col klink

I never knew we had such upscale dining on Greenlake. Yum, foie gras. Sounds like you had great meal Malarkey!

I can't believe that you think this whole website can be distilled into a couple of threads. You obviously don't have enough experience because as anyone should know, you don't drink wine with potato chips, you drink Old English 800 or if you're a plebeian, Mickey's.

I dropped in today to pick up some kielbasa for my Easter Soup this weekend (too much on my hands to make it myself ) but I don't feel that bad since George's kielbasa is very authentic. Since I was a little peckish, I picked up a corned-beef half sandwich which was quite servicable. I'm a fan of their may/mustard combo though I would like some pickle on it. Can't wait to go back for more! edit: I forgot to mention that they smoke all of their sausages themselves. I talked to George's kid (well, I'm assuming, all he said was "my parents") and he said that they used to smoke their sausage at home but it eventually turned into their own shop.

Tully's is more likely to fold than to be bought out. SBC has decent business plans and it's making money whereas Tully's is bleeding like a sieve.

Usually local butchers carry hog casings for sausage, try calling them up beforehand though. Whatever you don't use just pack back in Kosher salt and keep adding salt until all of the water has been exuded which is usually a couple of days.

Ooh, I smell a very worthwhile challenge. Can I be there when you do?

I would like to give this method a try, but how big a burger are we talking about here Colonel? 1/3 lb.? Sure, but I've only done this with beef and pork steaks. A 3/4" steak took about 5 minutes a side for medium doneness. I believe only the thickness of the meat matters here. When the cast iron gets nice and hot, you can throw your burgers on and there's virtually no temp loss in the pan. It's a really cool way to cook but it can get your kitchen pretty hot in the summer time.

I wouldn't broil an expensive burger (or any burger for that matter). You can either sautee it or do what I do for steaks: put an oven safe skillet in the oven at 450 F and let it come up to temperature. Throw your burgers on for 5 minutes a side and you should get a medium rare burger with seared sides. edit: cast iron skillets are best for this. I wouldn't recommend a non-stick since this temp is somewhat close to its maximum allowable but I'd have to double check D the C's article.

D'oh! I'm sorry about not answering your question earlier Marlene (and for forgetting to delay your shipment, the day I shipped was also the day I was driving up to Canada and very hectic). I think the pork is best reheated in the oven wrapped in tinfoil. I haven't tried the microwave since I don't have one. My future in-laws however love it cold. But I think you get more flavor and more juiciness if you heat it up as Nightscotsman found out. The brisket on the other hand can be eaten cold, room temperature and warmed up, I suggest all three at some point. After you've tried the meats straight, then you can play around and cook with them though my imagination is rather limited since I rarely have leftovers. But, thinly sliced brisket makes for great sandwiches and diced brisket is a wonderful addition to hash. The diced pork would be excellent in a stir though I haven't tried that personally.

Thank you! That really makes me proud and definitely warms the cockles of my heart. Honestly, it makes me really happy to spread the gospel of bbq and then spawn disciples. Yup, lots of practice. Just make sure to have a lot of hungry friends. I'm building mine out of steel. It's basically going to be 2' x 2' by 30" high. It will use a wood burning stove for hot smoking and I'm going to build a fire pit a couple of yards off and run the exhaust through buried pipes for cold smoking. It'll be totally old school. I've seen plenty of the refrigerator smokers but I just don't trust having a plastic lining. That and you use a heating plate and wood chips and you end up smoldering the fire instead of actually having a fire. It may be that my smoker won't taste any better than a fridge smoker but I won't know until I actually make it. More work begins this weekend! :shock: :shock:

Ah yes, the wasabi peas - I'm a huge fan of those as well. They're really addictive!

Tried some "Buffalo Wing's flavoured Potato Chips" on my recent trip up to Canada. They had a nice cayenne pepper flavor but not the vinegar and butter flavors I was so hoping for. They don't work as buffalo wing chips but they're not bad chips in and of themselves.

I love that idea but I believe a camelback would be considered a back pack and as I snooped out: But wouldn't it be cool to premix margaritas or mojitos and sip on them all game? But would they get too warm?

