DTBarton

Not all that often, but I love fried food. Oysters, shrimp, chicken, soft crabs, marinated duck. I only deep fry outside in the summer a couple times a year. In the winter, I pan fry seafood in very little peanut oil. For shrimp or soft crabs, I use a mixture of self rising flour (a great tip I got from an elerly black southern lady who knew how to do soft crabs right) and Penzey's Chesapeake Bay seasoning, which I prefer to Old Bay. I just coat the pan with peanut oil plus a couple extra tablespoons. get it nice and hot, dredge the seafood and in it goes. Have to turn it due to the small amount of oil, but it comes out light and crispy, not greasy. For oysters I like a little more breading, add in some corn meal and bread crumbs.

2000s are too young for me - 98 St Emilions are drinking well. ← In general, I'd agree. I have a case of the Moulin St George and thought I'd do a little Valentine baseline research. If you can find any 2000 Clos L'Eglise Cotes de Castillon, that's drinking nicely now and is cheap by Bordeaux standards. Glad to hear about the 98s, I have a box of Monbousquet that's yet to be sampled. And I still have 95s that are coming out stern, hope they open up.

Ditto on the slaw dogs, that's good stuff.

Big yes! fried, gumbo, in stewed tomatoes, tempura (a local sushi place does this great). It is the king of organic thickeners.

Simple Valentine goodies. Pan seared Australian Wagyu ribeye steaks, stuffed twice baked potatoes (green onion, sour cream, sharp cheddar, milk), and mixed greens with dijon vinagrette. 2000 Moulin St George Bordeaux. (I opened, didn't cook)

A problem I've had is finding pork with a sufficient fat content. I know that the chops and loins I get today are nothing like what my Mom used to serve us as youths and she cooked them less tenderly than I do. Pork producers have gone whole hog (sorry) with "the other white meat" thing. I have to buy a shoulder or something to get a cut with any fat content, the chops and loins are all kind of dry and tasteless. My question is, is there any producer you know of that still raises pork the old fashioned way, doesn't put the poor pigs on a treadmill, and purveys juicy succulent chops like I remember?

I meant no disrespect in the hot dog thread, just a gentle jest. Food (like art, wine, music, and stereo equipment) is thoroughly subjective. If you like it, it's good! I tend to be old fashioned though, with respect to condiment usage. What to me is kosher deli stuff (beef dogs, knockwurst, corned beef, pastrami) I like with mustard. I guess this tradition stems from real kosher delis that would not have mayonaise on the premises. I prefer mayonaise on turkey or roast beef sandwiches (actually both mayo and mustard together on the roast beef is good, horseradish essential), can go either way on burgers. As for making it, I agree with previous posts. I have made it, but been underwhelmed with the results, probably a personal problem or lack of practice. For brands, I'm partial to Hellman's over Kraft. Wife likes Duke's, but she's a true southerner, I think that helps you to be a Duke's fan.

Tried my first bottle of this St. Emillion last night with a Valentine steak. Nice cherry nose, good fruit, plenty of structure. Still a touch tannic. I'd say worthwhile now, probably can stand a couple more years in the bottle, but very enjoyable with the beef.

Mayo as a basic hot dog topping? Mayo's what goes with your pastrami on white bread. But seriously folks, I agree with Nullo that the toppings sort of depend on what kind of dog and how it's cooked. The heftier dogs and wursts that are grilled can stand up to more and more flavorful toppings. I also agree that Hebrew National is my favorite grocery store dog. Buy I also can appreciate a boiled dog as long as it's not been boiled to death. Reminds me of an old fashioned ball park dog, boiled on a steamed bun with mustard and passed through several strangers hands. Chili is a great dog topping, when I'm having chili dogs is the only time I make thin chili with ground beef. Diced onions are also de rigeur.

One of my favorite high caloric lunches used to be had at the Althaus deli in Newport News, VA. I think they're still open, but haven't been in years. They served a killer hot pastrami, split knockwurst, and melted swiss cheese sandwich on rye with a big pile of delicious, greasy, fresh cut fries. Didn't have to eat again that day.

Thanks Gordon, I've got some of that in the cellar.

A dish that I've served a few times to dubious guests is romaine and bitter greens salad with red onion and grapefruit and italian style dressing. Most everyone is put off by the grapefruit and converted in a couple of bites

Matthew's pizza on Eastern Avenue is pretty good for a non-pizza town. BYOB http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=1193 Amicci's in Little Italy is fun. http://www.amiccis.com/

I'll second the notion that I don't use recipes nearly as much anymore. I have quite a few cookbooks, but have mostly stopped buying them since we get 3 newspaper food sections a week and an infinite variety are available online. I usually have in my head what I want to do and then I'll consult a couple of books or online to get that extra spice or ingredient that helps bring it all together.

