Kerouac1964

I grew up on Crab Rangoon, and didn't realize they were Chinese-American. In my college days I purchased a a Fry-Daddy - a large sized countertop deep fryer. I used to make a crazy meat/cheese lovers Fried Wonton. I'd take Pork, Italian sausage, some bacon or ham and then add whatever cheese I had on hand and shape them into my own crab rangoons. They were very rich. One had to eat them one at a time. Then wait an hour between wontons. hahaha.....grease-fest indeed!!

Wow...the show is garnering an average of 8 million viewers. Perhaps egulleteers should unite in boycotting the 2nd season? We must stop this insanity.

Ah! They are doing a diet vanilla version too? Excellent. Is it aspertame sweetened or did they finally formulate a Splenda [sucralose] sweetened diet product?

And don't forget to bitch-slap Rocco as you leave. He's gonna work poor Mamma into the hospital.

I enjoyed my first one tonight. Very good, not overly sweet, which is so easy to do with a vanilla flavor.

PBR is a proven winner of awards back in its heyday. here is a blurb from their history: ----- start quote --------- Prior to 1882, Phillip Best Brewing Company had received awards for their beer. In 1876, Pabst won both the highest awards for bottled beer and a gold medal. In 1878 at a Paris World’s Fair, Pabst again won more medals. In 1882, bottling became significantly important to the brewing business. When bottles were first used, these were generally plain and were not appealing to the public. ------- end quote ---------

I like all kinds, but I enjoy using Squid sprinkled on cottage cheese. What a great flavor enhancer!!

I believe they are precooked, and just need reheating. I think the best way to prepare the frozen ones would be to steam them hot with the lid off your steamer. Put them on a treadle, so they the buns don't get too soggy. Lordy, I've been craving them for several days. We don't have one in Sioux City.

Oops! I just noticed the pretty gold "T" picture on the left looks cocked to the left. It sort of makes things look not quite right. The bottom of the "T" isn't in parallel with the blurb of text underneath. On a bright note, I'm glad to read his place is handicap accessable. Sometimes I've seen some famous places that are just not well thought out for the disabled diner.

One thing I noticed on content ~ On the Charlie Trotter's Restaurant page, the awards are mentioned, but no graphics are shown for them. Would'nt it be permitted for Trotter's to display the Mobil 5 stars logo, and all the other awards - say along the side, or even on the title page?

Italian beef is almost unheard of here in Sioux City. I think I'm going to put it in my foodie project bin. I can easily get the necessary ingredients. We do have one very nice, independent classical Italian restaurant here. I happened to catch a local cooking segment of the news and they showed their method of al dente pasta cooking. It was impressive. Of course some of the diners here just see the higher than normal prices for the pasta (not realizing its made daily by hand) and balk at returning.

That's a mouth watering menu, Awbrig! The coach is turning in to quite the restauranteur. He has a place in New Orleans as well, as I recall. Lots of "blackened" offerings, maybe he's swapping chefs around for a menu freshening effect.

Good golly, Holly! You've seen/eaten breaded condoms before? EEK!

Tommy ~ the pig's offal is better cooked apart from the main carcass. Assuming this pig is purchased direct from a farm - you should be able to get anything/everthing you want. You can use the blood, lungs, heart, liver together with various meat scraps to make some killer fresh sausage. If you want traditional links, thoroughly wash the intestines and then soak them in salt water to use for casings. Now, if the pig is going to be purchased from a packer/butchershop I don't think they can give you the lungs. There was a previous thread somewhere that discussed pig lungs and there was supposedly only 1 source online located for them. They had special govt. inspection and approval. The brains can go to make some fantastic breakfast scrapple [or can easily go into sausage]. The testicles can be roasted, but they probably should be par-boiled first to tenderize. The feet/hocks/shanks can be smoked but whoever does the cooking will want to pull them eventually [they should get done quicker than the main carcass meats]. You could also brine/pickle the feet for a later treat.

Here's another way to look at it..... People living/working in NYC are likely to interact with many more servers, waiters etc, than people in smaller cities and towns. So...what you are experiencing is actually a statistical phenomena. You are cycling thru many more potential encounters where rudeness can occur. I remember my first visit to NYC, I was all tense waiting for the "rudeness". I encountered none. I traveled on the subway, and even talked with "locals" and was pleasantly surprised that they were human beings and seemed proud of their city. Here in the stix, [iowa], daily life is much different. For instance a routine work day for me was to get in my car, go thru a drive thru on the way to work - stopping for a yummy creamy cappucino. Hardly any time there to encounter rudeness. Then, i was off to work. Once in a blue moon I might go off site for lunch. Then its off to home again [possibly my favorite watering hole <g>]. Maybe another drive thru if I'm too tired to make dinner.

