Chris Amirault

Try it and let us know!

bolognium, what's being shaken these days? Anything interesting you want to share with us?

So it's been another month or so. Has anyone else been using this book? I'm reading great reviews elsewhere.

So is anyone actually trying this out? Recipes?

[split this off from the WF/Pollan topic -- CA] In my local WF today, I saw a sign introducing me to their local "forager," the person charged with taking care of the local sourcing problem Pollan raises. Did some googling, and I found an article from Fortune Small Business on the foragers, with Maine forager Susan Phinney the subject of this paragraph: Talk about missed opportunities: in the years during which WF was avoiding the locals, they all started treating WF as "a big supermarket."

rconnelly, I'm not sure what you mean by sour grapes. Your post doesn't seem to me to address the basic concerns that are raised above regarding restaurant reviews. Those concerns aren't about the function or professionalism of restaurant reviewers (all of which are legitimate points, I think). It's the pieces of writing themselves that are under critique here, not the fact that consumers appreciate guides to eating out. After all, you could just write, "there is a place in town that is serving great food in a great atmosphere, and I want you to know about it!" in a few brief sentences, right? edited to clarify -- ca

Setting aside the tired, tired, tired discussion about foie gras (which has been beaten to death on eG Forums for a long while), I'm struck by the attempt here to toss around weight regarding what he considers ethical food practices. Let's assume this isn't merely cynical marketing for a moment. Does Puck's empire expand far enough for this to have a significant effect, or is it the equivalent of the local/organic/sustainable clause at the bottom of that neighborhood joint you like? I mean, 10,000,000 people is a lot of people, and the businesses that serve those people connect to loads of suppliers.

Quick update on the KA commercial mixer I discuss above. I'm home with a sick kid so I'm making ragu bolognese with tagliatelle, giving me a great opportunity to put the KA to the test. It did fantastically well. I ground over two pounds of meat and two cans of tomatoes in a flash, and -- more impressively -- the mixer kneaded 1 1/2 pounds of pasta dough with tremendous ease and power: 6 minutes of kneading with the new dough hook and that dough was in better shape than 15 with any KA I've ever had before. It's clearly built with more careful engineering than the other models; while the motor is clearly working hard, especially when the hook meets the thickest part of the dough, it never slips or grinds or pops out the bowl, all of which were problems with older machines, even out of the box. In short, I'm thrilled.

I think that Charles's main point about the characteristics of the genre is trenchant. I'd be happy if I could get a recommendation that includes how to approach the menu in general, what to order, what not to order, app, main, and dessert (or whatever) price points, service, etc. I don't need the adjectives, bon mots, insights into chefly genius, decor cracks, whatever, to figure out whether to drop my cash on a joint, and I certainly have not felt any aesthetic epiphanies when reading a review for, well, decades. The characteristics that Charles lists are precisely the generic (in all senses of the word) characteristics of the restaurant review, and both readers and writers suffer from those expectations. I used to write the damned things, and I know about the search for synonyms for "tasty," the desire to create a compelling, non-chronological narrative, the sense that the review must contain a negative critique of something or other... on and on. It sucks having to write this crap, particularly about a good meal. The varied and intelligent discussions about restaurants throughout eG Forums makes it even more clear that this old-media stalwart is a bankrupt journalistic form that is made even more pathetic by pretentions to the literary. Hell, look at the Brits, who have dispensed with the genre in order to pursue base Swiftian satire instead. Clever bloggy twists don't help either. Put a fork in it, friends: it's done.

That grilling lead suggests confusion. The website's triple play in re baking pans suggests the real motive here.

Well, isn't that interesting? Really, the website seems to me like a mechanism for moving the merch, not for disseminating profundities about baking. I smell a plan modeled on the Cooks Illustrated "empire."

I've got my doubts: The Baker's Companion presents 14 grilling recipes? Wha?

Electric or hand-operated? Two hand-operated Ice-O-Mats (one chrome bullet, one plastic box) and one electric Ice-O-Matic.

Is the oil smoking madly? If so, don't insert that vintage blown-glass oil/candy thermometer that maxes out at 400F. They blow up real good.

I think that Charles is more right than wrong, and it's not just a problem with the writers. It's the genre. It's dead.

Roger every bit of that: click. Meanwhile, am I the only owner of a vintage Rival Ice-O-Matic ice crusher? This machine is so far superior to the lousy machine in my new refrigerator it's scary.

Ah, the sacrifices of science. Well put. [hic]

I had a few fingers of añejo tequila left from a 1.5l bottle, along with a few limes and oranges. 2 oz of the tequila, 1 oz of the lime and orange each, and I tossed in a healthy dollop of gingered simple syrup -- and then added a pinch of fleur de sel. Shaken, it was a swell drink. Of course, salt and tequila go together like Beavis and Butthead, so that's not much of a stretch, but it got me thinking about salted drinks. I'm not talking about a few flakes in your bloody mary, either; I'm talking about salt as an added dimension to other, less expected cocktails. Ideas? Recipes?

The silence in response to this topic is pretty interesting! I scored an 18 for precisely the same reasons that John scored a 20: I eat hamburgers rare, love raw dough, and haven't sanitized a drain in my life. However, I have watched friends cook and cringed as they used the same cutting board for meat and vegetables, or didn't wash their hands repeatedly during prep. I've been using gloves a lot for my right hand when breaking down meats (I'm a lefty and hold the knife with that hand), which is useful for a few different reasons.

I'd eat at Room 4 Dessert.

I'll accept this challenge - but I'll need the recipe of the World Peace cookies (I know someone who has the book). Is it OK Chris if they aren't quite as sweet at the cookies? ← Recipe above. Not sweet is good. Feh: blondies are an abomination against brownies and, possibly, food in general -- although a salted caramel blondie... now, that might work....

Welcome, Love2Bake! The short answer is yes, it certainly should stand up to that use. Honestly, those monster cookies aren't too terribly hard on a machine; grinding and paddling meat for sausage, kneading thick bread and pasta doughs: those sorts of things are most challenging for stand mixers. Why not buy it and give us a report?

If anyone can develop a brownie recipe based on Hermé's salted chocolate "World Peace" cookie in Dorie Greenspan's new book, I'd send them homecured bacon for life. (Ix-nay on the uts-nay.)

It is a sign of my mania that my first thought was, "What sorts of cool things do those folks do to make panko, anyway?"

Pam's suggestion seems more and more smart....