rmockler

Not a bad idea but hacksaw blades have a painted finish and this would chip off when you used it thus contaminating the meat. ← Ah, good point. Ignore what I said. My apologies. ← Am on a similar mission this week as we're getting half of a massive Berkshire (think 550+ lbs live weight). Wusthof not in my price range so will try another option and report back.

Thank you ALL for the quick replies and helpful info --please keep 'em coming! I appreciate the details very much, Dave, as well as the general advice from everyone. Robyn, my home base in the states is Seattle, in France will be at St Julien l'Ars, between Poitiers and Chauvigny. My budget, if I can hold it there, will be about 20 euros/per person for food only (no wine) for three meals. Breakfast will be light (we are in France, after all), and mostly yogurt, fruit .. some nice local pastries when I've economized on the rest of the budget. Lunch will be soup and salads, varying by day and what's in the market (I'm thinking petit pois ought to be available by the end of May, no?). Dinner will rely on braises, more vegies, etc. Will leave room in the budget for treats from time to time, including home made ice cream. Anyway .. any more price-related info very welcome and appreciated. I may start another topic with a different set of questions as well! Cheers!

Hello France Forum! In May, I will be spending a week near Poitiers, cooking for 19-20 people. I have a reasonable budget, but am now a bit worried it's not quite reasonable enough without some very careful planning. I have searched on line (in English and French, which I can both read and mangle, if not exactly speak) for information on current food prices, but am not having much luck with specifics. ("HIGH!" is the answer I regularly find, b/w "RISING!") Might I impinge on anyone living in the region, or really anywhere in France outside Paris, to give me a sense of what prices are like for the basics -- eggs, bread, butter, basic meat cuts, chicken, vegies at the market. Or -- to point me to a good site where I can find same? Any insights you have would be greatly appreciated!

Local farmers have done the organic food movement's heavy lifting for 30+ years now. It would be easy to think that their hard times ought to be over (I'll admit, I assumed they ought to be at least better off.) But it would be wrong. The good news is that there’s a simple, powerful way to help. Last week, we had a discouraging conversation with one of western Washington’s stalwart local farmers -- someone who's been perfecting the complicated business of farming for 14 years, from planting to promotion. In this time of organic everywhere, their farm now faces one of its worst years. Why? Think of your favorite UltraBeautiful Organic Grocery Emporium™ (Stock symbol: WFM). Think of the nice pictures of all your local farmers there. Then start digging. You might find that: • The percentage of food from local, small producers is still shockingly low (and lower still once you realize that everything there may not be .... precisely .... labeled, to put it kindly) and • The UltraBeautiful emphasis -- food as lifestyle not as nourishment -- is driving out many of the best local products. You know, the ones that really are delicious, fresh, and truly organic ... but don't make the cosmetic grade, in part because their producers shun the kinds of shortcuts and not-really-organic tricks that ultrabeauty can require. It's the simple, if sad, tale Michael Pollan tells. Big Retail could use their bully pulpit to educate and inspire customers and to connect them to local food. Instead, they've turned to Big Organic to help them replicate the same old food economy and values as before, just at higher margins. The result: the same old consolidation and environmental nightmares (how do you think those potatoes got here from California?) Sadly, some of our bigger local grocery chains, facing a huge squeeze, can easily end up implementing the same practices. In fact, the Industrial Organic Complex has now actually moved in on the territory of our local farmers. That's right: 30 years into the organic and local food movement, giant national corporations are putting the organic, local farmers out of business. And it's happening right there at your local grocery. Farmers markets do make a huge difference, but can't provide the steady stream of wholesale business it takes to make it if you're selling many local farm products. Creating value added products on the farm helps more with some products than with others (fruit to jam, even milk to cheese, is an easier route for many farmers than, say, potatoes to chips.) So, while some of our farmer friends do need to step up their own marketing and customer education efforts (in their free time, I guess), you can help: when you're not shopping at the farmer's markets, go in to your neighborhood Thriftway, Red Apple, Met Market, Top Food, etc and ask, repeatedly and specifically, for local organic products, including produce. Love your Full Circle or Willie Greens CSA? Can't live without Alden Farms' fingerling spuds? Ask for them by name. Over and over and over. Tell your friends and family to ask for them by name. Do it at Whole Foods, too! And when they appear, make sure you buy some for God's sake!

