Susan in FL

Thank you

Ditto! I'm absolutely serious, too.

Pasta with red clam sauce made from fresh chowder clams, garlicky, using pancetta in the base Caesar salad Chianti

Bob, I gotta do that! How much stout would you suggest for a 4 to 5 cup recipe? I usually use the little ice cream maker these days.

I haven't had Cloudy Bay, but I love the phrase you coined, "ridiculously and offensively over-priced"! I hope you don't mind if I borrow that some time.

...I thought that went without saying, Mark! Yes, I do know that I liked it. I was trying to learn more about it than that, and as I said, was interested in some discussion. Thanks again, Gary.

I love it! You have me convinced. I can't wait to go back and eat more, without regard to the slurping. (And yes, it was a very generous serving...)

Whoa! Two more really good beers! I like the DFH 60 Minute IPA more than the 90. This has less malt balance, which is what I like. It showcases the fresh citrusy hops, and is very drinkable. I could make a habit of this. Now I'm really looking forward to when DFH comes to Florida. I've never been as big a fan of porters as stouts, but the Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter is so fine. It's toasty and not too sweet, just pleasant, and has hints of chocolate, or maybe coffee. I like the "roastiness."

This was a topic back in the day of the beloved Prodigy Beer Board which I would like to revisit. I have always been partial to stout floats, especially Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate, but tonight I had one using Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter (with Breyers Natural Vanilla)... yum! What do you prefer, or what is your current favorite, and what kind of ice cream? Mmmm...? I wonder how it would be with DFH Chicory Stout and coffee ice cream.

Thanks for the responses about utensils, authenticity, etc. Still, I have a hard time imagining myself using chop sticks for the noodles... is it not impolite to have dripping noodles hanging out the mouth while sucking them in? (I've been trying to think of a better way to word that question, but didn't think of anything.)

Good discussion about olive oils! I don't know if I would go so far as to say gross , but I agree that peanut or soy bean oil is better for Asian foods.

Thank you! That makes sense to me, after drinking this wine tonight. I didn't realize that "Ripasso" was the significant difference.

Your meals always look and/or sound wonderful! Please don't feel bad about following anything. I am happy to have the opportunity to share my successes in the kitchen on this thread and post the pictures, and I thank you all for that. Photographing food is a new fun thing for me. Tonight I had the best outcome ever for cooking involtini or braciole. I used Marcella's recipe for Involtini di Vitello from Marcella Cucina. I took some photos of the work in progress. With it I served a side of pasta aglio e olio and a salad of cucumber, tomatoes, sweet onions and kalamata olives over mixed baby greens.

This is one thing I will say without reservation. My risottos are wonderful... one of the best things I cook. I think my all-time favorite is Roberto Donna's recipe for white truffle risotto (however, I do add the rice more gradually than he does), but I have several recipes that I love, including a crabmeat and basil risotto. I do think that Carnaroli is better than Arborio rice, but both are good. And, I differ about the homemade stock being better than canned broth. For us, canned low-salt chicken broth is better than homemade because it is "cleaner" and the broth or stock has only a supporting role to the rice, which is the star of the show.

A friend recommended this wine to us, so we bought a bottle and drank it tonight with dinner. I did a search for some info, as I do whenever I'm unfamiliar with a wine. I didn't find anything specific online, or in the books that I have. So... I turn to you wine experts, and am prepared for your usual explanation of what a good wine this isn't. ...1999 Corte Rugolin Valpolicella Classico Superiore di Ripasso. I would be interested in discussion about Valpolicella and any other wines of the region. Other than Amarone which I adore, I don't know a lot about Valpolicella except for Bolla... Not a great wine. In my research, I didn't find much info about food and wine matches except for light meats, pasta, and pizza. Are Classico and Superiore fuller bodied than other Valpolicellas, and expected to stand up to more intense dishes? Please enlighten me!

Thanks, Lew. I have had that trouble and hope this helps, too.

Hi, Chad! Yes, we split a 90 Minute IPA. It's a good beer. It has more malt than I prefer in an IPA, but that's coming from a hard core hophead. I'm not sure if that is because it's an Imperial/Double IPA or if this is unique to this beer. [?] I imagine that beer lovers who aren't such extreme hopheads would say it's well balanced. The best thing about it was the hoppy aroma. It was great! The alcohol taste is there, and it's full of hop flavors, perhaps predominately citrusy, and it has a nice finish. I've been trying to find out when DFH is coming here, but still don't know. I'll keep you posted... I know you are looking forward to that, too. I'll let you know about the other two DFHs after we taste them, too.

