NulloModo

The guy's behavior was definately rude, but it seems more the fault of one drunk than the whole restaurant. Honestly, if it had been me in the situation, I would've thought the whole thing was hilariously funny, especially after. And hey, if they are going to give you a gift certificate, might as well use it, after all, free food is free food.

I wonder if there's some way to make okra-crusted fried chicken... Use maybe 50% dried okra flour. Just a thought. ← That actually sounds like it could be really good. Do you think Okra pods would dry out such that they could be ground into a flour? If I had a food dehydrator to play around with I would totally try to make that work...

Avacado, mashed with a fork or something else rough Chopped Tomato Chopped Onion Chopped Serrano/Jalapeno little bit of lime (I don't like my guac to taste too bright) healthy dose of sour cream ( to make it extra creamy) lots of salt bit of black pepper As much as I like cilantro, I don't care for it in guac. I love it is salsa, but I like the general mouth sensation of guacamole to be very fatty, rich, creamy, and deep, not bright and cutting. Also, if you can get it in your area, AvoGoodness brand pre-made guacamole is actually some very good stuff, far better than any other pre-made guac I have ever had.

Ah, I'm taking this one as a direct challenge. Coming up sometime this week or early next: Low-Carb Fried Chicken, Three (or more ) ways. Patti - The Popeye's strips are deep fried, and all breast meat, so that might be one reason they seem different... also, who knows what the heck they use in their spice rub. I will say though that the Naked Chicken pieces they used to have were worlds better, and a much better value, than the Naked Strips they serve now, which are just dinky and overpriced. I don't tend to go for the naked approach myself very often though, at least not with chicken. I might try when I do my other pieces though just to see what I can come up with. I have had the most luck with parmesan crusts for making something that looks a lot like regular chicken strips, and while the taste is very good, and great for chicken parm, it isn't really southern style. Using pork-rind flour can be good as long as the chicken is to be eaten immediately after cooking. Something about the crispy pork coating doesn't do to tell after overnight refridgeration, and gets gummy if you sauce it, so it is best for chicken which well be eaten 'dry'. I have heard some very good things about using ground almond meal as a breading. I haven't tried it yet, but I do have some almond meal, so I might give it a go. Finally, I still have a little less than half a box of CarbQuick left, so I might try to do some fried chicken with that. I used to to make a very successfull Roux for the gumbo cookoff, but it cooked up in 3 minutes instead of 30, so I'm wondering if it might burn if I try to pan fry the chicken with it... I guess there will be only one way to find out, and honestly, the stuff seems to cook at the same rate as regular flour in most other situations. The other thing about the CQ is that it contains some baking powder or soda in it, as it is pretty much a LC Bisquick Product, I suppose this means I might want to soak my chicken parts, dredge them, then let them sit to allow the leavening agents to wear off a bit so the batter doesn't explode off from the chicken, as it did when I tried to do some deep fried chicken livers coated in a batter made from the stuff. As for which parts of the chicken, hmm. I'd have a whole 4 lb bird in the freezer, but that is destined for a date with the smoker, and I have no intentions of actually butchering it to get it into pieces. I have a couple packages of leg-thigh quarters that have been taking up space forever, so those might work. I always tend to buy leg-thigh quarters when they go on sale because they look like such a good deal, but I always forget I don't care for legs at all, and that thighs are barely passable. What I really need to do is go to the grocery store and find some breasts with the skin still on, if I can manage that I will be good to go.

If this was intended to be a Germany only spot, why is it in English?

I will get in with you on this one too. Thankfully there are lots of LC fried chicken breading alternatives. I've done the pork rind crust, parm crust, naked fried, and recently started playing around with making batters from LC flours. Maybe I can do a little of each just to come up with a clear winner.

The PBS shows are designed so that you learn something, Food Network is designed to entertain you. The one exception is Alton Brown, who definitely tries to teach, but tries too hard to entertain. ← I disagree. I think a lot of the FnTV shows can be quite educational, depending on the level you start out at. I have personally learned a lot from Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and etc. Sure there entertainment value is pumped up as well, but if you pay close attention you can learn quite a bit.

Here is one of my favorite sauces, not sure if it counts as a reduction or not: 1 Cup Heavy Cream 1/2 Cup Tequila 1/2 Cup Tabasco 2 Tbl Chili Powder 2 Tbl extra hot cayenne powder 1 Tbl fresh ground cumin 1 Tbl Mexican Oregano 1 Tbl Garlic powder, or several cloves freshly chopped 1 Tbl Onion Flakes 1 Tbl vinegar (any will do) Just basically toss it all in together, let it simmer till very thick, then top it over chicken or pork. Fresh cilantro towards the end also helps.

