jhlurie

The whole rant against the middle class, in a way that I'm not sure Mr. Lewis intended, is exactly on topic. Plain and simple, the culinary directions of Mr. Lewis' hated middle class are not dictated by chefs--they are set by corporations. This, of course, invalidates the entire quote--but has very little to do with blanket attacks on middle class values. The middle class has taken the blame for everything clear back to revolutionary France. If it served his argument of the day, I'm sure Mr. Lewis would be berating the middle class for the exact opposite of what he currently is. This begs the question... amongst the audience that chefs DO have, is the quote true? Yes, I think it is. Chefs are not the captains of culinary destiny that this quote assumes, but in their own space it is true that they are trying to combine elements of different cuisines in new and untested ways. Is it a good trend? Well, I'm just a middle class schmuck--I've got no idea.

I wonder. I've been in some reasonably expensive Indian restaurants in New York who STILL felt obligated to have lunch buffets. Do the numbers still work for a $18 buffet in what is normally an expensive place, as oppossed to a $8 buffet in a more moderate one?

The question this is leading to may indeed be... can a buffet style lunch (Jinmyo's "steam tables") EVER measure up to a freshly prepared item? The "obvious" answer is no. But turn the question around a bit. Are these buffet lunches ever good enough to be more worth the money, and yet still edible? I know we "foodie" types generally aren't supposed to talk about about economics, but I certainly can imagine people asking for lunch buffet recommendations for that reason. Actually... in my experience Indian food "holds up" better in a buffet style than most other food, especially compared to Chinese food. That's not a ringing endorsement of Indian buffet, just an opinion that there are worse things. Still... give me a menu instead most days. As for the "shirty" staff, Jinmyo, I'm sure they were used to having a bit of a break at lunch time. And YOU ruined it. And Suvir, I'm not sure that the logic that they should want to make more money holds up. I'll bet that the buffet makes more money for them if they push consumption of it by a high enough volume of their customers. In other words, the attitude may be coming from the owners, not the chef or the wait staff. Doubtless, volumes of material have been published on the economics of buffet style service... and I'm counting on one of our food egg-heads like Fat Guy or Bux to find references to it, since I'm lazy. Still, the attitude is absolutely inexcusable.

"Mr. Big" candy bar... See THIS LINK to buy more Canadian candy.

tommy seems to like chocolate! have you tried this one? It's like a Kit Kat, only 3 times as fattening. Kit Kat, you're my only friend.

1970? Hah... youngster. Actually I was twisting the truth a bit. I've always hated canned tuna, so my mother never made anything with it. I also had (and still have) a strong dislike of mayo, so that eliminated a lot of these "traditional" suburban foods. Besides... it was the parents who I thought were weird, not the kids. Unless, of course, the kid was eagerly slurping the stuff down instead of complaining "Mom! Not tuna cassarole again!!!"

Rachel... let tommy be. He actually remembers the 1960's first-hand. :wow: As for his reaction to Indian food, I saw it during the NY eGullet Bar Crawl. It wasn't pretty. Kinara is fairly different for Indian, but still...

Two more favorites... Glee Gum (Tangerine. Cinnamon & Peppermint also avail.) Here are the ingredients: Ingredients: Cane, Sugar, Gum Base (contains natural chicle), Rice Syrup, Orange Oil, Tangerine Oil, Resinous, Glaze, Beeswax, Carnauba Wax, and Beta Carotene Chocolate Velamints (the best Sugar Free candy in existence, I think...)

That's exactly MY point Yvonne. I (and I suppose I'm only speaking for myself here) am about 20 years too young to have grown up with these "delights". For me it's totally retro-food. Retro of a time when my parents were kids. I may have seen the occasional tuna casserole at some friend's house when I was a kid... but we always thought those folks were weird. Fondue on the other hand... now that was the 1970's!!!

No self-respecting American would refer to them as "mashers". Please note that items like green bean casserole and Tuna-noodle casserole are probably very "1950's" as American comfort food, Wilfrid and Jinmyo, not contemporary, or even from the childhood of many of the board partipants. edemuth is very clear about this, but some of the comments since then have lost that point a little. As kids, at least those of us who grew up in the 1970's were probably just as mystified by them.

Col. Klink, "Abba-Zaba, you're my only friend" has got to be a great contender for a signature line for you, coming only after "Ho-gan!"

{The content of various "what is your favorite candy bar" and confection threads--at least ones not devoted to specific products--have been merged into one unified topic. In a few cases, if someone simply gives a one word answer they might simply be answering the question about what their favorite candy bar is... -- Nov 11 2003} While at my local convenience store I spotted the following completely useless, but interesting item: Mint Skittles... It made me think about the fact that I've never outgrown a certain... let's say fascination... with the infinite stream of novelty confections which seem to show up regularly at these stores. I'm very glad I'm not a parent, because I can't comprehend saying "no" to a child when I can't even deny myself buying something as dumb as this at least once. Other recent "acquisitions" include: Reese's "Fast Break"... Listerine CoolMint PocketPacks... Am I sick? That last one isn't even necessarily candy... Any one else with this "problem"?