Last night, Chincoteague oysters three ways... Raw, dipped in white wine-vinegar-shallot-black pepper sauce Steamed, dipped in melted Lurpak and Plugra butters (we did a taste comparison) Baked, after shucking and placing the oyster on a bed of steamed savoy cabbage in the shell, and covering with a reduction/cream sauce made from the liquor, and after baking topped with golden whitefish caviar

Yummy it was! And so were the floats... an old favorite of mine, BB Black Chocolate Stout float (with Vanilla Fudge ice cream) It was a day of stouts, among other things. We enjoyed the Storm King Imperial Stout with some of the oysters. Also with oysters, we enjoyed the 2002 Muscadet de Sevre et Maine, Les Vergers. During the afternoon, one of the beers we sampled and loved just to sip on, without food, was the Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale. I couldn't remember if I had this particular Yards beer, back in the day, but this was tasty, crisp and refreshing. The one thing sampled yesterday that I did not like, on its own, was the Dogfish Head Spiced Rhum. Since Russ paid what he did for it, I tried concealing it in a Mojito. It was drinkable, but I didn't like it as much as my usual Mojitos.

The best place to buy these cheeses considering where you (and I) live is fromages.com. Overnight delivery from France. I've ordered from them many times. They're reliable - and their cheeses are wonderful. Robyn That is good to know. Thanks, Robyn!

I am relatively new to Vietnamese food, and I was going to post a topic on pho, since I had some yesterday afternoon!! My favorite Chinese restaurant, Leanh's, now has a Vietnamese menu and her pho is the only I've eaten. I wish I had photographed it. Beautiful food, and delicious. I was going to ask, what is the "proper" way to eat it? Not that I'm hung up on proper, so I guess I should ask, how do you eat it? I'm speaking of utensils. I was given chop sticks, a big spoon, a little spoon, one of those oriental soup spoons [pardon me for not knowing what to call that], and a fork. I used the oriental spoon for broth, and the big spoon and fork for twirling the noodles like pasta, and the chop sticks for dipping meat into the hoisin sauce and for whatever I could put in my mouth without dripping broth all over. If I commited a faux pas, it was OK. I was one of only a few customers since it was between the lunch and dinner hours. But immediately, I knew I wanted to do some reading on pho and consult with eG-ers! I also wondered if this was a typical or authentic version of pho, and you all have answered that. It was. The bean sprouts were in the soup, however, and there were "meatballs" in it, the likes of which I had never tasted before. It was topped with basil and cilantro. The squirt bottle of hoisin sauce and the sriracha were on the table, as were the lemon (?) wedges. Pho ga was on the menu, as was a seafood version. For this restaurant-impaired area, this was great. I'm looking forward to trying out more Vietnamese food when I'm traveling. Any advice?

All those, and our favorite, eat them right away using your fingers and washing down with beer.

I've been thinking further about this. Muscadet used to be one of the wines of choice for us to go with some shellfish dishes. It probably still would be if there were a better selection of good ones in this area. My husband just returned from a trip north, and brought a couple of bottles home with him, and one is described as having "briny notes." That makes sense ...maybe the Brancott Sauvignon Blanc had "briny notes." That sounds so much better than "tastes like mussels." Among other things he also brought home Chincoteague oysters and tonight we're having oysters and bubbly and oysters and Muscadet de Sevre and oysters and stout.

My dear sweet husband went to Delaware and brought beer home to me (and food and wine and Rum)! While he was there he went shopping and got Victory Hop Devil, Storm King Impy Stout, Old Horizontal (a case ), Tuppers Hop Pocket (a case ), Dominion Pale Ale (help me... he couldn't find Millenium), DFH 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute, and 120 Minute, 2 sixers of the current bottling of Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale, Otter Creek Stove Pipe Porter, Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout, and Rogue Smoke Ale -- yuk, the Rogue is for him. He got a bottle of DFH Rhum, too. 2004 Big Foot is still on my Wish List, but we can find that here. He also brought home Chincoteague Oysters, clams from Copp's Seafood, a half-baked Grotto Pizza, a sub from Casapulla's, and scrapple (Rapa and Delaware Maid), and five bottles of wine including two bottles of Muscadet Sevre et Maine which has been difficult to find in this area of Florida. The pizza was gone within an hour of his return home last night and the first beer I drank of course was my favorite beer in the world, Victory Hop Devil. He's now fixing our breakfast of scrapple and oatmeal stout. We also love the Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout with french toast. That will be on the breakfast menu next weekend. And how long has it been since I've had a good stout or porter float, not to mention just some real good beer drinking. We'll be having a do-it-yourself refresher course on beer and food pairings. Yum, I'm in heaven.

Lucy, after reading your other post and knowing of your appreciation of cheese, I will try your recommendation of anything I haven't tasted. Please tell me about Epoisse, St. Nectaire, and St. Marcellin.