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Maria

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Everything posted by Maria

  1. Eight years later, and I think I wasn't honest with myself and everyone else. I'm still buying cookbooks!
  2. Tammy, if you're still looking to metro Detroit suburbs wine contacts, you might want to add Santos at Holiday Market in Canton.
  3. I'm on the done buying cookbook place too. So, it's probably time to really use the cookbooks I bought or write the type of cookbook I like to read and use.
  4. If you want to go to a coffee shop where the owner is impassioned about coffee, A Brand New Day in Canton, Michigan is the place. (734) 983-0334 42480 Cherry Hill Rd, Canton, MI The owner, Chris, often will predict what specific style/type of coffee someone will want when they walk in the door. Usually he's correct, too.
  5. I had eaten at the Whitney under the old regime several times. The last time I was there (a couple of years ago), the food was truly awful. Everyone in my party was pretty disappointed. Based on the comments and reviews, we are going to try the Whitney again tomorrow evening.
  6. Ah, this is what my cousins and I were talking about doing this year.
  7. I've been gone (from Seattle) an awfully long time. I don't recall a single one of those restaurants.
  8. My mother-in-law did not want to choose the restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. So, she told us to choose the restaurant. My husband's family and friends pretty much eat something that would be served at a diner. Hopefully he's not reading this. ;-) My family is partly ethnic and much more used to eating and trying a variety of different foods. So, my husband and I decided that it would be cool to have the rehearsal dinner at Sangria, a Spanish tapas restaurant where we had our first date and met for the first time (We met via online dating). My mother-in-law had a royal fit (mini shades of what was too come, but that is another story). My husband told her to just trust us. We very carefully chose menu items that were similar to the types of foods most of these people would like. Everyone enjoyed the experience and the meal. My thoughts: Rehearsal dinners are traditionally for those who will be in the wedding ceremony (hence rehearsal) and any out of town guests. It should be someplace convenient to the church and where most everyone will be staying because you really do not want out of town guests to be wandering around lost in the dark in a strange city. It should be something that is easy to put together or at a restaurant. It's not an excuse for a drunken bash (Plus no one wants to look bad for the wedding and pictures). A really good place to learn more about various rehearsal dinners is http://theknot.com (It is, after all, a website devoted to weddings that many brides use for information, planning and advice) or grab Emily Post's wedding ettiquette book and check what she says.
  9. I read "Kochujang" and thought what the heck are they talking about? ... until I phonetically pronounced it. I was once conscripted by my mother into delivering a very large jar (it took two arms and hands to hold it) of it to my uncle's place. She had made it for him. I can't remember how it happened; however, that very large jar fell and crashed on my uncle's driveway with the entire ingredients. I was so embarassed.
  10. Maria

