JAZ

I've heard that "heaviness" is a good indicator as well, but in practice, I guess I don't feel much difference, in limes at least. There seems to be more difference among lemons. However, as far as age goes, it doesn't seem to me that age correlates with juiciness. As I mentioned above, I've cut into limes with brown spots, even ones whose flesh has started to turn a little brown and they're still very juicy (even though I've been too cautious to use the juice when the flesh is brownish).

I noticed that the plywood is off the windows and the lights were on at the location in Midtown (on Monroe near Virginia), so I'm hoping it will open soon. Has anyone heard an opening date?

In my old neighborhood, I got spoiled buying citrus -- I could almost always buy lemons at 5/$1 and limes for half that. The quality wasn't always the best, but even when they were a little old, they seemed to have lots of juice. Now, not only are lemons and limes really expensive, but I seem to be running into a depressing number of dried out fruit -- limes especially. I wonder why that is, but more important, I wonder if there are reliable ways to predict which fruit will be the juiciest. From casual observation, it seems to me that the driest limes have had really dark, rough skin, but I don't know if this is an indicator, or merely a coincidence. It certainly doesn't seem to be the case that old limes are drier -- I've used limes (and lemons) with spots that are quite juicy. In fact, once in a while, I've cut into one that's actually started to turn brown inside -- I haven't used them, but they seem to still have plenty of juice left. With lemons, it seems to be a different story. I rarely find lemons that are dried out in the same way as limes (oranges also seem to suffer from desiccation), but I have bought more than a few that have such thick skins that the actual fruit is tiny and thus produces very little juice. I try to get lemons that give a little with pressure, but then sometimes that backfires and I end up with a spoiled one. So, essentially, I'm at a loss. Anyone have tried and true methods for estimating juice content for citrus fruit?

Having done a fair amount of research on this phenomenon, I have to say that this "test' is virtually worthless. As a previous post said, it's about ambiance and social constructs, not about tastebuds. This quiz makes it seem as if being a supertaster is merely a matter of likes and dislikes in some vague sense. It's not, really. It's a matter of tastebuds and measurable sensitivities. There are a lot of reasons a person can dislike Brussels sprouts, for example -- just disliking them doesn't mean you're a supertaster. From what I've read, more reliable indicators are an aversion to alcohol, a violent dislike of bitter foods, and a virtual inability to tolerate spicy foods. Whether you like patios, or smell your food before tasting, or like to talk to your friends while you eat seem to me to be completely spurious questions in determining supertaster status. I can't believe a publication printed this.

After reading hathor's and Pontormo's comments, I actually re-read the article to make sure we were talking about the same thing. I said before, and I stand by it, that it didn't seem to me that she's claiming any kind of Italian "authenticity" for her sauce or her mother's sauce. I saw just the opposite: yes, she starts out in Italy, but she quickly realizes and freely admits that there's no "mother red sauce" to be found there. From her grandmother necessarily relying on American ingredients to her mother and aunts further changing the "family" recipe depending on whim (and what was in the freezer), she seems completely aware that the family sauce is an ever-changing hybrid that's more a state of mind than an actual recipe. That, to me, was the point of the article. To get upset that her sauce isn't "Italian" or "authentic" or to infer that she's perpetuating stereotypes is, I believe, to miss her point entirely and to put words in her mouth (or typescript on her page) that she never intended. While I might not go as far as Steven and say that it'll be the best of the Times in 2007, I did think it was a very well written and artfully constructed essay that told the story she wanted to tell. (And I'll second his statement about headlines -- never hold a writer responsible for the headline.)

I don't think the point of the article was supposed to be about Italian cooking at all. She says pretty clearly right at the beginning that it's about the changes in a family recipe: She very quickly realizes that it's not about the Italian version of the sauce (whatever that may have been): Nowhere in the article does she claim that her sauce, or even her mother's sauce, is authentically Italian, so I guess I don't see that it perpetuates any stereotypes.

