jsmeeker

Popeyes and Pollo Campero are my favorites.

I'll be taking a class at the Dallas CM Saturday morning. I was on the wait list for the tamales class. They had a cancellation, so they called my back and now I am in!

Black teas have about 50% the amount of caff that coffee does, so you could try any black tea you like and try it in the evening. If I were doing a black in the evening, it would probably be a quality Indian Darjeeling or Nilgiri, or a Chinese red tea - a Dian Hong. The Cultured Cup carries such, as do a number of web vendors such as Tea Source for the blacks and Norbu for the red. (There are more sources in the relevant topic here in the forum.) ← I've been having some of my English Breakfast the past few nights. Gotta use my new pot! I'll certainly see what the CC people say.

I can have a small amount and be OK, I think. Thanks for the suggestions. As stated elsewhere, pretty much my only experience (and even this is very, very limited) with hot tea is black, save a very, very occasional cup of green tea that may be served to me in some Asian restaurant.

I've never liked odering wine before I really know what I (or the table) will be eating.

Ummm... Lipton Iced Tea from the cafeteria in the office?? Seriously, though, I'd like for the people to suggest a tea for me. I'll ask the same question at Cultured Cup this Saturday, but I'd like to see what you guys recommend. What would be a good "evening" tea? You know, something to enjoy after a long day at work. Lots of times, I like to whip up a cocktail right when I get home. But on nights I don't do that, I am thinking maybe a nice cup of tea later in the evening, after I've had dinner and what not and am relaxing, might be a nice soothing way to end the day.

Heck yeah!! Apple Jack (Lair's bonded, if you can get it) lemon juice ginger syrup or gin lime juice ginger syrup 2 or 3 drops of Angostura bitters. Both are shaken in ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.

that sounds like a neat tip, Richard. That strainer basket will certainly work in the cups and mugs I have at home.

I was hoping to avoid using two pots, so I wanted one that included a strainer. If I were to use two pots, I would still need a strainer of some sort. The basket that came with my pot is very fine mesh. But some stuff still gets through! If I were to use my small strainer I use for straining citrus juice and ohter small amounts of liquid, I think ALL of the tea I have would go through it. Of course, it's possible I will wind up buying a second pot when I order some tea samplers from Adagio. They hade a nice, simple, ceramic pot I liked. Cheap, too.

I've discovered a bit of a "flaw" in the teapot I purchased. It seems that brewing a partial pot doesn't really work. Last night, I tried to brew just two cups. (8 ounce cups). I poured 16 ounces of water into the put, but it didn't really reach the level of the leaves in the infusion basket. I had to pour almost another full cup in there. I dunno why. It seems like the basket goes about halfway down into the pot.

Good chance that there will be no change? Blog post from former White House Executive Chef here http://www.theamericanchef.com/blog/ Full article here. http://www.baltimoresun.com/services/newsp...0,3716107.story

Well here's the wiki entry on the chef and his/her duties. ← Thanks.. From that, it looks like the chef is incharge of day to day meals for the first family and isn't someone who just shows up to do the big fancy state dinners. Because of that, I can't see any "big name" chef taking that sort of gig. It's also interesting to see chefs that have worked there for a long time for multiple administrations. The chef prior to Cristeta Comerford worked in the George W. Bush White House for five years prior to being let go. I wonder what kind of food the Obamas like to eat day to day and what they would like to serve guests at various official events.

Is Executive Chef at the White House a real, true, full time gig? I don't have a full grasp on the various "food services" that are available there. Is that chef jsut responsible for official events, or are they in charge of the regular every day meals for the First Family in the private residence? I know there is a food service operation for staffers, but I am pretty sure that is run by the Navy. This could be an interesting subject to learn about.

It would be nice to have that convenience in suburban Dallas. Not that there probably aren't places to pick up real fresh ground masa, but it's not going to be too convenient to where I live/work.

OK. Cool. For some reason, I thought regular Maseca masa harnia was made from yellow corn. Hence, the reason I was confused.

So, I have two more questions here about tea. 1) I understand quality leaves can be infused multiple times. My question is, how much time can pass between infusions and how should I store the used leaves beetween infusions. If I want to make two cups of tea on Saturday morning, but that's all I want for that morning, do they keep until Sunday?? 2). How long does loose tea keep? (tea that hasn't been infused). It seems that it can keep for some time and that it's not like coffee where you want to use it up within a short time after it's roasted. Weeks? Months? A year?

I was in my local Fiesta Mart this weekend and decided I ought to pick up some Maseca as I've seen it called for as an ingredient in some things, even if it wasn't to make dough for tortillas. So, looking at the shelves, I spied a small bag. It said "Amarilla" on it, along with a proclamation that it was "NEW!" Not knowing exactly what that meant, I compared that bag to the larger bag of Masaca. I couldn't tell the difference. Since I have limited storage space at home, I decided to just pickup that smaller bag. Now, I am not totally sure what I have. Here is what I got. http://aztecamilling.com/OurBrands.aspx?ID=139 How exactly is this different than the other stuff? If it's a little different, can I use it as a direct substitution for any recipe that simply calls for Maseca (or instant masa harina)

