Chris Amirault

Yep -- at least in RI they are!

menton1 already started a weiner thread here. But I'm curious about which restaurants you chose. I think that most places that have "chowder" get it from a can, and that means the thick white stuff. Do tell!

There are two "Olneyville" shops, one in Olneyville and one on Rt. 2 (Reservoir Ave) in Cranston. They're reputed to be the best, though I prefer the Original on Smith. However, the Olneyville ones have excellent merchandise, including t-shirts and the spice mix for the chili sauce! There are many others, including the two already mentioned. Lots of lunch counters serve NY Systems as part of their standard menu.

Not sure what you're arguing with here, menton1. Comparing Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts is like comparing Taco Bell to Chili's: two different things entirely. DD's roast is quite intentionally much lighter than Starbucks. In my foodblog (a "previous thread, now locked"), much to Daddy-A's horror, I drank an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts; Jason replied to say it isn't so bad for big corporate coffee. I posted a short agreement with him, saying, Joke-making, and not myth-making, going on there, dude.

Most excellent, Abra! We'll be here for moral support along the way!

I have a simple question that you cannot possibly answer definitively in a forum like this -- but given the role you play in our appreciation of authenticity, I can't help but ask! Whenever I make a dish from one of your cookbooks, I am struck by something -- flavor, balance, aroma, composition, who knows -- that I can only describe as the authentic quality of the recipe. Authenticity seems both your foundational goal and yet something that may be ineffable, ultimately, with most dishes. How do you define "authenticity"? Does it even have a place in your lexicon? If so, what role does it play in your conceptualization of a dish, cuisine, or tradition?

Diana, thanks for weighing in! Do you have address and phone information about those shops?

Check out the eGCI knife sharpening and maintenance course.

The only way I'd let someone call me "Chef" is if I dressed up like Hector Boiardi at Hallowe'en. Which is not bloody likely.

After reading through Ron's Reagan Meats and Zier's Prime Meats threads in the Heartland forum, I started feeling pretty pissy about the choices down here. Back in the day, there was a good butcher on Atwells Ave in Providence called House of Veal, but they've been gone for a while; there is a good carnicaria on Gano, but their beef is ordinary. Indeed, there are no great butchers around Providence of which I'm aware. Surely there are some good butchers in New England, aren't there? Do you know of any?

Return with a camera, for those of us who are butcher-deprived, please, Ron!!

Oops -- sorry! Here are the photos. The larb with diced cucumbers in it -- I didn't want to make a separate cucumber salad -- and the shallots: And the pomelo salad:

Update, please, Emma -- with photos if possible!

Kent, the world need to know on what menus the word "yummy" is found!! I hope Dairy Queen trademarked "scrumdillyicious"....

The pomelos have returned to our Asian grocery stores, so it was time to larb, baby! Made a basic larb gai with thigh meat that suffered a tad from a somewhat tired roasted rice powder (the lemon grass in particular had flattened out) and a lack of galangal, but it was playing second fiddle to the pomelo salad in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: pomelo, toasted coconut, shallots, bird peppers, lime, fish sauce, mint, sugar. Fantastic! Larb tip, which may have appeared somewhere among the gazillion posts above: buy a jar of fried shallots to sprinkle onto your larb. The caramel crunch is a great foil for the tang of the larb.

I found an earlier topic on menu language and merged it with this more recent thread.

Family style always, and we eat meals I prepare at home 5 or 6 nights a week. Cooking vessels if I don't mind the residual heat, bowls otherwise (Blue Heaven or Pyrex, for those who care about midcentury modern stuff). The rice machine bowl usually makes an appearance. No linens or tablecloth, I'm afraid, either. Food and conversation are the main focus for us.

Great stuff, Megan! What was the temperature in there?

Daniel, you are the man! Many, many photos of this process, s'il vous plait!

I was just in Whole Foods and saw a big display of the new Mario Batali line of cooking items. The little mise en place cups seem like a great cheap gift (5 for $10), and there were a few other things, but I was blown away by the enameled cookware. (Click here for a link to the Batali cookware at italiankitchen.com). The 6 qt dutch oven has a stainless knob, self-basting spikes a la Staub, incredible heft, and some very fine enamel -- at least on the one I inspected in the store. They also look great. Finally, at $99, it's half the price or better of a similar Le Creuset dutch oven. There's also a lasagna pan (nice enough but not for me) and a panini press (ditto). Any one try any of these? Planning to buy one for yourself or someone else?

What? 3,612? Are you serious? Game over, you win, man! Please, what's the story?

$2/lime -- in Australia?! That seems counter-intuitive to me. I can understand why Gdansk or Calgary might have expensive limes, but not Canberra. What gives?

Is it me, or does Gourmet come up with a new perfect way to cook turkey every twelve months, give or take?

I agree with Linda, and I think that this also applies to curries, ground dishes (like larb), grilled dishes, and so on. Let's also remember that some classic Chinese-American dishes use only thigh meat, like General Cho/Tso's Chicken. Those little nuggets have a very different texture than do breast meat chunks, which would ruin dishes like that. There's also the haphazardness of thigh meat. It's pretty impossible to cut into 1/2" dice with any precision. I like that, most of the time. If someone has Harold McGee at hand, you could look up white and dark meat and find out how they are different.

Nope. I think that most Americans have been conditioned to prefer breast meat. There's also the impression of going low-rent: at gatherings with my extended family, for example, if we were to serve BBQ chicken thighs instead of breasts, we'd be considered rude!