jhlurie

I'm bumping this topic in case Julia's passing creates a sudden desire in any of us to try and boil an egg. There will be more on Julia, and her passing, in the Food Media and News forum over the next few days...

I wonder how insanely busy this site will be over the next few days. EDIT - Actually... it's quite fast. Maybe the Smithsonian website isn't exactly the first place people rush when someone dies...

Wait. I feel a spell coming on. It's like I'm possessed by the spirit of Jinmyo. No chocolate. Steak. Actually, although I'm FAR from anti-chocolate (witness the number of snack threads I've contributed to), I'm not sure I see the point of odd centers. The sugar is going to counteract most of the subtleties of those flavors anyway. Unless these are very bitter chocolates, which most people can't stand. It's like... Molé Poblano only works because sugar is pretty far down the list of ingredients usually. You can TASTE the chile, cinnamon, sesame, almonds and whatnot that are usually in it. But a confectioner is going to have this stuff swimming in sugar--and that's what you'll be tasting in one of these weird-ass chocolate bars.

Also, I believe her Cresskill restaurant was a LONG time ago. She's gained some experience as a restauranteer since then. Demand is a big factor. Fort Lee has killed a lot of restaurants, it's true, but it's also let a lot of them--with the right formula--succeed. I'm not going to second guess KT--really the most I can do is tell people the food is good and let them go or not as they please. Also, it's not like Joe isn't available to her. If his advice is important, he's only a phone call away. If the argument is that it's just his mere physical presence which causes the magic to occur... that's a strange argument.

What you are now looking at is an experiment. This topic, a very intelligently worded appeal from a valued member to his fellows for specific information, is a topic we, the eGullet management, would like to see in continued existance on our board. However, despite repeated warnings from a moderator, Ellen, to stay focused on the food-related aspect of this topic... yesterday it didn't happen that way. A whole barrel full of posts have been removed. Let me be clear that although they were removed in a single bunch, they weren't all removed in the same spirit. Many of the posts were respectful, insightful, and tolerant. Others were not. What they all had in common was that after a careful analysis, they weren't even remotely about how to host a dinner party for Mormons. A bit of comparitive religious talk is fine, and we've left all of that if it involved FOOD, but we don't want or need detailed information about religious affiliations, practices, or subdivisions unless they are used to directly answer the question which has been asked. So our experiment is to put this back, minus those posts, and try again. If the topic drifts again, it may not come back next time. As well intentioned as many of the posts were, they left the door open for less enlightened posts--which have ALSO been removed. I hope that those people who wrote the respectful, insightful, and tolerant posts I referred to above understand our dilemma, and respect our decision. If not, please don't answer here--PM me, Ellen, or any of our Site Management staff. Carry on, please. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

Ah, but now it's time for the official eGullet Foodblog song! We call it "Every Blog is Special, Every Blog is Good." If you've seen "Monty Python's the Meaning of Life" you know the tune! Okay, foolishness aside, this was great. Those of you who have enjoyed it, and want to give it a shot yourself, make sure you PM our fantastically devoted Foodblog Czar, SobaAddict70 and let him know you are interested in your own potential time in the spotlight. Also let him know you appreciate the behind the scenes work he does to organize all of this. We've rarely been more pleased with an eGullet feature.

A branch of this conversation which completely veered from regional availability of this product has, indeed been split off into a new topic in the General forum. Please continue discussion of regional availability here. Please continue discussion of the product as a whole (particularly issues of authenticity) in the new topic. Some judgement calls had to be made (in a few cases, like the post by mnebergall, the post could have gone either way), so if you feel there is information from one topic which rightfully belong in the other, please repost that info in the appropriate location. Try not to be duplicate otherwise though. Thanks all.

What the eff is that? A bearded man laying in bed dreaming about his butcher? I'm troubled... He's wondering if the meat he's buying is really glatt certified or not. What it has to do with chocolate, that part is still a mystery.

For those who haven't made the connection, the folks at Bobolink are actually"old friends" of eGullet. They hosted us last year for our big NY/NJ combination Pig BBQ and Potluck, and are doing so again next month. Jason Perlow and Ellen Shapiro have also taken, and posted, extensive photo spreads of their operation, and Jonathan himself has posted here, although he's somewhat scattered about it. One caution. If you weren't able to find the old Bobolink topic, it's because we all rely on that little "Google eG" tool too much, I think. It misses a lot of older stuff, as well as the very newest.

Fentiman's is available at Whole Foods, in the U.S., but is quite expensive.

Thanks tommy. I've merged the two topics, so that link now goes in a nice circle. Whee! Fun!

Because we know how much they just gosh darn care, McDonalds is also "there" for our noble athletes... How big of them. Perfect food to load up on before you run that Marathon, you know.

