Kim WB

deleted, off topic, sorry.

You returned 20 year old Claphalon!!??? Did you buy it there?

First, I think its important to include in a review that these types of food are on the menu. It would not scare e-gulleters, but some people might be put off by it, and if I were one of these people, read the review, went there, I'd be not pleasantly suprised that the menu was so authentic. Plus, for those looking for that kind of authenticity, its also important to know that those selections are on the menu. I agree with some of the posters here that the way she brought them into the review was a poor reflection on her. She's not an adventurous eater..a restaurantuer waiting for Burros' review told me that he's quite apprehensive, she had a limited selection of his much tamer food choices. In her defense, she used self depricating humor, which is preferred over ignorance. Someone upthread mentioned that if she's a reviewer, she should have to tell us about it so we can know if its any good. I'd rather she tell us its on the menu, but if she's not versed in the item or its preperation, leave out the judgement. I recall a reviewed not that long ago who complained about the "boring habit of serving fruit sauce with duck and pork"...and proceeded to dis a wonderfully prepared classic pork preperation. Better, if you don't know you're stuff, to acknowledge and move on, IMHO.

Actually, I find the way you ordered to be very irritating. For future reference, the registers are designed to specifically omit things, so " A biggie single without tomatoes" might be the ticket here. Or perhaps the old "walk a mile in their shoes" therapy. Anyway, I don't think there are many people who would label it "back talk" or insuting.

I think the foods are mostly designed to be 'add-ons" to a gift. When a bride registers, I like to pick out something from her list, and then add on potholders, dishtowels, or lately a food product. My husband has a lot of employees, and a lot of weddings every year..last year we had 18 employee weddings and showers. ( I just counted for tax purposes!) And, its important to spend a smiliar amount on each person for office politics. Some high end bakeware on their list, supplemented with some of the cake mixes or LC baking dish with some of the demi glace...easy, done, and they wrap it. It's packeaged nicely, makes a nice gift, and they can return it easily if there are problems or duplicates.

I prefer a Cabrales, with figs or dried apricots. I prefer a Maytag in a salad. Humboldt Fog is extraordinary as well.

My poor kids. They are going to grow up with a distorted view of Chinese cuisine. Because I take any protein leftover, steam some snow peas and carrots, add it all to a hot wok with some aromatics, then thicken with soy and cornstarch/chicken broth slurry, a package of success rice...Mom's special stir fry! I never actually realized how much leftovers I have until my mastiff died this past summer...she had been making a dent in the extra food! It's still hard to throw out the fat trimmed from a sirloin...I think of her every time. Great thread, Rachel..I suspect there is going to be some very interesting and inspiring replies..though I must admit I don't know waht a boggle is.

I think it's a custom that has pretty much died out. There was a place in Trenton, the Bond Street Club, which was a members only dining club, and the guests did not get the prices. Diamond's in Chamberburg also had that policy when I first moved back to NJ..12 years ago only the men got menus with prices. But that is not their practice any longer, and hasn't been for a while. Perhaps you can call ahead, and pre order a tasting menu , and they can print up the course descriptions for you. I know Rats will gladly do this, even put your special occassion as the heading.

Ming Tsai and Susanna Foo's...Ming Tsai is dreamy.

Will she be able to eat ground meats? Just use the cuisinart..I think it needs to be like baby food, and lots of people put lamb, beef, chicken in there for babies.

hmmm... perhaps the same concerns apply as to the primaries..if the leader is announced early on, will it affect the votes still to come? Can we expect the Dean supporters..oh, I mean the pork supporters to rallytheir troops to get to the polls??!!

Ok, here are some tallies, but be warned I was a bit liberal in my interpretations, and did not include any answer that had more than one food, even if they didn't use the space bar..( steamedclamsandpizza indeed! ) The leaders are cheese with 9 votes, bacon or cured pork products 8, pasta 7 pork 6 pizza 5 sushi 5 sausage or forcemeats 5 chocolate 4 I didn't count "meat", too general..and if anyone can clue me in on what osmazome is, I'll count it!

