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johnb

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  1. johnb
    Zora -- Thanks for the compliment and the ideas, but as usual I wasn't being clear. The other half of said turkey is still in the fridge, raw, so what I'm actually pondering is how to cook it. Compounding my dilemma is that I will be a bachelor for the next 10 days or so. I have some tasty left-over stock from a batch of green beans, so that might figure into the solution, as it were. Between that and the surfeit of tomatoes in the house there could be some sort of turkey/tomato stew in my near-term future.
  2. johnb
    It's often used as an ingredient in ceviche. Another possibility is as an ingredient in deviled eggs, if that floats your boat.
  3. johnb
    Dinner party Friday eve: Eggplant, fried ripe tomato and portobello mushroom casserole (left over from previous day -- served as app) Turkey under a brick* Turkey broth gravy made with bones and trimmings Okra, rough sliced and sauteed naked in butter Tomato salad with blue cheese Corn on the cob Mashed sweet potatoes Blueberry crumble Two rounds of Bloody Caesars (Canada's national cocktail, made with Clamato juice); Castelvetrano olives from Costco Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillau '89 Chestnut Farms Straight Bourbon *turkey half, partially deboned, marinated overnight in olive oil, lemon juice, granulated garlic, smoked paprika, and other stuff I've forgotten, then iron skillet sauteed in olive oil and clarified butter until brown/black on both sides, weighted with another skillet and a brick, and convection roasted for about an hour. Crisp and juicy. Now I have to figure out what to do with the other half of the turkey.
  4. johnb
    Aren't the terms "hoagie" and "sub" interchangeable, i.e. regional variations describing the same thing, along with "grinder", "hero", "po' boy", and many others? Click Click Click Also pop, soda, soft drink. Tennis shoes and sneakers. I do think that beef on weck is distinguished from other roast beef sandwiches by the bread, so it's not just basically a roast beef sandwich; it's a specific sub-set (as it were). Another example of a specific sub-set would be the Chicago-style Italian beef. Speaking of roast beef sandwiches, I distinctly remember a vacation my family took, traveling around the South by car in the mid-fifties when I was 11 years old. Somewhere along the way I ordered a hot roast beef sandwich, which in those days in most of the South meant an open face sandwich of well done (brown and dry) roast beef sliced and served on a piece of white bread covered with gravy and probably mashed potatoes on the side. I decided I liked that and it became my go-to order every night for dinner. Then we got to Miami, and I ordered my usual. When they brought it I was horrified to discover it was something with meat that was still RED in the middle, on some type of strange rye bread WITH SEEDS, and NO GRAVY. From that point on my memory of the incident is hazy, but I don't think I ate it, and it put me off "roast beef sandwiches" for the rest of the trip.
  5. johnb
    Good link. The article pretty well encapsulates how Tchelistcheff more than any other single person created the Napa fine wine industry, and how Parker-with-the-uneducated-palate then came along and, followed by his legions of sycophantic fools mesmerized by his numbers, set it back immeasurably. One can only hope the ship is now truly turning. Oddly, I just opened an '85 GLPR a couple of days ago; first one for a long while. Pretty good stuff, and according to the graph made while BV was still making wines with balanced alcohol, even though André himself was gone by then -- the real damage (to BV and the whole industry) came a bit later, after Parker's power over winemaking really kicked in.
  6. johnb
    Well, maybe I mis-spoke when I said bulk bins. It's a word I tend to use generically when talking about buying things where you scoop what you want and weigh it. Usually at most places I have gone herbs and spices are in big glass jars with lids. Has to be at least as good as those plastic bags one usually sees at ethnic places. I suppose one could ask the folks at the store how often the supply is replenished. Or trust one's nose.
  7. johnb
    Third. Those little jars are nice to keep herbs and spices in that you buy from the bulk bin or wherever and bring home in little plastic bags. Airtight and easy to store on your shelves. I've never has the opportunity to shop in a Penzeys; they showed up in the DC area about the time I left. But my impression is their stuff is wildly more expensive than I (cheapskate thrifty person that I am) would ever be able to justify to myself spending. I used to go to organic stores and get spices from the bulk bins. It was great since you could buy only a small amount, then go back for fresh stuff sooner. Now I do my shopping for such things in Atlanta, where there is a place called Your Dekalb Farmers Market, which sells a huge selection of good quality herbs and spices that they pack themselves in half pint and pint plastic containers at prices that are unbelievable. I recently replaced most of my collection. For example, ground allspice for 40¢ an ounce; Spanish sweet paprika for 35¢ an oz.
