Chris Amirault

I'm not laughing! As this forum makes abundantly clear, bartending can be a whole lot more than just a second job. I'd read around and check out the wealth of expertise that you can find here from some of the best mixologists in the world. Having made that pitch: a few tips. Don't ignore the customers. I don't mind waiting a few minutes as long as you make eye contact and say, "Be with you as soon as I can." Pretending I'm not there makes me wonder if you've noticed me or not. Know what beers are on tap, what wines are available by the glass, and what scotches (or tequilas, or rums, or bourbons... whatever strengths the bar has) are on hand. Have a few tricks up your sleeve -- and I'm not talking about flipping the vodka bottle into the air before you make your cosmo. Perfect a few interesting classic cocktails that you can offer to the intrepid and bored, and, if you play it right, you can build a reputation as a true bartender and not just someone slingin' jello shots. Finally, I very strongly recommend reading Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology, which has an entire chapter devoted to these sorts of tips.

Just a quick administrative reminder: If you haven't already set "Your Location" on your Profile Info page, please do! (Just click on the "Options" button on the right of any window, and then click on "Edit Profile Info" on the left hand menu. The Profile Info page has a "Your Location" field; whatever you write there will appear below your avatar.) That way we can all see from where you're posting. Thanks!

Folks, I've edited the title to make it more reflective of the initial query by ravelda. There are a few other topics on cooking with pumpkins (to wit, pie, favorite baking recipes, soup... the list goes on) to peruse if you so desire!

I think that this gets to my title's reference to "inoffensive meals." I don't think we're talking about what people actually prefer. Rather, I think we're talking about what people believe is the least offensive menu choice, the one that is likely to prevent explicit objections and frustration. So, while everyone thinks that chicken is the best or most popular choice, it's really just the one that no one will send back.

Last night, I went to the annual banquet for the United Way of RI, and I had the following meal: tossed salad -- mostly iceberg lettuce with a few microgreens, tomato wedges, Italian dressing sliced Italian bread with butter and margarine penne pasta with red sauce and grated "Parmesan" cheese on the side roasted half of a chicken with roasted green beans and boiled then roasted potatoes slice of spumoni-flavored ice cream pie with oreo cookie crust I was at the table with some born-and-bred Rhode Islanders, a recent arrival from the Philadelphia area, and a couple raised in central Ohio that had lived in Corpus Christi TX. We got to talking about the typical, inoffensive banquet meals in different communities in which we had lived. Several of us had only had the pasta "course" (it's served at the same time as the main) in RI; the woman from Pennsylvania said that, while chicked was typical, she was more likely to see a split breast without the dark meat and with a mushroom sauce of some sort. It got me thinking about what sorts of meals different communities, broadly defined, would serve at these sorts of events. (Not events that are particularly defined by a specific ethnic or cultural group, mind you, but events intended to be inclusive.) It's my sense that the food decisions at these events are designed to minimize offense -- and that those decisions probably would say a lot about the the meaning of food and eating in the communities in which the events are held. So what would be served at one of these sorts of events in your community? I'm particularly interested to hear not only from different regions of the U.S. but also from different parts of the globe.

Thanks, kanljung. That Coleman Andrews book is fantastic; I'm reading it cover to cover. I thought I'd ask to see what the mushroom season has been like! Of course, if you have any other tips, please do shrae.

What's the tasting menu costing these days? And are reservations required/recommended/unneeded?

Bump. My wife and I will be in Barcelona shortly and we have to travel on a pretty tight budget. This topic has been very helpful, but I'm wondering if anyone has updates or additional information to share. Thanks.

That's a really good question. It's my sense (from talking to our grocers) that higher quality shaoxing has no salt, whereas the more typical shaoxing has it. I think that you might want to cut back on the added salt here as a result, or even eliminate it. After all, there's a good bit of soy in this as well.

I'd crack it open for sure.

The lop yuk is hanging in my third floor now after a pretty speedy dry & tie operation this morning. Here's what it looked like when I took it out of the cure and dried it with paper towels: I'll be very interested to see how the pieces that are nearly all fat will turn out. Next, I tied a piece of cord about 1/4 of the way down on each one: I've modified my set-up on the third floor a bit to allow access and egress on the stairs: There's a good cross breeze from windows, and the little fan helps out to keep the air moving. Here's a slightly closer shot of the lop yuk hanging. Right now, it's a bit too warm and moist, but the forecast is very good for the next several days: The transformation is magical -- and unlike the first time, I'm now not terrified of the result. I'm just hoping the family will keep the door to the third floor closed so that our coonhound doesn't decide it's time for a taste test.

What a wonderful, informative post, Ruth! Have you tried any of these combinations? Do you have a preference (cinnamon or no, sweeter or spicier)?

Thanks to Dave, or Janet, or Dave and Janet, I've been enjoying this "Margarita Castaneda" tonight: 2 oz tequila 1/2 oz lime juice 1/2 oz grapefruit juice 1/2 oz Maraschino

Bacon and sausage.

Make the duck ham in Ruhlman's book. It's absolutely fascinating for many reasons, and it ain't hog: a great place to start, I think! On the non-kosher side: I've got three slabs of pork belly curing in the fridge right now, two with Ruhlman's savory cure (garlic, black pepper, bay) and one with a reduced sugar maple cure, since my original attempts were producing bacon too sweet for my tastes.

