melkor

Bi-Rite does indeed kick ass. Their Ritual coffee ice cream is my current favorite. I don't care one way or the other about their cones - they're fine with me. I do like that they'll give you a split single-scoop. Salted Caramel and coffee is the way to go.

Overall, Japanese food is better across the border from Seattle in Vancouver. I suppose if you're looking for some interesting Japanese food in SF I'd go with the omakase at the bar at Sebo. Soko Hardware as Carolyn says does have Japanese knives, but they aren't exactly Hattori KDs.

I love the Zuni bloody mary and when they're good, the fries (though that seems to only happen about 1/4 of the time). I'd happily swing by for brunch on a weekend, but I'd rather leave the dinner reservations open for the zagat-wielding tourists.

Just to be clear, Citizen Cupcake is different from Citizen Cake - not that I like either of them, but Citizen Cake serves real food, Cupcake is a (more) casual cafe.

Clearly we have different tastes since I dislike Boulevard as well as Town Hall. Obviously people enjoy both restaurants (and Salt House as well) or they wouldn't be filling the tables, I just don't think the quality of the ingredients or the preparation is as good as it should be. I'd strongly recommend Quince or Delfina over Boulevard and Town Hall respectively.

Town hall is all about the scene, the food doesn't merit a visit. Nopa is good mostly because it's open late, SF shuts down early and nopa is one of the few places at that level that will still feed you at midnight. Citizen cake is overrated, everything they serve is really pretty but none of it tastes as good as it looks. Tartine is very good for morning buns and bread pudding - I find their croissants to be consistently overcooked - if it merits a visit depends on your tolerance for the line that often extends down the block on weekend mornings. BiRite creamery is worth a visit if for no other reason than to try the salted caramel ice cream. I had an incredible lamb heart tartare at Incanto the other night, it along with the roast lamb neck are worth a trip from Seattle. Another good option in SF is the Dining Room at the Ritz. In the north bay, The Generals Daughter is fantastic and Sonoma is a great place to wander around for a bit before dinner. La Toque in Rutherford is also excellent. For Japanese knives there is an outpost of Le Sanctuaire in SF - call them and see if you can stop by.

I cook with my copper pans nearly every day - I only polish them once or twice a month. I don't care if they look new, but I don't like having the gear I use look like I found it in the yard. You don't need to wash your car either...

I got my copper core set a while before I moved to CA - I've been out here for a six years. The pans were only available at williams-sonoma when I bought them I think that was early 2000. I like the car analogy - since I go grocery shopping in a British convertible, polishing a few copper pans is the least of my maintenance worries.

Cyrus stopped the idiotic phone call to the kitchen nonsense.

I have several all clad copper-core pans and a couple of bourgeat copper pans - the bourgeat pans are much more responsive but they also need to be polished. The bourgeat pans are also much heavier, so if you look like you desperately need a sandwich you should just get the all clad, otherwise it's more complicated. I throw the copper core pans in the dishwasher all the time, I've had them for about 7 years and they're holding up fine. I much prefer cooking with the all copper pans but they're a pain to keep clean. In the end it comes down to maintenance vs performance.

Plastic wrap does reduce the effect TCA has on a corked wine but it also strips a lot of the fruit - if you start with a great wine that happens to be corked you'll end up with a mediocre wine that isn't obviously corked. It's a good way to make something undrinkable into something drinkable, but don't expect the wine to fully recover.

The Passard dinner was seriously good. I can't say I'll be cooking up a chocolate and carrot dessert at home any time soon but several of the dishes served last night rank among the best dishes I've been served in years. I'm too lazy to write up a full report, but the highlights from the meal for me were the monkfish in mustard; abalone; spring lamb (crazy good with a glass of cheval blanc); and caviar in a seaweed gelee. The wines were fantastic as well.

Food in Tahoe is horrible for the most part. There's a reasonably good bbq place in south lake near the state line called womacks. Other than that, stick to skiing.

Does that mean I shouldn't stuff my triple espresso basket full of ground beef to make stock?

For this to work at all you'd need a pressurized filter basket - the kind you find on entry level machines and pod setups. It'd be really difficult to create enough of a puck with say chunks of pineapple for the extraction time to be more than a couple of seconds. Still - I'm not sure what you'd gain from this plan aside from a pineapple scented espresso machine.

In general I've found that Tahitian vanilla smells better and Madagascar vanilla tastes better so it really depends on what you're making.

Just brush off the excess salt - don't rinse it or you'll end up with a wet bird.

Be sure to go to the Generals Daughter while you're in Sonoma.

Seared foie does a good job of showing off different salts.

Absolutely. Castrated bulls are called steer in the states and they provide the bulk of the high grade beef. As annecros mentioned earlier, grading is optional - producers like Niman rely on their brand name to sell their product rather than having the carcases graded. There is no doubt in my mind that the beef Lobel's sells as prime is indeed from a prime graded carcas.

Prime beef is available at any number of butchers in San Francisco, New York, and most other major cities. It's also available mail order from dozens of different sources. Lobel's in NY is the only mail order butcher I've used, they're extremely expensive but the quality is excellent.

Figure around $2,000/lb for good white truffles this year.

I wouldn't expect much from jarred truffles, but they should make pretty damn tasty popcorn if you mix in some butter with some of the minced truffle and pour it over some popcorn.

I like to focus on the cheese so I'd keep it simple - aside from what you've already got I'd just add some walnut bread. For wine I'd go with something sweet from the Loire or Alsace - both have enough acidity to hold up against the cheeses where the sauternes will seem heavy by comparison. From the Loire I'd go with Baumard quarts de chaume or coteaux du layon, Huet demi-sec, Moelleux, or cuvee constance. From Alsace I'd go with a Pinot Gris SGN from Hugel, Zind-Humbrecht, or Trimbach.

Not being able to eat spicy food in Thailand is a hassle but there are still a lot of really good food options available. The only really good restaurant meal I've had in Thailand that wasn't spicy was at Sara-Jane's in Bangkok, it's a fantastic Issan restaurant. You'll probably be better off eating street food and at the open markets. Eat as much roti as you possibly can - it's best with sweetened condensed milk and a little sugar on top. I ate a lot of whole grilled fish at night markets in the northern part of the country, those are very rarely spicy. You should be able to eat the various grilled meat people are making on the sidewalks in Bangkok. There are also all sorts of incredibly good fried foods (crazy good fried chicken) on the street all over Phuket and elsewhere. If all else fails, drink insane amounts of young coconuts and sugar cane juice - either will do a great job of putting out the fire in your mouth after you eat too much spicy food.