Singapore

:::looks around furtively::: Hash browns with chunks of country ham. :::drools:::

My take is that Adria's food is not so much close to hypermanipulated mass processed foods rather than purely imitating the hypermanipulation itself. Ever been to a flavor or fragrance manufacturer? Places like Givaudan Roure or International Flavors and Fragrances specialize in processing herbs and spices down to a very, very condensed essence, in liquid or powder form. I've seen hundreds of pounds of cloves processed down to a gallon or two of very intense flavoring suspended in alcohol. These flavor houses can give you just about any flavor in any intensity, in liquid, solid or gaseous form. To me, the author is saying: Take this flavoring (or flavor house methodology), blow it into some half formed aspic or other suspension medium, and compare to Adria's 'cooking'. Is it uncomfortably close? By the way, when you go to a chain restaurant, most of the sauces and marinades are pre-made in such flavor houses in five gallon buckets and shipped to each chain. Cheers

Oh bugger. I'm flying America West to Vegas next week. Good thing I checked out that site! :::packs the MRE's:::

Bring Scotch. It can double as a water purifier, too, in a pinch. I think it's 1 part scotch to 4 parts water, or something like that. Whups, my bad. I seem to remember this from my Navy days, but can't find any info on the web to collaborate. Could it be that once upon a time in Saudi Arabia, a hapless young division officer was purposely misled by his salty chief petty officer?

Morimoto rules! Flay was given his win as a face saving concession to the Food Network. Guy probably lost business as a result of the loss. Anyone who stands on a #$%$##$ cutting board, or tosses one on the floor, doesn't deserve the win! Flay does have a cute girlfriend, tho.

I'd like to add a data point to the thread: During the first Gulf War, I spent some time, courtesy of the US Navy, in Haifa, Israel. Being of Chinese descent, if I spent more than a month at sea, I'd get an incredible craving for Chinese food, and would search out Chinese restaurants at virtually every port of call. In Haifa, I found two restaurants, one kosher, and the other non-kosher. The kosher place had very little business. (The cook actually came out to apologize to me "How can I cook? They won't let me use pork, or fresh seafood, and the beef is tasteless!") The non-kosher place had Jewish people lined up around the block. Most popular dish, according to the wait staff: pork filled dumplings, and roast pork fried rice! I went there twice, despite the fact that it was one of the more expensive restaurants. BTW, I was completely unsuccessful in finding a good Chinese restaurant in Egypt (Alexandria, Hurgada, and Cairo).

Ooooooo! I'd watch that!

:::looks glumly at his Christmas beef roast sitting in the pan::: Let's see. MCD in beef. Salmonella in poultry. Parasites in pork. Amoebas in the veggies. Acid in my rain, and carbon monoxide in my air. Oh the hell with it! :::digs in!::: Merry Christmas, y'all!

I've actually tried one of her entrees from one of her shows and made it in less than 15 minutes. Pretty good, not gourmet, but a good, solid hot dish. I wonder if she's been reading about herself on egullet? Might explain why she appears a bit grumpy in some recent shows.

How about Mill on the River in Vernon?

Is it Indian Delights? I've heard good things about that restaurant.

I think McDonald's setback has more to do with it's identification as an American export than anything else. The Anti-American sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and Europe can't be helping them, and is driving down overseas expansion more than any negative foodie feedback on the quality of their wares. Domestically, they've been doing well, having recently experienced a spike in sales due to their popular Monopoly ad campaign. Don't ask me about the Hindu chap ordering fries in a burger joint....I'm still reeling from the woman who sued and won over spilling a cup of McD's coffee over herself and discovering it was hot. Then again, I've been known to scarf down a McD cheeseburger when I'm hungry enough, so what do I know?

I just checked out his recipe for sweet potato pie....I cannot believe he's making it without a nice splash (1/4 cup) of Kentucky Bourbon! Really adds a nice depth to it!

If he lands at 11:30 pm, by the time he gets his car and luggage and gets checked in, you're looking at 1 am. I'm afraid you're looking at IHOP, my friend.

Take her to the Varsity and see what happens.

Nah, the one in Ponte Vedra is better. I was stationed at Mayport for most of my (short) naval career, but one of my favorite seafood places was Singleton's Seafood restaurant. Savannah style seafood place, very fresh food, and pretty decent prices. Be sure to check out the model fishing boats. No idea how it is now, but it was great back about 10 years ago. Let me know if it's still holding up. BTW, back then the best Chinese food was at Epcot Center. Being that I'm a son of a Chinese restaurant owner, you can take my word for that.

Probably was the Westin Peachtree Plaza. I only go there for the bar. The other rotating restaurant in Atlanta that I know of is the Hyatt, problem is it's now surrounded by hotels and office buildings, so you only see the cityscape about 1/2 of the time. Rest of the time you're staring at someone's hotel room or office.

Just to help y'all who've never had real Southern ice tea, down here in Georgia, (pronounced Jo Ja, for y'all carpetbaggers), when we talk about sweet tea, we mean "Oh my gosh, honey I'm going into diabetic shock"-sweet. Strong brewed, thick with the taste of cane sugar, over lots of ice!

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American.

From the fourth or fifth episode when the 15 cooked for local restaurant and hotel owners (their first public attempt): Did anyone notice Mr. Fergus Hendersen quietly sitting at one end of the table? I wonder what his take is on the '15'?

I caught his interview with Letterman last Thursday night....he personally spent 2.2 million pounds on this program, mortgaging his (paid for) house in the process. He literally could have comfortably retired without "Fifteen". I know I've said bad things about Oliver's Twist in a previous posting, but I have to admit, this kid put his money where his mouth is, and willingly put everything on the line to help out some unemployed kids. Goddamn, I have to admire him for that, even tho I wonder if he would've been better off with some sort of scholarship program instead. Moving him up to my 'favorites' list, and going out to B&N to pick up copies of his books...this kid deserves any help I can give him. BTW, has anyone else noticed that JO looks vaguely panhandler-ish on the cover of "Jaime's Kitchen"? Or is it just me?

I truly admire how much he cares about each of the 'Fifteen', and how far he's willing to go for each of them. Nice one.

I'm in with Jilly on this. Never heard of CC, never heard of Bayless, doubt much of America outside of the Northeast has either, or really gives a damn if another high end, (formerly) high principled, left wing, foie gras hustler bites the proverbial dust and sells out to corporate America. Rocco had a price. NBC found it. Bayless had a price. BK found it. Got the pattern yet?

Damn good article! I've considered myself a foodie, but I was acutely aware that I didn't quite fit the definition some have. Makes me feel much less guilty for occasionally enjoying a nice piece of Southern fried chicken. Or for that time I drove an hour just to try the country ham and grits in a small breakfast dive in Thomaston, GA. (It was damn good, btw. Big, home cured hanging-over-the-edge-of-the-plate ham steak was so salty it brought tears to the eyes, eggs were cooked to order, and the grits sat on the fork like a small puffy cloud....add a good cup of coffee and a solid homemade biscuit, and breakfast don't get much better than that.) It's not what or where you eat that's important....it's how you feel about it afterwards...

We had it in Connecticut two years ago. It was pretty greasy, but edible. Wouldn't go out of my way to have one, tho.