    Cookbook Roulette

    I want to play too!
  11. P.s. I had to giggle at this "Michigan Raspberries" because all the raspberries I have seen in Michigan come from California. ;-)
  12. My husband and I have reservations next Thursday for dinner at Charlie Trotters. I've been wanting to eat there for some time. My husband is going to attend a Chocolatier class in Chicago and I am going to catch up with him later on to take care of some business there.
  13. It's been 26 years since I dined at Canlis. I was about 19 years old and had a much older boyfriend who was an officer in a foreign military. He was in Seattle taking classes for a year in Seattle. He decided to pay for a going away party and invited a dozen or so friends to Canlis. The majority of the party was very young and not very sophisticated. I remember this one guy and I ordered escargot, didn't tell anyone what it was until after they each had a bite, and everyone freaked out. ;-) To Canlis' credit, they did not kick us out.
  14. My husband and I went to Bon Homme in Plymouth last Saturday. We both had the Beef Wellington. It was a bit dry. The rest of the meal was alright, just nothing very spectacular. I had the Seafood Bisque which tasted really odd ... kind of like there was some strange chemical in it. The waitress was not that skilled. She interupted as while we were talking a couple of times (which is one of my all time pet peeves). The restrooms were just a tad better than a store bathroom.
  15. Has anyone eaten at Gala recently? My friends and I went there and really liked it (although the waitress seemed a bit inexperienced). I was wondering if it still has good food. We wanted to go there again and tried to get reservations on a week's notice and they were booked up.
  16. I must be impossible to please; however, I wasn't that impressed by Emily's or by Everest Express. I actually will eat just about anything. I'm not that fussy. I even once ate grilled chicken from an out of the way outdoor cafe in Tijuana (thereby tempting fate). Truthfully, once you got over the cats roaming around waiting for food to drop and the bucket of greasy water they offered to wash your hands in, it was a fine meal. I think, though, I find very few places in the Metro Detroit area to be extraordinarily exceptional.
  17. My friends and I ate at Fiddleheads. Both our dishes were rather salty. Also, I wasn't that thrilled with the food selection there. I returned my dish to the kitchen (something I rarely do) and it was still salty when it came back.
  18. Is there anything that is unusual, different, ethnic, or extraordinarily good in the Canton-Plymouth-Westland-Northville-Livonia area? Especially if it is one of those "find" type of restaurants.
  19. A group of friends and I are going to Fiddleheads soon. So, thanks for your comments.
  20. Is anyone taking the cooking classes Chef Kyle at The Lark is teaching? It was more of a lecture class than a hands on class since the kitchen would not be able to accomodate that many; however, my husband did get to torch the creme brulee. Men and fire, what can I say? It was a lot of fun. Chef Kyle is a very gracious and entertaining person. The menu was fantastic. Even my husband, who has always said he does not like seafood nor lamb, said he really enjoyed the meal (which included seafood and lamb). When the class was completed everyone in the class sat down for a complete meal. The conversation was enjoyable. The service was wonderful. The food was fantastic. This was the first time in a couple of years that Chef Kyle has offered a cooking class. If you get a chance, definitely do this.
  21. Has anyone else eaten at Gala (33316 Grand River, Farmington)? A few friends and I had lunch there a few months ago. We all loved it. There was a wide enough variety of dishes on their menu so that my friends who have all kinds of food issues were able to find several dishes that they could eat and enjoy. The food was great ... fresh ingredients prepared well. The chef was trained at the CIA (the cooking school not the government entity). The prices were moderate. The atmosphere reminded me of an old style fancy pub. The waitstaff, unfortunately, did not seem to know the menu or the dishes very well and also seemed fairly inexperienced; however, they were not obnoxious.
  22. Since the chef change, or just in general? ← Pretty much in general, although I havent herd anything really about the new chef. ← Ahem, *cough*, *cough*, *cough* you forgot my report about my first meal there and how our party was not very impressed. Well, I went there again, pretty much kicking and screaming, but it was a friend's birthday and she was going to avoid celebrating it because it depressed her. They still have the bizarre required valet parking (you get out of your car and they park it a few feet away, truly weird; however, maybe they need it to get higher ratings in some book or other). This time we each ordered the tasting menus. My friend ordered the vegetarian tasting menu and I ordered the regular tasting menu. This was back in February so I don't remember what we exactly had. The food, though, was considerably better than what we had a year ago. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that the staff has not really changed in behavior. I found service at the Tribute to be truly obnoxious. When I go to a restaurant with others I want to spend the time talking with my companions and not being constantly interupted by the various wait staff, diningroom manager, etc. nor do I want to engage in lengthy conversations about their personal lives. It seriously detracts from the evening.
  23. Kevin, Delightful thread! I just sat and read the whole thing from the beginning. Your photography has also improved greatly. My husband has been learning Italian and wants to go to Italy either this winter or next spring. And I love hathor's comments and standard "So, Kevin, what's for dinner tonight??"
  24. I don't know if it has changed much, but when I lived in San Diego in the mid to late 1980s the water was so bad that it was brownish red out of the tap. Everyone bought bottled water and there were bottled water stations outside of every grocery store and many other stores. Where I grew up, near Tacoma, Washington the water from the tap was excellent. I don't think anyone drank much bottled water there.
  25. I went to college in Seattle in the 80s. Believe me, as a student, coffee was "it"! However, Starbucks was just not on our list for best coffee shops. Most of the people I knew preferred The Alegro, The Last Exit (that place has been around forever and if you are visiting Seattle you have to go there for the historic interest alone), and the B & O Espresso. These were places that had a distinct style and atmosphere to the sterile uniform cookie cutter Starbucks. I actually live in a city that does not have a single Starbucks (which is odd because it's a city of almost 1 million people.
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