annabelle

If you are operating a for profit restaurant you'll need licensing and certification out the wazoo, especially if you have a liquor license. Presumably you are operating the restaurant as your primary business and therefore your means of income. Unlike you (in my example), the people operating the underground supper clubs aren't running these events as a regular business. This is true of pop-ups, as well. Indeed, they may operate this dining experience as a lark and not even a regularly scheduled event or even have it take place in the same location.* They may even be run as progressive dinners that take place in more than one location. As sigma said above, it's bald-faced rent seeking. In the case of Heidi's tamale vendor, I have often bought these tamales from small children (acting as salesmen) who are trying to help out their families. I feel better about buying from these people than from Big Tamale. If it helps a nino get a new pair of Keds before school starts, all the better. *(We have another poster who often does this in addition to their regular job. Everyone gushed!)

Hear, hear!

"So what I'm being asked to agree to is that it's okay to break a law if you think it isn't a good law?" No. I am saying that if these are the laws that the city chooses to enforce, then that city isn't making wise use of its resources. In a perfect world every foodcart, pop-up, underground dinner would be fully licensed, inspected, sparkly clean and as a consequence of that, astronomically expensive due to compliance costs. This isn't the case and it never will be. People love to game the system and it's not like they are selling bathtub gin or meth (you have to go uptown for that). I'm more bothered by the acceptance of a creeping, grasping authoritarian bureaucracy and people unwilling to vote them out or at the least raise cane about it.

Tri2Cooks says: "Could they also argue that it's pretty low on the scale of laws that need enforcing and gain public support?" They could. That doesn't mean they'll get their way. They are a public accommodation and these private parties not a business. Many posters here are big fans of pop-up restaurants. Pop-up restaurants are similarly unlicensed, unregulated and uninspected, just like underground dinner parties. They are also much more visible, being in a storefront or the like and staying in place for three days or more which would allow for improper food storage and vermin to make a visit. Many laws are foolish or redundant or simply make work legislation put in place by busy-bodies. All law isn't good law.

Exactly.

That isn't what I said, Tri2Cook. In the great sliding scale of stuff to waste manpower on, dinner parties are way down at the bottom of the list next to barking dogs. Frankly, I'm appalled that you all are gung-ho on law enforcement of what is clearly a nitpicking ordinance. It's like the unenforced Blue Laws here in the South. The people throwing these underground suppers seem to be affluent or at least middle-class. The people I spoke of throwing block parties are not. Many times, like house parties, the cover charge (for lack of a better word) is used to pay bills. At least that's the way they worked back when I was invited to these things.

There's no real crime to investigate in NYC? The whole thing is ludicrous. It's the equivalent of driving through Alphabet City and writing fix-It tickets for broken taillights and ignoring the drug deals.

Success! From the article: "Native to Mexico, this edible member of the orchid family was carted back to Europe by Hernán Cortés along with other riches of the Aztecs. Today, vanilla is produced in more than a dozen countries around the world, mostly on small farms where the pods are hand-pollinated, picked at the peak of ripeness and then put through a monthslong curing process that gives them their trademark brown, leathery appearance. Only Tahitian vanilla represents a distinct species; elsewhere, flavors ranging from butterscotch to saddle leather are the result of differing soil conditions and curing methods, not genetics."

Loki, never put much of anything in the garbage disposal. They are a plumber's cash cow.

Annabelle I think I sort of hijacked the original question that started this thread. Sorry about that. I'm having difficulty getting cream to whip at all. That's okay. I have this problem sometimes too---both the thread hijacking and the whipping cream problem. Can you get unpasteurized cream where you are?

Practically never.

They'll flock to a container with a bit of vinegar in it, too. I found that out accidentally many years ago when they got in my vinegar bottle that I keep on the table with one of olive oil.

I am not a fan of basmati rice, but as far as arsenic goes, it is naturally occurring and it's in many foodstuffs. Don't sweat it.

I shop alone. I'm much more efficient without husband or kid(s) tagging along and being no help because they hate food shopping. I can take my time and look around to see what's new and what's on special and maybe change my plans for my menus for the week. I can follow my list, not feel rushed and not forget anything when I'm alone. Hubs and I shop together at Sam's about four times a year to restock our canned goods and chest freezer. I keep a running list of bulk items and we can add to it between excursions. We also take his truck since it is a full-sized compared to my light truck and has a heavier payload in case we also need to go to Lowe's or Home Depot. Recently, we have had a farmer's market run by Hmong spring up in our town on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They have a lot of Asian vegetables that are very fresh and unavailable at the local stores. I've been shopping there for fresh vegetables once a week or so for a few months. I hope they don't vanish this fall.

I'm dense, I guess. I don't quite understand what you are making. Is this a latte type of drink nor a dessert coffee? I make lattes with foamed low-fat milk. Steam is forced through the milk to foam it.

Heh. All three of my sons do that. I have never heard of a Jaffle either.

Kay, your link goes to a 404 message.

The first thing I thought when I heard this story is "Those are called get-togethers." I'll wager this reporter has never been to a block party, either. $5 to get in. I'll bet those are illegal too.

Yes.

Don't knock the Velveeta, Melissa. My husband also loves tomato soup out of the can, mixed with a can of milk. Old habits die hard and comfort food is comfort food, after all.

Check your zoning laws first. I don't keep any yardbirds because we have too many predators. I'd end up with a fox in the henhouse for sure.

I like Jay Raynor. (I don't care if he has a cape in his wardrobe.) I like Gregg Wallace, too. He was a judge of MC Professionals on BBC with Michel Roux. They were both very exacting, but encouraging and not sneering like the American chef judges can be.

They are both hotbeds of unrest and danger. Don't let your sense of adventure get in the way of your good sense.

I can't even remember. Sorry. It was a horrible job and I have deleted it from my memory banks.

You heard right, Dakki. Putting grill marks on steaks was one of my jobs when I was a banquet cook.