I like Korean food--I really do. I've had some world-class Korean food, and it's actually a very underestimated cuisine. But I think that you are entirely correct about their inability to mimic some of the more complicated processes of Japanese food preparation. The "stock" example is probably one of many.

So it sounds like TWO dinners should be planned. A modest introductory meal in the near future, and a longer range better planned Bid-blowout. No conflict there. They can both happen.

In ADDITION to Mozzarella, or INSTEAD of it? Big difference...

I'll leave the freak thing alone. The point about pizza from a certain place being great between certain parameters? You know, I'm not sure any of the multiple NY/NJ pizza discussions ever mentioned that. A big part of me says that it SHOULDN'T be true. But I don't disagree with you--it can be. Does this say something about the PLACE or something about us? (like are we freaks?) Another question... does a pizza, by definition, have to only have one kind of cheese (mozarella)? I know White Pizza doesn't... but what about mixing in Jack Cheese or Swiss or others? Is Wolfgang Puck the only one who believes in this? Is it heresy?

project sort of already asked this... but are we talking about "American Chinese"--in other words that list of dishes mostly Cantonese in origin, but even in the cases where they are NOT they've been filtered down to us via Cantonese immigrants? jerobi, there's nothing wrong with those... but from what I've come to undersand true Chinese cuisine is a literally bottomless well. Although most of the technique is common, the iterations are almost infinite. So I guess I'm asking for you to be more specific. Are Lo mein and Gen. Tso's chicken really your exact objectives?

The major extremes that are frequently discussed: Thick Crust/Thin Crust Crispy Crust/Doughy Crust (not the same as thin/thick) Fresh Mozarella/Commercial grade mozarella More sauce/more cheese sweet sauce/more pungent sauce I know I'm missing quite a lot here. Teh whole Olive Oil thing, for example, is not that weird. But is it a standard thing to do?

Hmm. How about an updating of Marshmallow Rice Crispies squares? There must be SOMETHING that can be done to jazz it up. There have been discussions of homemade cocktail weenies already. That's a good item. My mother's "comfort food" was always lasagna, but that's not retro enough. Hmm. Beef Stew with Carrots, Potatoes, Peas and Wide Egg Noodles in a Brown Gravy?

In a thread on the New York board (click here) Steven Shaw was bemoaning the loss of a good pizza place and wondering whether it was his imagination that Pizza (at least in New York) has gone steadily downhill since he was Fat Boy instead of Fat Guy. Reading the thread for the first time today, it made me realize that perhaps this is a topic of discussion of interest outside the ghetto of the New York board (actually, we've had SEVERAL pizza discussions in both the NY and NJ threads) . Steven started to discuss his ideal of a great pizza in that thread, but I'm thinking some folks from elsewhere in the world may have some very different opinions. I'm expecting more that just "I like thick pizza" or "Grimaldi's is the best" or anything specific to arguing about "who is best". Element by element there must be some way to try and quantify the extremes of pizza--bad, good, or different styles. Not who or when, but what is it?

Now that Rachel has calmed down, and Steve P. has exhausted his sarcasm it is apparent that EVERYONE agrees. The events should alternate between sophisticated dining and cheap ethnic eats (and NYC is famous for both extremes), between Manhattan and occasional visits to the outer limits of the boroughs, and "no harm, no foul" should be the rules of participation--you come if you want. What's the disagreement now? Since Jason and Rachel asked my opinion on the Jersey dinners, I'll say that it was my advice to start modest, and get more ambitious as time goes by. There's always a temptation to try and create a "blowout event" on the first try, but instead we guaranteed a wide participation at the beginning, and we'll climb the ladder of sophistication as time goes by. At least that was my advice, although apparently it created some undercurrents I wasn't aware of.

winodj, I'll emulate cabrales and give the "non-cooks" answer to "how to make the most out of ordinary dinner food". In truth, I'm not sure if this is purely a cooking question, as much as one of how you approach eating. The answer (and I see this as a major discovery for someone like myself with no patience for food preparation) is to add just a little something extra to each thing you eat. This applies whether you haul in food someone made for you, or if you made it yourself. Lemon juice, lime juice, cilantro, fresh basil, mint, sliced apples, cinammon, wine, honey, maple, orange peel, hot pepper... SOMETHING on this list (or very much like it) is going to ring your bell if added to certain foods. Cabrales spoke about dairy--and buying good cheese is always a start. Good bread helps too. Don't equate a lack of cooking skill to an inability to enjoy what you are eating. There is a big difference.

Was at a Thai restaurant the other day and tried the "using fork to push food into a spoon" technique. I like it.

I dunno. The one benefit of China 46 is that if you mention tommy and/or Jason, you'll get treated pretty darn well. Ditto for Bennies in Englewood, at least for mentioning Jason. Most of the others (especially Rebecca's) I'm sure you could name-drop Rosie pretty effectively! Not that we encourage that type of thing...

Katsudon seems to be most common in American Japanese restaurants, although most often I see both it and Oyakodon labeled as simply Donburi. Then again, Beef Bowl is sometimes labeled as Donburi here as well. Of course at least some of these "American Japanese restaurants" are actually Korean restaurants serving Japanese food--a phenomenon I'm not sure we've ever discussed here in the Japan forum.