Pat

Or, stick with the green theme and go with pistachios.

That way you can avoid the bitterness that almonds can sometimes bring to the party.

I generally use walnuts if I don't have pine nuts, but I have a recipe that specifically uses pistachios and it's quite good.

Fisher & Paykel, most likely.

That sounds right.

A question for you die hard bakers (and cooks): just how useful do you find convection ovens to be?

When we moved into our current house 9 years ago, I re-calibrated a lot of recipes for convection oven. I then found that I really did not like the feature for some applications - specifically, cookies, cakes, and custards. Cakes, especially, seem to dry more on the edges before being done in the center. And even in a bain marie custards would curdle on top (never a problem when done in conventional oven).

On the other hand, I love it for roasting and braising.

What are your experiences?

I use the convection feature mostly for roasting. I think it's very good for that.

In terms of baking, I've only made bread with the convection feature of my oven, which I got late last year, and I've liked the way that came out. It's tricky getting the timing down, though. A friend we visited yesterday baked a loaf of basic white bread in her convection oven and it came out perfectly. I took note of her timing, and I'm going to try that one. I would think cookies and cakes would be hard to get right, so I haven't tried them. I guess I lack adventurousness

We spent most of 2005 renovating our kitchen. One feature we got that, at the time I figured was going to end up being a waste of money but has been a really useful thing to have, is heat lamps and warming racks. That affected the range hood we had to get, so we ended up with a Wolf range and a Viking hood. We got a dual fuel range, which I really like. And it has convection, which has proved quite helpful when I run out of time.

Another thing I love that's very simple is the ice (including crushed ice!) and water on the outside door of the refrigerator. We got a Kitchen Aid superba, which was largest interior side-by-side we could find for the space we had. I loved the huge ancient harvest gold Kenmore we had (they'll never made standard refrigerators like that again, I fear), but it was on its last legs. To compensate for less refrigerator/freezer space, we have a basic one in the basement, which we had to have anyway so we had refrigerator space during the renovation.

We have lots of counter space and cabinets up to the ceiling for cold storage of appliances we use once a year. The microwave is in an open cabinet space. We spent money getting cabinets that are an architectural component rather than just for storage. I wavered on that, but I love them. The cabinets and floor are both maple. We also have a fairly large pantry. Since I'm very short, even with cabinets at a reasonable height, I frequently have trouble reaching things in cabinets. The pantry puts things I need right where I can get them. We got an appliance garage built in but it's not really deep enough or tall enough for what I need to put in there. That was one of the misfires.

Alos, there's under cabinet lighting, which is great, but it makes the bottom shelves of the lower cabinets hot enough to melt chocolate . We opened things up more (we also expanded onto a small porch) and now have a lot more natural light. We have a northern exposure, and it can be pretty dark.

There are lots of electrical outlets now and a hookup for a laptop. It's wonderful to be able to pull up recipes from the computer while I'm cooking. There are also bookshelves for immediate cookbook consultation. The corner of the kitchen counter has become my de facto home office. We spent a lot of money on this room and it's now the nicest, classiest-looking room in the house, so what better place to work?

We got a double sink, one bigger and one smaller. The smaller one has the garbage disposal in it. The lower cabinet next to the sink has a built in insert for trash and recycling, which is really handy and keeps stuff out of the way.

Friends of ours in Baltimore just redid their kitchen. They added an island, which is very useful and I would love to have, but we have a Capitol Hill townhouse galley kitchen. They have a couple of other things that are pretty cool, including a built in grooved metal drainboard that drains down into the sink, and stacked dishwashers, so there are two deep ones that sit on top of each other. (I forget the company. It's in New Zealand.) They positioned them so they are opposite the cabinets/drawers in which plates, cutlery, etc., are stored. They don't even have to move in order to put the clean dishes away from the dishwasher. They also got a pot filler attachment for over the stove, so you can pour the water into the pot right there on the stove. It's a heavy piece of hardware, and they're having trouble with it leaking. That may be one of their misfires, but the concept is pretty cool, though.

