jsolomon

I think it's pretty pure unadulterated hokum. With the variance in the natural human rhythms across the whole population, you'll get more mileage out of listening to what your body tells you than someone who is an expert generally but unacquainted with you specifically. Quite often I eat within 45 minutes of bedding down for the night, and a heatlhy 1500-2000 Calorie meal. Other times I may have a similar meal several hours before I bed down, and no ill-effects from either. What will help you the most is eat a varied diet, drink plenty of water, exercise regularly, and don't ingest a large amount of alcohol or caffeine (or any other uppers or downers) before you go to bed and you'll be happy

Tabasco is certainly unique, and a good product. However, I would urge you to try different peppers and things such as fruit and vegetable juices (think mangoes, lemons, limes, carrots). The product you'll come up with will certainly be flavorful and unique, but also much less time intensive than trying to make what Tabasco makes on Avery Island. The other benefits are being able to do things like tweak the vinegars for other flavors, added mustard, more garlic, etc. I think you might enjoy branching out to things further away from the Tabasco end of the spectrum.

Don't forget when they say that they like things like "chicken" and that sort of thing that there is more than one way to make chicken. There are all manner of braises, roasts, broils, etc. At my house I seem to remember soup being the default food, but it's been a very long time since I played picky eater. My advice: roll with the punches and sleep when you can!

Wow, it's amazing that even on eGullet, when someone says pickle, we immediately start to think of those jarred dill atrocities we find in stores. So, I'm going to ask if you've ever had homemade pickles? In my experience, a pickle from the finest pickle peddler in all of New York couldn't come close to the fine specimens my mother produces from her humble kitchen. So, what is it about a good pickle? Well, they cleanse your palate amazing well. If you've had one of those heavy coat-your-tongue-with-lard type of sandwiches, the pickle will cut right through that leaving your palate feeling refreshed and ready for another bite, or something entirely different. The acidity of a pickle really refreshes a flagging mouth and body. When I get finished with my long runs (yes, I run marathons) I reach for--a pickle! They cut the cottonmouth and refresh me better than anything else I've found. Pickling is such a versatile technique that you can produce pickles for any meal and any cuisine. Plus they travel well, just like a sandwich. So why do pickles belong with a sandwich? Because they can handle just as much abuse. And still refresh, sustain, and please. I am firmly is CompassRose's and Babe Ruthless's camps. Pickles are. End trans.

Don't forget to have fun, too. Every now and then throw Thunderbird, Boones, or Mad Dog on the menu as part of a blind tasting special, and also for birthday patrons. Occasionally put cookie dough on your menu, too. With LOTS of chocolate chips.

Don't serve dill pickles... and don't recommend people pop off to brush their teeth in the middle of a tasting. Aside from the things people have mentioned about food pairings and all of that, the two most important things in making me want to come back to a bar are: Good service. If the bar I'm going to has as its excuse of existence the service of good drink, part of that is service. Make sure your staff is knowledgeable, willing to learn, and expressive. If I'm going somewhere in a bar that serves a different purpose than a venue for a tv tuned to ESPN, I expect more out of the bar experience. Good value. I don't want to walk out of the bar feeling like I personally paid for one of the definitive wines in the cellar. I want to walk out of it thinking the wine purchaser for the bar is a thoughtful, tasteful person who prices their drinks and food reasonably for the quality (bar markup is certainly allowed). upthread, Carolyn Tillie mentioned that polishing glassware is a must, but remind your staff to develop relationships with customers if they have the opportunity while their polishing glassware. Let them be wine geeks, not cork dorks.

Saskanuck, there's a sweeter chili paste that you can find that you could mix with the sriracha that ought to help cut the burn and suit your palate better. But, by all means, build up your tolerance. It's great stuff! How about a billboard with an image of two sunburnt backsides covered by swimsuits (one male, one female) that says, "Sriracha, the only burn you need this summer"

NulloModo, if you can't tell the kick in sriracha, you're buying ersatz sriracha...

You're sure that's not because you're tasting food by shoving it up your nose like you recommended for finding the difference between the Brandywine and the Sweet-100?

I love the notes in the recipe. And how to know it belongs in the AWESOME category...

