Verjuice

I don't live in NYC, but Hennepin (made by Ommegang) and Ommegang are the only two domestic brews I like- and I REALLY like them. So good. $3.99 for 750 ml at Whole Foods here in Santa Fe.

Triple sec over Cointreau or Grand marnier, or, my favorite for margaritas: Mandarine Napoleon? Say it ain't so! Frozen Limeade over fresh limes and a jolt of simple syrup? I always add Damiana now, for good measure. It takes longer, but it's worth it. Isn't it? Oh, wait- I suppose that it's much easier to screw it up, too, eh?

-Hulking Adriatic and Kadota figs, splitting open and warm from the windowsill. -Passion fruit. Love the baby aspirin taste. -Pink Lady apples. -Rainier cherries. -Buttery, spicy Seckel pears. I love astringent Bosc pears, too. -Rio Star ruby red grapefruit. -Meyer lemons. -Quince. -Frog Hollow peaches and nectarines; I began ordering them last year after Saveur ran an article about them, and in spite of all the controversy I gladly plug my ears when people start on about how they are overrated. They're not; they rock. No to bananas and custard apples; their viscous, slimy mouthfeel turns my stomach. I only began eating papaya when I was in Mexico last month; before that, I couldn't get past the fact that it smells like ripe feet. I don' t like kiwi or guava either; Mom used to make us eat them every day.

When I was visiting Montreal a few months ago, I was utterly seduced by Genevieve Grandbois' chocolates; really amazing. I tried them all, and every last one of them had me rolling my eyes heavenward and reaching out blindly for something to support me while my knees buckled blissfully. I love Valhrona and Guittard for cooking. Michel Cluizel and Vosges (especially the Black Pearl) for bars. Teuscher in a pinch. I don't like Callebaut, which tastes flat and somewhat malty to me, and seems to have a slightly grainy mouthfeel. For some reason, all the El Rey chocolate I have ever tried reminds me of gas station coffee; limp and burnt. I loathe fruit and/or liquor in chocolate, except in Payard's champagne truffles and Christopher Norman's bittersweet-enrobed wild amarena cherries, which are tiny and firm, and pop in your mouth. Eh. I guess milk and white chocolate have their place, but why bother? Everything from marzipan to candied ginger to peanut butter to caramel to rosewater-pistachio pairs better with dark. The sole exception is probably gianduja or any sort of pecan or hazelnut praline, which goes so beautifully with milkier chocolate. Chocolate is the lowest common denominator of all things divine.

Where's you favorite place to indulge in the color spectrum? I'm guessing that there are more bitter chocolate devotees in here than there are out there, but let's see. I like it best when it's so bitter as to make my black coffee taste like vanilla pudding in comparison.

You could sugar the rims of glasses and have them decide whther they want their virgin margaritas frozen or on the rocks. You could provide a trio of flavor options, too: say, mango, lime and raspberry (razzaritas!). Garnish with lime zest or melon balls or decorative slices of tropical fruit, perhaps. Blood oranges are sophosticated and unexpected, too; I think they taste like a cross between grapefruit and Hawaiian Punch. A few drops of blood orange juice shaken with lemonade would turn it a gorgeous vibrant fuschia. It would probably be great with ginger ale. Don't forget the virgin daiquiris. Garnished with skewers of pineapple and strawberries. Virgin kir royales? Grenadine or blackurrent syrup with ginger ale, served in a flute. Maybe garnish with nasturtium, which is edible. Virgin gimlets. Rose's lime, 7Up or Sprite... beautful color, served up in a martini glass with a spiral-shaped twist of lime zest bobbing in the glass. You could probably freeze edible flowers and even unripe berries in the ice cubes. Or, you could freeze cranberry juice ice cubes or some variation on the "colored ice cube" theme and serve in cordial glasses of lemonade or whatever. I'm sure that it would be very pretty. Well, creative anyway.

That's right I was. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Sophie Grigson's brilliant suggestion is to mash a ripe avocado into fresh hummus. Awesome, especially the way I had it last week: Extra garlic in the hummus. Freshly baked pita bread. Grilled lamb or sable (black cod). Fresh mint and coriander (cilantro). Shaved red onion optional. Not for the faint of heart.

