ratgirlagogo's Profile
Yes, I am starting it....Staub or Le Creuset?
Just wanted to chime in to agree about the size here. I have a 5.5 qt. round and a 7.25 oval and they get constant use for me. I also have a 3.5 qt round and for me, it's just too small to do much with. I make side dishes with it just because it is there, but almost never in the oven, and for top of the stove a regular 3.5 qt. saucepan would actually be as good or superior.
Come Dine With Me
The version they showed on BBC America was heavily edited down from the original. The original UK show aired with each contestant's dinner party shown as a half-hour show on four or five consecutive days over the course of the whole week with the winner announced on the last one. I think the ones they showed on BBC America were the versions edited down to an hour for primetime rebroadcast once CDWM became a big thing. I'm told by Brit expat friends who watched the originals that the expanded version is much, much funnier, the narration by Dave Lamb especially, since it's less overwhelmingly nonstop.
I'd love to get to see the original intact series and I don't understand why BBC America doesn't run it, instead of the endless, endless repeats of Kitchen Nightmares.
downfall of chow
Thank you thank you thank you, givemecarbs! I feel the same way. Supertaster was my only must-read column on Chow (although Table Manners was my favorite trashy pleasure - that column about stealing barware is still one of the funniest things I ever read on Chow) and now I've pretty much given it up entirely. I usually skipped the Supertaster videos even when most of the columns were text, just because I prefer reading my reviews to watching them - faster, for one thing, and for another, while I can read this site at work I can't listen to videos there.
Another issue is that there no longer seems to be any kind of menu of the columns, so there's no quick way of just going directly to all the Supertaster or whatever columns from Chow's front page. In sum, I have even less reason to go over to Chow than I used to.
Jarred pickles - what's best?
When I buy jarred pickles Ba-Tampte is the brand I look for. They're cheaper here in NYC - not surprising since they're a Brooklyn based company. The jar of Kosher-for-Passover half-sours in our fridge cost $3.29 at Trade Fair in Astoria. I have never had a problem with them being mushy - but I suspect they move off the shelves pretty fast around here. On the other hand I don't usually buy jarred pickles unless, like this time, I don't feel like going out of the neighborhood to get the deli ones.
Where to buy spices
I would agree with this. It's just a fun place to visit even if you're not planning to buy much in there - but when you need to get a lot of varied things in a hurry, it's a godsend, even if the prices are a little higher. By the way, I'm tickled to notice that since Penzey's closed down, Kalustyan's has started to carry their own versions of some of the more popular Penzey's mixes like Bavarian Seasoning and Tuscan Sunset. And whenever a spice mix like, say, ras el hanout or vadouvan starts to get some media attention (like being used repeatedly on Top Chef, for example), you can count on finding a house version on their shelves. They know their market! Long may they prosper.
Astoria Recs 2012
Yes, I did think of that too - Sorriso's is the best. I rarely go anywhere else for my Italian stuff. The former Mix space has had several failed restaurants there anyway (the Columbian one, the neo-French one) so I guess I have to just wish these new folks good luck. And yes, it would really be awesome to get an Ethiopian restaurant around here.
Astoria Recs 2012
....Aaannnnddd as of today it looks like the shutdown is permanent. Signs posted on the windows that it's going to be the new home of La Bottega, an Italian deli. My guess is they won't be featuring a drag brunch anytime soon. Too bad.
April Fool's Recipes?
I think April Fool's would be the perfect day to bust out a hot dog water recipe.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787437
Do you wash Brussels sprouts?
I wash everything. Even mushrooms. Even meat and fish. Yes I know it's probably kind of stupid but I always do it.
POLL: Can you walk to an actual grocery store?
Astoria, Queens, NY. I live within ten minutes walk of a Trade Fair, a Key Food, and a C-Town. Dozens and dozens of ethnic food stores, butchers, fishmongers, vegetable stores, etc. within twenty to thirty minutes walk. I should also add that I've lived all over NYC, all five boroughs, and most areas of the city don't have anything close to this many places to buy food.
