nerissa

Hey Awbrig, Where on earth are you going to store your Costco goods after your bonaza of a Trader's Joe's trip? At the Lincoln Park store, they sell wine, beer, soda, and liquor. This is probably too late of a post, but I posted just in case anyone else is wondering.

Pan, this is an excellent question. And, haggis, I am glad to see that you brought in spatial considerations. I can't think of any singularly French neighborhood in NY or Chicago. Since I am a youngin' on this board, didn't "ethnic" food gain popularity in the 70s'/80s's when going to get Thai, Indian, Carribiean, Greek etc food was as much as a trip into another part of the city? Such a spatial practice may be less common with all the g.d. gentrification occuring. I think Pan's correct assertion that ethnic is often implicit putdown can be extended to those neighborhoods. The preppy term of "slumming" is a prime example. Edit: replaced of with or

Laurenmilan, You are not by any chance a fishmonger? Welcome.

Yeah! I even came home with one stacked with assorted bottles. Love that Poland Spring and Gerolsteiner are 89 cents. I bought a bottle but have not taken the challenge. Hmmm...even it tastes good, I wonder if I will think it tastes like a $3 bottle of wine. Maybe a blind taste would be better.

hey awbrig- glad you had a good time at TJ-s the kids looked like happy campers. That place is great, though I expected their wine selection to be larger. Oh well, I guess it is not the place to go shopping as we do have Sam's Wines and Liquors here as well. BTW--thanks for sharing yr tab, as I now feel much better about my $100.

I am not of Indian descent, but can I play? I have heard that it has healing properties, and everytime I eat rasam ( sahru), I feel so good. I think it is because of the asfoetida, onions, and dal--a great protein kick with spices that have excellent medicinal properties. I learned the recipe from my boyfriend who learned it from his mother and grandmother. But, Hema's rasam is 10 times better. She makes her own rasam powder. I have heard that Tumeric has anti-cancerous properties. I was reading the comfort food thread on General Topics, and honestly, I now crave Indian food as such, even though I didn't grow up on dosas, chapatis, etc.

Actually, when you are hungover, combining Gatorade with Tylenol is a very BAD idea.

After reading everyone's posts, I sorta feel deprived. My parents were wierd--comfort food to me is: Campbell's Consomme with rice and twist of lemon (fed to me when sick) Brown rice (parents were macrobiots in the 80s) Leg of Lamb with new potatoes with butter and parsley (Mummy from the north and spent time in England) But my 80s childhood in the South did allow for the gross stuff: pork rinds and Moonpies. But that's not really comfort food to me; rather memory food of driving through the small town South. Does anyone else have memory food? Is having 3 subcategories/branches of comfort food (childhood food) too much?

30. As my boyfriend is a PhD student, we have books coming out of our ears. We were thinking about buying more bookshelfs and told our friends and they laughed--said that will only encourage you to buy more books and build piles. It is one of the perks of dating a PhD student. When seedling season starts, it can get nasty--plants and books competing for space! Seriously--where do you guys find the space to store 200 + cookbooks?

TJ's was selling canvas TJ bags--I bought one for 1.99 yesterday. I asked if they gave credit for bringing in your own bags, as Whole Foods and my local coop does, and they said they were about 1/5 the size of Whole Paycheck. Canvas bags are much easier to carry--sling one over the shoulder.

Joler: On Monday after work, I made chicken soup from scratch--saved time by having the butcher cut up a fryer. I have had chicken soup with multi-grain toast, a glass of cranberry juice mixed with Pelligrino every night since. Of course, passive-agressively, I somehow "forgot" to put the Le Crueset back in the 'frig. Oh well, I guess I will have to throw it out. Not that it was bad, but I can't eat it anymore.

Guilty. I was getting it confused with the town in Massachusetts with a similiar name but is pronouced Wooster. My mother says to add the stuff to cheese souflee mixture when you combine the eggs with the cheese. I heard that one of its main ingredients is anchovies? Hmmm...I wonder if South East Asian fish sauce inspired this... I just searched and came up with something from fabulousfood.com: "Trademark for a piquant sauce made of soy, vinegar and spices." Okay, maybe not, but perhaps anchovies are "Ingredient X".

