DTBarton

well i know how to debone a chicken ← You know you're a foodie when you ask questions like: How come when you take bones out it's deboning, but when you take skin off, it's skinning, not deskinning?

I do use lemon juice in an Italian sauce I make for fish that has tomato, but it is not a tomato sauce. Olive oil, garlic, onion, fresh oregano, anchovy, chopped black olive, tomato, lemon juice. Pan sear fresh tuna steaks and finish briefly in this sauce. Looking for balance in this one, taste each ingredient.

Lemon juice in tomato sauce seems like acidity added to acidity.

"so tell me how do you bone a chicken?" When you know the answer to that question, asked for a new, better boning knife for Christmas, and have been practicing as a winter culinary project. I'm getting better.

I find that many people use too much cheese in dishes and it overwhelms anything else. Also, the licorice flavored herbs (tarragon especially) can be overbearing if not used judiciously. And of course, hot peppers. All heat and no flavor is no good!

For guaranteed freshness, find a place in Chinatown (or the big oriental supermarket near the Italian market on Washington street, it's near Washington and 5th or so) that sells live fish. Sorry to not have a more specific name or location in Chinatown, but I've run across a couple of places walking around. And the big market on Washington has rows of tanks at the back of the store.

I'l second that notion. I eat just about everything at the sushi bar but that urchin is nasty. Elvis needs boats, Elvis needs boats................

I find that I like Parker's reviews more than Wine Spectator, but others will disagree. You have to use someone since I certainly don't get the opportunity to taste most of the wines I buy. Parker does usually put a range of years for drinking on his aging wine reviews (e.g. 2007 - 2012) which gives you an idea from someone who's tasted the wine and acknowledges the subjective nature of the task. For aging red wine, I try to do some research and if I decide to purchase a particular wine to age, I try and make a commitment of at least 3 bottles. That way, you can try the first one when you think it's about ready. If it's good, yahoo, you have some more to enjoy. If it needs to sit, you've established a baseline. If it stinks, oh well, better luck next time (see the Burgundy thread)

Not farm raised, but in the summer and fall the fresh local seafood available on Hatteras island is fantastic. Local shrimp, crabs, clams, fish of many varieties.

I can't see how it would make any difference as long as you don't leave the soup out for hours and hours. I let mine cool off just to keep the fridge from running a lot. The nice thing about soup is that you reheat it to boil, so any little nasty that might be in there will get simmerred to death prior to ingesting the leftovers, most likely.

Forgot to add, as far as value/budget goes, here are my current faves. Check out Spanish wines and as you mentioned, Beaujolais, for value. You can get some really good bottles in the $8 - $15 range from those two areas. 2003 vintage of Beaujolais is fantastic. Can get some pretty good values in the Sangiovese/Chianti type things from Italy in a good year, but have to sift through some chaff as well. As I've posted before, I'm a big fan of Alsace and you can get some bargains there as well since American demand is low, but the falling dollar is hurting us some all around the world.

Nice write up Brad. Alas, I've alraedy taken the plunge, put in a cellar room when I remodeled the house (yes, the spouse is on board). I did it for two reasons. 1. After getting my first tastes of aged red wine from my brother and father in law, I had to have some of my own. 2. I love to cook and my ultimate goal is to be able to grab wine from my cellar to match whatever it is I've decided to cook that day (I'm pretty close, need to restock my Alsace). As for the Chicago newbie, my best advice is twofold: First, if you haven't done so already, do enough buying and tasting to familiarize yourself with the names and flavors of the varietal wine grapes. This will tell you where to concentrate your buying efforts. Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel, Riesling, Pinot Gris (Grigio in Italy), Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, that's enough to start. You don't have to do exhaustive book learning, just enough to know what you like and ask good questions about grapes, styles, and blends. Second, definitely peruse all your local wine stores. Chat up the help, find out if they're helpful and knowledgeble, and not pretentious or snooty. And most importantly, buy some of their recommendations (with respect to grape, style, and price) that you've inquired about. By doing this several times, you'll gradually identify the stores and personnel that a). carry what you like in your price range and b). have staff that offers reliable recommendations. I have two main stores in Annapolis that I frequent and make occasional trips to Washington DC to shop in the big DC wine meccas like Calvert Woodley, Pierson's and MacArturs. Good luck, have fun with it, and don't take it too seriously. If you like a wine, it's good, no matter what the local wine snob says!

And ginger, gotta have ginger in a dumpling (or a dumpling sausage.........)

How about a pork sausage mimicking a steamed dumpling with dried shrimp, soy, and cilantro?

