wc4572

Cure is unfortunately closed

Where are they staying? Do they have a car or are they willing to Uber? Without any of that: Breakfast DeLuca's, Pamela's or Cafe Raymond in the Strip District. I'd pick Cafe Raymond over the other 2 Dorstop diner in Dormont Jean Marc Chatellier French Bakery in Millvale Lunch DiAnoia's Piccolo Forno Gaucho Federal Gallery Dinner Any of the lunch places Morcilla Apteka Butcher and Rye I can give more specific recommendations or feel free to ask more specific questions

Anyone know where I can get orgeat syrup in the Pittsburgh area? Everything else I read says the liquor store, which means most people are not talking PA. I didn't find it in my liquor store. Thanks

Thanks for the thoughts. Vegetable soup in the States tends to be cubes of carrot, potato, and celery, with maybe some green beans, corn and peas in a beef broth. I wanted to make this for them the next time they came over for dinner. I'll grab a what you mentioned and then maybe a potato, turnips or parsnips. If there are things I shouldn't put together, please let me know.

My friends vacationed Ireland and Scotland for 2 weeks and came back raving of a vegetable soup that they ate a lot of. They described as a thick puree that ranged from a yellowish to tan. I'm guessing it's something like turnips, parsnips, leeks, potatoes, or something similar. Anyone have any idea on a recipe?

I've made a lime sorbet, vanilla ice cream (eggless), and vanilla frozen yogurt. All were great from the machine, but were rocks when I took them out. My frozen yogurt sat in the fridge for 30 minutes and in my bowl for 30 minutes and I still had to scrape at the chunk. After reading this thread (and a few others), I'm thinking I need some sort of stabilizer, but I don't know what to do. I've seen eggyolks, cornstarch, gelatin, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, etc. My question then, is there anything I can do to get a more scoopable texture after 24 hours in the freezer? If anyone needs more info on the recipes I used, please let me know. Thanks.

My wife and I were in town to celebrate our anniversary and my birthday, so I chose to do the tasting menu at Le Bernardin. Having never been to a restaurant as nice as this, we weren't sure what to expect and felt a bit out of place as we were the youngest in the room. Our waiter was slightly pushy and rude when we did not get the wine pairing, but was nice enough to substitute a crab dish for the octopus for my wife. The other servers we had were all great. I suppose this was a minor quibble as I found a hair on my salmon before I started eating and there was a scale on my black bass. Usually I wouldn't care about either of these, but for the money we were spending, I wasn't particularly happy with my experience. The salmon was replaced, although again, I thought the waiter was rude about it. I was already nervous from his attitude, so I did not mention the scale. We were given two extra desserts, a passionfruit mousse and pot du creme (I think) served in an organic egg shell. Chef Ripert was present because he came out to talk to two different tables. I don't know if I came on a bad night (a Tuesday) or bad time (5:30 pm), but it was not the best experience for a 3 star place.

I suppose I'm most interested in mixing at first until I gain an appreciation for rum. Although getting an education is a good idea. I need to find a decent bar to try a few different types without the cost of buying three bottles.

In the spirit of this thread, I'm reaching out to the rum experts. I have a bottle of Cruzan Aged Rum and probably a bottle of Bacardi white rum (or silver - I forget how it's marked). I know very little about rum and I have a gift card to Wine and Spirits (I'm in PA). The current sale is rum heavy, so I was looking for advice. Appleton Estate VX - $16.99 Mount Gay Eclipse Barbados Rum - $13.99 Mount Gay Extra Old Rum - $39.99 Pyrat XO Reserve - $24.99 Rhum Barbancourt Special Reserve 8 Yr Old Haiti - $19.99 Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Year Old - $39.99 These are just the ones on sale. There is more to choose from. $40 is definitely my limit for a bottle of rum. I'd like to stay under that, so I'll take any recommendations. Thanks

Don't remember reading about DRY Soda anywhere, so: 1 1/2 oz Hendricks 1/4 - 1/2 oz St. Germain 2 drops violet liquor top with DRY Lavender Soda Basically a gin and tonic variation, but pretty good none the less. I also tried this and a few other variations with DRY cucumber soda. I think I just don't like the cucumber.

As far as chocolate flavored spirits, I've only had Godiva chocolate. It's lasted me quite a long time (years), but my question is do I really need to spend $30 on a bottle? I couldn't bring myself to have two bottles of chocolate alcohol, so I figured I'd ask here first. Thanks for the help.

Any PA folks know if I can get any maraschino? I tried a search on the new website (tried luxardo and maraschino) and can't find anything. Any other names or brands I can search for? I really appreciate all the ideas!

I tried the ATTY from eje in the "Stomping..." thread. I used: 3/4 oz vermouth 1 1/2 oz gin (Beefeater 24) 1/2 teaspoon absinthe (Lucid) 1/2 teaspoon violette liquor I made sure to not skip the lemon peel garnish. At first, I was unimpressed, but the drink stays with me as people have mentioned. I think need to up the violette a bit or maybe decrease the vermouth. I've never had an aviation and I don't have maraschino. Is it worth buying?

So I brought a few tiny bottles back from France and have no idea what to do with them. I haven't even opened them yet, so I can't give a description, but here are some pictures. Any thoughts on recipes? Questions? Rose Orange Violette

I don't think Pittsburgh is represented enough here, so I figured I'd share my recent experience at Nine on Nine. My wife and I got the tasting menu - 8 courses, $72. The portions of some things were spot on, others too big. We were given what I considered extremely tough duck, which was replaced with the a braised lamb dish with escarole and white beans. The service was great, not intrusive nor cold/formal. Oysters with yuzu sorbet. The sorbet was a little sweet for me. Filet carpacio with rosemary aioli on left and tartare (mustard, capers) on right. Both good, but the aioli made the carpacio even better. Cauliflower soup with capers (appearance #2), almonds and raisins. I thought everything went well together because I was a bit aprehensive with the description. The portion was a bit big. Wild mushroom and truffle risotto. Two generous shavings of black truffle with smaller shavings mixed in. Well done. Skate wing with beans, potatoes, capers (appearance #3), pine nuts, frisee. I've never had skate before, so I was excited to try it. I can't comment on the cooking as I don't know what it's supposed to be like, but the texture was very soft. The frisee was way too salty. I thought my first piece was an oversight, but the second was just as bad. My wife could not eat hers. Lemon and sambuca sorbet with kiwi puree. Not too much sambuca, so it was very refreshing. Duck, mascarpone grits, brussels sprouts, carrots. As mentioned above, extremely tough. Neither my wife nor I could eat it and I've never sent anything back in my life (I'm only 27 though). Server was gracious. Kitchen said it's Labelle Farm and they are gamier and possibly tougher. When the servers brought out a comped lamb dish, she said the kitchen apologized and said it was undercooked as well. Braised lamb with escarole and white beans. At this point, we didn't really need more food, but the kitchen did not want us to be disappointed after the duck. This was meltingly tender, but was lacking something to make it pop. Banana, peanut butter, chocolate. Caramelized banana, dehydrated ganache, ganache ribbon, peanut butter. My wife and I had this before, but it's still just as good. A good way to end a meal. Overall, not my best experience here. I've been here in the past and had better experiences both times.