Alex
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Posts posted by Alex
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I hated mushrooms until I was 20 and fell madly in love. About three months into the relationship my girlfriend was making dinner for us and two friends, featuring steak with sautéed onions and mushrooms. I was way too embarrassed to admit my distaste, so I asked myself, WWJD? (What would Julia do?) (Actually I didn't, but I've been waiting for an opportunity to use that line. Sorry.) I decided to take the plunge, and -- lo and behold -- the stuff was pretty good.
I also hated beets until about 12 years ago, when some friends put together a beet-bacon-mushroom salad (out of Larousse, if I remember correctly -- Salade Forestière?) Mmm, bacon. Guajolote's beet and gorgonzola salad, from last October's Heartland Gathering, was pretty wonderful, too. Mmm, cheese.
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Cancellation fees exist to minimize lost revenue for the business and to encourage responsible behavior by the customers. Unfortunately, businesses that are prone to frequent cancellations or no-shows often don't have the leeway to allow for last-minute cancellations. (Well, actually, they do, but it would have to be reflected in their prices. Perhaps that's what you were referring to, Scott.)
Katherine, I'm sure your car breakdown was legit. However, if such situations routinely justified waiving the cancellation fee most people, imho, would not be terribly honest in the face of having to lose a significant amount of money and would concoct a reasonable-sounding excuse with nary a twinge of guilt.
Ideally, situations such as yours should be handled on a case-by-case basis. It would have been nice, for example, if the motel in Orlando could have issued a refund after receiving a copy of the receipts for your Savannah motel and car repair. Granted that it might be more difficult to prove justification for a restaurant cancellation. (A signed statement by the no-show babysitter?
)I'm a clinical psychologist. When I established a strict cancellation policy (cancellation any time after setting the appointment incurred a fee of ½ the session rate), the cancellation rate dropped dramatically. I tried to be reasonable, though, and would waive the fee if we could reschedule for another time that week or if there was an understandable and documentable last-minute conflict such as a funeral.
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I've had the Fine Muscat, Fine Tokay, and Tawny. The Tokay also is a super value. (I have a slight preference for the Muscat, but nothing approaching major significance.) The Tawny was very good, on a par with similarly priced Australian ports. I don't have more specific tasting notes -- sorry.
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I don't know if this will be of interest, but Heston Blumenthal just published this recipe for oxtails, and it's amazing. I expanded it and cooked the oxtails and short ribs simultaneously in a deep roasting tray, and it was kind of extraordinary. He goes for very low heat - @200F/90C - for 7 or 8 ours. And check out the different liquids and aromatics he uses.
Thanks for the tip -- what an incredible-sounding recipe! Lots of ingredients and steps, but nothing difficult or complicated. I liked his tip about the sherry vinegar.
I've had some oxtails sitting in the freezer the past couple of months -- now I know their fate. -
I've been using 2 OXOs for many years now -- a straight and a Y -- and have had no complaints except for the potato eye thing. But darn, now I'm going to have to try the Kuhn-Rikon and the Messermeister.
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Cuvee Irini 1996.
Since I have named this wine after my wife, I will simply say that I enjoy ots full body and complexity.
Permission to use this line, or a similar one, with my wife...?
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I discovered this recipe several years ago -- "Hebi and Ogo Cake with Maui Style Salsa." The salsa contains pickled ginger. I've made several variations of it, all good.
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I hate corks. Always have. Screw tops appear to have become more reliable and, if research shows that no plastic leaches into the wine, I'm all for boxes, too. As we know, however, perception is everything. I believe it will take a lot of gentle persuasion and favorable publicity to win over most of the wine-buying public.
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I made the soup (a winner, btw) earlier in the day, so we decided to check out how it worked with the dry sherry. The sherry was lovely on its own as an aperitif, but utterly wrong with the soup; the taste of both changed dramatically, and not for the better. (Sorry, Mark.) We both agreed that a champagne would be the way to go, and indeed it was. We agreed with Katie about not starting with too much liquid, so four of us shared a split of Nicholas Feuillatte. As several people mentioned, the bubbles cut through the richness and the acidity stood up to the lime juice and tomatillos. Thanks again to everyone for your input.
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...a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.
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Give (to various friends and relatives):
Wine Atlas of France
Unicorn pepper mill
Microplane
wine thermometer
various cookbooks
Panera Bread gift cert
a very nice 1999 Auslese
Buller Muscat
kolacki (Polish pastry)
Anna's Cookies
Solis Maestro Plus (to myself)
Get:
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters coffee
Carolan's gift box (with glasses)
Screwpull champagne set
biscotti
popcorn
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Some of you know, I work in a very high end restaurant. I had the pleasure of working Christmas Eve and Christmas this year. This happens occasionally in our place, but, these two days saw lots of infants. I'm not talking about quiet, sleeping, adorable babies. I mean the kind that are squalling, talking loud, cholicy, throwing food and untensils, and screaming. What do you do? What can you tell these parents? Lots of other clients were visibly unhappy about the noise. People don't expect babies at Daniel, Jean-Georges, Bouley, Trotter's, or my place. What the hell do you do? Can't tell people not to bring babies. Can't throw them out. Real dilemma. What do you think? Have you had an expensive meal ruined by an innocent baby?
Mark, I strongly believe that management can, and should, ask that a disruptive child be removed from the dining room until the child's behavior is appropriate. Whatever ill will you might create with the child's family will be more than compensated by the appreciation (and potential return visits) of the other diners. If the family refuses to do so, they should be asked to leave. Comp part of the check if necessary. I mean, what would management do if two adults kept up a screaming argument or insisted on wandering uninvited from table to table? I also think it's perfectly ok for a restaurant to set whatever policy they would like concerning children, although I would focus on behavior rather than an age limit.
