Grub

(Reposted, with image removed due to copyright issues) Exactly! I checked out this finewaters.com website, and on their list, I checked out the most pretentious looking bottle, which was Voss, of Norway. It lists Voss as "...amongst the purest waters in the world. Taken from a virgin aquifer shielded for centuries under ice and rock in the untouched wilderness of central Norway." To see what the bottles look like, click here. Well guess what? This Aftenposten article has something else to say: Britney Spears and Madonna are paying dearly for this water in New York. Norwegians are using it to flush their toilets. What's going on here? What is Voss? Or where is Voss? Well, for one, it isn't under no ice and rock in the untouched wilderness of central Norway. Voss is a great skiing resort, and has it does have a great mountain range. But it isn't in central Norway -- it's in western Norway. However, that's just finewater.com's mistake. What's more important, Voss the water doesn't come from Voss the city. It comes from southern Norway. It comes from Iveland, near Kristiansand, on Norway's southern coast. The Aftenposten article mentioned above reports that the Voss bottler and marketer now wants to secure its production and "preserve its exclusivity" by forcing the local municipality to find an alternate source of water for their citizens (!). The local major ain't cooperating.

That's absolutely correct... Just the other day, I ran across someone who did not keep kosher, but still couldn't get his old Rabbi's voice out of his head, telling him if he ate pork, God would cut off his soul. So he subbed duck for pork in a recipe, and it came out crap. That's depressing. In some cases, these religious restrictions are downright counter-productive, such as Ramadan fasting turning into a sundown feast, rather than the intended spiritual reflection etc. And many just serve no purpose at all, like the Yazidis forbidding (wait for it...) -- lettuce! (oh, and wearing blue clothes, and getting hitched in April). Besides, it's just a matter of interpretation -- the texts that are the root of anti-pork traditions are considered holy by both Jews and Christians, yet the taboo does not exist in Christianity. Go figure.

I don't know about the chicken per se, but I was in a Indian restaurant once, and our table had ordered a selection of curries, a few of which were dyed (the chickpea curry was rather an alarming red). We were wondering the same thing, so we asked our waiter. His explanation was that many of the curries look pretty similar when sitting in pots in the kitchen, and the chef dyed some of them so that when an order came in, he could be sure (without having to do a careful scrutiny) that he was serving, say, chickpeas, and not pork. ← That's a really interesting explanation of food coloring used in restaurants! That stark color definitely has an important effect on the dish though -- I've also made some Indian foods without the recommended food coloring, and it just wasn't the same. Another time, I added food coloring to some plain rice, and people swore there was something different about it, and couldn't believe I hadn't added spices to it. It's pretty mindboggling how important color, and appearance is, to the final experience... And these dishes all look absolutely amazing...

That's Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" Always fun having customers visit from Europe, coming Sacramento during the summer -- 100-degree heat, and they take off for SF on the weekend, only to return with a bunch of sweaters with Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf on em... It's crazy how big a difference there is... Of course, my favorite moment was when some Englishmen did this, and one of them was trying to quit smoking. I asked him how it was going, and he responded just as a collegue (Californian, and not well versed in British English) walked past us, and the dude responded (and I swear, this is the absolute, honest truth), "I'm doing pretty good. We went to San Francisco on Saturday, and I only had two fags the whole day." I'll never forget the look on the face of my collegue... (Oh yeah, "fag" = cigarette in British slang).

Seekh Kebabs: And hey, don't they look pretty? It's a rather artistic picture, methinks. Of course, a couple of minutes before I snapped this one, I was in full-on Homer Simpson-freakout-mode, cause the flames from the kebabs were about two feet above the grill, and I was trying to splash water on the coals, and whatnot... Lamb meat is greasy.

Seekh kebabs, baby. Man, I'd forgotten how juicy them bawsters were -- I put them on the grill and went back inside to clean the serving tray... By the time I was done, I could hear horrible noises coming from outside. I storm out, and see flames spewing up at least two feet above the grill! Jebus! Talk about freakin' char-broiled... Man oh man. Got some good grill marks on them babies though, heheheh.

Mario beat Zoolander! That rules. I've been bummed by this show ever since he was defeated by Flay in that tagmatch.

My buddy's father had a uh, I dunno quite how to describe it -- a relaxed relationship with his in-laws... His in-laws are a really nice couple -- in their late 70s, very dignified and rather formal -- I think they're trying to make up for the rest of the clan, who are just fun-loving, wacky, eccentric people. They're the sorta "head of the clan" kinda grandparents -- loved by all, except for one thing: They keep their place heated like a freakin' sauna. I've been there. It's unbelievable. Well, one day, they had their daughter and husband over -- and you'd kinda think a son-in-law would be on his best behavior with his in-laws -- but after a battle of will, over air-conditioning, opening and closing of doors etc., he just took his shirt off. It was just too hot, see? Then, he took his pants off -- because it was just too damn hot. Dude ate his meal sitting at the table, in his underwear. Now, that's making a statement!

