Hank1's Profile
Not miss in Scranton
For really great Mexican at a local Mom & pop place (nothing at all like the industrial places and like you would find in Mexico) there is a good place in south Scranton
:
Taqueria Oaxaca
1523 Cedar Ave
Scranton, PA 18505-1605
Great Oaxacan Mexican place in Scranton
Scranton like a lot of places is suffering from nothing but industrial food places.
I noticed a Mexican restaurant in Scranton a few weeks ago and had a chance to try it last night.
It is:
Taqueria Oaxaca
1523 Cedar Ave
Scranton, PA
There were four of us and everything we ordered was well prepared and nicely seasoned. I had an enchilada with green sauce and the chicken had been marinated with a flavorful marinade and perfectly grilled. The sauce was excellent. I also had 3 tasty tacos with lengua.
They have more than a dozen tables There is convenient parking right in front.
Sub buns, brands?
I get them from a local Italian bakery or a local Jewish bakery where they place them in a paper bag when you buy them. Also those buns are even better than the buns you get at Subway etc and not putting them in plastic insures they stay crispy.
Do you add breadcrumbs to your hamburgers and if so why?
I imagine it is a holdover from times when people needed to stretch meat.
I agree with you that minimalist is the way to go. The only real trick to a super juicy burger is using the right ground beef. Ground chuck or ground chuck and sirloin will give a great result. 95% lean will produce a dry flavorless burger.
bethlehem / allentown
You might try Mexico Lindo on 720 Main St in Bethlehem. It is a mom & pop place with decent food.
Cheap Eats in the Historic District?
I have never been there but there is a Maoz that would be closer on Walnut btwn 11th & 12th on the north side of the street.
Good place to go in State College
Thats accurate, I rather enjoy his dry sense of humor and devotion to being an interesting neighborhood place with good food and real character.
Help...Need a good pizza sauce recipe
I never use pizza sauce.
My favorite tomato based topping is to use drained canned tomatoes (San Marzano are best) that I crush with my hand. Add onion cheese etc. Another option is to use thinly sliced tomatoes when flavorful home grown varieties are available.
Good place to go in State College
Herwigs, great Austrian food. It is the farthest you will get from lame industrial big box food. He has a limited daily menu on a chalkboard of well prepared food.
Heirloom Pork chops on the bone...recipe help..brining?
Good pork shouldn't need brining. I think the usual reason for dry pork is overcooking.
japanese pickles - ideas and uses?
Tsukemono are usually served on a small dish are just eaten as an accompaniment with rthe meal.
Pork "dark meat" - what cut??
I also favor the "dark meat". One of the best ways to get it is with country style ribs.
In fact country ribs w/ sauerkraut and potatoes slow cooked in the crockpot is tomorrows dinner.
Amber Indian Restaurant in Moosic
It is definitely worth stopping there instead of Wegmans. I have eaten there at least a dozen times (including at their original place at the hotel down the road) and always found it to be good quality and clean.
Subbing Real Coffee for Instant
Should work with no issues..
I lot of recipes feature stuff like instant coffee because they were created by the companies trying to push the product not because they were good.
"Onion soup mix" is another example of that. The stuff is just salt with dried onions and is useless but it was featured in lots of recipes in order to create uses for it.
Brine success!
I get our pork from a local Italian market. They get it from producers that raise better quality pigs than is available at the big box and do meat cutting in the store. The quality is fantastic compared to the big box and the prices are even better. No brining is required to get a good result.
A lot of people think local places don't exist any more but they are there and well worth seeking out.
To brine or not to brine, and other turkey talk
Mashed rutabagas are one of my favorites. We had them all the time when I was a kid and I rediscovered them only recently.
Time and the BrinedTurkey
I wouldn't bother. I think brining makes turkey taste like something Arbies would sell. I think a good bird doesn't need anything more than roasting.
To brine or not to brine, and other turkey talk
I vote don't bother with the brining. It sounds like you got a quality bird.
Kielbasa ... what to do ??
Thats my pet peeve with Sara Lee (they own hillsure). I think its an insult to Polish folks and those of Polish ancestry to call that sausage like product "Kielbasa". I doubt the Poles had anything that bad even when they were part of the USSR.