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I'm with you, bud. Although I assume that's $65 Canadian, which now would be about $50 US. Still, a wine would have to be pretty special for me to plop down even $50 retail. I've done it occasionally, but not much. I guess that most of the time I'd rather buy five good $10 bottles, three very good $17 bottles, or two really good $25 ones.
From what I recall (fresco, please correct me if I'm wrong), the Star is more of an everyman's tabloid-style paper, as opposed to the more serious Globe and Mail; kind of like the Chicago Sun-Times as compared to the Tribune. I wonder, therefore, if this was an "everyman's" kind of top white wine -- big and oaky. Any tasters out there?
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And to avoid cultural contamination, researchers from the US should collect data over the course of several months only in non-US large cities with a sizable Jewish population (London, Paris, Lisbon, Montréal, etc.).
Lisbon has a sizable Jewish population? You think you could get that past any foundation? You'd probably have a better claim with Rome (c 30,000 Jews, I think).
Again, Pan, my sense of humor appears to have slipped past you. Yes, I know that there are perhaps 1000 Jews in Portugal. I'd still like to visit there. Rome has about 15,000, by the way.
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And to avoid cultural contamination, researchers from the US should collect data over the course of several months only in non-US large cities with a sizable Jewish population (London, Paris, Lisbon, Montréal, etc.). This, of course, should be built into the grant.
(....thinking about my one and only trip to London as a food-naive 21-year-old, opting to eat at a Chinese restaurant in Golders Green.)
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One more: Essentials of Cooking, by James Peterson. $14.99 at Bargain Books! (Thanks for the tip, MatthewB.) It's a nice supplement to Pepin's Complete Techniques.
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Last night, while pouring the caffeinated beans out of the hopper so I could grind some decaf, I spotted some very odd-looking beans (so I thought). But lo and behold, there were the three missing feet. Apparently they were soft enough to not get caught up in the burrs.
So, an additional caveat: Look inside the hopper.
edited for spelling
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nessa, I admire your honesty in the face of all this eGullet scrutiny.
As someone else posted, if the recipe will be in an upcoming cookbook, recipe contest, etc, then it may be ok to withhold it temporarily. Otherwise, I guess I see it not so much as letting someone else take credit for your baby, but letting your grown-up baby leave home gracefully.
If you do decide to withhold the recipe, for whatever reason, I beleive that simple, absolute honesty is best for all in the long run: "I'm so flattered that you loved what I made, but for now I'd like to keep it a family secret. I hope you understand."
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I think you can trust that Aabree will take care of you. Aabree, 1st Line and Chris Coffee are the three vendotrs that seem to have the best word-of-mouth reputations for follow up service. One of the others who is well known and has good prices plus an excellent web site is Whole Latte Love but they get very mixed reviews for their customer service after the sale.
I think you'll like the Plus. I had the original Maestro before upgrading to Mazzer Mini and was very happy with mine. If I was just doing drip and press pot coffee I would have kept the Maestro but 90% of my activity is now espresso and a better grinder helps a bit in espresso consistency.
Thanks for the encouragement, Owen. I do at least 90% drip and press pot, so I'm sure it'll be ideal.
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Thanks to eGullet (and epinions) I decided to order a Solis Maestro Plus to replace my 12-year-old, faithful-but-fading-fast Bosch. I went with Aabree Coffee Company (aabreecoffee.com) because they had the same price as virtually everyone else -- $149 -- but offered free FedEx ground shipping and had a good reputation.
The Solis arrived very quickly and in good shape. However, when I unpacked it I found only one of the four rubber feet, and it was in the bottom of the box. I called Aabree immediately. They said that for some reason the manufacturer was shipping the product with the feet uninstalled, and apparently some are getting lost along the way.
They were very apologetic about the whole thing. They have a bunch of feet on order from the manufacturer and will send three of them to me as soon as they arrive, probably in about a week. The Solis now is sitting on four hemispherical Sorbothane feet designed for stereo equipment, which makes it look like a robot.
If you order a Maestro Plus in the near future, you might want to contact the seller directly and ask them to make sure all four feet are in the box.
Oh, yeah -- I really like its performance. It looks way cool, too, and appears to offer a significant improvement over the original Maestro.
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So what do you think?
About what? (Should there have been a link in your original post?)
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Three more!
The Roasted Vegetable, by Andrea Chesman
Good stuff. Testimonials on the dust jacket from Charlie Trotter, James Peterson, Nora Pouillon, and others. One surprise though -- not one Brussels sprouts recipe.
The Frog/Commisary Cookbook
I am so happy that this was reprinted. Eclectic, solid recipes. The best veggie burger ever.
Jeques Pépin's Complete Techniques
$6.99 on the remainder shelf!!! I still have the original hardcover La Technique, but this one-volume paperback combination of La Technique and La Methode may actually fit in my cookbook bookcase.
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Thanks, everyone, for your incredibly quick replies. I e-mailed a summary report, so to speak, to my cousins. I think they're leaning toward Champagne (NYE, French wine fans, etc.) but they'll probably wait until we get there to decide. Maybe I'll also ask for a glass of sherry (my preference) so I can compare.
I'll do a post about the meal after the holidays.
Solis Maestro Plus
in Coffee & Tea
Posted
I'm very happy with the machine so far. The grinds are very even and appropriate for the type of brewing method. I hardly ever have to shake the beans to get them into the burrs except occasionally when the hopper is nearly empty. I *love* the near-absence of static electricity in the grind container -- no more coffee grounds all over my counter!