phaelon56

The first time that I served my legendary smoked ribs to my current (and forever ) girlfriend I put a steak knife at both her place and mine on the table. She quipped (she is African-American): "PLEASE don't tell me you cut the meat off ribs to eat them!" I assured her in no uncertain terms - that I'm not THAT white - the steak knife is just to separate the individual ribs from the 1/4 rack slabs!

Two updates of interest: 1) I drove by the Pickles "Kosher" deli this mornign and noticed their new sign (the plaza they're in just got a face lift and most of the tenants put up new signage to go with it). It's now called Pickles Kosher "Style" Deli real Kosher o not - folsk say the sandiwhces are fantastic but I"m not much of a sandwich guy and i'ts too far to drive to for lunch on a wrokday. 2) The Turning Stone Casino and Resort in Verona NY - an Oneida Nation enterprise with at least a half dozen restaurants, a 5000 seat arena, two Rober trent Jones golf courses, a huge hotel.... yada yada yada.... has just announced that they're adding a certified Kosher kitchen for the catering facility. They'll have it completely separated from all other food prep and serving facilities and locked down when not in use for a Kosher event. Not surprising. With the recent closure of Syracuse's Temple Beth El it leaves Adath Yeshurun as the only Kosher kitchen facility in the enitre Syracuse-Utica area that can handle an event of more than 150 - 200 people. And - having personally worked at dozens of events at Adath Yeshurun - it lacks the lustre it once did for the upscale clientele who want a really special event. The facility and kitchen are okay but when the crowd gets big there's a lack of adequate glassware, cutlery etc. and most of it is getting a bit oudated. Yes but they'll drive another ten minutes past the spot where Tannenbaum's Kosher Meat Market used to be and buy organic free range chicken for $5 per pound at the local Wegman's. Crazy world - huh?

dude, those things taste exactly like a MCDonald's cheeseburger. The beef, onions, cheese, ketchup and mustard all together.....it's the weirdest thing! ← I grabbed a bag last night - just had to try them. I'll admit to being biased or predisposed to this assessment by virtue of having seen this thread... but a fast food cheeseburger is EXACTLY what these chips taste like! Check out the ingredients list - which includes ... (this is from memory so it's not exact) wheat powder, beef extract, cheese powder, tomato, mustard and onion powder Uhhhh.... that would be a bun with meat and cheese plus a dollop each of ketchup, mustard and onions. And I don't even like the taste of fast food cheeseburgers but I like these chips - not enough to buy them regularly (not that I buy any Doritos regularly) but I'll take them over salsa, ranch and many other flavors - anytime.

There's one in my small city that may be worth checking out if you happen through this way Pickles Kosher Deli I recall havign a few pickles from there many years ago but I believe it has different owners now. I've heard rave reports lately about both the corned beef and the pastrami. They are ostensibly using meat supplied by Carnegie Deli in NYC. But times have changed since my high school days (the early 1970's). Back then we had a good independent bagelry (now all we have is grocery store bagels and Bruegger's), a terrific Jewish bakery (the Snowflake - reknowned for their Black Russian bread, coffeecake and whipped cream cakes not to mention the best lace cookies on earth) and a Kosher meat market. All of these places were in my end of town and all but the deli are gone now. We still have a moderately large population but with fewer and fewer families keeping Kosher and stores like Wegman's offering a wide variety of Kosher products - the independents could not compete. I think the overall dumbing down / Sysco-ization / homegenation of foodstuffs is also a factor. There weren't enough people (both goyim and Jewish folks) who were willling to go out of their way to drive to these places for the better quality that was offered. Folks who had always been the target audience moved further and further out into the suburbs and seem to prefer "one stop shopping" at mega grocery stores.

I agree that the "early bird" phrase has gotten extremely hackneyed by overuse. My suggestion is already in your question... How about "Early Arrival Offering" or "Early Arrival Price Fixe Menu" or "Pre-evening Price Fixe Special" ? (and I do get more burned out than the usual person on the "early" references as it is my family name on my mom's side!)

