dans

deleted since I wasn't finished yet...

The problem is that we don't have 99.9% safe food. What we have is sampling of various points within the supply chain that have 99.9% safety. In most cases, the source of food borne ilness the mishandling by the people in the chain. What I'm complaining about is the lack of attention to food safety at the retail level where I have direct impact and control over what I purchase. Dan

Severl recent possts (and older ones, too) have discussed food safety issues. The topic du jour is Spinach tainted with e. coli that has been all over the news. Another recent one involved swordfish and parasites.. None of this is news to a lot of us here. With so many people directly involved with food and its sources, you would expect nothing less. My rant today is about our markets were food safety seems to be non-existent. Today, I went shopping for dinner. I was thinking that an appetizer of pan-seaed scalops might be nice. My wife is in-town and she loves them. They are easy to prepare and are pretty versatile. So I go into the local Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck as I've heard it referred to) and ask for some. I usually as the counter-man (are they really fish mongers or are they just clerks theat are rotated into the fish department for the day) to put them in a tub rather than a plastic bag since they are easier to work with when I cook them. Today I got the usual strange look and an added bonus. When I got the tub back it looked like he had killed a fly and put it in with my dinner. When I asked what it was that was in there, he said it wasbreading from an adjacent product (ready-to-cook fish of some sort). He was pretty indignant when I told him I didn't want my scallops breaded and would he prepare another 1/2 pound - and changing his gloves to ensure this next one was not cross-contaminated. Now, I'm not really that much of a curmudgeon. I will usually let a lot of things slide and me being too picky. But when it comes to my safety and health, I'm a little finicky. There are some local supermarket chains that I just won't shop at because they are just too dirty. And when I'm at the others, almost the first thing out of my mouth is to ask the counter help to change thier plastic gloves before preparing my order. I watched one clerk at the butcher counter fix up a package of chicken breasts for the customer before me and was reaching for my beef when I stopped him and asked if he was going to change his gloves. I could go on, but you are getting the picture. What is the problem with these places. Haven't they heard of food safety, sanitation and hygene or are they just thinking it doesn't apply to them? Has common sense taken a back seat to profits? What do you think? Have you encountered similar problems where you shop? Whaat is the reation when you point out the infraction?

Marcus Samuelson of Aquavit is originally from Ethiopia. Does that count? Dan

Thanks for all of the advice, it has been invaluable. One more question if you don't mind. What would be the best places for Chinese food or dim sum? Thanks Dan

The Spencer character from the Robert Parker novels is also supposed to be a good cook. There are a lot of food related references in them. Dan

How about Dr Kay Scarpetta the famous forensic patholigist in the books by Patricia Cornwell. The good doctor is known as quite the gourmet cook (primarily Italian) and even has a cookbook out (Food to Die For). Dan

Thanks for the recommendation. Well have to check out Rebecca's. I don't know why we were focused on the high end places. We've been looking for some nice bistro where we can have a nice dinner for two or sit at the bar when one of us is out of town. Or maybe a nice non-red sauce Italian place. We're having fun exploring, though. Dan

I don't know where you got your info, but that just isnt true. They make much more than a penny per gallon... ← Actually, I heard it on that bastion of honest to goodness journalism NPR. How could I ever mistrust them? Dan

Most gast stations these days are making a penny a gallon on the gas they sell. When the customer uses a credit card to pay, that effetively negates any profit on the sale. In order to stay in business, the gas station is now a convenience store and all the profits are reaped from the inside sales not on gas. Dan

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We'll find it useful as we explore. Our brief stays so far have included dinenrs at Jean-Louis, Thomas Henckelmann and Wild Ginger. Of the three, I was very unimpressed with TH. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice place with a great atmostphere and wine list, but the food was horribly overcooked. Not just ours, ever plate I could see on a table or going by was overcooked. Too bad, nice place otherwise. A little rushed on the service also. Jean-Louis and Wild Ginger are keepers in my book. We had great meals there and will be going back. WG got a little loud, but that is the trend in restaurants lately and the wine list was not good at all. I'll overlook this since the food was really special. JL was top notch. Good service, food and wine list. Nothing bad to say about this place. Maybe we'll run into some of you in our travles in the area. We'd love to meet some new friends and maybe share meal and bottle of wine. Dan

