Malkavian

Sadie's experience mirrors mine, also growing up in western NC (Rutherford county fyi) and now living in Charlotte--chops I can't recall offhand, but leg goes for 4.99-6.99 a pound depending on venue. Right now the meat cases I've seen are full of chops and shanks, and a fair portion of legs that are left over from easter stocking-up. Most places seem to at least stock a few items of lamb constantly but nothing like a prominent spot in the case except around holidays. I'm hoping that post-easter I can get a decent looking leg a little cheaper as surplus gets sold off--I've never tried chops due to the expense, but I love doing up leg or shanks when I have the chance (and the budget!)

I have a very small (something like 8oz capacity maybe?) french press that i love for making a quick cup for myself--however I have some concerns about my black & decker grinder being able to meet the proper coarseness level, and to my eye it makes a noticable amount of dust. The coffee tastes alright, but at this point I'm not sufficiently experienced to tell whether that's the coffee or the brewing process that needs improvement. Would it be bad for consistency to use a mortar and pestle to grind the beans?

Totally unrelated to this thread, I happened to buy some dried hibiscus at the local whole foods market while i was picking up some other things today. Operating mostly off the cuff, I made an infusion of about 5 flowers to 8 or 10 ounces of hot water and let steep for just a minute or two. I have to say, I'm intrigued, but MAN was the resulting liquor tart! Done the "right" way (and i assume there is some prescribed method, I just haven't found it yet) the stuff isn't quite so puckering is it? But wow, the color...

I've used it to great success as a glaze for smoked or grilled salmon

Was shopping for my new kitchen today, mostly picking up odds and ends (funnels, pepper mill, etc) but I did intend to make at least a perusal of the pots and pans section of the store to see if anything caught my eye. Long story short, after some slightly glassy eyed wandering through racks of all-clad, calphalon and so forth, I ended up with a Cal "Select Savings" stainless 2.5qt saucepan. What I'm curious about is the fact that it rang in at a little over half the price of comparable products --I paid about 40 for this, vs around 100 for the other smaller stainless items. The corporate website makes no differentiation but the prices they list fall in line with what I saw at a retail location. I'm not particularly concerned I bought something sub-par really--I'm sure what I got will suffice for anything I'll likely to need it for, just trying to figure out what's up with the price break.

While I definitely have a Hiromoto HC gyuto in 180 or 210mm in my future, I'm trying to figure if i need something a little heavier to compliment it...I don't presently do a *lot* of work like breaking down chickens or whole fish, but it's something I do from time to time, and I'm a right-tool-for-the-right-job person....also the idea of possibly chipping the blade of a relatively expensive (at least to me) knife gives me the creeps. Would something like a deba or honesuki be appropriate? I *do* have an old harris teeter cleaver and chef's knife knocking around somewhere, but I'm wondering if the effort to keep a good edge on those would be somewhat akin to the old saying about polishing a turd.

I've had good luck using a brewing/winemaking sanitizer like B-Brite or 1-step to get the odor of (among other things) whey protein gone wrong out of lexan water bottles--that's a bit of a specialty product to be sure, but I find it works well for odors and cooked-on things

I've been trying to find a place that still offered the Hiramoto HC knives since apparently they're discontinued...Hida Tool & Hardware has some Hiramoto knives --is the middle column there (they claim to be carbon steel and seem in line with the high value mentioned far upthread) the same as the HC series on japanesechefsknife.com ?

Holy crap Doodad, I grew up in Spindale, the next town over from Forest City Small world! I'd be really interested in what you could find out about the recipe's origins. In fact, I may quiz my grandparents, one side of the family is firmly rooted in that county, the others from coastal NC and see if they recall having anything similar. There's a bit of a Jewish community in the county now as far as I know, but I don't know about the era when your mom or grandmother were growing up. If your mother's still in the area and you head that way to visit, shoot me a PM, perhaps we can meet for a bite (Edited: Need better reading comprehension)

Please explain! ← I'm guessing they get fed the scraps that would otherwise go down the disposal

Same here--While I have no qualms about taking a piece of fiction or my notebook (or hell, even my chainmaille projects a few times) to my favorite bar or pizza joint and lingering while i drink and nibble, but I'd never quite figured if it got you on some kind of "table camping ninny" blacklist at a "real" restaurant... Being able to relax with a good drink and the likes of a smoked salmon & cheese platter or similar and do serious page turning is a heavenly evening to me, but I don't know many places (yet) that are agreeable to that sort of system (Let's be fair, by "real" in this context i mean any place where you're actually seated by the staff ) As for the original topic--I often dine alone, and enjoy it very much. My personality is very focused around "me" time--couple that with just plain flat out having few friends means I cant just call someone up and say "hey, let's head to [Waldhorns|the Saucer|Pho Real|etc]" so my dining tends to be spontaneous, and solitary. That said, I take every chance to make eating out a truly comprehensive sensory experience (whether by enjoying a book along side the food, the beer or wine pairing, bringing a cigar for afters or any combination of those) so I tend not to really notice that i'm actually by myself that much.

This was my mom's traditional cut of choice for "ribs" --she would spread these out in a baking pan and cover with barbecue sauce and cook covered until tender, then take the top off and blast with the broiler to brown. Not high class by any means but it was yummy.

It's been a while since I cooked any shark (for the above cited reasons) but I seem to remember the fishermen I was getting recipes from saying it was essential to do as the site linked above says, and cut out the dark meat (tastes positively foul)

So far I have very little experience with grains like Quinoa. However, the brewer in me is wondering loudly if they can be had in malted form (Google turns nothing up..yet..)

