The oatmeal at Dolores Park Cafe is pretty good. Lots of fresh fruit on top, brown sugar, etc. Great comfort food.

All of these stories are great! I've made all manner of mistakes in the kitchen, with the subsequent foul mood and grumbling. Perhaps the most often mistake is when I realize I don't have an ingredient right in the middle of the cooking process: Okay, it's time to add the plain yogurt to the meatloaf mixture....umm, where is the yogurt? Doh! Of course, that day I learned that strawberry yogurt was a surprisingly acceptable substitute. :)

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone! It is much easier to get one of those hams in the South so I was a little taken aback. (Regional differences strike again! always interesting). I will try the local Mexican and Asian markets in Sunnyvale before going for mail order.

Cheers

I had decided to cook a Southern style coke marinated fresh bone-in ham tomorrow but have been stymied by a lack of ham. So far today, I have been to Schaub's in PA with no luck as well as Whole Foods and Safeway. No bone-in ham! Wising up, I started calling around and Draeger's and Andronico's don't have any of those ham's either!

I have decided to move on and cook something else but I am left wondering if I am just looking in the wrong place? Are hams more of a seasonal thing in CA? What does the Chow community have to say?

Cheers!

I've never tried this recipe so this may be a silly question but what would happen if you froze the homemade meatballs and used those? Too much work?

Very interesting. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that some picky eaters were often just super tasters, people with more taste buds per square cm on their tongue, etc. I wonder if any of the people mentioned in the article are also super tasters? There is no reason why a sub-population of supertasters couldn't also have OCD or any OCD derivatives. Venn diagram, anyone?

okay, I didn't know about that one and it is actually closer to work. I will try it this week and see how it compares to the RWC location. Thanks!

I have driven by here recently and the Los Altos location is still not open. The banner announcing the lobster shack is down although there is still a work order permit licensed to the Lobster Shack folks pasted on the door. But it doesn't look like any work is being done.

Anybody have any updates or news on this? I was really looking forward to this opening and would be bummed if the deal has fallen through.

A belated thanks for all of the suggestions, chowhounds! I ended up going with a Hario mini mill slim, which I received from Amazon a couple of days ago. I wanted to give it a try so I could review the grinder here. In short, it is exactly what I was looking for, a manual burr grinder with a 2 cup capacity. The only wrinkle was that the instructions for use are entirely in Japanese. But with a little trial and error, I was able to figure out how to adjust the grind. And when they say manual, they mean manual. It isn't a big deal since after a minute or so, you have enough for a cup.

Incidentally, it's always humorous to me that gifts from 2 well meaning people can lead to the giftee shelling out some coin to enjoy the gifts. In this case, one friend moving in with her fiance led to my inheriting a small French press, while I received a free bag of great beans due to being a frequent customer at my local coffee house. This being an internet forum, I should clarify that I am by no means complaining. As a food lover, any excuse to dive into something new, like good home brewed coffee, is great!

Bottoms up!

I have a small 'cup at a time' coffee maker and am looking for suggestions for a small coffee grinder. According to Consumer Reports, there are two styles of grinders, burr and blade style. After researching the burr style a bit more, it seems like those are just big grinders, having capacities of 8-18 cups of coffee per grind. I have no need of that much ground coffee at one time. And it seems to me that grinding just a few beans in such a large machine will lead to a) inconsistent grind and b) a messy transfer to the coffee maker. The blade style grinders are supposed to be less consistent but are cheaper and slightly smaller (still too much ground coffee for my needs). Any suggestions from the Chowhound crowd? Is there a small burr style grinder that my internet fu is too weak to find?

Thanks!

I've seen the ads for Weinerschnizel so it's good to get a review. I had been hoping to find a more hole in the wall or mom and pop type place. But, let's be honest, this kind of burger is definitely a guilty pleasure so the fast food element isn't an immediate disqualifier. Carl's also advertises a chili burger but I think there are beans in that one.

Thanks for all of the feedback. First of all, I apologize for the MV confusion. I meant Clark's in Mountain View.

The reference to Tommy's is very timely as my friend just relocated to Los Angeles so I have pointed him in that direction.

Having been motivated to post here, I did a little more research and found references to "carolina-style" burgers, which are the same as what HungryGraycat described. Growing up in the Carolinas, I never heard them called that but I definitely recognize the toppings.

It seems unlikely that I will find that style in the Bay Area. But I dug up my grandmother's hot dog chili recipe since my post and was able to make a decent replica at home.

Thanks again!

Awhile back, I had a friend visit from the South (I was born and raised in the South as well). I had been talking up Clark's in MV as having a decent hamburger so we went there one day for lunch. He ordered a chili burger and was bummed to receive an open faced sandwich. In the South, a chili burger is a closed sandwich and the chili is a spiced, finely ground meat (with no beans!). Maybe it's an East Coast thing, I'm not sure but, since my friend's visit, I've kept an eye out whenever I visit a hamburger place but so far, every one serves an open faced sandwich and the chili has beans. Is there anywhere in the Bay Area that serves what I'm looking for?

Thanks!