I agree with both the previous posts, sounds familiar. The biggest change for me has been a gradual shift of focus from technique to ingredients. After many years, I convinced myself that I could do about anything I wanted to set my mind to that didn't require restaurant sized equipment. I did complicated French things and stuff with lots of labor required and enjoyed it all. I find that now I enjoy the hunt for the best, freshest raw materials I can find and prepare them somewhat simply to enjoy the flavors. I believe this comes from a bit of laziness in my middle age and also from the fact that in middle age, I have the funds to expend on high quality ingredients. I'm also much more seasonal as this makes ingredient searching easier, and I tend to decide what I'm going to cook as I shop. I used to get in my head that I was going to have a certain thing and then do it. Now, I like to hit the store du jour and examine the goods. Whatever looks the best, that's what I'll plan the menu around.

I forgot to mention, the dressing needs a shot of sesame oil (hot or not as you please) for viscosity. So Solly!

Fried oysters chinese style. I ripped off the presentation from a great Chinese restaurant that unfortunately is no more in my former home town of Hampton, VA, the Ming Gate. Crisp fried oysters served on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce. Dress the whole thing with an asian dressing of soy sauce, some brown vinegar and rice wine vinegar, a little fish sauce, a little fresh diced garlic and ginger and a nice healthy dose of diced chile peppers and cilantro. Make the dressing early in the day, it gets better and better. One of my favorites and the Chesapeake Bay oysters were really good (not a given, sometimes they're watery). The texture in this dish is fantastic.

For veal you might consider stuffed breasts of veal if your butcher can get them. Elegant and delicious and a good way to make veal for 16 people.

These definitely aren't hoity toity, but I ate at Jack's a couple weeks ago and the burger was fantastic. Hollyeats.com is a great site. http://www.hollyeats.com/JacksBurgers.htm http://www.hollyeats.com/BettysSoulFood.htm http://www.hollyeats.com/HotDogHeaven.htm http://www.hollyeats.com/HotDogHeaven.htm Didn't get to try the other spots, but i've found Holly's recommendations to be pretty reliable.

I will second the opinions above on a couple of things. I like Texas Pete for everyday mild cayenne sauce, great on things like barbecue and I jazz up my barbecue sauces with it for use at the end of cooking. From Half moon Bay trading company, I love the golden habanero pepper sauce. But. making your own is easy and fun. I do it in late summer/early fall with peppers from the garden. Here's a great source for chile pepper plants of MANY varieties, I've had great luck with their plants the last 3 years. http://www.chileplants.com/default.asp I use this basic recipe for hot sauce I want to keep. If you're going to eat it right away, it doesnt need as much vinegar, salt or cooking time. Quantities are fluid according to your taste, heat resistance, and pepper availability. Basically, you can't make it wrong. Clean your peppers. I've been using a variety of fresh peppers including pablano, cayenne, jalapeno, and even a shot of sweet peppers. I don't use a lot of the really hot ones, because most of my friends and family don't want it killer hot. The more thoroughly you remove the seeds and membranes, the milder your sauce will be. I like to get the seeds out as they can be bitter, but leave most of the membrane in for heat. Use disposable rubber gloves when you do this or you'll be sorry when you scratch your eye or take a pee! Put some vegetable oil in a pan and saute garlic and onions. Add the peppers and anything else you like. I always add some diced carrot, sometimes some tomato. Many people like various kinds of fruit or cucumber, have fun. Saute all this stuff until tender. Add a mixture of 2/3 white vinegar and 1/3 water until veggies are not quite covered. Give it a good shot of salt. Cover and simmer for an hour or so. After 45 minutes, add a big shot of chopped cilantro (I love this). Take off heat and let cool. Put it in a blender or food processor and puree to desired consistency. If it's too thick, add some more of the vinegar/water mixture. Adjust for salt and cilantro. You want it to be thin enough to pour/shake out of the bottle. I have bought bottles at kitchen supply store and I save empty hot sauce bottles that I've bought with sauce in them. Wash the botles and lids well and then boil the bottles for ten minutes or so to sanitize. Funnel the sauce in to the bottles and cap. I'm still enjoying the stuff i made in September/October now in February and I don't refrigerate it. Refrigerating would probably be safer! So, my own are my favorites. I pick the peppers right when I'm ready to make the sauce and it maintains that great fruity/hot flavor that you only get from peppers right off the vine. Looking forward to trying some new twists with this year's pepper crop. And finally, I don't care for Dave's insanity. They distill the pepper mixture to intensify the heat so it's not a heat that occurs naturally in any single pepper. And you can ruin a whole pot of good food with just a little of that distilled fire.