I could see kids getting a kick out of yard long beans if they aren't too difficult to grow. My list would be: Tomatoes Cukes Bell peppers pole beans Radishes/potatoes/carrots (one thing they can dig in the dirt for)

I can't believe this didn't come to mind before..maybe it's because I avoid going out with this guy at all possible now... My roommate (who is a cheapskate's cheapskate) will rant indignantly, angrily and LOUDLY about ANYthing on the menu that "is not a deal" in his eyes as if the venue is violating his God-given right to get a special price on something. It isn't necessarily addressed to the staff, but everyone nearby gets to know his opinion on pretty much the entire menu and the drink specials, and whether he considers himself capable of doing item X at home for just as good, at a lesser cost. Maybe I'm being too uptight, but I find it fairly embarassing. Not on a toenail-clipping-at-the-table level, granted...

This past weekend I found that there is a food vendor in a nearby town that ships fresh shrimp and other seafood from the coast here (some 3 hours inland) to sell each saturday...now I'm very tempted to purchase a few either for sashimi or soup If I do I'll be sure to take photos!

Finally, I get to contribute! Saturday's breakfast: Chuck eye steak, crusted to perfect in a skillet, two (gooey) eggs, and sauteed mustard greens. Apologies for the quality of the picture, I was in a hurry to get it done and eat before the meal cooled (house was CHILLY that morning)

I think I made a mistake in seeing them whole in the one close up picture and didn't look too closely at how they were prepared in the sashimi platter or else i could have seen clearly that they were shelled..but thanks for answering anyway!

I was just browsing back over this thread (and the fantastic pictures therein) and something came to mind that is going to reveal exactly how little I've experienced sushi (but I'm going to ask anyway ) How are ebi such as Hiroyuki posted on page 2 meant to be eaten? They appear more or less whole (shell on and all) so...does one disassemble them, or just crunch away? If the heads are edible when presented in a soup, does that imply you can get something tasty out (like sucking a crawfish head) or you eat the whole thing?

Maybe this is so close to scrapple it doesn't count, but... Livermush! As near as I can tell, this isn't even really a southern thing, maybe just southern Appalachians, or the Carolinas. Similar to scrapple, with a less varied ingredient list (iirc) I never could figure why the college guys from up north would happily chomp down sausage and hotdogs and gag at livermush...

Well put, Duck Fat. It's been pointed out on eGullet before, but worth repeating - the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a web-site which is quite helpful in determining safe seafood choices for the American consumer - it's right here, and I use it often when making my seafood choices for home cooking, most of which is line-caught or hand-harvested from local waters. ← That is a fantastic resource! Thanks for sharing

Weight gainers (like Muscle Milk to mention a brand) are basically protein powder with a carb mix (maltodextrine, dextrose, etc) and vitamins designed to let you get a lot of calories in liquid form (so your stomach empties quickly) They do the job, but the general consensus on the workout forums i post on and among the lifters I know is that it's best to get as much as you can from "real" food before you start looking at gainer formulas for calories (Due to fiber, nutrient balance, etc) That said, whey protein shakes might be a good thing to keep around for a "pick me up" in the afternoon (i make mine with whey and water for after workouts, but as an energy boost you could whiz whey, water or milk, and oatmeal in the blender) but i'd note that if you make one ahead of time, keep it cold or it can go "off." However if you have a cold water source, it's easy to take the powder in a baggie and mix it up right there. A 70 serving jar (5# or so) of protein runs in the neighborhood of 35 bucks online, joints like GNC will sometimes be more or less expensive. There are zillions of awesome protein bar recipes on the internet that use things like whey, dried fruit, natural peanut butter, almonds and Kashi cereal. Re: isolate vs concentrate, isolates are a more pure source (less fats and sugars per serving) but more expensive than concentrate. The product that I'm using currently is a mixture of the two (as are many nowadays, with concentrate being the major component) Most of the things I wanted to say about "real" food have been said already, but I'll note a few things again and maybe add some new ones: As far as carbs, oatmeal is your friend, so are sweet potatoes. Cottage cheese, eggs, and canned tuna (the regular kind, not albacore) are fantastic (and often overlooked) protein sources. Almonds or some other nut are nutritious and energy filled. Wow, that got a lot longer than I had intended

The place I ate lunch at recently was very much NOT fine dining. It was a local pub--still I don't think that relaxes standards of behavior into nothingness. There was a child there of about 3 or 4 that was running headlong around the parents table, then up, onto the raised part where bands set up in the evening, jumping off that (which made the wood floors, and my table rattle wonderfully) and back to the table to play around in the floor before doing it all again. I don't dislike kids, really. I wasn't even expecting a quiet meal, it's a bar! But, I can't fathom what would make a parent think that's acceptable behavior to use the space between tables as a racetrack. Luckily, it was a slow afternoon, otherwise there could have easily been a collision with a server or customer *which of course would have been no fault of the child *

I do as well--Perhaps I'm overly conservative, but I don't find even a hug acceptable behavior unless I was a personal friend of the waitstaff in question, but sadly i see plenty of men going for a hug, an arm around the waist, a bounce on a knee (or a pat on the backside) On the other hand, it's easy to say "you started it" to innumerable waitresses trying to fatten their tip. *shrug* But all this isn't really here or there