weinoo

In our federal government, that's called RIP - retired in place!

Sorry for not responding sooner. For fruit, I fully agree with you as to picking out my own. Though I've had some very good fruit from FD, and let's face it, whatever you're picking out at WF or the other place, it's still mostly coming from far away, especially at this time of the year. For vegetables and herbs, I've been pretty lucky with FD; and if I'm not satisfied with product, they're quite willing to refund. I also buy stuff from specific farms; those which are local, organic, and carried by FD. In the "meat department," I buy the locally raised, and heritage products - no complaints. Their butchery might not be perfect, but I can get a "petite" heritage pork shoulder roast, and be quite happy either roasting it, or repurposing it for stir fry, stews, etc. They carry lots of chicken "brands." I'll leave that up to you to decide what you like; none of them blow me away, but they certainly work for meals. Cook's Venture, which has been discussed elsewhere is OK, and is their high-end Snowdance Farms. Neither is as good as Joyce Farms, which they'd carried for a while and which I hope comes back. I limit my seafood purchases to wild, unpeeled shrimp (though this week I got wild, peeled shrimp by (my) mistake, and they were perfectly fine. In the heat of the summer, I avoid buying any seafood, but in mid "winter," I'm less worried about handling. I have purchased wild Alaskan king salmon that was excellent, and live lobsters when they've had sales with no complaints. Same with clams, mussels, etc. - they'll all arrive just fine. Deli - all just as OK as your local Wegman's, I'm sure. Groceries are groceries, and non perishable food items tend to be a little more expensive, so it's all caveat emptor as far as that goes. The convenience and not having to deal with going shopping have been a godsend. I have a delivery pass (I think it's like $40 for 6 months), so all my deliveries are made on the days when there's no extra charge for delivery (Tues - Thu). Any other specific questions, let me know, and if I have a clue, I'll answer!

This is the only way I'll do them (hard and soft boiled) too.

Only when cooking for 20+

Yes, really good! We were the only ones there at lunch (it was late and mid week), but they double checked our vax and ids, and told me they were all boosted as well. We may go tomorrow night for dinner...via car service (remember when we used to call them black cars?).

Took a ride out to the beach (Coney Island, that's the Cyclone, above) yesterday, for a walk on the boardwalk, since this is our favorite time of year for the beach. And I love amusements parks (especially Coney) when no one is having fun...there's something quite sinister and scary about them. Instead of the Russian/Georgian/Uzbek food I was thinking of for lunch, we decided to head to Bay Ridge, for some food not quite from the Caucasus, to a place which came highly recommended from a friend. They have an interesting wine program, but what caught my eye... was the Mezcal and tequila program. Not that I was drinking anything except Mexican coke - it was lunch time, after all, and I was driving. And evidently the mezcal prices are not bad (as I checked in with a knowledgeable friend, who wanted to know what they were getting for Del Maguey Tobala - $14 an ounce, which isn't bad, considering the bottle price)! I started with a soup, and this had to be one of the best, if not most unique, chicken "soups" I've had in quite some time... more like a stew, and called sopa Azteca on the menu, so thick and rich. Delicious. Followed by tacos for me, and I like how the tortilla is somewhere between totally crisp and soft... and Significant Eater's favorite, enchiladas... Great stuff...wow. Also - they are so nice! The masa is made fresh in house, and those tortillas are amazing. It's also used in any number of dishes, not via tortillas. I look forward to a return trip, maybe even via subway, for dinner. Cause I really want to drink here too. Coszcal de Allende

Spaghetti with shrimp. Two salads. Signifiant Eater complained the salads were French, and the main was Italian-ish. This is what I deal with!

I go, once again, to the price per portion. Colavita, and their adulterated crap, can kiss my ass. And if anyone thinks there is no difference between a pasta like Barilla (which I use for certain applications) vs. Faella/Rustichella et al. (which I use when i want good pasta) is out of their minds. All one has to do is open a box of each, look and touch, and tell me there's no difference. For a thin sauce, I'd suggest a thin pasta - like thin spaghetti or spaghetti (not a fan of angel hair). For more meat based sauces, or chunky sauces, thicker strands work, as does something like a flatter pasta, or rigatoni or one of my faves, mezze rigatoni.

I'm pretty sure that's the design OXO "improved" upon. Quite similar to how OXO has taken many designs, and improved upon them.

I'd widen my horizons even more - bucatini slash pericatelli is good for one or two sauces, in my opinion. And then, it better be cooked properly, or sauce and stuff ends up all over the place.

Actually you dope, Colavita makes both! I call...marketing. https://colavitastore.com/products/8

Doubtful - I don't know of a company which makes both.

They're essentially the same pasta. Supermarketitaly's pasta selection

Aren't we all?

Like this?

When I was in the deli world, if a customer asked for their cheese grated, we’d use a very large drum grater that was electric. Probably modeled on the old Moulinex drum thing. Worked great.

Check out supermarketitaly.com. They have some nice brands in your price range, maybe a little bit higher. Great selection of other imported Italian stuff as well. Free shipping kicks in at a not-too-crazy $70 or so.

But then you have blended cheese, not grated cheese.

That's because instead of "breaking it down" as they might do in a restaurant kitchen or a butcher shop, you ought just cut it up. One way...

I had this rather humongous grass-fed "steak" in the freezer; over 2 libs. about 1.25" thick. And something got into me. So, I cranked up the broiler (there's only one temp - ON)... and cooked it about 3 minutes a side. And then an extra minute to finish. It really should've gone for another minute or even two, giving me a little more temp, but I was kinda worried about overcooking it; didn't come close to that. Leftovers (and there are plenty) may make a laghman dish.

The Moulinex makes quick work of grating even larger quantities of Pamigiano.

Jersey Italian!

What do you mean by a great paella recipe? Can you show us what type of recipe frustrates you ? A link would help. Paella, to my mind, isn't so much about recipes (though, yeah, they help); it's about technique and ingredients. Excellent rice, good stock, proper liquid to rice ratio - things like that are muy importante. But most of all - it's about the rice (like good pasta dishes are mostly about the pasta) and not mucking it up with a million ingredients. (Oh, I think I said all this shit above).

I've not really utilized the broiler on my Wolf range to any extent. I've used it to heat up the steel for baking pizza, a la modernist something, but to cook a hunk of protein a la steak house - nah. But I had this rather humongous grass-fed "steak:" Over 2 libs. about 1.25" thick. And something got into me. So, I cranked the broiler (there's only one temp - ON)... 3 minutes a side. And then an extra minute to finish. It really should've gone for another minute or even two, giving me a little more temp, but I was kinda worried about overcooking it; didn't come close to that.