NulloModo

I haven't kicked it completely, but I have switched to green tea as opposed to coffee in the mornings, which still contains caffeine, but only 30 mg as opposed to over 200. I have noticed that I feel much better for it. The other day I was feel really tired at work though (I had pulled only about four hours of sleep that night, and only five the night before) so I wandered into the teacher's lounge and made a pot of regular coffee. I have to admit, I have never used drip coffee makers much (I got into coffee when I bought my Moka pot) so I just filled the filter basket all the way up for a pot of water all the way up. Maybe I made it too strong, maybe I am just unused to the caffeine now, but I was feeling wired the rest of that day.

Busboy - I'm a 2nd year teacher, and after extra duty contracts (which I have much more of that your average teacher) I earn around 40K a year. I also work 10 hour days on average, and at 188 working days per year (full time working days, as any teacher will tell you the work doesn't stop over the summer) that comes to a little over $20 an hour. So, waiters are still making a little more. You also have to look into the time spent preparing for the career. Teaching requires at minimum a bachelor's degree, many districts require a masters after a certain amount of time as well. Waiting tables requires at most a high school education, many places don't even care about that. Police officers, which were also mentioned earlier, also make hardly anything for what they do, yet many police departments also require a college degree. Any profession which requires a college education flat out deserves to be making more money than one that doesn't. For waiting tables, which is basically an unskilled profession that anyone can get into, making $25 an hour is more than fair.

Clam chowder and baked beans are nice, but no match for the might of the cheesesteak, pepperpot soup, or a good roast pork sandwich.

As it looks now, my superbowl menu is finalized. Anchor Bay Sauced Buffalo Wings Atomic Buffalo Turds (smoked jalepenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon) Nachos made with TJs Soy-Flax tortilla chips, good hearty chili made with black soybeans, and lots of the great fixings like hot pepper, real gooey jack cheese, pickled jalepenos, sour cream, guacamole, etc. Bar style food taken to the limit. Little Smokies slow-cooked in the crockpot with BBQ sauce Sausage Balls Maybe a meat, veggie, and cheese tray.

Hmm, actually, the tastiest thing today was my lunch, which was a frozen dinner, but a very good frozen dinner. It was Djeet brand (a brand I have found in my local Indian grocer's freezer) Panak Paneer, Yoghurt cheese in a spiced spinach curry thing.

Under the current tipping system, I am in complete control over how much I leave in the form of a tip. If this were changed to a mandatory service charge, or just rolled into the price of the entree, I could no longer adjust my tip to reflect the quality of my service, how is this not a loss of power in the hands of the diner? I suppose we are just looking at it differently. I personally find nothing displeasurable about thinking about what my server's time and effort was worth at the end of the meal. After being provided with a service from someone, I understand that it is my duty to restitute them for it, and mulling a bit over how much that should be is in no way an unpleasant task.

I don't have a dining room in my apartment. The floorplan is very open with the kitchen opening up to a common area, seperated only by a relatively high breakfast bar. We decided we devote the entire common living area to being an entertainment center, so it has the TV, speakers, couches, etc set up, leaving no space for a dining room table, or a dining room for that matter. So, meals are eaten on the couch off of the coffee table, which works well enough.

Well, so far almost all of the side remarks have been about chopsticks. Threads are much more fun when they wander a bit anyways, you end up covering all aspects of a subject instead of just what was intended.

For those disposable chopsticks: A friend told me it was proper ettiquette in asian nations to rub them at a 90 degree angle against each other on all sides, to smooth the wood (looks like you are trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together). Is this actually done, or was he pulling my leg and have I been making a food of myself for years?

$32 a lb is a good price? I guess y'all don't have Trader Joe's in Canada, but they have excellent quality Morbier for under $10 a lb usually. My favorite cheese flat out is Manchego, but seeing as it is the only spanish cheese I am familiar with, I can't really claim spain is top of the heap. Parm-Reg is good, as is gorgonzola, and ricotta, and any other Italian cheese I have tried. I am still playing around with french cheeses, but I am starting to appreciate chevre more, as well as some of the smellier runnier options. However, for what really gets me going (besides that Manchego) I'm going to have to go with the offerings from the UK. Excellent cheddards, excellent blues, so full of flavor without even approaching becoming offensive.

I have been getting more into tea lately. Today, while trying to kill some time at the mall, I wandered into the Coffee Beanery and discovered they have a nice setup of 'Republic of Tea' teas, which I have heard good things about. Well, most were pretty plain and boring looking, earl grey, green tea, honey and ginger, etc, stuff you can find anywhere. Well, one then caught my eye, a tea called 'Lapsang Souchong' which is apparently fermented and smoked over pine wood according to the blurb on the back. I also had to pick up a tea-ball as this didn't seem to come in bags. I just had a glass, and my first impression is I really like it. It has a fully, smokey, tangy taste. I added a bit of splenda to it, but I had a few sips without and it was almost as good that way. Has anyone else had this stuff before? Are there other similar teas out there?

