ghostrider

The most "scientific" study of happiness I've seen showed that Norwegians were the happiest. Many other Euro countries were up there. The US scored relatively low, & folks in poorer countries weren't all that happy. If I can ever find the link to this thing again I'll post it.

I was supposed to be enjoying some Hot Tuna up in Nyack last night. But I chickened out. Today I just feel flat as a pancake.

Y'know, you bring up something interesting. If wheat prices are so gawl-durn low, why can't I find a pound of bread that's less than $2.00 and worth eating? Wheat is ~$3/bushel, and there are 52 pounds per bushel of wheat. Crazy. ← Darcie B brought it up, I'm just piggybacking. And yes, it's perplexing.

Just want to add my thanks for this insightful & cogent post. I now feel like I know 2/1000 of what's going on. It's something. Listening to Bush's Inaugular (I swear he said that on TV the night before) Address yesterday, I was repeatedly drawn back to thoughts prompted by this thread. Specifically: It's ironic that the spread of our brand of liberty frees corporations to behave in ways that one might call tyrannical. I view Monsanto's harrassment of farmers who may have unwittingly infringed on their patent rights for GM seed as, at bottom, a manifestation of the tyrannical impulse that always seems to be lurking in our organizations. Hopefully this will prove to be just another phase in the evolution of our society & a new framework will develop that will inhibit the worst abuses of our laws. Bush wants to create an "ownership society." It remains to be seen if this is anything more than rhetoric. Between corporate lawsuits against farmers & the decline in real wheat prices explicated so well by Darcie B, I have to wonder just who will own our country's farms in another decade. Please note that I am not attempting to steer this thread in a partisan direction. The content of Bush's address could just have well been delivered by a middle-of-the-road Democrat. I view the issues here as existing between those who control today's power structure & the rest of us who are simply trying to make a living within its confines.

Linguini fini con aglio e olio De Cecco, of course!

My town's had voluntary recycling since we moved here 14 years ago. I started using it immediately. They switched from the recycling-center concept to curbside collections somewhere in there. Too many residents refused to separate their cans & glass & bottles tho, the town tried that for a few years & people just trashed their recyclables rather than separating them. That's Jersey for you. So now it's mixed-materials collection. The town gets less $$ per ton but more than makes up for it in volume.

Heh heh, it's amusing to pick out the errors in the Amazon customers' reviews of this book; particularly the ones from those who didn't like the book!

Yes, that's the name, I knew it was something obscure & difficult to remember. I remember reading a so-so review of the food somewhere, but I've walked by the place a few times & it does seem to be a really nifty setting. I'd try it if I had the spare $$ & time.

Isn't there a seafood place in Rockefeller Center that provides one of those quintessential NYC experiences - looks out on the skating rink etc? From what I recall there's better food elsewhere but the overall ambience might make it worthwhile. Sorry that's all I know of that neighborhood.

What's the great evil in menus slipped under the door? They're a lot more useful than most of the junk mail I receive, and I never know when I'm going to want food delivered. I put all of those menus in a drawer, so they'll be there when I need them. ← The great evil is that if a resident is not at home for an extended period of time, then that's almost an invitation to burglarize an apartment. Soba ← OTOH, that might alert someone that there's a corpse rotting in an apartment before the smell does. Ah I miss Manhattan. Soba's point is actually quite valid cuz a lot of apartment doors don't have enough of a gap for the menus to be slipped under & they they do become a "nobody home" advertisement.

Looking good..... nice design work on logo & website!

But most of all: roasted hazelnuts & chocolate

"Whatever your needs the Merchant can fill it. Weather it be Lunch, Dinner, after work drinks or to just sit at the bar with friends." It's the cooking skills that matter, not the grammar, right?

Thanks for those links! I can't believe that I neglected to search eG before starting a new thread. Mea culpa, mea culpa. As penance I will finish that box of the vile Barilla that is languishing in my cupboard. I thought DelVerde was pretty good too, in the same league with Torino. Several brands mentioned that I haven't seen before & clearly need to try, though it looks like I'll have to cross the Hudson to find them. There used to be an artisanal pasta shop on Houston St. when I lived in the area. This dates back to a time before I had really gotten into Italian pasta & before any of us had heard the term "artisanal." Ah those young & innocent days. I'll have to see if it's still there next time I'm in that neighborhood.

Then it must be the water! Actually that's an interesting point, I hadn't considered that before. Thanks. Edit: From the De Cecco website, under "Wheat Soloction" (sic ): I want to believe! Further edit: damn, it is the water!

