melkor

Right. It's a service issue as far as I'm concerned not something to freak out over. If your server keeps bumping your chair while you're eating and you're spending $500/person for dinner, that's an issue. If it happens at your local $3/person pho shop on the other hand...

A lot of people don't like coffee, several chefs I know don't drink it at all...

If good coffee has caramel, chocolate, whipped cream, and sprinkles then Palombini and Peets are effectively the same thing. The difference between drip coffee and Peets espresso is much more significant than the difference between a Peets espresso and a Palombini espresso.

So eggs + mayo squished together in advance and put on bread == revolting. Eggs sliced and places on bread coated with mayo and squished together by mouth == delicious. I like egg salad, but it's the sort of thing I only eat a few times a year. It's a bit too gloppy, maybe I need to make it with duck eggs so it's got a higher yolk %. Before I go searching for duck eggs, has anyone tried this?

If you store lettuce wrapped in paper towels, it seems to last longer. Herbs wrapped in moist paper towels last longer also. It also depends what type of lettuce it is - little gems and other romaine type lettuces last longer than baby greens.

I'm a firm believer that if a restaurant is making customers sick it won't stay open for long. I don't worry about restaurant food making me ill, I eat street food all over the world without any trouble. A misplaced hair, some lipstick, whatever - if the food tastes good, I'm a happy camper. Granted, I'd be irritated if I were served another dessert with a used bandaid in it - but anything short of that is unlikely to bug me.

There's a seriously strange assortment of things you find when you google for Palombini espresso - barley tea pods made by Palombini for making tea with your espresso machine, the linked-in page for a guy who sells Palombini espresso in Australia, the personal website for the exclusive Palombini importer into Moldova... etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like anyone sells Palombini espresso in the states. I'll second Owen's suggestion that you give us a little more info on what you're looking for, we can probably recommend a local roaster that can supply something similar to what you want.

Is the sumac sold in Middle Eastern stores in the U.S. the American or the Middle Eastern variety ? ← Depends on your Middle Eastern store I'd imagine.

I'm with ya on the panini...

If you only drink port and champagne you'll be all set. Get yourself a pair of port tongs and snap the neck off all your bottles of port. A kitchen knife will work to saber your champagne bottles. Problem solved. I've got no idea why you can't work a corkscrew, you must have a friend who can - ask them to show you how.

I shop, here in Southern California, at Ralphs as owned by Kroger. Where would I find Lavash? I know where to find pita (but try to get to Trader Joe's for that). ← I don't know where in SoCal you can find Lavash - any middle-eastern market should have it. Trader Joes may as well. I get mine at the International Food Bazaar in San Jose or at Parkside Market in SF.

I've got a friend who is just finishing his second vintage with crushpad, he's making much better wine than anyone expected. If you don't mind owning a dozen cases or more of the same thing, it's a good way to get more involved with the wine you drink.

Tortillas amazingly enough aren't the only flat bread in the world. Lavash makes a much better wrapper.

Using Bourbon to make vanilla extract almost certainly comes from people being unaware that Madagascar/Reunion/Mayotte/Comoros/etc were called the Bourbon islands. I'm gunna make me sum bur-bun vanillie, where'd I put that dang fifth of jack? Neutral spirits are the way to go...

How is a bad wrap any different from a bad sandwich? Saying you dislike bland ingredients mixed with a gloppy sauce served in some flavorless starch package isn't exactly earth shattering. What next? Proclaiming that puppies are cute? I'd bet that Sam can make a more delicious wrap than the best traditional sandwich any domestic airline has ever served in-flight. To think that the American wrap is the worst offender of corporate/airline/lazy catering is a mistake. The in-flight food prior to wraps being served was no better and since most airlines and caterers have stopped serving wraps, it hasn't improved any. Focusing on the current garbage they produce just causes them to move on to the next culinary disaster - focusing on the poor quality of the ingredients and the careless preparation might actually make them consider serving something better...

Vanilla is rarely cold-extracted commercially and you're right, commercial extracts frequently include other junk (black food coloring, sweeteners, etc) - I prefer cold extraction, but it takes about six months for the alcoholic smell to dissipate. Comparing vanilla extracts is easiest if you use an ounce of milk and a couple of drops of vanilla for each sample.

Hmm, well I'm not sure how that works. I do know that he made a BIG point to me in private correspondence that he is the OWNER and ADMINISTRATOR of the wine forum. I will PM you with the juicy details. ← Excellent. He just recently started reviewing the dry wines from the Iberian peninsula for the WA, prior to that I have no idea if he was working for the advocate or not.

My latte art has been getting better lately. Hearts are a piece of cake but I'm still having some trouble getting a clear rosette.

In what way? I have a jar Mom's Special Marinara right here. Ingredients are tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, butter, fresh basil, sea salt, black pepper. That's not too different from my own sauce.What about home canning? Is that "nasty" too? I'd love to be able to can enough sauce every August to last for an entire year. I'd also love to have a freezer big enough to hold a year's worth of spaghetti sauce. But I can't and I don't, so when I run out I choose the highest quality jarred sauce with the fewest ingredients. ← It's nasty in the taste way. Home canning works fine for whole tomatoes or concasse, but not so delicious when it comes to finished sauces. I try and preserve enough tomatoes during the summer to last the winter, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When I run out, I buy canned tomatoes - they produce a better finished product than jarred sauce, but it isn't anywhere near as good as home grown or farmers market tomatoes.

Why not just make a huge batch of sauce and freeze it? The stuff in jars in nasty no matter how you look at it.

* Horribleness of the wine. * Number of zagat wielding khaki-clad suburbanites that can fit at the bar. * Insanity level of the staff "try this KJ chardonnay, it's very Burgundian!"

I'm a little confused by your stand on this, John. Lots of wine producers who are rated by the Wine Advocate post on the eBob forums. (Which, by the way, are not owned or managed by Robert Parker. The forum site is owned and administrated by Mark Squires.) ← Mark Squires being an employee of the Wine Advocate...

Grade inflation is markedly worse in the restaurant industry - look at the absolute garbage that Michael Bauer gives 3 1/2 stars.

I refuse to buy any pinotage rated less than 98 points.

And strangest of all is the navel orange - all navel oranges everywhere can be traced back to one mutated tree.