Malkavian

This is mostly aimed at the guy I had as a server twice this weekend at a local type watering hole in my hometown. Place has, up till now, had great service at tables and bar, so this was a bit of disappointment. Plonking down glasses. If you spill my beer, you're getting me another, and I may just go to the bar to get one from someone who knows better. Sliding anything across the table, i don't care if it's a menu or my entree, it looks foolish and makes me cringe. If you're going to card me (being only 24 I don't mind this at all) actually look at my ID instead of just glancing down and saying "okay fine" If I'm here alone, it is not because I want you to sit down and be friendly. This almost goes double for lady waitresses; while I don't mind the scenery, it comes across as an obvious attempt to chat me up for a better tip (which I suppose it is one way or the other.) If we are friends or otherwise acquainted on first name basis, this rule is relaxed for purposes of chatting or catching up. Don't come back every third fscking minute to ask how my table is doing, especially if we just have an app and drinks so far! We're still waiting on our real food, just like last time damnit. With the above said, the guy or gal that annoys me with attention will still get a better tip than the one that leaves me crunching ice out of my glass for moisture or staring forlornly at foam rings around an empty pint. This goes quad-freaking-ruple at a *bar* If you're going to make smalltalk out of some idea of politeness, make it convincing. I *know* you probably don't care, but you don't have to make it obvious; that just makes you seem shallow or fake. Sure, have a good attitude, be enthusiastic, *please* be knowledgeable, but don't lay it on with a trowel.

Depending on how hard your water is, my understanding is that spots are a distinct possibility, as well as wooden handles deforming.

I'd be inclined to give it a shot. Some of my favorite restaurants are rarely more than 50% capacity when I visit (partly just coincidence and partly intention on my part, i dislike dining during absolute peak) In fact back in my hometown there was a good Vietnamese joint that, as far as i recall, my party was the only one there about 90% of the time--BUT, that meant the chef/owner had all the time in the world to come out and bullshit with us (knew me by name) and fro mtime to time spot us a random amuse or dessert to see what we thought. Definitely very cool.

Alarming- roommate's kitchen has a path in it, delineated by hair and crumbs, where traffic went. Also till recently, it had a rotting rug by the dishwasher which WAS rotting because of the steam venting when the wash was done. (The counters are fine though, which is all I care about at the moment) Disgusting- same guy just the other day pulled out a bag of mystery meat from the freezer, declared that he'd probably been saving it (as if it were some mythical vintage) "since before you moved in" (8 months) and deposited the ice encrusted freezerburnt crap into a pot to make hamburger helper. HH is bad enough with good ground beef, much less mushy sirloin (No I didn't eat it) Sadly, this isn't uncommon as he very much has a complex for getting "deals" which he freezes then forgets about.

In NC you can get lamb, but be prepared to pay for it. My parents both had lamb growing up and dislike it, I imagine because 1 grandparent is just a lousy savory-foods cook, the other believes pink meat will kill you so any lamb my mom had was invariably far overdone. I cooked a rare or med rare leg once at home on the holidays and both parents pronounced it the best they'd ever had. It seems a vicious circle. People don't experiment with it because it's expensive, which means the economies of scale don't work out, so it stays expensive. *someone* must be buying the stuff though, as I rarely see any marked down due to sell-by date.

Carrot top---thank you (seriously) for that very interesting reply. This thread initially reminded me of a video I saw on youtube a while back involving a sushi chef (is that the right term for a sushi maker?) filleting half a fish whilst alive and dropping the critter back in the tank for the next person--if not the same sort of fetish that I mentioned originally, then definitely sensationalism of some sort. As far as the philosophical aspects, I think I see where you're coming from, but I'm afraid the point would be lost on me unless it was something I had harvested myself. (Pardon this short ramble, but since we're mostly talking about seafood here--) I have acquaintances that scuba dive and spearfish, and many have commented on the very quick, and very intense line of thought that one must go through immediately prior to throwing 3 feet of steel into a tuna that may be as old as i am. Some of them (I'd be included, if i ever get to be that caliber spearfisherman) indulge after in what could safely be called the freshest tuna sashimi possible. There, in THAT moment, I'm asking myself who I am, and why am I really looking at this huge fish in the eye (or have crosshairs settled nicely on that deer, etc) If it's given to me on a plate...it's just different, at least to me. Also just as an unrelated thought, we ARE mostly talking about either seafood or invertebrates. Is this sort of thing done with anything furry/feathered/scaly? I recall the penchant for drinking snakes' blood straight from the snake in southeast asia (which I deplore, but that's another subject and another long post) if no, why not?

