Katherine

I currently wear the disposable ones. I have in the past worn extended wear lenses, both as intended and as daily wear lenses. In the distant past I wore hard contact lenses, but I don't remember whether there was this effect back then. It's possible there is an effect from the quality/quantity of an individual's natural tears (dilution). Perhaps you can continue to suggest this, as it works for many people, and poll your students to see how many it really works for. Right now our data's pretty thin.

everybody? nah. OK, actually (for you, Tommy) I should have typed "everybody". How many times have you heard someone tell you that something "must" be done a certain way, although neither they nor the person who they got the information from has ever tried to see what actually happens? For instance, a while back I worked on a "scrambled egg project", where I tested many of the variables that I had heard "had to" be done to make scrambled eggs. Clearly, most of these were incompatible. Water, milk, half-and-half, heavy cream, or no liquid? Best mixing method? How much liquid? Best cooking method? I was able to determine that many of these variables are a matter of taste, while others are just plain irrelevent. One recipe said to break the egg directly into the hot buttered pan, then stir until cooked. I found this, and the beaten egg version with no liquid added, to be too "eggy" for me. [Just last month this popped up in Saveur as "the" way to cook scrambled eggs. I don't know personally anyone who does it this way, so clearly they are disseminating "personal taste" as the "one and only" method.] The more liquid you can add, the softer and more custardy the end product. You can add a lot more heavy cream than any of the others, but I also found that the maximum quantity of heavy cream is more fat than my digestive system can handle. On the other hand, if you add more liquid than the eggs can hold, they weep unattractively, and form a puddle of water on the plate. Since I had heard that eggs must never be whisked, I decided to test this. I always whisked eggs, being lazy, and did three batches: fork mixing, whisking, and blending in the blender, for the maximal overwhisking possible. I was surprised to find that the best eggs (the tenderest and smoothest ones) were the blended ones. The fork-mixed ones were not as tender, and had an unacceptable quantity of tough and stretchy egg white strings. I tried whisking or stirring the eggs in a double boiler situation, as well as cooking in butter in a pan. I definitely did not like the half-cooked eggs that come from whisking over water until "creamy", but the ones that I stirred into large curds were good. Pan-fried scrambled eggs are hard to cook evenly, especially when you're making a breakfast with a large number of dishes. I was also going to test some more variables, such as: How much butter in the pan?, but by this time I was sooo tired of eggs, that I stopped the project. So I now have switched to blending the maximum amount of half-and-half into my eggs before cooking, and stirring them in a nonstick pan set over a pot of simmering water. Was it a myth that (unstated) dire things will happen if you whisk your eggs before cooking? I think so, but I suppose that, for people who like egg-white snot strings in their eggs, maybe it's a matter of taste.

Sounds like one of those myths that just got debunked. katherine claims it works for her. although i can help but think there's something else to that. Perhaps we've just hit on the crux of the definition of "myth"? Something works for (or is true for) one person. It seems reasonable that it is also true for everyone else. Other people assume it must be true for them too and accept it without question or experiment. Sometimes it is true for other people, so it is proven after the fact. Bingo. A myth is born. Actually, a "myth" is something that everybody believes, although it is untrue. This works for me, and it works for my girlfriends, and we have tried it both ways. Even if there are people for whom it does not work, it still works for us, regardless of the fact that none of us here seems to understand the conditions under which it works and does not. A "myth" would be the misconception that the ribs and seeds of a pepper are "hot", and the flesh is not. So you read that you should put the ribs (and seeds) in to make a spicy dish, and remove them carefully to make a dish which is not spicy. You read that hot paprika comes from dried peppers that have the seeds and ribs ground in them, although clearly you can see (from the color of the powder) that this has not happened. Hot peppers make spicy dishes, and peppers with no heat make dishes that are not spicy. Scientific testing has shown that the spiciest part of a pepper is the placenta, the little mutant pepper sometimes found within, but even this part is only a little bit spicier.

I spent some time in Santiago de Compostela as a student, and I agree with you. I enjoy exploring what the locals do, eat, and shop for. There's a reason why people like the things they do, and we need to get past our prejudices to understand the complete experience. When I suggest on these boards that travelers might enjoy the places I've been to, I'm told Galicia is too far from Barcelona or Viscaya. Most Americans who travel are looking for the quintessential tourist experience. They go to a tourist town (the trendiest and most expensive they can afford) and "do" their list of required tourist experiences. There's little time for anything else, and things that aren't on the list of "what's hot" don't get considered. Competitiveness is a major component of American culture, and competitive tourism and gastronomy are the logical extension of this.

