JennotJenn

Yup. Knudson and Lakewood both make shelf-stable versions, while POMwonderful makes a damn tasty refridgerated product. I've mixed plain voda and POM and don't like it all that much. Too astringent for my tastes, though, oddly enough, a little lime juice makes it better...seems brighter or something. Also better when a little club soda is added. But the two mixed straight? Not in love with it. I have made pomegranate liquor using sugar syrup, vodka, and poms, steeped for a long time.

I've been disappointed by every fresh fig I've ever eaten. I hope your experience is better than mine. Husband gets all glassy eyed and dreamy when he talks about fresh figs, but every one I've tried has been flavorless. Get from a local source if you can, and from someone who will actually tell you if his/her figs are at an optimal point of ripeness . I've found that, at our state farmer's market at least, that not only will the farmers/sellers lie about the ripeness of fruit, they'll argue with you if you suggest otherwise. I had a vendor tell me not to come back the other day after I quietly and politley asked if the super sour strawberries were the first of the season. So much for the genteel South, eh? So maybe it's best to repeat the mantra my mother in law taught me (actually, the most useful thing anyone's taught me yet in this lifetime): always underexpect. Seriously, you'll never be disappointed again. And fresh figs are an area to underexpect in. And the orange was good with the cranberry.

I know. I didn't even work produce at my first job (checkout girl at 15---'cause the cashiers were always, only women, and the guys got the better paying, cushier jobs---at the local, rural Food Lion), and I knew more about produce than the produce guys. Not only was I the only person that could identify the whopping 2 varieties of peppers we carried, but I knew their checkout codes. My coworkers thought I was Einstein.

EX-cellent. I bought the little carton of mini-bottles for a couple of reasons, none of which is because I especially like Absolut (needed a little Pepar for bloody mary marinade, wanted some vanilla vodka but didn't want a big bottle hanging around, etc). As I'm trying to conserve the bottle of Hangar One Mandarin Blossom I bought on vacation (NC doesn't carry it anywhere, and since our liquor stores are gov't controlled, the prices are set, so I'd end up paying @$50 a bottle, I'm sure), this tip pleases me. Excellent. BTW, the Manadrin Blossom plus a touch of homemade sour mix plus a tiny splash of cranberry juice is a beautiful thing.

Grrr. And wouldn't you know I just renewed my subscription of Food and Wine at the beginning of the year, right before I noticed things were really taking a downhill turn (I was enjoying it until last fall). I haven't made a single recipe from it this year. Damn. Oh well, maybe the grilling issue will at least be worth it. I do get a ton of recipes from that issue every year. Cooking Light has been sucking balls for over a year now. I don't know why I continue to buy it, yet I do. I haven't made a single recipe from that one in over 6 months. When my sub's up, that's it. Must remember to renew subscription to Saveur. Of course, once I renew, it's bound to start going to hell. Look at my track record.

Winston Salem: Krispy Kreme. How could you guys forget the Kripsy? Write it in stone. The quintessential Winston-Salem food is Krispy Kreme. And Lexington style is far superior. I can't even eat Eastern style. The only BBQ I'll eat here in Raleigh is actually Texas style (Danny's...actually it's Florida Panhandle style, but close enough...). So, a bit OT, but do Eastern Style BBQ joints go up in flames as often as Lexington style ones? I've been here almost 3 years and can't recall a single place going up in smoke. In Lexington (where I grew up) and Winston (where I was born, went to college, and lived after college), one went up in a blaze every few months. What up?

Holy crap. I'd never been to Saveur's site. I'm pretty impressed by both the content and design. Veeeeeerrrry slick. Maybe the best of the bunch. Thanks for pointing me there...I pick up the magazine quite often, but never even thought to check out the site. I love Food and Wine mag, but the site can be hard to navigate and I've found some errors in the recipes on the site (namely the Jerk Chicken, which is one of the best recipes ever, and I don't even like chicken). Epicurious gives me mood swings. I go between delighted by the fact that I can find all of their recipes, annoyed at the pop ups, and just generally disgusted by the user comments.

Yeah, what was up with the heat? Still, it was better than the weather in NC. My mantra has become "2 1/2 more years until I graduate and we're outta here...". The weather and air quality here are, er, less than desirable to us, and we can't wait to move elsewhere. Preferably San Francisco, Seattle, Portland...someplace cool and clammy. Anyway, yes, we did the brewery. I took one of the greatest pictures of my life there, too. I'll try to post it on my (as yet to be fully developed) website. It was so much fun. I spent most of the tasting trying to pretend that I wasn't drunk. Unfortunatly, since it was really hot outside, we'd walked uphill from the busstop, and they didn't have a water fountain, I pounded those first two glasses, so I wasn't doing such a hot job at the pretending to be sober part. Anyway, it was waaaay cooler than the Guinness Brewery, I thought. Husband loved it, too. Cannot wait to come back.

