Suzanne F

Just open it and smell and/or take a teeny tiny taste. If it's gone rancid, you'll know. But mine has kept for an awfully long time, in the coldest part of the fridge. It's a pain to stir back together, though.

No batter, no buttermilk, just flour: Cut up the bird into pieces of relatively close size/density. Brine (I like to add lemon juice and Tabasco to the salt water.). Season AP flour with salt and pepper. OR a little Old Bay or adobo seasoning instead of s&p. Keep in a sturdy bag. Heat about an inch of canola oil in a heavy skillet with a cover or Dutch oven -- almost smoking. A few pieces at a time, shake off extra liquid from chix and dump chix into flour. Shake until well-coated all over. Coat (and cook) the denser pieces first. Carefully add the chix pieces to the oil. Let cook until light brown. Turn over. Cover. When second side is nicely browned, uncover and allow to crisp again. Remove to a draining rack in a warming oven. Repeat with remaining pieces as necessary. I know I didn't specify temperature or time; I would if I could. But I only measure that sort of thing if I'm "officially" writing a recipe. Anyway, just about any good American cookbook can tell you temperature; and an instant read thermometer will let you know when it's done. Oh, one other thling: if the residue of flour left in the pan is not burnt, I pour out all the oil and make a milk-and/or-chix-stock gravy. This is especially good if I used Old Bay.

I'm partial to Old Homestead. Meltingly tender; beefy but not too strong; very tasty crust; meat and fat have clear demarcations, so you can eat as much or as little of each as you want; enough to feed a family of four for a week (at least, it seems like that to me ). And the leftovers were great, too. One place I DO NOT recommend for Prime Rib is MarkJoseph. Definitely not their forte.

What I found with regular spanish onions was that if we kept them in the fridge, then brought the bin into the kitchen to weigh out the 25# we needed, then put the bin back in the fridge: -- by the time someone remembered to re-refrigerate the bin, the condensation that collected on the onions just sat there and caused all kind of icky sticky gooey problems. The problem didn't come from refrigeration; it came from cold-to-hot-to-cold-to-hot etc. environments. We never used fancy onions. Potatoes shouldn't be refrigerated because the starch starts to convert to sugar. And then there's the whole thing about don't keep apples near carrots in the fridge because one of them gives off a gas that turns the other bitter -- but at this time of night I can't remember which is which. (See the Are you a Dipsomaniac thread)

Have you tried Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup? If not: The C. S. Steen Syrup Mill Inc P.O. Box 339 119 N. Main Street Abbeville, LA 70510 (318) 893-1654 They have a website, but I've lost the link. Sorry.

One more thing: when I started work at a food manufacturer (not the one I work with now) and did my first full inventory, I found: -- a case of tinned anchovies in the freezer; -- a case of Diamond Kosher Salt in the (very humid) walkin refrigerator; -- all the nuts and sesame seeds sitting out in the heat of the kitchen; -- ALL the canned goods in the walkin (including all the cooking/baking oils); -- potatoes and onions in the walkin, so that when you took then out to use, they'd go all slick and disgustingly gooey; and more. Now that I'm gone from there, I'll bet things are back the way I found then back then. Sorry; just had to vent about that.

Olive oil: never. We go through it very fast, and besides, I've read that it shouldn't be refrigerated. Besides, then you have to let it un-glom. Truffle oil: the tasty white stuff, yes; the tasteless black t.o, no -- why bother? Butter: always. I don't buy great stuff, and don't use that much. Egg: always. I trust no one, not even the best organic egg farmers. TOMATOES: NEVER. What am I, crazy?? Onions, shallots: never. Yuck. Potatoes: didn't, then did, now: never. I just buy what I need when I need them, so they don't sit around very long. Coffee beans: FREEZE. we're too lazy to grind and brew coffee every day, so we keep what little we buy well-sealed in the freezer. Nuts: ditto. Why ruin a beautiful bunch of fresh basil by using rancid nuts in the pesto? If I had a bigger fridge, I'd probably also keep my flours in it.

I'm appalled that any restaurant would expect you to sign a contract agreeing to occupy a table for only so long and no more. Hell, once it took my husband and me one full hour just to decide on our order! (This was in Washington DC in 1979 or so). On the other hand, at least then you know where you stand (sit? grovel?) in the restaurant's scheme of things. ("Okay, head 'em up, move 'em out" for those of you who ever saw Rawhide.) I've heard that there are places here in NYC that simply -- rudely -- tell you that your time is up, without having given any warning beforehand that there IS a time limit. Well, some people like to be abused.

So which is "worse" (i.e., more inhumane, less PC, whatever): eating the shrimp "live" or drowning them in Shao Xing and then cooking and eating them? Tearing apart live lobsters, or plunging them whilst alive into boiling water? (I worked with a sushi assistant who would apologize to the lobsters first.) Is it even a moral question at all, or just one of how do we feed ourselves with what is available to us?

