jhlurie

Steven, great..how many in your "crew", homeboy? The two Jew crew? (hey, normally I'd NEVER make that joke... but the setup...)

Glad you can come to the dinner. What are you bringing? I'll probably haul in some beer, since the wine seems to be taken care of (and I, at least, prefer beer with Chinese food). EDIT yes, Kim WB sees the way. Although I may surprise her and bring something less "lemony".

I guess I dodged the bullet on that one.

Before his current P.R. problems, it was rumored that Sammy Sosa was trying to open a restaurant. I think he still should: Dominican / Indian "Sosa's Dosas" fillings include plantains, black beans, yucca, curried goat and of course... cork.

This article on the Beer Advocate website claims that they oversaturate the beer market. Not in my market, at least. It also says that they are higher in alcohol (I believe it) but also overly hoppy (I've never really noticed that with the ones I've had, but maybe I've been lucky). This seems to indicate the situation is a mess, in their opinion:

Rather than disucssing beers scattershot, or collectively (both approaches seem futile, in different ways), I think it makes sense to try and discuss them by TYPE. Lets start with IPAs. I've always liked the ones I've tried, but I don't know enough about them. Educate me. What distinguishes this style, who makes the best, where did it come from, why is it called what it is, etc?

Okay Nina, since I know "natural versus artificial" debates drive you, I've got to see what you think... What's the deal with this? Are these people nuts? Just eat a pepper, damnit!

Yikes, cricket33, sorry not Bud. I apologize in advance for any demeaning statements you may find about Bud and/or Bud drinkers across this board when you inevitably start looking around. Sorry. Recently I was reminded of how much I like Rolling Rock. I mean I like it a lot. So that's my "simple" non-Microbrew American beer of choice. Pilsner Urquell is indeed good stuff, as is the Czech beer called "Budweiser"--which is actually not related to the American beer of the same name except through a series of lawsuits over the name and a loose historical connection. Newcastle Brown Ale is my default "ale"--at least in bars with limited selections. Killian's Red is another beer I'll have when wide selection is not available, and of course there's always good old Bass. The number of microbrews I've tried and like would fill a few pages, so I won't really go into them here all that much. Style-wise there are so many things to pick from. IPA seems to be a growing style (look at the HUGE number of entries for IPA beers listed here). Who knew? I've loved some of the IPA beers I've had.

Google says this is what you are talking about. Correct?

Yes, I recently restocked with the San-J Wheat Free. In fact, the Sodium reduced variety--which with most soy sauces I loathe, but with this stuff hardly seems to matter at all. Want to hear something horrifying? Cleaning out the back of my fridge recently I spotted a mostly full bottle of "La Choy" soy sauce, which had obviously been back there for years. I'm blanking out on how it got there in the first place, but I'm hoping there was a gun involved. Just smelling the two brands next to each other is a revelation. Wait... ingredients lists... La Choy: Water, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Corn Syrup, Salt, Caramel Color (why?), Lactic Acid, Potassium Sorbate San-J: Water, Whole Soybeans (OCIA Certifed Organic), Salt, Alcohol And of course, some of the brands in the store are alcohol free too (the alcohol acts as a preservative in this case, basically). For those of you concerned about either my sanity or my health, once again I assure you that the La Choy was hardly used at all.

Hah. It looks like Perlow is trying to hog the shirts, since frankly his is the best so far. Pfui! I'd argue for form's sake, except that the contest is more competitive because of his bloody entry.

How about one of those food dryer machines--you know the kind a lot of people use to accelerate fruit drying. Damnit, I don't remember brand names or anything. There are these big circular pans you sit stuff in, you plug the sucker in, and come back a day or two later when its leached all of the moisture from everything.

Chinese / German named: "Sweet & Sour Kraut" specialty of the house is the same as the restaurant name - "Sweet & Sour Kraut", served aside all dishes dishes include: "Salt & Pepper Schnitzel", "Rice Cake Streusel", "Rice Flour Pretzels", "Hunan Bratwurst", "Spaetzle Dumpling Soup"

Just saw a TV commercial for this train wreck. The worst thing? It was focusing on the chef as being "one of the most elegible men in New York". Yeah. I made that noise too.

Okay. Looks like I CAN come. My indistinct family plans finally manifested on Saturday and not Sunday.

Bagels? No wait. They suck.

Scottish / Vietnamese "Phuc Ewe" Signature dish: Haggis Dumpling Pho Scottish / Chinese "Hu Eats Ewe?" Signature dish: Tattie & Sour Soup (with mutton as the base of the broth) It is currently "Year of the Sheep" Chinese / Cannibalism "Hu Eats Yu? Signature dish: Guess?

Soul Food / American Chinese: "Wok and Soul" Signature dish: Chitlin' Chow Mein French / Mexican "Le Grande Tortilla" Chiles Rellenos, fried and stuffed with Boeuf Bourguignon

How 'bout not? It's already one of the worst tasting drinks in the universe. Lemon Pledge probably tastes good in comparison. Heck, maybe you are right. The tuna might improve the taste. Since lemon is apparently an attempt to sweeten the tuna, I'm surprised we haven't seen a "tuna, no lemon".

A straight Google search gave me quite a lot, although obviously its a hellish task picking through them,

I'm having a bit of trouble with that weekend. I've got a family thing one of those two dates, but my relatives refuse to pin down which day it is. I may not know for a few days.

Are you using the real stuff or the horseradish? I'd imagine that potatoes are one of the cases where the stronger, less subtle horseradish would probably be better, whereas the Sea Bass would benefit more from the subtlety of the real wasabi.

I'm curious about this. Does the cuisine follow the people or the nation? eGullet has had this same discussion relative to--at a bare minimum--Italian, Greek and Indian food at one point or another. I suppose I'm also still somewhat mystified that even after so many years of central governance, that anyone in China considers the country unified enough--at least culturally--for there to be a notion of "Chinese" cuisine as a whole. I suppose I'm bringing in a bias from a part of the world where people are fractional enough to hold desperately on to regionalism, at least in this one cultural area. There's no such thing as "American" food, I think, although there certainly are plenty of disparate "American foods". Or one could compare with Italy--where food regionalism goes all the way down to the city/town level.

It's funny. I still occasionally like the nose-clearing power of a horseradish paste, but real wasabi seems to be a lot more versatile. Conclusion: I'm going to wind up using them both, maybe for different things.

Still air. Am I missing the point of this thread? Am I supposed to return when I am eating? Really, I tend to web surf more often than eat, so it just doesn't work out. NeroW... Budweiser? Yikes! What would Mr. Wolfe say?