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" I am a good tipper, and always leave 15 percent, no matter what the amount. (In the case of good service, I will go to 20 or even 25 percent, depending on the bill.) But if the meal includes a bottle of wine that is as much as all the food, do I need to really tip on that? The server is doing the exact same amount of work, whether I get an inexpensive bottle or a costly one. I will accept your opinion on this, either way. Francis Buxton, Providence, Rhode Island First of all, you are not a good tipper. Nobody leaves 15 percent in this day and age. That&amp;#039;s what grandmothers leave the single moms at Denny&amp;#039;s. Don&amp;#039;t be like them. Leave 20 percent at a minimum. If the service was poor, you can leave 20 percent. If the service is terrible, and you feel that the server was way out of line, a proper tip would be 20 percent. Do you see what I&amp;#039;m getting at? Serving is a hard job, and the only job many people, especially women, can get. They deserve to be paid for it, even if they do it badly. And by the way, your tip doesn&amp;#039;t just go to your server, but to all the servers, and the bussers and foodrunners too. So pay up, you cheap bastard. And yes, you have to tip on the wine. I am an awesome cook (if I do say so myself), but my eggs are a disaster. They go from being runny, slimy, and nasty to burned, dry, and stuck-on. I lose like half an egg with what gets stuck to the pan. Which is weird, because I really am a good cook and it really frustrates me that I can&amp;#039;t do something as basic as frying an egg.  Lisa Moore, Corning, New York Frying an egg is actually one of the very hardest of all kitchen tasks to master, Lisa, so don&amp;#039;t feel bad about it. Some chefs still judge potential line cooks by the way they cook an egg. Your problem is that you are using too high a heat. Eggs are the most unforgiving of foods, since the point at which their proteins coagulate is instantaneous, unpredictable, and impossible to reverse. The way to control the process is always to do it slowly, over a medium-low fire. Eggs are never browned. Take your time. This goes for scrambled eggs as well. I actually have a lot to say on the subject of eggs.  My girlfriend is totally obsessed with mozzarella, to the point that literally every kind of mozzarella just makes her complain about how shitty it is. (It all tastes great to me.) Is there some kind of ultimate mozzarella (buffalo?) that I can order online? Deear Severin, Del City, Oklahoma That&amp;#039;s an easy one, Dear. No. The reason all mozzarella is shitty \u2014 a fact about which, by the way, your girlfriend couldn&amp;#039;t be more right \u2014 is that mozzarella is, like a sunrise or a flurry of drunken groping, a fleeting pleasure that cannot be stretched out or preserved. The lifespan of great mozzarella is a few hours at best, and that only in lukewarm bath of salted whey water. If it&amp;#039;s refrigerated, it&amp;#039;s ruined, and if it&amp;#039;s more than a day old, it&amp;#039;s ruined, and if it&amp;#039;s badly made, it&amp;#039;s pre-ruined. So I would strongly suggest you learn to make your own mozzarella. It&amp;#039;s not that hard. And all the fresh mozzarella in America, good and bad, is made from the same Polly-O curds, which you should be able to get at Central Market. Technically, it will be fior de latte, which is to say made from cow&amp;#039;s milk rather than that of water buffalos, but who cares? It will be in your power to make it great eventually, and it is in any case a fun, time-consuming project that you can do together, and worthwhile on that account alone.  I read on Chopsticks and Marrow about how you barbecued a whole lamb and, obviously, I&amp;#039;m really into that, but I don&amp;#039;t have access to a pro smoker. Is there some way I can do this at home without any specialty equipment (spits, spikes, motors, etc.?) Geoff Foster, Huntington, West Virginia Scientists date the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus to a period no later than some 400,000 years ago. And you have to figure they weren&amp;#039;t roasting marshmallows on those fires. You don&amp;#039;t need specialty equipment to cook a whole animal. You need a yard, another guy, and a lot of coal. That&amp;#039;s it. You will need something to hold the lamb up, such as cinderblocks or re-bars, and you will need to put two rows of smoldering coals on either side of it, which will obviously kill any grass under it. But otherwise, you are good to go. Since you don&amp;#039;t want to screw around with a motorized spit \u2014 and who could blame you? \u2014 I recommend planting the lamb upright in the ground in the asado style. For a map, I would recommend the baste of emulsified lamb fat and Pedro Ximenez vinegar which my friend Seamus Mullen came up with. Re-coal as needed, and make sure to hang the animal in a position parallel to the ground. If you want further guidance, consult Franis Mallman&amp;#039;s excellent book, Seven