Ktepi

I remind my ex a couple times a year that on our first date, when I was cooking for her, she talked me out of buying lion and into buying rib-eye instead. We both regret that one, but at least she takes the blame. I wish I'd gone to Uglesich's when I lived in New Orleans. (I wish, in a different sense, that the most cash-poor years of my life weren't the ones I spent in such a restaurant-rich city; being broke improved my cooking, but I haven't been to many of the city's pricier joints. Still, Uglesich's I could have afforded.) I wish I'd gotten into the habit of writing things down earlier, so that I knew the name of the Boston-area joint with the smoked bluefish cakes and the bottles of sriracha on the table. I wish I'd bought a case of Cockta at that Bosnian joint on Bardstown in Louisville, and that I'd hoarded Pepsi Blue, Ruffles Buffalo Wing potato chips, and those hot dog-stuffed Tater Tot things (from Ore-Ida?) which were so good with a little Zatarain's mustard and hot sauce. I wish I knew why that cake I made my mother as a surprise when I was eight or nine came out purple despite the lack of red or blue ingredients (much less purple ones).

Old Overholt old-fashioned with both Peychaud's and Angostura, and one or two of the bourbon-soaked Montmorency cherries I put up at the beginning of the summer. No rocks, no soda.

Lapsang souchong always reminds me of the smell of burning leaves -- and therefore of fall -- so I made a syrup of it tonight, 1:1 tea:sugar. It's very caramelly and a bit smoky -- but I think the tea needed to be stronger, because testing it out in a little rye with bitters, that smokiness disappeared (although the sweetness is still noticeably different from simple syrup). I see some lapsang souchong cocktail brainstorming from slkinsey in this thread, all of which sounds pretty fall-appropriate (and I even have the Stone's ginger wine, which I bought because I can never find Canton liqueur anymore). I had originally been thinking rye or bourbon, but maybe whiskey is just too strong -- I've added a little more of the syrup now, figuring that it'll be too sweet but I'll get a sense of how the flavor works ... and it's still not quite standing out enough, although that caramel is there in the aftertaste. And maybe lapsang souchong-infused liquor would be a better idea than the syrup -- I was going for two birds with one stone here, cause a lapsang souchong ice cream topping would be pretty great, and I was imagining a sundae with the toffee-covered bacon I make.

Unfortunately, no luck with maraschino liqueur here yet -- the trouble with living in a college town is the effect it has on liquor availability. But it's on my look-for list next time I'm out of town so I can make my own Aviations -- this is a good reason to bump it up (or suggest it as a Christmas gift from friends in luckier locales). Definitely like the sound of that, though.

Thank you, eGullet, for introducing me to Campari. I'd heard of it before but didn't know much about it, and had never thought to try it; the other day when I finally saw a Negroni on the cocktails menu, I ordered it. It was over-iced, the same problem I have with old-fashioneds when I order them out, and the gin was a little stronger than I'd go for if I made it myself -- but it was still a good way to discover Campari, and since we were stopping at the liquor store on the way home anyway, I picked up a bottle and a six-pack of Schweppes bitter lemon. Other than a caipirinha to check out the new cachaca I bought, I haven't drunk anything without Campari since, and am at the end of the bottle. After a few different orange-and-Campari-and-soda drinks and a stab at Campari-and-Coke that I didn't think worked, I ran out of oranges and have been drinking it with soda or tonic, sometimes a splash of gin, sometimes lemon or lime, often a shake of Gary Regan's orange bitters. (The comparison I've been using with friends is that Campari is a lot like Moxie, but unfortunately that's made most of them refuse to try it.) I've tried combinations with limoncello, but haven't found any I like yet. Kind of curious about Campari and rye or Campari and bourbon. It'll definitely be one of those liquors I replenish as soon as I'm out of it.

One of my favorite sandwiches -- skirt steak, greens, cheese curds, and plenty of Louisiana pepper sauce. Usually I braise the steak (and I don't always use cheese curds, since we can't get them year round), but this was a spur of the moment thing, so I just seared it on cast-iron with a little salt, wilted the kale in the pan and plonked it on the bun while the steak rested, and then tossed the steak and curds on the still-hot pan long enough to melt the cheese before plonking them on top of the greens.

