Behemoth

I live in a relatively affluent midwestern town of about 100,000. Very frequent restaurant goers (supposedly 3rd in the country!) From what I can tell of the shopping stiuation around here, they seem to spend tons of money on big houses, big cars, big TVs, but not on good food or clothes. I now think it is less about money, and more about some notion of "midwestern values".

Um, yeah that's what I thought until while working on my thesis late one night I happened to catch an episode of To Be With You. Next thing you know I am studying Han-Gul and flying to Korea in July. (Okay a conference, but still -- I didn't have to go!) edited to add -- do you have to bury the Kim-Chee if you make it at home? Those pastries are making me hungry.

Geez, you coulda said it to my face!

Due to this blog'S hydra-like ability to grow two new pages for every one I read, I can't find the old quote, but in response to your question about good restaurants outside metro areas -- I need to give mad props to a bunch of people here in central Illinois: Bacaro I just found out about this place recently & have not had a chance to go there yet, (I commute to champaign for work) but I have become a frequent customer at the wine shop where this guy used to work. That place (The Corkscrew) is clearly a labor of love. They have extensive comments on their wines, really unusual stuff from indy wineries, they send their buyers everywhere to find new stuff, and have a wide range of prices. I am barely out of novice wine-drinker stage (thanks, Philadelphia blue laws!) but they will take time with me and are extremely helpful and informative even though I don't have all that much money to spend. Having seen a menu at Bacaro, I have very high expectations as to its quality. As for why its not in Chicago -- It is nice to raise kids around here (from what I've been told), and some people who grew up here like it enough to stay.

Here it is!

Blue, the beautiful food is a given in this blog. But that first photo! Wow. You should post something in the photo thread (The Shutter Bug Club, in tips and techniques), so it is not all a "what we really think of behemoth's crappy pictures" thread. S'il vous plait?

I tried to redo the egg photo but there are a lot of things I need to adjust -- will need to look through the manual again tonight. I will make a pledge to write down what settings I am using for future reference. Hillvalley, I would be happy to resize the original photos -- just tell me what would be good. We really need some new photos now, and photoshoping mine doesn't count anymore. In the meantime, I have lots of homework...

The egg picture was taken in daylight. The bluish cast comes from the mat, and is fairly true to life. I don't mind it so much since I liked that it contrasted with the warmth of the egg. I suppose I could try it with the WB set to flourescent. The nice thing about digital photography is you can't waste film. What I wanted to capture was the difference in texture between the mat, the cup, and the surface of the egg. You are absolutely right, the egg is too dark. I think a reflector will make a big difference. I have a piece of white mat board somewhere. I think what I will try to do is recontruct the same two images. The reason I chose two very basic subjects is because I wanted a scene I could replicate at will and practice with, and the content wouldn't be distracting. For the second image, apart from the composition, the macro setting automatically sets off the flash. I plan to go back to the manual to figure out how to override that. I really appreciate your generosity with both time and advice. I hope other amatuers won't be shy, this is really helpful stuff.

That's actually a fantastic point, and what you did with my photo is great incentive to start looking into that. I am really a low-tech person at heart. I have a visual arts background but until now my usual medium had been pen and ink. (I've done some semi-professional illustration.) I've been wanting to get into photography for a really long time but usually lacked both funds and nerves. Finally, after years of borrowing other people's stuff, I decided to take the leap. Anyway, please don't take what I posted too seriously, I merely wanted to stick something up there so that other people would get brave and post something too. I learn a lot from just seeing what other people do. Oh, there's no mirror, that's the living room.

I absolutely agree...my probelm with that one was, when I tried to get closer the auto-focus wouldn't work, and from farther away you couldn't read the label. Also, you can see I failed to turn off the reading light in the other room. But the shot glass could definitely be better placed. Pretty sloppy overall, actually. As I said, I have little or no shame

Host Note: For a more current topic click here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145603-the-food-photography-topic/ Thanks to FG'S most brilliant suggestion, we are starting a little crit-circle for food photography. As I have absolutely no shame and a boundless hunger for knowledge, I have decided to submit a couple of photos for your amusement. Tell me what I did wrong, tell me what I did right, tell me how I can make it all better. First one I kinda liked. Following the example of heidihi, I shot this in daylight. The annoying thing is the sweat on the top of the egg (it came out of the fridge), which I only noticed once I had put everything away. The second one was less successful. I wanted to replicate a restaurant situation, shooting in low light. I didn't bother with shutter speeds or anything, just used night mode on preset, and steadied my camera on a piece of cloth, on the back of a chair. The good thing is its not too blurry. The bad thing is...eh, pretty much everything else. Advice?