Sorry to beg about this, but could I please have some more advice on torches?

Wahahaha, shieeet! Poor old Sac -- it's like the Rodney Dangerfield of cities. I read a tourist visitor's guide to California that listed interstate 80 as the best thing about Sacramento: " -- use it," it said Jason, that is totally cool, you went back for another one -- watch it, or you'll become a cult member too... I LOVE the picture you took of the cook. I just realized that I've never seen their grill or gone behind the counter at the "new" place. At the old spot, the grill was right behind the counter where you placed your orders -- but that was just because it was pretty claustrophobic. If you sat at one of the tables in the back, you pretty much sat next to the table where Frank prepped the patties. And between those points, you had the big meat locker (with rails in the ceiling and all). And that was awesome. Wish they'd done something like that with the new place too -- even if they didn't have to. They have this odd "window" in the uh, "structure" where the food is made, and I'm wondering if they were thinking of just calling out completed orders from it, and have customers pick it up there... I'll have to ask about that. They just walk around shouting people's names out now, just like at the old place. Corti Brothers is excellent, but seeing that it is a grocery store, it might not be what you're looking for, unless you're staying at a Residence Inn, or something like that.

Aquafina and Dasani are the two top selling brands on the market -- is that because these are the best products out there, or the most competitively priced, or is it marketing hype? Well, look behind the curtain, and voila: Pepsi -- and Coke. It's like McDonalds discovering that they can sell straight hamburger patties with no bun, no pickles, lettuce, tomatoes or special sauce -- and people will pay MORE for that, than the actual hamburger. I've seen figures that estimate anything from 25% to 40% of all bottled water is simply municipal water. However, this isn't the bad news, seeing there are actually far more rules and regulations on tap water, than bottled water. Both Aquafina and Dasani are -- like Coke and Pepsi itself -- municipal water (although Coke claims to add minerals to Dasani). I've got nothing but sympathy for people who live in areas where the tapwater is bad (incidentally, it isn't too fantastic where I live but with a filter, it's perfectly fine). I'm not trying to give anyone a hard time about the unspeakable evil of buying bottled water or anything It's a convenience thing. But it's also good to know where the stuff is coming from...

Hey, very cool you tried the recipe! I'm real sorry to hear it didn't work though. Hopefully, the real experts will offer some advice on this, and figure out what went wrong -- but here's the things I can think of... Did you follow Waaza's original recipe? I followed it fairly obsessively -- especially the footnotes... If you don't want to use pork, how about beef? I'm not familiar enough with duck, to know how it would differ in this dish, but I would think that maybe beef would be closer to the general structure and overall properties of pork, than duck. Having the pieces of meat completely uniform is probably not necessary, but I should think that if they were radically different, you would end up with some pieces being cooked far more, than others. The apple cider vinegar might be a problem, but I'm not sure. I just went with the rice vinegar, since it was one of the options Waaza listed in his recipe. In previous Vindaloo attempts, I used white wine vinegar, which didn't turn out anywhere near as nice -- it was very vinegary (but this could just be due to the much shorter cooking time on that earlier recipe). I'm fairly certain my wok can moonlight as a karahi, but I don't know if using a casserole would have any effect on it. I just like that sucker so much I use it for everything from steaming bass to frying Norwegian meat cakes. Maybe there's something magical about the shape of a wok -- but then again, I've seen Le Creuset sell a totally flat-bottomed pan that they labeled as a karahi, so what do I know? Or perhaps I should say, what the hell does Le Creuset know about Indian cooking? Well that's all I can thing off right away... Not terribly helpful I'm afraid. I'm hankering to try this dish again myself, and will try to document everything this time too (I'm annoyed that I didn't make proper note of how time progressed through the cooking process), and perhaps that might be of help. But it's just way too hot right now, for such a slow-cooked dish.

Penn & Teller's Bullshit is excellent, for the most part. Their episode on bottled water (and Feng Shui) certainly was. No one likes to be told that they are wrong about something they believe in of course, so it hardly matters that someone exposes the bottled water industry as bogus -- it will still thrive. But the truth is, packaging matters. I mean, the appearance and presentation of food is every bit as important as the taste -- we, as food enthusiasts should know that. If you take the same meal and present it a) in some very elegant, beautiful and artistic way; and b) as a TV dinner (and you don't tell people that they are the same), the vast majority will prefer the former. Well, if the same water is presented in an artistic, beautiful and elegant bottle, with nice piccies of Fiji and glaciers, it's gonna appeal to people WAY more than a crummy water faucet, right? The "Water Sommelier" skit was hillarious. I loved watching him laughing his ass off, filling up bottles on the back porch from a hose. The customers were clearly influenced by the presentation -- I mean, it's like a placebo effect... Edit: me no spel so gud.

