Kent Wang

Actually, I mean to suggest the inverse. Don't call high quality salami pepperoni, call it what it is, which is salami picante, soppressata, etc. Meaning is lost when you apply the US-only term pepperoni to several different types of salami. Since pepperoni is a not an Italian term for a salami of any kind, what exactly is this recipe? I think the only reason to call it pepperoni is if it is some of kind unique American style. If it is patterned after soppressata, then let's call it that. You can also call it pepperoni to win over Americans that are more used to that term, and to imply that this should be used on a pizza, but let's use that as a secondary name. People put prosciutto on pizza, which is about the same cost per pound as a good soppressata.

Why don't we just call low-quality pepperoni pepperoni, and call the better stuff its proper name? These are the terms that the manufacturers are already using to self-identify.

Wikipedia has some interesting background: Even in the US, is pepperoni confined to the menus of poor pizzerias? All the good pizzerias I've been to seem to call it by its proper name: salame or soppressata. And the only pepperoni I've seen for sale in stores are also low quality and mass-produced. Now, I love good salami and I think it's one of the best toppings for a pizza. I just made a pizza with Creminelli felino. But I grew up eating pepperoni pizzas. What a travesty. I think we should all teach our children about the evils of pepperoni and only feed them pizzas topped with artisanal salami.

I think the provenance needs to be moved to a less important spot. "Sconzo Farms Cote de Boeuf" should be "Cote de Boeuf from Sconzo Farms". When I'm scanning down a menu the first few words I see is Sconzo Farms, which is meaningless to me. I want to see Cote de Boeuf first.

There's another thread about tomato pies that are actually pies, not pizzas. Now, for the pizza commonly called a tomato pie: Made from tomatoes from the farmers market, the best tomatoes I've ever had since my childhood. This was inspired by the tomato pie I had at Frank Pepe's in New Haven, Connecticut which was similar but made with flavorless industrial tomatoes. So it was actually not very good at all. My friend Robin commented that this is perhaps an American invention as all the pizzas he's seen in Italy (having lived there for a while) if they had tomatoes on them used cherry tomatoes, not the full size kind. Is this true? In Philadelphia, I stopped in at a not-very-fancy-or-renowned pizzeria with Katie Loeb to buy some pizza dough and the kind lady gave me a slice of their tomato pie, which was just like a pizza with a lot of tomato sauce. It was cold and all that sauce made the top of the crust soggy. Those two tomato pies plus the one I made myself (which was amazing) are the only ones I've ever had. Please tell me more about this interesting genre.

Can you just puree blueberries and strain to get something similar to the Trader Joe's blueberry juice?

I've just been using the factory strawberries and am considering doing a double-infusion in rum. Should I use the W&N overproof, or stick to Flor de Cana (damn this stuff is so cheap). BTW, I think using tequila as the original recipes calls for is a bit of a waste for such an expensive spirit, when you can use rum instead.

Is the bar menu still this cheap (and good)? They don't show it on the website.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Just got into Philly a few days ago. I went to Rangoon for my vegetarian friend's bachelor party, so we got mostly vegetarian dishes. They were great, but I might come back here to try more of the meat dishes. Also, I got so drunk at Zot afterwards that I forgot most of what we had. BTW, what were the Burmese places you went to in SF and DC?

I think of both orgeat and grenadine as complex syrups with other stuff in them. How do you make pineapple syrup? Is this where you make a thick simple syrup, pour it over pineapple and let the syrup extract the pineapple flavor? That's quite different than the raspberry syrup which is actually make raspberry juice and puree.

Have you tried putting ginger slices in a garlic press? I find this the easiest way to extract the juice.

There's a whole list of made up words in I just made that word up.

How good is your Chinese? Just curious if language was much of a barrier to getting food.

Yes, we have tons of Gringo-Mex restaurants catering to the gringo population but the line between "real" Tex-Mex and Northern Mexican is a thin one. Fajitas for example were invented in Texas and eaten by gringos and tejanos alike. But we do have plenty of restaurants that serve barbacoa, pork rind, tongue, etc. tacos and I am frequent patron of those establishments. My friend has a car and can probably drive us out for dinner. Otherwise, I'm staying very central and on foot and public transit. I love Belgian beer and cocktails. Don't know as much about wine, but am learning. I will be going to Death & Co. and Mayahuel in New York. I'd like to stop in at your bar too if I get a chance. I think I might be shortening my stay in Philly to spend some time in DC. Thanks. Those are on my list. It's especially good to hear back from New Yorkers such as yourself and Mr. Kinsey. I love Belgian beer. I went to Zot with some friends last time and really liked it. I usually check Beer Advocate's guide and they do list Monks Cafe as the top beer bar. Great. Sounds like a lot of stuff that I can buy and take home and cook for my friends with whom I'm staying.