One other thing I just thought of is that we got a fairly dark granite countertop because we thought it was really beautiful and looked good with the cabinets. I agonized over whether it would darken the room too much. Visiting our friends who got a very beautiful but light color granite countertop and immediately stained it with oil, I realized that dark was a smart move. We try to be careful and keep it cleaned up, but I'm sure there are stains on it that just aren't very visible because of the color.

---

Drainboards (TSE)

Stacked Dishwashers (Heather)

This morning's noodling-around-in-the-kitchen, using-up-scraps-of-leftovers flavor: buttermilk banana. One overly ripe banana mushed and mixed with an egg, about 1/3 c sugar, about 3/4 c heavy cream, and about 1/3 c whole milk cultured buttermilk. The result was good but not distictly buttermilky enough. Will try again next time I have overly ripe bananas. I'm wondering if I use enough buttermilk to get the flavor, will the butterfat content be too low? Can I dose it with something like Devon double cream to compensate?

I forgot to mention that I tried making this, adding sour cream. I also used Joe's caramel from the first recipe in this thread. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that the caramel recipe should be scaled for a small batch recipe of ice cream base, and I made a full recipe. (It was heavenly. I hope you don't mind my appropriating it for a different recipe, Joe ). Since I had a full recipe, I used it, but you can imagine what all of the butterfat of the combined ingredients did to the consistency of this. I took the butterfat issue here to the other extreme. It tastes wonderful, with almost a custardy consistency. It's very rich (!) and smooth and sweet.

Because I altered too many variables, I'm not sure if the sour cream did what you wanted in bringing out the buttermilk flavor. I used 1/3 of a cup of regular dairy sour cream. I'm wondering how 1/4 c. each of buttermilk and sour cream would be (and omitting the caramel, wonderful as it is), for what you were trying to do originally.

The banana buttermilk caramel ice cream went especially well with a warm blackberry peach cobbler I made the other day, which is what prompted my memory and sent me back to post this.

We had a satisfying dinner at Vidalia last night for my birthday. It was our only Restaurant Week outing this time around after having kind of overdone it in January. For both of those reasons we ran up a bill quite a bit higher than $30.06 x 2

The highlights of the meal for me were the appetizer, dessert, and extra side dish we ordered to share (macaroni with goat cheese and truffle). The pork and beans starter was a knockout. I really loved it. My husband wasn't quite as keen on his cherry tomato and goat cheese appetizer, but he ate it all nevertheless .

For main courses, I had the cornmeal breaded catfish with dirty rice, oysters, and andouille, and my husband had the trout. I enjoyed the catfish dish as a whole, especially the dirty rice. The catfish itself was tasty but seemed a bit dry to me. I had a little leftover, which will find its way into fish tacos tonight. My husband was quite satisfied with the trout. He can be particular about fish preparation and doesn't order it very often, but he was pleased with this.

The pecan tart with chocolate sauce and ice cream I had for dessert was a perfect end to the meal. It was sweet and rich and just right. I forgot what my husband ordered (I didn't get a chance to try any before it disappeared), but I think it was the chocolate peanut butter torte.

The service overall was attentive and good, but we were brought bread plates quite a while before anyone materialized with bread, which wouldn't have been a problem except that I was really hungry. I kept staring longingly at the bread plate. The bread was well worth the wait once it arrived, though.

I thought the wait staff was fine, not perfect, but certainly not bad enough to put a sour note on my meal. Also, I experienced none of this water draught he mentioned.

Your experience mirrors the one I had there earlier in the summer, though RW is a different matter. At the time, I wondered why this place seemed to have fallen off the radar. Reading the comments here, especially such radically different experiences on the same night, seems to indicate that inconsistency may be a big problem for them. (OK, maybe I'm stating the obvious here )

I also deduced from the bonus points Open Table was offering to dine there at prime times that they weren't getting much business. I don't know if that's the case or not, but if they've not been getting a high volume of business and then got slammed for Restaurant Week, that can't be a good combination.

Vidalia is open on Sundays.

