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adegiulio

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Posts posted by adegiulio

  1. I gave this method a whirl yesterday. I used fries cut from russets, one batch was 5mm, the other 10mm. It took both about 6-8 minutes to cook to a deep golden brown. After draining and salting, we tried them...The verdict?

    Not so good. While they were both well cooked, they were quite greasy. Very little crispness. I prefer the two step method, or the easier method, McDonalds...

  2. Ok, say you were really into food, and you decided to move to Manhattan. What do you think is the best neighborhood to live in? Consider several factors:

    1) Destination restaurants

    2) Neighborhood eateries

    3) Ethnic markets or take out

    4) Great food stores (grocery, butchers, bakeries)

    I'm sure there is no one correct answer, but I have a feeling some of you hardcore food people have your opinions...Also, if possible, add some examples of why you think it is so..

  3. It's not usually worthwhile to order roasted coffee by mail. Perhaps for a totally exceptional place like La Colombe -- several of the top restaurants in New York use La Colombe even though La Colombe is in Philadelphia -- it's something worth trying. But if you have a place in town that's roasting coffee competently on premises and not letting it hang around in bins forever (or makes it possible for an enthusiastic customer to get freshly roasted beans regardless), and assuming you aren't willing to roast your own, locally roasted is the way to go.

    I would trust the freshness of Peet's over my local roaster any day of the week. Not to mention, not all locales have a roaster. Roasters in smaller communities (like mine) have more of an issue with turnover than a place like Peets. Since coffee needs to de-gas for at least a day before brewing, getting coffee 2 or 3 days after roasting is not a big deal. At my local guy, I have no idea how long that coffee has been hanging around...

  4. It's too bad, but I noticed the same slow service when I was there. The barista was goofing and joking around with the customers in front of me. I'm all for a social interaction between customers and staff, but only if you are capable of working and joking at the same time. I still have to say that my coffee was much better than the coffee at Charbucks, though I haven't tried the drip coffee yet.

    All in all, its still the best coffee I've had in the area.

  5. I tried them today. The coffee is a huge improvement over the Starbucks around the corner. The small parking lot makes it very easy to stop and run in, without having to worry about parking on the street.

    I like.

    BTW, is the Japanese resto Sakuroku? The one on the corner? I've been there many times and really enjoy it. For sushi, they have the best in the area...

  6. I totally disagree.  Gaining a taste for something by way of effort isn't a bad thing.  While it'd be nice if it were totally natural, many of us didn't grow up anywhere around, say, hard spirits, and getting over those college experiences -- shots of Jamesons, anyone? Bacardi? -- can be a major project.  Am I happy I trained myself to like whiskey and rum?  Hell, yes. Sometimes, in order for it to be fun, and to enjoy something the way others do without violent flashbacks to that terrible frat party your roomate took you to, treating booze like a science experiment can broaden some seriously delicious horizons. 

    But come on, this is egullet -- preaching to the choir and all....

    And the real point: Plymouth for my fizz, Beefeater for my negroni, and Junipero or Aviation any ol' way you like.  Yum.

    Very well put. There are plenty of foods and drinks that take more than one taste to appreciate. Drinking only what we like on first sip would lead to a bunch of people drinking nothing more than chocolate milk...mmmm

    For my martinis, Beefeater is the standby, with Hendricks and Plymouth up there for variety. My wife loves Hendricks for its floral characteristics.

    Good luck and enjoy.

  7. Yeah, I'll agree that grain fed beef tends to be more succulent than grass fed. I still tend to buy grass fed beef almost exclusively. For one, Fleischer's is my closest meat market. but more importantly, grass fed beef just feels better from an environmental point of view. The cows eat food for which their bodies were designed, and aren't packed into feedlots. The pollution, sick animals, and higher potential for e-coli getting into my meat make feedlot beef a second choice.

    I must admit to ignoring all of those negatives for the occasional prime grade strip from a grain fed steer. I'm such a hypocrite..

  8. Some thoughts and questions:

    If small sustainable local pork producers are the way to go please explain how these folks will provide the pork and pork products to a nation of three hundred million people? (let's even set price aside).

    Where in the New York City or Cleveland or Los Angeles or... areas will these small LOCAL pork producers be located?

    Will local residents welcome these operations?

    If a large operation is caught breaking the law (environmental or otherwise) they are fined (as was the operator cited in the RS piece). How will we police all the small operations, who might violate regulations?-- on a smaller scale, of course.

    After we resolve these and other issues re: pork, we can move on to poultry and then beef then produce then.....

    Seems to me that large so called industrial operations can exist with some smaller artisinal producers offering consumers a wide range of choice at different prices.

    Larger (and smaller) operations will benefit from improved production methods as well as lesser negative environmental impact. in fact, it seems to me that environmental impact may even be lesser (more manageable) with pork production more centralized/larger among fewer operations than were  pork production to be spread out among thousands of small local operations.

    remember to stay true to the small and local is better philosophy we would have to take beef and poultry and dairy and produce production and spread them out to many many more less efficient and smaller operations throughout the entire US.

    I don't know--but something just doesn't make sense here.

    :wacko:

    Well, I guess we know now who is the evil industrial pig farmer amongst us... :biggrin: (I kid, I kid)

    As much as I hate industrial animal manufacturers, you make a great point. I think there may be some middle ground though, where the big guys learn to impact the environment less, or spread out their operations a bit to dilute the effect. I'm sure they will lose some economies of scale, but the environment isn't free. Once we all realize that there are costs to us all by polluting the land, air, and water, we will be willing to pay slightly higher prices for products that don't do as much harm to the earth.

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