jhlurie

Incredibly.

Bah, that takes a lot of romance out of it! I suppose they don't really use those "space pens" that write upside-down either.

Okay, I'm going to take a typical group of people and analyze what I know of their beliefs about food. Let's call them... Site Managers. These folks are my friends and colleagues, so I think its more valid to pick on them than random users. Jason Perlow is a guy who founded an international website about food. He grew up fairly wealthy, and ate well (if conservatively in some ways) as a kid. Then he went to college, where he was often observed eating bagel dogs out of a vending machine. To this day, he has the capability to be a total food snob... about what kind of "Combos" pretzels are the best. In other words... not what you'd expect. Steven Shaw used to be a lawyer (well technically he still is). He made some dough as a lawyer but was bored out of his skull. He ate in expensive Manhattan restaurants, but as most lawyers do he also often ate complete and total crap at his desk. At some point he decided to capitalize on being a bit... overweight and started calling himself "Fat Guy". The rest is history. Nevertheless, I have been to Cosco with him. Dean McCord ("Varmint") is whatever is the exact opposite of a food snob. He's a champion of the hearty, the down-home, although he's far from ignorant when it comes to the "fancy stuff" as well. I myself come from a solid middle class mid-state New York upbringing, where French's mustard, "stir-fry", and Pot Roast with egg noodles were the norm. My father bought exactly one kind of pasta sauce--Ragu. We grew our own vegetables, and to be honest, the first time I had cheese produced outside of the United States was when I was 15. And it was only Brie. I could continue with the rest of the staff, but it really wouldn't be necessary. I'm using some of the Site Management staff because a.) they will only hurt me in private and b.) we are kind of a microcosm of all of eGullet. Anyone and everyone can be (or at least SEEM) snobbish on occasion, but then again sometimes its just a blanket judgement about a few people or a few instances being tossed onto a larger group. Now to the "real world". I've been frustrated by the idiot in the gourmet market who assumes he knows more than me. I've been in line with the lady who looked askance at my huge 2 lb. bag of Lays Potato chips sitting next to a lump of expensive cheese. I've had maitre' d's look at me like I was some alien life form. I've mispronounced more food names in my life than I've pronounced correctly. It happens. I'm over it.

One assumes if they make a regular habit of this, they may do other "rounds" of brewing. Maybe others can join in at that point. These guys are doing a heck of a job here though.

In my opinion, a good "starter" cognac (and a good "everyday" one afterwards) is Pierre Ferrand Ambre, which is approximately a VSOP in quality, although they don't seem to use that labeling. Better yet, it's inexpensive for a cognac, and yet despite that still very representative of what will appeal to you if are bound to like cognac brandies. In other words, it won't be a revelation, but it will be a good indicator.

Great topic fresco. You win the no-prize for this week! Your award will be in the mail some time next century! I understand and agree with Moopheus' point about how the "technology to transport, preserve, and produce that wide variety of food has itself affected the quality of food, and not in a good way". And yet, at the same time, I truly am appreciative of the flash freezing process, and how much better frozen food is than when I was a kid (and even more-so how much better it is than canned). I think its not the process that is to blame, it's the philosophy of "convenience first" which has come along with it. Convenience CAN be great, and things to boost the quality of those convenient things are not in of themselves a step back, but somewhere along the line the less convenient local fresh, non-frozen, non-vacuum sealed, non-polished products need a boost up. At the very least we need to be reminded that they are there and ultimately how much better they are--just in case we forgot or something.

Apples... coughing and me? Nope. Occasionally they have made me sneeze though.

I think our current Q&A, on the food in the space program, is a clue about how open we are (as far as food diversity goes, I mean). It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, great food, but it's interesting to this audience because some things about food are universal. Certainly its amusing to ask about chef's input into the space program... but what do you know? M&Ms are the things getting into orbit!

Let me say that this site has ALWAYS as part of its base doctrine been "friendly" to regional cuisines, to the everyday cook in his or her kitchen, to discussions about nachos and candy bars and things in a can. The site is about food--ALL food. But we're not going to be reverse snobs either--that fancy food that the city slickers and damn frenchies eat is part of our mission too. That said, I think there are many elements of "food snobbery" we can discuss outside and beyond what's said and done on this site. We can disparage the snooty guy in the gourmet store, we can talk about how much we love beans in a can. Whatever you like. The "horse" can kneel a bit if we need him to.

Take the hydroponics scenario a bit further... twenty years or more down the line. Do you think, Vickie, that it will ever be feasible to produce enough food on the moon to make a base reasonably self-sufficient foodwise? Could a moonbase go a bit further and eventually supply a Mars mission? Obviously this is all deeply speculative, and far beyond the mere realm of supply and nutritional planning, but I'm curious if you think its in the cards some day.

