Chris Amirault

I don't know who you're disagreeing with, but it's not me. I said that the almond flavor should be pronounced, not that it should taste like commercial almond flavoring.

I'd eat two and make one. Two and three have a lot of a la minute cooking, don't they? I try to avoid that for special meals like this, since those menus plunk me in front of the stove right up until service.

The almond flavor should be pronounced, yes, which suggests you had some poor quality nuts, I'm afraid.

John, what do you like so much about it?

Last weekend I spent some time making a few different Khmer dishes from Riviere along with the chicken samla in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. I didn't take photos of the final dish but I did take a few snaps of the prep. Mint and basil from the garden: Some of the other ingredients for the meal: Here's the fresh turmeric root that got me thinking about the samla: The start of the paste: 45 minutes (and 1 1/4 c of lemon grass later): I did manage to photograph the shrimp fritters from Riviere, which were excellent, if a bit malformed:

I'm not sure that Joel Robuchon has too many people who can afford dinner but not a collared shirt.

Rye, huh? Interesting. So if in six months you start a topic on illegal home distilleries, we shouldn't be surprised, I take it. How hardy is this stuff? What happens with frosts and freezes?

Of course, the alcohol by volume (ABV) of scotch is several times higher than the ABV of wine, which has a big impact on alcohol-forward-ness.

Two more bloggers left: Nat at alpha-cook.com also made himself some homemade Irish Cream. And, finally, Jacob Grier whipped up an El Dude -- and, as a bonus, includes a link to yet another classic video from the American Bartending School, mixing up Malibu ("a propriety brand"), Midori, Bailey's, and pineapple to make a Sweet Brown Muck -- oh, sorry, a Scooby Snack.

Andrew over at Caskstrength offers the following -- CA The idea behind this one is simple, in many home bars and in the dark corners of even the craftiest cocktail bars there lies a liar, a bottle of Irish Cream that won't go bad at room temperature. It's quite easy easy to make your own, and do it as well as the name brands and fresh. Moreover, you can tweak the recipes to make it and Irish Whipped Cream. Here are two simple examples in pouse cafes: The Angel's Tit (Creme de cacao, topped with whipped cream and a cherry), or the classic B-52 (Coffee Liqueur, your new fancy Irish Cream, and topped with Grand Marnier). For more, click here!

SeanMike of scofflawsden.com has two new drinks (one with a variation) that use the limited edition Kahlua cream liqueur. If you don't have that, substitute your favorite cream liqueur or use a mix of milk and coffee liqueur. Check his blog here.

I think Erik's right. My proportions have been shrinking each time I made any cocktails with it.

I read this and thought: does Zeno's paradox apply to pie? I don't think so. There's something about the slab turning into a slice turning into a piece turning into a crumb that doesn't happen with the more deliberately cut and structured pie, I think.

Update: we've essentially eliminated eating out, which I didn't include in that $600-700 figure. However, with a lot more attention being paid to make-ahead dishes going into the freezer and taking advantage of sales (especially on meat), we've gotten below $600 for the month, closer to $500, for our family of four.

Years ago I was befriended by a wine shop owner (Elliot Fishbein of Town Wine & Spirits in East Providence RI) just as I was starting to develop skills in the kitchen and take on more advanced projects. I'd drive out to his store, talk him through a course or a meal, and he'd make suggestions. Often, he'd have a bottle open in the back that would allow us to talk more specifically about the different wine components and their relationship to the food. I'd bring that budding knowledge home and recall it in prep and at service, and I learned a lot. I also would bring him samples of the lobster sausage or the porcini ravioli after the meal. No fool me.

I agree about Alinea: their pairings -- particularly across courses -- changed the way I thought about food and drink. Janet's point about acidity and tannins is particularly important in my enjoyment of wine with food. Though I indulge in wine rarely, I'd ideally have wine with most meals that include animal fat simply because of the cleansing properties of those elements.

That looks fascinating. Why demerara? I've always used white....

Right. Just to clarify, this will be drink #3 at a rum cocktail class which will absolutely, positively include a Daiquiri starter for all the reasons specified above. By the time we get to drink #3, they will have had another complete drink (not sure yet), tastes of several ingredients (orgeat, passion fruit, a bunch of rums, etc.), and will be ready for the finale. It doesn't have to be the most "authentic" tiki drink, whatever that would be. It has to be a showstopper example of the genre. And, of course, if there were one right answer here, we wouldn't have things like this forum.

Sounds like there's a story here! How did it come back to bite you? Well, let's just say that the central classic cocktail concept of enhancing the spirit base was hard for one participant to embrace, as was my description of vodka's takeover of the spirits market coinciding with a low point in cocktail quality. While nearly all in attendance nodded when I said that most people drank vodka because they don't want to taste the spirit, one didn't understand what I meant by that. Three more sessions. Give it time.

All good points. Ignore that restriction, then, and have at it. The goal here is to get as many important titles in the list as possible, not to send everyone to do research.

It's still a stunning increase, even with the "b."

I came across the Thurmanator the other day, a big stack of food that you can get at Columbus, Ohio's Thurman Cafe. As described on this blog entry, it is It got me to thinking about this phenomenon of massive, over-the-top burgers, which seems to be a category but one I don't completely understand. Depending on how you describe the category, they can range from the Carl's Jr Bacon Cheese Six Dollar Burger to foie gras burgers on brioche buns. There also seems to be a built-in eating contest with many of them; if you click on that blog entry above, for example, one diner is hailed for plunging two Thurmanators down his gullet. Are there any must-try excess burgers? What counts? What doesn't? What are the rules?

Just made a double batch of Sam's recipe here using almonds, pistachios, and apricot kernels. After blending late last night, I went to bed and strained it in the morning; that laziness seems to have paid off, in that I haven't had to reblend or resoak the nutmeat to get a thick milk. I also added a 2:1 mix of cognac and Cointreau (I had batched it for Sidecars for a cocktail course) instead of the brandy. This stuff is delicious.

I think that first number starts with a "b" too: see, for example, this Reuters article citing a RW Johnson study that cites an eighteen-fold increase from 1970 -- not an eighteenthousand-fold increase.

American food enthusiasts, even the least parochial, tend to focus their attentions on cookbooks published in the US, a trend that has a variety of problems. That means that a lot of important cookbooks published in the UK, Australia, Canada, and many other countries simply never make a splash here. Given the collective, international reach of the Society, we can address this dilemma. What are the English-language cookbooks that Americans really should know about? They can focus on any cuisine or technique, but shouldn't be published in the US. For example, that knocks out David Thompson's Thai Food and Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast, both essential books in my library but both republished in the states. I'm talking about books like Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery, an amazing little book that all fans of the hog should have and that is published in London. What are other titles worthy of our attentions?