And your problem is? Perhaps you're unclear on the potato chip concept! My best chip memories as a kid are of Charles Chips. They came in a big, light brown steel can and were delivered to your doorstep and left next to the box where the milk man left the milk that was home delivered. In those innocent old days we didn't agonize about eating home delivered big cans of chips and people didn't steal milk off of doorsteps. Oh well. As for today, I'm an Utz man. Love Grandma Utz's home cooked (yes in lard) for a splurge, but also love the Utz kettle cooked sea salt and malt vinegar. Peanut oil cooked, crunchy, nice balance of salt and vinegar. My local Safeway keeps having tham on a buy one get one free promotion which tests my will power severely.

I tend to go more on my overall sense of the place. Does it smell clean, look clean, have I had good stuff there before? For seafood, a good place smells like the sea, not of old fish or bleach. If I trust the place as a whole, I'm less inclined to nit pick details, i.e. if I thought the skate market was selling anything contaminated, I wouldn't be buying skate (or anything else) there. In general, I like to see good saniatry handling practices employed 100%, but I'm not going to let a small slip stop me from buying what I'm confident is good product from a good store. As for the worm, it could occur naturally. I fish a lot in salt water and many salt water fish are prone to worm like parasites, particularly near the tail. I don't have specific experience with turbot, but my guess is the worm came in the fish, didn't crawl in off the street. And they are generally harmless, albeit alarming if you haven't seen it before, and they're right about them mostly disappearing upon cooking. Bon Appetit!

Steamed asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and dressed with a little vinagrette and shaved parmesan. Run it under the broiler fo a minute to crisp up the prosciutto. Belgian endive leaves stuffed with a ricotta, parmesan, romano mixture, add some hot pepper if you like.

If you're not careful in Cincinnatti they'll put spaghetti in your chili! Not my favorite (give me hominy with mine) but when in Rome.

I haven't done it myself, but my neighbors use Coca Cola for cooking ribs. A quick Google search shows they're not alone. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ribs+...G=Google+Search

I've not been there myself, but I've heard a few folks talk about Strouds in Kansas City, always positively. http://www.stroudsrestaurant.com/

Not sure, but I think it's mostly a question of the fineness of the grind. To me, corn meal and polenta are pretty much the same, although there are variances in the grind here as well. Some of the southern white corn meals are ground almost as fine as flour and I don't like to use them for polenta (or as my grandfather called it before we got all prettified, corn meal mush ). For polenta, I like a grind similar to the old Quaker yellow corn meal in the round box. I mostly think of grits as coarser ground than corn meal and usually white corn, or mostly white with bits of yellow. The best I've had I bought at Farmer's markets in the south (NC and SC) and they came in brown paper sacks, far superior to the grocery store kind. Hominy I think of as whole kernel corn. I've used it dried or canned. The dried is better, but I can't always get it. Dried hominy varies widely in cooking time, so check it often when simmering. Also will need a good shot of salt in the water. The canned is ok, but can be very salty and/or canny. I rinse my canned hominy to rid it of salt and canniness (as much as possible) and then saute it in just a bit of butter over pretty high heat to "toast" it a bit and bring out the corn flavor. Add some pepper (all grits and hominy love pepper) And taste for salt. I love to serve pan sauteed hominy with chili, it's fantastic. You can add some diced chili peppers to the homny saute pan for additional fun.

We have a couple of brands of chicken at our Whole Foods market that I think are far superior to the standard Tyson/Perdue/whatever. Much more flavor and less fat, don't have the really disproportionate Barbie style breasts. One is Eberly's free range and the other is Bell and Evans. Bell and Evans ia our home brand, we really like it. As good or better than the free range and cheaper. They don't call it free range, but the birds do get open space, maybe there's a standard amount of space required to use the moniker free range. http://www.bellandevans.com/ http://www.eberlypoultry.com/products.htm Both of these sites have store locators.

I like are Blue Agave in Federal Hill, hip spot with great Margaritas and interesting Mexican style stuff. http://www.blueagaverestaurant.com/ Since you seem open to both upscale and down, Aldo's in Little Italy has served me several excellent Italian meals, but they're pricy (as is Charleston). http://www.aldositaly.com/home.html

Don't know if you like barbecue, but when in NC, you know? These barbecue reviewers really liked this Asheville place and barbecue joints usually aren't too pricy. http://www.ibiblio.org/ch-scene/bbq/mountain.html

Obviously you can't do wonders from scratch every meal. Therefore a minor obsession with finding good prepared food is very appropriate. While not frozen, my favorite prepared grocery store food of choice right now is rotisserie turkey. Both the local Giant and Safeway stores cook a couple turkey breasts in with the chickens every day. Better flavor and not as fatty as the chickens. Great sandwich meat, beats the heck out of anything in the deli case.