cdh

Just stopped there mid-day today. Great store with all kinds of produce goodness! Finally someplace to pick up little thai eggplants and fresh trumeric roots and long chinese celery and other good stuffs. Huge, modern, clean and sensibly layed out. I'll need a lot more time to explore the whole place, but the seafood selections looked really great! A very fine addition to the greater Lansdale metro area.

As an update, I ran across some sweetbreads on my last trip up to Dietrich's Meats in Krumsville (off of Rt 22, west of Allentown). They cost me $8 a pound frozen. So they are out there... just really rare. (Dietrich's also does a great jowl bacon, if you're hunting for that too!)

Tempering chocolate is all about crystallizing it right... sugar + corn syrup to prevent crystallization... sea salt vs. kosher salt vs. table salt... All of these food elements that like to form crystals if treated right brings the question to mind-- How much control can a home cook have over the crystals in their kitchen? Is there a table of all the common food chemicals that crystallize and how to make them do it right, and how to prevent it if you don't want it to happen? Are there any flavors or aromas that are affected by the state of the crystallization of a substance?

Taylor pork roll is a Trenton thing... which seeps down to Philly. Certainly doesn't get nationwide distribution, I don't believe.

Interesting looking drink, Splificator-- How about rinsing the glass with a mixture of Punt e Mes and slivovitz? The plum aromatics might work well in this drink, and you've got the missing Jewish element in the mix, and bring the total number of liquid ingredients to 5. The mint leaf as garnish shouldn't count against the ingredient limit, I don't think.

Doesn't NYC have a long historical connection to rum as its booze? I seem to recall reading about some connection between the carribean sugar business and new york and new england... So maybe the Subway could be a Manhattan made with Anejo rum in place of (or addition to) the whisky. And it must contain Fee's aromatic bitters in place of the Angostura, for its connection to the rest of NY state.

Thanks Doc!

Maybe we should thank Splificator... if he suppresses demand for the stuff, then the bad ones will fall off the market and the better ones should get cheaper. More for us, at less cost! All hail Splificator for manipulating Adam Smith's invisible hand in our favor!

Since there is so much revulsion expressed above, I feel the need to chime in here and say that I like eaux de vie... and grappa... and slivovitz... Some are definitely better than others, but the good ones bear no resemblance at all to rocket fuel. The ones available in the US are not that spectacular most of the time... the german ones in the squared off bottles with the wax seal on are really not that great... but once you've tried a good one, you'll understand the appeal.

I've got a question about Creme Yvette substitutes-- what is the opinion on using the Monin Violet flavored syrup? Can it fill in successfully for the liquer that is nearly totally unavailable?

You've gotta give something more of a clue about what you want. The silence you're running into is the paralyzation-by-excessive-choices phenomenon. Philly has a great selection of restaurants that meet your criteria... look at other threads in this topic. None of the places that get their own threads (except Le Bec Fin) make you dress up...

My fellow Philly eGulletistas sang the praises of the last pickin', so there's no way I'm missing this one. I'll brew something really good for this...

Welcome Diedre! Great to have somebody on the inside of the PLCB joining the conversation! If you're doing the selecting, then you've got the most inside scoop there is. Keep dishing!

Mixing stuff into the sugar sounds risky-- the stuff might burn before the sugar caramelizes leaving a burnt taste rather than a spice taste. Nothing granular but sugar will melt and get crispy like sugar does.

Mantee is the Estonian word for boulevard... probably not what she's talking about either.

My mother (a Dickinson alumna) sings the praises of Rillo's in Carlisle... and I'd trust her taste. And I realize that I flaked on my familial York favorite that I promised months ago... which is the Blue Moon Cafe. No more data than that, as I've never gone food hunting out thataway. Best cdh

I'd agree that the sample strategy is reasonable. I don't understand the disdain for "samplers" while simultaneously advocating samples. I'd add that Adagio teas was the source of a lot of my green tea knowledge back when they had their Tea Horizons tea-samples-of-the-month program going on. Every month 5 one ounce samples of some really exotic stuff came to me. That's where I figured out that I loved Li Zi Xiang as well as Hojicha. I'd check them out and order their green samplers for a broad survey that includes a deep chinese green selection.

