weinoo

Maybe I should have posed the question like this: What will you eat yogurt with? And, what would you never eat with yogurt?

A slight argument with my wife (Significant Eater) at yesterday's breakfast. We had a pretty standard breakfast including an egg sandwich (on a toasted bialy) and some cut-up fruit, including cantaloupe and apple. Which I topped with yogurt. That seemed to be the starting point. She claimed yogurt doesn't go with apples. I said it does. Leading to this topic. So, what does yogurt go with? And what should it absolutely not be paired with?

Actually, post #8 said this:

A quick search shows that Manic Coffee carries Intellegentsia's beans - gets them delivered freshly roasted a few times a week, according to the web site...that might be a good start.

My feelings exactly. With a little tweaking (like the water temp) you can "brew" a decent enough cup of coffee - certainly better than Dunkin' Donuts or that ilk.

Except when you live somewhere where you can't!

Actually, you can get a refurbished Baratza Maestro Plus for under $100, from Baratza. That'll leave you $150 - you can get some nice beans from, let's say Intellegentsia, a French press, a Melitta pour over, a digital scale, a digital thermometer and a few nice coffee cups with the change.

I'm gonna start eating Gravenstein's.

I'm sure that was it.

Yes, but where do you get THAT? Where do you live?

Zachary's post in your original topic is a good start at how to make great coffee. He owns a $150 burr grinder that has lasted 8 years. In my opinion, the best way to spend your money (if you have access to good quality, freshly roasted beans) is to buy a quality grinder. Then you can add to your coffee collection by starting with a cheap pour over pot, a Moka pot, an aeropress, and even a stovetop siphon unit. For instance, this Yama siphon pot is $36 at Amazon. For under $100, you can have a French press, a siphon pot, a pour-over unit and a Moka pot. Bottom line is it's about the beans and water. Take care of those aspects and quality coffee will be yours. As to your reference to steak...well, if you start with a lousy steak nothing you can do will make that steak better. Same with coffee - you have to start with good coffee.

Of course, a shot of espresso and a cup of coffee are two entirely different things. Can you tell us your budget? I am once again confused, as in your original topic you mentioned you wanted to save some money. And now you appear to want to spend money on some "reasonable priced equipment." So - what's reasonable in your book?

I always thought it was the first.

The new "concept" from Chipotle is called ShopHouse Kitchen. A piece recently ran on Huffington Post, and the following is written: My question: Isn't this similar to one of the concepts that was originally on the show? Or perhaps a combo of 2 of the losing concepts?

Over 2 years ago, I started a topic entitled Tired of the Alice Waters Backlash - Are You? My position was (and is) that I am tired of the backlash. I've always liked Alice and feel her contributions to our thinking about our relationships to food and how we eat have been invaluable. I've also always liked Mark Bittman. Well, not necessarily always, but most of the time. I mean, how much can you like a guy who got to drive all around Spain with Gwyneth and Claudia all the while eating great food and drinking probably what amounted to a decent amount of wine? But I do like him, because some of his books and much of his advice the about food - via columns, articles, TV, etc. has basically been right on. He works well with chefs, that's for sure. And when we here at eGullet challenged him about the recipe during the whole no-knead bread controversy, he took it in stride and reworked the recipe until it was better. Anyway, Mr. Bittman also writes the occasional editorial in this day and age, and this past Sunday he had the lead piece in the Times' Sunday Review section, entitled "Is Junk Food REALLY Cheaper?" The crux of the article is that obviously, junk food isn't cheaper; it's just easier. Of course, it's a little more complicated than that and where Alice would have you cooking the organic egg in your long handled copper spoon filled with EVOO over the fireplace in your kitchen, Bittman (or Bitty, as Gwyneth likes to call him) simply says: But, he then goes on to say: In a way, I find this quite similar to the oft-quoted story (and I'm paraphrasing badly here) of Alice telling people that instead of buying fancy sneakers they should instead buy organic grapes, but maybe I'm being too harsh on Bittman. Alice didn't want you to have fancy sneakers and Bittman wants you to stop watching TV and to start cooking. Just taking Alice a step further, don't you think?

It looks really great. With an afternoon and a xanax, I'm going to be giving it a try real soon.

Shoulder bacon... And French toast...

Although I do find that the middle doesn't get as hot as the portions over each of the burners. Which actually comes in handy.

I want to call it a plancha...because it sounds cool. It may not technically be a plancha - it's my reversible cast-iron stove top grill; you know the one - one side is flat and the other is ridged. Whatever it's called, I hardly use it...I guess because the grill side isn't really grilling, and if you've used the grill side and want to use the flat side, when you turn the sucker over all the drippings that dripped when you were "grilling" now get incinerated. But now I want to focus on using the flat side and yesterday I pulled it out of it's slot, heated it up and made breakfast, starting with griddling some Flying Pigs Farm's shoulder bacon... And finishing with some French toast, having been inspired by Fat Guy's French toast topic... The French toast came out quite good. The bacon, of course, was a no brainer. Do you own a plancha? If so, what do you use it for?

Well, he only one-starred it. I had some wonderful food at Bar Basque, but it was never somewhere I even considered going back to.

Interestingly enough, I've been getting into a new melon this summer - the Hami melon. It's a muskmelon, to be sure, but much crisper than a canteloupe. And with some cucumber overtones, which isn't that surprising, since they share the same family and genus.

I have mostly All-Clad (the old Masterchef line) and Mauviel - copper, stainless, aluminum. They all work fine. No particular favorite.

It's nice to have a saucepan that doesn't have the heat retention properties of the cast-iron/enamel.

I'm having a bit of a discussion with a friend, who is trying to convince me that a good omelet is golden brown on the outside. Hogwash, I say. A great omelet is pale and blonde on the outside, just runny on the inside. Golden browned eggs tend to be tough and dry. How do you like yours? Omelets, that is.

Looks like that darn short rib. Is your house in the Oakland hills?