I still need to do the lamb thing, just so hard to find lamb for a decent price around here... I nominate Chili for the next cookoff.

Just out of curiosity, what is it about them you find banal? A proper rice pudding is creamy, spicey, too sweet, and has the richness of dairy, the melt-in-your-mouthness of overcooked rice, and hints of great winter spices that just keep you wanting to take bite after bite. And what isn't there to like about a bowl of bread pudding, nice and spongey, just a little resistance to the teeth, and soaking up the sweet spicey sauce which has been spiked with way too much whiskey?

You just want her to have to find a new way to disparage fiddleheads this year.

Those peanut butter, bacon, and chocolate truffles sound very good. Peanut butter and bacon are a perfect combo, and peanut butter and chocolate are a perfect combo, so why not get all three at once? I am imagining an ultra-dense Peanut butter-bacon cheesecake with perhaps a salted pecan/dark chocolate crust, all topped off with a brown sugar/bourbon glaze., and a couple strips of bacon laid across for good measure...

I think it makes a lot of sense for places with lots of foot traffic. Why go through the hassle of taking reservations, and then risking that some won't show up and you will have unbooked tables, when people all by themselves will line up out the door just waiting for an open seat?

I will not try to cut slices off of a loaf of flaxbread I just baked after drinking Bacardi 151 with friends. In my defense, we weren't intending to drink anything that powerful, we just discovered we were out of anything else palatable. Oh well, the fingertip will grow back... and hey, my fingerprints now won't match what the state has on file should I ever decide to commit a felony ;).

I tried fiddleheads a couple times last spring, and judging my my experience (I joined eG last march I think) there will quite a few threads popping up on how to do them. I think the standard method is to quickly blanch them then sautee in EVOO and some herbs/shallots. My experience was that while they look really cool, and smell absolutely divine raw (seriously, I would wear cologne that smelled like that) they taste... hmmm, well, not bad, but not good. Still, definately try them, if only to smell them first...

I grew up partially in the deep south, and my father and mother spent most of their lives there, so I have a strong background in southern cooking, and feel completely at home with it (other than biscuits, which never seem to rise for me). I live in the shadow of Philadelphia, and around here there are Italian-American joints every quarter mile down the road, heck, I have eight of them (and this doesn't count strictly pizza joints) I can think of off the top of my head that will deliver to my apartment, and I don't even live in a very densely populated area, just normal suburbia. So, with all that around I have eaten lots of this type of food, and am comfortable cooking it. I am much less comfortable with authentic Italian, but I am not that interested in it anyway. I would much rather use tons of garlic and onions and load up huge platters with lots of tasty things than worry about sourcing the freshest ingredients or matching local wines to dishes, etc. I am still learning Thai. I have loved it the couple times I have had it out in L.A., but since there are no Thai restaurants anywhere near me, I haven't had a chance to eat it in a while. I also just don't have the stuff onhand to make most of the recipes, and too much of it can't be stored indefinately. If I could get bags of dried lemongrass that would last forever in my pantry, canned bird chiles, jarred galangal, and freeze dried thai basil or something, well, I might be more willing to play around. As it is, I am just not motivated to go out and buy a bunch of ingredients for one recipe when I have all of the ingredients to make lots of others already in the pantry. I've never been comfortable cooking Chinese, but I've never really tried. I've always been happy with the quality of the local delivery/take-out joints, and again, I'm not looking for authenticity, I love americanized Chinese food. While on asian cultures, I have miserably failed every time I've tried to do something Jaoanese. I have eaten at Japanese restaurants some, and I love sushi, and like tempura, but other than that it has been more miss than hit. I mean, the stuff tastes decent and all, but I'm not a huge fan of sublety, and from what I can tell Japanese cuisine seems to hold that in high regard. Along the same lines, I don't have the patience or the desire to cook French most of the time. I will admit that some of the hearty Bistro food looks very good, and the technique simple enough, now that is my kind of cooking. However, if any recipe demands I chop each vegetable just so, combine this with that first, and then with the other when they all end up int he same pot by the end, well, I'm just not going to do it that way, I don't have the patience for it, and I just don't care. Technique isn't fun, and I like cooking to be fun. Now, where am I happiest? Without a doubt, I am most comfortable in American-Mexican and Tex-Mex. I can throw chiles, chile powders, spices, sour cream, cheese, and etc around with wild abandon, and no matter what I do, it tastes great. I love to make Chili, not this thin red beef only texas stuff mind you, but thick dark brown bean and beef enriched sludge that blends Texas, Cincinnati, and any other style you could imagine. I love to make enchiladas or chile rellenos and load'em up with hot sauce and sour cream, seeing all that great cheese oozing out. No subtlety, just flavor on top of flavor, lots of textures, and lots of condiments, salas, sour cream, guacamole, mole, hot sauces, etc. I also like Indian quite a bit, and I feel fairly confident in it, however, again here I don't try for authenticity. I love British style vindaloos that nearly burn your tongue off. I love generic 'curries' that probably have no counterpart in India. I might like authentic Indian too, I have just never tried it.

