g.johnson

Many animals are social -- ants, whales, deer, meercats and, most relevantly, non-human primates. It’s just another evolutionary strategy for propagating the genes. I think it’s a stretch to suggest that communal fire tending and cooking are the causes of socialization rather than its products.

True, but F-A argues something more: that cooking is the key soclialization process and the one that makes us human.

I do hope that the word does keep its original meaning, which is how I use it. We have plenty of words to describe foods that are tasty, ‘tasty’ springs to mind, but we have no good substitute for ‘artisinal’. Unfortunately, Plotnicki is probably correct and this word is going to go the way of ‘disinterested’ so that when someone uses it we will have no way of knowing exactly what they mean.

Another culture gap is the word 'teakettle'. It's always just 'kettle' in Britain. And yet it should be the other way round, at least if the woman in Williams-Sonoma who stared blankly at me when I asked about 'fish kettles' is the norm.

I think it’s easier than that. It’s perfectly clear that General Mills is not an artisanal producer and the farmer's wife churning butter by hand in her dairy is. There may be grey areas between (like Poilane) but that doesn’t mean that the distinction does not exist (Would Wilfrid like to summarize the Sorites paradox?)

We had this discussion somewhere else. ‘Artisanal’ is not in the OED 2nd edition (1989). It is, however, used in the definition of ‘mechanical’* in the planned third edition. I assume this means that it will be included in the 3rd edition. ‘Artisinal’ is found in neither and is, I suspect, a typo. *Belonging to or characteristic of people engaged in manual work, esp. regarded as a class, artisanal; vulgar, coarse. Now rare.

So we know that Italian cooking was considered relevant in 1660.

I'm curious. How lean was your belly and how hot was too hot? I'd have thought, never having cooked it, that there would be sufficient fat in the meat to withstand quite a lot of cooking.

Or the pork has changed -- a higher temperature would've be OK when the pork was fattier.

The worms that cause trichinosis are killed at around 145F. Most recommended temperatures (including Julia Child’s) are far too high. Farmed pork is, in any case, generally free of infestation. If it were loin I’d suggest taking it out the oven at 150 and letting it rest. But… pork belly is a really fatty cut, no? I suspect it’ll be a lot more toothsome cooked slowly to a rather higher temperature.

Adam: When were the spices we associate with curries -- coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne -- introduced to Britain? These are the things that seem un-British to me. (By contrast I associate the sweet spices -- cloves, cinnamon -- with traditional British cooking.)

Won't this run the risk of encouraging clostridium botulinim?

Jefferson Market for meat and fish. Union Square greenmarket or Garden of Eden (14th Street) for vegetables. GoE for bread. We used to go to Balducci’s for charcuterie but now we go to GoE which is not great, but adequate. You can sometimes get reasonable cheese at both JM and GoE but it’s far from a certainty. That was why we went to D&D on Saturday (and the three recommended cheeses were very good, I thought).

That was me on Saturday during a meal for which you have not yet heaped sufficient praise on my head.

So, when's the next one?

We posted already. Yvonne particularly liked the boar, I loved the crab and we both liked the shrimp. And can you tell your cricketers to be a bit more puppy dog like around English accents, if only to set an example for the Australians.

Given the obvious care with which Suvir and Hemant planned and prepared the meal it¡¯s not surprising that it was the best Indian meal I have ever had (and I¡¯ve had a lot of Indian meals). The crab papadom* thingy was particularly good, the shrimp dish too. And Suvir's tomato chutney was as good as advertised. *What is the preferred transliteration? And does Indian script have a name?

when?

Poncey.

I'm sure that that has a lot to do with it, but wasn't it equally onerous when Vongerichten, Boulud and the rest were starting? Or do you think that costs have risen disproportionately, or that the dining public have become more conservative?

Are you suggesting that if a innovative chef, as Vongerichten once was, came along now, he’d fail to put bums in seats? What’s changed?

But, to repeat myself, the four star chefs' reluctance to innovate does not explain why ambitious young chefs are not innovating.

no no, i believe the term was "fuck me jaw-droppers." Thank you, Tommy, for playing Boswell to my Johnson.

but if you don't start ahead of the other person, or people, then you won't get to sample the dish at the exact temperature that the chef recommends. so then what's in it for you? The warm fuzzy glow of the righteous.

Implicit in Lizziee's post is that the rationale for waiting until everyone is served is that then everyone will finish eating at approximately the same time (unless I’m there as I can inhale a plateful in about 30 seconds). If one person begins eating late they will finish late and may feel obliged to rush.