Andrew Fenton

Dude, bibimbap is awesome. Dolsot bibimbap, even more so.

I don't know the answer to that, but I do like the fact that even non-native English speakers make the mistake of adding an apostrophe to make a plural... or maybe that's deliberate, to add extra authenticity? Also, the "British Touch" sounds a little creepy. But maybe that's just me. ← Don't know about French, but this is actually not a mistake in some languages, Dutch for example...because they pluralize words differently (without using an "s"), they use the apostrophe + S to pluralize foreign words. Interesting! But it's not how plurals work in French. However, a little research suggests that these apostrophized plurals (aka "greengrocers' apostrophes") have been adopted by the French as hyperforeignisms, to make phrases seem more "English." Evidently the "Mythic" series of sandwiches are meant to evoke the iconography of the Anglo-Saxon world, and are advertised with pictures of cowboys, quarterbacks and so on. This review of the Chicken Mythic (which is served with a "Sauce Yankee") jokes about the three indentations on the top of the bun, wondering if they are scars from a battle between cowboys and Indians, or scratches from a grizzly...

I don't know the answer to that, but I do like the fact that even non-native English speakers make the mistake of adding an apostrophe to make a plural... or maybe that's deliberate, to add extra authenticity? Also, the "British Touch" sounds a little creepy. But maybe that's just me.

You can make a very good chicken sausage using schmaltz to up the fat content. But the texture is going to be different from that of andouille. Lamb fat is closer to the texture you want, but lamb fat is very strongly flavored. When I've made merguez, for example, it really tastes like lamb: a good thing in that case, but not so much if you want andouille...

Just made the Raised Waffles recipe (March-April 2004) for the third or fourth time. I keep trying it, because I really want it to work: a yeasted waffle that has a good long time to rise has the potential for more complex, deep flavors than typical waffles. But each time I've been disappointed: the waffles come out flabby and yeasty-tasting. Has anybody been successful with the recipe? Am I missing something? Or is it just a bad recipe?

Pesto alla trapanese, with tomatoes and almonds (and no cheese). I much prefer it to the Genoese variety, actually.

Ooh, the paw paws are in? OUTSTANDING.

Du Jour, right? If it's the same as the branch in Haverford, you could open a restaurant for the amount they charge for a sandwich. Tasty, but very expensive.

A followup: yesterday I picked up 11 pounds of pork belly I'd ordered from Giunta's. It looks good (nice and thick) and the price was right (came out to $2.75 a pound). Even better, Mr. Giunta offered to let me bring back the completed piece of bacon so he could slice it for me on the industral meat slicer. That was a classy touch; the sort of thing that makes for happy, repeat customers!

Since Gottlieb's closed, the best upscale meal I've had in Savannah (this July) was at Noble Fare. Some of the dishes were quite good-- the "duck duck goose" (duck breast, seared foie, gooseberry jam) in particular-- but after we finished, we decided that in the future, we'll probably avoid upscale Savannah restaurants. There wasn't anything wrong with the meal. It was fine. But while it was as expensive as most high-end restaurants in Philadelphia, it wasn't especially creative or interesting. It wasn't the first time we'd had that experience, either; about every other time we've gone to Savannah, we've splurged on something upscale, and have always come away disappointed. Maybe somebody can make some good recommendations, but honestly, depending on where you're coming from, I'd suggest saving your money and enjoying some of the really terrific and more casual spots in Savannah. Speaking of which, we had terrific BBQ at Sandfly BBQ (in... wait for it... Sandfly!) Definitely the best brisket I've had in Savannah. And I can't say enough good things about the Southend Cafe on Tybee: it's an old-school hamburger shack, with burgers cooked to order and served with onion rings, potato salad or fries. Absolutely delicious and almost laughably cheap. Oh, and one more: we went back to the Crab Shack and you know... even granted that it's about the ambience, not the food, there... I think I'll skip it in the future. Maybe it's gone downhill, maybe I just remembered it being better than it was, but the food was really just straight-up mediocre. My daughter liked the alligators, though, so it wasn't a loss.

This BBC report fails to deliver. I want to see the YouTube video, dammit!

Thanks for the recommendations! FFF had a small amount of Meadow Run belly (two pieces, about half a pound each, not really worthwhile), but I think I'll give Meadow Run or Country Time a call one of these days. In the meantime, Martins didn't have it (and wasn't too encouraging), but Giunta's was happy to order some for me. Only thing was, they'd only order 10 pounds or more: that's a lotta bacon! I think I'll have them cut in half, or thirds, and freeze what I don't use right away. Hopefully it'll be good quality; I've been pretty happy with Giunta's in the past, so I'm not too worried.

At South & Passyunk, I picked up some ground cherries from Livengood's. I'd never tried them before, but they're really tasty, with sort of a cross between a citrus and tomato flavor. I brought a bag with me to work and have been munching on them all morning. edit: and how can I forget, one of the best canteloupes I've ever had! We ate half of it last night, and I'm going to pick up some prosciutto on the way home tonight for some kickass antipasto action. edit x2: and from Beechwood Orchards, a variety of pluot I bought just for the name... "Flavor Grenade." I haven't tried them yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to yell "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" and duck under a table or something...

