chappie

Interesting. How are you doing the distillation?

Can you explain this ingredient?

Perhaps. But "Other food high in histamine include chocolate, cheese, fish, hard cured meat (salami) and pickled cabbage." I eat the hell out of all cheeses, chocolate, fish and pickled cabbage (kimchi in this case, both homemade and store-bought) to no similar effect.

While these are indeed bad headaches, and I do have a good threshold for pain, having known people who experience migraines I'm pretty certain these aren't them. Migraines are debilitating and living hell; these are just semi-immobilizing and suck. Salami and cheese are absolutely fine; never once had a problem. I will do some experimenting.

I'm a large guy with a proportionally respectable tolerance. I think the point is, I feel worse after just a tiny bit of certain beverages than, for instance, drinking an entire bottle of rum through the course of a night. It's not the hangover headache; it's something worse, and it lasts almost 24 hours. I'll try to brewer's yeast experiment. I handle Guinness and other more processed stouts fine, even some porters. It's really certain, specific beers that do this to me (and perhaps wines?), and I've just never written them down except for the fact I remembered Anderson's stout and also come to think of it Wolaver's Organic Brown Ale. That stuff made me almost ill. Plenty of other microbrews are perfectly fine with me. Histamines. That's interesting because Wednesday night/Thursday morning I was also congested.

Over the years I've been no stranger to drinking. From sipping favorite rums to enjoying a bottle of wine to draining cheap beers past sunrise. I have an internal guage for quantity-based hangovers. But for quite some time I've noticed that certain beers -- almost always minimally processed, hoppy or malty microbrews -- will give me a crippling headache after just one or two. I believe, not certain, that occasionally a red wine will produce this effect also. The latest culprit was two bottles of Rogue Mocha Porter consumed at a trivia contest Wednesday. I left the coffeehouse at 10, and by 11:30 I was in agony. The headache lasted until the following evening. Years ago it was Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout. I need to start writing down beers that do this to me and see if there's a common denominator. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it an allergy to a certain strain of yeast, malt or excessive hops?

I liked Ariane's digs at Hosea (he's a wimp!) and Leah in her exit interview. That schmoopy twosome is growing more saccharine by the episode, and I think Leah especially is the worst culprit of the "playing to stay unnoticed and alive" strategy. But I can't believe, with such beautiful meats, these were the dishes presented. How could you, with such fresh, delicious pork, get rid of all the fat?

I made a big late-night mistake. Around 3 a.m., I shamefully caught an episode of the Real Lives of the Most Vulgar Bipedal Specimens Ever Captured on Film. Let's just say hurricanes are picking the wrong target. Anyway, one of these narcissistic vipers was hosting a dinner party, and who was the caterer? Why, none other than Bravo's own Brian Malarkey? And then I remembered someone telling me they did a tie-in with the haircutting show and this OC Nightmare before, also. What's next? As the seasons roll onward into typecasted bland oblivion, Top Chef is just becoming another Bravo promotional snarkfest. Oh, and somewhere I read about Tom's comments on Gene's fish, the writer claiming "he was visibly upset" that a fish had to die for this. And I call it melodramatic B.S. Yeah, like he never accidentally overcooked fresh seafood before in all his years cooking ...

While I think Carla seems like a good and fun person, you can't tell me part of the reason they cast her isn't because she has wonderfully television-friendly cartoon eyes.

If I see the new catch-phrase bald Johnny on the Spot promo one more time, something along the lines of "When I see a nice slab of meat I want to have full-blown sex," I think my innards will explode. Seriously, the catch-phrases by this Young guy are gag-inducing.

I. Can't. Stand. This. Guy. Worst addition to Top Chef ever.

I know my first trifecta wasn't really going out on a limb, but it's about to be completed if Carla follows next, and I think she will. I'm not sure after that. I might like to bring Fabio down a notch, maybe move Ariana up one ...

Now, if you could poach eggs in perfect triangle, then they'd fit nicely on a slice of toast.

I'll try to upload some photos, but after a day spent parboiling whelks, cleaning them, chopping and simmering in lobster stock, I decided finally to grind them in the food processor for chowder/fritters. I saved all the guts innards in a bag in the fridge, not sure if they're good eating or not. I had been told there's one part that is occasionally toxic. If they're good eating, maybe I'll dredge and fry some whelk guts. Without grinding I just found them too tough, even the ones I sliced pretty much raw. Now, I didn't slice them paper-thin or marinate in lime juice, but that wouldn't be the chowder style anyway. They taste OK, but somewhat bland. I now have (in addition to the guts bag and another of eye stalks and trimmings ... future bait? Stock?) A big covered bowl of ground whelk. I'll do a few tiny batches of sample chowders before deciding if this is what I want to enter with. I could add some cod and call it the Whelcome Back Codder.