The Candy Corn tastes uncannily like candy corn -- I had to try to figure out why that was impressive, and I guess it's because I'm used to "lemon-flavored" soda, "grape-flavored" soda, whereas this is exactly the same taste as candy corn, only liquid and carbonated. (I recommend not pouring it into a glass and looking at it, though.) It's not something I'd drink often, but candy corn isn't something I'd eat often either, so that's no fault of Jones. The Caramel Apple is unexciting -- I don't taste any caramel in it, but it's nice to see an apple soda that isn't sour apple, I guess. Like all Jones sodas, though, I think they're too sweet -- probably unavoidable with the Candy Corn, but I think it's more a matter of the company's everyday high-sweetness approach. Lord knows they're a sight better than the Turkey and Gravy, though.

Last year I brined in cider (diluted about 1:1 with water and seasoned with sage) and was very happy with it -- my Thanksgiving stuffing has rabbit, sage, and apple in it, so I thought this brine would complement that, and the bird wound up with a faint cidery smell to the skin, which was noticeably more evenly-golden. I had been worried about the sugar content making the skin brown too quickly and burn, which is why I diluted the cider -- turned out fine. The meat itself was indistinguishable from ordinary brined turkey -- but that's exactly what I was hoping for, rather than winding up with a Hefty bag of apple-flavored turkey leftovers. I'll almost certainly do the same thing this year -- waiting to find out which heritage turkeys my butcher can set me up with and whether they'll be affordable.

I was extremely happy with the M&S in Indianapolis -- having moved to Indiana from New Orleans, we haven't had good luck with seafood (neither the supply nor the preparation). I went for dinner one night, and had only one disappointment -- the bar my waiter described as "a full-fledged classic cocktail bar" couldn't serve me an Aviation, and made my old-fashioned with soda water and crushed ice (neither of these is unusual, though). Brought my girlfriend with me for lunch a couple days later after telling her about it. I actually took some notes on it, let me dig them out to refresh my memory -- The oysters were the highlight for me, both in variety and quality; the Canada Cup oysters were the first raw oysters my girlfriend has liked. Again, coming from New Orleans to the Midwest, oysters are a huge deal when I can find them (and the funny thing has been that I never had non-Gulf oysters when I lived there, so getting oysters now is a combination of familiarity and discovery). The crab tater tots were great, and served with two sauces -- a very good jalapeno tartar sauce and an unnecessary mango vinaigrette that just clashed with the crab. I would order these weekly if I could. The calamari was the only good calamari I've had outside the Boston area, not rubbery at all. I had river trout the first night and ono the next time -- the ono was slightly dry, the trout was a little oversalted for some people (although not me). Atmosphere at dinner was nice -- low-key, leisurely, a Friday night when I stayed until closing, reading and drinking. Lunch was more hectic -- we didn't have a reservation and were put in a small booth-let that barely had room for the oysters and calamari, and my elbow kept hitting passing waitstaff. But I'm not going to fault them for being busy. They'll also do simple off-menu preparations of whatever came in fresh that day -- just broil, fry, etc., your trout or bass or marlin or whatever it is you're getting -- which is a good option if you want the best possible fish they have but don't like the preparation they list on the menu. That's not uncommon, but I liked the fact that the waiter pointed this out rather than trying to sell me on a specific dish.

We buy pawpaws at the Farmer's Market every year from the guy I call The Weird Stuff Guy (other things we've gotten from him include beechnuts, spiceberries, white currants, and Northstar sour cherries which not only led to the best pies I've had but the best bourbon-soaked cherries and thus changed the way I drink by elevating my old-fashioneds). Other than eating them out of hand, last year I added them to a large batch of the manchamantel sauce on Chuck Taggert's site (if I remember right, it was in addition to everything listed, not in lieu of everything -- but I've made the sauce a few times and it's pretty flexible/modular). This year, I've been playing with the Nesco dehydrator a lot and made pawpaw fruit leather, which was pretty good but might have been better combined with some other fruit -- it's a shame pawpaws and strawberries aren't in season at the same time. But I dried some of the leather further so I could grind it in the coffee grinder, and am going to use it as a final touch in something -- cheesecake, maybe, or creme brulee, definitely something rich and creamy. If he has more on Saturday, I'm going to have to make one of those breads or cakes, maybe freeze it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I was sick all week, so wanted to a) make up for not having cooked since the weekend, b) make a dent in the neglected produce, but c) not push myself too much nor make anything that would leave leftovers. So I took out a leg of duck confit to split between me and the Missus and wound up with shredded duck meat pan-fried until crispy (like vaca frita), and then tossed with Heath toffee bits until they melted (this is a variation on toffee bacon, something I make a lot because people are always surprised by it); the duck was served over cold slices of Asian pear, with glutinous rice mixed with a little limoncello and spiceberry-infused clementine vodka, and stir-fried long beans. (No photos, but it wasn't an especially handsome meal, just tasty and satisfying without being heavy.)

