mrbigjas

true that, jeff, but i don't eat really good steak on a regular basis, is the thing, so splurging now and then is no big deal.

here's what i wonder about that: new york is new york. they have everything, including over 10 million people, and are generally the cultural capital of the country. and in that whole city they have lobel's and maybe a couple other butchers of nearly that quality who are less famous. and you can't buy from where luger's buys from. philadelphia has 10x fewer people and isn't in that situation--really it's no wonder that you can't get that quality here. i'm not saying we shouldn't be striving for it; i'm just saying that in DC and in Boston and in many other cities around the country, i don't hear about legendary super high end butchers like lobel's that sell to the public. so maybe it's not so surprising that they don't exist here either. so yeah, maybe i'm giving the old 'we're not new york' excuse. but i'm wondering if in this case it's valid, rather than the self-hatred for which this city is famous in some circles. for 99% of my steak-eating purposes, getting the most dry-aged stuff that harry ochs has for $16 a pound is good enough for me.

they used to sell eberly at a.a. haltemann, though, so maybe that's where the name came from and they were just mixing up the two shops.

that's really interesting, i never knew they'd do that. cappuccio's also makes good sausage.

can you go on about this a little more? what made you get a rangetop instead of a range? which blue star model did you get? i've been looking into them for an upcoming kitchen redo, and have read the raves on the garden web forums, but it's hard to get a good handle on things when your only options are (a) nothing or (b) that place where everyone is gaga. also how powerful is the hood, and why is it not enough?

so after all this, would you get them again? do the usability advantages outweigh the cosmetic disadvantages, such as they are?

philadelphia inquirer and daily news 1/8-1/14 laban on marshalton inn are lcb wine deals really all they've cracked up to be? fogo de chão wins the hearts of the chain gang joe sixpack writes about finding craft beer everywhere table talk rick nichols on k&z pickles laban: short rib popovers local chefs on radio muhammed ali sells healthy snacks looks like i missed this article about umai umai last week. city paper 1-11 the crew drinks argentinian malbec more on fogo de chão feeding frenzy philadelphia weekly 1-10 kirsten henri on zento here's a nice recipe for brussels sprouts from walter staib pittsburgh tribune review karin welzel on root vegetables looks like i missed this article on blue michael machosky on inauthentic mexican at mexi-casa mixing it up at iovino's cafe pittsburgh-born chef brad farmerie makes it big in NYC pittsburgh city paper mexico city shows there's more than one kind of salsa allentown morning call sogo fusion lounge in easton is packed, and the food's good too

Cool - I wondered about slicing up the greens. Do you slice them before or after cooking? Mrs. C and I liked the greens, so there will be a next time. before. the lady that taught me how to make greens said to roll them up together in five or six leaf bunches and slice them across--kind of like a giant chiffonade. although of course she'd never have said chiffonade.

c.s, they look delicious to me -- i usually slice them thinner so they're easier to eat, but that's just a matter of preference. i'm getting hungry just looking at them. and those people that don't like pot liquor, just because it's grayish green and cloudy and looks like dishwater? those people are wrong. now, what's up with those square biscuits? and, a freezer? do tell. i've always just made biscuits, cut them out with a (round) cutter and cooked them as is--did you make them before, or do you freeze them for a while before cooking to firm things up, like a pie dough?

what ludja said. and don't forget to dip your cornbread in the pot liquor.

yeah, goya makes jarred nopalitos, so it's available pretty much anywhere that has a decent goya selection.

ah, good point sandy. i'm often* looking in the $15-25 range for the various liquors. and even if the state store had loss leaders, they wouldn't be in that area. *well, "often" is a pretty strong term, but i mean, when i buy these things that's generally what i do, since i don't go through them quickly.

i don't entirely approve or disapprove of the LCB, really, especially with the mitigating efforts of the chairman over the last few years. it's all relative, really. but i have found that, in the non-wine realm, recently mid-range liquor prices are no more expensive, and often cheaper, here in PA than they are at canals or total wine. examples: 1. bulleit bourbon: $22.99 here in PA, $24.99 at canals a few weeks ago when i stopped by 2. green chartreuse: $38.99 here in PA, $42.99 at total wine according to their website those are just two that came into my head just now, but it makes you wonder how cheap the stuff could be without the johnstown flood tax, actually. it makes me think that PA could poach a ton of business from neighboring states, a la the aforementioned new hampshire, if they only tried. i don't know if the LCB reevaluated their pricing under newman, but the above examples, and others i've seen when i've done some comparison shopping make me think it must have happened. either way, i'm with capaneus: basically if you're in this part of the state you're in pretty good shape. score the deals you can in PA, score the ones you can in NJ or DE, and hit up some really good stores when you go to NY if you're really stuck.

don't worry wkl, cactus is totally good for you. it's high in vitamins a and c, and good minerals like calcium and magnesium. all with no fat and hardly any calories. good stuff.

