russ parsons

and in some cases, the mutations are caused purposely. this is called breeding. there is a plaque in a garden in the loire that commemorates the birthplace of the comice pear. personally, i think it should be a statue.

actually, there's a lot more of that than you might expect. "sports", or spontaneous genetic mutations, account for a lot of the primal varietals. in addition to navel oranges (a 19th century Brazilian sport), so is the Cara Cara (a sport found in venezuela in the 70s). so is the hass avocado--the original tree (or a tree from wood from the original tree) is still standing in southern california. And so is the red delicious apple--the story goes that the farmer kept trying to kill the sport in his orchard and when it wouldn't die, he decided to let it grow to harvest. of course all of these have been "improved" by breeders over the years.

i'm sure hiroyuki's dad used giberellic acid, but not for seedless--it's a growth promoter and makes the grapes bigger (thompson's are naturally pretty small ... in fact, there's a new popularity for untreated thompsons, which are sold as "naturals"). Seedlessness in fruit (says mr. how to pick a peach), can come about in several ways. one is an imbalance in chromosomes (think bananas and navel oranges). some fruits can only be pollinated outside their species; grow them in isolation and they'll be seedless (think clementines and other tangerines); some are grown in greenhouses that prevent bees or other pollinators from entering (think cucumbers). Some seem to be seedless, but aren't really. thompson seedless grapes are among these--there actually are seeds, but they're extremely tiny and never mature.

hey, anything can happen and any restaurant can have a slip, but at the same time, do you believe everything you read on the internet? it's funny reading this thread at the same time i'm reading "service included", a new book by a former per se captain. she describes in detail the training process the service staff goes through and the incredible lengths they go to to make sure every detail is perfect. i've seen this personally. i remember a dinner one rainy night at TFL when at the end of service laura cunningham (a friend), came over with an ultimate service story: a customer had wanted to propose at the restaurant. they had tried to discourage him because public proposals have obvious pitfalls. he insisted so they went along with it. at the last week, he started getting cold feet, so he called laura every day for reassurance and to fine-tune the menu. the wedding ring was to be delivered to the table in a chocolate replica of the house they lived in. the night of the dinner, all went well until it was almost time for dessert. when laura asked him for the ring, he went pale. he'd forgotten it in his car, parked 2 blocks away. he asked if one of the staff could go retrieve it. so a server went two blocks in a driving rain storm, pawed through the car to find where he had hidden the ring, then brought it back so it could be sealed in the house. the dessert and ring were delivered on time, without a hitch, so the fiancee never even knew there'd been a complication. I have no idea what that dinner cost, but i hope it was plenty. service like that does not square with someone being told they had 2 hours to eat.

i stopped for breakfast a year or so ago at a truckstop on the west side of the 5, somewhere in that stretch between gorman and coalinga. it wasn't particularly great, or even good, but since truckers are the modern version of cowboys, it might fit the bill. one of those places with showers, shop with lots of weird little things truckers apparently crave that you never knew existed, etc.

i did a risotto last week with the last of the spring porcini and garnished with favas. nice flavor/color combination. and using them as a garnish, i didn't have to spend 2 hours peeling them. a trick i learned from ste. paula of wolfert: collect the husked beans in a bowl, then pour boiling water over them. when the water is cool enough to touch, the beans will be lightly cooked and easily peeled.

ha! i wish. actually, it's got a nice view of my favorite diner: jongewaard's bake 'n' broil. so if you're in long beach june 16, stop by the dana branch library at 3. and we'll go get some pie afterward. Also, if i'm not wearing out my welcome here with commercials, i'm going to be on the weekend edition of the Today show Saturday morning. I'm not sure exactly what time. i know out here the show is on at 5 a.m. thank god for tivo.

hiya music, don't have any signings planned right now (well, there's one at my neighborhood library in Long Beach!), but i'm sure there will be more things as the summer moves along. signings are funny things and generally i try to keep them to a minimum and only at places i really feel good about--there's nothing like hanging out at a book store for 2 hours only to sell 5 copies. on the other hand, sometimes they turn out really well ... i signed at Politics and Prose in DC (hiya mr. and ms. busboy), and had a really great event in Santa Cruz, thanks to tana b.

