mrbigjas

tai lake is great for whole steamed or fried fish. mmmmm whole steamed fish.

until you have access to goose fat...

University City: as in "Welcome to the UC, bitch!" (Credit goes to Rich Pawlak for the term.) ← oh yeah, i see, the a and b were indented under there... i didn't read it right the first time...

thanks for asking that question, hopleaf. i've often wondered the same thing.

what's The UC? edited to say that like herb says below, i'd also be up for a lot of these excursions if you're interested, so feel free to pm or mail. also edited to say that a couple of things that come to mind: the original chickie's and pete's is also a great place for crabs if you're heading up that way anyway. and the standard tap for their pulled pork sandwich, fried smelts, and steak frites is always a good idea. unless that's part of your 'too many favorites to name' section.

thanks for the info bakerboy. i guess i'm one who likes them browner and crisp on the outside. that second one that i posted the next day was more like what i expect to find when i'm at metropolitan. i eat a couple a week, and they're almost always like that--just right. a metropolitan baguette with good butter and a little salt is seriously one of my favorite things in the world, so you can see why i was trying to figure out what happened when i got those funky ones in november.

as far as i'm concerned there aren't any. they have decent not-too-expensive burritos similar to those you get in san francisco at el fuego, 7th & walnut, but as far as tex-mex goes, there ain't much.

awesome--i don't see fresh chiles de arbol very often. we drove by this place yesterday and i said to my wife, 'that's the place katie was talking about!' but we didn't go in.

Yup, and they sell them in bulk: cheap! The only problem is that you bring your own labeling tools... I have a cabinet with like five kinds of dried chiles and have no idea which one is which. ← ok i feel better knowing that i'm not the only one who has this problem. every time i go and buy more, i think hey, no problem, i can remember, they're all very different. and now... sigh.

ha! that dinner looks great. now i'm craving peking duck...

the store associated with taqueria la veracruzana has several varieties of dried peppers. ancho, arbol, mulatto, pasilla, pequin, costeno to name a few. it's just up from 9th & washington.

i mainly tasted sweetness and green peppers in the beans. i have to admit they weren't my favorite beans ever. the slaw was great--not too sweet like a lot of slaw is. but the pulled pork.... <homer simpson drooling noise>

cottman exit is opened both ways, near as i can tell. we stopped up there this afternoon, and my only regret is that i didn't see the two-meat option until i had already ordered my pulled pork--i could have gotten ribs too, for another $2 or so. anyway, woo, that's good stuff. i like tommy gunn's sides better (esp their greens which are as good as any i've ever had or made), but lucy's pulled pork wins, i think. the brisket is great too--actually i think if it ordered it again, i'd get it dry, because it was good enough to not need the sauce. thanks for the tip and directions y'all.

that's really sad. i loved midori mart. i guess the $5-10 they got from me a couple times a week wasn't really enough to keep a whole store open.

can you remind us of where it is, again? thanks yo. and yes, i know i'm lame for not having gotten there yet...

i bought one a couple days ago that was fine, too. in fact, they've been consistently good enough lately that i haven't asked to see them before buying them. cool.

frito pie! hey, it's pie, after all...

last time i was in fish & coffee, they didn't have any fish. now, it was late in the day and maybe they'd just closed up the fish part for the night, but my sneaking suspicion (and i hope this isn't the case) is that they may not be doing so well in that aspect of things. i would be willing to bet that with a little notice any of the big three fish vendors in the terminal would be able to order sushi-grade fish. sometimes john yi has it out--tuna at least.

whoa, good stuff there Deidre. Thanks for keeping us updated.

yeah i've had fries at grace several times and don't remember them being any different in size from monk's. i was wondering about that, since i agree about preferring them thicker.

you could also turn on your oven to 550 with a pizza stone in it when you order the pie, and when you get back to your house, just toss each piece on the stone for a couple minutes before eating it. like they do at a pizza place when you order a slice. i don't know how it would work, but why not...

hells yeah. P&S Ravioli here in philadelphia makes some of the best meat ravioli evAR--filled with beef and veal which is seasoned just right and has a slight nutmeg-y flavor. excellent stuff. http://www.psravioli.com

curlysue, i agree with fou de bassan--tarragon is a herb that makes for a great roast chicken. chervil too. as far as thickening your gravy, you can make a roux with butter (or the chicken fat) as snowangel said, or else you can do like my grandmother and make a slurry from cornstarch or arrowroot or flour and water, and stir that in and cook and stir for 15 minutes or so till it thickens up. you have more of a chance of getting lumps with a slurry though--you know what, just go with the roux.

I think you mean the Bellevue Food court 12th St Cantina. And no, they dont make the rolls, they get them from a Portuguese bakery in Newark, Teixiera's probably. At least that was the story when I did the PR for them a few years ago. ← rich, are those the same portuguese rolls they sell at garden fresh deli up here in fairmount? i love those things. they're like kaisers, but way better.

aw man, i love underberg. i didn't know you could get it here; i've only picked it up in german delis in texas. while the taste may not be to everyone's liking, it's unsurpassed as a digestif--you could eat an entire cow, and then have an underberg and be ready for seconds.