JAZ

I have had a cheesesteak in Philly (wiz with), in fact I have done the Geno's v Pat's one evening. Yeah, that's right one from each. I am in the Pat camp. I have also had from other places around town. I have to tell you, you can get a decent Philly outside of PA. It is rare, but it happens. I think it is MUCH harder getting a Chicago beef out side of Chicago, and it is INFINITELY harder to get a great roast beef po-boy out side of New Orleans. The hard part about the po-boy is the bread. I have NEVER found real po-boy bread outside if New Orleans. The Leidenheimer baking company makes the best. It is light and airy with a perfectly crispy crust. In fact, it took them a while to get back up and running post Katrina and the po-boys around town were not the same. I'm willing to concede that I haven't had the best (or most authentic, or whatever) Philly cheese steak, but it seems to me that syoung is onto something. If there's an ingredient in a sandwich that's impossible to find outside the original locale, then I'll concede that you have to be in that place to get an excellent version of that sandwich. So, I agree about the po'boys. Is there something in cheese steaks that put them in that category? (Incidentally, I'm excluding pastrami and corned beef, meatballs and burgers from this discussion. I think the base filling has to be unaltered roast beef to qualify.)

This morning, NPR's "Wait-Wait" blog featured the iconic Italian beef sandwich from Chicago. It got me thinking about different styles of beef sandwiches -- ones I've tried and ones I've only heard of -- and which style is the best. I've had an Italian beef from one of the big names in Chicago. It was pretty good. I've also had what I'm told is a relatively authentic version of a Philly cheese steak, although it was not from Philadelphia. It was also pretty good. The diner style of an open-faced roast beef sandwich with gravy should probably be considered, as well. I've heard of beef on weck, but I have no idea what exactly that is. My choice for best beef sandwich is the French Dip. It's minimalist and lets you concentrate on the beef. Unlike the diner style, it can be eaten without a fork and knife. Am I missing any iconic beef sandwich variations? Should I seek out beef on weck? Can someone tell me what that is?

Me too. (Scroll down for a recipe.)

A splash of grapefruit juice and a dash of Angostura is great in a gin and tonic. I got the idea from a recipe by Gary Regan.

It occurred to me tonight when I was making enchiladas with leftover duck breast that I could eat Mexican/Mexican inspired food four or five times a week and be perfectly happy. Yet, I was raised with pretty traditional "American" cuisine, so that's not my culinary background at all. Sure, we had "Mexican" (i.e., Mexican-American) food when I was growing up, but we also had lots of American versions of German, Italian and Chinese food. Yet those didn't stick with me the way "Mexican" did. So it got me wondering if other people have grown to have favorite ethnic or regional cuisines that they weren't raised with. Is there a cuisine not your own that you love and could happily eat all the time?

I recently checked out the web site Hungry Girl after hearing about it from several acquaintances. If you're not familiar with the site, the premise is that Lisa Lillien, aka Hungry Girl, finds "healthy" (read low-calorie, low-fat and low sodium) substitutions for unhealthy restaurant dishes. It seemed worth a look, but the reality is pretty bleak. Her staples seem to be Fiber One cereal (for coating everything from chicken to vegetables in her "oven-fried" foods); fat-free versions of Jello products, Cool Whip, cheese and mayonnaise; and "lite" soymilk. Her recipes sound so awful I can't believe anyone would try them. This one for "satay" was especially horrible-sounding. Here's a tip, Hungry Girl -- lite soy milk and reduced fat peanut butter do not a satay sauce make. But she's got several books out and apparently now a TV show, so maybe I'm missing something. I admit that I've only browsed through it quickly. Does anyone find this site helpful? If so, what do you like about it?

I've used the filling recipe from Pamela Sheldon Johns's Parmigiano for spinach and ricotta "handkerchiefs" in ravioli and it's great. I don't see it online, but it's pretty standard (I think). One pound of spinach, steamed or sauteed and then squeezed dry, 1 cup ricotta, 2 oz. parmigiano, grated, one egg yolk. Seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper. You could use more spinach, I'm sure -- just be sure to get it as dry as possible.

I make pureed vegetable soups a lot, both for myself and for classes, and what I've found is that my old blender worked better -- faster, actually -- than my food processor, so that's what I used. If I want a really smooth soup, I pass the pureed soup through a medium mesh sieve. I recently got a Blendtec but haven't used it for soups, so I'm not sure if I would need to strain after blending with it. When we teach our Kitchen Basics series, we have our students prep asparagus for steaming and roasting, and then use the ends for asparagus soup the next day. There's a Vitamix where we teach, so that's what I use for pureeing the soup. Even using that, though, I still need to strain, because there's so much fiber in the asparagus ends. If I were using the tender part of the asparagus or other tender vegetables, I'm not sure I'd need to strain the soup. In my experience an immersion blender (I assume that's what you mean by "hand blender") is pretty much worthless if you want a smooth soup. It's great if you want something rustic, but you'd be blending for hours to get the soup totally smooth.

