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Not Sam, but I think I'm qualified to answer this one. Please see the course Understanding Stovetop Cookware course for Sam's detailed comparison. This questions thread is getting so comprehensive that it's hard to believe how much information was in the original thread. Walt P.S. slkinsey, I'm still lovin' my high-performance Sitram. Thanks.

Having grown up in Takoma, it is a little weird to be able to see its farmer's market from 3000 miles away. I left when I was twelve, so I'd like to go back now that I'm a regular weekly shopper at my local farmer's market. ust out of curiousity, where in Takoma Park do you live? I lived on Beech St. halfway between Phila. Av. and Dogwood. Keep up the photos! Walt P.S. to Jensen: This is the first time I've tried Bariani, but they certainly do a good job. I liked how they had a fiercely peppery early harvest oil and a milder regular oil; I bought the regular since I mostly use this for cooking, and have separate oils for dressing items at the table.

Good produce this week at the Pleasanton market; we are going camping next weekend so I tried to pick up stuff that would last till next week. Back row: California olive oil, with a harvest and bottling date right on the front of the bottle. Bravo! Pineapple tomato plant (an heirloom variety, now safely planted in a pot), big batch 'o Swiss chard, regular asparagus, and asparagus tips. Middle row: Good looking cauliflower (thank you, eGullet), onions, baby beets, assorted squash, broccoli (last of the season), Fuji apples, navel oranges (the latter two not as good as a few weeks ago). Front row: Camarosa strawberries (starting to get good), this year's garlic (yay!), tomatoes, large eggs (packed six days ago, again, thank you eGullet). Not shown: a really beautiful filet of wild king salmon, bag of "gouda" cheese curds. Toliver: Orange blossom honey? Yum, that sounds good. Walt

We had an eventful Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. First time hosting in our house, and on Tuesday we realized that our tiny oven had only one rack, so we would be unable to warm all the planned dishes while the turkey is resting. Call the GE Parts and Service line, and pay for overnight shipping on a new oven rack, only $100(!). Person on the phone says they will try to get it out that day. 10AM the next morning, the oven rack is sitting on our doorstep, having traveled a distance of maybe 30 miles from the distribution center, which turns out to be just up the freeway. Phew. The day of, we have our minute-by-minute schedule, the allocation for each burner and each rack of the oven all mapped out. An hour before the turkey is supposed to be done, we put in the temperature probe, and it immediately reads 175F/80C. Shit! We finally decide to try again, and this time put it though the thick part of the breast, and it reads 120F/50C. Phew. Later, the bird is out, and we are putting the finishing touches on everything, including the Martha Stewart potatoes. We bought a ricer, and my wife is using it for the first time. I think it was a combination of an overfilled ricer and inexperience, but my wife manages to use it like a spray gun and shoot little tiny driblets of mashed (sorry, riced) potato all over the counter, hand towels, window, etc. Just as everyone is about to sit down to dinner, her roar echoes through the house: "Fucking Martha Stewart!!!" It was all we could do not to pass out from laughter. Luckily the potatoes turn out fine (Phew) and we have a great Thanksgiving. Walt

Not to be a spoil-sport, but I found the towns on St. Martin / Sint Maarten to be kinda dumpy. I was only there for a day, but the big three (Phillipsburg, Marigot, and Grand Case) all seemed somewhat run down. Grand Case was nice enough, but I have to say Marigot had a few nice blocks but I didn't find it charming. Mostly it seemed like KFCs, junque shops, and people offering to braid my wife's hair. Now, her hair is a foot and a half long, so maybe the braiders were hoping to retire on her, so your experience may vary. I did have a truly excellent and relatively inexpensive meal at Le Tastevin, a restaurant in Grand Case run by French expats. Very French food and service (lunch took well over two hours) with a wonderful view of a pristine beach. Very friendly folks, too. And, if you can't go one week without sucking down some grand cru Burgundy, they have quite a selection of wines from DRC in temperature controlled storage. [Confused] St. John, especially was much more to my liking. More tropical forest, less scrub brush, and while still quite touristy, significantly less seedy. I didn't snorkel on St. Martin, but Waterlemon Cay in St. John was stunning and well worth renting a boat and traveling halfway around the island, even after our map blew overboard. Whoops. Walt

Mr. Taco appears to be in the Yellow Pages: 6134 W A St, Dixon, CA 95620, which is the same street as Carl's Jr. I'm looking forward to trying this on the way to Reno this weekend. Walt

I hope no one takes offense at my shouting, but give me a break! There is nothing magical about the winemaker's art. Anyone who thinks blending a plonk Merlot with a plonk Cab has little chance of improving on either wine clearly hasn't tried it. The wine in the bottle is not a gift from god of recieved liquid, but rather food. Michael, do whatever the heck you want with the wine you drink! If it tastes better, do it. Not to single you out, Bux, but talk about a "criminal" loss of terroir is just the sort of thing that gives wine geeks an image of taking everything way too seriously. Perhaps I haven't drunk enough expensive Burgundy to develop the appropriate reverence for terroir, but I just don't see how wine, alone among all beverages, is wholly unsuitable for blending, when winemakers do it all the time. Furthermore, the varietal straitjacket does, IMO, reduce the complexity of a wine. Most 100% C.S. I've tried are a little monotonous. I can easily see how they would be improved by a bit of table blending. Walt

