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Been on a Thai and Vietnamese binge lately. Always on a Thai binge truly, but now that my wife is developing a palate for SE Asian and with the cheap prices, I've been kicking it into high gear. Here are my current favorites: Typhoon Lemongrass Khun Pic's Thai Little Home (Vancouver) It's interesting to me that all of these are ones you'd find in lots of guidebooks and as recommendations from newspapers. Seems like there should be others. And it's not like I go to the same ones over and over or don't try dives and hole in the walls. Recently, I got a rec on Chowhound for Chaba Thai on Sandy. Haven't been there yet. Tried another rec from Chowhound called Tom Yum on Woodstock that was pretty decent, especially their larb. Also tried Bangkok Restaurant on Burnside relatively recently based on a rec from a Thai food-lover that works with my wife. It was okay. An asbestos-mouthed friend of mine has always loved E-San downtown. Thai Orchid and Arawan are adequate stand-by local chains. There are plenty that I don't find adequate. So, what are your favs? What are your bases for comparison and how do your Portland favorites or my favorites compare (not just you think Portland's suck or rock, but what's the difference)? What's the best dishes -- best larb, best pad thai, best curry, etc? Most authentic? Best without regard to authenticity? Etc.

Does anyone have an update on this: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/article_det...m?ARTICLE_ID=52

The same brand, sure, maybe, mostly. My mom has smoked forever and has gone through a frew brands. But the brand of cigarette is less analogous than the tobacco grower, I would think. But regardless, I imagine you could go after McD's or Kroger for distributing an unsafe product or whatever, but I'm no lawyer. Aren't e coli suits generally directed at the burger chain, not the producer of the hamburger? But that was just an aside anyway... btw, here's a site that is attempting to counter the anti-beef, anti-meat political uses of the mad cow scare: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/headline_de...EADLINE_ID=2291 I don't know if I feel comfortable with the argument that "no known cases of....have been contracted from...." That's not good science. Just because people don't generally eat deer brains doesn't mean they wouldn't get CJD from eating an infected deer brain, eg. But it's important to recognize the underlying goals of many who are using mad cow in the media and political arena.

Now that's just ridiculous. Suing a company isn't the only thing that affects its bottom-line. The discovery of a mad cow itself is enough to put a scare in people. (And btw, smoking takes 20 years or more to affect the user and yet companies like Phillip Morris have been held accountable for their fraudulent claims.) Here's another interesting (to me) take on mad cow by a conservative publication (that I often disagree with): http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=2725 Basically, it shows that more regulation isn't necessarily the answer, but rather actually enforcing the regulation already on the books (and, of course, clamping down on those damned Canadians). Personally, I think it just shows how inept the government is at controlling such things and that we as consumers need to take more responsibility for our risks.

I don't trust a system where I can't make my own choices about risks I'm willing to take. If I want to eat blowfish, imported brie, sweetbreads, or a hamburger from McDonald's I want to be able to calculate my own risks. I don't want the government deciding what risks I should and shouldn't take, telling me skydiving, skiing, or surfing are too dangerous. Food will never be perfectly safe or clean. There will always be a level, even if the government is in control, of acceptable contamination. It's that way with environmental policy and current food policy. At least the market has a real way of judging what is acceptable based on results. If companies have outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, they get a reputation, no one goes there, they're branded in the media, they go out of business, unless, like Jack in the Box and McD's did, they fix most of the problems (and actually make more effective regulation than the government). I should add, we're given a false sense of security and become in the habit of abdicating our responsibility by looking to government to control this.

Your little friend appears to live about 15 miles short of my dad's house. Maybe I'll have to stop in and say hi on my next trip out there, only about an hour away. btw, I got my knives "professionally" sharpened at a cutlery store once and it was totally a waste of money. I agree that if you know the person is good it's well worth it. But that can be like finding an honest mechanic. I use the pinch grip as well, but somedays it really eats into my finger, especially with some knives more than others. Even though I have a callous built up, it still often hurts. Anyone know if there's a rubber thing you can buy to soften that part of the knife. I've considered seeing if I could invent one. Holding a knife that way works so much better, but sometimes I switch just because it's starting to hurt. And I'm chopping daily.

The difference is that capitalism and the free market makes use of and benefits from human foibles, whereas government always suffers from them. There's a difference between a free market and anarchy. A free market requires government to enforce contracts, to prevent and punish fraud, to enforce civil litigation, etc. Here's another somewhat out of date article that's nonetheless rather appropriate (skip past the irradition discussion for the appropriate part): http://www.cato.org/research/articles/taylor-970921.html

That's funny Irwin. I have a friend in Dallas who goes out to eat often with an Indian from Southern India -- can't remember exactly where right now. He pretty much said the same thing about that guy (a computer professional, I believe). He sent us to a Chicago Indian dive called Sizzle India that he said was his favorite restaurant he's been to in the US (and they made dishes from his area). The four of us went through several pitchers of water. I think at least two of us got severe hiccups and my friend from Dallas literally had sweat dripping from his face like he'd just got done running a marathon or something. I think I handled it the best....until it wound it's way through by GI....