Umami is a difficult taste to understand -- especially since many of us didn't grow up thinking of it as a taste and so have less experience identifying it. "Sour," "sweet," "salty" and "bitter" aren't really any easier to define, but since we've heard the terms since we started eating and have plenty of examples, we feel more comfortable talking about them even though we can't actually define them. Another difficulty in trying to isolate the umami taste is that many common umami-rich foods are also salty -- soy sauce, fish sauce, aged cheeses, anchovies -- so I think it's easy to think of umami as just a different kind of saltiness instead of a separate taste. "Savory" isn't exactly a synonym for umami, but it happens to be the term most writers use when talking about the taste, so I think of it as a kind of starting point. However, as I point out in the second class, Texture, I think that much of the experience of umami is mouthfeel rather than actual taste. The best way to "understand" umami is to experience as many forms as you can by trying the foods that are high in glutamate. Buy a bottle of Ac'cent, a chunk of grana cheese (the older the better), fish sauce, mushrooms, etc. Try a pinch of the Ac'cent dissolved in warm water -- I think that's the purest form of the taste. Think about not only what it tastes like, but how it feels in your mouth. Saute the mushrooms and try them plain, then try them with a pinch of Ac'cent -- I think this is a really good way to "get" umami, since you're tasting it at one level with the mushrooms, and then bumping it up with the Ac'cent. I know this isn't a very fast and easy answer, but I hopt it helps.

Am I the only person who doesn't like the taste of flowers in my food? Rose petals or rose water, orange blossom water, lavendar -- they all make me think of soap or perfume when I'm eating.

I think the 20 minutes to Zuni is overoptimistic -- 20 minutes actual travel time, maybe (with little traffic), but that's not counting the time to get a cab, much less rent a car. BART's convenient, but depending on the schedule, I'd say it's at least 45 minutes to the city. That being said, I think if I had six hours, I'd leave the airport, but for only two hours, I'd stay. As Erik said, it's not all bad. The Anchor bar has great beer, but the food is not that great. However, Perry's is very good for pub food -- good sandwiches and burgers with (I think) housemade potato chips. Good Bloody Marys too -- made from scratch instead of a mix.

I go through stages with buying salted snack nuts, and I guess I've been out of the market for a while, but it seems to me that there are a lot more combinations available these days than there used to be. When I was a kid, mixed nuts came in two varieties: regular -- with peanuts, or "deluxe" -- without them (and much more expensive because of it). You could get just almonds or just cashews, or just peanuts, but the two choices were pretty much it as far as mixtures went. Now, if you check out the nut aisle at your grocery store, or (for instance) the Planters Nut site, you'll find the usual mixes (also in honey-roasted and "lightly salted") but also specialty mixes. I just found a mix of cashews, almonds and macadamia nuts from Planters, for instance, which is quite possibly the only nut mixture I will ever buy from now on (no need to discreetly push aside the pecans and Brazil nuts). I'm not sure if this wider selection is a result of the new craze of nuts and health, but I'm all for it. Has anyone else noticed this trend? Any other great mixes out there I need to try?

Having moved recently and thus not knowing anything about which delivery pizza places are any good, I've tried a couple of frozen pizzas, and found one that's pretty good -- California Pizza Kitchen's Crispy Thin Crust. I tried some of the regular CPK pizzas when they first came on the market, and maybe it was the varieties I tried (not my choice, as I recall), but I wasn't very impressed. But these, which I think are pretty new on the market, are really good as far as frozen pizza goes. I've tried the Sicilian and the white, which is all the market by my place carries. The white is fine if you like that sort of thing -- cheese and spinach. I prefer the Sicilian, which has a generous amount of good quality meats. The "fresh" basil and oregano taste dried, and if I have a complaint, it's that the dried herb flavor is a little heavy. But when I get off work at 10:30 and need something for a quick late dinner, it's a definite step up from bad delivery, and it's a lot quicker.

For another taste test of chocolates, see this report from NPR's website. Among their winners: and Which reminded me how much I like Fran's caramels -- I highly recommend them if you can find them.

Depends on the cucumber. If you get the kind that are covered in wax, then it's much easier to peel than to try to get the wax off. Plus, I think that type of cucumber (even without the wax) has a much tougher, more bitter peel. The "English" cucumbers (which in my experience come wrapped in plastic with no wax) are fine without peeling. But back to the question at hand, I find that a serrated swivel peeler like this one is by far the best tool for the job -- it cuts through the wax without slipping, gets only the peel with virtually no flesh, and is much faster than a knife.