For me, it's De Cecco. The flavor, the way it seems to retain its texture, make it the clear standout. Of course, at $1.99 - $2.19 lb, it better be! Torino (aka Real Torino, they seem to have changed the name on the label recently) is pretty good; at $.99 lb, definitely best in class. I think I've tried everything available in the northeast at least once. This thread is partially occasioned by the fact that Barilla has taken over my local ShopRite, and a comment from another thread that the US is prone to being flooded with imported stuff that is considered to be mediocre in its country of origin. I'm wondering if Barilla falls into this category. To me the pasta has the distinctive aroma of paint, which carries over into the flavor. Has anyone else noticed this? Someone on a cooking show (might have been America's Test Kitchen but can't swear to it) claimed that Ronzoni is as good as anything imported. Last time I tried it, which is approaching 20 years ago, it seemed utterly bland & characterless. Has it improved somehow? Ronzoni has just come out with a new variety, Tradizione d'Italia, in packaging that tries to look imported, talks about "old world tradition" and the like. It's also priced identically with De Cecco. Is this an acknowledgment that the regular stuff wasn't that good after all, or just another marketing ploy? I don't think of myself as a pasta snob, I'd really like to like the home-grown stuff, but I have to go with my sense of taste. Life's too short. Anyway my crank theory is that it comes down to the soil in which the wheat is grown & that's why De Cecco tastes best to me. Which brand(s) do you prefer? Am I missing any?

When I saw the thread title, my first thought was, "Is she talking about Warren or Jimmy?" Of course it's actually much more interesting than that.

peanut butter & black raspberry jam chicken & rosemary sole & thyme

There's no vexed question at all. Tea with milk or sugar is simply an abomination & not to be discussed further.

I've made tea for 30-plus years precisely as andiesenji describes it, straining it off into the second pot after steeping. The only difference is that I warm the second pot with whatever water is left in the kettle & let it sit till just before the timer rings, so it's pretty warm to start with. There is such a thing as over-boiling & deoxygenating the water. It dulls the flavor of the tea. If you don't get the "hiss & float" when you pour the water over the tea leaves, you've overboiled. (Hiss: you'll hear a quick hiss when the water first hits the dry leaves. Float: when the pot's full, approx. 2/3 of the leaves should be floating near the top of the pot. If they all sink, you've overboiled.) When measuring tea, it's best to do it by weight. In the real world, most of us can't be bothered with that & instead develop a sense of how much of a particular tea is required for a pot. A teaspoon of a BOP is going to brew up considerably stronger than a teaspoon of a long-leaf OP, so you need to adjust the quantity; you get a feel for that after a while. I looked at that cat-tea site the other day. It seemed to contain a # of links to some rather politically charged stuff. I don't quite get the relationship between cats & tea & politics. Am I missing some basic concept here? Does TeaMail have anything to do with whoever runs cat-tea or is that just a place to find the link? OK answered my own question. Apparently it's run by the same folks but they keep TeaMail non-political. Fine.

What no cremated? Awesome tour! I can feel another heart attack coming on just from looking at those photos!

A conversation with an old friend last night reminded me that I am still trailed by my signature dish from 20-30 years ago, a simple cold bean sprout salad. In those years I was doing a lot of Chinese cooking & frequently hosted dinners for groups of friends. Amidst a changing mix of entrees, I always served the bean sprout salad - it was quick & simple to make and refreshing to eat. Decades later, folks have forgotten the various chow mai funs & twice-cooked porks & whatnot, but the bean sprout salad lives on in their memories, ever fresh & crunchy.

Here's one: One first-rate barbecue joint does not a great barbecue town make--unless the town in question is small and the joint so good that people will drive from a couple of states away to eat there. I could see where you could infer from Severson's review exactly what you say above, ghostrider, but I would say that the inference is stretching it a bit. The most I'd be willing to assert on the basis of the review is that Syracuse has a damn fine 'cue joint. ← Yep, your point is well made, I did overstate the case a bit. The influence of Severson's & Sietsema's styles is simply insidious.

I can confirm that TSalon, 11 East 20th St, bet. 5th Ave & Broadway, has excellent teas. I haven't tried their food but I bet it's good. They've been in business at this location for around 10 years (they were in SoHo before that) so they must be doing something right. T Salon Website

When we were in the process of moving to Rutherford 14 years ago, a young woman I worked with at the time started raving about P&O & how they would drive down there from Pompton Lakes a couple of times a month because the food was SO GREAT!!!!!! Sadly, I think it is the food that brings in a lot of the crowd. Can't say it better.