indiagirl

For those who asked the jelly bean study, if I remember correctly, included super tasters, regular tasters and bad tasters - whatever the scientific names for those are. How can appearance affect taste? The fact that the molecular property of the food does not change is not being debated. It is a given. But can appearance change the molecular property of food in the mouth. Yes. Appearance and odor have both been proven to stimulate saliva. The presence, absence, quantity and chemical compostion of saliva have been proven to hugely affect the human capacity to taste. There have been many scientific studies done on illnesses which impede saliva generation thus limiting the capacity to taste . The cultural aspects of saliva generating stimuli have similarly been studied. In fact, this difference in saliva generation stimuli and ability to taste has been thought to lead to malnutrition, because it can lead to unbalanced diets. Can we talk about food again now? I was raised to think that spit and discussions of it were rude. :)

i would agree with your friends assessment, although i think the gujarati influence is quite mild. i see gujarati food as being predominantly vegetarian and paris food is not at all, is it?

could be the colonial influence that has slowly seeped into my genes over the centuries. or it could be the country club a five minute drive from my house in hyderabad where i spent many lovely evenings. :)

Can't I be an aesthetic engineer? Instead, I'll just be silent, so that the playas can vote instead of having more opinions to contend with. When decisions have been made, I shall humbly sit back and sip and taste cheese and record my opinions. Besides, my husband, the wine guy in our house, is otherwise occupied. He did add a comment though that drinking a type of wine and cheese (as opposed to specific instances) may enable us to draw generic conclusions - everyone likes a chablis with goat cheese. Although I find it unlikely that that will happen with an eGullet group, it's a good thought! This is exciting. I can't wait to go cheese shopping. I live a block away from the best delis in the country. www.zingermans.com

More interesting research. To add to the jelly bean study quoted above which I also read. And to address the FG research on people being stupid. It seems to me that there are zillions of studies on going about the effect of sensory perceptions and the ability, or lack thereof, within our neural networks to distinguish between various sensory inputs. A quick google search lost me an hour and gained me a fascinating insight into why presentation can affect taste, as can odor (garlic becomes 60% or something like that less recognizable to people who cannot smell it), and so on. And it informed me that this question is fueling much research that is often contradictory in conclusions. Possibly because the answers are not black and white? I think extremes - really crappy looking food which tastes really good are easier to be cut and dry about than the point I made in my earlier post - good food that tastes better because of presentation. I've got lots more to say and I've got two tickets to John Scofield. The tickets are winning. Later ......

i was making flour dumplings (indian style) that cook in a gravy. bit of four, pinch of baking soda, spices, etc. when i was done, i figured my dumpling to gravy ratio was not what i wanted so i decided to make more dumplings, running slightly late, bit of a hurry, baking soda and flour in similar mason jars, made another batch with baking soda and a pinch of flour. did not realise this until i served dinner - one dish meal too. rice and gravy with dumplings. we spent the entire dinner figuring out how to idenitfy bombs from the good dumplings without actually biting into them. it was entertaining. :| my baking soda sits in a very very different looking jar now.

I tasted peanut butter for the first time when I moved to the US. And loved it. I tasted a PB&J for the first time a few years after that. And loved it. Two nights ago, I loosely followed instructions for burre blanc using balsamic vinegar instead of wine and smooth peanut butter instead of butter and finally threw in some coconut milk for good measure. The texture of the sauce was wonderful. I served it over rice noodles and flash fried spring onions and red chillies. Garnished with cilantro. I will certainly be making that again with variation experiments.

torakris, GC, they are about 3-4 inches in diameter and appear shallow fried and have a texture that is smoother than one would expect from using whole beans, so flour may be the answer. they are savory the next time i stop in there, i will be sure to ask! also, upon consideration, i have realized that only our "fancy" korean restaurant has them on the menu. not the two cafeteria style ones on campus.

Gin and Tonic? Hmmmm. that sounds vaguely familiar ........ have I ever had that before? It sounds like something I could spend many an evening drinking - sitting outside on the shady verandah in an easy chair. ......

The engineer in me screams for specific details ..... arrrgghhh. Are we going to all drink the same wine and vintage? Are we all going to eat the same brand of a type of cheese? Is there a review form? OK, I *may* be kidding on the last one.

May I add a question to emahn's? Possibly one that he may have followed up with (if I may be so bold!) I agree with you, Cabrales and FG, that presentation cannot make a dish. But here is my question, can it break a dish My personal opinion? Bad presentation can make mediocre food taste worse and good presentation can make good food taste better. But we're not talking about me, we're talking about how typical restaurant clientele react, correct? So how would you finish these on behalf of the majority of restaurant going people (your opinion , ofcourse): Bad Food+Bad Presentation = Bad Bad Food+Mediocre Presentation = ? Bad Food+Good Presentation = ? Mediocre Food+Good Presentation = ? Mediocre Food+Mediocre Presentation = Mediocre Mediocre Food+Good Presentation = ? Good Food+Bad Presentation = ? Good Food+Mediocre Presentation = ? Good Food+Good Presentation = Good I only filled out the obvious ones!

