dankphishin

I've never enjoyed fois gras for the same reason I've never enjoyed veal: I keep thinking of how it was created. I don't think laws are necessarily the answer, but at the same time, I don't really have much sympathy for people that are up in arms about it. Yeah, it's just a duck/goose, but I believe in karma. Also, anything that raises the hackles of the fois gras and caviar crowd appeals to my rebellious streak, for whatever reason. Maybe those people can spend their fois gras budget on some food for hurricane refugees.

I'm Armenian, so our name for Ayran is "Tahn." I usually drink it as it, with some mint leaves on top.

This episode was pretty good. Tsai won hands down, I thought. Flay's dishes weren't really inovative, thought I thought the hash looked pretty good (I'm partial to anything with an egg on it.) The challenger's dishes were all sublime, though. I thought the judges were better this time around, Allen really knows his stuff. All in all, I'm pleased with this series so far.

I saw the show, and it was cool to see new episodes, but Bayless definitely should've won. I was salivating at Baylesses dishes, but I think diabetes would be in my future after finishing a full course of flay's shit. It just looked like too-sweet fake-ass southwestern shit, while Bayless stayed traditional, which will always win in my book. The show didn't deviate from my expectations, the judges are still pretty annoying though. That Rosengarten dude reminds me of a pig. I'm looking forward to seeing more battles with Batali and Morimoto though, those fellas have some skills.

I don't know anything about beef quality and fat content, but the meat should be semi cheap. Other than that, about a quarter-pound patty, extra-sharp cheddar cheese, toasted bun, lettuce, and mayo (and mushrooms if they're around), and some sriacha sauce. Preferably with fries made in oil that hasn't been changed in a while, and some kind of pale ale.

Speaking of Subway, after many drunken nights of complaining about the too-small breakfast sandwiches, my friend Justin convinced our local Subway to fill a sub with chopped breakfast sausage patties and eggs- great after killing a nine-dollar case of American Ice.

I've been guilty of this in the past. It's just that the food sounds so amazing! Don't forsake us, Jinmyo!

My mom got ahold of some bison meat once and made these, they were really good, not dry at all.

I had one of these Iron Citys, they were 1.10 for a single so I grabbed one to go with the rest of my purchases. The beer tasted fine (as fine as IC can taste) and was acceptably cold, though I don't nurse my beer. All in all, a cool gimmick, especially after my friend drilled holes into it and made it into a pipe. And it sure does hit!

I've never had the chance to eat whale, though I'd wholeheartedly imbide if given the chance. As long as the species isn't endangered, who cares? I am as much an environmentalist as anyone else, but I really can't see a logical argument against eating a (non-endangered species) whale. I mean, we are not using the whale for pet food or makeup, we are using it for the same thing other humans have, i.e. sustenance. I don't like people using arbitrary moral judgements to tell me what to put or not put in my body (be it whale, pot, tobacco or alcohol). Using the "whales are smart" argument is the same slippery slope fallacy used by the people that tell me they won't eat venison or small game because it's "cute." As long as the animal isn't endangered, I'll eat it, and I'll eat an extra serving for all you vegans.

Dear god that squash looks good. Squash rocks.

Wine! and Milk. Also, those fake-looking sliced black olives (the fresh ones in oil or whatever are fine.)

I'd go with some ham pot pie. The name is sort of misleading, it's wide, not uniformly shaped noodles, salty ham all in gravy. It's good as hell.

I've tried the light lager, and always thought it had a weird taste to it. This was enough that I elected to just stick with regular lager or black and tan. The regular Yuengling premium ligh isn't bad i guess, just tastes watered down is all.

I have to agree with the "tequila makes crazy" faction. One particular night comes to mind, and honestly, for all the crimes I committed, I didn't remember a thing. I don't drink Tequila anymore because I've always ended up getting rowdy as all hell. But enough of that. The crazy effect may be psychosomatic, but you probably don't remember that when you're piss drunk. Different alcohols cause different moods, and the posts on this topic have at least proved that anecdotally, if not scientifically.

I've tried the stuff too and i don't think it's one of those things that people buy for the taste. You do hear the name being dropped in a few songs, and it reminds me of when me and my friends used to buy alize, and listened to a lot of 2pac. If I remember correctly, Hpnotiq was too expensive and just tasted like crappy juice with vodka in it. Never tried it in one of those designer martinis, but I'm not really one for silly garbage like that. Usually when i drink anything other than straight liquor or beer, I limit it to drinks that have all the ingredients in the name of the drink (jack and coke, seven and seven, etc). Anyways, Hpnotiq isn't something I'd drink, unless it was the only bottle of booze in the fridge and it was before noon.

