jhlurie

No. But we CAN pester her mercilessly to do another every time we press the "reset" button on allowing repeats.

Now I like a detective with a whisk in one hand and an eclair in the other as much as the next person, but I kind of have the same problem with them as I do with most of these "cozy" mysteries (yes, that's the actual name of the genre, apparently). They're a bit too cutesy and eccentric. I need to be in a cutesy mood, which unfortunately happens less and less these days. Stout's another thing entirely. I can read that almost anytime--to the extent that I've probably read ALL of them about five times in the past 20 years. I will say this... if anyone here knows a heavy hitter in this field like Diane Mott Davidson, I'll PUT myself in the proper mood and sit down and read some, if we can hook them into a Q&A session or something. Just PLEASE don't ask me to read any books with Cats as protagonists. That might be a bit too much...

It ain't Sunday yet anyway. Obviously Rosie is one of those scavengers who goes to the newstand on Saturday and scoops up the special sections early. Grapevine says Jason's contribution is in the NJ supplemental section. So that means it would not only NOT be in the version of the Times shipped and sold in Atlanta (the Times is sold locally almost everywhere), but it won't be in New York either. Alas, poor Jason has to be satisfied with several hundred thousand readers instead of several million. My memory is that NJ section contributions are almost impossible to find online too. As Rosie says, his comments are about Patisserie St. Michel, which he has covered here in photograph study if not verbally, so you can start by looking in that thread.

That's okay Kris. We'd just concluded you were drunk. What you really need to do is try to balance your elbows on a table or something solid while taking these pictures. It's a bit harder if you are leaning over a stove, of course. Also, assuming it's a digicam, use what I call the "Shapiro rule" (after Ellen Shapiro, who gave me this advice)--Digital exposures cost NOTHING until you process them, so hold the button down and take about 10 times as many shots as you think you need. That said, your blog is, as always, interesting enough that a bit of blurryness is no huge deal. Word pictures work as well as photgraphic ones.

Guys, I'm not going to zap the mohel-related posts, but can we move on? This isn't the "all about being Jewish" topic--we want to concentrate on the culinary aspect, although diverting a bit into the kosher "eating rules" seems a natural spin-off as well.

Got some new great stuff on a recent trip... First off... Reverse Pocky. This is basically inverted Pocky--the "Cookie" is the outside and the inside is the frosting. Both the cookie and frosting are very "Pocky G"-ish in their taste. Two other new ones for me (although not for the market, I think) are Apple and Cocoa flavored Pretz: They're both great. The apple-flavor is kind of a cool cider taste, which isn't too overwhelming, while the cocoa is very subtle--not overly sweet. The biggest surprise? The import label reveals that Sucralose is an ingedient in both Pretzes--although it's certainly not REPLACING Sugar, since that's in the list as well. It's actually a LOVELY list of things that are bad for you according to current conventional wisdom. Apple Pretz Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Sugar, Margarine, Apple Juice, Corn Syrup, Salt, Butter, Apple Puree, Lactose, Spice, Non-Fat Dry Milk, Monosodium Glutamate (aka "MSG"), Artificial Flavor, Baking Powder, Soya Lecthin, Sucralose, Citric Acid. But still... yum!

Ah... he asks setting himself up for a deluge of answers about engrish.com and the strange history of English on Japanese products... I just went to my neighborhood import-filled Japanese grocery yesterday (the overpriced but convenient Mitsuwa right outside of NYC, in Edgewater, NJ). There's tons of English on the import packages--and NOT just on the importing and American-market nutrition labels slapped on after the fact. Especially on the snack food... For example, here's a new Pocky variant called "Reverse": The English name is large and prominent on the front and sides of the box, while the Japanese explanatory text is relatively low key. The English does, in fact, appear to be more of a graphic design than anything else. But if you look on the BACK of the package? Except for the importing/nutrition label, it's ALL Japanese. This is pretty typical from what I've seen (actually a MUCH closer inspection shows that, quite logically, the one piece of English on the back is the Glico web address ). P.S. - Here's the location of our usual Pocky thread, where no doubt I'll discuss "Reverse" a bit more...

For really really good pork chops, usually a fire and a pan is enough. "Keep it simple" is the rule. For crappy pork? Blech. I guess you'd have to sauce it up.

Richard, nobody's saying that IS the case... just that we fear it. The fact that Tony hasn't been contacted is... distressing. Sure they've got no obligation to do so, but it usually plants a seed of integrity for the process. I dunno. Maybe Tony's answering machine has like... 5000 messages on it and his agent has been trying to reach him for weeks. I also have concerns about the half-hour format. I don't think there are that many half-hour shows on cable, so that makes me think that broadcast is a more likely target. Which means compromises. Also, even an unvarnished uncut product might inherently suck in a half-hour format. I mean... how much character development do half-hour shows have? And aren't they usually comedies? I mean, Kitchen Confidential may HAVE comedy in it, but is it A COMEDY? Will there be a laugh track? A wacky next door neighbor?

