mrbigjas

Ahh, the beginning of a thousand comic operas My local bar sells a "mystery beer" every night for $2.50. The bartender will reach into the fridge and pull out whatever he/she comes up with, in a paper bag to cover the label. Sometimes it's something as nice as Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, and sometimes it's miller lite. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

slkinsey, thanks for this great course. I've got a quick question that I haven't seen an answer to around the site. Last week a friend of mine emailed me that he was in paris, and did I want any kitchenware. I said, half jokingly, sure, if you have the space, pick me up one of those 30 cm, 2.5 mm thick copper stainless lined fry pans at E. Dehillerin. Well, wouldn't you know it, he did--and they wouldn't let him carry it on the plane, and it survived being simply wrapped in plastic bags and tossed in the cargo hold from paris to philadelphia, and didn't get lost. And here I am $95 or so later, with a really really nice pan. The question is: considering that I've never owned a copper pan before, is there anything special I need to do to take care of a copper pan? I know that if I don't polish it up the copper will tarnish--I don't care about that unless it makes a difference in performance somehow. And I figure since copper is as soft and reactive as it is, I shouldn't put it in the dishwasher, which is fine. But is there anything else I need to consider? (anyone can answer this one, if you feel like it--don't be shy)

depends on which yuengling you're talking about, but you might be a little disappointed in the price. Yuengling premium beer is about $13 a case now. Lager and Chesterfield Ale are closer to $16. Not real cheap. But then again, that's in Pennsylvania.

Snyder's of Hanover used to make all kinds of meat flavored potato chips. Buffalo Wing, Steak and Onion, Coney Island Hot Dog.... seems to me there were several others. One time many years ago we called the snack machine vendor at an old job I had, and requested more meat-flavored potato chips in the machine. They complied, and we were happy.

Aw, crap. In all my babbling I forgot to ask my question: with this gatco thing, I'd always used the oil. Tonight I started to use the stones dry for no real reason except that I didn't feel like getting the oil all over. But they really didn't cut as well--it was instantly noticeable. So is this what you were saying about how once you use oil, you have to keep using it? Or does that only apply to the nicer honing stones you were talking about? It sure is freakin messy, and I wouldn't mind stopping using it...

Chad, thanks for this. I've had a gatco system for years, but didn't really understand the physics of it all until I read through this. I would just kinda sharpen my knives to the 22 degree slot on the gatco till I felt like they were sharp enough. After reading your article, I can see why the 15-20 thing is better. (My technique was bad too. Simply knowing the info about creating, feeling for, and then removing the burr--it was like a light went on.) So I just took a cheap old oxo good grips chef's knife I had here, and went through the process. It took about a half hour, but even that cheap stamped blade was noticeably sharper than it had been. Also, after reading your article, I realized that the regular old henkels steel that I got several years ago is probably the reason my favorite knife is starting to get concave near the bolster, probably moreso than the sharpening, which I haven't needed to do that often. Before I do the rest of my knives, I'm definitely going to order an extra-coarse stone for the initial grinding, though. That took a long-ass time. OK off to order stones and steels from knifecenter.com.....

That's the juice. The soggy bread from soaking in the pork juice is part of the appeal of the sandwich. At George's in the Italian Market, they put the pork in yer sandwich and spoon a few spoonfuls of the juice over it. Man are those sammies messy. But so good.

Mine too. Really the key is the roast pork, though--it's just gotta be right. Aged provolone, greens (usually spinach sauteed with garlic and hot pepper). aw yeah.

see, that's what I'm looking for in chef's knives. my current favorite is an 8" one that my mom brought me from toledo, spain. it's pretty light, nicely balanced, and the blade is much closer to triangular than the german chef's knives. the closest i've seen to this one are the newer sabatier au carbon knives (although those are also more curved) and the pictures in mastering the art of french cooking. unfortunately the edge was all screwed up like 10 years ago by someone who shall remain nameless banging it around so there are tiny chips out of the edge. i need another one, i think.

Is Happy Rooster still any good? I remember a couple of years ago when the original folks sold the place and the new owners redid the menu and got a new chef and all, that it was getting rave reviews, but I haven't heard much lately. I noticed it's on the list though, and if those reviews still hold true, I'll be checking it out. Same with Opus 251, although I've heard mixed things about it lately. But either way both of them are too expensive for normal dining, in my world. This $30 thing would be perfect, if they're still good.