Properly seasoned the Staub should be just as good, if not better, than the LC. I use a cast iron skillet all the time but I also use my LC dutch ovens. I love them both but have never tried the Staub dutch oven. A couple of restaurants near us use the tiny staub ducth ovens to server various foods in (mashed potatoes, mac&cheese, etc.). In these places, I find that there are off-flavors in the food. I've often wonderd what is going on there and about the only thing I can think of is that they are cleaning them so the seasoning is gone and the flavors work thier way int the pot and are released during cooking. It's a turn-off. Dan

Tess is quite correct. They are great with Foie Gras. Either stuff them with the FG or saute the FG and server the prunes on the side using some of the Armagnac in the sauce (watch out for flame ups). Other ideas, instead of the FG, cook up you favorite cut of steak and serve the prunes on the side. Dan

Chicken! It is raised in the most inhumane of settings. When people find out how these birds are raised, the fight over Foie Gras will seem small. Only kidding. No one really cares how thier colorless, tasteless, BSCB are raised... Dan

My wife and I will be moving the the Stamford, CT area shortly. We would like to know about the places serious foodies require. Shops that sell gourmet foods. wine shops, etc. Restaurants would be helpful too. Thanks Dan

Don't be fooled. Jasper White's Summer shack SUCKS! There are better fast food places. Don't go! Stay away. As for East Coast Grill, I've never had a good meal at one of Chris Schlesinger's restaurants. ECG, had cockroaches running across the table. When he owned Back Eddy, they took a reservation and when we showed up a few minutes later they told us they had no water all evening and couldn't feed us. It may be just me, but every time I think of the Barking Crab, I remember how many times it has been closed by the health department. Maybe it is just me, but I wouldn't eat there on a dare. Olives is a has been. Some of Todd English's restaurants may be worth a trip, but there are better places. For good meals try Number 9 Park. It's one of the top places in town. We always have a good meal at Troquet. The better half has enjoyed Sibling Rivalry and B&G Oyster (also run by Barbara Lynch of #9Park). As for me, I try and avoid the North End restaurants. I think there are good restaurants there, but I find that no parking, no desserts and th ebum's rush to turn the table is not worht it. Stick to the other areas of town. Especially the south end (different than southie). Boy do I sound like a curmudgeon in this post. I want to tell you ther ARE a LOT of good restaurants in Boston. Just not the ones mentioned here. Just my opinion. Dan

In Chelmsford: Vincenzo's is a pretty good red sauce place. The veal parm is a sure hit with my wife. I can't talk about the Indian place (I didn't know about it until now) or Yoon Tong which I haven't tried. Another decent Italian place is Amici's on Summer St. (little more than a sub shop, but they do have decent food) At the other end of the plazz is Sakura which is really good sushi. There is a Thai place on Rt 110 heading towards Westford that we really like. For Chinese restaurants we like two. Bamboo (in Weestford actually) on Rt 110 and Sechuan Chef on Rt 4 in North Chelmsford. Places to stay away from Skip's on Rt 110. A "Blue hair" place with miserable food. Fresh Chow in Chelmsford center has no redeeming qualities. There is a restaurant just north of the "rotary" (at Rt 3 and Rt 4) that is not really that good either (I think it is Jimmy's or something). A little futher up is Bainbridge, which is your best bet this end of town. There are quite a few places in downtown area that are only open for lunch that I can't speak of. But if you want really good food, you have to leave town. The best restaurant in the area is Silk's at the Stonehedge Inn (Tyngsboro) - expensive but the food, service and wine list are top notch. It is somewhat formal (no jackets, but no jeans either) so if your kids aren't up to it, you should look elsewhere. The next best place is Michael Timothy's in Nashua. This is a more casual place that can get quite busy but hte food is good. Across the street is Surf Michael's seafood restaurant which is good, but not typical NE seafood place. I wish I could recommend more places, but this is really a culinary wasteland here. Most everything in town closes up by 8 or 9. When we travel, we force ourselves to eat either in town or choke down burgers at the 99 in Lowell. Dan

