Taboni

"Child-Free" ← Well off (or whatever you choose to be the opposite of poor)

The bar in my fraternity house in college was made out of a recycled bowling alley. What a great quarters surface that was.

Holly I can sympathize. I was a partner in 2 restaurants in London (one in Notting Hill and the other in Battersea) in the early '90s and we had many discussions as to whether to actively market ourselves as gay friendly due to the increasing demographic in the areas and the general lack of openly gay friendly establishments (this information according to a gay friend of mine). In the end the vote amongst the partners went against the idea and a couple of years later we closed both locations. I often wish that vote had swung the other way. Small mindedness robbed our investors of the power of the "pink pound".

Graham crackers. Especially the cinnamon ones. Oh and butter is kept on the counter. My grandmother always kept her butter on the counter and now I do as well. I have never ever had a stick of butter go rancid on me.

Looks great Kris. I know what I'm making for dinner tonight!

Wow South Beach/Freehold, South Beach/Freehold...I know where I would rather be I don't live in the immediate area (we are in Fair Haven/Rumson/Red Bank area about 30 minutes from you) but there is good Mexican right in Freehold at El Meson, BYO.

The whole concept of tipping as a substitute/complement to the wage paid by the employer has to beg the question would we be better off if restaurants paid a living wage to all of their employees and raised prices slightly to cover this additional expense. This way diners could tip as a reward for exceptional service and not be required under social convention to essentially remove the burden of paying the waiter's salary from the restaurateur. Who would lose out in this situation?

The obvious answer you are going to get many on this forum is "why don't you make it?" but if you aren't comfortable making one yourself, I don't believe you should take a task like bringing one to a party as a time to experiment. I don't know where you are in North Jersey but if Colts Neck/Freehold area isn't too far, you can definitely get a good pie at Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck or Wemrock Orchards in Freehold. I do know that Wemrock sells their pies through different outlets so you may be able to come across them in North Jersey, but I don't have a clue where. Since you mentioned it, I miss Geigers. They had the greatest cider donuts as well as pies.

I didn't mean for my numbers to be literal, more figurative in nature, and I am not talking about 30% tips on $50 dining bills. I am talking about bills of $100-150 for the two of us. I don't even consider my tipping in diners, etc which always runs more than 20%, since its only a bill of $10-15 in those situations anyway. Perhaps I should be lumping those percentages in with what I was referencing, which was evenings out when our bill is regularly in the $125-175 region for the two of us and sometimes higher than that. There are occasions when, depending on wine chosen, we see bills of $200+. Are people tipping 30% on this level of bill as well?

Maybe they use unbleached cane sugar which I have definitely seen in our local health food store, or pure beet sugar from a reputable source, since I don't believe you can tell the difference by eye or taste. I don't think there is anything that would prohibit a vegan from using a pure cane sugar that has not been processed.

I too am curious about the policy of tipping on the pretax or total. Which do you do? I tip on the total amount but I am wondering if I should be tipping pretax? I know there are probably tons of people reading this thread who may be afraid to speak up but I really am not that bothered generally about what people think so I will step forward and say that I think 20% is a fair tip and 25% is a good tip. I wish I were as rich as everyone else who posted here saying they tip a minimum of 20% all the time and frequently 30% or more. When my wife and I can rarely get away with a meal for under $50 per person I really have a tough time adding more than 20% to the bill. Call me cheap if you wish, as I really don't care. I firmly believe that there are 2 types of people who should tip excessively: the very rich, because a little to them means a whole lot to the waitstaff, and those who are dining on business since it isn't coming out of your pocket anyway. Honestly if I were to adopt a more generous tipping policy as is the subject of this thread (30%+) we would not be able to eat out as often as we do. What would the waitstaff prefer? 20% 3 or 4 times a month or 30%+ once a month. I think I know what I would choose.

Not to nitpick, but I think it was "Seinfeld? Four?"

As long as there is a comfortable bar/waiting area, I don't mind up to 30 minutes. Anything above that, I will go elsewhere. I could never understand a "no reservations" policy in restaurants. It just doesn't make sense to me. What is there to gain for a restaurant that takes no reservations??

I used to live around the corner from the Cupcake Cafe and I find them hard to beat.

"Correct" American spelling is just a transliteration. There are about a million different ways of spelling my Mom's maiden name (Nowatzky). Other than that, great ideas in your post! Pot cheese = cottage cheese, which was my grandma's classic filling. (2nd gen Amerikansky) ← You're right, "correct" was a poor choice of words. Its just the way I would phoneticize what I consider the pronunciation to be. By the way I would hate to think of all the spelling permutations of my family's various names (maiden, etc) Now I'm not sure if this is "allowed" but I have always thought that kutya would make a great dessert, no?

