Thanks for the Crepes

I agree @MetsFan5. There are restaurants I like to go like Torero's where I know for sure I won't be able to eat the dinner portion, or perhaps even the lunch portion. I usually am not a fan of leftovers, but I always look forward to Torero's leftovers. They are a high value inexpensive restaurant, anyway, so why would one even contemplate this half portions thing? At more expensive restaurants, the portions are so pitifully small, that why would anyone consider this? A Chinese soup spoon for a course anyone? There are restaurants that do freely offer half portions though, and always at elevated prices. I would learn to love leftovers and order the right thing where I would enjoy them. I always explore the restaurant's website and menu and Yelp photos and reports before visiting a new restaurant these days.

I gnawed on the last fried chicken wing for dinner. Then I enjoyed a big grazing plate of all my favorite salad components: spring mix, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, boiled egg, thin-sliced white onion, red bell pepper, sliced raw button mushrooms, and cottage cheese topped with out of local season but very tasty Chilean blueberries. I had made up lemon tahini dressing for dipping, but found that it wasn't needed. I was in the mood to just enjoy the unadulterated flavors of everything. Well, I did use some kosher salt, and black pepper on the eggs. Last time I was at the fancy grocery store, they had clover sprouts and they were really good. This time, they were sold out, but the alfalfa sprouts were delicious too. I've been eating a lot of sprouts lately. I will get sick of them eventually, but I've been deprived of sprouts for quite a while. I used to be able to get food grade alfalfa seeds and sprouted my own. Now all I can get are mung bean seeds, and I have to go to the Mediterranean store, of all places, for those. Oh, and both the alfalfa and clover sprouts are tested for e-coli, salmonella and listeria, so that makes me feel even better about relishing them. The sprouts come from Sunny Creek Farm in Tryon, NC.

Yes, that sugar sculpture was made by someone very talented! It does seem a shame to eat such works of art. I have never been tempted to work with molten sugar though because of the danger involved.

Yes, absolutely! I do not know if it is the same today, but talented chefs got away with psychotic and illegal behavior back in the 70's when I was doing my damnedest to fly under their radar. I've seen a lot myself, but the worst story I ever heard was when my brother, who was in law school at the time, and his wife were working at Cafe Giorgio's in Cary. It was in a glittering glass building that was reflected in the small lake in was situated next to. They served Mediterranean food, and it was really good. Giorgio Bakatsias is still in business as a restaurateur in the area. He has a passion for food, and I have enjoyed many meals some of them comped, that were fabulous under his direction. His (very much missed) Cafe Giorgio's was padlocked by the IRS and he allowed his chefs to run completely roughshod over the staff there. My SIL witnessed to me the chef there threatening to rape and kill a young waitress. Nothing was done about this. I don't know if the girl spoke up, maybe she didn't want to lose her job. My SIL was in school at the time to become an occupational therapist. She eventually specialized in rehabilitating people with compromised hand function, so she is not a flake. This absolutely happened. Chef said he would tie the young girl to a tree to have his way. Service went on as normal. This happened in the 80's in the defunct Cafe Giorgios' in Cary. Poor girl. My SIL did not say a word back then moonlighting to get through her education and internship. I am sure she still remembers the incident, as I do, occasionally. Her focus then was getting through school. Don't get me wrong, chefs rock! They work so hard, some are so creative, and it is a job that many physically can't do for long enough to get really skilled at it. A paradox. We all want talented chefs working to create great meals for us to eat. They are rare individuals and so appreciated. Most of us do not want the sexual harassment environment or otherwise bullying for their staff a few of them create and management ignores. Hopefully, it is much better now.

I just spent a long time reading through this thread because I hadn't tripped across it before. Some of the ideas discussed, I've read elsewhere, but I had not visited this actual thread. There was much discussion of onion (and tomato, lemon, lime) dedicated savers upthread, and I have to agree they are cute. I encountered the onion saver in my one of my grocery stores several years ago when I had much more disposable income. The only thing that stopped me from buying it was that is was way overpriced as a piece of kitchen equipment. As a piece of kitchen art, it would totally be worth it. It did inspire me to stop throwing out partially used onions or buying large onions. When I got into Mexican cooking, I started buying white onions which almost never come in bags of small ones. They are usually sold loose, and they are way too large to use up in one go. Dairy containers for things like cottage cheese, or sour cream and larger yogurt containers are specifically designed to keep odors out of the products they contain, and they work equally well to keep odors, like from cut onions in. I just washed out a cottage cheese container today by shaking hot water in it with the lid on. The seal is quite watertight, no leaks, so no leaks of onion smell. This one will be dried before recycling, because I have a gracious plenty of these washed out dairy containers for food storage already. They are also free, last a long time, and can be recycled when they finally fail in some way. Also, if you get Chinese takeout, some of the dishes are served in clear thick plastic containers that are as good at sealing and keeping out odors or keeping odors in, but, bonus, they are also see-through. These are also free and can be eventually recycled. For people with more money, you can buy these online, and they are stackable. I would love to have granite counters. Someone said they need to be sealed, and another person said they did not. I thought if they were polished, they did not need sealing in any way. I imagine, but can only imagine, that they must be a dream to clean up.

