Grub

I've just always found the de-motivational posters more inspiring, for some reason...

In Manchest, we'd go see the Hallé Orchestra every chance we got (cheap tickets for students) and we'd wear what we'd always wear -- cos we were there to enjoy the music, not be see and be seen. If you were to enforce a dress code, in order to ensure an enjoyable evening, you'd ban the prats in white ties cause it was always those assholes who'd talk during the performance -- cos they weren't actually there for the music. Doesn't E Bulli have a casual dress code? I have a small dream -- that people will be judged on the content of their character, and not the price tag of the clothes on their backs.

Ah, interesting. In what way will they be better? In the Daily Mail article Carolyn Tillie quoted, Michel Roux says that with his method (eggs put into cold water, brought to a simmer over medium heat and immediately removed), they'll never be rubbery. But I've tried doing some hardboiled eggs now in a rolling boil (rather than my earlier steeping method) and they don't seem any more rubbery...

Those recipes are all for soft boiled eggs, though. The steeping (is that the right word?) method I described (which came from Better Homes & Gardens) also takes 3-4 minutes -- not including the time it takes to bring the water to a boil. That's a great article, by the way. Although Michel Roux's method doesn't seem to make sense to me: put the eggs in the the water and bring to a simmer of medium heat and IMMEDIATELY remove them -- no boiling, and no steeping! How can that be enough to cook an egg, even if it is soft? These renowned authorities all have completely different methods complete with elaborate explanations as to why this is the best way. That's kind of amazing, to me. Even CI's America's Test Kitchen book seems at odds with their normal optimal, practical methods for hard-boiled egg -- they use the same method as the Better Homes & Gardens as I described, only they let the egg sit just for 10 minutes and then place it in ice water for 5. Now, I'm not sure that's enough to cook it hard, although the residual heat will still work on the inside of the egg while it is in the ice water. I tried letting an egg sit for 13 minutes, and then ran some cold water over it, and that left the center of the yolk "moist" -- a slightly darker color. And most of all, the Test Kichen recipe calls for an entire tray of ice cubes -- that's a little extra bit of hassle... I wish the Test Kitchen book had spent more time on the hard cooked egg, but it is only mentioned very briefly in the salad section (the Egg & Breakfast section covers scrambled, poached, fried and omelette and frittatas galore, but not a word on boiled eggs. I guess it must be a European thing to eat eggs for breakfast. I tried ordering a hardboiled egg at Denny's once, and that didn't work out too good...

The cups weren't defective. McD served their coffe at a higher temperature than other chains, and there had been a number of earlier incidents with people getting burned from it, but McD refused to lower the temperature. After this case, I believe they did lower the temperature of their coffe. A common misconception about this case is that the woman got a million bucks from it, but that's not true. The idiot jury did award her something in that range, but the judge adjusted it way down. I'm not defending her -- she should have been laughed out of court.

There was another thread on this a while ago, that covered this in great detail. The only sensible reason for buying bottled water is convenience -- it's available everywhere, and you know what quality the water is. I'm sure that egulleteers buy it for this reason. But there is a less sensible reason for it, and that's the marketing hoopla. The fact that these two brands come from a municipal water source is generally not known by most consumers, and it might be a marketing headache if they found out about it -- but the truth is, this actually a good thing. Municipal water sources are generally goverened by stricter controls than the FDA who oversees bottled water and other foods. That Pepsi and Coke can sell this, at a higher price than their soda is indeed amazing and mystifying -- at least until you accept that human beings are only partially rational. It's as if McDonalds started selling the uncooked beef patties from their BigMac, at a higher price than a BigMac. Marketing genius. I just feel bad that someon in a civilized country should feel compelled to buy commercial water because the stuff in their tap tastes bad. It's like a capitulation of a basic human right -- access to a proper water supply.

This is absolutely true, but the slogan that junk food sellers use, is completely misleading: That their food can be part of a healthy diet. This is disinformation at its best -- by the same logic, sitting on your ass and eating potato chips can be part of a healthy diet. The issue in both cases is, you just can't do it very often. And of course, this is the question they can't answer: does your diet become unhealthy if you eat at McDonalds more than once a week? More than once every two weeks? Obviously, it depends on what else you eat: if someone eats Taco Bell, Carl's Jr and gas station hotdogs every other day, it won't matter a damn whether they eat at McDonalds once or five times a week. The bottom line is, it's junk food. It is a negative part of a diet. Trying to portray it as anything else is immoral -- not that anyone would be shocked by that of course.

Well cool; please share -- how do you cook a hardboiled egg in 4-5 minutes?

I'm clear on vegetarian and vegan, but this raw food thing confuses me. This menu mentions veggie chicken and turkey, which I assume is some kinda vegetarian "alternative," but it also lists grilled chicken and grilled salmon -- without the "veggie" part. Is this just sloppy menu writing, that they left out the "veggie" label (ie., that it is assumed by default that any chicken or salmon is faux?) And since they are listed as grilled, are they grilled only until the internal temperature reaches 118F?

