chromedome

Honestly I doubt I'd buy one of these gizmos either (my phone gets used mostly as a backup e-reader, for when I don't have my Kobo to hand) but it seemed an interesting application of the technology. I'm sure it will turn out to be useful in some niches.

I use my nose for that. If it doesn't smell like anything much, it won't taste like anything much. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes, there just *isn't* a good melon in the whole store.

That's the short road to having two freezers to empty...

An interesting device, soon to hit the US market... http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/start-ups/israeli-startup-consumer-physics-says-its-scio-food-analyzer-is-finally-ready-for-prime-timeso-we-took-it-grocery-shopping

I have a set of heavy-duty Wearever aluminum that I accumulated over time through thrift shops. No idea what their colors used to be, they're all bare aluminum now. /highjack

...but never anything stronger than gin before breakfast.

It's usually sold in dried form, though you might find it fresh at a farmer's market.

I did that last year, and it seemed to work fine. I made sorbet with some, and the rest went into watermelon lemonade.

FWIW, in my neck of the woods the herb of choice for such things is summer savory. It's not one of the more common herbs, but it's nice to have on hand...it has hints of thyme and sage, but with a pleasantly peppery bite.

One further point I'll mention is that a gloved hand provides a perfect environment (closed, warm, humid) for bacterial growth. Many training programs don't adequately address the necessity of scrupulous handwashing after glove use, and between glove changes.

I'm familiar with the study you cite. Another, conducted more recently, tested numerous hand dryers to assess how far they distribute pathogen-containing droplets. If you're interested, the Dyson AirBlade is the current champ. IIRC, it could transport pathogens up to 30 m/100ft, though there are relatively few pathogens that can survive long on inorganic surfaces in the open air. Either way, I'm a big fan of paper towels as opposed to the huff-and-puff machines. Just to be clear, I'm not anti-glove and don't advocate for their non-use. My primary point was that in the absence of closer scrutiny (and mandatory glove laws), "glove/no glove" tells you little about how safely the kitchen is run. As for your last point, well yeah...absent a mandatory glove law, keeping a given food off your hands is a perfectly good and valid reason for using them. At home, for me personally, it's often the deciding factor.

When I closed my second restaurant I had about 200 pounds of haddock left, and neighbours (actually my now-GF and her now-ex) offered to store it for me in a spare chest freezer in their barn. At some point that spring somebody accidentally shut off the wrong breaker, and by the time I went around to retrieve some of my fish it had all liquefied. That was not a happy day for any of us.

Gloves are clean until they leave the box (the first time, that is...I've seen soiled gloves put back *into* the box). After that, a gloved hand or a bare hand is exactly as sanitary as that person's training and work habits dictate. Glove laws are popular because they give the appearance of sanitation, but they do not ensure the reality.

LOL Yup. The chef I worked with when I was going to culinary school had a saying: "We may eat with the eyes first, but we eat with the mouth *most.*" She was not one for prettifying plates with frills and furbelows, needless to say.

...and hotly anticipated, I don't doubt.

They're pretty unpredictable here in my neck of the woods, where there's always a high risk of someone sticking 'em in a walk-in cooler at some point along their path to my local supermarket. ...and of course for several months of the year they can get way too cold just sitting on a loading dock.

I used to serve grilled sturgeon at my restaurant. The river here has a healthy wild population of Atlantic shortnosed sturgeon, and a couple of local entrepreneurs captured breeding stock from the river and farmed them. The primary goal was caviar, but sturgeon comes as a side product of that.

I was excited to learn I could get such things through my library, but in practice I mainly use it to view papers in academic journals.

I've found them in Superstore.

Local ones have just arrived, here. Mine aren't producing yet, but the commercial growers have 'em.

I find that eating the blossoms and fingerlings takes much of the sting out of zucchini season. The "ounce of prevention," as it were. If you pick them young and tiny, you can actually serve 2 or 3 zucchini per person as a side dish.

That's a better price than I've seen all year up here, where they're landed.

I would feel the same compulsion. Next up, "wallabiryani"?

Shades of Monty Python's "Summarize Proust" sketch...

My GF and I have just gotten to that episode of Chef's Table on Netflix. Haven't watched past the intro yet, though, because it was late by that time.