  8. johnb
    Bone-in pork sirloin braised in milk (Marcella Hazan recipe) Long and slow cooked green beans (pole beans) Garlic mashed red skin potatoes '83 Côe-Rotie Côes Brune & Blonde Domaine J. Vidal-Fleury
  9. johnb
    I think it's important to divide Yelp and Urbanspoon, and perhaps others, into their two separate parts. There is the review function, and the search function. Best not to conflate them. I think most of us agree the reviews found on these sites need to be taken, at a minimum, with a large grain of salt. But this does not take anything away from their usefulness as a search mechanism when one is away from home. When one is in a place with which he is not familiar, and wants to find a decent place to eat, the search function makes these sites (or in this case apps) very useful. Illaine is right. Even in small towns in the middle of nowhere, one can generally very quickly learn what restaurants exist locally, and by doing some quick "reading between the lines" one can likely narrow down the options to find something that is good if such exists at all, including a map, directions, hours of operations, etc. Want to call the place? Just tap the phone number. How to get there? Tap. Can't beat it. My favorite personal example occurred a few years ago (I believe I related this tale upthread). I was in Coral Gables Florida, had finished my meeting and was hungry, but had to get on the road. Had never been there before. I was stopped at a stoplight. I got out my phone, brought up the Yelp app, tapped "nearby", and got a list including what turned out to be the best dim sum place in South Florida. Another tap and I had directions (it was within several hundred yards). All of this in the time I waited for the red light. Had an excellent lunch. Much as I love and trust DR.com, and even Chowhound in a pinch, there's just no way you could do that on those sites.
  10. johnb
    The story, and particularly the New Yorker story that it links in turn, once again make a valid point (that I no doubt have become boring through repeating so often, as in "here comes that party-pooper johnb again"). The differences we find in wine often, maybe always, are based more on our pre-existing expectations of what the wine will taste like than on the objective qualities of the liquid itself that we taste. This manner in which we fool ourselves is not limited to wine, of course -- it's also true of foods as diverse as e.g. eggs (the depth of color of the yolk has no effect on taste), organic foods in general (taste the same as non-organic counterparts otherwise raised similarly), beer (need I say more) and a myriad of others. Nor is it limited to foods. This is how our brains work. Our judgement of things is ruled not by what they are, but what we thought they were going to be.
  11. johnb
    Recent information on the subject of tablets: http://nrn.com/technology/survey-younger-diners-embrace-tabletop-ordering Basically, old folks don't like them at all while far more young folks do. No surprise there.
  12. johnb
    Trite dishes have now become the subject of scientific analysis. click.
  13. johnb
    Life is hard, but we all have to muddle through somehow. See comment above. I use a hammer myself. On those occasions I have toured cellars of wineries, my recollection is that they always store the bottles without labels and capsules. For just that reason I imagine. The winery version of "bright stacking" as practiced in the cannery industry, although there it is mostly because they can't label them until they have a buyer who provides the labels, such as for store brands. Come to think of it, I'm sure that happens sometimes in the wine business too, though one would hope it's limited to the lower echelons.
  14. johnb
    If that part about them holding up better is true then that would be great to hear. I have seen suggestions that it is the case with respect to ports, with their higher alcohol, but less so for table wine. Do you have a link? The part about market value in my view is consistent with what it really is that drives the craziness of the market for these super-reputation wines. This is rich guys who are collecting them for the label, not for the contents, because they probably could never tell which is which based on a tasting if their lives depended on it, and of course have no intention of ever opening them anyway, except as an occasional proof of their manliness and superiority. Veblen was right!
  15. johnb
    Most old corks like those come out in crumbs and are unreadable. Sadly, I have a lot of experience with crumbling old corks. Even with wines that have been stored correctly, in my experience corks more than 25-30 years old usually come out in many many pieces. That said, to the best of my recollection I never confirmed that anything was amiss with those bottles. Sometimes you can strip off the foil and read the cork through the glass, but often not. Anyway, I think its pretty easy to forge the printing on a cork just like a label, although presumably it would be a new cork and I'm not sure how you can simulate the deterioration of a typical old cork. If it were to come out in one nice piece with a loud pop, that might be cause for concern . I have heard that Lafite used to send teams around, including to the US, who would re-cork any bottle of Lafite more than 30 years old for a small charge. Unfortunately I never moved in such circles that I could have experienced the service close up.
  16. johnb
    Phoney wine is certainly nothing new. I may have been bitten by the fraud bug myself, but hopefully not. Back in the '70's I lived for a while in Geneva, and Christie's had wine auctions there regularly, it being a place where there was lots of money to be tapped. I even remember Michael Broadbent himself, their wine guy and a noted wine book author of the period, flitting about the room with a wine glass in hand chatting up the potential bidders. At one of those auctions there was a substantial quantity of high level "older" Bordeaux being sold. I noticed that the labels all appeared quite new and clean, but most importantly the bottles had very shallow punts (that indentation on the bottom) which I had never seen on older wines -- as far as I knew/know, that type of bottle had been introduced in Bordeaux fairly recently, and at that mostly for lesser wines. Oh well. But is did give me pause as to the authenticity of wines being sold by such a "reputable" auction house. Anyway, on one of those occasions, I bought a lot of six bottles of '29 Ch. Pichon Baron, a 2nd growth Pauillac. I drank most of it long ago, and have not much memory of it though I don't recall being blown away. At least the bottles appeared authentic. I still have one bottle. Maybe I'll wait until 2029, if I last that long myself, though the wine isn't likely to.
