PaniniGuy

McDonald's new coffee is roasted by Green Mountain, which happens to be a pretty darned good roaster, well respected in the coffee industry. It is far better than the dreck McD's used to serve. As far as the taste test goes, the McD's was tested against the Starbucks standard house drip. I wouldn't judge all Starbucks coffees by this test. Yes, much of Starbucks coffee (especially the espresso and house blend) is overroasted, but if you get a press pot or fresh airpot cup of their varietals, it's usually pretty good (not up to standards of a top indie or even Caribou, but better than many indies). As someone who lived in New England for 30+ years I used to be a staunch defender of DD - until I got into the coffee biz myself and learned more about quality. DD is pretty weak in hindsight. And if you're drinking flavored coffee, you're not drinking coffee. You're drinking chemical flavors baked into beans that weren't worthy of standing on their own. It would be like walking into a debate on the merits of Grey Goose vs. Belevedere vodkas and saying you prefer Absolut Citron. It's simply not the same thing.

Well, that sucks. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but doesn't sound like the auto show will be able to go on as planned - hopefully the city doesn't lose more shows - but after two collapses (one during construction), gotta wonder about the building's integrity. Phlox, Thanks for the write up on Le Pommier. We always forget about it when thinking of places to go. Will have to revisit. As far as coffee, since you're on Smallman, you owe it to yourself to buy some Intelligentsia coffee at Caffe Intermezzo. Superior to LP in our opinion (disclosure: we own a shop that sells Intelly coffees up in Mt. Lebo). They usually get their weekly delivery of beans on Monday, so Wednesday is a good day to buy as the beans will have degassed. Regarding Enrico's, there are lots of biscotti and cookie options in Pittsburgh, many sizes, flavors and textures. Enrico's is but one option. But he certainly understands the power of smell in marketing his products better than anyone.

I served some last week as part of a tapas theme - pretty simple preparation: cut avocados in half and remove pit mix about a tbsp of fruity Spanish evoo with a splash of good red wine vinegar (sherry could work), a pinch of dried hot pepper and some sea salt pour the vinaigrette into the cavities where the pits were broil for about five minutes and serve immediately. Easy as can be yet a unique texture and taste for those who've never had a hot avocado.

Rarely drink tea simply for enjoyment, but will drink it when under the weather (like today). Have tried an number of teas from Intelligentsia (where we get our coffee) and find their Organic 333 (rosehips and chamomile) and Iron Goddess of Mercy (oolong) blends to be satisfying. Have also been experimenting a lot with mate. It's certainly an acquired taste, but it does seem to have some interesting properties, specifically energy boosting-wise.

I'll second that. For espresso the grinder can be as/more important than the brewer. That said, I'm in the biz and I do own a cheap Leilo Ariete burr grinder, useless for espresso, but fine for any other use. I also own a cheap whirly blade, which, if you shake it vigorously while grinding, can produce a pretty fine and consistent grind for use in an Aeropress or about any other method requiring a finer grind short of espresso. As for roasting, as we retail intelly, we don't need to roast ourselves, but I've done samples picked up a trade shows on an electric wok, which is no harder than an average stir fry - pretty consisitent roast if you're constantly agitating the beans and can do so while still listening for the cracks. But I wouldn't do it every day on a wok because even with a decent ventilation system, it still makes quite the stink.

"I'm a fraud. I used preservatives." Other memorable food scenes in movies not about food: -Clark Griswold eating a damp sandwich. -Mike Meyers behind the meat counter with Nancy Travis -Harold and Kumar finally getting to enjoy some sliders and of course, Cagney making a point with a grapefruit.

In Pittsburgh, we just hold onto things until they're "cool" again. Although we're still waiting on a massive comeback for Serbian and Polish fine dining. We knew Ethiopian was out as a trend soon as we got our first Ethiopian place in town in 2005. Since we now have a churrasco counter at our Giant Eagle supermarket and an actual Mexican restaurant without numbers next to the dishes, gotta think Latin food is on the way out too (That said, I personally think acqavit is the reason the suicide rates are so high in Scandanavia ) Still, we do have one espresso joint that's pretty good.

Somebody bought me an Emeril book as a gift for my last birthday, not knowing my personal rule of never buying any cookbook that references a chef's special spice mix in any recipe (and Bayless is becoming guilty of this). I felt the same way about Prudhomme and I think Bayless is becoming guilty of this as well - saw him at a recent local appearance and the recipe handouts all included Frontera sauces. That ain't cooking. I never liked the Silver Palate books because they seemed too "precious". I've also learned greater appreciation of books that include technique and stories behind the recipes instead of simply a compilation of recipes. I use Deborah Madison's and James Peterson's soup books quite often in our shop. For home cooking, the book that the biggest stained, dog-eared mess is "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking". Must've tried 40+ recipes out of that one and they all work. After Jaffrey, probably my most used are Vincent Gueritheault's "Vincent's Cookbook" (still love that place); Hazan's "Essentials" and Joyce Goldstein's "Mediterranean Kitchen". Still haven't cooked anything out of French Laundry yet.

