Chris Amirault

Started in 2003, Damrak Amsterdam gin is a good example, much more like Plymouth than not. Meanwhile, I'm fiddling around with a bottle of Bluecoat, and I'm finding the comments about its trickiness to be true. Two citrusy Savoy "B" drinks have worked nicely, though, the Biffy and the Biter.

I bought them from the daughter of the original owner at a yard sale after the owner died, and she said that this was the entire set -- no bourbon. Could be wrong, of course.... Why do you guess the 40's? I'm not doubting; I'm just interested to know how people date these things, as I'm really unsure about it.

Tamales are a traditional item for this sort of thing around Christmas. My grandmother-in-law would make a thousand or two with other women at her church.

Moving on, I'd love to hear opinions on these two: I have over a dozen of these 10 oz glasses, which I assume are a highball glass of some sort -- unless there was an era during which people did 10 oz shots. Has anyone seen these sorts of things before? It's hard to nail the era in which you'd have both "rye" and "scotch" but not "bourbon": 1940s?

Funny this should bump up. I fried about 10 lbs of potato, sweet potato, taro, and other root chips for a New Years party and then bottled up the oil the next day. Last week, I sniffed it and it seemed completely neutral, so I just used the entire bottle, adding only a bit of fresh oil to top it off. The 10 lbs of curried chicken I then fried was among the best I've ever had -- and, again, had that shattering crust you die for. The oil now is spent, I think, and tastes of the curry powder and chicken. (BTW, I don't always prepare 10 lbs of food at a time. Just sayin'.)

You said it. I didn't. I'm in. We'll see what's what.

I confess that I'm hesitating for one reason: even though I know what they are, I can't figure out what the point of dumplings is. Textural counterpoint? (To what? And why?) Flavor intensification (Chicken stock instead of water?) or contrast (Dave's "robust" cayenne-spiked version)? Carbs? I do have to say that the idea of browning the dumplings in the oven/broiler just prior to service sounds like a terrific idea to me. Pasty, pale dumplings: yecch.

Good thing we already settled the question of what the heck a dumpling actually is.

Darcie, which recipes did you try?

I got a bottle of Bluecoat gin for the first time, and, as reported here and there, it's a tricky mixer. I first tried something with Lillet, but the gin and the Lillet battled it out instead of dancing nicely together. So I turned to cocktails with a bigger citrus punch -- and thought of punsch, specifically my house brew, Erik Ellestad's Underhill punsch, which I had just finished using the Norbu tea Dian Hong Yunnan black. Given that I was already thinking of eje, I turned to a Savoy recipe, and made a spiffy Biffy Cocktail. The Bluecoat, lemon, and punsch were a perfect trio, and the complexities of the gin brought out the tea:

That's great. I have an old Gourmet recipe for pork tenderloin that roasts atop a leek-shiitake bed, and it always takes less time than I'd think. I rarely cook tenderloin any more, but if I do I'll be stealing from you!

Almost everything related to vegetable and protein prep. The curved end means that you can rock with it to mince -- though if you practice your Japanese knife techniques, you can get a finer, more even mince (or dice or...) with this sharp, thin blade. The only things I still do exclusively with chef's knives (Wustor, Henckels, Shun Ken Onion) is breakdown chickens or and anything else that requires a point and heft. But when I've got to prep mirepoix or cut potatoes into large dice or whatever, I grab the nakiri. ETA: I neglected to say why! Among many other things (ability to hold an edge, thin blade, handle), I'm particularly enamored of the long, straight edge, which enables me to use nearly the entire blade for chopping. When I slice through a big onion, the entire cutting edge comes into contact with the cutting board, meaning that I didn't leave little strands of scallion or spinach still connected.

Aside from the basic three (chef's, paring, cleaver), I've only added one knife to my collection that I reach for regularly -- more often than any other, in fact: this Gekko nakiri knife. It can't do everything -- no bones, please -- but it does the things I do most often better than any other knife.

It's interesting to note the differences between shameful desires and shameful repulsions. I frankly don't think any dislike can be shameful, but I can't quite explain why. Thought of another: industrial sour cream and onion potato chips. Artificially flavored only, please; those attempts at "natural" ones are horrible.

Give Rachael Ray a call.

Hell, I was proud.

Thanks, Frederic! Beat me to the punch. I'm hard pressed to improve on Audrey Saunders's Earl Grey MarTEAni, myself....

Artificially flavored vanilla cream: I can eat an entire can of Betty Crocker's Rich & Creamy Creamy White Frosting in ten seconds, but I try to limit myself to a tablespoon per minute; that way, I'm usually nauseated well before I eat so much I'd be hospitalized. Any "vanilla" cookie with "vanilla" creme inside will not survive the night at my house or the day at my school. Cheaper is better: the tang of industrial vanillin with gums and stabilizers is what I'm after. To that end, I am so addicted to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies that I have not allowed myself to buy any since 2001. I would tell you more about that incident, but I woke up behind a dumpster surrounded by 12-pak boxes and weighing an additional two stone with no memory whatsoever of the previous day. My hands are trembling.

That's interesting, as the scallop/frisee combo is essential at our house: the bitter greens combat the rich, sweet scallop flavor.

Dunno about your mechanism (and where your fingers have to be), but it sounds like it might be a better idea to have the motor running before advancing the stone(s) to contact the spinning blade. I doubt that the motor should be expected to start up against the extra friction from the stones. The sharpening load on the running disc would be more similar to a slicing load. Especially if you only advance the stone gently ... Thanks, dougal. That makes a lot more sense to me. I'll take a look tonight and report back if I learn anything.

Tracey, what did you get? Meanwhile, does anyone with an old Hobart know how to use the sharpening "stones", which are more like disks? Do you just screw them forward to meet the blade, turn it on, step back and watch the sparks fly?

Mason jars for all drinks? What's the drinks menu? I have to say, I reacted extremely negatively to that. They ain't made for drinkin', after all....

It's hard to say: I found it so visually off-putting -- and with a mortgage-payment bourbon, no less -- that I can't be sure if the lousy mouthfeel was real or not. But it didn't have that silky quality I was hoping for; it was more like the feel of Pernod with water, only thicker.

Each of those steps is crucial in my experience, as is having scallops that haven't been treated with phosphates. Otherwise, you'll never get that crunchy fond. Up here, Bomster scallops are the only ones to buy for this reason.

I happen to think that Brickway is quite bad, especially at lunch, and Z is just ok, as are most/all of the Wickenden options. The area around RIC doesn't hold much, either. Given your "straightforward" needs, I'd hit Rue de L'Espoir on (duh) Hope Street, just up from Wickenden (and down the street from my school!). Not perfect, but nails all the stuff you mention.