MarketStEl

I can answer that one since my favorite is Jiff. I'm assuming he means any pb other than the natural stuff( just ground peanuts) ← Putting on my usage-maven hat: The word your hubby really wants is "additives." The unnatural brands of peanut butter all add ingredients intended to keep the oil from separating (mono- and diglycerides), sweeteners (sugar, molasses) and maybe ingredients to make the consistency smoother (at least that's what I assume the small amounts of partially and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils are doing in Jif--funny, though, the nutrition facts label says that the product has 0 grams of trans fat per 2-tablespoon serving, so it must be a small amount indeed), but no preservatives. Peanut butter without additives keeps a good long time--you just have to stir the oil back in.

Good evening, Fabby! SEPTA's been running on a holiday schedule, so I had to wait for a couple of hours before I could arrive at this blog. Sorry I got here late. I couldn't identify all the various tomato varieties on your plate if I tried, except to say that one looks kinda like a Brandywine. I'm looking forward to more fabulous food as well as any suggestions you may have about things to do with duck fat. (Actually, I had one today while eating lunch in Widener's dining hall [i had to shoot photos at freshman move-in]: Grilled cheese sandwiches. I did note on Sunday that the omelets I cooked in duck fat had a slightly sweeter flavor and browned without burning.)

Thank you both! This has been a wonderful blog. I see that my choice of Seattle as a reference in my own earlier blog (for cities whose food cultures are a unique confluence of location and time) was a good one. BTW, on the way back from the H-Mart at 69th Street yesterday, I stopped into DiBruno's and bought some duck fat. At $9 for 7 ounces, I probably won't be buying it that often, but I'm eager to experiment with it now that I have some. I'll keep you all posted on what I do. And "hed" is a word--within the newspaper trade. It's short for "headline." Then again, newspaper editors also have an unusual spelling for "lead (paragraph)": "lede." I don't think that last term is in the Scrabble dictionary either.

Judging from that description, "tebasaki" is Japanese for "Buffalo wing." They look and sound delicious! But there's no recipe linked from that blog post. Know of anyplace I could get my hands on one?

Yeah, Doc, I'm afraid you're a statistical outlier. Though I've been known to enjoy fries with nothing on 'em but Old Bay. Old Bay fries are a nice change of pace. (And I did have some really good "Cajun fries" at a little New Orleans place in Chester that I wrote about on the Pennsylvania board. Look for the post titled "De' Essence of New Orleans: Cajun. Creole. Chester?") My favorite fry dip is ketchup and mustard (traditional yellow or spicy brown) mixed together. But I've also dipped 'em in mayo (plain and seasoned), A1 Sauce, and Heinz 57 Sauce. And I'm going to have to try some of the other concoctions posted on this thread as well. Especially that "five red sauce."

I just posted my comments about Good Dog on metrolist.info, a new local craigslist-style board started by a friend of mine. It's nothing you haven't heard before, phrased differently. Except that I didn't notice the presence of foie gras in the burger. But I guess that was what gave it its rich taste.

Following myself up because I just noticed something that might explain this. The streets between Washington and Oregon avenues are named for Pennsylvania governors, IIRC. What's Federal Street doing in this sequence anyway?

Hmmm. Can anyone shed light on this? ← I doubt I can shed real light on this, but as a former Penn employee and someone who is pretty familiar with Aramark dining operations (and smoked gouda cheese) by now, I can offer an interpretation of the text. Since the space is managed by Aramark, it is technically part of the campus dining services. You will note from the article that students can use their flex dining credits to eat there. Aramark's main concern with the space is to maximize the amount of student dining revenue it receives. Anything aside from that is gravy, and probably goes to the contractor anyway (depending on how the agreement is structured; it could be some other arrangement, but I will wager that it's probably pretty much like a standard commercial lease except that the tenant also agrees to accept Dining Dollars as payment). It seems to me that Tony Luke and John Cipollini were referring to the same problem in their comments. Tony Luke could have been making out like a bandit in that space--and judging from Cipollini's comment about the street business it got, he was--but if the students weren't coming in, Aramark wasn't getting what it wanted out of the deal. So sayonara, Tony, it's been nice knowin' ya.

Don't think Five Guys will meet this criterion. They use a standard restaurant grill, and the cheese is American. (Edited to add: Oops! Scratch the comment about the cheese. They do offer you a choice of cheeses--American, cheddar and provolone. I think they may offer Swiss as well, but don't quote me on that.) However, the tomatoes were real ripe ones--and this is one of the few occasions where I ate them on the burger. As I'm a ketchup-and-mustard guy myself, I can't vouch for the mayo. Moving back to the topic at hand, price aside, it does sound like Bootsie's has seriously good fare from these initial reports, pace the comments about the hot dogs. And if I can afford to plunk down $10 at Good Dog or $15 at Rouge every now and then, I can certainly afford to go there. Take a good look at the avatar attached to this post, simply_perfect. Someone bearing a strong resemblance to it will be walking through your door before long.

I miss the "crying tiger" dishes Jow's hubby used to fix at that now-defunct Thai food truck at Penn and at Jow's Garden (also now gone) in U-City. I can't remember his name; it was difficult to spell and to pronounce. But he was a great guy, and I hope he is doing well wherever he may now be.