are you suggesting that people are supposed to know how each place handles this? are the acceptable percentages different from place to place or something like that? or is it really true that one tip amount is all any place really needs. There is quite a difference between places that pool tips among the staff and places that don't. An example of the pool: You ring up a check of $500 and leave $100 tip for the good service. 33% is taken off the top to be split among the busboys and food runners, leaving $66. If the restaurant has 3 teams of captain and waiter, $66 is split 6 ways yielding $11, which becomes $8 after taxes, so the $100 tip you gave the nice captain actually puts $8 in his pocket. I'm not sure what you're getting at here. If every place is different, there is no way for the consumer to know what percentage is going where. And what about sommeliers, bartenders...certainly it can't be the responsibility of the customer to determine how the breakdown is managed. One number, across both lines, let them figure it out. If the captain or maitre'd was involved in making it a uber-great evening ( ie, seat by the window, super attentive, accomodated special requests or occassions) then my husband will sometimes personally tip them in cash with his thanks for whatever they did that was above and beyond. Sushi bar tipping is tricky. WE used to leave the entire amount witht eh check, but now we tip the chefs and waitstaff seperately..its a bit of a drag because you need to have cash on you.

Here's the next question: oval or round?

I try to get there within 2 months..simply because I hate it when people find a good thing before me! Really, I'm kind of the "foodie" in our circle of friends, so I almost see it as a responsibility to try a place out. There is a place in New Hope, Marsha Browns, that I just haven't been to for dinner yet..and its killing me. People are giving opinions, and I don't have one...and I'm just so used to being FIRST! If I visit in the first month or so and it sucks, but seems like maybe it would someday not suck, I will go a few more times. If people ask what I thought, I diplomatically respond " the jury is still out on that one".

On a very cold night here in NJ, my husband was posessed to fire up the grill outside ( he's a wood/charcoal advocate, no gas grills allowed) and opened a bottle of Stags Leap 2001 Artemis Cab...I really liked it, nice foil for the grilled flavor, whcih seemed stronger than usual, because its been 3 months or so since I had a charcoal grilled steak. We/ve moved to a Caymus 2001 Cab, not quite as open as the Artemis, but ac comparable big cab flavor.

Pumpernickel, what an interesting set of posts...I'm intrigued by your focus on wine food pairings, as I am just trying to focus more attention on that aspect of dining and entertaining. Perhpas you can consider srating a new thread with some of your more suceessful pairings.

Yeah, I thought I'd keep it simple! I think cheese is winning. perhaps steak or bacon,i n its various forms. I'm going to give it a day or two before I tally it..let the other side of the ocean folks chime in... Forcemeats is my favorite answer, too!

HELLOOOOOO!!!! Apparently you were not a member of the Donny Osmond Fan Club. He actually send a photo, signed, to all letter writers. It was a black and white, but his signature was in purple, whcih all of us TRUE fan clubbers knew to be his favorite color! I was President of the NJ fan club for a while..I actually got two purple inked Donny pens, Donny stickers, and a full color poster. The sticers were little hearts, with his face in the middle, and....I can go on...but I won't! (Edited to add the obvious: The former president of the NJ fan club for Donny Osmond ( albiet 38 years ago) is probably not a candidate to join the AB fan club! )

Ok, not to get all burger clubby with a bunch of rules, but, one word answers only. NO qualifiers, no ABC with XYZ, no long explainations or descriptions. Time to get down to basics here. I'll start: Pancetta.

The Rex Stout "Nero Wolfe" series comes immediately to mind. "How Green was my Valley by Richard Llewelyn also has a lot of food oriented descriptions..I think it opens with Huw recalling his mother's leg of lamb.

This is a group of theatre kids, all perform regionally, most in heavy duty theatre programs of one sort of another..and you would need to know me to know just how socailly liberal I am with my kids... I mean, they were at their first Gay Lesbian Pride March when they were in snuglis and have been active since. So, the subject matter was something they were familiar with and prepared for. I thought it was tamer than Rent in a lot of ways, and thats the top teen attraction, I think. And, to keep it on topic, Joe Franklin was there..all alone, at a four top, chatting withthe waitress, she said he eats there all the time, and then seats people who come in post show. It ws kinda sad, actually.

Mark, Do you determine who the host is by what name the reservation is under?

Virgils is "reservations strongly suggested"..they hadnothing avail for 4 ppls until 7:30, and even a follow up call at 6 to see if anything opened up, resulted in a "no,we are fully booked". It was cold, Tommy. sooooo coooold...we needed shelter more than food...and I needed a drink more than anything...I got what deserved, I know that. But their Bass Ale was good. The first one was ok, I was still defrosting. By the third one, I was almost thinking how charming my little testosterone charged group of gangly teens was!

55.56 and 8th.