oraklet

i'm getting out of here - and fast.

honestly, it looks like a silly gadget. the plastic will soon be cut by the knives, get ragged and make storing the knives difficult. and they may say it holds 15 knives, but do take a look at the moma-link: it will hold no more than 6 of the globals shown there. and apparently not big enough to hold a really big (say 12") knife.

the lustau i've had with cheese was rich/sweet. very nice, actually, but not for cheese!

hmm. yes. well. er... "People don't mostly go to a restaurant for enjoyment" but yes, the total enjoyment of taste, presentation, surroundings etc. - and i guess most diners do not analyze it into single elements. to them, a steak seems to taste better in good company. this is where egulletteers will be more prone to differ. and i'll stick to my statement: a chef or a gourmet will be able to switch on his analytical apparatus at any time, should he wish to make an objective judgement of what's before him.

problem with this way of stating it is, people mostly go to a restaurant for enjoyment etc. as for the taste issue, you know the answers

we had only four cheeses and two wines, as it was part of a 5-course meal: french matured goat (well balanced) brie de meaux (not the best i've had, too dried out) muenster (rich without being over-ripe, very good) gorgonzola (one of the best i've had) tricastin (dryish, lots of tannin) amarone (not of the over-sweet kind) i've had both good port/lustau and sweet whites with cheese at other times and never liked it, but i'll have to admit that the amarone was the best choice for every one of the cheeses we tried.

that is probably true. the traditional french attitude to politics is cynical, regardless of political standpoint. that is, politics doesn't as much involve judging persons as judging interests. in usa, lewinsky was close to being the downfall of clinton, whereas in france the president may have several maitresses or be involved in corruption without this having any major impact on his power. likewise, the average frenchman will not let his political point of view influence his conduct towards americans. he will, on the other hand, gladly discuss politics with anybody.

Yawn, ah but this tourist would never make such a sweeping generalisation as: Brie is for tourists. Horrid generic pap for the most part. Give me Epoisses/Munster/Livarot or give me death . obviously, you've never had brie de meaux au lait cru. vacation traveling sightseeer!

try this: http://www.alstrom.dk/product_view.jsp?category=96 it's a small place in copenhagen, and i don't know if they speak english. on the other hand, you should be able to click your way through their site. i'm not sure, though, that the knife block is large enough for a knife fetichist's needs?

right and wrong: right for the masses, wrong for the elite. the elite, particularly the professionals, of any trade are taught methods of focusing on the objective facts before them. this may of course never be 100% perfect, but it's a lot better than what those outside the trade can do. which is why it's always a treat to hear the elite of a trade discuss things you happen to be interested in: there's so much to learn. and reversely: if they can't "deconstruct" they're not part of the elite.

but the wish for fat-free food is not driven by taste issues. it's about (misunderstood) health.

"Symmetry and harmony, and quality, is something that is unto an item without the need for anyone to declare it." (steve p) wilfrid? please?

has anybody really verified this? as far as i know, the coreoli effect is only visible in large scale phenomenons like climate (wind systems, sea current systems etc.). oops, somewhat off topic...

i think you're taking this too far. i mean, i'm able to do a fairly good portrait or nude or landscape drawing, just about any time. wake me up in the middle of the night, and i'll do it. let the kids tug at my legs, i'll do it. really, at any given time i'll be able to judge what's before my eyes in the same way: objectively, as a craftsman. this is the sort of craft that is similar to a cook's training: judging tastes and aromas objectively, inside a given framework of personal taste and ideas. and there's no reason that a diner should not posess the same ability, at least to some extent (he might be a trained cook himself!). two persons can disagree on the spacing of letters or the taste range of a dish, but if they master the craft, this discussion will be meaningfull because it deals with objective facts - they know what it's all about. and i'll have to stress this: they can make perfect sense under any normal circumstance.

on the whole, i dislike it in combination with other things similarly sweet or bitter, like coffee or brandy. there has to be contrast in temperature, acidity, texture etc., like with tea,or as hot chokolate with whipped cream, or as warm chokolate cake with vanilla ice cream, or - yes - outside very ripe strawberries (with champagne).

on saturday we'll have a decent, not overly sweet amarone with the cheese. there'll probably be some tricastin - served with the duck - left to experiment with. the cheese will be brie de meaux, emmenthal and gorgonzola. well, maybe i should add some parmigiano. on the whole, i'm with wilfridand the other traditionalists - but the difference in sugar content of the two wines will, i believe, be an opportunity to make an informed judgement. untill then, in my opinion, lustau is for tourists

"Does a conventional knife block made of wood harm the cutting edge of the knife - even if you slide them in and out as carefully as possible?" not if it's got horizontal slits, i think. and you know, i guess i'll have to admit that i've got a growing knife fetich, too.

mine are in a block with horizontal slits (from raadvad). it's allright but not perfect. how do the pros feel about knife magnets? potentially harmful to tip and edge?

One of my favorite gadgets is a salad spinner. My Mom has one but she still dries her lettuce in towels . so do i. wouldn't have room for one more gadget. whatever that is. could someone make a list so that we know what we're talking about?

best walt disney comics story ever, "lost in the andes" by carl barks, features square eggs. lovely lovely story. if a dough scraper is a gadget, i'm on that team too. and my whisk. spatulas. kitchen scale.

low-fat products artificial flavors and colors cheap meat apples, tomatoes and strawberries with no taste AT ALL any product containing pesticides, hormones, added vitamins etc.

i would think that it poses limitations to the enjoyment of food. just like present-day limitations like low-fat, no-carbs or similar. my point is that, thinking that this-or-that is healthy will of course influence the way we eat, and we may even end up not eating what we really want - or actually liking what we eat, as it makes us feel saintly and healthy. but this has nothing to do with the gastronomic striving for the most refined combinations and preparations in food. so, popular and quasi-religious beliefs do conflict with gastronomy. i know, the bach fugues are often given as an examle of great art within limitations. but the kind of limitations i'm thinking of in gastronomy would be the equivalent to "g minor is sinful". would have been a pity not to have the g minor organ fugue with us, right?

""almond, cocoa, marsh flowers, irises and undergrowth" or "oranges, golden raisins, brandied cherries, licorice, mint, and maple sugar" ? I think not." sorry to contradict you: though i'm not so accomplished as to be able to recognize all these notes, at least some of them i certainly have tasted; like cocoa, mint, licorice, cherries (may coincide with almond). smae with sweat (which can be quite pleasant, depending on whose)

what it means to those who prepared it: most of us have been brought up, food-wise, in the tradition of gastronomy (which is an analytic method, really: "how do these tastes and textures and tempratures work together?"). we do try to keep religious beliefs and symbolic thinking (and this includes medieval ideas of hot/cold etc.) apart from our enjoyment of food. it is probably impossible for us to enjoy a meal that's been prepared on the basis on such beliefs - though we may of course intellectually understand it. i don't know how many cuisines still operate on that basis, but from what i read here, it does play a role in some eastern cuisines. african food south of sahara: i've only tried it twice, once sudanese and once nigerian. both nice "stew-food". what most people in africa eat. the poor have less, the rich more (at least, that's what i've been told).

thanks, all. i'll give it a try tomorrow.