What you're missing out on is bottom-freezer! Side-by-side is a woefully poor design. Not enough room for large or bulky items in the freezer side or on the fridge side. Bottom freezer makes so much sense. Most of us spend far less time going in and out of the freezer than we do in the fridge. Why be hunching over or bending down so often when you don't need to? I remain bafffled as to why there are so few bottom freezer models on the market. ← I'll admit that my experience with bottom freezers is limited to the woefully inadequate Sub Zero that was in the kitchen where I used to teach classes, but I would never in a million years get one like that -- one big drawer with a small wire mesh pull out drawer on top. I'll second what Pam said: Plus, when you wanted to put a half-sheet pan of puff pastry or cookies or anything in to freeze, it wouldn't go in flat -- you had to tip it at an angle to get it in and ended up tipping half the contents off. Same with ice cream base in a bowl without a top, or anything you wanted to cool off quickly. There might well be better models on the market, but I'd be wary of them until you're sure everything you might want to put in the freezer (even if it's just for 20 minutes or an hour to chill) will go in and come out easily.

The results were, I think, pretty predictable. I'm sure they were only testing brands available everywhere in the US, but if you add limited availability chocolates, I'd go with See's Candy. Not only do they have a variety of ready-to-go boxes, but if you go into one of their stores, you can design your own box, which is really great. My uncle used to give us gift certificates for a 1-lb. box for Chirstmas, and it was great to be able to get a pound of exactly what we wanted, rather than get a pre-packed box that always seemed to contain something that no one wanted.

I have found The Complete Meat Cookbook by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly to be a great addition to the library. They don't go over butchering, but they do explain various cuts of beef, pork and lamb, and how to cook them. I've used a couple of recipes from the book, and they've been good, but mostly I just use it for reference.

I've tried that same panko made by Ian's. In fact, I bought it at a whole foods in Aventura, FL. I bought it because it was availble in Whole Wheat. However, it is not a japanese panko, definately not the same. ← I did see the whole wheat version, as well as a seasoned type. It isn't as if it's not usable -- it made an acceptable topping for macaroni and cheese (mixed with a lot of butter, that is) -- but you said it: it's just not Japanese panko. And thanks for the information, GG. I know the markets along Buford Highway -- it's just that I don't get to them very often. Next time, though, I'll stock up.

When I first tried panko bread crumbs for frying (a few years ago), I was hooked. When I lived in San Francisco, I could find bags of panko at most markets. I never really paid attention to the brands I got (although there always seemed to be some Japanese writing on the packages, so I assume they originated in Japan) because they all seemed to perform the same. Now that I've moved, I'm more limited in the stores I can get to easily, so I mostly shop at the Publix down the street. I wanted panko for something, and after wandering around for what seemed like days I finally found a plastic jar of panko made by Ian's Natural Foods. I was so happy to have found them I didn't think twice about buying them, but when I used them I was very disappointed. The "real" Japanese panko I was used to was flaky -- you know if you've used panko that it's designed for breading and frying, and the shape means that it performs beautifully for that job. Ian's, in contrast, is like little pebbles (think Grape Nuts). It doesn't want to stick to foods (even floured and egg-coated), and even when I got a reasonable amount to stick, the resulting crust was unpleasantly hard instead of nicely crunchy. Now, I'm sure that I can find decent panko here, but what's the deal with this disappointing fake panko stuff? Has anyone else encountered this? Is Ian's the only brand to avoid?

Obviously I don't have a Western stick of butter here as I type, but I have to say that Wikipedia is wrong on the dimensions. No way is it only 3.125" long (the math doesn't even come out right). And Eastern butter is not packed side-by-side; it's also packed two-by-two. And maybe the difference is not so great that butter dishes can't handle both, but I know that butter dishes in the West fit the Western sticks.

