pjs

Lesley, I was relating personal observations rather than experience or advice. I guess speed wasn't so big an issue then. This guy used to disappear into the basement around a month before Easter. My recollection of the basement was a bare lightbulb lighted place where all the refrigeration support equipment lived. Soon after, all these beautiful chocolate pieces would begin to emerge. I regret never watching him make them. BTW he always made one or two really big ones each year, without refrigeration. Someday I'll recall how we dealt with the Great NYC Blackout. PJ

I just realized we couldn't refrigerate those hundreds of bunnies and eggs even if we wanted to. The only inside fridge was a lowboy. We sure could of froze them though! The owner was a master with the chocolate. His knowledge and molds came from his father and perhaps farther back. PJ

My first food related job was working in an ice cream parlor at around 14 years of age. The guy that owned it made a ton of molded chocolate for Easter. He never refrigerated it. PJ PS: If I had his molds today I could be independently wealthy.

PJ, Did you ever get any of the seeds to germinate? Nope, they just deteriorated. As others have mentioned these seeds apparently need a cold spell and a scoring of the shell to encourage growth. If you're not familar with these seeds they resemble 1mm dia. bowling balls. I'm really good, due to a past profession, with a 12x magnifier and an X-Acto knife so I may try scoring some. Stay tuned. . . PJ

You forgot to punch holes in the meat patties for the all-important "evenness of cooking" enhancement. Otherwise, awesome. PJ

Yup. Also used extensively in motorsports as the gold-standard for on-board fire suppression systems--think oil fire. The feds have been cracking down on its use for over ten years as they think it's a threat to the ozone layer, but haven't banned it outright yet. It is considered a hazardous material though. I think the manufacturers keep one step ahead by reformulating. Current flavor is Halon 1211. A 2.5lb hand-held goes for $124 here. If you buy one make sure the bottle is refillable. PJ

Hand-held Halon filled bottle if you can find one. So much less mess to clean up. PJ

Pssst. Don't forget to pick-up some Szechuan Peppercorns while you are there. Don't tell them I sent you and wear sunglasses. What are schwarmas? Apparently, according to this thread, no one knows. PJ

From my experience it's usually the same person. PJ

What were you guys thinking? "Chinese Buffet" belongs in the Oxymoronic Hall of Fame. PJ BTW Are these abominations native to the the SE US or do they fester throughout the country?

"Sandwiches That You Would Like" aired for the upteenth time on my local PBS station tonight and for the upteenth time I watched it. Just to hear and see Holly wax nostalgic on cheesesteaks. Anyone who once worked at Wetson's can garner my attention. PJ

I'd pair them with some deep-fried poultry or seafood, for the texture difference. With a stir-fry veg and rice you've got dinner! Jo-Mel I copied your recipe. PJ PS That grocery on ISB has excellent dried shiitakes. They are in a big bag in bulk near the cash register. When the guy that owns the place becomes familar with you he will let you don a plastic bag on your hand and pick out your own! They also have excellent jasmine rice. I can't remember the brand name but it is the one with the big elephant on the bag. I've learned how to avoid the traffic. Still, I wouldn't go to the Brickyard this week or that one week in October due to biker overload. I'd meet you at Pasha for schwarmas though!

Susan, I'd second the use of the sticky rice. It is quite a different product than regular long grain. The asian grocery on W ISB Blvd. off of Beach St. had it in small bags last time I bought some there. PJ

Let's see. A minimum of 64 sold-out dinner covers daily--were they doing lunch yet?-- at what we can estimate at $300 per from Rich's excellent review. That adds up to 20 grand lost daily while closed (very conservatively added up). Insured or not, I see ugly, drawn-out litigation on the horizon. This sucks. Keller is one of the last restaurateurs I would wish this upon. PJ

As a business owner who has always had business interruption insurance, that was one of my first thoughts about the fire. Is this insurance available to newly opened restaurants or even to restaurants in general? A new place wouldn't have a history to base rates on. My second thought was if Keller used the same contractor as Rocco. PJ

Tomorrow's NYTimes article on the incident is now up on their website. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/nyregion/23restaurant.html Looks like at least two weeks of downtime at a minimum. PJ

Any type of cabbage would work in this dish I would think. Napa, Chinese, bok choy, etc. One recipe I've found uses spinach and translucent noodles as the accompaniment. We need to focus on the meatballs, folks. For jo-mel's sake. PJ

Never made it, never eaten it, but I do have a recipe for it by V. Lee. Let me know if you'd like it to further confuse things. PJ

I've seen quite a few references touting popping live shellfish and mollusks into the freezer for 20 min. or so to make them easier to dispatch/open. Never seen this tip for oysters. Might work though. My favorite supermarket almost always has pints and quarts of Pacific NW shucked oysters in the meat case (I think they're pastuerized but there is no mention of the process on the container). I wouldn't eat them raw or use them in soup but they are great for frying. I take note of the the sell-by date. They are marked down 50% two days from said date and that's when I buy them. I dust them in flour, pass through an egg wash, coat with cracker crumbs and deep-fry. PJ

Kristin-san, Oysters are easy to open compared to clams. When opening clams you have to sneak your way in the front door with a thin blade--tricky and dangerous. Oysters have to be boldly attacked from the rear, or from the hinge or the pointy part of the beast. A screwdriver would work as would a church key. An oyster knife is best though. No paring knifes. You look for a good place near the hinge to insert and twist your tool of choice to separate the shells. When shucking, hold the oyster with the flat shell facing up so you don't lose the liquour. As others mentioned, coldest part of the fridge to store, use a towel to hold them when shucking, and they are damned good fried 'til crispy outside and still gooey inside. PJ

After trying for the past few weeks and only getting error messages, I was able to download the AHPIS Miscellaneous Manual tonight. Finally, a direct mention of Szechuan Peppercorns was found in a footnote. "Szechuan Pepper may contain stems or floral parts." The subsequent instruction is to REFUSE ENTRY. You can find it in the PDF of the Miscellaneous Manual here. The page number is 73. PJ PS Ming's PBS show--and his mom who has appeared on it--rocks.

Automotive oil filter pliers with the slip-joint for those big jars. Buy two. One for the garage and one for the kitchen. PJ Edit: Wrenchs are not pliers.

Late-breaking news on the war against citrus canker can be found here. I can only hope that while on property they also inspect the spice cabinet for those pesky peppercorns. PJ

Thanks for that info, memesuze. I assumed seeds that resembled small ball-bearings would be hard to propagate. PJ

The bottle shape is ambiguous because Brancott uses the same bottle for their Pinot Noir, which I actually like. At least the current Pinot Noir is a 2002. PJ