slkinsey

Interesting... I have never particularly liked sourdough pizza. I feel that the sour flavor doesn't really go well with the other toppings.

The Bacon of Wrath The Bacon from the Smokehouse of Cortez East of Bacon Of Pork and Bacon Smokehouse Row

My pizza method (from an old Usenet post):

And let us not forget that other great American author, who wrote such things as: The Old Man and the Bacon The Bacon Also Sizzles A Farewell to Bacon (a sad, sad tale if ever there was one) For Whom the Bacon Fries The Bacon of Kilimanjaro (those Kilimanjarians sure know how to cure pork!) The Green Bacon of Africa (it's fermented!)

As I Lay Bacon A man after my own bacon, I see! I believe the Great Man himself was a porkophile, as evidenced by his titles: The Ham and the Fury If I Forget Thee, St. Louis Cut Intruder in the Butts Links in August Go Down, Chitlins Headcheese for a Nun and of course: Backbacon, Backbacon! And, of course, the Bacon Trilogy: The Bacon, The Rasher of Bacon, and The Pork Belly.

As I Lay Bacon A man after my own bacon, I see!

This one's for the Faulkner fans: My mother is a bacon. (Name that book!)

A bacon by any other name would taste just as good.

Bacon and eggs stalk our land like... two giant stalking things.

It is a far, far better bacon I eat than I have ever eaten. It is a far, far better slab of bacon I go to than I have ever known.

I have all the ones MatthewB mentioned. Peychaud is absolutely essential to a Sazerac -- a classic cocktail that deserves more attention. A good way to get to know the various bitters is a Charger: seltzer water over ice with a dash or two (or three) of bitters.

I know it's OT, but I just have to say: big ups to West Newton! Our first house was in West Newton. Strangely, I've been hearing of Newton more and more these days, and I never used to hear about it.

For what it's worth, Felonius, and for the record: I do agree that the City law is better than the State law, and there should be accomodations for situations like yours.

At @SQC, they turn over the bourbon-soaked vanilla beans to the pastry chef after they are used for one infusion. At home, I tend to just top up the bottle. Works perfectly well with regular red/white vermouth and Angostura bitters, too... if Vya and Fee Brothers isn't something that would get much use otherwise. For whatever it's worth, everyone I know who has tried it loves the drink, and @SQC promptly sold out of vanilla-infused bourbon. In fact, there is a gold mine's worth of manhattan-esque drinks to be made with infused liquors -- and ones that can be made much cheaper than vanilla-infused Maker's Mark. For example, infuse an applejack with dried apricots and use that instead of the vanilla bourbon. Garnish with a slice of applejack-soaked apricot. @SQC has a coffee bean-infused vodka they use to make a killer "coffee-tini." The list goes on...

Isn't this called a Perfect Manhattan (without the vanilla infusion)? It sounds great. Is the vanilla bourbon "too much" if you don't dilute it with regular bourbon? Do you use the vanilla bourbon for any other drinks? Yes, on all counts. Especially if you sweeten the vanilla bourbon a little when you make it (to make it more a dessert liquor). I came up with the drink at @SCQ one night when I got bored of drinking Manhattans. I knew they had house-infused liquors on the dessert menu, so I asked the bartender to give this formulation a whirl. I do it at home with a less-sweet infused bourbon than @SQC uses, but a little sweetness is good (I also went for "perfect style" to cut some of the sweetness). I do think using all infused bourbon would be too much, regardless of sweetness, as I think it's nice to have a whisper of the vanilla rather than a sledgehammer. Obviously, it's a riff on the natural vanilla flavors already present in bourbon. This is also good replacing the uninfused Maker's with a good vanilla vodka, which dries out the drink considerably and adds a different layer of vanilla flavor. At this point, though, it's pretty much a different drink.

The Samhattan: 1.5 oz Maker's Mark bourbon 1.5 oz vanilla-infused bourbon* .5 oz Vya sweet red vermouth .5 oz Vya extra dry white vermouth 1 dash Fee Brothers aromatic bitters Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass and serve. Garnish with small piece of vanilla bean split 3/4 of the way down the middle. A variation is the Orange Dreamsicle Manhattan: replace .5 oz of vanilla-infused bourbon with orange peel-infused bourbon. Garnish with orange peel. *Make several small slits with a knife in 15 vanilla beans, place in a fifth of Maker's Mark and age ~3 months. Can add small amount of simple syrup.

Thanks for the reference, Jaz, I will have read that book again. Many child nutrition reference books, including the popular What To Expect series, recommend way too much fiber for small children. As I posted to this thread some time ago...

How about: "Offal King"? Or perhaps simply "The Fifth Quarter"? I can see it now... fried lamb sweetbread nuggets, tripa alla parmigiana heros...