Some perspective: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Dec30.html

Went to My Canh tonight. Ordered the small green papaya salad ($4), the clay pot pork ($7) -- both specials --, the pork rolls ($3), and my wife got the stewed tofu with peas and carrots for her entree ($6). The clay pot pork was quite tasty. Heavy pork taste. Is there such a thing as aged pork? If I get trichinosis..... Really, though, it was quite good. Very tender braised pork in a nice sweet, spicy, tangy sauce. The green papaya salad was adequate, but the pork rolls were only okay. The pork had little flavor and I don't know that there was much point in getting those as opposed to normal salad rolls. My wife liked her tofu with peas okay, but wasn't too thrilled. It was a slightly spicy, kind of mushy sauce of soft tofu with a small amount of peas and carrots. The clay pot was encouraging, but I'd need to try a few more dishes before I could decide whether it's a one hit wonder or not.

Of course, that depends on the region. Some Indian food is damned firery.

Pan, I hope I you didn't understand me to say that FFN argues for less regulation. It's clearly in favor of more. I just come to different conclusions from Schlosser's journalism. I think his muckraking is stronger than his analysis.

Maybe Chad should start an eGullet loaner program like Netflix for knives. I'd subscribe. I think feel is overrated unless you really have become use to a certain style over the years. But even there, if you're willing to retrain yourself, it's worth it for a better knife. btw, Bed, Bath, and Beyond has a very generous return policy and usually sells Globals, Henkels, and Wustoff. Anyone know what Sur La Table's return policy is like? They carry the Kershaw/Shuns and a few other brands that might be worth trying out. btw, if you do decide on BB&B's carried brands, they always seem to have 20% off coupons which can save you a pretty penny on a $80+ knife.

There's an Iron Chef book that has a table of all the results plus some recipes, etc. It's actually not that bad: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846 Also, you can google for iron chef and find lots of episode guides, like this one: http://www.ironfans.com/episodes/guide/

I'll try to keep to the subject at hand as closely as possible, at least the meat industry. That Upton Sinclair's book (which I had to read in college) was the impetus for a great restructuring of the American meat industry is largely myth. Certainly it had a popular effect. But the wheels were already in motion. A good read on the subject is in Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact. They have a chapter on the USDA. The meat industry was widely untrusted for years prior to the release of The Jungle. Countries were banning American meat. People were curtailing their carniverous habits. By the time The Jungle came around, the meat industry needed the regulation and some leaders of the industry publicly said so. The market was largely putting the correction into place, and as is so often the case, the government was actually lagging behind. Now "buyer beware" has little meaning unfortunately because of a false sense of security instituted by a government stamp of approval. As FFN shows, government inspection is largely meaningless. Thank goodness for consumer watchdog groups, a free press, an effective judicial system, and companies like McD's who fear customers' wrath. Again, I'm not arguing that government regulation is inherently bad, just that it's a mediocre solution with more effective alternatives. Mad cow and more dangerous food-borne illnesses will not be eradicated by the government trying to put symbolic band-aids on the problem. I just wish people would stop looking to government regulation as their first option just because it seems easier.

Ever see the turtle episode where they butchered the live turtles, blood spurting everywhere? My wife literally sprinted from the room. I actually think Flay did a good job. The first episode was totally lame and I got the feeling that people primarily voted for Morimoto because Americans like to go for who they see as the underdog or the cool one. In the second episode, I thought Flay won primarily because he shocked the judges. They kept commenting how bold his stuff was. I think they just hadn't seen someone cook like that and hadn't been confronted with such flavors. Though both could have been a setup. The most disturbing part of both episodes was that creepy little kid dressed as Morimoto.

Damn, send those fries my way. I bet they're way better than what you can normally get.

