johnder

Sweet Marias started selling roasted beans a while back - they roast on Monday, so you have to have the beans shipped then (or pick up if you're in the area). Roastmaster's Choice ← Well I stand corrected. I guess I should have stuck with my original instinct on them. That is a great idea to check your home roasting against their roast, I will have to give that a shot. John

Given you are in San Diego you can take advantage of cheap shipping Sweet Maria's in Oakland. I personally buy their green beans (Liquid Amber) and roast them in an I-Roast home roaster. In my original post I thought they offerred pre-roasted beans, but after checking again, they don't. Guess they only sell Green beans. John

I am finding myself in Chicago next week (not for the kitchen and bath trade show unfortunately) having to deal with the effects of every single hotel worth a salt being sold out. My one beacon of hope if the fact I was able to secure a 8pm table at Moto for Thursday. Totally looking forward to that. I have been watching this thread for a while and my mouth has been watering. I will be sure to report back after the dinner with my findings. John

And sparkling - Pol Roger by the glass, also used in their cocktails calling for Champagne. Drool. ← Oh thats right -- how could I forget one my favorite drinks the Jimmy Roosevelt -- cognac, green Chartreuse, and Champagne over cracked ice and a bitter soaked sugar cube. Whoa nelly. A little dab will do ya.

Pegu does have wine by the glass, and they will happily serve you one, but from what I remember they only have 4-5 whites and 4-5 reds. (I never ordered wine there myself so I don't know of the exact number) If you want a wine bar I would suggest either Divine Bar on 51st street or Vintage New York Winebar on Broome street for a large selection of wines by the glass. John

Woo! Thanks for the tips. I am going to get cracking. Now where did I put my food dehydrator?

I have come into posession of an obscene amount of pineapple. (long story) I am trying to quickly use up as much as possible before it starts going bad and aside from using it in tarts and such -- I figure using it in cocktails would be a good way to plow through a few of them as well. I was thinking about using one to insfuse some neutral base, but I am also looking for some ideas for using it either muddled or passed through a juicer. I found a few recipes on the net that I may try including this one: fresh pineapple & orange chunks muddled with bitters, vanilla sugar, cognac, vanilla liqueur & fresh lemon juice, capped with crushed ice which looks interesting, but am open to other ideas. John

I second the Stein Erikson lodge. It was a really great meal and desert was definately amazing. We were a 6 top, and all got a different desert and not a miss among them. The view is amazing as well. It is somewhat pricey, but no more pricey than anything you will find on Main Street, and is a much higher quality of food. I would stay away from the new wine bar that opened up in town. (PM me if you want the name). When we were there in March skiing, we stopped in for a nightcap and although they did the best they could sprucing up their basement space, it still looks like someone built a bar in their basement and stuck a couple of buddahs around. They do have an amazing number of wines by the glass ranging from 8 bucks up to 40 bucks a glass, but I am still scratching my head how they can keep all those bottles fresh once opened.. I am sure they don't get a huge calling on a $40 glass of bordeaux so I would be weary of ordering it unless you see them opening the bottle, getting the last glass in that could be interesting. We did order a few glasses of wine (3 total) and were overcharged for all 3 resulting in inflating the tab from 29 to almost 74. They quickly corrected it, but it was quite an overcharge. We only had one round because the table we were at was right next to the live music that started right after we were seated, and while that wasn't to bad -- we decided we had to leave when the original poetry works inbetween original songs started.

This is going to be a hair mousse extravaganza of biblical proportions.

I totally agree! The quote from this guy is total bs: The fact he thinks too many things go into a Manhattan is crazy. I would think Bloody Mary's would be far worse in terms of ingredients. Mental note -- stay away from Cinch -- it's full name is Cinch Saloon btw -- I guess that should be a clue by itself. John

If you do applewood, and you see any form of their pork belly preperations on the menu definatley order that. It is always amazing. Ditto with his sweetbreads.

I would say sticking to the Park Slope list, the ones you should try to hit are: Applewood Rosewater Blue Ribbon Tempo. All are excellent, and would be and considering the reduced price an awesome value.

They are opening supposedly May 18th in the Bloomberg building -- One Beacon Court on 58th Street between Lexington and Third avenue. The chef Pierre Schaedelin will be returning to take the helm. There is a blurb about it over at Bloomberg that is amusing: Edit: Fixed opening day from the 18th to the 30th per Fat Guys's message below.

Wow, you do indeed love Lychee. Specifically Lichido it seems from your other posts. Can't say I have tried it but according to bottlewatch.com I am not sure if I want to. Sounds like Alize.

Whoa -- talk about something I really don't want to experience again anytime soon. I found myself in the vicinity of TJ's today around 2pm, and decided to venture in. My first impression is they could have used a much bigger store. Actually I don't think they could have built a store big enough in NYC to handle the volume. While the "doorman" wasn't on duty, there was the "End of Line" signpost guy, and the checkout line wrapped from the front of the store around the side and almost all the way across the back of the store. I didn't manage to do a surgical strike and get everything pretty quickly that I wanted. List included: Chili Spiced Mango Habanero Pisatchios Chedder Horseradish Spread 3 Berry Granola Sesame Stix Thai Chili Lime Peanuts Mango Salsa Pinapple Salsa The shopping took maybe 8 minutes, the line took 20. Oh well, it wasn't the greatest experience, but now I get to gorge myself on chili mango slices. Yummm

Having grown up in NY, for me the schmear (shmear?) means everything bagel with cream cheese. Preferably from Terrace Bagels in Park Slope which I think makes the best bagles in NY, but we can take that to another topic. I never tried ordering a everything, shmear outside of NYC, I wonder what I would get.

Interesting article floating around the net, apparently a former porn star Natalie Oliveros know in the industry as "Savanna Samson" decided to be a winemaker and her first wine Sogno Uno received a 91 rating from Robert Parker. Here is one article and another article

I chickened out. It looked like a madhouse. I saw way more people going in that going out. From what the observer is reporting it was worse than I imagined. John

I am actually heading to the farmers market today, if it isn't too much of an asylum I may venture in.

On a hot summer night I like to serve a poached chicken breast over some some romaine hearts that were braised in nice salted butter and a touch of lemon. The resulting braising liquid is poured over the chicken. It is a great simple meal.

How would you define a romantic cocktail? Does it need to be pink/red? If not, I would go for either version of a French 75 -- very tasty. French 75 1 ounce gin 1/4 ounce lemon juice 1/8 ounce simple syrup 5 ounces chilled champagne Shake gin, lemon juice, and syrup with ice. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne and a long twist of lemon.

I would safely say that I would feel safer eating something cooked sous-vide than some random supermarket pre-ground beef. I am much more worried about ground beef -- to the point where if I need ground beef, I grind it myself. As people have mentioned, sous-vide has been around for years. It is hardly "trendy", it is just becoming more visible. Have you ever had beef stew, or other stew like dish from room service in a hotel? Sous-vide and they have been doing that for quite some time. I think there are far more important food safety issues that the NYC DOH can worry about than this.

Unfortunately this was predicitable. As the fad grew it would draw peoples attention some good, and some bad. I find it incredible that they are taking it to this extreme and imposing such hard fines.

I notice for your version of the manhattan you say to include "5 dashes pogash bitters" What is your bitter recipe based upon? John

Woo hoo, party on. Megan we should have drinks @ pegu to celebrate the closing of your fantastic blog. ( I will be sure to drink water, as I always do at pegu )