Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Lamb pao mo hash, WANT. This is brilliant, Chichi.

@shoneyjoe: July is ice cream month! So you still have time to celebrate, fear not.

@PumpkinBear: I'm a SoCal native! I'll have to pay Jim's a visit the next time I'm home.

@HeartofGlass: My understanding was always reubens = corned beef too. Actually, it looks like subbing out the corned beef for pastrami (and coleslaw for kraut) gives you a Rachel sandwich! (See under variations)

@ostrakos: Avocado ice cream sounds incredible. I think I'll be sticking one in the freezer tonight and attempting the easier-than-easy (no ice cream maker req'd) method.

@jayteemo: Here's the Talk thread all about Portland. And get ready for more PDX reports! Robyn and I still have plenty to share about our eating adventures.

@maom: All the photo credit goes to Robyn! But yes, they are quite lovely and tummy grumble-inducing.

Follow-up experiment: marshmallow roasting attempt outside?

Welcome, Helen Jane! So excited for this new series.

@El_Zilcho/@sailordave: Leah speaks the truth! The griddle wasn't ideal or necessarily 4th-of-July-authentic (charcoal, all the way!) but we worked with what we had at the office.

@people who asked about Sabrett and Vienna Beef: As noted above at the end of the post, I researched the availability of both brands and found that the distribution is pretty limited, especially when it comes to finding them on the West Coast, and west of Chicago in general. The brands featured in this tasting are more widely available from coast to coast.

@hotdoglover: Good question! The slideshow order is loosely from good --> less good. We left out the two we don't recommend. Some brands (Whole Foods 365, Oscar Mayer, Niman Ranch) had ranging feedback from tasters, so I shared both sides.

@lamdu02: Ball Park was one of the two brands that didn't get high marks from tasters. Hence, no slide in the slideshow.

@adrockuw and peekpoke: Points well taken! For this one, I decided to weave in the tasting notes and start with the recommended brands, then move into the others that received both pluses and minuses. I left out the two (Ball Park and Applegate Farms) that didn't earn any positive remarks whatsoever. I figured people didn't want a slide that said "disgusting! ewww/ickk!" etc.

Chichi-rrones! Sorry, had to do it. Though Adam gets total cred for coining that one. These + Kenji's tortillas + salsa verde = yes.

@Adventurat: Good eye; errors all fixed!

@presquevu: Kumiko used her famous (well, famous and obsessed about in our office) Jacques Torres-inspired recipe. But minus the extra sea salt sprinkled on top. We like 'em salty, but for the purposes of this tasting, the focus was on the chocolate.

@Grease: That was our first experimental round of having a citizen taster! But LizLemon provided superb tasting notes and was a great sport, so we'll have to make it a more regular thing for other members of the community. One pretty major requirement: you have to be in NYC and able to make it to our office in Chelsea. And one recommendation: you allow enough time for food-coma nappage after! We'll keep you posted on SENY when it's time for another.

@gargupie: One gallon of 2%.

Always looking for ways to integrate more muffuletta in my life.