Oh, it's a soda -- sort of vaguely root beer or cola-like, or at least in that "brown soda" family. The most noticeable ingredient is the gentian root extract -- also used in bitters, and a shake of Peychaud's in Coca-Cola is my Moxie surrogate of choice -- which gives it a kind of medicinal taste, especially for people who aren't used to it. It was popular back in the day, but soda fountains supposedly put a nail in its coffin from a national market standpoint: the company wouldn't make the syrup available because mixing it wrong would overplay the bitterness, and when fountains became a big part of the market, Moxie just couldn't compete with Coke, Dr Pepper, etc. (I suspect it never would have been as popular as the others anyway, judging from how sweet other sodas tend to be.)

Every time I visit my mother in New Hampshire, I bring 24 cans of Moxie back with me in my carry-on, and do my best to ration them (I can get it at Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati, but not every time). Every time, I get weird looks from security, but they ask what's in the bag, I say "24 cans of Moxie and a pound of pastrami," they pause and nod and wave me through. My delicious thing today was licking the spoon from the pot of cajeta I made this morning.

Argentinean! Well, that might be interesting. And yeah, I figured this is probably going to be a nostalgia trip more than anything -- we're in Bloomington (IN, home of IU) now, as much a college town as I've ever seen, so we get plenty of exposure to student restaurants.

I'm taking my girlfriend on a day trip to Amherst/Northampton on Friday, because she's a stranger to New England and we'll be in NH visiting my mother -- showing her where I went to college is a good excuse for me to have a look around, since I haven't been there since 1996. Other than what's mentioned on this thread, is there anything that would be a can't-miss, or major changes that are going to shock me? I know Bart's in Noho is gone. Is Herrell's still by the Raven? Is there anything interesting where Words + Pictures used to be? Has Starbuck's replaced Pioneer Valley Coffee and all the other local places? We're definitely going to Atkins -- I was a Hampshire student -- and to the Black Sheep (I lived across the street, so that and the Jamaican place that was next to it were my staples), but we might just browse there or buy things to take home. So I'm looking at lunch and possibly an early dinner. I know the Blue Flame's been gone for ages, or we'd probably end up having both meals there.

I haven't got photos, but dinner was a chicken roasted the way I've been doing it since reading Steingarten -- breast side down on a rack[1], high temperature, short time -- with a wheatberry stuffing and a combination of lemon thyme, butter, and olive oil stuffed under the well-salted skin. [1] I don't actually have a rack. I don't actually have a roasting pan. What I have is an enormous Lodge cast-iron pan -- big enough that I roast my Thanksgiving turkey in it, although we don't have a huge extended family to feed -- and five big forks that might or might not have migrated to my pocket from T.G.I. Friday's when I was younger and less respectable. Line the forks up, put the chicken or turkey on top, bam there you go. Anyway, the highlight is actually dessert, since it's National Ice Cream Soda Day. What I wanted was a nectar soda from Graeter's, but the nearest one is in Louisville, which isn't actually near at all. I have a bottle of New Orleans Nectar syrup from my last trip home, though, so I combined that with heavy cream, Benedictine, and Godiva's white chocolate liqueur to make "boozy nectar ice cream." Over that, when it finishes freezing, we'll pour cold Cheerwine.

We've got a lot of mint at the Farmer's Market right now, and what I'll end up doing with much of it -- after the leg of lamb and the ice cream and the drinks (I'm strongly considering trying that half tea/half lemonade with lime instead, since I have limes on hand for gin and tonics) -- is using it in various combinations of mint and chile. It's a lot like gai kaprau in Thai cooking, the spicy chicken with Thai basil -- and a very simple way to do it is just to combine chopped chicken thighs, mint, and sriracha (I usually add some soy sauce, sometimes some sugar, some vinegar, onions, garlic, peppers, whatever, but it's flexible). Nice and spicy and fast. I'd bet a spicy minted mayo would be good on hamburgers (lamb burgers?) as well -- and, for that matter, mint wouldn't be a bad addition to meatballs if you have a little lamb in there.

