ExtraMSG

Technically, the ancho is the name for a dried poblano. They have a great and unique flavor and are mild enough that you can eat them as a normal vegetable like you would bell peppers, but they still have piquancy and aren't overly sweet.

That should have been an Onion parody.

I'd be interested to know what most of these people were going to before TGI Friday's, Olive Garden, etc. I have a feeling that most people were generally either not going out to eat or were going out to other lower-cost options that aren't necessarily any better, eg, greasy spoons, pizza, Mexican, and Chinese. Most of these places don't try too hard to compete in the cities but rule the suburbs and have expanded to the many mid-sized towns. My dad lives in a 12,000 person town an hour and a half from any city of size. They don't have fine dining and the closest thing they do have isn't any better than Olive Garden. I'm sure they'd love to have one. As it is, they mostly go out to mediocre pizza or Mexican.

I think hazelnuts are originally Italian. It being in LA, they certainly could go for something like avocados, though I'd bet they go for something "sexier" like Lobster, Kobe beef, or truffles. Hopefully they'll follow in IC Japan's tradition of looking to seasonal ingredients and ingredients local to the challenging chefs. A couple questions for Brown: how much longer does he plan on doing Good Eats. He has made a lot of shows now and I wouldn't be surprised if 1) he's getting burnt out, or 2) he feels like he's covering the same ground. Also, will they ever put out more than 3 shows per DVD, like a whole season, eg. Ugh! I think some questions about cultural differences would be interesting. Why do Americans take it less seriously? How do American diners and food lovers differ from Japanese? Etc. I have to admit, though, that most of my questions would be for the producers: what their intentions are, what their approach will be, what audience they're aiming for, etc.

I prefer to quickly poach shrimp before using it, but it is great. If you ever have a chance to eat ceviche in Mazatlan, nearly all of it is served with shrimp and is fantastic (Mazatlan being the shrimping capital of Mexico). Freshness is all-important. I like to give about 6 hours in the acid. In Mexico they'll often serve it will crackers, but I prefer tostadas and any sort of pico de gallo. Russ is right about freshwater fish, too, especially warm freshwater fish like bass. But I had a friend get sick from brook trout when he decided he would see what trout "sushi" tasted like on a camping trip. (The mountains of Montana and Wyoming are the wrong place to have la turista.)

Onotologically speaking...is it possible for something to be a fish and yet not fishy? By "fishy" you all mean smelling or tasting like rotten fish, probably. Because there are some of us that just don't like the strong flavor of salmon, especially such things as salmon skins (whereas there are some people who love this sort of thing). I think that sockeye has a better texture and color while king has a milder flavor. Coho is more like steelhead or trout to me. I do think color can be telling, but it takes some experience since diet, water temp, and other such factors play into the color of salmon and trout flesh.

Jaymes, I was in the shower where I do my second best thinking and realized, duh, I guess that's essentially a salsa ranchera. It's just that that's been 99% of what's been available in jars in the US for the longest time (and I've never liked it as a table salsa). My bad.

I bet Gibson loved the IC turtle battle. Blood, blood, blood.

I have a feeling that you've got her bibliography a little mixed up. But it's hard to say since you don't name the titles. Her most recent book is From My Mexican Kitchen (not an eGullet link, someone PM how to do this): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846 Her compilation book is Essential Cuisines: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846 Both are excellent, but as a first book, I'd recommend From My Mexican Kitchen. I actually prefer Bayless' books Authentic Mexican and Mexican Kitchen to Essential Cuisines only because of the illustrations and better intros to ingredients and techniques, I think. But From My Mexican Kitchen is as good as anything as an intro and covers ingredients better than any of the other quality Mexican cooking books, I think. It has great pictures and good step by step instructions with its recipes. In the back of FMMK, there's a list of sources that includes several in New York that may be helpful, too. I think there are two things every person should start with in Mexican food: salsas and tortillas. It's the bread and butter of Mexican food. Masa (the corn flour used for tortillas and tamales) is the staple, the wheat of Mexico. Salsa is the flavor. Get a tortilla press and learn to make tortillas from scratch. Then maybe experiment with other antojitos (little snacks, literally little whims) such as sopes, gorditas, or true quesadillas, and enchiladas. All the while work on salsas. I recommend getting an immersion blender for salsas. You have a lot more control than a cuisinart or blender and can make a smaller batch at a time. Jaymes, isn't this really a Mexican-American salsa? Truly a home recreation of commercial salsa, not really anything you'd ever find in Mexico? Seems more like something someone would make because they can't find chiles in the grocery store. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just being clear...