Buttermilk fried chicken wings, asparagus with butter and lemon, a nice thick slab of crusty bread and iced tea with more lemon to wash it all down.

Well, your communication skills must be phenomenal, @Cronker. I have worked only FOH and many years ago. There is a lot of friction between customers, FOH and BOH. As I saw it, back in the day, the wait staff was ground between the customers and the cooks/chefs to a pretty pulp. It was stressful, but lucrative, for me at least. I'm looking forward to your further insights. I enjoy cooking, but I enjoy restaurants too, as a customer nowadays. I love hearing about the inside stories now that I'm outside of them. Yes, chefs are such hard workers, and it takes such a toll on their bodies. They must be doing it as a labor of love, I reckon? Still, though, you got your share of perverts and sexual harassers who are not fired because they are so talented and dedicated, and I would even go so far as to say professional, except for that one major flaw. It may be different now. My experience in restaurant service was over decades ago. Also anecdotal stories from friends and SIL a bit later reinforced my opinion in this area. I don't currently know anyone directly involved with restaurant service now, and I hope it has gotten better now for everyone involved.

I am still perusing the 345 photos on the Yelp site for Lambert's, Sikeston. I am loving it, but seriously, at one point, I found tears welling up because I will probably never be able to eat there.

When you posted in the Dinner thread last night teasing me with your great lunch that left you too full to eat dinner, I immediately went to the lunch thread to see if there was a report. Alas no, but I hate prodding people into doing something they are not inclined to do, so I held my peace. I am SO happy to see your post here today, so I could go to Lambert's website and the Yelp reports for all the food porn and reports on the experiences of diners. I had read about on Lambert's on Roadfood years ago, I realized. Oh. My. God. How I wish I could have been there with you! This place is my nirvana. Throwed bread! I also would not have passed on the okra either. Wow! You have made my day. The only problem for me would be deciding what to order, but I expect it's hard to go wrong there. *Drool* I just had to edit to comment on the fact that they do not accept credit cards, but all checks are welcome. Talk about old school.

I am used to Irish soda bread that is scored in a cross pattern to keep it from ripping and allow the highest rise. Here are examples from Serious Eats, Betty Crocker and Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread that depict the bread holding evidence of being scored. Perhaps if the bread were scored too early or was over-hydrated, the pattern would disappear? Since you want to pop it into the oven as soon and mixing and panning are done, I can't imagine scoring too early being the problem. I can't explain it, but one of the pics on the Serious Eats site seems to have lost most of the evidence of the scoring? Hmm?

Plant bamboo near it. I used to have wild grapevines and blackberry bushes. Wildlife beat me to almost all the fruit. When the neighbor planted bamboo, it eventually ran over here, and killed both the grape and blackberry plants. My efforts to eradicate the bamboo seem to spread it faster, so I gave up. Mowing keeps the bamboo out of the yard proper. Truly, I'm joking. Don't ever plant bamboo. It will run over and push out everything, even hardy stuff like established grapes and blackberries. I tried to plant muscadines at the edge of the woods where the old grapevines were. Muscadine grapes are a native plant to our area, but they had no chance against the neighbor's invasive bamboo. *Sigh.*

Yes, I have bookmarked that recipe as well for when I use up my ultra thin pork chops now that I can't broil them with a broken oven. It sounds intriguing. The website is annoying, though.

Lovely food pics from your trip! What is cabretto? Google was not much help. Is it Peruvian for the Spanish cabrito (young goat or kid)? "Settling" for duck doesn't sound like much of a hardship. I hope you find cabretto (whatever it is) during your Peru trip.

The only skirt steak I have ever been able to get here in my area has been at Torerro's Mexican Restaurant in Cary. Theirs is thin, but once, and only once, an apparently magical chef managed to get some reddish pink in the middle with a good char on the outside. It usually does come out pretty well done, but still so delicious. The linked photo is a lunch portion. The dinner portion is twice as large. It's always wonderful, and one of my very favorite cuts. So much beefy flavor in that cut. Some call it livery, but I just think of it as beef flavor on steroids. Not literally on steroid drugs, you know, just pumped up naturally. I wish I could find it raw. I think restaurants scarf it all up here. If @Tatoosh could find this cut, it might satisfy his premise, because as an inveterate rare lover, I can testify that skirt is very satisfying when even well done. I would look for it in Hispanic grocers, of which we have a few, but sadly no skirt steak for me. Maybe he'll be luckier.

Welcome to the forum, Cronker! We have a few other active Aussie members, and it's nice to see another one. I always love hearing about food adventures, and especially from far away places.