hmm, i really doubt that food is the only economic product that surrounds itself with congratulatory humbuggery (let's go back to art for a sec, huh?). i think it has to do with a couple of more things. 1) food is more than enjoyment, it is sustenance. so there is an assumption that depriving ANYone of ANY foodstuff is somehow depriving them of what they need to live (and yes, i know $8 a dozen eggs, if they're great, certainly qualify as an affordable luxury for just about anyone--make a frittata with those and it'll be better than most people's foie gras). 2) food is cheap enough that it is in reach of everyone. pricing art (or mercedes or armani) so the poor can share them is never even a consideration.

i did something similar this easter: cooked a leg of lamb briefly in a covered dutch oven with a little liquid, then removed the lid and browned it before serving medium-rare. it was a really interesting technique--the initial braising really got the flavors through the meat. it wasn't braised and it wasn't roasted. something in between (and don't say broasted).

Busboy's post raises an interestisng point. Strictly speaking economically, of course, an object's value is determined solely by what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Hence, $20 million paintings made from $15 worth of canvas and $2.50 worth of paint. But when it comes to food, in the name of justice, we expect to have some direct correlation between price and actual cost of production, totally divorced from demand. Are there any non-food examples of this? The value of metal in cars is roughly similar whether you're talking about a ford or a ferrari. And I don't think there's $1800 difference in the price of the material between a suit from Sears and one from Armani.

yeah, but come on, they're nothing compared to those January chilean cherries, right? seriously, this is a very good year for california cherries, which are the ones that come in first (oregon and washington start in a couple of weeks). we're really at the southernmost boundary of cherry climate and often we don't get the chill the trees need. This year, of course, we got plenty (remember the citrus freeze?).

hey farid, it was great seeing you and The Scream (am i allowed to say that?). cookbook authors: if you ever get the chance to sign at the hollywood farmers market, grab it. it's the best show in town.

I think I prefer a 1:1 mixture of soy sauce and mirin, which results in an intense flavor. Adding an equal amount of sake gives an additional flavor, making the mixture milder, which I usually use for a sauce for hamburgers and chicken "kuwayaki" (see upthread). ← i can certainly see that. and i tried that method, too. to my taste (decidedly not informed japanese), i tasted too much soy/mirin that way. when i added the sake, i could taste the chicken a little more. interestingly: i tried three concentrations of sake (and one without) and found that i never could really taste the sake itself, rather it just made the mirin/soy taste less pronounced. of course, maybe i just need to learn more about japanese cooking!

i'm doing a piece on yakitori and experimented with different ratios of soy/mirin/sake with chicken thighs. i found that equal volumes of each gave the best balance of chicken and marinade flavor. does this fit with other people's results?

once again, it's not a matter of "sensitivity." i would have thought a lot more of the story if richman had bothered to poke fun beyond the most obvious stereotypes, and if he had acknowledged Ferry Plaza for what it is: a foodie Disneyland, the West Coast equivalent of Dean and Deluca. but either of those would have taken more than the 30 minutes it seems he spent writing the piece. the story bugged me not so much as a californian, or even a farmers market fan, but as a writer.

glad i could fulfill the stereotype! seriously, i didn't have so much of a problem with it. it's just lazy and glib. i mean really, setting the ferry plaza building up as a representative of what's typical and then parading through it as some kind of "everyman." it's like interviewing the taxi driver ... a cliche. might have been more interesting to compare it to a similar place in NYC ... let me tell you about my breakfast at the Regency Hotel--$8 for a dozen eggs would have been cheap. Try $50 for a bowl of yogurt, a corn muffin and a cup of coffee. did see geraldo rivera and al sharpton shaking hands in the men's room, though. ha! those new yorkers. insert a couple of laugh lines and you've got an alan richman column.

richman seems to have set himself up as the pricker of balloons. of course, ferry plaza is a notoriously easy target. and, of course, he took the easy shots.

i'd like to second (third? fourth!) the recommendation for Farmhouse Inn. Charming place and the chef, steve litke, is really top-notch. i'd put the style somewhere between TFL and CP--much more emphasis on pure ingredient than the first and much more emphasis on technique than the second. also a very nice wine list.