This picture must not be from Athens, because apparently they have a huge problem with Wild Dogs roaming the streets. They'd eat those suckers in the picture right up. Er, actually reading that article, the dogs appear to have been, um... dealt with. Yuck. I wonder then, what they did with all of the Prostitutes also roaming the streets. Hey, look... an article about the food AT the Olympics. The name "Aramark" connected to it is kind of scary, but apparently they've had the lock on the franchise for decades. Also, for those who care, here's the NY Times on Keeping Kosher at the Olympics.

As opposed to Soylent Green?

Grand Sichuan wasn't the first place I'd ever had freshly killed chicken, so I was prepared. In Kansas City, there's a restaurant named Stroud's where they serve Farm-Raised Dead-That-Morning Pan Fried Chicken. If you think the difference is big in chinese food, wait till you've have Fried Chicken that way. It's just a totally different experience (although the Pan Frying is a huge difference too). Stroud's motto, by the way, is "We Choke Our Own Chickens". It belies the phrase "tastes like chicken" we have all grown so used to, because that phrase isn't referring to FRESH chicken--which is actually distinct and flavorful instead of tasting interchangeable with every other bland food, or depending overly on it's seasoning or marinade.

Okay, now I'm going to have to metaphorically pummel Brooks for referring to people outside of New England as "Yankees". Bad Brooks, bad. That's like the Amish calling every single non-Amish "English"! See Brooks, you are English! Just like Andy Lynes! I suppose the name of the nearby Baseball team (at least to ME, not srhcb) makes it all rather confusing.

For comparitive purposes to your local store, here's a link to the very long discussion of this chain in New Jersey: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20950 I'd heard it was in Virginia and Maryland as well, but hadn't known before now about it being in Colorado. Agreement with Jason, that if the goods are the same as in our stores very often the Korean knockoffs are just as good or better than the Japanese originals, and MUCH cheaper. Not always, but frequently.

Woo Hoo! Zero Laxation! It's because most "low carb" chocolate uses a substance called "Malitol", which is infamous for having a laxative effect. These guys claim to fame is that they use Splenda instead of Malitol, and try and make up the difference from normal sugared candy by using higher quality chocolate.

That's not at all how I read Tim's piece. I think he's making fun of the tendency of people to ask or expect it of him, but there's a refreshing awareness that stereotypes have to come from SOMEWHERE. It's not exactly like Tim is trying to hide his Pimento Cheese sandwich, or deny it. He's just asking people to look beyond it, he's not being self-degrading about it.

Tried a York Chocolate Truffle Mint Pattie yesterday... It's not bad, but also not substantially different from the regular York Peppermint Pattie. The Mint taste is a little waeker, the chocolate a bit stronger, that's about it. I also tried the surprisingly good Z-Carb PB&Z Peanut Butter Cup... More reactions to that here.

I'm revisiting this thread after many moons away, because I just noticed a new product by Z-Carb in the local Seven Dash Eleven. Outside package: Z-Carb PB&Z It's not zero carbs, but it's reasonably low--at least if you believe the claims of differences between "Impact Carbs" and carbs which don't affect blood sugar levels. If you are sceptical of those claims and count ALL carbs in the thing, it's actually pretty high--15.5g per serving, of which they count only 1.7g as having real impact on blood sugar levels due to large amounts, relatively, of Inulin and Erythritol. Inside the package is something which looks a lot like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. However, once you bite in, you immediately notice that the chocolate is thicker and less waxy than your standard Reese's, and the Peanut Butter is well.... less overwhelmingly sweetened. It's good--QUITE good actually--I don't have any of the minor reservations I had about the normal Z-Carb Bars. Like them, there is no Malitol, and some use of Splenda--along with tons of yummy milk fat, cocoa butter, and good stuff like that. This thing is NOT low fat in any way, shape or form, even if you can work it around to being low carb in your mind. The taste is somewhat closer to the homemade peanut butter cups you might get in a confectionary store as opposed to anything made by a mega-food-corp. Also, because of the thicker chocolate, it seems like a more substantial snack than a single Reese's cup would be. Thumbs up on this one. There's also apparently another new product called "Zeros" (click here), which isn't described very well on that linked page, but if you look at the closeup photo available there, it appears to be chocolate covered almonds.

See... you managed to avoid using “ain’t”, “shoot” and “doggone” and still got your point across!

Okay, now I have a mission to poke a bit around the heavily Korean enclave in Northern New Jersey to see if they have these. I may get stared or giggled at like usual, but I'm going to try.

Danish Bimbo? Nah... that's only a cheese in Monty Python land.

For those who have the article and have noted the two Perlow pooches, awaiting dropped ingredients, notice that Truffle (the black poodle) is not only looking down instead of up, but is ALSO further away. He's poised to either dive in when something drops, or lean back for the (distant) possibility of the long toss. Bailey (the white poodle), not nearly as smart as Rachel notes, is edging right up to the counter and looking plaintively up at her. Truffle also cannily understands that the pooch who is less irritating is also most likely to get a toss of something, and yet he's never off alert status. I wonder, have we ever had a thread of comparitive food begging behaviors? It doesn't have to be limited to canines... I know Jason was in the background there somewhere too, begging himself.