After my visit, I can vouch for the Miette pastries. Husband didn't like his almond bun, but I had the pain au chocolate and the macaroons (one of each, natch), and they were really good. And being a sucker for pretty packaging (ooh, pink and brown and double faced satin ribbon...drool...), I was enchanted. The Recchutti chocolates are awesome. I tried the anise and pink peppercorn...still not sure if I really liked it or really hated it...it's one of those things. But the sesame wafer is amazing, and so is the burnt caramel. Husband loved the tarragon grapefruit and the Ecuadorian varietal. We got the basic Stonewall olive oil, because it was good, but not so expensive or so good that I would try to hoard it, only to have it go rancid on me (I've learned from experience, yes). I thought it was nice and smooth. Ooh. Good call on the marmalade w/toast and eggs. Swwweeeeeet. I've got some Niman Ranch bacon for tomorrow morning, too. I deliberatly did not go in the antiques place. No way. And happy birthday!

Will do. I still regret not taking my knives to SF with me. They have a knife sharpener at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market on Saturdays. I didn't want to go throught the hassle of checking them, though. Oh well, we'll see if I can get out to Cary in the next couple of weeks. The knives are getting really dull and it's making me sad. Thanks for the tip.

Thursdays work for us as well. Heath should be able to make it this round. So, The Towers it is.Does everyone know how to get there? I can post directions if not. Weka, since you'll be leaving soon and need to work around that, why don't you pick a date and time that will work best for you. I'm guessing everyone will be fine with working around that, since this will be your last meeting for a while. Oh, and there is an egullet group that gets together in the Bay Area. Check out the Cali board. Damn nice people over there. Unfortunatly I didn't get to meet up with them when we were out there.

Since you fish down there, can you explain why the Red Drum seems to be a "famous" fish to catch but was not on any menus we saw? Is it strictly a game/sport fish? I *think* it was a protected species for a while...I could be wrong, but I seem to remember being told they were in short supply for a while, but that populations have started to recover. But don't quote me on that. Also, I think it has a limited seasonal avaliability, which may also account for why you don't see it much. I've eaten it before and it's really good, especially on the grill. Similar to monkfish, I think. I've seen it popping up in fish markets more and more often. I like Sam and Omie's fries. Never limp or too greasy. Their fried oyster sandwich is good, too. The inlaw's beach house in Nag's Head (in Old nag's Head woods, right across from Jockey's Ridge State Park, btwn the bypass and the beach road, if anyone's interested ) opens up soon and we're going down to "landscape" before the official opening. Anyone eaten at The Flying Fish lately? I remember it being pretty good, with a decent wine list. Tortuga's Lie is always a good place for a burger if you need a break from fish, btw.

I'm still paying the same for milk and cream from the small local dairy as I always have, but butter, which I do not buy from a local source, has shot way up. $4.09 for 1 lb of Land O'Lakes. Whole Foods 365 Brand, which used to be reasonably priced, has gone up in price too, close to the Land O' Lakes. It's RbGH free, so I'm guessing the factors involoved there are more to do with the shortage in general, and with the cost of transport. I'm lucky in that it's just me and husband, no kids. We go through a quart every week, week and a half. I feel for those with growing kids that drink milk. I haven't checked the cost of milk from the big dairies. To be honest, it's been so long since I've bought from one of them, I have no idea what it usually costs. For Plugra, btw, I'm paying under the $4 mark. Alls I really know is that it's going to make the cost of my precious ice cream go through the roof. editing to note that I live in central North Carolina

Does anyone know of a place around here to get knives sharpened (Raleigh/Durham/CH, heck, I'd go as far as Greensboro or WS)? The phone book and google haven't helped, so I thought I'd post my question here.

