FaustianBargain

Here in the uk, i just discovered Green and Black's(scroll to the very bottom. Nutella version. It is on sale at Waitrose or I would have never picked it up. It is absolutely fantastic. Less 'sweet' than Nutella, it seems, and somewhat thicker/creamier.

we had a contraption like that in our kitchen. actually, in the 'service verandha'(i have NO idea why the passage outside the kitchen that leads to the garden was called that, but thats what it was) and it was mounted over a shelf. the serrated 'cone' on one end and a rotating handle on the other. another option was the 'aruvamanai'. This is the only google link that turned up. PPT, but hey! Page 15. I have never used this as it is quite a dangerous contraption. Someone from the India forum may be able to give more detailed info. Re machines, there is 'Anjali' brand coconut graters for home kitchen use. It is small, very handy and rather plasticy.Summet's 'Ultra' wet grinder machines come with a coconut grater attachment. Elgi Ultra website.. I dont think you can get the coconut grater attachment if you buy it in the States because of some weird restriction. Probably because it is deemed unsafe and dangerous by US import laws. It can easily become a weapon. If you annoy the missus, that is. Tepee, you *can* save the coconut water and I LOVE it! Coconut turns me off, but I *love* the sweet coconut water! At home, its usually broken with a longish knife or with a hammer(as my mother does it). My grandmother used to simply break it by tapping it over the grinding stone. I say 'tap', but I have *never* been able to duplicate that technique. The trick is to do it with one swift blow to allow the first crack to appear or the edges will be jagged. If the crack line' is straight, you get two perfect coconut shell halves. You simply crack it open slightly first and 'drain' the coconut water before splitting it into two halves. edited to add: found it!! Anjali coconut scrapper! A non-plastic and metal(iron, probably?) version of this was mounted on top of a shelf so one can grate the coconut halves standing up. It is done in a jiffy!

don't. its chaotic during service. altho' i suppose you can send a round of beer for after service, if you really want to pay restaurant mark up prices for a case of beer.

as a customer, i dont want the responsibility of trying to figure out how much service was worth. do not give ME the vulgar job of deciding how i value your service. i am there to relax and enjoy my meal. and i am willing to pay for it. naturally, i expect the service to be excellent and consistent. its the restaurant management's job to make sure that it is excellent all the time. the price they decide for that level of quality service is their decision. whether the food and service is worth the price is something the customer will decide. on a different kind of dining....when you dine in small family-run restaurants and the owner drops by to bring your plate, do you tip? my favourite hole-in-the-wall chinese restaurant owner-lady is allergic to all of my tipping efforts and it is embarassing to insist because it seems as though i am treating the owner as hired help. in fact, she even throws in a weird 10% discount when i dine by myself(because i am a culinary student, i think. i dont believe her polite insistence that its because we are both 'chefs'. as if!!). i am left with no choice but to accept it graciously. when i go with company, its 'business' as usual. the most i get is a curt acknowledgment nod. i know that she is being kind and that we are friends, but i always end up feeling as though i 'owe' her. i find it difficult to explain the concept. it is not like i am not grateful for the warmth, but i still feel as if i 'owe' her, but not in a monetary sense. can anyone relate? how do you deal with it?

I can see your tongue residing in your cheek from here. :) Hats off to such an establishment that puts their prices up by 15% and advertises the fact that the difference goes to the waiting staff as wages. Hats off to the next company to occupy the building after the first company has gone under in short order. ← cb, you are joking, surely?. isnt 'service charge'=tipping? i find this mandatory 'tipping' more convinient than the optional tipping in the states.

andiesenji: how about using tobacco to 'smoke'/cure meat? like hickory wood etc? how does one 'infuse' tobacco? control over safe limits etc? As I mentioned, the danger would not be to the consumer, who would hopefully have enough sense not to gobble up 30 or 40 chocolates at one sitting..... However the person handling the ingredient needs to be warned to wear gloves with good integrity so as to not be exposed to the material for long periods or repeatedly in a short period of time because it is absorbed through the skin. I grew up on a farm where tobacco was grown and like all the kids, got to help with hanging the bundles in the drying sheds. From personal experience I can attest to the fact that after getting the sap on hands and arms one could taste it for many hours afterward and that was not the refined and concentrated product. (They stopped growing tobacco on the farm in 1967.) ←

I have converted all my school recipes into that format(with some twists of my own, of course). Painstakingly, but it a work of art, I am telling you! I dont look at recipes anymore except to check for quantities, but they were extremely useful when I needed that as a student. The format was very useful especially when I had to memorise basic techniques and standardised recipes.

