Katie Meadow

My best guess: SW is Sandwich. WW is whole wheat. Salmon salad, although that's troubling given the caveat below indicates a seafood allergy. Best to you @Anna N May your stay be as short as humanly possible. Not that the hospital is helping much.

Mostly I'm partial to the simplest thing: good butter and sea salt. But I also like Mexican street style, with some combo of crema, mayo, chile, lime, cilantro and cotija cheese. But recently I tried a new slather called Buffalo Corn. It involved melting butter to barely brown it, adding a dash of hot sauce, and then stirring in a bit of blue cheese until it melts, brushed on the corn and sprinkled with a little sea salt. I've now seen several recipes for "Buffalo style" and most of them are heavy handed, with an absurd amount of Frank's hot sauce and too much blue cheese as well. I prefer it very subtle, so I can taste my fresh corn. I used Crystal hot sauce and a small crumble of Stilton, both of which were on hand. More than one recipe called for equal amounts of butter and hot sauce--like a cup of each! Okay if you are feeding a small town that has blown out their taste buds because they have nothing better to do than put on chile-eating contests.

@David Ross I love your dad. That photo is a reminder that no one can multitask when eating great corn on the cob. It takes all your attention and its reward is a price above rubies.

If I read the OP correctly, you are talking about a sauce that either the wontons sit in or one that is used for dipping. That sauce, to my knowledge, would be more complex than a simple chile oil, which would often be too hot on its own. Typical sauces would include chile oil or hot oil mixture with some of the following: various types of soy and vinegar, garlic and ginger along with some sichuan pepper. Fuchsia Dunlop has a dipping sauce for wontons which consists of: 100 ml dark soy, 200 ml water, 6 T brown sugar, crushed ginger,1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 1/2 a star anise, 1/2 tsp of sichuan pepper and a third of a stick of cinnamon. All ingredients simmered on low heat for 20 minutes. It seems on the sweet side to me, and not something I would have guessed at, which maybe is what you are looking for. Strangely she doesn't suggest adding any red oil, which seems a little unusual for a wonton sauce, but the variations of regional cuisines are her forte, not mine, that's for sure. I agree that contacting the restaurant might yield some tips.

If anyone is a big fan (like me) of the TJ's Thomcord Grapes we just nabbed some early season ones a few days ago. No idea if all the stores get them. This seems a bit early in the year, but they were really delicious. Somewhat later in the season they tend not to be as crisp. And if you don't know what they are, they are a cross between Concord grapes and a Thompson seedless grape of some type, making them a bit less intense than regular Concords, less jelly-like inside and almost totally without seeds. I love grapes, but I'm fussy about them; I don't like huge ones, I don't really care for plain Thompson seedless, and I don't like them soft and squishy or too sweet. These are on the tart side and with good pop. Short season!

@Shelby, surely that's an easy fix for you, what with teal coming out of your ears.

I wish my emergency stash included duck breast. That looks so appealing.

@Ann_T, So on board: tomato season is the best season. Partly because it also means corn season. My sandwich for a main meal yesterday: homemade white bread, Duke's mayo, ripe tomatoes and a sprinkle of salt. Open face. The day before: corn and tomato pizza with loroco vine. Loroco vine can be had fresh or packed in a vinegary juice. Fresh is hard to come by. It's a Peruvian thing, and is often used in pupusas along with cheese. A natural with tomato and corn in a quesadilla. My daughter, who is visiting from Atlanta, wasn't too keen on it, but she's always been a conservative eater. She was just happy to have home made pizza.

@weinoo THAT'S SO UNFAIR! Buckle my knees, smoked sable.

A pic of the ingredients lists for some of these items would be interesting.The salt content for the hot dog ones must be staggering. I can imagine they could concoct some chemical melange to taste vaguely of a meat sauce, or, way easier, cheese, but how can these chips possibly taste like macaroni or spaghetti? Just curious because it seems so bizarre. Spag Bol. It jumps the shark. Potato chips that pretend to taste like wheat for those GF souls desperate for some pasta.. I'm moving to Russia, where potato chips are most likely to actually be deep fried potatoes-- with a frisson of dirt and a touch of radioactive iodine. Chernobyl Chips.

Great story all the way around.

Bumping up this thread because there are lots of comments about canned sardines / favorites in various places but this dedicated thread would be a more useful place to post about them. I am partial to Spanish and Portuguese sardines. Matiz sardines from Spain are excellent and are available in a 5 pack and a 12 pack from Amazon. I've had Angelo Parodi from Portugal and they are very good as well, but even pricier than Matiz. One brand I can buy locally is Da Morgada from Portugal. They are excellent too, but very pricey and not sold in bulk from Amazon. The best deal for a 12-pack from Amazon is the Santo Amaro from Portugal, but they don't sell them in a smaller quantity, so I haven't tried them yet. Then there's the Bela-Olhau, sold only in single cans for a very reasonable price, and I haven't tried those yet either. I want them packed in olive oil with bones and skin; happy with larger size like 3-4 fish per can. So, if anyone has strong feelings about the above brands or has another to suggest I'm all ears. Because so many people seem to like Wild Planet I tried them. Not something I would buy again. Price is right, but I found them bland and a little mushy. Haven't tasted King Oscars in a million years. I love fresh sardines, grilled. However the last few years has been a disaster for sardines in CA and you simply can't buy fresh ones that are locally fished. Once upon a time they were the cheapest and healthiest option for fresh wild caught fish, but it is unclear if their numbers will ever recover in these parts. As far as sustainably fished wild caught and low mercury, we are getting very limited in our options and digging deep into our pockets. So...canned sardines.

