haresfur

I moved from a glass top induction-radiant hybrid to a gas cook top where the burners are set into a glass plate. You still have to clean under the burners and probably the worst is trying to clean the stuff that gets way down inside. But the top is pretty easy. I think gas is less expensive than electric here but I prefer the electric. I seldom use more than 2 burners at a time so the radiant burners got little use. They actually had finer temperature control than the hybrid ones but didn't have the low end, which as mentioned above is as important as the high end temperature. The main problem with switching from induction is that I was in the habit of picking up spilled food bits with my fingers since the stove didn't get hot...

Macca's breakfast is my downfall. Other choices here are usually either quite expensive and/or serve pre-fabricated sandwiches with cold, dry, fried eggs. Recently they had a special that was similar to a bacon McMuffin but with more bacon, I think, and with Aussie tomato sauce that really went well. The current special is a Mighty McMuffin with double bacon and sausage. That's really a bit much. The McCafe mochas are drinkable although the machine at the food counter is pretty bad. They apparently have a policy that they won't fill people's reusable cups at the food counter but the Manager filled mine anyway. At some stores the McCafe is at the end of the food counter, but they are completely separate at others so my ritual is to eat the hash brown while it is still warm while waiting for coffee. Under no circumstances, unwrap the sandwich until the hash brown is consumed. The free WiFi is a rarity at other places, so they get my business when I travel.

Um, I think smoked salmon is one of the original shelf-stable products.

2 oz Wild Turkey Bourbon 1 oz Campbells Rutherglen Tokay 4 dashes Peychaud's bitters served on the rocks a lemon twist would have been nice Not bad. Sweet comes in many forms the trick seems to be to hit the right level and still getting the most out of the other flavour elements such as those found in this dessert wine.

Thought I'd take one for the team and try the New Esquire Cocktail which supposedly can be made with 1.5 of any spirit, 0.5 Aperol, 0.5 any liqueur, and 0.5 of any citrus. I used Inner Circle Red rum, Benedictine, and lemon. Hmmm, not one I'm going to make again, but I will finish it. I think gin, Cointreau, and lemon might be a better bet.

Looks like the fun is in pouring it. Invite some friends over, ply them with a few good drinks, then pull out the bottle and see how it works.

Well at least you don't have the bizarre non-sequitur, "It just isn't cricket without the Colonel."

Happy bay day to you. Sounds great, my bay tree is too small, but maybe in a few years... Thanks for the blog!

Fuzzy logic rice cookers are much better than the old style. Induction is IMO far superior to radiant electric in spite of the restriction in pots that work.

Is that the one where you take the chocolate wafers, smear each one with whip cream, stack them together on edge, coat with more whip, let sit until the the wafers are blissfully soft, and cut on the diagonal so you get zebra-stripes? A childhood favourite.

Kraft just introduced myfirst Vegemite. Formulated as a gateway drug for young children. It apparently has added vitamins B6 and B12, and half the salt of the original. I guess selling low salt food to adults is out of the question here. I bought a jar of MightyMite, because it has less salt than Vegemite, but I still think it is awfully salty. So maybe myfirst would be a suitable gateway for foreigners and transplants, too.

Ah. The ceramic bottle then seems to be the old oude genever, and the clear is the new, supposedly more or less true to the 1820 older oude genever. Perfectly clear. No matter it tastes good, and I'm content with the higher proof.

The track record in Australia and NZ is certainly on the side of screw caps. There is one other pro-cork argument I heard from a small producer in the US - it was less expensive for him to get set up to use corks (synthetic) than to do screw caps. Great blog so far and we've only begun!

Skimming the article, it is poorly written in a way that obscures the thesis, appears to be meant to be incendiary and reactionary, and yes based on straw-man arguments tarring many with a broad brush. The main point seems to be more against eating meat than against foodies. Or perhaps his point is that it is ok to eat meat as long as you don't enjoy it or take any interest in where it comes from. It's sort of puritanical - food is for sustenance only, comparable to having sex only to make babies. That being said, I do think that morality should be an issue in what we eat. I am personally morally opposed to eating a number of species (and I realize that many people and cultures do not share my same moral code). One trouble with the article is the rejection of moral concepts like actually being willing to be involved in killing and preparing meat or that eating and feeding others can be a sacred act (I seem to remember a story about loaves and fish). I wonder if he has the same reaction to the obsessiveness of many vegetable gardeners. I think what I object to most is the idea of taking interest in food is intrinsically morally corrupt. In my view, people should have passion for something, be it food or football. But implying that having a passion for food must lead to gluttony is like saying an interest in economics must lead to avarice. And the eG Forums are testimony that the community formerly known as Foodies is heterogeneous and non-elitist (although, yes, individuals may be elitist to varying degrees) - hey they let me join.

