therese

Lucy, the expression on your fellow diners' faces really summed up the entire meal. Not strictly Montignac, but I'd imagine that the combination of hikes and lean rations would have a similar end result. Just think of it as a particularly uninspired spa.

Country ham Marzipan Peaches

What about the two thirds of the 622 study participants who were normal weight at the beginning of the study and didn't become overweight or obese? How much diet or regular soda did they drink?

Heh heh. My husband and I are doing precisely that in a few weeks, staying in town for a vacation instead of going elsewhere, spending the money we save on dining out every night here in town. We won't be consuming diet soda, that's for sure.

Carvel Grant. ← Thanks. I met her at Taste of the Nation last month and she seemed pretty cool. It's be interesting to see what she does with Canoe, Mennie having been there so long and so closely identified with the restaurant.

Canoe's generally good, but I find the romantic aspect of it to be largely limited to the outside area by the river. The inside feels a bit like a lodge (in an upmarket way---the decor actually includes canoes), and can be fairly loud, so unless that's your idea of romantic it might not be your first choice, particularly now that summer's here and even the evening's may too hot for comfortable dining al fresco. The web site that Gifted Gourmet links to needs some updating, the chef listed (Garry Mennie) has been replaced by a woman (whose name I can't recall at the moment---something that doesn't immediately sound like a woman's name). Mennie's opening a new place, Taurus. My first pick for romantic in the conventional dark and cozy dining room kind of way in Atlanta is The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, though they're between chefs at the moment. Another option is La Grotta, traditional upmarket/old school Italian, intimate dining room, etc.

Exactly. Reminds of the studies that find that households without pet cats and dogs are more likely to have members allergic to those animals.

More from the article that clarifies things a bit: Too bad---for just minute there I thought perhaps that I might be able to lose weight by dropping diet sodas from my diet.

I can't think of anything that's likely to start an argument here, but I have been hearing the word "guanciale" being tortured lately.

Thereby clearly subverting the natural order of things. And yes, I've still got my tongue planted in my cheek.

No, no, you're doing the plant a favor. You eat the fruit (including the seed in some instances) and then cast the seeds off to a place where they won't be competing with their parents for resources. And you provide fertilizer as well. Fruit is the plant's way of bribing you to distribute its seeds.

For non-creamy coleslaw I use apple cider vinegar, salt, and celery seeds. For creamy coleslaw I use the above with the addition of plain yogurt. No sugar, bleah.

It does get a bit soggy, but a lot of people like it that way since cabbage starts out so very sturdy to begin with and the flavors do blend. It will give up some water, so you'll want to drain the excess fluid and might consider keeping some extra of whatever dressing you've chosen for re-tossing at the last minute. Or you could just do all the tossing at the last minute, having pre-chopped the cabbage (which will keep just fine in your crisper).

Favorite quote from my friends in Edmonton: "We're hoping that summer falls on a weekend this year."

Heh heh. I never did find a satisfactory use for kohlrabi---had some sliced raw, some diced and added to vegetable soup.

Very cool seeing how much farther along in the season we are down here in the south. Greens will soon be a distant memory and I'm already wondering how long it will be before the figs are ready. Figs...

Whew, what a relief. California roll indeed... I don't know if Atlanta's faster or slower when it comes to new foods. Based on my personal experience and my friends' reports I'd say that we're by and large fast adopters. But that may be skewed by where I live and the sort of friends I have. Certainly there's no shortage of ethnic restaurants. I may just be a "glass half full" kind of person on this question. I see Soto as particularly lucky to be able to play to both audiences, both of them enthusiastic, well-heeled, and willing to endure suboptimal dining conditions to enjoy his food. That Soto ends up with a near riot on his hands on those nights when he offers the old format speaks to pent up demand for his food, even if not offered in the omakase setting. I've got a holiday week of multicourse dinners coming up---I hadn't included Soto, but now I'm thinking I may need to. Let's see now, which dinner should I switch?

