Margo

Why not make stock? Shel ← And then, if you're my husband, put the leftover boiled-limp bones and vegetables into the freezer until trash day.

No, kpzachary, I'm not as lucky as you. Nope. I have a butcher around the corner, with very loyal customers. He breaks down pig carcasses, and was able to give me the kidney fat for lard and my husband the jowl for one of his projects. But his beef may as well come from the supermarket, and anything "special" we'd have to order in mass quantity. There's a guy in the area who raises beef cattle on grass and finishes them on corn. It's a great product, but regulations require that he retail his beef cut, cryovac'ed, and frozen. I pick it up at a farmstand in town. I had a great butcher when I lived in Lewisburg, PA: Byerly's, a family outfit, they raised and slaughtered their own cattle. I'll never forget the look of pride one of the kids had as he wrapped up the rib roast we'd ordered for New Year's. "That's some roast," knowing exactly how it got that way. He was right. Enjoy your good fortune!

The Kashmiri restaurant I mentioned above is Cafe Kim at Achillestraat 9. The menu has your typical south Indian items, too, but the Kashmiri dishes shine. Let me also tout the cafe at the Van Gogh Museum: a sandwich and soda for less than 5 euros! What a deal, compared to US museum cafeteria prices I had a great time in Amsterdam--hope to come back someday!

After my first weekend in Amsterdam, I want thank everyone on this thread for the great recommendations! What a great city--this is my first visit. I went to Tujuh Maret last night, where the naji rames (spicy) was terrific. I'm relatively unfamiliar with Indonesian food, but the flavors were so bright and the mix so interesting, I'm eager to continue to explore this week! I met an expat cousin on Saturday, who took me to Esprit on the Spui. She likes it for the excellent, fresh ingredients. I had a vitello salad, and have to agree. Later that night, we went to her house on the outskirts of Amsterdam (near the big park...?), where we ordered in Kashmiri food. She and her husband lived in Kashmir for a while some time ago and find this restaurant to be true to the tastes they remember. We had some lamb and vegetable dishes, garlic nan, onion fritters. The restaurant sent along a bottle of South African red wine, since they're such regular and appreciative customers! (I'll try to get the name and post it later, so that this info can be more useful....) More to come, I hope!

I have something called "molasses soy" in my pantry. Same thing?

Here's a story with the Vermont angle. It looks like higher prices will help some family farms. For others, too little, too late.

Grandma made "Chop Suey" too, with tough cubes of beef, celery, and pepper... must have been a standard recipe! It was my first exposure in life to "Chinese Food". I still really don't care for Chinese... not because I don't like authentic Chinese, but I can never get away from my mental association with Grandma's revolting "Chop Suey". ← Or it came out of a can? La Choy made--and still does, for all I know--a chop suey "kit," which had two cans of stuff--one with the meat'n'chunks, one with the crispy noodles for garnish. All mom had to supply was the rice. I think I'm remembering this right. Anyway, all I remember about the taste was salt! and tin! And we called the crispy noodles worms! (And, for the record, my mother now makes a delicious Asian style salad with them.)

There's no getting around it: you are going to the middle of nowhere. Simon Pearce in Quechee is good, although I should say I've only been for lunch and some time ago.

Well, that's slimming!

Yup, stock. Vermont needs a Mexican butcher shop!

Oh, yes. Where do you live? When I lived in Chicago, I frequented the Rogers Park Fruit Market which happily added a meat counter soon after I became a customer. My husband's favorite cut of beef is the skirt steak, and they had them, bountifully! And inexpensively. You never knew what you'd find in the case: calves' feet, goat heads, etc. Ox-tails, you bet. Trays of pre-packaged chicken feet. Greek owned, they catered to a Mexican, South American, Caribbean, Indian, and African clientele. And white folks like me. Where I live in northern Vermont, I'm lucky to have a butcher around the corner who will do special orders. But to buy chicken feet, we'd need to commit to such a quantity that made it impracticable. And skirt steak is a rare find.

I'm useless for the rest of your queries, but here's the Cambridge cheese shop you're thinking of: Formaggio Kitchen It's a 10-15 minute walk from Harvard Square. Enjoy!

None. Call your state labor board. You won't be the creditor at the top of the list for negotiated payment of debt when bankruptcy happens. I did once consider lodging a complaint against a former employer who repeatedly held up my paycheck because there was no money in the account. According to the LB, she could pay me 10 days late but after that it was actionable. Of course, you can't get blood from a stone (on topic, turnip) and I eventually made other plans and left the position. Edit: re-edit.

Hooray! I hoped it was Chufi for self-interested reasons--I'm visiting Amsterdam for the first time at the end of June, so I'll be taking careful notes about what to do and see! Re. your fridge shot: Love the half-shelves in the back, what a great idea. I always lose things back there, especially on the top shelf where my condiments live, and end up opening still another jar of capers when I already have three hiding from me. Asparagus and rhubarb are such a treat, harbingers of spring.

Hi neighbor! Next town for Tiny Thai = Winooski. Berkeley to Burlington's San Francisco. I completely agree on Mirabelle's and Penny Cluse.

Chef Henderson is making an appearance in Manchester, Vermont, on May 2: "Tickets go on sale Sunday for the May 2 appearance and lunch of award-winning chef Jeff Henderson at The Perfect Wife restaurant in Manchester, Vt. Sponsored by Northshire Bookstore. $40; includes lunch and a copy of Chef Jeff's book, "Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras." (800) 437-3700."

