Allie D'Augustine

Rachel, I'm a master at comebacks to a nitpicky mother. :) I think you should appeal to her desire for safety.... with half the trips, there's half the chance of an accident... You've slashed that risk in two! (Sure, ok, the hot water trip is obviously the more dangerous one, but don't mention that part.)

Here's one I haven't seen: Cold stuffing (AKA dressing). I've only tried this with my mom's recipe, which means cornbread and sausage. It's of course delicious fresh, and decent reheated, but there's a certain point after Thanksgiving where I just start diving into the fridge with spoon in hand.

This is something that I've been thinking about a lot in the past week... I've been really upset that I don't like the taste of almost any unmelted cheese. Why am I upset about this? Because I pride myself on all the weird things I DO eat, like tripe, raw meat, fatty meat, ANY "parts" of animals -- I was lucky enough to have a really special, decadent tasting menu over the weekend, and it consisted of wild asparagus with white truffles (the truffles themselves didn't taste like much to me, but I think the oil did add some kind of good essence to the dish), soft shell crab, quail and seared foie gras, sweetbreads with veal cheeks (my first time at veal cheeks and they were SO tender and delicious, I couldn't believe it)... Anyway, the special dessert at this place is a cheese course, and I just can't stomach it. I did go to a wine tasting last week, and was dismayed to learn that it was actually a wine and cheese tasting. I took the opportunity to force myself to try at least a small bite of each cheese, and I didn't hate all of them. I didn't really LIKE any of them, either, but I could see that I could probably acquire a taste for some of them. Never blue cheese (and I really didn't get the point of the gouda I tried). I have no problem with ricotta or mozzarella, melted or un-, parmasan cheese, and melted cheddar and American and some other melted cheeses, usually when I don't know about their presence beforehand. Like one of the previous posters, I'm wondering why some of us have certain aversions.... I suppose, in the case of cheese, I could say lack of exposure, but I wasn't really exposed to tripe and foie gras while I was growing up, either. I also used to have a mushroom hatred which I've made myself grow out of. I really did manage to acquire a taste for them. Jeffrey Steingarten has an excellent essay that's the opening chapter of "The Man Who Ate Everything": when he was first employed as a food writer, he decided that he had to overcome all of his aversions. It's a funny account of his forays ... and it is actually sort of encouraging to someone like me who wants to be a food writer. Maybe one day I'll be able to rehabilitate myself from my cheese hatred, and become a proper foodie. Allie

Cinghiale, No new taxicab confessions but I will let you know if anything needs confessing! :) Anyway, as far as I know, Pho 75 has never served alcohol -- at least in the year and a half I've been going there. My experience with the beer was just about a month ago. I'll probably try again as the weather gets warmer and I want something cool (not fruit juice!) to go with my spicy hot soup. Holly: I guess you would've hated me as a customer. I sit there and go, "Really? It's against the law? It wasn't a problem at [name the place]." Actually, that doesn't really work, because whoever it is stammers and goes, "Uhh... " and finally comes up with some variation of "I guess THEY were breaking the law!" Of course, as a relatively recent college grad, I'm unusually well versed in the minutia of the LCB. (Including attending parties where each person, before walking in the door, had to say, "No, I'm not with the LCB." Because apparently, while agents are allowed to crash parties, they aren't allowed to LIE.)

It's funny, I had trouble bringing beer into Pho 75 one time. I figured it was fine, I know they have drinks but no alcohol, and I've brought my own into Pho Ha down the street. But the guy at Pho 75 had a conniption -- not in a mean way, just in an upset way. Finally he conferred with someone in the back, and came back to say it was okay. But he brought us these big huge styrofoam cups and whisked away our bottles. Very odd experience, but it's right in the same area, so that must have something to do with whatever kind of trouble they're worried about.

See, that's why it was SLOW food. They wanted you to take a long time eating the steak. Once you insisted on steak knives, they figured they'd just give you one to keep it as slow as possible. :)

PS I just realized my meal was remarkably similar to the original post -- Samuel Smith and all! I wasn't trying to copy, I swear.

at about 3 am last Saturday night: --a bowl of instant noodle soup -- very spicy kimchi version --half a pint of godiva white chocolate raspberry ice cream, eaten with the occasional handful of microwaved "movie theater butter" popcorn --samuel smith's oatmeal stout All this consumed while discussing the relative merits of cooking eggs-and-cheese on english muffins. Laziness won out, although I did make said sandwiches the next morning. I didn't feel sick at all. Iron stomached-ly, Allie

Uncooked tomato sauce -- must be done with great summer tomatoes. Just chop them up, add a lot of salt and more olive oil than you think necessary, crushed / finely minced garlic (if you don't want to eat the raw garlic, you could use garlic-infused oil), some basil, some pepper, and let them sit out on the counter for a couple of hours. If you add it to hot pasta it will warm up nicely -- it's a great showcase for good tomatoes.

The English name for this is "shirred eggs" -- try doing a search on that. Here's the first site that came up on google, with cooking instructions (although they don't mention a bain marie; I think that's an important step): Shirred Eggs