herbacidal

From my point of view, knock good out of the search process. I'd be looking for a Peruvian restaurant. I know of only one Peruvian restaurant, Sol del Peru in Upper Darby, period. I do hope it's good, and I want to try it sometime.

no entiendo, senor.

YIKES - Herb! 3 Habaneros! You know usually a pinhead sized bit of habanero is enough to give off noticeable heat. I'd watch this carefully. It might be lethal by the time it's done. Might also make a truly ass-kicking Bloody Mary! I did a vodka with 3 RED SAVINA habeneros last summer. You have to dispense it in eyedroppers mixed with regular vodka. how much volume was that with? you cut them up and dumped it all in seeds and all? i wanted to get the full flavor out of it. yea, i think that's what i might do, just use it as a topper to a standard strength and flavor vodka in a bloody mary. i've decided that the third vodka i will do will be ginger. interested to see how it will come out. ginger martinis, among other things should be interesting. i like it in particular because i've used lemon grass for drinks before and it's overpowering. ginger should be not quite as strong.

you know elyse, right now as we're going back and forth with this, this sounds like a grown up version of the 4 year old boy eating bugs just because it grosses out the 4 year old girl next door.

gotta swim against the general tide here. had mole at cazuelas once, didn't find it as good as mole i've had elsewhere. can't recall where else i've had it in town though. also can't recall exactly what i didn't like, i think it was the consistency, but exactly what was wrong about it, cannot recall.

can't say anything about these caterers. just that a key point that shouldn't be left out is how good their catering staff is. their restaurant side may be putting out manna, but be sure they have their shit down on the catering side. worked with le bec fin's staff once when someone wanted them to cater a wedding. they didn't have any clue about catering. FOH or BOH. guess that's why i was there, to bail them out. and it only semi-worked.

of course. who wouldn't want a vodka infused with a pound of flesh?

Oh dear. don't be modest. you're overjoyed.

Herb, what kind of dumplings were you thinking about? I'm down for dumplings, pie and non-alcoholic drinks. probably just pork. then again, i could actually make some. jeez, you got me started. been a long time since i thought about interesting and rarely seen fillings for dumplings.

i'll bring some sarcone's for bread. i'll also bring a self-infused vodka. i can easily bring chinese dumplings, if the peanut gallery deems it desirable.

doubt it. especially since i have to up my guest count. 'twil be me plus 1-3 others. will know more as we get closer, and will note that here, obviously.

not exactly sure what this is. will hafta look it up. this sounds like the cantonese jeet gua? long, seeds on the inside, often used for soup, the inside is a lot lighter green than the outside.

i'll bring a buncha bags. also will clean out extra plates and forks and stuff.

That's the one I was trying to think of, above! Thanks gabe. yea, thanks Gabe! i knew there was something like that somewhere around there.

my, aren't we quiet today!

best: most of NYC worst: Staten Island. Last time I was there I was in a diner where our water had white swirly stuff in it which took about 5 minutes to spin down and dissolve, and it tasted like raw sewage. When we complained they shrugged and said "well that's what all the water around here is like". uh, tommy boy, from what i see about N'awlins, Texas, and Long Island, perhaps Philly ain't quite so bad. maybe only fifth or sixth worst. It's not as good as I remember as a kid, that's defintely true.

8. in san francisco, in 'n out or carl jr's, which one is right behind where all the chessplayers are? whichever one that is, that's 1 of the 8. but checkers and steak and shake, both not on the list are 2 others i've been to. of all of them, i either like steak and shake or checkers the best. only one data point for s+s, years ago. must return to update sample size.

I like this with turkey instead of pastrami. Classic reuben - so hard to find done well. I hate soggy reubens! Oyster po'boy, dressed. been lucky enough to avoid the soggy problem. not sure about swiss, as far as cheese, i think i'm ambivalent. don't like 'em open faced, though, and often they don't have enough russian. they have turkey reubens down in DC? hafta try that sometime.

yes welcome to you both. we need more noise from the west. keep it coming.

switch to oven cleaner. it's so much better.

Yeah, on the corner, in the same building as Nam Phuong and that new Vietnamese place, across from the new Japanese place. Anyone been there yet? Isn't that Rio Bravo, or perhaps I have the name wrong?

lessee, most should have good Chinese stuff, especially Chinatown and Washington Ave areas. In addition, the ones on Washington Ave should also have good Vietnamese stuff. I would recommend the one on 6th St. in particular. There's pretty good Korean markets on Route 70 in Cherry Hill and just off Old York Road in Elkins Park, owned by the same people I believe, but from the people I know, they say the one in Cherry Hill is better. (could just be the people I know) That's it for anything I would consider a supermarket. Of course, don't discount the many fruit and veggie stands in Chinatown as well. I believe there's a small market for Indonesian goods on Morris, between 17th and 18th. There's the Midori Mart, another small market, on Chesnut just west of 21st. Japanese. I believe there's a Thai one somewhere in West Philly, just can't say where. There's a few South Asian ones in West Philly as well, the most well known one (ie the one that comes to mind) is on Walnut somewhere between 40th nd 43rd. Larger than the previous two, smaller than the supermarkets on Washington Ave and in Chinatown, unless my memory is failing me. ( Much like Samson, I lose my powers when my hair is cut) Rich?

where's rio grande?

Think I have to agree with you....but sooooo many kitchen stories are the same. Tony, are your ears ringing? Any thoughts? I'd have to agree with that, Kitchen Confidential just confirmed what any catering worker already knew. I don't think there's space for a Kitchen Confidential Part 2. At the same time the excerpt reads well enough to me, maybe this type of thing will become the new 'pulp fiction'? i most definitely think of it as pulp fiction, beach reading, etc. i read it last night, polished it off at the barnes and noble in about hour and half. pretty good actually, i like it, b/c it has more of the younger, fighting their way up angle. as far as revealing about the industry, sure, a little. nothing ground breaking.

does that mean that the food is really really really okay? not memorable enough to recommend and rave, not horrible enough to count the ways in which they sucked?