jhlurie

This is a spin-off of a discussion started in The Art of Sushi topic. The intention is to carry on with this one aspect of the discussion--although not necessarily being bound to a discussion of Sushi in particular. Discuss the concept of using "ethnic profiling" of the apparent clientele of a restaurant to evaluate it--this can apply to virtually ANY kind of restaurant, any place in the world. A partial selection of relevent statements from that topic: torakris said: FoodZealot said: mb7o said: bleachboy said: SG- said: Sinbad said: Carry on...

Don't be such a conspiracy theorist! I actually think its 'cause the Toast-N-Serve guy visited here and saw Jay's pictures. "Hot Dog", he said, "I'ze gots to have those!". And Jason is the giving sort... you know... the whole Egullet for free thing.

Well the Rite Aid chain of Drug stores (big in the Northeast) has the Windmere line of cheap ass shit on sale this week ($8.88 minus $2 rebate = $6.88). The line includes a crappy cheap coffee maker, a crappy cheap food chopper, a crappy hand mixer, a crappy can opener, a crappy iron (the one non-food item) and a not so crappy looking bagel-sized toaster. That's a bit more that $4.97, but not much. Then again, Jason's Target special was only just under eight bucks (he showed me the receipt). In other news: Jason's photos are poppin' up like crazy on the Toast-N-Serve website. I guess the big question is... have the Toast-N-Serve people kept up with the sudden demand? I mean if its one guy sitting at a table carefully patching together Teflon...

Between this and the Bum Wine topic, it really would seem like we are getting obsessed with screw tops.

Beer can in the nether regions, dude. Doesn't that go along with doing the bird on the grill? Okay, bacon also never hurts ANYTHING.

To some degree I think people are confused even about the difference between BAD sushi and the merely good. Knowing the good from the great? Certainly there's more to it than the rice, the vinegar, and the wasabi. Probably takes a lot of eating to find out. Kris talks about all the training and practice it takes to MAKE great sushi, but it probably takes a reasonable amount just to know when you are eating it, seeing it, smelling it.

Hah. Finally one that's the right medium brown/not black color. He's finally getting the timing right.

I will say that the FIRST time I ever had Pineapple Pizza was on The Big Island. This was YEARS before the Dominos and Papa John's of the world served it--maybe 20 years ago or so.

While we are waiting for Cutlet's answer Suzanne, I have to say that's a very timely Weebl episode. A Cutlets tribute?

An idea to toss around: A blind tasting. Assemble people of various levels of expertise. Serve T-Bird, a Box wine, a fairly standard table wine, a Germanic, etc. Also, photos.

I'm on it. Seriously. Dean, you realize that an egullet tasting must be more thorough than this joke of a test. I want every flavor of every brand tested, not just the "house flavor". And of course it must be consumed outside, in an alley, next to a dumpster. I respectfully disagree. The humor in the situation (potentially) comes from treating T-Bird equally with any other wine. Unless you are suggesting that the expensive vintage ALSO be consumed in/near the dumpster. T-Bird, being the most distinctive of the Bum Wines, is the best test. And I think it only comes in one variety, unlike some of its "brother" bum wines. Perhaps to extend the test, a box wine and some middle of the road wines can be included. But weighing the test down with Bum wines simply makes it about Bum wines. I mean, unless that's the story Dean wants to do--which is fine if true. I implictly trust Dean. He knows what he's doing. EDIT - I'm currently drunk of some fine wine with a screwcap and thus can't spell!

New York City, my dear, the lower east side. Mad Dog I've seen lots of places. Can't say I've ever seen that Cisco thing before.

Okay, I think a seriously funny Daily Gullet piece would be a side-by-side comparison of Thunderbird and some really expensive wine.

I keep going back and looking at this picture. Some of those "on a stick" pictures are a bit scary, but this just looks great.

Ah, but with her Nepal report we'll get the jaded eye of the experienced visitor, whereas with Mongolia it was as new and scary to her as it might be to us. Both styles are good, but I'll bet they are quite different reads.

The most under-reported segment of the Wine market gets its own tribute site. I was, however, somewhat upset at the lack of coverage of "box wines".

It seems more than sad to me, it seems tragic. We can villify BK and McDonalds all we want, but even at their worst they rarely approach the horror that is Taco Bell. But obviously there must be something magic in that big hose they pump the taco fillings and beans in with, and we're just not seeing (or tasting) it. And it's not like I've never had that experience myself. On every level possible, I know that the McRib is a horrible horrible thing. But I love it. Sick, huh?

The main thing this is better than is one of those press & seal toaster sandwich things. We have one of those and it doesn't work as well, was more expensive and is harder to clean than these teflon bags. Hah. Last time I was at Target, the Toastmaster sandwich press was $9.99. So not MUCH more expensive than the Toastmaster Toaster. And they DO have the advantage of sealing up the edges!

I think this toaster (aka - "Toaster of Rich Fools") needs to be used for optimal results. It's $60 off now!

A $7 toaster.

I think you need to go a bit into WHY it's better. Does the bread taste different? Are the ingredients more evenly cooked? Is it simply neater? Also: Cool $7 toaster. I think eGullet should have a topic about the best cheap toasters. I mean why the hell should a toaster cost $60? All it does is heat bread.

Who is qualified to judge? Us. I'm not sure that most (non-Chinese) people know enough about the various Chinese cuisines to even have regional biases. I am assuming however that you are speaking of biases for and against certain types of Chinese, as opposed to western-region quirks, like the fact that people in Boston eat their Chinese food with Bread instead of Rice. I've noticed a few major divisions in people's "standards": Like spicy/don't like spicy (and the third most complex position--the people who understand that the best chinese uses a wide variety of spices and flavor enhancers, and in fact has multiple ways to describe the phenomenon of "spicyness") Like seafood/don't like seafood Like gloppy starchy chinese/don't like gloppy starchy chinese It's also about expectations. A lot of people have very low expectations when it comes to Chinese food. It's like they EXPECT it to all taste the same.

Honestly, what do you think of the USDA classification system? Is there real value to it? Can it be improved? Also, are there particular times when you find yourself using "lesser" classified meat, and for what? I mean they describe the classifications (Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner) in some confusing ways. It's a measure "quality" but also "wholesomeness", but also "fat content". Huh? How does this all work out with changing and confusing notions of proper fat content, where maybe on sites like this we want fatter meat, but everywhere else the public is always begging for "leaner" meat?

I'm an east coaster, but I couldn't agree more. I raised this very same point earlier on in this thread, but the discussion keeps moving back to New Jersey, go figure. Only because you have to go and get your L.A. brethren to come and comment back. There's a nice healthy West Coast contingent on eGullet now, but from what I've seen they tend to cluster in the regional board. The N.J. contingent is used to meandering all around eGullet, mostly because its one of the oldest memberships here due to press and word of mouth earlier here on the East coast. Overall, the state of Chinese food in New Jersey is dreadful (although we almost make up for it with Korean). The reason the good places get a lot of play here is actually BECAUSE of that. New York is only marginally better--plenty of crappy Chinese food along with a smattering of really really good ones. L.A., I've always been told, tends to average much better quality with its Chinese, although a heck of a lot of it is still Cantonese.

Mr. C., if you are still reading this topic, a follow-up. Rick Bayless--he of the wacky soul patch beard and now questionable commitment to substainable organic farming and decent food--wants us to go to Burger King because it's "Some of The Best BBQ Around". Do you agree? If not, what do you see as the proper role, meat-wise, for places like Burger King? Are they where the cheapest cuts go to die? Would you recommend having (gasp!) a salad there instead? Also: If you had to compare Bayless to a cut of meat, which cut would it be?