Hah! That reminds me of a time... I had bought some chestnuts which I threw in the oven to roast while I took a bath. I heard distant explosions and discovered the chestnuts blowing themselves up. Notice that before I wrote "threw in the oven," I didn't write "cut little x's in them so they wouldn't explode."

Here are some Burlington recs: To stay, Lang House, a bed and breakfast on Main Street very close to the UVM campus. To eat, I like Trattoria Delia, Daily Planet, and Smokejacks. And I teach at UVM, if there's anything you need to know... Happy visits.

Cool! I didn't dare ask, because it isn't food related, but I hoped you'd show us Chicano Park. There's an inspiring documentary about it that I show my class on multiculturalism and art. So, um, on topic. Fish tacos? And as long as I'm here, congratulations on your weight loss achievement, Miz Ducky. As inspiring as Chicano Park. Edited: spell-check.

Breakfast burrito in the employee cafeteria, Santa Fe post office. These were enormous, a wheat tortilla folded around scrambled eggs, a pile of home fries, and wonderful hot salsa. It was about 20 years ago. Oh, also, the student cafeteria at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When I was there in the early 1990s, a Thai family had the lunch concession. Really good pad thai.

The Hannaford where I shop locally underwent a remodel recently, and when the dust settled there was an expanded organic box-food section, a new organic frozen food area, a new bulk food aisle (some organic, some not), and most excitingly, a Wall of Yogurt. Finally, I can get Fage! But also local brands featuring sheep, goat, or cow milk, and some other imports. And last week I found some cool flavors in La Yogurt's Sabor Latino line of 6 oz cups: guava, mango, and papaya. I wonder what motivated the decision to invest so much refrigerator real estate in yogurt? I'm kind of afraid that sooner or later they'll conclude what the best sellers are, and limit the selection again. The surprising thing about this store is that its produce is lousy AND overpriced, organic or not. Luckily there's Hudak's farm stand just up the road, open June to Thanksgiving.

There's a recipe in Fine Cooking #62 (Dec 2003/Jan 2004) for a pureed white bean soup with shrimp and garlic croutons as a garnish. The soup is flavored with onion/celery/carrot, garlic, and rosemary and lemon juice. I've been meaning to try it...

The "cuivre inox extra fort" piece I bought had a "Mauviel" brand stamp on it--cuivre inox would be generic stainless-lined copper. (As Baggy said.)

If you're in Paris anyway, Dehillerin has excellent prices on copper cookware. I purchased a 10" saute pan with lid, heavy-duty copper which turned out to be Mauviel, for far less than what I'd seen in the US at the time. If you spend enough, and they'll tell you how much, they knock off the VAT. That said, when I looked into shipping cookware from Dehillerin, it wasn't such a good deal. I have dealt with My Chef's Favorites and was very happy with both the price and the service.

Here's what I did, taking your advice where I could (and where I went astray, it was interesting just the same): Wednesday, what foul weather! Bouchon Bakery was an absolute haven at 10 am, quiet and lovely. Coffee and ham and cheese on a baguette for about $10, the sandwich rivalled any I've bought in Paris. Was there butter on it? I think so. For dinner, I was walking west on 55th to find Yakitori, but was distracted by Indian Spice. Lamb vindaloo platter for about $19. Thursday, was sidelined for lunch at the Hilton's New York Marketplace by a couple of acquaintances. Good company, but a $25 unspectacular Reuben! Dinner was better. Ran into a friend and dragooned her to the Algonquin for a cocktail--she had a "Parker" and reported it was tasty, I had a glass of sancerre. We petted the resident cat and went to Menchanko 55 on 55th Street--thought it was one of the places recommended, it wasn't, but I liked it and it was certainly doing a brisk business. Sapporo on draft for $5? What a deal! And the menchanko with kimchee was good, too, for about $10. Friday, interviewing a source on the UWS, we ordered in lunch from Mozart Cafe, my host's choice. An inconveniently greasy "European Toast" (Gruyere, olives, tomato, and a fried egg on the outside), but again, it wasn't about the food at the moment. Friday dinner, back to Menchanko 55 with a different friend, had ramen this time and two! beers, very happy. Saturday, up to the Met to see "Glitter and Doom" and the Tiffany exhibit (talk about opposites). Stepped into EAT on my way from the subway for a ham and cheese croissant, $5. Lunch at Burger Heaven on 53rd, medium rare burger and decent fries for about $12. Finally went to the Bar at the Modern for a grapefruit aperitif, and my friend had a really nice glass of white wine which we promptly forgot the name of. We went to Serafina for dinner, Broadway and 55th, which was a weird scene (old Italian movie projected on the wall, and some other peculiar design choices, too-close tables) unremarkable and nothing to complain about--good arugula salad and tasty pasta with bacon/vodka/tomato cream sauce. The three of us were out of there for about $120. Sunday, headed to Kalustyan's before my flight, to pick up a selection of pistachios for my husband. I arrived an hour before they opened, so finally had the opportunity to visit Les Halles, a pilgrimage to the restaurant of my boyfriend-in-a-parallel-life, Anthony Bourdain. I know, his relationship to the place is in fact distant at this point, but you'd never figure that out from the shrine to Bourdain made by the array of his books on the wall next to the butcher counter. Is that called synergy? Anyway, my brioche and cafe au lait was comparable to anything I've had in the brasseries in the Place Odeon, and it was easier to pretend I was in Paris than if I'd gone to the Starbucks up the street. Visiting New York, pretending to be in Paris. It's my rich fantasy life that makes living in northern New England doable. Thanks for all the suggestions, they're filed away for next time.