gabe

I can't recommend Independence Brew Pub... the quality of their beer when I've tried it has been very disappointing. Not what one would expect from a brewpub. Nodding Head has much better beer and the atmosphere is a lot nicer -- Victorian living room vs. Independence's airplane hangar. You might also try Caribou Cafe, 1126 Walnut. It's classy, hip, not terribly noisy, and a great bar. They have good beer both on tap and in bottles (e.g. La Chouffe, Maudite, Fin du Monde, Chimay) and mix a great drink.

I have it on good information from the Food Trust that the Asian Pears will be available: Wed-- South St West (next to Jamaican Jerk Hut) at 1436 South, 3-7 p.m. Thurs-- Clark Park, 3-7 p.m. Sat-- 2nd and South, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (as Sara mentioned)

At the Clark Park farmers' market yesterday, North Star Farms growers were there with fresh Asian pears for $1.70/lb. They are simply amazing -- wonderfully light and crisp, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth juicy. My partner and I got about 2-1/2 pounds thinking they'd last a week. Not a chance -- there are only two pears left today, they are so addictive. I don't know whether they will be selling them Saturday at Clark or at one of the other markets, but they will definitely be back at Clark next Thursday.

Philadelphia -- I have a new favorite: ginger gold, direct from the grower. Really sweet, with a little tart bite and incredible crispness. The shape and color of a golden delicious, maybe a little greener and a little curvier.

Try using high-gluten flour if you can find it and knead the dickens out of it before letting it rise. It's good to keep it on the sticky side, too -- not too much flour. I usually prebake my crusts for a minute or two before pulling them out and topping them -- this seems to avoid the sticky-middle syndrome which can sometimes happen with a moister, chewier crust. I use 500-550 degrees and preheat my stone for at least 1/2 hour. edit: clarification

Also fairly new is the former "blue tarp speakeasy," Vientiane Cafe, which is on Baltimore at around 47th. Tasty, fresh, cheap Thai and Vietnamese food there (though more Thai than Vietnamese). It's BYO. A very nice atmosphere, too, I think. Simsum (the ex-Bitar's) has had pretty tasty fare the times I've been -- especially the soup and the lamb appetizer, but the appetizer sampler (baba, hummus, pita, etc.) is pretty good, too. (Also BYO.)

I tried a durian shake at a Vietnamese restaurant in Philadelphia's Chinatown. I didn't care for the smell -- I would liken it to the scent added to natural gas to make it smell unpleasant -- but if I held my nose and drank through the straw, I did enjoy the taste. It was very rich, buttery-textured, and sweet. But all in all, I don't think the taste is worth the smell. I wouldn't have it over, say, a really good mango or papaya.

Out here in wine-wasteland Philadelphia, under the thumb of the LCB monopoly, I am not likely, methinks, to find the other bottles in the Tres Sabores line (this would be an expensive proposition anyway). The one-fruit, three-winemakers concept is pretty interesting, though. Pity I don't live in wine country.

Do you have an appropriate spot to store it? If not, just drink it. In fact, just drink it. Nothing fancier than a cool closet in an otherwise warm apartment... I suppose that means I should get drinking.

I got this wine in a gift basket and haven't been able to find out much about it. Should I let it age a bit or drink now, and what might it go with? I am pretty new to $12+ wine -- I'm more of a beer geek -- but I want to do this wine justice when I drink it.

Fresco mentioned Starbucks' use of weird, nonstandard terminology. I agree, and my personal pet peeve is their word for "large" -- the faux Italian "venti" which, if you look closely at the menu board, is actually "Venti" -- a proprietary Starbucks adjective. How f'ing pretentious is that? Even worse, almost all the customers pronounce it "ventay." I suppose they think that makes them sound erudite. But when is an "i" ever pronounced to rhyme with a long "a"? I always try to find the best coffee around, which in many less metropolitan places is Starbucks' -- so I do drink their coffee. But if I want a large, I always ask for a "20 oz." something, not a ventay.

Katie, thanks for the heads-up on Restaurant Week. I was able to get reservations at Pasion, which I imagine will fill up quickly once word of this event leaks out to the general public. I've been wanting to try that place ever since I saw Guillermo Pernot's hardcore food porn Ceviche book.

