Chris Amirault

Trinity Brewhouse is just across from the Dunkin Donuts Center, up the street from the Convention Center. Pretty good local brews. La Laiterie has great beer, of course, and a swell wine selection. For drinks, there are quite a few smallish bars downtown for a shot or two; we've got no Pegu Clubs in Providence. If you don't mind a musical mix that ranges from industrial to mambo to Eno, hit the Red Fez. Custom House Tavern is worth a stop, too. Finally, there are a lot of classic Providence joints in the jewelry district: check out Nobody's and Nick-a-Nee's for starters. Get to La Laiterie a bit early and you'll have your pick of charcuterie and cheese. Reflections on Wickenden and Governor, White Electric on Westminster, or Coffee Exchange on Wickenden near Benefit. Thanks for the propers. I don't violently disagree, but I'd substitute Chez Pascal for New Rivers, mebbe.

I'd also add to this list that the heat may have been too low. In the past, it may be that your smaller amount of beef vaporized the liquid quickly, producing fond, and you didn't even notice it.

My thoughts are with you, Marlene. Given the pig roast connection, I think butts are a good idea. I fed 20 with one 9 lb bone-in butt in late June, and that was the centerpiece protein; according to that math, you'd have to smoke a lot of butt! To vary the meat, you could also make some smoked chicken or turkey for those who don't eat pork. If you're going in that direction, I'd suggest some simple but really good do-ahead sides like refrigerator pickles and cole slaw.

Looks great! Egg wash on top and at the seal both?

I rub my hands together with glee.

I think it's more luscious, yes. (I can't believe I just used the word "luscious.")

I had smoked one without scoring, but wanted to try this. And if I had pix of the pulled pork, you'd have seen 'em. It got et too fast.

Up-topic I asked Chad about how to level my sharpening stones, and Chad responded in this post with the method that EdgePro recommends in their manual. (Insert joke here about men not reading manuals.) I thought I'd give it a try. Here's what the stone looked like before I started: You can see the dip in the stone pretty clearly. Here's the sand, which the manual states isn't really special sand: You dump a bit of sand on concrete, and then rub the stone in a circular motion on the sand: As the stone grinds away, the color lightens, and you can see that it is leveling off: Here's that same area after about ten minutes:

Thought I'd share a photo of a recent bone-in butt that I smoked in the Bradley. As you can see, I scored the skin and kept it on, which lead to a truly succulent butt: This was also the butt that got me thinking about the pink smoke ring.

Here in RI we have a similar situation with Rhody Fresh milk, which is not organic but is small-batch, very local, and heated only once for pasteurization at the lowest possible temperature. The organization started producing milk about two years ago and has overshot everyone's expectations. I don't think that they have an anti-corporate message like Ronnybrook does; I think that they just don't see the need to go through the organic certification process. It's our regular house milk, tastes great, and we waved at some of the cows whose milk we drink at Meadowburg Farms in Richmond yesterday on the way home from the beach. Can't do much better than that.

Just went to Citron for lunch, in the Brewed Awakenings space down in Union Station Plaza. It's only been open for two weeks, but... blech. First off, the menu is a disaster of major proportions. The design of the menu (including very strangely placed plus signs) makes it almost impossible to read, and obscures in particular the fantastic wine flight selection. The space itself is fine, built to accommodate the crush of after-work drinkers. The menu reads that way, too: lots of "updates" to bar food (it should be illegal to modify fried calamari in this town) with no real unifying theme. We started with a bowl of won ton soup -- mediocre won tons in a terrible instant boullion -- and flavorless lobster and corn fritters that had what tasted like frozen corn (in August) and slim shreds of lobster. One of my companions had a roasted vegetable medley that was just a mess, and the other had a salmon filet that was, strangely, accompanied by six lonely mussels, perhaps leftover from the "experimental special" of the day. My dish really took the cake, though. I ordered a duck confit salad that had a few potato chips, 1/4 c of frissee, and a dry, tasteless duck leg. It was so bad I'm still kind of shocked about it -- but clearly the kitchen knew how bad it was, because the server came out with a steak knife for me with which to cut it. If that isn't an acceptance of mediocrity, I don't know what is. The manager, David, came over to ask how everything was, and... well, at least he was polite in his discussion with us. He then asked us if we wanted coffee, which we all did. We were kinda shocked to see that everything showed up on the bill, given how lousy it was. Oh well. We'll not be back.

Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm glad that the ending prompted a reread and anticipation for part two; I was hoping it would have that effect! As the title suggests, I'll be picking up the comfort theme next installment. I wish that I could say I've learned my lesson about using eating for comfort in stressful situations, but it ain't so. You guessed right. I had participated in the preparation of one meal made by a group of male teachers, but I mainly handled rinky-dink presentation matters involving the proper sprinkling of zatar over chicken. I think that's an excellent point, and describes precisely how that lack of dates discomfited me. Eating a good date has a somewhat ritualistic quality to it, especially in Saudi Arabia. There are such complexities of texture and flavor in superb dates, the sort of which I have never eaten in the U.S. And then, of course, there's the spitting out of the pits, which are often turned into various forms of inexpensive jewelry (prayer beads, mostly), and so have their own sort of intrigue. Thanks -- and it's all true as true can be.

Just to be clear what a massive hypocrite I am on this subject, here I am weighing in on hot dogs: It's an irresistable urge, I tell you!

But I think that's a perfect example of Kent's point. I'm a huge Katz's fan and have been for decades. But "the best pastrami"? Even if you just mean in NYC, isn't that a stretch? And NYC is a small sample if you're talking about world domination! It's that rhetorical drive to assert something is "the best" that's at work here. I don't quite know how it works, but why do we need to say that some kind of food or a particular dish is "the best" at all? It's unprovable, of course.

Thanks for the notice, dvs! Here's a bit of the article: Members can send congratulatory PMs and emails directly to BryanZ. We'd be happy to host a discussion of the content of the article itself in General Food Topics. (For information on how to list a topic in Member News, see Welcome to the Member News forum!)

Ditto that.

American Public Media's Marketplace had a story on this very subject today, on the expansion of organic opportunities. The story emphasizes in particular that organic milk is flying off the shelves:

Dear Steven, I'm so ashamed! I am able to scrape enough pennies together every once in a while to visit a seriously wonderful place. When I do, I want to be able to experience, as best I can, the full range of that restaurant's skills. And that means that I often do the two things that seem to me to drive some restauranteurs nuts: order lots of apps and split like crazy. Sometimes the servers are fine with it, but other times, you can just see them calculating the lost tips they expect. (We tip extremely well, so that's not the point.) At a place like José Andrés's Zaytinya or a sushi joint, this is not an issue. But at other places structured around multi-course meals, well, sometimes I just I want to hide under my table!! Tell me, please: should I cease and desist this practice and visit only when I can pay a full ride? Or is my shame unnecessary? Sincerely, Hungry in Providence

Whole Foods had a great sale on fresh, wild swordfish, of all things, which I haven't had in any form for years and years. I cubed the thick 1 1/2 lb steah, oiled and salted the cubes, let 'em chill for an hour, impaled them on soaked bamboo skewers, grilled them over very hot coals, and served them with this mango and cucumber salad. Fantastic.

Thai Mango and Cucumber Salad I threw this together using some of the basic principles of Thai cooking: it's hot, sweet, salty, sour, and multitextural. Like all such dishes, the balance may take some tweaking. In particular, the ripeness of the mango is crucial, so if you can't find a good, ripe mango, you'll want to increase the sweetness with some sugar and cut back a bit on the lime juice. In addition, you want to balance the amount of cucumber and mango here. 1 ripe mango, diced 2 kirby or pickling cucumbers, diced 1 shallot, minced 2 T dessicated coconut (toast if you'd like) 2 T Thai basil chiffonade 2 T mint chiffonade 1 T roasted Thai chile powder (or to taste) 2 T fish sauce 2 T lime juice Combine ingredients and chill for 30 minutes to allow flavors to marry. Serve as a side with grilled fish, chicken, or pork. Keywords: Salad, Easy, Fruit, Hot and Spicy, Thai ( RG1773 )

Well, I'm quite sure that the folks I've come to know are very far from "porceline saints"! They aren't "country boys," either, though some might like that name a lot better than saint! And while I don't know the economics of small farming outside of New England very well, I do know that around here it's not a stereotype to refer to the financial challenges farmers face. Let's face it: it's possible for there to be no disrespect intended or received when buyers pay the agreed-upon price, and just as it's possible that one can haggle in respectful ways. S'all I'm sayin'.

I'm certainly not making the argument that the haggler is trying to take advantage of the seller (though it seems pretty clear to me that every haggle I've... um... haggled has been a wrestling match for control of advantage). I'm making the argument that, as I develop relationships each year, year in and year out, with the handful of farmers who bust their butts to provide produce in a precarious New England agricultural community, I like to select carefully and pay the prices they've requested -- or choose not to buy because things are more than I'd care to pay. It's just a matter of privileging relationships over product in this situation.

It is, indeed, indicative of the entire place, and has been so for much of its existinence. Wildly varying food as well.

I'd try La Laiterie. Say hi to eGulleter Matt Jenkins (stinkycheeseman) and Kate for me.

And you don't have to be a waking-up-in-the-gutter alcoholic to make regular drinking a logical, reasonable choice. Ok, maybe just a reasonable one. Not so sure about the logic part.