I used to prepare pesto with a mortar and pestle. Then I tried a taste-test between that method and preparing it in the food processor, and found no significant difference. Since then, I've always made it in the food processor: it's easier by a factor of ten and produces very good pesto. I'm convinced that pesto is one of those overly-mythologized dishes, made to seem more fussy than it is with fetishized ingredients (only use Genoese basil, picked under the light of the full moon!) and preparation (use a wooden pestle, blessed by a priest!)

Yes, that (plus the ease of cooking) is the big benefit as far as I'm concerned: no grease to clean off the stovetop! Unless I'm only cooking a couple of slices, I never bother with cooking bacon in a pan.

In Italian, they're called canocchie (or sometimes canocce). I've had them served on the half-shell as an antipasto; they're sweet like crab but firm like shrimp. I've also seen them served with pasta. Lots of recipes online (here's one, for risotto) but I've never cooked them.

So I've recently entered the wonderful world of baconfacturing. While I've found that I can turn out a very good bacon using inexpensive pork belly from one of the Asian supermarkets, I'd like to see what I can do if I start with a really top-quality product. Niman Ranch and other mailorder sources are an option, but I'd like to find someplace local or local-ish to get good quality pork belly. I've never seen it at the RTM Fair Food stand; any recommendations about where to look?

Another member of the bacon party here. A week or so back, I bought two cheap ($1.59/lb) pieces of pork belly, each about 3 pounds, and cured one with Ruhlman's maple cure, and the other with a mix of black pepper, garlic and juniper berries: (cruddy camera phone picture, I know!) Thursday night was smokin' night! Here's the maple bacon, smoked, chilled and sliced: I overcooked the bacons a little bit; the texture is a little more pork-y and less bacon-y than I'd have liked. I'm not sure whether that's because my thermometer is inaccurate, or if I should heat it to less than 150 degrees, as Ruhlman recommends. I'll calibrate my thermometer this week, and figure out what the deal was. At any rate, both bacons fried up great: Crispy and good! Since I'd smoked a turkey breast at the same time as the bacon, I sliced some fresh avocado and made a rockin' good club sandwich for dinner... and I just ate another for breakfast. Hurray! As good as this bacon was, there are some things I'll do differently next time: - It's gotta be worth it to spend the money on really good pork. I'm going to see if I can get some good local pork belly; otherwise I'll shell out for Niman or the like. - The bacon cooked at about 200 degrees. But I'd like to try to keep it at the far end of my smoker from the firebox (where the temperature is somewhat lower). If I could keep it in there for another hour, I could really up the smokiness. Still, all I can do is echo what others have said: making bacon is easy, not expensive, and super satisfying. I'm looking forward to my next batch!

I was curious why there were a few comments from December, 2006, and a bunch from a few days ago: a little digging revealed that this was picked up by Gawker as an example of the most Onion- like news story ever. (Which is pretty accurate.)

Holy mackerel, granita di caffe? I have to get me some of that, pronto! One of those tastes I really miss from Rome: there are other places in Philly that serve something under the same name, but it's really more of a coffee slushy. I bet Capogiro does it right. (FWIW, layering the coffee granita with cream is also the default style at Tazza D'Oro in Rome; the coffee granita by which I judge all others. I like the combination, at least there; but tastes differ, of course.)

It is pretty tasty. Doesn't mean you have to wear your Members Only jacket, but I suppose it couldn't hurt...

Sacre bleu! Eet ees zee highway robbery, I tell you! Everything looks delicious, but yes, tres cher.

Yes, indeed: the chicken is left sadly watching the party, as the clams and sausage pal it up in all their treyfaliciousness...

So we checked out Philadelphia's entry in the wonderful world of frozen yogurt: Phileo. In concept and design, it's basically a rip-off of NYC's Pinkberry-- not that that's a bad thing; go with what works! The difference is that Phileo is self-serve: they have around a dozen flavors of yogurt, which you dispense and then complete at their toppings bar. The whole thing is priced by weight: 49¢ an ounce. There's a good mix of flavors: several kinds of fruit, as well as some more exotic flavors like taro, snickerdoodle and cheesecake. Everything I tried was pretty good, and there was a nice selection of toppings as well. (Want mochi on your yogurt? You got it, chief!) Not surprisingly, they give you a very large cup, and it's easy to construct a monstrous, city-crushing, Godzilla-style yogurt sundae. Which will set you back around $5-6; a more reasonable portion is around $3. It's a good addition to South Street. The yogurt is good, and is a nice alternative to ice cream or water ice. And it's a nifty, stylish place; I can imagine it getting very popular, and I'm sure I'll be back. They're on South St., between 4th and 5th.

That looks just amazingly good! Clams and chicken, together at last; I'll have to check it out...