jhlurie

Third in the popular series! see: Absurdly stupidly simple cooking questions... and Absurdly stupidly simple shopping questions... Collect all three! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First semi-dumb restaurant question: Why do restaurants often service take-out customers before sit-in customers? Is there some proven benefit to this seeming madness, or are they just looking to piss off the people who likely are spending more money?

Okay, this column, by The Motley Fool, settles the sweetener issue.

No, C2 is HFCS on top of Splenda. You confirmed it yourself by looking at the label, remember? Ake-K (it's marketed as "Sunett™") is often blended with other sweeteners to fill out the taste. Jason. The chemical name is Acesulfame potassium. As for the label zoom, looking back what I was saying was that it wasn't simply a Nutrasweet/HCFS combo--which is what you were asking at the time. I was confirming that it was a Splenda product--at least in part. I didn't ever say it didn't HAVE other stuff in it. EDIT - Label zoom. From what we were given access to, the following is the best I can do. I don't recall if I did better a few months back or not.

Horlick's has been recomended, if you can find it. As for finding the completed product, I know we DID have one thread on that in the New York forum. Not a lot of help for you in Texas, fifi. And actually I see now that our search engine failed me. There is at least one previous milkshake thread (referenced in the NY Malted thread). I'm going to merge this with it (the previous Milkshake thread, not the NY-local malted topic).

And Ford dominates Chevy too, right? I'm pretty sure that anyone (here) who's interested will make the very small investment required, try both products and decide for him or herself. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. =R= I'll admit I haven't tried them yet (I don't think they hit the stores here for a few more weeks), but Pepsi has the better track record with product expansions. My view, biased by my taste buds: Original Coke vs. Original Pepsi - Coke probably wins. Diet Coke vs. Diet Pepsi - Pepsi wins. Coke with Lemon vs. Pepsi Twist - Pepsi wins (Coke wins Lime, only because Pepsi doesn't have one yet) Vanilla Coke vs. Pepsi Vanilla - Pepsi wins, although they both are questionable Also, from what I read, C2 still has aspartame ON TOP of Splenda. Pepsi Edge is the one taking the leap fully into Splenda. It seems to be a move based more on confidence in the taste. C2 has had the larger marketing campaign though, from what I've seen. And I live in the Northeast--Pepsi country with Pepsico right nearby in Westchester, NY. I can't even imagine what the C2 ad barrage is like in the South.

Shocked, I tell you. I was shocked to search and find no existing topic on the king of summer desserts--the milkshake. (EDIT - I was wrong, and have now merged with the older milkshake topic) Driving home last night, sweltering even inside my sealed and air conditioned vehicle, I had my first irrisistible milkshake urge of the summer. Sure, a "cone" travels almost as well, but it's not as visceral. A sundae? Well, it's fine if you are content to sit and pick for 20 minutes. Milkshakes are the perfect combination of portability, refreshment and flavor. IF they are done right. The classic, the default, the prototypical shake is the "black and white". Vanilla Ice Cream. Chocolate Syrup. Milk. Blender. That's it. It works because it's simple. Sure it's sweet, but it's also cold and smooth. And it doesn't suffer from the problem some other shakes suffer from--the taste isn't weak from being ice cream simply diluted in milk. I love strawberry shakes, for example, but it always sucks if they are simply strawberry ice cream and milk. What's the point? You might as well be drinking Strawberry Quik mix. Dump some fresh fruit, or at least some strawberry syrup in there, Bucky! Last night I lived dangerously and had a challenging milkshake--the Mint Chocolate Chip Shake (with a small blast of chocolate syrup added to perk it up a bit... not too much, just a bit). Of course the problem with the Mint Chocolate Chip Shake, with or without added chocolate syrup, is the chips. I mean... mint makes a great shake flavor. But most places don't SERVE mint ice cream without those damn chips. And while the chocolate flavor is great, syrup can take care of that. What I DON'T want are those damn chips clogging up my straw! The only thing worse? Cookie Dough Ice Cream milkshakes. Sure, the Cookie Dough is softer than chocolate chips, but it also clumps. Are there other shake lovers out there? I include Malteds as a subset, although my late grandfather (aka - "The King of Malted Makers"--he'd make them every single day it was warm enough) would kill me for not spotlighting them on their own. "Coolers" and "Freezers" or whatever the heck they call Sorbet/Sherbet mixes are probably appropriate here as well (although maybe not if we want to stay in the land of dairy... but they DO "travel" similarly). Slurpees, Icees, etc (with just flavoring and ice instead of Ice cream or Sorbet)... those are like a poor second cousin. Maybe a third cousin. RELATED (but unmerged) topics: - The Death of the Classic Malted Milkshake, A New Yorker's quest for the holy grail (NY specific) - New York Milkshake Co. (NY specific)

To me it sounded like he's positioning himself as "anti" enough to "the system" to WANT to give Babbo four stars, but is admitting that he can't quite go through with it. It's sort of a wink-wink-nudge-nudge thing. "This would REALLY be four stars if the world of food wasn't so franco-centric. Wink-wink. You know... they play ROCK MUSIC. It's TOO bustling. Mario has no restaint. Someone else less Batalish may do it. Nudge-nudge." Does that make Bruni a poseur, or is it really just an expression of frustration at the way things are? Is this a declaration of sorts that he might just help to break that French four star monopoly, or is it just blather?

forget bergen, jason- Actually, Rockland County, New York would probably be the best place to draw the upper-middle class crowd from both Westchester and Bergen counties. Put it next to the Palisades Mall. Sadly, that's not really true. Plenty of good restaurants, and a good supply of ethnic markets, but the supermarkets aren't that extraordinary.