Here is a very passionate and readable account about the type of Italian bread variously called Pane di Casa, Pane Casereccio or Pane Cafone. I can't vouch for the no knead recipe, but it is an account of how someone else cannot get this lovely bread out of their mind once they partook of it. The one, I can get has a more open and airy, shiny crumb, but the photo on the link certainly looks like no slouch either. I can't believe how moist and tender the crumb is compared to the crust either. Just lovely.

In clarification, I must say that the price I paid for this loaf of Band of Bakers brand Pane di Casa was USD $4.99 yesterday not on sale, but I did pay $5.99 this winter at a different Harris Teeter grocer. It has been worth it every time. Love this bread. It has the shiny, airy crumb, like our own @Ann_T's, who I have come to think of as the queen of yeast breads and a crackly, crusty exterior. This bread in not ordinary, and if you are able to get your hands on it, I so recommend it. It's so good, it doesn't even need butter or anything else. That is a very unusual statement for me, because I almost always slather bread with butter or a spicy olive oil dip or something.

That is what I was thinking too. Cut a nice thick boneless rib eye in half and cook one portion gently to death and the other portion the way you like it. I was so relieved when my husband, who grew up in Pennsylvania, not only knew what "Pittsburgh" steak was but joined me in relishing it. I think it might be a fundamental reason we have been together for 18 years.

We may see local strawberries soon here as well. Fruit crops started coming in a full month early, but then we had several days in row of hard freezes this month. I hope some have survived, and the weather gurus don't forecast anymore freezes or frosts for the season. If I find any, I will let you know. It bodes well that some of the fruit blossoms in peoples' yards seem to have survived, but the freezes did a very bad number on camellias and azaleas in particular. The local news has frustratingly not followed up on the effects of the freeze on our fruit crops.

I had dinner tonight at Primo Pizza. I was walking up to the area for groceries from Harris Teeter and vodka from the ABC state liquor monopoly. Primo has a special on Mondays for a 14 inch cheese pizza for $6.99. They are thin crust New York style, and really good. They deliver here, but by the time I pay delivery fees, taxes and tip, it winds up costing a full 50% over the cost of the food, so might as well partake while I'm in the area. Also, their light, crispy chewy crust is always better when not subjected to steaming in a cardboard box for several minutes. I ate half of it, and wrapped the other three slices with the roll of plastic wrap I had carried with me, because pizza boxes can't really be crammed into a backpack, plus the plastic wrap holds the cheese in place when you turn the slices vertical to fit in the pack. I love their pizza and need to get up there more on Mondays.

According to this article, rasam can be a hard thing to pin down. What kind do you like? It is offered with one dish, the rasam vada app, that I could find on the menu of my local South Indian vegetarian restaurant, Udipi Cafe. They serve their dosa with sambar and coconut chutney. I like this place a lot, and apparently others do too, because it has been here for many years. It does offer Mysore masala dosa and many other types of dosa as well. They serve heavenly idlys here.

I picked up 6 oz. of Mexican blackberries today at the fancy Harris Teeter, and they were on sale for 99 cents! This is $3.00 off the regular price. I tried one and they are tart, flavorful and excellent. Brand is Bonita Berry, not Driscol's. I also got a Guatemalan mango for a dollar that I have yet to taste. I'm letting it ripen a bit first. No exciting local fruits on offer yet. We have had several hard freeze nights this month in a row, and while the news was covering the threat to the fruit crop, they have not followed up. The Cary Farmer's Market will open for the season on April 1, and I hope to find some local strawberries soon.

I was pleased and surprised to find Raleigh, NC at the number 19 position ahead of NYC and San Francisco! Asheville and Charlotte are also recognized at No. 7 and No. 9 respectively. Make sure to click the "View as a List" option, if you go there and hate slideshows like me. I knew we had an amazing local food scene, but ahead of NYC and SF? Hmmm? There are quite a number of Southeastern cities listed.

I have Rada Cutlery's tomato slicer. It was given to me as a stocking stuffer many Christmases ago. I have trotted it out once at a dinner party where the donor was present. I don't like it. It remains in a drawer in its cardboard and plastic sleeves. I do keep a couple of long serrated knifes for slicing bread, and was very glad I had them after attempting to slice some crusty, rustic bread I bought the other day with a straight-edged knife. I have very little use for serrated knives otherwise, but whatever works best for you is the way forward.

I had a pastrami and provolone sandwich on purchased but very good bread and a Caesar salad. I was having a craving for strawberry shortcake, but had no working oven and no milk, cream or whipped cream. While my strawberries were macerating in sugar, I preheated a heavy aluminum skillet and the heavy aluminum lid to my Dutch oven (which also fits the skillet perfectly) and mixed up enough slightly sweetened biscuit dough for a single shortcake with store brand coffee creamer powder and water. I cooked the shortcake in the skillet in butter for about five minutes per side. In spite of my lack of proper ingredients and a working oven, I was able to pull off a respectable shortcake. Whipped cream would have been nice, but this was good anyway. This was the first time I have tried biscuits or shortcake on the stove top, and it works!