Brown Hornet

Kind of along the same lines as Charcuterer, I would recommend that you try to sample at least one of Chicago's famous low end staples -- namely a Chicago style italian beef sandwhich, a deep dish pizza, or hot dog. Your Chicago friends will rightfully roll their eyes given how amazing and varied Chicago's food scene is, but I can't tell you how much I miss grabbing a great italian beef sandwhich for lunch.

dcarch, first, two thumbs up and five stars for the scrapple dishes -- one of my all time favorite comfort foods. Secondly, I assume you made your own since it's out of season right now. I've never made it from scratch but would love to try -- can you point me to any recipes?

That list looks awesome and I'm jealous. Whenever I go to Vegas I invariably end up with groups that have no interest spending money at the higher end Vegas restaurants. I did make it to Cut on my last trip and was very impressed. From the perfectly made Sazerac (why do so many bars struggle with this simple drink?), a unique bone marrow flan appetizer, to an amazing steak, it well exceeded my expectations for a celebrity chef-branded steakhouse.

Simon_S and Shalmanese hit the nail on the head for me. We also typically eat at local, relatively inexpensive restaurants (entrees no more than $15) and save up for one or two blow out meals a year. For me, the value is at the extreme ends of the bell curve -- and lost in the wasteland of restaurants selling entrees for $25-50 that we can cook at home. In response to Pam and PSmith -- I do enjoy and appreciate the occasional blow out/no expense sparred dinner. Our last such meal was a full ten course (not including 6 amuse) tasting menu at Meadowood in Napa Valley, a three star Michelin restaurant. With wine pairings and tip our meal for two was almost $1000. Objectively speaking, that's no doubt an exorbitant price to pay for dinner. But it wasn't just dinner, it was an experience and yes the food was that memorable -- it's been almost a year since that dinner and I still vividly remember each course. If I'm being completely honest, part of our enjoyment of this kind of dining, is that my wife and I are accomplished enough as home cooks to appreciate how difficult it was to make the dishes we ate. Some, like a perfectly clear carrot consomme or a black licorice enrobed fois gras torchon, simply boggled my mind as to how it was created. Almost every dish had numerous components that clearly required a ton of work. Beyond the advanced cooking techniques on display, there were numerous exotic ingredients and difficult to source wine pairings. This was not a dining experience that I could recreate at home, nor could I have had a similar tasting menu for much less at another restaurant. Was it a bargain -- not really, but I felt I was getting value for the price of admission. I'm from the Southeast United States and appreciate well executed, simple food -- a perfect pulled pork sandwhich, a bowl of pozole or pho, a plate of shrimp and grits -- but appreciating perfect soul-satisfying dishes that sell for under $10 isn't mutually exclusive with appreciating a blow out tasting menu at Alinea, the French Laundry, Meadowood or the like. There seems to be a bit of a reverse-snob trend in the US where it's cool to put down high end dining in favor of the latest and greatest ethnic hole-in-the wall or food truck, but I think it's every bit as misguided as the old fashioned food-snobbery was to begin with.

Surprised it hasn't come up yet since it's such a classic movie line: "Leave the gun, take the canoli."

This: http://www.bigtopcupcake.com/

Check out Jefferson's Reserve -- a fine bourbon in your price range.

I've had a BGE for 7 years and will just add to the chorus of praise. It's certainly not magic and some of the BGE fans can be overly effusive with their praise. That said.... the BGE is easily the best grill I've ever used. Once you get used to controlling the temperature after a few sessions, you'll find it incredibly easy to set up a long and stable cook times. I cook pork shoulders/butts on my BGE at 250 for 8-12 hours all the time and it couldn't be easier. Even after 12 hours, there's usually enough charcoal left to run it back up to a high temp so for big cookouts I'll cook my pork for about 12 hours, and after that heat the EGG back up to 500 - 600 to sear some steaks. In terms of accessories, I would strongly recommend that you get the plate setter. I'm also a big fan of the electric starter. One thing to be prepared for, they are HEAVY. Plan to have someone around who can help you assemble it. Lastly, I live and work in Atlanta and happen to know the BGE folks personally -- for what it's worth, they're really great people and a great company, it's the rare occasion where you can feel great about both a product and the people selling it.

So the two solutions to cavitation are (1) stop the blender, tamp stuff down, and restart, and (2) insure that whatever you're blending is viscous enough to keep sliding down the sides, yes? Do you have to adjust your recipes to account for this? I guess I thought that a $400 blender figured this out for me.... In my experience, the high powered blender has solved the cavitation problems I previously had with my old blender. That's not to say it won't ever happen, but it will happen far less often with a high powered blender. Also, the preset programs have built in starts and stops to help prevent cavitation -- although again it is rarely an issue for me.

I don't really see any benefit of 'cooking' soup with a high powered blender although it's a neat trick. I typically just simmer the ingredients together 5-10 minutes and then blend. The real benefit for me is the speed and quality of blending. Previously, to get a perfect soup texture would require several rounds of blending then straining through a chinois. The blendtec has made the chinois redundant as I can get that perfect silky smooth texture with one blending cycle. I've never tried it for gazpacho as I prefer a 1/2 blended 1/2 chunky style that my old trusty immersion blender is perfect for. A relatively short blend (say 1-2 minutes) shouldn't heat it up too much. Maybe you could add a cube or two of frozen tomato water to help keep it cold although you may end up with a gazpacho slushee. Hmmm, I feel like there's a MC concept in here somewhere.

Make no mistake, the new bols genever is a true oude genever with all the malty goodness you expect. While very full-bodied and complex, I've found the bols genever to be extremely mixable -- it's really been a revelation to me. I'm also curious about the barrel-aged bols. I suspect that I would prefer the barrel aged for sipping but the standard bols genever for cocktails and mixing. If you pick up a bottle let us know what you think!

