Moopheus

I was looking this list over, thinking that it was a nicely global list, covering a wide range of cooking styles and international cuisines. But (to the extent that I am familiar with the contents of the books) I then noticed that northern and eastern Europe are not well represented. Also nothing about Africa, though I think that there are not a lot of good African cookbooks published in English by Western publishers (I remember that this was a problem, actually, when I was working in a cookbook library a few years back). Anybody want to try and fill some holes?

So basically they've replaced the garlic peel with a lot of plastic packaging. Saves, uh, waste, I guess. It doesn't look like it would really be that much of an advantage. I mean, it only takes a couple of minutes to peel a few cloves.

So the cloves you get have had the ends trimmed and the sprouts removed? Also, how long does it keep? I've seen the peeled garlic in stores, but usually the containers are sufficiently large quantities that I would worry about freshness before I used it all up (I use 1-2 whole heads of garlic a week at home--don't see any reason to buy more than that at once).

I haven't checked in a while, but I seem to recall that they changed the rules back to once again allow recipes with flour as the qualifying ingredient. Her other book, Perfection Salad, is also good. Similar theme in earlier time period.

Yeah, they're everywhere. Don't know if you can get a hot fudge donut sundae though.

It was reported in Publishers Lunch that Knopf has had to order another 75,000 copies of MAFC because of the movie. Not bad for a book that's already been continuously in print for almost 50 years.

I don't eat it as much now as I used to--when I was a kid and my grandfather still worked on the docks, occasionally a large chunk of Romano--like a quarter or half a wheel-would make a mysterious appearance in our fridge. It was only later that I made the connection between these two things. But this thread has reminded me that it is worth keeping some around.

Court Pastry on Court St. is good for Italian cookies and cannoli. There's an Italian bakery in Bay Ridge that has excellent cookies, but I forget the name of it; it's been a few years since I've been down there. Also: Downtown Atlantic on Atlantic Ave. has really good cupcakes. Oh god, I almost forgot: The Chocolate Room on Fifth Ave has the best hot fudge brownie sundae you will ever eat. Seriously. The even know how to make a decent cappucino.

I saw the movie the other night, and on the whole I enjoyed it, though I have to agree with some of the reviewers--Amy Adams (through no fault of here own, I think--she's a talented actress) gets the short end of the stick here. But with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci in 1950s France, there's just no way the Julie Powell character is not going to be overshadowed by that.

I'm pretty sure that Goosebeary's is still around MIT, because my wife has mentioned them--they hang out behind her building. Now she is telling me there also is a vegan truck called Clover, a middle eastern truck, and a Mexican truck. I recall that when I worked in one of Harvard's libraries, there was a falafel truck that parked behind the Yard, near the science building. But that was twenty years ago, so I have no idea what's there now. I do remember that the falafel was pretty good--a good deal for lunch on a library assistant's pay.

When I lived in Brooklyn, it seemed that the prices at the Grand Army Plaza market were substantially less than at Union Square. An example I recall: $2 more for a pint of berries in Manhattan. The same is true here, too: the prices are definitely lower in Somerville than in Boston at Copley Plaza. At the Somerville market, it's not much more than at the regular supermarkets. It would not surprise me at all if something like that were happening in Berkeley, too.

Which is pretty ironic considering that much of the ordinary supermarket produce I go to the farmer's market to avoid is shipped here from California.

That seems pricey--this morning at the farmer's market in Somerville I got green beans for $2 a pound, and some really nice zucchini for $1.50/lb.

Probably $3-400 a month here in Cambridge, for two of us. but it's hard to say just how much of that is really just for food, and not the nonfood items one might buy at the supermarket. Maybe half to two-thirds? For instance, if I go out to Russo's (a local produce-only market), I might spend $20-30 for a week's worth of food. Might be a little more if there's cheese. I don't by meat and only occasionally fish. I keep thinking about trying to track that more closely, but never can bother. I don't skimp, or buy the cheapest stuff, either. Often when I am in a supermarket I am struck by how much most of what's in there can be avoided completely.

More than a few days here have begun with A Real American Breakfast (Jamison & Jamison), and ended with Classic Home Desserts (Sax).

Brownies rule! Not quite a cake, not quite a cookie; a texture and substance that is nearly perfect. While the OP might be bothered by it, they are clearly highly adaptable: you can add all manner of nuts, cream cheese or other toppings, flavorings, sauces, ice cream, whatever, and the brownie takes it all without complaint. Serve them hot, serve them cold. Good for any occasion or time of day. When the question is, "Would you like a brownie?" the answer is always, Yes!

Very nice. An interesting way to visually survey our food system. I like that some of the photos are funny and weird, some are dramatic or disturbing, mixed together.

At Bart's in Amherst, the scoops are weighed. At other shops, it seems to be more dependent on the cup size--there's a cup for each size, so a "scoop" is what fills a one-scoop cup, I guess. So you generally get about the same amount in each order, regardless of who scoops or what scoop they use. And some places do use "small, med, large" instead of "scoop" for that reason. At a chain like Friendly's, I can imagine they want to try to make it as uniform as possible, though I can remember when I was a kid and we'd go to the Friendly's down the street, it did seem to vary a bit depending on who was behind the counter.

I have sometimes entertained the fantasy of having my own ice cream shop. Perhaps with also good baked goods, and coffee, but primarily ice cream. A classic ice cream palace with red leather booths and sundaes in tall glass dishes. Totally retro.

It opened about 4 years or so ago, I think. I remember because I was working at Rockefeller Center at the time. Even if the food is identical, there's no way they could match the original for fabulousness. I liked going to Junior's for Sunday brunch when I lived in Brooklyn.

All of the All-Clad I have came to me as gifts. At the time I was quite happy to get it, and have gotten more than 15 years of use out of the stuff. The same with my Henckels knife set. Is this what I would buy for myself today, knowing what I have learned in the meanwhile? Probably not, but I should I tell my mom, sorry, but 15 years ago you should have gotten me Sitram instead? She'd have no idea what I was talking about. Though I have to say, the one thing I really don't like about the AC is that it is hard to pour out of them. On the other hand, now that I can actually afford to do so, and have recently moved into a house with a real nice old Wolf Range, maybe I will start "upgrading" a few pieces.... Actually, some of the biggest wastes of money I've seen have been gifts--stuff from people who have no idea what or how I cook, and subsequently have given me things that have gone completely unused. But it's hard to say, "What the hell am I supposed to do with this piece of crap?" Actually, one that I felt a little bad about because it wasn't cheap or crap, just not especially useful to me; a Shun-Ken Onion utility knife. It's a nice little knife, I just don't really use it that much. A Ken Onion chef's knife would be much more useful (but of course, more expensive). So how do we keep our friends and relatives from making expensive mistakes?

If you reverse this I think you answer your own question.

As I recall, when my grandma made pizza (it's been some years now since that happened) it was similar to what is usually called Sicilian--thick and rectangular, baked in a pan. But I could be misremembering--possibly grandpa made the pizza, since he was both Sicilian and usually the one making the sauce and the meatballs.

For that matter, don't forget Buffalo, where you can get pizza served on thick, puffy dough.

My wife and I just bought a house, and the kitchen has an older GE Profile side-by-side fridge that has this feature. It is a cool feature. The water dispenser is on one side, the little door on the other, so if you want water, juice, or milk, you don't have to open the fridge. Which is good, because this thing is monstrously huge. It's way bigger than we need, though at least now the wife doesn't complain about the boxes and cans of film in there. And I don't really like the side-by-side. At some point we'll replace it with something smaller, but after reading this thread, I feel less inclined to rush to do so.