Actually the Tutti Fruitti Jellybean is pretty good.

When I was in college, Reagan was in office and bought his Jellybeans in the same place I bought mine (Sutton Place Market, in Northwest D.C.). Of course you never actually SAW him buying it. Back then, I always just kind of assumed he sent George Bush (who lived down the street) to pick them up. The Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly was a revelation to me--the most unique flavor I'd ever had up to the time they introduced it. Back when they were actually a smaller concern, Jelly Belly actually used to rotate their flavors fairly frequently. These days their flavors seem pretty static. By the way... what the hell is this? This is the first I'm hearing of it.

Hey, that's what Tivo was invented for (or the ghetto version... the VCR)! I don't think it was the same psychologist. Yes... it does. Although the generic "it's for TV" answer still fits. Mama had to appear to live in that apartment for TV, and it was also more dramatic for TV if Rocco slept elsewhere.

She only lives there "on TV". In real life... no. It was basically intended as a place for Mama to rest her tired feet after making several hundred meatballs each morning. Even during the actual taping of the show, she was hardly sleeping there. This was indeed an end with a whimper and not a bang, but given our own foreknowledge of the aftermath... we kind of knew that would be the case. So we finally get back to the messy/lazy bartender? Yawn. So the Temp Tony replacement acts like a Tin Hat but also hates his job? Okay, that part was interesting I guess. So Jeffrey goes to see yet ANOTHER Chef we know ahead of time won't be working at Rocco's? Yeah... yawn. The psychologists' take on Rocco was interesting, although no doubt slanted somewhat for her audience. She could have just used the two word version "fuck up", and it would have described Rocco just as well. And isn't it funny that Rocco's Italian friend actually had some poignant advice "You worka too hard! You looka too old!"

Okay, you know HOW MUCH English? On the Pocky G box, as well as the ENTIRE front being English, even the little printed instruction on the side telling you where to tear open the box is in English. "Open", with a little arrow. But again, the entire back is in Japanese and the "distributor" for that box is the one in Kobe, not the one in New York. They all seem to have Western-style bar codes too. Are the bar codes in Japan consistently the same style as in the west?

Not so Smarty now, is he? I wouldn't worry about him though. He's hardly going to wind up in a Glue factory.

The precise mix of English and Japanese on the Pocky boxes I buy has always puzzled me. There's always a locally printed "Nutrition Facts"/Ingredients label, in English, slapped across the back to comply with U.S. law, and the part printed on the actual box (above that and under this label) are always in Japanese. But the front, top, bottom, and side panels (which like the back part, minus the slapped on "Nutrition" label, are permanently part of the box) are always in a MIX of English and Japanese. The Pocky G box, for example, has ALL English on the front, top, and bottom, and all Japanese on the side and back panels. The "Chocolat Orange" Pocky has English and Japanese both on the front, although the English is a larger font, all English on the top and bottom panels, but all Japanese on the back. Normally I'd guess it might have something to do with which importer/distributor was used, except that the contribution of the distributors seems to be what's on the "Nutrition Facts" label which is added later (the Pocky G box was distributed by Nishimoto Trading Co., Kobe--with no U.S. address, while the Chocolat Orange came from Hadson[Toko] Trading Co., with an address in Maspeth, N.Y.).

Katie, I'm not at all sure where we are disagreeing. a.) Greek food is good. b.) Some people prepare certain items better than others. We seem to be 2 out of 2 there... Mind you... I've had bad Greek food. Made by non-Greeks, that is. And I've also had bad food made by Greeks--almost always food items which aren't inherently Greek in origin, I mean.

At my local Chick-fil-A they now sell it by the Gallon.

Damn, that's a huge portion of Ouzo. Rich, while all Greek fests tend to LOOK alike, I'd argue that they don't all TASTE alike. I've noticed huge differences.

The rise in milk and other dairy products is actually a seperate issue, I think. It actually preceeded the current gas/oil price hikes and is blamed by that industry on old fashioned supply and demand issues. In short, there was a glut of milk providers for many years and over the past few dairy farmers have been selling cattle off (not to mention the Mad Cow scare). Now that's turned around and created a short supply and a large demand again.

That's probably not true. Ice cream stores actually aren't that prevalent (or that varied) in NYC. Hagen Daaz, Ben & Jerry's, Baskin Robbins... that's 95% of it, and they hardly pack every corner. I've never been to Wisconsin, but I know in Missouri the ice cream is already better than the east coast product by a large factor, so Wisconsin ought to be a slam dunk. Then again, Cold Stone Creamery is actually a product of the West--Arizona to be exact: Click here. to learn who to blame... I'd be most worried about saliva transfer.

That's actually not true (assuming Bicycle Lee is speaking of the U.S), although it is low compared to most of Europe.

Yeah, it's why I thought it odd this topic popped up in Southeast. True, the chain started there, but CFA has been a national chain for decades.

Or we can all buy electric cars and plan our outings so that they are never more than 100 miles away. (Ithaca would be too far if you couldn't get a "charge" while you were there...)

My point was that it's not the process which is the problem--it's the ingredients.

I used to frequently go to one of the old Steve's--the one in Dupont Circle, in D.C.--when I went to college there. It's sad that his concept has been so abused since then. The fact that it looks like spackling isn't the problem. It all has to come down to taste. Are you simply infusing candy into the ice cream to cover a lack of taste? The base--the ice cream--has to already be good and the crap you add has to highlight it, not introduce the flavor in the first place.