Tess

The markets are a huge problem in many places!

Ditto on the keep it simple. I find it irritating when a click on an innocent-seeming link opens up a pdf file-- especially when that file turns out to be so small that I don't see why they thought they had to use that format. Also, please watch the dead or broken links. The number one thing I don't like, though, is links that lead to nothing but some comment about how busy the web administrator is and to please be patient. I really don't need to know anything about the webmaster, but the more cutesy and "look at me" this stuff is the less professional it makes the site look.

I'm on WW, and I eat most of my food for breakfast and lunch. I'm doing the program online and have not seen any particular advice on this issue. I'm in 20-pointsville (please don't curse me, Jensen!) and it seems like *a lot* less than 22. If I don't earn some activity points, I feel I don't have much to work with. If I'm still hungry at dinner time, frankly, I just cheat. (I can't use flex points on a daily basis because I need them for one dinner out a week.) I have lost weight anyway. The WW food allowance is a little too small, in my opinion. Jensen, if you get a chance, I really recommend seeing if your library or video store has the BBC production of I, Claudius. It rocks! The book is good fun too. Thanks for posting the cauliflower soup recipe. I'm all about the soups.

I take a jar or can of cherries, pour the syrup out and let them sit for a few hours in some whisky or brandy, set them on fire and serve them over ice cream. Works with other fruit too. In addition to things people have already mentioned, I also keep on hand a certain amount of caponata and other snacks and relishes in jars.

I was also able to read the article with no subscription. Arguments in that form annoy me. "Is xyz as good (or whatever) as some people say it is?" The answer is almost inevitably no. It's one of the easiest forms of argument to make and it's pretty much impossible to refute. Does it tell us anything? I don't mind bashing of American food but I like to hear specifics. Where exactly did those restuarants fall short? He really ought to be able to say more than "It just wasn't fantastic." The way it's written, it's pretty much a piece of non-news to me, although I enjoyed seeing what Alice Waters had to say.

I'm so glad you're blogging, Jen! I'd missed your first blog and am reading it now.

I have a "flavor injector" from Williams-Sonoma. I'm sure you can get them cheaper than I got mine from another cooking supply place.

I'm getting back with the Weight Watchers program; does that count? It does mean drinking much less than I have been over the past couple of weeks and eating more whole foods. I would love to do a full-fledged detox routine at a spa or something but unless I have someone to organize it for me, I'm just too lazy.

Tomorrow night, beef bourguignon. Saturday brunch/lunch: chilled cracked Dungeness crab, smoked salmon, scallops wrapped in bacon and broiled, chilled shrimp. Garnishes, sauces, baguettes, crackers. I have the makings for oyster stew but may save them for dinner that night. We got a lot of nice chocolates for Christmas and those will be dessert for both meals-- and all meals in the near future.

I've been quite happy with Coffee Times. One of the things Les helped me do was persuade certain members of my family who believe in "the darker the roast the better" to try a medium roast with Kona. It really is nice that way. Some of his other stuff is good too. I don't like macadamia nuts that much, but the dark chocolate ones from Coffee Times always get a lot of raves when we serve them. I'll have to visit Bay View Farms some time.

I think one problem, in a fine dining place, is that if you have too many people requesting complicated changes it can take up everyone's time and disrupt things. You only have so many cooks in the kitchen. Honestly, if your parents constantly do this, I don't think you should take them to certain kinds of places. I think it's not so much a question of whether they have a right to do this as "What would happen if everyone did this?" A chef may lose business from people s/he refuses to accomodate, but may lose even more if his or her energies are squandered on these kinds of demands. Things that merely offend the sensibilities, like ice in the wine, are different. (Although I think there is no point in going to a good restaurant if you don't want to have the food the way it was intended and if you want to bring your picky eater to one, you should have them eat before you leave.)

Herbed butter on fresh French green beans. And my cousin's peppermint bark.

This year they were offering samples of a peppermint flavor that smelled very good. I didn't go so far as to eat one. They use good (albeit very strong) flavorings but the texture of the chocolate is strange, to me. Waxy, I think.

There's a restaurant near me whose house salad dressing consists of balsamic vinegar (reduced I think) and brown sugar. It's like syrup. And while it has some good things on the menu-- and everything is very well prepared-- it's amazing how many savory items they do have some form of fruit or sugar. Duck breast with cherries: fine. But the one chicken dish is topped with mangoes. They put dates on a pork cutlet with Gorgonzola. If you don't want to get fruit, you're pretty much stuck with fish. I would say I don't understand it, but they've done very well for a long time, so someone must like it.

Cool! Thanks.