It appears that this is a "name the flavor" promo Doritos X13D Web Site You make up a name based on clues provided by the oh-so-handy clue generator (I suppose you coudl also rely on your tastebuds in a pinch). Submit it and if you're one fo the lucky 100 chosen you get a tears supply of Dorito's and the... ahem... "opportunity" to test and provide comments on newly developed products. Yeah right. Pay me for my time and we have something to talk about. But their campaign works thuis far - I'm not even a Dorito's fan but I'm off to look for a bag on my way home tonight.

When I found that I was to be in the SF Bay area on my 50th birthday in January 2006 I hoped to arrange for lunch at TFL. As it turns out.... they were closed at the time and my need to be in Sacramento that same night for a business meeting early the following day precluded Manresa (another obvious choice that many eGer's recommended). I did have my 50th birthday lunch at CPC and was.... underhwelmed. My respect for Alice Waters (which is immense) notwithstanding - the raw oysters I had as one of my appetizers and the Monterey Bay baby squid with cappellini served as my entree were both outstanding. And the rest of it was.... good shopping. By that I mean terrific ingredients of very high quality but more than a bit on the dull side. Granted - the 'simply prepared" aspect of their operation should have prepared me for that but I was still a bit disappointed. You have whetted my appetite for trips to a few other places - particularly Manresa. I'll save that for another birthday.

My dad spent thirty years as a high school guidance counselor who specialized in college admissions. He has always maintained that most technical and trade oriented schools oversell the warm and fuzzy prospects for graduates. But then again.... how many liberal arts graduates of four year schools get a good paying job or advance to one quickly after graduation without a graduate degree, some good connections made via family, friends, internships etc.? Bartending "school" is a rip-off - no doubt. But I have yet to speak with a graduate of CIA or J&W who thought their culinary education was oversold or misrepresented. I'm sure such people are out there but I haven't met or heard of any yet. I do know people who've gone through such programs and discovered later that the stress and long hard hours of kitchen work weren't compatible with the kind of life they wanted to live. But I know far more college graduates with four year degress who either never worked "in their field" or moved away from to something else after a few short years.

The Egg Mc Muffin with sausage and Cheese actually looked better to me in the non-stylized version. It had a less manufactured look - more rustic and appetizing. I remain amused by the Chinese take-out resaurants that continue to multiply in my area. The old-school ones that have been here forever rely on the same old red ink on white paper menu that appears in all such places. But the newer generation complements that with a huge backlit menu board. Conveniently numbered - it has luscious looking photos of the most popular dishes (or the ones they want to push). Needless to say - the exact same photos appear in multiple independent and non-affiliated shops and the food looks nothing like the photos. I wonder..... does this result in higher sales volumes for the targeted dishes and faster processing at the counter when an ordering line develops?

In the Northeastern US I see the names Zeppole, Fried Dough and Elephant easr all meaning the same thing - an oblong piece of fried dough akin the the Candian "Beaver tail" described upthread. But at the NY Stste Fair (where there are dozens of booths sellign the aforementioned) we also have "Pizza Frite". These are shaped like a small elongated loaf of Italian bread - 18" to 24" long and served plain, with granulated sugar or with cinnamon sugar. I'm always baffled when I see people takign bags of these (multiptle pieces) home at the end of the night. If you don't get it straight form the fryer what's the point? And I tasted my girlfriend's Funnel Cake at Rochester's Lilac festival today. More of the same in some respects but much thinner and crispier. And still with powdered sugar.

