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Everything posted by KatieLoeb
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Food Fright: today's pregnant women are afraid
KatieLoeb replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Oh ferchissakes. Have we forgotten the days of yore when there was nothing to drink but mead (fermented beverages were preferable to the local water supply) and women would squat in the fields and give birth to strapping babies and continue sheaving wheat as if nothing had happened. With better medical care also comes more and more paranoia. Of course doing shots of tequila while pregnant is decidedly unwise. Having a glass of wine with dinner occasionally is not a big deal. Some women with high risk pregnancies are actually prescribed a glass of wine nightly to prevent premature labor. Drinking in early pregnancy is the greatest danger. How many women drank like fish before they even realized they were pregnant? How many women were drunk as sailors on shore leave at the moment of conception??? Follow one's own doctor's advice. They are the only ones with enough information on any particular pregnancy to give advice. -
A couple of producers that I'm fond of are Two Hands Wines for Shiraz, Grenache and blends of the two, Annvers for their shiraz (which I have on my reserve list) and Fonthill for their "Dust of Ages" Grenache. I had the pleasure of having dinner with the winemakers from these three wineries and tried some of the wines with them and some after the fact. They're all of excellent quality and really excellent examples of each varietal. The Annvers and Fonthill wines are more on the boutique production level, but well worth seeking out if you can find them.
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I can't think of anywhere else in the wine growing world where sandy soil and humid summers lead to good wine. Great for tomatoes. Not so much for the grapes.
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I'd think the Woodbridge would be the Cash Mastodon! Between being the "house" wine at several national chains and every caterers favorite cheap 1.5L choice for parties, the oceans of Woodbridge always have a place to go.
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Make a variety of quiches and then freeze them for quick dinners when you don't feel like cooking in the future.
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Good One! I meant to put that on my list and spaced out.
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Andrea: Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to speak with us. It's an honor to have you here. The rigid "rules" of the DOCG dictate a lot of what you can and cannot do and keep the DOCG stamp of approval. Are there any "blending experiments" or new winemaking techiques you're working on that might lead to a "declassification" of those wines to IGT status? If this is the case, does it bother you? How flexible to evolving to new winemaking techniques do you think the Powers That Be in the Italian government are, and have you seen any indications that some relaxation of the rules will take place in the future?
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I'm glad you and your friend enjoyed my favorite sushi spot. Matt is indeed an artist, a personable host and a most humble master chef.
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As soon as my 1940's sandwich press I purchased on eBay arrives, I've going to satisfy this jones I've been having for a grilled Brie & Asian Pear sandwich on Raisin Nut Bread.
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Overtures has a certain romantic charm as well. Deux Cheminees is lovely - antique filled townhouse with fireplaces and exquisite service. Dilworthtown Inn is very charming. Definitely agree with Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Astral Plane is sort of "funky romantic" - like eating in your Grandma's attic.
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Lunch on Tuesday - Shrimp fried rice and fried scallops. Thai chili sauce optional.
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Ooooooh Viva! Those Pineapple Margaritas sound so yummy! I love the Tangerine-cello idea. PLEASE post those results. I made a Limon-rita for myself last night. About equal parts of limoncello and the cheap gold tequila I use for frozen margaritas in the summer time. A splash of Gran Gala and some sour mix I'd brought home from the bar to experiment with some cocktails at home. Whirled it up in the blender with just a few ice cubes so it was cold and frothy but not slushy frozen. Pretty refreshing! I really like the Gran Gala in my drinks although I always have a bottle of regular Triple Sec around the house as well.
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Arielle: No, I wouldn't argue with them and create a scene, but I'd certainly taste the wine and let them know politely that there was nothing wrong with it. Uneducated customers aren't going to learn a thing from being rewarded for not knowing a thing and thinking they can send back wine with the dismissive wave of a hand just because they don't like it. Learning proper "wine etiquette" comes from experience, and if no wine professional ever explains to the customer (or at least implies it from their tone) that it's incredibly bad form to send back perfectly good wine, then they'll continue to do so all over town, at great expense and inconveniece to each restaurant that hosts them. Additionally, although all my by-the-glass wines are available by the bottle as well, there is a small "Reserve List" of wines that are only available by the bottle, and that I usually only keep 3-6 bottles of each type in house. They tend to be more expensive than the glass wines and would be priced prohibitively by the glass, so if a customer sends back that perfectly good bottle, it pretty much goes to waste. Yes I'd try to sell it off by the glass, but it's unlikely that my clientele would pay more than $14-15 for a glass of anything. A really savvy server might be able to sell a glass or two, if we're lucky. By the next day it's been opened too long and it goes to the kitchen to make a sauce from, or goes down the drain. My staff gets to taste all the wines when a new product comes in. I always ask my wine purveyors for a sample bottle of anything I've just purchased for the first time (or when the vintage changes) and taste the staff on it. My restaurant is a small and exceedingly busy bistro, so we don't really have the need for an "on-the-floor" sommelier. That's why I train the staff to know the wines they're selling. And I spend enough hours at the restaurant that I don't need to be there until the end of dinner service 7 days a week!
