Jeff Campbell

Charcoal is legal, at least in San Francisco, so I am sure you could find someplace up there that does it- I am sure it is just a matter of having adequate ventilation.

I love pickled eggs. I first made them, from the Alton Brown recipe, because they sounded disgusting, but it turns out, they are just the thing with a beer. If you can let them go for a couple of months in the brine, they start to get a texture like cheese, a bit crumbly. Don't forget to add extra yellow mustard seed! Jeff.

I am a scientist in an Immunology lab at Stanford, and I would be leary about buying a used water bath for food. The water baths we have around here routinely have carcinogens, bacteria, and viral vectors thawed in them. While a good cleaning will get rid of bacteria, I would make sure to wash with bleach, both to disinfect and get rid of ethidium bromide (a common and nasty carcinogen). Then maybe a vinegar rinse, because it is the strongest acid you probably have around. I would finish with a rinse of 70% (140 proof) alcohol (pure alcohol is less anti-microbial).

Typically I have Coffee and fruit while sitting at my desk after getting to work. Today it was peaches- in Northern California they are really good right now. If I am at home, I often make the Bob's Red Mill brand steel cut oats. (I don't really like his Scottish Style Oatmeal, as the Steel cut oats have a better texture.) I make them the way Cooks Illustrated does, by frying the oats in a little butter before cooking them in the milk/water mixture. Though lately I have been on a sourdough pancake jag, with the starter I got years ago from a friend of my fathers...

Well, I have had decent meals at Left Bank (French). I also like Gombei (Japanese home cooking), Cafe Barona (coffee shop, next to a good bookstore), and Shiok! (Singaporean).

Great class- thanks. I have been sharpening knives for years, my technique mostly coming from practice and occasional advice from PCD catalogs, etc. You have given me a lot of great information and techniques to try. I have accumulated many stones from people who had intended to sharpen their own knives, then eventually abandoned the idea. Is there a good way to assess what theses stones are? What their relative coarsnesss, etc., is?