Over on this topic which asks the question why American recipes tend to specify butter in tablespoons rather than by weight, this comment was made: which is, of course true, but it's only half the story. The full story is that yes, the butter companies in the U.S. generally package butter in one-pound blocks divided into 4 1/4-pound sticks, with tablespoon markings on the wrapping. But the other half of the story is that in the East, those sticks are a different shape than the Western sticks. (Western sticks are a little shorter and bigger in diameter.) This isn't something that keeps me up at night, but, having just moved to Atlanta after spending all my life in Western states, it's a curiosity to me that my butter sticks are a different shape from what I've bought my whole adult life. (Incidentally, it also means that I've had to relearn my eyeballing technique for measuring butter.) If you think that it's just due to different dairy companies packaging in the East than in the West, think again. Land O Lakes, as an example, packages butter differently for Western and Eastern distribution. Why? It's got to be more expensive, more time consuming, less efficient. So, why do it? Is there some tradition that dictates the shape of butter sticks? And of course, once I noticed that, all kinds of other questions came bubbling to the surface. Well, one did. Are butter dishes shaped different in the East? Since I use a butter bell instead of a flat dish with a cover, I don't have a Western butter dish to try an Eastern stick on. That question will remained unanswered for now, although I suppose I could go shopping for a butter dish here and see what shape it is. I do know that there's a gadget that measures butter by tablespoon -- you put a stick in and use a pusher and cutter to measure and cut however much you need. The cookware store where I used to work sold them. I always thought it was a pretty useless gadget -- if your butter is already that shape, then chances are excellent that the measurements are on the wrapper, and if it's not in that shape, then it's got to be way more trouble to cut it or shape it to fit than it is to measure out a tablespoon or quarter-cup or whatever you need. I did check out local cookware stores, and in case you're interested, at least some Eastern cookware stores sell Western butter measurers. I have yet to see an Eastern butter measuring gadget. So, what's the deal with the dairy industry? Is there a tradition I'm unaware of, or a reason that butter sticks are a different shape depending on where you live and buy butter? And most importantly, is there an Eastern butter measuring gadget?

I assume that it opened in the space that used to house Sunset Pizza? (It figures that a good pizza place would open after I left.) Still, it'll be good for the neighborhood.

I don't think these ice cube trays make cubes quite as large as Donbert's, but they are nice for cocktails. The cubes are 1-1/4 inches on a side (and they are perfect cubes, which is really nice looking in a drink).

A few comments: As Erik said, many people have never had a well made cocktail in their lives. And as Steven said, a lot of people don't want evangelism; they want what they know. But there's no reason you can't make really good versions of the cocktails that people know and want -- that can be special in and of itself. Take the Cosmopolitan: it's not a particularly complex drink, but a well made version with good quality triple sec and fresh lime juice instead of bottled sour mix is a huge step up from what most people have tasted. (If you can get a guest to try it with gin instead of vodka, that's one more step up in complexity.) Next thing you know, they'll be hooked on Pegu Clubs. Back to the subject at hand, I think that there's a lot to be said for starting by learning how to make what your friends like, but making really good versions, or making similar but better drinks. If your friends don't have favorites, then make the accessible classics like Margaritas, Sidecars and Daiquiris. Then as your group advances, go on to Manhattans or Martinis, or anything else that stikes your fancy.

In one of my cookbooks (Hot Hotter Hottest, I think), there's a reciope for a kind of Bloody Mary course -- tomato aspic made with horseradish, molded into an individual savarin mold (think donut shaped), and served with an iced shot of vodka in the middle of the aspic. I've never tried it, but it seemed like it would be a nice course for a brunch. I'd think your idea would work just as well, in a different way.

My cookware collection includes pieces from a number of manufacturers. One thing that I simply don't understand is why any of them think that riveted handles are a good idea. From what I've read, All-Clad is the leader in making this sound like a good thing, but many cookware lines have them, including Mauviel, Kitchenaid, the new Le Creuset stainless line, and Analon. Scanpan's new line has riveted handles, even though the old line didn't. Why does anyone think this is a good idea? Maybe at one point in cookware manufacturing riveting was the only way to ensure that the handle stayed on, but this is certainly no longer true. Demeyere proves this -- its handles are welded, and in my almost 10 years of working for cookware stores, I've only seen one Demeyere pan returned because of faulty welding, and that was because the lid handle came off (not to malign my customers, but the lid had definitely been dropped). Riveted handles suck. They collect crud; they make it impossible to cleanly scrape the inside of the pan. (All Clad even puts rivets in the handles of its ridiculously expensive measuring cups -- how silly is that?) So what's the deal? Why is Demeyere virtually alone in welding handles to its pans, so that the inside of the pan is smooth?