sashorter

Amateur - I've spatchcocked a turkey before. Not sure pig anatomy lends itself to the process, nor do I think we'll need it, but we have a cleaver if desired.

hjshorter here - yes it still worth going to. Just don't be put off by the location - it's in a teeny strip mall next to a Public Storage place and the Montgomery County waste transfer station.

We have it and it is lovely, but there is no room for it in our kitchen when it's open, and we already have several asian cookbooks in regular use. Since we moved to a much smaller house last year I have actually started giving cookbooks away. Shocking I know. Edit to say that was actually hjshorter speaking, not sashorter. Stupid laptop didn't log me in.

I'll be there, with instructions to bring back some carryout for Heather.

I'm sure the purpose of this thread is not to wax nostalgic, but thought I'd share a couple of fond memories from last year:

Just wanted to share a product I recently picked up at the soopermarket. It had a very convincing shade of green within the jar, and an honest to goodness picture of an avacado under the words "Guacamole Dip" on the label. It was only after attempting to eat some that I examined the label, and saw: Ingredients:Skim milk, corn oil, modified food starch, tomato paste, salt, less than 2% of: high fructose corn syrup, dehydrated onion, cellulose gum, gelatin, guar gum, artificial flavor, dried red bell pepper, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural flavor, yellow 5, blue 1, cream cheese [pazteurized, cultured milk and cream, stabilizers (xanthan and/or carob bean and/or guar gums)], glocono delta lactone, cellulose gel, vinegar, lactic acid, sodium phosphate, citric acid, hydrolyzed soy protein, color, garlic powder, malt extract, maltodextrin, mono and diglycerides, avocado powder, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, monosodium glutamate, sugar, soy sauce solids, fermented wheat, tamarind, lime juice, caramel color. WHEW. Now I have a number of questions. 1. WTF is glocono delta lactone?!!!?! 2. COLOR? I ATE COLOR??? 3. Why did they bother to put in 0.01% of sugar when they already have 1.95% high fructose corn syrup? 4. Once they list "artificial flavor" and then "natural flavor", couldn't they just skip the rest of the ingredients? Anyway, googling on Herr's Guacamole Dip results in a number of amusing hits, including Little avocado in some guacomole dips: consumer group and Food Packaging Often More Hype Than Truth, Consumer Groups Charge. Thought y'all might enjoy.

Scott is so dreamy. He's cutting up the other half of the collard greens right now. Dean bought eight bunches. That's a giant honking load of greens. Bring on the fatback! Edit: That was actually Heather posting. Oops.

Thanks, Dean. It was darn good. Just think, I could have been at my Diplomacy tournament right now... Sorry to Tommy, Jason and Rachel, and everyone else who wanted to make it - maybe we can dispatch some leftovers with homebound pig pickers for you. As for the promised wireless network and webcam, I had difficulties setting up the network when we arrived Thursday night... I've gotten some advice on how to proceed and will try again this morning. Cheers, Scott

Jackal has a good idea, but I don't have a webcam. Does an attendee have one to bring? I'll set it up on my laptop if needed...

All and sundry, I'll be bringing equipment to set up a temporary Pig Pickin' wireless network, so if you were waffling over whether to bring your wi-fi laptop, wonder no more. We should be able to upload pictures of the pig straight from the pit. Cheers, Scott

Varmint, Heather suggested I volunteer for the 'pit crew', or whatever you're calling the team to man the pig. Well sign me up. I also thought I would offer to lead the cleanup brigade, unless that position is taken already. We will bring some contractor bags, and I will recruit assistants at the event.

When I heard Tony refer 24-hour laundromats on the New Orleans episode of a Cooks Tour, I said to Heather "Hmm, sounds like he's talking about Checkpoint Charlies". Sure enough, that was the place - my dive bar of choice for a few years in the early 90s. It had it all. Bar and grill, two pool tables, laundry, video games, free red beans and rice with $1 beer on Mondays, live music every night, never a cover charge. If they would have let me sleep on top of the dryers (and if I hadn't needed income) I would never have had to leave.

