We're going to dinner tomorrow night at Eclipse Chocolate, and were wondering what would be a good place in the area to have drinks first. Suggestions?

I bought some sea urchins from the vendor at the Little Italy farmer's market on Saturday. WOW! They were really fantastic, super fresh, and delicious coming straight out of the ice water that I washed them in.

Made a dish from the Alinea cookbook - sea urchin with vanilla, chili and mint. Yummy!

Anyway, just thought I'd give them this little endorsement. Cheap ($3.50 for one urchin), fresh, and yummy. Gogo Little Italy farmer's market!

Many thanks, found it in Whole Foods.

Anyone know where you can get lavender in San Diego? Need it for some cookies we're making this weekend...

Thanks in advance.

Probably creme de cacao. A standard choc martini is 3 parts creme de cacao to 4 parts vodka. They may substitute vanilla vodka, but that's a pretty normal ratio. I rim the glass with cocoa, don't know what they do.

That's certainly possible. I was cooking in the dark (grilling outside - I need better patio lighting). It certainly wasn't grossly overcooked (and also wasn't wickedly dry). I'll try backing off a bit next time...

Kangaroo was yummy. I put bacon in it (next time I would put more - it was still a tad dry).

More here: http://food.drricky.net/2009/02/kanga...

For a long time they were sending us free spice blends with our purchases. The only thing we ever use them for is burgers. Toss a little in with the burger, and it's often quite good. And best of all, they're free.

Penzeys is nothing short of awesome. Their major benefit? All their spices are fresh, fresh, fresh. So if you buy from Penzey's, and then pack your spices in the back of your cabinet for 10 years, don't bother. But for fresh (dried) spices, you won't do better.

Their bay leaves smell wonderful!

Nothing. It makes people feel like they're doing something useful or healthy.

Good news is, it won't hurt you. Bad news is, it won't help, either.

If you want some of the nutrients in yeast, go have a piece of bread, or drink a bottle of unfiltered beer or wine every now and again.

Amen! ;)

Fingernail bacteria are your friends. Unless your fingernails have recently been working in a peanut-plant in Georgia...

I like my sausage casings to be natural - i.e. made out of intestines. As someone who is willing to eat something that used to hold shit in it, I'm not too worried about fingernails...

No.

If you don't have $600 to spend, buy a Bialetti Brikka. Closest thing to espresso you can get (still not espresso, but not bad).

I lived in Texas for 6 years while I was in graduate school. I'd never had real bbq before that. And I didn't learn how to make it myself until I left. (After all, it's just so easy to get down there, that why would you ever make it yourself?).

Best way to get good BBQ outside of the major BBQ centers is to buy yourself an inexpensive smoker and a good BBQ book. I'd recommend "Smoke and Spice" as a good starting point.

Heat is mostly in the seeds, so I'd make sure to include the seeds.

I saw some ground kangaroo for sale at my butcher this weekend, and on a lark, I bought it. Now what do I do with it? The only recipes I'm seeing are for burgers (which seem like they would be pretty drgiven how low fat this meat looks) or for chili. I'd like to actually taste the kangaroo (I've never had it before, and am curious what it tastes like), so it seems like chili is out. What should I do with it? If burgers, how do I get around the low fat issue?

Thanks in advance.

This all sounds soooo wrong, and yet sooo right. I can't wait to hear more.

Seasoning a pan is no fun. Just use the pan for bacon until you've made a few batches of bacon. Only clean it with water (no soap) and dry it well after use. After a few batches of bacon, then move on to stuff like pancakes. And if you ever need to "re-season", just make bacon!

The wooden ones that Penzey's sells are pretty good. Stay away from any pepper mills that are made with plastic (from anywhere).

Without wine, champagne or the cheese course that we ordered, I think the four course worked out to about $130 each.

We went to Addison, and went with the four course meal.

Started with an apple, cinnamon and creme fraiche amuse bouche. It was very good. Then I had crab legs prepared with mushrooms, very good. Squash/foie gras ravioli in a duck consomme for second course. That was crazy good. Perfect even. Then I went on to the milk-fed poularde (I'd never heard of it, apparently they put powdered milk in the feed of the cornish hen) served in a foie gras sauce with a piece of fried foie gras. Ordinarily, I would have said that was too decadent, but this is our anniversary we're talking about. This was another perfect dish. I'm going to play with foie gras in sauces in the future, that sauce was divine. We then had a crushed Asian lime ice with sabayon on top before being served a dessert. I had some chocolate thing that was perfectly forgettable. My wife on the other hand, had a caramel mille feuille that was ridiculous. She won that round. ;) And then they brought out little candies made on-site. They would have been better off leaving those in the kitchen, they ranged from boring to bad.

That said, the evening was a success. We had a great meal, and a fun time. Not a perfect meal, but pretty damn close. Two of my courses were divine. We drank a Burgundy bottled in 1997 (we met in late 96, so that was appropriate).

Thanks for all your recommendations, I think we'll be trying those in the future.

I concur.

The only exception to this rule would be angelfood cakes.

I think you'd need pretty serious arms to beat egg whites sufficiently for a nice angelfood cake.

My wife and I are having our 6th anniversary on Tuesday. We're relatively new in San Diego, and haven't found the truly great San Diego restaurants yet. We've found a few quite good ones, but haven't found the blow-the-doors-off 5-course-craziness restaurants that we knew in Baltimore and D.C. I've done some searching here, but I worry that most of the posts I've read have emphasized romantic atmosphere over top-quality, world-class dinner (i.e., places like George's on the Cove, which have a brilliant atmosphere, and barely edible food).

We haven't had much of an opportunity to go to top-shelf restaurants here given that we have a 3-year old, so we've mostly focused on ethnic, family-friendly places. But on Tuesday, we've got a babysitter, and we'd like to have a several-hour, wine-matched-with-courses meal. As those with children will understand, we'd really like to not fail at this, as we don't get a babysitter often.

What are your top picks if you want to have a truly fantastic dinner, with matching wine, and food is the priority over atmosphere?

I'll second that. Gas is vastly superior to electric. And the fancier the controls, the faster it'll break.

Isn't that just it? If you put the wrong words in Google, you come up with nothing, but a simple search like "cleaning squid" comes up with exactly what I want. I'm feeling a tiny bit silly now.

Thanks so much, both for your description, and for the search terms. I'll report back after I do it.

Does anyone know any good online resources for cleaning a whole squid? I'd like to try it this weekend, but can't find any good resources...

Where do folks go? When I've asked Filipino friends, they all say "At my Mom's house". Barring that, where do you eat good Filipino food?

Iowa Meat Farms. Weird. This is my second recommendation for them in about two minutes. Honest, I don't work there. They sell it for about $60/lb, if memory serves. But they'll cut off a couple ounces if that's all you want. It's pretty good, too (used it for a pumpkin soup recipe from Au Pied de Cochon the Album - fried it up, and left it floating in the soup - YUM!).

Iowa Meat Farms probably has them, and if not they'll get 'em for you. They've sold me everything from pig's feet to duck breasts. I love those folks. Is it weird that I have them on speed dial on my cell? (619)281-5766.

Stone Brewing Co in Escondido, CA makes great beer and fantastic food. The (3) beers they matched with my dinner were really well done. And the meals of my dining companions were also top notch.

I would generally agree with your thesis, but there is at least one exception.