Dignan

Well, I guess if you're going to introduce new items, you should let people know. And I guess not everyone is low carbing it, so low cal items should expand their market if people who eat like that buy into going to a donut shop to do it. I imagine they lost some former donut eaters to the low carb way, but donuts obviously are not going to be a big part of any diet regime. So not a big deal overall, but it just really clanked when I heard it. The first thing I thought of was Jerry ordering an egg white omelet in an episode of Seinfeld, circa 1995. To me it would be like ordering a broiled skinless chicken breast.

I was watching Mythbusters and there was a not very well done commercial for a Dunkin' Donuts flatbread egg white sandwich. That seems pretty 90's to me, promoting carbs and non-fat protein. Sure you can offer such things, but to make a campaign based on it?

Our club allows tipping on your chits, but no one is supposed to handle cash.

It's interesting that you say this. I recently read an article stating that McDonald's is considering raising its prices on their Dollar Menu. The article said that menu accounts for 14% of their revenue, which, if you do the math, is quite a lot of money. It goes on to say they're testing higher prices in some markets for the Double Cheeseburger, the anchor product of the Dollar Menu. My guess is that they'll find some customers balking at paying the higher price but, overall, it'll fly because consumers tend to resign themselves to price increases. They've done this before. They used to run specials like 2 Egg McMuffins for $2, which eventually became 2 for $2.22 and then 2 for $2.50. The last special I saw was 2 for $3. ← Oddly enough, down here in South Florida the McDonald's still have the 2 for $2.00 breakfast thing going. The specials change about once a month, but it's a pretty good deal, really! ← I was in Houston not long ago and ordered two sausage biscuits and was charged just over two dollars. Out this way, you pay over $2 for a single sausage biscuit in Spearfish, SD. So, I got on the road and in the bag were two hash browns I hadn't ordered. I remembered the girl behind the counter was pretty cute, and having just scored pretty good with the ladies the night before in a most unanticipated manner, I was struttin' about thinking I'd caught her eye and been rewarded some free potatoes. Then I looked at the receipt, and everything was there rung up nice and proper. Which made me wonder whether mailing sausage biscuits to Wyoming wouldn't be a more economical option.

The proper and correct way to eat sushi is with your hands and to use your chopsticks for sashimi. Steve himself has said this, and he's a writing a book about asian dining. Sushi is really about the rice, not the fish. And, the sushi master is trying to mold the sushi for this optimum mixture of rice and air so that it falls apart in your mouth. But, if you use chopsticks, then the sushi master must clump it harder so that it won't fall apart when you pick up with your chopsticks. The way I see it, I'm already behind the eight ball as the sushi chef views me as just another gaijin. If I use chopsticks for sushi, then I'm singalling to him that I don't know anything about sushi and thus am unlikely to appreciate his craft. Its kind of like ordering spicy tuna. As such, a sushi master isn't going to give the best cuts to a gaijin who's using chopsticks and ordering spicy tuna. ← Well, I encourage you to visit Japan to determine what you have written above is true. ← No shit.

I think you're asking about the commercials ... the only ones I remember are Fox's stupid "so you think you can dance" or whatever its called commercials.

I don't think I'll watch anymore of these NFNS shows, though I'll probably give the final a quick look to see what sort of schmutz suppurates out of it. I never could leave scabs alone. How many road shows can our economy support before it is in ruins? How many times do we have to watch somebody go to Geno's and Pat's for "cheesesteaks wit"? How many times can you show somebody go to the Varsity for a hot dog? To Black's for barbecue or that place in Amarillo with the 72 ounce steaks? Christ Almighty. Enough already. The Travel Channel has guys going to the four corners of the globe to find bugs and anuses to eat, and that's beginning to get mundane. It takes Bear Grylls and a big juicy elephant turd to keep me interested anymore.

I'd be mildly surprised if cheeks were always "in the pantry" and available for use on the show. Maybe they both just kind of had a "Hey, look at that, there are beef cheeks on this list!" moment when they were doing their planning.

How about a hotel pan full of dead mussels. On Kitchen Nightmares, he's always saying they could kill somebody.

I've had the biscuit twice as I said, one good and one not so good. I was delighted with the good one. We don't have CFA out this way, but I grew up eating their chicken sandwiches. That good biscuit was on par.

Maybe the 87 cents was really only important because of a POS system that required a balancing entry?

I was getting worried there for a while.

finale finale? Will the winner be announced? Or do we have to wait a week? ← This is it. Gotta love the pacing this year. The NBA could take some lessons.

I think the pickle flavor is supposed to be there, a la the CFA, but doesn't always make it into the mix.

I saw a good deal of this most recent episode, and I liked the Romulan. She seemed to be the only one who had a handle on being there, and the reasons why they are there. But does she always have those phaser burns on her cheeks? I'm tired of the FN captioning Morimoto's english. I can understand him -- is it that difficult for others? On IC, they do a voiceover when he talks, and I can usually understand him through the voiceover. While I'm at it, I don't care for the two FN execs, Mr. Milquetoest and That Lady. That look of concern and worry they always beam at the contestants. You should be worried. You're television executives on a stupid stupid TV show that purports to contribute to your network's Mission.

