WHS

"tonic" instead of "soda"

Mustard pickle? Moxie? Pilot crackers?

Our true friends are the ones that don't run screaming out the door when we put the plates on the floor after dinner and let the dogs lick them. "Pre-rinse".

I guess if "one meal" consists of a mess of buffalo chicken wings, a 32 oz hunk of prime rib, and one of those "death by chocolate" things, sharing might be in order. The couple in question was from the Midwest, where I guess Tapas bars haven't caught on.

There's a letter in "Dear Abby" today from a couple that's trying to lose weight, so when they go out to a restaurant, they only order one meal. They wonder why the "service turns sour" and the attitude becomes "rude and condescending". Once in a rare while, I'll order two appetizers instead of an app and an entree, but I've never had the nerve to do this... What's the verdict?

I never use Cooking From New England, but his Chowders book has a lot of great stuff. There should be a special purgatory for celebrity chef cookbooks--ours is the bottom shelf of the bookcase. We hang onto them because there's always ONE recipe that works (i.e. HerbFarm cookbook's pesto recipe, Bradley Ogden's corned beef recipe, Joel Robuchon's bacon and potato cake).

Yeah, I've got that one too. The Roasted Chihuahua--maybe in another lifetime. Another winner: "Cooking with Regis and Cathy Lee"

Okay, there's a thread on the cookbook you couldn't live without--how about the cookbook that's languishing on the shelf? My vote is "Jeremiah Tower Cooks". I never seem to have a goose liver, a fresh black truffle, fresh chestnuts, chive flowers and Armagnac lying around the house...(Casserole of Whole Foie Gras).

Divorce the wife, disown the kid.

Cut off the greens (you can save them and braise them with butter if you like), wash the beets but leave the skin on, put them in a roasting pan with a little water, cover with foil and bake for an hour at 350-375 Fahrenheit. When they pierce easily, peel the skins and add butter and salt. Since you live in Japan, soy sauce couldn't hurt. Maybe a little yuzu zest. Plain but delicious, and your fingers will be pink for days! (So will your pee the next morning.)

To a Thai, in Thailand, a foreigner is a farang. A side note. Growing up in Thailand during the height of the Vietnam war, we lived there, but not as military. Almost all of the American's were military (my dad worked for a private foundation at a Thai university as an ag economist, creating a department). Since we didn't have access to the PX (post exchange; the place where one could use US$ and buy stuff like Skippy and Fritoes), and ate exclusively Thai food, we were less "farang" than most of our friends. We were also not on the two year tour of duty schedule, so we actually learned to speak the language and appreciate eating all of the bounty. ← Snowangel, are you sure your father wasn't "deep-cover" CIA? I've been reading a book called "CIA Wives", given to me by a former Bangkok classmate who never knew his dad was a spy...here's a quote: "The daughters of the embassy officers has petticoats. I didn't because father was under cover, which meant we lived on the local economy. These girls had lots and lots of petticoats and they wore them all at once. And they had lunch boxes. With characters on them and cake inside. the kind of cake we never had. And cake that I couldn't have taken to school anyway, because it would have been mashed into a pulp in my plain old brown bag." Anyway, I just got back from Bangkok--and went out immediately and bought every ingredient I could find to reproduce the flavors. I think I went a little overboard when I added 10 chilis to my beef salad!

the fish stew where the cook thought it would be OK to substitute salt cod for fresh....without soaking it. A tad on the salty side.

I know this is corny (as in corned beef) but the ultimate Boston experience on St. Paddie's is a meal at Durgin Park. You can get a Flintstones sized portion of prime rib, be insulted by rude waitresses (though not as tart as they used to be), and watch assorted Bostonians get raucous and silly. Not for the faint of heart!

roasted duck breast with green olives

Creamed herring, mustard pickles, natto--oops, that's three things!

I couldn't have said this better. I still vote for NYC, but I agree with Ben and you for the reason that Manhattan does not rule with the "best food." Yes, I think it is varied and because of the diversity, we enjoy many authentic types of cuisine (especially outside of Manhattan), but the quality of the food here is hit or miss. Not to go off topic too much, I feel that if the question were "what is the 'best' food city in the world, we would have a much different dialogue. Since we go to a different country to explore their cuisine, what do we explore in America? Southern? BBQ? The undefined issue of what cuisine this country hosts leads to NYC being the most interesting, and even the Diner on the corner menu is influenced by culture, i.e. italian and greek, but I have had far better meals in other cities. Often, I find myself wondering "why is the quality of food outside of NY so much better"? ← I'm with both of you on this. I was born in Japan, grew up in Bangkok, went to school in California and India, lived for 20 years in Manhattan, and now live in New Hampshire. Each of these places has interesting food cities (yes, even NH!) But does the fact that you can get bulgogi in New York or tournedos Rossini in Bangkok make them more interesting? Though any city where you can get deep fried waterbugs gets my vote (Bangkok).

The cheese grater I got at the Christmas Tree Shop for $1.50 has lasted longer than the $15 OXO cheese grater I bought at Bloomingdales; that one crapped out in about 2 weeks!

Chicken a la King

Jasper White's pan-roasted lobster at Summer Shack is sublime. I also had a very good skate wing at The Blue Room. East Coast Grill has a great raw bar. All of these places are in Cambridge.

I can tell I'm not going to make any friends on this thread! There are hundreds, if not thousands of things that take a lot less than an hour to cook. And you can have crudite on a plate for Junior while you prepare dinner. If he doesn't want it, he's not that hungry. If the subtext of your comment is that by cooking Junior real food his reading skills will be compromised, I think there are bigger problems to address. P.s. I have two kids, 3 and 6. ← It's been my experience that if you make Macaroni and Cheese from scratch or throw together Kraft Mac n Cheese, the kid always prefers the Kraft.

Yep, that's it--fluorescent lighting and all. Every single thing we ate in BKK was delicious except for the nasty Tandoori Chicken at Rang Mahal--serves us right for eating off message...

People don't shit in Chevy Chase.

Sounds great. Where's Patzcuaro? We just got back from Bangkok, and I'm trying to figure out how to spend winters there, spring in Paris, summer in New Hampshire and autumn in Prague???

Ogunquit's commercial and over-rated. They've built an ugly housing development across from Perkins Cove, and the whole experience is geared toward tourists. Check out Main Stay Cottages in Winter Harbor (of course it's another 3 hours up the coast). http://www.awa-web.com/stayinn/#Main%20Stay

Hey, we just got back. There was a huge food festival in the plaza in front of Central World Plaza around new year. What are those fish with herbs stuffed in their mouths grilling over charcoal? I don't if it's there year-round, but there was an incredible noodle stand in front of the EGV cinema across the street. We were staying over the bridge from the khao man gai restaurant on Petburi Rd--great stuff!