One question I have is what does everyone here use for a braising vessel? I have been using the same 7 quart Le Crueset french oven forever when making stew, etc. and I really don't want to go out and buy their shallower braising pan. Also my wife bought a Cuisinart slow cooker for me for Christmas, would it be sacrilege to use it instead of the preferred stovetop/oven method?

Well the correct american spelling/pronunciation is pyrohy and I would suggest fillings of potato/onion, pot cheese, sauerkraut, mushroom, and lekvar (this is pretty much the gamut of my mothers pyrohy repertoire) I'm annoyed that I didn't find this thread earlier as finally a topic comes up that I am somewhat well versed in and alot of the good suggestions are gone already but I will give mine nonetheless! Definitely Holubtsy, both meat/rice and kasha to cater to vegetarians; bigos made with kraina kielbasy (chunky, not ground) Not sure if you want to make a soup, but you can always make borscht, or if you are brave, czarnina. For dessert, poppy seed roll and definitely khruschyky (I could eat a whole batch of these without blinking)

Is this affiliated in any way with the Two Boots "mini chain" from New York City or is some enterprising soul flirting with the trademark laws. At any rate I felt the same way you did about shellfish and cheese until I tried the crawfish pizza at Two Boots (the original one in NY) some years ago and was pleasantly surprised.

Growing up we never ate meat on Fridays, even after the church said it was ok. Now since my wife is not as archaic as my family, and I don't feel like cooking 2 meals, I indulge. My parents still maintain a meatless Friday houselhold year round, and add a meatless Wednesday during Lent. Eating meat on a Friday should be the worst of my sins I do miss my mothers Dover sole meuniere though...mmmmm.

Is there anywhere I can find this short rib recipe as I don't have the book yet and I would like to make these for this weekend?

You are correct in general about fraternities having nastier kitchens. I am amazed that our kitchen passed the health inspections when I was in school (mid 80s) Officially the kitchen was off limits after the cook left for the day, but we always found a way to bypass whatever new lock they put on the door. Drunken/stoned hunger is an amazing power. When they finally came up with a serious industrial lock, we sent our smallest person down the dumbwaiter with the 70 year old rope holding it up (main kitchen was downstairs, service kitchen upstairs, old house) Insurance really wasn't the issue back then regarding access to the kitchen, it was the fact that our cook hated coming in every morning to a dirty kitchen. He also hated the fact that we would try and reheat leftover cheeseburgers from lunch by laying the 2 slice toaster down on its side (no toaster oven) We went through alot of toasters. You're lucky you only have 34 to cook for. We had 75 brothers eating 3 meals a day (short order breakfast, no meals on weekends) plus we would have a sorority join our meal plan so add another 25 girls or so for dinners only (we had 2 seatings for dinner). We had 1 cook who sometimes had one of his buddies come in to help who we paid under the table. Of course we didn't eat nearly as well as your girls seem to be. I think it will only take them a couple of months after graduation to realize how good they had it.

I guess I am in the minority here but I like Cooks Illustrated. It appeals to the Popular Mechanics/nerdy side of me as a cook. I also find it to provide a good reference point for many dishes that I can adjust to my own preferences. I understand people's disdain for the "this is the best way bar none" attitude sometimes, but who says you have to agree? Plus I bet any of us would use the same methodology of trying many many different ingredients, processes, etc if we had the time, and I know there are some things they try that pique my interest as things I hadn't thought of. How many of us research things to death before they buy them. Alot I bet. Too much information is not a bad thing, so use the magazine for what it is.... another tool, not a Bible. I disagree with some of the equipment reviews since many times they sacrifice functionality for price, but do you know of another source that reviews so many everyday kitchen items? (Personally I love the Oxo measuring cups) I have only read one of Kimball's diatribes and decided to forever skip that portion of the magazine as it didn't appeal to me just as I skip over many sections of other food mags. Their new magazine (country cooks I think?) should be tossed however. Even my non-foodie wife laughed when she saw a submitted recipe for iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing..I mean come on...this belongs in Taste of Home with all of the other people who collect thimbles and beanie babies and wear Christmas sweaters.

The Ukrainian pronunciation is ho loob tsee (the singular is ho loo betz)

Fox & Anchor, Charterhouse St (Smithfield market) You will not leave hungry. While I haven't been there in years, I used to like the mixed grill as a late breakfast instead of the traditional fry.

This is the product you need to look for. Not sure if it can be installed with a wall mount faucet, but it never hurts to ask. http://www.integradynamics.com/