Boston Magazine Best Of Database Check this out. Brunch might be under B or R (restaurants). Very reliable source that I use all the time to help me navigate (gastronomically) around Boston.

Has anyone been to Craigie Street Bistrot? I haven't been yet.

I am reclined on the couch, sipping contendedly at a large warm mug of Grade B maple syrup. It's meltingly rich and stupid good.

I loathe them. They remind me of compressed, dehydrated little boogers. Horrible! Oh, how my heart sinks when I find them blinking up at me from a slice of apple pie, a brownie, a cinnamon roll, hot cereal, pilaf and other rice dishes, any sort of quick bread... HOWEVER, I recently discovered organic Monnuka raisins, which I actually enjoy in trail mix (and only in trail mix!). They are quite large, and they have the taste and texture of small dates.

Sadly, the name of the place where I had the pescado frito entero escapes me; I was so jetlagged and ferrysick that I ended up eating at a small, typical open air restaurant on the main sreet there. I was actually searching for Alma Grande but I just got ravenous. Everything else I ate, though; the grilled fish later in the evening and breakfast, was at the hotel I stayed at: Avalon Reef. We had reservations at Yaxche for the evening we were going to be staying at the RH (yep, two dinners), but (and I am so very bummed out about this) we ended up having to change our plans a couple days beforehand. The folks at the RH were so darned nice and apologetic about not being able to refund us our money, though. We should not have booked anything through Travelocity seeing as how they so difficult to work with once you leave the U.S. God, how I wanted to eat at Yaxche. Tighe's report had me positively drooling! Even my sister was curious, after hearing about their desserts, and the cheese-smothered dish . Glenn, I never made it to Coba, so I don't really know. Tulum is lovely, really lovely, but the town itself pretty much... well, it sucks. It's good that you're staying in PDC. What else? Avoid the Blue Parrot, even for drinks My sister was genuinely worried that she might have caught scabies just by standing in the doorway of the bedroom they wanted to put us in (at $250 per night just for the crappy room!! We thought we had gotten a great deal until we saw the place. Boy, were we misinformed). Thanks for the positive feedback, guys I'm so very hungry right now. Since getting back to New Mexico, food just seems so overcooked and well-behaved. Wah!

That actually sounds wildly delicious. The combination of beer and cream is sure to be, um, a little disquieting to the palate at first, but hey, root beer floats work, right? Claudia Fleming's Guinness Stout Ginger Cake is one of my favorite desserts. I have made it with beers other than Guinness; I like Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout and Beamish. Chimay, my favorite beer, was an utter failure. Good luck! Have you added any other flavorings or spices to the ice cream?

Although I haven't tried Radius, I am going to be in Boston for one night in April, and I'm going to be dining there; have heard wonderful things about it. bigwino, have you had Barbara Lynch's gnocchi? Awesome.

Boston Best Of No. 9 Park gets my vote. You should check out this link, though, and scroll down to R for restaurants. I have found it very reliable. Have fun, and by the way, welcome!

