malarkey

If there's any way you can, try to visit Cinque Terre. Its VERY romantic. Difficult to get to, probably best to take the train to get there. Gorgeous place.

Dammann Freres Paris Romance *swoon*

See this is where I think you are possibly wrong. I think its the flip: for every 1 guy who doesn't like it, there's 4 or 5 guys who DO like that hop blast. Mind telling me where you got your numbers?

Deal!

just do a search on guinness ice cream and you'll find some recipes. most recipes call for reducing the stout. be careful doing this as it can scorch and end up tasting burned. good luck, its really quite fantastic.

well I would too, if GIVEN THE CHOICE. But we were with a very VERY picky eater, and I've been in Cafe Campagne with her before and she couldn't decide what to order because NOTHING on the menu sounded like something she'd like to eat. So I knew that was out right away.

"...and Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty.." you got it. green beans out of a CAN! and a squishy parker house roll. Best CFS: the ones my mother makes. Her gravy kicks ass too. dammit I can't duplicate it either. She's a Kansas farm girl, born and raised. I SOOOO get CFS.

oh I'm on Tom's mailing list ;-) it informs me what the bread of the month is!

trust me, you're a freak.

We ended up at Etta's for dinner last night after going down and trying to get into Buenos Aires Grill without reservations (duh on a saturday night) and to tell you the truth, I was a bit hesitant. I've heard a few bad reports on Etta's lately and its been years since I've eaten there so I had no idea what to expect. In short, it was really damn good! first of all the bread comes from their bakery so its the BEST in town. spinach salad with pear and curried cashews and bacon, and crispy shrimp egg rolls came first. both dishes kicked ass. entree: sea bass in a fennel saffron broth with chorizo and risotto. wow, really great dish, just slightly spicy, wish there was a bit more of the chorizo in it. Tuna with sort of an asian salad thing (I only had one bite of this so I'm not completely remembering the flavors) but very subtle, the tuna was cooked perfectly. and the neaderthals, er, meat cravers had steak frites that comes with a blue cheese goo melted over the steak. And we had a great spanish grenache with it that was... (drum roll please) cheap! er, affordable! All in all, it was a lovely experience, from the food to the service. I can understand when you have an empire of restaurants how consistency can be a challenge, but if you've sworn off all of Tom's places, you might want to give them a chance again. We had nothing to complain about and a lot to be happy about.

Beer for breakfast!! woohoo!!!

huh?! er...maybe you need to think outside of your box in order to sample what the PNW really offers. It's interesting to me that you quote the Beer Judge Style Guide and then you say Widmer's Hefe is one of your favorite NW beers, IMO a really poor example of a Hefe and NOT true to style. If you want to try a great Hefe, haul your ass up to Mukilteo and have Diamond Knot's Hefeweizen. But then again, it can't be found in a bottle, so I guess it doesn't exist LOL

oh man, that's a hideous story. Very very sad.

you won't find Hale's Cream Ale in a bottle. Its nitro tap only.

hey, I heard a rumor Philly's Best closed. Can anyone confirm? damn! I loved their french fries.

A friend of mine swears the reason Pizza has its own category in the Yellow Pages is so stoners can find it easily.

MAN! I can't believe what mundane foods people hate. raw tomatoes?! c'mon! shellfish??? jesus, they serve dungeness & lobster in HEAVEN don't you know?! MILK?!? what the hell do you have with cookies??? my list: prunes & prune juice (one of the things that truly tastes horrible to me) calf's liver (tried it many times just don't like the flavor) poi (who else said this? man, this is a food with absolutely no point whatsoever) Margarine (why?)

yep, that were me no time to cook?! no chance to make the duck confit yet, then? I need to be making a new batch soon...

Bought some of the butter yesterday. Great stuff. Lots of flavor, definitely more like the euro butters.

oh my god this is really sad. I'm so glad I got a chance to eat there, even if it was only once!

yep, I think your right. I think the typical NW ale is the bread winner for a lot of breweries, so that's why they make 'em. Schielke is my friend because he always brings Diamond Knot to egullet parties when I ask him to

I think Deschutes and Bridgeport are up there among the best for bottled beers. I think the very best PNW beers never see a bottle. IMO of course

so... is that a bad thing?! LOL

Have you tried Hale's Cream Ale? Its very much like Boddington's. I'll agree that some of the PNW ales are pretty much just a cascade hop bomb, but we do have a huge variety of beer styles available both here and in Oregon. What about Deschutes Black Butte Porter? Awhile back Elysian had a Bock, a Maibock, a German style Helles, and a Tripel on tap. Hardly typical PNW ales. Depending on when you catch them, Big Time has a couple of Rye's they brew, along with a bunch of Belgians and some German style wheat beers. They also do a Pilsner, a maibock, a couple of different stouts and even an Australian ale. Leavenworth used to make a really kick-ass dunkelweizen, but that was years ago before they lost their very talented brewer. I think they still brew the dunkel but its nowhere near the same beer as it used to be. I miss that one *sniff* Not to mention all the barleywines out now...

The Hard Liver Barleywine Fest at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, Saturday, February 28th. And the Hops & Props Microbrew Tasting at the Museum of Flight Saturday, February 21st. hey.. MsRamsey.. I think we should crash the Barleywine Fest...