Mjx

We've had the Bodum Crema model for a couple of years, no problems or complaints, here. The only plastic parts are the ones that are visible externally; the filter+plate, shaft, and thing that holds the filter and plate in place are all metal.

Thank you! I was looking on the Oregon map. Definitely looking into this. It's been a few years since I've been to Samoa Cookhouse...they didn't take reservations then, and no indications on the website that they do now. I remember a wait at peak times, but it was worth it (and they do give you stuff to look at while you wait, with all the old photos and logging memorabilia). Thanks! This one's been added to the googlemap thing we're building up

Where is Healdsburg? This definitely bears looking into, but I'm not finding the town on the map! Are reservations needed at this time of year? It sounds casual, but you never know. Any place(s) you specially recommend?

At the end of August, we'll be heading out to the West Coast. Part of the trip will include a drive from Corvallis to San Francisco, taking in Crater Lake on the way. We'll be driving back north along the coast. We haven't yet sketched in details any more definitely than that. We're most interested in places/foods that are unique to the areas we'll be passing through, and high-end is definitely not a must. My boyfriend is Danish, and I grew up mostly outside the US, so regional authenticity is more interesting to us than versions of what could be had in many places in the US or EU (even though great pizza is always great pizza). So, please tell me: What places, food, and events are just not to be missed?

Please consider me+1 on the very interested 'maybe' list.

Well...yes I can. I think anyone who has eaten in a variety of restaurants, who has eyes to see, and who doesn't live exclusively in their own little bubble can easily tell such things. It's also pretty obvious to me when somebody hasn't turned up and the remaining staff are over-stretched. It's pretty obvious to me when there are problems in the kitchen. It's pretty obvious when a new menu is being served that the staff aren't used to yet. This isn't rocket science, but it's also not a situation where I'd under-tip. As mentioned above, attitude is key, and if somebody is obviously making a genuine effort they that's always a pretty good start. I'm not so precious that I'll under-tip if the bread doesn't arrive straightaway or if I experience some of the other minor slights mentioned above. But there are major things that can go wrong, very occasionally, and if they occur I certainly wouldn't tip in Ireland, and I'd be VERY reluctant to tip anywhere in the world. For example, if a server is actively rude/insulting without any reason (as I have experienced), I really don't see whey they should be paid, by me, for that "service". Sounds fair enough; I was curious, though You're more generous than I am, then; since I have waited tables, I'm picky about negligence, and if the waiter is, say, standing at the next table, flirting with the guys there while my dish grows cold in his hand, I'm not tipping 20%! There you have me. It will never cease to mystify me.

Well, we are still talking about home cooking. The solution is simple: Don't eat at someone's place if they do something you find "appalling". Personally, I think that some people (prevalently in the US, but that may simply be internet access bias) have a deep-seated fear of infections that verges on the irrational. This also manifests in things like always using antibacterial soap, which generally do more harm than good (resistant strains of bacteria etc.), If the food is being heated to 80°C and above, re-using a tasting spoon will not result in any appreciable transfer of live microbes. You can still find it disgusting (like I find worms in cherries to be disgusting), but that's more a psychological reaction than one based on actual risks. Not all things that are served are cooked, and tasting and handling food with dirty hands can happen right before serving. Refusing to eat at someone's home is often not an option, unless you're willing to hurt the feelings of someone who is, in all respects but those that regard your physical well-being, a great friend. I actually have friend whose habits in the kitchen make me go pale, and I catch something that requires antibiotics about half the time I dine there (yes, really). The food is great, but the hygiene suggests a complete indifference to modern germ theory. I deal with it, because this is an otherwise truly great friend, who also happens to have an impressive immune system (there's also a tendency for larval life-forms to make an appearance in things that have just been picked from the garden, but that doesn't really bother me, since these tend to not be disease bearers; I just pick them out and discreetly wrap them in a napkin).

What you describe sounds precisely like the results I get when I follow Cook's illustrated's recipe for American Sandwich Bread (which involves a little honey, milk, and melted butter).

If you want to lose the least amount of strawberry possible, bring your son into the act: If you have small fingers, simply twisting the top and pulling gently leaves your strawberry intact, apart from the small hole where the core attached to the strawberry-hull was. People with larger hands don't seem to have much luck with this, which may have to do with how close to the base of the hull you need to grip.