Yeah, you'd have to get truly famous first. Maybe you could get a part playing Reese's Miyagi on Malcolm in the Middle (insert catchphrase here), be seen by 10s of millions each week, then do a stint as the lower-middle Hollywood square, and then be a judge 10 years from now on the New Iron Chef. A little more specific info: Quoting AccessAtlanta.com at: http://www.ironfans.com/cgi-bin/news/viewn...i?id=1077719677

Do you feel like they do that more than the U.S. does? No, not saying that. Just trying to point out that we're not the only ones and it's a game that might be reasonable to play. Personally, I believe in saying screw it and just letting it in unless there truly is a serious issue. I believe that protectionism hurts your own country in the long run (and often in the short run). Look at the Japanese beef restaurants who have been hurt by the ban on American beef. Suddenly it got a lot more expensive for the average person to eat beef in Japan. Didn't help those people any. Limiting competition is just an opportunity for companies to price gouge or become complacent.

It's typical tit-for-tat. I think Moopheus has this right. I don't know that the administration is necessarily doing the wrong thing here, though. I'm pretty sick of the EU using any excuse to ban American imports whether they are an actual risk or not.

We actually have a Pho Ton just down the road from me. Personally, I like Pho King. It's a nice double entrendre. It's also nice because so many people say pho with a very long "o" so it's funnier to people in the know.

Interestingly, when I went off carbs I found that I was less often constipated. As people have mentioned, things like bread, rice, and pasta actually have very little fiber and I think they end up turning into bricks in the intestines. Meats have fats, and aren't fats, such as mineral oil, often used as laxatives? I wouldn't say that a low-carb diet is necessarily good at making you regular, but I also wouldn't say it's likely to make you constipated either. Whether you're regular seems to depend on the amount of fiber. Personally, I eat a lot of green vegetables. Now if I eat some carbs such as pasta or rice I'm almost guaranteed to get constipated (man, what a thread to give a bunch of near-strangers way more intimate information than they could possibly want). Metamucil is a nice product because it's not a laxative. It just makes you regular. If you're constipated it acts like a mild laxative. However, if you're ... whatever the opposite of constipated is ... it adds bulk and makes you more regular as well.

There is one thing worse, though: the person who has very strict tastes for what is mediocre. I have a friend who won't go out to eat anywhere but Elmer's or Shari's or truck stops. Ugh! I have family who prefer Olive Garden and similar places -- on taste -- than any other Italian (including all the top places in Portland I keep trying to take them to). And I have a friend who actually likes Taco Bell's Mexican better than any of the taquerias I've taken him to or any of the sit down Mexican-American restaurants I've taken him to (except maybe Esparza's for their pork nachos) and it doesn't even matter if I'm paying. So at least I can respect your type of strict standards. The friend I travel for food with the most (Scott -- DFW here on eGullet), is the same way -- at least on the stuff he knows best, like Tex-Mex, BBQ, Southwest food, Indian, and fine dining.

There's also the possibility that I had good luck or you had bad luck. A consistent restaurant, especially consistently good, can be rare. Thus the popularity of chains (for their consistent mediocrity). Decent to me means that it's almost good or fair or mediocre but fair for the price and the other options available. It's worth eating, but depends on the price. eg, Applebees and Outback make a decent steak. Compared with El Gaucho or Ringside they may suck, but then again you're paying less than half the price and that does need to be taken into consideration. It's certainly not a science, but generally it goes from bad to good: sucks, bad, crappy, mediocre, fair, decent, good, excellent, orgasmic. Really, I'd say decent is like C+, B- food. There are fast food items that fall into this category for me. I do think from reading your posts you have finer or stricter sensibilities on foods than I do. I don't know that that says you have better taste or anything, just that your tolerance for mediocrity is lower and that you probably have ideals that you're more strict about specific foods living up to. I'm more strict on these things than most people, though. I'm not sure that's necessarily a good thing either. That someone can truly enjoy a Taco Bell burrito may be a blessing. That someone can enjoy Britney Spears (for her music) may be a blessing. That someone can enjoy even half the movies that came out last year may be a blessing as well. I know I can't. However, I think the difference between mediocre and good often isn't as great as we think. Let's face it, anything edible is probably historically good. And we work hard throughout our life acquiring tastes for things and calling them great that many people would want to spit out when they first taste them. Taste is a weird thing. I think this bit from Brillat-Savarin is instructive: Sorry for that pseudo-philosphical tangent.

