Andrew Fenton

Is laban the same as labneh? Because if so, it's pretty easy to make, using the straining method that kitwilliams described above (draining with cheesecloth). If I were Chris, I'd go to Reading Terminal or one of his local yogurteries and get some good yogurt and drain it for a bit.

Yeah but... the key point is, if you've got a dirt-cheap source for the fruit or whatever. Canned tomatoes are good, and I suppose if you don't have a garden you could pick some up at the Italian Market and can the m, but I'm not convinced that they'd be that much better than what you buy at the store. Or at least not so much better to be worth the time and expense. Unpasteurized apple cider is amazingly good. I always used to get it from the market at South & Passyunk; alas, that won't be happening for me this fall. Probably for the best; I could easily sit down and drink a half gallon in one sitting...

Dude, that sucks. I haven't had any bad bread from them (I also rarely buy baguettes), but still, a little worrying. Maybe you should give them a call and complain? Seriously: if they're having problems with quality control- and several bad loaves indicates a real problem- they should hear about it. And maybe give you an explanation.

I just called both restaurants. Kissen had an answering machine with their hours; at Kisso, no response. (Though that might mean that Kisso doesn't have a machine, or that a closed Kissen never got around to updating their message.) We last had dinner at Kisso in late July. It was completely empty (and, I think, on a Friday night). I wouldn't be surprised if they've gone under.

You know, Katie, you do have neighbors who'd be happy to share a cake with you. (Just trying to help the team, you understand.)

I appreciate the logic here. There's something slightly depressing about the first apple pie of the season: summer's officially gone. That said, I did buy a half-dozen Asian pears today, as well as a bunch of peaches. The pears are as good as any I've had in any other year (which is to say that they rule the school). I'm going to let the peaches ripen for another day or two: they'll work well to stretch out the ol' stomach in advance of the pig roast... I started canning last year. It's pretty easy, when you come right down to it. What I decided, though, is that unless you have a good source of dirt-cheap produce (like your own garden), it's only worth it to can value-added products: jam, chutney, spaghetti sauce, maybe salsa.

Hmm. Six years at Penn, and I never heard about upenn.talk... Missed out, I guess...

Forget about which Food TV personality you are! This, I think, takes the (colored with saffron and stuffed with honey and dried figs) cake for cooking-related quizzes. I give you: Which Medieval or Renaissance Cookbook Are You? Me, I'm Platina's De Honesta Voluptate. Well, at least it's in Latin...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... The Vegetable Lamb.

Dude, I thought that Automats were all gone, everywhere. Good for the Dutch, keeping the dream alive...

Actually, that looks pretty good. I'd eat a sate croquette, for sure.

Total yogurt is an excellent product. Equal, or almost equal, in quality to a good yogurt from a small dairy, but available at the supermarket. (They also make a pretty good feta; I'll have to see if that's still available). What I really like are their individual-sized yogurt cups that come with a little container of Greek honey: fragrant and tasting like the flowers of Mt. Hymettus. See, now I'm jonesing for yogurt...

By the way, I made some kickass Meyer limoncello in the late spring. I've found that it doesn't taste too much different from regular limoncello (or at least high-quality limoncello) but the aromatics really come out well. I gave a couple of bottles away as gifts, and have been drinking the rest steadily over the summer. My favorite serving method is to add a shot or two to a glass of fresh lemonade or fizzy lemonade. The perfect way to a great summer buzz...

Don't be so modest! You go, Katie.

That was my thought too: remember, conscientious cooks use every part of the vegetarian! But it sounds like a form of mock meat. I'm guessing that they'd be good fried.

Mulcahy, glad to hear that you had such a good time. You've only scratched the surface (even just among sandwiches) and I hope you'll come back. Katie's point about Philly sandwiches is dead-on. New Orleans has a comparable sandwich culture, but I don't think anybody else can compare. Next time, as Bob mentioned, you'll have to have roast pork and greens. Not to mention the venerable Philadelphia Surf N' Turf. Maybe a tripe sandwich, if you're feeling adventurous.

Yeah, I know of only one international Dutch fast food chain, and they sell- wait for it- falafel. Here's a discussion of their Philly shop and their website. (Israeli style, by the way).

I thought the deal with Dungeness crabs is that their range is so broad that they're always in season somewhere.

And some more trivia: the Kennedy Biscuit folks named all of their products after places in and around Boston. Unfortunately, their other cookie stylings, with names like "Harvard" and "Beacon Hill", have gone to the great pastry factory in the sky. (There's also a story that Fig Newtons were named after Sir Isaac Newton- this because the process of creating the cookies was such a work of genius- but it ain't true.)

I might actually be able to make it, on a Wednesday night. (Hey, it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive!) Pick a date, and I'll let you know.

Sure, I've seen liquor gelati, and I'm pretty sure they've had one that incorporated champagne. Might as well pick up a set with a beer gelato. Not that there'd be anything wrong with a beer gelato at another restaurant. Oh no.

Well, I realized that. But I was serious about calling them lying bastards. Okay, not really.

Thread hijack: Isn't Tartufo owned by the same folks that own Tiramisu (on, um, South St)? I'd be curious to hear a comparison: in my experience, Tiramisu is pretty expensive and only okay food. But they're the only place in town (of which I'm aware) that has fried artichokes regularly. We'll sometimes just sit at the bar and drink and eat artichokes.

Really? They claimed, a while back, that they were going to be open for lunch very very soon. Lying bastards. For what it's worth, my one experience there was also better than LaBan's. I had a server who knew the menu backwards and forwards (or at least she faked it well), and the food was uniformly good. But man, it's easy to spend a lot of money there before you know what's happened. That's not a knock on Tria; it's just a reality of the tapas genre, I think.

Or with one of the local breweries, for that matter. I'd love to see them team up with Yards or somebody like that.