Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@smallblondemom:
I thought the same so I looked into it. Facinating stuff.

Tellicherry is not a "what", it's a "where". Located on the South-Western coast of the tip of India, near Cochin, Tellicherry is in the heart of pepper country.

Also known as Tellicherry Garbled Extra Bold; they are larger in size and renowned for their high quality. They are exported from the town of Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast of India. Piperine content of 6.6% and a volatile oil content of 4.7%.

Although the size of the peppercorn is very important to garnering the name, "Tellicherry", the maturity of the peppercorn is the ultimately all-deciding factor.

It is the extra-ripening time that the Tellicherry peppercorn receives that
increases the percentage of essential oils in the fruit and makes it taste so aromatic...

More at Confessions of a Chilihead: Tina Brooks

Bacon fat mayonnaise sounds great. Anyone ever had baconnaise though? Not so great.

I don't quite understand why 5 egg yolks are necessary here. I've never used more than 1 in homemade mayo, and I've never had it break. Granted, I'm making batches about half this size, but still. Great concept though.

Absinthe is my favorite spot. It's both casual and plush, trendy and classic. I love this place, and the Ginger Rogers, Sazerac, and that other damn drink that I can't think of right now, are top-notch cocktails.

When I was in SF recently, we had an amazing brunch at Absinthe...fluffy omelette w/morels, herbs, and gruyere + eggs benedict w/collard greens and fried green tomatoes + some delicious fries w/aiolis...sooooo good

Dottie's True Blue Cafe is a good bet and within walking distance. If you're up for venturing a little further, I really like Just For You Cafe and Boulette's Larder at the Ferry Terminal Building. No matter where you brunch, you should check out the Ferry Terminal Building for the weekend farmers' market and all the other good eats there.

This sounds great! Thanks for the recipe!

I "went long" on Noilly Pratt after reading Felten's article. I figure I could put off the inevitable for a while. I'm storing the stuff in a basement fridge and hoping to enjoy my standard martini for a few more years. My martini's are of the 1:5 ratio with a dash of orange bitters. I've seen them referred to as "Mayflower Martini" somewhere.
I will give the new Noilly a try, of course, and hopefully like it as much or better. Thanks for the post, Paul. Gives me hope that Felten may have overstated the "mess".

One solution to the "beefiness" problem would be using grass-fed steaks from a ranch that knows what it's doing. I've laid some seriously high-flavored sauces and marinades on the ribeyes I get from San Juan Ranch in CO and the beefy goodness comes through loud and clear. I've reached the point where almost all the grain-fed beef I encounter tastes less than beefy.

@Tazzo: I have a co-worker with the same problem, which I find fascinating. It's one of my favorite herbs to cook with, I think it just makes everything taste fresh and delicious. I've heard that people that say it taste bad are "super tasters," having more taste buds than the average person.

Among the producers of French Vermouth, Noilly Prat has always been unique in the degree of wood/aging on it's vermouth. The product they introduced in the 1950's was much more akin to the French dry vermouth more prominent stateside pre-prohibition (when branding was far less prevalent than today), which was lighter, fresher and without the aging. Historically, other French producers referred to Noilly as of the Marseilles style (this I know working for the importer of Dolin). I suspect that with production/quality improvements over time, the differences between Noilly Dry and other French dry may be even more pronounced. But rather than pick one as an ideal of French Vermouth, we're all better off to enjoy the differences in style and application, just as many of us have embraced Vya or Antica. The new Noilly's oak and sherry notes may help draw in a new broader audience, and having more and further differentiated choices for us at the bar or home can only be welcomed.

Adam, I don't know if it's just my computer, but clicking on that link gives a 404 message.

My first reaction was identical to carriebwc's (seriously, total it up, next time you shop there), my second one, "THAT's interesting... next time I'm shopping at Whole Foods I'm going to be watching the other shoppers veeeeery sharply...".

And I bet many of you will be, too, which will hardly make shoplifters' efforts any easier.

I honestly don't think posting this was a poor choice, it was good one. Besides, if we're going to be purely objective about things, this IS interesting (and I have difficulty believing that some of the indignant respondents don't watch some of the programmes on TV that present all sorts of real-life unpleasantness, including things far more horrific than this), and, even if this does prompt a few others to attempt to shoplift (which to me sounds a bit questionable; most people are not so malleable that a single post can prompt them to be thieves, without any previous thoughts of it), there are also going to be a lot more of us out there... watching.