phaelon56

If I read the original post correctly, that price included four cocktails and a bottle of wine. A subsequent poster pegged their dinner for three with no cocktails and one bottle of wine at $193 total. Based on the prices mentioned, I assume a non-drinker could get out of here for about $60 with tax and tip for one each of app, entree and dessert. Pricey for Thai food but in keeping with NYC prices for a moderately upscale but not high end restaurant.

No. The Dairyrich products I'm familiar with (made by Rich products of Buffalo NY) have no dairy components of any kind (e.g. they may safely be used in non-dairy Kosher environments if certified Kosher). Non-fat half 'n half contains non-fat milk but utilizes a bunch of other processed components, stabilizers and sweetenters to achieve it's creaminess. It's no substitute for real half 'n half but I've tried it in coffee and found it to be far superior to the non-dairy creamers - better tatse and not oily. Ingredients for the Land-o-Lakes fat-Free half 'n half as listed on their web site INGREDIENTS: Nonfat Milk, Milk*, Corn Syrup Solids, Artificial Color**, Sugar, Dipotassium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Mono and Diglycerides*, Carrageenan, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Vitamin A Palmitate. * Adds a trivial amount of fat. ** An ingredient not normally found in Half and Half I find the second "**" to be amnusing. Unless I'm missing something, the entire list of ingredients is comprised of things that are not normally found in half 'n half.

I'm still in and will bring Thai chashew-pineapple salad with crispy duck along with my charming GF. Had dinner with slkinsey (Sam) and his GF (our very own bergerka) this past weekend and they are on vacation but are also planning to attend.

Nice article although it starts out by referencing our community as the "Adventures In Eating Forum". eGullet itself is mentioned by name halfway through the article but the writer does not make the connection clear (although it becomes self-evident). Despite that bit of murkiness it's nice to see the publicity and the credit being given where it is due.

I will eat nothing that is still moving, no insects even if they've stopped moving and politely refuse any food that's charred beyond recognition. Apart from that I try not to rule out anything until I've tried it. In some cases that means more than once. I finally tried Indian food that I really truly enjoyed after being underwhelmed by it on a dozen or more occasions. I have yet to try Korean food that made me yearn to try it again but there's always hope.

I have my own patio grown tomatoes for the first time this year. Made a mozzarella e pomodoro similar to what's shown above with fresh grown basil and parsley (from the same patio garden). Threw in some slices of orange tomato fromthe market and drizzled with a tiny ribbon of really, really good balsamic (the syrupy kind that's good for serving on strawberries) and some fruity EVOO. I could eat this for dinner every day. There was a steak and some potatoes involved but they're hardly worth mentioning when tomatoes are this good. Mine is not so artfully arranged but it sure was tasty.

I don't know what food-safe substance can be added to a storage container to reduce and absorb moisture but perhaps there is something? I assume that silica gel is not acceptable but perhaps if it's in the right type of packaging it might be okay? Even so... forty days seems a bit too long.

I'm reviving this ancient thread because tomato season is once again upon us and I finally made fried green tomatoes again. The suggestion to stick them in the fridge or freezer after the first dredging is the way to go. We cut them thick (about 1/4" to 3/8"), did an egg wash and dredged. In the freezer for 20 minutes, dredged a second time and then fried until crispy. Being in a remote place (visiting some fellow eGulleteers who were vacationing in a mountain cabin), we were without cornmeal and substituted some steel cut grits. They make for a crunchier finish than cornmeal and although grits won't be my first choice for this dish, they served as a worthy substitute for cornmeal. The addition of some Tony Sachery's Cajun seasoning to the grits was also very nice. All who sampled them also agreed that the tomatoes which were green on the outside but had a mix of reddish orange and green flesh on the inside presented the best complexity of flavor vs the all green ones. The one change I'd make in the future is to peel the tomatoes first - we did them unpeeled and the meal does not stick to the sides. I think I'm ready to go on a fried green tomato binge

Are Barilla sauces sweet? My experience with jarred tomato sauces is that they never taste like homemade tomato sauce. Are there any that don't taste like sugar and instead taste like tomatoes? There are no added sweetners in the Barilla sauces and they're pretty darn good for a bottled sauce. I kepe a few jars on hand for emergencies and periodically just use one of them up as the base for home made sauce. I add some herbs, some canned tomatoes, EVOO etc and freeze up the batch. Have not tried fried ripe tomatoes but I just had homemade fried green tomatoes this past weekend and they were fantastic.

