docsconz

Glad to hear that you are feeling better.

When I was a kid in camp in the 1960's generally one had to eat what was served. I had such an aversion to Swiss Cheese, that I told the nuns running the camp that I couldn't eat it since I was allergic to it... and they believed me!

And they say chocolate is the stuff of love!

This is a world class dessert wine for $11/375ml. Wow! It is dark amber, fortified and produced with a solera method. It is caramelized apples and prunes with enough alcohol to give it some stiff backbone. This is a great dessert wine not needing any qualifiers, but at its price it is a steal. 2,000 cases made annually, it is from Victoria in Australia. They also make Tawny, Fine Tawny, Fine Tokay, Tokay Calliope and Muscat Calliope. Has anyone tried any of these?

While I'm not familiar with the ice wines from BC, I love Niagara ice wines, although I find Inniskillin to be vastly overrated. It is certainly the most well known, but by no means the best IMO. My favorite so far is the Reisling Ice Wine from Thirty Bench. Whereas I think Inniskillin needs more acid to balance the sweetness, Thirty Bench is very well balanced. Welcome Sam Salmon, NatDecants (nice website!) and Clifford.

This is an interesting question. On the one hand is it a reasonable practice and on the other is it a legal one? A practice can be reasonable and legal, reasonable and illegal, unreasonable and legal or unreasonable and illegal. I think as long as it was clearly stated ahead of time, the practice is reasonable, though annoying given that they would charge even if the table was filled. Personally I think it should be limited to no-call, no-show people. whether or not it is legal, I have no idea and would defer to our British legal types.

Maybe he could be The Chairman!

I don't think he has the cheekbones for that. Maybe he can be a guest judge on "Iron Chef"?

Depending on how he treats them - his own show ?

Pan, what are you waiting for?

How does anyone get into this business?

It was $1.16 to the Euro as recently as November. Wow and I thought it was expensive then.

I would love to see crops like upland cress and especially fresh wasabi grown and marketed up here. Perhaps they already are, but ifso, not extensively enough for my tastes. v. gautam, what is it about those plants that would be successful in that situation?

Indeed.

I'm not necessarily referring to anything specific, really any interesting quality product that is not industrial in nature. It sounds as if your asian markets are doing some of what I'm inquiring about. While I know that I would support and enjoy the more exotic lettuces and produce from a local hydroponics operation, I'm not sure that there would be enough demand to compete against the presumably less expensive and presumably lesser quality industrial supermarket stuff to make it economically feasible. I would like to think that I am wrong about this. Any other thoughts or opinions on that? Woodburner or Gordon cooks want to weigh in on this?

There were a lot of things I didn't eat as a kid no matter who cooked them. I wouldn't try cheese other than melted velveeta, mushrooms, chinese food(didn't know what was in it), onions, many vegetables and wine. These have subsequently become some of my favorite things in life, although in most cases I cannot pinpoint an epiphany. Mushrooms and chinese food epiphanies occurred in college. The first mushrooms I ever really enjoyed were button mushrooms cooked in port wine from Jesse's Restaurant outside of Hanover, N.H. I have never looked back. My first sense of craving for chinese food came from Mrs. Ou's Cafetria in Hanover. It was simple, but oh so tasty food. This enjoyment grew with trips to Joyce Chen's in Cambridge. Two foods that I can enjoy now after epiphanies (although I still don't go out of my way to eat them) are beets. My first extraordinary experience with them was in Washington, D.C. at the restaurant Obelisk where I had an amazing pasta with beets. The other item, my historically most notorious is eggplant. Imagine an Italian not liking eggplant! That was me until I had crisp sauteed cubed eggplant at a restaurant in Tampa, Fl, whose name I unfortunately don't recall. While I still can't say that it is a favorite ingredient, I can eat and enjoy it now. I had some excellent preparations in Sicily last year. Ironically it is one of my wife's favorite foods.

But does it complement the wine?

In season local produce certainly can't be beat when it is fresh from the farm, but where can you find the gourmet items either imported from out of the local area or concocted locally and can it compete either quality or price-wise with mail order?

I knew farm-raised salmon is high in PCB's, but for some reason I thought the European salmon were better. Guess not.

With a little tweeking that might not be so bad

We know that one can buy almost anything in NYC and the quality is about as good as it gets in this country. What about outside the city? Wherre do you go upstate to purchase your "gourmet" items? Where I live the best place overall is Putnam Market in Saratoga, although the supermarkets, especially Price Chopper, have improved considerably. I can get good cheeses, meat, seafood and decent produce at the above places, however, for best freshness, selection and quality for many items I still need to go mail-order unless they are fresh in-season at the farmer's market. I doubt that this phenomenon is limited to upstate NY.

Where is Ghent?

What are some distinguishing characteristics of Burmese cuisine? Is there a significant Burmese population in NYC? This usually starts the ball rolling in developing interest.

What is so special about sharpening on rare natural stones? Is it really better than other methods?

I think you hit the nail on the head with turnover. The busier a restaurant the more likely the food will be fresh, if not good. It is always a good sign in an ethnic restaurant if it is busy with patrons of the same ethnic background. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean that a non-ethnic will eat in the same way or the same things.