bleachboy

If I were "some guy", I'd accept the job offer under the condition that I would not guarantee any sort of review outcome. If the food sucks, and he says it doesn't suck because the restaurant is a big advertiser, that's basically payola and I suspect it's illegal in the US -- if not, it's certainly unethical and will hurt his reputation. EDIT: I wrote "immoral", I meant "unethical".

MRX: Inspiring!

Boeuf bourguignon or chili. Yummm. I have unfortunately lost my incredibly delicious chili recipe (took over a year to simplify and perfect) and am in the process of reconstructing it. Damn scraps of paper...

Have you considered soapstone?

I dunno about you guys, but when I was growing up, "hamburger patty" showed up on the menu pretty frequently as the meat item. Not as a replacement for a bunned hamburger either, which my dad would often cook on weekends. Just a patty of ground beef, usually cooked until briquette in the oven, and topped with catsup. Maybe I just had a mother who couldn't cook. Nevertheless, eating a hamburger patty with some vegetables as a meal doesn't seem wierd to me at all. (Eating a Whopper or a Hardee's Thickburger without a bun does strike me as marginally wierd simply due to the low quality of the beef, but that's my food snob coming out, I suppose!)

To confuse things even further, you might have to ask for Grauburgunder. Well, sometimes it's also called Ruländer. I never knew any of this. Interesting info!

My wife seems to actually prefer letting me choose the wine, although she has a pretty good knowledge of wines herself. We both like to look at the wine list though, as they can be a little bit educational if discussed, so the list will usually get handed back and forth between my wife and I. However, handing either one of us a wine list greater than 1/8 inch in thickness is equivalent to handing us a note reading "ask for a sommelier" which is what we'll inevitably do when presented with an encyclopedic list.

Heck, I don't even try. People won't eat your gourmet stuff at potlucks. The last thing I brought to a large potluck was... Pigs in a blanket, made with canned biscuit dough and "Li'l Smokies". With honey-mustard for dipping. Massive success. Argh!

Indeed, I thought most of us drank Water Cycle brand water. Perhaps some eGulletters have built their own water machines!

I used to use Plugra a lot, especially in my pie crusts. However, the ubiquitous (in my parts, anyway) "Organic Valley" brand now has their own butter, which looks to contain 2% more butterfat and is equally tasty and a bit cheaper, so I'm using that brand now.

I soak mine in a bucket of full-strength white vinegar for several hours then wash 'em with bleach. Always works for me. Gets out ring-around-the-collar too.

I strongly recommend trying Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake" recipe, on page 54 of The Cake Bible. I made some cupcakes this weekend with that recipe and my wife frosted them with a very, very sweet frosting, and inside out they would have been very much like (but very, very much better than) a Ding-Dong. I made that observation while I was eating them originally, in fact!

Oh, puh-leeze! Your solution doesn't cost $99 or come in a velvet-lined box with an engraved brass plaque!

The home page says "Please visit www.japanese-knife.com for our full selection of Japanese knives and accessories."

Here is a link to an article that features an interview with Fred Franzia talking about Two-Buck Chuck.

I concur. The Bamix is awesome. I got one for Christmas and it has already been used almost every day. So far, no regrets at all.

This past Thursday, my wife and I were doing a sort of "bar crawl" in downtown Nashville and ended up at The Hermitage Hotel, where I asked if Chef Sean Brock was in. The Maitre D' responded yes, but he's leaving in about 15 minutes, so I asked if I could meet him. My wife (Marissa) and I went to the bar and ordered a gimlet, and a few moments later a weary looking chef appeared. This was New Year's Day that we were in, and Chef Brock had been in the kitchen since dinner service the night before. Luckily, he's still a young guy .. I probably would've keeled over! He filled us in on his history and training, and told us about his duties as Chef at the (breathtakingly handsome) Hermitage Hotel. He's responsible for all food service in the hotel, which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as room service at any hour of the day or night. Chef Brock was friendly and charming, and a real pleasure to talk to. Anyhow, the subject rolled around to the special menu they'd prepared the previous night for New Year's Eve and I started freaking out when he mentioned lamb sweetbreads. I had never tried them. Chef Brock kindly offered to saute up a quick order for me, and I graciously accepted. A few minutes passed, and the Chef returned with two absolutely scrumptious plates of food. Oh yes! A plate of lamb sweetbreads in a rich and luscious sauce, served with a couple of ribs off the rack for good measure(!). For my wife, a delicious citrus-flavored turbot. Good grief! I wish I could give a better review of the food -- unfortunately my short-term memory is nonexistent, so suffice it to say that it was spectacular. Chef Sean Brock is the real deal. The ingredients were staggeringly high-quality and the preparation perfect. Speaking to him, my impression was that he aims to combine the ingredient obsession of Charlie Trotter with the creativity of Thomas Keller or Ferran Adria ("his CD's in the player now", Chef Brock told us). I believe he'd probably get much more experimental if not for the possibly staid quality of the type of clientele frequently seen by the Hermitage Hotel (that is, the necessity for an a la carte menu with filet-and-mashed-potatoes). Chef Brock seemed genuinely excited about food. Anyhow, I intend to return .. soon. And with my notebook. And not in the midst of a "bar crawl". Chef Brock offered to prepare a special tasting menu for my wife and I at some point in the future, then excused himself to get some much-deserved sleep, and I do intend to take him up on his offer ASAP. If any Nashville-area eGulleters care to join us, maybe we can do a little socializing. Email me at bboy@bboy.net - but do it fast! I can't wait to go back to The Capitol Grille and really see what this chef can do!