I recently found my notes of our Valentine's Day fugu meal and realized I didn't post about them like I had promised! Well, there was a lot more to the meal than just the fugu for our omakase meal. Ken started us with a nigiri plate of salmon (very, very good), toro, uni (gunkan), mackeral, Louisiana red snapper, hammachi and a scallop (good). Later on we also were served the spansih mackeral (from Japan) that was sweet and anago (sea eel) which was very creamy and tasty. The main purpose of going to Shiki of course was the fugu and it was about as I expected. From reading a couple of articles on the subject by Michael Hood (the PI) and Anthony Bourdain I knew basically what was in store for us. A chewy piece of flesh without much flavor and that's exactly what we got. Or at least that's what I assume. Our nigiri pieces were draped in chives with daikon and wasabi and had a delightfullly crisp ponzu sauce without any sweetness (it was a really great sauce). Everything tasted very good but I couldn't extract any flavor from fugu with everything else going on. It did however have a chewy texture that I really liked. It was sliced thin and not as tender as octopus of the same thickness. Later on we had flounder prepared in the same fashion except with shiso instead of chives and the only roll of the evening was called a "junk roll." It was multilayered. The core consisted of salmon and avacado wrapped in nori. Then that was draped in maguro and the roll was covered in nori and finally topped with anago. It was a cool roll to look at but it seemed too over the top, like he was just trying to make an outlandish roll instead of trying to find the right combination of flavors to make a memorable roll. Dessert was slices of ankimo with scallions and daikon on top of shiso and served with his ponzu sauce, very tasty. That night (Wednesday, February the 12th) NPR did a national story on fugu, specifically mentioning Ken and of course Shiki's which presented Ken with interesting dilema: customers on a Wednesday night. The place was almost packed and Ken was giddy as a little school girl. But Batgrrrl and I scored some "cool" points along with the couple next to us when we professed that we had been planning this little excursion for over a couple of weeks. Batgrrrl called up before hand just to make sure that Ken would indeed have some fugu that night except that his grasp of the English wasn't the best and she was unsucessful. This is where I'd like to give thanks to Nightscotsman for teaching me the correct pronunciation of "nigiri." Before I would pronounce it nee-GEAR-ee, in the typical Western fashion but it's actually pronoucned nee-gee-ree without any emphasis and very spoken very quickly. So when Batgrrrl gave up and I called, I too had a hard time getting to the point but as soon as I spit nigiri out he mentioned that we didn't have to make an appointment, that fugu nigiri is always available when in season. It's only if you order the soup or the sashimi platter (which looks really cool) that you have to order a day in advance. I'm very proud to say that I've tried fugu but just like everything I've read, it really is a let down. I really wanted my lips to tingle and momentarily see through time. It turns out I could only see through time; I saw myself going to the liquor store to buy sake.

They're very diligent in checking the bags, any "illicit" items should be stored safely in the pockets of your clothes or jackets. But as long as the candies look like food, they probably won't bat an eye.

As long as you can conceal a small flask (350ml and smaller) where it doesn't look conspicuous, you shouldn't have any problem smuggling booze into Sa-fee-co Field. That and don't brandish it with wild abandon, making a scene for yourself and you'll be fine. Before the game yesterday I bought two plastic "travelers," one a full fifth and one a half-fifth (350ml). I tried putting each one in my jacket but the full fifth was kind of ridiculous. So the moral of the story is, everybody bring their own flask. But even that small flask is good enough for two people, even two folks who drink as much as my buddy and myself. So the moral of the story is, don't buy Safeco food or drink: BYOB and banh mi makes for an inexpensive day at the ballpark!

Thanks!

I have a hard time imagining the folk's at Safeco letting you bring in a whole pic-a-nic basket when they make you drain water bottles before entering. I do know you can bring hot dogs from outside vendors, kettle and caramel corn, and kiddie drinks but I don't know about a full basket. However, I've never been given any guff for bringing in banh mi so it might be worth a try. I'd call up the head office and see what they say.

I bought the squid and the oysters after the game. Sorry to hear your home opener was delayed due to snow. What a downer! Ye-Ye Girl, I'm very careful with the flask. I never drink straight from it; I buy a pop, drink a third and then I pour in the whiskey with the cup at my feet. One time last year I was two seats from the aisle and one row in front of a camera crew taping the folks behind me (unbeknownst to myself when I started pouring) and I didn't get caught. I could've been on diamond vision! Anyway, that was a really weird game, McLemore hit his first grand slam of his career, the M's scored 15 runs against Anaheim and a man died of a heart attack in the 6th just two sections to my right. I hope the interview went well!

