potsticker

I bought a 3 pack of these at Costco once. The temptation to spray it directly into your mouth is no less than from aerosol whipped cream cans. They make pretty good pancakes too. It's pretty nice to be able to spray until you get the pancake size you want. Nice for us folk living by ourselves and only want a few pancakes at a time - and nothing to wash! (except the pan)

I loooooove soup. Fortunately it's been freezing down here in the South so I can appreciate soup even more. So far this year, I've made: Lentil soup - green and red lentils, onions, carrots, celery, cumin, paprika, curry powder, and most importantly, bacon Beef stew - cubed chuck, carrots, onions, potatoes, beef stock, balsamic, Worcestershire, more spices than I can remember On deck: Chicken tortilla soup I'm giving my wannabe Le Creuset a workout. I should really start taking more pictures of what I make.

A little OT, but... The girl and I are trying to eat all the letters in the alphabet by restaurant name. We're 12 down, 14 to go. The goal is before we get married in December. I'm going to go so broke. Of note: The most repeated letters so far are F and M.

Yesterday, in a fit of rush and serious junk food craving, I hit a McD's for a quick bite to eat. This happens about every month or so, and as the boring and uncreative person that I am, I get the same thing every time I walk in: 2 double cheeseburgers. This time, something was different. I felt it in the air. I stepped up to the cold plastic counter and without the slightest hesitation or thought, I sputtered out, "Two double cheeseburgers to go, please." The nice girl behind the counter punched in the order and told me the total, and in a swift move, I was already pulling cash out of my wallet. WAIT. STOP. HOLD UP. "How much is it again?", I asked. I know how much two double cheeseburgers cost. $2.14. That was definitely not what she said. My look of utter confusion was likely not the first she's received regarding this matter. "Sir, double cheeseburgers are no longer $1." I look up at the Dollar Menu, hoping and longing that she was mistaken in her accusations. There seemed to be a glimmer of hope. "No, look, right there, the first one, for $1!" "That's a double hamburger. Not cheeseburger." My eyes uncomfortably strayed to the unfamiliar territory of "regular" menu items. There it was. Double cheeseburger. $1.19. *sob* I dutifully paid for my food, and as I did, the girl looked at me with a look of despair and muttered, "You know times are tough when McDonald's raises prices."

He's married to Jeri Ryan? I'm pretty much sold right there. Thanks for the recommendations, they're exactly along the lines of the kind of thing I was looking for. It's a possibility that I might move back. Depends how things go...

Report: Musha was pretty dang good. The sashimi sampler we had to start with was surprisingly filling that I was pretty full by the time the hot dishes came. So this month, I promised I'd actually take her somewhere nice. And I'm no longer geography restricted, so most any part of LA and Orange County is my playground. Looking for somewhere romantic, and most importantly, delicious. I'm hoping the eGullet community can help me win her over. =) Any ideas?

I heart Shin-Sen-Gumi. I used to eat there allllll the time. I could totally go for some right now. I think I've decided on Musha, in Santa Monica. It's pretty close to the airport, and it gets rave reviews. We'll see how the girl likes it. I heard it can get kind of loud, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll work on something more romantic for my trip next month.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. This may sound like the other end of the spectrum, but anyone know of any good places in Little Tokyo? I can use some good Japanese food, actually. Or maybe good Korean food in the area? One of my friends recommended ChoSan Galbee.

It's a little embarrassing, as I lived in Orange County for a few years, and I have no idea what there is to eat in Los Angeles. Honestly, I just never went up there often, nor did I make much of an effort to find out. Now (actually in a couple of weeks), I'm headed out to LA to see the girl, and we're looking for somewhere good to eat for just the two of us. We're both the "we'll eat anything as long as it's delicious" type, so ethnic foods don't scare us. Though, it would be nice if the place itself was somewhat nice. I mean, I know you can get some killer carnitas in East LA, but it doesn't make much for a date spot... Any suggestions? We're hungry. EDIT: Slightly outside LA is good too. Pasadena maybe? I'd like to try to stay in the area as it's before my flight out of LAX.

I actually was wondering if there was a significant difference between the lever style juicer and the rotary ones. I can use a big glass of juice right now.

It's worth moving for. I'd invite you to move to Atlanta, but only if you promise not to help make the traffic any worse.

