Chris Amirault

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. Over the last few weeks, there are been two camps vying for particular cook-off dishes. On the one hand, those people in the northern hemisphere who are heralding the arrival of grilling weather are eager to have a cook-off on that grilling favorite, the burger. On the other hand, several people have been pushing meatloaf for the next cook-off, against the objections of the burger grillers, who don't want to heat up their kitchens with their ovens. (While I haven't heard from those in the southern hemisphere, I can imagine that a toasty kitchen might be just the thing as the days grow colder.) I hate such dilemmas between well-meaning, kind-hearted food folk, and I've been stalling about the tenth cook-off for a while now. But this past weekend, as I was grinding a chuck roast for burgers and had a couple of pounds left over, I heard a voice in my head.... Yes, as with many of my life dilemmas, I was freed from the blur of misunderstanding when I read Jinmyo's post in the Don't Make Fun of My Sandwich! thread. And I thought: what a brilliant idea! So! For our tenth Cook-Off, we're going to pick up Jinmyo's gauntlet and battle burgers versus meat loaf. Let's face it: both involve ground meat of some sort mixed with other ingredients (or none) and cooked until done (whatever that means). As we know from the sandwich thread above, many meatloaf acolytes enjoy a slab of their terrine between two slices of bread -- practically a burger, when you think of it. Of course, one of these versions of ground meat is clearly better than the other, and you must surely be in possession of a string of rigorously logical criteria that demonstrates the superiority of your own opinion. So make your case, not only in words but in pictures, through which you can show us all why burgers are best -- or, conversely, why meatloaf is most excellent! As always, we can thank our eGulleteer forebears, who have been struggling with this existential dilemma for some time. For burgers, there's the The Perfect Burger thread, a slew of threads in the regional forums on burger hunts, the Turkey Burger thread, and the How to Cook a Burger at Home thread. For meatloaf expertise, we have one meatloaf thread, another meatloaf thread, a Meat Loaf Sandwich thread, the best of the several Terrine threads, and the aforementioned "Don't Make Fun!" thread, in which both burgers and meat loaf are discussed.

The Rue is fine. But if you really want to have great food, go have dim sum at Lucky Garden on Route 44 (Smith St) in North Providence. This is the best Chinese food in New England (yes, including Boston's Chinatown). Absolutely stunning food. You want a decent eggs benedict? Rue. You want the best pork belly, char siu bao, and baby bok choi you've ever had? Get thee to Lucky Garden.

Growing up in New England, I was exposed to two food traditions that, in their own ways, portended my future. One involved Maine lobster and clam bakes, at which I would scavenge lobster bodies from people's discard bowls and pry the knuckle meat out, scraping my own knuckles to bloody shards in the process. I always sat right next to my grandfather, whose loose dentures required that he bite off the steamer bellies and set aside the necks -- every one of which I dutifully and greedily ate. The other involved a slab of my grandfather the Gloucesterman's haddock catch being baked at 350 for an hour until grey, stringy, and dry: Yankee cooking at its bitter nadir. I spent a childhood brooding angrily over a cold plate while being interrogated about how it was that I "didn't like fish," when all the while I wondered about the conspiracy against haddock that pervaded my massive extended family and what I could do to correct this queer culinary injustice....

Growing up in a quintessentially New England household (Mainers on one side, a Gloucesterman fishing cod in Georges Bank on the other), I had precisely the opposite experience, and many a time ate crab and thought: lobster is so much better. That is, until I had a real dungeness crab in Oregon in the 1990s. Then I shut up about that.

This discussion reminds me of an old feature in Spy Magazine called "Logrolling in Our Time." Basically, the editors would select two blurbs from mutually admiring authors and put them side-by-side: author X says that Y's new novel "transcends the genre to slap our zeitgeist squarely upside the head"; meanwhile, Y blurbs about the "astonishing maturity of X's voice as she takes on universal themes with surgeon-like precision." You get the idea. Hmmmm.... Kinda makes me wonder what would happen if I flipped over the cookbooks on my shelf and did some comparisons.... New thread, anyone?

See, you just needed a few NY system weiners and some coffee milk, and then you would have been more able to appreciate the comforts of car porn and hooker boots.

