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Mixing some truffle oil in with butter and using it as an accent on any bland item -- bread, potaotes, eggs, cream sauce, etc -- is also a good way to introduce yourself to truffles. Personally, I find truffle oil to be one of the best means to "kick up" a lot of bland dishes. It adds aroma and depth to bland flavors. Like any intense flavor (and smell), though, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. And for many, they'd probably have to get used to it (think of the first time you tried alcohol). It liked truffles immediately, unlike other luxury items like foie gras and caviar which I still only like in moderation and to some degree cancelled by strong flavors meant to balance out these items. My wife can't stand any sort of chiles -- and it's not the heat, bell peppers are probably her least favorite. I have a friend who gets ill from pickles or anything with a vinegary taste, such as mustard. I have another friend who can't stand the taste of bananas. I feel sorry for them as I do for anyone who doesn't like truffles. But I'm not surprised. It's an intense flavor.

You should at least admit, beans, that Salmon (and many other fish) will become an elite ingredient without farming. You should also recognize that most of the "wild" fish, as you call them, are hatchery fish and that there's significant controversy over their existence as well. Results of a quick search on Google: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/Dai...farm000404.html http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/publications/iss...iles/cb6103.cfm http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1200/2...1/article.jhtml

Does the company that makes the "low" cost knives for Hattori make any other Damascus/layered knives, either for another company or under their own name, maybe cheaper since they don't have the Hattori name attached?

Welcome. I think you'll find there are a lot of people enthusiastic about their knives here. I'm one of those that likes to buy separately based on whatever I like for the job. I have a Henkels paring knife (4 star) which I liked because of the apparent thinness of the blade which seemed better for peeling purposes and I liked how it felt in my hand for such duties. I have Wustoff's Santuko which is very light and can be good for quick chopping and such, though I love it for things like potatoes because it actually pulls away. I have a global flexible boning knife. I don't know that they're truly any sharper, but I love the balance and light feel for a boning knife. And when it's covered in raw chicken juices, I know I can get it clean. I don't have any specific recommendation except to say pick whichever feels best and looks like it will do the job better.

budrichard, I'd be interested to have you call a butcher on this, or two, and find out for yourself. "Correct terms" only means how people use it, ie, how it's labeled when it's sold, how butchers use it, how restaurants sell it, how it's understood. I believe wesza has given you the correct etymology of "prime rib". You may consider prime rib that's not graded prime not worth eating. Whatever. I don't really care what you eat. But I think you're wrong in your understanding of what the term "prime rib" denotes.

First, in the whole scheme of things, supplements are rather cheap. I get 300 one-a-day style capsules for $12. If you take 2 per day, which I think is Atkin's recommendation, that's still less than $30 per year. Second, I don't know that supplements are that key to Atkin's or other low-carb diets. Carbohydrates in the form of starches don't give you many nutrients normally. They're largely empty fuel just like fats. There are exceptions, but the place where most people get their calories -- bread, pasta, rice -- isn't going to take the place of a multi-vitamin. I think people make a mistake by assuming what is meant by the Atkin's diet or other low-carb diets rather than actually looking at what you can eat. They also often extend Atkin's "induction" phase of the diet into eternity, assuming you would stay on that more than the first two weeks, which you don't. When I was on Atkin's (I tried it for a couple months to lose weight before a food trip), I ate plenty of vegetables. I would only take supplements on days I thought I hadn't eaten a balanced diet. I ate a lot of greens and a lot of peppers, but there are plenty of other vegetables you can essentially eat unlimited quantities of after the induction phase. And you can work in higher sugar vegetables and fruits as long as your carbs under your target amount. btw, I probably ate more eggs than meat while on the diet. I found that I lost weight quicker when the bulk of my proteins were eggs. I also liked the ease of cooking dishes with them and the ability to use them as a filler, almost like a starch. And, they're cheap as hell. Well... read as selectively as you wish and ignore everything else. The fact remains that you claimed there was no scientific evidence showing low-carb diets are healthy. But that's just not the case. And this is just one study. There are others showing much more specific data. I believe Atkin's website has links to many peer-reviewed journal articles. But you can usually search a medical/health journal for "low carbohydrate" and find studies.

Catch up Common sense, btw, is rarely common, nor is it guaranteed to make sense. That's why there's science. To someone from Haiti, it's common sense that you can mutilate a chicken to cure a cold.

a) 99.9% of prime rib out there is not prime grade, though, whether it's sold at a market, a butcher, or a restaurant. b) Lots of people don't even have access to prime grade beef, and even if they do, it's outside the bounds of their pocketbooks. Insisting that prime rib (or standing rib roast) be prime grade beef or nothing is just elitist, I think, and certainly not appropriate for a cookbook or magazine.

