wordwiseguy

Ding, ding, ding. I love pizza! I love arugula. I'm seeing garlic on this pizza as well. What a perfect idea. ¡Muchas gracias!

Arugula has a very distinct flavor. Far superior in my opinion to the other leafy greens. I like it all by itself, but you can also add to mixed greens for additional kick. Some do include arugula actually. Give it a try by itself. Try one of the many awesome ideas people have been posting on this thread.

You guys are making my dinner plans for the next few days very easy.

Another great suggestion. Plus, risotto rocks too.

Arugula pesto sounds really good. Thanks. I'm gonna try that (As my mouth begins to water).

My love affair with the peppery leafed arugula has been going on for some time now, but recently it has heated up with addition of organic arugula at both my nearest super market and at the all new Fresh Market in town. Oh joy! I love this stuff. It taste amazing. It's good for you. What's not to love? I tend to eat it with either a basic balsamic dressing or with a little lemon juice and a dash of EVO, shaved parmesan and a sprinkling of kosher salt. I've used it as a bed for seafood dishes as well. But what else can I do with it? I'm looking for any reasonable excuse to eat it more often. Thoughts?

Maybe they did. I haven't seen the old espresso brownie lately in the case near my office. Damn I liked that brownie.

Ahhhhh market saturation.

Good question. The ones in stores like Target and the like are branded as Starbucks, so certainly they must carry the same stuff and be trained like all Starbucks employees. I know that back in my college days when I worked at Barnes and Noble, they had Barnes and Noble Cafes that "proudly brewed Starbucks coffee." I think that was the quote on the door. And if I'm not mistaken, the machines were provided by Starbucks as was the training. Seems to me like a great potention traffic driver to retail shops like Target and Albertsons and a cheap kiosk opportunity for Starbucks to sell more beans. Here in Birmingham I see people walking through Target with their latte in hand filling their cart with all kinds of stuff on a Saturday afternoon.

Wow. That sounds like a fabulous concoction. Oh what a weekend I'm gonna have.

Ahhhh yes, Bailey's in coffee. One of my favorite cold weather drinks. Thanks for the reminder. Now I must got out and secure my winter stock of this fabulous coffee addition.

I can't eat a grilled cheese sandwhich without strawberry or raspberry jelly. Mmmmm-mmmmmmmm.

I actually know current and former employees of Starbucks who hate making all the blended frozen drinks, so they'd concur with you on that one I suspect. And while I had a brief affair with the raspberry mocha chip variety of frappuccino, I've been clean for years. And let's not even talk about the humiliation of going to Starbucks with co-workers only to have them all order frappuccinos while I get something far more simple.

I'll eagerly await the new Birmingham Cafe Du Monde. Of course, to me, chicory coffee tends to only taste good when you're either actually at Cafe Du Monde or drinking it as part of a killer cafe sua da, while downing a bowl of pho.

Please, please, please don't use cottage cheese. I would say sneak in come ricotta if you can. You could add some parsley and oregano if you wanted. But, as a kid, my mom would always make lasagna with only mozarella, noodles and meat sauce. It's passable. Just be prepared for a cheese fest. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as you use good, fresh ingredients, you can't go wrong.

What a quandry. And that's the rub isn't it: While there is better, there certainly is worse. It never ceases to amaze me how some cofffee shops, who in name state very boldy what it is that they do, can get coffee making so wrong, so often. So here's a vote for consistency, even if it is consistently mediocre.

Ahhh, Eunny. Interesting. But I would ask why you'd ruin chocolate by paring it with anything that may detract from its greatness? With regard to chocolate I say: The darker the better. Keep it pure, keep it simple. And to hell with Hersheys and the rest. I could eat a bag of cocoa nibs. Cheers.

Amen to that. There is a certain comfort level in unknown cities, etc. I remember once I had this insanely early flight leaving Jacksonville, FL. I was barely awake and incoherent. Then, there it was, at the end of the main terminal, just before the concourse for Southwest, a Starbucks. A bright, happy Starbucks. People where frothing, steam was rising from the behind the machines. A line stretched out the door and I jumped right in.

