Meanderer

We enjoy it steamed and tossed with browned butter.

Alas, Pomona's will be no more, at least in its current incarnation. As I understand the situation, the owner wants to move to a soup/sandwich/pub food concept and the chef isn't interested in staying to prepare that kind of food and Saturday will be his last day. As a result, no more lamb's kidneys and onions, no more house-cured meats, no more grilled onions with romesco sauce, no more rabbit canneloni, no more wood-fired grilled sardines...

I recall a BBC reviewer of the mentioned movie wrote something to the effect that it was a documentary for the completely gullible. A Slate(or was it Salon?) story referred to it as a recruitment tool for a cult religion. I don't think the "science" of sensitive crystallization has been through any kind of peer-reviewed process. At least none that I have been able to discover.

Although I can't speak from recent experience, I've enjoyed Acacia and the sample menus posted on the website look interesting.

The wild rice I used to buy in a box was dark brown to almost black and shorter in length compared to the wild harvested rice I now get, which is dark tan to medium brown in color and longer. I think the wild rice has a nuttier flavor. Its downside is that it is easy to overcook and it then becomes very soft and watery.

When one of my brothers-in-law visits his Ojibwa side of his family in Wisconsin, he is invariably loaded down with the real thing which he graciously shares with us. As a consequence, we haven't bought the stuff sold in supermarkets for years. We have a couple of soups we like to make with the rice, the most interesting of which also has corn and smoked sausage. We also sometimes stuff our Thanksgiving turkey with it.

You needn't go all the way to York to find great food. About a half hour south of Carlisle, Pomona's, in Biglerville, is terrific. I can't tell you what is on the menu because it changes constantly, but since you say you are adventurous diners, you will be interested to know the chef once served a dish called "Pig Face Salad." Pomona's is the only place I have ever eaten where, after one diner finished his shrimp dish, he asked that the liquid in which it was served be put in a take-home container for future enjoyment. You can't go wrong there, but be aware that it is a BYOB and that service can be leisurely because Shawn, the chef, pretty much does everything himself. Another great choice is Sidney, in East Berlin, also about 30 minutes away. Although is has some rough edges yet, the Green Room, next to the Carlisle Theater, has prepared some excellent food. Service has been strange, however, the two times we have been there but the place has only been open a couple of months and is still working out the kinks, I guess.

I expect you could use it to make a coulis or syrup. We do that with our red and black currants and use it on pancakes and waffles. I don't know why mulberries couldn't be used the same way(or blackberries, for that matter).

We grow a number of varieties of table grapes. We give some of the leaves to a friend, whose parents were born in Greece, and she gave us her family recipe for stuffed grape leaves(which I haven't been able to find today)which consists largely of rice, herbs, and spices and is served with a lemon sauce. It is very nice dish on a warm summer evening. We have found that some varieties of grapes produce more tender grape leaves but I never remember which ones from year to year so I have to go by appearance, feel, and foggy memory when I decide which ones to use. Sometimes I win and sometimes I don't.

Well, I'm afraid I can't be much help with respect to Granada. The only meal we had there was lunch and my wife dragged me into a North African place in the Albaicen because she was tired of the paucity of vegetarian items in the local restaurants we visited during our trip. To meet you specifications, I would look for places 1)not on the major plazas or in the Albaicen, 2)where the posted menus are not in English, and 3)where you see plenty of tobacco smoke pouring from the door--it appears that folks across Spain still smoke at prodigious rates, so if you see a smoky restaurant, you are likely to find one that is popular with the locals. As for whether a place is lively, your ears will be able to tell you that when you are half a block away because the Spanish are also very convivial. If you happen to be passing through or near Montefrio on your way to Granada, I can recommend Coroniche, on the eastern edge of town. We were definitely the only non-locals in this establishment and I thought the food was pretty good, particularly an appetizer of shrimp and garlic shoots.

We'll be spending next week about 60 miles southeast of Granada and I know we have reservations to see the Alhambra on one of those days. If we stumble across anything good in Granada while we are there, I'll pass along the news. Will you be spending any time in Las Alpujarras(e.g., Orgiva, Capileira, Trevelez)? That's where we will be most of the time so I should gain some knowledge of the food there, if you are interested.

On the flip side of your second example, we were once in a restaurant after dark when the power went off in the whole town, including streetlights. The restaurant owner, knowing we had walked to dinner, insisted on driving us back to where we were staying.

