mrbigjas

i haven't been to rome for a couple of years either, but i second the cul de sac recommendation if you like wine, and especially if you like cured meats. it's the first place i ever had lardo and i remember it like it was yesterday. in addition, there is a sandwich shop called bar rinelli on a smallish street leading up from piazza barberini called via san nicolo da tolentino. you can't miss this place if you're on the block; it's usually packed out the door with office worker types from the area, and with good reason--it has truly excellent sandwiches, that cost very very little. it's the only place we ate twice while we were in rome, because it was on the way from our hotel to where we were going, often, and it was so cheap and good.

ed, i second sandy's recommendation of the mutter museum up there. if you want a place that's right downtown yet off the beaten track, subject-matter-wize, that's a good one. and it's only five blocks from your hotel. in addition, the rodin museum has the largest collection of rodin's work outside of paris. those are good. there's also the university of pennsylvania museum--that's archaeology and anthropology. wandering through fairmount park is nice, and there's the japanese teahouse up there, which is very cool. but enough about sights. foodwise, rlibkind covered a lot up there, as did holly--his recommendation for brunch at carman's, especially. and rlibkind is king of the terminal--listen to him. one place that isn't recommended often enough is also just a block or two from your hotel--it's called tria, they focus on beers, wines by the glass or bottle, and cheeses. they also have a sandwich menu and small dishes, but it's not a full service restaurant for dinner or something--just a good place to stop in the late afternoon after touring around, for a nice glass of beer or wine and good snacks. another place that's similarly good to stop for snacks or a meal is the old-school philadelphia fish house, sansom street oyster house. at happy hour time they have cheap but always impeccably fresh oysters and clams, and the best snapper soup around. if you're a burger sort of person, there are about five places within a few blocks of your hotel that can make great ones--brasserie perrier, rouge, good dog, black sheep, off the top of my head. while you're in the area, at 19th & walnut is la colombe, one of the best coffeehouses in the country. i recommend starting every day there. also your hotel is 1 block from dibruno bros. new store, which is packed with great cheeses, meats, breads, olives and about a billion other foods from around the world. stock up for your drive home so you don't have to resort to reheated BK at the joyce kilmer rest area on the turnpike. if you tell us a little more about what you like, we might be able to come up with more options...

i'm gonna go ahead and nominate this as the best freakin idea i've heard in a long long time. it works on so many levels. the food is fresher at that time of year. there's nothing else going on (unless you're jewish) that time of year. it can help stave off depression about summer ending and school and work picking back up.... i just love it. i think i'm gonna do it.

.....gettin funky on the mic like an old batch of collard greens.... darby, there was a recipe in last year's wall street journal after thanksgiving which i made a couple times and was great. it was basically a fritatta with turkey and cheese and collard greens in it. cook the collard greens with onion/red pepper/vinegar like usual, then put them in the fritatta with some leftover cooked turkey. greens and eggs get along like gangbusters. if you want, pm me and i'll take a look for the recipe at home.

because of this thread i just checked out tienda.com, and right now pimientos de padron are on sale 2 for the price of one. so, $9.95 a pound, basically, or $17.50 for two. http://www.tienda.com/specials/sale_page9.html kewl. i'm totally buying some. a pound of those little peppers is plenty to calm the craving.

the opinions of random people reviewing restaurants on websites IS like 'someone venturing an opinion as you wait in the queue in the supermarket.' the questions then become: do you know that person waiting in the queue with you? have they ventured opinions to you before that you've found to be trustworthy?

might be that michael berman and... um, other guy whose name i can't remember... are still in a coma from eating like a piza and a half in 10 minutes on sunday at the tomato festival.

wow, i was just wondering the other day if la creole still existed. i haven't been there in a couple years, but i always enjoyed it when i went. very decent new orleans kinda dishes--gumbo, jambalaya, etc--served in a stinky dive bar atmosphere. thanks for the info, sandy.

believe it, kiliki. give in. it's a trainwreck you can't not watch.

p.s. i may be starting yet another 'how should i renovate my kitchen' thread on here relatively soon, so everyone can get their tips ready!

