helenas

yesterday we dicovered that chinese leeks make an excellent filling for meat boxes - we had a similar dish called chive box in some restuarant and then found a recipe in Chinese Gourmet book - the filling of beef/pork fat and a lot of minced leeks stuffed bw two round wonton skins like a big ravioli and pan-fried in potsticker manner; we served it with dipping sauce of young shredded ginger, black vinegar and thin soy sauce. Excellent taste and beatiful to look at: like a flower with a golden-brown center and off white petals.

Speaking of barleywines i would recommend to try Avery Hog Heaven, this is a very unusual beer, and true to its name a must-try for all hopheads.

If you're lucky to have Tröegs distributed in your area, rush to get some Nugget Nectar Ale - heaven, according to IPA addicts.

Looks wonderful, how this mortadella meatload was cooked? Bain marie?

great book: and carnitas are truly unforgettable!

Speaking of Pilsener, i finally tracked down Christoffel Blond and although damn expensive it's worth every penny - what a rich tasting beer - who would have thought that lager can be like this! Another beer i'm ready to add to my hall of fame is Hennepin - saison brewed by Ommegang.

we dined in Natick location twice recently - clam chowder was disappointing on both occasions but i enjoyed lobster and especially mussels.

Visited the Allston location last week - agree quite a nice selection but my favorite beer store is without a doubt "JULIO'S LIQUORS" especially since it's very close to the place we live. Huge selection of imports, very very decent of american microbrews (bw this place and my local store in NJ i feel sufficiently covered). Add to this Wild Six program: where one can mix and match any 6 bottles or more (12oz, 22oz, or 750ml) and get 15% off each individual bottle, as well as beer tastings every Sat and beer festivals twice a year.

Went there yesterday: of course nothing really to see at Gloucester as it's closed for the season but had a deligtful stroll through Rockport's main street - the weather was beautiful and many stores and restaurants were opened. We decided to have a dinner at Lostaland, with a slight trepidation after finding contradictority reports on CH: but our meal was really good - all the seafood was so fresh although i wish steamers were less gritty. we had grilled swordfish and beer battered deep fried scrod - pristine and perfectly cooked fish, scrod was especially flavorful in a crunchy but not at all overpowering crust. Out mains were accompanied by nice french fries and cole slaw.

Not necessarily: whatever interesting is reachable within 2-3 hours drive - we can stay overnight in some hotel if needed.

My husband just moved to Marlborough so now i come to visit the area on weekends. This board is very useful - i already created a list of butchers to check I would like to get suggestions on day food trips in NE - we were planning to go for a weekend to Maine but when i checked Holly Moore's site but it looks like most of the interesting places are closed for the season.

last weekend we visited both Oga and Sichuan Gourmet. Oga has an interesting menu - and judging by salmon tartare worth to explore beyond sushi - it's a shame that to be on the safe side we mostly ordered sushi - although decent they were nothing out of ordinary. Had a nice dinner at Sichuan Gourmet: excellent hot and sour wonton soup - next time i'll order a double portion. I would like to hear more about other ethnic places in the same area: on CH the following restaurants were mentioned: Curry Leaf; Vicki Lee Boyajian; Masala Art ;

Just got Jose Andres' Tapas - a Taste of Spain in America : with 16 chapters organized around such ingredients as mushrooms, peppers, citrus, cheese etc, this is kind of book that makes me want to cook everything there cover to cover.

WholeFoods store has wider cheese selection especially for british cheeses than Wegmans although it's more expensive.

i found the store: very nice small but quite well stocked italian deli: i called them yesterday to order a breast of lamb, picked it up today and also got cotechino sausage and buffalo mozzarella. The ownder Dan is very friendly and helpful guy: i'm so happy to finally find a butcher relatively close to my house. address and phone: (609) 655-4000 355 Applegarth Rd, Monroe Township, NJ

i decided to follow Grigson/Tamasin/mamster recipe for sausage stuffed cabbage and it was great - used the suggested irish bagers from WholeFoods - also bought a head of organic cabbage there: initially disappointed by the absense of savoy, i was actually rewarded - don't know if this is because the cabbage was organic or because it was so fresh or for whatever other reason this was the best tasting cabbage we had in a very long time. Another difference of this dish from above mentioned cabbage/sausage combos is that it cooks into perfect moist cake and i didn't even had a need to pour out any liquid - the deeply flavored broth served as a sauce.

another thread worth bringing up on top, especially at this time of the year: i was meaning to make the Troo cabbage tonight but Kristin's pork belly version sounds so tempting, and here's also Jinmyo's braising in beer idea: now i'm thinking about combining the two together...

bringing this thread up in case members have any updates on their favorite butchers to share.

I just got Provence Harvest . What a lovely book, and foreward by Dan Berber is quite touching: recipes by Jacques Chibois: his previous two book are very nice as well: so would you like some roast partridge with chestnuts and juniper berries, or sea scallops in almond milk?

Russ, believe me i care less about the authenticity i was addressing the following quote by Chris so i open the book and start searching for foccacia, tiella, ciabatta - can't find them but instead i get two recipes for brioche. but of course you're right and Chris actually agrees so here is a key phrase: a reflection of the recipes italians themselves have turned to over the years - and in Silver Spoon we find a strange mix of italian/french recipes so the FoodMan's hilarios comparison makes perfect sense and Joy of Cooking vs Silver Spoon - the similarity is striking, in fact i just pulled both out and prefer neither: for this hypothetical english speaking bride i would give a subscription of Donna Hay magazine (or the latest book by Bill Granger) to entice her into the kitchen and also Tamasin's just published Kitchen Bible to get her questions answered and charm her into cooking even more

i have problems with this book far beyond aesthetics: after reading Chris's post i went back to the book and spent couple more hours browsing it - i coudn't find anything i would like to try - this is a pretty boring and dated book, and i'm ready to question the authenticity - many recipes call for curry powder, rice chapter includes recipes for cantonese and indian rice, and i stumbled on several provencal recipes as well. Yes, i have more than 50 books on italian cooking including those by Batali, Lidia, Contaldo, Locatelli and Gray who either contributed to the supplementary section of the english edition of The Silver Spoon or praised the publishing of the book in reviews linked above. And i cooked a lot form them, and they're so exciting and through cooking from these books i fell in love with italian food - i doubt it would happen if i would be given The Silver Spoon as my first italian cookbook. No doubt this book has a lot of sentimental value for Locatelli or Contaldo and might explain their excitement. And if this was the book that was given for every italian bride in the last 50 years, dare i say because of the lack of better choice?

unfortunately i can't help but i was in this area last weekend - and we passed by Tomasso Trattoria and Enoteca several times while driving on Route 9. Looks like a nice place - i hope local folks will chime in.

i'm in rancho's camp - i detest this book - poorly designed, cheap paper, bad photography, boring recipes and as i mentioned somewhere else looks like it belongs to the remainder section of Borders...

Not published yet, there are so many interesting books coming out in the next month or so - to name just a few: Ruhlman's Charcuterie; Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques; Tapas by Andres; Vegetable Love by Kafka; The Herbal Kitchen by Traunfeld;

I second the suggestion - such a wonderful book. btw, Slater just published a new book "Kitchen Diaries"