The problem with putting the responsibility on government's shoulders is shown, ironically, in this new article by Schlosser but also in his book (the paperback has extra chapters, btw): it usually fails at it. One of the reasons libertarians like myself are against giving government this responsibility is that it's not very good at carrying it out. Many of us are pragmatists and believe that government should only do what it must because what it does usually isn't done very well. Maybe I watched too many episodes of MASH growing up. If people took this responsibility on themselves, they wouldn't just randomly trust whatever is in the supermarket because the government has supposedly given it their okay. A company that wasn't open and honest would be shunned by responsible consumers and would be hurt in the marketplace. I just find it quite ironic that people like Schlosser point out over and over how terrible the government is, both in our country and abroad, at handling these things and then their big idea for fixing the problem is more government. Again, read FFN and note who makes the most effective changes in how food is handled. It's McD's and Jack in the Box. I'll admit that I'm less against the government regulation than the mentality that looks to government first to fix the problem. I just think they often go hand in hand and feed off each other.

hwilson, I think your opinion is inline with Alton Brown's episode on ground meat. I like my KA attachment, but I can see that someone who is really into grinding meat being disappointed with it. I often send my sausages through twice. It doesn't have a very big capacity, either.

I really think the use of a paring knife is overrated. I use a paring knife less than a boning knife. Though each cook will be different. But I use a cheap-ass peeler for peeling fruits and vegetables, don't do things like fluting mushrooms or turning potatoes and carrots very often. Otherwise, a chef's knife covers just about everything. However, you can usually find an excellent paring knife, the Henkels 4 star, for under $20. Personally, I prefer a 6 or 8 inch chef's knife. Make sure you have a chef's knife you'll be happy with for your whole life and if you have any leftover, then move onto the other knives. Ever watch Sara Moulton on Food Network? She's a small woman and uses a big old chef's knife almost exclusively. Not to be crass, but did you just say you have an 8" boner? With my Jewish heritage, obviously I'm impressed.

Yeah, but the parade of eye candy actresses often also had certifications from culinary schools and said things like "I can really taste the love of his home prefecture in his dishes; the soup calls out with the smells of spring and the dumpling explodes in my mouth with the sweet flavors of the land." Sounds cheesy the first couple times, but then you start to count on such descriptive prose.

I think it's likely that fusion of western techniques where appropriate with traditional Thai recipes is a very good thing and can improve the outcome. eg, I made a green curry not too long back and seared some flank steak to go with it. Left it medium rare with a nice crust. So tender and juicy and flavorful. So much better than how most Thai places make it where it's well done, often essentially boiled or stir fried and a bit rubbery with no maillard reaction. I do think that people should be clear about what they want when talking about food, just like movie reviewers and music reviewers should be clear about their biases. If someone wants something authentic and was disappointed they should at least say that and attempt to judge the restaurant for what they were doing, eg, Americanized Thai.

Best episode ever was the one teamed with Flay's revenge episode where, who was it, Kondagawa (sp?), the leader of the "faction" that kept losing over and over again took on Sakai, I believe. He shaved his head for the match and cried when he won. He did that thing where he cut off the head of a fish and slammed it down on the cutting board. Awesome. Truly intense episode. The Flay revenge episode wasn't bad either just to see someone make such Americanized food and really shock the panel. They couldn't believe somone would so heavily season and sear Kobe beef like that. It looked damned tasty to me. I think what makes the show great is that they take themselves so seriously. They truly care about the outcome. Americans and Europeans on the show rarely showed that same intensity, except on Flay's revenge. Even Segal (sp?) who won just sort of took the whole thing with typical American laidback style. The American show took itself as a joke, and as such, rightly the audience did too. Also, the American panel was a bunch of morons who couldn't say any more about the food that "tastes great" or "less filling".

Agreed. But I think the problem is that people have become too reliant on government. People are by nature lazy. Unless our habit or need is to do something, we usually won't. When the government takes on this responsibility, people let that responsibility go. One thing that's interesting to realize is that often government regulations such as these are actually used by the corporations to give a false sense of security and limit liability. Personally, I think that Fast Food Nation is an excellent read, even though in reading it it's important to recognize that it has a clear point of view and is not even attempting objective journalism, which he admits and is fine with me. But for me, the lesson learned fits with my preconceptions, of course, that the market and civil courts are much better at controlling food quality and that the best thing the government can do is stay out of the way of these systems doing their job. (Remember, I am a libertarian, and as such, no special friend to corporations and disagree with the Republican Party's constant attempts to limit liability.) btw, I thought this was an interesting article on Mad Cow: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107188,00.html And this previous one: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87571,00.html

I have the low-end Braun and have tried the top-end Braun. Honestly, I don't think the high end version is worth the extra money. I like the Braun and use it a lot. I use it for pureed soups, the kind I like and make the most. I use it for salsas (it's much better than a Cuisinart or blender since you have more control and it's lower powered, but still way easier than a mortar). I also use it for pureed sauces. eg, I like to braise with roughly chopped pieces of all kinds of stuff and then finish the sauce by partially pureeing it. Also, I like my Indian curries finished with a puree. I use it several times a week and find the cleanup and use supremely easy. You can just toss it in the dish washer. Don't bother with the attachments. I do wish I could buy multiple standard sticks, though.