Can I freeze beer to cook with later?
Yikes! I can hardly imagine the cries of pain this question would have caused if you'd asked it over on the Beer board! Yes, beer will explode when frozen - any liquid in a container will explode when completely frozen because it will expand. Unfortunately I have accidentally exploded more than one beer since I sometimes put warm ones into the freezer to cool, and then forget about them.
Also, even if it just partially freezes without exploding, it will go flat. If you're using it for a beer batter (like for fish and chips) it won't work, since the carbonation is necessary. In fact if you don't like beer you can always use seltzer water for a "Baptist beer batter." Also my understanding was that for beer bread the beer is used for the same reason - because the carbonation aerates the dough, so I would think you wouldn't want it in that case either.
I also sometimes will refrigerate an opened beer that has gotten warm and drink it later. In general I haven't had good experiences with keeping it more than 36 hours or so. The carbonation will stay for about 48 hours but I think it begins to taste stale and odd, a little sour.
Astoria Recs 2012
The drag brunch place is Mix Cafe, which got shut down by the health dept. in February. Not sure why - think it was more about the cabaret permit than health code stuff, but last time I walked past it about a week ago they hadn't reopened yet.
America's 25 most hated foods
I just find it hard to believe that Spam was the number 8 most hated food in a poll taken by a TV station in HAWAII, of all places. They eat more Spam in Hawaii than anywhere else on earth!
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Spam.htm
And Spam Musubi totally rocks.
Guacamole - Bitter!?
Veggo is correct. I grew up with avocado trees in the backyard, and we ate them sliced up or in guacamole every day. Guacamole doesn't keep at all, you eat it immediately. Thus there is no need for lemon or lime juice either, since its only purpose is to keep the avocado from turning brown. Avocados, salt, whatever black pepper/chile you prefer for heat, and that's it. I also like chopped fresh tomatoes and (red)onions myself, but it's guacamole even without them. I suspect it's the lemon juice and and maybe the garlic that are making the OP's guacamole bitter. Bitter mashed avocados! Jesus fucking christ! How would that even happen? That's like having creamed butter taste bitter. Rotten, moldy, sour, but bitter?
Celebrity Cookware Lines: Rate 'Em!
I don't have any personal experience with any Martha Stewart products other than this one pot and therefore have no opinion about whether they're good or bad. I don't think anything I said implied that I did.
Pickiness: The Secret Eating Disorder
"Pickiness: The Secret Eating Disorder Nobody’s Talking About."
Without even getting into other more serious aspects of this, I can tell you that people who have this eating disorder talk about it an awful lot.
PBR - at Whole Foods??????
You know my first thought at your post title was that the Professional Bull Riders were doing something at Whole Foods - which really WOULD have been surprising. As to Pabst Blue Ribbon for some reason it is the new Rolling Rock - a beer that has become hip for no good earthly reason.
Top Chef Texas Finale Part 2 - Ep. #17 - 02/29/12 (Spoilers)
"As obnoxious as he is, I still hate to see him included only as the inevitable object of derision. Or anyone, for that matter."
Absolutely. It was gross. Kind of like the kind of shit they have on those awful Bravo reality shows......
Requesting separate boards for Vegan-Vegetarian and Allergic-Intolerant
The above discussion is an example of what I was talking about below. You never see these kinds of arguments about keeping Kosher on the Kosher board, i.e., is it a good idea in the first place, who can and can't do it, etc. That's why the Kosher board is a good idea - the arguments are more about whether this or that hechsher is reliable, is that restaurant indeed Kosher and is it any good. And that can get heated enough without having to justify having the discussion in the first place. That's why I'd like to see a vegetarian/vegan board and an allergies board.
Participants on Food Media and News: Your Input Please
"Interesting. So moderation is careful on poster to poster interactions, but free-for-all on the participants or actors in the show being discussed...?"
