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.

Just wanted to update and say that I did call to express my dissatisfaction. I was put in touch with the general manager who assured me that the manner in which Tinto typically conducts its business is nothing like what we experienced. He was the consummate professional. He listened attentively, his apologies were sincere and he offered a return visit on the house. So we're going to give it another shot at some point in the future. Since I complained earlier, I wanted to be fair and give credit where credit's due. Will update again after our next meal.

V, I see your point. I guess that I always thought of a tasting menu as a reciprocal exchange between the customer and the restaurant. You agree to spend XXX amount of money up front, and so they reward you by giving you a better meal. Perhaps lower profit margin per dish, but more overall dishes. Then everyone wins and you want to come back and do it again. As a comparison, I'm a member of the lancaster farm fresh CSA. I also walk by the LFF stand at RTM on a semi-regular basis. Now, knowing I paid all of my money in the spring, they could easily give me the bottom of the barrel produce. Instead, it seems to me like I'm getting quite a bargain compared to people shopping at RTM. Here, the reciprocity works. We're rewarded for our committment. It's kind of like frequent flier miles or Tria points or whatever else. Reward for committment. This was my expectation at Tinto. This is what I would expect from a fine restaurant with a reputable chef. I wouldn't expect them to be suckering me into paying more to get less, as if it were an all-you-can-eat crab place where they try to load you up with fried dough before you get the crabs (or something like that). In the grand scale, I would have thought that the business practices and professionalism at Tinto would be closer in line with French Laundry than with Olive Garden. Guess maybe I was wrong.

My wife and I had a terribly unpleasant meal at Tinto last night. Wanted to get some feedback from this forum to hopefully avoid similar problems in the future. After being seated, the waiter briefly explained the menu to us and pushed us rather heavily towards the tasting menu. We wanted to try the chef’s tasing, but had mixed feelings about this for one reason: my wife eats shellfish and fish but no meat. It seemed that most of the dishes on the menu had meat in them, so we were wary. We asked the waiter specifically about our concern. His response was “oh, it’s no problem, we do that modification of the tasting menu all the time”. I then told him that I liked meat and that I did not want to have a modified, meatless tasting and he said again, “it’s no problem”. For drinks we were again waffling, between the wine pairing and a bottle. We asked the waiter for advice. The waiter said that we could “chug-a-lug” a bottle of wine, but that the wine pairing would be much nicer. We opted for the wine pairing, slightly annoyed at this response. So, out comes the first round of plates. First an idiazabal, then a small plate of figs wrapped in prosciutto and a very large plate of sliced sausage with house egg salad. This seemed odd, but I assuaged my wife b/c with the tasting menu we had no idea how many plates/courses to expect. It was all downhill from there. Out comes the second round of plates: mussels with chorizo and frites w/lemon aioli, pork belly bruschetta, and skewered shrimp with chorizo and cherry tomatoes. Now we’re annoyed. Without touching a thing, we wait for the waiter to appear (about 10 minutes). We remind him that my wife was supposed to be getting non-meat items. He briefly apologized, whisked away only the shrimp dish and it reappeared a couple minutes later as shrimp with cherry tomatoes (no chorizo). Then he again briefly apologized and told us the chef would “make it up to us with the next course”. At this point, we’re pretty unhappy, but willing to see how it could be “made up to us”. In the interim the waiter checks back once and tries to cut the tension by joking about the foie gras protesters that were outside earlier (not smart when the tension was centered around a non-meat eating patron). Now the kicker. Out comes the third round of plates (which would turn out to be our main course although we were unaware at the time). This time it’s haricot vert, saltcod with a crab crepe, and sea bass with cockles. No meat at all. Then a couple of small dessert plates and the check. On the menu the chef’s tasting is an individual option, in contrast to those occasional menu items that must be ordered by two. What we ordered, and what the waiter assured us was possible, was one chef’s tasting with meat and one chef’s tasting with only fish/shellfish. Five of our first 6 plates were meat, then our main course was meat-free. All of the items were taken from the menu. It seems pretty clear that he started off just giving us the regular chef’s tasting menu (was my wife supposed to nibble on the cheese plate for over an hour?) and then “made it up to us” by giving us two fish entrees, which is something I can’t imagine would occur if one ordered the chef’s tasting without restrictions, as I had done. Is there any conceivable way that a single diner would order the chef’s tasting and end up with two white fish for the main course, particularly one that’s supposed to be making up for a previous gaffe? The screwed up menu basically dominated the conversations of the whole meal, taking the place of what should have been compliments on the food. Moreover, because of the vague nature of the tasting menu, we never felt it was the right time to call over a manager. There was always the promise that the next course would somehow mend the mistakes. We eat out somewhat regularly and know how to accurately and clearly convey our concerns and desires to the waitstaff. We’ve enjoyed wonderful chef’s tastings at morimoto where substitutes for the meat courses were made for my wife. We’ve recently gone to marigold kitchen and were told by the server that it wouldn’t be a good idea to order the chef’s tasting b/c they couldn’t accommodate the no-meat request. So we didn’t, and we had an excellent meal. Was last night an aberration, or does one person in a party with dietary restrictions mean that everyone should steer clear of chef’s tastings because inevitably someone will be unhappy? I mean, it’s not like it’s studio kitchen, right? Curious to see what other people think about this. Somehow at Tinto, they managed to make us both miserable. Not only would I not go back nor recommend it, but I will now not go back to Amada despite very good experiences there in the past. Too bad, b/c I feel like it could have been so much better than it turned out to be. Is it our fault as the customers? Both my wife and I can’t really help but blame ourselves in part for the experience even though we don’t think we did anything wrong. More than $200 is a lot to spend for both of us to leave the restaurant feeling miserable.