Minor transgressions go down easier with a little good cheese.

Yep, also my favorite brand. Love that dopey lion.

As a fellow East Bay resident you're in no position to trade either. I'm keeping both. Oh wait, I just read several posts above. I will trade, but I want the grand-daughter.

@HungryChris my brother's likes the lobster rolls at Johnny Ad's. He lives in Lyme. From where I sit here in CA feeling sorry for myself, I would have the lobster roll AND the fried clams.

You are fast approaching a traditional New Mexico breakfast of Red Chile Huevos Rancheros. We had our favorite circuit of counter top and diner style roadhouses just for breakfasts. So good.

I'll buy that. My guess is equal parts of shredded wheat, vegetable oil and salt. I once nearly choked to death on a triscuit. It took me thirty or forty years to be brave enough to try one again.

An 80 pound sheepdog in spike heels could do a lot of damage. To itself, if nothing else.

Our kitchen is a patchwork of upgrades. The oldest part now is most of the cabinetry. Solid birch dating from the early sixties Our first upgrade was done in the late eighties. We spent most of our budget on flooring, and what was leftover was enough for formica counters and a modern looking tile backsplash. The kitchen is big, so whatever we do ends up being a lot of material. The formica was a fun loopy pattern and reminded me of a New York city bus. It lasted pretty well, for about twenty years. Some time around 2012 we needed a new sink and decided on new countertops as well. We put in Caesarstone, in a rather dark swirly blue. We were limited in color because of flooring and backsplash, and the price seemed reasonable. I used to spray it with Johnson's wax (I did that to the formica too and it really helped give it a long life), which was a terrific product and kept the surface smooth and glassy, but that wax has gone the way of most simple useful non toxic products: out of production. I never transfer hot pots directly from the stove to the counter. Nor have I ever chipped an edge and I don't see a lot of scratches, either. If you wash it sloppily with soap like my husband does, without rinsing, it dries a little streaky, but if you rinse it after soaping and give it a quick wipe with a bar mop it looks like new. If I had deep pockets and a lot of time for maintenance I would have marble countertops.

I'm pretty sure the sandwich originated at a golf club, and was meant to look like one, too. With a third slice of bread and a dopey toothpick to hold it together you could use it to club someone into a stupor. Oh wait, after a round of golf they were already there. Oh, and btw, I always sent my daughter to kindergarten with mustard in her sandwiches. We all know how much the "little ones" like mustard.

I like the association of the the club sandwich with a club, since that's the only place I've ever had one. However, if the barman made it how did he cook the bacon?

Who doesn't fantasize about the mom and pop station in the middle of nowhere, with maw cooking up some personal local specialty on a burner behind the counter? When the stars aligned and you thought life was always going to be like that. Probably you were stoned. Maybe it did happen more often in the past, when there were more amenable two lane roads. Or maybe you just got very lucky. And that was a memorable road trip, which is the best kind. My model is Stuart Little. He stops for gas and gets a perfect sarsaparilla.

After a morning of birding my cousin used to take me to a local yacht club and we would split a club sandwich. She always ate small amounts of food. What percentage of people just reconstruct their club by tossing aside the middle piece of bread? I always did, with my half. And then I would fish out most of the turkey or whatever that was. Usually there was too much mayo, but that was to compensate for the dry poultry. Back to basics: the diy BLT. No cheese, no avocado, either, although in those days no one tried to shove an avocado down your throat or add something "melty" to your food.

Linner, two days in a row: quesadillas Cubanos! I did something I never do, and that's roast a pork shoulder, Puerto Rican Pernil. I kind of used a couple of different recipes and mixed and matched ingredients and it turned out really well. Yesterday we made corn tortillas and super basic Cuban style filling: Oaxaca melting cheese, dill pickle slices and shredded pork. We had fabulous corn from the farmers' market on the side.Today we used TJ's flour tortillas, made the same basic quesadillas and had a fairly decent tomato barely dressed on the side. Tomatoes are not quite up to speed here. Some are okay, some no so much. The jury is still out about mustard on these things. Some people like standard yellow mustard, which I guess is traditional on a Cuban sandwich, but we don't keep that stuff around. My husband tried a very small swoosh of dijon, but even a little seemed wrong to me. I would prefer hot sauce or roasted green chiles, but was very happy with no condiments at all; the pork was a little spicy and the pickles added what dill pickles always do. I'm getting very lazy and don't often do something new and different, and I rarely cook large hunks of meat. My husband still likes plenty of meat so he was over the moon. For me, two days in a row of home made food without having to cook is the best.