that's where i got a lot of information as well. as with any site, though, the issue for me is picking out what information represents a realistic scenario for someone like me vs. what information represents a realistic scenario for someone who is the process of creating a $75,000, 800 square foot pro-level kitchen. this is exactly what i'm worried about, although from much of what i've read it doesn't seem to be a very complicated piece of equipment, just a heavy-duty one. i mean, it appears to be a stove with no super electronically controlled whatnot and this and that. how hard can it really be to fix if it breaks? but all that's neither here nor there, because i've decided to hold off till i do this work on the house. my stove ain't great, and it's got a little oven issue right now that makes me light it with a lighter, but once it's lit it works fine, and holds a temp pretty well, and the thermostat is accurate and whatnot. and when the time comes i'll have no problem getting the range i want, because it'll be part of the whole renovation. robyn, i'm right with ya about doing what i want, for my purposes--in fact, if it were up to me, i'd figure out how to do a cooktop/wall oven combo, but i suspect that's not possible in my space, while maintaining the amount of storage for all the other shit i've picked up over the years. i think it's just the timing that's wrong right now. so i'm sticking it out for the moment.

Love to hear what you've found out about items 2 and 3. Has any one had experience with this manufacture? Repair history? 2 is the problem. i have a wood cabinet hanging about 24" above the stove directly to the left, and the contractor who would be doing the installation says that's trouble. i know prizer-painter recommends getting a hood one size larger than the stove (e.g. 36" hood for 30" stove) just for reassurance. but from what i've read i don't think that's necessary if you have the air-moving capacity you need and no cabinet sitting right there.

personally i'm still looking for a cafe latte like you get in italy, and i have yet to find it. pull the shot, put it in about a 6 oz juice glass, steam/foam the milk, bang it once on the counter to even out the foam, and dump it in the glass. it's not holding back the foam like everyone does here; the foam gets mixed in. the end result is a much smaller (and cheaper) drink than most cafe lattes you get in the US, with a significantly higher ratio of coffee to milk, and with a much fuller mouthfeel because the foam is throughout the coffee. i don't know if this is 'authentic' or if it's just how it happens because every barista in rome is gruff and in a hurry, but i loved it. as far as buying coffee, i usually buy whatever varietal looks interesting at old city, and drink my way through a 1/2 pound of it. those folks really know what they're doing when it comes to roasting--even their dark roasts never taste as burnt as evern starbucks' lightest. alternately i drink la colombe corsica.

Ha! My brain went exactly the same way, and I was pretty perplexed for a while. But I think i got it, chardonnay, don't marinate the cukes with chardonnay! Right? ← ooooooooooooh i get it now. i was really confused for a second there.

they've always had cones. they're these little mini sugar cones they get from spain, i think, although i'm not exactly sure why i think that. you get a little cone with about a 1/2 of a small serving in it (one flavor only) for like $2.50 or so. the cones are great.

chard? in wine? why ever would we?

i was just telling katie today--every time i've been to mexico lindo there's always a couple dudes in there eating huge plates of tongue. i mean, just mounds of it. i've always wondered what's up with that.

you guys were totally buying wine in jersey, and chairman newman is hanging out here now--you're so busted! hahaha

what he said. i wish i could afford le bec fin, but at $138/person, plus wine, it's just not an option for me--i just don't have $4-500 to drop on dinner for two right now.

ok so: 1. gas line issue 2. cabinet positioning (something i hadn't thought of before today) 3. making sure the venting is OK after all--i do have a good hood which does go directly outside through the wall, but a double check wouldn't hurt 4. wendy's lawsuit got it.

gaf: yeah, what they all said. good writeup, thanks.

i'm still looking into the gas line issue, as well as the cabinet proximity issue. a call to the manufacturer is in the cards tomorrow i think. as for tonight, i just chopped off a good chunk of my index finger making dinner, so i'm definitely feeling like i don't deserve it....

good point, mottmott, and you know, that brings up something else i've always wondered about purchases like this, viz., if you bought something like this and then had to move for whatever reason, couldn't you put it in your contract that you're taking it with you when you leave? it's a 30" stove after all; it's not some custom built-in thing that can't be replaced.

wkl -- true, but i make more than 30 meals for every meal at SK. in fact, even when you factor in numbers of courses, i bet i still make more than 30 times what i eat at SK, at home. johnder -- thanks for the tip, i'll investigate further.

i like the way you think, vestadunning!