Tess

What about dropping a lower-salt pickled plum into a glass of sake?

Can you infuse sake? I'm pretty sure someone here has talked about doing it on one of the cocktail threads. I think also that Abra was talking on a completely different thread (Total yogurt, maybe?) about making a cucumber-nigori mixture that sounded good too. Agreed, sakes are delicious and you might as well play up their unique qualities. The possibilities ought to be endless. The dreaded PF Chang's has a couple of cocktails based on those different-flavored sakes that come in a blue bottle-- asian pear, melon, raspberry etc. I'm not that wild about that particular brand of sake (sorry; I forget the name but it's all over) but that does seem like a good idea.

Do you mind using vodka? I have made vodka infusions with lemongrass as well as such fruits as yuzu and lychee. The yuzu was just heavenly You could make a "saketini" with some of these infused vodkas mixed with sake. You can garnish the drink with the vodka-soaked fruit as a bonus (but watch your booze content per drink).

I think a lot of those places in large metro areas (as opposed to places where they are almost the only act in town anyway) do well if they are anywhere near an airport or a convention center. You go to a convention and you may have an expense account but you really don't have the energy to drive or walk around looking for something. (I always end up in a group that wants to go to a chain. They don't mind waiting around because they can talk shop, whereas walking around looking for a place would take their attention.) And if you're eating alone, you can sit at the bar at PF Chang's or Cheesecake Factory and have a meal and not feel like you're a sore thumb at a table.

Honey mustard Pretz have been available in the US for at least a year. My favorite Pretz so far is the maple butter, but we get very few flavors at the Mitsuwa here. In addtion to those two I've seen pizza, "salad" and maybe a few others similar to those. Green pea I would love to sample.

I feel as if there is a physiological difference for me. If I drink any alcohol in the morning, there will be a great drop in blood sugar later and I'll feel like crap all day. I don't even usually drink at lunch for the same reason. I know people who can start the day with mimosas or bloody marys and just chug along, but I'd have to have a nap and start over. When I've flown across several time zones or my schedule is shot for some other reason, there's nothing better than champagne with breakfast. Then sleep.

Definitely with the wine. Also, sauteed mushrooms and caramelized shallots and mushrooms.

Whenever I have to eat hospital patient food it always seems way undersalted to me, which may account for it looking better than in tastes. Way underspiced too. And not enough of it. I had a family member who was in long-term and was told to gain weight by supplementing the hospital food with Ensure. Yuck, and all that sugar! We went broke bringing in restaurant meals. The occasional bottle of wine, too.

Because of the way the matter was handled?

I suggest you look through this blog. Lots of great down to earth suggestions, and it will get your mouth watering with the photos.

Poppy Z. Brite's characters in Liquor drink strawberry snowballs (like shave ice). Unfortunately we don't have a snowball stand nearby. I have heard that you especially lose potassium when drinking so I have some V-8 and a banana if there are any.

I think those glasses are cute! Seriously. We do have relatives who specialize in sending foods they ought to know people can't eat. If you're a vegetarian you get a big honking ham. Lactose-intolerant? A cheese platter. They usually come on time so that you can contribute them to a potluck or a food bank or something.

More Polish and other eastern European.

A bag of pink Hawaiian salt and a funny cookbook, Auntie May's Amazing Healthy Cookbook . We also got a couple of nice bottles of wine and a lot of chocolate products. I also blew $14 on a new turkey baster from Williams and Sonoma for the holidays. It's nice and it has a screw-on flavor injector. I love my WS flavor injector. This one is not as long but will be a lot easier to use for certain things.

Damn stew meat that tastes *bland.* Why??? If tonight's beef bourguignon is not better than the last one I made I'm going to start making yak stew instead. Oh, and Satinini or whatever his name is on Project Runway.

Mitsuwa sells black cod ready-marinated in what they call "sake leek" sauce. I haven't tried to duplicate it because I just buy it there, but it's delicious. It tastes like it has miso in it as well as sake and leeks.

Yes, I understand it is a reincarnation but never went to the old one. When I lived in Glencoe I always thought of Hubbard Woods as being part of Winnetka. Maybe if you live in Winnetka it's the reverse.

Matsumoto was the one I was going to add. Plus, that tonkatsu restaurant in Arlington Heights. I would also like to get back to Amanecer Tapatio in Joliet sometime in 2006.

Ling's Scarffenberger brownies roasted cauliflower yuzu cocktails (I made yuzu-infused vodka) I yearn to make lots of the Japanese food described and pictured but often don't have the ingredients available. I did make maguro zuke recently and it was fabulous. I've made or approximated too many things from the Weight Watchers thread to even list them. Jen sent me a recipe for corn pancakes that was wonderful.

Like I said, it really seems to vary with location. At a couple of the ones in Illinois, they seem to have a fundamental problem with shelving and other logistics. A lot of times e.g. I will be looking for one type of Total yogurt and they have it in the back, having not noticed that it was different from the type of Total they'd filled the shelf with. Evidence of mishandling dairy and seafood is very common. A container of chicken noodle soup I got was so off when I opened it (well before the sell-by date) that it was fizzy. With this kind of thing, I'll speak up once or twice, but after that I just don't buy that type of item any more. It's not the product in general, it's the handling, and I doubt whether they want to hear lectures on things like shelving from me. I still go there for Hansen's sodas, yogurt and a few other products.

Quorn is by far my favorite faux meat. It stands up very well to spicy sauces. I'm not a vegetarian but I cook with Quorn anyway. I really like tofu, but not so much as a fake meat, just as itself. I was using Boca products for a while but the texture started to irritate me. Now if I want a vegetarian burger I use Dr. Praeger's burgers or other burgers that don't try so hard to taste like meat. And you can get ground Quorn.

These things may vary regionally. I'm not a fan of the cheese and produce sections of WF *or* TJs. WF have a few nice items in each section but are not dependable. TJ is worse and the one near me has serious handling issues. I won't buy milk at TJs because of the likelihood that it's been sitting out while waiting to be stocked. Frozen foods may have thawed. That said, I wouldn't go to TJs at all if they didn't have Fage Total Greek yogurt and diet Hansen's ginger ale, whereas there are quite a few things I buy at WF. Just not in the cheese and produce sections.

Erik, than you so much. I've copied that down. I'll make a batch next time I'm throwing a party; people will love it. I don't have a juicer either, but your idea sounds almost worth buying one for.

That looks so fantastic! I'm going to do my best to duplicate that here.

I try to send one sister marrons glacees every year. This time I got them from Dean & Deluca. The price was obscene. I sure hope she didn't just do a good job of pretending she loved them the first time. Has anyone tried the marrons from Zingerman's? (p. 7 of the holiday catalog) You used to be able to buy broken pieces more cheaply and I never see those any more. When I went to Hawaii more, I used to send out selections of things from Coffee Times. I could still pick up the phone and call them; I just don't think of it. People love the dark chocolate covered macadamias and the coffee. I've also had good reactions by going to Mitsuwa and getting a lot of Japanese snacks and sweets and making baskets with those. For me? I wouldn't say no to a box of marrons. I'm also very happy to get boxes of Harry & David pears. Or nice petits fours.