Only occasionally do I have enough time to prepare more than 2 courses of Indian food at once, so often Indian food night will consist of a meat dish, vegetables or dal, and basmati rice. Storebought parathas or naan are nice time-savers, but you have to reheat them. Here are some perennial favorites: Biryanis are wonderful to make but take so much time and effort. Jaffrey's Sindhi Gosht -- cubed lamb marinated in spices (most prominently coriander) and vinegar, then simmered for an hour and finished with fennel seeds and kalonji Masoor dal with ginger and garlic and tumeric Chickpeas with ginger and garlic and a little tomato Green beans with ginger & spices Saag mathar Baingan bartha Chapattis (the Indian bread I've had the best luck making at home) ... and there will be more to come. I've been very into Indian food for the last two years or so and hope to continue broadening my repertoire. Any cookbook suggestions? I'm very excited -- just moved to a new apartment in Philadelphia four blocks from a huge Indian grocery store. As for what to make to introduce a novice to Indian food... I have had success with the aforementioned Sindhi gosht, saag mathar and masoor dal. My first taste, I think, was someone's nasty potluck curry with way too much fenugreek. My first pleasant taste was tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, and a spicy, cuminy chickpea dish.

The first time I tried my hand at cooking Indian food I was making a dry masala for use in a chicken dish I can't recall. We didn't have any dried red Indian chilli peppers like the recipe called for, so I figured it would be all right to use 1 small dried habanero pepper instead of the 4 dried hot red chillies it called for. This turned out to be a ridiculously poor judgment call. My first inkling that this was a mistake was when I ground up the toasted spices in the spice grinder (aka coffee grinder)... I removed the lid and was confronted with a toxic cloud of burning, chokingly hot capsaicin-infused smoky steam. I had to turn on the fan, open all the windows, and vacate the kitchen for at least five minutes. When I came back, I figured hey, I'm a tough guy. I like spicy food. So does my dad, with whom I was cooking and who was also an Indian-cooking neophyte. So we finished the recipe. The taste was terrific, but so searingly spicy that neither of us could finish even a single serving, even with lots of rice and vegetables to cut the heat. We admitted defeat and cut the dish 50/50 with rice to put in the fridge for leftovers. The next day we were both cursed with, shall we say, evacuation troubles of the most painful sort. The leftover dish, even cut, was almost inedible. It took me a long time to start making Indian food again, but now I love it. I started with Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking and have never looked back. And I am wiser to the power of the Habanero.

I have an Alaskan Brewing Co. beermat -- that's good beer. Not a lot of Alt style brews out there in the U.S. -- the Alaskan Amber is a fine example. I worked as a lackey one summer at the Homer Brewing Company in Homer, Alaska -- washing and filling growlers, giving tours of our tiny brewhouse, drinkin' beer. Best job I ever had. And some of the best beer, too. The Homer Brewing Company beermat depicts the once-in-a-lifetime comet Hyakutake that shot over the Kenai Range across Kachemak Bay from Homer in 1996, when the brewery was started. It's a nice beermat. And thanks for the welcome.

Being young and poor, I have to say that beermats make great collectibles. They're compact enough that you can fit a bunch of them in a basket; they make great conversation-starters among fellow beer lovers -- each one perhaps recalling a special pub experience or a terrific, rare beer. The best ones have funny and creative graphics or taglines, or they are of unusual shape. For example, a great Kwak beermat that is sized to fit the wooden stand holding the round-bottom glass that is the traditional serving glassware for that beer. Or the Delirium Nocturnum one with the dancing pink elephants.

I have to speak up in defense of the tuna salad pickle. I'm a fan of a good half-sour deli dill pickle, minced, in my tuna. Use the pricey tuna from Italy packed in olive oil -- so worth it. Also add chopped (but not minced) celery for crunch and just enough mayonnaise to hold it all together. A few grinds of black pepper and... voila, a great tuna salad. Fit for pumpernickel rye.

I goofed by quoting a Chowhound post about the P & P market. It had to be deleted -- I don't want to get anyone in copyright trouble. The gist of it was, there's a hole-in-the-wall Thai grocery store in University City between 44th & 45th on Locust that should be able to fulfill your needs for Thai ingredients. Read a little more about it in this post from Deb A.

I second the recommendation for Victory Prima Pils. I wouldn't call it a classic pilsner, because of the higher hopping, but if you are a hophead, this is truly a beautiful beer if you can get it fresh.

I've read about this a lot -- it's a liquid concentrate of beef or chicken stock, not boullion, and it's supposed to be the next best thing to making it yourself. Does anyone know of any local store that carries it? I'd rather find a local source than have to order it online.