Asparagus has been very good to excellent lately, been eating that twice a week for a while. The first squash (basically all babies) is coming in, although I have to get there early for that. Strawberries are about halfway there. I am just about through with the winter veggies, to be frank. Walt

50mL (the standard minibottle anywhere, I believe) is 1.7 ounces. I believe a jigger is 1.5 ounces. Walt

Well, to celebrate finishing my first graduate class, I went out and bought myself the peep maker today! It was fun, but the results were a little disappointing. First, I had to wash the thing and let it air dry. I think it was the longest thirty minutes of my life. Parents, don't let this happen to you on Easter morning! Then I assembled it and began mixing Marshmallow Mix #1 with hot water. I then added Mix #2 and it started to foam almost immediately. I whipped open the nozzle and piped the nascent marshmallow into the molds. It was all pretty satisfying. After the prescribed five minutes, I gently removed the peeps, and rolled them in the sanding sugar. They looked good, although smaller than the real thing (make the molds any deeper and I think it would be hard to pry them out). Sadly, the malic acid and baking soda that combine to make the foam did not appear to be fully mixed, and there was a distinct baking soda taste over a pretty good facsimile of peep flavor. Since this was my first batch, it could easily have been user error. The instructions say 110F degree water and no more than 30 seconds mixing at each stage, which I did my best to adhere to. I'll try another batch tomorrow, once I've found some pornographic peep molds to use. Oh, and they mention in the manual in three separate places that you should clean the parts immediately after use. They ain't kidding. I put them in water right after I filled the molds, and the only part that came clean quickly was the stir stick, and that was because I licked it. Everything else needed lots of hot water. I would not want to find out what is required to scrape day-old peep guts off the inside of the piston (which at least comes apart so you have a fighting chance). Walt BTW, the main unit was US$15, and each refill, which makes two batches of seven small peeps each, is $5. That's a whole lotta peeps! [Edited to add note about cleaning]

Yep, that seems to be a winery defect. It takes specific handling to produce a wine with intentional "spritz," and aging in barrel or wooden tank (as your wine presumably did) is not it. If the wine tastes "funny," you definitely have a fault, and they should replace it, although you will probably get the current vintage, and there may be issues about who pays for shipping. However, they almost certainly bottled an unstable wine, one with remaining fermentable sugars, or one that had not completed malolactic. This sort of thing happens at the winery, but the bad effects may not be known until the bottles sit at room temperature for a while. Walt

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I am also a fan of the Good Eats meatloaf. I always trim the meat well, grind it fresh, and the result is flavorful, moist, not greasy, and just plain good. I do like sauce on the side, though, so I compromise: make a double batch of sauce! Spread half on the loaf, cook the other half on low to sanitize and carmelize a bit, and serve. Makes a great spread for sandwiches. Overall if you are looking for comfort food it may be a bit exotic (the cumin is fairly prominent), but since neither I nor my wife has a tradition of meatloaf eating we devour it. Walt

Glad to hear there are no major problems. Best of luck. Walt

Carolyn, Thanks again for your help. With your blessing I was able to make the base ahead of time, so my valentine only had to wait about a half hour for her surprise souffle. Of course, she had long ago guessed what it was, but it's the thought that counts. I got roughly a 20% rise, which seems respectable, and the texture was light as air. That was fun; I'll have to try a savory version next. Dungeness crab abounds. Thanks, Walt

IMHO, the ability to do bulk aging in tap-a-drafts is what sets it apart. A wheat beer I made tasted much better a few months later, but it would have been completely impractical to have two cases of bottles tied up for those months. Similarly, I had a pale ale turn out cloudy. Doesn't really bother me, but a clear beer does look nice in the glass. Put the tap-a-draft in the back of the fridge for a few weeks and it settled out. Very nice. Third, you can have a 4 oz. beer. Lately I've had homework to do, and a 12 oz. just does not leave my head clear. Big downside is that you can't have more than one kind of beer at a time. We do a lot of cooking, so the fridge is usually full and there isn't room for the mini-keg. That's why I like to bottle at least a 12 pack to have an assortment. Also, the first unit I had cracked badly, but Beer Beer and More Beer cheerfully replaced it and I haven't had any subsquent problems. Walt

Treet, believe it or not, is SPAM for those who cannot afford the real thing. My granddad, a frugal lawyer, would eat this for dinner. Yeek. Not in the same league as the others, but I would nominate several recipes from the "Slow Cooker Cookbook," notably the beef stew recipes that are completely unseasoned except for salt and pepper but do call for a tablespoon of minute tapioca for each pound of meat. Walt

