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Kevin72

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Everything posted by Kevin72

  1. Seems like they got rid of Immunity after Quickfire earlier this year, no? Or is it always at midpoint? No Restaurant Wars this year? Awww man. Richard is such a class act all around. And glad that Steph stepped back into form. But I was worried when they interviewed her and she had her hair "different"--usually a sign they're the ones eliminated in the challenge. Dale was being a lil' bastard all episdoe, but he was for the most part right in his observations. I wouldn't have wanted to be on that team. "Why are you still here?" Was line of the night for me. Niki running away from her leadership role at Judge's Table was a jaw-dropping moment of audacity.
  2. No, the REALLY old ones, without the guest panel.
  3. FLN appears to be basically recycling FTV-in-its-prime's lineup; good for them. I was watching Iron Chef America recently and while I think it's really come into its own, I was remarking on missing having the ICJ reruns around also. Now, I'd be interested in seeing them really dig waaay back and bring back, say, Cooking Live reruns or East Meets West or 90s era Molto Marios . . .
  4. I scouted a Whole Foods over lunch and their 'chokes were no different: dried out looking and expensive. Also, the past few years they had been caring these wonderful purple artichokes: very supple, no thorns, and much less choke to work through. Nowhere to be found this time. Artichokes are my favorite vegetable and I usually do an onslaught of meals with them in the spring. This year I just can't justify the expense.
  5. Artichokes are selling at about $4 ea at my usual stores. That's off-season prices, but even if you factor in the increase of food across the board, there's still the fact that the one's we're getting here are the leathery, cracked, thorny kind. None of the full, plump vibrant green kinds normal for their peak season and now we're well past that point. Did something happen to the crop? The California fires? I remember the avacadoes were going to really hit the stratosphere for prices but not much about artichokes.
  6. I was making those jokes all last night. "Mommy, what's a prosstute?" I also think that the kid from the losing team should have been kicked out of Art's program as well. C'mon! Skin in the game! Skin in the game! Seriously though, Steph really rattled me last night. This is what I meant after the first ep that her nerves might get the best of her down the line. I'm worried that she's in a vicious cycle now where she's going to get desperate after a couple losses and not be able to break out. But in her defense, this is the first time where her actual cooking landed her in the losing three, as opposed to just being on the losing team. Last week it seems the judges took pains to separate her contributions from Jen. I'm glad she got a second chance; it would have been unconscionable that she was gone with Nikki and Lisa still around. I'm sorry, but I have to call BS on the $10 challenge thing. There is simply no way that some of the cooks were able to go to Whole Paycheck and cook what they did on just $10. I mean, a whole chicken usually runs around $7.50 just on its own there. And what was with that random shot of someone working with a ribeye steak?! Something that big at WF would be at least $17. And then it wasn't in the final dishes?! Is that footage from another ep or something? I'll miss Mark. He was in way over his head but was always counted on for some fun, quirky remarks.
  7. Some kind of marinated olives would probably go well. What about olive tapenade-type crostini? Roasted peppers?
  8. I guess as with all TC seasons that I've seen, as the cast gets winnowed down the differing personalities start emerging and I get more attached to everyone. Mark is a goofball and I worry about him next week, but I like him and want to see him stick around until it's time to get "serious", like with CJ and the laidback guy from Season 2. Even Andrew and Spike's antics are growing on me. I was worried about Steph for a bit last night, but it was pretty telling that the worst parts of their plate were not her doing. I'm ambivalent about who they sent home since at the end, none of the other three should make it to the top 4 or 5. The elimination challenge was a pretty good idea and actually the dishes they had to make weren't nearly as bad as they could have been.
  9. No blog. Go here for details.
  10. It's always the little moments like that, isn't it?
  11. Pretty much spot on, David. I think the only quibble is that I'd boot Andrew to the top part of the middle of the pack ranking. I was disappointed in Dale's performance last week but I still think he belongs in the top tier.
  12. I'm a little mixed on this one. Esca is probably next on the list of Batali restaurants I most want to get to and I was really excited when I found out there was a cookbook for it out. Seemed to really fly in under the radar. Anyways, I like Pasternack's "tone" in the book, if you've ever heard him talk, it's pretty much exactly right in the writeups and stories. But the recipes all just seem one note and redundant. Like, basically, if he just outlined one technique in detail, all he'd have to do afterwards is list the recipe variations afterwards. There's one chapter, I think the one on pan-searing or sauteing, where it's just the same technique cut and pasted over and over again with ingredients varied each time. I think I know the recipe you're referring to that's too oily. Is it the one with pesto? There's even a picture with it and yes, it looks downright unappetizing.
