Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Well, someone just triggered my pet peeve. Let's respect the point of origin and acknowledge that there will always be Chinese New Year just as there will always be Jewish New Year. Who started this "Asian" cuisine mishmash anyway? I don't see Italian,French, English, German, Swedish cuisine lumped together and called "European".

with melon

Ken and Candi's BBQ in Savannah, GA!

Peking Duck, Three Ways!

New York Strip

Panzanella, especially with Tuscan olive oil.

Coffee maker

On the last day of our three week tour of Spain, at a little neighborhood bar in Barcelona. We had just finished having dinner but when I passed by this place and saw what some patrons were having, we just had to find room for three wonderful tapas. Seven years later, I still haven't found better tapas.

Ethiopian.

When I was growing up, there were no stores in NYC that sold ready-made Chineses dumplings, especially my dad's favorite kind- with chinese chives. My fondest memory is of the whole family making dumplings. My Mom kneaded the dough; my dad ground the pork in one of those hand grinders. They chopped the chives and garlic and mixed in seasonings for the filling. Then production-line style, my mom would roll out little discs that we, the kids, trying to emulate my dad's efficient, fluid motions, would fold and pinch edges until we created hundreds of little little dumplings that were mostly very lopsided. However, they held up in the cooking and were always delicious. We made so many so that we could freeze them and subsequently enjoy three or four more meals.

I would not criticize Hannah for her actions for questioning the customers for her low tip if she can report on any incidence in which she ran after a customer who left a very large tip a)to thank them profusely for a very generous tip or b)to ascertain they did not make a mathematical error and offer to refund some part of the tip. I will always remember the following two incidences: 1) After a great home-style meal in the 70's, we chose to leave a $20 tip (50%) because the meal was so good and reasonable in price and the immigrant waitress was so attentative - she came running out of the resaurant to thank us with many bows. 2) We couldn't figure out why a waiter in a very expensive restuarant turned so friendly after giving us just barely adequate service during a meal. When I finally looked at our receipt, I realized my mathematically challenged ex-husband, having had a couple drinks, calculated a 40% tip!

Not a refurb, brand new.... Go figure!