Have you considered putting up an ad in a local art school, glass or ceramics studio? Lots of art students could use the extra cash, and so long as they are allowed a measure of freedom and can keep a slide of their work, are quite happy to make something cool at low cost. Especially if you promise to give their name to all askers. Also, then you would end up with a nice piece you would have forever.

I had weight issues as a teen. My parents are heavy smokers which makes then much thinner than where the family norm should be, and they can get pretty self-righteous about it. I think the defining moment that saved me as a 20-something was one day when I was leafing quickly through a copy of Vogue. I thought, hey, who's the fat chick? -- then realized it was Gabriella Reese, who was on the olympic volleyball team. Yikes. I figured, if the fashion industry makes *her* look bad, then maybe their perspective was more than a little f***'d. So now I will always be about 10 lbs heavier than my mom, but I can also run a mile without wheezing, and my house doesn't smell like an ashtray.

Oh that's right. I was thinking liver sausages or something...got the shape and gross smell right, anyway Maybe I am due for a re-read...

The first one. Though there's also a lebanon, PA which apparently produces bologna. It's a popular name for some biblical reason or other.

Mongo, what kind of okra do you have access to? In Lebanon we used to get these lovely little ones that were no more than 1.5 inches in length. You can cook them whole so you don't get the gluey-ness of the american variety. I have one more string of dried ones I got from my parents, and would love to find a new source.

Here's the article. What the guy says is interesting though it doesn't explain why people already on the right side of the chart have become "more" obese. Usually, with this kind of thing the cause comes down to one from column "behavior", one from column "genetic". In my case, I know that my default diet is usully fairly healthy (I was raised on a Mediterranean diet because, well, I was raised on the Mediterranean...) but now that I am in the Midwest I started to gain weight, (I also use the clothes method) and it was clearly because I drive everywhere instead of my usual insane amount of walking. So, three times a week I get on my bike and wander through cornfields for an hour, until I feel better. In the winter I suppose I will have to join a gym.

That's something I don't know anything about. Does anybody know who they use? I didn't think they were Sarcone's when I had a sandwich a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure Primo Hoagies use Sarcones rolls. So I suspect Tony Luke might also. Very distinctively crusty, that is my only complaint with Dinic's: that the rolls get too soggy. Edit: Oops, having just seen Rich Pawlak's post, I suspect I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I do wish Dinic's would use different bread, it would really make all the difference.

Actually it means "learned person" in Arabic. I have no idea about Malay or Urdu. Though, like "madrassa", it may have a religious subtext in those languages that is not present in Arabic. Then again, Alim is a perfectly nice Arabic boy's name, so it might have just meant, "Alim's restaurant". You may now return to your regularly scheduled blog.

Shit. Do you have any idea how mean it is to post this? I am actually contemplating flight tickets now. Thanks. Seriously though, I'm glad you like that sandwich. It is my hands down favorite, too.

Ohmygod I could kill for a Primo hoagie right now! evil evil menu of most foul and evil temptation I believe they call it "the abruzzi". The Pal Joey is pretty good too.

James Joyce's famous book, Ulysses, follows one Leopold Bloom around Dublin for the entire day of June 16, 1904. If you feel like doing something really fun, take a train up to Philadelphia for Rosenbach Library's 100th Bloomsday celebration. They have the original manuscript, and celebrate in style: link

Oh wow, thanks so much for doing that! The one Rohit made was with lime pickles. I think the pickles were actually chopped and incorporated into the sauce. There dish was very wet -- after the chicken was gone I was able to eat the lovely sauce on rice for a couple more meals. It was reddish in color so I assume it contained some mix of hot & sweet red chili powder. Come to think of it, I owe that kid a phone call, as we will be sleeping on his floor in late July. I have cut & pasted your recipe to my desktop for later experimentation though This is utterly off topic but there is an adorable bunny eating weeds right outside my window right now and all I can think of is "hmm, curry sauce".

I've been really lucky as far as Indian food goes: Rogan Josh, lassis, great breads, the smell of onion and garlic paste frying in oil, cardamom-flavored rice pudding, the smell of basmati rice... The spicy green beans my uncle's indian ex-gf used to make That chicken in sour lime pickle sauce my friend rohit made once and then dammit moved to freakin' England. I don't suppose someone has a recipe? At least, he did leave me the recipes for rajmah masala and bhel poori ... I don't know why this is, but for some completely unconscious reason I glom on to any indian people in my circle. They seem amused by it, more than anything. I think it's the sense of humor I like, apart from the food.

I've always felt it would be far more appropriate to fry up a couple of sausages, drink a lot of absinthe and end up in a brothel...but so far I've never found any takers.