...a complete stranger's face lights up as you introduce yourself by your screen name...

I, in response to my husband's concerned query this Thanksgiving morning:

"No, honey - I didn't say 'Oh, Geez!' I said 'Goat Cheese!'"

When most of the family prizes the juicy breast of that fried thanksgiving bird, while the others look forward to the dark meat. You, however, prefer neither white nor dark meat since fried turkey yields your golden brown, crispy master: fried skin. While all of the kids think you are some sort of turkey skin eating goblin, you agree with them that it is indeed very gross, and they should never, ever, eat it...


thus ensuring your stash of those crunchy strips of love to be untouched for years to come.

Hi,

Waiting for a traffic light, I looked across to see a man carrying a giant pickle over his head. The light changed allowing a closer view. I realized my pickle just turned into a wrapped Christmas tree. My friend Helen who witnessed my glee, then commented, "You really must be hungry to mistake a Christmas tree for a pickle."

I was hungry, though I swear from afar it looked like a pickle down to the trunk base resembling a pickle stem.

Regards

>You never visit a new city without first researching it on LTH and then printing out ALL the recommendations.

>As you're leaving a restaurant in Chinatown you spot a group of LTHers about to enter that same restaurant.

>Not only is everything on "Check, Please" old news, but your first reaction on hearing it mentioned is to have sort of a "there goes the neighborhood" feeling.

Kwe730 wrote:>Not only is everything on "Check, Please" old news...

Not to mention Chicago Magazine, Time Out, The Chicago Tribune, ad nauseum.

You can be really really sure you're an LTH'r when NOTHING is going to stand in the way of grilling that steak tonight:




Meter, schmeter, what's a meter of snow? : )

Greets to y'awl from a snowy Montreal--

Geo[/i]

I bought my 4-year-old a Laptop Lunchbox for Christmas. I did it almost more for myself (he did need a lunchbox) because I fell in love with it, and after all, I'll be packing it, he'll just be carrying it and eating its contents.

Now I just packed his lunch for the first time in his life, and I'm terrified he's going to lose part or all of it--he's 4!--what was I thinking?

Of course I photographed his first lunch too, but I don't have plans to blog it (yet).

Hi,

At the H-Mart cooking toys shop, they have a metal spoon and chopsticks in a cute plastic box. Intended to fit into a lunch, so cute, practical and relatively inexpensive at under $5. It would go well with your son's laptop lunch.

My younger niece is 4 almost 5, I think this would be a darling gift for her. Did you order this or buy it locally? If locally, then where?

Regards,

I found a laptop lunchbox for I think $20 at a natural dry goods store in Evanston: Healthy Green Goods 702 Main. (we bought it for a teacher gift) IIRC the separate sections are sealed separately, unlike most of the obento I have purchased for Scott, but I didn't get him one for the very reason Holly of Uptown mentioned...

Cathy2 wrote:My younger niece is 4 almost 5, I think this would be a darling gift for her. Did you order this or buy it locally? If locally, then where?

Cathy, I ordered it online at http://www.reusablebags.com. The Laptop Lunches Products area has some components sold separately, but reusablebags.com had different combinations and I chose one of those.

P.S. I'm pleased to report that my first lunch was a success and all the pieces made it home today.

Mhays wrote:I found a laptop lunchbox for I think $20 at a natural dry goods store in Evanston: Healthy Green Goods 702 Main. (we bought it for a teacher gift) IIRC the separate sections are sealed separately, unlike most of the obento I have purchased for Scott, but I didn't get him one for the very reason Holly of Uptown mentioned...

The Laptop Lunches web site Holly linked also has a Retail Stores section where you can find various LL products in-store. Other retail locations that come up include Women and Children First on 5233 N. Clark in Chicago and Magic Tree Bookstore & Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park (for the places in or very near Chicago).

I wonder how the size of the H-Mart set Cathy mentioned compares to the LL bento box. Maybe they have a similar price per cubic centimeter? As long as it's dishwasher-safe (and relatively toxin-free), I do like having a cheaper option.

...when GWiv starts appearing in your dreams.

On Friday, I dreamt that I was at an LTH dinner, which I guessed was taking place somewhere in Chicago. I couldn't tell the restaurant or even the kind of food; I just knew it was an LTH dinner for the chorus of voices. Conversation over dinner turned to Viennese pastry, with me insisting that I knew the best pastry shop in Vienna, located two blocks from the opera house. Someone else chimed in that he/she knew the same pastry shop but that it was three blocks from the opera house. Sensing some tension, someone else chimed in that we should just settle the matter right then. The next thing I knew, I was in the pastry shop with GWiv and a historian of African art I once knew. We were on a mission to buy Sachertorte to bring back to the LTH dinner. I was running laps around the shop looking for the Sachertorte, and Gary was chatting up the owner. (The historian was just standing off to the side being useless.) I eventually found out that there were no more Sachertortes for the day. Gary had picked up something else instead. He opened the box to show me. Inside was a "Spiegeltorte," he explained. I was no less than dismayed by what I saw. The "Spiegeltorte" looked like a Bozo-show whipped cream pie with a few chocolate shavings. I begged Gary not to buy it, but he insisted that the torte was a Viennese novelty that should be shared with LTHers at the dinner.

{End of dream}

happy_stomach wrote:...when GWiv starts appearing in your dreams.