I was so disappointed to discover that the mullet is a type of fish. When you said "mullet-tossing," I had visions of tossing local dudes with mullet hair-dos in the air. I guess the Florabama version is fun too. Bwah! Me, too! Editing to note that I envisioned guys with mullets tossing their hair. You know, flipping it from side to side over their shoulders. Not being tossed themselves. Ok, one no one has mentioned. There must be David Allan Coe on the jukebox. You know, "I was drunk. The day my mom. Got outta prison. And I went. To pick her up. In the raaaaaaain." Wouldn't be complete w/out it, or w/out Bocephus singing "Family Tradition". No trip to a bar w/my parents would be complete w/out a drunken family singalong of these two classics, and I must be allowed to change the lyrics to "Why do you drink, why do you smoke dope" without anyone complaining. Even better if the bar is in a trailer. In a trailer park. And even if you haven't been by in, oh, say, 5 years, the bartender still remembers your regular drink order and puts it down in front of you before you've uttered word one. Unfortunatly for my asthmatic, allergic, weak little ass, there must be smoking. And at least one baby/toddler/youngin' in the bar. Dad starts singing after 2 Natty Lights (in a can), or 2 MGDs (in a bottle). Man cannot hold his liquor. Remind me to tell everyone about him, drunk at A Southern Season some time.

I hope you got some of the Meyer lemon and the peach conserve. Dear Lord, they're good! We got the Meyer and the Navel Orange. Both taste amazing. The peach was good, but I'm a loyalist---my grandma's is better Where did we eat? Hmmm, let me see if I can remember. We ate a lot. We ate at Zuni the first night. Started w/4 oysters each. I had one native Pacific (can't remember the exact ones), pne of the flat ones (starts w/a W) one Miyagai (not the Hog Island, the other one), and one Barnstable. Husband had the same, except he had an Olympia instead of the Eastern Barnstable. The oysters we freakin' awesome. I haven't ordered a Cesar salad in years, but husband I ordered and spilt one. Really good, and you could actually tasted the anchovies. For entree we had the chicken, and for dessert we had the espresso granita. The chicken was good, but we wished that we'd stuck to ordering oysters. There may be cheaper places to get them, but theirs seemed super-duper fresh and of very high quality. Drinks: I had a Lillet on the rocks with a twist, DH had a single malt (can't remember which one) and a glass of wine. Their wine list was pretty small, but I can't complain...I was too jet lagged to want to drink much. The next day, Friday, we had lunch at La Taqueria. I had a burrito w/carnitas and avacado. Husband had the beef. The salsa verde or whatever the green sauce at the table was was the best thing about the meal, and that says quite a bit, as it was all quite good. I had a mandarin aqua fresca. Maybe it's because I'm still recovering from having given up sweets/soda/juice for Lent, but it was waaaay too sweet. Would have rocked cut with some lime juice and Sprite, though. Friday night we humped it over to Berkely and had tapas at Cesar. Mostly I remember getting very drunk. We had the frites/fries/papas whatever with fried herbs and sea salt. Huge pile of them. I would seriously only order these if you have about 4 drunken companions w/you, as it's an insane amt. of food. Not too greasy, though, and I love fried herbs w/my potatoes. We also had the Marcona almonds (standard, always good for eating while drinking) and the bacaolo, which was nice and spicy. It reminded me of something that I still can't place. Anyway, it was good. I don't know if you guys have been, but it's a nice place. Very friendly, everyone having a good time. We got there sort of late, so they were out of a couple of the really good sounding specials, but other than that, a very good time. And if you go and get the cute bartender with the short blonde hair, she rocks. Oh, and we got out of there for a pretty reasonable price, considering the fact that their extensive , pretty reasonably well priced liqour list ate up 1/2 our bill, easily. I would recommended a trip if you're out that way. We checked out the Chez Panisse menu as we walked by, and I gotta say, I'm not too upset we didn't do it this time; looked like she was offering a lot of damn beets. I seriously don't know if even Alice Waters could get me to like beets. Ok, so the best part about Berkeley