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OK - so everything is baked at the Northern Liberties plant. When you say "new baker's mistakes" are you taking about a new head baker? Do the folks that used to own Metropolitan (James and Wendy) still own it? I know they're preparing to open their new restaurant at the site of the old Novelty on 3rd Street so I'm guessing they're tied up with that project. We use the Metropolitan breads for almost everything - dinner rolls, raisin bread for the cheese plates, sandwich breads, baguettes, brunch breads, etc. We do get our hamburger buns from another small bakery. My position at Rouge is in my signature. I'm the Controller and the Beverage Director. Basically I deal with the bookkeeping, finances, payroll, human resources, etc. AND select and order all the wine, liquor and beer.
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Wine & Spirits Bargains at the PLCB (Part 1)
KatieLoeb replied to a topic in Pennsylvania: Cooking & Baking
Check HERE. Granted it's the winery's own site, but other cab from the same vintage got consistently higher than 90 points from Wine & Spirits and The Wine News. I'm no big advocate of numerical ratings or attempting to quantify something as personal and subjective as "taste", but it's fruit from the same vineyards and the same winemaker, so that's gotta mean something. The same wine (The Howell Mountain 2000) is selling for $45 from the winery! So it's definitely a bargain. Whether it's to your taste or not remains to be seen. Let me know what you thought. -
Interesting. We use Metropolitan for many of the breads at Rouge and there haven't been any problems with the quality control for the commercial accounts (or at least this account). I wonder of the breads for the retail stores comes from a different source than the bagged deliveries we get every morning. Do the retail shops bake their own breads at each location, or does it all come from the same huge commercial bakery on Marlborough Street? Shinyboots, you're on... And welcome to eGullet and the PA forum. Nice to have you here.
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Alas - I missed the Asian Pears YET AGAIN! They had very few of them at the Head House Market and they were gone by 12:40 PM when I got there. I missed the market at Rittenhouse Square where there might have been some left because I got to work a bit later than expected. I did manage to stop at Reading Terminal to buy some good cheeses from Esh's Dairy. 1 Smoked Horseradish and 1 sliced Hot Pepper cheese. I'm going to make some badass grilled cheese sammies this week! Since the good tomatoes are still around I'll be having variations on those for the foreseeable future. Next week I'm setting my alarm clock and I'm going to be first on line for the Pears!!!!
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I'm sipping a Limonrita. Tequila, Limoncello, a tiny splash of Grand Marnier and some sour mix shaken like someone you loathe. Pretty tasty and defintely having the desired sedative effect.
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Heineken and Hashish. Works for me...
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Ahhh, James. The pears are here. And I'll be damned but I haven't had one yet! Two weeks ago they had too few and they were gone and last Saturday they had plenty but they were still gone by the time I got to the market (admittedly it was late). Must. Buy. Asian Pears. Tomorrow. I have always said the North Star Asian Pears are obviously the prototypical fruit from the Garden of Eden. There's nothing else I could imagine getting tossed out of Paradise for. And yes. They really are that good. I like the (I think) Olympias that come in like October. They're huge, like the size of a softball, and they taste like butterscotch with a crisp snappy apple texture. :drool: Really the very best fruit I've ever had. About three years ago at this time of year I was doing a temp job at a building firm and I'd bring the Asian pears in for lunch and snacks. "What's that?" everyone would ask. "I've never seen one of those before..." So I'd cut one up and let everyone try it. Within a week I was getting money handed to me and buying up pounds of them for the folks at work who'd never had anything like them before. I'd show up with HUGE bags of them and have to divvy them up to everyone. It was amusing. Also want to try some of those heirloom apples they've got at North Star. It's almost the High Holy Days for those of us that are M.O.T. so apples are high on the list of things to have for next week. I'm tempted to bake the Jewish Apple Cake recipe that's on this week's newsletter I've pinned. But then I'll have a cake in my house and end up eating the whole thing myself. My Rosh Hashanah resolution this year is to stop eating without restraint.
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Kisso is at 4th & Race. It's still open. Herb is right. Hikaru is pretty good too. Don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. It's my "sushi-in-a-pinch" place since it's practically across the street from my house.
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There are cocktail glasses for all tastes and <ahem> appetites... Looky Here Mongo ought to be stumbling out of bed sometime tomorrow if he had one of those.
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I can't tell all of you how gratifying it is to be the anointed "Limoncello Queen" of eGullet. I just love hearing everyone's stories and new ideas for recipes. This has been such fun and I look forward to continuing to hear about everyone's adventures with infusing their own spirits - be they limoncello or whatever.
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Genji or Kisso should suffice then. I was at Sushi Samba for a drink last night. Food looked real pretty going by. Is it actually any good, or just the trendy thing to feed the trendy clientele there? Where in NYC did you get your fixes? Oh - and welcome to Philly! Hope you can come out and play with us soon....