KatieLoeb

Chris: The drink was in my files as I'd actually made the drink before (and called it an Algorithm), but with Bulleit bourbon. Tasty that way too, but tonight we were out of Bulleit and we already have a couple of bourbon cocktail possibilities for the new list. Tried it once with Canadian whiskey as an alternative we hadn't explored yet, but it was too light and the pineapple too overwhelming. Staring at the shelf trying to figure out what else to use I spied the bonded apple and my brain lit up. I'll certainly try it once without the Peychaud's as well, or maybe wait until our Fee Whiskey Barrel aged bitters come back in and try that. Thanks for the suggestion. The original Algorithm version had Peychaud and Whiskey barrel bitters, but we're out of those too, for at least a couple of days until the mail order ones arrive. Our house absinthe is the Vieux Carre (a nod to our local friends at Philly Distilling) which is more herbal and somewhat less anise forward than many others. The well sweet vermouth is Boissiere, which I like a bit better for "normal" applications than the M&R for a similar price. I suspect that makes my version taste ever so slightly different than yours. I wonder what this would taste like with Carpano Antica? Might be a waste with the pineapple, but one for giggles would be interesting to try.

I think you have had bad luck with glass washers. You do have to take some basic care of them. They need to be drained every single night. They need to be primed and filled every morning. Believe me I'd rather not have to do the glassware when I'm busy either, however if I'm busy, chances are the dining room is full too and I'm likelier to find a clean glass when I need it right in front of me long before I can flag down a busperson or server to go find me a clean tray of glasses when we're slammed. The 3 section rotary glass washer works just fine. And I know the water is hot enough to sterilize my glassware. I'd scald myself in a three part sink before I'd feel as confident about hand washed glasses. And the hand sinks wreck my hands, trashes my manicure (yes, I keep a neatly groomed short American manicure at all times. Guests see my hands a lot when handing them menus, drinks, food, etc.) and doesn't clean things as well. There are also under the bar models that take a square glass rack if you hate the rotary guys. I've never worked with one, but they seem to function well enough in the places I've seen them.

Working up some new ideas with my cohort behind the bar. My best effort tonight: Newton's Law 2.0 oz. Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy 1.0 oz. pineapple juice .5 oz. sweet vermouth scant barspoon or 3 dashes absinthe 1 dash Peychaud bitters 1 dash Angostura bitters Build over ice in a rocks glass. Roll a couple of times to mix and garnish with a lime wedge. Pretty interesting how the apple brandy, pineapple and absinthe play together. Fruity in a good and not too sweet way. Lime wedge to dial it back if you disagree. Hopefully this one will make it on to the menu soon...

V: No question that Pho Saigon is meant for round eyed people. But it's pretty good for round eyed people. And it's open until at least the semi-reasonable hour of 9pm. Not even that late. I can't always get to Cafe Diem for lunch. And that's pretty much my only option given how early they close and how often they choose to close early. Cafe Diem comes highly recommended by my Vietnamese manicurist. I trust her implicitly in these matters. She also likes Nam Son on 16th Street just above Washington Ave. in the Asian mall there. That place is also pretty good, but again, they close early and start mopping with the noxious chemicals before you're done eating. That's just wrong and will keep me from going back somewhere toward the end of the evening. Thanks for the tip on the blood cubes. I'll keep that one in mind...

Color me not too surprised that no one at Stella realizes that repeatedly heating and cooling the wine is terrible for it. I'm surprised that there aren't drip marks coming from under the corks of stuff running down the bottle/labels. Blech. They're serving cooked wine. That's disgraceful. And really amateurish to boot. Is there NO ONE in that place that knows better???

Italian Rum Cake might be one of my favorite things in the world. And living in Philadelphia has exposed me to any number of versions of it. There's a really good bakery in South Philadelphia every couple of feet. You can't swing a cat any further than the next excellent bakery. However, I swear by Varallo Brothers Pasticceria at 10th & Tasker. And their iteration of the Rum Cake is the one I buy for every birthday or occasion that calls for a cake. It's sooooo good! I'm not sure they'd be willing to share their secret, but perhaps if you'd already done your research and come armed with some pointed questions they might be a bit more forthcoming. They are super nice folks and in addition to the rum cakes, their amaretti cookies, fruit tarts and pignoli cookies are the best on earth. Really. There are none better in a town filled with killer Italian bakeries. Varallo's Bakery 1639 S 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19148 (215) 952-0367 PS - tell them the crazy beyotch that came for the birthday cake the day after the blizzard a couple of weekends ago sent you. They'll definitely remember me.

