Dakki

Seconding the bread thing. I understand why people like doing it but it's not for me. Also Blether's comments on the number of settings. I get to cook one meal for one person a day and anything much bigger than a roast chicken is automatically out.

I didn't realize my siblings were here. Sup guys! My sainted mother grew up in rural Texas and stopped cooking as soon as she discovered she could hire people to do it for her. I do have a couple of recipes from my dad's Mexican/Alsatian Jewish family; unfortunately he never writes anything down or even measures so getting a recipe from him means following him with a notebook as he demolishes the kitchen, and then editing the notes into a coherent recipe. It'd dirty, dangerous work (a cleaver blade once literally flew off its handle and whacked me in the face) but I possess the only extant written recipe for my great-aunt's notorious chipotle sauce, among others.

None taken, I just wondered what you meant. Sorry for the confusion. mkayahara, thanks, I'll look at that thread now.

I do love Tokyo, but what inspired this observation? mkayahara, what sort of cocktails can you make with scotch, besides a Tom Collins? I'm afraid I'm showing my profound ignorance of mixology here but beer has been my drink of choice for decades (and it's starting to show on the waistband, unfortunately).

I'm not sure what I'm looking for, actually - trying to learn about something other than beer, and scotch seemed the right place to start. At the risk of an e-lynching, I mix it with soda water and put it on ice. It's much too warm around here to drink un-iced, un-mixed liquor.

That was last week's purchase. The week before that was J&B, and the week before that, Black and White. Trying to find a source for Teacher's and White Horse, as well as a selection of Irish and Rye whiskies. Unfortunately the good liquor stores are all the way across town.

The quest for a good everyday scotch continues. This time I ended up with Johnnie Walker Red.

Most unfortunately-named cookbook ever. I don't own it so I can't comment on the actual content.

Flor de Cana rum keeps wanting me to buy it. Unfortunately I have no use for it. White Horse scotch, which I could use, is unavailable.

That looks like dinner/breakfast at Dakki's, only much better. Well done!

You misconstrue the thrust of my inquiry, sir. I mean, the distinction between natural and artificial foods is, well, artificial (as I think the OP points out), flexible, vague, and open to interpretation, but it would be hard to argue chicken bullion cubes are artificial if they are merely (largely) dehydrated chicken stock (which was my impression and which I hoped you would either confirm or disabuse) but they are not really natural in any (to me) meaningful sense of the word. I think we're falling into a semantic trap, here. Surimi/imitation crab and chicken bullion cubes are neither natural nor artificial. I propose we refer to such gray-area foods as "highly processed foods" or just "processed foods" for the purpose of this discussion.

Isn't chicken bullion derived from actual chickens?

Okay, so would you regard a steak derived from a tumbleweed as artificial in the sense used by the OP?

I don't know that's a fair definition. Imitation crab meat is "artificial," i.e. made by art, but it's derived from fish. One of the ways I've seen this sort of thing proposed has been to produce food from organic waste materials via nanotechnology - tiny little robots capable of manipulating matter at an atomic scale. I'm not optimistic about this sort of thing becoming available in our lifetimes but there you go.

I know you meant the metaphorical extinction of natural fish as an ingredient, but I have to point out it would likely have the opposite effect to literal extinction, i.e. allowing badly depleted wild fish populations to recover, which I imagine anyone who loves fish would agree is a good thing? Anyway, I don't see that the availability of let's call it manufactured fish would remove natural fish from the market. Even if manufactured fish was of perfectly acceptable quality and available at a better price than the wild-caught stuff you'd still have some holdouts demanding "real" fish and the commercial fishing industry would continue to exist (hopefully at a much smaller scale). Think about the disadvantages if we -don't- change our dependence on wild-caught fish.

Sure, in a cheap-and-cheerful environment. The places I've done this have been either buffet or cafeteria-style service, which simplifies the whole thing considerably.

Dumb question maybe, but what's the highest temp you'd rest meat at without affecting doneness etc?

Diesel is (much) safer to store and has a shelf life of ~1 yr.

I'm in. Buying liquor and etc isn't cheating, right?

Spaghetti with clams, mushrooms, dried chilies, garlic and olive oil. I was cleaning out the fridge and found some ancient chunks of cheese, including edam, gruyere, parmesan and what I think was a piece of stilton. Ran them all through the grinder and mixed the result in.

Best name -- and sauce -- ever. Clicky. Hey Chris, I'm going to try to make this today. I have a few questions, though. What size/variety of mango did you use? We get a smallish Manila here, which is great because they're my favorite for eating off the bone, but I'm not sure they're correct for the recipe. How critical are the molasses? These are unavailable here. Can I substitute with corn syrup? EDIT: Asking here because I'm not allowed to reply in the linked thread.

Can you take a photo? Maybe I know them under a different name.

Cilantro/coriander. Wilts and changes flavor so fast, even if you keep it in a glass of water. Sold in pointlessly large bunches that you end up throwing out after using a quarter of them. Seriously upsets because I use it more or less constantly, yet I don't want to have to make a special trip to the store three times a week for a garnish. At least it's cheap.

Article is here. In the interest of full disclosure, I hate the WSJ with a passion and only seeing an article on food by one of our own could make me read it. I'm working up a full review which I'll post later but in the meantime I thought a lot of us would be interested in reading what Dorie has to say about everyone's (okay, -my-) favorite flower.

Here's a more general question - how long and severe an event should one reasonably prepare for? Scenarios for this sort of thing run the gamut from "three days before the city gets around to fixing power, gas and tap water" to "the complete collapse of modern civilization, complete with Australian punks in mohawks and leather pants." I'm leaning toward the three-day crowd but, hey. Thanks for checking in. You've been on my mind. I think that goes for a lot of us here on eG. +1