Andrew Fenton

Leaving aside carcinogens, it's hardly ridiculous to want to avoid charring your food. What makes grilled food taste good is the browning, from the Maillard reaction. Charring comes from overheating the food (from exposing it to open flame, etc.), and it doesn't taste so good: a little bit is fine, sure, but who wants a carbonized burger? A technological fix to prevent charring sounds reasonable enough-- though I'd rather buy a less expensive grill and rely on technique instead.

Which dishes did you particularly like?

Yes, I knew about that (having posted in it.) There was mention of a couple of seafood markets-- Russo's and Matthew's Seafood-- but I'm wondering if there are any other good suggestions.

I'll be in Savannah in July, and would like some recommendations for good seafood markets, as well as sources for local shrimp. We'll be staying at Tybee, but I don't mind a drive for the good stuff.

Holly, if you still want vichyssoise, head on over to Matyson ASAP. They have it as a special (and, according to the waitress, will for a couple more days). No ice-filled bowl, but it's infused with bacon and truffle, and is rich, creamy and cool.

Hahaha, you have no idea how many times I've gotten those two confused! Anyway, they're both pretty good. Like Philadining, I prefer Vietnam, though I've been to Vietnam Palace more often lately, because it's more stroller-friendly.

It's definitely a Chick-Fil-A thing; whether it's more generally Southern, I couldn't say.

Just remembered another exception. In Rome, Da Franco ar Vicoletto (in the San Lorenzo neighborhood) has a seafood lasagna, with cheese and shellfish: The restaurant calls itself "Piccolo Molise", but I don't think that this is especially characteristic of the region. Could be wrong, though.

Antico Arco is absolutely worth going to. Walk home afterwards and you can work off your meal. I'm not crazy about Trastevere; there are a ton of tourist traps, and after a year of living nearby (in Monteverde, just up the hill), I never found anything all that great. Still, Dar Poeta makes a good pizza. So does Ai Marmi (on Viale di Trastevere), but the really good dish there are the fagioli al fiasco. In Testaccio, my favorite restaurant is Antico Forno (via Amerigo Vespucci), which is a simple, no-nonsense Roman restaurant. Their homemade ricotta is out of this world, and I really like their trippa alla Romana and coda alla vaccinara.

There's a Sardinian recipe for pasta with clams and cheese. But that's the only time I've seen the two together.

What a clever idea, Peter! Something like a cross between planking salmon (which I love) and parchment cooking- and it's gotta be cheaper than buying those cedar planks. I'll have to keep my eyes open for appropriate veneers, and give this a try.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to make it out to Shady Brook Farm this weekend. But scrounging from orchards is a great idea. We're planning to go fruit picking a couple of times this summer; I think I'll call ahead and find out if any of these places will sell me some wood scraps. Otherwise... I kind of agree with this sentiment: Did I mention how small my garden is? A cubic foot of wood is about all I can really justify. So if the orchard thing doesn't work out, I'll try ordering something cool from barbecuewood.com.

Seems like the only advantage-- other than personal preference, of course-- of serving rice pudding cold is that it firms up. Warm rice pudding always has more of a porridge-like texture. Which is good, too, especially straight from the pot.

The first time I saw a bottle of Voss water, I bought it, just because I liked the bottle so much.

There's a Tazza D'Oro in the international departures area. I wonder if they have granita di caffe there? I never asked; but if they do, get that.

That smoker is made of awesome, Tim. Kudos!

I confess, I knew that there were some serious smokers on the PA board, and I was hoping that y'all would reply. I wasn't disappointed; those are some great suggestions! I'm not totally sure yet how much I'll need; a cord, or even a quarter of a cord, sounds intimidatingly large. But these are some good places to start. And JohnnyH: I'll be waiting for my invitation to your BBQ...

This place really is terrific. The soup dumplings had some texture issues-- a couple were torn, a crying shame-- but the filling had this amazing, rich, meaty flavor. And a bowl of noodles with roast duck were great. I'm looking forward to a return.

