Oysterqueen

Well I tried it, a 10 litre no-transfat margarine bucket that was about the same size as the stock pot. It didn't soften or melt but unfortunately the small (about 1") space under the circulator seemed to attract the bags (tried steak today) and they seemed to get stuck underneath. I wasn't sure if it would be a problem (is it?). I kept pulling them out and then finally I put an upside down saucer directly under the circulator to reduce the space, that worked.

Can plastic margarine/mayo/oil pails be used for sous vide water baths? Sorry if this has been discussed before, I came up with nothing searching. I just got a Sous Vide Professional and tried it out clamped on the side of a stock pot, it worked great for salmon, which is all I tried so far. We needed the the stockpot for other things so my water bath got quickly dumped. So I was going to get another stock pot, but then it occured to me that we have dozens of clean pails that might be used for the sous vide water bath. They are obviously food grade but I'm wondering if the plastic would degrade with use in a prolonged hot water bath. Does anyone have any experience with this? These are the white plastic 5-gal buckets that margarine, mayonnaise and vegetable oil get shipped in, if it works it would be ideal because I can cut a hole in the plastic lid to accommodate the circulator and mimimize evaporation. Plus they're free and stock pots cost $$.

I think the restaurant might have expected to be very busy before the opera and not wanted to pay OpenTable the $/seat so didn't leave any tables available online for the pre-opera time slots. I think the reservation charge is too high unless you're a fine dining establishment, we tried it but we were getting reservations for 6 that spent $50. It's been a while but I think the reservation cost us $9 ($1.50 per person). Not great for margin, it was happening way too often so we quit. OpenTable is great for advertising, new places would do well to sign up but for established places it depends on what your marketing strategy is, and how well OpenTable is established in your market area.

Albion calls them Malpeque WC but they're actually Totten Inlet Virginicas. They don't taste anything like real Malpeques, I'm actually surprised they can be called that, not being from PEI. There used to be Belon WC (European Flats) as well, not sure where on the west coast they were raised, but haven't seen them in a few years.