I do sympathize but I'm somewhat bemused at Americans whinging about the price of food. I think the cost of food in the USA is still incredibly low. Maybe you are just catching up with the rest of the world a little. Of course the income share of the lowest paid, well actually the lowest 90% keeps dropping and that makes it harder. But to leave politics out, I'm not terribly surprised that the cost of flour rising faster than your dough (pun intended). Much of the Canadian wheat couldn't be planted because of soggy conditions, quite a bit of the Australian couldn't be harvested for the same reason. The crop in Russia, and I think China got cooked by drought. Here in Australia, the cost of most food is expected to skyrocket due to the floods and cyclone. Bananas were over $4/kg last I checked. And I refuse to pay $2 for a small lime. It does affect me - especially with the culture shock of moving to a higher cost of living and lower pay. But in some ways it is good. I have brewed beer for the first time in years - I don't do full grain and had the equipment I need already. With drinkable ale costing $60 a slab, the economics work out. I try to cook more beans, shop more carefully and more often so I waste less food, and dine out because I want to, not because I'm lazy. But yes, part of the change is thinking about when to get by with less, or lower quality. Sometimes it is hard to justify when the base cost of food is high and the incremental cost of getting something better is small.

And they would hang the tray on the window of your car. Went out with a fellow with sports cars - not the best windows for those trays - especially with a couple of big mugs of rootbeer. As kids we used to take that rootbeer home in gallon jugs. Yeah, 'dubs drive in - even in the dead of winter; being able to order (and survive eating) a Grandpa-Teenburger.

And they would hang the tray on the window of your car. Went out with a fellow with sports cars - not the best windows for those trays - especially with a couple of big mugs of rootbeer. As kids we used to take that rootbeer home in gallon jugs. Yeah, 'dubs drive in - even in the dead of winter; being able to order (and survive eating) a Grandpa-Teenburger.

Grant's Scottish Ale. One of the original Pacific Northwest Microbrews. It wasn't really a Scottish ale - but really defined what I think of as the PNW hop profile with Chinook and Cascade hops. I think the brew-pub in Yakima might still exist but they disappeared from the shelves after selling to a major (no blame for selling out - I would have if the price was right).

Good restaurants serving food that didn't have to look like a sculpture in the middle of stuff squirted all over the plate.

Truly, truly a shame, isn't it? Perhaps not compared to some things, in the larger scheme of existence, but it's little losses like this that add up and add up and next thing you know your civilization's in decline and barbarians are running everything (hmmmm). When the Romans could no longer get laser, their favorite North African spice, I'm sure they felt the same way--and they were right. I have found that Damrak, an international-style gin made by Bols, preserves enough of the genever's characteristics to make an acceptable substitute. Thanks again for the kind words! --DW I was feeling in a bit of a cocktail rut and used that as an excuse to buy a bottle of Bols genever. As I sip a small Improved Holland Gin Cocktail, I think I may have a new love. I do have a question, does anyone know the relation between the clear bottle genever that is shown on the Bols website (and that I bought) and the Very Old Genever shown here?

I tend to go for the gift-pack glasses that came with a bottle of Drambuie for my old fashioned cocktails. They have a thick bottom and a smooth lip. I like to use a glass out of the freezer to counteract my small ice cubes. The disadvantage is in dissolving the sugar in a cold glass. Do you have a favourite old fashioned glass? Do you pre-chill it?

The sound of one egg cracking.

I guess I'm a bit of an anomaly because I like sweet, I like sour, and I like bitter - sometimes all at once. Given the sweetness of some of the classic recipes, this aversion to sweet is interesting - especially given the mass loading of sugar in popular culture. Or maybe the dry, bitter cocktail is a reaction or a haven from the prevalence of sweet food and soft drinks. I'm still not sure what a sugar ethic is, much less how to describe mine.

Great blog and beautiful city. Are there any restrictions on bringing food into China, or does anything go as long as it fits into the suitcase?

Never thought about using malt extract in cocktails. Is there a reason for dry rather than liquid? Was that a dark or a light malt? Need to save some aside next time I brew.