OliverB

I think this might be a good place to ask: Our local safeway sells some wonderful pickled (I think) garlic at their olive bars. Whole cloves, thick and plump and almost snow white, very crunchy. Garlic being a problematic thing to "put up", I'm wondering if anybody here has an idea how to make this? Might not be worth the labor, but I'm still curious. The cloves have a very fresh crunchy mouthfeel, almost crunchier than fresh garlic by itself, they are white all the way through and stored in some kind of vinegar solution I think. Very tasty, try them if your Safeway has an olive bar! They also add some small red hot peppers, I usually leave those for others and just take garlic :-) I don't have any at hand right now, or I'd add a photo. As for pickles I love to make, the Zuni Caffee pickled zucchini are absolutely wonderful and pretty easy to make. You have to store them in the fridge. Also their pickled red onions are fantastic, but more work since you have to heat/cool them several times to make sure they stay crunchy. We'll worth the effort though. The whole books is wonderful by the way :-)

it's fun to make, but you do create a mess, LOL! I'm not sure it's really worth it though, I made it two or three times, but went back to getting fresh mozza (the kind floating in water or the left over liquid stuff from making it) since then. I'll have to try some other cheese eventually, we're remodeling the house right now, once that's done I'm gonna measure temps and humidity under the house, hoping to find it just perfect for cheese ripening and sausage drying. Probably a pipe dream, but that's what dreams are for :-) Do report on taste (I'd have stolen a bit already)!

I remember eating and liking "sour lungs" (translated) in Bavaria, but my guess is they might be made with beef lungs, though I can look that up. Was basically a stew kind of thing with a nice sour tang to it, quite tasty actually. But it's been a long time since I had it.

I don't mind shopping, but try to not hit the supermarket more than two or three times a week. I'm in the Far East Bay (east of SF). If I lived in a way where I'd walk past a market on my way home from work I'd shop every day I think. As it is, I shop on most Sundays at our local farmers market, then either at Target (as I park in there for the market) or at Safeway for other things. I get a lot of meat directly from farmers now, but also buy at Safeway and sometimes at Whole Food, though rarely at their crazy prices. Fish sometimes from the market, though I really don't like spending $16-26 per lb of fish, no matter how good or fresh. Recently I got into sardines and other such cheaper fish, tasty! I also go to Asian supermarkets for fresh fish. We have a small safeway really close, I usually go there, or to trader joe's which is in the same komplex as my boy's karate school. I don't really plan for dinners in advance, I cook as I go and I shop that way too, rarely do I have a shopping list with me. Maybe once I get a "smart" phone with some kind of app for shopping, I might use that. So far I gave up on writing a list, as I usually forget it at home ;-)

I almost only buy local honey, unless I need a large amount of it for something (a rare thing, as I don't make much sweet stuff). I buy it at the farmer's market. It's expensive (quite) but at the rate I use it it really makes no difference to me. It tastes great and it's local, which is always fun :-) I never bought the cheap stuff though, even before. I bought some - at least by what's written on the label - good small area source honey. But since we have the honey guys (2 actually) at our market, I just buy it there. And a friend is probably getting bees soon, then I'll probably get it there :-) Or get my own bees, which I'd love to do, but can't, since I tend to leave the country for 4 weeks at a time in summer.....

I just went through the process (glad Amazon keeps track of when I ordered stuff...) and only had to answer a one word question, no caps required. Maybe they changed this? The two words with capitals etc process seems a bit silly, as does the whole process, as anyone with access to the books could register as user/owner anyway, not sure what they intend to achieve with this roundabout. Now I'll have to see what great offers and special things come my way! :-)

I tend to flip more often if I grill on high heat - 650 degree or more. I always have a thermometer in there as well. I could work w/o one, but why risk it. A line cook that makes hundreds and hundreds of steaks has the timing in their bones, but if I spend a good amount of cash on a piece of meat I want to be sure :-) If I cook it on lower temp, I do the 5 step mentioned above. And then there's Sous Vide of course, with a quick 30 sec sear on very high heat for a delicious crust!

