jhlurie

I didn't say I had fun. I hadn't planned on going ahead of time and forgot to take a cushion. Those damn seats KILL me. Food prices appear to be up AGAIN at Shea since I was there last year. In fact, due to bad planning, we found ourselves short of cash on hand, until the person I was with remembered that the "Kids meals" at the Shea concession stands are the same damn hot dog as the normal one, with a 12 ounce drink, chips and dessert in some crappy kiddie bag for like... 25 cents less than a dog by itself outside. Don't think I wasn't embarassed sitting there taking food out of that bag, but it was better than JUST having the dog with a 400% markup. Getting back to NY baseball and alcohol, our old friend Dale DeGroff has BOTH teams covered for us, even if Wine isn't on the list. Cognac is close though.

I don't know. If we insist on a food chain being in every state to be called "national" the list is actually pretty small. I suppose a whole region being missing is closer to a no-no, but even stilll... Jack in the Box is considered a national chain and is missing entirely from the very populous Northeast, for example. Not that we miss it, mind you.

I was at the game last night. The team actually won (wow), so I guess nobody was drunk. There was a really suspicious error, but otherwise...

This is, I assume, a humorous way of saying you never eat there?

Uh... that doesn't sound like a very good festival then. I'm sure the dishes including a roux should have SIMILAR flavor profiles, but they should hardly taste identical. And heck... I've had gumbos which didn't taste much like other gumbos in the same restaurant, much less their etouffees.

I know there's a common geograhical/cultural link, but in my mind I don't really associate Jambalaya and Etouffee together. It's probably just me. I mean I'll probably see them in the same restaurants, in the same city, made by the same person, but I don't think they fit the same mood, or even often the same palate.

Ah, unless you read Hebrew. It's all "where your eyes go first", I guess.

And while that's more than enough reason, it fits for others as well. Most people don't realize that AiE is about more than just "weird" food, it's also about content like this--where it's exhaustively researched and assembled into a cohesive "story". If that wasn't the case, we'd simply call the forum "Weird Food". The idea is that topics which are based more around discussion will always be better in the local forum, but ones like this--where it's more of a "presentation" (a photo essay, a travelogue, documentation of some kind of culinary experiment which doesn't fit better in another forum)--will often fit better here. It's the attention to detail, and the narrative nature of it that we want. And a good presentation it is, Kris... Thank you for it. America could, indeed learn something from your adopted country in this department.

I know very few folks (present company excluded, of course ) who prefer Diet Pepsi over Diet Coke. I wonder if it's a regional thing. =R= I've always thought that possible for the non-diet variations. I mean Regular Coke for many years was the less "sweet" of the two brands (until the "New Coke" fiasco") and I think may have reflected a real regional preference. For the diet ones? If it's true, I think it's more a reflection of people's HABITS--what brand they grew up with. They've only existed for the past generation and a half or so.

Right. Diet Coke with Lime works much better than Diet Coke with Lemon for some reason, but the moment a Pepsi Lime variant comes out, we can probably forget about Diet Coke with Lime. I would just extend the Pepsi Twist labelling in such a way that Pepsi Twist had both Lemon and Lime variants.

I'm off to find one later today. I can't say I'm surprised--Pepsi usually knows what they are doing. I don't know. The usual pattern is that "regular" Coke is the only product Coke hasn't totally messed up (oh, I know they did at one point--but they MOSTLY fixed it later)--the only one that under the proper circumstances is EVER better than Pepsi. Any and all forms of Diet Coke (in other words, any Cola variant actually formulated in the last 25 years or so) have been piss-poor in comparison to whatever alternative Pepsi comes up with. Tab was okay, I guess, for it's time. Then again, it's only real competition was Diet Rite back in the 1960s.

Well that's the thing. I've been tempted to ask if Cinnamon Sugar balances out the good and bad effects of the two substances.

I've made the red swiss chard myself. It's in (surprise!) my local chinese produce market. But also, in my normal supermarket too, for a bit more money.