It seems like kindof fetishizing "freshness" to me /shrug.

Just a random thought--once it's gotten to the supermarket is it past using as cuttings or planting the bulb to get an ongoing supply?

Moto- I assure you buying fish at food lion (actually buying meats at all) is not a regular practice for me; sadly it just happens to be the only grocery store within a reasonable drive from my house (Yes, I'm moving soon ) not to hijack the thread, but would you have a suggestion on sourcing in Charlotte? There are a number of smallish markets around, but I wouldn't know if one is better than the other (or avoid them all and go *there*, etc)

I enjoy sashimi made at home regularly, but I am rather picky about it, and have only used the very freshest looking cuts of tuna steaks from either Harris Teeter (my preferred fish source) or Food Lion. If I'm looking at tuna that has started to discolor in any way or looks dry, while I'll still maybe get some, I won't be doing sashimi. Keeping that rule I've never had any, um, shall we say digestive issues slurping it down raw. I'd imagine as long as you apply basic fish freshness rules (odor, texture, etc) you'll be fine regardless the store. I'll leave the cooking part to someone more informed--I don't use a thermometer on my fish, it's always look-and-feel to me.

If I had to guess I'd say people are just more inclined to go write a review when they get something "extreme" or perceived as rare. Not to say many (maybe all, I can't say personally) of those beers aren't fantastic examples of brewing, but the list is definitely slanted. a Top 100 or top 50 from each major category would be a little more interesting I think

Today, a portion of smoked salmon (rubbed with smoked habaneros, dried garlic and kosher salt and smoked over applewood) and the end of a loaf of homemade french bread. Very simple, as my co worker commented, but extremely tasty.

A couple thoughts come to mind. First of all, the old saying "Like father, like son" (Dads, no offense)--It doesn't matter what you teach a child at school or anywhere, if the parent(s) have horrible eating habits, the child will too, until it reaches an age where preparing his/her own food becomes an option (and then you still have to convince the parents to buy it, etc etc) A friend of mine right now is going through that ordeal, attempting to convince her mom to buy groceries differently so they can all eat a little better, Second, it seems like cooking may be a lost art among parents, for whatever reason. My mom was not a food fascist by any means; we had sugary breakfast cereals and snack foods and whatnot, but we came out okay (alright, a bit overweight, perhaps, but we were geeks, not sporty types) The difference, I think, is that my mom is a fantastic cook, and knew how to temper treats and eat-out nights with healthful food that made us *want* to eat her cooking rather than big macs. Lots of my own friends (and i see the pattern forming in people my age becoming parents /sigh) ate out quite often because it was that or the horror of dry meatloaf and stouffers mac and cheese or similar.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Silver Coast winery of Ocean Isle beach, North Carolina for a tasting and generally just to poke around (late father's day shopping, let's call it) They charge a modest fee (5$ I believe) for a flight of wines to taste. I recall a cab, a merlot and a sweet dessert wine that were all reasonably good (sadly I didn't make detailed tasting notes) but the one that stuck out was a Touriga they called Cape Fear Blood wine (apt, given the color I thought) it frankly didn't appeal to me that much, it was fruity and extremely tangy, almost harsh, but I don't know how much of that was due to the who-knows-how-long-open sample bottle or other factors...I'd be willing to get another bottle juts to see how it strikes me again. The gentleman at the counter talked grapes with me for a bit, and mentioned Touriga was a major player in port wines, which I'm a fan of, but I'd never encountered it before as a single varietal--is it one that commonly makes good wines or does it primarily shine in the likes of port?

If I think about it, I ask for meatier fishes such as tuna, swordfish and salmon rare or med-rare if the restaurant is accommodating. After one dismal experience this past week at the beach I will ALWAYS be requesting tuna done this way, 1 grilled tuna-smelling leather strip was enough for me.

Typically I drink my whiskey neat, but if it's a new one for me then I will have one glass with a little well-water (probably not more than a teaspoon for two fingers' worth of spirits) to see how it opens up for experimentation's sake. So far I haven't run into any that I prefer with water save for Woodford Reserve bourbon, it just burns a bit much for me neat, but becomes quite tasty with a small icecube to chill and dilute a bit.