Yes, he wants to make everything spicy all the time! I just stopped him from adding hot sauce to tonight's pork belly dish, because what if some of our guests don't like spicy food? ← Serve 'em dairy products on the side (I know, I know--that's alien to Chinese cuisine), or send the dish to me. Thanks, everyone, for all the tips on how to use duck fat. I just hope it keeps as long as butter does under refrigeration, because I probably won't be using it that often--I'm trying to lose weight, and it's bad enough that I still indulge my cheese jones as much as I do. But I will try them all, eventually. Even the white sauce. This has been a fabulous blog, and a textbook example of a "labor of love."

The Five Guys in Delaware has a sign that states that all burgers are prepared well done so I suspect it's (like Jake's burgers in DE) another slap in the face for customers. I like my burgers rare but I can put up with well done but still juicy. But it seems that there are some line cooks that figure a few extra minutes cooking time won't hurt but in reality it's not the case. ← Count me in with Bluehensfan (BTW, your avatar is broken). I can deal with a well done burger if it's not well done to the point of dryness. Five Guys--at least the one on Chestnut--gets its burgers off the grill and onto the bun while they still have juices left in them. That said, medium rare is where I prefer mine.

If by "properly cooked" you mean "not brown all the way through," you're going to be disappointed. Their policy--posted on a sign at the order counter--is to cook all burgers well done, and no, don't ask. Judging from comments I've seen elsewhere, this policy applies to all their locations.

I don't have a problem with that aspect of BSCB at all. I like playing with sauces, and while I've gotten over those college-dining-hall encounters with tofu that left me scarred for life (or nearly so), I still prefer the texture and mouthfeel of chicken to that of tofu. And besides, if you get good ones, they are fine grilled with just a little salt or seasoned salt or rosemary. Dark meat does have more character, though. It's exactly the reverse in the US. Chicken breasts are three to four times as expensive as thighs. Oddly enough, chicken wings--the least meaty part of the bird--have gotten to the point where they are closing in on breasts in price, thanks to the popularity of Buffalo wings.

Okay, a few questions: 1) How am I, a mere cook, going to be transformed into a real gourmet chef simply by replacing butter with rendered duck fat? Aren't there some more steps involved? 2) And where should I use it? I'm assuming that I shouldn't make biscuits with it, but are they suggesting that I should use this for my white sauce? To baste the turkey at Thanksgiving? To sauté? In puff pastry?

.org, Michael, .org...

Coming soon to a theater near you: "Gorgonzola vs. Panzarella" -- you'll cringe as these two titans stomp Italy flat in their quest to determine whose marinara is the beast, er, best!

Yer right. It is funny too.

And the first episode is devoted to...?

Oops! Having completely missed the fact that an entire page of posts had intervened between the ones I replied to and my reply, I see that this discussion has gotten past the initial heat to the point where some light had been shed, including some useful information about the reporter. Still, now that the full text is available, everyone participating in this discussion can reach their own conclusions about whether we were too hard on her or not. Fat Guy's subsequent comments on his own development as a food writer suggests that maybe we have been. And his point about how editors think is worth keeping in mind. What most J-schools teach their students is the mechanics of their craft, not the substance of what they will cover. (I still remember to this day the advice the managing editor of The Kansas City Star gave me as I was about to head from their newsroom to college: "You already know how to write news stories. Major in something you want to write about." So political science it was. Funny--I've written about just about everything but politics for pay since.) The substantive stuff, it's assumed, they will get in their electives or pick up as they go along once they're working. So to the extent that I haven't given Ms. Hale the benefit of the doubt, I apologize. But she was not well served by both the editor who threw her into the shark tank and her lack of preparation for the swim.

Exactly. Well, a little more than that. After all, you all are conversing with, among others, a Kansas Citian by birth who asked for "chocolate mouse" on his first visit to a French restaurant. I think that what made this restaurant review so incredibly diss-worthy is the sense you get from the writing that the writer really hasn't ventured too far off the block. The writer's sensibility struck me as closer to what I might expect from a high school or college reporter who has yet to acquire his or her sea legs. I wouldn't fault a food writer for a decent regional newspaper for not being up on molecular gastronomy or other current fads. I would fault her for not even knowing the basics of fine dining. And that would be true even if she hadn't taken French in high school. Her point on menus is obviously a salient one, based on followups to my previous post, but something about the way she said it left me with the impression that it was a simplistic judgement. So I responded with a simplistic one-liner.

And "panzarotti" is...?

[emphasis added] Oh. So that's why my kitchen smokes up when I'm broiling things! Funny thing is, the first range and oven I ever cooked on were electric. You'd think I'd have learned this back then. You'd be wrong.

Actually, it was my impression that boneless, skinless chicken breasts became popular only after the nutrition gurus pronounced them just about the only acceptable form of land-based animal protein one could eat. (The dark meat's too fatty, don'tcha know?)

Seconding Russ here, I would suggest to you that you would find people who would scratch their heads and look at you funny if you started talking about foams, emulsions, and other foods-as-chemical-compounds in vast swaths of New York City, even. But "I would have accidentally ordered goose liver pate as an appetizer"? Is Chicago on another planet in the eyes of Hoosiers? The first paragraph of the Gawker snippet of her review is equally mind-boggling: Shorter menus are a sure sign of quality? Maybe, if the only places you'd been eating all these years are Ruby Tuesdayesque something-for-everyone places.