phaelon56

Confusing but true. I can't claim to know whether this is totally true or untrue but the Maestro Plus has been widely available in both online and bricks and mortar stores since its release - it was not a Zabar's exclusive. Perhaps they do a large volume with Solis and get a better price or offered feedback to Solis but I think the feature upgrades of the Maestro Plus were based on widespread consumer feedback.That said.... $130 is a very good price - the going rate is usually closer to $150. If you consider a "cup" to be the 10 or 12 oz mug that many of us coffee drinkers prefer, use the 34 oz. size and serve immediately after plunging. If you want to brew more coffee for guests or for your own consumption you could use the 51 oz. size and pour off the extra coffee into a thermal carafe. I suppose you could use the 51 oz. size for brewing just two cups but I'm not sure of there are any issues re/heat loss due to less thermal mass with less water and larger glass surface area because of larger press. If you don't know the exact date beans were roasted it's a crap shoot as to whether they are really fresh or not. Beans degrade rapidly when exposed to light and air. Open barrels are the worst possible way to store and sel coffee beans. Furthermore... you'll find that most serious local microroasters, small regional roasters and better quality cafes will not allow flavored beans to darken their doorstep. There's not only a noticeable aftertaste that many find disagreeblee but also issues abotu flavored beans leaving flavor residue in roasters, grinder and brewing equipment. If you haven't already tried it I suggest using a very small amount of flavor syrup added to the cup when you pour the coffee. Monin and Torani are among the better known and widely available brands. It's a smoother flavor than flavored beans and also allows you to choose the highest quality beans independently of the flavoring. Not if you're purchasing from a good roaster. The best places will pack and ship on day of roast with sealed valve bags that keep oxygen from getting in but let the CO2 of the bean degassing escape. Many coffees, particularly espresso blends, benefit from a day or two of rest and degassing after roasting. With a 10 - 12 day window of freshness for freshly roasted and properly stored beans and utilizing two day shipping, using the services of a good mail-order roaster can get you some great beans at their optimum stage. This thread Master Roasters has some good suggestions for sources. In NYC area I'd look to get coffee direct from Gillie's Coffee or Gimme Coffee (both in Brooklyn) or else mail order from someone known for quality and prompt shipment. IMHO, on the East coast, Terroir is one of the top vendors. In the Midwest I've heard good things about Barry's in the Minneapolis area, the Roasterie in KC and also Alterra (I think they're in MN). If you want quality and freshness and are going to be choosing a vendor, check their web sites for info about roast dates relative to ship dates. If the info isn't there just call them and ask the hard questions - you'll quickly figure out who's really paying attention to freshness and turnover. Prior to doing my own roasting I did often buy mail order but usually purchased in five pound quantities to save money on overall shipping costs. I then broke down the packages into 1/4 lb or 1/2 ln bags and froze them, removing one bag at a time and allowing to thaw completely before opening to use. Fresh roasted is always best but properly frozen and thawed fresh roasted coffee comes really, really close and will always beat anything you can buy in the typical retail store, regardless of whether it's in a vacuum bag or an open barrel.

I don't have the china "bug" so many others do but do have my prefeences. Living near a restaurant china producer (Syracuse China) has its benefits. Every summer they have a tent sale with carts and pallettes full of seconds, discontinued styles and overstocks. Most of it is very heavy but when one gets a white oval dinner plate with nice clean lines for 50 cents there's little to complain about. Every now and then I find an interesting specialty piece marked down. The latest are teardrop shaped plates in both white and black - a set of one each nested together makes a perfect yin-yang symbol but I remain puzzled by what food combination will best utilize these.

I can't speak to the flowers but the seeds taste like crap... even when ground up and mixed into double fudge brownies. But miraculous visions they will induce (not recommended but they were intriguign none the less). Melkor's - wonderful blog!!! It's an area I one day hope to visit and your trip has been an inspiration. As others have commented, we are blessed and grateful that you're both okay. Keep the great pics and commentary coming. Just curious... have you sampled much in the way of desserts? I love the mango and sticky rice concotion sometimes available stateside in Thai restaurants but have been advised that it's nothign like the real thing as the mango's there are so muc different. have you tried any yet?

