Jack Sprat

A seasonally appropriate addition - Maibock is *shockingly* good with pureed root vegetables (turnips, parsnips, etc.). Hat tip to Garrett Oliver for the recommendation in the appendix of the brewmaster's table. I would never have thought of it myself.

Thanks, I really like the ideas. Thanks for all the help.

Alright, so here's my situation. I have a standard, rotating 16-jar spice rack that sits on my counter completely unused. Then I also have a cluttered cabinet full of spice jars from whole foods and trader joes that are all just slightly larger than the spaces in the spice rack. If I poured the spices from their original jars into the spice rack jars, there would still be about 1/4 of the jar remaining. Too much to waste. I don't want to start buying bulk spices b/c I typically find them to be much more likely to be stale and flavorless (on a slight tangent, I never understood why anyone would take good coffee beans and put them in a huge open bin). But it's quite frustrating not being able to use the spice rack. I'd like to buy a new spice rack that doesn't come with bottles so that I can just load all the WF/TJ spice jars in. Anyone know of any racks like this that definitely fit these bigger bottles?

We had our rehearsal dinner at Bistro St. Tropez. I've never eaten there any other time, but the food was very good and they gave us a private room in the back of the restaurant with a view of the river. The options really accomodated a wide range of price points and we found it to be quite reasonable. Based on what you're looking for I think it's certainly worth investigating.

Hi, Moving to Boston in a couple months from Philadelphia, where I split my food shopping between whole foods and our indoor food bazaar Reading terminal market. Reading terminal has everything from butcher shops and cheese stores to seafood stores, local organic produce and boulangeries. Super convenient and super good. I know there are plenty of whole foods in boston/cambridge, and I've seen the website for formaggio kitchen, but I'm wondering if there are any catch-all indoor or indoor/outdoor markets like Reading terminal. If not, where are all the good specialty shops? Locally-grown organic produce, butchers, seafood, etc.?

Returned this weekend to give Tinto another chance after last the debacle last time, and we had an extremely enjoyable meal this go round. Manager with whom I spoke previously greeted us personally on our arrival and apologized again for the mishaps of our previous visit. Wife and I shared the mixed cheese plate and the crispy potatoes. I had the duck montaditos and the kobe w/poached egg and she had the chipirones en su tinto and the crab montadito. We shared bananas y azafran for dessert. Won't go into details on the dishes; suffice to say that everything was outstanding. Three glasses of house grenache between the two of us and we both left feeling incredibly satisfied. Would have been a little more than half what we spent the last time we went too (had we not been treated to the meal by the manager). We'll certainly return again.

thanks gini, the list seems rather weighted towards cambridge. is that b/c you're more familiar with the area or is it b/c that's the type of area that has the greatest demand for this type of bar? Not that I'd choose to live in a neighborhood solely on the basis of a couple good pubs being located there, but it doesn't hurt...

Hi Moving to boston in a couple of months from philly. Although I think the name "gastro-pub" is a litte pretentious sounding, it does indeed refer to a bar with better-than-average bar food. These places popped up all over philly the last few years, and they're by far my favorite places to hang out. Here's the menu link from one of the better ones: http://www.norththird.com/menu.html Usually the stepped up food is complemented with a nice draft selection of mostly micros. Probably going to be living in south end or somewhere along mass ave in cambridge. Are there many bars like this in boston? in these areas?

Last June we got $500 direct flights from Philly to Lisbon and $40 bus tickets to Sevilla. Plate of Iberico Jamon and a cool glass of gazpacho goes for about $5 (even with the poor exchange rate). Now if only there were a way around the sausage sniffing dogs coming back in...

Saw a brief article a few weeks back in USA today (hotel room reading) that select distributors are now allowed to import jamon iberico. Here's a quote from the article. "Embutidos Fermín of Spain, the sole producer authorized to export to the USA, has shipped about 300 of the more common Jamón Ibérico hams here, which they will sell in gourmet stores and online at tienda.com for about $50 a pound. The Bellota hams, made from acorn-fed pigs, are due this summer and will sell for about $100 a pound."

My first attempt at pierogies was semi-successful. Made two kinds - goat cheese/tarragon and mushroom. The good news was that the pierogies stayed 100% intact through boiling and then pan-frying in butter. The bad news is that the dough was a little tough. It was hard to roll out b/c it was so non-malleable. The thinner I was able to roll the dough the better the pierogies turned out, but it seemed like too much work compared to what it should be. I slightly modified a tyler florence recipe: 5 cups flour, 1/4 stick melted butter (down from 1/2 stick), 4 large eggs, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup plain yogurt (substituted for sour cream). Obviously I was trying to make the original recipe a little healthier and maybe that screwed things up. I mean, I have no problems frying the pierogies up in some butter, but eggs, melted butter AND sour cream in the dough too? Is all that really necessary? I felt like the butter and eggs in particular could actually have caused the problems with the tough dough. Seeking alternate recipes and/or advice. First attempt shown below.

For the money, a spicy slow-cooked beef burrito and a negro modelo for about $10 at El Fuego at 7th and walnut is a great value. I don't eat fast food in philly, period. but when i lived in dc I did occasionally frequent the plethora of chipotle/baja fresh joints. qdobe isn't even in the same league despite similar appearances. nevertheless, they all pale in comparison to the fire of el feugo.

It's true that both trans-fat and saturated fat are bad for your cardiovascular health. The difference between the two is that the amount of saturated fat that you eat is directly proportional to the bad effects. Modest amounts of saturated fat aren't a problem. Not true with trans fat. Even a very small amount of trans fat in the diet significantly increases risk of a heart attack. If Isgrove's and Stock's etc. want to use trans-fat, I really think that the exemption should require them to advertise it. That's the way it is now on packaged food labels. I guess it could go the other way, and trans-fat free bakeries could advertise (ala MSG-free chinese food).....

Had a very nice dinner at Matyson on Friday, seated at the closest table to the door. Did not sample the foie gras, but we were nevertheless treated to a 45 minute bullhorn-belted tirade against Matyson's foie gras by the infamous protesters. Luckily, it was only audible when someone actually opened the door. Otherwise it was imperceptible. I'm all for the humane treatment of animals. I'd love to talk to them about why they choose to protest these restaurants that carefully select their products from farms that treat the animals with respect, instead of protesting say, McDonalds, for example. Now that's something I could get behind. Anyone know if this group is an actual organization, or are they just gathering at a meeting point every Friday night to make the rounds?

Thanks for the tip on the Armadale Vodka. I'd never heard of it before. Picked up two bottles after reading the slate.com taste test article. My personal opinion was in agreement. It's not quite Chopin, but better than belvedere, level and most other premiums out there. Has a slightly sweet, slightly peaty taste without compromising the smoothness. And at <$20 for a 1 Liter bottle it's a bargain. I was nervous before sampling because somehow Tito's always scores well in the taste tests. I picked up a bottle to try one time based solely on the fact that it's quadruple distilled and I thought it was just awful (not even as good as Rain, also from KY). Armadale is a keeper.