Ah, shoot... Well, there's a secret to it, hehehe. You don't remove the burger from its wrapping -- you just fold it back enough to uncover about half the burger, and then you "pad" the bottom with some napkins, to soak up any escaping juices.

Jason, that is an excellent review -- I've been going to Nationwide for close to 15 years now, so I know the place. I'm well impressed with the amount of knowledge you picked up from a single visit. I didn't want to babble on too much about the place -- I thought maybe you might fear I was trying to introduce you to a cult or something. But since you've been there now, I'll babble on a bit... Oh and I'm absolutely stoked that you liked it. From the picture, the burger looked very greasy -- more than normal, I'd say. But when I showed it to a friend and fellow Nationwide worshipper, he exclaimed, "Oh, good, he got a greasy one -- those are the best!" so what do I know? Oh yeah, this buddy of mine also insists that the double is the perfect burger at Nationwide, because the buns are so big, that the bread-to-meat ratio isn't quite satisfactory, for a single... But then again, he prefers his burgers without cheese (asceticism) and most often opts for bacon (that's just outright gluttony -- and I love bacon), and sometimes even goes for a steak sandwich (heresy). One thing most people agree on though (and I apologize for not mentioning it earlier) is that the best addition, or variation you can order on their burgers, are the grilled onions. I I'll often get both the raw and the grilled -- but just grilled is awesome too. The fries are indeed outstanding. I never knew their taters were from Nevada. I know their meat is Harris Ranch, and I've spoken to the owner about this at some length -- it seems that the meat that they deliver isn't always aged the same time, and this affects the taste of the final product. Very odd. Damn Harris Ranch. I've got no idea about onion rings; not my thing. Very interesting remark about their fountain soda -- I've never thought about that... As far as their history, the place has only been in its current location for a few years. They used to be over on J and 24th. The building was actually part of a flower-shop (of all things), and word was that the owner had some kind of verbal agreement with the owner of the flower-shop (you can tell that this is indeed old-school -- Frank had some cool stories about old-time Sac). It had inside and outside seating, but was tiny, compared to their current digs. Then, word has it, the owner of the flower-shop passed on, and they had to move out. That's just hearsay, mind you. Eventually, they picked the H street locale, and boy -- it had all the atmosphere of a dentist's waiting room. The old place was REAL. The rails in the ceiling where the meat was moved in on went past the dining tables. The huge locker door was right by the tables -- when they opened the door, diners could see the slabs hanging right there. The new place was completely barren. But bit by bit, they tried to add something to it, and these days, it's not looking too bad. You gotta realize of course, they don't have any designers who can create old-school looks. Oh yeah, the painting on the inside wall -- that's of the old locale. It is an absolute freaking disgrace and horror, that they lost the old place. But it may have been a good thing also, because the new place is about four times bigger. Hopefully, they'll stay in business forever and ever. There are just so few places here in Mickey Mouse land that are uh, "old-school." The East coast has a bit of age to it. In England, I stayed in pubs that were 700 years old -- and didn't bother advertising it. I'm bummed Nationwide lost their old place -- but I'm real happy they survived it, and kept on turning out the most awesome burgers I've ever come across. Oh and hey, how'dya like them pictures on the left, as you line up at the registry -- you think you could eat a quadruple, quintuple, or a ten-duple burger? That stuff is crazy; I'm not even sure if putting those pictures up is very good for business, ya know?

It's not that I want to add any further hate on the anti-RR bandwagon, but I guess, to make some sense of exactly WHY it is that I dislike her -- there's something really annoying about her voice... It's kinda nasal, like The Nanny -- Fran Drescher (sp) or something.

Yeah, I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing what he thinks of the experience. I've introduced so many people to Nationwide (and they've done the same) but on occasion, I've come across people who for some reason aren't as impressed with it as everyone else -- like some nutter who thought In 'n Out was better... Now, In 'n Out is better than say, McD or BurgerKing etc., but bwah -- then again, I guess you can't account for personal taste, right? Well, I dunno. I'm just kinda stoked that someone who really, really knows good food will have a looksee at Nationwide. So I'm eagerly awaiting his report

Oh yeah, oh yeah -- oh, sweet tapdancing baby Jebus, please let it be so! Imagine a contestant showing a bit of attitude, and instead of Ming Tsai trying to burn them with some infantile and incomprehensible put-down about not wearing sunglasses in someone else's kitchen, Tony Bourdain giving them a good talking-to? I'm hooked right there, dude. Of course, I'm a dork. I still get a kick out of googling "Emeril" and "Ewok."

