weinoo

This recent topic about San Francisco should be of great help.

The fact is, if you get sick, it's gonna suck.

You know, I'm not a huge Trader Joe fan, but I imagine their IQF fillets and steaks of wild-caught fish are of pretty decent quality. So, as long as they are thawed properly, wouldn't they be able to be used in the same manner as fresh?

Anything that you have the least bit of doubt about, throw it away.

Fresh orange juice, lemon juice, rind and sugar. Oh yeah, plus Campari... This popsicle maker is annoying because it's so hard to get the last/bottom part of the popsicle. Must buy plain old wooden sticks.

Fabulous week, Kate. Thanks for sharing.

Kate - can you give us an idea of what the price of the gelato is in the cups? In NYC, our favorite gelato has crept up to $4.25 for a small with 2 flavors, while at our favorite place in DC, a small with 2 flavors has pushed the envelope at $5.50! The prices at the farmer's market you've photographed above look very similar to prices at the greenmarket here.

On the last day of our recent trip to SF, we started off a perfectly cool, drizzly weekend with brunch (a meal I rarely, if ever, eat at a restaurant) at Bar Tartine, in the Mission district. Nothing too fancy – it was brunch, after all. But high quality ingredients, expertly prepared... For instance, we started off with a salad of little gems and smoked trout topped with crispy salmon skin – as delicious as it sounds... Then I had baked eggs sprinkled with “dry vella Jack cheese,” and Sig Eater opted for a brisket tartine with a smoked onion marmalade and horseradish mayo; both were served with delicious roasted baby potatoes... Bar Tartine might become my go to brunch place if I lived in San Francisco. And if I normally ate brunch. But even though I don’t do either of the above, I can highly recommend Bar Tartine.

As a former caterer, this is a job where you run for the hills.

Silly question: Can you tell us why you're rarerollingobject?

I actually saw that web page. This variety in my OP is not one of those, but the "lamb haas" sounds amazing!

I stopped at my grocer today to see if he had the box they came in so I could learn the variety, but no dice. Then the corner fruit stand guy had some small Mexican avocados at $1 each, so I bought a few of those. Experiments coming.

Are they good "stretchers" for guacamole? That is, I wonder how they pair with a denser, oilier Haas?

Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Or in a smoothie, soup, etc.

I bought these avocados yesterday because they were on sale at 2 for $3. Haas are selling, at least in my neighborhood, for almost double that. First of all, the suckers weigh over a pound each. They're huge. In doing a little research, I originally thought they are a variety called Bacon, but upon closer inspection, no. Maybe they're Bernecker or Booth 8 - I really don't know and will try to find out more from my produce guy today. In any event, what are the best uses of these giant, green avos? Are they as good as a Haas? Are they better for certain applications? Tell.

Interestingly enough, I tried the whole savory oatmeal thing once for my wife, who has a general predisposition to not like oatmeal of any kind, while I like oatmeal sweetened up with things such as maple syrup, raisins, etc. The result was, shall we say, not that much appreciated... .

I find it kind of fascinating to watch the evolution of all the Momo places, as chefs come and chefs go and as the food sometimes gets worse and then gets better again. Though I haven't been to Noodle Bar in a while and Ko in forever, má pêche (which has arguably one of the finer chefs to come out of the Chang tree), seems to me to be the least cutting edge, at this point in time, of all 4 restaurants. And the one I feel least likely to return to.

I imagine that walking into Parkside back in the 80's was like walking into a restaurant scene from a Scorsese movie. And it isn't really that much different walking in on a Monday night, mid-summer, 2011...except you don't get the cigarette smoke. Boisterously crowded with well dressed people (on a Monday night!) - I met my friends at the bar and after a quick apéritif, we were shown to a nice big round table in the "greenhouse" room. A giant bread basket filled with all sorts of goodies (meat bread, anyone?) and a plate with just enough salami, crostini and hunks of parmigiano for everyone at the table are immediately brought over and wine and water glasses are filled up just as quickly. The wine list is pretty deep and the prices amazingly reasonable, and I'm sure they make up for it in volume. Our table started with a special order - soft-shell crabs, quickly sauteed in butter, olive oil, garlic and lemon - and quite fabulous. They were on the dinner menu at four to an order, but the kitchen was kind enough to plate one up for each of us... For my appetizer, I ordered baked clams oreganata. I don't remember what anyone else had (it may have involved scungilli, eggplant and maybe a special salad or two?) as I was too busy devouring a great rendition of this dish. I usually order baked clams at Arturo's; don't tell them, but these put those to shame. I do remember what a few of the entrees were, however. Another special from the kitchen was one of them - Chicken Provençale. Big chunks of chicken, perfectly seasoned and cooked, bordered by potatoes... There were other chicken dishes ordered around the table, including Scarpariello (prepared both on and off the bone!) and Cacciatore. While I like my scarpariello a little more spicy, that's just me; in any event, the hunter's chicken proved just right... Me - the veal, please. Milanese, to be precise. After my less than satisfying veal experience at Ma Peche last week, I needed a good one, and it didn't disappoint. The cutlet, not pounded into submission, thick enough to remain juicy, and crisped up just right on the outside. Strewn with a basketful of halved cherry tomatoes, chopped red onions and fresh basil - this will remain the Milanese I compare all others to... Dessert? Well, as mentioned above, the Lemon Ice King is just down the block; it's always good to take a walk before dessert, isn't it?