A few years ago I was on an assignment for a couple of months in Sofia. I had expressed a desire to know more about my co-workers' regional cooking - they took me all over the place. Ate more organ meat in those two months than in my entire life... Anyway, toward the end of my gig they suggested that the last week I was there they'd cook me a traditional Bulgarian meal with all the trimmings and I'd cook them a traditional American meal. I had a two burner stove and a tiny oven - and there weren't any turkeys at the local Billa - so I racked my brain for a quintessential American meal I could pull off with two pots. And then it hit me: chili and cornbread. Only problem was it was Lent and half the staff had given up meat. So I made two versions, one Texas Red, the other a veggie version - first time I'd worked with tofu (fortunately Billa had some). The former was pretty darned good considering. The latter was awful, but hey, none of them ever had chili before and they liked the spices. Is there anything that says 21st century "United States of America" more than vegetarian chili?

A Senegalese-style groundnut stew works wonders. I now serve it in our shop on New Year's Day.

I was going to say the worst thing last year was a vastedda (spleen and ricotta sandwich) I had in Red Hook, Brooklyn, but I kinda figured I wasn't going to like that going in. But will try about anything once. However, reading this one reminded me we had a pork lo mein from a place that supposedly one of the 10 best in town. We couldn't get through two forks. Wife and I both agreed it was bad - it actually tasted fermented. If it wasn't a 15 minute drive in the rain, we would've returned it.

Wow - I have that book! It's 3.5 years later, but if you still need to know, ponce = pig's stomach filled with sausage. Sort of a bayou haggis I suppose.

So you're telling me that if I want to drink the same microbrews and imports that were available to me in other states where I lived, and drink them at the same level of freshness, I should either drink 4x as fast or be ready to toss 75% of my case when ready for a fresher six-pack? Seems I'm missing your point. I must've been brainwashed by all those alcoholics I've been hanging with in New England and New York for the past 30+ years.

If it's just tax revenue the state's talking about, you're right. But right now the state also gets the profit the private operators would otherwise pocket. That revenue would vanish if the LCB were dismantled. Revenue from sale of PLCB assets (retail stores, warehouses and inventory) probably wouldn't be enough to cover the net present value of the ongoing revenue stream. ← Fact is, it's a socialist, if not communist system. So, if any politico wants to defend it, they should be prepared to defend unions, socialized medicine, etc. out of principle at the expense of small business and free enterprise. The one thing I still can't believe is that Mr. Newman was only pulling down $65K while doing this job. That's simply incredible for the amount of work he did. And now to pay some putz $150K whos experience is "owning a couple of bar/restaurants"... sheesh. I've been in PA five years, having lived in NY, MA and CT (with plenty of experience buying booze in NH). Even with the Chairman's Selections - which IMO are the only reason to shop PALCB stores - I'd still rather shop at a Warehouse Liquors (Stamford CT) or Zachy's (Scarsdale NY) and larger shops in those states where I believe I get a better selection, fair pricing, more knowledge from the staff. And in the case of Zachy's (and other wine merchants in NY), it's amazing what quality you can get for extremely reasonable pricing - they do enough quantity that they can private label. I would imagine we are stuck with the LCB because of backwards thinking politicians (if you ever hear one praise Reagonomics, ask him/her about what they're doing vis a vis the LCB). But still, I've yet to hear an understandable, logical, financially-rooted rationale for why beer is sold by the case only.

Not my map, and I don't know the guy who created it. It came out only a couple months ago but has made decent traction in coffee circles.

Which leads to porcini which leads to... risotto.

We have a blackboard sign that tells you what our accessible parameters are and that if we can't pull a shot within those parameters, we won't serve it. But that's about it - our baristi don't bore customers with details unless specifically asked. The reason for the sign is for people to understand there are parameters and there is skill involved in this. Too many people think it's simply going to the ice cream shop. Heck, if we're lucky, next time they go down the street and get a drink they'll note, "Hey, that was only a 10 second shot," and that barista will go, "So what." And then that customer will come back to us and stay with us. Don't laugh, it's already happened. More than once. Anyway, I went through that story to tell this one. I used to market a huge trade show for tile and stone which offered me the opportunity to travel to the big Italian trade shows in Verona and Bologna in addition to our show in Orlando. As with others here, everywhere in Italy we had great espresso after great espresso and terrific cappas. At the U.S. tradeshow, the best espressos/cappas were not at the chain outlets in the lobby. It was in the Italian pavilion on the exhibit floor. The Italians flew over a La San Marco two group, a couple hundred pounds of Segafreddo, several crates of Parmalat and a couple of baristi who could pull shots but who never cleaned the steam wand. I would wager a bet that during the week of the show, despite using supermarket coffee, shelf-stable milk, and what might be considered unhygenic or at least messy steaming practices, those were the best shots being served in the entire state of Florida. So while you can take the espresso out of Italy, apparently, you can't take the Italy out of the epresso!

