mrbigjas

as would french. why is caribou the only non-fancy french place in town?

i suspect--although i'm not sure, having only been there two or three times over the years--that the only thing they bring around on trays without ordering is the fry. i wonder why that is.

thanks! ok the thing about lakeside that i enjoy over other dim sum places in town is the relative lack of fried things. seems like everywhere we go there are piles of fried dumplings and fried rolls and fried this and that. without all that fry, i am in less pain after gorging myself there than at other places.

ditto here. well, actually not--i ran out and am now drinking something else that was about $15 for the VSOP, at canal's in jersey. and lemme tell ya it tastes it, too. i'll be mixing the rest of it and flaming things with it, and it's back to chalfont for cheap cognac for me. (on the bright side i got a bottle of ferrand pineau des charentes while i was there, which i've never seen here in PA.) edited to say it's chateau des plassons, the one i'm drinking now.

i gave him a little taste. he would have had some more if it didn't have 1000-year old egg and pork in it. both those things are no-nos till his belly matures somewhat... the lady who brings around the fried things said KEEP THIS AWAY FROM THE BABY! but i think that was just because it was hot.

ok i'll add a few notes: 1. chicken feet were delicious. i don't know why that glaze they put on chicken feet at dim sum places isn't used on everything. 2. the problem with that tripe dish is that for like $3 you get enough to feed an army, so there are always leftovers. and leftover tripe = not that great. 3. the jellyfish was really good. of course that's because sesame is deeply satisfying for some reason, and that's all you can taste. 4. ditto for sesame noodles, which were about the best i've had in town. chewy, slightly spicy, and generally fantastic. 5. i managed to eat a piece of roast duck with chopsticks while holding a baby in my other hand, and i only splashed a little bit of duck fat in my eye. admit it, you're impressed.

that sure is a verbose way of saying tortilla soup. edit: oops, missed the 'sopa azteca' actual name of the dish up there. nevermind.

18%. and in philadelphia sales tax is 7%...

ok so how about this scenario: they decide to continue the chairman's selection program, and re-hire him as a consultant at several times the salary. this has happened to several friends of mine who have gotten laid off in recent years... sweet gig.

ok then, let's see what christmas week brought us. inquirer and daily news, 12/28 and 12/31 craig laban does the year in review. so does michael klein joe sixpack says you too can lose 593 pounds on the beer drinker's diet gnocchetti at l'oca in fairmount marilynn marter offers up 20 trends for 2007 beth d'addono gets local chefs' new year's resolutions for 2007 (chris scarduzio promises fresh cut fries every day. i've said before that BP can have the best fries in town, when they're on, and i stand by that) philadelphia weekly 12/27 kirsten henri checks out kitchen 233 in westmont NJ mara zepeda sings the praises of beets, although her recipe for 'borsch' includes 'bullion'--don't tell goldfinger! philadelphia city paper 12/28 margaret battistelli tells us how to throw a grown-up NYE party drew lazor eats at roberto's cafe over here by me and holly, and also writes up his feeding frenzy pittsburgh tribune-review 12/31 karen welzel writes about ethnic coffee cakes... ...and reviews the quail in north strabane... ...and, i suspect, writes this article about best lunch spots, although it's not attributed to her pittsburgh city paper 12/28 hyde park steakhouse over near the stadiums other papers didn't have much this week. and again i say, if there are places/papers you want covered, just let me know.

true that. but if he does, jersey is still right next door...

that was me, and it was interesting--a layer of bubbly brownish persimmony goodness, topped by a thin layer of flan-iness. it was interesting--tasted good, but a weird texture.

i never liked garibaldi's fundido, the couple of times i had it. not enough melty cheese, too much other stuff. but that's neither here nor there. this is the information i have to impart tonight: taqueria la veracruzana delivers, and if you're near this part of town (somewhere south of south street, pretty much river to river), the food comes nearly as quickly as if you were ordering it in the restaurant. i mean, they said 20-35 minutes, and it was here in about 25 minutes. i mean, that's ridiculously fast. and it's still good, too--i know the al pastor at the other place is better, and i know garibaldi's is more full-service, and whatnot, but seriously the amount of tasty food we got delivered in 25 minutes for $15 was ridiculous. aaaaaaw yeah

according to their website it does: it's my favorite bourbon right now.

nice job on the interview, philafoodie. man, dude is pissed, ain't he?

