Malkavian

I've been looking into a foodsaver as another single eater (who prefers to buy in bulk and cook in bulk whenever possible) but I've never actually used one--when you take out a portion, do you just slit the bag open and then reseal it? or do you have to use a fresh bag?

I've always wondered if crab apples could be used to provide bitter or tart notes to a cider (hard or otherwise) anyone had any experience there?

I'd be very interested in seeing something like this in my area. My experience so far is just with a pay-one-entry-fee type of festival. Admittedly I like being able to sample as much as I want, but in that kind of setup the best beers invariably run out first, i wonder if the pay-as-you-go model avoids that somewhat? What sort of cost and sample size do you find in a british style fest? Would it be comparable to a bar's price for brew X? The only thing I might offer (from working Charlotte, NC's beer fest for two years) is this (and yes, it may seem obvious, I thought so too) Make sure you have enough room for the number of people you expect (possibly hard to gauge if this is your first year, but you could check interest levels through surveys or some such) and be very careful making such assumptions like "well if people arrive at this rate and leave at that rate..." in my (admittedly limited, but first hand) experience, a fest will fill up, and stay filled, long before people start to leave in any number, and nothing is worse than being packed into a venue and standing in stuffy lines to sample brews. The different style of setup may avoid that sort of lingering however, so you may be in the clear Good luck! Another suggestion: I have no idea how homebrewing is handled in Canada, but if there is a notable hobby base (and perhaps a brewing club or two) they may be more than happy to help work, and also provide beer if the legalities work out. Here in Charlotte the local clubs usually provide (rough estimate) 100 or so gallons (in 5 gallon portions) and have their own tent just like the breweries.

Tarantulas would have to be disassembled like crab I think. I recall seeing photos of one being consumed somewhere or other and the diners had cooked it on a fire and were cracking it open to get to the inside bits. Some species also possess horrible little irritating hairs, perhaps you could use a torch to take those off in a formal setting. I did have a chocolate covered cricket once, it didn't really taste of much, just crunchy, like a nestle crunch bar. I suspect the prep was subpar though (freezdried cricket, cheap milk choc, it was definitely just a novelty item) Has anyone here read that (for me anyway) childhood standby Beetles Lightly Toasted by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor?

I suppose I should throw my two cents in here: I tend to tip 15% as a baseline for average service, going up as quality of the experience rises, and also if I only have, say, a beer and an app, since I'm taking up a table. Beers are a buck tip each, and then I figure in a percentage for whatever food I got on top of that. Buffets I have always left a flat dollar, which is in the 10-15ish% neighborhood at most of the places around here. I am absolutely not below leaving less than 15% for truly subpar service (that is, not busy or short staffed, but perhaps sullen and inattentive would do it) I don't think I've ever left nothing, that I recall. As BrodeurR noted--food service, like sales, is a situation where your compensation is largely, and directly based on performance--if you can't meet a level of service for standard tips, perhaps you should look into other work. Yes, there will be bad nights for the wait staff, and bad tables to be sure, but if those occur often enough to be significant, something is amiss. I am, for the record, happy to tip. I don't have the slightest problem rewarding a server for taking care of me, especially knowledgeable beer or wine service. My thought is this--yes, we could equalize the payscale and make tipping an "extra" for servers-but what would that do for service? Ultimately I'd think it would be a good thing--probably nothing would change in more upscale locations, and everywhere else, perhaps management would have to instill some actual professionalism in wait staff that up till then were just listening to the dollars being counted in their heads. On the flip side, it becomes directly up to management to deal with incompetent servers IF they choose to, where now, that usually gets pointed out loud and clear to the person involved via the level of tips they get. Not sure that's such a hot idea either.

Interesting. I would never have thought insect flesh would be firm enough for something like this. I wonder how they decide which part is the loin, given the lack of traditional musculature. All that said, I'd try it, were it offered. Also a thought--plenty of people raise roaches far and away larger (meatier? hah!) than your average bathroom wall-scaling american roach in perfectly sanitary conditions for use as feeder insects--no reason we couldn't get into the same thing with those, and discoid or death's head roaches are colorful enough to maybe make for interesting plating, if you could get over the inherent screaming gribblies at eating bugs

Oh, very likely as long as i've been eating cereal. Since I was school age at least (and so cereal became a regular breakfast item since time was short) so lets' say around the late 80s.

It was always something my parents did, so my brothers and I did as well, but generally only the more mildly sweet cereals--Cheerios, special K, perhaps cornflakes and kix got banana or peach slices from time to time. As a kid, I must say it made those (at the time) more boring cereals go down a lot easier. I'll hafta say, I've never seen fruit right there with the cereal though.

Am I right in thinking european hedgehogs are a bit larger than the ones you see in the pet trade? I also just had this image of each place setting having a little hedgehog belly up in some strange serving apparatus like a cross between an egg cup and a colander.

Elijah's in Wilmington, NC suitably impressed me with their red chowder which was (at the time i was there this summer anyway) packed with more meaty clams than I was ever expecting, but I had also thought in the vein of bigger pieces. I don't think I realized that quahogs were the primary ingredient here, guess i was thinking steamers or littlenecks. Does one not want those whole because of the texture? Seems if it's just size you could reach some compromise with chunks or dice. I for one wouldn't shy from a huge meaty piece of clam but I do see how it could be offputting.

Not sure which TW you patronize but Brawley's on Park Road has a much better quality selection than the TW across the street. Particularly if you are seeking Belgians or some of the better quality domestic craft brews. ← I'm definitely with you on Brawley's selection being superior, if there's something particular I want that's hard to find that's my destination (would kill for more of that weyerbacher all simcoe stuff a co worker nabbed there a year or so ago) Need to get in there just to poke around one of these days, but lately it's rare I make a special trip just for beer. I just find myself around the TW in University area a lot more frequently than I get remotely near Brawley's, so that's the location I've become familiar with.

