NulloModo

That Booker's Bourbon sounds wonderful. I am still experimenting around in the world of high end Bourbons, but right now I am enjoying a bottle of Van Winkle Family Reserve that is pretty darn tasty, if a bit more harsh than some of the others I have sampled. I find it interesting that often those who are seriously into wine are either not seriously into spirits, or if they are, tend to gravitate towards Scotch. Do you find many other Bourbon-lovers amongst your wine enthusiast ranks?

Chewing on parsely is also great for your breath.

This thread was prompted by an improper title on another thread, and a question I have been pondering over lately. Should you, and do you, tip when picking up takeout? Let me put some qualifiers on here: let's say that one orders a meal from a restaurant that does both sit-down and take-out business, as well as possibly delivery. Instead of sitting-down or having it delivered, you opt to pick it up your self. Are you obligated to leave a tip for the kitchenstaff, etc? My answer to this is a resounding no, I think it is the most ludicrous thing in the world to tip when you have had no waiter, and no driver. My friend however, who picked up a take-out order for me the other day when he was running an errand, apparently believes in tipping for takeout, and left a tip with some of the money I have him. Needless to say I was quite upset, not at the loss of the couple bucks, but at the idea that he had given them money when in essence he had done all the work. In fact, I would have been much happier if he had decided to tip himself a couple bucks instead of them. Does anyone else do this?

I remember very much enjoying his TV show when I was younger. I wasn't even into cooking/food at the time, but my father was always watching cooking shows, and his presence on TV somehow was very soothing and relaxing to me. I know my father has just about every cookbook he ever put out, I Should drop by to borrow a couple and try out some recipes...

Hmm, well, I almost always eat the garnish. I enjoy the flavors of raw curly parsely and mint leaves. I also enjoy the peppercorny red colord brine solution that pickled sausages come in.

I am not a restaurant professional either, however: I gave myself a rather nasty burn on my left calf when in the process of heating up a weber kettle to sear some steaks, I removed the lid (to place the steaks on) but instead of setting it on the ground, tried to hold it while getting the steaks on with the other hand. NEedless to say I brushed the superheated metal against my leg and pulled away a layer of skin with it. Ouch.

Smirnoff is hardly rock-bottom vodka though. There is always Popov for around $7 to $10 per 1.5 litre, and liquor store brand for under that.... (although State Line brand Vodka isn't any different from Popov when used in random mixed drinks from what I Can tell).

While almost every supermarket here in DE offers baggers, very rarely does anyone offer to carry something out to the car (seems to be a Safeway thing). I would assume FL, with its large population of the elderly, would be a natural place to offer such a service, as many of their customers simply may not be physically capable of carrying the bags themselves.

This one doesn't seem so bad. If the carbonization is just from contact with dry ice, and doesn't involve lots of nasty chemicals and dyes, this could be a great way to get kids interested in eating fruits and veggies instead of sugary/starchy junkfood.

From what I have heard, the good electrics will make every bit as good a piece of BBQ as the charcoal based ones, and do so in a much more tightly controlled and convenient environment. I think the only downside is the comparitively very high price. FWIW, I smoked for the first time on a barrel with sidebox style charcoal smoker recently, widely said to be one of the more difficult types to use. While it required supervision and occasional feeding, the process was not overly tedious, and the meat came out quite well. Such a device will hold more than most electrics, dduble as a good charcoal grill, and sells for around $150.

Hmmm, I'm paranoid about not taking something in the manner it is presented. Heck, I feel guilty manhandling every tomato/onion/etc in the pile just to pick out the good ones, even though I know this is accepted practice. The one thing I will do is allow the cashier to ring items up improperly if he/she decided that my shitaki or criminis are 'Mushrooms, general, $.99/lbs).

I will never again.... Absentmindedly pull out my chef's knife to cut off a wedge of queso blanco, and then place my hand on top and apply downward preassure to cut through the cheese without first checking to make sure my roomate didn't put the knife back into the slot backwards, as to leave the sharp edge up when I pull it out normally...

I don't tip any differently when dining solo than when dining in a group, there is no need to. Waitstaff works largely on tips, true, but they can't expect every table to be a perfect one. I worked on pure commission based sales for several years, and while the customers that would load up on full entertainment systems, tons of accessories, and warranties were nice, it did not mean that customers coming in just to pick up a small bedroom TV or a 'special of the week' camcorder did not deserve just as much of my attention and effort, even though I would be making comparitively little from them. A very good friend of mine works at a car dealership and has noticed something similar: the salesmen that do a lot of repeat and mouth to mouth recommendation based business, are the ones who treat every customer like they are the only one in the world at that moment, no matter how big the paycheck is going to be from them. To me waitstaff should feel essentially the same way about every table they are waiting on. Whether it is a solo diner, two couples out celebrating a new promotion, or a fraternity of 30 guys out for dinner together.