my favorite chocolate pots de creme is adapted (lightly) from richard sax' "classic home desserts". several years ago i did a story wehre i cooked about a dozen different variations and this one was not only the most straightforward, but also the best: Chocolate Pots de Creme Adapted from Richard Sax's "Classic Home Desserts" (Chapters, 1994). 1/4 pound chocolate, finely chopped 1 cup whipping cream 1 cup milk 2 eggs plus 2 yolks 1/3 cup sugar Lightly sweetened whipped cream, optional * Bring chocolate, whipping cream and milk just to boiling point in small saucepan, stirring occasionally. When steam appears at edges of pan, remove from heat and whisk smooth. * While liquid ingredients are cooking, lightly beat eggs, egg yolks and sugar to combine in medium mixing bowl. Do not let mixture get foamy. * Whisking gently, dribble 1/4 cup hot milk mixture into eggs. Whisk until smooth. Gradually add more hot milk, whisking constantly, until all milk is combined with eggs. Pour through strainer into pitcher or 4-cup mixing cup. * Divide mixture equally among 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins. Egg mixture should fill ramekins only 2/3 to 3/4 full. Place baking pan on middle rack of 300-degree oven and place ramekins in pan. Fill pan with very hot water to halfway up sides of ramekins. Cover loosely with sheet of foil or baking sheet and bake until edges are set and center of custard still trembles when shaken, 30 to 35 minutes. * Remove baking pan from oven. Remove ramekins from baking pan and cool. Cover tightly and refrigerate until serving time. Serve, passing lightly sweetened whipped cream to add as wished.

the new york times is certainly not alone, though it is true there are few papers that hold to these standards. one of them is my own Los Angeles Times. our restaurant critic dines anonymously, at least three times for each review and pays for all of her own meals (reimbursed by the paper, of course). this practice varies tremendously, as steven points out, there is a steep fall-off, just as there is with the far more troubling number of papers with a white house correspondent or a full-time baghdad bureau (the last i saw, that was exactly 3).

interesting stuff. first, it's important (and somewhat obvious) to remember that "agriculture" doesn't equate to produce. And I'm wondering what the standard is: are they measuring dollar output or is it volume of production? certainly, as someone pointed out, much of california is completely inhospitable ... even with the state's maze of water projects. Can anyone say "Donner Party"? eta: just scanning some of the tables, i wonder if it might be something else entirely being measured: it seems to be they're comparing inputs and outputs. hard to say though, and I'm afraid I'm not going to spend a sunny Friday afternoon trying to figure it out. Thank god that book is finished!

boy, you'd have to ask them, but as a journalist, one word immediately comes to mind: "typo". i have never seen anything that would suggest strawberry as a vegetable. As for Smithy's question about herbs and spices: that's a little different. "herb" and "spice" are culinary terms, not botanical. So they are employed depending on how the ingredient is used. Herbs are usually the leafy parts; spices are the hard parts, either seeds or bark. i suppose there's justification for calling vanilla a dried fruit as long as it is in the bean, but the part we really use is the seeds. there is also justification for using the culinary definitions of fruits and vegetables, too, though it obscures some important information. Fruits tend to be things we eat for sweetness, vegetables for savory. So in that sense, a tomato is a vegetable (also, there is case law supporting this as the legal definition). But if you remember that a tomato is a fruit (and a climacteric fruit at that!), it'll help you choose and store tomatoes better. eta: one additional bit of food geekery: there actually is no fraise des boises genetics in modern strawberries, either in Europe or here. Instead, the modern commercial strawberry stems from a cross between a chilean beach strawberry and one found in North America (f. chiloensis and f. virginiana), with lots of other things thrown in.

it's easy to keep fruits and vegetables straight: anything with seeds is a fruit. vegetables are the other plant structures: roots, leaves, stems, rhizomes, etc. this, of course, means that many things we now regard as vegetables are in fact fruits--eggplants, squash, tomatoes, etc. the only vegetable i can think of that we treat as a fruit is rhubarb--it's the stem of a plant. anybody have any other suggestions? is angelica a fruit or an herb? and actually, strawberries are closer to raspberries than they appear. those little "seeds" aren't seeds at all but tiny dried fruits (think of the individual bulbs of a raspberry) ... each of which contain a seed.