For one thing, the "light" beers have several things in common. Most are Pilsners of Germanic brewing origin. Now, look at your older established brewerys in America before / after 1900. They were mainly located in the Midwest, St. louis, Milwaukee, Chicago. They used the crops they had available in the Midwest. These were German immigrant started brewerys. Why all in the Midwest? Before refridgerated rail cars, beer would be shipped from the central United states to all points south/ east /west. These beers were especially popular in the bigger cities during the noon meal. Workers in Chicago would often break for lunch, and go to the nearest saloon near their factory and drink 1 or two [3 or 4 <g>], eating the free lunches that would be offered to intice the customers in. I also think the lighter beers [i.e. beers with less alcohol content] came about because of the temperance movements. The brewers fought back by offering a product that their customers could have during the noon break and not get as intoxicated on, before returning to work. Eventually later into the 20th century, factories got wise and had the workers stay on site to have their meals, thereby stopping the noon practice of beer. True Light/Lite versions came out, as part of advertising/marketshare wars and also reflecting the pop culture of a healthier product. I grew up on the Pabst, Miller high life, Schlitz, Hamms, Old Milwaukee, Budwiser on tap. When Lite came around, it was huge. Most bars were two-tappers here in Sioux City. Lite was everywhere. They had cornered a huge marketshare for some time, before the other breweries fought back. Probably due to linking their advertising to the ever-popular NFL league that was just getting popular in tv in the 70s. I remember grumbling....blech...why have Lite, when I can drink a tastier Miller from the same brewery? It never made sense to me. Thru guerrilla marketing tactics they sometimes took over a bar's taps completely, and would essentially force anyone drinking tap beer there to drink / get used to the new LITE beer. Whew....gotta have me a couple of cans of suds with lunch! Milwaukee's Best Light with only 3.5 carbs per can.

hahaha...those are cute! I really like the egg molds. Think they would poach an egg into that shape? hahaha This thread reminds me of the time I wanted a special bowl of malto-meal. I had become fascinated with the picture on the box. The funny thing was I didn't realize that malto-meal was essentially a fine grain type product that really isn't sweet unless you add sweetners to it. I was expecting something that tasted like creamy milk chocolate icing with a knob of butter on it, and mom tried desparately to make the malto-meal look LIKE the box. But, I'd taste test it....and then throw a tantrum!! Oh, was I spoiled. She must have tried two more times....and I was too young to tell her what was missing or lacking.... I think later in the day, I finally explained why I was so disappointed, then we both had a good laugh.

Well, well. Look what a fellow foodie friend located! I find this site fascinating on many levels. It shows the extent to which the Japanese dote on their young. I think that's so sweet. http://www.nipponham.co.jp/winny/kazari/ Of course on a foodie level, this is hysterical. Imagine hosting a fun party, and on the table is a centerpiece of hot dog pigs walking around a a pen filled with mustard! Or perhaps a couple of pigs are ... "making bacon". LOL I am a bit worried about safety and smaller children. since these figures are held together with matchsticks/toothpicks.

Surprisingly, Ales and Stouts have around 5 - 8 carbs? So, drinking Ultra is not the way to go. Although years of lite type beer drinking will allow it when I happen to low carb. But then, Milwaukee has a light beer that is low in carbs and tastes better than the Michelob product.

Here is some background info on chef Rooney: See a nice bio on Steve Rooney here... I heard thru the grapevine he was in Toronto Canada working as a chef, but was trying to open a place in Scotland. I'm sure the "Stanley Roper" of tv food hosts would rather forget his work with Mario. A disingenuous performance to be sure.

I have a big aversion to crunchy raw veggies. The ol' throat does an involuntary gag reflex. Now, if I take those same veggies and cook them fall apart tender, season and perhaps cover with a sauce or add the mushy stuff into a fried meat situation - then no problem. I've never tried caviar or truffles. I saw a show on truffles the other day, and was intrigued by the complex economy of such a gourmet item. I saw these villagers secretively going out with a pig on a leash to find them. All they needed to do to make their daily wages was to find 1 or 2 small areas of them. What a life of Riley they lead. Spend a couple of hours finding their booty, then they can spend the afternoon in the local tavern drinking and kibitzing with friends. Regarding the truffles - why can't they be grown here in the States?? What if someone were to go over, find good truffle growth, then cut the whole earth patch down say 2 cubic feet either way around the area, then carefully pack this with fertilizer and some water, box up with proper ventilation to air, and ship it home to transplant it into a person's own truffle farm?? Wonder if this idea has been tried??

I got a call from the Portland Oregon Visitors Association asking if they could use this as their new slogan, and I told them it was fine. Hope you don't mind. Mamster: Perhaps I could suggest another slogan? "Free Tongue Splitting for all new vistors!" What will the young, and disaffected of our society choose to do next? To bad they all don't take up Classical French cooking, and give their lab projects to the homeless.

After reading several of CWS's posts today, it is clear that he comes down squarely against chef masturbation. I'm sure the Mastubatory Chefs of America and La Société Internationale des Chefs Mastubitory [European grip only] are spitting angry too!

I had an odd late night snack: Diced summer sausage 1/2 can of deviled ham 1/2 can of cheese soup a few lines of squeezable sour cream a couple of teaspoons of fish sauce all wrapped up in a large sized rice spring roll wrapper. It was messy as I forgot to 2-ply it for the soup which sort of melted/liquified out of the can on the warm wrapper.

Hi all ~ I just wanted to thank everybody for the serving suggestions. I finally got brave enough to try one, and sampled the first one plain. It was wonderful! the gelatinous texture of the white (which was a very curious opaque dark amber, that looks black from a distance). Not over salty, just the right amount. The best part was the rich, creamy tasting yolk. I can't wait to try one in my morning bowl or congee or Pho.