I have two recommendations, both cheap, sturdy, and good for tight kitchen spaces -- though neither is found in the kitchen section. To solve a lighting problem in the space where our rolling cabinet usually sits (my main work station in the kitchen), I've installed a set of these IKEA Trettio lights under the wall shelving unit. They were very easy to install and I use them literally daily. The second the Ikea Frost clothes drying rack, which has been indispensable for drying pasta and sausages: The bars can be lowered to hang off the frame, but I remove them after each use and store them in the pantry so that they don't bang on the refrigerator door. You can see their uses here for sausage-making, and I use it throughout the rolling and cutting process when making fresh pasta.

To provide a bit of context in case folks don't know: in Saudi Arabia, a conservative Muslim country, all stores and shops must "close for business" during the daily prayers. If you don't get your groceries, get in line, and check out before the prayers start, then you wait outside the store -- probably with a few other slackers -- until they can reopen. In most large stores, however, they let you stand at the front of the store or in the foyer, and in the malls you can wait in the main halls but not in stores. Remember, it's probably 100-125F out there.

I had about four pounds of pork belly, much of it left over from bacon trim: I'm wondering how the more fatty strips will cure up. Here's that great shaoxing I've been using: I followed the directions very closely and have the strips marinating in the cure in the fridge: Tomorrow's looking hot, so I think I'm going to wait for the cold front that's coming through on Tuesday here to hang them . That means they're going to sit in the fridge for two days and not one. More then!

Thanks for the responses! I definitely don't want to get rid of all liquid -- it's crucial to the dish, I think -- but just to make it less watery. I hadn't heard of the dish towel trick, but it makes great sense, as does the plastic wrap. That last might work with the recipe for black bean sauce that I have been using (never from a can, Dejah! ), since it's pretty much liquid poured over the scallops. However, I'm leaning toward trying the dish towel and a drier "sauce" with mostly the beans, ginger, garlic, and a little dark soy. Thanks -- I'll check it out. I do have one of those great tri-armed plate grabbers now, which works like a charm.

After much tasting of different mixtures (insert joke about blurry photo here) I realized that I wanted equal amounts of the citrus and juniper but wanted to cut way back on the aromatic. Final proportions are 250ml citrus infusion, 250ml juniper infusion, 50ml aromatic infusion. It's pretty interesting but definitely tastes somewhat raw. The clean, bright juniper flavor atop gin is missing, replaced by a muddier note that is absolutely juniper but more harsh than bright. It also has less of gin's oily mouthfeel. Finally, as predicted, it's more bitter than the Tanqueray. Having said that, the jumble of flavors are more pronounced. It's not going to win any contests, but it might be an interesting "gin" for mixed drinks with several ingredients. To that end, I'm going to try it in a Corpse Reviver #2 once I get a lemon. Side note: you'll notice that I had about 200ml of the aromatic infusion left over. It's not nearly as bitter as a bitters, but it's pleasantly complex. I can see adding 1/4 oz of that to, say, a Manhattan or a Negroni. I infused all of them for the same time, only about 24 hours, much less than I thought I would. The citrus one infused very quickly, is nicely flavored and isn't bitter at all. (Thank you, bird's beak knife.) The aromatic one also infused quickly without much bitterness. However, the juniper infusion is by far the most bitter.

I've enjoyed trying to replicate at home a dish that we enjoy at our favorite Chinese restaurant (Lucky Garden in North Providence RI): steamed scallops on tofu with black bean sauce. As a sauce base, I've been using something from Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and I'm pretty happy with that, though I'd be happy if I could cut back on the corn starch. The other steps (pressing the tofu to release liquid, slicing the scallops in half on the bias, timing the steaming, pouring hot oil with sliced scallions over the top at service) I've got down pat. Here's the problem: most of the time, a lot of steam condenses on the plate, substantially diluting the black bean sauce. Tonight, because I was running a bit late on other prep, I put the dish with the tofu and scallops into the fridge for 20 minutes -- a bad mistake: the cold plate made an astonishing amount of water condense very quickly. This made me think that I should be placing the tofu and scallops onto a hot plate to reduce condensation. Right? But I've been wondering what else I can do to address this problem. In case details help, I have been using a heat-proof dinner plate for the dish, which sits on a raised rack in the bottom of a stainless steel stock pot. I've heard that bamboo steamers produce less condensation than metal (though I don't know why that would be: the cover, perhaps, doesn't drip?), but my steamers are too small for the normal dinner plates I use for this dish. Should I invest in a large one? In short: help!

I admit to some trepidation when I read about home distilling. Heat, alcohol, and enclosed pots scare me. So, to start, I'm sticking with infusion: I've decided on three 250 ml Stoli infusions. The first is the juniper (10g crushed a bit in a mortar); the second is the citrus rind (10g lemon, 5g lime, 5g orange, roughly minced); the third is the additional aromatics (5g cassia bark, 3g cardamom, 3g coriander, 3g anise, and 2 allspice berries for good measure, all crushed a bit as well). As you can see, within a couple of hours, the vodka had picked up some color from the ingredients, especially the first and last. I think that my "gin" is not going to be crystal clear, eh? One last thing. In an IM yesterday, Sam mentioned that this wasn't really the best way to make gin. He was right, of course -- but I'm hoping that it's a damned good way to use up vodka.

I'm no farmer, but it strikes me that three times in a change of water is called "washing," and three times in the same water is called "marinating."

What Susan said.

I don't, either, but that was how they explained what "bruised" meant.