Hest88

Runny eggs, until I started making them for hubbie enough weekends so they started smelling appealing. Now I love them. Goat cheese, until a transcendent Hilary's goat cheese cheddar at Sooke Harbour House in B.C. Olives. Just because. Sometime in the last 20 years I've grown to like them.

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Food Section for Wednesday, June 1, 2005 ENVIRONMENT IN FOCUS Diet for a sustainable planet - The challenge: Eat locally for a month (You can start practicing now), Olivia Wu Four women are urging people to buy, cook and eat from within a 100 mile radius of where they live in a monthlong challenge in August called "Celebrate Your Foodshed: Eat Locally." Recipes: Potato-Corn Chowder Calabacitas with Herbed Crema Summer Berries with Lavender Creme Anglaise Summer Pot Roast For Chowhound founder, it's an eater's life, Amanda Berne Get a glimpse into Chowhound founder Jeff Leff's life. Taster’s Choice, Carol Ness Whole Foods pasta whips the competition. What's New, Olivia Wu, Carol Ness, Amanda Gold, Karola Saekel Keith Luce's new restaurant, Market Watch with peaches and cherries, handmade Russian dumplings, and the new Mackerel at Midnight cookbook. The Working Cook, Tara Duggan Recipe for wasabi-crusted fish will wow taste buds. Events to celebrate all things organic, Carol Ness "From grass-fed beef jerky at the Castro Theatre snack bar to the menus of nearly 100 restaurants, San Francisco will be showing the world its dedication to organic and sustainable food for the next five days." THE INSIDE SCOOP, GraceAnn Walden Zare, Mecca and 2223 change hands.

Loved that article. Never thought I'd want to do #10, but perhaps with a lot of plastic surgery I'd consider it...

Goat cheese, until a Hilary's goat cheese cheddar was served at Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island. Now I can't get enough of that goat cheese tang. Ama-ebi - raw shrimp sushi. Could never stand the taste or texture, until I had it at Sushi Sushi in Beverly Hills. Mmmmm...

Every time I cook shad roe, no matter how many holes I poke it still seems to explode everywhere. Last time I swear there were as many holes as a sieve! Any tips?

The way I was taught by my aunt (a retired chef from a Chinese restaurant) was to squish baking soda into meat, let it sit, and then rinse well under water. I just sort of squeeze it and plop it around a colander under I think the meat is rinsed enough. I'm assuming running it under the tap serves the same purpose.

This is the best news I've had all week. But I have to wait a whole year?

My mother was very good with seafood, not so good with other dishes. So, home to me tastes like: Dungeness crab with ginger and scallions Stir-fried spicy clams Also: Jook with preserved vegetables Pork bone soup Boiled beef soup

Here's a rather different solution. Manage to showcase how badly a restaurant deals with ill-behaved children in a restaurant review penned by the most important food critic in the area... Today's Michael Bauer review in the Sunday SF Chronicle devotes a good chunk of the review to the antics of a couple of children: The entire review is here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1.DTL&type=food The whole sequence is rather funny. Or infuriating, depending on your mood.

I wonder at the real origin of Sriracha. I think of it as Vietnamese, not Thai. Huy Fong, on their website, claims that their Vietnamese founder invented Sriracha. I saw the other hot sauce that claimed to be authetic Thai Sriracha, but I'm wondering if the name is just Huy Fong's way of marketing the hot sauce since it supposedly uses Thai chilies, and otherwise has nothing to do with Thailand at all. Hmmm...

I loved her first two books and I just started this one. So far it seems pretty promising!

Oh yes, all I need are wings and backs. That's because I'm a skin person, so as far as I'm concerned you can have your meat! Plus, with fried chicken, the spine gets nice and crumbly too. Mmmmmm....

Love the Aerie! We stayed there for our honeymoon and had a scrumptious time. The last night we ended up ordering their beef sandwiches for room service instead of going to the dining room because yes, even their room service is THAT good. Last year we stayed and ate at Sooke Harbour House and we were blown away by their tasting menus. The presentation was as creative as anything I can get in SF, and the food was marvelous.

Chinese bakeries always use pink boxes. I wonder if it's cheaper making them pink somehow then bleaching them white? We need a paper manufacturer here!

Yep, I remember reading an article some years ago, where the punchline was, "But none of these people have ever missed a flight."

Jason, over two hours late is just outrageous! Personally, if they were always late I'd either only agree to dinners at their house or, if we had to go out, have them meet at our house and if they haven't arrived by the time we have to leave I'd just leave for the restaurant, tell them we were down to two people, and have the offenders show up to a darkened house!

No, having a big chef embarrass me isn't going to make me any happier about the situation. If Brad Pitt grabs my breast he's going to get the same slap as if a co-worker did the same.

Well, I just got back from a pho lunch at Golden Flower in Chinatown. There's plenty of cheap ethnic to be had. I was also visiting friends this weekend in Noe Valley. They took me to Pomelo, a nice little place with both sit-down and take-out service of the CA cuisine kind. You could easily eat well there for $20 per person, if you don't order anything alcoholic.

Not the most refined method, but I first take the bar in the wrapper and whack it against the counter a few times to get it started. Then I put it in a bag (or if I'm really lazy, just not unwrap it and risk the paper tearing) and whack it further with the a meat mallet.

Okay, I've stayed out of this for 5 pages, but seeing this question coming up AGAIN has made me leap for my keyboard. Perhaps to some people it's no big deal to be stared at, but to have the chef march into the dining room with a plate of raw food, and stand there pedantically explaining and pointing to the food while a roomful of patrons watches and wonders what the diner could possibly have done to warrant having the chef come out is indeed "creating a scene." The chef made the problem public instead of keeping it private. It's the equivalent of having the boss lecture you in the middle of the floor instead of calling you into his office. It creates whispers and gossip and questions among people who have no business being privy to your issue. That's a scene.

I know I'm in the minority about vegetables, but I grew up eating mainly veggies sauteed by my Cantonese parents, which means I expect my greens to be crunchy and bright (unless in a braised dish or soup). Thus, I can't stand going to a restaurant, ordering sauteed chard, and getting mushy greens. I *know* that's the proper Western way, but it's just overcooked and slimy to my palate.

Thanks Jeff. Great photos. I don't mind small tastings, but I'm assuming that doesn't mean you left hungry?

<Repeat everything from Jason's first post> I love food, all food. I readily acknowledge that homemade food or fine restaurant is superior to Hot Pockets. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the taste of Hot Pockets, or pork rinds, or an Egg McMuffin, or a Twix. I also work late at times, and I'm tired. When I am tired, yes there is a huge difference between throwing something in the microwave while changing into house clothes and boiling water, cutting up veggies, throwing pasta into a pot, and then washing everything later. I wish my sensibilities were as refined as some people's, but...Nah, actually I don't.

I like it both ways, but if I only had one choice I'd rather have it warm.

Nice article, Carolyn.