week of 12/18, here's what some of the state's papers had to say: inquirer and daily news, 12/21 and 12/24 craig laban likes vintage wine bar quite a bit michael klein's table talk--fogo de chao, l'oca, trattoria alla costiera. rick nichols writes about tiffin's newfound popularity. laban again, writes a quick rave about banh mi from huong lan marialisa calta goes against the 'authenticity' construct and writes about making cioppino on christmas eve. finally, joe sixpack writes about what beer rocky would drink philadelphia city paper 12/21 elisa ludwig has decidedly mixed feelings about snackbar here's a fun article about catherine gilbert-ansill's homemade jams drew lazor's feeding frenzy--tiffin, fogo, james restaurant (no relation to me, naturally), avenue north. ministry of information in northern liberties is serving swanson tv dinners to patrons to keep their food income down and continue to allow smoking. sounds like something that would have happened when it was the old W&J... oh wait, there was no food there. philadelphia weekly 12/20 kirsten henri talks about 2006's ups and downs brian mcmanus gets drunked up with the russians at the golden gate pittsburgh tribune-review authentic neapolitan pizza at il pizzaiolo in mt. lebanon (with special bonus pictorial on how to make suppli) UUBU 6 in the south side slopes. casual italian at isoldi's on strip not one but two new cupcake cafes christmas and new year's eve options in food briefs pittsburgh city paper 12/20 upscale dining at blue in north hills allentown morning call a more modern take on a steakhouse at collonnade steakhouse in bethlehem

yes. many of us with small houses and no room for chest freezers always reduce stock quite a bit so it will fit in our regular freezers, and reconstitute as needed. i find you just have to be kind of careful, because when you get down to near-glace status, things can take on a more roasted/caramelized/... ok let's say you risk getting an almost burned flavor. so be careful, and reduce slowly once it gets real low.

reuben lasagna! layer of rye pasta, layer of kraut, layer of corned beef, shredded swiss... i can't figure out if i'm making myself kind of nauseated just thinking about it, or if this is a really good idea.

just yesterday here on maryland public tv, they replayed the julia child master chef episode with christopher gross, wherein he lightly smokes a beef loin (he uses a strip) before searing and serving it. you can watch the episode here. i'm totally going to make the potato crisps he makes on that show, one of these days. he got the recipe from michel richard, and calls them information potatoes, because the ratio is 411: 4 parts potato, 1 part each egg whites and butter. anyway it looked fantastic.

but see, the problem with that is, then i'd have to have an indian wife to make it for me at home. and i don't have one of them. hence the need for tiffin.

they're already successful enough that they changed the time you have to order--last week it was 10 a.m. and now it's before 9. which is a bummer because that's when i get to work. (we were going to order today but didn't realize the time had changed).

OK then week of 12/11: inquirer/daily news, 12/14 and 12/17 laban on alphabet soup in audubon lari robling writes about international dining in the northeast of course there's table talk joe sixpack writes about good brewpubs in the burbs philadelphia city paper, 12/14: drew lazor cooks a meal out of the joy of cooking frenzy posts about 9th & south, conshohocken, manayunk, snackbar, and nectar jessica loughery ranks her top five stuffed pastas philadelphia weekly, 12/13 kirsten henry reviews molcajete mixto in the old nam phuong spot at 8th & christian mara zepeda writes about men are cookin', a charity scholarship event pittsburgh tribune-review, 12/14 luma, in aspinwall and soon to be in mt. lebanon a buncha brunches bigelow grille for lunch hey, philadelphia city paper's included, why not pittsburgh's? 12/14: gullifty's allentown morning call 12/17 the finland inn in pennsburg.

can you tell us about this? i have two very ripe persimmons here that i need to use. is it germane to the topic, or just something you made?

right? it couldn't show up in a non-chain, locally owned artisanally handcrafted place?

there was a recipe that i cut out of the paper years ago, that we always used to make: a spicy beef stew with port in it. googling turns up this recipe, which i just checked and is indeed the one we made. this doesn't call for good port--it's just sweetness to offset the jalapenos. generic fizz is good for cooking certain things too. mussels, for instance, where you want the acid from the wine, but you're gonna load it up with garlic and chorizo so you're not gonna taste it much... ok i think i'm sensing a theme here: use them for cooking things where the flavor of the wine doesn't matter as much as the properties of it.