That's interesting. I always, before poaching, bring my eggs up to temperature (from the fridge) in tap water as hot as the sink will make it. It always seems the whites set faster this way without stringing.

I am right now just putting all the innards in a bowl, but I don't want to discard them yet. Are any of them good to eat? Also, the darkish outer part of the foot ... should I be slicing this off? I'm going to grind the meat before adding to chowder anyway, so does it matter if some of this stays on? It certainly doesn't peel off ...

It seems like you could poach the eggs in batches to the right doneness, then cool them in an ice-water bath instantly (you can trim or pull off any stringy white mess at this point), then reheat them when needed in a warm-water bath (not hot enough to further cook the yolk).

My strategy is to parboil/kill in a big pot, cool, remove, get rid of the innards/glands, etc. Then chop meat, simmer gently til tender in lobster stock then vacuum seal to use in a mid-Feb. chowder. Any problems with this approach?

Most of the ones I've made do, but I know there are apparently many versions that use (gasp) ketchup instead ... A Google search for "pad thai ketchup" turns up a bunch. Let me know how it goes. Why no tamarind?

My in-laws have friends who fish channeled whelk somewhere off Ocean City or Assateague, Md., and they gave me a heaping bucket of the large, conch-like creatures today. They're currently slithering and bubbling in my car at about 40 degrees. The plan is to extract the meats, process, vacuum seal and freeze to use in the annual chowder competition I participate in each February. This will be a big encore to last year's winning oyster/leek/vermouth batch. I've read conflicting accounts on how to best prepare whelk. Some say to parboil in the shell for 15 minutes, others say freeze live, then thaw. For chowder I imagine I'll need to mince, chop or grind the meat, but is pounding necessary as in conch? A friend also told me that conch, which must be anatomically similar, there are parts you discard and even a small part of the creature that's a delicacy. So ... has anyone worked with whelk?

Two recent and popular threads here may fit into your plans well. One is stovetop popcorn -- cheap, healthy and keeps you busy. The other thread is the deer processing one; I don't know where you live, but where I do, some people will gladly give away whole deer. Also, steel-cut oats can be bought in bulk at health-food stores and are a low-cost and very filling breakfast, especially when you add dried fruit. From what I've read here so far, I think having these limitations will in the long run strengthen your cooking instincts.

If an indirectly "poached" egg is what you're looking for, then why not just purchase one of those pans for that purpose with the lift-out tray of cups that sits over boiling water? I think it's funny to talk about the mess of cleaning a single pan compared to 20 little bundles of plastic wrap to cut open and dispose for a brunch of 10.

I just tried the egg-in-plastic poaching technique and my judgment is ... (sorry, A.B.) it's far too much effort for a simple egg. First, 2:30 at a full rolling boil and the yolk and some white were still raw. Second, it's a waste of a lot of plastic. Third, I don't find poaching eggs all that difficult in the first place -- and I poach eggs quite often.

We just enjoyed that lobster roe/tomalley butter I made on top of roasted oysters in the shell and on baked potatoes. I have never eaten as many rich foods in one week as I have the past one ... I need to take a picture of it before it's gone. The butter itself has a pink hue with flecks of green parsley and brilliant individual lobster eggs. Mmmmmm ...

I made my lobster stock with leftover rose prosecco and a splash of some really good dry vermouth, plus aromatics. Took awhile to get to simmer but once it did I think I simmered for 45 minutes? Fifteen just seems way too short, but I've also gone far too long in the past with the result being a funky off flavor. Question: Now that I've strained the shells and solids off and dumped them, can I simmer the stock again to reduce it without harm? My friend told me of a butter he made by roasting lobster shells quite crispy, breaking them in pieces and then poaching them in lots of butter. Then, he pureed the entire mixture shells and all, ran through a sieve and allowed to solidify. (Imagine lobster meat gently cooked in this butter ...) I didn't do that New Year's Eve, but right after dinner I took the massive amounts of roe from the three fat crustaceans, plus some tomalley, and made a beautiful pinkish compound butter with parsley added in at the end. I've only had it slathered on toast so far, but it's pretty great.