Chris Amirault

It's a true fact. You need to be sure to order extra salsa for a quarter, though, so you have two of those dinky containers for your arepa. That stuff's magic.

Problem: lost the blade to my KA grinder attachment. Can't find replacements anywhere. Start coveting this grinder instead. Wonder where I'll get the money. Solution: Contact Ian at KA's customer service chat. He's sending me a new one for free! Yet another good KA customer service story.

Well, if that's bootlegging, I have confirmation that bootlegging is alive and well. Long conversation recently with a local liquor store owner, and he confirmed that his commitment to his customers often trumps his commitment to state statutes. No complaints here.

That Siesta looks great. Nope. It was bred to be sweet and boring.

I've futzed around with a margarita that included grapefruit and chili.

Russell Wong's remarkable and simple naw mai fon is a staple in our house. We have it with homemade lop yuk every other week, at least. Our go-to fresh pasta is made using Moby Pomerance's pasta recipe from his eGCI course. Flexible, easy, and very eggy. =Mark's aforementioned South Carolina sauce is the bomb. There's always a pint bottle of it on the fridge door in case we have to defrost some pulled pork. (Oh, and Dave the Cook's help on my butt was a revelation.) Can't fry without the latke techniques from the potato pancake eG Cook-Off, and can't make cassoulet without the tips from the cassoulet cook-off.

It would seem that turning back to the Savoy, Patrick Gavin Duffy, et al would be the thing to do, so as to get the benefit of pre-1978 ratios. Yes? No? And save Wondrich, do others have old bottles of this stuff?

With a mind toward making a Colonial Cocktail to post over at eje's Savoy masterwork, I bought two white grapefruits yesterday at Whole Foods. Juiced them just now, and the difference was stunning: one actually tasted tart, complex, and bright, with a strong aroma, the way a grapefruit should, and the other tasted like slightly off simple syrup and had a smell to match. With a good grapefruit, the Colonial Cocktail is a snappy drink with more complexity than you'd think. Quality grapefruit juice even has some bitter notes at the end. But, boy oh boy, when they're bad they're horrid.

I can't disagree.

After reading this topic a few times, I developed a desire to find Amer Picon somewhere, even if it was doomed to be a shadow of its former self. I also have done a bit of reading elsewhere, including this entry on Amer Picon at cocktaildb.com: So when I headed up to Federal Hill to visit Mark Gasbarro at Gasbarro's Wines looking for Aperol and Punt e Mes (found 'em), little did I know what else I'd find: Yes, that's an ATF label, which means that the bottle dates from before 1979. Sure enough: Did I say "bottle"? Actually, I bought both of the only two that were on the shelf. Each cost $13.99. I'm a bit giddy about it, frankly. I don't know what exactly I should or shouldn't do, as I don't want to scream through it. I've definitely had a few Wayne's World-ish "I'm not worthy"s in my brain. I'm thinking to start with a Brooklyn Cocktail, of course, but from there.... Thoughts?

It's a cliche, but cliches are cliches for a reason. Get to the Boqueria very early and sit at the far right end of the counter at Bar Pinotxo. Eat whatever breakfast Albert Asim, the affable chef at Bar Pinotxo, and family are making and drink cava with it. Their clams with eggs, garbanzos with sofregit, and virtually everything else are remarkable, and the experience is unique. You'll never complain about too little kitchen space or inadequate pans again.

The pan of salted water works -- see my peperone uptopic (best I ever had, btw) -- but it is also very hard to control.

I'd stop by Au Pied de Cochon and ask them who supplies their pork. I'd bet they'd share some of that local bounty, and -- of course -- it's remarkable stuff.

Over in the "Post Your New Cocktail Creations Here" topic, tkerby made an interesting observation: Since several of us are now making our own vanilla extract at home, and since This is a pretty smart fellow, I got to thinking. Aren't most things improved by vanilla? Not just frozen cream and sugar, either, but a whole host of savory and sweet dishes. I'd bet that there are a few drops of vanilla being added to things we'd never suspect. What items do you improve with a bit of the bean?

You can raise a great tomato variety in a lousy manner, producing a lousy tomato -- but one you can still call "heirloom." And, while we're complaining, I'd add that some heirloom varieties aren't very well balanced, thus producing too sweet, too watery, or insufficiently tomato-y qualities. Not all heirlooms are good fruit.

Mitch Weinstein is jumping in as a new host, ready to aid us in our consuming desires. He'll be hosting here in KC as well as in NY and Cooking. Go Mitch!

Folks, please join me in welcoming Mitch Weinstein to our gang o' cooks. Mitch will be hosting in Cooking as well as in NY and Kitchen Consumer. Slap him on the back here!

Folks, please join me in welcoming Mitch Weinstein to our happy volunteer fold. Mitch will be hosting in NY as well as in Kitchen Consumer and Cooking. Please make him feel at home!

There's also much discussion of sauce and sauciness here in the pad thai eG Cook-Off.

Thanks. I'm ogling this Presto stainless skillet right now. Anyone got it?

Thanks, Marlene. It really makes sense that the problem would be the removable base, when you think of it: at Target, when I lifted off the pan, I was surprised at both its light weight and the gap between the pan and the heating element.

The leftover glaze and the ribs: The turned out well, though I think that a bit more time in both the oven and on the grill (the latter off to the side) might have been a good idea.

What qualities in the canned stuff do you wish to emulate? Emulsification of the ingredients?

That was also my initial hesitation, but it is night impossible to find these things in non-non-stick. Marlene, is that the same skillet as the one you bought? I can't get that link from two years ago to work.

Had a great experience talking to Martha Cargoe, the manager of J&J Variety Store, whose subtitle is "Best African Store," and it seems to be true. They didn't have a lot of fresh produce there -- though you can get a lot of African produce from Compare Foods and other small produce shops in town -- but they had cooking equipment, palm oil, frozen meats, lots of flours and beans, and more. Plus there's Martha, who's a gem.