Well, I decided I wanted to try out my teapot. So, after I got my big pot of chicken stock going, I went to the local Tom Thumb grocery store to buy some standard grocery store loose tea. The store had lots and lots of stuff in bags. But only TWO choices in loose tea. So, I picked one. Twinings Classic English Breakfast Tea. A 100 gram tin cost $6.75 So, yeah, this isn't ideal. But I think this will actually be good in that it will help me fully appreciate good quality tea from a good tea purveyor. So, I set out to brew the tea. I filled my pot with hot tap water to warm it up while I brought the water to a boil. Actually, before that, I actually measured out how much water my tea pot held. It was about 24 ounces. So, how much of this tea do I put in? The graphic on the foil cover of the lin suggested two teaspoons for two people, plus one (for the pot??). But how big of a pot do they assume here? And is it a measured tea spoon or is it just your regular table teaspoon? Anyway, based on the size of my pot, I just guessed at about 3 and a half measured teaspoons. That went into the fine mesh basket infuser basket. That's when I noticed something I wasn't totally expecting. There was a lot of "dust" that came out! I shook the basket a bit and some more came out. Hmmm... Anyway, once the water came to a boil, I dumped out the tap water, dropped in the infuser basket, then poured the boiling water onto the tea and filled the pot. I steeped it for 5 minutes, then took off the lid, pulled out the basket, and replaced the lid. While the tea was steeping, I pre-heated my cup with some of the leftover boiling water. Now, it was ready to drink. It tastes like, well, tea. As I mentioned earlier, my experience with hot tea is very very limited. So, really, I am not sure how to evaluate this tea. I think I'll need to have some properly prepared tea first. I'm not totally sure if I did mine right. Anyway, this is just a start, right? Now that the equipment is out of the way, can you tell me more about preparation? tea to water ration. Steeping times. etc. For now, lets just assume black teas.

what's wrong with Creme de Violette? I wanted to try an Aviation has some in there. Anyway, I think the next thing I need to pick up is a bottle of Benadictine. They have it at goody goody.

while out and about, spending more money because of other topics here in eGullet forums, I swung by Urban Taco for a mid-afternoon snack. Man.. You were right, Chris. This is some really good stuff. I had a cup (really, a decent sized bowl) of the tortilla soup. It had pazole in it, too. Never had tortilla soup with that before, but it was good. Very flavorful soup. I also ordered two tacos. I wasn't super hungry and will be going out to dinner at 7:00 with friends, so I didn't want to load up. Ordered the barbacoa and the al pastor. The barbacoa was excellent. The al partor was very good as well. All the toppings were spot on. tasty. nicely diced. Nothing gringo at all about these tacos. No cheese. no lettuce. It's like tacos should be. The tortillas were good, too. The menu claimed they were made from fresh masa. I don't have much experience comparing tortillas side by side, but these were pretty damn good. Everything washed down with a glass of Dos Equis. Clearly, there are people in the kitchen that know what they are doing. I will certainly be returning. Next time, I will check out their tortas.

(I left after my last post and missed Richard's most recent one) So, I made it to World Market. They had a much better choice than Pier One. Lots of neat little Asian ceramic mugs. Tall and narrow, and with a removable ceramic infuser basket. I would up with a stainless steel pot that included a removable mesh screen infuser. Dunno why, but I guess I like stainless stuff. I went with that over a simple white ceramic pot that had no basket. Pot in hand (and two more cocktail glasses... ) I headed down Preston road to NW Highway. Drove into Preston Center. Saw Cultured Cup. hunted for a parking spot. Eventually found one. Walked over to the store. CLOSED!! Doh!! I didn't bother to check the store hours when I left the apartment. Looked in. No one in there. Looking at the website now, it says they are open 10-6 Mon.-Sat. Dunno what was going on. So, now I have my pot. But no tea!. LOL.. Too funny. Not like there isn't a ton of places to buy some tea, but if I am in this far, I might as well get it from some place good instead of a getting it at the grocery store. I guess I'll need to call them next Saturday to confirm their hors before heading down.

While not exactly elegant in any sort of Asian way, the "Ingenuitea" is extremely functional. I use the an older model of these quite a bit for brewing Earl greys and such. It allows plenty of room for the leaves to breath, it is clear so you can observe "the agony of the leaf", and when the steeping time is up you simply set it over the top of your mug and the tea automaticly drains into the mug. Perfect for the office... Check out http://www.adagio.com/teaware/ingenuiTEA_teapot.html ← That thing is pretty cool. I'm not really looking to do this at the office, though. At least, not yet. Still looking for a more "traditional" tea pot setup for home use. They had several kits at Pier One, (pot with cups) but I am not sure I need the cups. I think I just need a pot. Also, none of t he pots I saw there had any sort of infuser basket. They either had a "filter" or nothing. Gonna hit World Market next, then cruise down to Cultured Cup. If I strike out at World Market with a pot, I'm sure Cultured Cup will have something for me. Possibly a *bit* more than I was wanting to pay, but that's OK. It's nice to support a local specialty store, plus I am going to need tea anyway. And I'll trust Richard that they will hook me up with something that will get me started. Edit: I DID fine this over at Adagio teas. Something like that seems to be exactly what I am looking for! Wonder if I can find something like it locally? http://www.adagio.com/teaware/personaliTEA...bced7621995e645

thanks Richard. I'll try to pick up a tea pot of some sort this weekend. And hopefully, I can make it down to Cultured Cup, too, to get some tea. is that where you get all of your tea? How well does Central Market do when it comes to tea?

ummm... iced tea? really, that's pretty much the only tea I ever drink, save for a very, very rare cup of Lipton. I suppose that my answer here should be "black tea"?? I dunno. Sampling is always good.

I don't go to many restaurants that don't serve booze, outside of some fast food joints. But there is one local pizza join nearby that doesn't serve booze, but people will BYO.. I like their pizza when I am not making my own (like I am tonight). So, I suppose I'll vote for them (though I never have actually done it there ). It's called Besa's Pizza and Pasta. I wonder how well a Torrontes would pair with Thai? It worked well for a spicy "sezchuan" stir fry I made.