Today I needed to pick up a few "healthy" things, as my fridge was getting bare. So I headed over to Whole Foods, which is where I go when I need an assortment of stuff, and don't want to go to 9 or 10 different places - at WF, it's all under one roof, and I like that. I mean, I try to shop "local" whenever I can - or at least as local as the Union Square Greenmarket allows. You know it's not being shipped in from California at the greenmarket, 'cause that's not allowed. Whole Foods, at least the ones that I know about here in New York City, also try to carry some local products, in addition to the stuff they get from around the world. I'm never surprised to see corn from Long Island, tomatoes from Jersey, apples and onions from upstate New York; well, you get the picture. But I was surprised to see this - because as the sign above the display said, it comes from 3.4 miles away... Yep, Gotham Greens, from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Rooftop grown lettuces. As their web site states: Fuggetaboutit. And - take that, locavores!

We get the "homely" sauce on some of the menus around Chinatown here as well. I'm pretty sure it means "homey" or home-style. The food looks good, though the eggplant dish looks like it has been cornstarched to death - the bane of so many stir-fries in restaurants.

You can always sit at the bar, can't you? Or do they not let you if there's more than one person in your party? This was actually meant to be a sit down dinner, in the restaurant. Besides the fact that one can always sit at the bar, do you find the food at all challenging, interesting, groundbreaking or even much better than you can get at a lot of other places? Would you rather eat here than say, Rouge et Blanc?

Last week I had dinner at má pêche...it was the 3rd or 4th time I've eaten there, and though I won't say it has gotten amazingly better over the course of the year since it opened, there were nonetheless a few dishes that I wouldn't mind having again. Of course, almost anytime you have to go downstairs to dine, I find it a bit off-putting. And this room basically screams dull. It's just plain blah, but maybe that's just plain me. A seven-spice sour, a cocktail that's one of Don Lee's creations, was still on the menu, and it's still a nice way to start a meal here. We started off with a fluke appetizer, five or six slices of very fresh fluke, served on a bed of sweet pea and basil puree, with puffed rice. A few items on the prix fixe menu looked good and everything is also available a la carte, so we chose the English pea soup with shrimp as another appetizer; it was fine though far from revelatory, as was the squid salad (fine, that is). Strangely, the veal chop I ordered was served with our appetizers, but I'm glad it came early, because it was dull, though I like the bed of polenta and mushrooms it was served with. Our group's favorite dish of the night was probably the pork chop (OK - the corn we ordered as a side was pretty darn tasty too). This Bev Eggleston "chop" was humongous; the size of half a loin, which it might very well be. Served perfectly cooked, on the rare side of medium-rare as requested, it could easily feed 4 people. Our trio tried valiantly, and I still took half of it home for lunch (and dinner!) the next day. It's served alongside a whole slew of root vegetables, with some snap and English peas and a whole bunch of salt thrown in for good measure... A few desserts are offered in the restaurant now; we skipped those and took home some sweets from Milk Bar instead. I can't say that there's any reason, any more, to rush uptown for má pêche. But if you're in the neighborhood, and looking for something a little different, it's a worthy option - I doubt it would even scare the parents.

This is my issue as well. And it goes to cooks who constantly touch their face and/or hair.

Is there some sort of conventional wisdom that ingesting hot liquids cools one off? I think I've read/seen/heard something to that effect. It's why people in hot climates drink hot tea, or why people in hot climates drink hot soup, no? I don't know if I believe it. Every time I have a hot cup of something in the summer, I want to stand in front of the air conditioner. And isn't the heat the reason we make iced tea, iced coffee, gazpacho, etc...?

Oy. What's he shilling there - pots and pans or some edible food product?