jhlurie

Little Debbie is present in the Northeast market, but to me they've always seemed to come off as some kind of poor cousin. They've got worse shelf space, cheaper looking boxes, and less selection. At least on the coffee cake front I don't think we can compare. I've never seen Little Debbie Coffee cakes. Same with Tastycake. Talk about cheap looking boxes! I just noticed yesterday that Entemans DOES have smaller coffee cakes, but they are bite-sized--about a quarter the size of the Drake's Cakes, but in multipacks. Freihofer though... no sign of a hand-held size. BTW: The much harder to find Drake's Chocolate Crumb (Coffee) Cakes? They Rule.

Did they film you Tony? Were there NBC executives madly running up and down the aisles yelling "Eric Ripert and some other food guy are here!" I guess I'd pay to see that. Maybe NBC does have something here? Oddly enough, NBC.com still doesn't have information up about the show, despite the wave of commercials they are airing with Rocco looking dreamily into the camera.

1.) It's olive oil grease. In other words I don't mind as long as I've got plenty of napkins. So "yes" they aren't a clean food, but "no" (at least to me) they aren't "greasy" in the same unpleasant way that a crappy slice of pizza is when a big orange streak runs down the cheese onto your shirt. 2.) Only .59 lbs. I need more I think. 3.) Haven't broken out the beer yet.

Now, I would say the opposite, that shallow-fried, especially if done in Crisco shortening, needs to be eaten hot. Deep fried is generally cooked in liquid oil. When it is cold, any remaining oil is less likely to become apparent than shortening. For what its worth, I agree with Steven. Its not that the Pan Fried is necessarily better cold than hot (it depends on your mood frankly), but it is better than Deep Fried Chicken cold. If the crust is thick enough, it holds up pretty well the next day. The thicker crust seems to preserve the moistness of the inside better, whereas cold seems to leach out some of the juicyness from the thinner-skinned Deep Fried stuff (although sitting under hot lights seems to leach both kinds of chicken equally). We need one of our resident food chemists to come and explain all of this.

No... golden would describe them well. The only reason I had trouble believing they might be fried is that the color is so consistant. I'd think even some kind of mass- industrial frying would leave a darker patch or two.

The Marconas I have are salted, as well as in that Olive Oil base. It doesn't say so on the package, but the website I linked to before (I know these are the same nuts because they are labeled "Mitica" and "Distributed by Forever Cheese") says that they are FRIED. It tastes like they are roasted to me (especially since the color of the nuts isn't all that dark), but that doesn't seem to be an option. From Forever Cheese's website: Except for the portion size (Whole Foods was selling them at a greater variety of weights), I'm definitely sitting here eating the second option on that list (I would have at least liked to try the raw ones, but they weren't there) That's approximately what I think was done with these. That would be "fried", I guess.

Just noticed today that Whole Foods has started to carry Marcona (Spanish) Almonds, in Olive Oil. I've never had them before, but man are they good. California almonds seem totally tasteless next to them. At $10 a pound I'm not going to be buying the store out, but I'll be sure to keep some on hand for an occasional snack from now on (as a comparison to Whole Foods price, this site charges $4.25 for 4 oz.) These guys appear to be Whole Foods source for the almonds, by the way. Anyone else ever see these? Outside of Spain or a restaurant kitchen, I mean.

Good lord. I can hardly wait.

Standard Sea salt and ‘Alaea salt only, currently. Grind. Grind.

Well... he THINKS he's a Chef.

Coming next: Friehofer's vs. Enteman's Fudge Brownies.

See the odd thing is that products like "Devil Dogs" are so deep into my consciousness, that I almost can't concieve of never having heard of one. Tunnel-vision, I guess. I suppose in other markets there are products as emblamatic as Devil Dogs which I've never heard of. Enteman's coffee cakes are completely different--they are actual cakes, not personal-sized. Friehofer's too, before anyone asks that one. Although I think that's another east-coast only brand. Again, like with Hostess/Drake's they are two businesses owned by the same parent company--in this case Bestfoods Baking Company--which pretend really hard to be competitiors.

Yes. Well... maybe. Know what I find odd? Their website. The whole website is nothing but a year past notice about a recall of "Sunny Doodles". And they confirm that Drake's HQ is Kansas City. Apparently the parent corporation is Interstate Bakeries Corporation, and I was correct before--they ARE the same as Hostess. See? And I think that explains the regionality as well. Drake's WAS its own company at one point, and I guess some of those OTHER brands shown on that IBC profile are established in other regions to the extent that Drake's was deemed not necessary. But both Hostess and Drake's existed in the East coast market before they got bought, so I guess IBC decided to keep both brands here.