I doubt I'd like a sauce made with margarine, I avoid that stuff like the plague, it's just nasty. But that's just a personal preference. Can't you make a sauce w/o the fat, and users can add x amount of butter when they need it? Not sure where you're going with this, but do you think restaurants would be interested in a wing sauce made that way? It's so easy to make the buffalo wing sauce, I can't imagine there's much of a market to sell ready made, but I guess you did your research there. But even with shelf stable margarine, once you add things to it, unless they are totally sterile, won't you compromise the shelf stability anyway?

crushed potato chips work quite nicely as well :-)

just get an outdoor wok burner (not a turkey fryer, a real wok burner) and a nice carbon steel wok for it. Mine puts out 60k BTU supposedly, what ever it is, it gets blistering hot and cooking something takes just a couple minutes, the time here is in the prep, you NEED to have everything ready and within reach. My burner, I think called big kahuna was quite cheap and runs on bbq gas tanks. Folds down into nothing, easy to store. Check Amazon, and somewhere here on this site is a whole thread about outdoor wok burners. Sorry, no time to search for it right now. I love mine and the food comes out fantastic! I'd never fry a turkey and my custom burner seems a lot safer to use while jiggling a wok around (and no, you're not supposed to fry a turkey on it, per instructions. The thing cooks so fast, you practically have to dance with your food, which is fun

I actually haven't used the site in months, I rarely cook with recipes, especially in summer when I cook on fire. I tend to forget about the site (glad I'm a lifetime member!) but on the occasions I have used it I found some good things to try. The shopping list function would be neat if it really gives you everything and the correct quantities for a recipe, but I think that's beyond what they really can do. Who knows though, I'd love to use it if it's verified for all recipes, but if I have to go and compare with the book first to be sure I might as well make my own list

My kids make me buy (and thus try) different kinds, there are some ok ones in the "5" brand, but I tend to go back to good old green package wrigley's, my go to gum if I want one. Perfect at concerts when you get a dry mouth but don't want to loose your nice spot in the crowd while getting a drink. Might ad an Altoid at times for extra crunch and peppermint kick

I tried a Red Bull once, after a late night out and early class. I got the worst soaring headache and sure did not feel refreshed in any which way, but the sticky taste lingered way past it's halftime.... They gave out free monster drinks once at a show, figured what the hey and got one. Big mistake. There's a reason that incredibly sweet stuff was free, sucking on sugar cubes is more pleasant (and I haven't done that since I was maybe 6). Just plain awful. Black can with green writing, went right into the trash after one terrible sip. I'm not much for sweet things with some exceptions, but that was just vile, way too sweet and a bunch of plasticy artificial flavors lingering on. Tried a 5 hour energy thing recently, soapy fake citrus taste, not quite as crazy sweet, but nothing compared to a good cup of nice fresh coffee in my book. Of course I wish I'd have come up with Red Bull, that (Austrian I think) guy is rolling in dough, sure gave him wings! And cars and mansions and first class international travel and who knows what...

is that supposed to be a selling point? I was excited to see that many nice looking fries, but once I ate them I wished I had ordered a small portion and saved some cash, we through most of them away. Is it really that hard to make a good fry? No, it's not. There's really no secret to it, anyone can make a great fry at home with a little prep, something that a chain restaurant should be able to do with no problem at all. Shameful actually, especially since the burger was pretty ok for a chain. But I guess it's popular, the place was pretty full at 2:30 pm and the patrons sure looked like they eat there every day, several not even fitting on the chairs supplied..... Oddly entertaining actually, and made me feel rather skinny

I would think it's something they added to the 2nd print run, which seems to be delivering now. Otherwise they really don't have a way to know that you got the books

we're just back from Portland OR and went to a Five Guys there after arriving. Hmmm. The burger was ok. Nothing special, but not bad. The fries were limp and way too many, they seem to have shoveled an other pile into our bag on top of everything else in there. The memorable thing? All the grossly overweight people that walked in there to eat. Maybe we were just 'lucky', but it looked almost like some weird TV skit, there was not one person in there that didn't wobble around like a beached wale. Very strange. So, burgers good for fast food, though I've had better. Fries pretty disappointing, soggy and limp and WAY TOO MANY. I'd rather have the amount I ordered done right. Will I be back? Well, there's no 5G where I live, but if they would move in, I'd probably stop by for a decent burger with bacon. Skip the fries and get take out, enjoy with a nice cold beer at home. (why none of these chains serve beer is really a mystery to me, McDonalds in Germany certainly does, and it's even good quality, not Bud or something like that)

could you run a duct inside to the window and out there? And what's a roof deck if you can't bbq up there? Talk them into at least a gas grill :-) If people can roast in the sun up there, why not a steak on a bit of safe gas fire? 'course, I don't know all the codes and what not laws in NY...

