Chris Amirault

Click here for some related and possibly useful info at the mole poblano cook-off.

I believe that Dorothy Parker (or someone as smart as she) once said that the best thing to do with your obsessions is to foist them on others, so: I am here to assert that having a very wide range of stainless bowls -- varying sizes, different steepness levels, some with very flat bases, others with very curved bases -- is really useful. I have about 40 stainless bowls ranging from 1/2 cup to -- jeez, I dunno -- two gallons? I want a couple of bigger ones, though I may be tossed out of the house if I get it, as my partner seems to think that 40 is "more bowls than I need." But to that I say, "Fie!" I really do use all of them. Need to marinate some cubed meat? You want a flat-bottomed medium bowl so that the marinade doesn't seep down and leave some pieces dry. You want to beat a dozen eggs? You want that large, very concave bowl to keep the sloshing eggs in. Prepping for a stir-fry of some kind? Having eight 1/2 to 4 cup bowls with your ingredients means you take up the minimal amount of counter space and add little weight. We've also got lots of Pyrex bowls from 1/4 cup to their wonderful nesting large bowls, along with a few square ones. They're great for mixing when you need the weight of the bowl, and we use them for serving, too.

Grrr.... Stuck out here on the east coast.... I want photos, damn you! Many, many photos!!

Oh, man, that is a very, very cold diss. That's like "Ex-Lax Chocolate Layer Cake" on your birthday stuff....

I agree with Karen -- wildly variable, in fact.

I clearly need to change the title of this thread to reflect the zeitgeist here. So, let's hear your yard sale, thift shop, and junk heap food finds!! Please include prices and gloat when applicable.

These are certainly all composed salads, as far as I can tell. They conform to the definitions above, surely! And they're beautiful! What sorts of dressings are people using? Share -- and post your best on RecipeGullet!

These are pea eggplants. Very bitter, but I like them in rich currys to cut through the sweetness of the coconut milk. Not everybody agrees on this point though. ← You can also eat them raw as part of a vegetable plate (or, one might say, a composed salad) with nam prik, along with the slightly larger thai eggplants that sometimes get called apple eggplants.

So, given the fact that we're all on eGullet, what do you make of your spending some formative years slingin' burgers and killin' roaches at these places?

There's a few jokes in here somewhere of the "spit or swallow" variety, but I'm too well-behaved to point that out.

Okra? Mais oui, mon frere Brooks. All the finest people like okra, sure. Is it true that people who don't like okra -- you know, think it's slimy, don't like stuff like that in their mouth -- also don't like sex? Just askin'! Don't kill the messenger!

Oh, man, I can't believe I didn't think of this!!! There are probably a dozen of these at our local Savers.... You go!

Originally, I thought that this thread should focus on the following: But in response, members have been outing themselves as inveterate junk shoppers and yard-sale early birds (see above and below). So we're tweaking the thread to include all your finds, good, bad, and ugly. Let's hear it, flea marketeers!

Jeebus Crickey! You singlehandedly are plunging us toward the six-figure mark! A hearty welcome to you, my well-organized and -libraried fellow member! Those who are about to cook salute you!

I've had little luck with this myself, but I do know that some people like Scialo Brothers Bakery at 257 Atwells Ave ((401) 421-0986). Erin, do they have to be Italian? If not, Ursula's on Broad Street in Cranston does amazing stuff, much of it Austrian, but all of it very, very good. Perhaps they make a few Italian things.

Can you please alaborate as to the relationship of Tamarind juice and Pomegrenate syrup??!?! Did you use both as surely you don't mean Tamarind is from Pomegrenate? ← I will happily elaborate on my use of those ingredients; I'm certain that you, Almass, can elaborate on the relationship of the two ingredients in general. Binkyboots has the basic idea, if the other way around. Tamarind and pomegranate have a somewhat similar flavor profile -- not identical, and certainly one cannot be legitimately substituted for the other in most dishes. But this was Monday night supper using a new ingredient (the seven spice), not a research-based inquiry into authentic pomegranate-based sauces. So, when I wanted to have a sweet, sour, and fruity component in this very simple sauce, I tried to find my pomegranite syrup, but was out, and thus substituted the nearest thing I could find. That's all. And, mais oui, Almass, I surely don't mean tamarind is from pomegranate. Sheesh.

Johnnycakes for breakfast.

Nice salad -- and it must be nice to be a salad at your house, judging from the comfy pillow!

In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain points out that, if the bathroom's disgusting, the kitchen -- which is infinitely harder to clean -- is much, much worse.

I'll also cop to the lesser sins of frozen items (need spinach and peas on hand at all times for Indian food) and the odd prewashed, bagged salad greens or baby carrots. However, I really enjoy prepping after a long day of work, and would never buy the pre-cut, sauced, etc. packages. I can see why people would, though, for the reasons above. And I really think that there's a difference between precut celery for your stir fry and a La Choy meal that just gets dumped into a pan.

Back in the moussaka cook-off, Jason mentioned that he uses seven spice, and in response to my query he provided this reference: ← While in Tucson recently (of all places), I found some pre-mixed seven spice powder, which I finally used last night. I dry-rubbed some pork with it and salt, sauteed the chops in a skillet, then poured in some water and tamarind juice (out of pomegranate syrup): fantastic. So I'm interested to know more about this. What do people use it for besides pork (ahem) chops?

Wow. I had totally forgotten that my mother did that, too. It was actually recommended to us by our family doctor. The only difference is we called it "jello water." I seem to remember that it worked pretty well, too. If we had bad stomachs to the point of dry heaves, we'd have nothing other than jello water and ginger ale ice cubes for at least 24 hours. ← Ok, we need a food scientist to weigh in on this one. Can anyone explain the healing properties of jello juice? Ones that avoid images of truly horrible gelatin salads preferred, thanks very much.

I think the question for me is, "Seriously, where do some of you put your partners, children, pets, and furniture?" I've got a bookshelf in the hall outside the kitchen for frequently used cookbooks, another in the hall upstairs for cooking reference and food history, and a third in the basement for the magazines (Gourmet, Saveur, Cooks) -- and for stuff I don't use very often but can't bring myself to throw away. Sure, my partner skoffs at me for much of that stuff, but maybe someone will come to dinner and refuse to eat anything but lizard cooked in the Panamanian style -- and then who's laughing?!? Am I right, people?!?

Thanks for all the great replies. Are there any traditional preparations used with it? It seems to be a condiment or addition more than a central element of dishes, from what I'm reading.

Burger King for three weeks one spring -- quit right away. Something wacky going on there with the boss.... Then I took a job, which I had throughout my junior spring, that summer, and my senior fall, at Friendly's, an ice cream and luncheonette chain here in New England (and home to my biggest vice, butter crunch ice cream -- but I digress). I regularly worked the late shift (2-10 pm) in the Revere Beach shop that summer in BOH. On good beach days (hazy, hot, and humid), the early shift guy didn't show up, leaving me with dirty breakfast and lunch dishes filling every bus bin in the place, meaning I was washing dishes well past closing in a steamy hole. I kinda liked it -- and it cleared up my adolescent skin (or so I tell myself).