was when we darted into Elephant (I think it was Elephant) grocery so husband could pee and I could get some fruit for breakfast. Holy crap, the dudes working in there were so funny. "You may use any exit you choose" and "I return to you sixty-five cents and a detailed record of our transaction" are now in mine and Dh's daily vocabulary. It was a nice night. Saturday was FPFM in the AM, where we ate breakfast and snacked around. Lunch at Swan's. More oysters (DH had never had raw ones before, and just couldn't get enough once he tried them), some Anchor Steam, and a little crab. The guys at Swan's were really nice, too. Very pleasant, and the wait wasn't long (though made slightly unplesant by a loudmouthed old tourist dude and his friends), maybe 5-10 minutes. We did make the mistake of going to Fisherman's Wharf because I wanted to go to Musee Mechanique. I'm very glad we went there (dude, nothing like a grown woman in a skirt riding a mechanical horse while laughing maniacally...I drew a rather large crowd), but wish they'd kept it out in Ocean City. We tried to find a particular Thai place for dinner, but that didn't pan out. If anyone saw a babbling, freaking out chick in the Mission around 9 PM on Saturday night with a normal looking but baffled tall guy, that was me. I get really sick and freak out if my blood sugar gets low, which it did after a day of walking all over the city and eating only oysters until 9PM. Not fun. So I finally got husband to realize that he needed to get me a soda, some peanut butter, and back on the bus. We ended up eating in some noodle joint on Union Sqaure near our hotel hat was pretty good...damned cheap, open 'til one, pretty tasty. Absurdly large portions, though. Which, actually, was appreciated at the time. I was ok after that. Sunday was dim sum for lunch at Ton Kiang after walking through Golden Gate Park. Poor husband was so confused. He had no idea what was going on. He picked up on it after the first couple of rounds. However, he doesn't care for Chinese of any sort, and I always forget that until after we eat and he's sitting there looking unhappy. Oh well. He did enjoy the experience once he got into the flow, and did really like the potstickers and Chinese doughnuts (which I normally hate, but theirs were good). Sunday night we ate at Oseteria (del Forno??? on Columbia near Coil Liqours), which was good, filling and cheap. We had the speck appetiser, two glasses of cheap but drinkable wine and a pizza for $30. We ate there for lunch the next day, too, since we were in the neighborhood. Oh, then we had second lunch (!!) at Truly Mediterranean...Spicy Hummus wrap. Dinner that night was at Gary Danko. Oh yeah. Very good, though it was hot as nuts in the dining room (WTF with that heat wave?). I felt really sorry for the cooks...had to be unbearably hot in the kitchen. I ordered the oysters with osetera caviar and asaparagus in cream. Mmmmmm so good. DH had the tuna w/avacado and enoki mushrooms. I tasted it. Wasn't blown away, but he seemed to be in some sort of heaven. We both ordered the beef with nettle rissoto and morels. The online menu lists wild boar, which was not on the menu that night, to my disappointment. I ordered mine medium rare erring on rare. It was cooked perfectly, and with lots of morels. God, I love morels. DH ordered his rare, and it came cooked a little more than he wanted, but still no more than medium rare. The only problem with that dish was that the asparagus on the plate was overcooked. We had the cheese plate. Lots of "Ghastly, stinky cheese" (TM the travelocity gnome). Very good. Since it was super hot in the dining room, I think the term "room temperature" was taken a little too far...a couple of degrees cooler on the cheese front would have been good, I think.. We had more than I can remember, I do remember eating Morbier, which was pretty cool. Not my favorite, but I liked it ok. We had a ColoRouge, a triple cream (I think...it was soft whatever it was), very good and runny. Roaring Forties, a blue cheese that tastes like black walnuts (Mmmmmmm...our favorite). Gosh, can't remember what else. Then dessert and coffee...DH had sorbet, I had the rhubarb napoleon. Mine was good. DH's had what looked like a purchased cookie. FOr Danko, I would recommend two things: the little nibbles that come out after dessert? Can 'em, or get better quality.And those cookies w/sorbet? Same deal. Ok, this is far too long and husband needs the computer.