I don't think it's anything to do with Atlantans not appreciating the omakase/multi-course format, but with the fact that most of his target audience can't invest 3 or 4 hours in dinner on a weeknight. True, it could be such an incredible success that people would be willing to move their expensive/late night dinner out from a Friday to a Tuesday, but instead they're actually more likely to go someplace else if Soto happens to be booked. Do people really order california rolls at Soto? I've never seen anybody do so, but then I'm not usually paying too much attention to what other people are eating. Many of the a la carte items on the regular menu are also on the "favorites" section of the omakase menu. Anyway, I think that the compromise is a good one: I can still do the long dinner with my husband (I'm waiting for seasons to shift a bit for the menu to change more drastically than I've seen so far), but my kids can go with us earlier in the week---my 11-year-old daughter's response to the news that Soto had gone all omakase (and that we wouldn't be taking her along) was positively anguished. So it's not a shame at all IMO.

Another vote for radishes with bread and butter. Salted butter, preferably cultured. Pretty much any sort of good bread will do, though of the bread will of course change the experience. Nice white baguette, sourdough, multigrain, dark rye---all excellent with radishes and butter.

This week in Atlanta I got: Cabbage (first appearance this season) Broccoli (still young) Cauliflower (also still young---I steamed it and pureed it with chicken broth for soup later this week) Carrots (little babies that I'm steaming for dinner tonight) Green beans (skinny haricots verts size---also for dinner tonight) Zucchini (first appearance this year, although good size; baked, served with parmesan broiled on top at the last minute) Rainbow chard (blanched, ready for lunches this week) Beets (roasted, served with blanched beet greens as a salad, dressed with apple cider vinegar and walnut oil) Summer squash (finally mature size---I'll make squash casserole later this week) Onions (small---they'll go into the squash casserole) Green bell peppers (stuffed peppers? I don't like to add green peppers to other things, as I find their flavor overwhelming) Blueberries (first of the season here, really beautiful---last week it was too late for strawberries, too early for blueberries, so he gave me a whole lot of frozen blueberries, which I'm using for smoothies and sorbet sorts of thing).

You realize, of course, that you have just advertised on the World Wide Web for a new, incredibly inviting B&B in your home, therese ... you do provide afternoon tea? and 'turn down' with a mint upon the pillow each night, no? ← Except that most of the time the beguiling prospect of watching me eat breakfast in my jammies is offset by the presence of my kids complaining bitterly that I've once again failed to buy them any trash breakfast cereal.

Everything sounds great, and thanks to all for the suggestions. But last night, as husband and I were home going through web sites for B & B's with cushy beds, lovely gardens, and fantastic breakfasts we realized that we already live in a very nice place with a cushy bed, lovely garden, and fantastic breakfast (which we can eat in our jammies, hair uncombed), and since our kids will both be away at camps that week we needn't actually leave town ourselves. We've tried the "vacation at home" option before with mixed results, but this time we've agreed that neither of us will go to our office or do work of any sort. Hmm, we'll see. In the interim I need to get busy making reservations, as this means I've got a dining budget of at least $400/day. Oh boy, I can hardly wait...

How about "pits added"? Sorry, couldn't resist. I always consider the same question when I see the "pitted" description.

My husband and I are headed to Asheville for five nights, Sunday thru Thursday, in July. We've not settled on a place to stay, but are looking at bed & breakfasts in the Montfort neighborhood. We'll have a car and will likely be doing some day trips out into the surrounding area, either hiking or possibly rafting. So, where to eat? I've eaten at Grove Park Inn (brunch, about two years ago) and was thoroughly underwhelmed. No other experience with Asheville. I live in Atlanta, so pretty demanding when it comes to both upmarket and ethnic, but I'm from this part of the world (mountains of Virgina) and so am familiar with (and like) the local food. I'm looking for several categories: 1. Upmarket/nosebleed: Looks like Gabrielle's at Richmond Hill Inn fits the bill. Any other options? Any specific comments re Gabrielle's? 2. Downtown/groovy/trendo/funky: whatever's available, possibly walking distance from Montfort, walkable surrounding neighborhood and after dinner entertainment options a plus. Anything from Italian to tapas to vegan to brewpub. 3. Out of town/day trip: places on the way to a hike or waterfall or whatever. Barbecue shack, trout pond/mill, family style, meat and three all fine. 4. Shopping: good sources for local products/produce.

Beets getting significantly larger, summer squash still smallish but more of it, nice carrots (made carrot-ginger soup), conventional onions showing up. Did you know that if you eat a lot of beets your pee turns pink? It's pretty cool. My 14 year old son thought it was pretty cool, though he did at first wonder if perhaps he were very very ill.