Rachel, what memories you awakened! Not mine own, but of tales my mother used to tell of HER parents. It could have been black radish -- my grandfather, who died long before I was born (and it's no wonder why:) used to love rye bread spread liberally with schmaltz and grated black radish, then highly salted. Did anyone else see/hear Andre Codrescu's televised description of eating at Sammy's -- several years ago, while he was still a vegetarian? NICK: oh well, that's why god invented finger cots. Hope it heals quickly.

Well, at least they keep it clean. Not that that makes it any BETTER.

Apparently there's also one on Lexington between 33rd and 34th -- just saw a highly-mixed-opinion thread about it elsewhere.

Also liver, preceded by split pea soup. He hates the texture of both (although he makes an exception for foie gras )

Can't help you there -- I've only been to the Hell's Kitchen one, and that only once (it was superb). BUT: does it strike you -- or anyone -- that "Grand Sichuan" is the "Empire Szechuan" of the 00's? Remember how they started off with just one, then another, then a zillion that may or may not have been related? And each time there were more, it seemed the total quality remained the same, and just got spread thinner and thinner? I'm getting déja vu all over.

Sounds to me like the best -- in fact, only possible -- use for what passes for bagels nowadays. But that's a rant for another thread.

Sand dabs at Tadich. Perfection on a plate.

Thanks! I'll have to check that out myself.

Granted, that was written in the early 1970s, and while I think much has improved since then, it still rings awfully true today to me. Name your poseurs Fearless or foolhardy, here goes: POSEURS, because they lead the masses down the path to bad food in the guise of good food: Emeril that Martha lady the editors of "Bon Appetit" the editors of "Food and Wine" the editors of "Gourmet" There are probably others one could mention, but these are the ones I've seen who TRULY fit the definition ("a person who assumes attitudes or manners merely for their effect upon others"). Lord Michael: I quite agree. But I would venture that the vast majority of the lumpen do just that, because they lack the facility to make decisions on their own. In fact, isn't that what WE do when we decide to visit a restaurant -- or not -- based on a review?

Nanmeade: remember that a recipe is, at best, only a set of guidelines. If you're referring to the recipe in the NY Times Cookbook, yes, that looks bland. Edit: yup, that's the one you've got! The one in the NY Times International Cookbook is a little better: that one adds 1 finely chopped onion, an extra 1/2 pound of pork, 1/2 tsp each ground cloves, cinnamon and savory, and a bay leaf, and suggests 3/4 cup pork stock instead of the 1 cup of water. And, of course, salt and freshly ground pepper. If I were doing it, I'd add ALL the spices from both recipes, and probably some HP or Worcestershire or other bottled "sauce." And probably some other stuff, too. But that's just me. I have little respect for the "authority" of a recipe (unless it's for baking ).

Sorry, guys -- I am DEFINITELY not an expert on pet food; the reason they hired me is because I know how to cook in big batches, cost out recipes, set up cooking procedures and train kitchen staff. (No one else they have knows much about cooking ANYTHING; mostly they are marketing people and nutritionists for animals.) So I don't know anything about other pet foods at any socio-economic level. Sorry I can't help.

Am I right in guessing that the portions were big? Still, as long as you can take home the leftovers... We ate at Iberia a few months ago with a couple of friends. (After a late-afternoon concert at NJPAC.) On the way in, you walk past the glassed-in kitchen, with big grills. Great appetite stimulant. The chorizo app there came sliced, and was the ground-meat type. Very juicy and flavorful. We kept looking at what other tables ordered, and were astonished at the size of the dishes. We ordered maybe 2 dishes for the 4 of us -- and still had trouble finishing. One was a seafood-and-rice dish, that had a WHOLE lobster, and tons of shrimp, clams, and mussels. I think it came with a mountain of sautéed potato slices. Don't remember much else, other than boring iceberg lettuce in the salad, and mediocre bread. Still, we really enjoyed the rest of the food.

Do you count salad as vegetables? Even if we don't have a separate veg or veg main course, we almost always a HUGE salad with various lettuces, bell peppers, cucumber, sprouts, carrots, tomatoes (in season), etc. And roasted veg are an excellent solution. You can make a big batch while you're roasting some slab of protein; eat some fresh; eat some reheated plain the next day; turn them into your entrée the following day. YUM. Besides cauliflower, try broccoli, asparagus, pieces of squash -- with or without slices of onion.

I am not a snob; I just have better taste than everyone around me. (Present company excepted )

Remind me where you work again so I can avoid it. Oh, no no no -- only at home, and only for myself. Please, I'm not THAT crazy. And anyway, right now I'm consulting to a "gourmet pet food" company, so if anyone might eat what I make, it would be Momo.

Just barely big enough.