I don't understand these comments - have reviewed earlier posts in this thread and don't see any context that explains it - can you clarify? Coquus said: I made the trip down yesterday evening to have dinner with my GF - she usally just comes up here to Syracuse on weekends. We tried Dijon Bistro as wlk-ins at about 6:30 PM and were informed that they were fully booked for the night I'll know to call in advance for reservations next time. I guess they're doing well - being fully booked on a weeknight with no special events in town is a good problem to have for a restaurateur. My GF has eaten lunch at the Heights on several occasions but always on Cornell's dime when her boss was entertaining prospective Phd candidates who were visiting. We popped up there to check the menu but ouch! Appetizers were in the $12 to $17 range and entrees were mostly $28 to $38. I can handlel that for a special occasion meal but not for a quick weekday "let's pop out for a casual dinner" evening. We settled on Maxie's and now I know why there's not much buzz. Apart form her shrimp and cheese grits with Andouilel sausage - which had so-so shrimp but spectacularly good grits - the food was mediocre at best. She started with a New Orleans style BBQ shrimp appetizer. It consisted of about 8 to 10 small shell-off shrimp (not salad shrimp size but they were way smaller than the shrimp one normally gets in a decent restaurant. It was served with two pieces of lightly toasted baguette and a pool of weird BBQ sauce that tased like.... no kind of BBQ I've ever had (she was equally unimpressed). I began with a bowl of crab and corn chowder. It was light on crab and corn and especially light on flavor - actually downright bland. Some black pepper and a healthy dose of Tabasco chipotle pepepr sauce kicked it up enough to be edible but it was very disappointing. Worst of all was what I chose for a main course. Rather than an entree I had the crabcake appetizer and an order of fried green tomatoes. Both were overcooked in deep fryer oil that was desparately in need of being replaced and both dishes were also served with a rather healthy coating of visible oil on the surface. No more Maxie's for me unless I hear reports that they've gotten these food issues straightened out. Service - I'm happy to report - was efficient, friendly and professional - absolutely no issues there. But I'll always take great food and mediocre service over the inverse.

I'm with "coffeetaster" on this one. Really good quality coffee tastes best to me when it's black - most specifically because I can taste different flavor profiles that emerge as it cools off. For some reason the half 'n half laced coffee suffers greatly as it cools. But that fact points to another one - lesser coffees suffer more than better ones as they cool - even when drunk black. I'll use whole milk in coffee if necessary but prefer half 'n half. As for non-fat milk in coffee? I might just as well use a paste made from talc and water Oddly enough... although I usually (no always but usually) enjoy a 1/2 tsp or so of raw sugar in straight espresso, a traditional machiatto or a cappuccino I absolutely abhore even trace amounts of sugar in coffee - can't drink it that way at all.

I have a bread knife with a serrated edge very similar to the Dexter-Russel in Andi's photos but it's a bit shorter, has a black handle and is a Henckel's product I picked up at T.J. Maxx for about $10. It is indeed durable. I used it to trim the edges of about 100 pieces of sod last summer when I redid my lawn. It has since gone back to bread cutting duty and although it's about due for a sharpening - it still performs well. I also have a Dexter Russell with a shorter serrated blade - looks like a 6" boning knife but serrated. It has a much stiffer and less flexible blade. It doesn't cut bread nearly as wll as the Henckels and I think - for some reason - the thickness of the blade is a factor. The Henckels blade is thin and flexible.

I absolutely love this Bon Appetit recipe which I found at Epicurious Miso Glazed Sea Bass I made it a few times with great success - very easy to make and my guests were floored by how good it was. When my local fish purveyor chose to stop stocking sea bass (for all the right reasons) he suggested sable (aka Black Cod) as a substitute because it has white flesh and a similar oil content. I tried it once and wasn't enthused but since then I've been advised that Walleye is an excellent substitute for sea bass. I encourage you to try that recipe out. It's deceptively simple but yields a terrific almost crunchy golden brown crustiness on the exterior of the filet and a very moist interior - and the flavor added by the marinade/glaze doesn't overpower the flavor of the fish.

"Martian Boogie" by Brownsville Station. I've always wanted to own the internet - I think it will be a really big deal some day. Where do I collect my prize?

Uhhhh.... how about boiling a half cup or cup of water in a separate vessel and pouring off one tablespoon into the preheated pot where it is to be used?