Here's a very quick basic one that we use all the time for creamy tomato soup -- takes about 15 minutes start to finish: Saute in olive oil and butter 1/2 onion + 1 carrot diced add 1 garlic clove diced add 1 large can quality canned tomatoes 1 cup ck stock fresh basil to taste salt pepper to taste heat through on simmer about 5 minutes blend for 2-3 minutes at speed 6 (or use the soup preset) The result -- very bright and fresh tasting tomato soup with a creamy texture but without using cream that dulls the flavor. Can't really get the same creamy texture with a regular blender. Of course when tomatoes are in season, you can use peeled seeded fresh tomatoes instead of canned -- but may need to adjust the liquid.

Since this old thread has been revived, I'll add the following: Shields Meat Market in Decatur is pretty good (bought a really nice Veal shank a few months ago) though not convenient for me. I will also add that Patak's is a local treasure -- especially its selection of eastern european salamis and cured meats.

I had a Pegu Club Father's Day yesterday -- my current formula 2 oz Bols Genever 3/4 oz cointreau 1/2 oz lime 1 dash each Angostura, Regan's Orange, Fee's Orange bitters Perfect drink for summer in Hotlanta. Admittedly this is a sweeter Pegu Club than the traditional but it's my new favorite. I'll make sure to try it with the GM next time and see if I prefer it over the Cointreau.

I think someone mentioned them earlier, but UTZ crab chips just recently became available in my local store and have quickly become one of my favorites. My favorite salty snack is almost impossibly obscure -- Corell's Kettle Chips from Beach City Ohio (about 30 miles south of Akron/Canton). Bar none my favorite potato chip. They're hard to describe as I've never tasted any other chip that tastes like a Corell's -- somehow more potato-ey than other chips. Corell's has no national distribution and no website but I think you can order by phone (I have family in the area that keep me supplied). If you're ever in northeast Ohio and see a bag give them a try.

Bols Genever -- finally able to find it in Atlanta. I'm still a genever novice but the Bols is far superior to the Boomsma genevers I've previously sampled. The Bols Genever is quickly become my spirit of choice for the Pegu Club. Rittenhouse BIB -- I've got several decent ryes but somehow had avoided the Rittenhouse BIB. Finally picked up a bottle on sale for around $18. Holy crap, is this a fantastic whiskey for the price. Perfect for Manhattans although I still prefer my Redemption Rye which is itself a fantastic buy. Banks 5 Island Rum -- Still playing with it but finding it to be a really great all purpose rum. Rarely the best rum for a particular drink, but almost always a perfectly good substitute that plays well with others. Not sure, however, if it's worth the premium price.

Great to see the James Beard Awards expanding to this category. I'm especially happy to see Holeman & Finch Public House in Atlanta make the list as it -- and its sister establishment Restaurant Eugene -- developed a stellar cocktail program from day one.

I pretty much agree with Doodad (I also live in Atlanta where we have an abundance of Vidalia onions year round). Like Doodad mentioned, I think they're the best onion for grilling and roasting. Grilled or sauteed thick slices of sweet onion are de rigueur for burgers. I almost always prefer sweet onions for anything calling for raw onion (red onion in guacamole being my one exception). If you can find some good sushi grade tuna, make yourself some Poke. I sometimes use sweet onions for salsa if I want a sweet/hot combination -- usually with habanero salsas. Sweet onions are also great for relishes and jams. At least here in the south there are numerous Vidalia onion jams and relishes available year round. Canning some relish and jam is also a good way to use up some excess product. Contrary to some other posters, I don't mind carmelizing sweet onions, although I do find it necessary to add some salt to balance the sweetness. I'm probably in the minority, but I prefer to make French onion soup using 50/50 yellow and sweet onions. I don't generally like sweet onions for stocks and mirepoix as it throws the balance off a bit. That said, if you like a sweeter marinara or other tomato based sauce, cooking it with sweet onions is not bad -- albeit nontraditional.

I was glad that Paul won, but seeing both finalists knock it out of the park just reminded me how terrible the challenges have been this season.

Those drinks aren't half as offensive as the menu which reads like yet another "throw some grits, greens and bacon on a plate" affronts to modern southern cuisine. I'm sure it's better than it sounds, but still, $50 for a glorified ten piece fried chicken -- seriously?!

My two current faves: Ardbeg,Uigeadail -- has very much lived up to the hype. My favorite Islay by a mile. Glenmorangie, Nector D'Or -- This is pretty much the opposite of the Uigeadail, but I love it as well. More balanced than most of Glenmorangie's Port and Sherry finish expressions. I also recently tried the Balvenie 14yr Rum Cask. It was a little funky but not particularly special. Just ok I guess, maybe the 17yr is better.

Real parmigiano-reggiano cheese. Every domestic "parmesan" I've tried is an abomination.

I hate that this is only for iPad -- no Kindle Fire version yet. The Professional Chef is my primary go-to cooking reference.

I've used a KA 9-speed immersion blender for 8 years with no problems. I don't think they even make this model anymore which is too bad -- to quote Apple it just works. I have to agree with Slkinsey though, since buying my Blendtec blender I rarely use the immersion blender. Only small amounts that do not blend well in a large blender get the immersion blender, or when I only want a quick rough blend (I do this with gazpacho for example). Personally, I prefer a full size blender to blend large amounts -- even if it requires multiple batches. The blending power of a Blendtec or Vitamix is exponentially greater than a hand held immersion blender. Haven't tried eggs with the immersion blender but it sounds interesting!