I''ve had the chicken biscuit twice. The first time it was reminiscent of the CFA because of an abundance of pickle flavor. The second time, it was a biscuit with chicken on it. The first time, I also got a sausage biscuit and preferred the chicken. The second time, I wished I had gotten the sausage biscuit instead.

But has Richard really been the molecular poster child? Did he foam? He applied smoke to a couple of items, then his smoker broke. He sous vided, and that was a disaster. What he has done mostly has been clever with ingredients and pairings and conceptions. He may be in to it but that isn't what got him to the final. ← True. I'd just like to see somebody hang their ass in the wind though. The whole "play it safe" thing is probably the smart move but it's not as fun. I want to see somebody look at the judges and say "this is what I do and I sure had a lot of fun with it whether I win or not". Of course I realize the whole goal is to win so I don't actually expect anybody to play that way. ← I think Richard has done that more than anyone, but Stephanie has been close. It's just a matter of the game play they settle on for the final. Lisa will do something half good, so it's up to the others not to overreach and and not deliver.

But has Richard really been the molecular poster child? Did he foam? He applied smoke to a couple of items, then his smoker broke. He sous vided, and that was a disaster. What he has done mostly has been clever with ingredients and pairings and conceptions. He may be in to it but that isn't what got him to the final.

me too ← Gail and Padma are both attractive. Gail has the girl-next-door thing, Padma has the exotic thing. Kinda a Mary Ann and Ginger thing going on. None of that is why I watch the show. I don't really care if Frankenstein's Monster and The Creature from the Black Lagoon are doing the tasting wearing neon green and purple swirl potato sacks with bright pink Crocs. It's all about the food. ← Well, I think the ratings would be better if your scenario played out.

I think Gail's very attractive. But it's usually the cut and drape of Gail's outfits that fall short first -- then there's color, and then there's material. With the exception of the tailgate challenge where she wore the Bears jersey, I've smacked my head at every choice she's made. I don't think Bravo tells Tony or Ted what to wear (except when they put Tony in that too small chef's jacket), and therefore whatever Gail buys and wears is her decision and at her expense. This last one is by far the best for a long time, even though the colors were a funky 1970s window covering sort of thing. It made the best of her figure and didn't look dowdy. But I think somebody shot the couch and made that dress.

I read that this campaign was short-lived. It tested poorly, confused people and sales declined. Bye bye ad account! ← I wish this sort of reaction would happen more often. Usually they just let them run through whatever buy they have for TV -- quisno's for example. Maybe it's a matter of having shorter contracts. Another I should have mentioned when I reopened the thread was the coke zero commercials with the two idiots harrassing the "innocent" professional lured in for a meeting (disclosure: I drink 900 diet cokes a day. That many coke zeros gives me a belly ache. They'll have my dollar forever for the DC's but they still piss me off with these dumb ass commercials). But this stupid pretend hidden camera shit, and the pretend guerilla film making has got to go. These people in the Ad agencies making 6 figures coming up with this lame shit have got to go as well.

The last series was such an exercise in futility it's hard to work up any enthusiasm for this year.

Well, at least it was the last week we have to witness Lisa getting by as 2d most suckiest. It sucks when people who suck act like they don't suck and expect us to suck it up. I would hazard that Richard didn't win that particular car that was right there in PR that night, but rather the right to a car to be identified and delivered at some time in the future. He might in fact rather be offered a check for the value of in lieu of any actual car, because of the pesky tax thing that got Oprah that time. Then he could spend the balance on a culinary tour and a haircut.

What would one of those Baby Bellings run you? It looks like it's two burners and a little oven, is that the deal?

Nobody's picking on fat people, or people with bad teeth, or weird legs, or jagged arm scars. But people on TV make choices about how they will appear on TV. When those appearances catch your eye, commenting is fair I think. The Spike/Tom/Malarky hat tragedies have elicited plenty of comments. I won't go back into the thread, but I'm sure that one guy who always wore ties in whatever season that was got comments based on it. I thought Tony looked odd in the Top Chef jacket. One of the reasons Padma is on the show in the first place is that she generally looks fabulous in anything she wears. And Gail has a unique style that I can't figure out. TV is a visual medium. What people see matters. It's plain old vanilla human nature. ← Steve Aspinio (?) (Asprinio?) was the dude who always wore a tie - and didn't he get mercilessly ragged for it. One or two eps with, say, a bad hair or clothing day, OK - but if someone is unremittingly greasy, dorky, tacky or otherwise, shall we say, "not on" - well, yes, they're going to hear about it. I think they handed Tony the official TC "head judge blue", for his head judging gig. His own chef jacket is more fitted and customized for HIM. The TC blue jacket is bigger, boxier, and more appropriately roomy for the beefier Colicchio. (I'm not saying I think he wore Tom's own jacket - I'm saying I think they have a certain look to the jacket, and when Tony stepped in for Tom, they issued him a TC jacket in Tony's size. But not his style. Definitely not.) Since no other chef has guest HEAD judged before, no one has ever had to wear the blue TC head judge jacket before. All the other guest judges (chefs or otherwise) wore either street clothes or their own whites. (If Tony was asked to cook, like Rocco was, I bet he would have worn his own whites). That's my theory of day, anyway. ← Yes, point taken, to the extent we are distinguishing between commenting on appearance and mercilessly ragging on it. Tony's jacket was too short.