Oh how I know that feeling! I visisted every market in the area and asked about fat back. Every time I was handed salt pork. A few places even had it labeled "salt pork/fat back" Huh?!?! We wound up calling a few a the small markets in the ethnic communities near us. Try some Italian, Portugese, Spanish, etc. markets and see if they have any. Best of luck.

Can you tell me if this book is in English? I've got a lot of pro pastry/chocolate books and some are in French only. Looking at the supplied URL, I couldn't figure out what language this book is, but I'm presuming French only. Thanks Dan

Thanks for everyones help. I made my first batch tonight and they came out OK. A little too much nutmeg and some size variations, but they still tasted OK. I was wondering how to keep the size variation to a minimum. This batch seemed to have some really small ones, about the size of a chocolate cip and some longer ones, between 1/2 and 3/4 inch. My guess is that the motion of the basket needs to be more uniform. Any recomendations on coloring the noodles? One local restaurant serves spinach spaetzle. I'm not sure that this is done the same way as spinach pasta since there is less mixing and needing involved. Dan

My wife gave me a spatzle maker for Christmas this year. She loves these little noodles so I guess it si a hint to try making them at home. So what are the things I should watch out for in making them? Do you have any flavorings that you like to add? Can they be frozen (after cooking or before)? Thanks Dan

Interesting question. On top of our fridge it the microwave. There isn't a lot of counter space in our galley kitchen so we keep it there. It is actually kind of convenient. On the side that faces into the kitchn and behind the microwave we keep ceral and crackers. The other side faces the wall so there isn't any room to keep anything there. Dan

It isn't that bad to lift it. It's only when it's full that it gets really heavy. I use it mainly for brasing so I've never really had to lift a hot heavy pot too far. Into the oven and out again. My 18 qt stock pot is worse, but it has a spigot so I never lift that full either. Dan

It is just two of us here also. I have three different sizes of LC dutch ovens. I want to say they are 5 and 9 qt round and 15 qt oval (the largest they make). We use them a lot from making tomato sauce, to boiling potatoes and cooking pasta. We leave the middle size one on top of the stoev so it is ready anytime. I wanted a larger one than the 9 qt for ages. When we braise shanks, I find that it is a little small. We generally make four or more shanks at a time and it gets crowded. At one point we had signed up for the mailings at the outlet store in Kittery, ME and we kept getting coupons and notices of sales. One of the coupons was for a 35% (thirty five) discount. It was at that point we bought the 15 qt oval. Another coupon came in the mail a week ago. Dan

I, too, used to shop at the meat counter at the Acton store. I had a few problems with them so I stopped there. It is just my wife and I and one day they had a sale on roast beef. There was a particularly nice one on display but it was too big for just the two of us. When I asked them to cut a "steak about 1 1/2" inches thick" from it. The initial response was "What am I supposed to do with the other piece? After explaining that I would take both pieces he went off and cut the roast in half. This resulted in two pieces of meat that were too big to be considered a steak and too small for a roast. The reason I finally stopped shoping there was when I asked about getting a chicken breast spilt into two halves. The person was very accomodating and took the chicken over to the counter and cut is in half then wrapped it and gave it too me. Unfortunately, the counter where it was cut had ground beef all over it and he wound up cross contaminating both my chicken with the ground beef and the ground beef with the chicken. On top of all of that, the beef isn't anywhere near as flavorful as what I get from Dewar's or Lobel's. If I need a piece of beef and I can't get to Dewar's I go to the WQest Acton Supermarket. It is better than Roche Brothers but not as good as Dewar's. Dan