  17. johnb
    Well, that gives one some insight into how the Koch brothers have gotten away with essentially destroying the governance of our country. Note, however, that the main bastards are Charles and David, and they are the two who are typically referred to as the "Koch brothers." Bill, the other brother, is no saint, but at least his financial support of extreme right wing groups has been reasonably muted. He also is obviously wine-challenged, but doesn't appreciate being made the fool, and has plenty of money to redeem himself, at least in his own eyes. Hell hath no fury as a woman, or very rich man, scorned. Maybe we should be thankful he spent his money on fraudulent wines and not buying elections wholesale like his brothers. BTW, the "something" he did to get his money was, like his brothers, to inherit it. The old-fashioned and certainly the preferable way to get rich.
  18. johnb
    I haven't sailed RCL, but have sailed Celebrity which is owned by them. RCL's ships run a range of ratings. You want to sail from Baltimore so Grandeur is your ship. It is an older ship and doesn't have the highest star ratings (4) in the RCL fleet, but it gets generally positive reviews from passengers, including for the food. It was refurbished in 2012. Given Baltimore's ease of access from the DC area it's no doubt a good choice. I'd say go for it and enjoy yourselves. You should have some snorkeling opportunities; if you're into awesome airplane sights, while in St. Maarten you might arrange to spend some time out at the "airplane beach" where you can practically reach up and touch the arriving flights (but check schedules to be sure first). As you said, you can go fancier in the future.
  19. johnb
    ??? All the really good Italian restaurants (well, back in the day anyway), have/had mob connections. Enjoy.
  20. johnb
    If it does turn out to be that simple, one would think the restaurants would be all for it too. Surely the increase in table turn would more than pay for the equipment in very short order (no pun intended), aside from any of the other advantages of introducing tablets.
  21. johnb
    Thai soy sauce too. I guess most any soy sauce made in the south where wheat is rare and rice is common. I believe it's generically referred to as "white" soy sauce. But it's hard to find, and IMO doesn't pack as much punch. I'm 20 years clear. My oncologist said at the time that very likely it wouldn't ever come back. I used to return for annual checkups, mostly because I enjoyed joking around with him, but he finally said stop coming already. Hope your guy has a similar experience.
  22. johnb
    Yes I do recall it was you who posted that, and I'm grateful for the information. The case of soy sauce is interesting, since it generally contains both wheat and soy, and each of those has its cohort of avoiders. In the case of strictly celiac, the soy isn't an issue AFAIK, but of course the wheat does raise concern. Oddly, I'm the one in our household who has has lymphoma, not her. I totally agree with you about the restaurant problem, which is also what triggered this thread. When one has celiac and actually MUST avoid gluten, it is sometimes difficult and a little embarrassing dealing with the skepticism of restaurant folks who have experience dealing with (forgive me) air heads coming in and making a show of insisting on no gluten, not having much idea about what that means or why it might actually matter but simply following the latest fad.
  23. johnb
    You're correct. Nevertheless, I have seen commentary that distilled spirits made with wheat should/must be avoided. The "theory" being, I suppose, that some aspect of whatever causes the reaction does get through. And yes, the placebo effect lives and is strong. I have more than once been excoriated on these pages, including by the founder, for pointing that out; some things just ain't worth it no mo.
  24. johnb
    It is indeed very complex. Janet is a diagnosed celiac. Even so, some things with wheat seem to be OK. For example, I believe it was here on DR that I first saw some indication that soy sauce is actually OK. We tried it and sure enough she has no problem with normal soy sauce. More startlingly, some research I came across suggests that bread made with true levain (true sour dough) is OK. We have a guy in the small town where we live who bakes such bread, and she can eat it with no problem (at least in measured quantities). Recently we have gotten into the cocktail at 5pm habit, and I forgot and mixed up some for her using vodka (almost all of which is made from wheat these days) and there was no problem. I'm not suggesting anyone with celiac should try these things with abandon, but for her they work. The thread that ties these things together appears to be fermentation. There seems to be some evidence that, at least for some folks in some cases, if wheat (rye, barley?) is fermented that neutralizes whatever is causing the auto immune response in celiacs. So perhaps we'll continue experimenting. Next up -- beer.
  25. johnb
    In Mobile itself, Wintzell's for oysters would be an obvious choice -- it is the traditional oyster house in Mobile. Many locations nowadays, but it's probably best to stick with the original on Dauphine St. near downtown. Nearby, the Blind Mule is a dive with good black bean chili and burgers. If you get out to where the rich folks are in Fairhope, there are many possibilities, but I haven't been there for years so have no specific suggestions. Gulf Shores is a typical beach town; good food can be found but it takes work. In general, "local cuisine" around Mobile Bay is pretty much the same as classic New Orleans: oysters, gumbo, shrimp, po boys, etc. Certainly no shortage of seafood and seafood shacks. One place that gets positive reviews is the Original Oyster House; main location is out on US 90 in the middle of the bay. I don't recommend it. If you want a first-hand lesson in how to get rich in the restaurant business, try Lambert's in Foley. "The Home of Throwed Rolls." Appalling and amazing all "rolled" into one. I suppose you could think of it as a form of regional cuisine. The kid(s) would love it. Be prepared for a wait.
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