Did anyone want to send Nigella Lawson a tranq after reading her column in today's (wed.) NY Times. Oh wait, probably, do you think if she was drugged up, her writing could possibly get more florid, or "greedy"?

I think it was the larger size--i.e. not a single lunch serving. 1.59 seems like an appropriate discount.

Thank you for the invaluable advice. I have both kinds-carbon and stainless... no wonder my Sabatier's aren't too happy at the moment. Chicagoans: anyone know where I can get a good whetstone? Thanks.

I went to the new TJ's in Chicago on Lincoln and Grace. As maggie says, it's fun. The place is small and as others have noted, the produce is nothing to write home about. Basically, if you need to pick up lettuce. However, awbrig, they did have your beloved Fiji water for $1.59. Is that a good price? TJ's is the place to load up on snacks and bottled fizzy water, wine, and Orangina. I am going to take the 3 buck chuck challenge. It is right next to a CB2 (crate and barrell 2), another fun place to throw money away.

True, true, as someone mentioned above, "Bless his/her heart" is a great way to sweeten your insult. I grew up around southern women who could charm a grizzly bear. What I notice lacking above the mason-dixon is a lack of common courtesy to strangers. For example, when walking down a narrow sidewalk, you should make way for the other person. A lot of southern manners can be sacchrinely annoying "Yes Ma'am that" and "No, sir this"; but even in Class D restaurants-gas stations off I-95, I have been treated better at times than in the Gold Coast of Chicago.

Huh, I never knew you were not supposed to add liquid. I usually add a splash of milk-- I always thought it helped it get whipped better. My mother adds a dash of Wortchershire (sp) sauce to scrambled eggs and omelets. I love cilantro and or parmesean cheese in my eggs.

Well done!

I bought a beautiful scrapbook last December which has covers made from cork. My bf and I divided it up into sections similar to what you would see in a cookbook. I used to have a huge accordion file of clippings--they were glued into the book. I also went through a stack of Martha Stewart livings and other mags which I have been saving for that one recipe and glued them in. Now we are also writing down memorable bottles of wine, and what dinners we served on a particular night. The book was worth every penny- so much easier to deal with. As for keeping cookbooks clean, I don't know. I generally keep them on a stand on the hutch away from the work zone. When my bf was last in India, he bought a Koran stand; the shopkeeper was very confused as to why this Hindu really wanted a Koran stand. It makes a beautiful cookbook stand. But, I have my grandmother's 1st. ed. Julia Child's, and I really should buy a replacement--they are already falling apart.

Carmelita's? I've had their squash carpaccio and it was good. In the context of a vegetarian restaurant. There was a recipe for beet carpacio in Gourmet 12/02. Has cloyingly been mentioned yet? A certain NY Times food writer used a perfectly good word every damn Sunday.

This is embarrassing, but in college while on a trip to New Orleans, the first cookbook I purchased was Emeril's "New New Orleans Cooking". I rarely use it-- I have memorized his recipe for making stock. Whenver I look at it, I recall the disastrous and the memorable over the top dinner parties my roommate and I threw. We also used "The White Dog Cafe Cookbook" a lot for our cocktail and dinner parties. Like hjshorter, I also recall using first using my mother's Fannie Farmer to make popovers--or wait, was it the old Craig Kilborn's NYTimes cookbooks? I just remember flour on the butcher block next to one of those two books.

Priscilla, those cookies sound divine. Would you mind sharing the recipe or quoting its source? Thank you.

How about a tomatillo sauce with something to sweeten it up?

Reading this thread reminds me how diverse the South is. Each region in the South seems to have its specialty. Where I grew up, its shrimp and grits, gumbo, oyster bakes, boiled peanuts from the street vendors, RC Cola, Bleinheim ginger beer, and pulled pork. One of my best friends's growing up came from people from Baton Rouge. They raised crawfish and threw a boil each year. As for names-- my father and the dog shared the nickname: bubba: Lil Bubba and Big Bubba. Living in the north, I lament the lack of manners I was accustomed to in living in Chaston (Charleston, SC). Okay, now I really do sound like my grandmother, Miz Betty.