Since I can't get quite the right bread for either, my favorite sandwich is the bastard of a Cuban sandwich and a roast beef poboy: Louisiana roast beef (i.e. braised until falling apart, not roasted rare) with demiglace-boosted gravy, cheese, pickled chiles, and French fries, pressed like a Cuban. That said, every time I visit my mother in New Hampshire, I get a pastrami bomb: hot pastrami, mushrooms, peppers, onions, hot peppers, provolone, mayo or olive oil and oregano, on a sub roll.

Bread Pudding with a Bourbon Vanilla Sauce, man: I had this last week at Pampy's in New Orleans. ← ... oh my God. I've been thinking of making a bread pudding with Pepperidge Farm's dark wheat bread -- I wonder how a bourbon sauce would go on that? Seriously, the only thing keeping me out of the kitchen to find out right now is the sheer amount of fruit I bought at the Farmer's Market, which would go to waste if I made some other dessert.

I love, and greatly miss, Martin Wine Cellar. There's nothing like it in college town Indiana. A surprising amount of my alcohol preferences were formed or furthered at Martin -- not to mention my love of Scharffenberger chocolate bars with cacao nibs. Coincidentally, when I saw this thread I clicked on it to add that Eagle Rare 10 year and Blanton's have joined forces to make me question my status as a Scotch drinker. I think bourbon is winning out -- the Blanton's is as good, at LEAST as good, as Scotches I've paid three times as much for; the Eagle Rare is not only one of my favorite <$25 liquors, it's become my favorite alcohol to cook with. Bourbon brownies and bourbon demiglace-based sauces have become staples in my kitchen, and only the strong suspicion that I'd need to buy another bottle immediately has stopped me from trying it in a bourbon ice cream. I recommend the Buffalo Trace distillery tour to anyone who's out in the area (a little ways out from Louisville) -- if I close my eyes, I can still smell the barrels aging in the warehouse.

Saturdays we go to the farmer's market and the butcher's -- which doubles as our seafood source on the rare occasions when we get it; having moved to Indiana from New Orleans, seafood almost always comes in two flavors here, "disappointing" and "can't afford it." Today was an exception to that. Saturday night dinner is always dictated by what we bought that I want to use at its freshest, so tonight was shrimp and grits -- stone-ground yellow grits with cheese curds and garlic greens, all from the market (including the grits), and freshwater prawns (from the butcher) with baby kale (market), mojo, and Tabasco (home :)). The prawns are odd. They're enormous -- the heads are as large as "jumbo shrimp," and they have large front legs like lobster legs -- but more oddly, when they were cooked they became flaky like firm whitefish. They were good, but I've never had any shrimp like that before. Dessert, rhubarb pie with green tea ice cream. My mother sent me a large box full of rhubarb from her patch, which was transplanted from the 200 year old patch outside the house I grew up in. I'm going to have to freeze a bunch of it ...

After a few disappointments over the weekend -- the margarita pie (Shaker lemon pie with limes instead of lemons, and a shot of tequila) came out too bitter for me; the mole verde is good, but the pork belly I braised in it came out too flabby; I sliced part of my thumb off making a sandwich, which complicated everything -- I've gone back to an old standby for tonight: black bean cassoulet, with Filipino sausages instead of the andouille I usually use. I am envious of the kitchen of my future self, having just planned a trip to Jungle Jim's -- the mall-sized grocery store -- for Memorial Day weekend.

Here in Indiana, too, and for the balsamic lovers, it's worth pointing out that black vinegar -- which has a similar appeal -- is a great deal cheaper. (Not that there aren't expensive black vinegars, but unless my palate is blind to its flaws, a $10 or $20 black vinegar "tastes more expensive" than a $10 or $20 balsamic.) I have an expensive balsamic I rarely use -- because I always think "is it worth using it for this?", so in worrying I'll run out of it I leave it right where it is -- and tend to reach for the black instead now, since I know I can get more of it. Other vinegars: white and red wine; malt usually, but I'm out now; coconut for adobo. I don't usually like flavored vinegars, and tend to use citrus for dressings and mayos.

I've just taken a rhubarb-blueberry pie out of the oven -- haven't tried that combination before, but I generally think blueberries go with any fruit. Dinner tomorrow night is pork belly braised with rhubarb.

That would be fantastic! Any of the Spanish I can't read myself, I have two friends who speak it better than me and have cooked in Spanish-speaking countries, so would have a better shot at the cooking terms. If it isn't something you can post, I think you can email me from my profile (I'm new too).