davidthomas8779

Saw a link and ad for this knife http://www.aplusrstore.com/product.php?id=689 today. Claims to last 25 years before sharpening (5x ceramic and 300x steel) and is made from titanium carbide fused onto steel. Have any of the resident knife geeks tried one out yet? For $225 if it never needs to be sharpened, it should sell very well.

At the risk of discouraging gadget purchasing, couldn't you just buy a little flashlight? (or buy the new Canon 5D and shoot at 25,600 ISO)

I've lived in CA for 3 years and still can taste their Banh Mi. Almost worth a trip back for a sandwich.

The naming split is essentially an Eastern US v. Western US think. The left names are the eastern and the right is the west.

Fabulous ingredient, except it would cause my wife to croak, which is rarely my objective with dinner. Anything I could use to give that roundness of flavor without using shrimp?

GA has rather antiquated policies regarding alcohol returns, so the policy could be an accommodation of those rules that was just explained poorly.

Not in S.F., but there is apparently a place in San Jose that gets good reviews http://www.yelp.com/biz/hIfQgmYTfz5T2q7qFJuq9g just reviewed in the Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5621455?nclick_check=1

Friday's dinner. Chorizo, manila clams, and choy sum. Served it with rice to sop up the juice

My wife and kids can't eat wheat, rye, or barley. I love dumplings and would like to make them at home, but can't buy dumpling skins commercially b/c they're all made with wheat. Does anyone have a good recipe for non-wheat dumpling skins?

I've never used anything but a wide-mouthed juice glassAnd now that I've finally edited my profile to point out my proper current location, I feel a need to point out that prior to 18 months ago, I lived in Virginia and Georgia for 28 years and therefore know more about biscuits than the average Northern Californian.

do you shore-fish or fish from a boat? If a charter boat, do you have a recommendation? I want to take my kids fishing (or you could take us )

Nobody has yet pointed out the most important thing for a newcomer to know about living in Georgia. You can't buy booze on Sunday, liquor is only sold in liquor stores, although you can buy beer and wine in the grocery store, you can't buy alcohol to take home with you on Sunday (after noon on Sunday, you can buy alcohol in a restaurant to consume in that restaurant.) Nothing was a worse feeling than a Sunday of unpacking boxes only to realize that I couldn't buy a six pack and sit in my garage drinking beer and breaking down boxes to recycle.* Perhaps it was a worse feeling when I went to the house next door to borrow a beer. "Don't mind me, I'm Dave, your alcoholic neighbor from the North"

Last weekend I paid 1.29 per lb for gorgeous tasty cherries in San Francisco Chinatown. This weekend, I paid 2.99 at the Mountain View, CA farmers' market.

Madame Gifted Gourmet - If we could limit the cuisine to some specifics, I could provide some off-the-beaten-path input. As great as they are, I feel there are better places than Fat Matt's and Tamarind for candidates for their categories. I don't remember visiting Watershed. I wanted to nominate "The Varsity" to outdo Rachel Ray, but then I also expressed my wishes for Thomas Keller to copy the old Red Barn motif at his new burger joint. The finest Mexican food I've had anywhere, including California and the border area into Texas, is Nueva Laredo Cantina on Chattahoochie St. in NW Atlanta. I take all my out of town business associates there. The Vortex in Little Five Points has the best burgers/pub food in town. For Vietnamese/Thai, have you been to Saigon Cafe on Jimmy Carter (the best Pho)? For barbecue, have you tried Swallow At The Hollow in Roswell? I still prefer Touch Of India for the food and atmosphere in midtown, too. Pastis for authentic Provencal food on old Roswell square (my sister's firm help them with their visas). Canoe for their impeccable wine list. Thelma's Kitchen for Southern/Soul. Mary Mac's Tea Room on Ponce and Bobby and June's Country Kitchen on 14th for meat-and-three or breakfast, or Aunt Fannie's Cabin in Marietta for southern comfort (cliche, but the kind of places that have the traditions and stories the Food Network would eat up) All of these are Top Shelf, Gifted Gourmet, Top Shelf! If you'd like, I would be pleased to meet you at any of these locations to Chew and Discuss. (And this isn't some cheap come-on, as far as you know) Edited to add more ideas ← Matthew's Cafeteria on Main Street in Tucker for a great southern cafeteria experience.

Absolutely wait until you happen to walk past one . . . and then keep walking past it.

Although I'm technically a fur'ner now, I'll stop answering the Atlanta-centric questions after this one. The book is The Gift of Southen Cooking http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037540035...glance&n=283155 and you ate at Watershed (although you ate there on Wednesday and I thought fried chicken day was Tuesday?)

Jake orders four fried chickens and a Coke and Elwood orders dry white toast. edited to add John Candy orders an Orange Whip drink at the big concert. Is that like an Orange Julius? ← I'm pretty sure it was two fried chickens, not four, but you get credit. We still need to know about the song. It's sung near the beginning of the movie. I've never had an Orange Julius (not something you'd find in Atlanta), and for that matter have never had an Orange Whip, but have always assumed that it was a lot like something that's sold here by a famous restaurant, one that's always described as an "institution" in Atlanta. ← There is an Orange Julius in the underground mall/foodcourt around the 200 block of Peachtree Downtown, but you are referring to a Frosted Orange from the Varsity. And, unless you've aged horribly in the last 18 months, you are way cute enough to drive a Mini, although you'd look better in a 5 series convertible.

← This technique is known (somehow apropos) as a red herring. ← Why does everyone assume that referring to Steven as a lawyer* is necessarily pejorative? Regardless of whether he is or isn't a lawyer, describing the chapter technique as a case study (like one would find in law school) is a valid and, quite frankly, helpful descriptor. It painted a picture to me at least. *I'm sure that like all who have escaped the law, Steven describes himself as a former lawyer or reformed lawyer [i can make such jokes because I haven't yet escaped]

I vote for Mary Mac's because I think that if you take a group of people to the Varsity at least one person is bound to get sick because of grease intake.

Don't forget the plastic wrap! ← did you miss the part when she said it was dinner for 14-16 of husband's friends?

Put it in a ziploc bag and press the air out.

Sorry for being a pest, but sublime and awesome aren't descriptors that tell me why old cheese is better. Based on the who are posting the descriptions, I'm likely to go buy some old cheese, but most of you are people who can spend 3 paragraphs describing why french fries at McDonald's #32 are better than those at McDonald's #57 down the street.

I haven't gotten smacked yet when doing this and have gotten interesting explanations.

I'm the sort who will try anything once. I bought some feet on Saturday and cooked them with garlic, sake, and ginger in pot. Boiled them and then simmered for 90 minutes. I didn't like them because although the flavor was good (I loved the resulting stock), the texture was way to gelatinous for me. It was like eating Jello on bones. My 7 year old agreed with me (no prompting from me--he always has to give his opinion first "This tastes good, but it feels weird in my mouth") My 8 year old daughter ran from the room to avoid vomiting at the sight of a pot full of feet. My wife tasted and agreed that they were too gelatinous. All told, I'm glad to have finally tried them and will try them in some kind of dim sum preparation or fried in the future, but I am not going to make a pot of chicken feet for dinner at any time in the near future.

It was an interesting project, but I don't know that I'd do it again, though I suppose with cubes of pho demiglace and appropriate meat in the freezer, one could keep a supply of "instant pho" around. Hmmm. Must think about this. The broth is VERY gelatinous (to be expected, I guess) - the Gladware I chilled the leftovers in is a giant, quivering mass of jelly right now. ← In fact, I keep reduced pho stock in the freezer and it works astoundingly well.