Ad hoc...

One of my fondest food memories of all time is the time I ate at the French Laundry in 1998. Since then, Thomas Keller has slowly built a restaurant empire, and one of his restaurants is named "Ad hoc". The premise is that every night, there's one price fixe menu. You don't like what they have that night, too bad.
I mention this, because if you sign up for the mailing list, they'll send you the night's menu every day. Since I live in Cary, NC, and Ad hoc is in Yountville, CA, there's not much chance I'm going to be eating there very often, but it's pretty cool to read the menus, if only to get ideas for meals and dishes.
For example, last night, their menu had "melted wax beans" on it. Since I had no idea what that meant, I sent them an email asking what it was (is it beans tossed in melted butter? what?). They were nice enough to reply (so my hat's off to them for that), and they explained that they are slow-cooked beans, until they're very soft (and I'd assume melty).

I'm going to have to try making that. I can already see something like beans with some bacon, or thin-sliced ham (or prosciutto, or pancetta), slow cooked, with maybe a little diced tomato and onions...

But anyway, lots of restaurants nowadays have mailing lists, and they're a great way to keep informed of special events, special menus, etc., and I recommend checking them out.