I've been eating a lot of pistachios lately and once again have come up against the ubiquitous problem of how to crack open that handful of nuts that aren't opened. I ignore them as long as possible, tossing them back in the bag as I come across them, but the point comes when that's all that's left in the bag. When I was a kid, I cracked them open with my teeth, but now that I'm older, I value my dental work too much for that solution. A regular nutcracker (at least the one I have) is too big for these little guys -- they just slide out. Any great ideas out there? Am I doomed to just throw them away?

I have a Russell Hobbs toaster, which I bought several years ago. I love it, but it doesn't seem to be made anymore. This is the four-slice version (I have the two-slice), so if you see one on eBay or anywhere else, grab it.

I've seen a sweet potato explode during baking -- what a mess. Ever since then, I make sure to prick or slash any potatoes I put in the oven

Steven, how are you planning to serve the turkey? To me, that makes a difference in how I'd cook it. Although I don't do much turkey, when I cook chicken breasts for sandwiches, I poach them and keep the meat in the cooking liquid, but if I want the meat as the main dish, I'll roast them (brined if I have time).

I've been trying several brands of berries, and Dole is the best of the brands I've had. Cascade Farms is pretty good; Trader Joe's mixed berries were disappointing, and my supermarket brand is mostly pretty bad (blueberries are decent but raspberries are vile).

Tracey, the only thing I can see is that you have both mini-corn dogs, and cocktail franks in wonton skins, which seem similar. If I were you, I'd do something else in the wonton skins. Crab rangoon comes to mind, but you could also use the wonton skins as pasta and do fried ravioli.

Before you make a special trip, you might want to read this article on Coke and taste.

Andouille puffs - do tell? Kerry, they're really easy. Slice andouille sausage into 1/4-inch coins and saute briefly, just to render some of the fat. Let cool. Cut a sheet of puff pastry into 2-inch squares and place the squares into the cups of mini-muffin tins. Place a piece of sausage in the middle of each square, pressing down firmly. Bake at 400F for about 10 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. Top with a drizzle of creme fraiche mixed with honey mustard. Here's the complete recipe.

Here are some favorites from cocktail party classes we've taught: Sweet and spicy walnuts Tuna tapenade on crostini "Twice-baked" baby potatoes Corn (masa) cups with chicken in red sauce or chile verde Phyllo triangles filled with just about anything -- mushroom/roasted garlic/brie and ham and Gruyere were the most recent Beef roll-ups with mango filling Andouille puffs Toasted pita rounds with cucumbers and herbed yogurt cheese (kind of a deconstructed Tzatziki and pita) The nuts, potatoes and beef would be gluten free, I'm pretty sure, and you can do the yogurt filling in cucumber boats without the pita. I'm not sure about the gluten content of corn. For deviled egg variations, we've done a crab remoulade filling and Creole style.

I'm confused. Doesn't this photo show a "tip to root (or maybe root to tip, w/e)" cut? I can't quite find the right words. Let me try again: you want to slice it along a longitudinal line, north pole (tip) to south pole (root). The onion naturally breaks along that line, so you don't want two of them, just one. Now I'm confused. I understand what you're saying about cutting the onions "pole to pole" -- it's what we teach our students. But what I don't understand is that -- to my mind and eye -- in the photo you ARE cutting the onion north pole to south pole. The other way would be (as we tell our students) along the equator, which you are clearly not doing. Am I missing something?

While we're on the subject, someone recommended Bay's brand of English muffins recently. I've never tried them, because I distrust refrigerated bread products -- it seems like they'd be dried out before you even got them home. Has anyone tried Bay's, and if so, how do they compare to Thomas's?

Did the saffron get cooked too long in the oil? I find that spices in general can turn bitter if they even start to burn a little.

I'm doing Christmas Eve dinner; it'll be simple since there are just two of us. Salad of beets and oranges topped with pistachios to start, followed by a dish modeled on one out of Think Like a Chef by Tom Colicchio. His dish is spiced roasted lobster with pea ravioli; mine will be seared sea scallops and shrimp with pea ravioli. I'm aiming for a lighter, brothy sauce than he uses as well.

I'm a big fan of small bites for parties, so I make lots of miniature versions of food. Some hits are miniature "twice baked" potatoes with small red or white potatoes, mini-quesadillas (much less messy than mini-tacos) and miniature patty melts on cocktail rye. Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook has some great ideas, including (I think) miniature b'stillas in mini muffin tins.

Tommy Appleseed?

I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for -- something like The Flavor Bible, that is, lists of ingredients that go together? I guess I just don't understand what a list of "all foodstuffs" would provide.

I'm curious -- are you thinking of the bread, soup and casserole/quiche/stew presented as one meal? The reason I ask is that although I think all three things are great to offer, I'm not sure that they make up an ideal meal. That is, if I had stew and bread, I wouldn't want soup as a first course. (Same with a casserole.) I'd want some kind of salad to balance it out.