abramer

My husband, son and I are traveling to Old Forge in a couple of weeks. The main point of the trip is a Boy Scouts alumni event, but I'm hoping to eat well too. Or, at least avoid eating badly. Any recommendations for the area? I'm hoping to find good diner food, and maybe a nicer sit down place. Any feedback would be welcome. If there are shops, farms, or other food destinations that shouldn't be missed, too, I'd appreciate any tips.

You can thank the late Robert C. Baker, a food scientist from Cornell University. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Baker (And yes, I learned this from the Paul and Storm song referenced in the Wikipedia article. Sad, I know.) ETA- Well, that's where the chicken nugget came from; not sure if he was responsible for the chicken finger or not. (Though it wouldn't surprise me.)

I'm absolutely guilty of buying things with no plans for consuming them. Far too often I find myself "saving" ingredients. For what, I'm not sure. Perhaps I'm terrified that I'll never find said interesting/delicious/exotic ingredient again? Frequently I "save" the item until well past its expiration date, swear not to do it again, and the cycle repeats. I do tend to clean out the pantry at least once a year, but usually it's because I can't fit everything in it anymore. Thanks for reminding me to use up some of those special items before I have to purge again. BTW, I like the orange crate idea!

I'm sure you'd rather buy it locally, but it does appear to be available online. Amazon has it through one of it's partner vendors. It looks like ordering it direct from the partner is cheaper. http://www.importfood.com/ I've got no experience ordering from this company, but Amazon usually partners with pretty reputable vendors, at least in my experience. Good luck!

A Central New York blog, YAY! My husband and I grew up in the suburbs of Syracuse, but we left almost ten years ago now. Our families are still there, so we get to visit now and then. Now I'm going to have to trek out to Wegman's for salt potatos, Hoffman hot dogs, and some corn on the cob. Looking forward to seeing what you're both doing this week!

The Spanish food importer, La Tienda, has a couple of options for you. We like the one labled as "by Can Solivera." http://www.tienda.com/food/olive_oil.html

I find the Reese ones to be pretty good. They will sometimes have the hard outer ring issue, but never have the "off" taste or texture that some brands do.

The only places I've been to in Europe are in Eastern Europe, so I can't really compare what I've liked to the cheeses of France. That said, besides the plethora of goat cheeses already mentioned, Frommage de Meaux (a pasturized version of Brie de Meaux) is quite good. The people I know who have had the real thing compare it favorably (a small step down, perhaps). Cowgirl Creamery also makes a pretty nice selection of soft cheeses, though some think they are over-priced.

I have had a ceramic/glass top stove for approximately a year. Is that the type you mean? If so... The Pros: It's pretty easy to clean, looks nice, and can do double duty as extra counter space when I need it. The Cons: A sampling from the manual: you cannot use pans that are glass or ceramic. All pans must be completely flat on the bottom (no warping, or textures). Pans must be exactly the same size as the burner. Certain metals are recommended for pans due to how quickly heat is diffused into the pan (i.e. cast iron isn't recommended). The reasoning behind these "rules" are twofold, to prevent cracks from developing in the glass surface, and to prevent scratching. (Cracks are caused by extreme heat changes, and mean that the stovetop will need to be replaced before further use.) Oh, you cannot place items from the oven directly on the stove surface either. (We now have a cooling rack or trivet on the stove at all times.) The manual also states that you should not remove a pan from the burner until it has cooled sufficiently. This can cause problems, as I'm sure you can imagine. I'm not certain how rigorous one needs to be with these "rules." I haven't pushed the envelope on them too much, since I don't want to have to replace the stove top ($$). I have, however, read that a number of these bits from the manual are overly-cautious. With that out of the way, the utility of the stove is similar to an electric coil model. The burners cycle on and off during cooking just like on a coil stove. All of the standard heat-control issues are there. I am a bit nervous about using this stove to make things like candy that require a bit more control and quick removal from heat. Really, I don't dislike this beast any more than I did the coil stove that it replaced. The ease of cleaning it makes up for quite a few of it's other problems, and once you're past the learning curve, you get used to its idiosyncrasies. I am looking forward to a day when I can use gas again though. I'd say get ahold of the manual if you can to see what you're in for.

