AskTP – The Last Answers of 2017

This is it. The last round of questions and answers for 2017. The new year will be here soon, and so will the hope that I’ll get better about answering reader questions in a more timely way.

Things get busy. Sometimes there’s a lot to say. And sometimes there really just aren’t enough accumulated questions to make a dedicated post. Occasionally, one of the questions is really hard, and that can cause delays. On the flip side, sometimes once the pile gets too long, it can be hard to face the backlog.

But yesterday I cleared out most of the cobwebs from the Ask the Profussor queue. So today, I’m going to answer the rest and put this feature to bed for the year. After all, I did make a commitment a long time ago, to answer every question submitted to the comments section of the blog… just so long as it included proper punctuation.

Before we get down to the nitty gritty, please remember that the links embedded before every question all go to the same place. I like to call that the mystery link of the day. If you this will be frustrating for you, just don’t click on them.

Finding the original post that generated the comment is just a quick Google search away. Now without any further ado, onto the questions.

Ewan and Jean Paul Sartre would seem to have the same question:
Price Chopper bagels instead of Uncommon Grounds? What Hell Is This?

As delicious as the Uncommon Grounds bagels may be, there are some people who know that bagels aren’t supposed be that doughy. Crusty, yes. Chewy, yes. Doughy, no. Now, not all Price Chopper bagels are the same. Many stores have in-house bakeries where the bagels are made by hand. A lot depends on the person making them. And a lot depends on the bagels you choose from the bin. Mark my words, there are better bagels to be found in Price Chopper than Uncommon Grounds.

Deanna overlooked the reisling from Lamoreaux Landing at the bar mitzvah:
It was one of the more beautiful moments I’ve been fortunate to witness. A lot of eye-dabbing. But somehow I missed wine from LL, one of my all-time faves. How’d that happen? Alas, a great, GREAT time! And this Methodist girl wasn’t even raptured by the hand of Jesus!

It’s hard to read the wine labels after you’ve been crying. Totally understandable. Glad that you survived the day without unleashing the wrath of god. I can’t say the same for all of us.

Speaking of which, Mrs. Fussy was hoping to get rid of some bar mitzvah leftovers:
Can we give away the ice cream, too? Cause I am feeling really gross.

I am married to a really really wonderful woman with many great qualities. Being able to exhibit a modicum of self restraint around a half gallon of ice cream isn’t one of them. Giving away ice cream from our stash of Stewart’s makes our children cry. Fortunately, soon after this question, Mrs. Fussy went off on a work trip. While she was gone, I force fed ice cream on our kids for a few days until it was all gone.

EPT is digging back to the past when I was gifted a special treat from McDonald’s:
BTW, what was your take on the bottled MAC special sauce?

The Big Mac Tater Tot Nachos would not have been the same with the bottle of special sauce. It was delicious, in its own gross kind of way. More than that, it was enlightening to see that there’s no ketchup or tomato anywhere in it. However, I could not possibly eat that whole bottle myself. Thankfully Steve N. was willing to give it a good home after I lived my Super Bowl fantasy dish.

Dave also has grievances about the state of mass market candy these days:
The Kit-Kat cookie to chocolate ratio is off now too. Too much waxy chocolate. I don’t get it as sugar wafers are extremely cheap themselves. Why short on the sugar wafer?

Save a penny. Multiply that by a billion and it’s $10 million. Isn’t it a terrifying notion that chocolate has gotten so cheap and crappy that the wafer might be the more expensive part of the candy?

Gabby made me feel like a jerk for complaining about my excess:
Daniel, what a blessing to have too much food. Can you find someone who needs it to give it to? Hell, you can leave it with me and I’ll find a home for it, if I can’t eat it myself. I’m turning into the Anti-Food-Waste Avenger these days.

This is why I find it so important for me to work with The Food Pantries for the Capital District. But the struggle is real. I too an man anti-food-waste avenger. However, instead of feeling good about it, I’m bummed at how much that cuts into my eating plans. For example, recently I found myself near fin-your fishmonger during lunch. More than anything I wanted to pop in visit Chef Rob to taste some of his new fishy treats. But I was heading out of town in a couple of days, and if I didn’t get home to eat some leftovers, they would go to waste. So, home I went. Rob will just have to wait until 2018. Sniff.

Pam C. talks about a breakfast cereal that I never encountered?
I liked to eat Life, and Oat Flakes. Why can’t you buy oat flakes any more? Thank God for Cheerios!

Oat Flakes? Do you mean these? I’ve never had them. I don’t even recall ever seeing them. Life, on the other hand, I know. I used to like it as a kid. But I’m really happy these days with just a sprinkling of granola on a little bit of low fat strained, greek-style yogurt.

Pam C. asks a simple straightforward question with a simple straightforward answer:
I am with you, Daniel, about the butteriness (is that a word? 🤔) of the bread.

Totally a word.

EPT is looking to source something I never buy:
Aside from ground veal, unfortunately, most veal cut from the leg is with the grain which makes it shrink and tough when sauteed. Any sources of properly butchered veal?

Well, that’s an interesting tidbit of information. I have no idea. But my hunch is that you could probably find a local butcher who is willing to work with you. Anyone else have thoughts on this? Mrs. Meaterson?

Benjamin sounds upset by how some people make grilled cheese sandwiches:
Can you believe some people smear the outsides of the bread with oil or even mayo (which contains oil) instead of butter? Yuck.

Just don’t ask me how my Nana used to make swordfish. Look, I have nothing against mayonnaise. Sure, I’m team butter when it comes to grilled cheese sandwiches. But I’ve never done the mayo thing at home. I would be curious to try it some time. However, the question was if I could believe some people did something strange. The simple answer is, you bet.

John Galt apparently wasn’t a fan of Campagna:
Campagna was awful. Did you eat there?

I never ate there.

EPT validated my complaint about beer being served way to cold:
So we agree, again?

Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

albanylandlord knows what he likes:
They were serving Edward and you only had one of them?

Yes. For what it’s worth, in hindsight I regret it. The Edward was by far the best beer I tried that day. Nothing else came close. Now I know. Sorry to have let you down. But some lessons have to be learned the hard way.

Jon in Albany is thoughtfully considering what it means for a pizza to be white:
That mushroom pie I make has a thin coat of creme fraiche (I love that pie)…is that a white pie?

Yes. Yes it is.

GS was secretly hoping that I got some green chili when out in Phoenix:
I’m glad you found acceptable pizza in Phoenix, but please tell us you enjoyed other foods too!!?

Yes, I did. But I did miss out on the foods of the American southwest. We did make an attempt at getting green chili at one of my cousin’s favorite spots. However, when we arrived, there was some corporate party at the restaurant and we couldn’t even get take out. It was a bummer to be sure. Still, I ate well on that trip. Some of the adventure is chronicled on Yelp, and I hope to get the rest of it up before the new year.