I used to work for the creators of the California Raisins, and I'm telling you the raisins have too much purple pride to honor that pubescent cracker. Nick

I liked the older Quiznos commercials. And I prefer their subs because of the toasting over the other national chains. However, when I see these mutant-Richard-Gere-gerbil commercials, it makes me want to shoot myself. I agree with the majority on this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...36678&hl=quizno

Oh, I'm not doubting their skills. It's more an issue of the food they make. Maybe the Chinese grandmothers would be different, I don't know, but the foods I think of when I think of Grandmothers are slow cooking to the extreme, comfort foods and the like. It's one thing to whip up filet seared rare and salmon tartare in under an hour. It's another to do brisket or collard greens in that amount of time. Maybe lasagna and baked ziti...

Viagra. It's much cheaper there. Honestly: * A good molcajete * Big corn husks * Mango and chile powder candy (the ones where you dip the candy in the powder) * A big wood tortilla press

I'm all for highlighting home cooking, but let's face it: grandmothers do the best work with a full day of prep, not an hour.

Some good points sml311. I think more important than where the people have eaten is the ability to explain why they like something. As humorous as it can be to hear some lady giggle about the explosions in her mouth, at least it's descriptive. Better than 20 variations of "good". We have so many words in English, yet we often use so few. They should have a class for judges an hour before each show where they work on describing what they like about foods. I think a smart producer would take the opportunity, as the JIC did, to educate the audience a little. "If memory serves, the pig from X prefecture..." translates fine into "The autumn harvest of Washington's X pears...." Or, "The summer run of Copper Salmon...", etc. You know the temptation to market mail order beef would be everpresent, though. But they could take the opportunity to teach us about the wonderful regional ingredients available in North America, plus some more exotic ingredients. The local/organic/slow food people need to hijack these types of things. I don't think people have to come into the show with knowledge or care if the people on the show have knowledge and care. Their love and intensity will win an audience. The first version of IC USA had no respect for their own endeavor. I never thought about interior design. Had no interest whatsoever. But Trading Spaces changed that by providing an interesting show where people truly did care about what they did. Same with Queer Eye. A show with some flaming homosexuals making fun of slobs would not have caught on. It's that the guys actually do care about the results that makes people come back. They're invested in the outcome and that care translates to an audience that cares as well.

Well, one thing to note is that when I say "decent" I don't mean good. I think my stuff may have been better prepared than yours from your description. Either that or you just have finer sensibilities on such things. eg, our pupusas weren't soggy and greasy at all. We were about the only ones there and the first ones there, I think, however. And the beans were the best thing we ate, so that sucks that they didn't have at least that. You say it sucked, but you don't really describe anything individually as sucking, except maybe the rice, which was pretty weak, but I don't have the greatest expectations for rice, especially at a low end restaurant. I'd say it's a mediocre restaurant with appropriate prices. But at least they're a place in Portland to get pupusas. Only one of two that I know of. I'd love to open up a place selling latin american snacks that are done ala minute, but alas, after this year's taxes (ugh, being self-employed is expensive), I don't know if I'll ever get ahead enough to do that.

I agree. However, it can't just be any old competition. They've had those before. What was it? Ready, Set, Cook, I think. Ultimately mediocre. They can't mimic the original, but they can keep a similar format but do it more like a serious sporting event. USA didn't take their show seriously and so how could anyone watching it. The one thing you believe when you watch the Japanese version is that even though it's campy and foreign, the people in it take it seriously. Kaga is flamboyent, but it doesn't come across as an act, like Shatner's did. I've seen contestants cry from wins and losses on the Japanese version. You always got the feeling the American version was making fun of itself, that it didn't take itself seriously. I think the Iron Chefs idea is a good one, to have these kings of the hill who have to be knocked off their thrones. They should make sure they find American chefs who are actually devoted to the duty, not just looking for some extra publicity. The format is fine, it's the attitude of the American one that needs to match an American attitude. I think we want intense chefs who are going to be pissed off and throw things if they lose, just like we want basketball and football players, golfers, Olympians, and so on who would do the same. They have to care. In America, if you get second, you're a loser. The chefs need to act like that's the case with this just like they would if they were in an international pastry contest or whatever.

The best time of year for garlic is during the North Plains garlic festival: http://www.funstinks.com/ I do find Asian grocers more consistent (and cheaper).