Italian Rum Cake might be one of my favorite things in the world. And living in Philadelphia has exposed me to any number of versions of it. There's a really good bakery in South Philadelphia every couple of feet. You can't swing a cat any further than the next excellent bakery. However, I swear by Varallo Brothers Pasticceria at 10th & Tasker. And their iteration of the Rum Cake is the one I buy for every birthday or occasion that calls for a cake. It's sooooo good! I'm not sure they'd be willing to share their secret, but perhaps if you'd already done your research and come armed with some pointed questions they might be a bit more forthcoming. They are super nice folks and in addition to the rum cakes, their amaretti cookies, fruit tarts and pignoli cookies are the best on earth. Really. There are none better in a town filled with killer Italian bakeries. Varallo's Bakery 1639 S 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19148 (215) 952-0367 PS - tell them the crazy beyotch that came for the birthday cake the day after the blizzard a couple of weekends ago sent you. They'll definitely remember me.

Awesome. My work here is done. It's easy to be intimidated by a big tough hunk of vegetable that you have no idea how it tastes or what texture it ought to be. However, most vegetative matter is fairly tame if approached in that manner and can actually become a part of the regular rotation once you've beaten it into submission once .

So funny you should mention that. I just bought a bottle of it on a whim yesterday, but cracked open the other bottle I'd bought (Dynamite Zin) to have with my steak dinner last night. Not sure when I'll get to it, but I'll be certain to report back about it. A brief Goggling for that wine reveals that mentions of it exist on Snooth, Winezap.com, etc. yet there aren't any reviews. That could be as simple as no one that subscribes to those sites having had it/reviewed it yet, or maybe it is a PLCB exclusive. The whole point of the Chairman's program was to buy up in bulk and pass along the savings. Now that Jonathan isn't running it anymore though, it makes me wonder if no one else wanted it and the current IIC in their lack of wine knowledge bought it all up to release on an unsuspecting populace in the Commonwealth. However, even blind pigs find truffles, so who knows?

I find either pretty easy to cook. Cut in half and scoop out the seeds. If you want to microwave them then put water in the empty cavity and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Microwave on high, turning 90 degrees halfway through, until tender. These can also be roasted face down on a buttered cookie sheet or in a small amount (1/4" to 1/2") of water in a glass baking pan until tneder. Delicata are one of my favorite squash. I eat them a lot in the autumn as they're readily available at my local Farmer's market from Sept-December. Really good with melted butter and a bit of pumpkin pie spice or just a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. No need to peel them. They scoop out of the shells easily enough when they're cooked through.

Am I forgetting an entree?? I keep thinking there was something else that I'm not remembering...

Delightful New Year's Eve repast at Han Dynasty CC. Han was kind enough to help us choose some appropriate dishes (more like we told him a couple of things we really wanted and he chose the rest) and the resulting feast was excellent. Spicy Noodles with ground pork (I think), hot oil dumplings, pork belly (oh yeah!) followed by Cumin Lamb (my favorite), Rabbit in Dry Hot Pot and snow pea shoots. Everything completely delicious. Rabbit was tongue numbingly laced with Szechuan peppercorns. Really yummy and unusual. We found that sparkling wine, Argentine Torrontes and Gewurtraminer are all excellent accompaniments. Won't be long before they see me again. Will be bringing some coworkers in soon too... Actual menus have arrived, so that should make ordering easier for those of you that haven't ever tried any of the other Han Dynasty outposts. But the best idea is to let Han do the work and figure out what you'll like. He's pretty good at that.

Make certain that whatever local Health Department codes that need to be met are taken into consideration. For instance, a dedicated space for the Kleen-Pail with sanitizer and the bar rag. If it's an afterthought, stuff like that ends up sitting on the drain board where it can knocked over into one of the ice wells... Shelves that are reachable by folks of almost every height. Nothing like not being able to get to the "top shelf" hooch because the architect was 6'5". Ice bins that aren't too low, so you don't end up with an excruciating backache. Refrigeration that's also at a comfortable height for bending over and fetching stuff out. I'll think of more later...

Just worked for me a couple of minutes ago... Visited the Ardmore store a few weeks ago and had forgotten what an excellent selection that store always seems to have. Helpful staff too. On their recommendation I bought a couple of bottles of delicious Castelvero 2007 Piemonte Barbera that I enjoyed with pizza at Tacconelli's as well as with a burger at home. Barbera has always been my favorite "pizza and burger" wine, and this one did not disappoint. And it was quite the bargain at $9.99! Website reveals a bit of it still sprinkled about Philadelphia and Montgomery counties. Definitely worth the cost of admission for a casual "grab and go" bottle for the pizzeria or hamburger dinner.

Planning a New Year's Eve sojourn to Han Dynasty Center City. It's still BYO, so something sparkly will be both appropriately festive as well as going with the food. Anyone that would like to join in, PM me. No particular time set yet, but Han says he'll stay open long enough to watch the ball drop and the fireworks are just outside the front door at Penn's Landing...