Well, I went looking for my Edible Mexico. I wanted it all: deep-fried where applicable and served with a wedge of lime and prayer. I didn’t want to miss Isla Mujeres. Cancun was wrought of sharp colors (bone, spearmint, saffron, coral) and franchise nightmares-on-ice, experienced at 100 kph before I was deposited at Playa Tortugas to wait for the water taxi. I loved the island. My early dinner was a whole fried fish (pescado frito entero). It was exactly what I wanted: salty, crispy, life-affirming. A few hours later I was hungry again, but I was already back at the Avalon Reef. I decided to take advantage of the dinner buffer (normally, I would run in the other direction, but I was very curious) and grab a small snack there (dinner had been paid for as part of my stay, besides). I headed straight for the grill and snatched up a skewer of shrimp and grouper, and a hunk of grilled red snapper smothered in a salsa verde that was surprisingly unctuous, perfectly seasoned and seriously garlicky. The fish was perfect. On my way out of the hotel the next morning, I walked through the dining room; I’m not a big breakfast eater (this was how I merited my disinclination to walk the third of a mile or so to town to find something that wasn’t designed specifically for the beached whales of tourists) and I had a ferry to catch, but I loaded up on green and red chilaquiles and fruit; papaya, mango, watermelon, cantaloupe,guavas, bananas the size of my index finger. I averted my eyes from the Tiki Lounge offerings; disturbingly sanguine mini cocktail sausage and pineapple skewered on maraschino cherry-capped toothpicks. Normally, I love plain yogurt for breakfast, but I found what the hotel had to offer to be quite runny. Even the little packages of the flavored stuff (I tried apple, out of curiosity) were very soupy. I tried some of the cream-laden hot cereal (fantastic with the addition of bay leaves and cinnamon sticks, but waaay too sweet), and found this to be very soupy as well. This didn’t bother me, mind you. It was just noticeable, and interesting from a cultural standpoint. I’m from the Middle East, and I don’t think my family would even recognize yogurt if a spoon couldn’t stand up in it. I was happy to notice that the fat content of the yogurt was up there with the best of them, though: around 4%, which is how I like it best. By noon I was back at the airport in Cancun, where I had a love affair with the all-natural Nutrifibre bran cookies and another brand of galletas; scrumptious little oat pastries with platanos and datil and almendras. Beats granola any day. After checking in at the Fiestamericana in Merida, I took a long walk down Paseo de Montejo. At a small but busy dulceria, I inhaled a guanabana paleta , not realizing that guanabana is cherimoya. It was good, but the mango and limon (lime) were better (what? I was hot and thirsty). I walked to Plaza Grande (El Centro); distinctly colonial architecture, really beautiful and impressive buildings. I visited the cathedral (the Lonely Planet quidebook describes it as “hulking” and “severe”) and the Palacio Municipal, Olimpo, the Museo de Arte Contemporanio Ateneo de Yucatan, finally ending up at Restaurante Portico del Peregrino where I had the pollo pibil (chicken with achiote sauce, wrapped in banana leaves and baked until tender). The next morning, I walked back to El Centro (fortunately, I enjoy walking almost as much as I love food) and bought a bag of postres and baked goods from Panificadora Montejo, at a corner off the plaza. I would be in Chichen Itza all day, and the prospect of the inclusive tour package with its “Yucatecan-style” buffet lunch catering to hundreds of tourists was harrowing, so I wanted to be prepared. Back at the hotel, I polished off a huge plate of fruit (that impeccable papaya!) at the buffet, and sampled the chilaquiles (verde only, this time) and platanos frios. I also used a small bowl of housemade muesli as a vehicle for several giant dollops of cajeta. So good. Though they are on every breakfast menu, the huevos revueltos looked, well, revolting; I guess I can’t deal with the combination of rubbery pink ham and canned peas in scrambled eggs, nevermind all the other stuff that gets added to the dish. After Chichen Itza, I found the buffet at Hacienda Xaybe’h every bit as awful as I feared it would be. My pastries, however, were delish; pan dulces filled with custard or raisins (shudder) or pineapple or lemon, soft rolls that had been delicately iced with vanilla sugar, cinnamon rolls etc. As soon as I returned to Merida, I moved on to Hacienda Xcanatun; absolutely stunning grounds, food, service, attention to detail. My first dinner there was a restorative sopa de lima, followed by pan-seared esmedregal with Hoja Santa ratatouille. I could have made a meal out of the warm, housemade bread (I’ a sucker for warm bread and all the baked goods are made on the premises) and two whipped cheese-infused butters (one with chives, the other with roquefort). Breakfast the next morning was the platter of fruit and pastries that were brought to the table with my coffee. Lunch was a delicata chaya mousse with pear salsa and more of that wonderful sopa de lima, and for dinner I had the cream of poblano soup and Xcatic chiles filled with cochinita pibil (“hole-roasted” pork with annato adobo, usually made by marinating the meat in a recado of lime, garlic, spices and chiles, then wrapping it in plantain leaves with onions and either steaming or roasting it. Typically served with delightfully pungen cebolla en escabeche). My early lunch before heading out the next day was salbutes. I could probably snack on these every morning for the rest of my life and never tire of them. By the end of my first day at Xcanatun, I realized that the only real drawback to travelling alone was not being able to sample more dishes. There were so many dishes on the menu I had wanted to taste: sauteed chicken breast in ancho chile and sour orange sauce, Xtabentun and orange-glazed duck, black-bean stuffed plantian croquette, double pork chop with guava reduction and carrot-chipotle puree, poc-chuc, beef tenderloin stuffed with pulled pork in an orange-annato sauce with grilled red onions, roasted red pepper guajillo sauced lentils with prosciutto, Longaniza sausage, achiote marinated quails, Argentinian strip steak with chimichurri sauce, salads of jicama, mango, beets and tamarind. The queso relleno (edam stuffed with a mixture of beef, tomatoes, raisins and olives sered in a red and white sauce) sounded intriguing, as well. Back in Cancun, I met up with my eighteen year old sister who had just flown in from Boston. We spent one night at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun so that she could get some rest before heading farther south the next day. I had anticipated her being exhausted after having just finishing a slew of midterms (she’s a freshman in college), and I was prepared for her finicky dietary habits. Although she laughs at the absurdity of it (she insists that this is purely coincidental), she will only eat foods which are yellow in color: eggs, cheese, potatoes, refined bread products, bananas, pineapple, chicken, macaroni, corn, buttered toast, buttered rice. She loves caramel, and her favorite