Tess

For me, there is nothing like something hot, salty and spicy for a cold. Tom Yum soup, for instance. Also, something starchy and salty can sometimes do wonders for an upset stomach. I was fealing nauseated the other day and a package of honey mustard Pretz took care of it admirably.

Sounds like a project to me!! You can CHANGE her!! ← Seriously, I agree.

Nigella beats them all by a mile, in my opinion.

I recognized the Spice House packaging right away.! I'm a huge fan and lucky enough to be local to them.

Another not-quite-fast-food entry: Buffalo Chicken Wontons at Ruby Tuesday's. The name doesn't reflect it, but they also have an Italian aspect: mozzarella cheese.

Doesn't sound dumb at all. WW culture is strange. That silly slogan they have: "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels." To which someone on this board replied: "You just haven't tasted my cooking." Exactly! WW tends to promote food that is not good and not even that healthy. The thread here is what I really use, along with reading some blogs and journals by people who are doing WW in one form or another. I attend no meetings. I'm not even sure why I'm still paying dues to belong online, except that I find the software good for tracking things; it's that little bit of effort-saving that makes it doable. I agree with you that it's very much a matter of finding a balance and not doing things that are such an effort they become overwhelming.

I'm reading this thread with great interest-- a lot of good thoughts and suggestions here. Mizducky, have you taken a look at the Weight Watchers thread? Along with some discussion that's probably indecipherable if you're not in the program, there are a lot of descriptions of healthy, relatively low-fat meals, often with photographs. Not all of them will fit with your particular restrictions, but I think there are a lot of good ideas for modifying your diet in subtle ways that still allow you to eat well. Speaking of Weight Watchers, it's certainly not for everyone. In my opinion, they don't allow enough food, and they penalize you too heavily for eating healthy fats. But I've found their journaling principle incredibly useful. Writing down everything I eat for a while has helped me identify the things I can change relatively easily and the patterns that get me in trouble. For example-- and this is just me-- I can have ice cream, but not for lunch because eating sugar at mid-day makes me hungrier later. And there are times when I tend to eat double what I really want just because standard portion sizes are so large, and I'm small. I'd rather make adjustments on that level that give anything up altogether.

I enjoy the drunken guests. My husband's ex came to dinner, drank half a bottle of vodka and passed out in our bed before the meal was served. She came out a while later and remarked that the dog had been humping her. I told her she could have pick of the litter. There was one couple we liked a lot but stopped inviting along with any MDs because the guy would always try to hit them up for prescription medicines right there at the table.

I don't think I'll be able to top the first example (wow!) but I think Hawaiian pizza (with ham and pineapple) has to be a pretty good early one. Only two languages but quite a geographic and culinary stretch. I'm thinking there may be some good entries from Japan.

In my opinion, a regular 4-year college is not for everyone, and certainly not automatically right out of high school. If a student isn't ready and/or it's not the right college, it can be a huge waste of time, money and opportunity. And just having a four-year degree does not open too many doors unless it's the right degree for what you want. So, there may be reasons to dissuade a kid from going right into culinary school, but regular college may not be the best alternative.

And then there are those restaurants where you're pretty sure what you're going to get, the "home away from home type of places." We have a few of those in our regular rotation. When I briefly lived in Rome, I was surprised at how many people ate out more often than in. Kind of like New York. In my part of Rome at least, it wasn't necessarily that much more expensive to eat out and there were some casual places where you would go again and again. I really enjoyed that. I was stuck inside doing research a lot of days and it was nice to get out and see people. Anyway, cool blog, Pan. I used to spend time staying with family at 10th and University. They moved away a few years ago and I miss it; your blog brings it back.

I like to puree them and make alcoholic slushies in an ice-cream maker. Mango "bellinis" or mango, rum and a squeeze of lime. I'm sure you could do something with tequila too.