This shit is killing me. Vengroff, I'm so sorry to hear it. I've been wanting to redo the kitchen since I moved into this place, and might someday soon have the financial ability to do it, but every story I hear about this stuff makes me happy that the crappy 1985 "renovated for renters" kitchen I have simply works. Edited to say did I say kitching instead of kitchen? why yes I did.

I'm going to the soccer game tonight, and we're meeting at Royal beforehand for food and whatnot. But I'm thinking about stopping by somewhere or other and getting a hoagie to take in just because we can. (speaking of royal--their brisket sandwich tastes like french onion soup. it's really tasty, if a little salty.)

Thanks Pongi!

wow, boy have I screwed up my.. uh... mocha maker? caffettiera? what's the word for it? i've pretty much done everything wrong. heh.

Why that's just crazy enough to work...

I've always been a little intrigued by this concept; there are several hoagie places (I'm thinking of Chickie's, for one) in south philly that do essentially the same thing--usually they're family run places--they order a certain amount of bread, make that many hoagies a day, usually sell out, and close whenever they sell out. It's an interesting concept. It can be annoying. P.S. Edited to say I like the word truculent.

You're right of course. My mistake. Nice. But seriously, abbeynormal is right: they can only cook so many per day, is why you have to reserve your dough. I find business strategies like that annoying too when there's no real reason for them, but in this case it's necessary, since basically they're running at capacity relatively frequently. This thread is killing me today--we're actually going up to Tacconelli's tomorrow night and now I can't wait. Man oh man.

I'm no expert on mole, but the stuff I've had at both Cazuelas and Garibaldi I've liked a lot. I never know if places like Garibaldi that are cheaper and more downscale just get theirs out of a jar or what--if you go to markets in Mexico, there are a hundred different jarred moles for sale, and I would never know if they just used one of them. But I really liked the mole at Garibaldi, mainly because it walked that line between spicy and bitter and sweet and smoky really well. I had a really tasty pork tamale there yesterday. The only problem I had with it was the opposite if the issue I usually have with them--too MUCH filling, not enough masa. And the carnitas taco my wife got was excelllent. Man oh man I'm hungry. (edited to finish my thought, since apparently I decided to post in the middle of a sentence)

Roe, eh? Fat, eh? V. interesting--and here I spent all that time cleaning it out and didn't need to... These weren't large shrimp--they were 41/50s, I think. Thanks Brad, Dave, Fifi.

Last night I bought a pound of shrimp from a local fish shop. They were deelish, but when I was cleaning them, next to and surrounding the usual "vein" on some of them was a much thicker line of greenish-yellow, uh, stuff. It had the consistency and was the color of... well, snot. What was that stuff? I know the vein is just the digestive tract of the shrimp, and actually I've seen this goop before, but this time prompted me to try and find out what it was.

Dang. Well, that's OK, I went and gorged myself on a pork tamale and flor de calabaza quesadillas at La Lupe instead, and bought a peck of yellow pear tomatoes for $1. I love this city sometimes.

Wow. I want one RIGHT NOW. I wonder if they're open Sunday afternoons.

Have I mentioned that a couple weeks ago I made larb solely as a result of happening upon this thread and reading the entire 9 pages or so of it? I made it with ground pork. I toasted my own rice. I served it with sticky rice (which I finished off a couple days later with kimchi as a hangover remedy, but that's another story entirely). It was really good. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, though, re: proportions of lime juice, stock, and fish sauce, because I felt like I know what my chicken stock tastes like, and the fish sauce I have, and whatnot. The verdict: next time I might up the lime juice and reduce the fish sauce a little. Man was it good though. I need some more, and soon. Luckily I have this chicken breast just sitting here waiting to be larbed... (was there any ruling on the usage of larb as a verb?)

Great story, Holly. Where is this place? Wow, that sandwich--it's like, how can we make a cheesesteak worse for you? How about frying some salami and putting it on top? Brilliant.

Thanks Katie! Actually we stopped by the original Chickie's and Pete's on Wednesday. Damn good. My only problem was that the AC was cranked so high it was about 50 degrees in there. The only thing was all the prices quoted were way higher than what I paid. They said $15.95 for three crabs at C&P's? We paid $11. And they were big--there wasn't a choice of sizes or anything. And last week when we went to Byrne's, the large was $4, not $6.