Philadining: Those charcuterie photos look great. That's exactly what I'm looking for. I certainly enjoy dining in but do any of those also sell any, especially salumi, by the pound to take out? I'm coming from Austin, so I'll skip on the Mexican, though people should feel free to continue to list them as it might help someone else looking at this thread in the future.

Is there a good charcutier? I can save a lot of money by eating charcuterie than an actual restaurant meal. And I love charcuterie. Very good point. If there's better value to be had in Philly, than I'd rather get it here. Then again, New York often has some amazing deals in all price ranges, including the high end, e.g. lunch at Jean Georges.

Raspberry syrup Raspberry syrup appears to be the most commonly called for fruit syrup. I have tried a few different brands: Stonewall Kitchen: The best that I've tried. Thicker consistency, with small "grains" of raspberry chunks, more like a puree than the others. Quite expensive at about $5 for 250 mL. Ingredients: pure cane sugar, raspberry puree, water, raspberry concentrate, citric acid. Zergut: Second best. Quite cheap at about $8 for 1L. Ingredients: raspberry juice, sugar. Routin 1883: A bit artificial tasting. $9.25 for 1L. I just gave away my bottle to my friend but the ingredient list is similar to the passionfruit one (see below) with added "glucose-fructose syrup, acidifier, citric acid, aromas, color, beta carotene". I've been making sherry cobblers with the Stonewall Kitchen syrup and Sandeman Character, 4:1. Very nice, an excellent summer drink. Passionfruit syrup I also picked up the Routin 1883 passionfruit syrup and thought it quite good. Very fragrant. Not as artificial tasting as their raspberry, but still a bit artificial. I have no other passionfruit syrups to compare against. Ingredients: sugar, water, passionfruit juice from concentrate (10%), glucose-fructose syrup, acidifier, citric acid, aromas, color, beta carotene. Misc. Other than the raspberry syrup, fruit syrups do not appear to be very common in classic cocktails. I can understand not wanting to go overboard into fruity cocktail territory but it does seem odd that raspberry is much more common in the classic canon than any other fruit syrup. I'm going to order some lychees from Florida and might get some syrup too. I know the lychee-tini is like the paragon of bad fruity drinks. Should I hang my head in shame? How about making your own syrups?

The season is just starting! I placed a pre-order.

I am making a trip through the northeast this June and will have about a week in Philadelphia and a week in New York City. What should I focus on in Philly that I can't get in New York? E.g. I should avoid sushi because I can just go to Sushi Yasuda in New York. I was in town last year also for about a week and have a few ideas about the city's unique offerings: Cheese steaks - went to Jim's last time because it was a tough getting a ride to some of the other ones, but I'd like to try some of the others Capogiro - will definitely visit again Amada - had a small meal. I'd consider going back unless there's a better tapas place in NY. I'm considering: Studio Kitchen - I haven't read all of that thread yet, but is it possible to get in? Overall budget is an issue. If there's just not that many places worth spending the money on, I'd rather just cook at my friend's house where I'm staying, and save the money for New York.

Wow, my next trip to New Orleans I'm bringing a giant cooler and am going to buy one of everything! If I had to spend a month in New Orleans for work or something I would just go to Butcher every day and get something new to try. That would be a very affordable yet delicious way to eat. Really, is there any other shop in the country that is doing anything at this scale? I know there is Salumi in Seattle, and while their sausages are good they have less than a dozen products.

The Solera as mentioned in this SF Gate article is a terrific drink. The best prominent use of both Velvet Falernum and sherry that I've tried: Unfortunately I found out a few months ago from Spec's that Velvet Falernum is no longer being distributed in Texas and they've sold out of their stock. Looks like I'll be ordering online.

I just tried filling a small charger half way with a Ramos and charging it with NO2. Nothing interesting happened. After you charge it, you can try to spray the liquid out the nozzle but it's at pretty high pressure and difficult to handle -- I made a bit of a mess. I then discharged all the gas and opened up the charger and the Ramos was about the same as before, except now it had a rather unpleasant NO2 taste. I think the way to do it would be to just charge up some of the cream with NO2 and then mix it all together. Then again, you could also just whip the cream.

SOLID. ← What are the proportions for this? I fiddled with it and got: 1.5 tequila (Milagro) .5 dry vermouth (Noilly Prat old version) .5 lime .25 green chartreuse I don't have celery bitters. Who makes it anyway? Definitely tastes pretty good, but not mind-blowing. My proportions and the lack of celery bitters are probably at fault. I'll be in town at the end of June and will find out in person.

The N20 is also made for dissolving in fats like cream, like whipped cream, so a drink like the Ramos might end up super fizzy or creamy.

Cultivate a network of friends that live (or will live) in places you'd like to visit.