That shoe is OK if you are 80 years old and mall walking.  Otherwise, no.

I have noticed that most classic cocktails are variations on themes.  I am sure someone has put together a family tree or a matrix that shows how they all relate.  I see the same things when I bake (pretty much the only difference between a crepe and a dutch baby for example are that one is cooked on the stove and…

I love a good, simple cocktail. Gin and tonics, sidecars, whisky sours, and batistes are at the top of my list.

Yeah, here I drink Fever Tree. I don’t remember what I drank there because I tried a few. I was delighted one day to walk into a a gin bar in Belfast that was having some promo thing and they just started bringing around trays of free G&T.  I have no idea what I drank, but it was good.

I would guess that when I worked fast food, I was in the minority by not being a recovering addict.

“You see, I don’t want to damn junkies working here, I don’t care how long they have been clean.  And for some reason, everyone else thinks they need to be treated with respect, given predicable hours, or decent pay.  There’s nothing I can do.”

Same with Ireland. I expected to drink Jameson but found a wonderful array of gins. I loved the bars where they had gins on one side of the menu and tonics on the other with flavor descriptions and recommended pairings.

Nah, I like the taste of alcohol.  I love a gin and tonic or a mojito on a hot summer day or bastiste or straight peated whisky in the winter.  And it isn’t about getting hammered, because I have reached the age where I don’t really like being drunk.

I don’t think it is a low-carb thing that is causing people to drink more hard liquor. I think it is that it has gotten so much better. I was in Louisville with my Boomer parents a couple years ago, and they couldn’t believe that bourbon was so popular or even drinkable. They both still thought of it as something only…

Oh yeah. If you teach people to hide mistakes, everything just snowballs.

Anecdataly, I have noticed that punitive small business owners tend to not stay in business long.

Your meringues must be interesting.

I agree.  Plus if you have a recipe that needs a certain number of large egg whites, you lose a lot of the white to your hand.  There is almost no loss with the shell technique.

I tried that ONCE because I saw some chef on TV do it. Never again. It wasted half of the egg white which I then dripped on the floor trying to get to the sink to wash my hand.

That is a better list than any of the official ones, especially your picks #1 and 4.

I have to narrowly go with Kate on this.  If anyone had put Hot Tamales on their list, they would have gotten my vote.  I love anything cinnamon flavored.

Similar, but my upper threshold is 40 IBU.

I ate so much ramen during college and grad school that I can’t even look at the fancy stuff now.  I used to get it at one of questionably sourced discount grocery stores for $0.10 a pack.

I have never lived in a part of the country that had Del Taco.  I was recently surprised to learn that it wasn’t just a restaurant on Grace and Frankie.

Their $0.59 tacos and burritos got me through college.