Recipes? How will its addition taste? Someone told me once that more than a pinch of tobacco ingested can be fatal. Will it be legal to cook and serve dishes with tobacco in the ingredient list?

cooking seafood (esp oysters..as they have a filter feeding system and hence will take in any seawater contaminants) in sea water is especially not recommended during warm months or where the sea/ocean body is warm. nasty virii and bacterium pass on from ocean to body. once again, its a general warning and may affect only high-risk individuals. however, many of these nasties are housed in us and we may not always be aware of their existence. they(esp virii) sometimes have the urge to spread to another individual. of course, one may always choose to live dangerously. not that there is anything wrong with that!!

calf brains. thought it was like flavourless cheese at first. then i consumed it the right way(method patented, of course). all was well.

did flay deserve to win?? if every iron chef america episode has the iron chefs winning, then that just really sucks. they should have a well-known food critic from japan on the judging panel. ← I havent seen any of the episodes(I miss IC, the original!), but I think it would be a better idea to have French and Japanese judges to grade American chefs. Comments in Japanese and French. With translations, of course. Why not?

Clarify your butter and use it on everything! Clarified butter, Indian Ghee, goes with *everything*. On top of rice, bread, to cook vegetables, to crisp edges of indian crepes, in sweets, as garnish..or just swallow large dollaps of ghee... and it keeps well. unlike, butter, it doesnt require refridgeration.

It is interesting about French-Vietnamese connection. Modern Vietnamese cuisine has a very strong French influence. Prior to the French connection, Vietnamese cuisine itself sprung from the Chinese culinary womb. Japanese influence - Yes, but I dont see sushi(sashimi..maybe) taking off in France like it did in the States. I definitely see an appreciation of Thai cuisine..not just in France but the world over. It has all sorts of influences and unlike Chinese or Japanese or even Korean food, it also incorporates a lot from Indian cuisine(southern indian flavours..isolated, but sharp and distinct flavours...black pepper, tamarind..all sorts of citrusy flavours....very unlike northern indian flavours which is more of a medley of spices). It is not too Indian..it is not too 'asian'(chinese/japanese). It is has a bit of everything from everywhere. It is foreign enough for intrigue, but not too alien to the tastebuds. It is fresh and waiting to be embraced. It will all be fine until, god forbid, someone decides to 'fuse' them. Interestingly, imo, Asian influences in French cuisine will flourish in the southern regions of France. This is only my budding theory, of course. So feel free to dismantle it. The weather opens itself to 'asian flavours'. Winters tend to affiliate one's tastebuds to fat, dairy and all things porcine. Comments?

So if I understand, it is quite different from the US in that dishwashers from Non-UK and EU countries do not typically become line chefs (but rather remain dishwashers, etc) ? If so, I wonder why the difference? ← My first guess > As culinary bear said, majority of the dishwashers are from African countries. Their cuisine is inherently different from typical 'Europeon' fare and so its difficult to pick up? Secondly> There are a lot of 'catering colleges' and 'study and work' schemes in the UK. All these students have to find placement somewhere. Turnover is also high. It is likely that the restaurants will choose someone with a NVQ level so they dont have to go over the basic basic training with everyone who does the in and out. Also, I think a food hygiene certificate is compulsary in the food prep stations. Thirdly > The kitchen crew is rather young. Immigrant dishwashers tend to be older. Fourthly > Work permit regulations are rather strict here. Everything goes on paper. Maybe its an insurance/state benefits/healthcare thingy?(iirc, everyone in the kitchen need to have some sort of insurance if they get hurt/fall down etc) It is easier to insure those 'in the euro zone'? EU nationals and those from certain Europeon countries do not require a work permit? I am only guessing. Someone in the field and more knowledgable than me can probably explain it better. I am merely pulling it out of my hat. edited to add: OTOH > there are also probably a very large number of illegal immigrants( by proportion) in the US than in the UK. also, there are also less number of americans(proportionally) than europeons who are willing to work in a kitchen by starting from scratch. in the uk, they are willing to invest a little time with the young apprentices to train them and PASS on skills. in the us, they want them to wash dishes or peel potatoes now. apparently. so education has no value in the us. also, when someone invests time and money in a catering course, they might..they just might...demand a better pay. why go through that hassle when you can train dishwashers to become line cooks with dishwasher wages..obviously dishwashers and cooks are interchangable...and they can do two jobs at the same rate of pay ..what could be better... damn clock..just wont go past 1980...i want a refund from god..einstein, patch me through...

Thank you. Bookmarked.