I would highly recommend Fringale - it isn't really in any neighborhood you'd be going to, but it's not at all far from downtown, and there are cabs aplenty. It's very very good French Basque food. I've eaten there twice, and been blown away each time. One appetizer that I loved was the Sautéed Prosciutto and Sheep's Milk Cheese Terrine. Salty, fatty, and delicious. For entrees I've had the veal osso bucco with caramelized parsnips and the duck confit.

Fried shrimp, catfish, other fish, crawfish tails... all of those are favorites here in Houston and New Orleans. Growing up in New Orleans, I had plenty of non-seafood poboys (we often didn't bother to punctuate the word). An Italian poboy, for example, is pretty much an Italian sub, except on poboy bread... which we called - Italian bread.

Fedex ships everything through Memphis (they may use one other airport too). I did notice on the FedEx tracking website that my steaks are coming from New York to Maryland by way of Memphis. I also noticed that the origin was Rochester, NY. Is this an additional location? I thought it was a NYC butcher...

Tommy, your profile says you were born in 1956. D&D came out in 1975. Were you a, shall we say, "slow" student? -- Scott

I didn't notice that, but try as I might, the place was too crowded for me to see all the workings. I didn't manage to watch Joe put the toppings on. Didn't get sausage, I'll have to go back to find out. One other thing I forgot to mention was the tee shirts they sold. One was fairly standard, but the other was amusing. It pictured a large pepperoni pizza with a brunette in a bikini doing some sort of stretching exercises on top of it. The caption read, "Mario's Pizza, Where I Got My First Piece." Maybe I'll pick one up... -- Scott

Ordered 4 beef tournados, which we will receive Weds. Since we're so far from NY, the shipping was $26, but oh well. Anyone have suggestions on what to do with them?

Sam Adams Summer Ale.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Why isn't there a drooling emoticon? Mario's Subs and Pizza is really good. The crust is crusty and brown, the sauce is delicious and in a good amount, the toppings (pepperoni and mushrooms in this case) are on top of the cheese, and they are fixed in place. The cheese and toppings do not move around on the crust. There was a Ms. Pac Man game in use, and a crowd of contractors with hardhats in hand when I arrived. Joe took my order - many of the customers greeted him by name, and he knew several of their names. As mentioned before, the slices are square, even if you order a small pizza (which I did - it's six slices). This enables them to precook the crust on large baking sheets in the oven. The process is elaborate - they precook the crust, add sauce, cook some more, then use a large fork to score the surface (I think that's why the cheese fuses to the crust so well), and then cut into 4x4" squares and add toppings, cooking some more after that. Joe threw a few shakes of parmesan cheese over the slices once they were in the box and handed it over. This is some of the best pizza I've ever had. I'm going to stop writing and eat now. -- Scott

Well I'm working quite near Ballston today, and I left my lunch at home, so I think I will go try it out. I'll report more later (too bad I didn't bring my digital camera ) - Scott

That question is about as meaningful as "what is the definition of barbecue?" -- Scott (who is Just Kidding)

Of course the escape valve from this conversation is the fact that all words (and "barbecue" more than most, it appears) have multiple senses. It means a pig smoked over wood, and it means a social gathering around a Weber, and it means chicken parts with spicy tomato sauce on them, et cetera. It can even mean contradictory things in different contexts. -- Scott

Now we're veering from food to linguistics/lexicology. I've checked with my mom, a leading computational linguist, and your statement is a matter of some debate among linguists and lexicologists. The original meaning of barbecue (from dict.org), i.e. the Guiana Indian meaning, is "a frame on which all kinds of flesh and fish are roasted or smoke-dried". They would argue that your definition is incorrect, since it refers to the food and not the tool. My mom said: Sorry to get so pedantic... - Scott

I'm all in favor of it, but don't have the graphics skills to help. I like Rachel Perlow's design suggestion (pig inside Gully). Who's responsible for the original Gully, and could they be drafted to help? -- Scott