Put a pork shoulder roast into your new pot, glug a bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce over it, add a bottleful of water, maybe squirt in some sriracha sauce, and pop it into a 300 degree oven for 6-8 hours.
Then take out the roast, run the liquid through your gravy separator to get rid of the excess fat (very important!). Take two forks and pull the meat into shreds, pour the sauce back over the shredded meat in your dutch oven and you have made heaven in a pot. Serve with your best mashed potatoes and a green veg or salad. The meat freezes and reheats impeccably, makes incredible sandwiches, stuffs quesadillas, and is a perfect base for picadillo. I've tried this in a crockpot and it's just not the same as baked.
This is my Super Bowl go-to dish. Just put the pot on your buffet with some fixin's, some sub rolls, another bottle of the bbq sauce & hot sauce, and yes you too can watch those ultra-creative Super Bowl commercials!
PS - the dear friend who gave me my dutch oven also found a lovely shallow basket into which the pot fits for table service. Looks terrific, protects your table.

I want to add a resounding AMEN to your comments!

My husband and I both just read a couple of mouth-watering mysteries featuring a Shanghai detective/poet/foodie (author's name Qiu, highly recommended) and just knew we had to schlepp over to Florence to the Great Wall because our excellent local Chinese restaurant just doesn't do the cool dishes the Great Wall offers on their gourmet menu. We've promised ourselves we're going to work our way through the gourmet menu by the end of the summer.

I do wish the place were a little less shabby, but on the other hand with the quality food they serve at the reasonable prices they charge, I'm more than ready to keep my eyes on my plate.

Has anybody anything to report about this restaurant (the old Hunan Gourmet)? Menu, quality, etc.?
As a dimsumdoll, I am hoping hoping hoping... TIA

We're planning a family trip to the New England shore (Portsmouth south to Salem). After we get bored with lobster (snort) are there any good places for sushi in...Rockport, Salem or Concord or points in between?
TIA, Doll

We are planning a weekend trip to explore -- yes -- Brooklyn. We'll be attending a couple of performances at BAM and are craving sushi. Recommendations, please.
Ditto maybe a sublime tears-in-my-eyes miss-my-daddy corned beef sandwich.
Actually, we are open to all suggestions in the neighborhood. Anything but Vermont granola-head food. We got plenty of that!
Thanks.

Great Wall has dimsum only on Saturdays, very tasty and distinctive but rather limited choice. Also, we've been there a half dozen times and still find the service to be inscrutable, i.e. some carts, some buffet, some menu, and two delightful young boys (under 12) who, I think, keep track of what you've ordered/eaten. Everyone is very friendly, and it's impossible not to like the place.

I love the adventure of dimsum and miss the Dim Sum off New Britain Ave. in Hartford. I hope both of the dim sums in Noho/Flo prosper mightily.

The venerable Hunan Gourmet has just introduced dim sum daily 11-3. They are serving now from a menu of about 35 items but promise cart table service when it gets busier. Everything we tried was fresh and hot if not particularly distinctive. In general their food is very good so I'm hoping dim-sum catches on in NOHO so they'll start dishing out some more imaginative "little hearts."

Assuming your husband has some local guidance in Warsaw, ask him to bring back as dried wild mushrooms, (prawdziwki). They are in an entirely different league than even imported porcini. We've never had any problem bringing them home. Alternately, he might go to Blikle on Nowy Swiat Street (left side of the street looking north). There is a cafe with tables and a delicatessen in which to go wild with packaged goodies.

Smacznego (bon appetit in Polish)

We're attending our first event at the new ICA next Friday and would like to eat well and reasonably expeditiously before the 8 pm performance. As directionally impaired out-of-towners, we'd like to be within walking distance of the museum if it's possible...

Suggestions? TIA
Gina

You need to call Green Emporium in advance because they do host a lot of private celebrations. The food is super (and the portions tremendous) and you get the feeling that the both the chef and the host are truly delighted to be celebrating your special event -- or life in general! Nifty art, including great neon pieces.

We too mourn the loss of Dim Sum in West Hartford, but Great Wall in Florence is excellent. We ate there today, in fact.

On Saturdays only ("unless the weather is so bad nobody will come") between 11 and 2:30 they serve dim sum from a single cart with other dishes on a buffet. New dishes keep issuing from the kitchen every few minutes, everything from dumplings to sticky rice to dishes of baby bok choy to noodles and cold salads. Really an astounding variety, but you have to take it slow to see what's coming next.

It's very confusing, the service is very warm and friendly but kind of chaotic and we can't figure out how they do the bill (it's not on the table but there are chops stamped according to what you eat) but the food is extraordinarily good and astoundingly inexpensive.

This is the kind of "real" Chinese restaurant you dream about finding!