If by regular you mean all purpose flour that actually has the malted barley flour in it too. Like White Lily brand all purpose flour is all wheat I believe, but 'regular' all purpose is 'enriched' with vitamins also. I think the reason Wondra is so desirable is because it's milled to be extra fine, no lumps. ← good point. i bet that is it.

it's also the best for light crisp fried things. i don't know if it's the barley flour in it or what, but toss some onion rings in wondra, or calamari, or whatever, and see if you don't notice a difference between that and regular flour.

2007 is upon us, but unfortunately i missed a week of articles here, and now some of them are gone. so it's a seriously shortened inquirer list this week, with just laban: inquirer and daily news, 1/4 and 1/7 craig laban does aqua city paper 1/4 maxine keyser loves oceannaire drew lazor's feeding frenzy, including the yellow bar at 24th & gray's ferry and E's passyunk. philadelphia power couple's dinner picks philadelphia weekly 1/3 kirstin henri checks out homestyle spanish food at isla ibiza in northern liberties liz spikol drinks at abbraccio pittsburgh tribune-review 1/1-1/7 elbow room in shadyside is nice but the food isn't great dining notes karin welzel says we need to eat more greens and really i couldn't agree more there's a new premium collection store in east liberty pittsburgh city paper 1/4 karma on eighth in homestead has a nice concept but needs work.

i don't know what those drugs may be, but sauerkraut usually takes 4-6 weeks, doesn't it? not in time for the month.

they did at first, then another time we went back there they didn't, and now they have a liquor license from what i hear.

i think everyone has this story. it's one of my favorite go-to jokes in any restaurant situation. kind of like 'why the long face?' it's just ALWAYS FUNNY. my favorite menu verbiage error was reported to me by my mom and sister, who were visiting spain. on the menu was a dish listed as being served 'in the juice of yourself.' ok that probably should go in the bad english thread. but i still love it. and say it all the time. mmmmm ugh.

do you think if this happened, you'd have the same reaction we were talking about the other day with the cafes? the 'MOVE IT, DEADBEATS, PAYING CUSTOMER COMING THROUGH' thing?

good point. it's almost as if, in writing the article, she didn't take into account 'ethnic' restaurants. which brings up another area of discussion that it's too late for me to think about now...

did you mention it was $29.99?

Well, no. They exist nowhere in this country I've been able to find, except possibly San Francisco, and the reason, I think, is the American discomfort with alcohol, which I believe is the reason the $1 glass of wine does not exist in this country. And that is why BYOBs may be the only way we get there, because by circumventing the liquor-licensing laws, and the restaurant wine-pricing traditions that dictate markups that start at 100%, they may allow for precisely what I want: to enable Americans - or at least Philadelphians, to afford wine in a public space. And that's why they're so darn successful. There's a hunger out there for readily-accessible places of public convivium, and anything that approximates feeding (so to speak) that hunger is successful. But we seem not to understand the causes of that success, so we blame BYOBs for not meeting what was never their objective and should never be their objective. So geddoff the BYOBs! I wuvs 'em! ← interesting. JohnL has a point, though. the current situation seems to have resulted in a world where you either have a cutesy byob that has to charge $20 plus for its entrees because it has no liquor income, or you have to have the $$ to afford a liquor license, and therefore you sort of have to run a bigger more restaurant-y place. if anyone could afford a liquor license, maybe people could open up restaurants where people could dawdle over cheap glasses and inexpensive dinners without having to worry about that extra $100K hit right when they open. maybe there isn't a place for the bistros and whatnot in the restaurant economic climate that exists here now. or not. who knows.

when your average entree is $25 and you usually need a reservation i don't think that can be considered non-fancy, so pif is out, no matter how casual the ambiance is. i haven't been back to st. tropez in a couple of years since service was so sketchy there for a while--and i'm not one to complain about service much. i should give it a shot again, i guess.