Fires. You think you are some kind of burger master who knows all the best burgers, but you are just a fat goon from New York who only likes &amp;quot;gourmet&amp;quot; burgers. What a joke!!! Maria DeLuca, Buffalo, New York You&amp;#039;re not wrong. I really liked your Rambo post, because there is basically nothing in that entire movie that has anything to do with food or cooking. So that was cool. Is there some other &amp;#039;80s movie that has inspired you? Bernard Woltz, Los Angeles Great question! So great, in fact, that I made it up myself. Obviously, the answer would be Conan the Barbarian. When making pesto, one can only think of the Wheel of Pain, the grist mill at which the young Conan toiled for his entire youth, walking around in circles while some guy sat on top; no spitted rabbit or quail can fail to conjure the meal enjoyed by Conan and Subitai, as they discuss barbarian theology (&amp;quot;Ha! Crom laughs at your four winds.&amp;quot;); when applying my tenderizing hammer to veal cutlets, I imagine myself as Rexor, wielding his oversized hammer; and who can look at an ovoid slice of ruby-red ahi tuna, and not see the glittering Eye of Set, the crown jewel of Thulsa Doom&amp;#039;s sinister sect? Conan&amp;#039;s gifts to my imagination are not all happy ones, however: I can never eat one of those thick Caribbean curries, so rife with goat parts, without thinking of the foul ragout of human body parts enjoyed by Doom&amp;#039;s minions at their doomed orgy.  How many kinds of salt do you have in your kitchen? What is the best all-around salt? Dave Pedersen, Shirley, Massachusetts I have eleven or twelve kinds of salt, Dave, but I&amp;#039;m sort of a freak that way. (Actually, in every way.) I have fine salts for seasoning, of which Kalas, a product of Cyprus, is the best, owing to its very high magnesium content; kosher salt for putting on meat and in pasta water; and oversize salts like Malden and fleur de sel that I sprinkle sparingly onto plated dishes to give them extra class. Without question the best all-around salt is kosher salt, which is an absolute necessity for meat cookery, works fine for seasoning, is everywhere cheap and easy to find. Obviously, nobody needs finishing salts, which are an effete affectation anyway. In your opinion, what is the proper portion of hot dogs to eat for breakfast for the average 200-pound man with or without eggs? Ali Ahmad, Ventnor, New Jersey Skinless or cased? It matters. My sister-in-law is a food blogger for the alt weekly in our town and she&amp;#039;s been doing it for many years and knows most of the chefs in our area. My friends, and even friends of my friends, are constantly asking her get them reservations, hook them up, or even go with her on reviews. She hates to say no to anybody, and some of them are really pushy about it, and it&amp;#039;s made me very uncomfortable, to the point where I just tell everybody that my she is not a concierge. But she says that makes her look like a bitch. So I don&amp;#039;t know what to do. Where is the line with this? Is there one? Name and Location Withheld There is definitely a line. It&amp;#039;s not just writers that deal with this; anyone who is friends with a chef or food blogger will, sooner or later, be importuned for special favors. Take me. All my wife&amp;#039;s friends and co-workers think it&amp;#039;s cool to hit me up for restaurant advice and hookups, and therein lies the line. I am happy to give anyone, friend or stranger, recommendations, but reservations are a favor, and I don&amp;#039;t do favors for people I don&amp;#039;t know. And neither should your sister. Another issue, which you don&amp;#039;t raise but which I am willing to bet bedevils her as well, are close friends or relatives \u2014 people you can&amp;#039;t easily refuse \u2014 who want reservations at hot restaurants on short notice. Just say no. Those are hard asks, harder than they think, and if they come late, misbehave, or, worst of all, bail entirely, it is she, not they, who look bad.  Why do most places dry-age for 28 days? I had a 60 day dry-aged steak that was so unbelievable it makes me wonder why more places don&amp;#039;t subscribe to that practice. Alex Windrem, Raritan, New Jersey They don&amp;#039;t dry-age steak for 60 days for the same reason your landlord doesn&amp;#039;t charge you one month&amp;#039;s rent for two month&amp;#039;s occupancy. There&amp;#039;s only so much room in an aging box, and a 60-day steak uses up space and time that could produce two 28-day steaks, and then some. And unless the room is exceptionally dry and clean, the extra time will likely just make it taste noticeably more like smegma.  What is your favorite kind of pasta? I am a penne guy myself.  Tony Wasniewski, Naperville, Illinois Spaghetti! Always spaghetti. I wouldn&amp;#039;t care a fig if all the other dry pastas disappeared tomorrow. Have a question? Write askeatlikeaman@esquire.com! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/q-and-a/a22780/tipping-service-advice-15526049/>