For me it's onions. Raw, cooked, it doesn't matter. I'm generally a very adventurous eater, but it can be difficult when onions are such a vital part of many cuisines. The only way I can deal with them is if they're cooked down, and become an unrecognizable background element. Like others have mentioned before in this tread, I continually try to enjoy them, but it hasn't happened yet.

My husband and I split shares with another couple for two years. While we enjoyed the service, we found that we were overwhelmed with the amount of produce, and ended up not using too much of what we got. If I were more organized and had more room, I probably would have frozen and/or canned a lot of what we received. The two years we participated also had less-than-stellar weather. The first year had a mild draught, and the second year they had flooded or nearly-flooded fields. While we did receive a LOT of produce, we found that we kept getting the same things in our bins, sometimes they were things we don't use a lot. As a member of the farm, you take a similar, though obviously much smaller, gamble to what the farmer does. You just don't know what will grow well each year. We did go out to the farm a few times for u-pick, especially for berries, asparagus and later in the year, pumpkins. They generally don't put the more perishable (squashable) produce into the bins that go out. They do supply smaller pumpkins in the bins, but to get the big ones you have to go to them. Being able to pick what we wanted, within the designated limits, was a great benefit but we didn't get out there very much. I loved coming home once a week to find out what was on our doorstep. It was like opening up a weekly present. I miss that. The people who own Great Country Farms are very enthusiastic about what they do, and are very friendly. I would highly recommend them for a family that goes through a lot of produce. For us, the farmers market works better. If you join, make sure you don't miss u-pick asparagus. There's nothing like eating it the day it was picked!

Though most of mine have already been listed, I just have to add a few... Stuffed-crust pizza from Pizza Hut. What could make pizza better than more cheese? Jreck Sub's seafood sub with provalone, lettuce and tomato on a white sub roll. Only the lettuce and tomato approach real food, but YUM - I love them anyways. Wendy's Bacon Mushroom Melt (when they have it, it's a specialty item). Definitely a heart-attack waiting to happen. Chili's Boneless Buffalo Wings with plenty of blue cheese dressing.

It is really annoying... It actually starts to hurt my eyes after a while and if I don't have really good lighting I can't read it at all... ← Amen, amen, amen. What were they thinking? ← That's exactly it. Considering how much time and money they put into that book, you would think they would have realized that shade wasn't a good choice. ← I understand that this "decision" was made at the publishers, not by the folks at Gourmet.

Our traditional egg salad has chopped up green olives (the kind with the pimentos in them) in it. Sounds odd to many, but boy is it good.

When I worked in a deli ages ago, and we produced meat and cheese platters, the general rule of thumb was a quarter pound of meat per person, and about one pound of cheese for every five pounds of meat. Depending on your crowd, you can adjust that, but I've found that it's a good starting point when using this calculation for my own events. The only thing to be aware of is that the quarter pound per person rule doesn't work for salami. People don't tend to put as much of that on a sandwich, and you get a lot of slices by weight.

Hello all! I've been (mostly) lurking on eGullet for a while now, but didn't have a lot to post about. Until now. Based on the recommendations of this thread, I convinced my husband and a friend of ours to go to Nectar last night. What a great experience. While we all LOVE food (perhaps a bit too much), none of us have done a lot of fine dining. The little we have done has, on occasion, made us feel out of place and uncomfortable because of an overly-formal or pretentious service. Not at Nectar. The service was very attentive, friendly and accommodating. I'd say they made us feel at home, but home isn't that nice... While all of the food was lovely, the real stand-outs for us have been mentioned here before. The pumpkin soup, the asiago bread and the cheese plate were way beyond our expectations. I am something of a cheese addict (my husband would probably say that this is an under-statement). When I have gone to other places offering cheese plates, I have often been disappointed to find that I have already tried all of their selections. At Nectar, I had only previously tried one of the five cheeses, and had only heard of one other. Very special for a cheese-head like me. We'll definitely be going back. We also plan to visit a number of the other places you all have recommended. Thanks eGullet members, and thanks to the Nectar crew for a great night!

Hello! This is my first eGullet post. I thought you might be interested in seeing the following: WDW Update from MousePlanet - Food and Wine Fest MousePlanet is a nice unofficial Disney site, and they're generally on the money as far as these types of posts are concerned. This particular post has a lot of information about the specific events, and costs. There are still a number of "TBA" items, but some information is better than none. Enjoy!