I'm excited about this book! I don't (yet) have any of the El Bulli books, but I doubt I'd ever cook anything from them since I don't have a staff and can't spend all day (or days) in the kitchen for a little plate of awesome, as much as I'd love to. This book is probably also not in the 30 min category, but it'll have his and his staff's handwriting all over and it'll be exciting to replicate some of the dishes I think. I'm really looking forward to this book there hasn't been much in cook books this year that interests me (MC aside) but this really has me interested.

I think that's a neat idea, if they utilize it to send out e-mails with corrections and other interesting links. They could add some additional great value with instructional videos, interviews, and even links/offers to buy some modernist things. Some of those things could be interesting for those that don't own the books as well of course.

low and slow in my Big Green Egg works great, you can do the same in any grill, just takes more watching of temperatures. I try to keep it below 300 F. I also use a jaccarder or how that thing maybe called, works wonders on tough cuts. I'm not concerned with the 'pushing bacteria in' at all and there is no loss of juices either, meat comes out juicy and tender :-)

can you open a window and put a fan in it? Maybe not a winter solution in NY, but should work at some times. Why can't you change/upgrade your exhaust fan? Even if it's not your apartment, maybe the owner would be fine if you promise to leave it if/when you move, and if you plan to stay for a while it might be worth it. Could you add one in the window?

saute in butter with garlic, some salt and pepper. The mint mentioned above is also great, did that with Fava beans, was great! Toss with pasta, olive oil, some fresh garlic if you like, basil, chili flakes. Or layer in between lasagna pasta, looks neat :-)

I just trashed an other pile, I never go back to them, there's always something new on top of the pile. I always intend to cook at least one or two recipes, but even that usually doesn't happen. Still, I get ideas and inspiration from them and they are fun "soft" reads that I tend to go through during commercial breaks of what ever TV show I might be into, none of which require much of an attention span Except game of thrones, but that doesn't have breaks, though sometimes I wish it did. Boy there are many characters to keep track of... I will cancel Food & Wine when my sub is up, I just don't get much out of it. I expected higher quality articles with that title I guess. Somebody mentioned Jamie Oliver's magazine, I actually like that as well, but find it too expensive as an import to buy regularly. There's also a fine Australian magazine, a bit oversized and wonderful photography (title escapes me right now) that I like, but it's also pretty expensive. I spend enough on British photo magazines.... I used to keep cook illustrated until I bought the year book. Eventually I realized that that makes no sense what so ever (throwing something away just to buy it again with some cardboard around it...) and I really don't care for that magazine at all anymore, the whole fake little farm town editorial alone is enough to make me run. I sold those books at the used book store. I guess I now see magazines more as inspirational seasonal fluff, find something to do with what's currently in the market, then move on. And I personally dread the Thxgiving and Xmas issues with yet an other turkey or plate of cookies on the cover...

I got it at B&N today, they had a whole stack of it. I tried to subscribe, but was "told" by the site that I'm too late for issue 1, so I got it in the store. I'd guess they print enough to make it easy to find, maybe call around a bit. I read a couple articles so far, a travel report to tokyo and lots of ramen places that's fun to read (though you better not be afraid of the F word with these guys...), Bourdain's piece is a bit odd this time, don't want to post spoilers though. A fun article and interview with/about Ivan Orkin who's running a ramen shop in Tokyo that seems to be top of the line, there are several pages and a map of Japan about all the different kinds of regional ramen, too much info for me, I'll probably not read that, but certainly interesting for somebody that's way into ramen. I actually don't think I've ever eaten anything but the 99ct packaged stuff, and that I haven't touched in years and years. I'm inspired to pull my momofuku book down and get cooking, but I'll be out of town for a week, so that has to wait. So far the writing is fun and lively, conversational and loose, like you're sitting there with the write, downing a beer or three and listening to stories. I like it. ETA: it's not a read in one sitting magazine to me, I can go through most food magazines pretty quickly, note on the cover what I want to revisit or make and be done with it. This one appears to be more 'book like' if that makes sense. Of course that's not a bad (or good) thing, it's just a different thing. But of course, Chang would be behind a different kind of magazine So far I can only recommend it, but I'm barely a third through it. I do have a craving for some noodle soup though....

I pick up the Edible East Bay issue at the market. I kind of like it, sometimes a nice story about a farm or ranch, new restaurant etc. Nothing too special, nothing I'd ever pay for, and mostly I look at the ads to see what's available around here. I think it's a neat idea and works as a free give away. Content could be more interesting, more cooking with what's at the market articles, things like that. As long as it's free, I'll be happy to pick it up :-D