It's official, I'm having them switched. Now I just have to figure out what to do with those markings.

This is my major concern. Otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to switch them to the regional standard. Bizarrely, the markings are not visible until you turn on the water.

I still have the contractor around on almost a daily basis, so getting the connectors switched is easy and doesn't represent an added cost. I just have to decide for sure one way or the other by, like, now.

It is a single-handle control.

An automatic ice maker is definitely convenient, but most every one I've seen produces cloudy ice in a weird shape. This is what you get from mine:

I've lived my whole life knowing with some certainty that the knob for cold water is on the right and the hot is on the left. If it was backwards, it meant the plumber hooked it up wrong. Recently, though, I saw a faucet with the hot on the right and cold on the left, and it was clearly engineered that way because the blue and red dots lined up with the result. This faucet happens to be in my kitchen. I can't decide whether to reverse the connections, or go with the whole backwards thing.

I wonder how it got here. In a million years I wouldn't have guessed its purpose.

Mine arrived yesterday. I haven't had a chance to open the box yet.

What is this thing for?

I've never used liners for kitchen shelves or drawers. Yet I notice some people have pads, paper, whatever on every kitchen shelf and in every drawer. Does this stuff serve a purpose?

Yes, it's easy to get replacements. A friend also tipped me off to the existence of stainless replacement handles. I think if I ever get another piece of Le Creuset cookware I'm going to add a stainless handle right away. Le Creuset stainless-steel replacement handle

I have to say, I don't get why Le Creuset uses phenolic resin handles. I've broken every one I've ever had, and it's not like they actually stay cool in the oven (the most typical place you'll find a Le Creuset dutch oven). I just unpacked a box of kitchen stuff and while everything else was intact this thing managed to break.

I wonder if the mac-and-cheese trick from Modernist Cuisine could be applied here.

This story on CNN indicates that nearly half the US meat supply carries a type of staph bacteria: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/15/bacteria.in.half.US.meat/index.html It seems it isn't that much of a concern from a practical standpoint, but there is at least some indication that we should wear gloves when handling raw meat.

What's your neighborhood grocery store? Let's compare notes on the good, the bad and the ugly. I've just moved in next to a Fine Fare, which I'd never heard of before but apparently it's a 60+ store regional chain, with a website and everything. I'l l need to do some exploring. It actually looks kind of nice from outside.

Just a menu. Yawn. Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Last night, just before I went to bed, I thought "I can't believe that, yesterday, I was in Spain." I had a very long day. We closed on our new apartment and did the majority of our packing. We also cleaned the new place in preparation for today's move, and for good measure we drove the minivan over to our friend Shelley's place to pick up her former (and our new) dining-room table. So if I was a little scarce around here yesterday, and if I am for the next couple of days, it's because I'm in moving mode and a bit preoccupied. As I waited to be picked up at JFK, I felt I might need to do the culinary equivalent of "never washing this hand again" after meeting some great figure. Surely anything I were to eat after that meal at elBulli would defile my body. For that reason I skipped the four-cheese pizza served on the plane. Since never eating again wasn't a serious option, I decided to go for something totally off-axis from what I'd experienced in Spain: dinner at Sripraphai, a Thai restaurant in Queens. The drunken noodles really hit the spot, and somehow the timing worked out such that we got a parking space afterward.

Nathan was actually rolling with a couple of different L-series Canon lenses. I never checked which. Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

I just visited BCN and went to La Boqueria and Santa Caterina. I was most impressed with Boqueria but some people have told me others are better, cheaper, more respected by locals, etc. So what's the answer? What's the best, and how do we define best?

We also had these wines with our meal at elBulli. The Terreus Pago de Cueva Baja, in particular, was exceptional. Celler Battle Brut Gran Reserva 2000 Gramona @ Cava-Penedes (D.O.) Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas 2009 Gerardo Mendez Lazaro @ Rias Baixas (D.O.) AN Son Negre 2004 AN Negra Viticultors @ Illes Balears (Vi de la Terra) Terreus Pago de Cueva Baja 2001 Bodegas Mauro @ Castilla y Leon (Vino de la Tierra) Manuel Raventos Brut Nature Gran Reserva Personal 2002 Raventos i Blanc @ Cava-Penedes (D.O.)

JB: Half of the group had been to elBulli before, half had not. Nathan M. had been many times, Johnny had been three times, and Max had been once. Ted, Thierry and I were first timers. I guess we were all last timers.