I believe souvenir was referring to moderation on TWOP, not Chowhound. At least I hope so since that's what my reply above was about.
Participants on Food Media and News: Your Input Please
Periodically the mods will post a notice telling people to stop using nicknames of any kind for the cheftestants (or whoever on the TV show in question) if they feel it's getting out of hand. That has happened on Top Chef before, especially in season two. (The threads for some shows like the various Real Housewives or the Duggar family shows get locked pretty regularly because they get so ugly - but those shows are different from Top Chef. I don't watch those shows so I don't read those threads, or most threads on TWOP for that matter - it's a huge site.)
If you were a regular rather than a periodic poster, you would probably appreciate the limits on inter-poster hostility over there. Although the constraints sometimes really annoy me, I understand them. You are right, though, that the hatefulness about the TV people is way beyond anything you'd ever read here and can be exhausting - the current Top Chef threads have been pretty bad and what happens in some ways is what happens here - that the posters who don't like all the venom just post less and spend less time in the threads. I know I do.
Requesting separate boards for Vegan-Vegetarian and Allergic-Intolerant
I have actually wondered for years why you don't have Vegetarian/Vegan and Allergies as boards. It has always seemed to me that discussions on both these topics have a hard time getting past square one from the veg or allergic point of view. In general it's unusual for anyone to post a challenge to the very idea of keeping Kosher on the Kosher boards, for example (although there used to be more fighting there back in the NYC only days), but in the general boards it's not unusual for someone asking about veg or allergic topics to have to defend their diet choices before they can even get any kind of answer. And of course if someone is asking about, say, traditional cassoulet, a discussion about how to tweak it to leave out meat and potential allergens is going to completely derail the discussion (also happens).
Participants on Food Media and News: Your Input Please
Actually the TWOP boards are much more heavily moderated than Chowhound. The kind of angry back-and-forth we often have here, of which there is a good example in this very thread, would be earning posters the dreaded BOARDS ON BOARDS warns if not indeed bans over on TWOP - especially from Nikita (the Top Chef mod over there).
Celebrity Cookware Lines: Rate 'Em!
Mr. Rat gave me a cute little red 3.5 qt. Martha Stewart enameled dutch oven for Christmas a year and a half ago - and while it is still cute the enamel on the inside of the lid started blistering and coming off by the following summer. That's what happened to a lot of people and that's why Macy's recalled her whole line of enameled cast iron. My Le Creuset pieces cost more even on sale to begin with, but years of cooking later and they're still holding up great.
Not to bash Martha - but I think she's got entirely too many irons in the fire, so to speak, to really be able to do any kind of serious quality control on the stuff manufactured under her name.
Pot Roast without using pre-packaged Lipton Soup
Agree with the dehydrated onions and beef bouillon - those would basically be the main ingredients anyway, without having a bag in front of me. I bet it has corn syrup or something as well - you're going to want some kind of sugar I'd think, even apart from the carrots others have suggested. Maybe celery seed and dry mustard?
A question about Banana Split Sundaes ... or really a question about the banana in sundaes
What is this thing you have with bananas?
Dogs in Restaurants
Well, she must have been hungry:) Although I do love my pet rats (thus my screenname), my post above was a joke - I never bring them anywhere where I think humans might have a bad reaction to them, like a restaurant.
Dogs in Restaurants
"If I brought a pet rat would it be ok if I put him on the table to take a few nibbles on my bread?"
It would certainly be OK with me. Pet rats are the best!
Does the phrase "yuppie food" mean anything to you?
Definitely a dated term - in the present economy it would have to be an aspirational term, if anything. The 80's economy collapsed on itself. "Yuppie" is also an oddity in that unlike "hippie" and "hipster" it was not a word that was ever used in a positive or neutral way. People did and do describe themselves as being hippies or hipsters, even though others may dislike hippies or hipsters. Nobody but nobody, on the other hand, EVER called themselves a yuppie. It was always intended as an insulting, abusive term.