I made it to the farmer's market, but couldn't make it that early. We got there around 10 or so. I wanted to meet everyone, but had a marvelous time anyway. I bought a holy crapload of food and I finally found the tattoo design I want (the squid tile near the Sur La Table). Let's see...bought a couple types of whole dried chiles, including a smoked habenero for baked beans. Some of the spicy lemon pistachios from G.L. Alfiriei, a couple of vials of chile powder (I bought one medium hot smoked pimento, husband bought whatever the hottest one was). Oh, and some habenero jelly, which is so good on bread with triple cream cheese. Yeah, we like spicy, spicy food. Other than the hot stuff, we bought 3 jars of marmelade from Frog Hollow, since they were 3 for $20, and I figured one would make a good gift for the coworker that covered my workload while I was away. I really liked their navel orange marmalade...not bitter at all (I don't care for the bitter Seville Orange), and plan on keeping a jar of that. Got a sour round from Acme, some macaroons and a pastry from the shop with the pretty bags (I'm a sucker for pretty packaging), some chocolates, Mt.Tam from Cowgirl, and some olive oil (from Stonewall, I think). mmmmmm....so yummy.

As I've said before, some folks will eat anything that doesen't crawl off their plates and escape into the nearest fetid swamp. does the swamp have to be fetid? In your case, I would think the the more fetid, the better. what is so terrible about blood? is it an aesthetic thing? or was it the marrow that put you off? have you never eaten a nice goat-meat curry and spent 5 minutes or so trying to get ambrosia out of one of the marrow-bones? Goat and beef and lamb are one thing...but chicken? do chickens even have marrow? I thought their bones were hollow. I should admit now that I don't like chicken, or any birds (well, except for duck) for that matter, very much at all. The blood just makes it taste stronger to me. Maybe I should start buying that tasteless factory farmed stuff after all. So, does the factory-farmed free range thing apply to, say, Bell and Evans (when I buy chicken, I buy from them because it's conveinent)? I'd really like to see some literature to back up that statement, especially if it lists names of "free range" farms that do this. editing to make clear that the fact that I don't like chicken blood is because it makes something I already am on the border of not liking taste even stronger. Now, I looooove rare beef, for the same reason in reverse---it makes something that I love the taste of taste even stronger. MMMMMMMM.....

Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!! My dad tries to get by with this all the time. We were going out a few weeks ago and I realized about a block away from the restaurant that he still had his cap on. He's not going bald or anything, even...has a beautiful head of thick, silver hair. I made him take it off. He actually whined...my dad whined...because he said he had hat hair. I told him that hat hair looked a million times better than a baseball cap at the dinner table. He took it off, but pouted until I bought him a beer. Jeez. 50 going on 5, I tells ya. He would have spanked my ass if I'd tried that growing up.

I think you're right about it being taro. It wasn't at all sweet, and didn't have any hint of funkiness, two things I associate with turnips. Not much taste at all, actually. Good luck on the exam.

I thought the waiter was cool, too. He just made me want to smile. The music in the dining room was highly amusing. Don't know if anyone else noticed it, but it was a bunch of really painful late 80s ballads...I know there was a Bryan Adams song in there somewhere. On to the food... I can give a description of the beef stew. The beef was in largish chunks (maybe a chuck or beef short ribs off the bone???) and was served in a pot with some Chinese greens and a fairly thick sauce/ brown gravy. While it was thick, it didn't have a cornstarch thickened feel to it (I didn't think so, anyway)...not gummy, just like it had been thickened by cooking. It was very beefy tasting, with nice overtones of star anise. The beef, at least the piece I got, was very, very tender. The greens were tasty, maybe very mildly bitter. There was a root veg that I wasn't familiar with in the pot as well. It tasted hard and waterlogged to me, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that that's how it's supposed to taste. Despite the unidentified root vegetable, which was easily picked around as it was in huge chunks, I was quite pleased with this one. I also liked the duck very much. I'm sure someone can give a better description, but I will say that I loved the preparation. Some nice crispy bits, but not greasy at all. Seriously, I don't remember the predominant flavoring, only that it was really good. I know someone else can help out with this one...everyone seemed to really, really like it. Heath was very jealous when I got home and told him about the evening, and says he looks forward to the next one.

That's exactly how MIL makes them, minus the remoulade. She used to flour and fry them, but then FIL went on a diet, so she did some experimenting w/lower fat ways to cook them. I like them both ways. They have a smoker, so I'll mention that this year.

My family is from Ashe county (farthest northwestern county in the state), but I grew up in Winston-Salem, home of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Camel smokes. Went to Wake, too. Man, there's nothing like stepping out of your dorm room and smelling flue-cured tobacco and raspberry filled donuts on the air. It was even better when Stroh's had the brewery off of 52. Smokes, beer and doughnuts. Man, oh man. Starting to wonder why we ever left. Oh yeah. No jobs. Now I remember. I'll have to ask Heath about a meet up. I keep having to remind myself that it's his vacation too He may well say yes...after telling him about the Triangle dining club event that he missed out on last night (he had to work late), he kept repeating that he was very, very jealous that I got to go and that he missed it, so I don't know that he'll pass up another chance to meet egulleteers. If we're going to be there anyway, I don't see why not, but I'd better give him a chance to say no.

So I have this really awesome soft sided collapsable cooler that I bought to take on my regular grocery trips around here (NC in the summer+black car+perishables). Wanna guess what my carry on is going to be? I plan on bringing back a fair amount of chocolate for myself and as gifts, and since we're flying back through Texas I don't want to risk meltage. We're going on the Scharffen-Berger tour. And the Anchor Steam tour. Free chocolate and beer samples!! In my hometown you used to be able to tour the RJR factory where they gave free samples of smokes, I kid you not. I'm guessing they don't do that anymore. Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market is on for Saturday! Hey, precious and overpriced it may be, but I've been shopping at Whole Foods as my primary grocer for 3 years, so I'm pretty much immune to that whole scene anyway. Oh, and I did make a reservation for Zuni on Thursday night.

If anyone happens to see this before tonight, my husband will not be able to make it (he has to make a deadline at work tonight). I'm still coming, though.