Fat Guy

I can only answer for myself. First, he could say he was wrong. Second, in terms of the discussion in our forums, the issue was dropped for more than five years. When it came up again, I said it was forgivable. Then somebody noted that he gave the money to charity, and I pointed out that I remember that decision being damage control. People wouldn't let it go, and here we are. I'd be happy to drop it for another five years, but I know enough about online discussion to be confident that's not going to happen.

Very possible? More like not totally impossible, but highly unlikely. In any event, when you're planning to engage in public behavior that is hypocritical on its face, it helps to explain yourself in advance of a public outcry.

My recollection, fuzzy though it may be, is that he donated the money to charity in response to the disapprobation of his peers and followers. Had he said up front, okay, here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to get a bunch of money from BK and give it to the poor, I think reactions would have been different. That's how I remember it at least.

Interesting coincidence: the other day, for the first time, I saw Rick Bayless on PBS. He and his daughter made some interesting-looking Mexican ice pops. So my friend and I got hold of some popsicle sticks at the local five and dime and reproduced the recipe. The ice pops were great. As we were enjoying our ice pops, I told my friend the story of Rick Bayless and Burger King. My friend summed it up well: "Big mistake, but not unforgivable." Paletas de Frutas, from Rick Bayless.

I'm advising an out-of-town, serious food acquaintance on the following: assuming a near-complete lack of familiarity with the NYC pizza scene, what would be the 10 required stops on an NYC pizza literacy tour? Emphasis on the new wave, but not exclusively.

Yes, for those who didn't catch it, big article on bentos in today's New York Times dining section: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/09bento.html?ref=dining

Just tried Veloce. Unimpressive. The crust was heavy, and the top layer near the toppings was soggy. Not desirably wet in the center like a proper Neapolitan pie. Just soggy.

I went to Co. tonight, finally (I'm slowly trying to reclaim my NY pizza literacy after a half-decade hiatus), and thought it was excellent. While the style doesn't conform to any particular set of rules, the crust is superb in its own way -- a nice compromise between the Neapolitan pillow and the stiff New York coal-oven-type crust. Toppings-wise, the four pies I tried were all successful. Fennel-and-sausage (crushed tomato, roasted fennel, sausage, red onions, chili, buffalo mozzarella, parmesan) and boscaiola (tomato, mushroom, buffalo mozzarella, pork sausage, onion, chili) were my favorites. They sound like topping-heavy pies but the toppings are applied sparingly enough that they don't overwhelm the pie. The margherita was quite good but not as good as the pies with interesting toppings. The Popeye (a lot of spinach plus pecorino, gruyère, buffalo mozzarella, black pepper) was surprisingly harmonious. I liked Keste better but in terms of style it's not directly competitive.

So I got the right noodles?

Okay I'm going to experiment with that soon. School starts next Wednesday, but there's an "adjustment period" where the days are shorter. So he doesn't actually start bringing lunch for another couple of weeks. One of the things I'm planning to do is make doubles of everything so I can taste his lunch at lunchtime. This will give me a better idea of how well the various items hold up when stored/refrigerated.

So what are the differences between the Malony potato-starch noodles and actual Jap Chae?

So they're potato-starch noodles but not jap chae? Interesting.