My preferred camp food has been the same since I was young--the counselors that showed me always called them "hobos" Basically hamburger (usually we shied away from chicken) and whatever veggies we'd packed out balled up in a double layer of tin foil with soy or steak sauce and left at the edge of the fire and rotated now and then until it was all done. Nothing super duper fancy but filling and fun for us (8-12 years old at the time) to assemble and relatively filling topped off with some biscuits rolled up on skewers and cooked (optionally filled with pudding afterwards )

I scrape food bits off plates and reuse them, leave food on the counter to marinate (in terms of a few dozen minutes mind you, i'm not totally insane) , all sorts of things that would give my mom a heart attack (And she almost had one when I finished that oyster po'boy that had ridden home for an hour unrefrigerated, but hey i'm still here) I tend to think that it isn't so much that I'm doing things recklessly, more that my mom (who was raised this way by her mom, i'm sure) is extremely anal about things like leaving food out, the life-span of leftovers and so forth and so we always clash about things like that (I mention her in particular because most of my cooking knowhow came from her) Then again, maybe I have an iron stomach and I've just dodged a lot of food poisoning bullets in my 24 years.

My roommate brought me a sip of a brew done by one of my old customers from when I worked at a homebrew shop here in Charlotte---a dandelion IPA Nose reminded me distinctly of bubblegum, figured that was just the mixing of dandelion notes and hops. Tasted okay, not nearly hoppy enough from an IPA point of view, but the dandelions (flowers and leaves I believe) added an interesting floral note. I'd have never given good odds on that coming out well in a beer (I understand dandelion wine is pretty good when done right though) but it was good--I'd like to see how the flavors came through in a paler recipe with less to conflict with (what i'd imagine to be fairly subtle) dandelion flavor.

The way I eat at home ("oh let's not dirty another plate" *wipes crumbs off one on his desk*) I feel it'd be a bit hypocritical to complain about the same sorts of things at a restaurant. It might be a shade annoying more from a carelessness standpoint, but I won't lose sleep or appetite over it. Seeing a waiter cough or sneeze and then handle my plate might draw a comment, but unless it was *onto* my food or else in the height of flu season I doubt i'd send anything back.

Lan4- My go-to beer joint in Charlotte is the Saucer. True they don't brew there, but they have somwhere between 6 and 10 (last time I bothered to count) north carolina brews that are all very good. I think Rock Bottom in the middle of town (On N. Tryon yes?) still brews their own, the guy that works that angle there used to be a customer at my old homebrew job. I've actually never been there but I hear good things about it pretty regularly.

I got that one my first Christmas away from home (Thanks grandparents) and it was followed up by a beer cookbook (ISBN 1412721822) which, while containing some interesting ideas, I found mostly somewhere between uninteresting and unappetizing. I only own 3 cookbooks (those two plus a pretty good one that covered cooking basics that I use as a reference) so those two have to be tied for most embarassing (and most likely to be regifted )

Just looking at the websites for a few of those names makes my stomach growl But thanks! This gives me a place to start, and I'll just have to look around some But speaking further afield, I've got a daytrip to Wilmington (possibly several, I'll be staying just down the road for a week) planned--Can't wait to hit Elijah's and Front St. brewery, and I'm sure I'll dig up some other great places.

Charlotte's getting one too it seems; I'm interested, but not head over heels (maybe cause I've never been in one? )

So I figured now that it's warm weather it's time for a new pour... Was stuck between an interesting bottle of Rowan Creek small batch bourbon, and striking out in a totally new direction, so....new direction it is! Walked out of the door with a bottle of Ron Cartavio Añejo Reserva, which is pretty okay (no illusions about getting outstanding drink for 13 bucks a fifth) but have no clue where it fits in on the grand scheme of distilled cane-y goodness...t's good, just not...awe inspiring? A lot more tasty with a bit of ice or well water, and opens up to a nice buttery vanilla tone, but I imagine there's better there--of the shelves I inspected the only names I really recognized were Cruzan and 10 cane, both of which i suppose are well respected, aren't they? I guess most of my confusion is that I was shooting from the hip, so to speak, and I know that, say, 20 bucks can buy a pretty good bourbon, a passable scotch, but I don't know how good rum fits into the scheme of things