  13. Most of the best memories of my life have some attendant food element. First meal with my new wife on our honeymoon in Venice comes to mind. Then on that same trip, probably one of my all-time favorite meals was a multi-course reading of Emilia-Romagna standards at Villa Gaidello. A subsequent visit to Puglia, Italy gave another all timer: Sunday Lunch at Il Frantoio near Ostuni. One of the best restaurant meals I've had in the past few years was my wife, my brother and his wife, and parents at the General's Daughter in Sonoma a few summers back on an eye opening trip to California. One of my very favorite meals was my first exposure to multi-course dining at a now defunct Chinese-style restaurant in Houston on New Year's eve. We had been to a wedding earlier that day and didn't get enough to eat, then wound up hungrily digging around town for a place. Of course most were booked up but this place took us. But they had only one menu for the evening. We went with it (but with a number of I'm sure maddening substitutions) and it really opened my eyes to a new way of eating. I think that might be my all time favorite meal. Just this past weekend, though, I had a new potential memorable meal candidate. Nothing special, just a really good time. And, not to be too bold about it, but I cooked the meal. We had some friends over and their kids. We've both had our kids just in the past couple years and really hadn't had a chance to get together much. My wife's sister was in from out of town and we did kind of a big, grand, combined birthday meal for several of us. I had made an enormous batch of various sausages and set some aside for the meal. It's been a spectacular spring in Dallas this year so we ate outside. Spread a big blanket out on the backyard grass for the kids to be on and the grownups ate. I cooked the sausages over a bed of potatoes and bay leaves in a cast iron skillet on the grill, and then also made some braised mixed bitter greens on the side. We had gnocchi with spicy tomato sauce, mint and pecorino for a first course. Dessert was tiramisu. Three bottles of various wines: pinot grigio, an oaky primitivo from California (umm, I guess a zinfandenl, in other words?) and then a barbera to finish off. Set the iPod up to blare fave tunes in the background and just enjoyed everyone's company, then burned off dinner by playing with the kids in the grass. I wouldn't change a second.
  14. My wife might be a better cook than me. She immediately came up with adding truffles in the butternut squash soup when it was up for debate. Me, I have a hard time believing they still wouldn't have been reamed over doing just a soup, no matter how much they elevated it. On paper, their entry didn't even seem that bad, it was just poor execution. Much as I like Richard, I think he maybe should have been booted. Scales in your fish is just an unforgiveable oversight. Stephanie officially has a really good shot at this. She either wins or is on the winning team almost consistently. Yeah, she did lose the palate test, which is concerning, but then again last season they had someone who couldn't chop a fookin' onion in their top 3, so . . .
  15. Your Texas Gluttony I thread was actually what lured me to eG. Looking forward to it.
  16. I was yelling at the TV when the pair that wound up with Il Postino were brainstorming Italian movies that could go with their food choice. It was pure agony.
  17. Oh, and any chance of Alinea being involved at some point this year?
  18. I've decided I'm a complete neophyte on these shows. I was cringing every time they had Team Clueless (Ryan and Mark) on the screen because it seemed they were really going down in flames and completely botching the concept. I was stunned that their food got a pass and even fit the movie. Both competitions were good and I really liked the Quickfire. I like when they skip the gimmicky stuff and just test basic technique or food knowledge. It's one thing to scoff at a chef who botches making a 3 course meal out of breakfast cereals, but these technique-based challenges to remind you that, yeah, these people pretty much know what they're doing in the kitchen. Blais is a consummate professional as always. That shot of him helping out the Talk to Her Team was everything you needed to know about him. And I liked that Dale hopped on Richard's team without blinking when he was told it was his choice. Stephanie though appears to be the real stealth candidate. She's won two and was in the winner's circle again tonight. Add another thing I was spectacularly wrong about: I though for sure they would get penalized as a group for having 6 courses with no dessert and that the last team went too "heavy". Poor Manuel never got a break it seems. Spike should have gone before him. Isn't it usually the practice to let the leader of the team go when the team botches something as a whole?
  19. Oh man I am totally stealing the Asian-style fried game birds he did this weekend. Duck legs that way would be awesome. How does that spice shaker he uses work? I've seen him put leafy things in there and everything comes out pounded to dust.
  20. But this seemed just seemed excessive. The comments and judgment should logically follow from what the viewer is presented. I did worry when Red team started kicking back and celebrating. But again, what we were shown was that attendees seemed happy with the food, everyone had a good time, there were more good comments aimed their way, and I just don't recall judges saying as many bad things, certainly not enough to say that both teams underperformed this time.
  21. I didn't think this was a well put together episode. Like last season's yacht meltdown, the way it was edited, people seemed pretty pleased with the dishes, particularly the Red Team. Then it just seemed out of nowhere that the judges were so hard on both teams. Maybe I drifted somewhere, but I just don't remember any shots of the judges making many comments about the food. Last week's zoo ep, for example, you pretty much knew how things were going to shake out. I was as surprised as the Red team when they lost. Andrew or Spike needs to be eliminated soon, if only because I can't tell who's who. I kinda liked Erik. He put together some ugly plates (like me, which I guess is why I sympathized). But then he had to make the comments about tacos and saying Bayless should go screw himself literally had me gasp out loud. Blais continues to impress, but I worry that he'll be this year's Tre. And go Stephanie!
  22. Bayless has had a couple cooking shows, on PBS. I think the most recent one was him and his daughter hopping back and forth between Mexico and Chicago. I'm another one that thought Nikki should have gone. She got the harshest comments and pile on in judgment; they went comparatively light on who they did toss. But of course, they did have the telltale editing of Valerie and my new TC crush Stephanie at the start of the show professing their mutual friendship, so it was curtains for Valerie I guess. But why didn't the rest of the team throw Nikki even more under the bus for making the decision to serve the mushrooms anyway? The way the show was edited, they didn't serve them initially and then Nikki appeared to make the spur of the moment decision to serve them just to the judges. No matter how badly Dale or whoever it was botched it with the pecorino (and not tasting afterwards) they still knew enough not to serve them. And, yeah, I was all set to praise that team for FINALLY learning the cardinal TC lesson of not serving something if they aren't 100% behind it. Then Nikki backtracked.
  23. BTW, the deep dish contest is one time I'm not envious of the judges for. All that thick crust? From 16 contestants? Oof.
  24. Thanks for the answer, Claudia. Luck you getting to witness it first hand!
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