Er. What? Yeah, chemicals. We know.

Haven't Drakes and Hostess been under the same ownership for quite some time now? (Drakes is the one I usually buy though...)

For the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with liking KFC or Popeye's. For me, its just a matter of degree. Your mouth may be happy with KFC in it, but it might be VERY happy with Stroud's. Or not. I'm not going to put down anyone for liking fast food chicken. It's those "best" labels I'll occasionally question, and maybe at most I'd ask if its really "like" more than "love" for some of those fast food choices.

Having not been subjected to a flood of them, I actually think a food gameshow COULD be entertaining. Do ANY of them in your market work?

Geez. Sorry. It's that whole thing about living in a state where the government doesn't have police powers over which brands are sold. The web reveals the minutes of the WA state liquor board meeting rejecting Pierre Ferrand. Are people actually paid to do this?

It is. We do! It actually never occured to me that water drinking was one of those "American things" we get made fun of for world wide. What must they think of the Gatorade? Seriously for a moment... I think it is indeed accurate to say that water is what the majority of Americans have when they eat at a "sit down" restaurant. But we eat so much "fast food" that I'm sure almost as much soda is consumed (in my experience people are rarely willing to "ask" for water at a fast food place, unless the place is clever enough to sell it in bottles). Also, getting back to the restaurant meal again, its not at all uncommon for people to order a single soda for a meal, but finish out the meal with water. What do people drink at home? I'm not sure, but I'll bet that eGullet contains a higher percentage of wine drinkers than the public at large. IRL (in real life--meaning people NOT cruising a food board), I'd think that the most people would drink soda, the second most juice of some kind, followed by water, tea, beer and THEN wine. Me, I'm one of those water people. I suppose I can see how to nations of wine drinkers it may seem odd, especially since we buy a good deal of that water from one of those wine drinking nations! But they drink it by the bottle, while we guzzle it by the pitcher (not the more expensive water we buy from them of course, that's for dessert). Realistically our attitude is an outgrowth of this country's distant past, when stern-faced people who were kicked out of England for being "too strict" set up shop and discouraged drinking alcohol. Then they went away for a few hundred years while everybody else had fun, but their ghosts popped back up in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. So some laws were passed, and it became a bit more difficult to drink alcohol with every meal, since not only were there age restrictions, but also liquor licenses. Then, corporate America occurred and the age of soda began. Then people noticed that soda was bad for you, and the age of diet soda began, interspersed with occasional doses of water--when people read somewhere that you were supposed to be drinking eight glasses a day. Then Snapple came along, and people managed to somehow persuade themselves that Corn Syrup mixed with juice was healthier than Corn Syrup in soda, and it tasted better than Diet Soda. Then we all threw up our hands and started drinking whatever the hell we wanted to, except that Britney Spears really wanted us to drink Pepsi, and that was pretty persuasive for a while.

Okay Stone, I'll admit Popeye's isn't bad, but "the best"? That's a real statement. I'm pretty sure there is no way they are Pan Frying at Popeye's though. On another topic: Mmmmmmmmmm shortening. And the lard/duck fat idea doesn't sound bad either.

Maybe you've got the answer to the whole debate hidden in there. Everything except the breasts come out better in a pan. For the breasts, go dunk it in a deep fryer. Yeah. Real practical.

Drunk? Not so much. Sleepy? Yeah, I get in trouble with sleepy. Not that it lasts when the beer catches up to the bladder, but still.

Pierre Ferrand Ambre, which can be had for only about $10 or $12 more than that, is quite impressive.

Yeah... do we even HAVE any CT members? (speak up, speak up)

Wow. You managed to eat AND transcribe? (Is there an admiration emoticon?) Talk was boring at our table ("the other table"). Something about monkeys. Something else about bulldogs. I missed the rest. Jason kept holding up a camera and we all commented on that quite a bit. Along the lines of "Push the button Jason. Hold the button down a few times! Get out of the way of the food Jason!" EDIT: Duh. Of course you meant a play-by-play of the food. Not talk. I knew that (knocking head against monitor). And I'm kidding about the boring part--charming company, of course.