mrbigjas

i believe that this is true. breading/battering on buffalo wings is wrong, because the breading/batter soaks up the sauce and gets soggy, which chicken skin doesn't do.

hzrt8w, thank you so much for this series of posts. everything has looked great and it inspired me to make steamed chicken this weekend... please do continue!

little buddy seems very curious about that squash there. maybe s/he needs reminding that cats don't like vegetables.

yeah somewhere along the way i got a little confused... reading for comprehension isn't my strong suit.

for great brioche, look no further than metropolitan bakery. there's one at 11th & pine, one at 19th & manning (above spruce), and several others. oh also they make great brioche at miel, 17th & walnut.

Thankfully, I think he's trying to keep it to 20-30 dollars, I don't think he's trying to seat a whole dragon-boat's worth of people this saturday night. That indeed would be a challenge! ← aaaaaaah, i get it. i was gonna say, that's some seriously last-minute planning.

excellent, thanks! things are starting to cool down up here, and i'm looking forward to soup time...

tony luke's is open on sundays when the eagles are playing at home. that's not this sunday, though, unfortunately. for dim sum we've been going to saigon maxim at 6th & washington lately. it's pretty good (has several mobile fried-dumpling stations; little touches like that that make things nice) and has the added advantage that you can walk through the italian market to get there. most places in the market are open about 9-1 or 9-2 on sundays. i'm interested to see people's recommendations for saturday night dinner for 20-30 at this late date--except chinatown, where they seem to easily handle crowds like that. edited to add: capigiro is open till like 11 or so on weekends, i think

that looks great, kevin. what more is involved besides the three main ingredients? just the usual garlic/onion and chicken stock, or is there anything else going on there? any cheese? (yes, in a roundabout way i'm asking for a recipe, but nothing specific--i can fake it if i know the basics.)

a great high-end butcher--a philadelphia lobels, if you will--in the western half of center city, open after 5 p.m. and on weekends. as much as i love harry ochs and martins and john yi, their location in the terminal means that i can only get there on saturdays. same with fish, actually. not that this is dibruno's problem...

true. and the only decor changes they made were to replace the map of vietnam on the wall with a sombrero, add one of those moving-light virgin mary things, and put in a tv that's usually tuned to soccer. i agree with you about the enchiladas mole btw. and i don't know how they get a steak that thin that flavorful and tender despite it being well done.

our local butchers, and some of the grocery stores, also sell turkey necks and wingtips for practically nothing. that would work as well..

paw paws! freaking delicious. and so weird. you were right about the cider being sold out. dammit. that's the best cider i think i've ever had--i can't wait. i may get up early next friday and head over before work to get some.

last time i bought them, i played on the fact that they're called lobster mushrooms, and used them in a risotto which i made with lobster stock. in my mind, fish and mushrooms go together somehow, so it was a natural pairing. the interesting thing was that the mushrooms turned the risotto a brilliant yellow-orange, like saffron but darker. i really liked the flavor of them, but then again you could probably soak an old shoe in lobster stock and it would taste good, if you like lobster...

I'm going to try and do a full write-up over the weekend, ← Please do, and when you post, why don't you go ahead and make a Royal Tavern topic, so we can find it later, rather than have it buried in this pizza thread. ← better yet, post it in this one that already exists...

for question #1: i have let stock simmer all night on a gas stove without incident. i did, however, get up several times throughout the night to make sure that the burner hadn't turned off or anything. i don't have problems doing that, though--if you're a heavy sleeper, it's really a matter of do you trust your stove enough to not go out? oh, i can also answer question 2c: use turkey bones and meat...

that looks like most of my tasting notes.... thanks jeff.

After I made the comment about more than one way to do something in a kosher kitchen I meant to add another comment about the fact that this is no way a jewish specific dish. It's just that the first few posts centered in the jewish kitchen. Carry on. ← i made this recipe from mario batali's show a couple years ago and loved it. and now because of this discussion i think i'm gonna have to make it again... there's also a great greek (i think; i don't have the book here with me) stuffed cabbage recipe in the cookbook "the complete middle east cookbook" in which you stuff the cabbages with meat and whatnot and finish them off with an avgolemono type of sauce. good stuff...

i think smithy's on to something here. and with a stew, you can stretch the meat with starch, if expense is an issue, by including plenty of potatoes in the stew, or serving it with mashed potatoes.

we did one just a couple months ago. and it was my first time at tony's tomato pies up on frankford ave, the place with the cheese under the sauce. and alec, that's a damn good pizza right there--forgot to mention that in my first post.

i'm gradually becoming convinced that if you want a really good pizza experience you can't order it--you have to be at a restaurant and get it right out of the oven. even a few minutes in a box will steam and soften the crust. that said, alec, here are my opnions for good pizza in town, in no particular order but how they're coming into my head. tacconelli's in port richmond is still the same as it ever was. their sauce is a little plain to me, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. rembrandt's in fairmount makes very good, occasionally great wood oven pizza. they're a little heavy on the toppings which works against the thinness of the crust, but all the ingredients are good quality and when they have it going right, you get that char that's so good. unfortunately they discontinued the clam. also in fairmount, illuminare makes good gas-fired brick oven pizzas. marra's is very good if you're there. time in the box brings it down some, but that happens to all of them. rustica at 2nd & poplar(?) in northern liberties makes a nice big pizza with a lot of toppings; slightly thicker crust allows it to stand up to them, but it's by no means a thick crust pizza hut kind of crap--get the sausage. they take hot italian and slice it longways, so there are strips of it on the pizza. that's off the top of my head. there are more.

thanks y'all. will report back.

so is marigold back up and running? has anyone been? i got an anniversary coming up and i'm thinking that's a good excuse for a nice bottle and a fancy meal...

i have! i was with people who wanted to try both roast pork and cheesesteak, so we ordered both. the cheesesteak was solid. good stuff. in fact, if someone were wanting a good example of both sandwiches at one place, i wouldn't hesitate to recommend tony luke's.

oh MAN, i totally looked for these this week and they were already out. i thought about buying some of these but i couldn't justify the price. i bought a pile of radishes last week from the farm market at rittenhouse square, and ate them per fergus henderson's recipe this week. let us give thanks. my favorites. i've heard they're not for everyone. i get the impression boiled peanuts are more about the principle of the thing than the dish itself. i love them, but i am a man of catholic tastes--some would say undiscriminating, but i believe that i just discriminate towards anything good.