Alex

Blu-Tack

Responding to several posts... Ms. Alex and I had the pre-theater dinner at Galileo III during our end-of-December visit. It was quite good (as was pre-theater at Bibiana), but Tosca still is our favorite. Unfortunately, it's not open on Sunday. Other Sunday ideas: 701, Circle Bistro, Ardeo (haven't been there since the remodeling), or, for a hoot, Birch & Barley (all-day brunch, until 8 p.m.). For lunch, the $12 bar menu at Proof is tough to beat. We didn't make it there during our last visit, but the pastrami at Loeb's New York Deli is supposed to be pretty good. Any recent reports?

I think we might need a separate eGullet thread dedicated to putting together tables of 2, 4, or 6.

Just ordered The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups, by David Ansel

Making wonderfully soft scrambled eggs the s-l-o-o-w way (in butter, of course).

Full story here. I can sort of understand the reasoning, but still, a chain is a chain, even if it's a cut or five above Applebee's. Not to mention we already have several steak houses (and other places to get a good steak) in the downtown area.

Ah...so you cut it pole-to-pole and lay it in the pan with the small end down, yes? Have you ever tried this with a ricotta-based filling?

I haven't used a Chemex in ages. However, this web page (with pdf option) is almost identical to what I used to do. The only difference is that I pre-heated the carafe by swishing around a little boiling water. IIRC, I used an automatic drip grind, but this can be adjusted one way or the other, of course.

I just added Cooking with the New American Chefs, a 1985 semi-classic (imho) by Ellen Brown, featuring stories about, and recipes by, many of the major figures of the time. Most names I recognized (Lydia Shire, Jeremiah Tower, Larry Forgione, et al.) but some were completely unfamiliar (Anne Greer, Jim Haller, Bruce Lefavour, Susumu Fukui). A few chefs are still with the same venue (Patrick O'Connell, Marcel Desaulniers, Paul Prudhomme sort of) but most have moved on to other restaurants or projects (or have retired from the biz). A few, sadly, are no longer with us (Barbara Tropp, Jean-Louis Palladin, Michael Roberts. I've even eaten at the restaurant of one (Jimmy Schmidt, then at London Chop House in Detroit) and took a class from another (Jackie Etcheber, now Jackie Shen, at Red Light in Chicago).

Yes, that's what we've been using, after living with (and eventually selling) a smaller DeLonghi and a full-size Krups. I think it works wonderfully for everything except toasting sliced bread. The top of the slice usually is fine, but the bottom is striped (i.e., partially underdone) because of the thick bars of the grating. Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this annoyance? If I were more mechanically inclined and had the tools (and the time), I'd develop and patent a grating just for toasting, with ultra-thin wires for bars. Anyone who's reading this post may have this idea for free, so long as you send me one or two of your final product.

Yes, I just placed an order and was going to say that, too. Agreed about the customer service. Thanks so much for the great tip. I've been wanting one of these for a while. I was going to also order an AeroGarden 3 ("Now: $5.99 Was: $49.99"), but they're sold out. (Mostly with a little )

Starbucks Via Columbian medium roast (a Costco acquisition) isn't bad at all. We take it on trips as an alternative to the usually terrible in-room coffee service. It hardly takes up any packing space. At my workplace, it's just a standard Keurig. Pods are in a drawer. Barely worth a picture.

This is a great question, with some intriguing posts so far. Ever since starting Lipitor (atorvastatin) I've been extrememly careful about not eating even a little bit of grapefruit. I don't miss it terribly, but it would be nice to have that option if the occasion arose. The official Lipitor web site has a link to a pamphlet that says grapefruit juice "Contains one or more components that inhibit CYP 3A4 and can increase plasma concentrations of atorvastatin, especially with excessive grapefruit juice consumption (>1.2 liters per day)." However, it also says that consumption of 240 ml of grapefruit per day produced a 16% increase in the maximum plasma concentration of the drug and a 37% increase in bioavailability (unaltered drug in the bloodstream) Regarding JasonW's comment, according to the Wikipedia entry for CYP3A4, "Variability in CYP3A4 function can be determined noninvasively by the erythromycin breath test (ERMBT). The ERMBT estimates in vivo CYP3A4 activity by measuring the radiolabelled carbon dioxide exhaled after an intravenous dose of (14C-N-methyl)-erythromycin." IV erythromycin doesn't sound "noninvasive" to me, but what do I know? The NIH pamphlet that haresfur mentioned says, "Watkins and his coworkers have found that a chemical common to grapefruit and sour oranges, dihydroxybergamottin, is likely the molecular culprit." According to Wikipedia, regular old bergamottin also is found in grapefruit juice and shares responsibility for this enzyme effect. The entry adds, "To a lesser extent, bergamottin is also present in the essential oils of other citrus fruits." So now I'm wondering about Earl Grey tea. The amount of oil of bergamot probably is miniscule enough to not cause any untoward effects, but it still might be worth investigating.

After an extended period of cookbook pruning, I had to add one more: Ad Hoc at Home. I'll be making the Santa Maria-style tri-tip tomorrow night.

Well, it'll be three weeks of not ingesting empty or mostly empty calories (except for cocktails with egg whites), which couldn't hurt and might help.

I second Candyfreak and David Foster Wallace. If I could stretch the definition just a bit, along with the decade (to 2000; and let's not debate right here when the century actually started), I'd add Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

Order placed on the 15th, shipped on the 16th (from California), arrived on the 24th. That's about average for ground shipping at this time of year. The product seems fine. Tonight I sprinkled a bit on a bowl of chestnut soup. That worked.

Barley malt syrup When I was into bread-baking, I used to use it for rye and whole wheat. Those are some good-looking rolls, CC. You probably can find malt syrup at a well-stocked health food store, or maybe even a Meijer. There's always mail order, of course.

Have fun!

Here's the article

I figure if Keller (and the Voltaggio brothers) recommend Market Hall, that's good enough for me, so I just placed an order for two jars @ $11 each. Shipping is a little expensive, at $8 for an order of less than $25, but the product itself is less expensive than elsewhere, so it's a wash. There's also a 10% discount coupon available until Dec. 17 -- enter LUXURY in the appropriate box at checkout.

It depends how much grinding and tamping you want to do. If you don't mind the heresy, as some would say, of an automatic machine, Costco has the Saeco Odea Go II for $399.99 shipped, until December 19. Ours has been hissing away merrily for nearly two years now. Do the regular maintenance (e.g., clean the brew group), put up with a couple of quirks, and life is good.

Thanks for the bacteria vs. spores/toxins info. Guess I didn't read quite closely enough.

Yes, it's quite enough. See my post.

As we know, a good guideline is "When in doubt, throw it out," but in this case I'm with emannths. Roasting and stock-making should kill 'em all (the bacteria, not the diners). And it'd been only a few hours past the "OK to leave out" period. Here's a reference.