I would hardly use the phrase "fast food" to describe a $9.30 hamburger that takes twenty to thirty minutes to reach the table. The idea is interesting but the comparison to fast food seems a bit unrealistic.

If fresh peaches are available in Scotland, try any of the fruit pie recipes in recipegullet or at Epicurious There's a recipe there for "Piled High Peach Pie" that's very good. Here's a very helpful tip that recently came up on the "from scratch" pie crust thread Freeze the filling or even the entire pie before baking! . Doing this helps the fruit to reatain more of its original texture and firmness, which is often lost due to the extended baking times that pies require.

Thanks Wendy. I think I'll try that no-bake recipe on the next one and just cut back on the sugar. I'm actually just back from a visit to North Carolina and made the tarts when I was down there. My crust is getting really, really good and flaky thanks to all the tips here. I opted for a cheescake style filling from this Epicurious recipe Cheesecake Tart with Tropical Fruits I substituted seasonal fresh fruits and used the same sweet pastry crust recipe I'd been using previously. I think that glazing the prebaked shell with a thinned out jelly (I used apricot preserves for all of the glazing as it's all I had on hand) did help keep it dry and flaky on the bottom. I baked these at about 10 or 11 AM, cooled in the fridge for a few hours and then had them in the car for a three hour trip. The tart went back in the fridge at our destination and was served at about 10 PM. It was very well received (eGulleteers slkinsey and bergerka were among the tart recipients). Everyoen seemd to love it but I thought the baked cheescake filling was just a trifle dry. I cooked it about five minutes less than recommended but have to winder if a bain marie around the tart pan would have helped. I'm also think that due to the removable bottom of the tart pan there might have been water seepage into the crust if I'd adopted this method. Any thoughts on that?

The only time in my life I've ever gotten food poisining was from bad raw oysters. It was a truly hellish experience I hope never to repeat. Ate them at lunch and then had a dinner of peanuts, draft beer, black coffee and B&B (I was young - what did I know from food and wine pairings?). My questionable dinner was followed by viewing The Deer Hunter on the big screen during its original theatrical release. That movie is long enough as it stands but my developing symptoms made it seem like a marathon. I didn't start eating raw oysters again until a trip to Seattle a few years ago and now include them on any trip to Seattle but they're so darn fresh in that area that I've never been concerned.

Not necessarily. if you finish wood floors with poly it can be buffed down every few years and recoated but ONLY if it is never cleaned with anything other than plain water and perhaps a few drops of dishwasing liquid added in. Most commercial and consumer floor cleaning products (Murphy's Oil Soap is the worst offender!) contain wax compounds. If you buff out a poly coated floor that's been cleaned with any of these products, the recoat will end up getting an orange-peel effect of crazing due to the residual waxes in the surface. One of my colleagues opted to use lacquer for this reason and likes it but I think it's a bit too soft of a surface. Floor choices were debated at length in varmint's remodeling thread (link is upthread here somewhere). Most people who tried cork said they would not use it again. I love the look, feel and warmth of wood. Tile is great for the coolness of it's a beach house but stuff just breaks so easily if it's droped on tile. Southern yellow pine, heart pine etc. are all good for durability but being here in the Northeast I think maple rocks and it's harder than all get out. My flors are red oak throughout the house including the kitchen but next kitchen I build myself will have maple floors (also worth noting that up here maple is the cheapest wood flooring choice available).

Oh. So now I have to delay my surprise visit to the Mayhaw ranch. That's not cool 'cause I didnt budget for staying in a motel My vote is added to the growing chorus of bottom freezer lovers. I had one once and loved it. Just get some stackable wire mesh baskets with handles and it's easy enough to rotate thigns in and out of the bottom and find stuff. Your wife, saintly woman that she is, realizes that at your advanced age it will soon be difficult to bend over to get things out of the crisper drawer - she's probably suggesting this bottom freezer business to spare your dignity My GF has a side by side and they totally bite. Things are difficult to stack' there's never enough room for trays on the fridge side and I just ruined a perfectly good iced latte yesterday that was chilling out in her freezer before our road trip. The damn thing tipped over and fell out when I opened the door 'cause stuff just doesn't stack well. Spare yourself this pain and anguish. Icemaker? Since I moved the damn gin, bourbon and related beverages out of the house some years ago my ice consumption has dropped to about 10 or 20 lbs per year - most of that for shocking veggies after I blanch them. Wood floors rock. This is my second kitchen with wood and I wouldn't dream of having anything else. I do put a rug in the work area to spare the floor from excessive wear but the rest of the kitchen is bare, easy to clean and stuff doesn't break too easily when dropped due to the resiliency.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more. Fascinating concept and it seems to have great potential. Do you know of any English language sites that offer more detail on the overall concept and process?