And the whole world of criticism crumbles before our very eyes. I see this comment made frequently about wait staff, and I just don't get it. Why is this so different to: - Don't judge your surgeon's mistakes until you've been a surgeon. - Don't judge a musical act until you've been a professional musician. - Don't judge a thief until you've been a thief. Bad service is bad service whether the diner has waited tables or not. Why the diner should have to pay for that service no matter how bad it is continues to elude me. But hey, I come from a different culture. Waiting tables is a bit different from being a surgeon, musician or thief, though, in that nearly anyone who falls within the category of 'employable' is eligible for the job. And, since in most cases, it is an appallingly poorly paid job, for a lot of people it's a sort of last resort, especialy when they're young, and haven't yet acquired a skill set. If you wait tables even briefly, you start seeing the entire situation, rather than your own isolated case as a diner. You learn to differentiate between inexcusably bad service, and a night where waitstaff is spread too thin, because two waiters are out with with flu at the same time, or a new server, who just doesn't yet know the ropes, and is really trying. You may be right, but... okay: Can you differentiate between a waitress who going out of her way to avoid doing anything, and one who is trying to stay on top of things, while making lengthy detours to avoid passing by the table with the habitual bum grabber? The latter happens pretty often, managers can't always be bothered to intervene (or prefer not to, if the guy is a big spender), so you're kind of on your own. Being expendable and relying on tips hurts efficiency. The reasons behind less-than-ideal service may be irrelevant to you, but I'm fairly certain that that if you were to wait tables in the US for even a brief time, this would very likely change. Frankly, I hate the the whole 'waitress wages' thing, and cannot understand how it remains legal.

Unacceptable service is service that is rude or actively negligent. Waitstaff is supposed to [sometimes] seat you, take your order, bring your food and drink, and communicate anything you may want passed along to the kitchen. This should be done as well as their intelligence and other resources permit. Sometimes, you'll get someone spectacularly incompetent waiting on you. This can be incredibly frustrating, but it makes no sense to punish someone unintelligent or inexperienced by not tipping, if they're clearly doing their best. Also, this is a job that draws a lot of students, which can mean that when your waiter stares glassily over your head, he or she may not be ignoring you, but more or less asleep on his or her feet. Again, I'd hesitate to not tip because someone seems like they're not functioning on all cylinders. It can be difficult to figure out whether someone is ignoring you or overworked, and it really is best to not take things too personally. I recommend you wait tables for a bit: it will answer a lot of your questions. You may be right about eG members being mostly well-heeled, but I have the impression that they cover a fairly broad economic spectrum. I'm at the less impressive end of this spectrum, incidentally, and do not look particularly affluent, but can't say that I've usually received worse service than anyone else at a given restaurant at a given time, even when I've been on my own, and made it clear at the outset that I wouldn't be drinking anything alcoholic. I'm also not sure what you mean by 'looking broke'. There's 'not wearing this season's couturier offerings', and there's 'dressing like Bart Simpson'. At many restaurants, if you show up wearing sloppy jeans or shorts/sweatshirt/trainers, you just won't be treated as well. Not fair? Perhaps, but that's just the way it is. Most of the time, my clothing is really casual, but if I go out to dinner, I'll dress accordingly, it just seems like a respectful gesture. Even when I was living in a $75/week room, I made a point of having a decent top, decent skirt/pants, and a pair of shoes other than my Grinders, so, if necessary, I could look like a grownup. I've never noticed that foreigners routinely get worse treatment, either, even though they often don't tip (in a lot of countries, you just don't, because waitstaff is paid proper wages).

Perhaps, when it is perceived as effective, it's a matter of perception: If your body perceives what is inside as very warm, what is outside might perceived as relatively cooler. As I said, it's not worked for me, but I hear this convention mentioned so frequently, there must be a basis for at least believing it.

I tried consuming hot things my first few summers back in NYC, and felt miserable. I'd love to hear that someone does this successfully.

. . . . Bugs (either referred to as Moreton Bay or Balmain bugs) are a shellfish tasting (to me) pretty much like lobster. They may look like aliens but taste like the sweet, sweet sea. Slipper lobsters, I believe. I really envy you your access to seafood, and am looking forward to vicariously enjoying it through your terrific pictures!

I haven't yet eaten anyplace that does this, but just thinking about a metal utensil scraping even lightly across slate makes me cringe.