On Friday, I dreamt that I was at an LTH dinner, which I guessed was taking place somewhere in Chicago. I couldn't tell the restaurant or even the kind of food; I just knew it was an LTH dinner for the chorus of voices. Conversation over dinner turned to Viennese pastry, with me insisting that I knew the best pastry shop in Vienna, located two blocks from the opera house. Someone else chimed in that he/she knew the same pastry shop but that it was three blocks from the opera house. Sensing some tension, someone else chimed in that we should just settle the matter right then. The next thing I knew, I was in the pastry shop with GWiv and a historian of African art I once knew. We were on a mission to buy Sachertorte to bring back to the LTH dinner. I was running laps around the shop looking for the Sachertorte, and Gary was chatting up the owner. (The historian was just standing off to the side being useless.) I eventually found out that there were no more Sachertortes for the day. Gary had picked up something else instead. He opened the box to show me. Inside was a "Spiegeltorte," he explained. I was no less than dismayed by what I saw. The "Spiegeltorte" looked like a Bozo-show whipped cream pie with a few chocolate shavings. I begged Gary not to buy it, but he insisted that the torte was a Viennese novelty that should be shared with LTHers at the dinner.

{End of dream}

You win the award. This is hysterical.

But I can't believe that Gary wouldn't know what he was talking about. Even in someone else's dream.... :^)

Geo

happy_stomach wrote:...when GWiv starts appearing in your dreams.

H_S,

Really funny and a pleasant change. On the rare occasion I have popped into someones dream I've always seemed to have a loch ness monster quality to my persona, chatting up the owner of a pastry shop is more my style.

Did we ever taste the "Spiegeltorte" though Bozo-show whipped cream pie does not give me high hopes.

Enjoy,
Gary

Did we ever taste the "Spiegeltorte" though Bozo-show whipped cream pie does not give me high hopes.

Of course you know "Spiegel" is "Mirror" in German, and altho Freud does not mention mirrors in his Interpretation of Dreams, here's what one contemporary psychoanalyst has to say about that:

"Eisnitz (1961) summarized his study of three cases by stating, 'The mirror dream represents an attempt at defense against narcissistic mortification from the superego, from the analyst, or from reality. In the case of the superego threat, the threatening part of the superego is split off and projected to the mirror.' Omnipotent voyeurism masters the projected image which is then safely reintrojected as a protector of narcissism." (C. Feigelson, "The Mirror Dream," PSC, 30:341-355)"

Oh my, did I have a funny revelation after seeing this thread name yesterday.

When, you realize that most peoples' "bathroom reading materials" consist of silly humor books, tabloids, or periodicals, your bathroom has a few Indian cookbooks, and a stack of Thai and Indian menus. I was reading through an Indian cookbook for the umpteenth time, (yes, in the bathroom) when I realized this yesterday.

Hi,

There is a foodie I know who reads Saveur in the bathroom. He has all the issues and rotates them thus rereading all the Saveurs at least once a year.

Regards,

Today I head up Oakton St. for groceries, and I thinks to myself, I thinks.."hey, if I drive past the Marketplace on Oakton and Happy Foods, and hang a right at H-Mart, maybe I can get to Trader Joe's and still have time to check out Harrison's Poultry and stop for soup at H-Mart on the way home..."

Mhays wrote:Today I head up Oakton St. for groceries, and I thinks to myself, I thinks.."hey, if I drive past the Marketplace on Oakton and Happy Foods, and hang a right at H-Mart, maybe I can get to Trader Joe's and still have time to check out Harrison's Poultry and stop for soup at H-Mart on the way home..."

... and skip Eurostyle Deli????

...and Sweet Fantasies for candy, for that matter...

...you spend more than two hours walking up and down the aisles of H-Mart in total awe.

...youve become a total chili snob since your contest win and now will only use Gephardts chili powder in your homemade brew.

Mhays wrote:Today I head up Oakton St. for groceries, and I thinks to myself, I thinks.."hey, if I drive past the Marketplace on Oakton and Happy Foods, and hang a right at H-Mart, maybe I can get to Trader Joe's and still have time to check out Harrison's Poultry and stop for soup at H-Mart on the way home..."

Happy Foods is such a great name for a grocery store, isn't it?

You know you are an LTH'r when ...

You won't even go out to lunch without first sending an email to see who can join you!

You hit "Preview" 24 times before you press "Submit."

Having far exceeded your free picture storage limit, you're actually paying Flickr.

-You constantly tell your non-food loving roommate(yet he's a 'sous chef') 'Oh I heard about this place' and he says 'Who? who did you here about this place from?' then I tell him what to order and he is happy.


We both moved here from NY and don't really know anyone so me saying 'I heard this' sounds a little weird to us. I showed him LTH but he doesn't care, but always takes my advice for great food.

You've already taken your load of meat and eggs to the car after picking them up from the Wettstein's Oak Park delivery when you decide you really have to buy some more of that lovely lamb and head back again. You're in line behind someone asking Emily how to cook the lamb stew meat--can she do it in a crock pot? You interrupt and say "yes, middle eastern with tomatoes, green beans, and cinnamon. Or with apricots. And you can serve it over couscous or rice... when you realize this isn't really an LTH crowd and perhaps you're getting a little carried away. But you do appreciate it when someone else in line says "So you're having us all over for dinner tonight?"

You know you are an LTH'r when ...

You go into the kitchen barely awake at 9am to simply pour a glass of orange juice, and come out an hour later after preparing potato and cauliflower curry, and a chicken tikka masala. Simply because the mood hit, and the ingredients (raw chicken, and half a head of cauliflower) were in the right place at the right time when you opened the door to the fridge. Things like this happen all too frequently, and the members of the household no longer question what you're doing in the kitchen at what hour any more.

. . . when someone asks you what's new and you realize shortly after the conversation that all you did was talk about all the places you've eaten lately.

=R=

You start fermenting dough at 1 AM for Harira you're making the next night. You're not Muslim, it's not Ramadan, and you're not living in Morocco or Algeria.