jhlurie

This is still driving me crazy. Have we given up?

I don't think Matthew disrespected her. I think he just went in with the attitude of someone who doesn't come from her tradition--who had neither an axe to grind, nor held her up as sacred. You have to expect that she gets two extremes from people who talk to her--outright worship and outright criticism. Matthew came from neither of those directions. That said, I doubt anyone at her publisher/PR agency will be very upset by what the article says. Julia seems unapologetic, possibly rightfully so, about her views. She said 'em, and I think it is presented clearly, as are Matthew's own views.

Not likely. Most cruise ships won't even take on local produce, no less local caterers. Is that necessarily true if the ship is docked though, especially in a domestic port? I know I might be confusing practices aboard a cruise ship with one of those smaller "party boats" people sometimes rent, but it seems to me that a.) the boat isn't docked in Mexico or somewhere else where they may risk bringing on something which might make fat rich Americans sick b.) they seemingly are just using the boat as an alternative to a hotel, except with a crappier kitchen

Perhaps they will send out decoy ships in other directions. I do think that despite this slight to New York, virtually all of the delegates will make a big show out of going down to Ground Zero. Then again ALL politicians are guilty of this, it's party independant. What I do wonder is perhaps if they might be contracting out with New York restaurants to cater on the ship. That would balance some of this out.

We need to stand up and cheer Matthew for totally coming through on one of the hardest tasks ever put before a DG contributor. Every interview I've ever read until now with Julia sounded absolutely identical. But Matthew managed to squeeze blood from a rock, or whatever analogy actually works in this circumstance. Good show. As hidebound as Julia seems, this article actually explores that instead of glossing it over.

I'm moving this topic from the "General" Forum to "Adventures in Eating", because in an attempt to better illustrate the differences between those forums a bit more clearly it's become obvious that we need prime examples like this residing in the latter. "General" is where you put stuff when you don't know where else on the site it fits--when it bridges themes or locale enough to not fit tightly anywhere else. "Adventures" is for the extremes--the great experiments, the "stuff" that is extraordinary, and Fowke's little Pastrami experiment has been about as extraordinary as anything we've ever had on eGullet. While we could quibble over the term "Eating", I don't think we need to.

The usual pattern on eGullet is that new Forums follow traffic. I certainly can't make any promises, because there are other factors involved, but the FIRST step is for you folks to start making all different kinds of Home brewing posts here in the existing Beer forum. This forum "belongs" to brewers (of either the home OR professional level) fully as much as those who buy their beer from someone else. And it would be a great thing to have those posts here--to give those Wine Forum "punks" a run for their money in terms of how active you guys can be. Go for it! And you've got a lovely new host here, Rich, to help you along.

I've merged a new discussion on "Best Knives" (formerly in the "General" forum) into this older one (pointed out by Jason a few posts back, so clicking on his link will take you right back here!). fresco's link is to a topic on a specific type of knife (Chinese Cleavers), so I've left it separate.

Will I seem frightfully common if I confess to actually liking Jim Bean Black Label? Maybe its not a "favorite", but I found it surprisingly good--especially compared to "regular" Jim Beam.

Okay, today's experiment was called "lets see if we can leave the frying pan hanging up on the hook". I took some sausage (some nice genuine Andouille), sliced it extremely thin, and stuffed it into the Toaster bag with some sliced raw onion (not yet between bread). Two toaster cycles later, at a medium-dark setting, I had a lovely perfectly evenly cooked sandwich filling. Together with some sharp mustard, I put this filling between two pieces of bread (lightly brushed on the outsides with Olive Oil), put this concoction into the bag, and one toaster cycle later had a pretty damn good sandwich. Now whether or not I saved any time over using a normal toaster oven or frying pan is debatable, since it took three toaster cycles in total, but it was a reasonably amusing experience, a pretty good sandwich (mostly because of the high quality ingredients) and cleanup took approximately 4.5 seconds.

This may be a case of terminology rather than taste. I expect cocoa to be bitter, and I tend to think of chocolate first and foremost as a form of cocoa and not as a sweet confection. Although I like Milk Chocolate, I can always tell that its sugar and milk powder and cocoa butter I'm mainly tasting and not just cocoa. Whereas I don't have that problem with Dark Chocolate.

Yeah, that was kind of my point. The butter mixes in with the marshmallow. Of course it still needs refrigeration to set though, right? But its fairly shelf-stable after that.