Kid-Friendly Spaghetti and Meatballs help!!
That sounds like a good recipe. Unfortunately jarred sauces usually have lots of HFCS or sugar (why kids like it) so he will need to add that to approximate the jarred sauce.
Types of brine for roasting chicken
. I wasn't trying to insist that the person do anything and was just offering my experience. There are no bad feelings. This is simply a discussion and when you can't see someone you have to interpret what they are writing.
I am not trying to be some sort of elitist when I say I patronize local markets. Big box spends a fortune buying mindshare and many people believe big box is the only game in town.
The particular market I like is now run by the second generation of an Italian family. They have a fantastic selection of quality meat cut in house (none of it is the embalmed stuff featured at Walmart and other big box stores) at good prices. For example tonights dinner is country ribs and sauerkraut. The ribs were $1.49/lb. They make at least 5 kinds of sausage in house and all are excellent quality. Tomorrows dinner will include andouille sausage which cost $2.29/lb.
I was at a friends last night and the bring/injecting came up. You may remember at least 5 or more years ago that every cooking show featured brining a turkey and every other TV ad featured some sort of "flavor injector" kit. Thats when my friends and I tried that stuff to see what it was about and we concluded that we were going through the process only to get a result that would be served in a big box restaurant. My one buddy did it again the next year and now it is pretty much forgotten.
Kielbasa ... what to do ??
Isn't that hillshure stuff terrible? A gang of us get together at different houses and a standard is grilled kielbasa on kaiser rolls with course brown mustard and/or horseradish. We get it from a local family owned butcher shop. Some extra people were coming and the local place was sold out so my friend picked up the hillshure stuff. I warned him that it was bad but he wanted to try it. No one could eat more than the slightest little sliver..
Kielbasa ... what to do ??
Assuming you have the real thing it goes great fried with eggs in the morning.
Types of brine for roasting chicken
Thats why I wrote that I don't care for brining and gave the reason why. They can certainly try it and find out for themselves.
I am probably the most open minded person I know regarding food. I have traveled extensively in Asia and will try anything. I like, prepare and eat a really wide range of foods and flavors.
I think properly roasted quality meat tastes great pretty much on its own.
I agree on the herbs.
I wrote about compensating for something because you always hear people say "I brined this to make it juicy". I think a good quality bird doesn't need that. I roasted a good quality chicken last night without brining and it came out tasty and juicy.
I have noticed the same thing with pork. I get great pork from a local Italian market and you get wonderful results when it is roasted with minimal tinkering compared to the meat you find in the big box store.
I am not alone with this. I have a number of friends who cook and experimented with brining and we all came to the same conclusion that it wasn't for us.
Types of brine for roasting chicken
I don't care for brined poultry and think it is just trying to compensate for something. .
I find that if you get a quality bird you really don't need to do much more than put it in a pan and roast it. I like the method where you start it breast side down and then flip it towards the end to get some browning. I do turkey the same way and everyone who has ever tasted it likes the taste. At the most I might put a couple slices of lemon or onion in the cavity.
Homemade Pizza - sauce tips please
I don't care for sauced pizzas so I make Pizza Margherita . I top with olive oil, basil and mozzarella. I use thinly sliced tomatoes or sometimes just crush canned tomatoes with my hands.
Just bought a Crockpot Looking for healthy dinner recipes..Please share.
Ignore any recipe with "onion soup mix". There are tons of recipes with it because whomever makes that stuff tried to create other uses and they devised those recipes and printed them on everything they make. Those always makes a result with a too salty metallic taste and add nothing that can't be done by adding chopped onion..
My favorite is pork and sauerkraut. Brown some pork, add it in layers of kraut and sliced potatoes. Makes a great one pot meal.
Onion advice requested
Vidalia onions only have a short season.
"Sweet onions" can be really similar or not but are the only choice this time of year.
Does brining chicken make a big difference?
Thats the problem. I want to taste meat.
Does brining chicken make a big difference?
I don't care for the results of brining chicken. I think chicken should taste like chicken. Brined chicken tastes too salty to me.
I find roasting a chicken using the method of placing it breast side down and then rotating it near the end makes fantastic chicken that tastes like chicken.