Not sure what they're doing this year, but Vidalia was one of the best meals/experiences I've had during RW in the past. I would HIGHLY recommend them.

That's good to know. I've never been there for RW. We hadn't been there in a while and I wanted to go for my birthday. I had trouble getting anything through OpenTable, so called and was able to get a table at a good time Then I realized that my birthday is the last day of RW, so things made a little more sense. I guess I've already said something about this in the thread already . I'm looking forward to going, RW or not.

I would go with pouring the soups into measuring cups with spouts and then pouring them simultaneously. While I haven't done this with soup, I have done this with a dessert which required poachng pear halves in two wines (one white, one red) and then making sauces from each. The two sauces were poured on a plate and then topped with opposite colored pear halves. Looked damned impressive and tasted pretty good, too.

That sounds like it would be a beautiful winter holiday dessert. I'm not a huge fan of pears and was surprisingly pleased with the results when I made a pears poached in red wine for a holiday dessert one year.

I agree with the pour simultaneously technique, but I would caution that both soups need to be of similar viscosity to achieve the desired effect.

They're pretty similar, but the avocado soup is slightly thicker. That might be why, when I was experimenting with which should be put in first, the avocado held in its space a bit better; the cantaloupe soup spread itself out across the bowl just a tad faster. I'll keep that in mind and maybe incorporate a tiny lag in the simultaneous pouring.

I just put the soups in two coffee cups and pour them simutaneously.

Thanks. I've got some leftover soups and will try it this way tonight. I'm kind of clumsy, but we'll see how it goes

I know I have read directions for pouring two soups in one bowl so they appear side-by-side. Last night, as I went to assemble a lovely duet of chilled soups (cantaloupe and avocado), I realized that I had no idea where I saved the information on this technique or what I had called it. I had to fake it and it worked pretty well, a lovely pastel peach alongside a soft green in the bowl(s). I did it by tipping the bowl and pouring a soup into one side, then slightly evening the bowl out and pouring the other soup in the other side. I tried one using the cantaloupe first and one using the avocado first, and the latter order worked better. The flavors of the two soups complemented each other nicely. I'm definitely doing this again (and I'd like to know what I'm doing next time )

Is this how it is done, or are they both supposed to be poured in simultaneously? (If so, is there a trick to it, or is learning by doing?)

For the soups in question I seeded and chopped about 3/4 of a very large cantaloupe, then pureed in the food processor with 1 cup plain lowfat yogurt, 1 cup lowfat sour cream, and about 1 tablespoon of honey. (A medium cantaloupe would be about the right size.)

The avocado soup was this one(sans garnish)

Here's another perspective: If I wrote about every poorly executed dish I was served, I wouldn't be doing much else. I remember about a year ago, I was sitting at Pesce talking with Régine Palladin, and was raving about how good my fish dish was. She just shrugged her shoulders, and said very matter of factly, "Sometimes we overcook it." Misfires happen every night at every restaurant. I'm not saying not to mention a soggy order of french fries, but let's not make a federal case out it either.

Cheers,

Rocks.

When you think about how many dishes they prepare, it's amazing how often most restaurants get it right.

I wouldn't generally make a big deal about one individual dish, but I probably would mention it within the context of a more general comment about a whole meal. It does become problematic if there are a lot of things wrong with a meal at a restaurant. In that case, it can be prickly to say something on the spot because when it's a lot of things, you don't know what to say. Where do you start? You just sound like a complainer. There's only one restaurant (on egullet) that I really shredded and said I wouldn't go back to. Most places I would give more than one chance, unless it's a place I have to go out of my way to get to or that is extremely expensive.

It's really quite a judgment call to know when to say something about things not being quite right. I tend to be very adaptable and don't say something/send food back unless it's really a problem (e.g., the seafood tasted off). I get fidgety when I'm out with people who complain a lot and make frequent special "requests." While I like meat rare, I also like crusty meat well-cooked . In the case of ordering a steak medium rare that came out well, I would probably mention to a server or manager that I liked the meat even though it wasn't served the way I ordered it.