Welcome Inay's to Beacon Hill!! Great clean space (just south of Holgate on Beacon .. where the Mexican Grocery used to be on the west side of the street), delicious food. I know little about Philipino cuisine, but my sources say this does well. Highlights from dinner for two: Pork Liempo -- deep fried pieces of pork belly (YUM!) with a cold liver sauce and pickled papaya to dip 'em in. Spicky Pork -- hunks o' pork in a coconut milk/anchovy/jalapeno sauce. This was seriously, seriously good, if a bit salty. They do breakfast and lunch, too. Oh .. and things not made from pork. Nothing over $8, and entrees come with rice and salad. No liquor yet but it's on its way. If you're not a beacon hiller, we'd still love your support for our restaurants. Oscar's/Baja Bistro (kitty corner from Inay's) is also a great stop, with homemade torillas and some delicious Mexican food, also in a very nice, cozier than Inay's space.

The key to 1200 is to eat in the bar, off the bar menu -- really great atmosphere, real bartenders and cocktails (though always a bit sweeter on the classics, e.g., Sazerac, Sidecar, than I prefer), and prices in line with food quality. Cheese plate is regularly quite good, not so sure of other vegie options.

We recently sampled a bunch of different Robiola from Piemonte -- quite different among them, but uniformly delicious. Milk varies -- all cow, cow+sheep, cow+sheep+goat, etc. Then had (and gleefully purchased) a Robiola from Lomdardy, a whole different animal like a Taleggio. All of these, by the way, at our Seattle Whole Foods, the new one of which (downtown) is doing a pretty good job by cheese, including minimizing the plastic wrap. Enjoy.

For Mexican food that's good, quite authentic (at least if my memory of the high-school semester in Saltillo serves) and cheap, also look for Tacos Quaymas -- it's a local chain, and a little chain-y, but still roughly 4,756 times better than most mexican food you have ever eaten. Unless of course, you have access to one of our fantastic taco trucks. [edited because I needed more coffee]

We picked up some Copes in Pennsylvania last year (at Meat Nirvana, aka Dietrich's Meats) and will definitely put some on the Thanksgiving menu - I'd forgotten about it until I saw this post. Thanks for the reminder!

Saigon Deli is our family home away from home, since we live near by -- loads of great stuff, essentially free. I'm not up on my Vietnames food names, but the cold version they serve of the rice-paper wrapper around the ground pork/mushroom mixture is so addictive I can eat portion after portion of it. Plus great banh mi. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

One per neighborhood would be nice. Or at least one in my neighborhood......... ← North Beacon Hill still has the dreaded Neighborhood French Bistro Deficit syndrome, as well, though I think here it would only attract the worst (i.e., the "best") people and could hurt our fabulous and more neighborhood-appropriate Mexican "bistro".

Indeed, from different parts of the animal as I understand it -- from below the "short loin" in the back (flank) and from essentially the front of the chest or breast in the front (brisket), at least so says my handy "Cutting Up in the Kitchen." Certainly very different cuts to cook as I've experienced it. Can't imagine that slow-cooking flank steak will get you anything approaching the lusciousness of brisket. Other sourcing options to consider: Skagit River Ranch, which sells at Farmer's markets. Haven't had their brisket, but did have a flank a year or two ago and remember it being delicious. Grass-fed, so likely less fat than you're used to, but delicious meat usually, and from the good guys.

More cheers for the Rainier "Truck" down by the old Chubby and Tubby -- you can eat in it, too, and they have fantastic cabeza and lengua both, along with Mexican coke, jarritos, and all the fixins. Heaven in a parking lot.

I had made probably 3 quarts of the syrup, at 1:1. Got paranoid re: fermentation due to a slew of other posts I read that at that low a ratio it was a real risk, though I did keep it nice and cold and practice good hygiene with it. Had originally started to make a half gallon with the flowers from some gorgeous lavender some friends grew out on our Olympic Penninsula. I was totally improvising, so did not measure the flowers after I took them off the stems. Was originally going to make a quart or two of syrup, but they were so intense I made more. Used exactly your method. I prolly had 3 cups or more of these utra lavendery buds. Syrup is quite aromatic, lovely flavor, gorgeous color. I didn't need more than a cup either, I just hate to waste great ingredients Thus the sorbet. Final note: I tried this with a little touch of bitters (Angostura), too, thinking that if I was making complex aromatic fun, well why not go all the way? Answer: 'cause it's better without it. (Though it was still good.)

And another, which we have dubbed the Dicktini: 2 oz. gin .5 oz lemon juice .5 1:1 lavender syrup (fairly intensely lavender) Shaken, in a cocktail glass with a twist. Not as dusky and complex as the aviation, but complicated enough in the middle and higher registers. Still working a bit on proportions ... 2.5 oz gin may actually work better, given sweetness of the syrup. These same ingredients, in considerably different (reversed, and dramatically) proportions and with some water along for the ride made a half-gallon of lavender-lemon-gin sorbet as well this weekend. yummmmmmm. needed a lime to brighten up the very top end there. And dealt with the giant bunch of syrup I had made andwas afraid would spoil/ferment.