Where are the bottles? If they're somewhere chilly it could take a while for the yeast to get started. It's unlikely that all the viable yeast cells settled out. One tip I have is to use one soda bottle (water bottles are a bad idea -- I have video that backs this up), so you can do a carbonation check with a squeeze. Walt

Hi Carolyn, Great minds must think alike! I'm making a chocolate souffle for my wife on Valentines's Day (is it possible that it's the 13th already?). I already had a special recipe to use from a dinner on the Disney Cruise Line, but it's good to have the photos and explanation of the step-by-step process. So, on to my question. The recipe I'm using is http://www.florida-travels.com/forum/archi...pic/2379-1.html and is essentially the same as yours. However, it says to "Place the cups in a large baking dish and add enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the souffle' cups". Does this make sense to you? Also, can I make the base ahead of time and then reheat it after dinner just before whipping the whites? That would sure make for a nicer evening than excusing myself for 1/2 hour to prep. the thing. Thanks, Walt P.S. Just loaded the page with images, and those pretty little chocolate souffles in individual ramekins look sooo cute! You've got me so excited about making this souffle! Thank you!

Whatever you do, stay away from chocolate flavored "ports." It sounds like it might be an interesting combination, akin to serving milk and dark chocolate alongside each other. It's not. The port will taste like used coffee grounds. Otherwise I think any port will work. Walt

I'm a little surprised that your opinion of Oliveto is so low. Sadly, I haven't been able to try the other places you mentioned, but my meal at Oliveto a few weeks ago had incredibly good service. Our waiter Oscar even replaced a corked bottle before I got to taste it! Pacing was excellent, my only complaint was that our water carafe did empty a couple of times, which shouldn't happen in a place like that. Food was very, very good as well, quite creative use of the ingredients. My only real complaint is that it's impossible to tell from the menu description what you're getting. My "Crostone of Monterey Bay Squid with aioli" turned out to be braised in red wine, which meant that the wine I selected was waay off base. Anyway, it was an excellent (if expensive) meal from beginning to end. Just MO. Thanks for the Cambodian recommendation, that's a cuisine I've never had before. Walt

The extremely high pricing is fundamentally what bothers me about many "wine" restaurants. Presumably, a wine-oriented restaurant is one where everybody has a bottle on the table, no? I second the recco for Passionfish (although they are packed), but I just don't go to wine oriented restaurants that often because of the pricing. Walt

One of the most expensive wine lists near me is at Wente Vineyards Restaurant. NV Veuve Clicquot - US$90. 1999 Opus $346. However, the obscure wines tend to be pretty reasonable. Oh, they offer Inniskillin Ice Wine for US$40/glass. Walt

Not to be deliberately contradictory, but anyone who's ever said "I'm sorry," knows that it is difficult to do when sincere, and doubly so when you believe the other person is full of it. An unaccompanied comp is "Please feel better," which is a nice gesture. However, "I'm sorry," is an expression that the offender feels remorse over the transgression. The two things are not at all comparable. Walt

Luckily, someone has already gone ahead and done this for us. Spending countless hours scouring wine lists and depositing checks, the Wine Spectator has assembled a list of the very finest. The Award of [Overpricing] Excellence is given to restaurants whose wine lists are definitively overpriced, but who have not ascended to the heights of the other awards. A [Most of our bottles are over a] Grand Award winner is given to those restaurants that show an uncompromising, passionate devotion to wine list overpricing. These lists are outstanding in the obscenity of their markups. See, it's all very easy. I hope everyone out there appreciates the thankless toil of the Wine Spectator in researching these awards. Walt

Hello, First of all, congratulations on your upcoming marriage! My wife and I honeymooned in Paris a couple of years ago, and decided to go for one all-out meal at a ***. Discussed and read about La Tour, but read too many reviews that said that the food was disappointing, even if the service and setting were impeccable. Also read many from people that enjoyed it. Still, we found it too risky. Ultimately decided on Taillevent, which was described as a "temple of gastronomy." I'd say that was about right. I have no real basis for comparison, but everything about the experience was flawless. Easily the finest meal I've ever had, and I have trouble imagining how the service could have been any more perfectly attentive than it was. We rolled out of there, took a walk on the Champs Elysees whilst floating on air. Even now, two and a half years later, I cannot help but recall the feeling of absolute contentment. And this was lunch!! As for setting, we were seated in a room with other English speakers (including a well-behaved tot) which was nice because it kept the smoke down. My only (very minor) regret was that the other tables brought cameras with them and asked their waiters to take a picture. I don't begrudge folks that, but it still seemed out of place. We were so wrapped up in our own meal that I don't think anything could have really interrupted our reverie. On the other hand, the food at some of the other places will certainly be more creative, and might be better. Your call. A couple of tips: 1. Decide well in advance when you want to go. We only selected a restaurant three weeks out, and were unable to get a dinner reservation. 2. Don't know what your schedule is like, but often they are closed on the weekends. Good luck, I am sure you will have a meal to remember. Walt