Toliver

I used to work with a woman who would wander the halls of our building looking for food. Sure, she had some serious issues but had the nose of a bloodhound. She could walk into a department, take one whiff and could start listing the foods in the room. She could even smell the difference between a jelly doughnut and a glazed doughnut at 50 paces without even seeing them. It was freaky, to say the least. Then there was the time my workplace started a special spanish-language project and invited local hispanic dignitaries to a launch party and served them all Mexican food. Rice, beans, tacos and enchiladas. "Gee, that's what 'they' eat, isn't it?"

Kiss the ground for me, mizDucky...anywhere in San Diego will do. Miramar was an NAS (Naval Air Station) up until recently and I don't doubt the naming of Convoy has a military connection. There's a large military housing presence (I was going to say "navy housing" but I am sure that's expanded over the years to include the other military branches) in Linda Vista, Tierrasanta and Serra Mesa which are respectively south, far east and southeast from Convoy. Such a small world...my SIL works at the Grantville post office. I believe Grantville just got a new trolley stop, too, so that area is happening now. Remember Rory's? They used to be next to Iowa Meat Farms. It was a '50's retro joint serving up hot dogs and frozen yogurt. One of the rare failed Cohen family (Dakota's, Indigo Grill, Blue Point, etc) restaurants. I think the Cohens even own Iowa Meats, too. I am looking forward to your culinary adventures and roaming the streets of San Diego vicariously with you!

There aren't many diners around here. Most local eateries (and any local fundraisers) seem to offer Deep Pit beef or Tri Tip with your choice of either salsa or BBQ sauce. If you wander into the local Basque joints, you can get a "Starter" which varies from restaurant to restaurant but can include pickled tongue, pink beans, salad, french fries and spaghetti.

Peohe's on Coronado, across the bay from San Diego, serves a Halibut Mai'a. It's a halibut filet sautéed with macadamia nuts, bananas and Frangelico. It's quite good. Anyone else remember Nero W's "One of Each Soup" recipe that she posted in the "52 1/2 Weeks, 53 Soups, A New Years Resolution I Can Keep"? It included a banana, too, and was also very good.

The biggest drawback at chest freezers is that items at the bottom tend to get forgotten since everything else is piled on top. In a previous similar discussion, someone posted that they keep a list next to the freezer and everytime something goes in or out, it gets put on the list of gets crossed off. And defrosting the appliance isn't a lot of fun. And what about a lock for the freezer door so no one else can get in, in case someone discovers your hidden freezer?

I am admiring all that goose fat. Is this a seasonal offering or do they have it all the time? And I am assuming they have similar buckets of duck fat...yes?

New to my area... Kit Kat Limited Edition Milkshake Flavor Very different...there's a definite malted taste to the candy bar (hence, the "Milkshake" name) but it's not as intense as, say, a Whopper Malted Milk ball tastes. Overall, I would give it a thumbs up. Also new to my area... Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Limited Edition Double Chocolate I had high hopes for this version. What could be better than chocolate wrapped inside chocolate? But reading the smaller print on the label, inside the chocolate cup is "Chocolate Flavored Peanut Butter". Uhm...isn't that redundant when speaking of Reese's Peanut Butter cups? They already are peanut butter & chocolate. So this version is chocolate covered chocolate flavored peanut butter. The big problem is that the chocolate flavored peanut butter still tastes just like peanut butter. The chocolate flavoring isn't different enough from the chocolate flavor in the cup to make much of a taste difference. It did taste a little less salty than a regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup but that's a minor quibble. I'd pass on this edition of the peanut butter cup.

You lucked out on more than just the price. I bought a friend a knife set of Henkels (in a wooden block) as a wedding present and he told me later that they were awful, very dull. Apparently, knifemakers must make different levels of quality and what I bought wasn't top o' the line. Silly me, I thought a Henkel was a Henkel, a Global was a Global, etc. Caveat Emptor. And congratulations on your new knives.

How about professionally "scrapbooky"? For example, if someone hand writes a recipe or food-related memory, scan it and include it on a well-designed page. It could be the best of both print worlds. How many cookbooks do you intend to give out when it's completed? If it's not a large number (I'd say over 100 is large), you may just want to go with a local print shop as opposed to a community cookbook company that's used to dealing with higher numbers. I create video graphics with some print work on the side and developing a rapport/relationship with someone in a print house (Kinko's, etc) can be a life-saver when it comes down to unusual print jobs and their respective deadlines. Stop by a local print shop (it's difficult to get an actual human on the phone these days) and ask to speak with someone about your cookbook print project. If there's no one available, move on to the next print shop until you find someone who can help. Figure out what size you want the finished cookbook to be and how many you will want printed (print a little more than you will need). Discuss paper stock, binding, covers, etc. With any luck, you can design the entire cookbook in your own computer, save it out as a PDF (actually, find out from the print shop what file formats they prefer) and they can handle it from there. I met the pastry chef at Blue Point in San Diego's Gaslamp District a few years back and she does something similar though not as as elaborate. She prints up her recipes every year and gives them out as gifts to her family and friends (we tried hitting her up for a copy but it was a no-go ). Good luck with your project!