desserts are cheesecake and crème brulee. She also adores sugar cookies and lemon sorbet and any lemon desserts for that matter- especially lemon meringue pie- but other citrus fruits don’t interest her. She guzzles copious amounts of chamomile tea. Go figure. This meant that we would be compromising on restaurant venues, although it didn’t turn out to be nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. She was able to sweet talk chefs at hole-in-the-wall joints to whip her up cheese omelettes, and whenever her imagination was challenged, she would just order queso fundido or quesadillas or roast chicken. My sister pronounced her chicken quesadillas at the El Caribe grill the most delectable she had ever tasted. I had a bite, and ended up ordering a couple for myself (minus the chicken); one with zucchini blossoms (good) and the other with huitlacoche (better). We made reservations at La Habichuela for later in the evening. I had initially planned on ordering their house specialty, La Cocobichuela, which is shrimp and lobster tossed in a curry sauce and served in a coconut shell, but when I saw the photo of it in the menu underneath the shrieking banner, “over 320,000 served!!” and considered the “garnish of tropical fruit”, I went instead for the Veracruz-style grouper. The sauce had an unpleasant viscosity to it, as though cornstarch or something had been used as a thickener. It reminded me of phlegm, actually (sorry, guys), and I had to move on to the rice and beans after a few bites of fish. My sister had asked for the chicken enchiladas, and was horrified to find that the salsa verde that smothered her enchiladas was brimming with fresh cilantro; she had never known before what it was, only that she has always despised it (I adore cilantro). She ordered dessert (crepes), while I stifled my growing impatience with another margarita. What followed was the only digestive upset I experienced while in Mexico. The sharp pains began about ten minutes after our plates were cleared, and the ride back to our hotel was sheer agony. The next day we headed for Playa del Carmen. Our plans didn’t work out; our room at the Blue Parrot was completely filthy, really, and after calling twenty or so different hotels in the area – everything was booked solid for the night- we were defeated into booking a couple of nights at the degrading and pitiful Bahia Principe, an all-inclusive Disneyesque-escapade spectre with several thousand rooms, buffet dining, crappy free alcohol and so on. When we walked into the lobby, my sister was ready to do cartwheels, and I wanted to burst into tears. A brief but illustrative example: When I left the room the next morning, there was an iguana outside my door, and about eighteen octogenarians in Hawaiian print shirts taking pictures of it. I won’t go into detail about this ridiculous place; suffice to say that there was a lot of yellow food to keep my sister happy, and I managed to keep myself nourished with the 24 hour guacamole and salsa bar, the taco station in the dining hall, and the unlimited self-serve soft-serve ice cream (sad, but true). One night, after too many glasses of crappy bourbon, I found myself alone in the empty dining hall with muddled thinking and a good book; I ate pizza and soggy cold fries with abandon, and was brutally reminded of college days I never wish to revisit. Things got even weirder when I wandered back out to the bar and spotted an academic dean of mine from college, ordering drinks across the bar (I went to school in Connecticut). In short, a creepy place with bad food. My sister, on the other hand, had a culinary epiphany at the churro station in that dining hall, and couldn’t get enough of the lukewarm, rubbery cheese empanadas. We arrived in Tulum, where we had planned on spending the bulk of the trip. We had hoped to sup at Charlie's in Tulum, but we took the fact that it was empty as a bad sign and went to Don Cafeto instead. La Nave and Paris de Noche were other possibilities, but the five or six locals we asked steered us towards Don Cafeto. The menu boasts about their espresso drinks, as well, and I ordered a coffee only because I was so excited to see a French press after ten days of avoiding coffee all together (instant coffee is standard). For dinner, I had ceviche mixto camarones y pescado (which I did not eat; one whiff was enough to tell me that it wasn't fresh), xochitl soup, and rice with fried bananas. We spent the entire next day on the beach around the cabanas; breakfast was fruit; gosh I couldn't get enough fruit in Mexico. Lunch: quesedillas, guacamole, salsa roja, chips on the beach. I have completely fallen in love with those thick, larded-up and deep-fried tortilla chips. Mmm. We stayed in and dined at the Ana y Jose restuarant (we stayed at the Ana y Jose cabanas). I had a very pleasant filete de pescado (red snapper) that had been steamed in a plantain leaf with chaya and mustard. Killer margaritas. We had reservations at KaiLuum II and the Royal Hideaway for Thursday through Saturday, but after an allergic reaction to an insect bite landed my sister in a hospital, we packed up and went back to Cancun. Back to the Ritz. I’m still in the process of trying to convince the Royal Hideaway to reimburse us at least partially, but I doubt they will. Medical scares can wreak havoc in lots of ways; it took my sister and I ages to save up the money for this trip. At the risk of having my sister feel guilty about something that wasn’t her fault, I sucked it up (not a hard thing to do when you’ve got crisp linens) and we ended up having a great time in Cancun; the Ritz is really a gorgeous place and the beach there is just beautiful. The first night back, I had a light posole soup and Caribbean lobster spring rolls along with huge quantities of ceviche. I drank margaritas before dark, and mojitos after, and nibbled on bunuelos in the bar. I was blown away by the breakast pastries- really the best I’ve had in years, and I snacked on tamales, tuna empanadas, chilaquiles, smoked salmon and fruit. For dinner, I ate it all: chilled cucumber and avocado soup with tender coconut meat, papaya and mango salad with black sesame seeds and camarones, calamari and zucchini salad with roasted tomatoes and slivered avocado, whole red snapper in achiote, lobster and morel ragout, crab and jicama salad tossed in coconut-lime dressing and studded with cashews, sweet, spicy pan-seared scallops, caesar salad, and paella. I guess the only things I avoided were the ubiquitous juices and shakes and licuados and horchatas and agua frescas of Mexico, which held no appeal for me; I dislike all juices and shakes with the exception of unpasteurized apple cider and freshly squeezed limeade or grapefruit juice once in a blue moon (that's right: no pina coladas for me). Back in New Mexico now and dark like a glowing ember. Mexico, as a terrestrial ecosystem, is wildly beautiful and mysterious. I might have eaten more if I’d not been parasailing and swimming with sharks and so forth, but it was a great trip. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! By the way, I did notice that the refritos in the Yucatan were made with black bleans, while in Quintana Roo they were made exclusively with pinto beans- anyone know why?

