KatieLoeb

I was going to keep this secret to myself, but I can't hold out on y'all anymore. Truffle gorgonzola fries at 1601. There, I said it.

My pleasure and I think you ought to be all over that. A captive audience of brides-to-be who are looking to book as many vendors as they can in one afternoon. It's like shooting fish in a barrel... Check out Philadelphia Weddings and Jersey Weddings magazines. Any larger bookstore should have them. They would likely include the bridal fairs that are in your geographic market. I'm sure the contact information is somewhere in the ads so you can book a table and present your lovely wares. You probably wouldn't even need the crappy tent, since most of these take place in hotels, catering halls and other indoor venues.

Tim: Sadly, I don't know the answer. I think orange peels may be inherently more bitter than lemon, or maybe the simple syrup should be sweetened slightly above a 1:1 ratio for this. And I really don't know a thing about the Brita trick. I choose to use decent 100 proof vodka (Smirnoff) and that's always worked out well for me.

Exactly how does one respond to that request? ← You laugh. You have to. You need to distract yourself from the overwhelming desire to choke them.

Then there are people that make the truly odd requests that make the waitstaff and/or kitchen insane: "I'd like the seasonal field greens salad with no autumn, please..." "I want that sandwich on the 12 grain bread, but no oats please. I don't like oats." "Can I have the 15 bean soup but with no limas??" Pick the effing limas out yourself, jackass!! I still don't understand why Japanese tourists insist on drinking HUGE tannic trophy red wines with their oysters. There are very few wine pairings that genuinely don't work, but that one is like toothpaste and orange juice. Blech!

Stephen: Congrats to you and Jill on a very successful weekend! Everything looks delicious and it's nice to see your pictures to put names with the faces. Let us PhilleGullets know if you'll be having a booth at any festivals or food events in or near Philly. There's the Haddonfield and Manayunk Arts festivals, as well as lots of bridal fairs and other venues where you could introduce yourselves to potential customers that might slightly widen your sphere of influence. I'm sure we'll be there to support you and try those delicious looking cupcakes!

Daniel: The Hot and Sour soup at STH is good, but next time try the H&S soup a couple of blocks around the corner at Lee How Fook on 11th. It rocks the house and is just the thing to blast a cold out of your head. It's my go-to soup for a head cold. Those spicy dumplings at STH are the best spicy dumplings ever. For regular pan fried dumplings I usually stick with the ones at David's Mai Lai Wah that come with the killer gingery dipping sauce. Something else you should try on your next foray into Philly Chinatwon.

There are Cranberry sodas?? Excellent! I'll see if my local Wegman's has it on my next trip. I'm already hooked on the Wegman's Wedge (grapefruit) and Cherry Wedge flavors and they're great mixers with rum and tequila too.

And you didn't let us know you were coming?? Duuuude. Give us the heads up next time and we'll find more places for you and your prodigious appetite to dwell...

Judith! So excited to see you blogging, expecially from your lovely home in Italy! This is going to be great. Beautiful food, great scenery and cute kitties (OT - is Rusty an Aby? He's gorgeous!)! All the makings of a fantastic food blog. You go girl! Mille grazie for taking us on this little vacation to Umbria.

Throw it in the food processor and add white vinegar and salt. Buzz until blended to a paste. I hope you didn't take too much of the flavor away with the hot broth bath. If this comes out too weak, next time use the leftovers to infuse some vodka for oyster shots and Bloody Marys. The alcohol ought to get at least the last of the flavor out of it. When I make horseradish every year for Passover I wear ski goggles. It's like a tear gas bomb when you open up the food processor!

Oh my gosh. Jim is making his own tonic at Gramercy?? Jeez. I'll never be able to keep up. Not that I ever could, but he's setting the bar (so to speak) pretty high. Dang.

Not a wine bargain, but for those of you into mixing up serious and interesting cocktails, the Yellow Chartreuse is on closeout for $30.99/bottle. You can plug in your location at the link above and see where the nearest bottle is located.

You truly are my hero, for a hundred reasons. This is only one of them. Say hi to Jim for me. He's da man.

