Ling

Angelina Jolie recently stiffed a restaurant, spending $120 on lunch for her and a friend, but leaving no tip.

My, everyone is so creative in this thread. I would never had imagined peanut butter with cucumber or bacon! I can't even imagine how it would taste...looks like I have to go out and buy a jar of peanut butter tomorrow and experiment. This is my favorite: -spread hot, toasted white bread with a lot of butter -immediately layer peanut butter over it so it melts with the butter -sprinkle with brown sugar and eat I think I ate this every morning from grade 1-3!

Does anyone know where I can find a good quality, basic set of cookware (perhaps 8 pcs?) I'm looking for something that can last me for a few years, and I'm just a beginner hobby cook so I don't need anything that fancy. I'm hoping to spend under $300. The Bay had Circulon sets for 50% off yesterday, and I think they are selling the T-Fals with the red dot for 70% off starting today. Are these brands worth considering? (btw: I made my first major cooking investment today--I bought a Global G2 Chef's knife! )

How do the scones compare to homemade ones? The photo alongside the article shows a bag of scone/shortbread mix, so I assume the scones aren't made from scratch.

I just made the Wooley cake today. It didn't dome too much, and I didn't get any cracks. I found the cake a little crumbly too--perhaps a little more butter in the recipe would make it more moist? This recipe is almost identical to my favorite chocolate cake recipe, from Martha Stewart. (That recipe has slightly less flour--2 and 3/4 cup- but the same amount of fat--1 and 3/4 cup, and 4 eggs instead of 3). The Stewart cake is definitely more moist, and a little sweeter too (it has 2 and 1/2 cups sugar), which I prefer. To improve the Wooley recipe, I would suggest cutting the baking soda down to 1 tsp., and adding perhaps 1/4 cup more butter and an egg.

Yes it is Now I know what is so funny?? spelling don't it kill me, I have had a few spelling funnies, shit, what can I say? steve That's not that bad...I was looking over one of my student's school projects and noticed that she had labelled the can of coke on the title page "C*CK". Another fave--another student had to think of 5 words that started with 'C' and must have just looked up C words randomly in the dictionary. One of his C words was a rather indelicate name for the vagina. I couldn't stop laughing.

Isn't it Ouisi Bistro?

There's a short article in The Province today about these scones that they sell at the PNE that have been a tradition for years. I've never seen anyone eating or selling scones at the fair. Anyone had them? Are they really that good?

Is the liver poisonous? I thought it was part of the flesh... Anyway, I had the same dish (fried liver and mayo...or so it was described) a few days ago at another really good sushi place under "Oriental Delight" in the Garden City Plaza. I forget the name of the place...Tsujhiki or something? The fish is flown in from Japan every Tuesday (so the place was packed on Tuesday). I had snapper sashimi for the first time, and 2 kinds of hamachi, several kinds of mackeral (one was Spanish mackeral--called aji?) and a ton of other dishes. And I liked how the server told me which fish to eat first, second, and third, etc. (milder fishes first). The one thing that I didn't enjoy very much was the raw sea cucumber...it was very tough and chewy. I liked this restaurant even more than Manzo, since the quality of the fish seemed to be even better. Oh, and the mackeral and the tuna was very fresh and had not been previously frozen. edit: just did a search on fugu and you're right--the organs are poisonous. I wonder what it is I ate then? The meat is chewy and seasoned, like fish jerky. edit again: oops, you can eat blowfish liver. http://iafrica.com/highlife/goodlife/features/323237.htm

Don't they have a Curry in a Hurry in the food court at Lansdowne? That would assume I actually travel to Richmond I like your "current obsession" ... have you seen the peach picture on Laksa's foodblog?? DA Yeah...peaches are sexy.

Don't they have a Curry in a Hurry in the food court at Lansdowne? The only things I eat at PNE are the donuts and the elephant ears (aka whale's tails). Mmm...deep-fried cinnamony sugar goodness....

Raw geoduck is one of my favorite things to order when I have Japanese. I've had it cooked as well, in a Chinese restaurant.

Has anyone received their tickets yet? I think there's food being served at Opus already, but I'm in for the Egullet dinner too.

I bought the magazine based on that photo. And those onion rings....yummmm

That's my favorite brownie recipe. They're soooo delicious I can eat the whole pan too!

I know you're not looking for recommendations anymore, but I had a fabulous dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Manzo on Alexandra Rd. in Richmond today that's priced at about $100 for 2. (I think dinner was about $500 for 6, but that included a huge bottle of sake). They offer sashimi, cooked dishes (Japanese style fried rice, stir-fried seafood udon with fish roe, etc. and lots of grilled skewered items. I especially liked the grilled pork jowl skewers and the hamachi. The hamachi was incredibly fresh and tasty--such a revelation for me! Another dish that I really enjoyed was described as the grilled liver of the blowfish. It was seasoned, grilled, and served with a mayo sauce. (I'm not sure if it really is blowfish liver since I've never had it before, and no one knew what it was called in English. Anyway, it was definitely one of the best Japanese meals I've ever had. The restaurant was really busy with a steady stream of customers coming in through the door. It was still pretty busy when we left at 11pm. The decor is pretty casual; I guess the food is the main attraction. BTW: there is apparently a restaurant on Alexandra with a very similar name--Manso or something--that isn't nearly as good. So be sure you have the right place--Manzo has a red sign.

The snake soup at Kirin is pretty good. I'm not up for drinking snake blood though!

I bought my tickets last Saturday, and there were perhaps 20 ppl ahead of me on the list. I think they are selling around 170 tickets for Opus.

Carrot cake has always been one of my favorite desserts. I've only baked my own once, using a recipe on Epicurious. Could someone post a pic of the Frog Commissionary cake? I'm interested in trying that next...the pecan cream filling sounds divine!

I thought for sure someone was going to mention "Brownies" DA special brownies? Haven't had those since high school.

I'll be there at Opus. Look forward to meeting you all!

You could try making those Asian red bean ice pops.

kraft dinner with no milk added but extra butter

what lovely roses

My grandma used to cook these terribly oily, overcooked green beans for me that were absolutely delicious. She cooked them in a mixture of oil, soy sauce, sugar (quite a bit!) and topped the dish with sesame oil. The green beans get all wrinkly and mushy from the flavored oil/sauce (which, btw, was heavenly over steamed rice!) I also love picking the burnt, crispy and oily bits of noodles from the bottom of the pan. Yumm....