That's sort of quasi-evil. Sort of the splenda of evil. Certainly understandable. Sadly, my biggest Starbucks addiction is the tripple grande raspberry latte. Unlike your drinks, you can get my favorite anywhere. So I have no excuse.

Here in Birmingham, folks where all in a tizzy when we got our first Startbucks. 5 million local locations later, including 2 with drive-thru service, a wide-eyed, highly caffeinated city asks the scalding question: Is all this Starbucking a good thing? I mean, after all, there are other options, right? Most cities, yes. But here in the Ham options are limited. You can get a good cup of coffee, but inconsistency reigns at local coffee houses and what you experience is largely a product of who happens to be scheduled. Oh the agony of walking several blocks only to see that today's barrista is one the bad list. Ok, this might be a small exageration. Fine. But we were all wishing for a Starbucks in Birmingham and now we have them everywhere. So, are we happy? Sure. But what about the rest of the country? Is Starbucks good for the coffee world or the evil java empire?

I haven't been to Solly's, but I grew up in Milwaukee and remember getting butter burgers in lots of places. As a kid we got them at a place called "The Pig n' Whistle" on Milwaukee's east side. There was also a place, I forget the name, where we got burgers called "sliders" and they were pretty rich too. Now I live in Birmingham, Alabama and I still put butter on the burgers I make at home. Yum.

I've heard a lot about Susan Notter. I am anxious to try this place. Maybe I'll get there this week. I checked out the AMBA website and I really like the look of the menu. Especially the dessert menu. Wow. As for Mizan Plaz, I'm gonna give them a shot too.

We make a regional Mexican dish called "tinga." There are lots of ways to make it and lots of times it has Chile Ancho in it, but I prefer tinga with chicken and habanero peppers. INGREDIENTS: 2 tablespoons Olive Oil 1/2 medium white onion, diced. 2-3 boneless chicken breasts. 1 habanero pepper, halved 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 1 cup of water 3 tablespoons tomato paste (you may need to play with this for proper consistency. Not too thick, not too watery) salt and pepper to taste. First saute some onions and olive oil in a deep skillet or saucepan. When soft, add the chicken and cook it until done. Then shred the chicken and return it to the skillet or saucepan. To this add a cup or so of water to sort of deglaze the pan creating the base for a sauce. To this add tomato paste and halved habanero peppers with insides removed. NOTE: Remove them from the sauce sooner for less heat. Keep them in until the very end for more. Finally, add a good handful of chopped fresh cilantro and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer these ingredients together for about 15 minutes on medium heat. NOTE: You should notice the wonderful aroma from the habaneros as they infuse into the sauce. It reminds me of citrus and floral at the same time. Yum. Serve this with rice and corn tortillas warmed (I like them a little charred) on a comal. P.S. You may also add yellow corn to the tinga as well. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Buen provecho.

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI. Funny thing is that I didn't really dig cheese (Cheeseheads and all) and I didn't drink beer until I was in my early 20s. Now I love both. Especially mircobrews from Wisconsin like Sprecher. Now I live in Birmingham and have fallen in love with southern cuisine as well as Mexican (my wife is originally from Mexico). However, there times when I really crave bigger than should be legal hamburgers with butter on top (we call them butter burgers in Wisconsin), covered with ketchup and mustard. I also crave custard ice cream like you'd get at a place called Kopps. Yum. And anytime I visit my hometown I always go directly to this old pizza place in Wauwatosa, I've been going to since I could walk, for their heavenly thin crust pizza served on a baking sheet. Even today I find this place to be my comparison for all other pizzas I eat. There's this voice in my head (several sometimes) saying: "Good, but not Balistreri's good."

I've been meaning to eat there too. It's called Mizan Plaz. My wife picked up our wedding cakes from the Bakery at Culinard and it was awesome. They actually did a French cake for my wife (she lived in Paris for years) and it was fabulous. Even better was my cake- chocolate with chocolate raspberry layers, and chocolate frosting rolled with cocoa nibs. Very decadent. Back to Mizan Plaz. I've heard great things and plan to go soon. Whoever does it first can proudly report their experience here. Thanks for the post. I'll try the place you mentioned soon.