Woooorlds apart. ← I couldn't have said it better myself. I am, as you say, an expert on the subject, since I just had a Chik-Fil-A chicken biscuit for breakfast this morning. To think, I almost went to the McDonalds across the street...*flogs himself*

When I went to see my gran-pappy a few weeks back in smoldering Texas, I found out that he had one of these: citrus juicer In fact, he says he's had it for many years and just never busted it out. So, as a treat, he went out and bought a huge bag of oranges - which I can only rate as mediocre - and pressed the whole bag into fresh juice. Now, I don't know if it was because it was so ridiculously hot that the orange juice tasted extra delicious and refreshing or the fact that it's been a while since I've had real good fresh squeezed orange juice, but I was convinced that this little machine produced some of the best tasting juice I've ever had. It was light, fruity, and contained just enough pulp - whole pulp, not pulp bits - for a great mouthfeel. I'd like to think that it's because there's no violent shaking of the fruit's innards by some motorized mechanism to somehow disrupt the essence of deliciousness trapped in the fruit. I've juiced oranges on some of those plug-in motorized citrus juicers and it definitely was not the same. It was never so crisp and light as that glass I had from this contraption. Anyone have any experience with these elbow-grease powered citrus juicers? I'm really tempted to splurge and get one. Besides, they would look so cool just sitting on a kitchen counter. I like to pretend I actually have counter space to put stuff like this.

I love Bacchanalia - would definitely go again once I can splurge like that. On the other hand, I've heard great things about Restaurant Eugene, but I've never been there, so I can't give it a personal recommendation.

I like how Lisa was so self-deceived that she thought she actually had a flying chance. It's cool, Blais, I'm still going to go eat at your restaurant.

Has anyone had them from Father's Office in Los Angeles? Now THAT'S the texture I'd like to master. Crispy on the outside, but creamy and delicious on the inside.

I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/Refurbished-DeLonghi...10708691&sr=8-1 Amazon has it every so often refurbished for like $30-$40. The convection on it cooks somewhat faster than other convections I've used.

I gave in and finally purchased my first cast iron skillet. It's made by Lodge, has a couple unfortunate rust spots, but was dirt cheap because of them. I took great care in removing the rust, seasoned it in my oven, and was ready to buy some steaks to inaugurate the pan until... Flashbacks. Incessant beeping. Smoke filled rooms. Lingering (but delicious) smells of food. Anytime I cook something in my little apartment kitchen that produces any amount of smoke, the smoke detector goes crazy. On the up-side, at least I know the smoke detector is working. On the down-side, the continuous beeping has resulted in me getting to know my neighbors. Because of this, I've had to severely limit any frying, sauteing, roasting, stir-frying, searing and the like. I have that dinky recirculating fan above my stove. It actually blows everything in the direction of the smoke detector. Granted, I can just deactivate the thing. But my apartment will still resemble a haunted house from the smoke. Does anyone else have this kind of problem? And how do you deal? I'm still looking for an industrial strength fan to situate in my doorway. I just want to fire up a steak in my cast iron pan.

Samoas. Girl Scout cookie season is the best and worst part of the year. And Blue Bell ice cream. Has anyone had that Anniversary Cake flavor? Wow.

I bought those tomatoes on a whim just because they looked delicious. Really brightened up my otherwise boring salad. Saffron, eh? Looks like I'll be making regular pilgrimages...again.

I had some great coffee out of a Clover from Intelligensia in Chicago. Good beans, and the guy sounded like he knew what he was doing.

I think it was all the walking. I remember one day, I walked across half of metro Beijing in the name of exploration. Of course, it was filled with random and constant eating, but I guess I needed something to burn. I wish I had a pedometer with me then, I wonder how much I walked a day... [way off topic] And this got mentioned in the China forum, but McDonald's soft serve there tastes a heck of a lot better than McDonald's soft serve here. I have no idea why that is. I got one from nearly every McDonald's I walked past. [/way off topic]

Ooh, you're in Beijing? My dad lives there. I went to go visit him last year (for a month!) and I ate my brains out. I would take the subway from Chongwenmen and jump off at a random stop, walk around, see good food to eat, stuff my face, and then jump back on the subway for another random stop. 5 weeks of that and I LOST weight. The best part being, of course, I may have only spent like USD $40 on food the whole time.

Ooh ooh, I know this one. It's on Buford Hwy, right inside the perimeter, between Shallowford Rd and 285. It's in a shopping center called Pinewood Plaza which is across the street from the somewhat prominent McDonalds, right north of Ranch 99. There's a taco counter in the back (by where they do the fresh masa) that requires a lot of self-control. And don't forget the Mexican Coca-Cola!

I hope this is true, because then I must be a really really good cook.