I don't have a problem with call-ahead, basically it is just making a reservation on the fly. I do it sometimes when I can actually think that far in advance, and am anticipating a wait. I am willing to wait half an hour or less to get in, and that is only on rare occasions when I realize I picked a busy time to dine, and I will have to suffer the consequences. Generally, if I am not dead-set on the place, or if it is a time I feel they are unjustified in not being able to seat me, I will leave if the wait is anything over ten minutes, there are plenty of other places out there. Then again, I tend to eat out at odd hours, either considerably before or after the main rush, so it usually isn't a problem. As far as order of seating: people should be seated in the order in which they arrived or called in their party, assuming of course there is the space for a party of their size. If I were ever somewhere and saw another party of comparable size get seated before mine, who had arrived or called in after, I would leave and not return to this establishment. In fact, I might have a few choice and unpleasant words with whoever was doing the seating.

Beer in brownies doesn't sound so far-fetched, especially something like guinness that has chocolate/coffee flavor notes in it already. In fact, a friend of mine makes a killer chocolate/guiness milkshake, and I think he has tried it with coffee ice cream as well, also to good result.

Different people have different tolerances/tastes for heat in a dish. I tend to be very heavy handed with the spices, especially the hot ones and the hot peppers (and I never, ever, toss out those delightful ribs and seeds where the tasty heat lives). I'm a bit used to it, I still definately get the heat sensation, but it doesn't block out the taste of the other ingredients in the dish, just enchances them. My roomate on the other hand, seems to only be able to taste the heat. I like the system they have at certain ethnic eateries where you can request how spicey they make your dish, but it is very dissapointing when you tell them to go all out and give you the full whallop and the dish comes out medium-hot at best.

I love my beef rare, my pork medium rare, and fish and chicken cooked just until done the minimal safe amount, I also love sushi. What I can't seem to get my tongue around, are undercooked vegetables. Now, mind you, I love salads, and raw broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, and etc, when served in a raw fashion, like on a dips tray or something. What I don't like, is what is mentioned above, cooked vegetables that are barely cooked. Green Beans that are bright green and still have some body to them? blech. Roasted onions or squash that aren't even showing any roasted color yet? Why? The worst though has to be the trend I have seen recently of people cooking greens (Kale, Collards, Turnip Greens, etc) and not long-stewing them, which is clearly the way God intended them to be enjoyed, and thusly why he proclaimed that preparation soul-food.

It looked like he was having fun, but yes, he seemed very overmatched by the time limit. It is a real shame, because a lot of his dishes looked like they would have been tastier than Morimoto's, if only he had had time to finish. It often seems as if the chefs haven't completely finished by the time the buzzer rings, and I assume there is a little wiggle room, but yeah, I guess he just went wany over the edge. All in all this was the only episode I have seen so far that has been really dissapointing, I would've loved to have seen all of his dishes, but from the moment the buzzer rang it was obvious that he was going to get killed for his inefficiency.

I am the oldest of three kids. While I was growing up I admit it was a bit competitive between me and my youngest sister (heh, perhaps because we are both Gems, not that I completely believe in all that...) I blame this as a good bit of my weight problem, I just got used to grabbing the the best (and therefore the fattiest and carbiest) morsels first. Nowadays I definately like to save the best parts for last. I will cut up morsels on my plate to taste everything first and find out what I like, just so I can make sure what I am most enamoured with is that last thing to hit my tastebuds.

Do you actually think before you type? A. ← Not really ;) I find it endearing... EDITED to say: I mean to no offense to fellow eG members. After all, we are all friends here, we just have to have someone to stir the pot occasionally to keep things from getting dull and stagnant.

I have to admit, I also prefer white meat to dark, the texture is just much better to my tastes. As far as when cheaper is better: I am all over cheap cuts of beef and marked down meat as opposed to paying top dollar for prime cuts or super-fresh items. I love red meat, and almost any cut will do it for me, so, hey, why would I pay $25 a lb for lobel's strip steak when a Safeway london broil at a tenth of the price will make me just as happy when it is done? Especially when it is a day before the expiration date (or a day after) and it has a $2 off sticker on it.

I would totally eat there. But what can I say, I have an obession to taste testicle... (in a non sexual way preferably).