I just got back from the game and Uwajimaya where I bought a half dozen quilcene oysters and a half dozen of another type the name of which escapes me (I did manage to bring in some whiskey to the game) as well as a pound and a half of squid. I can't wait 'till that squid meets guanciale, cilantro and lime. Oh yeah, Moyer was fantastic, going 7 innings, giving up only 4 hits and one walk while fanning 7. And the best part? Cirillo went 0 for 4 reducing his average from 0.56 to .045 What a great game! We win *and* Cirillo flounders. I didn't have time to pick up a banh mi, but I did have tasty dog and a citrus soda (with whiskey). It feels so good to have baseball back! edit: spelling and the other oysters were Penn Cove oysters.

Guess what folks, it's only 5 minutes until they open the doors at Safeco for the home opener against the World Champion Angels. First pitch is 2:05. This year we have a new manager (Bob Melvin, former bench coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and a mostly young and proven rotation and we're missing a lefty in bullpen by the name of Norm "The Sheriff" Charleton. I think our rotation of Freddy Garcia, Jamie "slow and slippery" Moyer, Joel Pinero, Ryan Franklin and untested rookie Julio Mateo should do just fine this year but look for Mateo to go back down to Tacoma sometime in May. Our biggest hole in the bullpen is that we only have one lefty, granted he's a great pitcher but Arthur Rhodes will get over-used and tire by the end of the year without any help. Our only saving grace is that Shigetoshi Hasegawa (rh) is actually pretty good against lefties. Of course if we don't drive any runs home this year, it doesn't matter how good the pitching is, without runs, we can't win. So this brings us to hitting. We have a couple of new bats in Randy Winn, Greg Colbrun and John Mabry all of whom have been hitting well in Spring training and in the first week of the season. They just might be enough to make up for Jeff "I love to complain and I can't hit a baseball for $6.4 MILLLION a year let alone play well defensively" Cirillo. His spring was abismal and he's currently only 1 for 18. That means his batting average is only .056 The last regular Mariner to do that badly was Dave Valle. He was doing so poorly one year that bars in Pioneer square were selling drinks for his batting average. I can only hope that they do the same for Cirillo. At least Valle was a decent catcher and didn't make the money Cirillo does. (Valle was on the other hand the biggest ass in the dugout, I went to high school with one of the batboys, and now he's a piss poor announcer) If Cirillo doesn't start performing, it's not going to be pretty. But our entire offense doesn't rotate around Cirillo, we need a breakout year from Guillen (defensively too, he can't be afraid to get his jersey dirty) and another from Bret Boone. Of course we still need the consistency of Gar and Olerud. But of course nobody can play well or cheer well on an empty stomach. That's why when I'm bringing a banh mi to the game so I'll be quite ready to boo Cirillo when his name is called. Ordinarily I'd bring two sandwiches but I have to save room for a Polish dog. Oh yeah, I'll have to get some kettle corn right outside. It's so damn tasty and addictive. Well, I'm off to the game! Section 142, row 35 seat 16.

Pixelchef, the person at Mail Box Etc said that you should recieve your meat on Thursday. I just should've mailed them via the US Post Office instead of sending it from Canada. I'm still working on the smoke ring explanation, something about how the proteins interact with the nitrates in the smoke but I'm not buying it just quite yet.

I recently had a hot cotechino sandwich here in Seattle that was to die for. Cut the cotechino into 1/4" slices and grill. Top with a sautee'd garlic, onions and bell peppers and top with a little evoo. Use your favorite bread but I'm a big fan of French rolls.

Congrats on your first post Socrates! Thanks for the tip on C&C, now if only they opened a store in Minnesota I'd be set. edit: I'm very happy you and yours have enjoyed the smoked meat I sent you.

Quajolote and Pete, I've very happy you're enjoying your smoked meats. Responses like yours make this worthwhile. I should probably mention to those who ordered the turkey breasts that despite the fact that portions of the breast look pink, they are in deed, fully cooked. The pink is a result from the smoke and is a good thing! Instead of smoking a whole turkey, I just smoked up a couple of those breast combos where the breasts and some rib and wing portions are separated from the whole bird and then packaged. This allows for greater surface area exposed to smoke, thus making a smokier breast and a breast that's pinker than you were probably expecting. This reminds me of a big bbq that a friend and I threw last year where upon a 'que newbie looked at the sliced brisket that had smoked for 14 hours at 225 F and said "I don't think this is done, it's still pink."