Food Tutor, I've read a lot of your posts and you seem very nice. I'm assuming this was a big misunderstanding in both directions. Sorry for my part in it.

I wasn't aware that this was a private board for food servers. I agree with a lot of your points but I think you're going way too far in some respects. People who gripe after calling a help line are not griping about their own customers; they're the customer in that situation. [Edited to add: Sorry; I see that I misread that particular sentence of yours.] I've dined with people who I know are a nightmare to serve for just the kinds of reasons that were described, but it's not usually ignorance. They're distracted; they're carrying on a conversation; maybe they've been drinking or are just rude. They shouldn't be doing that. I agree, but usually it's not that they really don't know.

Puck already has some bottled latte-type drinks in the supermarkets. They come in several flavors and advertise themselves as being low carb, low fat and low calorie. I've had the "Rich Espresso Latte" flavor and it is a very sweet drink with weak coffee flavor. The Starbucks comparison is apt, although for a canned coffee drink I find Starbucks' Double Shot much tastier. The Puck drink is not offensive but I wouldn't be in a rush to buy that new product.

Like Jensen, I'm on WW and find them too high in points to be a regular thing. However, they really can come in handy in airports or if I miss breakfast on my way out to work. (We have one in my commuter train station.) There are a couple of lower-calorie choices and I'll get a small one with a protein boost.

I think they may have trouble expanding their clientele because people are so paranoid about eating starches and fried foods. I noticed a low-carb option or two on the L&L menu, but there is only so much you can do to de-starch and de-grease a true plate lunch. Perhaps with the Atkins craze on the wane, there is a little more hope.

I enjoyed the movie, sort of. I have trouble with humor that's based on people's irritating features, like Seinfeld and like this movie. For the first half of the movie, I felt like I was on the road trip with these guys and they were bugging me out of my mind. I also thought Miles was truly hateful. From the Slate review: "Apart from being luckless and joyless—his life is truly an empty glass—Miles is also a bit of a wine asshole. At the first winery he and his friend Jack hit, Miles claims to detect in one wine a "soupçon of asparagus" and a "flutter of nutty cheese," descriptions that had me sliding a little lower in my seat. Later in the movie, he pompously dismisses another wine as "quaffable but far from transcendent." Miles is also condescending. When Maya (the love interest played by Virginia Madsen) observes that the alcohol overwhelms a pinot noir the two of them are sharing, he seems excessively surprised that she recognizes the flaw in the wine and can diagnose it using the correct lingo." Yeah. And he also made a reference to the Sandra Oh figure as "just some pour girl" (approximate quotation). I agree with the poster above to some extent; it's good when characters are neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad. For me, the traits in Miles that could make you empathize with him bordered on being too little, too late. Both the guys seemed like such sleazebos; why were the Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen figures even interested in them? I loved the performances by Oh and Madsen, though.

A family I lived with in Ireland seemed to eat rabbit for every meal, and a corporate dining room at one of my jobs was all lamb all the time. In both cases, bad cooking made it a lot worse. I have completely lost patience with both those foods. Neither was my favorite, so no big deal. I haven't been permanently turned off by getting ill over something; I don't think I've ever even had a mild case of food poisoning.

In New England in the 80s, my family used to frequent a diner that offered (albeit on its blackboard, not a printed menu) delicacies including: Spaghetti Carbona, Chicken Estrogen, and "Bum Fume." When asked what the last was, the server said with pretty good French pronunciation, "That's Sole Bonne Femme," and went on to explain it.

I agree. Anything that demands concentration can make you feel better. Cutting up a lot of vegetables is good. Cooking for other people can help you connect and get out of yourself and cooking makes an excellent shared activity. I don't really have a big appetite when I'm truly sad or upset, but cooking is a good kind of busy work to distract me. I also like doing crossword puzzles and reading mysteries at times like that. Something about activities that are more or less finite. Love the Colwin tribute.

I've also found the chains extremely expensive for what you get. I rarely go to four-star restaurants, but I see no problem with it in certain cases. Most sushi and sashimi meals that cost a few hundred sound like they are more or less worth it to me, based on the ingredients and labor. My main problem with $200-300 meals (assuming for the moment that the expense is not hardship) is that the more expensive a restaurant meal is, the more likely I am to feel disappointed with the food or annoyed with the service. I realize that's not entirely logical, but if something goes wrong I'm more apt to focus on that if it's supposed to be a really top place. If it's a moderately costly meal, and something goes wrong, I can focus on the positive. Maybe I'm just a control freak, because if I have a large chunk of money to spend on food I'd rather put it into something special to cook at home, or fabulous wine.