I'm now remembering that while the dish I mention above was called Linguine Vongole, I beleve the description included cockles. I'm not too expert on my shellfish, and I don't write things down

My husband and I finally got to Komi last night. I wish we hadn't waited so long so get there!

I loved everything about the meal. We opted for a la carte instead of the tasting menu. The space is gorgeous. The service was helpful, knowledgable, and quite pleasant. It was a very comfortable experience, just right. The food was every bit as wonderful as everyone has said, from the amuse of warm dates stuffed with mascarpone and rolled in salt to the lollipops that came with the check.

I finally got to try the watermelon, feta, and arugula salad that I have been trying to imitate at home ever since Nadya described it last year. My prose skills are not adequate to replay the meal in the most vivid fashion, but that salad brings several different types of flavors together beautifully. When I make a version of this myself, I use baby arugula, but having the full peppery flavor of mature arugula enhances the contrast of the flavors even further. And the dressing is subtle. I can keep trying, but I'm not going to be able to duplicate this. I'll have to keep going back to Komi

When I saw the spaghetti with heirloom tomatoes as a first course, I knew I had to order it. In my childhood, the one restaurant we went to the most was an Italian place where we would get spaghetti, probably once a week. As I got older, I realized that it wasn't such a great restaurant, food-wise, but certain flavors and dishes I associate with it have stuck with me as restaurant comfort food. It's one of those primal, hard-to-explain things. I had to order the spaghetti at Komi, and it was just what I needed after a very stressful day. It was not the same dish from my childhood by a long shot, except in its essential spaghetti and tomatoness, but it was satisfying on many different levels.

I could have stopped there and probably should have, but I wanted to order the lamb and moussaka with the same urgency as I had for the spaghetti. I suppose I was envisoning lamb in moussaka, but instead I got four gorgeous, medium-rare lamb chops on top of a square of moussaka . The composition of the plate added to the depth of the flavors in some way. Maybe it was the surprise element (well, a surprise to me based on my assumptions). It was delicious, and I kept taking additional bites even after I was too full to eat another speck of food. It will make a lovely second meal tonight, along with the small amount of white tuna my husband couldn't finish from his meal.

My husband also had ordered the mezze (I swiped a cheese croquette/fritter from his plate) that he loved and linguine with clams, another perfect execution of a basic dish from the macaronia section of the menu. I got a few clams out of that

Despite our protestations that we were full, our server brought us small ice cream balls inside of chocolate wafers. She said they were "light." We ate them, so I guess she was right.

option 2.5: remove offending entree, have the kitchen produce a small salad so that neither party is forced to eat by themselves. canabalize another table's order (more than one table ordered the "blank") and let the kitchen catch-up. minimal impact to the guest, minimal additional cost to the restaurant.

This is what the folks at Firefly did when we had this happen a year or so ago. (I don't know if they cannibalized another table's order, though.) It was handled very smoothly, and they also brought us a complimentary dessert.

I had dinner at the bar at Sonoma last night. Despite the heat, I was really hungry. I hadn't eaten all day. I think a corollary to the "don't go to the supermarket when you're hungry" applies to going to Sonoma when hungry. I ordered way too much food. And, probably because of the heat, actually eating a lot wasn't such an appealing idea.

To start, I got a glass of prosecco. Later, I switched to Moretti beer. To eat, I got two cheeses and the charcuterie plate with 3 meats. I got a Crater Lake blue cheese that I loved and a delicious French hard cheese I don't remember the name of (it started with an F); speck; Amish chicken pate, and duck salami. The accompaniments this was served with really blew me away. I'd only had the truffled peaches before (which I adore). I got to try the wine-soaked dried figs, pickled scallions, and spiced nuts, in addition to the truffled peaches. It was too much to eat, so I brought it home and had the rest of it for breakfast this morning . We need a pig emoticon.