I've been on the other side of that equation. One that really helps me is no pressure. I didn't grow up with sushi, and I found I was able to try a lot of things by being with people who would explain it, but in a large enough group where it wasn't that noticeable if I took a piece of something or not. If someone takes you out for some new kind of food and then watches your every reaction to every bite, it's kind of weird. Some foods grow on you, anyway. (I thought raw fish was just OK for a while, and gradually got to the point where I'd seek it out.) On the other side of the coin, I do feel let down when I introduce someone to my favorite foods and they don't "get it," but I try to remember how it feels the other way.

I like "Chatterbox." If you're referring to me (probably) perhaps I should have specified the author instead of saying "Slate." I certainly don't associate Slate with the particular view expressed in the article. I love Sarah Dickerman's columns.

To be more specific, the Slate article bothers me as writing that's about the media treatment of the food world. As much as I like some aspects of Slate and similar online publications, they fill an awful lot of space with writing about stuff like TV shows. (I stopped paying for Salon Premium because it seems silly to pay people to sit around watching TV and making comments about it.) This article is a pretty common format for that stuff: "XYZ is not as popular/unpopular as it should be." Similarly they do a lot of "XYZ is not as important/unimportant as people think." That's about the weakest kind of argument you can make, in my opinion. I think that adding an invidious touch like, "People who dislike XYZ are snobs" is a lazy way of trying to seem controversial. I guess it worked in this case to some extent but I still feel like it's silly. I also feel that even if you look at her premise, as weak as it is, and say, "OK, I'll play," it doesn't turn out that she supports it that well, but it doesn't really matter. In the end you can't prove or disprove something like how popular a TV personality deserves to be.

from the Slate article really bother me. I'd have Ferran Adria cook me a homestyle meal over Rachel Ray anyday! ← That's the thing. It's not RR that bothers me; it's the article.

I agree about Rachel Ray bashing to some extent, but hey-- can we not even bash Slate? (And they ran an article called "Nigella Really Does Bite." My beloved Nigella! ) Sorry, I got the title of that piece wrong.

I've never watched Rachel Ray, but that article doesn't make me think I would ever want to. In fact, it reminds me to stay away. I don't think that makes me a snob. (Packaged ingredients *and* it takes the writer almost an hour to cook a meal? Worst of both worlds.)

I like some canned fruits, especially peaches and cherries. For dessert I will sometimes soak them in booze and set them on fire to be served over ice cream.

Great chapter! Psst... Amazon US is offering a nice discount on the book at the moment, which I'm guessing will go away when it's officially out. (Is it OK for me to say that?)

I think that's a very good price for the tuna; it looks very nice. I also like to hang out at the place where I buy sashimi. It's a Mitsuwa (Japanese chain) and I always try to have a maguro don or something in the food court before I even start shopping. Well, first I cruise the sashimi refrigerator to make sure there is a good supply. Another thing that impresses me about your market is how much fish they seem to have on display at a time. Your blog is one of those that really opens my eyes in terms of any fantasies I have about professional food service and cooking. You have to be able to do so many different things.

That market looks fabulous. I'm trying to make out the prices on the blocks of sashimi-grade tuna. I pay around $22/lb.; what's it like there?

One of my local bistros serves them with a mixture of mayonnaise and pureed watercress, which I really like.

Thanks for mentioning him. I did a search and came up with his eGullet Q&A, which I hadn't realized existed. It's interesting.

I think I ate too many Boca Burgers at one point, because now the texture of soy fake meat really irritates me. I still like Dr. Praeger's burgers and other vegetarian burgers that have different kinds of vegetables in them, but too much of that soy texture and it's a turn-off. So, if I'm going to eat soy, I'll have tofu (or soybeans). I do like Quorn for when I have a craving for those junky chicken nuggets. The Quorn ones taste very much the same and they're not as fattening. In fact, the nuggets are pretty much a vehicle for dipping sauce anyway, and the less fatty Quorn nuggets actually work better for that. In a restaurant I wouldn't get a fake-meat dish unless it looked really interesting and was not made with soy.