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Recent Comments

• Microwave Cooking Gets Haute With Wylie Dufresne (Slashfood)

  Jun 4th 2009 9:18AM 29 minutes? Is that on full strength? That's an awfully long time to microwave anything....

• You Might Want to Ration Your Ethiopian Coffee (Slashfood)

  Mar 30th 2009 5:24PM That's hideous, actually. The link between producers in-country and coffee buyers here has been the key to improving quality in specialty coffee, and my impression has been that that process has done a lot for wages for coffee workers everywhere. To hear that it has been reversed in Ethiopia, of all places, is horrible news.

• The New York Times on Vodka: The Cheap Stuff Is Just as Good (Slashfood)

  Mar 29th 2009 1:00AM All vodkas have to meet minimum standards, it's true, but some go beyond those standards. What's interesting is that the extent to which they do often isn't related to price.
  
  Distilling vodka removes impurities and makes it smoother and easier to drink (a Brita filter has the same effect, apparently). Smirnoff, like Ketel One and Grey Goose, is triple distilled; Tito's is distilled six times. Some bottom-shelf vodkas, like Platinum (distilled seven times), which sells for under $10 a bottle, are remarkably smooth and compare well to the ultra-premiums that sell for three or four times the price.

• Slashfood Readers Pick the Best Sandwiches in America (Slashfood)

  Mar 16th 2009 11:29AM Oh nuts. I didn't see the initial call for submissions... otherwise I would have sent in the Old Fashioned, a grilled pastrami sandwich made with the most succulent hand-smoked pastrami you've ever had in your life, complete with handmade condiments, at Details minibar and lounge in Columbus, OH.
  
  Want one right now!!!

• Rum Deals - Refilling the Liquor Cabinet (Slashfood)

  Dec 14th 2008 1:50AM Because rum isn't as pricey as other spirits, an occasional splurge on a truly amazing rum won't break the bank. Check out Ron Zacapa 23-year -- at $40 a bottle, hardly an everyday mixer, but an absolutely amazing experience!

• Herb Cane - Cocktail Hour (Slashfood)

  Dec 9th 2008 10:10AM I remember Mr. Caen quite fondly -- "the unbottled scorpion of the San Francisco bay area," in William F. Buckley's memorable phrase -- and am glad that he has been commemorated with a cocktail, especially one using a liqueur as complex and potent (and, of course, Herbal) as Chartreuse. The lemon juice is appropriate also, as he was nothing if not tart. Well done.

• Refilling the Liquor Cabinet: Scotch Bargains (Slashfood)

  Nov 25th 2008 10:17PM Agreed on Laphroaig -- wonderful stuff, and criminally cheap. I'd also recommend the Glenkinchie, which is a bit pricier but a very nice whisky, as well as the terrific vatted malts put out by Jon, Mark and Robbo. They're all mixtures of nothing but single-malts, they're all under $30, and they're great examples of the styles that they set out to capture.

• Slashfood Ate (8): Gourmet coffee at home (Slashfood)

  Jul 24th 2008 7:20PM For the ultimate in freshness, I'd add a home coffee roaster to the list. An iRoast 2 or Behmor is not as expensive as most espresso machines. Roasting your own beans and doing it well isn't hard, and there's nothing quite like the taste of really fresh coffee (though most people don't realize it has to be rested for 24 hours or so after roasting to let the CO2 offgas). http://www.sweetmarias.com is an excellent resource for anyone who's interested.

• Slashfood Ate (8): Friday pupu plater (Slashfood)

  Jul 19th 2008 3:51PM Ah. So embedding html in comments doesn't work. Let's try that again. The details are here: http://slowfoodcolumbus.wordpress.com/bear/coffee/

• Slashfood Ate (8): Friday pupu plater (Slashfood)

  Jul 19th 2008 3:50PM I'd second point #5 -- about making good coffee yourself at home -- and even add something that folks in many soon-to-be-Starbucks-less locations may not have thought of: if you don't have a good supplier of freshly roasted beans nearby (or even if you do), you can roast your own coffee beans at home. It's surprisingly easy. The details are here.