So true. And I don't have a problem with attention seeking behaviors (wearing bright obnoxious clothing, strange hairstyles, etc.) that don't make honest hard working business people or friends/hosts go to ridiculous lengths to try and be accomodating to folks that don't really need the accomodation. Whatever it is that those people do for a living, I'm certain they'd be furious if someone wasted their time and resources for something as frivolous. Unfortunately, the problem with those with an over-inflated sense of entitlement is that they can't possible see past the end of their own noses and put the shoe on the other foot.

And that would be the last time that asshole would be invited to dinner at my home/party/event. What a self-absorbed jerk. Making people go to trouble for him just to watch them jump through the hoops. I would absolutely take pleasure in dressing him down in front of the rest of the guests and make a point of humiliating him so that no one else would ever have to be at the receiving end of his sense of entitlement. On that note, I might well have said something to the lady at the restaurant when she started eating her friend's soup with all the "forbidden allergens" in it. Like knock the spoon out of her hand and make like I was saving her life. When she then says it's no big deal, I'd point out that it's a very big deal to all the places that try to accomodate her ficticious allergies and hope that she doesn't do it again to some other poor business owner. So exhausted by people like this...

Philadelphia. For both interesting higher end dining as well as excellent examples of all manner of ethnic cuisines and a sandwich culture that is second to none.

Meh. She's probably a bad tipper anyway, since none of that was really their doing. The props should rightfully have gone to the kitchen. So what have we learned from this experience? If you hear hoofbeats there are probably horses coming. If it sounds like bullshit...

In a best case scenario, common sense will prevail. One has to assume that someone with a severe shellfish allergy wouldn't ever even set foot in my place of employ, an oyster bar. If someone orders a Bloody Mary at the bar I always explain that the house Bloody, a Bloody Caesar (which they'd have ordered by name if they'd bothered reading the menu) contains clam juice as the "salt" in the mix, just in case there might be allergen issues. If they don't want/can't have that, the opportunity has now presented itself to ask for a plain vodka + tomato juice or ask me to make a non-clammy Bloody on the fly with tomato juice, Tabasco, horseradish and some lemon juice. I'd much rather you ask me to make you something that might require a bit of effort on my part than have to reassure my other patrons it was a severe allergic reaction and that I didn't poison you as the paramedics carry you out on the gurney.

I got home too late on Xmas day to call anyone and missed out on my fix. However, no plans for Sunday if anyone is game. PM me or call. Y'all know where 2 find me... Do we have an actual phone number or hours of operation yet? Just a thought.

I dunno. I made some pretty tasty bourbon from a humble handled 1.75 bottle of Ezra Brooks bourbon for Thanksgiving. I infused it with a pre-bagged Peach-Apricot tea that was meant to become a gallon batch of peach-apricot iced tea in a commercial environment. Instead I put the big tea bag in the bottom of a small Cambro container and just barely covered it with bourbon. Heated up briefly in the microwave (about a minute) and then poured the rest of the bourbon over. Stirred and let it sit for about 1.5 hours, strained it through a gold coffe filter and added only a small amount of spiced simple syrup to round it out and smooth out any tannic edge it might have had at that point. It was delicious mixed with ginger ale, on the rocks or most of all as a julep with some mint sytup I'd made the night before. Best salvage of some tasty but average bourbon yet. It made that which was just adequate taste interesting and delicious with minimal effort. Loose teas work just as well in this context, just a bit messier in the straining and cleanup. The only thing to remember with a tea infusion is that shorter time with more tea leads to better results than longer time with less tea that turns tannic and astringent after more than two hours or so. If you have a really good tea shop in your orbit, this can be an easy solution to creating something new and interesting from something seemingly useless and uninteresting to you. Spiced and fruit teas are particularly useful in this context.

Grrrrrrr..... After having to bolt from my shift at work to a mortgage closing, I still had to go ransom my car with the flat tire from the garage around the corner from work. Then I had to be up insanely early to go get the tire fixed before being in today at 10am. Were today not Xmas Eve it wouldn't have been a problem, but I didn't want to be stuck with no car for 2 days. I totally missed out on this, but was thinking of you jealously last night standing around in the freezing cold in Sou' Filly waiting for my cab, sincerely wishing I was just a bit further north in Old City, eating delicious food at Han Dynasty. They might see me sooner rather than later. After all, Xmas is the day the folks in my tribe go to movies and eat Chinese. It could totally happen...

Here's the advice my friend sent back. C&O (do not judge from the outside) C & O Restaurant Hamilton's Tastings Downtown Grille I don't think she cooks very much. She's a busy professor in the Engineering Department and probably eats out more often than not...

Meh. I forgot my schedule is different this week due to picking up shifts for coworkers absent for holiday travel. So I'm closing on Wednesday night and can't make it over there. I'll have to console myself with the fridge full of Szechuan Tasty House takeout I picked up tonight on my way home. Part of a multi-pronged attack against the cold I feel coming on that I am bound and determined to nip in the bud and beat into submission. My lips are still tingling from the Ma Po Tofu. Szechaun Hot and Sour soup and spicy dumplings too. Yum. I feel better already...