Hmmm, when I am with a group of people I am generally feeling very social, and enjoy it when the staff engages in conversation with us. When I am dining solo, however, I am generally not in a very social mood, and actually prefer to be seated somewhere out of the way where I don't have to look at much of anything, and to have the waitstaff perform their duties with my table just as they would any other table, and not feel as if they need to entertain me because of my solo diner status.

You eat your pumpkin pie cold? Never thought of doing that...

It seems acquired tastes are very varied depending on one's background. I can't imagine pumpkin pie being in any way offensive, but at the same time I used to not be able to stomach squash of any variety, or okra, and now I love both, and perhaps these are things you love and have always loved.

From what I can tell, Outback makes no claims to being authentic Australian cuisine, simply a campy Australian themed steakhouse. As chain steakhouses go it isn't bad, not wonderful either (I prefer Lonestar as my massive chain steakhouse of choice) but not bad. FWIW there is an Australlian themed place around here that serves, amongst other things, Kangaroo and other indigenous species of Australia. I should go sometime...

Hmm, I wear my cooking smells as badges of honor ;). The other day my hands smelled of garlic, my clothes and hair of hickory and onions, but I found the smells rather pleasant.

At that point they might as well shape the grain-blobs into potatoes, and implant random boxes with toy car-bombs...

Roaches and most insects, depends where they are. If I found one in my food I would most certainly not expect to be paying for that meal, and would most likely not return for some time. A second occurance woudl blacklist the place permanantly. On the walls/floor/etc, I would point it out, and if the waitstaff seemed suitably freaked out and seemed to get management's attention to put a plan in place to get rid of them, I could probably live with that. If on multiple visits I kept seeing them, I would eventually stop going. If I found a spider anywhere in my food, never ever again would I go near that restaurant, even if it changed owners/formats/etc, the building would be cursed to me forever more. I refuse to eat anywhere I can even see a spider, and prefer not to eat outdoors in climates where spiders propigate... but that is just me.

Dave - I make no claims to have a degree in economics, so I don't want to get too deep into all off the ramifications of subsidy and tariff. From my basic understanding and what I have read, and personl feelings on the matter, I lean much more towards a total free market economy without government intervention at all: no subsidy, no tariff, nothing. But that is another thread most likely. In all honesty, I don't cook shrimp very often anyway, as they are a PITA. I dislike foods I have to manhandle too much to eat, and all that peeling/deveining ruins the experience of cooking them. If I want them, I will order them out and let someone else do the dirty work ;).

Gin: Bombay Sapphire for simple cocktails and martinis, Tanquerey regular for stuff where the individual taste of the gin won't shine through as much. Vodka: Blue Hen Vodka for stuff where it matters, Smirnoff for everything else Bourbon: Maker's Mark as an upperline mixer, Rebel Yell as an everything else mixer, sometimes a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 for good measure Whiskey: Evan Williams and George Dickel Rye: Jim Beam Rye, Wild Turkey Rye is good too for mixing Scotch: J&B for mixing Rum: Gosling's Black Seal, Bacardi 151 Tequila: Cuervo Gold (I don't actually drink anything with tequila though, so I mainly just cook with this) Vermouth: Martini and Rossi (is there a difference in Vermouths? Also, does this stuff go bad? I've been using the same bottle for months now, I don't drink Martinis often). Schnapps and other stuff I don't drink, but keep around for others: Stock, Hiram Walker, Hirsch, etc....

Ick. I hope this doesn't go through. I understand that our local shrimp industry does not do too well competing with the foreign markets that manage to do it cheaper, but I can't stand behind anything that ends up raising prices for the end consumer. If our government tries to bail out the local shrimpers by bleeding the pocketbooks of the general public, I will simply not eat shrimp.

Update on this: Smoked the loin along with a pork butt, both turned out wonderful. I also made a reduction from the pan drippings of the loin, combined with a bit of chardonnay (eh, no red wine around, it seemed to work), and some thyme. The sauce didn't really fit with the smoked meat, but it was darn tasty on other things ;).

You can buy a converter for your car engine and use the spent oil as fuel. I believe the term is 'bio-diesel' and only works on diesel engines, but still, the idea is cool.