Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

maybe i will try these PW sweet potatoes everyone's been talkin' 'bout.

As mundane as it is, I really want to make the super smooth mashed potatoes recipe. It would be an excuse to get a ricer - if only my husband would let me add yet another gadget to our already stuffed kitchen closet!

my family is taiwanese and we always do hot pot around the holidays. by its nature, it's one of the few dinners that requires everyone to sit around the table together (as opposed to going off and watching tv or otherwise).

i feel a little guilty for calling out a chain, but i really do love the sandwiches from potbelly sandwich works. to me they just have the perfect balance of toasty bread to meat to toppings (

sorry grace, i have to throw in my vote for "delicious," too. whenever i visit taiwan, i can't get enough! i know it as yang le duo.

Part of the charm of Andrew Zimmern, for me (and what distinguishes his show from Bourdain's) is that he does kind of play the role of the American tourist, and thus people are often surprised by his appreciation of their weird (non-American) food. I think most of the time on the show, people offer him food with the awareness that the item they are serving is unique and strange -- I mean, come on, dried rotted shark? -- and they are proud of that, and expect foreigners to have a reaction to it. The fact that Zimmern is always open to trying it (regardless of whether he makes a face at the initial smell or appearance) is positive. And if he ends up liking it and gushing enthusiastically about it, it's even more of a compliment. Yes, some of the shows where he visits poorer countries (see: Ethiopia) can sometimes be awkward, but in general I disagree with the original quoted article about him being buffoonish or condescending.

wahhh! this is too adorable! although the organic stuff always seemed to be on the right... ken should have switched it up to eliminate the possibility of hammy being biased to one side. :D

also, when we watched this after the superbowl, we actually rewound our DVR like two times to try and figure out where his knocked-off eye went. it's down there by his peel-tentacle on the left. :D

I've never had a macaron (gasp!), so... I'm not sure what flavors would go well together! That's a reason to pick me, right? :)

How could you not be a whipped cream person? I mean... it's whipped! And it's cream! I don't have a secret when I make my own, other than adding sugar and vanilla extract. Mmm.

The one time this happened to my husband, he informed our waiter about the overdone-ness of his burger. But when she offered to have the kitchen bring out another one, he said that wasn't necessary (since he had already eaten half the burger and would have been too full to eat another one). I thought that was silly of him, because why inform the waitstaff if you don't want them to do anything about it?

BUT THEN! at the end of our meal, she offered us dessert on the house to make up for the burger. I was so pleased by this act of good will that it totally made up for the experience of getting the overdone burger and made me want to come back (although we'll order something else next time). So, moral of the story: even if you don't send an overdone burger back, it may not hurt to complain a little, because you might get part of your meal free or some other nice thing, if the restaurant is smart and cares about its customers. And, second moral: free dessert wins me over every time!

Not sure if this counts as a dish, per se, but my family has a tradition of doing hot pot (otherwise known as shabu shabu, Asian fondue, etc...) during the holidays.

I too must cast my vote for one of the desserts - the pumpkin pie cheesecake. I admit I have a weakness for both things - so combining them has to be good! Time to go invest in a springform pan...