Used to go to Rx for New year's every year and occasionally in between. But as I move further and further away, I make it there less and less. I love this place though and plan to go back soon. At the recent "real food, real beer and the rest is history" event their 16 spice lamb ribs were definitely my favorite sample of the day. This was my reminder that I ought to go back soon.

Personally, I kind of like the new guy. He's amusing at least. Many times I contemplated writing into "I love you, I hate you" to rant about Kirsten Henri. If you managed to bore your way through all of her adjectives (column written with thesaurus in hand, no doubt), then you would ultimately find that she made all of her opinions based on the price of the meal. Cheap eats = 5 stars. Expensive = 1 star, with rare exceptions. One time for a column she just went around the city looking at the prices of chicken dishes and writing them down! Look it up. The other thing I like about the new guy is that he (or somebody) is picking more obscure places, that might not have been reviewed elsewhere. He did an asian place in southwest philly, misconduct, ortlieb's, etc. To me, it's more appealing to read something fresh than, for example, a fifth take on tinto.

I'm with the masses on this one. I measure to bake, hardly ever to cook. My wife chides me b/c I will occasionally oversalt things, but I agree that veering from the measuring cups and spoons opens the door to creativity. I think a great example is pesto. Six ingredients: basil, garlic, toasted pine nuts, oil, lemon juice and parm. Subtle changes in ratios can give wildly different results, but they're all great. Using a recipe by the numbers would be boring by comparison. Funny to watch the cooking shows where the chefs are just making up measurements off the top of their heads as they dump stuff into the pan. Some of these people are WAY off.

Thanks for all the advice. I found the store manager in the wine shop at belem cultural center to be very helpful. Ended up with a vintage port, a malmsey madeira and a couple less expensive bottles of pedro ximenez and oloroso. For anyone making a future visit from the US, I highly recommend doing some sampling at the port institute in lisbon before making some purchases for the return trip. You can easily get a feel for many different styles without busting the budget. Drank quite a bit of green wine on the trip, but honestly I wasn't that blown away. My wife really liked it though. We only encountered the branco green wines, despite reading that tinto green wines would be fairly easy to come by. Maybe next time...anyone know if you can get tinto green wines in the US?

I'm going to Lisbon, Lagos and Seville in a couple weeks. I've checked out the threads on dining in portugal and seville, very useful stuff. Wondering, though, whether anyone has any suggestions on a couple of nice bottles to bring home to the US. I used to load up coming back from Europe, but with all the airline restrictions now, I feel practically limited to picking up maybe 3-4 bottles, at about $35-65 each. Advice on either specific producers not available in US or on wine shops where I can get great advice overseas would be much appreciated.

Equal parts fresh basil, fresh tomatoes and fresh corn is a great combination. Then accent with about 1/4 part red onion and 1/4 part green onion. Olive oil and a touch of champagne vinegar. For a southwestern tinge, use fire-roasted tomatoes (the canned muir glen are great) and cilantro in place of the basil.

Thanks for all the encouragement. I'm going to feast away on the crispy skins guilt-free now.