Fat Guy

This just doesn't seem to be the case with me.

I don't need any help sweating. I sort of need the opposite.

I'm on my way to Providence to get it.

It's hot here in New York City and I don't have air conditioning installed yet. I'm thinking about which foods to use to cool us down. I think I have the basics covered: cold beverages, ice cream and sorbet, fruit from the fridge. Other ideas?

Since the last time I posted lunch photos, we moved. This caused a lot of disruption to the lunch-making process, as it has taken about six weeks to get basic things -- like the stove -- working right. Anyway, here are photos from about the last month. A few photos may have fallen through the cracks. I've photographed every lunch except for two Ellen made when I went to Spain. But the inventory of photos may be incomplete.

I worry about overmixing things like cookie doughs. Is that an irrational fear?

The plain-ish flavors, like vanilla and chocolate, say "ice cream" on the packaging. The more flavored flavors, like butter pecan, don't. Weird.

"INGREDIENTS: Whey (Dairy), skim milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, roasted pecans (pecans, coconut oil, butter [cream, salt], salt), maltodextrin, natural flavor, brown sugar (molasses, sugar), salt, butter (cream, salt), Propylene Glycol Monostearate, carrageenan, guar gum, monoglycerides, carob bean gum, soy lecithin"

Cream is listed as an ingredient.

Edy's ice cream was on sale at my local supermarket today so I bought a couple of 48-ounce containers. Turns out, nowhere on the container does it say "ice cream." It says "frozen dairy dessert." What's up with that?

I have two Honeywell HEPA filters -- not electrostatic -- and they do very little with vaporized grease that's traveling in the upward direction. I've pretty much retired them from kitchen use and use them elsewhere in my home now. I'd hate to shell out $500 for an electrostatic filter only to find out it doesn't do much better. Have you implemented this solution with good results or seen it done in this context?

I live in an apartment in New York City with no access to an outside area where I can cook. I think there must be some sort of hybrid of the Ducasse method that uses the oven for part of the time. The oven is a good containment device for vaporized grease. Otherwise, while the Ducasse method is a huge improvement over the hard sear, it still creates a decent amount of spatter and fumes.

I was over at some friends' place last night for a Memorial Day cookout -- indoors. It made a heck of a lot of smoke when they cooked the burgers and such, and I imagine over time with repetition there will be a film of grease all over the place. For those of us with crummy exhaust systems there are a lot of things that are hard to cook without making a mess: meats that require a hard sear, anything deep fried, etc. I'd be interested to hear what you all do to get around these limitations. Please assume installing a better exhaust system is not a possibility.

South-Central Harlem (now being called SoHa by realtors and reporters) has been defined various ways, but all definitions put my address right in the middle of it. Let's call it the area of Harlem bordered by 110th Street (Central Park North) on the south and 123rd Street on the north, Frederick Douglass Boulevard (that's the avenue that would be Central Park West if the park continued north of 110th Street, which corresponds to Eighth Avenue on the Midtown street grid) on the west and Lenox Avenue (which would be Sixth Avenue below the park) on the east. At the moment the major hub of development from a food standpoint seems to be Frederick Douglass from about 112th to 118th. It feels like every time I walk over there a new restaurant or shop has opened. I'm just beginning to explore the neighborhood (we moved here in April) and will report back as I hit various places. But I was wondering: does anyone have any guidance for me here?

Damn those things are expensive.

Do you obey all traffic laws including all speed limits? Do you ever lie for any reason?

I confess the following: About 17 years ago we received as a wedding gift a KitchenAid stand mixer. I think it was whatever was the best model available at that time (KSM50P). I have used it rarely, and rarely for its main purposes (for example, it works well with the grinder attachment when my friend brings that over). Most any time I think to use it, I resort instead to the food processor, blender, hand mixer (also KitchenAid brand) or bowl and spoon. Yet, I still devote valuable counter real estate to the KitchenAid stand mixer. It's a thing of beauty and I just know that with a proper program of acculturation I'll get into using it. Can you help me?

Mark, how has your KitchenAid stand mixer been a game-changer for you? I actually need to start a topic on that.

The New York Times reports that this coming Thursday the US government will abandon the food pyramid graphic in favor of a plate design. Farewell to the pyramid.

Thought some of you might be interested in a photo of the stolen-bag collection: By the way, while I won't bother correcting every anger-induced false assumption here, I do feel it's worth addressing the occasional one. For example, as any reader of the Bentos topic knows, when I pack school lunch for my son I pack in reusable containers and even include a cloth napkin. However, there are many occasions on which it's still necessary to use a bag. For example, on days when there are field trips (due to his school's very progressive curriculum, this happens a lot), the rule is that you have to pack a 100% disposable lunch. So one is limited to a choice among different kinds of packaging all of which will wind up in the trash after lunch. I think there's a good argument that the thinnest, lightest plastic bag is the least wasteful solution in that instance. When possible, we use a bag more than once -- if it comes back to us. We also have plastic-bag recycling in New York City, as I already mentioned. I do by the way have a full inventory of zipper bags in five sizes. But I'd rather use a thin, light bag where possible. It's better environmentally and it's cheaper for me. I have paper lunch bags too -- there's an open question whether paper or plastic is better. Not that any of this environmental talk matters much when weighed against the environmental destructiveness of, say, commuting to work by car every day or having a charcoal grill -- things people in New York City pretty much never do.

The Blendtec or Vita-Mix or other high-power blender. My blender allows me to make things that just weren't achievable without this piece of equipment, like all-fruit frozen desserts and smoothies that incorporate things like whole flax seeds.

So, one impediment to the dream has been overcome. From the day we took possession of the kitchen, the stove was about two inches out from the wall. A lot of neck craning revealed that the gas valve was blocking the stove. There's a cutout in the back of the stove where the gas valve can nest, but part of the valve was about 1/2" out of place so was blocking the stove. About 20 emails with the contractor, many phone calls, three cancelled appointments that I waited around all day for, and a couple of meetings in the lobby later, the plumber finally showed up this morning and fixed it in five minutes by turning the valve 180 degrees so the control faces the other way. The Berta is now, gloriously, flush against the backsplash. My life can go on.

So, don't ask a question unless you're willing to accept every absolutist, Manichean, poorly reasoned answer that comes your way? I practiced at one of the leading white-collar criminal-defense firms, and also worked for a federal judge. I can tell you with reasonably good authority that there is no actionable offense here. I'd love to see the grand jury on this one. Whether there is an ethical transgression is still an open question. As I've read the various arguments supposedly based on ethics, I've come to feel better and better -- from an ethical standpoint -- about taking a few extra produce bags each time I go shopping. I think those who are getting all exorcised about the practice may want to examine their own motivations rather than mine. Mine are not all that complex or interesting. But when I tell people in the outside world that this is the big eG Forums controversy of the moment, they thing it's pretty funny.

I think it's also a sign of a culture of wealth and abundance. You don't see this stuff for free everywhere in the world.

My posts tend to have several purposes: I want to know something, I want to encourage discussion, etc.