Good point. Believe me - the pan of brownies I made before the A/B test were terrific and people loved them (including me). But I was pleasantly surprised to see that a relatively undiscerning budding chocophile like me and a very non-discerning taster like my GF could both taste a really distinct difference. I'm sure I'll use Baker's again but for a special dessert of which I'll eat limited portions... I think it's worth it to spring for the good stuff. I have some of the BB and SB brownies in the freezer. I think next I'll do a Ghirardelli and Nestle's bake-off... compare them and then freeze a few of each. The final showdown will be among those four. It will be a grueling task no doubt but I think I owe it to eGullet to make a sacrifice like that in the name of science.

Ahhhh... I think you haven't had the right coffee prepared in the proper manner. Granted - "delicate" in the context of coffee is far different than it is with tea. At present the closest Clover Brewer to the UK is located at Estate Cofffee in Copenhagen. If by chance you get over there or happen to visit NYC and check out Cafe Grumpy Chelsea I strongly recommend trying a cup of Clover brewed coffee. Ask for one that's delicate with lots of floral notes - drink it black and sip slowly - especially as it cools when lots of new flavor nuances appear. If you do that and still don't like coffee I'll admit defeat

Look for solid brass burner assemblies and brass venturi tube(s). Once you have those now make sure it has heavy duty porcelain coated grill surface. Cheaper grills (and there are some fancy looking all stainless grills at $300 - $400 that are really a cheap grill with a nice suit) don't use brass for those crucial parts and you'll find yourself replacing them every few years. The side burner is a bit superfluous for some of us but if you want to saute some onions and peppers to put on one of these.... they can come in useful. I got my current grill at the insanely low price of $200. It was a one time buy that a local building materials discounter got in two years ago. My brother worked there and gave me a heads up at the time. It says "Great Outdoors" on the nameplate but it was made by Vermont Castings. Perhaps not coincidentally.... Consumer Reports magazine has a grill review in their latest issue and the current Vermont Castings grill gets high marks.

And - despite the presence of steamed mlk and espresso - a cafe mocha (aka mocha latte) can move from a sweet and pleasant drink to a transcendent marriage of chocolate and coffee essence if both great espresso and great chocolate are used. Typical chain cafes and many independents either use a fairly generic liquid chocolate or in some cases use Ghirardelli powder (pre-sweetened). But in my neck-o-the-woods we're lucky enough to have two cafes - Carriage House in Ithaca and Cafe Kubal in Syracuse - who both use Valrhona and their own specific mix of sweetener. The results are outstanding. Although I usually prefer a tradtional machiatto (1 to 1 milk to espresso or even less milk) or a traditional cappuccino (3 or 4 to 1 milk to espresso) I've been treating myself to the occasional mocha lately and loving it.

I neglected to mention... the recipe I used was the first of three fomr a re3cnet article in our local paper that discussed the ways in which brownies have evolved towards higher chocolate content in recent years. I tried the first recipe - reputed to have been discovered by a noted pastry chef who doubled his recipe one day but forgot to double the flour. And loved the results. The second recipe was some sort of French style brownies from a book by Dorie Greenspan and recipe #3 calls for dropping the pan of brownies direct into an ice bath when they leave the oven. The rapid temperature change is said to cause a sort of contraction in which the brownies become much denser. More experimentation is called for... you know... in the interest of scientific pursuit

Oops - I just checked some online info and discovered that I had a size mix-up. The Ghirardelli unsweetened in Wegman's baking goods department was $2.19 but that was a 4 oz bar and the comparable Scharfenberger was $8.49 for a 9.7 oz bar. That leaves the Ghirardelli squarely in the middle on the price scale. I really wanted to do some "triangle" tests - where the test subjects try three samples and have to decide not only which two are the same and whcih is different but also which they like best and why. it was pointless with the BB and SB trial because they were so markedly different - even in color and texture not to mention taste. I think in a few weeks I may do a Baker's Best, Nestle's and Ghirardelli comparison. At some point I'll compare premium brands but with my present budget I can't justify $25 or $30 in ingredients for a weekend brownie test - at least not unitl I have a party or some other occcasion on which they'll get consumed by an appreciative crowd.

