bilrus

That's interesting about the dry rub vs. wet style. I grew up in St. Louis and most of the barbecue I had used a fairly to very seet sauce that had enough sugar that it carmelized on the meat as it cooked. It made for very sticky, but tasty ribs, etc. Another peculiarity about St. Louis barbecue is the use of what we call a "pork steak", which although I am not very up on cuts of meat, is essentially a cross cut of a boston butt or pork shoulder. It is a pretty fatty, chewy cut, but it works well with the carmelized sweet sauces. Danny Meyer has metioned that he remebers growing up with a Sauce made locally in St. Louis called Maull's. My grandfather's barbecue sauce used Maulls as a base, adding sugar, Lea and Perrins and a few other things. The ribs and pork steaks were cooked long and slow over a cynder block pit in the back yard (and later on my parent's gas grill). I am going to Blue Smoke next week. I will be intersted to see the differences.

I would echo Picoteo and Parrot Club (as I just did in another thread). Parrot Club is a fairly small area, so you might want to see if they can accomidate a larger party (depending on how many people you are talking about). Parrot Club does hav emusic some night so it can get a little loud and it is fairly casual.

My mother in law cuts everything this way (not Italian, German). But the knife she uses is so dull I doubt it would break the skin. I personally am afraid tocut anything not safely secured on the board. But I am a great big wuss with only fair to middling knife skills.

Welcome to the fray.

I stayed at the Caribe Hilton last year and it was very nice. The thing to remember about the beaches (at least in San Juan and at the resorts) is that the beaches have artifical reefs that keep the waves to a minimum. I know down the coast this is not as much the case, but you won't find much surfing in San Juan proper. The two restaurants I really liked in Old San Juan were The Parrot Club, which is casual Carribean and Dragonfly which is a strange but good fusion of Carribean and Asian. They are both right across the street from each other on Fortaleza. Also the Tapas place in the Hotel De Convento was prety good, but a little expensive. Luqillo Beach, about 45 minutes from San Juan near the rainforest is a popular public beach where you should try some of the local fried food served from the row of stands behind the beach.

I think you can make a perfectly authentic Potato Salad with that, but Hollandaise?

I agree with the thread, but it seems like, even though we have nice 'Real" glasses, we are always grabbing the oversized plastic tumblers from Crate and Barrel. They are lighter weight, big enough to hold lots of water or soft drinks or lemonade and with the dog around they are fortunately indestructible. Back in college though, I did have a matching set of beer cups from Harpo's Bar (in Columbia and St. Louis, MO) with Mizzou Tigers all over them - very classy way to impres the ladies.

Welcome to eGullet Argle.

I am a happy owner of the OXO Good Grips opener, but I like the Good Grips stuff because I have big hands. I had the one that locked, but I prefer the more standard, traditional one. Not as pretty as the Rosle, but it does the job.

For all the talk about this show on here - how many of you are going to actually watch it. I'll admit that being a TV junkie I will check out at least the first episode. Its already programmed into my TIVO.

I am going to be going to St. Michael's on the Eastern shore later this month and wanted to know if anyone had suggestions for a good lunch or early dinner. Any ideas?

In St. Louis - style pizzarias they use a blend of Mozzerella and Provel (which is somehow differnet than Provelone and I hav enever been able to find elsewhere). It's certainly different from the versions everyone is mentioning here, but in that setting (craker thin crust cut into squares) it is very good.

This has been our favorite sopt since we first went not long after it opened. The last time we went, everything seemed just a little off. I'm glad to hear that this may have just been an off day and not a sign of any decline. I will be back soon, though I am sure.

I just had a Kingfisher. My wife was going to get the Tamarind Martini but whimped out. We also had mango lassis, which she gets everywhere and these were the best I have had.