Good for them. They have made a choice, havent they? And twenty years from now, they wont have to make someone wash dishes or peel potatoes like a monk to exorcise the benevolence and value of their 'valuable' training. Isnt it tragic? If the previous generation had bitched and whined..demanded respect...decent hours and wages....instead of thumping their chests with false macho bravado..who knows...the industry might have sat up, taken notice and done something about it... Four Yorkshiremen [..] 3rd YORKSHIREMAN: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife. 4th YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. 1st YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you. ALL: They won't! Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Raw oysters(test sample from Raw Gulf Coast Oysters) contain faint traces of the virus that causes Hepatitis A. Those who already house this virus while consuming raw oysters along with spirits(alcohol that is no great friend of your liver) greatly increase the chances of falling ill seriously. It is a very general warning and probably affect a handful of individuals only. Hepatits, as you probably know, is a terrible liver disease of a particularly nasty variety that can affect anyone and can sometimes go undetected. The greatest danger is that one may not show any symptom of Hep A virus in their system, yet they can spread it. It is a very very general, but extremely sensible warning.

I am very sorry that you had to spend your childhood like that. I am happy for you that you are past that. I hope that NO child of 14 years will EVER have to go through something like that in our future. Please dont glorify it. You HAVE no complaints about it or you HAD no complaints about it? I find it hard to believe that you have no complaints about it. I challenge you to look me in the eye and tell that to me with a straight face.

I am sorry, but I dont get the forced romanticism of this whole thing. It is plain wrong. The industry has aligned itself to unsustainable goals. Food with expensive ingredients and a lot of prep came originated as a concept during times when kings and aristocrats were fed by kitchens 'below the stairs'. You want to know who washed the dishes...polished the copper...and worked their ass off? Street waifs and children sold into kitchen slavery. The same model is now applied to in the free market republics of the world with the necessary constraint of money. Palace kitchens didnt have a budget. They didnt have to show profits. Starred restaurants are dishing out to a clientale upon whom they are dependent for a generating profit? Does anyone else see what I can see? Immigrant labour is cheap and the kitchen is full of over worked and under paid staff BECAUSE there is no more child labour and no more slave labour. There are no more kingdoms. There is the ball crushing need to make profits or stay afloat..WITH a customer base who are so finicky and can possibly be tightwadish. They have whims. They have wallets, my friends and they have demands. And they want foie gras and truffles. There is competition. There are taxes to pay. There are food critics . There are Michelin stars to chase. There is global politics over everything from foie gras to shrimp. There are deceptive and crippling subsidies. There is WTO, GMO and IMF. There is globalisation and global warming. Food is commodity. And commodities are traded. There are price fluctuations. People dont want food. They want art and want to feel like royalty beheaded hundreds of years ago. They dont want mutton. Oh no! They want milk fed veal. And they want it all within a budget and with a sense of entitlement. When I woke up, the oppressive air stank. YMMV.

I LOVE Cumin Rasam! It has black pepper and crushed cumin with tamarind water as the 'stock'. The only nice thing about flu season is cumin rasam. And oh..Cumin Rasam with a slight twist...Garlic Rasam. Garlic, green chillies, curry leaves and tamarind water.

I believe that this is the practice at El Bulli. Of course, it came from someone who worked in Spain who was friends with someone whose friend knew someone staging at El Bulli. At least, for the first month, 'you pay them' and the next month, you pay them "50%" and at the end of the six months, you can get a full salary. The explanation was bizarre and narrated to me as I was being seduced internally by paracetemol, so I am not going to pretend to understand how it is all worked out. My point is..it doesnt seem too unrealistic.

Kit, they are just messing with you. (NOT)... (YEA)... (NOT)... (OH YEA)...

The former look better on your resume than the latter. It's also a different kind of learning experience. For whatever it is worth, many take a lesser salalry to work in a special restaurant for a year of two while they're still learning the trade. ← My question wasn't "why" but "whether". I'm asking, not just about ambitious chefs on the way up, but also those who are working more or less at the level at which they expect to continue. Put it another way: are there restaurants which publicly pride themselves on the care they take with their suppliers and their staff as well as with their ingredients? ← McD in London = 5.xx/hour Intercontinental(anecdotally) hotel part time(no benefits) wages for commis = 9.xx/hour edited to add: here ya go...

This is something that has been rankling me for a while. If a restaurant job is about brute endurance and energy that never runs out, what *are* they teaching kids in catering/hospitality schools? Why not shut them all down? Obviously, they have no skillset that is unique or in demand. You are probably right. Playing devil's advocate, are there any arguments you can think of in its favour? And are you telling me that restaurant kitchen staff have no healthcare/insurance? What do illegal immigrants do when they fall ill?

"Strange"? Salary should not be viewed as a numerical figure in either currency. Rather, it should be measured in terms of *what* it can buy. My 2 c/p.