Zap2it.com reveals that it will be a half-hour format. FilmStew.com adds the fact that Star is directing as well as producing. New Line TV is the third partner aside from 20th Century Fox and Darren Star Productions. Both the Filmstew article and one from the Advocate.com seem to mention that nothing's been written yet. They are still searching for a writer to adapt this. Usually this is the stage where good properties are most at risk of going bad. All you'd need is some chucklehead who thinks they know better than Tony to write a bad script. Please note that even though Star is best know for "Sex and the City", apparently he started out working for Aaron Spelling, on crappy shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place".

I usually find myself grinding a much greater amount of pepper on my food at home than I ask a server to put on my food in a restaurant. I don't really know if this comes from some kind of "trust" I'm extending to the kitchen that they've already spiced the food enough, or if I'm just irritated by the whole process. Personally, my ideal is that a pepper grinder (hopefully a somewhat smaller and less flashy one than a waiter might use) is already permanently on the table and I'll reach for it (or not) as I wish. I know how to work a pepper grinder just fine. It's not a case of doubting the staff, it's just natural for me since I do it at home all of the time. Whether or not I EXPECT pepper probably also depends on the kind of food I'm eating less than the "level" of the restaurant. So I suppose my ideal of personal grinders always being at every table is a bit unrealistic.

Once upon a time there was a nice topic about Fresh Ground Pepper Service! This was one of the bestest topic in all of eGulletland, but an evil wizard heard about how nice and popular this topic was, and became very jealous. He was trying to promote his own topic about Halibut flavored lollypops, and that wasn't going so well, so he cast a spell on the nice topic and everyone participating on it became temporarily insane and forgot that there was such a thing as an eGullet User Agreement, rules of common courtesy, off-topicness, or a sequel to "Saturday Night Fever". Then another wizard came by (after unfortunately being out of town for too long) and waved his wand. Suddenly all the negativity and bad stuff was gone! And if anyone had a problem with it, they would have to use the PM system of eGulletland to complain! The second wizard may have missed a spare reference or two, but he was confident that people could perhaps just start talking about Fresh Ground Pepper Service again and leave the baggage in the car. THE END.

The irony is that in their very early years, Fuddruckers burgers weren't that bad, as I recall. It was only after they started franchising like crazy that it all went to hell. And from what I know, they fell pretty much all the way down. Yeah, but it's the Expos. You are going to have to control your excitement until it's clear whether or not they will still suck.

More to blame on Marriott, although the people who took over afterwards (briefly Pepsico and then Reise Restaurants--at least in my current neck of the woods) didn't really help any. Anyway, if you are focusing on restaurant burgers, I suppose part of the process would be if you could tell if the burgers were bought/shipped in as pre-made patties or not. You know... they have that hockey-puck shape and consistency when they do.

Too bad. I went to college in DC, a long time ago, and Marriott certainly made me aware of how bad institutional cooking CAN be. I'm sure they are still ruining tastebuds wherever they can--in DC and other places. As far as fast food burger-carrying chains go, is Roy Rogers still around DC? Their burgers certainly sucked.

This is actually an old product, not a new one. White Castle has had them for years. As Klink says, they do indeed taste the same as every other similar product. Not bad, not good. Just... as a plank for sauce and breading mostly.

Bought some Devil Dogs at the supermarket today JUST in case...

Sweetheart, at a minimum, shouldn't be affected by the low-carb craze. And yogurt should be somewhat more protected against that than stuff like bread, snack cakes, and ice cream. And OF the ice cream brands, I'd think Eddy's has enough cache to live a bit longer than something as old fashioned and plain as Dolly Madison.

Well individually some of those brands are pretty big. That's two of the biggest snack-cake brands in one fell swoop--Hostess AND Drake's. Three major brands of bread that I know personally--Wonder, Beefsteak and Home Pride (although several of the other brands listed are obviously bread, like "Bread du Jour") . At least two ice cream brands I recognize--Dolly Madison and Eddy's. A frozen food company--Marie Callender's. Colombo is the yogurt maker, I'm assuming. Sweetheart makes cups and paper plates, I believe...

For those who don't know, Interstate Bakeries is not JUST Twinkies and Wonder bread. Here are their brands. Many of the names on this list will look AWFULLY familiar to most of you. from: http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=IBC

I don't know about a drooling "smiley", but the acknowledged text "emoticon" for drooling is: :-)...

Miller's Bakery, in Cliffside Park, is an old reliable. Around Nutley though? Don't know much.

Carbs.

Arguably, as I stated in a more flippant manner earlier in this thread, that's because part of the problem is that they do a pretty crappy job of EXPLAINING that mission.

The solution is obviously to shave all of those Beards. Really, the way that organization is run it's almost possible to understand. Is their agenda even clear? If they've got more going for them then a creaky old building and hot air, could they please be a little more explicit in explaining what it is?