ingridsf

Sorry, I can't speak to the link but can say it's my favorite restaurant. If you can't get the review, you at least have one satisfied customer's word!

I believe the practice of doing yoga and then eating fried chicken is known as "the middle way."

I've called upon my field agent to bring you what little data there is on soul food in SF. Some are hybrids, like soul food/Chinese. Oakland as a whole has more to offer. One name that came up there was Pearlie's. In SF, there's Mariposa Cafeteria at 1599 Tennessee (at 3rd) NOT strictly soul food but had the best and biggest helping of roast pork ever from there. It's a daily special along with stuff like oxtails, bbq'd chicken and beef stew. No fried chicken, alas. Wednesday is roast pork day. My field agent says there's a soul food/Thai place on 3rd St. but can't remember the name. She's going over there anyway so she's going to look out for it. I'll let you know what I find out. Apparently there's a place called Mozell's on 3rd St. that has decent food but my coworker said she wouldn't send a novice to that place cause they're mean. It's her neighborhood so she would know. Powell's is okay and certainly a friendly place. Also, Brothers-in-law bbq on Divisadero is good. Ingrid

So easy. An In-n-Out Double-Double.

Poached eggs on buttered toast made with Stop n Shop sandwich white. Oh, and the secret ingredient: made by my mother. I think this says I'm a big baby.

Almost forgot -- I went to Cafe Marimba just a few weeks ago. Not good. My spicy shrimp tacos were fishy, the platanos were hard, and the tortillas were dried out. If I want a sit-down meal, I'd rather go to Roosevelts (24th at Bryant) for the enchiladas verde. Granted, they don't give you free chips and salsa but it costs a lot less and there are families there instead of 20-somethings getting drunk at the bar. Not that there's anything wrong with that And, of course, it makes a detour to Mitchell's afterward that much more justifiable.

Try New Central on South Van Ness and Fourteenth. Home-made tortillas, incredible carnitas, beans. Really fresh, everything juicy. A real stand-out.

"Coincidence?...or NOT???" on the whole Campbell's/Goldfish alliance. Nope, no coincidence. Peppridge Farm is a subsidiary of Campbell's and, as any fish-snacker knows, Goldfish are made by Peppridge Farm. Here's a link to a site that lists whether a brand uses genetically engineered ingredients. It illustrates how few stand-alone brands there really are. http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/g..._printable.html Calvin Trillin made what he probably thought was a joke in the early 70's about vertical integration in the food industry, painting a picture he called One Big Kitchen. Hmmmm....

My mom used to make this porkchop thing where she browned them and then braised them in Campbell's cream of chicken and water. Gravy was gravy to me and I lapped it up. It tasted great with a lot of black pepper over egg noodles with poppy seeds. Hmmm, childhood faves were all Campbells -- beef with barley, chicken and stars, and OH! chicken gumbo. Damn, I loved that chicken gumbo. Progresso just seems like Campbells to me in a bigger can. Now it all seems way too salty and after 3 bites I start tasting cardboard. I shouldn't care so much about stupid commercials but Progresso's recent ads really are just the snottiest. Okay, my opinion. They show some couple or family about to relax over a well-earned bowl of soup and the designated clod is the Campbell's soup eater while the Progresso person is supposed to be the height of taste and sophistication. No comment on that. My favorite has the college-age daughter getting dissed by her mother whose visiting. For what? Why, for offering her Campbell's. Of course, if my mother carried Progresso soup in her suitcase like this woman I'd laugh my ass off at her and toss her a can opener before scheduling a CAT scan.

Sounds like you've got it all under control but now I have a question. The white pizza I remember from DC and CT was made with fontina, with maybe a little mozz to make it go farther. Anybody else encountered the elusive pizza bianca I remember?

No shortage of reasonably priced great places to recommend! Mine are: Clementine on Clement btwn 2nd and 3rd Ave. -- southern French, unfussy, wonderful service. Chow or Park Cow -- on Church at Sanchez, or 9th Ave at Lincoln -- Cal-Italian, casual, fresh, simple, great for price, families Zazie on Cole at Parnassus -- weekday breakfast, lunch, patio out back, nice prices Mitchell's Ice Cream - 668 San Jose Avenue right off Mission -- killer ice cream (I know you didn't ask but you gotta have dessert, don't you?") Slow Club -- Mariposa at Hampshire -- a tad loud but plate-licking good and a different cocktail of the day is part of the menu, which also changes daily. California/Med food.