What lovely baos! Holy bao indeed; I'm in a little bit of awe.

So with a new place and room to smoke stuff, I've entered the wonderful world of BBQ. But before I can embark on the "Noah's Ark Project" (barbecuing two of every animal, naturally), I need to find a better source of wood than those bags of hickory chunks they sell at Lowe's. Any recommendations? Ideally I'd like to find enough to last me a while, but not so much that it'll take up my entire matchbox-sized garden.

After moving from an apartment to a big-kid house, one with a backyard garden and everything, I did the only natural thing: buy a grill and smoker! My induction into the Ancient and Secret Order of Smoked Butts came this weekend. After certain handshakes, Latin chants and unspeakable rituals (everything being unspeakable at 6:15 AM), I fired up my rig: Yes, I called it my "rig." At this point, the wife started rolling her eyes. What does she know, the unbeliever? I'd convince her later; as you can see here, however, the small creature who shares our house was much more impressed. Clearly she has impeccable tastes. Anyway, the butt (brined 24 hours in salt, water, and a little eye of newt) went on the smoker at 7 AM. Maintaining a constant temperature of 225F was not without its challenges: the various spells, incantations and openings and closings of the damper were met, at times, with massive fluctuations. Eventually things seemed to reach an equilibrium and at 10:00, I left to pick up some supplies at the store. Returning, I found a horror show: the temperature had spiked to 280! With curses on Vulcan, Pele and Agni, I closed the damper and opened the chamber briefly to cool things down. I thought I had things under control at that point, but those curses seemed to jinx things: the temperature started dropping, and I couldn't stop it. Opening the dampers, adding more coals... nothing worked. To make matters worse, it started to rain! Eventually, at noon, the temperature dipped to 190 and I gave up the struggle. My butt would have to languish in my kitchen oven. Which worked fine, actually. After a couple of hours in the oven, my butt was ready to show to the world: My contribution to the world of pork porn! And delicious, too. At this point, I'm at the "lessons learned" stage of things. And I'm wondering: what made the temperature drop like that? The rain might have played a part. I think, too, that I may have choked the coals a little: there was a LOT of ash in my firebox. I suspect that I may have added too many coals and wood chunks. Next time, less of that, and more fiddling with the damper! But I'd like to hear any insights y'all might have.

Ditto. There's really no excuse for me not to be there all the time! Anyway, I made two trips-- roast lamb (yum), moussaka (good, but cold-ish. that's the one problem with the festival: insufficient heating), spinach pies, loukoumades a-plenty, gyro, dolmades, and lots of cheap retsina. Opa!

Livengood's and Rinner's grass-fed beef is available at the South & Passyunk farmers market on Tuesday afternoons (until 7 PM.)

Thanks for adding your two cents to the shrimp and grits pot! That more or less confirms my suspicions about the dish. In a way, it's a little bit like the Italian equivalent, polenta, which as I understand it, wasn't often seen in restaurants (certainly fine-dining restaurants) until recent years. Even now, it's a very homey dish. Oh, and this is very true in my experience as well. I don't know that I agree about Johnny Harris. I love the place, and it's worthwhile to go just to see that cool dining room (and imagine the glory days of fifty-sixty years ago). But the food is only okay. Though I give them credit for serving barbecued lamb; I've never seen that outside of Kentucky. Here's the menu. It goes beyond straight-up low country cuisine, though the influence is clearly there, and my understanding is that many of the dishes are based on the chef's family recipes. They also regularly have special dinners that feature a more specific cuisine. I haven't eaten there in a couple of years, though we have plans to go next week. Looking forward to it.

The St. George's festival is back! This weekend: Thursday through Sunday, if I'm not mistaken. Normally I'd skip work on Friday and get lunch, but I've got jury duty. Stupid civic obligations! Ah well: that leaves more than a few other times for me to stuff myself silly with loukoumades...