I disagree. This is not a cocktail that needs to be ice-cold to work properly, like a martini does. The scents of these ingredients really bloom better when closer to room temperature.

This technique — an "in and out" — is used when you want a whiff of absinthe in the nose while you're drinking the whiskey. To get the same effect with mixing the absinthe in, you'd need considerably more, and then it would kind of take over the whole drink. The oil from the lemon peel on the rim of the glass has a…

Also, I want to come out in defense of Hunt's brand ketchup. I think it's got a brighter, fresher tomato flavor to it that really pops on french fries in a way that the (darker, more "spiced") Heinz just doesn't.

Probably worth mentioning that the Indonesian word "kecap" is pronounced keh-chap, not keh-kap. (Before about 1972 this word would have been spelled "ketjap.")

I thought about this too. Presumably they know it's a woman (are there gender-separate bathrooms at Starbuckses?) but they haven't yet identified which customer it is because they don't send an employee in there to between every use.

Go to Taiwan. Especially go to Tainan, in the south. I was there a week, ate three (or more) vegetarian meals a day, and only went to two places more than once, and those two were vegetarian restaurants whose whole menu I'd have gladly worked through given more time.

"Trap John Cage, for 4 minutes and 33 seconds." #silenceequalsdanger

Yes. When they're still hot, they're great, but the moment they hit room temperature they magically become Nothing All That Special and Cloyingly Oversweet In Need Of A Little Salt.

That photo? Not actually cinnamon. That's cassia bark.

And that siracha sauce everybody seems to love is made from red jalapenos.

I was taught the polite thing to do is to squirt siracha/hoisin/sambal oelek into your spoon, then lift solids out of the soup with your chopsticks and give them a little dip on the way to your mouth.

I recommend purchasing a bottle of vegetarian fish sauce ("nuoc mam chay") and taking it along with you to use as a condiment. Makes a huge difference versus light soy sauce, which is what the kitchen is probably using in the stock. The "Au Lac" brand is one of the better and easier to find ones, although here in LA…

With some friends, I once blind-taste-tested Bulleit standard (orange label) against Jim Beam 8-year (black label). They're roughly the same price. NOBODY picked the Bulleit.

I generally enjoy a wittily footnoted book. Graham Chapman's "Autobiography of a Liar" comes to mind, as does one or another of Victor Borge's. And "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

A Stroh violin, no less.

Jodorowsky?

Cast iron acts this way if you treat it right.

Or you can get a propane version of the banjo-burner wok stoves restaurants use (they're actually what street-food vendors use in Asia). Mine was like $90. Money well spent. I put it on a stainless steel table outside the kitchen door and bought a box of peanut oil at Costco. I get hella wok hei, oh yes I do.

Fill a bucket with water and submerge.

No, because potato flakes have protein and some other stuff in them.
If you slice potatoes and rinse them in water, the water goes cloudy white. Potato starch powder is the dried version of that.