Seafood crêpes.

So what are some good blowtorches? Do you have to get a specialized food blowtorch, or can you just go get one at a hardware store?

It strikes me that there's something odd about complaining about those who complain. It's like saying it is wrong to go against the majority rule -- as if going against the masses (unwashed or otherwise) is elitists and/or snobbish. Like most things in the world, Rachel Ray (and any other FN personality) is subject to natural selection, in the sense that if a lot of people like her, she'll stay on, but if a lot of people don't like her, she'll disappear. And like most things in the world, if you belong to a vocal minority, you might be able to influence things, beyond your numbers. It doesn't make you a fanatic or a fringe member -- it could just mean that you are passionate about the topic. The average viewer might have a slight preference for RR, vis-à-vis America's Funniest Home Videos, and if RR got canned, it'd be no biggie to them -- but it would be a biggie to people passionate about food. And again, it's a question of what the FN finds most important -- attracting people who are passionate and informed about food -- or just stealing the unwashed masses away from other channels. I think it's a good thing to show that you're passionate about something, and that you'd like a slightly higher-brow kinda show.

I'm absolutely, positively, not a food snob. Nor am I a particularly skilled cook. I just find her to be completely annoying with her cutesey crap -- and also completely overexposed.

For burgers, there are a few good places like Willie's on Broadway, Ford's Real Hamburgers, and Tiny Burgers -- but there is one joint that stands out above anything I've ever tasted, anywhere. "NATIONWIDE" -- or Nationwide Meats. They're not nationwide, of course -- that's a bit of a joke. It's a total mom & pop operation. They use properly aged beef, on very good buns (their burgers take their name from the French buns -- "French Ground Steakburgers"). Thankfully, they were never renamed Patriotic Ground Steakburgers, heheh. If I could make just a single recommendation about food in Sacramento, no matter what category, Nationwide would be it. Not cheap, but absolutely exceptional. Their fries are big -- like big taters cut into segments of six. Their burgers are big too, so go with a single, unless you're a big eater. They make doubles, tripples, quadruples, and any form of special request for obscene things like burgers with 10 patties -- there are pictures on the wall of various gargantuan eating attempts... If burgers were a religion, Nationwide would be Jerusalem, Mecca, and Salt Lake City all in one. To most people who go there, and really appreciate good burgers, the thing is more or less a religious experience, heheheh... Nationwide Meats 1930 H St Sacramento, CA 95814-3108 (916) 444-3286 Here are a couple of online reviews: - Nationwide on CitySearch - Nationwide on FudCourth For the finer dining scene, you've got Morton's on the J street mall, and the Firehouse in Old Sac, but I'm sure someone else has better recommendations for that. There are a lot of Thai and Vietnamese places on Broadway, but I'm not really an expert on that either. Just on burgers

Frikadeller -- Danish meatballs. Not the most ingenious idea I've ever had -- several 100+ degree days, and I go make this labour-intensive, fried beef and pork meatballs, with boiled and fried potatoes, and brown gravy. Uhhhh... Makes for a great late-night snack tho. I made some Norwegian meatcakes a couple of months ago, which were far too similar to this stuff, to warrant the extra work. It tasted slightly different, but not by much. The Danish ones are richer -- but still nowhere near as rich as they were supposed to be -- the book called for milk, and that's an old book, so that was ment to be the full-octane stuff, which I didn't follow. I've got this great set of old cookbooks, that I'd normally never bother with, because they have these 1970s Weight-Watchers Food of Horror -type pictures, but it turns out they have a lot of very good information, and good recipes. So I decided to work my way through the entire alphabet. Gotten to "D" so far. The potatoes looked great in the picture -- and I think they look pretty interesting here too. But they just tasted like ordinary, boiled taters... They were boiled, and THEN fried, and at the end of that process, a mixture of sugar and vinegar was poured over -- but the taste didn't affect it much. Perhaps using rice vine vinegar was too mild. I did the carrots in the frying pan along with the taters, and really liked how they came out -- browned on the outside, but still very crisp. Don't think I'll make this again anytime soon -- or at least not until the weather cools down good and proper. Man, there was a Danish thing in the book called "Burning Love" -- I thought it would be like a desert or something, flambeed stuff. It wasn't. It was a plate of mashed taters, surrounded by bacon, and topped by sauteed onions. Burning Love?! Maybe this is why Stallone's marriage didn't work out.