Of course as a percentage of total calories if you're eating low carbs and you're not reducing fats, that in itself would mean that your fats would be high (or rather, calories from fats). But that's not necessarily the same thing as a high fat diet. If I remember correctly, in his book Atkins warns about going overboard with the fats and says that some people who do not lose weight by just limiting their carbs may need to manage their fats as well. I think he also warns against trying to greatly reduce ones fats, though, since he argues that the body will assume that it's being starved and thus try to store calories. I don't know how true that is, but it's one of those things you hear about all starrvation diets. Of course at some point starvation works, but I don't know that it works in a good way, making you tired, losing muscle, hurting your organs, etc. I think his real point, though, is to say that you will lose weight more quickly by not starving your body. I think the idea is that while in ketosis you can consume a reasonable amount of calories mostly from fat and still lose weight and burn fat. But anyway, you may not be consuming that much more or any more fat in absolute numbers, ie, grams, as an average person not on a diet. Or at least the average Southerner.

It's always a mistake to abstract from one case, even if it's true, and make a general rule. People are different. Diets have different effects on different people. The closest you can get to truth on something like this is statistics. Some guy who wants to sue and is being used for political purposes is not even a good beginning for truth. The American Heart Association, imo, is making a mistake in coming out so strongly against low-carb diets. From what I've seen, they essentially just say that they don't care about the journal evidence showing benefits from low carb diets because they have already pre-judged it as bad. They've invested so much into low-fat, it seems to me, that they're unwilling to accept a multiplicity of truths. In my reading up on Atkin's in sources like the New England Journal of Medicine, it seems to work at least as well as most other successful diets. I believe it generally lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol. I wouldn't mind knowing more about the science of such things. What are the steps necessary for the body to make cholesterol, eg? eg, with fat, the body doesn't digest fat and that fat moves to directly to your thighs. It has to go through a chemical process. In fact, here's a good quote I found: Here's the link which discusses digestion.

1. Oh so much I want to do a trip where I fly to Mexico City, drive to Oaxaca, then to Puebla, then to Veracruz eating all along the way. Hopefully I'll at least get to do 3 of the 4 in a 10 day trip next year. I'm already saving for it. 2. I'm going to Chicago next summer most likely so: - Trio - Crawl through little India (actually the crawling comes afterwards) 3. Every great taco truck or taqueria in the LA metro area that won't get me shot

What do you mean by "behind"? N, S, E, or W? There's Sur La Table and Mio Gelato to the W, right? Where's PF Chang's? Is that on the block with Sur La Table or Powell's? Obviously to the south there's stuff across Burnside. That'd be a terrible location over there anyway. And to the E, I think they have galleries and stuff now. Are they building some condos to the N of Powell's, or is there nothing there, or is that where PF Chang's is? For some reason I can't picture it. I wonder how happy Whole Foods would be if that moved in right there next to them. I guess in some ways it might help them since you wouldn't be able to get a lot of basics at the market. But their produce should drop through the floor in summer.

I'd be interested to see some links to photos of prime vs choice vs select in the same cut. And if anyone could show the range that would be awesome. Or how it varies between cuts. I know I've seen photo comparisons of wagyu/kobe and prime before. I'll try to find those. Edit: Some threads to look at: Discussion of USDA Grading Discussion of Certified Angus Prime Discussion of Grass Fed vs Grain Fed Beef Q&A with Mr Cutlets about Wagyu/Kobe Short Q&A with Mr Cutlets about USDA Grading Mr Cutlets on Choosing Prime Rib

Yeah, I went to Ferry Building Market this summer as well. Wasn't very filled out, but looked like it would be nice. That location for Slanted Door looked like it would great. I'm just not sure what building they could use unless they displaced some existing businesses. Downtown and Pearl seem like the obvious locations, though.

Just looked at their website (thanks for the link). Looks like they haven't been very active lately. No newsletters on the site at least since April and nothing on the upcoming calendar. Not a good sign. It's been four years since they organized this thing. How come Taco Bell can put up a new restaurant in less than a month down the street, but it takes so long for something like this? Ugh. Too many comittees. They need a benefactor to come in and say he's going to do it and just get it done. Maybe instead of the James Beard Market it should be the Nike or Intel or Pacificorp or whatever-it-takes market.

I think there'd have to be some concessions in the off-seasons. But I would hope they would regulate it in such a way that it was clearly trying to showcase Northwest products. Certainly some items such as meat, dairy, fish, and poultry could be local year-round. I imagine a good method would be some regulatory board that reviewed leases based on whether the vendors appeared to be making a good faith effort to sell local ingredients. You could also have requirements that half of all items sold must be local. That sort of thing. I would hope they would define local to give preference to Oregon, but also to give decreasing preference as you move out of Oregon geographically, so that items from Washington, Idaho, Northern California, British Columbia, etc, would get preference over items from Chile or Mexico. These types of things are hammered out in service level agreement contracts and the like everyday in businesses. I'm sure they could come up with something good enough to keep it from being Safeway with multiple vendors. The Farmer's Market and Saturday Market in Portland seem to have done a pretty good job. I've never been to Pike Place in the winter. Does it suck?

