mrbigjas

what he said. my preference for morning wine is vinho verde. that is, when i'm not having a redeye.

don't worrry, it's only january. you have a good four months or so before you even need to begin thinking about it...

there are definitely open container laws. there are about seventy-leven laws about every aspect of alcohol in every shape and form, from where and when you can sell it, to where and when you can drink it... but on new years all bets are off. what you saw was the mummers parade, the oldest folk parade in the US, dating back to the early 1700s or before. go to the mummers website to learn more about it if you're interested. it's a great drunken time, and the city turns its head to a whole pile of everyday laws for that day.

what do you mean 'when cooking with'? nearly any cheese gets me, but when i make a dish that includes cotija or queso fresco--but moreso cotija--that's the ticket right there. in fact if i'm making fajitas or something i usually grill up a chunk of cotija for myself to snack on. considering that we always have black beans with mexican meals, and always put cotija on the beans, this happens pretty often.

at 350 if you stick the handle of a wooden spoon or alternately a wooden chopstick in it, you'll see bubbles come off it--not frying furiously, but pretty noticeable activity.

that would be chung may. i'm pretty sure i've seen it at first oriental and hung vuong as well, both on washington ave.

believe it or not, seating is significantly better than it was--over by the other fish place, where there are tables now, used to be a fourth vegetable vendor. haha i was in there on saturday morning (or was it friday afternoon? or sunday? i can't remember, i was in there like five times this weekend, it's embarrassing) and this crazy ole lady was leaning over the charcuterie counter yelling to anyone that would listen MY GAWD HE'S GOING SO SLOW IT'S DRIIIIVING ME CRAAAAZY. i couldn't stop laughing. incidentally i also noticed that they are now carrying a bunch more specialty olives than they used to, mostly from spain. i picked up some mantequillas and some that were cured with preserved lemon. the latter tasted so much like the lemon that i couldn't taste the olive, but the mantequillas? delicious. i had a moment of panic that they're no longer carrying the spicy catalan olives that are my favorite, but i think i did see them. i don't know about new year's eve later in the afternoon, because i wasn't there, but on christmas eve at least, i don't think i've ever seen dibruno's at such a high level of activity. the store was packed with people--and equally packed with employees. if i hadn't dawdled around trying to decide what i wanted i could have been in and out in 5-10 minutes. it rocked.

what do you mean? it only takes a few minu.... uh, i've said too much already.

i believe i've told the story of the $.85 dinner from college before, but i'll do it again. wawa, the convienience store on the corner, sold hot dogs and sandwiches and soup. they had chili and cheese available for the dog, and saltines for the soup. many times dinner consisted of buying a chili cheese dog for $.85, grabbing a big handful of saltines, eating the chili and cheese with the crackers and then eating the hot dog. that way you could save the remainder of your $4 for a 40 of olde english 800. good times...

excellent idea, kevin. we gonna get that rhubarb cake recipe this spring?

there's devi in exton, and uddupi dosa house in bensalem...

well, there's the $100 kobe cheesesteak that they serve at barclay prime. but as far as just the most expensive steak that is just a steak and isn't served with lobster and a split of veuve in an expense-account setting, you might indeed be the winner.

i didn't specifically say hello to carmen (assuming he was the guy running the register--middle aged, longish graying hair, very nice, obviously loves the world of hoagies) but i did think of your post yesterday when i was at the terminal and suddenly had the urge for an italian hoagie, so i went over to rocco's and got the special. and you're right, it's a delicious sandwich. if you go, be sure to get the house-roasted sweets and hots on it. the hots especially are worth it, but in general it's much better than the jarred stuff that you usually get on hoagies (and that they also offer if you like that sort of thing). my only reservation is that the sandwiches there might not be as big as some people might expect when they think they're getting a hoagie. i think i could finish one pretty easily, and that's not really a compliment when it comes to hoagies--people think of them as big abundant sandwiches, and rocco's don't qualify as that. i don't want anyone to interpret that in any negative way, though. every ingredient is great, from the rolls from liscio's, to the sharp provolone, to the various meats... and really maybe we wouldn't be the least healthy city in the US like we were a few years ago if hoagies were a little more reasonable in size. damn, i might be about to go on another hoagie binge again. one question rich: what's the deal with rocco's vs. carmen's or whatever, namewise? just an ownership change, like louie's lee's liquor lounge in the dale watson song, or ruth's chris steak house? or something else?

