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I vote for freezing it. It can go rancid even in the fridge - and even before it goes rancid it will lose some of its zip. I freeze it in a single piece, then when I need some I put it in the microwave for 8 or 10 seconds - just enough so that a sharp knife can go through it if you have reasonably strong wrists - and slice off what I need.

Fred Bridge steered me very right too, back in the late '60s, when the store was at 33rd and 3rd, if I remember correctly. But one day many years later he was so appallingly, stupidly rude that I didn't set foot in the store again until I read that he'd died. The current crew never - hardly ever - snarls.

Having died some years ago, Fred Bridge isn't snarling at customers anymore.

Gordon F'ing Ramsay, I suppose.

I take it you don't want to extend this to celebrity restaurateurs (De Niro, et al).

I am not an expert on this, but I have done a bit of reading on these prion diseases. True, no cases of spongiform encephalopathy have yet been seen in pigs (except induced under lab conditions - see http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/volume11/chapter8.htm). But it is my understanding that, unlike ruminants, pigs continue to be fed meat and bone meal (MBM) -- which many believe is responsible for the spread of BSE. To be sure, pigs are slaughtered young enough that the disease doesn't develop. Anyway, I guess the prudent answer to the question of whether there's a porcine equivalent of BSE is "not yet". As with any meat, you're better off eating pork from pigs that have been raised by farmers who care enough about their animals and their customers not to feed them (the pigs, not the customers) MBM - ideally, foraging ("pasturing" as they call it in brochures) probably supplemented by veg-based feeds. I'm not an expert on this either; perhaps others will chime in here. Oh - and, assuming the prion theory for the cause of these diseases is correct, note that prions are not destroyed by cooking. A recent book (D.T. Max's "The Family that Couldn't Sleep") tells us that even when infected tissue is incinerated, viable prions remain in the ashes. They're tough.

Along with a couple of friends, we are going to spend four early-September days at Eugenie-les-Bains enjoying the mud baths and the good food. Does anyone have any ideas for interesting food or drink related visits that wouldn't involve more than, say, 45 minutes or an hour of driving from there? Nut-oil mills? Cheesemakers? Verjus producers? Great charcutiers? Bakers of either bread or pastry? Pig or poultry farmers?

I think I've been to that restaurant.

And after JG - which I too recommend - you can walk across the street to the Time Warner Center (The Mall) and get some more desserts to go from Bouchon Bakery.

Oh, incidentally, don't tell anyone you're staying in Greenwich - as opposed to Greenwich Village or just The Village. Greenwich is in Connecticut - yikes.

I'll be interested to see what Shaw has to say. I like my KunzSpoons just fine, but no better, really, than the other big stainless steel spoons in my tool canister.

Herbs. Wonderful aromatic herbs. Fresh. And in big bunches. This is a constant feature of my otherwise lousy supermarket, along with the more typical ice-crystally ice cream and leaking milk containers.

As I said in another thread (the Sullivan Street no-knead bread thread), I have long used flours from Great Valley Mills in Pennsylvania. Products made with their hard and soft unbleached flours - especially bread made with the former - taste terrific. Or tastED terrific: I cannot get through to them to order more. Over the years, I've tried various flours from King Arthur and, more recently, from Giusto's but, as I kept no notes, I don't remember which had the best "wheaty" flavor. I do recall that there were notable differences, for instance, among the four Giusto's flours I tried, so this seems to be a real issue. Which brands - and which particular flours - do you all find to yield the best-tasting results?

In the neighborhood of the hotel and Carnegie Hall is Yakitori Totto (do a search - there's a thread on it). The breakfasty pastries at Bouchon Bakery, also right in the neighborhood, are probably the best in the city - croissant and brioche variations, etc. Or you could buy some things there and picnic in the hotel. Elk Confectionary is indeed gone. And of course there is Jean Georges, as has been noted.

Yes, Steven, it is odd about Tom Cat. The baguette (exemplary) is the only bread of theirs I've knowingly bought. When the transfat ban and labeling requirement were being covered in the newspapers, the NY Times did a story in which it quoted people at Tom Cat with reference to products such as croissants that they make for clients. I had no idea they made things like that and have no idea how good they are. Presumably people who eat out more than I do eat Tom Cat bread all the time in restaurants. Yes? No?

I didn't know that poulets de Bresse were available in the US. Where? But we should be aware that these vary quite a lot from producer to producer - and that it is unlikely that if they were available here they'd be particularly fresh.

No, Pam R, the novelty has by no means worn off - this remains our house bread. I'm in flux about flour, though: the best flavor (or at least the one I'm accustomed to) comes from Great Valley Mills unbleached hard wheat flour, but I can't seem to get hold of them to order more. I've tried various Giusto's and KA flours but it isn't quite the same. Does anybody know if anything has happened at Great Valley?

Harold McGee recently published this in the NY Times, adapted from Heston Blumenthal. It yields an unusual but amazingly crisp batter - that stays crisp far longer than standard ones. It evidently has to do with the alcohol. 1 1/4 cups white rice flour 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups vodka 1 1/4 cups lager beer

Bittman's publication of the Sullivan Street no-knead bread recipe, baked initially in a covered casserole to mimic a bread oven, has changed our bread habits altogether - because of a failure in our logistics unit (me), we bought a loaf (pugliese from Sullivan St) this week for the first time since the appearance of that recipe. But favorites are: Sullivan St; sandwich bread from Pain d'Avignon; Tom Cat baguette. The first two purchased near where we live, at Corrado, the third at Gourmet Garage. Does anyone know other retail sources for Tom Cat bread?