My wife and I went to Indique this weekend for the first time. It was very good, although we came away with a split decision between Indique and Heritage India where we went a few weeks ago. The two dishes that really stood out were both my wife's dishes the interesting take on the samosa which can best be described as a descontructed samosa and the shrimp and scallop masala which had the intense, deep flavors you expect from really good Indian food . My dishes were good - the lamb vindaloo and the crab tikki - but I thought the vindaloo was a little too one-note hot without enough of the vinegary taste that I prefer although the lamb was incredibly tender and while I liked the flavors of the crab cakes, we are spoiled by the good lumpy crabcakes in this region. The Onion Kulcha and Garlic Naan both had the right flavor but were a little thick around the edges. I liked the restaurant itself we sat on the edge of the open second floor and I had a good view of the tandoor. All in all it was very good. I personally thought that the food was better in terms of consistency at Heritage India, but I liked the idea that Indique was trying to "tweak" the traditional idea of an Indian restaurant - not so formal, a little more trendy in retaurant design, plating (I really liked the various plates - no standard round plates here) and cooking. Edit - excuse the runon sentences and atrocious structure of this post. Give me a break, I am trying to work here (at my real job, which pays the bills so I can go out to eat as often as I do), can't you tell?

Not saying it isn't stupid, but according to their website: "In 1965, while scanning the classified section of the local newspaper, Ruth found an ad for a steak house - Chris Steak House - for sale. Against the advice of her lawyer and her banker, she mortgaged her house for $22,000 and bought the restaurant, and shortly thereafter, renamed it Ruth's Chris Steak House. "

Most likely you are that much different from other diners. I think we are all a little 'different' here on eGullet. I think in general a lot of people are more impressed by the atmosphere, prices and portion sizes, assuming the food is of a reasonable quality, than they are about the more esoteric qualities of good food. I know I have beome more discerning in the few months I have been a member here than I was before. I think Ruth's Chris fits right in with those criteria, along with most other upscale steakhouses.

That's exactly what I was thining. Bacon, Cheese, Olive Oil and the like, despite being three of my favorite things in the world, kinda defeat the purpose. What about herbs, garlic, that sort of thing.

So what does the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers do? I think the biggest difference is that as a dues based organization any labor union benefits when there are more members. This is unlike chefs who appear to be a much less unified, more mercenary bunch. Not that the individual members of the union aren't mercneary, but there isn't a dominant union for chefs (I don't the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union would qualify as being dominant outside of a few places like Las Vegas).

I am in a business that most who are in it feel cannot be learned in school - running political campaigns. The only relevant experience is that which can be learned by actually working on a campaign. There are a relatively few schools that offer graduate level programs that teach you the basics and the theory. But in hiring these people would be in line behind someone with no education but experience working on just one campaign. It seems from the comments of many of the professional chefs on eGullet that cooking schools are essentially the same thing - a short cut way to get in the door. Would a freshly minted CIA graduate have a leg up on someone who has spent a year working on the line in a real restaurant kitchen? By that argument, then aren't these "non-hobbyists" who are going to these cooking shchools just as guilty of being dilletantes as the "hobbyists"?

I've never eaten there but there is a chain of places called Anita's in Northern Virginia that claims to be "New Mexican" cooking. They look like fast-food place / hol ein the walls that could be good or could be very bad. I was curious if anyone else had tried this.

I'm glad somone else said it first, but I keep Weight Watchers bars too (just had one a few minutes ago). And always, always a big cup of water.

Wha??? I've been going to WW for a while now (34+ lbs) and my leader could easily be a stand up comedian! She's an absolute hoot! Sometimes we're all laughing so much that we forget about the weight part. It's a very closely knit, supportive group. The problem with many of the leaders is that they think they are comedians. Let's not encourage them.

I don't know about that advice. That seems like giving another kid an excuse to beat your kids up. You know - the ones in the family car with the bumper sticker that says "My kid could beat up your honor student".

This is quite disappointing. My wife is going to a conference in SF the second week in November and I was going to try like hell to get reservations to the French Laundry and tag along. We were in SF in February, right before I joined eGullet and got such a Jones to go to the FL. Damn.