Peter the eater

That's true when vacationing in the Caribbean, in my experience. If the vendor has repeat buyers, that's a good sign.

I had a visiting relative, who will remain nameless, accompany me on a rural drive to visit the various farmers’ markets and roadside vendors. My guest freely admits to being a borderline hypochondriac and let me tell you, her kitchen is well kept and immaculate from the chemicals and elbow grease. Here’s my issue: she rejected a bunch of rhubarb because it wasn’t totally free of “organic growing medium”, but two short kilometers later, she bought a pork pie from a complete stranger. Is that not odd? What are your rules?

My favorite part of the bird -- pound them flat, roll with a veggie filling, bake. These ones had skin, which I prefer:

I still haven't actually seen or tasted one. It seems you want to get a crisp but chewy rice patty, maybe with panko? The Wiki says it started in Toronto in the 1990's and has been growing in popularity since.

The other day we were out for dinner at a rather nice place called Hamachi Kita in the Hydrostone neighborhood of Halifax. They've got sushi pizza on the menu. It starts with a fried disk of rice for a crust, wasabi mayo as the sauce, and the toppings include all sorts of sashimi, avocado slices and fish roe. I panicked and ordered the chirashizushi. Am I missing out?

R&M, I'm loving the words and pictures. More, please.

Agreed, and a fried egg is more obscene than poached. Here's another eggy one from this weekend: A double-decker fiddlehead/cremini/onion omelet sandwich with a giant prawn from the mysterious waters of Vietnam. Ketchup, sriracha and cracked black pepper.

I try, but I can't make a 750g pepperoni/pepper/mushroom/mozza/tomato pizza for less than McCain's $5 frozen version. The meat and cheese are big ticket items. In fact, I'd make more fresh cheese if milk wasn't so pricey. But can you make it better? Absolutely. Not all store-bought pizzas are the same, but I can't find one that beats home-made or a good delivery place. There's a recognizable processed factory taste to every frozen pizza I've tried. Some are good, none are great.

It is a good video, and there's more coverage of the 2008 International Chefs Congress somewhere in the eG forums. I first learned of this monkfish ceremony a few years back when eG Society member Hiroyuki shared photos from a Japanese market. A fisherman in my own community told me that when they pull up monkfish, they usually chop the tail off and chuck the rest overboard.

If you video Google "monkfish" (click) you can watch Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto handle a much larger specimen. You can also see, and I think hear, eG Society member docsconz taking photographs of the event. I love the nose-to-tail approach, and the thorough appreciation for a threatened fish.

Monkfish How can something so bizarre in appearance be so delicious? I've been wanting to get my hands on a whole monkfish for quite a while. The creature shown below is a one-pound five-dollar Lophius americanus from Pete's Frootique, and before that from the bottom of the North Atlantic. They're a bycatch from the groundfish trawlers and are not as common as they once were. In fact, Greenpeace now has them on the red list. I've become a fan of cooking fish whole and on-the-bone when possible, particularly the small ones. Unfortunately, this fish had already been gutted meaning no liver for me. Oh well, it would've been pretty small. I roasted at 350F for 20m with olive oil and rosemary. After a short cooling period, I took the tail flesh off and made a strained sauce with the rest. This fish is so watery and gelatinous you can make a stock without adding water. I'm hard pressed to name a better tasting fish -- it's firm, white and succulent a lot like a lobster's tail.

There have been oodles of previous discussions here on eGullet concerning "why buy it when you can make it?". That's not the issue here. Regarding the original question, I think besides the cost of ingredients you also have to factor in the cost of your time spent making the item. Minor issues would be amortizing the cost of utilities/energy, equipment used, and so on. But cost of personal time seems to be a major factor in this case. That's it! I'll invoice my family. Toliver is right. I'm proud to know I've made mayo, mustard, ketchup, bagels, cheese, yogurt, etc. from scratch, often with eGullet guidance. The point here is: where can I save money?

That's a good point. If I lived in Florida with a backyard full of citrus plants, I could justify a fancy power juicer. Buying oranges for juice isn't a frugal idea where I live -- frozen concentrate is the way to go. I'm not sure what ingredients I'd need to make a citrus "punch" or "drink".

That's what I'm talking about -- chick peas and other beans are a great examples of cheap building blocks for dips. Which brings me to tzatziki -- I can't make cheap yogurt. Maybe I'm not doing it right.

When we do a roast chicken, turkey, leg of lamb, etc. with all the fixins', it gets timed so things may go in at different times but all come out at the same time -- usually an hour or so after. I don't suppose that helps much.

Moussaka?

Incidentally, the inspiration for starting this topic is my recent success making granola bars. There are many issues beyond price when comparing store-bought and home-made, I'm merely looking to add more to my repertoire. There's a ton of crap in most factory foods, and if I can make something for my family using basic ingredients which are better and cheaper, then I will. I know I'll never faithfully emulate a chunk of Bleu d'Auvergne, a shot of Lagavulin, or a bite of Hostess Twinkie.

I try, but I can't make a 750g pepperoni/pepper/mushroom/mozza/tomato pizza for less than McCain's $5 frozen version. The meat and cheese are big ticket items. In fact, I'd make more fresh cheese if milk wasn't so pricey.

Here’s a question for thrifty shoppers and home cooks: what can you make in your own kitchen for less than it costs at the supermarket? For example, I can make a decent 500g loaf of white bread at home for a buck or two. However, when I tried to make hot dogs from scratch, they tasted fine . . . but it worked out to around $9 per wiener. That’s more than $100 a dozen!

Laser-cut nori -- how cool is that? I recall reading about lasers in the realm of food processing. I don't remember if it was for cutting, measuring, or some other task. Lasers are used for printing and reading barcodes, for example.

Chris, congrats on embracing a new vocation/avocation. I tended bar at University but that hardly qualifies me to offer "pithy advice from the trenches" -- it was more like mixing paint at Home Depot. And I took orders from the servers without talking to actual customers, missing out on the best part.

The lamb I buy locally or from New Zealand is too lean for excess fat to be a problem. If roasting a leg with potatoes, I add olive oil or something else to get the browning. Loin chops have tasty fat, like you'de expect from a mini T-bone steak. I'm not a fan of the waxy tallow, as others mention. A while back when I was trying to cook like a Viking I observed:

True or false: a fresh hot pepper will get even hotter when frozen?

Canned seafood is occasionally better than fresh, in my experience. I don't know about conch, but some mollusks benefit greatly from solitary confinement. Spain also takes canned seafood very seriously.

Lee Valley Tools sells those small disk-like metal containers with screw tops. I believe they're called watchmaker's jars. I use them in the wood shop for tiny brass screws and stuff.