Beto

Oh man, the support that I'm seeing in this thread is overwhelming! You folks are good people. Just to set the record straight: unlike many of my fellow soldiers, I'm NOT sitting out in the middle of the desert living out of a foxhole. We are in a camp that has a small PX with q-tips, soap, potato chips, etc. I apologize if I gave anyone the wrong impression of our situation here. The reason that I gave Mabelline such a short list is because I should be able to get the basics here or in town, but some of the spices such as dried peppers are next-to-impossible to procure locally. I miss being able to cook decent meals and wish to be able to bring a little bit of "home" and decent culinary quality to our little corner of the world in which we find ourselves. That being said, here are some things that we could use: Dried Beans - (pintos, black beans, lentils, split peas) Adobo Black Peppercorns Oregano Chicken Bullion Basil Red Pepper Flakes Cayenne Pepper Sazon Cumin If anyone has a cheap pepper mill they could send, that would be great. Also, (and I hope that I'm not pushing it) we would LOVE some Parmesiano reggiano as well as any other cheese that would survive shipping. Stinger is correct, we are prohibited from receiving pork and alcohol (although the PX has spam). Again, we appreciate all of your support while we are over here away from home. Thanks for everything!

Until my mother-in-law came to the U.S. for our wedding, she had never eaten in a restaurant. It just wasn't something that they could afford to do. I'll bet that fifty years ago in the U.S., many rural people would have never eaten out either.

Mayhaw Man is right, I am currently stationed in Kuwait. I'm living in Camp Doha, which by deployed standards, is downright nice when compared to the tent cities that a lot of my fellow soldiers (my cousin included) live in. The food, however, is another story. We were in Fort Stewart, GA for about a month prior to coming here last December and the food served in the makeshift dining facilities -DFAC for short- was positively awful. Everything came from a can and the sanitary conditions were substandard. I only ate there 3 or 4 times total. MRE's were for lunch and considering that they're designed to last unrefrigerated for years, they aren't that bad. The positive side was that we were only about 45 minutes from Savannah, which has many good restaurants. With all due respect to North Carolinians, good BBQ is available outside of the Tarheel State! I had a chopped pork sandwich and brunswick stew at Smoky's and it was delicious. The Rib Hut on Bay St. also makes some mean 'Q. Another restaurant which was very good was Sweet Potato. They have a lot of Southern traditional foods to which they have given their twist. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Nouvelle Southern because it usually bears no resemblance whatever to the dish it is based on, but they do a very good job. But this thread is about military chow, right? I have 2 words for the aliment that is thrust upon us here: it sucks. Everything is overcooked to the point that the vegetables are mush, the meat is proverbial shoeleather, and the pasta is paste. They have a "surf 'n turf" night on Wednesday but the poor lobster tails are so overdone the mess sergeant should be brought up on charges. The worst part of it is that it doesn't have to be this way. I've eaten at the chow halls in the aformentioned "tent cities" and the level of quality was WAY higher. The good news is that I bought a crock pot and an electric skillet and I'm going to start cooking for myself. I'm even going to make a solar oven. With alcohol illegal in Kuwait, the hard part is going to be finding some wine with which to make a reduction sauce....

Anybody ever try Blazin' Barbecue in Spring Lake, NC, just outside of Ft Bragg? I have some great memories of the place.

Yessir! - rolled in cornmeal and fried in bacon drippings.

I was there in October and ate at the Sweet Potato. I had the smothered chicken and it was heavenly. What do you Savannah locals think about the place?

If the plunger is pressed down too firmly, more solids will eventually end up in your cup, making your coffee "muddy". While a little mud in press pot coffee is normal, too much can be too much.

"Venti" is Italian for 20... as in 20 ounces. How retarded is that? Not only that, but venti is trademarked by Starbucks!

The "other" Starbucks that is mentioned in the article in Kuwait is here, where I'm stationed. The worst thing about being here isn't the coffee (I get mine shipped to me), it's the food. The mess hall is the worst, and we don't have the facilities to cook our own. I've been tossing the idea around in my head to build a solar oven and use it to cook dutch-oven style.

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned the Vietnamese Pho place right off of GA ave., on the north side of the metro rail. I like it the two times that I was there. I also like Cubanos quite a bit. The fried yuca with the tomato-based garlic dipping sauce it so tender, not a stem to be found. I found the service, price, and food quality to be very good.

Nizza - I'm not sure of the address and I couldn't find it either. If you just ask a local, they're sure to know where it is.

If you appreciate a good cup of coffee, make sure to stop in and see Lester at Cool Spot Coffee in Staunton, VA. Although it's a rather unassuming place, he takes great pride in roasting his own beans and making the best espresso drinks around.

Tell us a little about it!