New Saigon Gourmet update. Something else is being built in that spot. The permits in the window indicate it's still food, but don't give a clue what it is. The windows are all newspapered up.

If your written French is better, their website has an e-mail address - chocolat@bernachon.com Welcome to eGullet, by the way!

Ammonites would have trouble collecting eggs, vegetarian or otherwise. Amish would probably have better luck. Apparently at one point there was a distinct group of people who were called Ammonites. But since they are long gone, like those fossilized mollusks, let's move on. We've got enough Mennonites and Amish to take on the egg collecting load!

I've told this before on this board, but what the hell. New topic! I hated mustard as a kid. My Mom bought nothing but crap like French's Yellow (and occasionally Gulden's) and so I didn't realize that mustard could taste good. Also, I suppose my palate matured, although I still can't stand those two brands of mustard. Still, this is a great example of this topic because to this day I directly blame my parents! (Sorry Mom! ) There are tons of other foods I eat now that I didn't as a kid, but the reasons vary a lot. I'm assuming the angle here is that there is some link to something about where or how you lived, or how your food was cooked, or something dramatic about how you reevaluated, that could make some stories more unique than others. (BTW: Ditto on the strawberry thing raised above, except for me it was the seedy things on the outside. When I was a kid I couldn't stand them. That one I can't blame on anyone else and there's no dramatic story here--so this is a bit off topicy and/or boring)

Barenaked Ladies... pre-wrapped bacon, Kraft Dinner and Dijon Ketchup. (you have to listen to the original recording of "If I Had a Million Dollars" to get this one. Wait... Lyrics here Heh.

Since money won't be changing hands, you guys can roll along with a swap thread if you want. Just try and keep it all in one place if you go ahead with this. I recommend some kind of COD or Paypal reimbursement for the shipping--the one thing which will cause us to change our minds is if this becomes about using eGullet to chase down shipping reimbursements. The other part is that I don't think we want people listing their addresses, phone numbers, etc. on such a thread--you can use the thread to initiate a swap (asking who needs what, what city do they live in, etc.), but the completion of the process should be taken to PM or e-mail. In fact, I'll say it straight out--for everyone's protection, if I start seeing people's personal information being listed on a thread, those posts get zapped. Sorry--but that seems best.

Well that was another of those creeping signs of economizing I almost added to my list above--saving those damn sales circulars you get in the mail (every Friday in my area). Used to be I used them to line my garbage cans. Now, for pity's sake, I occasionally actually read them. Trust me, I'm shuddering as I type this. Really, I'm used to impulse buying. It's just "me".

I can understand buying organic eggs--no hormones or antibiotics, etc. But do the chicken farmers really police them to make sure that they don't eat the bugs, worms and other animals which are part of their natural foraging? How else can they claim they are "vegetarian"? That's why I think it's a piece of marketing B.S. The cage-free thing is a debate I don't feel qualified to argue. I just don't know the nitty gritty details.

Indeed they do. Click here for documentation of this. Where do people come up with ideas like Vegetarian Eggs? Could this be construed as Animal cruelty/abuse simply to sell/promote their own bizarre ideologies? I mean they harp on the fact that they let their chickens run around the coop instead of hooking them up to a conveyor belt, and yet they deprive them of part of their natural diet? What the hell?

Fuck frugal. I recognize the practical reasons for it. It's the emotional element--the fact that in some ways I see this as an abridgement of my freedom to be selfish and wasteful and do whatever the hell I please. Yes, it's part of getting older, as well as a temporary economic necessity for practical reasons. But we all loathe the idea of turning into our parents, and I've never been especially politically correct with the "children are starving in Africa/Asia/Alabama/Antarctica/Wherever Your Generation is Told" logic. I suppose we can flip this topic on it's ear. I mentioned at the head about the parents driving far for cheaper gas and buying economy sizes we never finished. Surely there must be OTHER forms of so-called enonomizing which actually lead to waste. For one, I'm thinking... cheap ingredients. Sometimes you don't finish 'em--you waste them--because even though they are cheaper you don't LIKE them as much. The massive purchase of canned foods is one example. I had to toss some cans last year which had been sitting in my closet for 5 or 6 years. Isn't that waste? So I don't really buy cans anymore, except for individual items I know I have a specific need for in the next few months. And even then... flash frozen wins out most times (obviously this wouldn't apply for tomato or sauce ingedients in general).