Use this map: www.espressomap.com To get on the map you have to be nominated by peers and/or somebody with a palate the site owner trusts. Most roast their own or use top roasters like Intelly/CCC/Ecco/Stumptown/Terroir, etc. Many/most have at least one barista that's competed in the USBC. While perhaps all aren't "perfect", you'd likely be hard pressed to get a bad drink at any of them. Most of the US/Canadian establishments mentioned in this thread are on it (notably not: La Colombe). Many not mentioned in this thread are also on the map waiting for you to find them. If you're passing thru Pittsburgh, we're not associated with the previously mentioned Aldo's in Brooklyn.

It's called "City Chicken". And it's actually pork. They sell it at Jint Iggle (Giant Eagle). Here's a primer: CityChicken You can always fall back on kielbasa. Kielbasa goes with anything. And a grilled kielbasa hoagie with fried eggs... now you're talking.

Thanks all - some good suggestions. Keep 'em coming! Luckily a new Viet place has opened up nearby so I'm doing a chicken pho 2x weekly (skipping the peppers and hot sauce). Seem to tolerate it well. That's a start. To those suggesting meds, how I wish the meds still helped - been on all the P's at one time or another over past 15 years, plus the purple pill. I even do 2x the standard prescription. While those meds all kill the heartburn at various levels, they are no longer stopping the larygnal reflux, which gets into the sinuses and creates a whole new set of problems that you don't get with GER. If you ever get that, you have my sympathies.

Since I co-own an Italian-style coffeehouse/panini shop, it's hard to think of a worse sentence than having your doc tell you to cut out just about everything you work with and love is taboo because you have an overdeveloped reflux problem that's making it difficult to live normally. The prescription: - no tomatoes - very little citrus - no caffeine - no spirits - no carbonation - nothing fried (not that big a problem... except potato chips) - nothing heavily seasoned - nothing hard to digest (i.e. steaks, most meats unless shredded) - anything that causes gas This cuts out any red sauces, most meats and sausages, a wide swath of Asian cuisine (except Japanese and Cantonese), much of Africa, all Mexican, all Cajun, most Creole... Which is pretty much most of what I eat. Since I own my own business, there's not a lot of time for menu planning, nor hours to be spent on cooking. Have to think some of you have had a similar problem. If so, what recipes got you through your condition until you could begin eating like a civilized human again? Right now I'm brushing up my risotto repetoire, but that'll get boring pretty quick. Especially w/o a glass of wine to accompany it. Thanks for your help. (Please, for practical purposes, nothing more than 30 mins prep time).

Way I read the Seattle PI article yesterday was that 20,000 total stores in US is the goal. Whether that's SBUX-owned or having branded kiosks everywhere (like B&N) wasn't clear. They must be encouraged by the fact that deployment of their new superautos hasn't hurt business. Now they can safely remove the "mystique" of the barista and simply train people to be good button-pushing PBTCs - they'll be selling third place and service, not coffee. On the beans, you'd know better than I since you're buying volume green, but I'd doubt they're planning to go after better auction lot coffees, thus the super-quality roasters won't be adverely affected (e.g. Intelligentsia's Direct Trade relationships) and probably not buyers who spend a lot of time at origin (e.g. Sweet Maria's). I would think SBUX's added capacity would put more pressure on roasters who are selling above average, but not superpremium, Arabica to supermarkets - that's seems more likely the competition for SBUX in the open market. Or, maybe they're just planning on buying Rwanda?

I'd add there's a cheap $75 way to get an "almost espresso". 1. Bodum milk foamer ($15) 2. Lello Ariete burr grinder from Amazon (LOUD and plastic, but it works) ($30) 3. Aerobie Aeropress ($30) True, the above has none of the looks and romance of say a Rocky/Francis! Francis! combo, but unless you and/or your guests really know good espresso, they will be suitably impressed by your efforts.

I'll add to the Sweet Maria's chorus. Although we don't roast, we refer to the SM site often, especially for reviews on highly anticipated auction lots. Haven't seen Counter Culture Coffee (Charlotte) mentioned yet in this thread. I'd put them right up or really close to the Intelly/Ecco/Stumptown/Terroir category, and CCC is getting better all the time (note: we're Intelly customers, but we keep an eye out).

It's still a business model that has no place in a free market society. You have to wonder who's paying for the financial wizardry that goes into the balance sheet analysis that gets reported. There's simply no way that a state-run enterprise employing state-paid employees is more efficient than a private enterprise model. It's simply that we, wine-loving citizens, haven't brought about enough pressure. People aren't running around getting hammered on good wine. While not ideal, there are states that allow indie merchants to sell wine/beer while the state sells hootch - and in many cases cheaper wines. Before moving here, I've lived my entire life in states that are in the top half of US per capita wine consumption. PA is in the seventh decile, closer to eighth. While it's almost a given that there's a big swath in the middle of the state that might not be wine drinkers, same can be said for rural areas of NY and MD. Although PA is in the seventh decile, NJ is in the third, NY is in the fourth, MD is in the fifth. I'd take that as pretty convincing evidence that a lot of wine is being brought in over the borders because the labels are not available here or are cheaper elsewhere.