Alex

For convenience, it's hard to beat Bin 36, on Dearborn right next to the hotel. The $10 wine flights on Sunday and Monday are a great deal.

I just tried Spring Restaurant's web site and got a screen saying I needed a user name and password. Does anyone know what gives?

To be honest, the carrot in that photograph is just a prop. I have yet to gain any sort of expertise at all with the wrist-fulcrum method. However, to answer your question:- the folks i have observed using it (with great skill and success, by the way - it's lightning fast when done right) don't seem to reach for a thinner knife, they just whack away with the same knives you see pictured in the lesson. I think the wrist fulcrum technique is one that can only be mastered after hundreds of hours doing prep, probably in a commercial kitchen. ...or in one's own kitchen, before one realized that there might be more than one way to skin (and dice) a vegetable. I now split my time between the two: wrist-fulcrum for carrots and the like, and tip-fulcrum for mincing and fine dicing. (Tip-fulcrum looks and feels cooler, too. )

Thanks, Matthew. Dave Russo is another hidden treasure. I've found that Chi-GR on Amtrak isn't bad at all -- polite passengers, clean, and usually relatively on time. There's a 10% AAA discount. BYO food, though; there's not much worth purchasing on the train.

Hi everyone. I'm new to eGullet as of yesterday. I'm thrilled...no, ecstatic...no, delirious beyond reason to hook up with other foodies and especially with those in my adopted home town of GR. For a few years back in the 90s I was the restaurant/food writer for On-The-Town, before I tired of the measly free-lance compensation and before they started doing puff-piece reviews just like the Press and GR Mag. Please count me in for this gathering. Either weekend would be ok, but I'd vote for the 3rd, simply because of the higher probability of good weather. Might I suggest Raffaela's by Pagano's for the Friday night dinner? It features a very personable CIA-trained chef (who also is a friend of mine -- we transplanted NY'ers have to stick together), excellent food, and a private room if we have enough people. Ann and I would be willing to put up a single person or a couple at our house for the weekend. -Richard-

181. 182 if you count all of the annual bound editions of Cook's Illustrated as one book. 183 if you count My Year of Meats. I think I'll stop buying at 200. (Yeah, right.)

Hello, everyone. This is my first post at eGullet. Glad to be here. As a transplanted NYer who has been living in Michigan for quite some time now (and who still fondly remembers H & H), I homed right in on this thread. I still get a kick out of how passionate many people (including me) get about bagels. For about seven years I was the restaurant critic and food writer for arts and entertainment newspapers in Detroit and Grand Rapids. By far the most critical mail I received (in fact, the most mail, period) was in response to a bagel taste-off that I organized. The criteria, much like bloviatrix's, were taste/smell, texture, and appearance. The panel included a local rabbi, a very experienced Jewish baker, a CIA grad who worked in a bagel shop in The Bronx as a teenager, and an acquaintance who grew up a few blocks from me in Queens. All the bagels were fresh that morning and were tasted blind. To my delight, the bagel from my favorite shop -- the only one approximating a NY bagel -- finished a clear first. Predictably, they're no longer in business. Most of the critical letters said that native Chicagoans didn't care for chewy bagels (if I remember correctly, they preferred big and squishy) and accused me of being a NYC chauvinist. Guilty as charged, I guess.