Well, usually it's because I'm deigning to tear some sorority girl away from her, like, important conversation about how, like, her hair last night was just, like, limp. But, even if I'm in a non-college town here in the midwest, unless I'm in Denver or Chicago (my only two even close city experiences) the service is slow, insensitive, and wooden. I'm not a customer, I'm a way to pay the rent. It makes me feel like such a John, and all I get is fat and a headache from it.

I would never do it at a real restaurant. At a bar and grill or a lettuce entertain u type chain, I do it with impunity. But, that also signifies that the server should be coming by regularly to check on drinks. Being in the midwest, I have noticed the service as generally lacking, though. It doesn't matter where I go, how I look, or what I order. My service will be subpar unless I'm being flirted with which usually takes me several drinks to warm up to.

If I'm making stir fry with chicken, I always marinate the chicken in equal parts sriracha and soy. It's also perfect in pulled pork.

Heck, in Nebraska where the climate is not quite as extreme, we would use the thing just as much. Unfortunately, I am very certain that the licensing for any sort of radiative source be it gamma or electron would be prohibitively expensive or paperwork heavy.

In the age of cookie cutter houses with cookie cutter kitchens designed by people who don't cook often (show me a cookie cutter designer who cooks and I'll show you...) it's no wonder people prefer to cook in a well-designed, partially well-appointed kitchen with adequate counter space. My old apartment, and the house I'm currently in are horrible. Not bad, not annoying, but horribly, horribly, intolerably bad. I wouldn't mind having kitchen area that I could rent by the foot/hour, myself. But, using their recipes and food... eah, not so much.

How about offering the sandwich with a pickle or two at $.45 less than the current price and the nice salad at $.30 more? You should be able to make up the loss in volume of the former.

If they can ship ripe blackberries and raspberries, they can ship ripe tomatoes. Packaging technology is there. Don't toss in that red-herring argument, please.

Yes, but I'd rather have an irradiated semi-charming tomato from 2 states over than a gassed wet-sand-textured red sensibility-offender from 7 states over.

One of my grandmothers used hers to puree pretty much anything for baby food. Heck, I'm pretty sure you could make a reasonable soup out of an unboned chicken, stock, and all with one of those suckers. It's not that they are the cadillac of blenders. They're kinda loud and homely. But, they are the Caterpillar D-10 bulldozer of blenders. Also, crabapple sauce... cored crabapples, and sugar, then water pack in mason jars. That's good stuff!

FG, there's something dreadfully wrong with me being lumped in with the concept of Viewers. Like. You. I'll be sure to watch it with a Bud Light in one hand, and a supermarket tomato in the other. Setting the DVR today Thanks for kicking the party off in good form. You do good work.

I think you're slightly confusing the issue (and slightly OT in this particular thread). The short answer is yes, the enzymes will be damaged by irradiation. To what extent they will be damaged depends on several issues: the sheer size of the enzyme, the amount of the enzyme, and how much damage the enzyme can sustain before being deactivated. So, really answering your question gets muddy when you have it as specific as an enzyme level. The effects of irradiation are varied and sometimes subtle, but it still equates to a scorched earth policy of effecting everything good and bad. There are simply questions of level that are difficult to answer in some cases.

sorry.... double-post.

I don't think having agribusiness pay for this is going to be the right option. I'm trying to figure out how the economics would work for small farmers to get everything legally in place to begin preserving their food via irradiation. At the U that I work at, it is very difficult to go through the motions to get a license to run an X-ray source, and when you couple that with farmers using much less skilled labor than engineering students [note, this is not slander, but using skilled as a synonym of educated, so back down] you're going to have a hell of a time 1: finding funds to purchase the equipment, 2: finding the legal moneys to license this beast, and 3: finding people who are willing to work for a farm wage to run one of them. ConAgra could do it, but then you're removing the small farmer from the ability to court his customers as a real small farmer. What's the option? Personally, I'm still for irradiated delicate fruits and vegetables. Even meats. But, I know the stock I was raised from and the other people in the area. We need to come up with a workable solution to them. Labeling ain't gonna be the answer. This, I'm certain of. Too much FUD.

When the recipeGullet was on hiatus, I had a good friend far away. Thanks for bringing it back. Y'all need an attadude!

If that means that I don't get something akin in flavor and texture to wet sand, I say irradiate the heck out of the tomatoes!