Jaymes, Thank you so much. I leave the day after tomorrow. My plan is to fly into Cancun, spend the night in Isla Mujeres, catch a flight to Merida the next day, stay at the Fiestamericana and Hacienda Xcanatun... return to Cancun to meet my sister, drive down to Playa Del Carmen(KaiLuumII, then Blue Parrot), then on to Tulum for a few days, then back to Playa (Royal Hideaway this time). We would have liked to stay at Iberostar Quetzal but after struggling with numerous bounced e-mails and a few botched attempts to reach someone at reservations, we threw in the towel and began looking for rooms elsewhere. Anyway, I'm very excited and a little nervous. I don't speak Spanish! I hope that this won't be too much of a problem, seeing as how I am so personable I will probably pass for a local down there anyway. I'm Middle Eastern; dark skin and eyes etc. Thanks again for the wonderful suggestions.

I've also noticed that eating pickled and/or fermented foods can set off a series of bizarre, specific cravings for strong flavors (kimchi in particular triggers this response). Last night, after a sushi dinner which included a great deal of pickled ginger and soy sauce, I was struck: This is what I made for myself, responding to the calling with urgent and sensuous immediacy: A whole jar of Bubbie's dill pickles, and an entire jar of Maille cornichons, but not before preparing a large bowl of honey mustard and another of sriracha for dipping pickles in between bites. After I was done, I countered the sour/salty/sweet acetic acid buzz with countless spoonfuls of tahini; drizzled with maple syrup and sea salt en route to my mouth. Finished off with a massive chunk of Valrhona chocolate spread with- God forgive me but it needed to happen- leftover wasabi and freshly ground peanut butter. Still not sated, I threw a pound of shelled unsalted pistachios in a pan and sauteed them with J. Leblanc walnut oil and a crapload of dessicated coconut, brown sugar and because I was out of chipotle I added smoked paprika. Then, I ate a whole pineapple, cut into chunks and sprinkled with chopped mint, and I almost never eat fruit. All of this washed down by coffee juiced up with a lot of ground cardamom. Sick! Perfect! I'll have my head hung in shame for the next month, to be sure.

