mamster

Aw, crap! nightscotsman, get the hell out of Vegas and come save us.

I find In and Out better than Burgerville for basic burgers and fries. Laurie and I also ate at that Centralia Burgerville recently and it was fine, but the Tillamook cheddar burger, I agree, really wasn't any better than a quarter pounder or the like. The fish and chips at BV are way better than any fish sandwich at the big chains, though, and at one point they did sweet potato fries as a promo, and those were great.

I should mention that Laurie and I have had exactly one real meal out since Iris was born, and it was a couple of weeks ago at Lark with MsRamsey and husband. We loved it. The thing that really sticks in my mind is the rosti potatoes, a perfect disc of crispy, buttery browned potatoes served in a little cast iron pan. Other highlights included the duck leg, the charcuterie plate (especially the boar prosciutto), and the chocolate madeleines. My kind of food, in a big way.

This pales next to any sort of actual allergy or disability, but my new restriction is that baby goes to sleep at 6:30, and her room is right next to the kitchen. So any dinner needs to be cooked between 4:00 and 6:00 but not eaten before 7:00. So far this has meant, that I can remember, a couple of kinds of beef stew and a nice risotto with bacon and radicchio. This may last a while, so I'll have to either get more creative or more quiet.

If you live in an apartment, like me, you can make cured but unsmoked bacon (like pancetta), which is not the same but delicious in its own way. Paul Bertolli's recipe for tesa in Cooking by Hand is a great starting point. Even if you have the smoking capabilities, this could be a good way to practice sourcing your pork bellies and curing meat.

Here in Seattle the hot sauce is usually sriracha or "Rooster sauce". Is this what you mean? I've never heard of "kimchi sauce," but the best-known Korean hot sauce, kochujang, is delicious, although I don't think I've ever had it on sushi.

I have an OXO jar opener that sometimes works, and sometimes I bang the lid with the heel of a butter knife. But this brings up something I've always wondered about. It seems some people can open jars and some can't. It's not just a male/female thing; I've known men who can't open jars and women who can. Where are the muscles that cause the distinction? Can you train to be an opener if you're currently a non-opener, or would you butt up against a genetic glass ceiling? Just wondering.

There are two: Seven Stars Pepper is on the SE corner, and Sichuanese Cuisine is on the NW corner. Both are good.

Palace Kitchen makes an excellent burger. Oregon country beef, medium-rare by default, and served with good extras including green tomato pickles. There's a thread where we compare it with the Oceanaire burger, which is also pretty good but they can't seem to keep themselves from overcooking it.

The only thing I can think of is to add a pinch of sugar. Take out a cup of chili first and see if it makes any difference; sugar tends to dull spicy flavors a little, but only a little.

That Fiscalini bandaged cheddar is awesome. I didn't even realize there were two versions. Thanks for the report, Placebo.

There are also butters that are technically salted, but much less so than supermarket butter; the one that comes to mind is Vermont Butter & Cheese. You can taste the salt, but no so much so that fleur de sel would be inappropriate on top when you butter your bread. Packaging has a lot to do with keeping butter fresh-tasting. Foil or impermeable plastic wrap is good.

I hate to say this, but the last time I had one of these, it sucked, and I can explain the reason for the suck in two words: hoisin sauce. Next time I'll ask the guy if he can make them the old way, with nuoc cham and no mayo.

We had the larblike dish with stir-fried pork in a lemongrass, galangal, and chile paste for dinner the other night. It was good, but it won't put regular larb out of business. A squeeze of lime helped, as it does everything.

If you go to Le Pichet, have the baked eggs (oeufs plats). Eggs, gruyere, ham, bread. It's a perfect dish. And if you go to Cafe Campagne, have the oeufs en meurette. Eggs are good.

I've never heard any different either, though of course it depends what you mean by "traditional."

Extramsg, usually when you order larb in Thailand (well, in Bangkok, at least), you get a vegetable plate involving yard-long beans, water spinach (kangkung, or water convolvulus, or whatever), and cabbage. Often there will be some ice melting on top of the vegetables to keep them a cool contrast. You can combine this with the larb any way you like. But the most traditional utensil for eating larb is khao niaw, sticky rice. Make a little pad of it and scoop.

Furthermore, I've heard that Canada geese are lousy eating. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

You know, you can stirfry pretty darn well in a 12" nonstick skillet over high heat, as long as you don't have a pet bird.

I don't like galangal in my larb, personally, but I do like loads of lime juice. If it came down to it, I'd probably accept a lime juice IV. Larb is excellent cold-weather food. Just serve it alongside a curry and some vegetables (pad pak), as I did when I had my teaching staff over last month, and you will draw plaudits up the wazoo.

For those keeping score, I melted the plastic shaft of my blender on its maiden voyage. It's going back for something, anything, with a metal shaft.

Homemade baby food.

Soba, I can't wait to try that. Do you start by roasting the head whole?

It's called La Carta de Oaxaca. Laurie and I peeked in the window on opening night, but we haven't tried it yet. Glad you liked it.

I got an immersion blender for xmas. It's the basic Oster model. I said I didn't care which one I got because I'm mainly planning to use it for making hot chocolate and the occasional partially pureed soup. In the instructions, it warns not to run the blender for more than one minute at a time, and then to pause three minutes before starting it again. But when making hot chocolate, I blend for like five minutes straight. I'm planning to completely ignore the instructions and figure even if I'm straining the motor, I won't be using it that often anyway. Does this seem reasonable?