I love the Marie's Blue Cheese dressing but as an accompaniment to Buffalo style chicken wings. eGullet has inspired me to start makign my own dressings and I've been playing around lately with pomegrante juice as an ingredient - very versatile. My latest gripe is that no one in my area carries a good quality red cider vinegar. It's all Heinz or store brand. Ebery othe rkind of vinegar imaginable but no Maille or other better brand of cider vindegar. I haven't checked the local Dean and Deluca yet (I'm visiting in Charlotte NC this weekend) but it appears to be my last resort.

I think Mayhaw Man might have been inspired to buy his pot (vacuum that is)based on this thread Vacuum Pot Brewing, It's cool... is it better? I think notorious is a bit extreme I was thinking "devlishly handsome and erudite off-topic poster" would be a better fit.

Very, very nice web site. Functional and informative. Looking forward to begin able to try some of the teas.

Actually... I really liked the cream cheese filling mentioned above but I found it to be just a trifle too sweet. The zing of the lemon zest and tartness of the juice complented the taste of the cream cheese and the sweetness of the fruit. The problem was the sweetness level of the sweetened condensed milk. I love sweet stuff but the sweetness of the filling interfered with its ability to contrast properly with the tart/sweet nature of the fruits.

Reminds me of the time years ago when some animal rights group wanted Fishkill NY to change its name because of the violent connotation. "Kill" is Dutch for creek Fishkill is still called Fishkill. And Hooker Ave in Poughkeepsie is still named after a Revolutionary War general named Hooker (despite the fact that in the 1970's some idiot ran for political office in that area with a proposed name change for Hooker Ave as part of his platform - he was concerned about the "negative image" that the name implied).

CaFe Sua Da is the name. I just order it as "iced coffee with condensed milk". I've become a regular enough regular at my favorite local Viet restaurant that I just ask for iced coffee and that's what they bring me. Cafe du Monde is probably the #1 brand used to make that CaFe Sua Da here in the US but Trung Nguyen brand is way better and now available online for about $6 per can.

I'm with ya on MG over OG. There's an MG next door to a hotel I stay at occasionally when on business travel. Not only do they serve later than the other places in that area, but we can walk there and back from the hotel after a long day and a late check-in. I found everything about it including atmosphere to be superior to OG. They do a decent job with steak, the bread is okay and I've had really good Tiramisu there on a few occasions as well. Bilrus makes a very good point. I happen to live in a city (Syracuse NY) that has an overabundance of Italian restaurants run by first, second and third generation Italian-Americans. With only a few exceptions, those being the few that consistently deliver good food, OG is way busier than all of them every night of the week and it's mostly due to predictability and perceived value. This is a middle-brow traditionally blue collar community. We have some fine dining - the masses here aren't into the more subtle elements of cuisine but like large portions and predictable quality (even if it's middling quality). With most of these other local Italian restaurants as a reference point, OG actually seems pretty good to most of these folks.

I noticed in one of the other threads on this Q&A that seafood, mostly the form of fish tacos and as seviche, has made its way into Tex-Mex cuisine during the past 20 years or so. During my limited travels to that area (Playa del Carmen and Cozumel) I ate at a few taquerias and cafes that served predominately locals and few if any tourists. The Yucatecan dishes were distinctly different than the Mexican or Tex-Mex food I'm familiar with here in the Northeast (admittedly such offerings here pale in comparison to Texas in all ways). Are you beginning to see any influence from the Yucatan appearing or do you anticipate that it will start creeping into Tex-Mex cuisine?

Slim Jim's. Beef jerky. Apple fritters if they have them. Bottled water. Little bag of mini Ritz cracker 'n peanut butter sandwiches. Never the pizza - never not ever (tried gas station pizza once and that was enough). Speaking of twizzlers - why don't gas stations ever have big bags of the cherry flavored pull apart variety? They're tastier than the strwaberry twist style and pulling them apart strand by strand to eat keeps me occupied on the road.