TheMatt

For some reason, my brain seems to think that the aerosol whipped cream from Trader Joe's (their label) wasn't too bad. If I buy the canned, I try to buy the one with the least artificial bits in the ingredients list, and I want to say TJ's was like that. I suppose the ultimate is liquid cream in a nitrous charger, but if not, try to aim for close to this canned whipped cream which has, as ingredients: I think that might be as good as you can get. There always seems to be carrageenan (for stability/viscosity, I think) and sorbitan as a emulsifier.

I've been eyeing the My Weigh KD8000 which has baker's percentages. But, I've never known anyone with a My Weigh, so I'm not sure of their quality. Might bite the bullet soon...

I use the 3M Filtrete system at work and at home. I like their Fast Flow Filter design as it allows me to fill my pitcher at work at "faucet speed". That is, turn the faucet on at a reasonable flow and the water is filtered as fast as it flows. Nice! It can do this because the filter is big. It's about 6, 7" wide and not very thick so it can filter a lot of water quickly. (I will note that their slimmer, 8-Cup style filter doesn't quite reach this speed as it doesn't have a large surface area like the big filter. Still, it's faster than my old Pur.) They have this interesting water station as well as pitchers, if you'd like that. (Oh, and if you do do 3M, you sometimes need to soak their filters for a while to get rid of stray loose carbon. If you don't, it won't filter as fast as you'd like because it's still a bit clogged.)

Assorted sweets from Shiney's in Annandale. I think I'm nibbling on burfi, jelebi (but that tight-coiled one) and...some sort of cham cham?

In case there isn't a topic here for it, I thought I throw a few words to Gaboja in Annandale. This is a little place, maybe ten tables, in the little strip mall on Columbia Pike right next to the more visible/easier to find Cafe Tu Ah. The main reason I want to exhort it is they have lunch specials of amazing values. The one I usually get is their hwedupbap: Hwedupbap!!! by Fortran, on Flickr Now maybe this isn't the greatest hwedupbap in the area, but you get that big bowl, banchan, some miso soup and a yummy souffle-y egg dish (I want to say gye ran jjim, but I might be wrong) all for a whopping $4.99 Yep. Frankly it's the best lunch deal around. They have other specials as well: sushi and udon for $5.99, and a rather fearsome looking spicy blue crab soup (kkotgaetang?) for, I think, $4.99 as well. Beyond the lunch specials is a whole menu (kinda see part of it above...though that might be an older menu). Much of it is just pure Korean so I don't have much of an idea what they are, though I think many are combination dinners (prices in the hundreds of dollars...I'm very curious to learn what those are). --- ETA: Okay. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the formatting is all wacky above. I try and make that "Now...as well" paragraph all one paragraph, but when I save it just goes nuts. Can an admin give me a hand? --- Here you go!

Quoth Grandpa Simpson: "A little from Column A, a little from Column B." Though, even in beta-class Chrome, that site has issues!

One person, one vote? Bah! One IP, one vote!

My favorite dish at Sichuan Pavilion is a beef dish: the braised beef with rice cake. But, it's been a while since I've been there, so maybe it's no longer offered.

Well, for beer along I-70 on your way to Vail, in my day the default was Applejack. Applejack has a pretty big selection of beer and probably has something you'd like. In fact, I remember tour buses and skiers stopping off there every time I was in that strip mall. As for food, hmm. I always remembered stopping off at the original Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs on the way to the mountains, but that's probably a bit too west for you. For an interesting Mexican experience, there is El Paraiso just off I-70 on Harlan. They always had an interesting menu: parrilladas, rabbit, liver, goat, lots of seafood. It's not like the great taquerias in Denver, but you can't beat it for breadth of menu!

So, after hearing about Michel's tribute menu to Palladin I had a question to those who have been here: would it be worth it? Not a cheap menu. (And, I suppose, I wondered what the dress code is, but that seems to be answered above. See if I can overcome my credo to never wear a tie unless absolutely necessary!)

Fernbrake, perhaps?

Yeah, I'm thinking semi-nude equals bunless. Brunch might refer to the egg on top? Or maybe it's like a value meal? Either way, the "original brunch" seems to have two fried eggs sandwiching ham (looking at the picture). Seems sort of a like a brunch dish...

Whimper. That looks so good.

I'm a big fan of the paste in ice cream recipes. I had a recipe that called for a lot of vanilla extract and it always performed better with the paste. The chemist in me now wonders if the gum in the paste was responsible, or the lack of alcohol from the extract. Plus, well, black specks!

I've bought bulk vanilla from eBay before through, I think, Vanilla Products USA (their pages look familiar). They sell various grades of beans, some called "extract grade" which are the lower grade beans. I'm not sure if those would be good enough for vanilla sugar or not. Hmm. I do need beans, maybe I should buy some...

Also Roots Market seems to have holiday catering, so perhaps they do non-holiday as well? But they are in MD and not that-close-to-DC MD. Hmm.

I know that Balducci's has sandwich platters. You can custom select what you get and they have up to 4 vegetarian options (depending on level of vegetarian (eggs, cheese, etc.)). I imagine Dean and Deluca do as well, though for even more money. On the less "kill your wallet" side, Wegmans does too I imagine.

I just found this blog about Red Boat Fish Sauce. I've never heard of it, but I'll have to add it to my list that I'm gathering from this thread. The sauce makers have a website as well.

I've always liked the Flying Lion brand. I think fish sauce is one of those "you like your brand" things.

I head here every so often for pho and happened by Friday night to help try to stave off a cold I felt coming on. Had my usual bowl of pho ga and some vinegared onions. All quite good, though the cold still appeared. But, the interesting thing is they have a rather giant menu now, announced by a banner on the outside. (This might have been true for a time now, been a bit since I've been here.) In fact, the pho is all at the end of the menu while before it are pages and pages of the standard non-pho Vietnamese fare. It may not be as long as Four Sisters' menu, but it's pretty extensive. Had I not been in need of pho, I might have explored the menu more. Has anyone been here and tried the new menu items? Any recommendations? Or should I avoid it all?

Eeee. The chemist in me must say to be careful equating sugar alcohols like mannitol and sorbitol to disaccharides like sucrose. They are all sweeteners, yes, but if you eat a lot of mannitol, you'll have a much different reaction than when you eat a lot of sucrose (i.e., be near a bathroom).

Sorry I had to leave early, but just wanted to say I am stuffed to the gills. The grilled veggies, the pork, the dueling noodles, the salads, the desserts...oh so good. When my brain isn't in a food coma, I'll come back and talk details. And, of course, a big round of thanks to goldenticket for organizing this!

Well, I tried a piece of my gluten-free snickerdoodle blondies and it seemed good to me. Hope they stay that way tomorrow! I made as many as I could with the flour I bought...that stuff be pricey! (Then again, I did get it at Whole Foods, so it's sort of required.) I might also bring some baklava like I usually do because, well, I never buy it for myself!

We need someone to bring a venn piagram! I'm actually considering doing one of those for Thanksgiving now...