I've given some thought to the economics and logistics involved with press pot coffee and here's how I would do it: 1. Only offer press-pot coffee during limited hours. It increases it's exclusivity. Plus, who wants to have to deal with it during the morning rush? 2. With the breakage issues and labor involved, I would have to charge at least $8.00 for a 32 oz. pot. 3. To control the quality and add panache, have the waitstaff deliver the pot just as it is ready and press it down right there at the table. I don't think that press pot coffee will work in really casual coffee shops, the price point is just too high. However, in a high-end place with trained waitstaff, it can be that little "something" that other establishments don't have.

You might want to try Intelligentsia's decaf Black Cat blend. The drawback to espresso made with single-origin coffee is that it lacks the complexity of a good blend.

In my opinion, the best way to make regular coffee is also one of the simplest: the French press. It requires minimal equipment (press, kettle, grinder) and doesn't cost a fortune. The main problem with most drip coffee pots is that they don't get the water hot enough to properly extract enough of the aromatic compounds from the coffee. The manufacturers, wary of lawsuits, have made sure that the coffee isn't lap-scalding. Unfortunately, it results in a less-than-stellar cup. If you use a press pot, make sure that the water is just "off the boil". Pour it over the coarsely ground coffee (2 tbs/cup) and stir it up. Don't grind the coffee too finely or it will result in sludge and bitterness. Let it steep for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, push down the plunger slowly. Pour your cup and enjoy!

That's something to be proud of! I wish that I had one.

The most consistently bad coffee? Waffle House. Now mind you, I love eating at the Waffle House (Hell, I even have a Waffle House bumpersticker) but their coffee is terrible! It's a damn shame too, greasy spoons should have decent coffee.

As a former busboy, believe me when I say that I'm not passing judgment on the capabilities or aptitudes of someone who happens to be bussing tables. What I'm saying is that if neither the kitchen staff nor the bartender receive adequate training on proper espresso preparation, do you think that the bussers are? Let’s face it, in the hierarchy of a restaurant, the busboy sits at the bottom. That isn’t a reflection on him as a person but the level of training that they have. So what we have is a case of the person with the least amount of training preparing a product that requires a fair amount of specialized training. Which gets back to my original point (did I have one?): High-level restaurants routinely serve bad espresso, why doesn’t espresso get the respect that it deserves?

Starbucks, to my knowledge, has two roasting facilities: one in Seattle and the other in (Harrisonburg?) PA. Maybe the company uses different roasting profiles at each facility.

Good comments by all. Kenk – No knock against the busboys but I think that espresso should be prepared with the same level of care as anything else the patrons consume. It’s not that hard to pour a glass of wine, would you be taken aback if they were to do that also? While there’s no arguing taste, I’ve never had an espresso from a super-automatic that was worth a shit. I used to like Lavazza too – until I tried a freshly-roasted specialty coffee. There really isn’t any comparison. I’ll second Steve’s recommendation of Vivace and can also vouch for Intelligentsia’s Black Cat blend. Give’em a try, you might be pleasantly surprised! I have to respectfully disagree about the pods though, I’ve never had pod espresso that I liked. The thing is: espresso is coffee essence. Every nuance in the coffee is amplified, be it good or bad, and it doesn’t take much going wrong to make it bad. Ballast – which barista champion are you referring to? I’m somewhat espresso-obsessed so you’ll have to forgive me if I come across as overly critical. I know that it’s possible to produce top-quality espresso drinks, the commitment just needs to be there.

In "Kitchen Confidential", Tony Bourdain mentioned that in Les Halles, the busboy makes the espresso. Is this common practice in finer restaurants? If it is, I find it surprising that a place that is noted for the quality of its food would relegate the espresso to the busboy. On a related topic, why is it that a restaurant that would never, ever think of using anything less than the freshest of ingredients would use canned, preground coffee (i.e. Illy, Lavazza)? Would a fine restaurant have Boone's Farm on the wine list? Then why do they serve Folger's? With as many small-batch specialty coffee roasters as there are, it just doesn't make sense.

Eric has been snorting too much truffel oil.

Zenial hit it right on the head: 99% of commercial TV just absolutely sucks. When I first heard about the show, I was anticipating seeing the inner workings of a restaurant and learning about the process of opening and running a place. I'm ashamed to say that I should've know better. Instead, we got treated to powder room trysts and manufactured drama... typical. I've seen some of the PBS-produced "reality" shows and have been impressed with them (Manor House, Frontier House). I think that if a PBS crew were to cover a restaurant from its inception, it could have some real potential. I'm probably asking for too much.

In spite of the definite risk of being lumped in with the "unwashed masses" I have to ask the question: what is so bad about the Cheesecake Factory? I've eaten at a few different locations and while the food didn't seem especially inspired, I certainly couldn't find anything to complain about. Opinions?