I am half Armenian, so when I visit that side of the family I get to enjoy my grandmother's cooking, which is one of the things I most look forward to. My family is Armenian from Alexandria, Egypt, though originally from the village of Dikranagert (now known as Diyarbekir). This of course was before 1.5 million of my people living in what is now Turkey were massacred, so there ain't no Armenians there now. The food I usually ate growning up included the traditional Armenian recipes, as well as many of the Egyptian ones. The only big difference was that we didn't eat that much lamb, this being because my dad and grandfather didn't like it. Some of the most memorable foods my grandmother makes are here dolmas, vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice, with lots of yogurt and garlic, as well as the aformentioned air-dried beef, basturma. Lahmajouns make me realize why my grandmother has a foodservice-size tub of garlic in the fridge, and I always take a few frozen ones back to the States with me. Soups, like a meat dumpling soup and another labor-intensive soup made from hooves, and and the Egyptian Molokhia also spring to mind. Finally, all varieties of pastries, like baklava, biscuits, flaky cheese things. WIth every meal, pita bread, which is one of the things I really look forward to, because even wegmans is piss-poor next to bread from one of the middle eastern grocery stores. Armenian food is definitely comfort food, and fills you up. It borrows from many elements of the regional cuisines though it's pretty easily destinguishable from any of them.

Wow, either this doesn't occur in the new show, or someone didn't do their homework when they saw Big Pussy was judging. Or didn't want to downgrade their cooking that much. Sorry, that guy's comments still irk me.

I think you're reading too much into this. This is Iron Chef America, and the previous serious was Iron Chef Japan. ICJ had only Japanese judges, so the scales were tipped in favor of the Japanese chefs. Also, the chefs know in advance who the judges will be, and I assume some sort of questionnaire is asked of the prospective judges. Remember, Iron Chef is as much a sporting event as it is a cooking show. I do agree that judges should not be unreceptive to ALL foods that would be considered "odd" by their culture, but some bias is acceptable. Personal preference again. The American chefs have an edge on Iron Chef America, and that's not jingoistic, just common sense. Check out the records of the Japanese Iron Chefs. I'd imagine some sort of armed revolt would occur if Flay's record approached Chen Keninichi's (Mind you, I don't like Flay, nor do I think he is close to being a good cook as Chen).

No bias, Yuengling rocks.

My first drunk was pretty crazy, I was thirteen and visiting relatives in Montreal for Christmas vacation. New Year's Eve, there was a dinner at decent resto downtown with our whole family, relatives, friends, etc (a big crowd, about 30 or so Armenians). I quickly discovered that everytime I finished my wine glass, it was refilled. After a while, I was fairly tipsy, which my dad noticed. He proceeded to take me to the bar where I was given about 6 shots of "Amaro" (sic?), some sort of liquer, I'm not sure why this was picked. I was still heavy into the wine, and pretty drunk. I ended up going to the Armenian community center, where there was another New Year's Party, where I think I did many vodka shots, and ended up passed out, hugging the toilet. Eventually, a guy that my dad had coached in basketball took pity on me and took my drunk ass home. I slept till about five the next day, with no hangover suprisingly, though I took a lot of shit from relatives. I didn't drink for about a year after that, though nowadays at 20 I can pretty much hang with anybody (co-regional penns valley beer-bong champ my senior year of high school, plus I shoot an awesome game of Pong), though I always remember that first time. fun fact: the Armenian equivalent of "are you drunk?" is "Kinov Es?" which transalates to "Are you with wine?"

1. Guinness 2. Yuengling Lager 3. Rolling Rock 4. Moosehead 5. Labbatt 50 6. A cold Busch can on a hot day or at mountain party on Penn's View

I'm in college right now, and here's what i consume: Pickles Ramen Pepperoncini Venison (Usually runs out by second semester) Occasional trout Those bags of frozen berries Once and a while my mom sends me a care package which contains fresh cheese, yogurt, and sour cream from her friend's dairy Also to second the Olde English 800, at 1.75 a 40, it's a price performer. And pot, of course.

I enjoyed the new episodes, though much less than the original version. That's to be expected though. The main thing that annoyed me was "Big Pussy" as a judge. His asinine comments were pretty disrespectful to the chef. They should at least make sure the prospective judges have a rudimentary knowledge of good food, at least to the point of not being a "Big Pussy" when it comes to raw food. The floor guy was a moron, but even that was entertaining. Alton Brown seem to know his stuff and is a good host, but I agree with those who say he needs a partner. I was suprised to see Flay win, though I suppose his dishes would be more appealing to an American palate. Apparently, his dishes tanked on ICJ. All the food they made looks awesome, and since that, along with the cooking process, is the main reason I watch the show, I welcome the new episodes, and with all the feeback from the eGullet contingent, it can only get better.

In regards to faking enjoyment in food, regardless of what it is, i can usually manage to eat a small portion. I'm not really a reliable judge, since I will eat most anything. If it's something that I absolutely will not eat, I'll just feign sickness. This happens rarely though. As far as liquor goes, I can't smell tequilla without gagging (stay away from funneling it). Usually, with food I dislike, my stomach and my brain come to an agreement out of politeness though.