KatieLoeb

Trish: My purveyor tells me that the Fleet Street products are only in NY, NJ, DE and PA. However, try this link WineAccess.com. You create an account for yourself and then you can hunt for wines all over. You just enter the name of the wine you're looking for and then your zip code and it will tell you if there are any retailers in your area that are carrying it.

Beans: I have a bottle of Heaven Hill 7 yr. old bourbon at home that's had a big handful of "used" (scraped out) vanilla pods in it for about 4 months (for those of you that work in restaurants with a Pastry Department-it is an excellent source of these used pods that would normaly just be tossed out). The pods themselves still have quite a bit of flavoring left to give off and it makes a mighty tasty bourbon & coke or is nice for sipping on its own over ice

Why thanks Suzi! Glad you like it as much as I do! The Bele Casel Prosecco is imported by Fleet Street importers. I have reason to be speaking with my sales rep tomorrow without a doubt. I'll make a point of asking if there are any outlets for their products in CT. I'll post what I find out for you.

Wasn't this very same dish just named in the NYT article HEREre: "Jewish Christmas" and going to the movies and eating Chinese food at Shun Palace or Shun Lee West? The dish sounds delicious so if someone can weasel a recipe out of their favorite chef in either NJ or the Upper East or West side I'd be happy to see the results posted in the recipe archive.

I'll second the recommendation for Roederer Estate. Very reliable Schramsberg Demi-sec sounds like what your sweet tooth is craving. Can be found in the $35-40 range and tastes of pears and honey. YUM! This stuff is really delicious. I recently tasted through the Laurent-Perrier line and all the products were solid. The NV Brut entry level bottling blends about 20% of the reserve wines in and is quite tasty and affordable.

Amen, Sista'! I once (and ONLY once, I assure you) had a shot called an Iron Curtain. It had something from all of the former Iron Curtain countries in it. Stolychnaya, Jagermeister and Rumplemintz. GAH! Can I tell you quickly that shit hit the instant eject button? My friend who was with me still rib me about it. The mere mention of it makes me a bit nauseated. The BF is a sweetie and I'll bet the crew grew hair on their PALMS for drinking that nastiness warm

With written permission from the author, I will post this very helpful link: Yiddishkeit Glossary This is an amazingly thorough site that has almost any Yiddish expression you might wish to translate. The site author, Mr. Michael D. Fein, tells me that they are working on an upgraded version which will allow searching in both English and Yiddish. However, he and his partner do this in their "spare time", so the upgrade might be a short wait. Nonetheless, it is a treasure trove of Yiddish expressions, and there is a newsletter and forum as well. The newsletter has several thoughtful articles and very fine writing to boot. Not bad for a stumbled upon Google find! With my sincere thanks to Michael Fein.

Great article and fabulous writing, Craig! My wallet allows for Rosso (which I truly adore) but I sometimes have the fun of having the Brunello at work and man, do I love that wine! Rosso di Montalcino is like Brunello 101. It's training wheels for the casual wine drinker that wants to expand their horizons. All Hail the Mariani Family!

I was under the impression that the corkage rate was approximately 1 in 16 bottles or about 6%. Can anyone name another industry where a failure rate of 6% would be not only acceptable but expected?? Car tires? Brakes? Glass? Elevators???!!!??? I think you can all see where I'm headed with this. Is it any wonder that screw tops and synthetic corks are looking a lot more interesting than an organic product that's both in short supply and subject to "infection"?

Actually, I've always wondered about the pronunciation of this as well. Is it GREE-bins or GRIB-ness like Crib-ness? Some help with this quandry would be nice.

The Rebbetzen is the Rabbi's Wife. A former next door neighbor of mine was a female rabbi. She said the running joke amongst her and her other female collegues at school was: If the Rabbi's wife is the Rebbetzen, what do you call the (female) Rabbi's HUSBAND? ANSWER: "Doctor, if she's lucky!"

Have fun at Django! Great little BYO we're proud to have here in Philly. I'd suggest finding one 1/2 bottle of an unoaked Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling (if you were lucky enough to find such a thing that wasn't dessert-level sweet) and one 1/2 bottle of Pinot Noir. That should have the most flexibility in terms of pairing with whatever you order. The Pinot Noir in particular is versatile enough to have with meaty "steaky" fish (i.e. Tuna, Swordfish), or duck or anything with a mushroom component. The white you'll have to wing it, but choose something you usually like and it'll probably taste good too! I wish I could give you a specific wine recommendation, but not knowing what is available in your area prevents me from going out on tha limb. Perhaps Mark Sommelier who is more familiar with the market there could be helpful? His choices always sound good to me!