Indeed, I worked at a place that was less than a mile from a tiny candy factory that makes loads of yummy stuff, and has a "seconds" table with half-price things. There was never anything wrong with those seconds that affected our enjoyment. We always said that if God hadn't meant us to go there and load up on our lunch hour, he wouldn't have put that candy factory within driving distance.

I never cry when I'm wearing contacts, and always when I'm wearing glasses. I just assumed that the sensitive part of the eye is the cornea, which is protected from any onion mist. I think it was CI that I read this on a few years ago, too.

What brand is it? Peugeots have a lifetime warrantee.

I learned from personal experience (and then later read on the Internet) that the most effective tear-prevention method to use when peeling onions is contact lenses. Contact lenses = no tears

I've found that dousing green vegetables with a lemon juice dressing after cooking does turn them yellowish gray, so I add dressings at the last minute before serving. This is probably all part of the same thing.

I brought a potful of a green seitan chili to a vegan gathering once. I had requests for the recipe from some of the kids there, and since I didn't really have a recipe, it took forever to cobble one together. It had to include things like how to make green chile gravy from fresh peppers, how to cook the beans, and how to make the peculiar type of seitan that ended up in the dish. So much prep! For me, it wasn't too tough, as I did it over a period of days, but I hope they didn't really try the recipe, because they probably would have been overwhelmed.

I caught shigellosis in Venezuela. I've always been an incredibly healthy person, with fast recovery and a great immune system, but I was lucky I was able to get to the ER when I did. It's not a disease that attacks mostly children and those with compromised immune systems.

Any restaurant that has a banner on the front of the building advertising their upcoming holiday buffet special: "Better than last year!" - I hope so, but was it any good last year? And will it be good enough? A restaurant of any ethnic persuasion that tries to draw in foot traffic with "Chicken Mango", the only dish they ever so advertise.

I do exactly the same thing. Generally, the meat is saved for lunches and leftovers. I only eat some of the meat if I'm still hungry after finishing the skin. I've made chicken cracklins in the past, but the skin of dark meat chicken tastes best when it's still moist on the inner side that baked over the meat. Usually when there is leftover raw skin it goes into the soup pot, adding flavor to the broth and chicken fat to the supply in the fridge.

"Cocina" means both "cooking" and "cuisine". Thus "cocina venezolana" means both "Venezuelan cooking" and "Venezuelan cuisine".

It's the American way. Bigger is better. You can't even buy a single cup of coffee to go anymore. Why would espresso be any different? (I used to go to a coffeeshop that had Wednesday 2 for 1's. Buy a single, get it doubled for the same price. Buy a double, get a quad...)

What language is "cusina"?

Yup. A tourist town, they took one look at you and said to themselves, most tourists don't know the difference, and these people will never be back anyway.

I would gladly eat at El Bulli if someone was paying me to go to Spain to do that. Small price to pay, indeed. And immediately after, I would go awol.

No, actually it means you can choose to be mummified in corn syrup after death.

I find it lasts forever in the back of my refrigerator. If I leave it out, it seems to grow stuff. If yours isn't growing grayish green fur, it's ok.

After having followed this thread since its inception, I can think of little else.

Actually, my perception is that there are two types of vegetables: those that are improved by a touch of sweetening, and those that are improved by a generous application of pork product.

My own mother's cooking took a huge slide after I went away to college. She switched from cooking everything from scratch from the best quality ingredients she could buy to incomprehensible shortcuts (canned mixed vegetables?) and fat-free substitutions, like whipped unsweetened fat-free evaporated milk for whipped topping. (It tastes just as good, but it's fat-free! No, it doesn't, it tastes like dishwater.]

I guess everybody missed my point. You can do all these things. I cannot do any of them unless I buy round trip tickets to NYC and overnight accommodations, which would truly break the bank. Which buying them at Internet prices with Fedex shipping would also do. And I hardly live in a backwater. Until it is actually available in my area, I will find it hard to believe that "NYC availability" = "USA mainstream".

I asked my daughter if she agreed with me that the stuffed onions were the standout, and she did not. FWIW, she thinks that the rare roast lamb or the Baked Alaska with fresh raspberries stood out more.