Carolyn Tillie

This is a fabulous rum and I serve it in small, port-wine glasses - straight, to be sipped slowly and luxuriously.

BTW, a cursory glance at eBay shows ivory chopsticks (antiques, of course) for sale quite frequently. In the $100 range...

A great use for left-over wine corks! Seriously -- bring the chili back to heat on the stove and dump in a handful of corks for an hour or two. Corks and potatoes will absorb *some* of the spicyness. I've done this often and can attest to effectiveness! Then add the sour cream...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wowie-zowie, girl ! HOW could you forget ? ← I actually have a horrid memory -- I've literally bumped into ex-lovers (at Renaissance Faires) and erstwhile best friends from the days of yore and not remembered them! See what a life of carousing will do to a person...

Check out Solana Beach for the Belly Up Tavern It has a restaurant called the Wild NoteCafe, very good. Lots of cool little shops in that area Solana Beach, called the Cedros Design District. I like Leaping Lotus ← Oh man... did I ever cut my teeth growing up there! I had forgotten about the Belly-Up! Before I got my driver's license, I would bike down there from Oceanside, sneaking back late at night!

I personally don't think so... A restaurant of that calibre would require year-round attendance to justify the expense. Those who live there wouldn't support it enough to survive and the tourist industry that frequents the area is seasonal (mostly summer).

Actually, Carolyn gave them a good notice in a recent writeup in her "Discovering San Francisco" thread: Oct 16 2006 But, likewise, I haven't been there for years, and would probably go to any of the restaurants melkor lists, L'Osteria del Forno or Antica Trattoria, (on my list to try, haven't been there, yet,) before returning to Rose Pistola. ← Thanks, Eric... I was just going to pipe up that I had a great meal here just a few weeks ago and you did it for me! Surprisingly better than Oliveto, where I ate the following evening. I love ordering Rose Pistola's whole fish du jour...

In a word, no... Santa Barbara is not a bastion of fine dining and hardly ranks with any 2-star restaurants. The *closest* you would find (IMHO) would be Sage & Onion at 38 E. Ortega Street - Phone: (805) 963-1012. It is very, very good California cuisine but at best, one-star. Most people who head to Santa Barbara go to La Super Rica Taqueria at 622 N. Milpas Street. Probably the most famous taqueria in the entire state...

What a loaded question... Bookfinder.com is the best over-all used book site for any subject matter, once you know what title you are looking for. Powell's is probably the largest used bookseller on the west coast and has a separate store just for cook books (which is a FABULOUS place to spend several hours, if you ever visit Portland). But first and foremost, I tend to go to Janet Jarvits who is based in Los Angeles.

Keep in mind, also, that a really good confit is one that involves aging. (I have some duck that is almost a year old...) Olive oil -- IF it were to solidify -- would probably be rancid after any decent aging process.

Probably - I am very new to the city and the neighborhoods (and their names) tend to run together in my head so where downtown ends and the mission district starts always confuses me...

It looks lovely, Tammy! I only make it once a year myself - usually around the holidays when I have an 'open house' and invite people just to stop by for a visit. The cassoulet holds up well for an all day-type of service and always seems very festive. Pretty fascinating how the clay pot seems to make the beans more tender, huh?

I'm curious about baking the custards without a water bath at all -- I have never done it and my BF does it all time; adding only an additional ramekin for water thinking it just needs moisture. I tell him he's crazy. Is there a scientist who can explain why a water bath is needed at all?

Wow - what a total kick in my memory!!! I grew up in Tustin (until I was about 10; 30-some years ago) and Orange Hill was one of the five top "dress up to go out to a fancy restaurant." The other five (if memory serves), was Newport 17, Five Crowns, The Velvet Turtle, and The Magic Pan (yes, the one that became a chain).

I gotta say that the best dim sum isn't in Chinatown... Daly City's Koi Palace is a clear favorite by many (including me) - after that, Yank Sing follows up a close second (technically in the Mission district, close to the Tenderloin).

Cheap Blue Curacao is hideous stuff. I prefer to make my own by using blue food coloring and Luxardo Triplum, which is a dead ringer for Cointreau. You can use less too, because it tastes better. Katie's right, of course, but for those of us unfortunate enough to have a bottle of blue curacao languishing in the cupboard this is probably the best idea I've heard for getting rid of it. I've had one since well before I'd ever heard of eGullet, Drinkboy, Chas. Baker, Embury, Wondrich, DeGroff, Regan et al, and I can't quite bring myself to dump it down the drain. I wonder if mixing blue curacao with one of the good triple secs or curacaos will make for an equally black drink? IIRC the bottle I have is very, very blue. I imagine a 50/50 mix would still do the trick while leaving the drink only slightly marred. Kurt ← I think the secret of the blackness was the blue in the Curacao with the addition of Pomegranate juice which is pretty inky dark. Any other liquor we were adding in (and we tried several, believe me!) seemed inconsequential. Report back if you find otherwise!

Kevin and I stumbled on a scary drink that we decided would be perfect for Halloween... If you use Blue Curacao and pomegranate juice with ***insert your favorite white liquor; gin, vodka, etc.*** the drink turns BLACK! We were playing with martinis and whatnot and the black color was really interesting. I'm just not a fan of Blue Curacao.

These are popping up everywhere -- Opaque in Los Angeles, for example. I haven't been, but a good friend who reviews restaurants in LA was decidedly unimpressed by the food. It was more about "the experience" but if the food doesn't hold up, why bother?

Wasn't questioning the integrity of the chocolate as much as a relative newbie around here might has easily tried this whole experiment with a Hershey bar which could negate all your work. Glad you used a good Callebaut!

I'm with Chris - flageolets are my first choice when I can't get tarbais, then Great Northerns...

Jende - thanks for taking one for the team on this with these experiments! I'm curious what type of chocolate you are using that you aren't getting enough chocolatelyness. Maybe something really high in cocoa, maybe an 80% would help?

Stunning, Jack! I can almost taste 'em...

You could always make a pumpkin mousse that gets added to the baked crust afterwards. Last week, I had dinner at a restaurant that served a butterscotch pot de creme topped with pumpkin mousse that was delightful. Has made me reconsider what I'm cooking for TDay this year...

The Wiki entry pretty much covers it -- the winery I worked for had an exceptional Malbec year in 2002 to the extent that instead of using it as a blending grape with their CabSauv, they bottled 100% Malbec (only about 80 cases), which I adored. When I first started eating churascaria, my BF (who was married to a Brazilian) told me that there is a huge influx of Argentine wines into Brazil. It was only natural to taste the variety of grapes and realize that Malbec was a clear winner with the grilled meats. It remains a favorite grape of mine and I'm always on the lookout of US producers of the 100% varietal as it is pretty rare. Please report back after your dinner - but if go the Malbec route, I'm pretty sure you'll be mighty pleased!

Look on the wine list for a Malbec... A good churascaria wouldn't NOT have one on their list. Can't go wrong!