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I loved visiting my father's mother or having her visit us. She would always make our family's version of some Turkish/Sephardic treat:
bimuelos (for breakfast)
montees (not the Turkish lamb dumplings and yogurt, but more like a spinach borekh that's flatter and has more cheese)
biscochos (a flat toroid with the outside edge cut so it flared with sesame seeds on top)

The food was great, but boy, did she use a lot of oil. The walls in her kitchen always had a coating of oil on them. I knew that I was making my own montees properly when I had a small fire in the oven!

My other grandmother was a decent baker, but her sister was a master. I still remember seeing a pie crust recipe in the Times when I was young that called for a little vinegar. She railed against its use in a pie crust--"It should be sweet! Why would you destroy that with vinegar?" and gave me her recipe, which I subsequently lost.

How much of "their" restaurants do these chefs actually own? Even JGV has partners in "his" restaurants. Very few, if any of the top chefs likely own the majority of any one restaurant. No one is immune to a failed restaurant, so why should any smart chef put up too much of his own money? Sure, the chef is the draw, but someone else is putting up the vast majority of the cash, so the lion's share of any profit will USUALLY go to the money guys.

I like Whole Foods, but they haven't opened their long-rumored Park Slope branch, yet, so I have to drag stuff home from Manhattan. I prefer Fairway (in Red Hook, the Manhattan stores ARE zoos), because it's never overly crowded, even if the parking lot is, and the lines are never more than 2 deep at checkout.

By the way, if you are going to compare Smucker's peanut butter to another brand at Whole Foods, you probably would have been better off comparing the pricing of the fresh/grind your own at the two stores. I believe they were both about $2.99/pound last I checked.

I'd have to say the Fairway in Red Hook. Even with the maddening crowds at Ikea, it's easy to get to, not crowded (even when the parking lot is full), and has a great selection. And the deli counter and cheese counter crews are always willing to give my toddler daughter a taste of whatever she wants. Unfortunately, I haven't recently found a counter where they will give you a taste of whatever you're ordering without asking (now, I really feel old). And, I haven't tried their lox, yet.

Last time I got lox, it was at Balducci's. The packaged stuff at Whole Foods isn't worth the plastic it's wrapped in.

I'm all about the limes!

Steak, hot dogs, hamburgers. Growing up, my dad would grill whenever he was home for dinner, no matter the weather. I remember him bundling up in a big down jacket and boots to go out and grill in the snow.

My mom is a great cook and was game to try her hand at almost any kind of food the three kids and my dad could throw at her. The most memorable was when she acceded to my father's request to prepare his favorite Sephardic dishes (she's Ashkenazi).

What a great meal!

Jim's?!?
Sure, eat at Jim's, if you want a tasteless beef sandwich.

Pat's is the hands-down winner. The last time I tried Geno's (granted, it was 15-20 years ago), it tasted like they marinated their beef.

Sorry to quibble, but Purim starts tonight at sundown and ends tomorrow night.

I'll have to try these sometime, but I'm used to apricot (and for the past 20 or so years, raspberry). I never developed a taste for the poppy or prune variety.

Milk chocolate. White chocolate isn't real chocolate, is it?

Brown rice

Comte

French Comte