Confession - I've never seen it. They did screen it a college but I was so fr**in bored that I walked out after 1/2 hour. ← You are joking right? Along with Apocalypse Now, Last Tango has to be one of the most brilliant movies of all time. That said.... the character development is slow and the really interesting stuff doesn't come in until about 70 - 90 minutes into the film. But it's still brilliant. And the score by Gabor Szabo still haunts me every time I hear it. Food: After watching the "Can he eat 50 hard boiled eggs in one hour?" scene in Cool Hand Luke many times, I have never once had the desire to eat anything afterwards, especially eggs. I also lacked any interest in having dinner with Andre after viewing My Dinner With Andre.

I haven't sensed from the reactions posted here that people are taking issue with Sietsema criticizing the food. Rather, it was his statement, presented as fact, that they claim to use wood for their smoking but don't actually do so. The phrase "sloppy journalism" was used to describe his approach and I tend to agree. I have no issue (as I suspect most others don't) with him not liking the food but to imply that the owners are lying and/or baiting and switching by touting real wood smoking and then just using smoke flavor in the sauce to achieve the desired effect is unfair not to mention patently ridiculous. Their pulled pork is served with a minimal amount of sauce yet the taste effects of smoking are readily evident in the meat. I have yet to eat at the NYC location and am in no position to judge but I've read enough opinions on this thread from people's whose palates I respect to think that the NYC Dino is serving better than average 'cue. Having eaten at the Syracuse location many times over the years since they opened, usually at well spaced intervals, I can also confirm that they work tirelessly to improve their product - I've noticed a very favorable change (for my particular taste) in their ribs just over the past year alone. I still prefer the results I get on my own smoker but I'd be hard pressed to cook more than three or four racks and a shoulder butt in one long day at home.

This is true of so many coffees, especially those with lighter floral notes in the flavor profile. The move towards lighter roasting is becoming more widespread and I'm happy to be a part of it - the coffee tastes better

It's been years since I had it but I believe the answer is yes. It's not dry... is on the sweet side but is not syrupy.

In the process of searching for info on possible effects of the recent tsunami on the Indonesian coffee supply, I stumbled across a fascinating Coffee Times article entitled What You Don't Know About Kona Coffee Very worthwhile reading. There are some excellent growers and suppliers (both Bay View Farms and Greenwell are mentioned favorably in the article) but there's also some unfortunate stuff going on with larger companies who sell Kona "blends". Caveat emptor - this despicable practice has also started appearing with coffee sold as Jamain Blue Mountain "blend" or "style" coffee. It may have as little as 5% of the real bean in it and bear no resemblance to the genuine article. Just curious... is there much of this deception going on with other food and beverage products or is it confined mostly to the coffee industry?

If you have a tart pan it should already have fluted edges - I'm not sure of how else it could be accomplished. My large 11" tart pan has them and the small tartlet pans I've seen also do. I recal being advised in this forum that most conventional grocery store lard may buy you a very slight edge in flavor over Crisco but it's typically a hydrogenated product and may not offer the advantages that lard is traditionally presumed to offer. If there's a grocery store in your area with Amish products they may have the Amish lard which is non-hydrogenated.

Didn't taste it myself but the most disgusting concoction I recall was ordered by one of my bar customers when I informed her that we didn't serve White Russians (it was a concession bar at a theater - we had a limited well and no milk). Her idea of the next best thing was Jack Daniels & cranberry juice

I've been successful using the recipe on the back of the bag of dried black eyed peas. IIRC it includes salt pork or fatback and also some onions etc. Best bet is to put the beans in cold water, bring to the boil, cover, remove from heat and leave overnight. Rinse twice in the morning and then add fresh water and other ingredients. About 45 - 60 minutes of cooking will then suffice. There was a good thread here awhile back on cooking dried beans by an oven baking method. Sorry I can't recall the details nor was I able to find it by search but there will be some helpful info there if someone can point you to it.

Unce upon a time Torrefazione had decent espresso in some of their shops and sold some good roasted beans by the bag (I used to mail order their Perugia blend before I got into home roasting). There was a bit of downhill slide when they were purchased by Seattle's Best - I suspect the acquisition of SB by Starbucks was the final nail in the coffin. The son of the original Torrefazione Italia owners is back in the business in the Seattle area with a commercial roastery called caffe Umbria. Their Gusto blend espresso is very good. Just curious - have you actually found a restaurant where really good espresso is served? The only one I've yet to come across was a mom 'n pop Italain restaurant on Caye Caulker (Belize - Central America). The owner was a Milan native who used generic Guatemalan beans and an old La Pavoni lever machine - really good espresso and perfectly made cappuccino's.