I got my wife a Dexter Chinese cleaver for Christmas after reading so much about it on eGullet, and it has almost instantly become our Knife Of Choice. I can't say for sure if it's because it's actually better or just newer, but it's a heck of a lot of fun to use, and extremely versatile. I'm not a knife junkie, though. I think mh1 and I both just use whatever knife's handy. Before the cleaver, my knife of choice was a Kyocera ceramic. Hers was a big (12"?) American chef's knife.

It's a wierd ass world we live in, indeed. However, just to allay confusion, "Tahitian Treat" is a soft drink manufactured by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc, not a patent medicine. It tastes like a combination of Hawaiian Punch and 7-Up, which it very well may be, given that they manufacture those beverages as well. Their web site lists (dpsu.com) it as a "regional product". Actually, I couldn't figure out where the soda is even mentioned on their website, but a Google search found a mostly-empty page with the logo:

I am a huge Iron Chef fan. I disagree that it's over-dramatic, and I disagree that it's only "semi" addictive! :) I even have a T-Shirt. ironfans.com is a cool website for fans, with a very interesting FAQ. Since arjay's original post seemed like flamebait, I'll change the subject: Michiba is the best Iron Chef. Agree or disagree?

I own and use a Rival "Model 303" that looks like it was probably manufactured in about 1955. My parents used it for about 50 years to grind chicken (only) to make chicken salad. I use it to grind beef (only) to make burgers. It's a great grinder, just a small countertop model suitable only for small grinding tasks. GSBravo's cleaning suggestion was also the suggestion handed down to me by my parents, who said "run some stale bread through it, then coat all the metal parts with vegetable oil to prevent rust."

Hi honey!

I find the service at the Wild Boar a bit offputting due to their constant desire to upcharge. From the moment you sit down, they're bringing a bottle of chilled Veuve Cliquot to your table and offerring to sell it to you. Then later in the meal, they'll hold a black truffle and shaver over your plate and ask if you'd like some truffles for $5 a shave. It's a little obnoxious. I have also been disappointed several times in their game preparation, particularly a downright bad elk dish I had via a tasting menu about a year ago. Chef Uhl over at Sunset Grill does better game. That said, many of their dishes are spectacular. The duck and foie gras preparations are always outstanding, and recently I had a five course tasting there based around parts of a whole butter poached lobster that was very good indeed. I'm not sure if they're still doing it, but as of about a month ago they had a special deal where if you dined between 6 and 7 pm, they offered a three course tasting menu for $45, which isn't bad at all. When I tried it, they threw in a few extra small courses (amuse, intermezzo, mignardies) for free. The most wonderful reason to go there is the wine list, which is astounding, and the sommelier does a terrific job with the pairings, as they have a very good variety by the glass.

Heck, you're downright advanced compared with my wife and I - we just make a V, and lay it down flat. But man, that dragon looks cool! So far I can make the head. However, the instructions for getting from step 4 to step 5 may as well be written in Japanese, and the illustration isn't helping me much.

I found the comments about The Mystery Building interesting. I eat at Boundry fairly often and my wife and I have been scratching our heads over that place for a while. I am interested in trying Ru San's (can it be better than Samurai Sushi?!) and have been meaning to get over to Bar Twenty3. Would be interested in hearing anybody who's been. I'd like to see Margot more prominently mentioned, as it's one of my favorites -- extra credit given to chef Margot McCormack, too, for opening a terrific restaurant on the "wrong side of the river". I'm also pleased to hear the rumors that Scott Alderson may be making it back into town. I felt awful when 6o ("six degrees") folded after only a few months, even more so that they closed before I got their BBQ beans recipe. Those beans were righteous. He's heading the kitchen at Saffire right now, AFAIK, but Franklin is waaay too far out for me to drive there very often. I don't mind not seeing reviews of places like Loveless Cafe and Pancake Pantry - those are strictly tourist destinations, IMO. (I don't know any locals that eat at either of those establishments, ever). Like most Southerners, I can make better Southern comfort food at home (and my grandmother can flat-out blow them away). Nashville's a city with over half a million people, not a country hoe-down, and its serious chefs deserve recognition. As for barbecue? I was born and raised in Texas, so no comment.