Jaymes

Your dad isn't "just a cheapskate." What he is is 82. And he remembers a time when $3 or $4 would feed a family of four for a week. And he remembers how hard that money was to come by, and how much it meant to his family. I, too, have this problem when I go out to eat with my 84-year-old dad. What I do is, sometime during the meal, excuse myself to go to the restroom. Then, out of view of my father, I track down our waiter and give them the extra money. It works out great for all of us. My father is a wonderful man, a terrific provider for our family, a WWII Flying Fortress pilot, and a hero to me. I'd never embarrass him. He's not a cheapskate. He just lives in another era.

I, too, am puzzled as to why this is in the Texas forum. Here is discussion on eGullet of an article on this very fact: The waiter you stiffed remembers you and will get you back.

Whipped "Topping." It comes in a white plastic tub. It's fake whipped cream. It's sweet, with various forms of sugars added. It also has lots of chemical additives. I'm not even certain what the main substance of it is. I think it's labled "non-dairy topping." But it's stupifyingly easy. Therefore, it's ubiquitous.

Of course, the Cool Whip should have been placed on the table next to the desserts, and of course, that's what you should have suggested. But the real problem here is that although there are almost always many tactful ways to handle these things, when one is caught completely off guard, which I also would have been, one is too startled to think of any of them. It reminds of something I read once about the definition of wit: The ability to eliminate the usual thirty-minute gap between first hearing something and then coming up with a snappy comeback.

Well, it went from mildly amusing, providing at least a few laughs, to deathly boring. And they've voted out the two best cooks -- the pastry cook and the Asian chef. The last episode was so dreary it was a chore just to get through. A real yawner. Bring back the mimes.

Thought I'd better clarify....I think this refers to one of my favorite Mexican cookbooks, which I recommended earlier in the thread. It IS very simple Mexican 'comfort food.' It's nobody's idea of a comprehensive Mexican cuisine tome, but if you're looking for stuff to sling together to get a good, tasty comida on the table, this is your book. Simple, fresh, easy to prepare. The woman that wrote it lives in Tucson, so it's the food of the northern Mexico states, and the Arizona border. Mexican Family Favorites Cookbook

Also, it seems that some places just get a 'name' for being stylish. And then those that want to be seen at the stylish places, and be 'in the know' have to go. My friends that love PF Changs are there to be a part of the 'scene' as much as anything. They are young women, and the quality of the food is only a secondary reason why they dine out in any particular restaurant. There's nothing 'happening' but the food at the more authentic Chinese restaurants. Life is short. Sip your Arizona tea or Cosmopolitan and sit back and relax and enjoy your companions. Order the dumplings. And think about what you'll have the next time you choose the venue.

You might ask if you should bring good knives if it is going to be hands on.

I've got friends that love it, so have been quite a number of times. First -- you have to get over any notion that you're going for Chinese. Think California/trendy/upscale/Chinese-ish. Second -- I honestly think the dumplings are pretty good. That's all I ever get -- a selection of two or three of the dumpling choices, and there are several on the appetizer menu. And I ask the server to bring them when everyone else's meal arrives and not before. Otherwise, everyone eats all my dumplings and I have nothing for my dinner.

Have you forgotten all of those 'ice box pies' that southern cooks 'carry' to various 'covered dish suppers'? Many of them are made with store-bought ice cream that one melts slightly just until softened, and then stirs something into it (like creme de cacao or creme de menthe or sliced bananas or chopped fruit or nuts or crushed pralines or instant coffee or chocolate or all of the above), and then pours it into one of our time-honored crusts....oreo or graham cracker or vanilla wafers or something...and then tops it with marachino cherries or cool whip or something equally disgusting (and you get extra points for garish colors or, best of all, a rainbow effect) then refreezes it? Huh? Have you forgotten all those? Or maybe you live in a different 'south' than the "ice box pie" ladies.

So perhaps the answer to the original question of why did Fernand Point go to Japan in the first place is, "To retrieve his wife."

Hm, perhaps, but what for?Well, according to the original post, the question was "Why did Fernand Point go to Japan in the first place?" And the poster said that it was a question asked in French culinary class. Perhaps the instructor asking the question considered it for some time and decided not to ask the obvious...."Why did Bocuse go to Japan?" figuring that'd be easy to find out on the internet. So the instructor decided to ask the question about Point, knowing that now doing any research into the answer would be long and involved and undoubtedly teach the students far more than the simpler question would have. So, maybe it's a trick question. Maybe the answer to "Why did Fernand Point go to Japan in the first place?" is "He didn't. Bocuse did." Just a thought.

I thought there may be. If there ever was a French chef's trip to Japan that was considered seminal in the shaping of the "Nouvelle Cuisine" concept, it was Bocuse's. I never heard of such a thing concerning Point. I'm leaning toward the confusion theory, too. Ah HA! Perhaps it was a trick question.

