spice

I don't know if it's in walking distance, but the last time I was in New Orleans, I took clients to Olivier's Restaurant. It's a family-owned Creole place and the food was just to die for and very genuine. They have a website now: http://www.olivierscreole.com/ I'd recommend the Creole Rabbit and the Crawfish Etouffe. I even got the recipes out of the owner!

I've a few recipes on my cooking blog: http://www.of2minds.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-sear...rch=duck+recipe Let me know if you try them out.

I also made Spiced Biscotti from Baking Illustrated a while back and they proved to be a favorite. A nice alternative to the sweet/chocolate varieties.

A second vote for Harney. I've been to their tea shop a couple of times too and enjoy trying new flavors. Favorites are Brigitte's Blend and Queen Catherine's Blend.

This thread has inspired me to try more recipes from this book! So far all I've attempted is Nyonya-Style Spiced Fried Chicken AKA Inche Kabin: http://www.of2minds.org/spice/archives/001173.html

Lots o' loot: a Quick Whip (for making whip cream) an Ulu knife - really neat! a new 2 quart All-Clad saucier a flat-bottomed wok from the Wok Shop in SanFran 2 Korean stone bowls for making homemade Bibimbap Alton's MORE FOOD 4 classy little oil/vinegar style pouring bottles stocking stuffers: cumin juniper berries saffron !!! biscuit cutters Scharffen Berger - 2 blocks char siu sauce* sambal oelek XO sauce* Worst-Case Scenario Card Game (cooking version) *these two I'll have to figure out what to do with as I've never cooked with them before I got lots of other cool things - mostly various DVDs, CDs and books - my favorite non-cooking item is very likely the Vienna Teng sheet music

I'd really like to be more organized with my recipes than I am. I have a 3x5 box with family recipes in it, but I quickly outgrew that and now have an additional three-ring binder that holds those snagged online or homegrown (rather than out of cookbooks). For the last year and a half or so, anything new that gets cooked goes into my cooking blog which is searchable and printable. I doubt I'd ever have the time to get everything consolidated into a database, though it does sound very appealing.

Ah -- I think that is what I was actually remembering. I did pick up a bottle of black currant juice on the offchance I ever found out what was in these. Does anyone know the proportions? Is it equal parts the first three?

This was a quite popular drink among my friends when I was in London for school many years ago, but I never knew what went into it. So, thanks for posting it. There was something else that we drank which had black currant juice (I think) in it (and maybe some sort of beer or cider). Any chance you know that one?

I've been getting CIA's "Kitchen&Cook" since they started offering it, and finding it quite interesting reading - both in terms of recipes and cooking technique. It's more of a newsletter than a magazine so far, but I actually find that aspect rather appealing. You can download a free issue at the moment from their site: http://www.ciachef.edu/enthusiasts/k&c.htm In the past I've also subscribed to Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and, until recently, Saveur. Mostly I let them lapse because I wanted something that was a little less advertising and travelogue heavy and thus with more concentrated food and cooking material. I have cooked a number of things from them, but now just tend to use epicurious.com to look up recipes. My subscription to Cook's Illustrated remains active and I usually buy the collected book at the end of the year and loan out my individual issues to friends and family. I haven't really noticed anything particularly annoying about Kimball, but I admit I don't read the editorials often. I don't always agree with their taste tests, but find that in the descriptions that I can sort out which ones will likely work for me. Mostly I just like them for all the ideas that end up percolating in the back of my brain. I'm going to check out Gastronomica (after the mentions I've seen here) though I suspect I'll find it too dear. But they have a way to download a sample copy so I'm at least going to browse through that.

I like so many.... A current favorite, though, is Golden Monkey Tea from Harney and Sons. They also make an Earl Grey Supreme variety that I find quite yummy. My other long term fave is Jasmine Green Tea.

I am much impressed by ctgm's initial list. Wow. Wish I had that kind of reserves in my collection. At the moment I have the following on hand: Caol Ila 1990 (unchillfiltered) Cragganmore 12 Glendronach 15 (sherry finish) Glenmorangie 12 (sherry finish) Glenmorangie 18 Lagavulin 16 Macallan 1990 (unchillfiltered) Recently while in Toronto I managed to stop by a pub called "Feathers" down near the Beaches area of the city. It has a reported 430 single malts in stock, many of them privately imported. I tried out the following: Auchentoshan 21 yr. Cask Strength Bowmore Dusk Bunnahabhain 10 yr. Cragganmore Doublewood 1984 Edradour Cask Strength 1976 Highland Park Cask Strength 1988 (sherry finish) Macallan (Speymalt) 1978 Mortlach Cask Strength 1980

I should have clarified that point better -- "stock" in sauce recipes ARE the reduced stocks. There is no reconstituting. This is what makes for very, very rich sauces. So what does one do if one isn't using a reduced stock? *curious*