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.

Vis-a-vis Pt. Townsend, an alert AND an enthusiastic recommendation: We were there last weekend and had heard some decent talk of the Silverwater Cafe (actually a fairly large, and relatively pricey, restaurant.) While I hate to do this to all the people working hard there, I have to warn you far, far away from this place. The menu, which at a quick (starving) window glance had looked interesting, was actually all over the place, we realized as we sat down. This turned out to be exactly the bad sign you might expect. We decided to split two entrees, in sequence, as a first and second. Both were sad indeed. We began with the wild mushroom and leek cakes ($15.00). Thinking of something delicate and lovely we could split as a starter, we were instead startled to receive a plate piled with four, puck-sized, thick, gloppy, gray cake-things, all just thrown on top of each other in the middle of the plate. Around and over these was a "dijon cream" sauce that had long ago broken. It's really hard to describe how gross this plate looked, and in a way that screamed "no one who really cares about the food is anywhere near the kitchen, but our clientele is tourists who won't be back so who cares?" The cake-things actually tasted good, which was something given our hunger, but you get the picture. We followed then with the "Tuscan Ribeye" ($21.50), which was similarly horrifying -- weirdly and unevenly cut, unevenly and very badly grilled, over marinated, and really just gross. In addition, at this point they were out of two of the three starch sides (which we learned in stages as we worked our way through the list.) Service was pleasant but not professional, and we witnessed 2 different instances of waitstaff hanging around in public view eating themselves! THAT SAID: we did have delightful cocktails and perfectly fine crab cakes at the Water Street Brewing and Ale House (home of the only outside water-side deck we could find in downtown proper) and some decent BBQ at Dos Okies for lunch. MOST IMPORTANT: we had brunch at Sweet Laurette and Cyndee's Cafe, which was truly delightful. They also have a fine looking bistro-y dinner menu. Brunch was a leek, bacon and fontina omelette -- a REAL omelette, beautifully done -- and an extra generous few slices of gorgeous homemade polenta, which they cheerfully subbed for the potatoes and toast. Service was friendly and and articulate (though coffee service was a bit slow), the room is cozy and comfortable, and they have great coffee and espresso both. They had a sign up looking for "Cook: must have good knife skills", which is to say "someone here IS paying attention to the food."

I travel to PA/Menlo Park for work regularly and am always looking for some place interesting to eat. There is a swell Turkish/mediterranean restaurant, just opened a few months ago, on El Camino in Menlo Park. A great, and very different for the area, experience: family run, a bit quaint, but delicious and interesting food. Highly recommended. Also not pricey. Sultana restaurant 1149 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 Phone: (650)322-4343 On a related note: if you're from an actual, thriving and multidimensional urban area, PA itself, while lovely in some ways and more interesting than most tighty-whitey suburbs (and certainly not dangerous, difficult, or dirty, for God's sake) is not exactly a hotbed of new or interesting culture unless you get a bit off the beaten path. The good news is that you can do that just by keeping your eyes open for the right little storefronts here and there, tucked in with the chains, stores wanting to be chains, and oh-so-modern-in-the-same-way restaurants.

Oh, heaven.

mmmmm Port Madison yogurt is my breakfast of champions. Had been mixing it with frozen huckleberries from Foraged and Found. (I'd either leave 'em frozen or just put a handful of them out for a while in a bowl to thaw.)

So, last night we had a swell little gathering and served a meal that featured items from the following local(ish) folks: Skagit River Ranch Willie Greens Loki Fish Tahuya Valley Apiaries Estrella Family Creamery Port Madison Farms Billy's and some others I think I've forgotten. Dinner report with menu and random discussions just posted in the Dinner! forum, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worthwhile to have a NW-specific discussion of what we're cooking with the local bounty. Any takers?

I have owned one of each. The Magnum Plus really is a big mill ... which also makes it trickier to handle and more likely to be dropped and broken . at least it did in my house. Then got a Magnum, which is truly ideal. Both grind beautifully. The only real downside is the plastic body. As noted above, I dropped and broke my Plus. My poor Magnum was sitting on the stove (ok .. stupid) with the oven on and the hot hair from the vent melted the top parts together so I can no longer load it -- it's out of pepper and out of usefulness. (I have a Bluestar range coming in next week ... I won't be putting my next magnum anywhere near it!)

I'm not obsessive, though have a housemate who's been in the biz for 20+ years so can surely tell the diff of good from bad, and have noticed that many people can, even if they're not aware they can. Mediocre stuff might go down ok/without complaints, but even people without obsessive palates will ooh and aah over the good stuff, properly presented. Aren't oohs and aahs one of your goals? The french press idea seems absolutely brilliant to me, for what it's worth. Distinctive, delicious, inexpensive to set up and run. [edited because I'm in the design biz and get my palates and palettes confused]

Had great spur-of-the-moment meal there on Wednesday, spurred by this thread. Wife, 13-year-old, me .. Young'un was disappointed at the lack of Pho Ga, but had the tender+brisket pho and was amazed at its gloriousness, as were we all--in particular its intense aroma and the amount of richness imparted by the spices (star anise? cinnamon? as am amateur Vietnamese food lover who's never cooked it, am lost on this). He also insisted on deep-fried egg rolls, his fave, also good if you like that kind of thing. Spring rolls were excellent, presented almost exactly a la Tamarind Tree, though they didn't have my fave TT meatball option. Doug cabbage salad, however, was truly stunning, the best I've had -- beautiful (with red and green cabbage), delicious with cilantro etc merged into the salad. In many ways, along with the pho, this was the star of the show for me, as a regular and voracious consumer of this dish. Banh xeo, which was new to us, was lovely, an incredible deal ... but not being a bean sprouts crew, we only ate one. The Fried Duck soup, already discussed more eloquently than I can while mutitasking (god bless conference calls), was everything it's cracked up to be, too. Yes, we had way more food than we could eat! [edited to add this:] OH! And service -- fantastic, friendly, helpful, yeah!

Have been in a couple times in last 6 weeks, both fabulous. In addition to their standards, some new standouts, including a cauliflower soup that is to cauliflower what the Robuchon spuds are to spuds and a guinea hen lasagne "bolognese" that was perfect. Also: cheese selection remains a stand-out, is served right, and if you ask can include things not on the menu. Only minor quibble: went on a weeknight a couple weeks ago and, while this meant there was no wait, it also appeared to be "train/test some green waitstaff night." Things went ok, but we missed the seasoned pros who are such a huge part of the Lark experience.

It was for sale on craig's list (business only) a month or two ago for soemthing like $25k