Nestra's Profile
Screwtops/Synthetic Corks...
Especially considering that he referenced each quote with a link. He should be fine. :)
2010 - What are you drinking?
I don't have a huge budget for wines, but instead tent to purchase in the $10-$20 range, so please read the following with that in mind. :)
I just opened a bottle of Cupcake Vineyards Merlot. It is quite nice. I've also been drinking a funky little Washington Reisling (a slightly dry reisling) called Kung Fu Girl and my old faithful - Mad Housewife Merlot.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a silky, non-acidic red? I prefer less "smoke" flavor as well. I fell in love with Hope Estate Shiraz back in 2005, but I am not a fan of the 2008. I am having a hard time finding exactly what I want in a red. Any help from you experts out there would be greatly appreciated. I am still a baby when it comes to exploring the world of red wine. I know I prefer it to white, but finding a white I enjoy is a lot easier... if that makes any sense!
Hosts cleaning up/doing dishes while guests still around?
I entertain a lot and usually I get offers to help. Of course, I have an open style home where the kitchen, dining room and living room are essentially one big room, so it is very easy to socialize while cleaning up. But I still leave the nitty-gritty to the next morning. To each their own, but if entertaining is just an expensive chore, I wouldn't do it.
best way to reheat frozen tamales
That sounds soooo good Cristina, do they have a smokey flavor?
Your latest 'addiction'?
I have a few addictions right now:
1. Tuna Sashimi - if I could find sushi grade tuna at the market, I would buy it in BULK and eat it every day. I know, mercury and all that, but I love it! On that note, if you know of a place to buy fresh sushi grade fish in NW Arkansas, I would love to know!
2. Gruyere cheese sliced very thin and eaten with thin slices of green apple.
3. Melissa's brand Soyrizo (vegan chorizo) cooked with an egg and served in a warm tortilla with cilantro and fresh salsa for brekkie.
Your latest 'addiction'?
My favorite is the Ritter Sport with the biscuit layer. So good.
Your latest 'addiction'?
Love Cliff Bars! I am a fan of the Chocolate Chip. Great meal replacement.
trendy ingredient or spice?
I love cardamom! If it tastes like ginger to you, we need to get you some better cardimom! :)
It is definitely something that people love or hate though.
trendy ingredient or spice?
For spices and sauces, I am hearing a lot about peri-peri hot spice from Africa as well as Chinchurri Sauce from Argentina. Also apparently Masala is trending this year.
I also hear that Persimmon is going to replace things like Pomegranate and Acai as the hot new fruit. Dragon-fruit is also on the rise.
Locally grown and seasonal ingredients and sustainable seafood will continue to be touted on menus nationwide, or so the buzz says.
Best wine you've had under $15
Hope Estate Shiraz - was under $20.
Chateau St. Michelle Reisling
Bloom Reisling
Hot water + ______ = a nice drink
I've been drinking rhoobus for a while (in the form of no-caffiene chai), but also have been trying some of the new white teas on the market. Surprisingly, One of my new favorites is Tazo's Berry Blossom White Tea. It is very light, sweet on its own, which nice blueberry fragrence and flavor with just a little bit of bite from cranberries. Very nice and easy to find at SBUX.
Need Dessert that doubleserves as Breakfast
Zataar - Would you care to share your recipe? This sounds incredible. I make a darned good French Toast casserole, but have been looking for something a little bit different than the traditional recipe.
What can I make with a HAM BONE
I have to go with Davwud on this one. No greater pairing than green beans and cured pork.
Also good, if making Boston Baked beans from scratch, simmer with the ham bone adds a depth of flavor to your sweet beans.
Any stew, soup or other meal where a good simmer can extract all of the delicious flavors of a ham bone will do though.
Moroccan Food NYC
My favorite NYC Moroccan/Northern Africa style restaurant is Le Souk. They do have a back room with more traditional seating, but I am not certain about whether or not it would specifically suit your needs. The food is incredible though and around 10:00pm, the vibe of the place reverts to a sort of Middle Eastern night club. Lots of excellent music, people belly dancing (customers LOL). Just a really great vibe. One of the most enjoyable nights I have spent in NYC. Make sure to ask for a table in the back room though. They get packed very, very quickly on Friday and Saturday nights though, so you might want to get there early and stick around. Here's their website: http://www.lesoukny.com/
Judging the wine by its bottle - how significant is the punt?