They're too busy trying to get a baseball team to come here and be unsuccessful.

Does anyone know the status of the permanent market? Last I heard they were thinking of placing it in the building next to where the Saturday Market is.

Went through the entire guide today. Man I wish I could get a pocket-sized version. Anyway, below is a list of the restaurants I haven't been to. I'm tempted just to start at A and end with Z. But I'd love it if you all suggested the 5 or so that I should run, not walk, to: Acadia Alexis Amadeus Alba Osteria Assaggio Bernie's Southern Bistro Capitol Coffeehouse Caffe Allora Clarke's Carlyle The Dining Room Eleni's Estiatorio El Gaucho Fernando's Hideaway Fratelli Farm Cafe Ginya Gino's Grolia Hurley's Hiro Sushi Il Piatto Jake's Grill Jo Bar Le Bouchon Mint Marrakesh Morton's Mugi Murata Le Bistro Montage Noble Rot Om Seafood Park Kitchen Piazza Italia Portland City Grill Portland Steak and Chophouse Porto Terra Ripe 750 mL Second Story Bistro Shogren Sinju The Spirit Room Syun Izakaya Tapeo Tartine The Vat & Tonsure Veritable Quandry Zinc Bistrot

I think I'll toss this in my signature. This seems appropriate as well:

I wonder how this snow will affect things.

I'll do my part and go over purchase as usual. I've been cleaning out my frig and pantry lately making up all kinds of things up. Now that I'm out of anything fresh, I'm making odd things using frozen peas, canned beans, and wilted carrots. I've made so many flatbreads over the last two weeks I think I have fingernails permanently encrusted with flour. It'll be nice to eat something fresh. I do most of my produce shopping at Fred Meyer's anyway. But I like to supplement it in the summer with the farmer's markets. But I also supplement with the usual suspects: Whole Foods, Zupans, New Seasons, Wild Oats, and my favorite, Pastaworks. Not a very big selection there, but generally excellent quality. And I like going there for the cheeses and cured meats. For me, though, winter ushers in braises and soups, really some of my favorite things to eat. Produce takes a bit of a back seat to meats, except the heartier produce like winter squash. Does anyone have a good winter source for freshish corn? Cachapas (a corn pancake, essentially) need fresh corn to be good at all, imo. I guess frozen uncooked ears of corn would be fine.

That should be considered a compliment. Many tasty things smell like body odors: beans, eggs, durian, anything with cumin, aged cheeses (a friend's family still refers to parmesan as "stinky feet cheese").

AMEN! I can still remember after cooking a relatively common Asian themed dinner for my dad the words: "It was very....exotic." Well, dad, that ain't the same as saying it's good. Want to know what was exotic? Teriyaki chicken, fried rice, and stir-fried vegetables. Needless to say, I've never made Thai or Indian for them.

I've always wondered about that. After I finish preparing a meal I'm often not hungry. I've posited it's the aromas and sight of the food that diminishes my appetite. Sometimes it's embarrassing, in front of guests, to admit I'm not hungry. I get the feeling they think the food isn't going to be very good. Happily, it usually is. yeah it's gotta be the aromas, i mean 80% of taste is smell. the rest is just the ingesting of sustenance. Are you sure it's not all the tasting and testing? I think I get so used to the cooking by the end of a dish, I'm not always sure if it tastes good or not because I've been desensitized to it to some degree. I can't imagine what food contest and wine contest judges do. When I cook for myself I make very simple dishes. I'm always on a diet anyway. But truly, I cook for others -- to entertain, to pleasure, to stroke my ego. There's not much point in cooking for me unless it's for someone else. I'm very tough on my own cooking, never trusting compliments, only criticisms. But I'm also very tough on other people's cooking and on restaurant cooking. I think I'm equally tough on all of it. I may be able to make a valuation that it's worth eating because it didn't cost me anything if I'm over at someone's house, but unless they make something that I'd be proud to serve or that I would be happy to pay for, I don't consider it good. I do a lot of fake smiling when I eat at other people's houses. That's okay, though, they do a lot of fake smiling when they eat at my house, since when I cook I am almost always trying to expand my abilities and may be cooking quite odd stuff for the average American. Last Thanksgiving I did a Mexican theme, making chiles en nogada, tamales with smoked turkey, along with your standard bird, etc. My family was essentially scared of the non-traditional stuff. Those who tried it liked it, but there were many who didn't. Oh well, more leftovers for me, and my dad paid for the ingredients.