What about the "strip mall" next to Jasmine on Convoy? There used to be a Chinese market towards the back called Woo Chee Chongs (sp?) that changed ownership. Is the store gone? You could also try contacting someone at the San Diego Chinese Community's web site. They might be able to point you in the right direction (you can shut their web site's music off at the bottom of the home page ).

Has anyone been in the test market area for Tabasco's newest flavor "Sweet & Spicy" pepper sauce? The latest issue of Chile Pepper Magazine has a brief blurb on this newest flavor but says it won't be officially rolled out until March. There's a link on the web page above to buy it online but I was curious if anyone has tasted it yet.

All this talk about chocolate dipping has me wondering if homemade Mallomars could be a possibility...

My mom shops at a chain grocery store because no matter which store location she goes into, the layout of the store is exactly the same. She doesn't have to figure out where they put this or that. Reading this article opened my eyes to the fact that I prefer a right entrance, too. I guess I'm a lemming! And then I'm an up-one-aisle-and-down-the-next kind of shopper, unless I have a list and then it's like a pinball game...first over here then over there then back to here.

A similar previous discussion: "Best Drunken Meal, Best cuisine while inebriated"

The word-of-mouth I've heard is that their buffet isn't worth mentioning. Maybe it has to do with ease of access. Valley View, which is no easy drive, offered more perks and good food to their patrons and at Barona's, a little less of a drive, the buffet was still quite nice. Perhaps because Viejas is the one Indian casino in the county that's the easiest to get to so they think they don't have to try that hard when it comes to their food offerings. Do you know if their China Camp Express is related to the China Camp restaurant that is next to Fat City off Pacific Highway? Funny you should mention that...the two women who went to Valley View with me each brought back a slice of pecan pie to our table before even getting their dinner. So it must be good if it was the first thing they sought out in the buffet.

Last pot I licked clean (with the help of a spatula) was some fudge I made with my niece. The silly girl passed on it when I offered to her. Ain't nothing as good as the remains of still warm gooey fudge scraped out of the pot.

I'm tall so I see everything on top of the fridge (it's an apartment refrigerator so it's not the best nor is it the biggest). On top of my fridge resides my small fire extinguisher and my complete supply of Ziploc-type bags (all sizes), plastic wraps, wax paper, parchment paper and my big ass roll of aluminum foil from Costco...I never run out! One bad thing I discovered was as much as I like the new Glad Press N' Seal plastic wrap, letting it sit high atop the refrigerator in the summer heat caused the roll to cling to itself and made it extremely difficult to use. I was bummed but I'm over it now. Thanks.

I may lose some credibility as a foodie, but I love Tater Tots. ← Join the crowd: "The Tater Tot Thread, Creative Uses for The Little Buggers"

