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Food Thread: Kid's Martinis? What Is The World Coming To?

A good smashburger is an unalloyed good thing. Beefy, crunchy, with fun toppings like grilled onions, and add a good brioche bun and it can be a fantastic dinner.

That one was a good example, and it was so good I went back the next night for the same thing! Of course the martinis were quite good too, so that may have had something to do with it. And that surprised me, since this restaurant was in Pennsylvania (Manayunk), and my experience with mixed drinks in PA has been sub-optimal. Most of the time the drinks arrive and we joke that we mistakenly ordered off of the kid's menu.

Making smashburgers is easy, and the only issue is getting your kitchen a bit smokey. But if the fire department shows up, making another batch of burgers is quick.

I have a baking steel that I use for bread, but it fits perfectly on my grill, so that way I have a large flat cooking surface and the advantage of being outdoors! Yes, it is a pain in the *ss to clean, but we all must suffer for our art!

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Fresh. Natural. Organic. Minimally processed. Processed. Ultra-processed.

Who the hell knows nowadays? There is an amazing amount of obfuscation and flat-out bullsh*tting when it comes to food advertising, and when we add in the government's catastrophic failures at giving good advice to America about what is actually a healthful diet, we don't have much of a chance of figuring out what will kill us tomorrow, and what will allow us to live to 110 while swimming the English Channel and having sex with super models.

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Cobblers are often delicious. And with good berries they can be glorious!

This one is courtesy of commenter "Diogenes," although I don't see a cup off coffee, so maybe it isn't really him!

All the work and scratches last Fall paid off with a nice early Spring blackberry cobbler. Here done ala mode with some whipped cream on top! Heavenly.

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The top one is Cantal, and the bottom one is Morbier. And they were both delicious. I mostly just point and grunt when I buy cheese, because there are so many different ones, and the selection seems to grow exponentially. And France is worse! There are a couple of cheese shops within a five minute walk, and my guess is that they each have at least 50 different varieties. One of them has five different varieties of "Comté," which is a semi-hard cheese that is aged at least four months, and often more.

Yes, I am getting plump.

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That was the best scrapple I have ever had! It was deep fried, so it had a lovely crunch, but it was also quite flavorful. Strangely, it was at a a Jewish deli in Merion! I can't think of many reasons to go to Southeast Pennsylvania, because it is a hotbed of AWFLs and liberal loons, but damn...this stuff was great!

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Yes, I am a cheap bastard, so I am always faintly amused (or horrified) at the bags of popcorn at the supermarket selling for several dollars, when making it at home yields a superior product for a tiny fraction of the price of the commercial stuff. And flavoring it is easy! Parmesan cheese, elote, powdered ranch dressing, plain old butter, garlic, cayenne...you name it, and it will taste good on popcorn!

I am not a big fan of sweet popcorn flavors, but I will occasionally eat it just to be polite. Here's an easy one! 5-Minute Homemade Kettle Corn.

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I thought France would have good garlic, but the Frogs seem to have the same problem we have in the U.S. At least they don't import filthy garlic from China. Pork is great here, but no game, so send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shakes their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty of fifty years, but it is worth it!