For the NFC championship, we made cheesesteak strombolis, four different varieties, some with whiz, some with peppers, some with mushrooms, etc, made with half-frozen ribeyes cut paper thin with my freshly sharpened Global. We also made some some pan seared hot dogs from the local Polish butcher shop. For the big game, I'm thinking of making a rye bread stuffed with fried onion, sauerkraut, and kielbasi from the same shop, seasoned with caraway seeds, and maybe a chipotle macs-n-cheese caserole. We're not hosting this one, so it's got to be easily transportable food. FLY EAGLES FLY!!!! ← Welcome Tkrup! So where's your local Polish butcher shop? And what do they have there? C'mon - you gotta 'fess up now. You can't start a sentence like that in this crowd and not finish it... ← Ostrowski's Famous. http://ostrowskifamous.homestead.com/Storefront.html I think they do mail order too. But they don't take credit cards in the store. They have a small but respectable selection of Polish grocery items as well. ← I'm glad someone identified Ostrowski's, they're awesome!. On a less traveled street (Washington) in Baltimore's Fell's Point neighborhood. Best fresh kielbasa I've ever had. Great smoked kielbasa also. Worth the trip.

I've found that I can taste many of the things reviewers say they taste. The various fruit flavors (other than grape!) seem to be the most easy to find. Fruity Burgundies often have a pronounced raspberry or strawberry aroma, Alsace wines often have pronounced apple or pear flavors, and California chardonnay has a lot of tropical fruit flavors like pineapple. Many lighter white wines have a pronounced citrus component. I have detected the "jammy" thing, like sweetened fruit. It gets dicier when they start with the non-fruit components. When you start hearing about tobacco and leather and such it's not as obvious. I think that's because those flavors are incorporated in the structure, or background of the wine whereas the fruit components are more up front. I have better luck with the non fruit things if I concentrate on aftertaste. I do use Parker ratings for a few reasons. When I started buying wine about 10 years ago I tried a few different reviewers and found that Parker seemed to match my tastes more than the others. I found Wine Spectator to be inconsistent for me. Don't know if this is because they use more reviewers or they reward advertisers or what but I did not care for some wines they rated highly. Also, since I don't get the chance to taste many things before I buy and there's such a vast array to choose from it helps to become familiar with a reviewer whose taste seems to match yours. I've had pretty good success using the Parker rating/price ratio, trying to find wines Parker rated 89 - 92 or so for reasonable prices.

I love fresh sage, pay no attention to the cat pee smell! Favorite fresh sage recipe, similar to others mentioned. Brown finely diced pancetta in a mixture of 2/3 butter, 1/3 olive oil, and then add a little diced garlic. Add chopped fresh sage leaves and cook until it comes together over medium heat. salt and pepper to taste. Serve with gnochhi of your choice and grated parmesan. Powerful rich sauce, you don't need a whole lot on each serving. I'm no sausage making expert, but I've has many sausages that were, in my opinion over-saged. I'd start out with an easy hand on the sage and figger out how much it takes.

Romney, a first-term Republican governor, refused to accept the traditional Philadelphia sandwich in exchange for lobsters in the traditional pre-Super Bowl bet between leaders of the two states represented in the game. "He said the cheese steak had no nutritional value," Rendell told reporters Wednesday at an event, citing that Romney was fitness-conscious. Yeah, like lobsters drenched in butter is on the Weight Watchers menu, you sanctimonious twerp! It's a Super Bowl bet, you can go back to tofu and sprouts tomorrow!

I have to say, Kerry was the worst politician I've ever seen for eating the local chow. There were several priceless images of him on the campaign trail looking like someone had given him a steaming turd instead of a local favorite. Before the Iowa caucuses, someone gave him a corn dog and he looked terrified. There was the famous cheese steak incident (his advance people must have been really dim, I mean if you're going to do a cheese steak photo op, spend one minute learning how to order), the famous "having a beer with the local guys in an Ohio bar" (you could tell he was in a hurry to ditch the brew and get on the bus with the Puligny-Montrachet), and the hilarious scene of He and Thereeeeeza (or as we know her affectionately, Terry Kerry) and The Edwards celebrating Mrs. Edwards birthday at a Wendy's. Not only did Mrs Edwards look a little portly for double cheeseburgers (not a cut, just came off that way on TV), but they didn't actually eat the Wendy's stuff, just took the pictures and headed out to their bus where a local country club hat catered a fancy meal for them. I have to go with Philadelphia over New England for chow. I mean I like chowder and lobsters and stuff, but it's not great tailgate food. Also, when the team's from "New England", what local chow are you supposed to pick? Vermont cheese? Connecticut insurance policies? New Hampshire granite? I admit I'm biased, grew up in Northern Delaware (a south Philly suburb). Having the neighbors in tomorrow for the game and some Philadelphia health food: Italian hoagies, cheese steaks, and soft pretzels. Go Eagles!!