The Unsweetened Chocolate thread reference above has some commentary implying that Nestle's, Ghiradelli and a few other lower end brands might have an edge on baker's in that price range (interestingly - at my local Wegman's those two brands were 20% cheaper than Baker's). I also find it interesting that context is so significant - at least for an inexperienced chocolate taster like me. If you were to hand me a brownie at my desk after lunch and it was the first or only such thing I ate that day - I'd likely pronounce it as very good. For me it was in the context of a direct comparison to a higher quality chocolate that the flaws of Baker's became more self-evident. But with experience comes the ability to discern more acutely. Five or ten years ago I coudl tell the difference between a really good cup of coffee and a bad one but today I can detect an enormous spectrum of qualitative differences in between those two extremes (and it's because I've tasted lots and lots of different coffees in the intervening years).

I'll answer my own question in one word: YES! I made brownies for the first time quite recently (I don't do much baking). The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate but I'd inadvertantly purchased unsweetened (Baker's Best brand). Adding a bit more sugar solved the issue of unsweetened vs. bittersweet. And the brownies were the some of the best I'd ever had - rich, moist, almost fudge-like yet not undercooked. My girlfriend and a few co-workers who tried them all agreed. But we all tried them with no A/B reference point readily available. Several days later I stumbled on this thread: Unsweetened Chocolate, There was a variety of perspective on the above referenced thread. "scott123" said" and Member "chocophile" seemed to agree but placed more importance on the context Sooo.... I just had to see for myself. I made two pans of brownies yesterday - absolutely identical except for one being made with Baker's Best (on the left in picture) and the other with Scharfenberger unsweetened (on the right). They were baked side by side for the same duration of time. One difference became immediately evident upon removal from the oven - the SB pan had a lighter color and a smoother surface texture. As they were cooling my guest non-highly-discerning taster (i.e. my girlfriend) and I both inhaled the vapors at different points in time. The SB had a smoother and more delicate aromatic character - and an effect on the nasal passages that was akin to smellign a fine liqeur. The BB had a rougher fragrance that had an almost bitter edge (I know bitter iis not a smell but that's the nose-feel we experienced). After cooling the real comparison commenced. The results were a bit surprising to me but were a real epiphany for my GF. In the relative context of a true A/B comparison I had expected the SB to be markedly better (as it should be - it was priced at 85 cents per ounce vs. the 31 cents per ounce of the BB - with 8 oz required for a pan of brownies). There was a moderately difference in texture - the SB had a smoother less granular mouthfeel. But the difference in flavor profile was profound and truly like a night and day comparison. The aromatic almost liquer-like characteristic we'd both noted came through in the flavor. The BB was very unsubtle and blunt in its chocolate flavor and had some bitter undertones - relative to the SB. The SB, on the other hand, had a smoother and more delicate flavor that was somehow more chocolatey at the same time. My GF, who is often amused if not puzzled by my analytic approach to certain foods and beverages, really "got it" on this one. Granted... there is still the matter of context. She now admits that if we make brownies for ourselves or other adult friends to share - we'll go the route of a high quality chocolate and be done with it. But for her two teen-age boys - who will scarf down an entire pan of brownies in an evening - she'll still look for a packaged mix on sale

I'm always offered paper or plastic where I shop and opt for plastic. After a month or two I have a gross excess of leftover bags and take them back to the store to leave in the bag recycling bin. But I do on occasion grab a handful of paper bags to take home - no more than the number I would have gotten if I'd insisted in paper inside of plastic as my initial bag option (and yes - people do that). I use the paper bags foe recycling my newspaper, magazine, junk mail etc so I don't have to keep yet another plastic recycling bin in the house.