Excellent work, Rachel! Love the article, and Ted is even more fascinating than I imagined. How cool that he enjoys reading eGullet. With quality writing like that, who can blame him?

The chocolates from Miel have always been well received by my gift recipients. Pretty presentation both outside and inside the box. And did I mention that they taste amazing?

Sweet! It's always best when such things are a pleasant surprise. No expectations and nothing but enjoyment.

Happy Birthday Rabbi! Go treat yourself to some schmaltz...

What he said. And I'll add that large servings of liquids along side your liquid first course will spoil your guests appetites for the rest of the meal. An excellent quality white vermouth is King Eider, from Duckhorn Wine Co.HERE. It's a California vermouth that's a bit more aromatic than the standard Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi behind the bar.

Dude - did my invitation to this wine spectacular get lost in the mail???!!!??? Sounds like the great food was secondary to the outfrigginrageous wine! I need to be hangin' out with your crowd more often....

As far as I am aware, the membrillo and manchego pairing is a classic Old School Spanish dessert thing. Isn't it just dreamy ? Ohmigish. I can't remember the last time I had this. I think I must go on a quest this week to feed this craving I've now created. A close second to that pairing is the Goya Guava paste in the Spanish/Latino foods aisle with a small wad of cream cheese. Also an unlikely, but truly delicious pairing.

Beans: Would this be a "HAIRY Buffalo?" Of course there's always draining the bar mat into a shot glass and getting some unsuspecting fool co-worker to drink it...

Evil? No! Requiring immense amounts of restraint? Definitely! Priceless? Even moreso than a credit card commercial!

Reading through this thread has reminded me of another incident. Not something I did, but let someone else do in my presence. Let me explain... I have a cousin who makes Martha Stewart look like a rank amateur in the homemaking/cooking department. We were invited to the rabbi's house for the second seder of Passover this particular year. Cousin not only makes her own homemade horseradish (learned everything I know from her on that score), but she GROWS the horseradish root in her garden as well. Horseradish is a lot like chile peppers. The smaller the root, the meaner the burn. She had just plucked a few pencil thin roots from the garden that morning and peeled and grated them into a jar to bring along for dinner. When we arrived at the Rabbi's home, his son answered the door. "Oh great! Horseradish! I LOVE horseradish!", he said as he began unscrewing the lid. Everything then became a slow motion picture of gaping mouths screaming "NOOOOOO!!!" as he took a big honkin' sniff of it. YIKES! I've never seen a human being turn that color ever before, nor do I wish to again. Very scary stuff!

A dear friend of mine once completely ruined a microwave by putting a Chinese restaurant take out container into the oven and forgetting about that little wire handle The microwave apparently began melting and warping and ended up looking like a Salvdor Dali painting of a once much loved kitchen appliance.

Holly: There's a whole lot of rumor flying around regarding what will happen to SB under Mr. Starr's ownership. One rumor is that he only bought the place to flip it to another buyer that didn't wish to enter the fray of bidding. Since Starr Restaurant Group has the local credibility and financing, it was easier to cut a private deal with Starr than to go through the court. Again, just a rumor, but who knows? The funniest rumor was started by one of my wine purveyors. He said that part of the renovations would involve motorizing the huge bronze fish sculpture above the open kitchen and turning it into the world's largest Big Mouth Billy Bass that would turn its head to the dining room and belt out "Take Me to the River"! I've already started an e-mail list of the employees, and as soon as that's complete I'm going to e-mail it to everyone on the list. Not sure whether Tony the Fish Dude comes with the sale or not. I presume he'd want his biggest client back, don't you? Actually, at one point Tony and one of the produce purveyors wanted to bid and had the money to do so, but they didn't have all of the i's dotted and t's crossed apparently and couldn't enter their bid because they didn't fulfill the very stringent court ordered criteria for bidding. Hence, Mr. Starr's bid was the only one, and the winning one. Presumably, Mr. Starr wants to keep the name, all seafood theme and level of cuisine the same. Methinks he's looking to find a big-name celebrity chef to "front" and consult, much like Morimoto-san does at the other restaurant. I wonder aloud how much Stephen Starr wants to prove himself with his first four star "fine-dining" establishment in his stable of properties. I think he would want the public to see that he can do white tablecloths and excellent service too, non? I hope that means he'll hire back a lot of the staff that makes that all possible.

Canned Tomatoes Olive Oil Canned Soup Mustard Hot Sauce