Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm constantly on a budget and I'm aware that I could be cooking it myself for half the price, but a nice, juicy rotisserie chicken is one of my favorite indulgences. And yes, for a single person, it makes 3 meals and one hell of a decent stock - not bad for the $5.99 my Fred Meyer charges.

Better yet, sometimes I drop by one of the local asian markets and grab a rotisserie duck. A little pricier, but oh, so freakin' worth every penny.

As for the rest of available grocery store prepared foods, most of the time, not so much. It's not even because of the cost - it's just that, for the most part, mayonnaise seems to have been deemed the fifth food group. Probably to conceal the lack of any other seasoning...

In the Wee Small hours of the Morning; that recording, a bottle of scotch and some tasty, tasty cheese* make for the best pity-party ever!

*because I no longer smoke. But hey, it's Frank; how can you not think of smoking?

I love Sno-caps to this day; I loved the fact that when I was a kid they were one of the few chocolate candies that weren't milk chocolate based. I always felt so grown-up eating them - all the while delighting in popping the little crunchies. And besides, the other kids didn't like them - all the more for me!

A salmon-skin handroll is Ringo; lumpy, sort of oft-putting and needing a little help from friends, but - in the end - comfortingly delicious.

I'm weeping like a little baby; I can only begin to imagine that horrible hole that has now formed. My condolences, and thank you for sharing the joy of Dumpling with us all.

There's a mix out of Seattle called Demitri's and it makes one of the tastiest bloodys I've had in ages. While I like to make my own if I have the time, I always keep this around - especially during the work week. Some Demitri's Extra Horseradish splashed in my juice [sans vodka, thanks very much] - or on my eggs [delish!] is the perfect way to get my metabolism going.

And hate to add to the smugness, but Tacoma gave us Sir Mix-a-Lot and Hollywood gave us Frasier [with an "s"].

Having worked in the restaurant business for a while, I am blessed to have a number of friends from those days. Some of the best nights of our lives have been those rare evenings [usually a Monday] when we've been able to gather and literally break bread. The feasts we have are things of legend to those outside the circle, but the newcomers tend to focus solely on the food. While our group contains some phenomenal chefs and the food and wine are crazy good, what keeps bringing us back to the table is the hours we spend catching up, gossiping and toasting each other's daily victories. We have become family through this infrequent communion.

@hotnpopin:

Wow - we must've been twins in another life [designers, taking care of mothers, watching the Space Needle being built]. I always said my life growing up in Bellevue was like living in "Leave it to Beaverland".

Overlake Blueberries still exists [though the farm on 148th is more of a museum]. I remember when the Nordstrom's was a Best's; It only sold shoes and they had monkeys in glass cages in the children's section. Ah well, it's now a mecca of excess, built on Microsoft money.

You've probably got your heart set on Yakima, but have you thought about Sequim? Because they're in the rainshadow of the Olympics, they get very little rain - but they have ginourmous trees and the ocean!

I think the reason why there's a certain amount of confusion throughout the comments is due to the title, rather than the content, of this column. If I'm understanding correctly, this column is about reviewing the signature drinks @ some of our nation's "finest" chains. These drinks don't necessarily come cheap [though, after a couple, "easy" might be up for discussion].

I don't have a clever idea for the name of the column, but I would suggest that "cheap" be removed from the title. Cheap is your double well scotch-on-the-rocks from your local, slightly run-down Chinese restaurant [not that I speak from experience...]

@frmnjgal30:

They were transporting their food in hotboxes [remember all the ruckus as they were going out the door - "Where's my hotbox?"]. This is standard in the catering biz for safe, approved transportation of heated food - as is the use of sterno to maintain the heat level in the chafing dishes.

I know that the concessions keep the theaters afloat, but really!

on my soapbox:
Actually, this is a really. I know that the prices seem overwhelming, especially when we all know that the sodas and popcorn costs pennies to produce. I used to co-own one of those small second-run theatres, and trust me, it's rare when you're making a dime off the film. No exaggeration. Whatever is taken in at the concessions counter covers the cost of the staff, cleaning, supplies, inventory, etc. Why?

The split between the house and the studio usually goes like this for the "big" films:

Weeks 1 & 2: Studio gross = 100% ticket sales
Weeks 3 & 4: Studio gross = 90% tickets sales, theatre=10%
Weeks 5 & 6: Studio gross = 80% tickets sales, theatre=20% - and so on.

This is why the studios loooove blockbusters and "buzz" films; the churn for the first couple of weeks is huge and that's where they make their money. This is why you'll see theatres desperately hanging onto films way past their "fresh" date. To add to the stress [depending on the market] in order to ensure locking in a film, there's bidding, with a hefty advance [in the tens of thousand of dollars] - paid sometimes without the opportunity to pre-screen the film [Hello, Transformers 3! ]. Oh, and if a film is trashed on the net, a theatre can see a tremendous drop in admissions immediately.

Okay, I have less pity for the chains. They're showing films times ten, in a crappy environment, with waaay too much talking during the films. But please, think twice when you're smuggling your goodies into a smaller theatre - especially the few that are still being as thoughtful about their film selection & presentation as you are about your food choices.

off my soapbox

Thank you.

While I think this has been touched on, the corkage fee not only covers the loss from selling an in-house bottle, but also covers the cost of the glassware, the staff serving the wine, the staff cleaning up after the wine has been poured, etc. While I agree that a $40 corkage fee is out of line, $5 - $15 is not [especially if they've got Riedel on the table]. And this might seem an extreme analogy, but I've heard a couple of chef/owners compare BYOW to bringing in your own rib-eye and expecting a discount on the prepared meal.

At the same time, a taste of an extraordinary wine [I still dream of the '61 Lafite Rothschild a regular shared with me] goes a long way - and if you can, be sure to send some back to the chef!