Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I second St. John. I went to St. John bread and wine. Epic food experience. I keep it awfully near the top of my list when I'm in town.

From high brow to low: under appreciated but delicious (especially post pub) would be a kebab van. The good ones will make you some of the tastiest (if not the most healthy) food in the world. My local van and his "doner chips cheese w/ garlic mayo" is something I aleays miss when I leave England.

I liked your idea of thinking about maximum amounts of food based on heating elements available, but given the size of my kitchen, and the number of people for whom I have to cook, I was wondering what your thoughts are on foods which are best for re-heating, and how best to prepare them for that trip into the microwave or to reheat into the oven.

I had planned the following:
1. Turkey
2. Mashed potatoes
3. Eggplant parm for the vegetarians
4. Corn Pudding
5. Clam Chowder
6. Squash
7. Indian pudding
8. Gravy

I think it's pretty lame to copy that recipe even with the "citation," unless you have the permission of the author. At least include a link to buy the original book or something.

If you're concerned, just rotate the boxes from freezer to fridge every day or so. As an experiment, put an ice cube in your fridge and see how long it takes to melt. That should be a good indication of how well it's working. In my experience it takes a pretty long time, shouldn't thaw very much at all.

I have a concord grape vine in my back yard and we make grape jam every few years, it's great.

Although as a native Concordian, I must always, in an as many fora as possible, state to any who do not know: it is pronounced like "conquered" not like the airplane "Concorde."

A friend asked me how I cook such good burgers. I wrote him a 2000 word essay. It was an incomplete answer at best.

Fair trade is a pretty bass-ackwards way of solving a genuine problem.

If farmers can't make money selling something because prices are too low then they should grow a different crop. Instead, fair trade artificially raises the price, perversely encouraging *more* farmers to grow something that's already over produced.

I'm all for ensuring that labor conditions are humane (no one wants Upton Sinclair-esque food production) but I'm everywhere and always opposed to subsidies. They help no one, and cost me money.

The British for some reason love to throw a bunch of arugula (rocket to them) on top of pizza. It's gross.

It's as if they think a pizza is a supposed to be part of a salad.

I was basically so fed up with my mom's cooking that I taught myself to cook. My mom worked, so it's not like I could blame her, but having her make a porkchop and packaged risotto three or four nights a week got pretty exhausting by the time I was in high school.

I then tried to get the best quality cookbooks I could. The celebrity chef and/or "easy" cooking books usually being the lamest. If you find a really well explained cookbook that has difficult recipes, I found that was the best for me. I started with the Cordon Bleu series of books, but recently moved on to Julia Child's Mastering French Cooking.

Also, finding something you love to cook helps. Kenji's burger recipes on AHT have pushed me well into aficionado status.

I have no idea how authentic they are, but Blue Ribbon BBQ in Arlington has the best barbecue I've had in Massachusetts, and their burnt ends are definitely the highlight.

Depends on what you mean by "error." If my steak comes out medium rare and I ordered rare, nothing. It happens, not a big deal.

If some piece of food is obviously not done properly, like a hot dish is ice cold or something, I'll just send it back and give them another chance. If its still not right, forget it, not worth the trouble.

If I ever found broken bits of plastic in my food however, I would probably flip out and do an all of the above. That kind of thing could kill you and is entirely unacceptable. I mean its one thing to have a piece of hair fall on a plate or something. We all have hair, hair falls out, gross, but won't kill you. Choking, however, is a very really possibility with foreign objects in food.

@myself it occurred to me after I wrote that that eggs have no fat. But the point still stands. It's a burger, its not going to be health food, it tastes better with fat.