Just watch out for the skunked beer at Frougal's as their beer selection sits in direct sunlight for much of the day. Also, they stopped selling singles the last time I checked. Perhaps they are better for wine. I do like Southern Spirits much better. Their beer selection is not quite as good as Frougal's but they do carry some things you cannot get in NC. ← I got in southern spirits the other day. DIdnt have a lot of time to look but I was impressed. Their single malt selection will def. get me back in there, along with a bottle of Calvados that has my name on it /drool Far as beers, I usually get those at TW, seems besides their treatment/handling, their single selection is far better than Frougals these days (with about the same number of sixpack and cases maybe?)

Definitely will have to look at some of the sources linked here. While I don't dabble in confectionary too much, Cocoa nibs make an exciting ingredient in the brewing of beer --while I was doing homebrew supply for a living I developed a chocolate stout recipe that turned out quite well, using 6oz of cocoa nibs per 5gallon recipe. g Schokinag Chocolate was kind enough to send me a sample to work with, I haven't the fogiest how they figure into the grand scheme of chocolate suppliers, but i got a good result, their nibs came in a semi coarse format, similar in consistency to kosher salt and lent a rich cocoa taste to the brew without destroying head retention (which comes from too much fat content) The nibs I've found locally in whole foods stores were prohibitively priced in terms of the added cost compared to my other ingredients, so I've not made any more since I exhausted my sample, maybe now I can get into some of my other ideas (cherry chocolate melomels and more chocolate beers!)

This may be an odd one but: My roommate's yard has a wild cherry tree (yay, right?) The fruit are small, purple-reddish with a "hazy" skin that reminds me a lot of certain kind of plums...so I pluck one off and pop it (no taking a bite, they really are small) into my mouth. Ye Gods...it's like all the charm of a crabapple got condensed into a package a quarter the volume. BLECH! I'm h oping they just either weren't properly ripe or the dry weather had thrown them off somehow--After our lovely week of 100 degree weather all the fruit dropped off, and I was able to see that it bears a decent amount...

While I definitely prefer to visit finer restaurants with friends or family, I quite like eating alone at least osme of the time--I much prefer to be able to linger over certain kinds of food (especially if there's good beer) with a book or my notebook or one of the projects I have going on. Somehow being in the muted roar of a bar or restaurant is more conducive to me concentrating on the task at hand than being by myself in my room where it's quiet.

The young lady obviously has some sort of complex that requires her to exert whatever control she can on her surroundings. It WILL happen again, probably whether you cater to it or not, so I'd set the precedent now--it'd be one thing if you asked her input in planning the meal, 8 hours notice is, as others have said, a power play. If she were at my table she'd be welcome to side dishes (if she could find any without garlic bits, hah) or could be hungry. Perhaps I'm harsh but I feel my responsibility for a guest's enjoyment extends only just as far as the rational and reasonable.

This has been an interesting read; I don't know of any gay bars or restaurants in Charlotte but I'd imagine the city is big enough there are one or two somewhere..

Just racked the melomel today, good taste, little bland, so I added about half a bottle (1/3 a gallon juice equivalent i believe) of tart (montmorency?) cherry concentrate and a bit more honey at secondary. By my calculations that'll boost the ABV to around 10% which is roughly where I wanted it. Also was extremely pleased to find my (infected, hah) chocolate stout has apparently undergone some other sort of secondary/tertiary reaction and the tangy funk taste left by the wild yeasties is totally gone to be replaced by a wonderful chocolate taste (it's been aging on cocoa nibs all thist ime) --gonna get that bottled ASAP, it's approaching six-eight months old at this point so I want to get ti refrigerated quickly.

I've become Very Veeery thankful Frougal's is on my way home from work these days lol Have you seen/stopped in the one in Ft Mill that I've seen advertised lately? (Can't recall the name, only that I'd never heard of it before...Southern Spirits maybe?)

It varied somewhat in my mom's kitchen--she would frequently heat dinner rolls or make angel biscuits with a meal, but usually if there was another heavy starch like potatoes she'd forgo it. Toast was mandatory when she made breakfast foods for us.

Yo TB- what pipe tobacco do you fancy with spirits? (and as an aside, I second his mention of Jazznut, he's a genius [i post on CW as MalkavianX if anyone cares to say hi])

My preferred method.

HMmmm I just happen to have some cooked down homemade tomato sauce, and we have basil and rosemary out our ears here... How long could I expect this to take braising? Reason I ask is that it's so bloody hot here, running the oven for long will make the downstairs of the house noticably warm.

Moto- I'm pretty sure Plymouth isn't at the Univeristy area ABC (Last one I was in, now i get all my liquor in SC) then again--being where it is, I doubt the selection is really geared towards much besides jack and vodka) I personally like TW--Always gotten good reccomendations (Frankly I could care less what kind of arrangements TW has with the winery--as long as I enjoy the bottle) I haven't been by the one in Uni area much since the last manager (whom I was on quite good terms with) left for another job. Still swing in for a cigar on my way to the Flying Saucer sometimes, but I don't get that way to buy much unless i'm specifically looking for wine.

So I find myself sitting here staring at a decently sized (almost 3 pounds) bone-in veal chuck with no clue what to do with it. Ordinarily I'd consign beef chuck to the crock pot for potroast but that seems a horrible thing to do to veal...is this cut tender enough to roast/grill or would it be best to braise...dismantle into smaller portions..i'm at a loss here so far.