I drove that road several times about ten years ago, and it wasn't bad then.

Given my current situation as the caregiver for my elderly parents whose digestive systems can no longer tolerate spicy foods, I find I appreciate buffets a lot more. When I eat out, I'm by myself, so there's no 'trading tastes with tablemates' opportunities. And I am always trying to hurry home to be sure everything's okay, and I can get through a buffet pretty rapidly. I've found a good Chinese one, and a good Indian one. Don't do "American" style, like "Hometown Buffet." Although I can tell you that the Thanksgiving Buffet at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco was a fabulous event that I'd do over and over and over again. If I could. And then I'd do it some more.

Posted about Xanath, a Mexican vanilla liqueur, sometime last year, but didn't have a link. Now I do. Xanath....Mexican liqueur

Well, I love good German food. So I'll look forward to that. And as soon as I get some dates firmed up, will definitely be in touch.

Does this mean one tree has different kinds of fruit on it all at once? A picture of that would be cool. Home Depot here sells these grafted multi-citrus trees. We had a lemon/orange/lime tree which after a couple of years living in a wine barrel on the patio turned into a lemon/orange/lime stick.When I lived in Tucson, I actually did a bit of investigation before buying one of these "Fruit Cocktail" (as they were called) trees. They take branches of various citrus trees, and graft them onto mature stock. I was told that the best thing to do is to buy one with only two varieties, because grafting more than one additional variety puts a lot of stress on the original tree, and they are not usually long-lived. Also, I was told that one should first pick what kind of tree they would prefer over the others, and choose that one for the stock, with the second choice the one that you have grafted onto the first. The reason for that, I was told, is that after several years, the graft is more likely to die than the original stock tree. We selected oranges grafted onto pink grapefruit stock. That tree did spectacularly well for us for the six years we lived in Tucson. We left there some twenty years ago, but this past summer, when I drove through Tucson and went to our old house, the tree was still there, and still performing spectacularly, and still bearing both pink grapefruit and oranges.

I am going to be coming to Cleveland sometime during the next few months. I'll probably stay several days and it most likely will be the first of quite a few trips over the next two years. I've never been to Cleveland before, and am curious about the city. I'd love a sort of 'culinary overview.' Is Cleveland famous for any particular ethnic food, like Houston is for Asian and Mexican, St. Louis for Italian, San Francisco for Chinese? Anything like that? How about any other local must-try dishes, such as Cincinnati for chili, Philadelphia for cheesesteak, Chicago for hot dogs and pizza? Which restaurants would you advise I do not miss? Any other attractions not to be overlooked? I'm getting a good rate at the Sheraton downtown....City Centre, I think it's called. Does anyone know anything about that hotel? Nice? Are there any good spots, particularly for lunch, that are within walking distance? Thanks in advance, y'all.

Ah yes, that's the John Holmes version.

Thanks, winegeek. Looks like a wonderful resource.

When I was a kid, I lived for a time on a farm in Nebraska. The neighbors grew field corn right up to our back fence. They told us we could eat all we wanted and Mom would get the pot boiling and then send us kids racing to pick the corn and see who could bring it back the fastest. There are a great many folks who prefer field corn to the genetically-engineered, overly-sweet stuff you buy today.

On the other hand, Martha was not appointed to be IN CHARGE. She emerged. Through ability, drive and ambition. Say what you want about her, she's a natural born leader. I think that the one episode I saw was a hoot. As long as it's that funny, and entertaining, I'll watch.

Peruvian cuisine is only 'underrated' in the US. It is legendary throughout the rest of the Americas. Most other American countries have Peruvian restaurants, along with the usual suspects of Italian, French, Chinese, etc. When I lived in Panama, there were several Peruvian restaurants in Panama City alone, all doing a bustling business. In the US, it's not so much that Peruvian cuisine is underrated as it is that it's completely unknown. Most US residents have no clue what lies below Mexico. They think that everyone south of us eats tortillas and enchiladas. When we lived in Panama, many of our houseguests would refer to the Panamians as Mexicans, and ask when we were going out for some good "Mexican food." There was one pretty mediocre Mexican restaurant there (as opposed to the several Peruvian ones) but, in Panama, Mexican food is a foreign cuisine requiring the use of imported foodstuffs. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to think that Panama would have any better Mexican cuisine than any other country not even adjacent to it. Like England, say, or Canada, or whatever. I'm just using this example as an indicator of how little most norteamericanos know about the food south of us. Peruvian cuisine is sadly not even a blip on our culinary radar screen. It's a damn shame to be so ignorant of our own hemisphere, but throughout the rest of it, Peru is known as the "France of the Americas" because of its sophisticated, complex, elegant, wonderful cuisine. As you have apparently discovered.

I hope they do an episode where the teams have to do a dinner party on 6 hours notice, with a total budget of $100. That's my world.