I would expect most or all ceramics retailers provide less than bulletproof packaging (i.e., newspapers or similar) for goods sold at retail and carried out of the store by the customer. If Heath ships/mails stuff to you, it now gets the most state-of-the-art packaging available.

Uh, I ordered some Heath stuff a month ago. It came very well packed in ... not newspaper, not foam plastic "peanuts" but in ExpandOS, cleverly shaped little widgets made of recycled cardboard that in effect interlock around the pottery and form a cushioned cell around it, both protecting it and preventing it from shifting position inside the carton. I think your information may be outdated.

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/01/...

Stop at Heath Ceramics (Gate 5 Road, near your houseboat) and buy enough of their beautiful stoneware to set your houseboat table, and more to ship home. It's not cheap, but check out the seconds, which are bargains. If you're not already familiar with Heath ware, see www.heathceramics.com . You're not having the full-on Marin County experience unless you're eating off of Heath.

You can go to Penzey's if you enjoy spending money and getting stuff in cute jars. But generally you get fresher and much cheaper at any Indian grocery store. South Asian people are extremely picky about spice freshnesss the way East Asians are about seafood freshness. Also, dried basil is all but flavorless. Use fresh or use some other dried or fresh herb.

Any quick pasta dish that involves canned sardines.

The 50 Percent Rule applies. (50 percent of what's on the Internet is crap).

Use it, with other ground meats, to make a very rich and tasty meatloaf. Or make ma bo doufu (ma po tofu, if you like it spelled that way). If the latter, use soft tofu, and only add the tofu late in the game so it doesn't get all broken up.

Knives are very personal, from the way they look to the way they cut and the way they fit the hand. People who are into cooking often have near-religious feelings about them. You might be better off giving a gift certificate and urging your friend to use it on the knife of his/her dreams.

Americans grow up thinking meat is grown in plastic-wrapped packages. Any animal they associate with something "cute" they saw on TV is verboten, such as Thumper and Bambi.

Many of them also get their knickers bunched up over the idea that some kinds of much-esteemed fish (such as trout) are usually served whole on a plate, head, tail and all. (Eeeeeew!)

I believe every American kid should not be allowed to get a high school diploma until he/she has learned how to kill and clean a chicken, as well as catch and clean a fish. I'd excuse the ones who are vegetarian. But anyone else needs to be confronted, at least once, with the life, death, blood and guts behind what they eat for dinner. And PETA be damned.

Mom's lamb shanks. She loved them and made us eat them regularly. Not until I grew up and tasted osso bucco did I realize shanks could be wonderful. Mom never quite understood that shanks need to be braised for, like, hours. She served them all gristly and disgusting. I used every trick in the book to avoid eating them: hacking off the meat and slipping it to the dog, hiding it under the rug, wadding it up in a paper napkin and putting it in my pocket. It was the stuff of nightmares.

Sure. I eat Thumper. I eat Bambi. I'd eat Rover too, if it was prepared by someone who knew how to do it well. Millions of people eat dogs all the time. How wrong can they be?

I'm a newbie in the hood. I've much enjoyed eating at the ABC Cafe a few times and will keep working my way through the menu. Quality-wise, I'd say it's really excellent Hong Kong and Cantonese food, more San Francisco than Kansas. To my mind, the dim sum quality is more variable, some of it (siu mai, for instance) being top-grade and other items (black bean chicken feet) under-flavored although texturally perfect. Haven't been able to get har gao, to my lasting regret. Haven't had occasion yet to order jook late at night, but you can be sure I will. As nearly as I can tell, they won't serve you the No. 1 marker of bad Midwest Chinese dining, the tiki-bar travesty Crab Rangoon, which seems to be on every other Chinese (or Thai, or even Japanese) menu in Kansas. But even that's progress. In my college-student youth, I dined often at a Manhattan, Kans., Chinese spot that was careful to put Wonder Bread slices and butter on every table.

I happen to love it. I think the reason so many people hate it is that for years it was among the most abused (and overused) ingredients in American kitchens. Also because there is so much bad mayo sold in American stores. Low-fat mayo, like every other low-fat product, is garbage. Eat real mayo in smaller quantities less often. I only buy Hellman's or Best Foods mayo (they're the same thing, sold in different regions under different names). It's probably the best widely available commercial mayo there is. Homemade is the best, but don't use olive oil ... too strongly flavored for this purpose. Even the Chinese are starting to appreciate mayo. A classic dish of the new Hong Kong cuisine is stir-fried shrimps with roasted walnuts, tossed with a little mayo just before serving. The description scares off some people, but it's utterly delicious. The Japanese have loved mayo for decades. Their Kewpie brand, in a squirt bottle, is the only non-Hellmans'/Best Foods mayo I allow in my house. Squiggles of mayo are the traditional garnish for okonomiyaki, sort of a Japanese fritatta.

Whole-milk yogurt, with the whey drained off. In America, it's called Greek yogurt, because Greek-American companies popularized it. But there's nothing specifically Greek about it. It's popular all over the Balkans and Middle East, usually under the name labne or labane.

I just spent two years in Israel, where the labane and cottage cheese is way superior to what's sold in America. Over there, all dairy products are sold in a range of fat contents. You pick the one you want based on your preference or whatever use you have in mind. American cottage cheese is shit. Really. Read the ingredient list: thickeners and chemicals abound. I won't eat it. In Israel I loved eating labane or cottage cheese every single day, usually for breakfast. And it didn't make me fat. Israeli cottage cheese is so good that people spread it on bread, like we do cream cheese.

I mostly buy the two varieties Costco sells, one using wild salmon, one not. I think they're pretty tasty.

Used to make gravlax occasionally ... it's very easy ... but no longer feel a need for that.

