Haivart

New episodes, new chefs, new music, new "nephew" of the old chairman. And a completely redesigned Kitchen Stadium. No subtitles, but the same focus on the cooking and ingredients.

Fuji TV has brought back Iron Chef beginning last October. From what I hear, reviews are mixed. I will give my own impressions if I can watch it somewhere.

The bottle in front of me says: Shao xing rice wine. Cheng Brand. Shaoxing East Asia Inp & Exp Co. Ltd. Imported by Four Seasons Trading Company. There is another one, but it has more Chinese than English on it, and I'll have to get help to tell you what it says.

We have a (mainly) Korean grocery nearby (metro Detroit) that sells it. I'll check for brands the next time I'm there.

Great restaurant closing. http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/conte...EJ.html?sid=101

Then we have different tastes, m'dear. I'm not adverse to changing an "old" recipe, but we can't throw out the old in the name of the "new". There has to be a reason the recipes lasted so long.

I was given a book called "Eating India" by Chitrita Banerji. No recipes, but a wealth of cultural and food culture information. To be read in small bites.

FTV showed a very abbreviated version of the 2 France battles, without the storyline of Kaga winning the chateau in a game of chess. Chen did not battle--only Sakai and Nakamura. ←

Yes, those were the Battle France episodes, I believe. Absolutely terrific. Although my favorite ep was when Pierre Gargaigne, after losing his resturant and nearly being crushed under the wheel, battled back to defeat the Iron Chef. And promptly broke down in sobs. He has since opened a new resto and is doing well. I think even the Japanese were sobbing with him. ←

I just got Morimoto's new cookbook (Morimoto, the new art of Japanese cooking). It's a good read with lots of background information. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, though.

Still haven't answered my question. Did they lose 1 or 2 ICs? Or do they subscribe to the "bigger/more is better" school of thought?

What's this program called "The next iron chef". I saw a very short commercial about it. Has FTV lost 1 or 2 iron chefs?

This is fun. While the cyclists go through different parts of Italy, I am finding and trying recipes, wines, and chesses of the regions they go through. So far, I've done Capri/Sardinia, Frascati and Tuscany. Yum!

Try this: http://www21.sbs.com.au/tdf/?pid=taste It contains recipes from the region of each stage, as well as wine.

I'd bet good money that the Japanese would not tolerate such programming junk. -Dick ← Yes, it airs in Japan.

Only about 2/3 of them have been shown by FTV. According to Iron Chef, the Offcial Book, there were 297 official "Battles" between 1995-99. I can't believe all of them were translated and shown here? SB (by contrast, there were 181 Seinfeld episodes) ←

If rumor serves me correctly, it's a good and challenging theme ingredient.

Excellent! Arigato.

I recently heard that Masaharu Morimoto had opened a place in Tokyo. Does anyone know anything about it? Thanks!

Here in Columbus, Ohio, we're getting Walmart saturation. I believe we have at least 10 of them. That's fine, if they're spaced; but having one every 2-3 miles is overkill.

During the first year of the show, neither chef knew what the ingredient was. It was only later that they were given 5 hints. Television appeal? I don't think so, though it developed later on. Chefs were not celebrities when the show first started, and what's the appear of watching a chef in his 60s? The original show was two distinct things: the battle was serious competition which rested on a bed of entertainment. Later, the competition did get more showy, but it was always serious.

That could be. Maybe things changed and the original souce had older information, but I haven't heard anything different so far. We do the best we can. I don't think the mistakes imply inaccuracy, they just raise suspicions.

Me too, please!

You can find that trout in many streams in northern West Virginia, especially in the area of Morgantown.

Overall, I think they've made a good start and it has the potential to be very good. I agree that Alton Brown needs a partner, though the floor reporter was starting to fill that roll. The chairman was good, and just needs to be allowed to develop the character. The judges they had are okay, but if they were going to bring over the original Japanese chefs, they ought to have had at least one judge who knew what real Japanese cuisine is about (and who is Japanese). I am not going to comment about who won and who lost (the forums are still like swamps full of alligators and annoyed trolls) except to say that it appeared to me that Morimoto, and especially Sakai, weren't there to win, but to deliver a lesson about what Japanese cuisine really is. All in all, very good.