Cynthia, they carry it at Wild Oats here (Santa Fe), and I know I've seen it somewhere else, too, but I'm forgetting where. Also, it's inexpensive. My favorite salt!

I am getting my Master's in Oriental Medicine, and according to the Chinese herbal paradigm, ginger is very warming and tonifying to the "Middle Warmer" ie stomach; great for nausea, vomiting, cold conditions etc. Half of us have bottomless thermoses of ginger tea, others munch on Ting Ting Jahe during class... someone brought in a tin of these Altoids ginger candies and left them on the communal food table in the lounge for fellow students to sample, and they gave us all terrible indigestion ! There were a dozen or so of us with either flatulence or intestinal pain and cramping within five minutes of crunching down one of those suckers, and ginger is supposed to have the opposite effect! Those candies have been on the table for a couple weeks now because everyone is afraid to touch them; perhaps we got a bad batch, but could such a thing even be possible?? Anyone else get a tummy ache?

While I was living at home, it was religious restrictions. Since then, it just hasn't really appealed to me in its natural form, though I know I've had it in other things; it just hasn't been recognizable. The taste stands out, and I once used half a rasher of bacon to flavor some dog biscuits I was making, but I have an aversion to the deliberate use of pork and pork products in my kitchen, having been forbidden them as a youngster. Crazy, huh?

For the last three days, I haven't been able to stop thinking about great slabs of bacon, and I've never even eaten the stuff. Tell me that qualifies.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Tighe, I had already read your review of Yaxche and was already sold on the place! I've checked out their menu online and plan on eating there the evening I arrive, en route from Cancun to Tulum, where I think I shall be staying for at least the first few days. I will probably check out Merida after all. Any more specific recommendations for great restaurants and hotels (high end resort type for my sis later on, rustic cabana type for myself) in PDC and Tulum)? I'm flying by the seat of my pants for the most part, but I do want to eat well. Jaymes, does the Fiesta Americana in Merida feel like a chain hotel? If not, I shall certianly book a night or two there. I have read your posts and you seem to know a great deal about the area, so I find your input valuable . edited for my idiodicy.

Thanks for the suggestions; I didn't actually get them until I got back to Santa Fe, but we ended up hopping around a bit anyway. We had both been to Anapurna before, but yesterday we headed straight for wine and appetizers at Zinc just around the corner from our testing center (we both needed a drink). Later, we split a few entrees at Thai Orchid further up central, then hit Tora Bora House for appetizers, and on the way out of town, stopped at Pars for takeout for our hungry friends in Santa Fe. What we both really wanted was good sushi, but we got too many conflicting recommendations from the locals we asked, so we tossed the idea. As for the nationals, thanks for asking: I'll find out in a few weeks!