Dr. Teeth

Pasta aglio e olio and a basque cheesecake

I’ve been trying to figure out Chinese cooking with mixed success for over two decades. After about 15 years using Shaoxing wine from the grocery store for 15 years, I stumbled on a bunch of bottles at the state liquor, bought one and the quality of my food jumped considerably. So I bought a couple more. Jump forward. State liquor store put all the Shaoxing on the discontinuation shelf and I bought them out. About to run out. 1/4 bottle left in my last one. Looking at the Asian grocery stores, there are a number of bottles, but frankly for the most part the labels look the same and I’m not sure what I’m looking at. They are frankly very inexpensive, which is not reassuring. Anybody have a reliable online source for high quality Shaoxing?

Thank you for sharing. I’m leaning towards the casserole.

Beautiful old buck. Love the pseudo palmation on the left antler. Sure he was less than a joy on the plate, but holy cow. Thanks as always for letting folks follow along without having to wait in a cold stand.

Sorry to be a pest. You have mentioned a large collection of Indian cookbooks. If you were willing to share maybe your 3-5 favorites along with a general level of familiarity with Indian cooking needed, I would be in your debt.

Mapo Tofu. Had wanted to make for awhile. Tasted good, boys really liked it. Not photogenic, moved it around a bit too much after I added the tofu and it broke up more than I wanted.

Went into the district yesterday with the family and ate at Duke’s Grocery. Proper Burger there is on the list of best burgers in DC every year. Honestly had been talking about having one for years. Ehhh, it was ok. Cook was superb, medium rare as requested. All their food ate sort of sweet, which to my palate made it seem under salted. Fries were dipped. As I have said before, those who make, serve or even enjoy dipped fries should be caught and punished

I have intense guilt at keeping this secret to myself, which has led me to this confession. A fair amount of smoked paprika mixed into the mayo is black magic where tomato sandwiches are concerned.

Serendipity. Oh wait, I misunderstood the subject. I thought it was restaurants I’d be happy to see closed. Was Papaya King for me. I know, but it’s part of my childhood experience of New York. Thrilled that they reopened. Could say the same about Sammy’s Roumanian but the new place isn’t the same.

Thanks for the heads up. Just scored one

I tried a brandade about 5 years back and it fell flat with the family. May be time to try again. Salt cod has a big appeal to me. May try the stuffed peppers as well at some point. Thanks for the ideas

That would be fantastic. Seafood casserole appeals to me as being flexible being served in a small dish as a hot app or a larger one, looking to the future if the boys don’t come home for Xmas, as a main.

Yeah, there are some seafood choices that are more traditional depending on who you talk to: must have eel, or squid, or salt cod. I don’t really have a reliable source for eel, so I don’t worry about it

Annual price drop on 4qt Staub Dutch oven on Amazon. $129 bucks

The guests in question are Maryland natives and so mostly eat blue crab. Or similar. I’m originally from Boston, so I think crab is what people eat when there’s no more lobster

Only 10 diners. But traditions being what they are, it would be nice to be able to easily scale it up and down. ive done some things with a Mornay sauce before, including crab pizza. Got tired of struggling with the pizza oven on the back porch in December. Legal used to do a seafood casserole in a jack Mornay with sherry. Theirs usually had scallops, but I liked the idea of being flexible on the seafood. Bought some ceramic crab shells (which are a thing in Maryland or were in the 60’s) but they were a bit small for what I was thinking. I think they were usually for crab imperial edit: spellchecker

Seven Fishes time again. Literally my favorite food day of the year. Basic format for me is cold apps, hot apps and then a seated dinner, usually just pasta and a salad. Goal is for folks to be about 60% full before they sit down. I used to do a baked fish course after pasta, but folks were usually just full (We do a lot of apps) Plan for this year: Smoked Oysters (every year) Seafood Salad w/ shrimp, squid, scungilli (every year) Cocktail Shrimp (every year) Some sort of smoked fish on bread thing (wife makes, I stay out of the way) hot apps: Baked stuffed clams ( every year) Grilled Octopus (guests are bringing) Elusive second hot app. ceasar salad stuffed squid (oldest sons pasta choice) Looking for help with the second hot app. I’ve tried a fair number of things over the years. Crab dip, mushroom caps stuffed with crab, salt cod brandade. Nothing has really felt right. We have a couple of picky eaters among our guests, but they will both eat anything with crab in it and I feel the need to have everyone get enough to eat. Ideal would be both having seafood and being recognizable as Italian, but I can be flexible to an extent. If possible, I’d rather not fry anything ( too last minute and messy)

Thank you, sir. Murrays Cheese is also running a 25% off sale.

I’m aware I may be coming off as a bit dopey, but 25% off is a real sale then? That’s not just where the prices hang out?

Looking to buy another falk copper pan. Copper pans has them at 25% off. Frankly I’ve been stalking and waiting for a sale for years, so long that I forgot the what I was looking for after taking a break. Is 25% a real sale or is this the standard discount? Sorry for the very peculiar question.

I don’t consider my children to be guests.

Love all the pictures. Learn so much from you folks on this thread. Kerala or BTByrd, if at some point you would summarize your experience into a list of favorites, I’d be in your debt. Not to derail, but Trader Joe’s Trout has been one of my daily drivers following a suggestion from BlueDolphin. Last visit, they were gone and there was no tag in the isle where the trout should have been. A bit worried as I had noticed the price had jumped quite a bit in the last 6 months and I know Trader Joe’s will move on from a product when the numbers don’t make sense. Trout missing around you folks too? And any recommendations for a substitute product?

Dishes I’m most proud of, recipes I am most careful to teach the kids are those that turn food destined for the garbage bin into dinner: fried rice, Mac and cheese, quiche, vegetable curries, vegetable stir frys. I scrape a bit too. Experiment with cocktails involving alcohol poured into jelly/jam jars with small amounts remaining. Too many years as a starving college student, research assistant, med student, resident.

It’s not about there being two starches, it’s about guests choosing two starches on the menu, and frankly not from a list of choices. But as I said, it’s best for me not to give my annoyance any oxygen. Both your starches sound great.

A smoked turkey, having switched from a roasted turkey to ham and then a smoked turkey following a badly timed stove death a few years back, I’m never going back to roast or fried turkey. Wife’s niece requested mashed potato and then asked to make a stuffing as well (I have complicated feelings it’s best not give too much oxygen to about guests requesting two starches) Making Mac and cheese with oldest son, sweet potato with the youngest son and two cranberry sauces. Probably going to do Copes creamed corn with the leftovers. We do a brunch for 25 on one of the mornings following the Thanksgiving before everyone goes home