I've had a Gaggia Carezza almost since they were introduced. It is a fine machine that had pulled at least 2 fine doubles a day for me for years, though with a few issues, none of which is exceedingly annoying. All of the issues are seal and drip related-- 1) steam wand drips after shutting off the steam flow. Just turn it so that the drops fall into the drip tray. 2) the group head drips every so often after pulling a shot. Fills up the drip tray pretty quickly. 3) when heating it up to steaming temp after pulling a shot, the group head belches steam and a goodly amount of water, which do, occasionally overflow the drip tray. 4) the drip tray is small and needs frequent emptying. None of these make me hate the machine, and for the price, it was a bargain and a half. I recall getting it for around $150 as an intro deal or some such, but it was so long ago I'm not sure.

So, y'all, How's it going? Got anything brewing yet? I find myself in possession of a gallon and a half of still quite cloudy mead fermenting in an airlocked PET bottle, and a quart of honey vinegar, which is what the dregs I left in a pitcher became after a couple of weeks. The honey vinegar seems quite promising in taste, though very cloudy despite having been poured through a coffee filter on its way into the bottle it is in now.

Yes. I really like these lightly oxidized oolongs. Pouchongs too. Ten Ren green king's tea is marvellous. Any Jade Oolong is ethereal.

Hmmm... I have a siphon and don't use it much at all. I find that the particular kind I have makes the fizzy water taste quite unpleasantly metallic. As to making soda stay fizzy longer (and this trick works best with plain fizzy H2O) is to learn never to depressurize the inside of your soda bottle. With a full, closed, plastic quart bottle dispense the soda thus: Pick up bottle. Invert it. Place it over your glass or other chosen receptical. Slowly unscrew the top until water hisses out. Screw the top back on tight. Turn the bottle right side up again. That trick takes a little practice at mastering the art without spritzing fizzy water all over the place before it hits your glass. Worth knowing, since you'll never have to deal with flat fizzy again. Works to a lesser degree with sugary things... but they seem to lose their fizz when treated this way, while plain water retains fizz. Don't know why. Speculation is encouraged,

Chrisamirault-- It is clear that you hate the idea of Vegas, even though you admit to never having seen the place in person. In your worldview, does any chef have a place in Vegas, or do those people really only deserve short order fry cooks? I'll admit that I've never been to Vegas either, but I am not carrying around nearly so much negativity about the place. Did Vegas kick your dog? Have an ex who moved there and loved it? You knew a herd of dimwitted fratboys who wouldn't shut up about it? You watched Leaving Las Vegas one too many times? Your tone makes it seem that your beef is much less about the chefs and their reputations and more about the place and how undeserving it is of their talents. Why shouldn't there be an easily accessable part of the country where anybody from any state could fly in and indulge in the works of chefs from all over the country? Well prepared food as a tourist draw says good things to me about the state of American food culture... if people are drawn to Vegas for the food, that is really great evidence that there is a real hunger out in the sticks for better food... and if they're drawn there for other reasons and encounter good food, then that's great too. Why not look at Vegas as gastronomic training wheels for the inexperienced but curious gourmand? Much less intimidating than, say, NYC, no?

hmmm... peppery isn't how I'd describe Talisker. Iodiney, smokey and a little seaweedy does the stuff more justice. Laphroaig reminds me of seaweed and burning tires... but in a good way.

Well, I'm out in the country... maybe a scrapplefest could be arranged sometime in the next couple of months.

Word, yo! Sacrifice of pleasure in search of long life will only make whatever time you're given feel a whole lot longer than it actually was.