I've heard the same thing. And that Hobart no longer makes Kitchen Aid mixers. Anybody know whether either of these statements is correct?

Used to own a Kitchen Aid that I bought in 1988. It never failed me. Gave it away during a move. Haven't replaced it because I primarily used it to make pizza and bread dough. These days I eat less of both, and I've joined the no-knead dough cult besides. The only mixer I need now is a large spoon for a minute or so.

Paragraph 2:

"In an effort to boost sales just ahead of the U.S. grilling season ... "

Article also points out that the U.S. supply chain is clogged with a surplus of unsold meat because fewer countries are willing to buy the U.S. product because of the chemicals in it.

No deception? What other intent can you suggest when there's too much unsold meat, which should result in much lower prices, and suddenly your previously cheap pork chop has become a Porterhouse chop, a Delmonico cutlet or something else with an assinine name none of us has ever seen applied to it before? Do you believe in tooth fairies too? Hey, my mom has sex with space aliens.

Hard to imagine why anyone would want to let an immersion blender run for more than a minute. These things are hugely powerful, for what they're designed to do. One minute is enough to puree rocks.

Just bought a new-old-stock 1980s Bamix Deluxe on eBay for USD 70. To replace the Deluxe I bought new in 1988 for more than USD 100 and foolishly gave away during a move. This one will go to my heirs someday.

Buy Bamix. Unless you like getting a new one every couple years. Much cheapr on eBay. Used ones are a pretty safe buy, since they seem to last forever.

I had one of the lower-powered Bamixes for 20 years. Did everything with it, including chopping ice. A lot. It never felt underpowered. The higher-powered ones seem to have slightly higher rpm levels. Not convinced that's important. Gave my old one away in a move, just replaced with a new-old-stock one from eBay. Same model. You can break it, by dropping it on the floor. But have never heard of one wearing out.

Bamix. Still Swiss-made. Most of the rest are Chinese crap. Bamix is expensive. But you can buy one on eBay, used or new old stock, for half the cost (or less) of a new one. They last forever, so used is a pretty safe buy.

Also, Bamix and one or two other brands still have a business end that is mostly open, so stuff can circulate easily. Most current models have been all lawyered up, with a "safety" housing around the blade end. The little windows in the housing are OK if you're processing something that's already mostly liquid, not so OK if you want to chop or puree large chunks of something.

For 20 years, I had the lowest-power Bamix they make, I think the one called Deluxe. I did everything with it, including chopping ice, and it never felt underpowered. Gave it away during a move, to my everlasting regret. Just bought a replacement on eBay, a new-in-box 1980's one, also a Deluxe. Cost me USD $70. It appears that the only important variable in Bamix models is shaft length. I've always had the shorter, household kind. They make some with longer shafts, for professional kitchen use involving larger pots, I guess.

Yes, you can grind spices etc with the processor attachment that comes with many models. I've never used the attachment because I keep two cheap blade coffee grinders, a red one strictly for spices, a coffee-colored one for coffee beans. Blade grinders are very cheap (most are Chinese crap now). Coffee fanatics prefer burr grinders, but I find that a blade does just fine since filter drip coffee is the only kind I make. Blades not so hot for coarse or medium grind.

What I've learned over the years is that some pre-made raviolis from TJ's or Costco will be excellent, some so-so and some not very good. For that reason, I often take a chance on a new one. You just never know unless you try them or you know someone who did.

1. Find any grocery store.
2. Buy some carrots.
3. Eat them in the car and keep driving as fast as you can.

Costco flap meat used to be my default steak when I lived in Hawaii, until two years ago. Loved it. It came in odd shapes, which may explain why it was not a big seller. But it's quite wonderful cooked medium rare.

I'm moving back to America next week and eagerly anticipating regular access to Costco again. But from what I read on Chowhound, the flap meat has disappeared from the meat section ... and the few times I've checked a Costco meat section while visiting in the last couple years, I never saw it.

So: What's the best (relatively) cheap beefsteak option at Costco these days? I guess I can start shopping the carnecerias of the Kansas City area, where I'm moving, and I know enough Spanish to do it, but I'd rather be able to find something good and not too expensive at Costco, my main American grocery store. Thanks.

I think it's annoying as hell. It seems to be an affectation among certain populations (no, I didn't say Californians) to always ask for modifications of whatever is ordered. Not for religious or dietary reasons, but because when you're "special," your ego needs "special" treatment. You no like our food? Go somewhere else.

Not as annoying as first-, second- or whatever-year anniversary. Or chai tea. Or pita bread. I've seen pitted fruit refer to fruits with pits and fruits without. Or when they tell me to use "good olive oil." I would, of course, use bad olive oil if they hadn't said that.

I've been using the thick white plastic boards exclusively for some years. Only for one reason: sanitation.

Wood or bamboo boards can work just as well, and not hurt your knives, and for sure be more attractive. But there's a lot more salmonella about, it seems. And I'm not a vegetarian, which means I cut red meat, fish and fowl.

The plastic boards go into my dishwasher. When someone comes up with a good-looking wood or bamboo board that will do that, I will buy it.

A cucumber is just a squash that is most widely enjoyed raw, because of its flavor and crunch. It's good raw or cooked. So are some other squashes, such as zucchini.

Penzey's stuff is nice, but also expensive. If there is an Indian or Pakistani food store near you, that's the best place to buy spices. South Asians use a lot of them, and so their stores sel them in bulk ... you can buy a handful or a pound at a time. South Asians usually buy them often, in small quantities, for the same reason these stores are such a good place to shop: They are fanatics about avoiding stale spices. And the prices? always way cheaper than any other retail spice source this side of Bombay. Everything I just said usually applies to stores catering to any of the Hispanic or East Asian nationalities as well.