mrbigjas

right with ya. especially when travelling, my wife and i usually like to find a bar near our hotel, preferrably a local-type spot but occasionally a nicer one, where we can sit down at the end of most days and debrief. i get out my little book and write down what we did that day, we talk to the bartender or anyone around us, watch a little of whatever local sports are inevitably on the tv* and chill out for a little while before hitting the hay. if you're a bar sort of person, the sense of normality this gives while traveling really makes everything better. *this is interesting in hood river, oregon, for instance, where every bar shows constant dvd reruns of windsurfing, surfing, snowboarding, skiing, etc, instead of anything live, or for that matter anything like baseball, football, hockey, etc.

this is interesting, the lack of responses. i would definitely try whipping the egg white. between that and the baking powder, things would be bound to lighten up. but i've never made potato fritters, only corn, zucchini, apple, and so forth. potatoes can be weird when mixed into doughs or batters in my experience.

it's not that hard to get your hands on basically pure ethanol from chemical supply places. i mean, if you get it without the denaturing agent or the vomit inducer or whatever you have to pay a liquor tax on it, but it's not like it's illegal or anything. wouldn't that really be better than everclear?

i think about $15 or 16 before tax/tip? something like that. the tapas and churros were about $6 each (a total deal for the tapas BTW), the extra cup of chocolate was a couple bucks.

i was lying around feeling kinda crappy yesterday, trying to take a nap when i got a call from katie, who said she was around the corner at apamate, and would i care for some churros y chocolata? well, who am i to say no? so, they were having the same batter issue as greg mentioned on wednesday, and therefore the churros weren't forthcoming right away. so we ordered the 'degustacion de tapas': from right to left, since that's the way we ate them: --a piece of norwegian salmon with (if i remember right) a reduced albarino buerre blanc --an ugodly gigantic seared scallop, with fried leeks and jamon, and some of that herbed oil that i don't remember exactly --a piece of squid with balsamic caramelized onions, on puff pastry --a clam broiled with manchego all were delicious, although the scallop was really a highlight, despite the pale out-of-season tomato under it; its natural sweetness contrasting with the salty crunch of the jamon and leeks.... excellent. moving on, churros! they got things worked out: we asked for an extra cup of chocolate since there were two of us, and when we'd finished the churros were we greedy enough to just scarf the extra chocolate as if it was a cup of very thick hot chocolate? you even have to ask? anyway, the churros were crunchy most of the way through; katie pointed out that usually they're a little softer in the middle. i suspect the state of the churros will be in flux for a little while, as the batter issues are worked out. they sure tasted good though. apamate is a very welcoming place, a pleasant way to spend a morning or afternoon, and a great addition to the neighborhood. i'll be back quite a bit, you better believe it.

only one way to find out... a bottle of everclear costs what, like $10? (i honestly don't know; we can't get it here in PA). seems like for $20 or so you could have plenty of booze and lemons to set up a nice experiment with different filtering batches and peel and juice batches and control groups and the whole nine yards...

not if there's a law against it you won't!

i had a roast pigeon this past weekend where they kept the liver in with the bird, and i can honestly say that if the liver had been more gras-er i would have enjoyed it more than i did. it was a little pasty.

i don't bother dirtying a blender for it. it takes two minutes, but making it stovetop only takes about five, and i end up with no blender to wash. i used to use grub's method, with the cold butter and all, and that really works well. jacques pepin recommends that method in complete techniques, i believe. or at least that's what i was reading when i learned to make it, and after doing it a few times that way and having it not break it can really increase your confidence level. i've switched to using drawn butter recently because it's faster--you can make up a batch in just a couple of minutes if the butter is melted already. with hollandaise, mayonnaise, etc., it seems to me that the thing is to make these sauces enough times to really get a feel for how the egg yolk is holding onto the fat. once you have that sense of how things are going, each time you make it you can increase the speed at which you're adding the fat so that you're adding it pretty much as fast as the yolk can take it. and at that point using the blender instead of a whisk isn't that much of a timesaver. or at least that's been my experience--i should clarify though that i'm generally making pretty small quantities.

wow, i had an eggplant dish just the other night that looked like that, but with even more brownish yellowish grayish sauce around it. so this isn't dinner, but this morning i made myself a cup of oatmeal. and i didn't want it plain so i looked in the refrigerator here at work and noticed a jar of blueberry pear butter, and put in a few spoonfuls. see where this is going? right here:

yeah what he said. in my googling around last night (we had pasta with favas and another shot at that eggplant with egg sauce dish, which turned out much better), i could have sworn i found something, but i was on like 10 different websites and i'm damned if i can remember which it was.

excellent job, foodman--i saw that same ep of great chefs and thought about making it as well. i really need to get over my fear of making fresh pasta. just because i don't have a pasta roller-outer doesn't mean i can't do it, right?

i think they mean kefir.

i stopped in on my way to work this morning. i saw a little jamon quiche in the case and got a jones for it, so i ordered a piece. i was a little surprised when it cost $7, but then i realized it was like a whole entree type of thing, that came with a salad and all, so that made sense. anyway, the quiche was damn good. had a cup of excellent coffee too, and the owners/employees were extremely nice. i'll be back for lunch/dinner sometime soon.

this an interesting link: http://www.virtualitalia.com/recipes/tv0700.shtml specifically this: cream? that is interesting. for some reason it's taken me three pages of this thread to realize that 'maro' is just a thinned-out version of the fava bean spread i've been making for years. i don't know where i got the recipe (and i haven't used a recipe in a long time) but it's a spring staple in our house, on toast. i don't know why i've never thinned it out and served on pasta...

i don't know about the one in west philadelphia, having never been there. but the one on 18th st hasn't been open when i've gone by for quite a while now. it was really quick.

rich pawlak's mention of four rivers last year or so was the impetus for a thread which is still around here somewhere, where people who knew would recommend which chinese restaurant specialized in which dishes. because if you look at four rivers' menu without the requisite knowledge, you'd never know they were anything more than a regular old run-of-the-mill egg foo yung/general tso's chicken place.

closed now.

got that right--there's a new turkish restaurant on 22nd & christian that opened last night as well.

it isn't up there anymore.

better hurry, though, the smithsonian is shutting down the american history museum for two years to do extensive renovations, starting with several galleries and installations this spring and ending up completely closed by sept. 5. julia's kitchen is one of the ones staying open till september, according to their site.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee. The digging will probably stop, but then the eating of the tasty plants might begin. It depends on the culprit. Did it return last night? April ← i wish i still had pictures of the chickenwire domes i made one year to protect my plants from the marauding cats, chipmunks, squirrels, etc that make their home in the big city and like to either dig in soft dirt or eat young plants. but you can imagine them. just take a length of chickenwire equal to the circumference of your pot, wrap it around the pot and attach it to itself, and close up the top if need be. sure it looks kinda ghetto, but it works...

mark vetri will do it for a mere $750 a head, according to last month's philadelphia style magazine...

there's a great whiskey selection at grey lodge too? i gotta get up there again; now that i have a designated driver i'd say a trek up there is in the cards for the near future. edited to say congratulations to all involved! i agree with dude wholeheartedly, except about his description of frankford.

wow, nice one. every year around this time i buy a bunch of lovage and i use about half of it before i get too sick of it and toss the rest, which has wilted. it's a great addition to salads, as long as its used sparingly.