I'd also add that if a waiter is rude or otherwise a serious problem, a quiet word with management seems more appropriate and effective than slamming the establishment for the errors of one staff member. Wrath and disappointment apparently make for more interesting reading and writing. There are plenty of very pictorial and enthusiastic write-ups of meals at various restaurants, but if you look at the number of responses these get, it's pretty clear that most people seem to be more drawn to the negative stuff (seriously: I recently had an absolutely fantastic meal at a restaurant, documented it in detail here, and it got no response; I've seen the same thing with plenty of other positive write-ups).

I know some people are thoroughly incompetent at waiting tables, but I don't not tip for incompetence alone, if the waiter is truly trying (I don't encourage them to continue in a job they're lousy at by overtipping, either). And I'd never not tip for decisions or actions of the chef, or whoever is responsible for seating (if seating is determined by someone other than the waiter). If a waiter ignores me/is rude, that will affect my tip (but here too, I try to not take things to personally, and differentiate between someone who is monosyllabic because they're rushed off their feet, and actual rudeness). I worked very, very briefly as a waitress (a morning to be exact, then begged to switch to bus-kid/dishwasher), which does affect my perspective on the whole tipping issue.

Cope. The only reason these restaurants exist is because of the slobs, not despite them. Michelin-starred restaurants are dependent on enormous traffic despite equally enormous pricetags; without the millions of poorly-educated buffoons flowing through Vegas, they would not exist at all - and neither would Vegas itself. . . . . Ignoring a dress code isn't poorly educated, it's rude, a really prime example of 'I have a right to "express" myself by doing what I want'. A less than flawlessly executed version of a restaurant's dress code I can understand and cope with (trainers with your suit? Ugly as hell, but hey, you may have serious foot problems, and at least you tried in the other areas), but blowing it off altogether? Hell no.

I'm pretty sure that what you're getting was astringency and not bitterness. Actually, tobacco is quite well researched, and information on minimum and maximum quantities of nicotine and other compounds present in tobacco are well documented. The levels of potentially toxic substances that infuse cannot exceed those present in the amount of tobacco used. I first looked into this when I experimented with tobacco-infused truffles, several years back (I posted what I found about that here, post #28). Anything tobacco-infused becomes miserable tasting at well below the toxic level; there's the astringency, but the tobacco has an unambiguous bitterness, too. This is not something that should be used as a test of 'too much for safety', but something to keep in mind in terms of flavouring: just because the amount used is within safe limits, doesn't mean it is going to taste good.

Rabbit seasoned with lavender, garlic, and dried nettles, chanterelles, and rice with borlotti (slices of red and yellow bell pepper on the side). I used suet instead of butter or olive oil for both the rabbit and the chanterelles, since butter didn't seem quite right with rabbit, and olive oil seemed likely to overwhelm the chanterelles.

This must be a personal thing; once it hits about 30C/85F, I have no desire to eat, and can easily go for a couple of days on nothing but fluids. If the temperature keeps up, I do adjust, and start to eat again. But I stay pretty unenthusiastic. These days, I'm spending most of my time in Northern Europe; ever since that started, I gained about 12kg/26lbs, since there are no prolonged, hot summers during which I practically fast at times.

Have to say, bagels definitely seem to lose a great deal of their charm far faster than many breads; even before they're identifiably stale (in fact, once they're fully cooled), toasting helps dispel the rigor mortis that seems to hit them within a quarter of an hour or so of their exit from the oven.

Peeling makes sense; that, or slicing thinly crosswise, to minimize the amount of skin on each piece. I don't love eggplant, either, but have found that small pieces pretty much disappear in a well-seasoned stir-fry. I admit I'd probably be foisting them on my friends.

Giving this topic a bit of a bump, since some friends we visited earlier this week were incredibly sweet, and gave us a vast number of golden chanterelles as a parting gift. Anyone getting their hands on these, and care to share recent recipes and images? Tonight I'll be experimenting with some of the ones we have (images later, unless the results turn out to be disastrously unphotogenic).

Hah. Not everybody is getting nice-ish things at 7-11. I think they gauge what the regional palate will tolerate, and go with that. Evidently, in DK, might-be-chicken must be desiccated, and baked good are preferred stale, even when 'fresh'; I don't know how they manage this, but that's the only way you'll find it. Makes the traditional sausage and beer for elevenses look pretty tasty, by comparison. You can also get Ben & Jerry's ice cream at Danish 7-11s, for a mere USD10 or so per pint.