It is refreshing to hear that I am not mistaken in my understanding of screw topped wine. I purchased a screw-topped wine last year on the recommendation of a friend and it was absolutely excellent. I then purchased a bottle for each of my friends for Christmas and got a lot of strange looks when they saw the screw top. I wanted to crawl into the floor. You would have thought I bought them Boon Farms Strawberry wine!
Several of them did come back later and say they enjoyed the wine, but I do have to wonder if the perception of screw-topped wine is sometimes enough to put people off a possibly great bottle of wine.
Went to McDonald's today. A couple of observations...
I think it is because there are two "pancakes" on each sandwich. :-)
I am also a huge fan of the sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle. I try to limit my consumption of them to once every six months or so though... It is hard, but oh so worth it when I do allow myself the indulgence.
Coldstone Creamery
I've wanted to try that as well. Nothing like a good Red Velvet, although, the technique escapes me. I cannot seem to get that velvety texture when I bake them at home.
starbucks green tea latte is really gross
By all means, try it. Different stokes and all that.
starbucks green tea latte is really gross
I tried one of those this past summer. It was terrible. I haven;t met anyone who liked it. I really have to wonder sometimes how they handle their product tasting panels during the R&A phase of new product development. They are a big company, they must have some procedure beyond, "gee, this sounds like a cool idea, let's try it" and rolling out ectoplasm green slurry topped with blackberry goo to stores nationwide. Nasty. There have been several concoctions lately have have gotten a big eyebrow raise from me.
Coldstone Creamery
I also really like their sweet cream ice cream, as well as their coffee flavored ice cream. It is way too expensive to have more than once in a while and I am not a fan of all the mix-ins. The most I will go for is a little swizzle of chocolate, and I usually ask them just to drizzle a tiny bit on top of my scoop.
They do have pretty tasty ice cream cakes though for special occasions.
Went to McDonald's today. A couple of observations...
I use to work at BK. It was my first job. I won't get into details because I have tried to forget, but the BK veggie burger at that time was nothing more than a whopper, minus the meat, an extra slice of cheese, an extra slab of tomato and a couple more leafs of lettuce. With that said, it tasted pretty darned good.
Went to McDonald's today. A couple of observations...
A quarter pounder, to my recollection, which is spotty since I eat fast food about once a year, is that a quarter pounder does not come with veggies (other than the diced onions and cople meager, tasteless pickles).
Hosts cleaning up/doing dishes while guests still around?
If I were left alone to wait for them to return, I might consider them to be rude, but usually, I just ask if I can help. Sometimes, cleaning up in the kitchen can be fun when you spend the time yammering with your friends.
If it were a group of guests, as the OP indicated, this behavior wouldn't bother me. It is possible that they can't wait for their guests to leave and then spend an hour cleaning in the kitchen. I think it is rude for people to assume that their hosts have all the time in the world to clean after they have left for the night.
I like to clean up right after dinner is over. I am not comfortable with a mess on the table. I weigh each situation. If my guests are entertained, either by keeping me company in the kitchen or by talking amongst themselves, I will try to clean up quickly (maybe not getting out the scrub brushes and mops, but at least filling the dishwasher, putting food away and clearing off the table).
Bottom line, it just depends on the situation.
Take-Out Etiquette... [moved from Texas board]
My favorite local pizzeria is a sit down joint that does a lot of take out business. The first time I picked up a pizza there, I paid on credit card and did tip them because not only did they carefully pack the well-cheesed and topped pizza by adding four little garlic rolls to the box to keep the lid from sitting right on the cheese, they also gave us an extra pizza because the first one they made was cooked just the tiniest bit more than they planned. They didn't want to throw away the first pizza and offered it to us for free (or rather, just said they were giving it to us for free). By the way, the first pizza was only just slightly more golden on the top than usual. It was still delicious and most pizzerias I would be willing to bet would have just sold it as usual. Anyway, I did write in a 20% tip that time (the total was only $25.00, so basically a $5 tip). The next time I went to pick up pizza, they made a point of requesting that I NOT tip them. I'm not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with their accounting. I did ask if cash was preferable and they said it was not necessary. Just my personal experience for reference...
Great pizza place, by the way, if you live in Dallas and have had your heart broken by yet another bad chain pizza. Try it - Sam's Pizza off Danieldale and 67 in Duncanville. It may be a drive, but well worth it. Best Sicilian I have had since leaving Boston. The management and staff are incredible as well.