That's a bold statement. Which food group do you think is missing there? fruit, for one thing. but there's the problem of white bread, of probably-unhealthy fats, and in general, lack of vitamins. and then i think it can be argued that the amount of greens is hardly sufficient. not only will you be malnourished, you will probably get diabetes, too, as the only bread is white and the only thing to drink is soda pops. (oh, sure, you can drink tap water, but that can be a very nasty alternative in some places) Okralet, as has been pointed out extensively on this board and in the scientific literature, white bread (especially enriched white bread) is actually more nutritious than whole grain bread -- which is to say, the body is able to absorb more nutrients from white bread than from whole grain bread. As for the greens, I think an examination of the McDonald's menu amply demonstrates that there are plenty of greens available in the form of salads. And, of course, it is absolutely possible to avoid eating large amounts of "dangerous" fats if one chooses appropriate items from the menu. As for diabetes from the white bread and the soda... The idea that eating white bread causes the onset of diabetes is preposterous and completely unsupported. Certainly, eating white bread can't possibly be worse in that regard than eating a lot of fresh ripe fruit, which comtains a lot more sugar and in simpler form. You're not suggesting that eating fresh ripe fruit contributes to the onset of diabetes, are you? As for the beverages, one could always choose to drink diet soda and/or orange juice and/or Hi-C orange drink. The one place where McDonald's really falls short is in fresh fruit. That said, I am quite certain that the people who develop the menu and recipes for McDonald's have gone to great lengths to make sure it is possible to construct a daily meal plan from their offerings that satisfies all the USDA nutritional requirements. So I think we can definitively say that one would not be malnourished if eating all meals at McDonald's. But, really... who cares? No one is suggesting that it's a good idea to take all one's meals at the same restaurant. I'm sure it would be equally difficult to construct a healthy diet exclusively from the menu at Jean Georges.

I'm a big fan of amari of all kinds, and I also head straight for the Fernet Branca whenever I feel like I've had too much to eat. Nothing washes down a dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma like a bedtime sip of Fernet Branca. My current favorite amaro, and one that is sadly unavailable in the US, is Kàpriol -- a juniper-flavored liquor from the Distilleria dell'Alpe in Susegana in the Veneto. I always try to swing by Buccone in Rome to pick up some Kàpriol and whatever else I can't get in the US to bring back. Haven't tried Nonino yet, but will definitely be trying some now... Craig... where do you think things like Campari and Cynar (which I prefer to Campari) fall? Would you consider them amari? Or, if not, then what are they?

You're lucky that's all it took. I had to resort to Photoshop. Thank...you? Lucky to have been blessed with such pulchritude, I think...

Well... yes, the NYC law, I think, is a much better law than the NY State law, and did just that. What I mean by "running roughshod" is the fact that any law will run up aginst certain situations in which is it not entirely appropriate. Take, for instance, the law that says you cannot drive your car across an intersection when the traffic light is red. Take that law and apply it to a rural town at 4:00 AM when the driver can clearly see that no cars are approaching in either direction for miles. Here is a situation where the driver is forced to sit in his car and wait for the light to turn green because of a silly law, despite the fact that it really should be perfectly fine to go across the intersection. So, what are lawmakers to do? On the one hand, they can start creating all kinds of special exemptions and potential cases where the law doesn't apply, etc. This is a slippery slope, however, as the number of such potential situations will continue to increase and there will always be the possibility of lawbreakers arguing that the regular traffic law shouldn't have applied in their case, etc. And, of course, by the time they're done, the lawmakers will have taken a simple law that was easy for everyone to understand and enforce, and turned it into a very complicated law that no one really understands and is very difficult to enforce. Or, on the other hand, they can keep the law simple and "run roughshod" over the driver needlessly sitting in his car at that intersection. Pataki et al. clearly went with the "simpler is better" philosophy. Now, that said, and as I said before, I do think that the NYC law is also simple and easy to understand, and it makes a more reasonable accomodation for private clubs and "cigar bars." Perhaps, in the future, the state law can be modified to accomodate these situations a bit better -- who knows? But, even with the NYC law there are going to be plenty of "special cases" who don't feel as though they are recieving the proper accomodation... just the same way some people think it's wrong that they have to wait at a red light in the middle of the night on deserted streets. In re to co-op boards restricting smoking... that's just the nature of the beast. Co-ops can regulate pretty much whatever they please. If they can prevent people from owning pets in their own apartments (and it is pretty clear they can), then they can prevent people from smoking in their apartments. As an apartment dweller myself -- and one who lives on the same floor with several apartments of smokers -- I can tell you the hypothesis that cigarette smoke is completely contained in the apartment of the smoker is absolutely incorrect, as I can immediately tell when my neighbors are smoking. I don't know about that... I am and have been a member of a number of private clubs and organizations over the years, and I don't think it is reasonable to make a direct analogy with eating dinner at the same table with the busboys. After all, no one would be forcing the club members to play squash with the club's busboys, only to allow the busboys access to the courts. This, IMO, is more analogous to allowing the busboys to eat at one's favorite restaurant. And, personally, I certainly wouldn't have a problem with that as long as the busboys dressed and acted appropriately. I rather imagine that the author of the article shares my sentiment in this regard. Looks more enclosed than that to me.

I thought that was Alaska, of all places. I have always understood that the region with the highest per-capita consumption of icecream was New England. This was decently discussed in another thread where someone looked up the Federal statistics... and I believe Vermont edged Alaska in per capita consumption by state.

It's all about the lighting, dude.

Easy on the all caps there, Chief. And welcome to eGullet.