jhlurie

Word is, C2 is pretty much dead. http://www.bevnet.com/news/2004/10-31-2004...rly_returns.asp

Well we never got to try the Pepsi Kona, did we? They test marketed and rejected that one without ever fully releasing it.

And through the "magic" of topic merging... we now have... one topic!

Those crazy guys at BevNet give it a crappy rating, but this is somewhat explained by them being down on Pepsi in general. They do state, straight out, that it's "a definite improvement over regular Pepsi cola". Please note that they give Pepsi Vanilla a better rating than this though, and that's just not true (although P.V. is definitely much better than its Coke counterpart).

Went to the store today and spotted this: I hadn't heard anything about this and was pretty surprised. And the thing is? It's very good. The idea of cola and "holiday spices" may sound a bit odd (and you may be asking, as we did what exactly MAKES them "Holiday Spices"), but it works. I'm not sure I can really describe it, but it's sort of a similar taste to the spice-mix which might be added to apple cider. Without the apple taste in the background, of course. And please note that they are "spices", but not "spicy". They've also recolored the soda from brown to red. Maybe to make it more festive.

I've often seen the spelling Yum Neur, but I know exactly what you mean. It's one of my very favorite dishes in ANY cuisine anywhere. I think there might have been an attempt at an eG thread on this in the distant past (which I totally can't find, so feel free to start a new topic if you want), but it doesn't have the enthusiastic following that Larb does.

I have a lot of deep dark confessions about so-called "crappy" food, but pasta-in-a-can is one place I could never go. Sorry fans. I'm eagerly awaiting all the stories about frozen cocktail weenies though! Or the 10 best uses of Cheez Wiz in cooking. Or a debate about the best "flavor" for Hot Pockets.

Other than some spices I suppose are sprinkled on the chicken breast prior to cooking, what the hell makes this "cajun"? ← It's the same situation as "BBQ", Rachel. Pop culture has appropriated the term and bent it into shapes that are only shadows of what it really is. BBQ now kind of means "grilled" and/or "coated in a sticky sauce" and/or "eating outdoors, beer in one hand, hot dog in the other". Cajun now means "with some kind of vaguely pepper-based spicy taste associated with it". Maybe buried under Alfredo sauce. Nevermind that the truth is far more interesting, Chili's needs desperately to make its food actually sound edible.

Ah yes. Jeffrey Chodorow is obviously an honorary Chinese-American. NOT.

{Wiping tear} JJ, you are our hero. It's been a long time since we've had a such a wonderful travelogue posted here.

In this morning's Maine Today.com What's a pancake fiend like me supposed to do? ← Buy Canadian?

The thing is... those communication skills are debateable. Actually, they seem pretty poor. The ongoing "problem" with Rocco though may be a lack of self-awareness. Is he caught in some pattern where he's still mystified about why he's now a zero, or does he realize it was his own ego? Is he passing the blame and claiming that Mark Burnett or Jeffrey Chowdrow or the ignorant American public or even just "bad luck" did him in, or can he admit he did it to himself? If he could, then sure... it could be a folly of his relative youth. He's got to reinvent himself, that's for sure.

Dove makes both Dark and Milk varieties, Bux. Then again, the article seems to be identifying what he ate as the Milk variety. But maybe the magazine is the one confused, and Payard the one who knows what he's talking about. EDIT - The Dove Dark chocolate bar apparently has a red stripe on it and the Milk chocolate a blue stripe. The artwork for this article shows the Milk variety, then again that's not really proof that's what Payard was given.

I ate at a Steak & Shake a few days ago, on a trip to Missouri--my second trip to one of these in about 3 years. I'd rate it at about the level of a Johnny Rocket's, for those of you who know that chain. Really, that puts it pretty far about McDonald's, even if it's also infinitely less than a good restaurant burger. I'm also including a possible fudge factor here based on the fact that around Kansas City, the quality of the meat is usually pretty good, whereas sometimes what's shipped elsewhere in the country isn't the same.

Mentioned in Ronnie's blog, the most frequent appearance of square pizza in the NY/NJ/CT area is on Sicilian pizza--which is almost universally available. Other square cut pizza is pretty rare, but in the few other cases I've seen is almost REALLY thin crust (as opposed to Sicilian style, which is VERY thick).

I've seen the square-cut thing in the NY/NJ/CT area, but it's very rare, and only on very thin crust (unless we are talking Sicilian style pizza--which is VERY thick, square cut and almost ubiquitous here).

This topic has veered increasingly from the subject about an aversion to the vegetable commonly known as okra, into a linquistic debate about "gumbo" that (at best) is only loosely related to the original inquiry. Several of the most recent posts have been deleted, not only for being increasingly off-topic but also for having an increasingly personal tone.

Wow. For all the talk, apparently very few of us were actually interested enough to listen. I guess that, in of itself, probably means something. When even the train wreck holds no interest, it's time to start looking for the next wreck down the tracks...

I know from Jason that part of the intent here is to discover places where it wouldn't be obvious that this gem of an item is available in this place. This grew out of a discussion he and I had about how ineffective almost every reviewing system is at covering/pinpointing places like this. We're talking about the dumpy little restaurant in a strip mall where maybe a single item is SO off-the-scale compared to everything else you just leave blinking in surprise. Or some take-out shack somewhere where you've never suspect that they churn out something stellar. Or even a fading once great place where something is SO bullet-proof that its survived the decline. It's an interesting question too. Let's say you know a chinese restaurant that literally has the best spareribs in the state, and yet everything else is mostly mediocre? Do you tell people about it? How do you even discover it? Ideally we could start a topic like this on EVERY regional board.

Hey, if anyone out there actually knows Cleese, tell him to stop by here.

Wait a second Jason. Isn't this the SAME cookbook which comes in what's practically a plain brown wrapper? This is NOT a coincidence!

The ancient greeks had a single term encompassing all of this: hubris.

I live in a county (Bergen County, NJ) with some of the most restrictive blue laws in the country, and it's only 10 minutes from Manhattan. And it's not changing anytime soon--probably never. So it's not just the Bible Belt. In the case of Bergen, they don't even pretend it's religion related. It might have been 100 years ago, but these days it's some built-in life-long movement to keep the New Yorkers away, and the streets relatively traffic-free, at least one day a week (not only can't you sell booze, but also a great enough collection of other goods that most stores, other than supermarkets, are forced to be closed on Sundays) It's actually strange that the one part of the local blue laws they could probably loosen up on without interfering with the REAL goal of the laws (to keep people away) would probably be alcohol sales. Oh yeah... and batteries. Believe it or not, at the epicenter of the Blue Laws (Paramus) you can't sell batteries. Here's a tale of someone who visited a local BC grocery store on a Sunday and couldn't buy a spatula... (take a look at the first comment down after the blog entry)

Man oh man is this funny. I know Rocco can form complete sentences, but can he really talk intelligently for hours at a time? You can't BS with radio. Or rather, you have to be such a supreme BSer that people don't mind that they can't SEE you. Remember how Rocco used to get by on his looks (okay, not lately--we all know that)? Also, isn't "Food Talk" more of a restaurant show than cooking? I mean, Rocco would have to talk about OTHER people's restaurants... Next up for Rocco: when Howard Stern vacates his spot for Satellite, Rockhead takes that job.

I'm curious about what the wackiest "of the month club" out there is. I've heard of ice cream, beer, wine, fruit, organic goods, potato chips, coffee, steaks, caviar, chocolate, nuts, candy, cheese, and muffins. Isn't there a Bacon of the Month club? We should construct a catalogue of known "of the month" clubs and any relevant contact info. Food related only, of course.