Fat Guy

Correction: I would take it to Williams-Sonoma. They're very good about backing the products they sell.

I think there's a good argument that you're looking at a manufacturing defect. Wusthof knives are supposed to stand up to decades of professional use. Under home-cooking circumstances, they should never break like that. My guess is there was a small defect in the metal that, over the years, developed into cracks and then a break. It's certainly worth sending it to the manufacturer. I'd be surprised if they didn't offer a replacement.

Rice, especially non-white rice, is surprisingly durable. You can cook it in the morning, or make a big batch and reheat throughout the week, without noticeable loss in quality. It seems even to improve a bit if it sits in the rice cooker on warm for a while. It also freezes really well. If you've tried Trader Joe's frozen brown rice you'll surely agree.

Counting courses is only one element of a menu comparison, especially when you consider that an eight-course tasting at a place like Daniel might include a multi-part amuse, dessert amuse, petits fours and a significant bread selection. But what it comes down to is that if the appropriate comparison is a $200-range degustation than Ko is a bargain, and if the appropriate comparison is one of the tasting menus at Babbo then Ko is now overpriced. But I think the former comparison makes more sense.

There's a whole debate to be had about what constitutes the universe of comparable restaurants and menus. I think Ko's tasting menu is comparable to something like the eight-course tasting menu at Daniel, which is currently priced at $195. You get a lot more amenities at Daniel but I think Ko is serving a menu as good or better (and certainly more interesting) for $70 less per person. I believe the reason for the price increase was to allow the restaurant to buy better ingredients. If there was a limitation on Ko's cuisine, it was the budget. The menu price limited the range of ingredients available to the kitchen. If an appropriate percentage of the increased menu price is being designated for ingredient purchasing, then it brings dinner one step closer to lunch. Given the bottomless demand for seats at Ko, it would make sense to raise prices even with no corresponding increase in ingredient expenditures. But my educated guess is that this increase at least in part covers food cost.

Yesterday was Columbus Day so no school and no lunch. Today is another short day where he'll have a partial meal soon after pickup. So, I packed mozzarella-and-tomato salad. When I arranged the bottom layer, it consisted of nice cubes of mozzarella and cherry-tomato halves in a very nice pattern. Then when I did the top layer the ratios were off, many of the pieces were deformed, etc. -- so it looks bad. Also some pita chips, and some grapes and apple slices. Tomorrow we begin the full school day, so my intent is to pack lunches with more structure. We'll see if I muster up the energy, though.

My impression is that, back in the day, almost all plant foods were overcooked to a point that would be considered inedible by modern standards. And, in reaction to that, the modern approach is to undercook almost all plant foods (vegetables, beans, lentils, etc.). Me, I think most plant foods taste better when cooked a bit past the modern preference. But there's some subtlety to it. In many cases, the best move is to start at a high temperature and then reduce the heat. With potatoes, I like to bake them to standard doneness, then shut off the oven and let them sit for about half an hour with the door slightly ajar. This, I think, improves their texture and skin greatly -- if you have the time. For broccoli I like to bring it up to temperature in a saucepot with a small amount of water, cover, cook for about 5 minutes then turn off the heat and let it sit for another 10 or so minutes. This cooks the florets through without making them mushy and while preserving their color and flavor. Same with carrots. With beans and lentils, I like to cook them until al dente plain, let them cool, then cook them with the onions, seasonings, meat, stock, tomatoes, whatever. This seems to work better than cooking them straight through.

I don't know much about this source, oliveoilsource.com, but this sounds convincing:

That is correct. Blaming the author for production decisions is like blaming the screenwriter for the decision to cast Michael Keaton as Batman. All the author can do is try. Of course, if the author doesn't even try, that's another story. My own position, as stated before, is that all publishers should simply start offering both types of measurements. This is a cost-free way to move out of the dark ages. Those who insist on working with volume measures can have them, and those who know better can use their scales.

In my Zojirushi "fuzzy logic" rice cooker it takes nearly 2 hours to run through the whole brown-rice cycle.

The brown and red rices that I've been blending call for the same cooking times and water ratios. I'm actually not sure how the people who blend white and brown are pulling it off.

It has been my experience that brown rice does indeed take forever in the rice cooker.

Interesting. They carry several Lundberg products at the market where I shop, and I've often bought their brown rice, but they carry no blends.

According to the Vegan Store website, they are TVP, MSG and some other stuff:

I think there's a little bit of a chicken-and-egg problem when one tries to settle questions like this. What comes first, the rating or the criteria? It seems to me that if you define your rating scale with particularity, most of these questions fall away. So, for example, if you say "Four stars means white tablecloths," then everybody is on notice that, in that particular system, you can't get four stars if you have no tablecloths or black tablecloths. Another rating system can have the rule, "We only care about food, not tablecloths," in which case, again, we know what we're dealing with. The problem arises when you have poorly defined, highly elastic rating systems the application of which is left up to individuals who may or may not have great judgment. In that situation, communication becomes sketchy. Readers have no reliable way of knowing what to expect from a four-star restaurant.

