bobmac

Yeah, I've gotten it at Lobster Tail in North Andover. Problem is, you have to make so much and my wife doesn't like it.

I suspect this might be just the different ways the countries measure alcohol content. I know it's certainly true for beer. Canada measures by volume, the US measures by weight. Since alcohol is lighter than water, the US figure is always going to be lower.

I'm very happy with my Braun. It has a couple of bowls and many functions: an assortment of blades, a dough hook, egg beaters, a juice extractor...

Can you bring mushrooms the first night? I got the impression that was for a later session.

Today, red cow parmesan. Mmmmmm.

An acquaitance used to baffle bartenders by ordering a Rennoco, then explain, "It's O'Conner spelled backwards. It's a shot and a beer."

I signed up a couple of days ago after discovering BMC's website. How long are the classes?

Oops.

Anybody know where I can it in Greater Boston?

I find many servers in those medium price range restaurants (the kind I can usually afford) don't have a clue as to what they're supposed to be doing. And when I hear "You guys still working on that?" a little comes off the tip. They probable assume it's because I'm old.

Thanks, WHS, Monhegan Island was everything you promised. There was even some excitement when lightning struck a building near the dock, starting two fires and blowing out electricity for the whole island. Fortunately, the flames were quickly extinguished and power was back amazingly fast. Primo was, well, primo. We didn't contact the place in time to get a reservation and were prepared to sit at the bar when a table magically opened. Wonderful scallop and Gruyere appetizer, halibut (with a corn sauce) that could have been the best I ever had, a wonderfully thin pizza, and a peach thingee and three excellent cheeses for desserts.

I tried David's again and was very pleased.

We used t like it, but our last trip there was disappointing. Small portions, kind of blah.

I got some excellent ones at David's yesterday. I got turned off Lobster Tail when they were selling "Cape scallops" long after another store told me the Cape scallop season had ended.

Wow! David's is my local fish market and I have bought good clams there. They're good about letting you know what day they come in so you get the freshest. Of course David's is good for many things and the only place my brother-inn-law will buy fish. Somehow oysters I get in restaurants always seem to have more liquid, but maybe I should David's again.

Many thanks. We were looking for a place to go and just booked there. By the way, how long did you stay? We booked for two nights, thinking there was a minimum.

A very good point and one I try to keep reminding myself of. I'm probably overly cautious when it comes to poultry. A friend has told me she used to hang duck out in open in China (pre-cooking) when preparing Peking duck, but I'm more suspicious of poultry in the US. Jeffrey Steingarten once wrote that the salumi experts that came to NYC from Italy would eat raw pork but not American chicken.

I wandered in awe through San Francisco's China Town recently. So big, so much variety! The produce was so fresh, and then it occured to me that much of the produce I buy on the East Coast comes from California. Among the things that baffled me, and I didn't ask because if I bought any I had no place to take it, was something that looked like slab bacon and probably was pig belly hanging like those ducks and chickens. And while we're at it, what's with the ducks and chickens? I have this fear unrefrigerated poultry, but these have obviously been cooked to a preserved state. I have a gut feeling they're delicious.

Amen to that! It's what I unfortunately find lacking in fish market (as opposed to restaurant) oysters, unless I drive a long distance. Anybody know how long they can be out of the water without losing this?

I'll second the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum. We were there a couple of weeks ago and when someone on the way mentioned a cafeteria, I expected the worst but was pleasantly surprised. The cafeteria at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich serves a wonderful brie and walnut and grape sandwich, among other things.

The words "destined to become Azteca" made me think what you developed had somehow morphed into Azteca. I now realize I had been thinking of Tecate, which begins with the four letters Atzteca ends with. D'oh!

Do you mean Azteca was something else before it was Azteca? I thought it was still around, although I can't say I have checked lately. I recall Simpatico and Panama beers both aiming at Corona's market -- both doomed for other reasons. I suspect AB and the other biggies don't care much about the micros, since the biggies are going after the high-volume beer drinker who isn't into micros.

I believe I may have once been "done in" as Eliza Dolittle might have said, by Harrod's oysters. They were somewhat less than chilled. As someone mentioned in another thread, it's really for tourists (which I was). Very sick. Hallucinations. Of course it could have been a street-vendor hot dog. The BBC later did an expose on them.

Thanks, but I'm north of Boston.

I have yet to try it, but a friend who's an outdoor writer recommends slathering them with mayonaise, believe it or not, then grilling them. He says the mayo somehow cuts the oilness. I'm baffled as to how this could work, but maybe somebody with Alton Brown type knowledge could explain. My friend also says avoid hitting them over the head to kill them because this releases more oil, which could be an old wive's tale. He actually fished with a charter guy who dispatched bluefish by pouring cheap vodka through their gills.