Pour it like you hate the owner
So true. I think some times restaurant managers forget that business is business. In my line of work (corporate desk job in retail marketing), if my boss treats me badly or with disrespect, I can always go over his head and complain to the VP or to the human resources department if necessary.
In a restaurant, if an owner or manager treats a staff member badly, who can they go to for support or to make it right? They have no recourse in a lot of situations.
I've no patience with people who do not respect their staff. Who do they think makes their business run and brings in their money?? I would have a hard time giving that man or woman any of my hard-earned cash by dining there a second time if I witnessed that sort of behavior.
weekend in strange kitchen - help?
I actually love having a limited kitchen when on vacation, because it gives me an excuse to make lots of delicious and fresh items using local ingredients that do not require a lot of cooking. All I would bring is one good cast iron or porcelain/caste iron plated fry pan that can be used on stove top or in an oven, a stir pot of the same, and a couple of microwave friendly containers. I am sure there is a place to buy food items locally, so I wouldn't bother to bring a lot of food with you, other than items that you have a hard time finding or that travel well (granola, dried fruits, pasta, etc.). I would assume you have some sort of cook top and a microwave in the condo, although perhaps not an oven, so although someone previously suggested casseroles, make sure that whatever you make or plan to make can be heated in a microwave, or on a stovetop. Once there, seek out all the lovely, fresh local produce, dairy and meats. Be inventive. The locals must eat, so you'll be able to make do as well. :-)
squid ink pasta
Hi! I don't know of anywhere you can pick it up locally, but you can order it online. http://www.alfonsogourmetpasta.com has a few different pastas, including a lobster and shrimp ravioli with squid ink dough. Sounds incredible. I might actually have to order some. I have also heard that you can order it at Dean and Deluca's web site, but their web site is really cranky and I can't get in right now. Since most of their products are well over-priced, I am assuming their squid ink pasta will be as well. The stuff at Alfonsogourmet will run you between $8.99 per lb. for fettucine and linguine to $12.99 per lb. for items like black squid ink and white egg dough striped bow tie pasta (very cute). You can also purchase Castellana Trece Nere at ethnicgrocer.com (one of my favorite online grocers) for under $8.00 for about lb.
Hope this helps.
Does the customer call the shots? You decide
As a diner, I completely agree with the sentiment that service makes or breaks my decision about returning to a restaurant. Yes, of course the food matters as well, but it is hard to enjoy the food when the service isn't up to par.
Example - there is a japanese restaurant here in Dallas that shall remain nameless in this forum. I will most likely never return there, not because the food was bad. In fact, the food was incredibly delicious. No the reason I will not return is of the bad service from the waitstaff (drink orders not brought to the table until after the appetizer arrived, main course arriving at the table mere minutes after the delivery of the appetizers, overcooked steak, no follow up after main course was delivered, etc.) and bad attitude from the waiter when he was asked questions about menu items when it was obvious that he felt he had better things to do than answer our stupid, American inquiries. To top it all off, when we were leaving, we discreetly searched out the owner of the restaurant, who was all smiles until we voiced our concerns. We voiced them not so that we could get a free meal, but so that the owner would know that there was a problem in his restaurant and that maybe, when we returned, the situation would have resolved itself. Instead of listening to our concerns, the owner was exceedingly defensive, argumentative, making excuses such as "this is a Japanese restaurant, dinner is not served the same way in Japan as in America". Besides the point of fact that I have visited many Japanese restaurants worldwide and have never been treated with anything but respect and warm reception, I was quite taken aback. Finally, this gentleman resorted to pretending that he could not understand what we were saying in English, even though his English was near perfect only moments before.
It's sad. I miss their fabulous teriyaki and unsurpassed spider rolls, but chances are, I most likely will not return. In this situation, it probably matters little to the owner of this restaurant that I will not be returning. I don't go out of my way to bad-mouth his establishment, so I am not lobbying a citywide boycott. But I have to assume I am not the only one who has run into this problem. I make this assumption based on the fact that every time I pass by, the parking lot is more and more empty on a Friday and Saturday night.
Service is just as important as the food that is served in my humble opinion.
That one English thing
Oohhh! I thought of one more thing I miss terribly. JAFFA CAKES!!!! Maybe those aren't strictly British, but they are quite hard to come by on this side of the pond.