Wow.... That's quite a list! You clearly don't like mushy textures. But I wonder if some of those things -- e.g., -- are the product of lousy examples of otherwise wonderful things. Having eaten too many dusty scones in my day, I can tell you that there are revelatory ones out there that are moist and redolent of cream and butter.

Great job, Daniel -- but my beloved Providence got a cold diss! You gotta come back when it isn't Brown graduation weekend, so I can buy you a NY system weiner and more fried clams!

Well, that's good. I mean, you'd hate to be tossed out of the ball game by, say, the third string tackle at the local state U/security guard -- which is what would certainly happen if ketchup hit that weiner, right? Think of the shame heaped upon your family as you and your daughter skulked back to the parking lot....

No apologies needed, ellencho. This has all been very interesting! acid refluxily yours, Chris

Good theory. For years, I believed that broccoli was grey....

Bibimbap looks fantastic (of course), but I had to write about this: Sam, your drink-mastery positively astounds me. I am in awe, sir!

Julie, there have been several! Click for Varmint's renovation thread, or here or even here for one of the Brooklyn renovation threads, or here for theresa's reno blog.

Another yes vote. Whenever I get fries out at one of our local regular joints (the Red Fez), I squirt one lump of Heinz ketchup and one lump of sriracha, then go back and forth. Yum. At most friendly barbecues here in the east, which involve grilling and no barbecue (long, sad story), I'll happily put catsup, mustard, and pickles on a burger (that is, if I can't make my darling bleu cheese and dijon mustard burger, the condiments for which I have yet to stoop to bring with me). However, I will disinterestedly observe, purely in the spirit of community-minded, nonjudgmental opining, that putting ketchup on a hot dog indicates a serious character flaw. For example, my wife does this -- and look at the nut she wound up marrying.

Click here for a general discussion of whether Gourmet is going up- or downhill, starting when, and why. As for cover photos, my personal "What Were They Thinking?!?" favorite was the wacky air-guitar snap of Eric Ripert, Dean Fearing, and a bunch of people who should know better waving whisks and pans around like they were Axl Rose's love children. Never seen it? Get a strong drink and clickety click. Thank you, Ben Fong-Torres!

I'm interested, Eden, in this. Do you have any web-based resources to find out basic information about the diet? I know Lucy had book suggestions in her thread.

Thanks, everyone, for your fascinating input! I must say I kept thinking about those old Russian peasants eating Dannon yogurt and living until they were 104....

This topic prompted me to ask him why he hides Pop Tarts from me. His answer... "Because you make fun of me." I apologized and told him that I would no longer mock his naughty late-night sugar fix and that he could proudly display his Pop Tarts in the cupboard with the cereal. ← The eGullet Society: saving relationships torn asunder by food one snack at a time.....

Looks great, Alberto! What's in the cup? I was hoping you might have a wine suggestion....

Actually, I've been making a ton of sausage lately -- grinding some recently frozen shoulder up tonight for brunch tomorrow -- and I think that'll be the end result for that meat trim .

Michael took the meat... I mean, words (sorry, fantasizing again) right out of my mouth. I used to work at Broadway and Houston in the mid-1980s, and a group of us from work would wait for the absolutely worst day of the month -- snow if possible, rain, sleet, hail, and driving wind if not -- and walk the many blocks to Katz's. And there we would eat the amazing fries (with schmaltz -- Michael, do they still have schmaltz available?), great pickles, and simply astonishing pastrami sandwiches that our trek had earned us. I am quite literally tearing up at the memory. You must, must, must go to Katz's.

"easy to get"?? ... sigh ... Well, I just called a bunch of butchers, as well as the two Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, and a few other places: no dice. Do you think I could buy a couple of shoulders or butts, trim them, and use that fat? (Yes, I'm suggesting buying meat so that I can trim off the fat to use. I'm sure I'll find a dish for a couple of picnic shoulders.... )

I read this fast and thought it said, "The Handmade Loaf by Def Leppard." Hair-metal bakers: who knew? Must be Friday. It is, right?

We need a mango eater to attend, clearly.......

You're too kind, really. I'm quite certain that I'm eating enough, quite enough. But, thanks. I mean, I work out at least twice a week and all, but I'm no jsolomon....