mrbigjas

toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, and grill

i think so. i've had river horse a few times, and while it didn't thrill me enough that i can remember specifically what it was like, it also wasn't bad enough that it stuck in my mind for that reason either.

I thought I had a response for this earlier in the thread, but it must have been another "worst beer ever" one. Cool Colt was a failed marketing-gimmick-from-hell that I assume was trying to ride the coattails of the menthol cigarette marketing success in some areas. That's right: mentholated malt liquor. Imagine doing a shot of Listermint and following it up with a healthy swig of malt liquor and you've pretty much got it nailed. I only had the pleasure of trying it once (I think it lasted all of a week in the test markets), but that was enough. The contents of that entire 40 (yes, I actually finished the damn thing) will haunt my tastebuds forever. The 64 oz. of Private Stock served as a failed attempt to erase the memory. TedE, were you in philadelphia at the time? we were one of the test markets too. agreed: the nastiest thing ever. nothing else in this thread comes close.

is it? i thought it was a little early yet.

thanks for the info. (dammit, i KNEW i was spelling deirdre wrong, too) i saw you have a few bottles left at the 41st & market store, so i'll just swing over there and pick one up.

salade lyonnaise edited to say: oh, and potato salad. with bacon. with all them potatoes you got there? perfect.

excellent, thanks mjg! church brew works seems to be a common theme among everyone i ask--we'll definitely have to go there. i've always wondered about lidia's, since she's in my top five of all cooking show hosts ever, and her books have great dishes in them. but i've heard mixed things about the restaurant itself.

seems to me that there's a real (if incredibly risky, legally) market for some sort of feed-tube-safety-switch-eliminator aftermarket piece for a cuisinart...

thanks cherie! noilly prat is my vermouth of choice, so it's kinda sad to see it not on the local shelves. oh well, i'll work something out.

so i figure, since you're around, dierdre, and don't seem to mind answering questions, maybe i would start a thread for random other (non-wine-bargain-related) questions we have--things we can't find in the stores, questions about getting those things, general policy, whatnot. is that OK? i hope so. so anyways, i'll start: what prompted me posting was this: i was at the 12th/chestnut store this weekend looking to replace my bottle of noilly prat which is nearly gone, and there wasn't any--and there wasn't any label on the shelves as if it was just temporarily out. i was in a hurry so i didn't ask anyone, but i went home and looked it up, and it's on closeout. so my question is: is the LCB not carrying it anymore? thanks.

basa '03, $10.99 according to their website

thanks dannyboy! i should also clarify one other thing: i'm much more interested in good food than i am fahn dahnin'.

don't mince words! tell us how you really feel!

Look in your closet. Those wire things? The things with your clothes on them? Those are clothes hangers. They are good for much, much more than holding your favorite cowboy garb. You can clean out a vacuum hose with them, open car doors, retrieve car keys from open grates, clean shotguns, etc. They are all purpose tools and I am sure that adding cusinart repair to the above list would not be much of a stretch. Good luck, cowboy. ← i have long believed that people from the north try to use duct tape to fix everything, while people from the south use wire. thanks for supporting my kooky theories, there. (i really have more of a southern mindset when it comes to these things)

oh also i should clarify: lest you think i didn't do my homework, i have read the two threads on pittsburgh recommendations on here. but they're kind of old, and i was wondering if there's anything new and fun that i shouldn't miss...

haven't heard much from the pittsburgh folks lately, what with all the philadelphia concentration on here. i'll be in pittsburgh starting on thursday evening. friday we'll be doing a day trip to fallingwater and kentuck, and then back in town for the weekend, leaving sunday. oh, and we're seeing a pirates game on saturday night, so we won't be dining per se that night. any and all recommendations would be welcomed. we're staying downtown near the strip somewheres, in a big fancy hotel. feel free to PM if you don't wanna post.

spritle sushi! aaaaaaaah speeeeeeed! i suspect it might be better to stay away from chim chim sushi, though. monkeys and raw fish: not an appetizing combination.

that veggie hoagie is one of the greatest sandwiches in the world, no doubt about it.

do they still make chesterfield in kegs? the two bars i know of that used to have it (tangier at 18th & lombard, and standard tap) no longer carry it, and in both cases when i asked about it they said yuengling wasn't making it in keg form anymore. which is a goddamn shame, because it's so much better than lager. it used to be my go-to cheap beer.

