Food and Drink

I'm headed to Chicago next week and I'm looking for a few places to eat. I won't be driving so they'll have to be accessible by train/cab. I'm looking for somewhere for a nice Saturday lunch date. Around $100 for 2 without alcohol should be fine. I was thinking the RL restaurant (which I heard was good from a friend) and The Purple Pig. I'd have loved to gone to the Girl and the Goat but it's not open for lunch. Any suggestions? I'm also looking for a few places for casual dinner with friends. Under $30 per person. Cafe Iberico sounded intriguing. Sushi Wabi or Coast Sushi Bar. Longman and Eagle but I doubt we could find a seat. de Cero sounds interesting.

In a quest to stop drinking soft-drinks I think I'm going to give coffee a try. Any suggestions on a mild coffee for a first-time coffee drinker?

Question for the coffee experts: I want to buy my husband a new coffee grinder for Valentine's Day. Right now we have a Cuisinart Burr grinder but it is having some problems. We drink drip coffee (pour almost boiling water from a tea kettle into a porcelain cone filter with a paper filter). We don't need it for espresso. Any suggestions of good grinder than don't cost a million dollars. I would prefer to have a quiet grinder if possible.

I'm looking to replace my PTFE (i.e. Teflon) non-stick fry/sautee pan and my abused (by houseguests) fry/sautee pans with an inexpensive set on non-sticks. My requirements are: Non-PFTE non-stick OK to put in oven and broiler (up to 450 degrees or so) Less that $100 for 2. I'm willing to go over $100 if you can convince me. Here are some examples of what I'm looking at: All-Clad B3 2 Piece Fry set Calphalon Contemporary Non-Stick 10" and 12" Omelette Pans Calphalon Unison Non-Stick 10" and 12" Omelette Pans I've found all of these at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I like shopping there as I have a -20% coupon. I'm not tied to BBB. I'm leaning to t…

So I'm in the market for a decent cheapish pot type thing. I only want to buy 1 all-purpose item, so I'm thinking a stainless pasta set should be cool for pasta and soups. I braise a fair bit as well, and that's got me considering enameled Dutch ovens. However, I still need something for pasta, and intuition tells me Dutch ovens wouldn't be perfect for pasta. Sooo would I rather use a stainless stock pot to braise or a cast iron oven to boil pasta? No idea... Actually, I don't even know if enameled is considered better than bare cast iron; seasoning sounds like a pan in the bum, though. I'm a lazy cook for sure =D. Any good cookware forums out there for me to peruse? I…

Did my first, hopefully annual, crawfish boil yesterday. It was a busy day of cooking, 140lbs of the little buggers, but tons of tasty fun. Good call on the limes Dan! Cleaning them up Ready to cook Cooking Time to start eating Don't bother me when I'm stuffing my face Our sole survivor. Found him crawling toward the liquor cabinet.

I'm doing this for my own amusement...but if anyone else wants to add info/pics they should feel free to do so... also, most of this is being taken from Three Floyds themselves, Hoosier Beer Geek &/or Beer News...if interested, I can provide you with the many twitter accounts associated with those three groups... to summarize...this pic: first indicated that there would be Brandy Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Dark Lord at this year's Dark Lord Day... then this pic: on Chicago's MetroMix page suggested that it'd be available in bottles... & now Beers News posted this story where they report having spoken with Lincoln Anderson from Three Floyds who's sa…

Apparently, I'm the only one of us going...but, rather than subject y'all to a bunch of random comments in the drinking thread, I figured I'd go ahead & start my own... Here are some of the known details courtesy of http://hoosierbeergeek.blogspot.com/:

So I have a Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker on it's way to me. (Damn UPS and their unexplained delays, won't get it until Tuesday, May 27 now) Really want to get into making real Sourdough, including making / maintaining a Starter culture. Should I go for it and make a wild yeast sourdough starter from scratch with just flour and water, or get a starter elsewhere as a seed? Was thinking of this one, I can appreciate the irony of this guy's name. http://www.sourdo.com/cultures/original-san-francisco/ Anyone else into making their own bread, the hands on way and the higher tech lazy way like I'm going to do?

So I just ate a yogurt that technically didn't have a complete seal around the lid. When I lifted the tab, there was some dried yogurt on the rim, and it didnt have its usual spit at me ordeal. I thought twice about eating it, then decided to do it anyway

I'm looking for a good all-around decanter for general use with wine. Not in the mood for anything huge or stupidly-shaped. Any suggestions? EDIT: So far, I'm a pretty big fan of the Riedel "O" after using it a couple of times at my parents' place.