I'm pleased to see that it is still called that, officially - I confirmed it in the phonebook (anywho.com). The sign above the door is now something more user-friendly; can't think what.

This was a good idea for a thread, Steven. The query ought to be posted in every geographical forum, US and international. Some enterprising person could compile it into a PhD thesis. It is interesting to look at one’s buying habits. I think mine make me look obsessive, but all of this shopping is spread out over months and months and rarely involves special trips (as opposed to weekend walks), so I’m probably not as nuts as I sound. There’s a supermarket just downstairs from our apartment; we buy some staples there, including herbs, which are astonishingly good there for some reason – I suppose the produce manager cares about them. Other staples we buy in the supermarket are potato chips and beer. And cookies. I order some things on line, such as dried beans from Rancho Gordo and sometimes flour from Great Valley Mills (although this may change) and Giusto’s. Chocolate (plain and bon-bons) too. Recently, I’ve tried meat from Heritage Foods USA, with varying success – and guiltily, because I do prefer to buy from favorite Greenmarket vendors. A good wagyu brisket recently came from them. If I need something like walnut oil or some exotic ingredient (super-duper soy sauce, say) but know that I won’t have the energy to go somewhere that sells a decent brand, I’ll see what’s doing on amazon.com. Coffee from counterculturecoffee.com. We have a neighborhood Greenmarket on Wednesdays, small but improving. Pura Vida is one of the vendors, so Wednesday has become our fish night – Steven ought to try the Greenmarkets for fish. We also buy vegetables there, and such fruit as is worth buying - apples and berries; peaches are a craps shoot, but we keep trying. Pork and lamb, and poultry when available, mainly come from Union Square market vendors: Flying Pigs and Three-Corner Field; eggs from Flying Pigs too, except when my PA-based colleague brings us some from his couple of dozen chickens. When Violet Hill has its Belle Rouge chix toward the end of the summer, I buy these. The various Greenmarkets supply almost all of our produce, except, say, when we get a yen for eggplant parmigiana in the winter. One of our weekend recreations is urban walking, and we try to plan our route with some food shopping in mind. A walk through the park, winding up at the little Columbus Avenue and 77th Street Greenmarket and then Fairway, can be a nice Sunday activity. Fairway is where I buy butter: the 83% butterfat Beurremont brand, five or ten pounds at a time. Another walk might end up at Chelsea Market, where I buy Setaro pasta and vastly expensive salted anchovies at Buon’Italia. We buy some cheese, including freshly made cow-milk mozzarella, from Agata & Valentina. Oil there too sometimes, and some produce; they often have interesting things, such as wild fennel recently. And cheese straws, which they sell packed in quantities large enough that we can’t finish them in one evening of gluttonous snacking. From Eli Zabar I buy cheese danish. Other breakfast pastries from Bouchon if we have the energy to go to the mall. American-type cakes and cookies: Yura & Co., whose black and whites are stellar. Doughnuts, in season (don’t ask, although if someone does I’ll oblige with a rant), from Café Sabarsky or Blaue Gans; Bouchon’s are too elegant. The only cream I really, really like is from Butterworks Farm in Vermont. WholeFood has it sometimes; they also sometimes have milk from New York state grass-fed cattle. I always check the mushrooms and chilies when visiting WholeFood; they had porcini last week, in better condition than any I’ve seen before at retail in NYC, and I bought enough of them that I needed to pay with my credit card. Bacon and rendered duck fat (and pork lard too) come from the Last Remaining Hungarian Butcher (Second Ave and 81st); smoked ham from Kurowycky. Other cured meats from Agata & Valentina (including various prosciuttos and Fra’Mani salamis) or Buon’Italia (prosciutto, guanciale, mortadella). Since Bittman published that magical Sullivan Street Bakery bread technique, we have been making our own bread, but before then we bought Sullivan Street Pugliese (often from Corrado in Grand Central, just a few blocks from where we live) and sometimes loaves from Pain d’Avignon, Balthazar and Eli Zabar. And Tom Cat baguette from Gourmet Garage. We buy 20- or 25-pound bags of jasmine rice in Chinatown; when we’re there we pick up other Asian ingredients. Spices sometimes from Penzeys and sometimes from the South Asian shops on Lexington Avenue. Pepto-Bismol from Duane Reade.

As a very occasional visitor to DC, I've noticed that quite a lot of locally raised meat is sold at the Dupont Circle farmers' market, with heavy emphasis on pasturing and no hormones/antibiotics, so there's obviously an urban clientele that would be interested.

Yes, it is open on Wednesdays. And Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays too. We've been away, so I can't tell you what you'll find - judging by my little 47th Street market, there'll be greens, asparagus and even summer squashes. I think you can expect ramps too. Don't know about fiddleheads.

I wonder how Don Peppe / Vesuvio, out in Queens on Lefferts Boulevard, is nowadays. When I was a kid - we're talking about the early 1960s - I was often taken to their previous location in Brooklyn. When they moved (to be nearer to Aqueduct racetrack I believe), my parents remained fairly regular customers, even into the 1980s. It was reliable, delicious southern-Italian-American stuff. As I recall, it closed for several weeks every year when the horses were running in Hialeah. Anybody been in the past twenty years?

Thanks, Steven, for posting that excerpt and the accompanying link, thereby reminding everybody that these allegations remain unproven.