Is 20% more the national average than 15% now? I still use 15% as my base figure, but then again, more often than not I am impressed enough my service that I raise this amount. I don't find this vulgar at all, and in fact, it puts the power right where it should be: in the diner's hands. Losing my ability to control this aspect of the dining experience would certainly lesson my pleasure in restaurant visits.

Is Zima beer? I always thought it was one of those fruity spritey psuedo-wine cooler tasting drinks.

Well, when you put it that way, it makes sense, and I don't mean to disrespect the bus people, as they do have a job that needs to be done, and they certainly deserve to earn a decent wage for it. It just seems like it would make more since if only those who had a direct connection to the customer (waiter who serves, and cook who prepares the food) were paid via tips, and those with indirect jobs there, like the bartender who is mixing drinks at the bar, but not serving up or mixing drinks for your table who isn't drinking, busboys, and hostesses, were all paid via just a decent hourly wage.

Fruity pebbles weren't always completely multicolored? I remember being that way as far back as I can remember... Just as well though, Cocoa Pebbles were always more to my tastes. Hey, at least Apple Jacks are still purely pink... right?

Most food colors don't really bug me, and in fact, some are appetizing, even if bizarre. I remember fussing and bitching a lot when green and purple ketchup hit the market, but as I think about it, the unnatural shade of red regular ketchup is, is probably also artificially enhanced. Then again, I just plain old dislike ketchup to begin with, so it was easy to hate new variants. For foods that are blatantly unnatural to begin with, like M&Ms and Doritos, the odd colors don't bug me. Although one weird snack food I have seen does: Space Popcorn. It is your regular bagged popcorn (pre-popped) coated in generic orange cheese-ish gunk, but when you eat it it turns your tongue and the inside of your mouth blueish green rather than orange... I can't watch people eat that stuff for long. Then again, if someone offered me a bag of blue pork rinds, I would dig in, but I am never one to turn down pork rinds of any color... Baked good also can come in any color, red velvet cake is just plain cool looking.

That is an interesting point. Is it common in most dining establishments that the waitstaff ends up making more money than the chefs? That doesn't really seem fair, and chefs should almost certainly get paid more if that is the case, but then again, lots of professions don't make what they earn. A way for chefs to get paid in tips would be cool, but it could get complicated, having to leave tips of the waitstaff on the green square, and tips for the chef on the red, or something like that, and would of course require a reduction in prices of entrees to facilitate the extra money being handed out by the diner. So, less overhead, less profit margin for the management, but more for the chefs, while it would be right, I can't imagine the owners going for it.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense that rules of manners should only apply in those areas where the rules were developed. If sticking your chopsticks upright in your bowl of rice is considered rude in China, then of course, don't do it in China. If you are eating dinner with a Chinese family in the US, and they observe traditional Chinese manners, then don't do it with them. But in your run of the mill restaurant in the US, eating with others who don't abide by Chinese manners, why bother with that one? Sticking chopsticks upright means nothing to me, so why shouldn't I do it if it won't offend my dining companions? There is no reason to add even more silly rules to life then we already have. Taking that a step further, it makes just as much sense to me to use the dining tools native to your upbringing or current location as it does to use those original to the type of food. If you were brought up with a knife and fork, and are more comfortable with a knife and fork, why should you use chopsticks? I mean, if it makes you feel better to be more authentic, then go for it, but really, why should anyone else care what implements you use to eat with? So use chopsticks if you want, don't use them if you want. Observe the set of manners local to where you are, or those local to what you are eating, but no reason to have to do it all, or say one option is better than the other. Really, the only thing I could think of that would be totally innapropriate would be a couple of Texans (nothing against Texans here, it just rolls of the tongue easier than Delawareans) eating in a Chinese restuarant in China using fingers as appropriate to a Morrocan place. I mean, hey, as long as what you are doing ties in with either where you are from, where you are, or where the food or your hosts is from, you should be fine.

Lots of things can be bad for you in food. Fat, carbs, salt, alcohol, all have potential to cause health risks of over-consumed, but that doesn't make them any less delicious. It comes down to personal choices. If eating lots of fat, salt, breads, drinking to excess, or getting a nicotine fix makes you happy, and you are willing to live with the consequences, why not do it? If you prefer to live purely on the up and up and reap a long and healthy life out of it, then why not do that? No one in this country can possibly not know that tobacco can be bad for you these days. So, if a dish is prepared using it, and it is announced on the menu that the dish contains tobacco, only those willing to take the risk will partake. Personally I find the prospects intriguing, and will probably try to smoke my next pork butt with some pipe tobacco as well as hickory, if for no other reason that to see how it tastes and figure out what exactly will happen. Hey, I might find a way to make BBQ even more addictive, if that is possible ;). You do have a point about the other chemicals in cigarettes though, the stuff added for who knows what reasons... I can't imagine those would taste very good in a culinary application, so, if cooking with tobacco it would probably make sense to buy the pure stuff as opposed to just cutting open a pack of cigaretted and emptying the contents into the stew pot.