I'm sorry, Karen, I can't say I'd want it on my counter, but it's kinda KEWT! ← also how can you resist a toaster that has this extra special feature:

OK andrew, since you beat me to it, literally posting your stuff as i was batch processing and uploading my pics, i'll just comment on your comments rather than posting any of my own pics. that's cured first, then 72 hours at 72 degrees.... THEN chilled and slow roasted for six more hours... then seared. it's kind of a lot of work. you might say. hey, i got one of them! unfortunately for that one, it was one of those wines that... well, put it this way: when i was a kid my dad used to say when he wanted to get us out of the house, "go outside and get the stink blown off ya." and that one needed the stink blown off it. and we had just come off of the bolognani armilo, which was a much brighter, mellower, fruitier, less tannic wine, so the funkiness of the brunello was really jarring. as it turned out by the time we were pretty much done with it, the bottle was starting to get a lot nicer, and it went really well with the lamb. ah well. wish i'd had the two bottles of it i thought i had. other than that, the wines we had were: with the first several courses (links take you to moore bros website): 2003 Peter Jacob Kuhn Oestricher Lenchen Reisling Kabinett. nicely honeyed but with an acidic backbone that helped it stand up to the foie gras, the mackerel and the hamachi. also it comes in a coolio bluish green bottle. with the langoustine, 2004 beckman sauvignon blanc purisime vineyards. this was a rockin SB which changed in the glass as it warmed, the gooseberryishness of it giving way to an essence of grapefruit peel... with the pork the bolognoni, which i mentioned above, and with the lamb the brunello. finally, with the cheese, a bodega ferris la cosecha moscatel sacristia sherry, which was just right, and especially for the price (about $15). it was rich and oxidized, but had a solid acidic side to it that ... well, it matched shola's dessert and cheese course, a contrast of sweetness with acidity (cf. cheesy ice cream with salted orange brittle, lemon oil), so that things work together to produce a sum that's greater than its parts. i could drink this on a regular basis, and need to buy a couple bottles for after dinner at home on a regular basis. katie, have i mentioned how glad i am that you did the whole amada thing? because she's got a better palate than i do and has now tasted through most of the wine and sherry available around here. shola really is outdoing himself on a regular basis, if everything i read and my last couple of experiences are any indication. it's way cool. i'm setting a studiokitchen budget for 2006 of six visits, so you folks who are going? keep posting in the ISO thread or PM me. i'm down.

we went last night and it rocked. but i don't have time to do a full post about it quite yet. monday probably.

i think their coffee is very good for what it is, which is plain ol' diner style coffee. it's not nice and strong and bitter like la colombe, but it's not all thick and burnt tasting like starbucks either. i like it just fine.

i liked this line about the iron horse brut LD in his notes: ah, the existential loneliness of a disappointing bottle of wine. i can hear a coyote howling in the distance, and a far-off train whistle in the middle of the night...

interesting indeed. from their website: i wonder if restaurant usage doesn't count as 'normal use' anymore?

I will echo Sandy here. The terminal market is worth the walk. I routinely walked there weekly when I lived on the square - even in the dead of winter. just to clarify time-wise here: rittenhouse square is at 18th street and walnut. the terminal is at 12th street and just above market. that's 6 blocks down and 2 1/2 blocks over, less than 3/4 of a mile of nice walking through town--shouldn't take you more than about 20 minutes max if you don't shop your way down there, although there's plenty to see and do along the way.

you know what else is brutal? champagne. way more than wine. get yerself hammered on several bottles of the standard NV offerings--white star, yellow label, etc., and smell yourself the next day. this awful acrid acidic yeasty smell comes off of you... ugh, especially combined with the residue from like three packs of smokes. ah, new years. i always imagined that's how the ladies on absolutely fabulous smelled...

for a cast iron grill pan, the important thing is to clean it while it's still blazing hot. get one of those stainless scourers, and a pair of longish tongs. take your food off, and leave the burner on for a couple more minutes. then pour in a couple of cups of water--watch out for the steam because it'll boil furiously. while it's boiling, grab the scourer in the tongs and scrub along and between the ridges. use a potholder or something to hold the pan still if necessary. this is like a 30 second process or so, and when you're done you don' t have to do anything--you can just let the pan sit there on the burner with the water in it until you're done eating.

further thoughts, since no one seems to have any other ideas: if you can get a hold of the philadelphia weekly or the city paper, i saw lots of ads for new years eve things at various restaurants. i'm just not sure the ads are on line, but the print edition definitely has a lot...

you can usually tell tin from stainless because tin is very shiny and... well, silvery, for lack of a better word. reflective. here is a picture of a tin-lined pan stainless steel is brushed-looking, like a stainless steel stove top, or refrigerator. here is a picture of a stainless-lined pan the differences are less subtle in person than in those pictures...

At first look, I'd have to agree with gkg680. It appears to be from the 2.0 mm line. One thing to look for is a rolled lip on the pan (which this saucepan appears to have). As far as I know, a rolled lip is not employed in Mauviel's 2.5 mm line. ← yeah, it's got that. back to the drawing board...