What happens when from the moment I enter a restaurant, I sit down at a table for my meal and order a drink as well. Does the bartender not receive any tips from my payment? That seems rather odd to me since although I am having dinner and the waiter/waitress is serving me, the bartender is still making my drink. ← The waitstaff "tips out" the bar at the end of the evening, usually based on a percentage of their beverage sales. But if you have a drink at the bar before dinner and transfer that drink to your check, the bartender will only see a fraction of the tip they should be receiving for that drink, if anything at all, because as dsoneil pointed out, most (not all) servers are just greedy. The procedure suggested by dsoneil is indeed the proper way to make sure your bartender is taken care of if you're pleased with the service provided.

Today - an absolutely perfect copy of The Frog Commissary Cookbook for $4. Not a huge bargain, but a great book nonetheless for about half of what a used copy would go for without shipping on Amazon. My best cooking find at a yard sale was a gigantic multilevel lobster steaming pot for $3. I still haven't had occasion to use it, but one of these days I'm gonna steam me up a whole mess of lobsters and corn on the cob all at once!

Sorry I missed this, but would try and make it for a repeat journey. Great pics too! Looks like a lot of fun. I had no idea that La Scala even existed, so having that on my radar for a future visit is a side benefit to your wonderful reporting.

Wow! That's some cockail party and some bar setup Donbert has! Most impressive. You're all my kind of guys. Oooohh! I know! Put some in cognac, cut back on the Cointreau a bit and make a Spiced Pear Sidecar!! Yummy and very autumnal.

How sweet to name a drink after me! Maybe you could use my first name instead of my last though? Might sound more appealing... It sounds yummy! Interesting choice of ingredients too. I like cherry flavoring in almost any rum or tequila concoction.

I had the pleasure of having Jim mix me up one of these last week when I was visiting. Truly one of the most delicious cocktails I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. If someone could get Jim to post his recipe for that fabulous libation I'd be eternally grateful. That was one seriously tasty drink! ← I will talk to Jim and see if I can get the recipe. Sunday may be a visit to Gramercy if I recover from Saturday dinner party in time. ← John, you're my hero!! Jim didn't seem to have a problem sharing his recipe, although I suspect the rest of us might not be using the Top Top shelf ingredients he's using in his version. I might have to substitute regular Chartreuse for the V.E.P. and a lower level Cognac for the Ferrand or whatever he's using. That was one damned tasty drink though... ← No problemo. I emailed Jim, I am assuming he would be cool with it. I know he published his recipe for his Van Brunt cocktail in LeNells newsletter a few weeks ago. That is another killer cocktail, using an equally expensive ingredient, the Chinato. ← I had one of those too... And yes - also delicious. I hadn't ever tried the Chinato and Jim was nice enough to let me taste a little on its own. A most interesting ingredient. I think I could have some fun playing with that if it weren't $96/bottle in PA!!

I had the pleasure of having Jim mix me up one of these last week when I was visiting. Truly one of the most delicious cocktails I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. If someone could get Jim to post his recipe for that fabulous libation I'd be eternally grateful. That was one seriously tasty drink! ← I will talk to Jim and see if I can get the recipe. Sunday may be a visit to Gramercy if I recover from Saturday dinner party in time. ← John, you're my hero!! Jim didn't seem to have a problem sharing his recipe, although I suspect the rest of us might not be using the Top Top shelf ingredients he's using in his version. I might have to substitute regular Chartreuse for the V.E.P. and a lower level Cognac for the Ferrand or whatever he's using. That was one damned tasty drink though...

I had the pleasure of having Jim mix me up one of these last week when I was visiting. Truly one of the most delicious cocktails I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. If someone could get Jim to post his recipe for that fabulous libation I'd be eternally grateful. That was one seriously tasty drink!

Yowza! Talk about food porn! That eclair shouldn't be viewed by children.

You can try a Slippery Slope, one of my earlier efforts in my cocktailing obsession. A Lemon-Ginger Cosmopolitan is pretty tasty too. 2.5 oz. Lemon flavored Vodka (I like Ketel One Citron) 1 oz. ginger beer .5 oz. triple sec splash of fresh lime juice splash of cranberry or pomegranate juice Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

A Derby cocktail, perchance?? Looks good. And you're using all my favorite ingredients. YUM! The cucumber Margarita variation looks interesting. Does the tequila match well with cucumber?? That's a combo I haven't played with yet. Carry on...