Hiram Walker is speed rack quality and Marie Brizard is closer to what one thinks of as top shelf, particularly when chosing those various fruit liquers that don't seem to have a readily available/recognizable top shelf choice (e.g. Cointreau, Framboise etc). I'm very fond of their pear liquer, which is especially delicious when served over crushed ice.

That was frequently the case here in Syracuse re/breakfast until our one and only local French place, L'Adour, started opening for breakfast recently. Yes, it costs about $3 more than Denny's but the atmosphere is so soothing and the food superb. Quiche, crepes, "toasts", assorted breads and pastries... lots of nice little touches. They even have good coffee (I'm biased because I roast their coffee but it really is good). I'll have to check out Guglehupf - I'm hoping to get up to the Durham area in February to visit Counter Culture Coffee Roasters and will need a breakfast option.

If you get up to the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake do some asking around for who has the good stuff - when it's good it's very, very good. I won't go so far as to say that Eddie's is bad but I'd rather have good shrimp bisque than average she-crab soup. Our service was unbelievably slow at Original Pancake House despuite the place being 3/4 empty (it was a very late breakfast at about noon or 12:30 PM). And the waitress kept doing a disappearing act. My GF had the bacon and I tried some - perfect balance of fat and lean with just the right amount of saltiness, i.e. not too much. I had the country ham which is a bit dry and salty but I think maybe it's supposed to be that way (I loved it). We'll probably have dinner one night at some more upscale place on my February visit. Right now we're saving $$ in anticipation of getting beat up by the Dollar vs Euro exchange rate when we take our January vacation. It was at 64 cents yesterday. Ouch.

Unquestionably not. I've gotten that kind of caring in very unexpected places. Last fall I went on a cruise for the first time. It wasn't my idea... I did it to please my GF and was prepared for the possibility that I'd find everything about it to be cheesy, tacky and throughly unenjoyable (excepting her delightful company). The food was better than I expected it to be - generally acceptable and occasionally surprisingly good. What really startled me was the level of service - I felt genuinely welcomed everywhere I went and my needs seemed to be met in such an unobtrusive and seamless way that I felt really pampered in a way I never had before. All that for one week for about what dinner for four with wine would cost at Per Se. I've also had that experience in some very humble dining places where the genuine desire of the owner/chef and staff was so focused on my enjoyment that it felt as though I were a privileged guest in someone's home.

I'm preparing dinner for my current GF (and most likely wife-to-be) and my former long time love.... who are meeting each other for the first time. As odd as that may sound to some, I suspect it will be a warm and really fun evening, as I'll be in the company of two great women who really care about my happiness, as I do theirs. Neither is much of a cook so the kitchen chores fall on me (which suits me just fine). I'm planning the following: - chicken liver mousse and some soft stinky cheese with water crackers before dinner - crabcake appetizer - baby spinach salad with sliced pears and walnuts - Miso Glazed Sea Bass with wild rice and sauteed haricots verts (or ordinary string beans if I can't find the haricots verts) - flaky pastry layered with peaches baked with small scoop French vanilla ice cream Probably doesn't sound like a very adventurous menu but it will suit my less than culinarily adventurous guests and be very easy to fix.

So many specific and very salient points already made.... I'll approach this from a very general standpoint. If I leave a restaurant having been consciously ware only of a sensual/visceral experience of food consumption and the nature of my personal interaction with my dining partner.... it means they really did their job with class and elegance. When the surroundings, the service and other elements are in such a seamless and well structured array that my awareness seems to be focused only on the key elements, I feel that I've been in a place that defines class and elegance (for me - YMMV!).

