Chris Amirault

It's like the good old days every night at my house for dinner. Another thing I'd bring back: the old Italian fruit stand in DePasquale Square on Federal Hill. You couldn't touch the stuff and it cost more than the supermarket, but he'd pick out pears at the peak of ripeness, incredible oranges and figs, you name it, and stick 'em in a paper bag for you.

Crab-eaters, why not grab your scale and weigh (1) pre-cooking weight whole, (2) cooked weight whole, and (3) meat yield? Also indicate type of crab.

How fascinating -- I've never seen or heard of a Foley fork! If you google it you can find a few images of it. gourmetsleuth.com has a knockoff; there's a photo you can click on to see their version. I love the idea that Norpro and Lamson have created knockoffs. Looks to me that, along with the do-it-all Kitchamajig, the do-it-all Foley fork deserves the honor of recognition in the Under-Appreciated Kitchen Design Superstars topic.

Why should we go? What did you get there? What did you like about it?

This looks fantastic, and I hope we can start a report topic after so the rest of us can read about what y'all learned. I attended a beef event at the NY Food & Wine Festival in 2008, and I had the pleasure of talking with Mark McCully from Angus for a while after his presentation. It was a fascinating, disturbing, promising session, and I'd urge anyone who can to attend.

I wouldn't be too concerned, but it sounds like the skin side isn't getting enough cure. Are you overhauling them regularly to distribute the curing liquid?

What kind of crab are we talking about? Blue? Dungeness? Stone?

That video features Steve Sando (Society member ranchogordo) who revised his opinion here.

I made the entire batch into tortillas the next day, after it sat in the fridge overnight wrapped in plastic. I've seen bags of fresh masa kept that way for many days, and I've also seen frozen masa for sale in AZ supermercados. Having said that, I have no idea about quality degradation. Kennedy recommends freezing the prepared tortillas after they cool, but doesn't say anything about the masa itself, I don't think.

No, I just wing it, adding a bit of this or that until I get it right. For that mix, I usually go light on the cloves, cayenne, and allspice, using the cinnamon as the base spice and adding sugar and salt. Demerara goes well with those guys, as does smoked salt, if you've got any around.

Not weird at all! I make spiced nuts for the holidays (no egg whites in the past) that have a variety of seasonings, and the ones with cinnamon, allspice, clove, ginger, and cayenne are usually the biggest hit. No one knows that they've got cayenne in them -- it's just a smidge and I don't advertise it -- but they have a subtle kick to them.

I certainly agree with that sentiment personally! I just think that the sorts of crazy people who cook their own food (and post in eG Forums) are growing fewer and farther between, and the numbers suggest the same.

For the right-coasters: what's a Helms man?

I'd be really interested to know whether people clip and/or use newspaper and magazine recipes at the same rate. Do you lean one way or another? And has that changed as newspaper food sections have dwindled away over the years?

How long do those keep? They seem like ideal holiday gifts, but I worry about those egg whites absorbing moisture quickly.

Standard issue Victoria tortilla press, using Diana Kennedy's brilliant split-ziplok method.

There's no doubt that waiting a while is the conventional wisdom, and there's no doubt that it's often right. But I'm convinced that it's wrong once in a while, too. I learned last week of another factor: the existence of a small number of Khmer, Dominican, and Chinese chefs who, unknown to the dining public, are consultants hired to design menus, train staff, and open restaurants around town. After a few months, they pack up and leave -- typically leaving the restaurant in weaker hands -- or bump up in the organization and out of the kitchen. There's one woman in particular who, I'm told, was singlehandedly responsible for starting up, in order, Apsara, Angkor Wat, Four Seasons, Galaxy, Jackie's Galaxy, and a few others. Providence residents will recognize that list, because those were the best SE Asian restaurants in the first year or two of their opening and then went steadily downhill. Even though she's responsible for establishing an entire popular genre of restaurant in RI, no one I've spoken to about these women (they're all women) knows of her existence, much less her name.

In a moment of weird prognostication, the letter from editor Reichl is titled "Reality Show":

Does anyone do "breakfast for dinner"? I have two girls -- 12 and 4 1/2 -- for whom this is the ideal dinner. They're split on savory or sweet, but lean sweet. Still, yesterday, breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas were a big hit.

Holly, I think that's wrong for the subset of restaurants I mention above. Surely you've been to places that rocked out of the box and petered out over the next few months?

What a great topic. I have, exactly, none. Not sure what to make of that.....

It is a truth universally acknowledged that diners should avoid restaurants in their first few weeks of operation. They're working out the systems in both the back and front of the house; they're prone to screw-ups, slow service, and missed reservations; staff are learning routines and relationships that take time to perfect. The idea is that you'll get better food if you wait for them to iron out those kinks. I've been having experiences lately that suggest the exact opposite: that you should visit certain restaurants immediately upon opening. Sure, you may have to wait a bit, but you're much more likely to get quality food prepared with care early in the restaurant's existence than later. I'm not sure why, but I think that the restaurants tend to be: Small operations, not major endeavors bankrolled by Robert DeNiro or Larry David. No soft openings; no PR blasts; no superstar chefs. Just someone who loves to cook opening up shop. Places that take advantage of a set of existing relationships, usually a family, that structures the work. Last night I ate at a place that has been open only a couple of weeks run by a Khmer family (and serving Cambodian food that we rarely see in these parts these days, I'll add), and when we left late two large parties arrived just as they were getting ready to close. No staff griping there when they were seated: the server was the daughter of the the owner/maitre'd, and mom was cooking out back. Restaurants that have misjudged their business plans and inventories, expecting better business at first than they actually get. For example, our family went to a place in its first two weeks this summer, and we had some amazing food that had clearly been prepared a la minute (sitting in an empty dining room). When we went back a few weeks later, all the proteins that were so succulent had been generically parcooked and "grilled" for the marks only. I can't tell whether this is idiosyncratic to my neck of the woods or whether I'm onto something here. What do you think? Do any of these experiences resonate with you?

Welcome kitchenspecialist! Any thoughts on why your website says that you're out of Ultra Pride+ machines? If that's wrong, I'd fix it now!

Welcome, Sugar Apple! Sadly, even with US population growing 40% and inflation, an 18-fold increase in fast food spending is massive. People eat more fast food now than ever before; there are stacks of statistics to support this per capita, by GNP, you name it. So, methinks that the British Virgin Islands aren't typical in the way that, say, Providence RI would be.

I started with two pounds of sorted corn. Prep for soak: 5 minutes; monitoring the simmer and overnight soak was negligible; draining and rinsing: a few minutes; prepping the nixtamal for the UP: ten minutes total, but I think that doing a first quick pass through, say, a KA mill would cut that by 80%; grinding: 45 minutes in two batches but largely unattended.