1. i've had the brisket. it's a good sandwich, the meat very tender, an almost sweet juice of reduced wine and caramelized onions. i don't think it'd be my go-to above the pork (since so very few, if any, things are), but i would definitely recommend it. give it a try! it's only one sandwich, one day--at worst you're out $6.50 and have to wait and have pork the next day... 2. fiddleheads: i clean them, sautee in olive oil with garlic and some red pepper flakes, then squeeze in some lemon juice and a few drops of water, and cover and steam for about 30 seconds or a minute. for a meal, toss that with pasta and goat cheese, and then put on fresh basil or parsley or mint or whatever you have fresh.

alternately, if you get something that takes a ball tap (as opposed to a prong type, which unfortunately is most everything decent), i have one you can use.

i could taste the campari in campari grapefruit. and there was a... vodkaness, i guess... to the lemon/gray goose. but i also couldn't taste the tequila in that one.

i have to admit i've never understood why people get so worked up about these sorts of things. it's just ketchup, after all. use it, or don't, whichever. however, i've read this thread with interest because recently i made a couple of varieties of ketchup-type condiments for various things, so here are some thoughts. first of all, i don't understand the usage on eggs. to me the flavor of eggs and the flavor of ketchup just aren't complementary. they're totally separate in my head. i put some on some eggs once when i was younger because a lot of people did it, and it was like the two flavors were fighting in my mouth. i mean, i'm not appalled or anything, it's just kind of incomprehensible. now, on to beef: as you may or may not know, i live in philadelphia, home of the cheesesteak. and many, many people like ketchup on a cheesesteak. to me, it doesn't add all that much--maybe a little sweetness and acid to cut the fat, but not enough to make me use it, and i prefer them without. but a burger with a nice char on it? ketchup, or better yet, the 50/50 ketchup/sriracha combination someone upthread mentioned is my go-to. good fries definitely don't need ketchup either. hot crisp salty potato is definitely good enough to stand on its own. and if they suck so bad that i need to drown them in ketchup, i just don't eat them--i don't need the calories. ok here's something else: a few weeks ago, i made lamb chops, and wanted some kind of condiment on them. for some reason i don't know, i decided i wanted a sort of hot curried mint ketchup. so i cooked some onions and garlic, added a good dose of curry powder and red pepper, the tomatoes and a little sugar, pureed the whole mess, and cooked it down until it was ketchupy thickness. then i cooled it and pureed it again with mint. and it was freaking great, so i thought that was kinda cool. ok one final thought: i have a friend who is a ketchup fiend. he has a severe allergy to most vegetables (esp. those of the allium family), so he can't eat a lot of things. he sure does eat a lot of french fries, though, with ketchup. and only heinz. but he's also a wine geek and spends a lot of time drinking and thinking about tastes and things. and he swears that heinz ketchup only really tastes good after it's been out for a few days, so it can get oxidized--that when you get a fresh bottle it doesn't taste right. and he thinks the reason he believes this is from having ketchup in restaurants and diners growing up, where the bottles were married every night and the ketchup was always various ages and had been out in the air. so when he buys a new bottle he pours half of it into another bottle and lets it sit out. oh wait one final final thought: a former coworker of mine was repulsed by ketchup. the very smell made him nauseated. he said it was because when he was younger he had worked at a supermarket, and one day someone dropped a big ol bottle and he had to clean it up, and it was all over him, and he smelled like it for hours. so whoever that was upthread who said they didn't like ketchup because they had spent so much time smelling it while marrying bottles at a restaurant, i know someone who feels similarly.

i always bought from springfield when i bought beer in kegs. but since i've had a car i've been going to stone's up at 17th & fairmount, because they stock yuengling premium beer in returnables. the store at 11th & fitz seems to have a half-decent selection as well, as does the one at 2nd & washington. to tell the truth, i haven't noticed all that much of a difference in center city distributors, except the bizarre center city beer distributor at like 13th & lombard, which appears to be run out of an abandoned rowhouse...

ok then quick report: ZEP'S: 1. soujough, which is armenian sausage, mainly tastes of cumin. 2. basturma, which is dried beef, made several people in the group wish that it was served in corned beef hash. some people didn't like it; i thought it was delicious. the pizzas were quite thin, with a consistency that implied that they were rolled rather than stretched. tasty, but no match for the ... thing that i can't find the name of on the online menu. it was a dough, rolled into an oblong shape, filled with cheese and with three eggs cracked on top of it. the eggs came out sunny side up, medium cooked, and we were instructed to stir the whole mess together before cutting and serving. deeelish. cholesteroliffic! we also had some boregs, some yogurt drink. herb had some lamahjunes ('armenian pizza' they called it on the menu), kinda crepe-y things with onions and seasoned ground beef. also good stuff. then it was on to tony's tomato pies, where we had a plain, a white with tomato, and an anchovy. and these were just great, with super-friendly, efficient service, and people pouring to eat in even though it was like 3:00... busy! anyway, the cheese under the sauce keeps the crust extra crisp even though it's thin thin thin. and it's damn good. damn good!