Today on the way home from Barnes & Noble I wandered by a branch of Jamba Juice on Lexington Avenue here in Manhattan. I'd never been in a Jamba Juice before but, given my new penchant for smoothies, I figured it couldn't hurt to see how the professionals do it. I was surprised at how many of the items on the menu contain things like orange sherbert. But there was one section called All Fruit -- I'm eager to hear the argument for claiming that the phrase "all fruit" is a trademark -- that looked more like the smoothies I make at home. I ordered Pomegranate Paradise (a more credible trademark), which is pomegranate juice, strawberries, mango, peach and ice. "Would you like any boosts?" asked the guy at the counter. I had to ask him to repeat himself. It seems you can have all sorts of vitamin powders and such added to your smoothie. I felt hopelessly ignorant, like someone walking into Starbuck's and saying, "Can I get a coffee?" I declined the offer of boosts, even though some of the boosts are free (others are not "free boosts"). They use serious commercial blenders. If I tried to reproduce the same smoothie at home it would surely wreck my Waring. The product was incredibly smooth, uniform and thick -- the consistency of a heavy milkshake but made of fruit and fruit juice with some ice. It was so thick it was more food than beverage. Impressive as it was for its thickness, I didn't love it. It was more like a dessert than something I'd have for breakfast. I actually like my thinner, more rustic homemade smoothies. And don't even get me started on the cost differential. It's more than enough to pay for a VitaMix in a few months of daily smoothie consumption.

The egg and rice molds have arrived. I used the egg molds successfully today, the big surprise being that they require smaller eggs than I'm accustomed to using. The eggs labeled "large" in American supermarkets are the ones that fit right. I could use some instruction on the rice molds, though.

Yeah except the outfit Costco sells is $649.99 and comes with a million accessories I don't care about. I don't know that you can get just the blender at Costco. There's also the issue of the restaurant model being available. And the Blendtec alternative.

Today I had a prep-as-you-go mishap with a dish I've cooked a zillion times. I was making fried rice and went for the frozen peas -- and couldn't find them. The delay due to the search through the freezer for the frozen peas screwed everything up. While I freely admit to being a frequent practitioner of prep-as-you-go cooking, it's just not as reliable as doing proper mise-en-place.

Rice is actually an ingenious idea. Kind of like soubise thickened with rice. Since I like banana just fine, I'll probably not explore the idea of thickening a smoothie with rice. Still, I admire the ingenuity.

I wonder what the property of bananas is that makes them so useful in improving the texture of a smoothie. My first guess is that it's their starchiness. If that's the case, the substitutes would be other starchy fruits, for example plantains, breadfruit, water chestnuts, dates, that sort of thing. Which leads me to wonder if squash and pumpkin would work equally well. One of the branches of smoothie theory that I need to pursue is the incorporation of not-particularly-sweet fruits and even vegetables. If they're balanced against sweet stuff, there should be a lot of possibilities.

For example, my mother cooks french fries in a small saucepan in olive oil, totally overcrowding the pan with potatoes. Yet they come out great. Everything about the process is wrong -- the small pot, the choice of oil, the crowding, frying once, etc. -- but they're great. You?

My Waring by the way says it's model 34BL87.

My Waring bar blender can make a smoothie well enough, but compared to a VitaMix/Prep or a Champ (or the high-power Waring they put out recently to compete with those products) it seems pretty feeble. I need to do some more hands-on experimenting, though.

I have no set agenda. I had a surplus of fruit a while back and so I froze a bunch of it when it was super-ripe. I then decided to make a smoothie one morning and really enjoyed it. So I've escalated my smoothie-making and have had a smoothie most days for breakfast for the past while. Now I'm trying to learn more. I'm probably not interested in adding sugar (or honey) or dairy products. But that doesn't mean those things are verboten for discussion. Other than that, I'm interested in the largest possible information dump on smoothie making, so I can get caught up.

I'm wondering whether a high-powered blender wouldn't just overcome all the considerations of what needs to be added to make something smooth. I see those VitaMix demos at Costco occasionally and it seems like that thing can make a creamy, smooth beverage out of a cinder block. Or if you let it run long enough it makes a hit soup. Or if you start with a frozen cinder block it makes sorbet.

I have been adding a couple of tablespoons of Bob's Red Mill ground flaxseed. It doesn't really affect the flavor and presumably will make me live forever.

The banana thing I've noticed. If you use banana, you get a creamy smoothie. If you don't use banana, you need some sort of dairy source of creaminess. I have no fundamental problem with dairy but it's something I don't prefer to have in the morning.