KimWB, yes, you can indeed freeze it. It is the thawing that you should give some consideration to. If you freeze it with the yoghurt, which should not be the problem, I would consider thawing it in a thick bottomed pot on low flame with some additional liquid in it (like a wee bit of milk perhaps since you have a yoghurt base). It'll take longer than a microwave but I think in the case of yoghurt it's prolly the better way to do it. Glad you're cooking Indian food. Here is a link to a thread were I posted another chicken recipe with yoghurt in it. If the link does not work, I believe it is in Indian Menu Planning. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=40&t=17792& And there is a whole thread on Youghurt in the Indian section to, although you've probably looked in that.

Steve Klc raised some excellent points. And I happen to agree with a fair number of them. I clearly distinguished in my post between chains and RC's. Chains I do not support, RC's are a source of much debate - for many reasons including the idea of stability that Steve Klc mentioned. Let me enumerate. And clarify. And perhaps explain why, IMO, this is not a case of "indifference, pretension or attitude." I refuse to contribute to the profit base of restaurant chains - and I mean places like Mongolian BBQ and Don Carlos. My reasons are : - they do not feed their profits back into the community hence they are limited to their constributions towards a sustainable economy - time and again chain restaurants have upped and left without any concern for the local community economics - because of a national profit base they are able to undercut "local" business owners - on a personal level, I also do not appreciate what they do to the character of our downtown, but that is a different matter. - on a personal level, I think the food and service are also below par at chain resturants On a slight tangent, Target is a noteworthy example of a chain store that I do frequent. They funnel a portion of their profits into our local schools. Starbucks is also noteworthy because they make an effort to maintain a local character and serve consistent quality. About the RC's - they are a source of constant debate because they draw a fair amount of out of town business to Ann Arbor and they certainly have a greater ability to weather difficult conditions. And these are good things. On the flip side, several of them have been accused of immigrant worker exploitation (as nerissa pointed out, I think this is an issue independent of the type of restaurant) and they also seem to dominate our limited liquor licenses. I understand that these are both issues specific to Ann Arbor. The employees being local in either case is unfortunately, not necessarily relevant to a student town. I think they all employ students extensively which does not do wonders for the quality of service anywhere. I could count the number of career waitstaff in this town on my fingers.

Man, never heard of them. Are you sure they are not biological mutants? :P What's G&T? added question

oh no. even on that website they maintain the mung bean cakes silence. are mung bean cakes fake korean? am i being subjected to a city wide hoax? sigh, i like 'em so.

I'm in. As is my husband, and I'll try to invite a bunch of friends.

and now there is a TJ's in good ole michigan. yaay. went there for the first time this weekend and was quite pleased. not to many exotic/new things but the prices are quite amazing. mmy tab was only a fourth of yours though awbirg. also. the mi edition appears less stocked than the one's some of you are frequenting. i bought some of their aged balsamic. it's quite decent. not that i could tell it apart from a 50 buck one since i've never tasted a 50 buck one. love the bubbly water prices.

french toast with raisin bread chocolate covered raisins raisins in pilaf raisins in navratna (nine jewel) korma

i guess, if cheese is natural, so is tofu. and yes, i am excluding PCF (processed cheese food) from the cheese category! :P

Why timing, FG? Do you mean the cadence of the writing or that this restaurant is somehow relevant in the times we live in. Please explain. Also, are they experimenting with different kinds of rice? I think I need to move to NYC :\

indeed one of the worlds greatest cuisine. the potato and pea curry (i'm in a hurry, monday is the day i do all of things that i should have done on the weekend) simmering on my stove just aint gonna do it now :( doesn't anyone like the mung bean cakes - i like those

aah, i see. i thought foie gras was short hand for pate de foie gras and i had assumed that it was always a paste of marinated goose liver, truffles and things of that nature. thanks much

i've never eaten foie gras, being vegetarian most of my life, but i am in the process of changing that. fwiw, even to me, the latest version of the dish sounds appetizing so, some education, please? isin't foie gras a paste? how does one sear that? doesn't it burn immediately?

I guess there are really two parts to this debate: What are restaurant corporations (henceforth termed as RC's) doing to local restaurant businesses? What are RC's doing to the quality of food being served? The former, I believe, is a discussion of social responsibility. There are a couple of chain restaurants on the Main St. of my smallish town. I refuse to contribute to their profit base. Also, three, perhaps four, of the restaurants on that same street are owned by the same "restaurant management" company and while not a chain, they are, I suspect, quite similar to LEY. Whether to eat at these places or not is a frequent point of discussion in my life - I have no idea how much conversation they would stimulate on eGullet. The latter, now, I think would be much food for thought on eGullet! Do RC's affect the quality and creativity of the fine dining experience. And how?

Would someone who has lived in the Midwest since 1992 and only barely just heard about ADNY and definitely completely missed the controversy serve as a satisfactory guinea pig? Aw, c'mon FG.