Ditto. The funny thing is, in the broadest possible sense, Ina and Sandra Lee are doing the same thing... semi homemade cooking. Ina does some items from scratch, and picks up some readymade from a store. Difference is, Ina's getting excellent olives, breads, pastries, and arranging them, whereas Sandra is buying mass-marketed, preserved food products and giving them a dollop of processed whipped topping. Right on! Side note: I actually managed to FORGET EMERIL when I made my list. Finally! A corner of the universe he hasn't encroached upon! (the crowd cheers)

Oh lord, I've seen a thread much like this before. I predict Flay's gonna filleted, Dean's gonna get creamed, and Bourdain will be ordained. Me? I like Jamie Oliver, the aformentioned Bourdain, and Sara Moulton. Alton Brown, too. Though I tend to like their food, the nervous laughs of Ina Garten and Rachael Ray drive me barking mad.

Cheap and good works for me and 2 of my favorites in SF are Minh's Garden on Clement between 3rd and 4th Ave., and Minh Tri on Irving between 6th and 7th Ave. No connection that I know of. Minh's Garden is better IMHO. Both are friendly mom and pop places; certainly no reservations are needed. Can't speak for the entire menu of either so take this recommendation with a grain of salt. That said...if I could have my all-around most satisfying and lip-smacking meal, it would be MG's hot and sour soup with prawns followed by a noodle bowl with barbequed pork and imperial roll. MT does both well, too. Just note that neither does pho; go to Pho Hiep #2 on Irving around 22nd Ave. if you want that. Have fun!

If I offended you, please accept my apology. I will never do it again. (That wasn't meant sarcastically -- just seemed apropos for the thread.)

I will never again worship in the Church of the Entenmenarians. Not unless they bring back the full-fat chocolate loaf cake. "The Passion" indeed. Mel should make a movie about this cake, it's that good. I will never utter the word "mouth-feel" to anyone under 18. Saying "mouth-feel" to a minor should be punishable by 30 days of listening to Christopher Kimball read aloud from Cook's Illustrated.

Zero Mostel, Wanda Sykes, Mel Brooks, Tom Waits

Tim's Jalapeno are the salty nectar of the gods. (Who could live for eternity on sugary snacks? Give me salt.) (How will I know that I blew it and ended up in Hell? Three little words on the bags of chips that come with our box lunches for the Welcome to Damnation orientation and Power-Point presentation: Baked Not Fried.) An odd but delicious combination: hummus and Pringles.

"Beware of paper cuts," qualifies as an earworm in my book. Oh lord make the pain go away! Though I must say I am starting to enjoy those Emerald Nuts commercials. They kind of suck in you in -- I figured out Egyptian Navigators all by myself!

I don't know why there's a lack of comment but I love CI. That doesn't mean it doesn't bug me on occasion. For a magazine so pronouncedly free of advertising, they aren't exactly radical when it comes to balancing taste, economic and environmental needs. I just hate to see the Tyson/Con-Agra/Phillip Morris Axis of EEEECH continue their dastardly vertical integration schemes. Ah well, apparently CI is comfortable with food science but not food politics. Maybe they see it as a food snob vs. average jane thing. It's certainly an old debate, Is technique more important than ingredient quality in good cooking? I'm a West Coaster and pretty lazy so you can guess where I stand. That said, the March 2004 issue had some valuable Good News About Pork that I appreciated. Their technique for cooking porkchops low and slow really works. We tested it no less than 3 times and they were all goooood eatin'.

I know where I'm going next. Thanks! I go by it quite often and I always think I should go but then forget. As for the new place just opened where the Meetinghouse was -- glad it's freshly incarnated if only because the space was such a comfortable one. Hope they haven't renovated it too much. But I will always mourn the loss of the Meetinghouse's chocolate beggar's purse.

How about La Folie on Polk? It's my favorite. You could have butter-poached lobster in a roasted pumpkin, roasted loup de mer, quail stuffed with fois gras, duck with a poached pear -- they give you a choice of 3, 4, or 5 courses depending on your capacity. I took a friend and his wife there recently and, let me tell you, he was a Big Hungry Boy who turned into a Big Happy Boy after he worked his way through course #5. His wife was too busy tracking down every morsel of black truffle on her plate to tell us how she felt about the place. Oh, I almost forgot the soups. Have some soup. So, here's the deal: the food is French, the wine list is France and California, the noise level is low, and I've never had trouble getting a reservation. They act like I'm a regular even though it's usually a good 6 months between visits. Either this place isn't nearly as good as I think it is or most people genuinely enjoy bigger, more impersonal restaurants. Wherever you decide to go, have a great trip! Please report back on The Big Decision.

I'm a big fan of Barbara Ehrenreich (her politics are no more overt than your average mainstream journalists' -- her's are just more honestly presented, IMO) and egulleters might like to know BE is a Friend of Fat. The link below is to her article in The Progressive. http://www.progressive.org/sept02/ehr0902.html

BWAH!!! IngridSF, that is hilarious! I feel like printing it up and sending it to Millenium in SF. I'd just like to go on record as saying that I am all for women baring their breasts in public, for whatever reasons they may choose. No need to restrict it to breast feeding only on account of my delicate sensibilities. Oh my god! Arnold has a running mate!