I'm familiar with this little device from Puerto Rican culture but it's a traditional way of making coffee in many Hispanic and Caribbean cultures and yields a great brew. It's called a Chorreador de Café in Costa Rica and here are instructions for How to brew a Great Cup of Costa Rican Coffee

I have no affiliation with the manufacturer or with the web site selling it (they are among many) but Throat Coat Tea is the best thing I've ever tried for a sore throat. It was recommended to me by a professional singer who'd experimented with every conceivable cure and swore by this one. It really, really works. BYOB - it does not contain alcohol

Had dinner at Eddie's on Monday night just after Christmas weekend. It was a mixed bag but the entrees were good, service was very friendly and efficient and prices were reasonable. We shared fried frogs legs - perfectly crispy batter and very plump. Nice. We also both had she-crab soup. My sweetie did not finish hers as she said "I don't want to waste the calories on this - it's not that good". She was right. It tasted like a decent shrimp bisque albeit a bit salty but the crab seemd to have almost no flavor. I finished mine as omnivores are prone to do. Perhpas I'm overly critical as the only place I've had this soup previously was on the Eastern shore in MD and there it was outstanding. My Cajun style fried scallops with red beans and rice was outstanding - truly excellent. Her salmon was nicely done but the advertised "bed of wilted spinach" turned out to be a few small leaves and a big pile of overcooked cauliflower, broccoli and carrots on the side. We would return here if in the area but it's about a 30 minute drive for us and we won't go out of our way to get there in the future. That said... I sure wish there was a decent neighborhood place like that in the University Park City area. We saw burgers and fries going to an adjacent tabole - they looked really, really good. Breakfast at the Original Pancake House South Blvd on Monday consisted of a very generous serving of excellent buckwheat pancakes with decent sausage patties on the side. Service was spotty but they offer way better food and more of it for the money than places like IHOP or Denny's. Tuesday was the weekend highlight with breakfast at the Coffee Cup. We arrived just after breakfast ended (about 11:05 AM) but they kindly agreed to cook us breakfast. Big portions, great food and a really friendly family atmosphere - my kind of place. The eggs over easy were overcooked but the home fries were the best I've ever had in a restaurant and the biscuits are top rate . They were out of grits but I'll be back to try those. The lunch specials we saw going out to tables looked amazingly good and also very generous - take a big appetite if you go there.

So true. As a business owner or manager there are inevitably things that will happen which are beyond your immediate control and won't be seen by a management type who can step in immediately to correct it. Having worked for many years in a variety of business/industries where customer service is an important component of the business process, it's my worst nightmare to think that a customer may have a bad experience, not notify me to allow a correction or amends to be made and even worse... generate bad word of mouth as a result of their experience. Perhaps it's due to my background but after the obvious metrics of quality, service level etc., the thing I use to judge a business is how they handle mistakes, should those occur (and sooner or later they will).

Simple. You just need more hours in the day I agree except in the case of foamed milk for espresso drinks. I use exclusively skim milk for cereal or on the rare occasion that I drink a glass of milk. But lattes and cappuccinos are different. The lack of milk fat makes it impossible to get ttrue microfoam with a velvety finish if skim is used. 2% is the best compromise - even 1% tends to develop that separate layer of foam and milk with rapidly dissipating foam just the way skim does. Fat gram content is an issue for me as well but my solution is to seek out the better quality espresso which allows me to have shorter drinks and a higher ratio of espresso t milk. My typical "latte" at hoem is made with 1.5 oz of espresso and 3.5 oz of 2% milk. That allows me to have two full drinks and only 7 ounces of milk. If I watch what I eat for the rest of the day the fat content is easily allowable. I wonder when or if Starbucks will ever publicly post the fat , calorie and carb counts for their drinks? It's surprising that it hasn't already happened.

Not that I can see. I would add that a Melitta cone and filter are typically available for about $6 and can be used to brew directly into a cheap thermal carafe. That's what I was using until I switched to a vacuum pot and it made fantastic coffee. More work and a bit more mess than a dri[ maker but not by much and the results are consistently good. I'll also advise that fresh roasted decaf does not have the same shelf life as fresh roasted regular coffee. If properly stored regular is good for ten days after roasting... make it about five for decaf before the deterioration really starts. Best to bag up 1 day to 2 day packs of beans in ziploc's and freeze them, then pull out by the single bagto thaw the night before using. Don't open the bag until it's thawed and you'll avoid condensation and moisture issues with the beans. For most of us it's not practical to stop at a roaster every few days and we often don't use up the coffee quicklyt enough anyway (not to mention that there are places such as where I roast that only sell by the half pobnd or pound).

I can't speak for chopped chicken livers but chicken liver mousse gains significantly both from a small amount of brandy (or better yet cognac) for flavor and also gains a velvety texture by being folded into unsweetened whipped cream. The base mixture freezes nicely and can then be mixed with the whipped cream after thawing. Find chicken livers in any grocery stores or butcher that has a significant African-American clientele - they're almost certain to be in stock.