Well, a dish can look great, and not neccessarily be great. I've made some stuff that looked superb, and tasted like wet ass. I've also made lots of stuff that looked like soiled wet ass, but tasted great, so, the two don't always equate. But is there anything inherently wrong with the school of 'throw a bunch of expensive and flavorful ingredients together in a non-traditional way' cooking? I like lobster, I like shrimp, I like grits, I've never had fois gras, but I bet I would like it. Hell, throw some caviar in there too, the more the merrier. The crazy convoluted ultra-garnished ultra-sauced way over the top stack of stuff plates are sure a wonderful battleground of flavor. It seems the 'less is more' thing is coming into vogue now, but really, I disagree, more is more, usually. Also, why can't Fois Gras be paired with southwestern cuisine? The whole balancing tastes of an entire meal thing seems overrated. As a diner I like variety, punch, and tastes coming out of left field when I least expect them. I like my pallette to be wowed and kicked around a bit. If subtlety is your bag, then that's fine, a lot of people get off on that too, but it isn't for everyone. So, anyway, what I am saying is that you have every right to say the dish isn't to your taste, but that doesn't neccessarily make it poor cooking. There are lots of things out there that one person finds to taste divine while the gentleman standing right beside would find to taste like crap.

I like the tipping set-up just the way it is. It is an incentive for waitstaff to perform their job well. Without it, one could slack on the job without fear of losing money out of one's pocket, and I think service in general would be all the poorer for it. The system in Europe seems to work for Europe, but they have had that system forever. Over time it might raise the professionalism of waitstaff in the US, but there would be a dark decade or so before that happened. I do agree than leaving a very small tip registers the point home more than no tip. If you leave no tip, the waiter might simply think you forgot or someone swiped it. If you leave .82 cents, he pretty much has to get the point. Only once have I ever done this, when out at Denny's with some friends several years ago. We were one of three occupied tables in the entire place, and we saw our waiter maybe three times the whole night, when he took our order, when he brought our food, and when he brought the check. No drink refills, the orders took over an hour to arrive, and arrived cold. On top of that, when giving my friend his dinner he dropped one of my friend's chicken fingers on the floor. When this fact was pointed out to him he said 'Yeah, you probably shouldn't eat that one' and walked away. Our feelings on this whole encounter were expressed in the form of around .82 cents worth of spare change being embedded in aforementioned chicken finger like fins. Had the place had a mandatory service charge, and had I been forced to pay this slacker for his 'services' I would have never returned. You should get paid for doing your job well, not simply for being there. Actually, with the examples of labor charges with mechanics and etc, I think it would be better if they worked on a tipping system as well. An oil change at Wal-Mart costs the same whether the technician manages to befoul the interior of my car with oil from his suit, takes two hours to complete the operation, and forgets to refill my windshield washer fluid as it does if the whole ordeal is over in half an hour, fluids filled, and interior left pristine. I would gladly pay more for prompt and professional service there, but feel ripped off when I get second-rate service. I used to work in commissioned sales, and was payed entirely based on my job performance. If I didn't serve my customers well enough to find the right product for them, and if I didn't make the financing, delivery, etc work, I didn't make money, and that is the way it should have been. It encouraged me to work hard, to not take as many breaks, and gave me motivation to actually work while at work. Culinary Bear is also probably spot on with regards to the tax issue. The vast majority of waiters don't report anywhere near the amount of tips they get. Suddenly having to report everything would likely lead to a net drop off in usable cash from work, I'm sure the taxes would more than offset the boost from the tables that undertip. Also, a system like this might encourage a restaurant to invoke a practice I really hate: tip-sharing. I want the tip I leave to go to the waiter who served me, not split amongst all of the waitstaff, the bar, the bussers, and whoever else wants a hand in it. There is no reason I should be paying for someone who is serving others, and may not even be doing a very good job of it, and even more so, if I recieved excellent service, the person who gave it to me should be entitled to 100% of what I felt was appropriate pay for that service.

I wonder if you could just put some pipe tobacco into your coffee filter with the grinds... if enough would infuse that way, might be worth a try.

I've been eating a lot of eggs for breakfast lately, well, actually a lot of eggs in general lately. When I can pick up 36-packs of eggs for $2.50 at Costco, they become a very economical protein source. One thing I have liked to do is to make scrambled eggs with sour cream instead of whipping cream or water as the added 'liquid'. It gives them a very creamy texture, and a nice tang. I also do mine over very high heat, I basically just whisk the eggs together with the sour cream, some salt, and some pepper, get some butter to the brown stage in an ultra hot pan, pour in the egg mixture and rapidly swirl with a spatula for about 15 - 25 seconds, that's all it takes, and they come out great every time.

Last night - Huevos Rancheros with a side of a couple habanero-chicken sausages

Around here every chinese/japanese/other-asian place sets out both forks and chopsticks, and lets the diner decide what to use. The only thing I really use the chopsticks for is sashimi. I can't imagine trying to eat pho with chopsticks, have go soup spoon on the way for that one. For Chinese dishes I just prefer a knife and fork. Chopsticks are sort of fun to play with, but more work than their worth to my untrained hands. If you were brought up on chopsticks, but all means, use them, but if you were brought up on knives and forks, use those. That being said, if someone in China wants to use chopsticks for spaghetti, chili, or a porterhouse, let them go for it.