Wow. I thought the drive to the Barona Indian reservation was bad. To get to the Valley View Casino, you need to drive out past where God lost His keys. The casino is operated by the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians. To get to the casino you have to drive north through the city of Escondido which is about 30 minutes north of San Diego. Then you turn east onto yet another ubiquitous two-lane road that winds precariously through the mountains and past a rather pungent chicken farm. Smaller than the Barona casino, it was still quite crowded for a Wednesday night (the night before Thanskgiving). The buffet was also quite different than Barona's though it was still good. The buffet area is U-shaped with a center Dessert island in the middle. The food was set up in stations on a counter top. At the top center of the "U" shape, is the grill station, the carving station and the stir-fry section. The salads were first up on the right as you enter the buffet area. The salads were pre-made and there wasn't really a salad bar set up. After the salads was the fish section. The night I was there they had deep fried catfish with hush puppies as well as a crab-stuffed cod, with roast fingerling potatoes as a side. Then came a Japanese "section" (not really a section but a grouping of serving platters and buffet servers) with pre-made sushi with kimchi and wasabi. Next to this came the Chinese section with quite a bit more offerings, from deep fried shrimp to a kung pow stir-fry. The serving dishes didn't hold a great quantity but that turned out to be a good thing because this meant the chefs had to keep making the dishes fresh over and over again. In the center section was the carving station which featured fall-off-the-bone spare ribs. This section also had the "normal" sides like mashed potatoes, steamed veggies (they had brussel sprouts sautéed with bacon the night I was there) as well as meatloaf (which was far suprior to any meatloaf I've ever eaten) and salmon in a white sauce which was also very good. The friends who came with me had decided Wednesday night was the best night to visit the casino because Wednesday night was usually "pork chop night". Unfortunately for them the chef at the grill said "pork chop night" was moved to the weekends and as a substitute they were serving bone-in rib eye steaks. Not pieces of steak...they were serving entire rib eye steaks. Though the steaks were on the thin side, they were wonderful...tender and juicy with that grilled-on-an-open-flame flavor. While my friends were busy throwing a fit because it was supposed to be "pork chop night" I moved on to the next section which was Italian food. They had a surprisingly varied anti-pasta section and scored bonus points from me for having those small mozzerella balls in olive oil. I made the mistake of trying the stromboli which was filled with a pork mixture that was extremely rich (not a good thing to eat at a buffet!). The last few stations of the buffet were the "comfort" foods...fried chicken, biscuits, mac & cheese, etc. As it states on their web site, their buffet was voted the #1 buffet by Casino Gaming Guide (whatever that publication is). I think the Barona Buffet has the slight edge over Valley View due to the poor dessert section at Valley View. Barona's offerings were quite large and varied in comparison. A family friend told me they had been to the Valley View buffet on a night when they were grilling filet mignons, so the grilled meat selection does vary depending on the night or the whim of the casino. Again, signing up for a "Club" card (that keeps track of your gambling) gets you a reduced price on the buffet. The night I signed up for a club card, I actually received a free admission to the buffet. The casino also offers more bells & whistles than Barona. Valley View has free soda fountains on the casino floor for their customers and the icing on the cake was that they featured Pepsi & other Pepsi products. As Chris mentioned in his post, because of the torturous drive, Valley View really shouldn't be a destination unless you're in the area. It took a very long time to get there. Anoher good thing about Vally View was their non-smoking section is actually a completely separate room, unlike Barona. The bad thing was that once the casino got crowded (and, boy, did it!) there weren't many free (as in not being played) slot machines. Was it worth it? Since I had never been there before, I'd say yes. Will I go back again? Maybe...if someone else drives and we can seal the air vents in the vehicle before driving past the chicken farm.

I was taken aback by how my local farmers market has shrunk now that we're in the month of December. Very few vendors so not much to choose from... Bought: Organic greens (baby spinach and romaine) organic Gala apples and some Pink Ladies organic white turnips that turned out not to have that "bite" to them that some turnips have...but they were quite moist and not at all "woody" as some turnips can be Fresh rosemary And a bag of ginger cookies, some apple raisin scones and two pieces of Linzer Tort from Mrs. Messner, the German woman who cans and bakes.

I belive the biggest difference is that a binder is usually used in Potato Pancakes but not in Hash Browns.

Contadina's web site. I tried finding a picture of the label/can on the web but this link is the best I could do. In the link above, if you look at the canned item just above "Other Products" (in the 2 o'clock position), you'll see the can of Sweet & Sour sauce. My guess is that there are tomatoes in the sauce (since it is a Contadina product) though I don't recall the sauce as ever being very tomato-ey in flavor. It is reddish but not day-glo like some of the stuff you get in chinese restaurants and there some bits of pineapple in it, as well. I believe it's usually found in the condiment aisle of the grocery store as opposed to the canned tomato-product aisle.

Snowangel, My mom always makes potato pancakes when she serves up her pork roast, dumplings and sauerkraut . I know it sounds like starch overload but the dumplings are Bohemian and the potato pancakes found their way to our dining table thanks to a suggestion by a Polish woman my mom met when she first got married. Like others have mentioned, we also top them with sour cream. But the real secret to their appeal is the way they soak up the pork-enhanced juice from the saurkraut.

My mom always uses cans of Contadina's Sweet & Sour Sauce. She puts the weenies and sauce in a crock pot, cranks it on high for a while and then puts it on low/simmer for the rest of the night/potluck. Unfortunately, this recipe doesn't call for grape jelly. Sorry!

Are you set on roasting the turkey whole? Will there be a table or carving station presentation? If not, I was thinking you could do something more along the lines of what slkinsey did in his Thanksgiving Diary. Or at least using the cut-apart-and-roast-separately method to help achieve optimium roasting since the dark pieces and the white pieces seem to have different cooking times.