jhlurie

If you insist on bumping this, I must continue to declare that probably 90% of the time I am only eating oxygen, with choice bits of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and maybe some tiny bit of the noble gases mixed in. {Grumble}.

Well, sometimes the supermarkets DO use the "hey, it's the hot new apple" approach. I've seen this kind of marketing this past year for the Honeycrisp apple, and I know I've seen it for other "new" varieites in the past. It happens.

Who knew that a basic meat had so much to say? Good topic, pork, within the "food discussion only" lines which Fat Guy has drawn for us, of course. To some degree we hash out a topic like this out every few months (do an advanced search on threads with "Fast Food" in the title), but I like the angle here on Supermarkets and their role in the process. And going even a step further, the food conglomerates. I mean, would the Applebee's and BK's have such a hold if RJR/Nabisco and Beatrice hadn't done such a job on us first? "Convenience" is a huge lure.

Thanks, Jon. Peace your way, too. There are a world of things to talk about in this topic other than the question of whether or not we should be talking about it in the first place. Move on.

Lads, this ain't gonna get settled here. It's fine to argue a point of logic. But we are getting on shaky ground when the argument consists of arguing about each other's intentions and "the point" of us even debating things here. We are not here to have a "meta-discussion" of that nature.

:sigh of relief: Good. That lets out the branch of George Webb I used to patronize during college. Sometime in the middle of the night, the waitresses would stop whatever they were doing and announce, "We're closed." After one minute exactly, they'd resume and say, "Okay, we're open again." Some of the worst places I've ever been in were 24/7. But I've also been in three or four 24/7 places (at least two Diners and maybe two Korean restaurants) which weren't bad at all. So I'm not sure this one is an absolute rule. Then again, stuff frequently tastes better than it really is when you are drunk, so this may not be a very accurate report.

I think he's more like the Moriarity to Andy's Holmes.

Egad, I hate to admit it, but Mr. 13,000 posts up there has a really good point, Brooks. Sometimes its enough to fool people into thinking that someone matters to make them matter. Indeed, logically they could have taken an actor and made the thing into some sort of dramatization with a title card which read "famous chef", but then they might have been the ones accused of being fraudulent instead of Mr. Bayless. People (maybe only stupid people, but people nonetheless) assume that if a famous chef tells them food is good, then its got to be good. They don't have to know, or care, who it was. Rachel Ray is differently entirely. People have seen her books sitting on the Times Best seller list, they've seen her scantily clad in Maxim, and she has enough energy to wake up a dead person. Those things are likely enough by themselves. Plus, most of the public doesn't pick up on comments she occasionally makes about not being a serious food person. They aren't really paying attention to anything except how much she enthusiastically bounces up and down.

No, but I'm sure that The American Dairy Association loves her enough to compensate for that.

I'm glad that we've (mostly) gotten back on topic here. I think, once we get past the bluster, that Mr. Bourdain has a good point. People won't, or don't, change overnight. "Pissing and moaning" are actually part of the process--they are only pointless when nobody is listening. And someone in Tony's position (remember, he's primarily a writer these days) isn't under any kind of special obligation to lead a rebellion, but he IS in a position to be a pundit whose words might inspire that gradual change.

They've been selling Honeycrisps here in the NY/NJ area this year. I've tried to get a few people interested in them, but the reaction has pretty much been "oh, another new apple?" It's too bad, because they are great. They are advertised as Washington State Apples, so I guess Klink's experience in not finding them there is kind of weird.

Since this is focusing more on bizarre techniques in general than on the Today show appearance, I'm moving this from the Media forum over to Adventures in Eating, which is our home for explorations of the bizarre. If we get into the real nitty gritty of dishwasher/beer can/car engine/acetylene torch techniques--the nuts & bolts instead of broad discussion--perhaps we can drive this over to Cooking later. Then again, each technique might demand its own thread in that circumstance. Here, we can be shallow and mostly talk about how neat something is! Magic Toaster bag anyone?

Really we need deeper toasters. One thing which works pretty well in these bags is warming tortillas. Two of them at once, so one side gets toasty. You can't norammly warm tortillas in a toaster because they are so flimsy, but it works great inside of the bag.

"Fish(y)" seems to be a big complaint.

I'm bumping this older topic, because we've had a recent resurgence of interest here in these cards (duplicate topics being created on them). Talk about these lovely culinary and cultural antiques here... ...if you DARE!

Just tried some of this tonight. It's VERY interesting, especially the smell. Kind of a combination of molasses and vanilla. The finish is pretty good, but it suffers a bit if you keep it in your mouth (maybe 'cause its 80 proof). It's for drinking, not sipping.

No, it isn't. I love the internet. This is a point we keep returning to. How much involvement do you need before you take the paycheck? From a practical standpoint none, but since we are talking about preserving your credibility in the face of what was generally perceived to have been an opposite position in former days, there obviously IS some other line. Did Mr. Bayless have to investigate how the produce for the sandwich was bought? Did he try the sandwich, not in a safe lab environment, but in an actual random store within a test market? Even if he was brought in late in the game--after the thing was designed and tested--did he give suggestions on improvements? Of course a normal "talking head" for a product would have to do none of these. But is that all he expected us to believe he was? [Host's note: To minimise the load on our servers, this topic has been split. The discussion continues here.]

Really neat. I won't feel jealous though, only because all of the local Korean joints near me have UNLIMITED panchan, and usually about 10-15 types. Its pretty difficult to photograph Korean BBQ in my experience. Good job.

In a strange way, I actually get back a smidgen of respect for her because of this stance. At least she has some self-awareness about being more of a phenomenon than a talent. But... that comment might stop that respect dead in its tracks. Admittedly she says "think", but how does she know what was in Bayless' head?

Normally I don't let it be known beforehand which topics we will be placing on the "Hot Topics" links located on eGullet.com's front page, but I'm making an exception this time. This topic will be on that list's next update, because we always enjoy promoting "community projects". They are good for eGullet, and good for the sense of community here. If you guys are willing to wait on implementation until that happens (we change the Hot Topics every Friday--so the next opportunity is Dec. 5) then you might get some increased activity/participation here. Of course that shouldn't get in the way of planning. And it's YOUR project, so I'm not going to dictate anything--just advising you of a possible increase of attention (it doesn't always pan out that way... sometimes the Hot Topics lead to a lot of new attention, but occasionally it doesn't seem to make the slightest difference...)

You are sure it's not the sugar doing it?

One should note that the good Rabbi is more original. His signature is "Blessings on your fressings,"

The Gingers have been around for about six months in my area. I liked 'em enough to suck down the first tin, but oddly have never felt the need to buy a second tin.

If you want to imply that politicians in general might want to go to The Penthouse club, that's fine. But steer clear of attaching a political party--EITHER party--to it.

The BBQ joint in Hell's Kitchen?