Well, after reading posts from Tyrion, Grawk, and others I decided to dip my feet into some bourbon. I tried some Maker's Mark, Gentlemen Jack and Jack Daniels Single Barrel. I didn't like the Gentlemen's Jack or JD Single Barrel, but I thought Maker's Mark was okay. I then decided to purchase these today: Knob Creek Woodford Reserve Basil Hayden Baker's 7 Just got done trying the Knob Creek and now I am on the Basil Hayden. What really intrigued me to Bourbon was Tyrion mentioning that he started off with scotches, but now reaches for bourbons. Since joining HC I've purchased a crap load of Scotches which I do very much enjoy. I prefe…

I'm thinking of getting an Excalibur 4-tray dehydrator. I want something that is smallish and not that expensive. Before buying, I thought I would ask if anyone else has a small dehydrator that they would recommend? I will mostly be using this for dehydrating soaked nuts. http://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-2400-4-Tray-Economy-Dehydrator/dp/B0047WOWHE/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1377484067&sr=1-8

http://getdistilld.com/ Think of it as Untappd for whiskey. The database is missing a lot of things, as expected. But I like the "check-in" [review] format and it's pretty straightforward. Add me if you start using this app!

this post will be quite slurrred, just a warning: May the record forever show, that I have beat a marine and a dude with full on Turret's, at a drinking game. It started with a night of rock band, drinking whenever breakes in the music dictated. Then it moved to an episode of top gear, requiring that whenever a blatant britishism came up or a total insult from one cast member to another were to occur, that we had to drink.... I have beat a Marine. Yes, I rule. He is asleep and I am completley fucked. This post has required some kind of record backspace usage to not end up looking like an edwood post. You all should be proud. Seriously. At least one backspace per actua…

I'm thinking some of you good ole boys might just like this here thing here! I know I do. http://dropandcatch.com/ I'm thinking about ordering the Amber Ale with 60 pounds of pull force. Don't know if I'm manly enough (wallet-wise) to swing the 100 pounds of pull force model.

Our faithful espresso machine has stopped working about two months ago and I've been rolling on French press coffee since then, but I miss the habit of waking up with a good espresso. The cost of repair (replacing the boiler) would be 100$+ for a machine that's worth at most 300$ new (it's 10-15 years old), I don't think it's worth it. So I was wondering, is there such a thing as a good modern espresso machine (manual of course) that can be had for 300$ or less?

From the Piddle Brewery, Dorset, that is. Recently when driving through the picturesque and amusingly named village of Piddletrenthide I saw a van similar to this. Subsequent investigation revealed the existence of the Dorset Piddle Brewery and their amusingly named collection of Beers. They certainly know how to work a theme. You can even get They even have merchandise They have even made it into a sorbet So, do you fancy a Piddle, then?

Thought this may be fun and useful: I'll start with my Sazerac Recipe: 1 tsp Cane Sugar (I prefer Turbinado) 2 drops Peychaud bitters 1 tsp Water 2 drops Angostura Bitters 1 cup Cracked Ice 2 oz Rye (or Bourbon in a pinch) 1 tsp Herbsaint or Absinthe (I prefer Herbsaint) Lemon Twist In a shaker, muddle the sugar, water and Peychaud bitters. Add Angostura bitters, ice and rye (bourbon). Shake gently until well chilled. Pour Herbsaint or Absinthe into an old fashioned glass. Swirl to coat glass insides and bottom and pour out excess. Strain drink mixture into glass and add lemon twist. Sit back in the rocking chair on the front porch ad enjoy. If you get rea…

Like the title says, what are you all's favorite snack foods? Or maybe just something that you know you shouldn't eat, but so good you couldn't go without. For me it's petit ecoliers. I think they're the greatest thing ever.

Making a batch for some friends tonight so thought I might document it here. I made a batch for one of the MoAs where it was well received. Depending on your ice/water adding strategy it makes ~5.5 quarts. Scale accordingly. The finished result is a deliciously complex florally sweet punch that isn't too cloying where I personally cannot pick out any of the individual ingredients they just integrate to something magical. It's based on this recipe: https://jeffreymorgenthaler.com/vacuum-seal-oleo-saccharum/ With a few ingredient substitutions I've adopted by way of my cocktail guru friend Dave who intro'd me to this. I've appended the substitutions to the r…

I had a cooking show turned on the TV while I was working on the computer. On one of its segments, the hosts test new cooking tools. The man loved this one: It seems like a good idea for us beer drinkers.

A friend who I mistakenly turned onto bourbon has found a supplier of the 2015 release at $115 a bottle with possible free shipping to him/me. Any interest in a bottle, keeping in mind they are the UK 700ml bottles vs the US 750ml?

I'm leaving tonight for a one month trip in Europe with a friend, we'll be making these cities: - Paris - Strasbourg - Munich - Prague - Berlin - Dresden - Amsterdam - Brussels - Bruges Any tips for good obscure places to eat or drink on the cheap? Or just nice places to visit that are not in tourist books? Thanks!

It was end of exams, and I got absolutely pissfaced... vomiting, unconciousness, headache, nausea, etc... I feel absolutely horrible right now... My throat hurts a lot from vomiting... Then again, I didn't have that much: pitcher of vodka and lemonade, gin and tonic, then a vodka and redbull... If it wasn't for a few good friends looking after me... I'd probably be dead by now I was so damn drunk that I managed to give the taxi driver 50 quid for a journey which costs 5.... My parents are going to kill me when they find out I puked all over my mattress, which costs a freakin' 900 quid, plus ruining a down pillow/duvet or two on the way.... I'm in deep shit... How d…