Rachel Perlow

Soba - Thanks for the advice, but I'm not blanching cherry tomatoes. Or any of the others for that matter. PITA.

OK - I'll mince the garlic rather than crushing it to downplay the rawness and will heat the oil before boiling the pasta (keep in mind I'm working with one burner these days - can oil be heated in a microwave?). I went outside and found some basil, mint, sage, and oregano for the dish. Also found a ripe White Beauty tomato, although it is more of a creamy yellow-orange, but I know it is ripe because it is soft and fragrant.

Oh, but we like the stronger garlic flavor. Yum! If it were cooked I'd be adding several cloves, but since it's raw I'm sure one will be enough. I'll have to see what other herbs are hiding out there among the weeds. I know there's sage and mint (they got huge!!!), but there should be some thyme and oregano too.

We picked a bunch of beautifully vine ripened tomatoes from our garden and I want to do the raw tomato sauce thing with them. I have a variety of plum, grape, cherry and green zebra tomatoes. My thinking is to quarter the small tomatoes, dice the larger ones, add a crushed garlic clove and some olive oil, then add hot pasta. Questions: How much olive oil to, say 2-3 cups diced tomatoes? Should the mixture be allowed to marinate (mascerate?) for a while before adding the pasta? If so, how long? Should I try to remove the seeds? Strain the juice? Add anything else to the mixture? Basil?

Jon - I think you were confusing tommy with thereuare. Or maybe tommy was thinking Jon was saying he was the one saying it should have no cheese, when it was actually thereuare saying that. However, from jhlurie's post that tommy is quoting above, it is unclear if he is actually thinking that tommy was the one saying that. But anyway, I hope this cleared up the situation.

They make no claim to being authentic Mexican. In fact, they claim to be authentic Cal-Mex.

Jason's bad experience is that everything on the AYCE menu had cheese on it (OK maybe not everything, 95%?). On a busy night like that (Wednesdays are definitely busier than other weeknights), it is hard to get them to comply with the sin queso request. I thought the AYCE thing was a good deal, but the more interesting items on the menu are not included. They have the AYCE menu in addition to the regular menu on their website. Good chile relleno, enchiladas, chimichangas and several vegetarian items (more than just peppers & onions in that veggie burrito). We learned quickly not to bother with the beef items on the AYCE menu, as they were underseasoned ground beef. Better pork and beef dishes are available on the regular menu, but if you like chicken and basic tex-mex it is one of the better AYCE experiences. With regard to food being cooked to order and the resulting slow service, it helped to order your next round when the current round was delivered to the table.

I noticed that too. When was the last time the plates were the big draw at any restaurant? Here's a picture of the plate in question:

I made use of this for the first time today, heading to Finks to test their Air Conditioning. Let's keep it going - we need more locations!!!

is that the place that looks like a little house? right by the overpass thingy? Yes. And, FYI - El Gran has a really good fish special, but only on Fridays. I've also enjoyed their enchiladas. You don't need the sauce on the carne or chorizo tacos, and I'm sure they'll leave off the cheese if you ask. Jason frequently gets things sans queso (did I just mix French & Spanish?).

Katie also thinks its odd that it's so popular, but it is a pretty good version of Pad Thai.

We sampled the white and the dark. I felt the white was very similar in taste to the regular milk chocolate Kit Kat, which doesn't say much for the milk chocolate. The dark chocolate version was pretty good and I hope it stays around for a while.

For those not reading the paper version, which we read at Saigon Republic tonight, they received 3 Stars! The timing of this review is unfortunate, however, as they are going to be closed for a week for a well deserved vacation. They are reopening on Tuesday, August 27th.

Lizziee: Fridge doesn't seem to be working BTW. Arg!

I recorded it last night at 1 AM, but no cell phone debate.

I am shocked and dismayed.

Not just soup. And don't freeze it raw. Instead dice your celery (first count how many stalks you have or how many cups you yield) and sweat it for about 5 minutes, until the point where normally you'd add the next ingredient. The divide it into baggies for the freezer, dividing by the number you started with (i.e. 5 stalks = 5 baggies, 2.5 cups = 5 baggies for 1/2 cup raw diced celery; the actual amount going into the baggies will be about half the original volume). This sounds confusing but it's really not. I do this with onions. Say you start with 5 medium onions, they yield about 5 cups diced onions. After sauteeing you would divide this into 5 baggies, even if the amount is now about 1/4 cup per baggie, each one equals one cup diced onion. This works very well because sometimes you don't have 5 medium onions, but 2 huge onions, 3 mediums and a few small ones. Just dice them all, measure the volume, sautee and divide the result into how ever many baggies you had cups. Anyway take all your little baggies (I like to use the snack sized zip locks) and freeze them flat (laying them out on a toaster oven tray works great). Then put all your little baggies into a bigger baggie to keep them together. I'll do onions two ways, till translucent and carmelized (almost instant onions soup). Celery just till translucent. Peppers I don't usually bother precooking. Just dice and lay out on a sheet to IQF (individually quick freeze) and put them in a freezer bag. Cook from the frozen state. Anyway this is what I do when I'm in an organized mood. Most of the time, I throw out wilted veg I forgot about.

Yes, just let us know next time you're making it!

Then I'm guessing George W. Bush. Fridge is here.

Who's that guy in the upper right hand corner? BTW - the refrigerator is being delivered tomorrow. My old one is starting to die. I think it didn't like being moved back and forth across the kitchen over the past two months.

Maybe Double 0 was thinking of The Food Emporium?

Jay and I dined there several times when we lived in the area, and my parents continue to go there. Always enjoyable, as long as you remember to make a reservation, it is small so even on weekdays it can be hard to get a table and there's not much room to wait for one. Although BYOB, should you express interest, they do have some sambucca and other liqueur to offer as a complimentary after dinner drink (we usually tip bigger in return).

Could I get more info on this procedure? Are you actually melting, I would assume, several pounds of butter and simmering the lobster in that? I'm sure it tastes good, but the idea of removing the meat from the butter saturated shell sounds dangerous to me.

Basically, the air to get sucked out has to come from somewhere. If the house is tightly sealed it will effect the ability of the ventalation system to, well, ventalate. BTW everyone, the renovation is on hiatus because two cabinets had to be reordered. We'll return to our regular programming at the end of the month. Hopefully.

That's what I was told by Joe at Saigon Republic, which is why I never bothered to try to go there. I told him to call me next time they were going there so I could join them.