I have no idea how much the food costs but from the experience of the place I can virtually guarantee that it costs more than at Pasha, Uskudar or Bereket. The food I tried was also significantly more haute-elegant than anything I've had at Pasha, Uskudar or Bereket (or Turkuaz), sort of like the difference between a Little Italy red-sauce place and Babbo, or a typical Astoria Greek place and Anthos, although more in terms of refinement than creativity. That's just based on a limited sampling of the menu. I'll need to return in order to get a more complete picture.

By way of follow-up, I cooked the Pera-to-go kebabs at home and our taster approved.

Clearly there's nothing in the Columbus Circle area that's on par with the good downtown cocktail bars, however that doesn't mean every other bar in the city is at some equivalent low level of awfulness. For example, the last time I was at MObar (the bar at Mandarin Oriental, which I believe also puts out the lobby-lounge drinks) I had what I considered a very good mojito infused with ginger. It was pretty, neo-fusion and possibly served in an oversized glass. But it was also, to me, a terrific mojito. One person I was with had a blood-orange/lychee thing that was exactly what you worry you're going to get at one of these trendy places. The other ordered a simple mixed drink -- something like X and soda -- and it seemed to be made competently. So I don't know. It's a balancing act. Of course Pegu is better. But if you want to have dinner at Per Se, go out for a cocktail, and be back at a Midtown hotel by midnight (per the original request), it's not the worst idea to go to Mandarin Oriental. Ditto for the bar at Porter House, where it's usually not hard to walk in even on a weekend night. While some of their drinks fall victim to the too-sweet/trendy problem, I've had some there that I think are noteworthy, especially the "1927 Ultimate Martini," which is a drink I'd wager at least some cocktailians would approve of.

At least that seems to be the case at the farms in the NY/NJ/CT area that offer U-pick apples. I think that's messed up.

That was definitely a more authoritative answer than I was expecting. This is not my own burnt tongue but rather that of a loved one to whom I was hoping to offer some relief. I also feel responsible for the burn, as creator of the hot food. Sounds like Aleve and ice cream are the way to go tonight and it will probably be all better by tomorrow.

A while back, we ordered takeout from a local Chinese place and one of our crew asked for brown rice. The rice turned out to be exceptional: it had some grains that looked normally brown, and some reddish grains. It made for a wonderfully nutty, hearty rice that was actually better than the white rice even if it wasn't necessarily a better match for Chinese food. I wondered what kind of rice they were using. Next time I was at the restaurant (Empire Szechuan on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan) I asked the chef's wife what the deal was with the rice. She sent someone to the kitchen and he returned with two bags of rice. One was brown jasmine rice. The other was something called red cargo rice. She said they mix the two in approximately a 75-25 brown-red ratio to get the speckled, nutty rice they serve when people ask for brown rice. She said they have the same cooking times and required water ratios (2:1 water:rice), so the process is seamless. I filed this knowledge away until I found myself in a big Asian market in New Jersey and saw both brown jasmine and red jasmine rices available (the red jasmine is not identical to red cargo, but a knowledgeable salesperson told me it was an acceptable and less expensive substitute). I bought both. Because of the difference in bag sizes, I was able to combine one entire bag with the other to get, if not exactly the same ratio Empire Szechuan uses, something pretty close. This has become my standard house-blend rice. Everybody who tries it is amazed at the flavor, aroma and texture and asks what kind of rice it is. (I have since acquired some legitimate Thai red cargo rice and it's not noticeably -- to me -- better than the cheaper Chinese stuff I bought.) Is the idea of blending different rice varieties something that I'm the last to hear about, or is it an innovation I can get credit for telling you all about?

The lobby bar at the Mandarin Oriental, attached to Time Warner, is quite good. It's not on the level of the downtown places but has a better view -- one of the best in town -- and is good enough for all but the pickiest cocktailians. Also pretty good, in Time Warner, is the bar at Porter House.

Is there anything to be done for a burnt tongue (the kind in your mouth, as opposed to the cooked tongue of an animal)? Is it just a matter of time or are there ways to accelerate the healing process? Bonus points for help with proper usage of "burnt" and "burned."

The restaurant kitchens I've been in where they pick up raw, they use small chickens that have been butchered into parts. That seems to be the only way to cook bone-in chicken to done in a relatively short time.

This week is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which in part is observed by eating meals in temporary hut-like structures (such a structure is called a sukkah) outdoors. So, this being a school in a synagogue, today after school was a pizza party in the sukkah. As a result we were instructed to pack a lunch that would be an appetizer. ("When packing food, think of the in-room eating as their "appetizer" course and their pizza in the sukkah as their main course.") So lunch today was some hummus, cheese, crackers and fruit. PTA-provided pizza in the sukkah followed. No lunch on Friday on account of noon dismissal for the Sabbath.