I had also ordered squash blossom and goat cheese ravioli, based on people's rave reviews here, but I was so full partway through the meats and cheeses that I asked Mick if he could cancel the order. I told him I'd be happy to take it home if it was too late to stop it from being prepared . I hate being a nuisance like that, but he insisted that it was no problem, that order hadn't been fired yet. Still, I felt like a glutton <oink>.

I need to go back and order the ravioli while it's still on the menu

A friend and I had a relaxing meal at Belga last night. We split an excellent chilled pea soup with smoked salmon and roe, perfect for the weather, and I had the red and yellow beet salad special with goat cheese. Both dishes were beautifully presented. We each got the Mussels Mariniere and fries. I was totally stuffed by this point, but she also got the flourless chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, presented with berries at each corner of the plate and swirls of (strawberry?) fruit sauce. The emptied plate looked like an abstract painting, with the remnants of all of the different colors. It's one thing to have good presentation at the beginning, but for the empty plate to be a work of art is something else

I've always enjoyed my meals at Belga but they seem to be getting ever so slightly incrementally better over time. The service has also been especially good on recent visits.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to which restaurants do party platters, those ubiquitous plates of meat, cheese, veggies or specialty items? A lot of the chain restaurants (Chili's, ChickenOut, Maggianos, etc.) have party platters and catering, as do delis (Booeymonger). Of course, grocery stores are also a good way to go for the basics (I recommend Whole Foods). I'm specifically looking for local or smaller chain restaurants that do party platters or catering for small groups. I've come up so far with Cafe Ole on Wisconsin Ave (mezze). Anywhere else?

Thanks!

I've seen World Cafe on Barracks Row advertise that they do catering. The web site isn't too impressive, but the food I've had there has been fairly good.

Can anybody do anything with that old Woodies space downtown? I used to love that building. It's gorgeous. So far as I know, all that's in it is that H&M, which takes up a fairly small corner of the building.

I expect that sometime in the near future there will be a reality show on TV featuring customer reactions to insane prices-- $9 for a freakin grilled cheese?!?!?

I guess I have the same kind of sentimental attachment to the place that Kanishka does

I had a really weird moment at Corduroy the other night, realizing that their appetizers (or many of them) were cheaper than Tunnicliff's. The entrees were roughly in the same price range. Looking at it that way was quite eye-opening.

The owners have recently installed video cameras throughout the place. Am I somehow odd that I find this creepy? I presume it's at least in part to monitor employees, but as someone who is completely phobic of cameras (I know there's a term for that), I already hate that there are places I absolutely must deal with this (such as the bank), without adding neighborhood watering holes to the mix. Last night I had trouble eating the food I ordered because I felt really self-conscious that there was a camera pointed down at me.

I gather that the owners will be off-site more because Stoney's is reopening and they probably want to monitor things remotely. Then I began to wonder: are there going to be cameras at the new Stoney's?

Is this some kind of new trend that I've been oblivious to? Maybe I've been video monitored in other restaurant/bars and missed it.

Go ahead and tell me I'm paranoid, then maybe I won't feel so bad going back there

Or I could describe the excellent service, or talk about Rissa's amazing hospitality, and the way she makes you feel like she's welcoming you to her home, not her restaurant. Oh, and that ham!

Oh, yes and yes and yes and yes. I had a wonderful celebratory dinner with friends there last night (the special dessert when they discovered it was a celebration was thoughtful and appreciated). My friends could not stop raving about the food and service. They will most certainly be repeat customers. They had previously not known the restaurant existed.

And when my strictly meat and potatoes friend ordered his beef tenderloin well done, I was the only one to screech and insist he couldn't order it that way. He loved it, well-done and all, but the professionalism in no one's blinking an eye (at least in our presence ) was quite impressive.

I just love this place.

The space occupied by Park Cafe on the east side of Lincoln Park would be a great spot for a restaurant.

It would be a great spot for a homestyle/deli/diner sort of place: coffee and bagels and omelettes in the morning; sandwiches at lunch time; fried chicken or meatloaf and mashed potatoes at night. Or maybe it could just be, you know, a cafe!

It's not like I've really spent a whole lot of time thinking about it (I lie )