I spotted these in a store today and it sparked my curiousity. Frankly, at first, I couldn't even figure out what the heck a "vegetarian egg" was supposed to be. Scam, or a legitimate naming convention for people concerned with organic foodstuffs to the extent that they are nervous about what their chickens are eating? Of course, concerns about what exactly goes into the feed of animals is hardly a new subject on eGullet. And proclaimed "cage-free" and "organic" statuses for eggs are nothing new--its just the name of this one (and the emphasis on the feed) which caught my eye.

I've found myself in one of those periods, and some of the behaviors which have crept up on me are horrifying me now that I sit down and think on it. I come from an upbringing of super-economizers (a father, for example, who would drive a half hour out of the way to save 2 cents per gallon on gasoline, a mother who would buy economy sizes we'd never finish) and as an adult have always loathed it--to the extent that typically I'm something of an intentional wastrel when I can afford to be (as a continuing form of rebellion, I suppose). We may all have our own signs of economizing (I expect tons of people to chime in on this) but here are some I've seen creeping into my own routine: -To my shock, for the second time in as many weeks I've bought meat IN BULK because I saw it on a really big sale. My freezer is full. Note my freezer has never been full before. I am not a "bulk" person or a "freezing" person. I am a bachelor who goes out and buys stuff when he needs it. Or I used to be... -I'm finishing leftovers. I HATE most leftovers. And I don't just mean leftovers of things I've bothered to cook, since the "trouble" behind cooking certainly makes those more rewarding as leftovers, but in this case I mean the dregs of ingredients. The little bit of a green pepper left over from something. The last slice of cheese starting to get a bit hard. I know this sounds ridiculously commonplace to many, but you have to realize where I'm coming from. My old routine is that if I'm bored with it, suspect it might even slightly have a chance of being bad, or can't be bothered with concocting something to eat out of fragments... well then I used to toss it. As I said, I was something of an unashamed wastrel. -Of course, the classic sign. Eating at home more and "out" less. -Less snacks, more meals. More fruit, less breads/chips/etc. Frankly the fruit is cheaper. Thankfully I am still occasionally buying the occasional ridiculously expensive food item to preserve SOME of my identity. I bought an expensive piece of super sharp cheddar just because I wanted to. Of course I bought LESS of it. Anyone else have any signs you notice when you are economizing? Note I'm talking more about the things you start to do without realizing it, but the conscious ones are okay too, if less startling. You don't have to be in such a period now, just have a good memory. Also, I suspect the signs, and the impact of them, differ between big families and people who are single.

tommy, maybe they feel the feds are on to them. Could be our fault, talking about it on the internet and such. Then again the trade on that is they get all this free publicity.

So... if I had to guess... you aren't going back to this deli again?

The "foodie" question is interesting at China 46. On one hand, most people, "foodie" or not like Chinese food In fact, many foodies, who haven't had the "good" stuff sometimes look down on Chinese, but will still usually eat it if encouraged. China 46, for the most part, is "the good stuff"--no make that "the great stuff", although I think they've perhaps fallen a tiny bit since the heady days of their opening--if only because I'm fairly certain they've changed Chefs. But only a tiny bit, and with the pickup since the empty SARS days, I think it's regained some of that edge too. Regardless, China 46 still does stuff very few other places do. Sichuan Peppercorn, to the extent that they can get away with it, is used judiciously. Dumplings are made in-house and are stellar. Exotic soups show up at banquet dinners and holidays. Unusual in-season vegetables are rotated on and off the menu (something common for, let's say Italian Restaurants around here, but not for Chinese ones I think). Banquet style foods like Peking Duck or Ruby Pork have been perfected and are served year round. Noodles are served in styles other than "Lo Mein" or "Chow Fun", and Tofu, Bean Curd, Mung Bean and Wheat Gluten are used ambituously and in ways we aren't used to. The owner, Cecil, is also willing to trust his non-Chinese patrons to an extent that is rare--and rewarding. Whereas many owners will pretend to lose all of their English or tell patrons that they won't like something (or even worse--maintain "seperate" menus for Chinese patrons), Cecil is about as good as I've seen in actually spotting a real "foodie" and will take the person at their word. He will make stuff off-the-menu (I suppose that also helps satisfy any Chinese who really DO want stuff too bizarre for even adventurous non-Chinese) and has a huge specials board. Anyway, to FINALLY circle back to the "Foodie" question, a non foodie will find plenty to eat. The question you must ask yourself is whether you think they are capable of discerning the differences between the good stuff and Your Friendly Neighborhood House O' Gloppy Chinese. Some stuff will be too weird, much will not (besides, we tend to leave the stuff with the fish eyeballs out of the eGullet gatherings). But even the stuff which will not, will be made differently than what they are used to if they can catch on to the differences.