The best pork I've eaten came from a farmer who raised Tamworths. Whether the exceptional flavor was the breed or how the pigs were raised, I don't know.

I subscribed to the publication for several years and, for the most part, enjoyed it very much because of Mr. Behr's skills as a writer and his commitment to the overall excellence of the endeavor. Later, probably around 2007, I thought I detected a decline in the quality of pieces contributed by other writers and, the following year, I wrote to Mr. Behr by email about my concerns. Proving he is a person with superior writing skills(and excellent tact), he responded in such a way that neither questioned my judgment nor cast any aspersions on the authors of the pieces I had critiqued in my email to him. As a result of his thoughtful response, I fully expected to continue my subscription at the next renewal date. Four things changed my mind. First, the next issue never arrived at all. It may well have been a problem with the mail but I'll never know. Second, though the following issue did arrive, some of the text was missing from one of the articles due to editing neglect or printer's error. Third, another of the articles written by someone other than Mr. Behr was, I felt, not up to par(some of the dry prose mentioned by Chris, perhaps). Fourth, the cost of the publication was high. When I enjoyed everything from cover to cover, $12 per issue was reasonable, but when issues don't arrive at all or are missing text and when some of the writing is not enjoyable, the cost becomes too high. With great reluctance, I decided to let my subscription lapse. I miss it.

I'm intrigued enough by what you say to want to do my own tasting. What are the two wines and are they readily available(can I assume the one sold under your label is currently in stock)? A friend spends a lot of time in the Finger Lakes and can pick up the bottles for me. Also, where was the review published? I'd like to see how my impressions compare with those of the reviewer.

For certain purposes, the word is darn near indispensable, to wit: Bob longed to be charming for Mae He purchased the hits by Torme He cut off his mullet Then he joined eGullet And considered himself a gourmet Few words serve an artist who needs a rhyme for "Torme" but "gourmet" is one of them.

It is a bit premature to be thinking about nice such things around here, inasmuch as we are expecting between 1 and 2 feet of snow tomorrow into Saturday. We are still, however, harvesting greens we planted in the greenhouse last October and I am only a week from getting some seeds started in the basement.

Recently, a restaurant featuring Belgian food and a great Belgian beer selection opened a few miles away. My wife and I had dinner there one evening and enjoyed everything about the experience except for our inability to verbally communicate without shouting. Because of the noise, we haven't returned for dinner, though we have stopped in for lunch on occasion when it hasn't looked too busy. I guess that indicates that I prefer dining where I can enjoy the food and the conversation.

Does anyone know anything about daily markets in Las Alpujarras? I'm aware that Orgiva has a Thursday market but I can't find out about any others. We are spending a week in the area next month and would like to find sources for local cheeses, wine, olive oil, and any fruits or vegetables that might be in season at the end of March.

Other than very dry, anise-based versions, I find I have lost my taste for liqueurs. Judging by the dust on certain opened bottles, that change in my palate must have occurred many years ago.

I haven't been to Pittsburgh in a couple of years but I thought our dinner at Le Pommier, in Southside, was superb. Lydia's, not so good.

I wouldn't necessarily take at face value the reasons anyone gives for not hiring an individual. In your case the investors may have decided to hire the other person rather than you for some less than salutory reason(the other guy was Anthony Soprano, Jr. and Tony, Sr. "suggested" that Jr. get the job) or because they simply decided they didn't like something about you(your preference for playing the Jonas Brothers while you are cooking)) but used age as a reason so as not to hurt your feelings or get into an argument.

Yes, evolution happens. Yes, cultures change. Yes, the past isn't necessarily better than the present. Nor would I quibble with the observation that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. But if I get enjoyment from experiencing a culture distinct from mine, and if that culture(including food)has, over time, evolved to become more like mine, then things WERE better in the past from my subjective perspective.

I'm not saying that cultures should or should not do anything. I am merely lamenting what is happening, just as I lament that so many people visit Venice, because it impairs my enjoyment of the place. I certainly would not suggest that others shouldn't spend their time there if that is what they want to do.

I won't argue that there aren't many benefits of globalization but, speaking as an occasional visitor to foreign lands, I look forward to what is distinctive about the visited country, not what looks familiar to me. I would be quite disappointed if I was in a small village in the Cotswolds and the hoary old pub I expected to find had recently been converted into a trendy wine bar, the former fish and chips place was now a noodle shop, and the tea room had become a Starbucks. Some of the locals might prefer the innovations, but a goodly number of strangers to the land would not.