Is Kansas in the south ? I don't think Kansas is the south, but it's neighbor, Missouri, often is very southern in certain parts of the state, where, basically, you might as well be in Arkansas. Yes, but as soon as you slop the wrong kind of "BBQ" sauce on it, that advantage goes away. Maybe it hasn't been mentioned here in this thread, but this thread is more about the subject of that conference--the broad limits of the term "barbecue" and it's application across the country (and maybe the world). Certainly, pit cooking was more than implied by a group of folks who point out constantly that using a smoker is still a derivative of pit cooking. Yeah... more yakking on Paul Kirk and his plans here. Basically, I want to know what this dude KNOWS about Pastrami--although I guess I appreciate him trying.

a.) there are better brands than Hershey's. For example, Fox's U-bet. Or I suppose you could use Cocoa powder, or even ground up chocolate. I've used Hot Fudge, but it clumps too much as soon as it hardens (which is pretty much instantly when it hits the milk). b.) chocolate syrup is far from the only flavor available, especially from a vendor like Da Vinci Gourmet (this is the brand Starbucks uses). c.) fresh fruit, in the proper quantity, can sweeten and flavor shakes.

Brisket we know Paul can do. The thing is... if we'd known that he had Pastrami in the works, Jason and I might have asked him about it when we had him cornered. Instead, we talked about Oklahoma Joe's, and Jason's fear of meat fat. He's got some NY partners--we saw them in the booth. But I'd like some reassurance that he knows some of the secrets of Pastramitization.

It HAS to be. That's K.C. barbecue more than chicken & ribs, or even pulled pork (which is still big, mind you--Missouri is a HUGE pig-raising state). This would seem to be a key component. I don't want some pimply-faced local NY kid with no training cutting and portioning my meat. I want the mix, unless of course I'm getting the previously mentioned Burnt Ends.

Grumble. Perlow is still on this "my meat must have no visible fat" kick. I mean... c'mon. When you go to Katz's which Pastrami do you order? The fatty stuff. Burnt Ends, y'all. I know what I'm eating in his new place.

Spun off from the "Live" from the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party '04 topic, since Mr. Kirk's coming restaurant deserves it's own topic. The NY Post gives some details, including the fact that in addition to traditional BBQ fare, Pastrami and Smoked Duck, Sichuan-style, will be featured.

NYC Eats expresses some appreciation of Fat Guy at the bottom of this article. Also, the NY Post waxes on about the BABBP--highlighting Paul Kirk because of his coming restaurant. Interestingly enough, Mr. Kirk's menu is set to include Pastrami. I think Fat Guy's pastrami-related question at the BBQ conference must have gotten back to Paul. Duck (we have to assume smoked as well) is in the works too. EDIT - Okay, I've made a new topic for Mr. Kirk's coming restaurant.

I think a little shadowing is okay sometimes. It's more the shadow on the base of the egg cup that's distracting as opposed to the shading on the egg itself.

Well dangers exist with digital post-processing, at least at the amatuer home levels. For example, look at the photo I enhanced--specifically at the floor behind the table (it's hard to tell--I'm talking about the light area behind the table--that is the floor and not a backing wall, right?). It's subtle, but do you see the blocky splotches? Those are annoying artifacts of the enhancement process. You could, of course, just crop the photo. I'm not sure if that totally fixes the compostion problems, but it does focus things a bit more on the bottle and glass. You'd never do this for printing out a photo, but again, for web-use, it's just fine.

While it won't help your short-term goal of improving your camera skills, both of the situations you show can be improved (at least for web-use) by digital post-processing. The egg sweat can probably be lessened or even eliminated with some kind of use of a blending tool or a targeted contrast reduction just on that little area, and the dark dinner scene could certainly be brightened and the colors (mainly the yellows, since there aren't many others present to enhance) brought up a bit. In terms of composition, I'm no expert, but it helps to be able to see stuff in the first place. It does look a little unbalanced though. I'd have changed the angle a bit so that I was closer to the glass, but also swung clockwise around the table a bit. Or maybe have moved a few of the pieces of that table--there's a real empty space on the left that needs to be filled. Also, technically, I guess it's a bad thing that we can see you in the mirror. Or is that indeed another room beyond? I admit I can't quite tell.

Nope. Could it be eventually? Perhaps. Here's how Tony Bourdain introduced us to it: How Tony first came in contact with this guy, I have no idea. Then again, Mr. Bourdain has lots of interesting friends.

We've had a few reactions to Cosi in other regions: New Jersey. Illinois. I think the consensus is that they are a rip-off, in all regions.