At first I thought this response was a bit off topic, Fatus, because the original idea behind the thread was to highlight things which taste "different" to different groups. But the more I think on it, the better an example Sichuan peppercorns actually are. Sure, pretty much everyone gets the battery-acid numbing sensation, but people REACT to that sensation in either of two distinct ways and sometimes the thought HAS gone through my mind "are they eating the same thing I am, 'cause I love it and they hate it?" Technically its probably not even a "taste" issue in this one case. fresco, interesting catch with the sinapine reduction. Do you also think its possible that some people are more "sensitive" to sinapine than others?

At least I'm not talking about licking goats.

Except that with Rice Krispie Treats, isn't the "glue", the marshmallow, actually being somewhat changed by the heating process and the addition of other ingredients?

i see. but i bet there are others. Yes, and after it was mentioned it did occur to me that it wasn't the first time I'd heard the comment, although usuually it's just that some people say it tastes "bad" and others think it's fairly neutral tasting.

Last time person to try posting on this subject was Jason Perlow himself. He picked "Cocktails and Bartending", but I think he flipped a coin to pick it. Not much to see, but here it is. Maybe, unlike Jason's attempt, we can get some good discussion of this going this time. I almost find myself unable to eat a Korean meal without a bottle of Soju on hand, although I have a theory that even an 11 year old Korean kid could probably drink me under the table (not that I'm a wimp, its just that virtually every Korean I've ever met seems to have a near bottomless capacity for alcohol)

Okay... fairly deep into the Toast-N-Serve Magic Bag topic, when discussing Canola Oil, several people commented about how they always perceived Canola as tasting like Fish. Now I don't. Canola Oil seems relatively tastesless to me. It reminded me of the old "Cilantro tastes like Soap" debate. Once again, I've never perceived Cilantro that way, but we all know somebody who thinks this, even if we don't. We've discussed the Cilantro/Soap thing to death on various threads, but I'm curious... what other foods have this kind of division? Where a definable group of people all share a perception of a taste (usually an aftertaste from what I can tell--although I will change the topic title if someone can prove otherwise or come up with a more descriptive title), and another definable group thinks that the first group is totally nuts.

Yeah, like I said. The "fishy" taste of Canola must be another one of these Cilantro/Soap things where a definite group of people taste it that way, and another group doesn't. Hmm. New eGullet topic here? We've talked about the Cilantro/Soap thing before, but never whether that same effect happens with other foods. EDIT - Okay let's see if I'm nuts. New topic on this subject here (click me).

Must be like the soap/cilantro thing. Canola Oil tastes like absolutely nothing to me.

Look, the only alternative was Olive Oil. I had some Almond Oil but used it up a few days ago. I wouldn't normally use Canola as a topping, but it seemed like I'd hardly taste something that neutral over the Peanut Butter (and I didn't... it cooks off pretty completely in these bags)

Good lord. Are you saying I might actually finally be RIGHT about one of these food chemistry questions? I've ruined my streak. Not to steal credit of course. The halvah aspect never occured to me, just the honey part, since I've seen the honey hardening problem before (don't ask).

Olive Oil seemed like a strange idea with Peanut Butter, and I didn't have any Peanut Oil. The Canola worked okay, I think. I'm pretty sure the burning was mostly because of the darkness setting. Also, maybe I waited too long and the Oil got absorbed into the bread a bit too much. I'm using that Korean bakery made thick white bread that soaks up stuff like a sponge. EDIT - I love Elvis. But I hate Bananas. Sorry. Apples might work.

Heh. I should have known better. First time I saw you use the damn things you turned the toaster setting up too dark instead of simply keeping it low and going two cycles. So I wind up doing the exact same thing. and of course burn my bread. Duh! Still, it worked pretty well. I ate Turkey pretty early today, so I was ready for a snack. Hot Peanut Butter Sandwich--bread slicked up a bit with Canola Oil, and that fresh sugarless Peanut Butter you grind yourself at Whole Foods, with a pinch of salt added. The Peanut Butter gets all melty and you don't even miss the Jelly (I wasn't in the mood for Hot Jelly).

Rachel gave me one of yours. She offered two, but I just COULDN'T... Did you get your new toaster "boxes" yet? (that's my nickname for the bigger build-yourself ones...) EDIT - Okay, before you go and kill her, I did tell her I'd give it back if/when you ran short. I mean... that $4.99 I blew on the toaster was SUCH an additional investment.