It takes all of ten seconds to learn how to make a hard cooked egg: 1) Fill pot with water until it just covers the eggs. 2) Bring to a boil and remove from heat. 3) Leave for 15 minutes, drain then run some cold water over 'em. That's it. Never failed me. For soft, leave for 3-4 minutes. Medium 8-9 minutes. I dunno when we reached our apex, but we're definitely on some kind of an evolutionary, intellectual and cultural slope at this stage. Man...

Great, guys -- thanks a bunch! I never thought I'd figure that out. I did a quick search for Peka, and I'm sure that's the dish. I doubt I'll be back in Croatia any time soon, so finding someone to cook it for me is probably out of the question, but at least if I know what it is, I can search for a recipe -- maybe something to try out during a camping trip or something, heheh. Thanks. Oh and yeah, if you got any pictures of it, I'd really like to see those...

I really enjoyed Feating on Asphalt. Maybe I hold an opposite view from some of you -- and had low expectations... I like Alton, but get a bit frustrated with the shtick -- particularly when a certain percentage of his stuff is almost completely impractical, like building temporary pizza ovens from bricks heated in the oven on its cleaning cycle, running hairdryers in your Weber grill, or that Scrap Iron Chef show that was just a complete waste. Granted, it's just a "Someone traveling around and eating at various places"-show, and that isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff... There's some trypical trivia and info, which Alton is great with, and it also had a sort of casual, unscripted and generally fun feel to it. Compared to show of the same genre, it was a breath of fresh air.

Seekh Kebab (Kofta; minced) On the grill Moody, no-flash grilling picture All done, served up on a bed of cabbage, with the condiments around it: cucumber, a yogurt sauce with honey, mint and some Sriracha, red onions, and some extra Sriracha on the side for those who are easily bored. Plated And a gratuitous closeup This was a sorta everything-but-the-kitchen-sink deal -- but then I said aw hell, and tossed that in that too... Methinks maybe I need to restrain myself a tad and try get back to the basics... 10% fat ground sirloin, roasted and ground coriander and cumin seeds, freshly ground cinnamon, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, minced ginger and garlic, chopped mint leaves and cilantro, grated red onions (drained and patted dry) and ground cashew nuts (both for taste, and as a binding material). I cooked it over medium heat, which I think was a mistake -- the kebabs are so thin that they end up drying out by the time they get good grill marks. I should have used really high heat and a much shorter cooking period. Well, live and learn -- adapt and improve and so forth. The bambo skewers I'm using are a little too narrow for my taste, but they are holding up amazingly well -- even the ones that have gone completely black at the tips are perfectly fine. I've just not managed to find and good, flat metal ones. I think metal would be easier to clean -- the bambo ones tend to end up with a lot of spots and markings, which tends to make me a little overzealous when I clean them, hehe. Great cookoff subject, by the way.

Ellencho, thank you so much! I'd never thought of using mint or cinnamon. I'll definitely try this recipe next time around -- which should be soon.

Those look fantastic -- those are the kind of kebabs I TRY to make. Please, could you share the recipe? What kind of beef, spices and herbs? Cilantro? What kind of skewers do you use for those -- flat ones (I've always got problems making the meat stick to the skewers, so I use some flat bambo skewers)?

But of COURSE you should eat raw food -- fruit, some vegetables, sashimi, sushi, steak tartare, carpaccio, oysters, there's lots of great raw food! What? You want to ONLY eat raw food? That makes no more sense than to completely avoid eat raw food altogether. Nutritionally speaking, it wouldn't be as bad as say, eating ONLY BigMacs, but intellectionally speaking it makes about as much sense. It boggles my mind how people are drawn to such extremism -- culinary, politically, etc.

Excellent topic for a cookoff! I made some seekh kebabs (ground lamb/beef) a while back, and this picture is one of my favorite food/cooking shots. No flash, so the flames would show -- thus a longer exposure time, and an oddly appealing out-of-focus/motion blur. This was my desktop image for the longest time...

Well, finally someone stood up to Ramsay -- I've just got such damn mixed feelings about it... A customer walked up the the pass to ask about her order, obviously pretty pissed off about it being late... Now, I don't know what the arrangements are at this "restaurant" -- surely people are aware of the circumstances under which it operates -- and people have walked out before, but I've not noticed anyone personally walking up to complain. Well, the customer referred to Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay, so she obviously knew who he was. Ramsay didn't completely ignore her, he just told her he was busy. But she persisted. And she leaned on the counter. So, in good style Ramsay told her to get her boobs off his pass, and when that had no effect, he asked her how he was supposed to prepare food on it, when she had her tits on it. So she took a dinner plate and turned it upside down on its serving plate. And then she just flipped another plate or two off the counter and onto the floor of the kitchen. I'm so torn about that. On one hand, I'm thinking well there you fucking go, "big boy," being a complete prick sometimes bites ya in the arse, uh? But on the other hand I'm thinking, what a fucking bitch -- you just took someone else's dinner and threw it on the floor, and now they've gotta wait because of you. Part of me also thought, the bitch was interfering with someone's livelyhood here (I mean, if it had been a real restaurant) -- you have the right to not bring your service here, and to tell everyone you know what a crap place it is, yeah -- you have the right to utilize your right to free speech and picket the restaurant from public property, or start a web page, and utterly ruin their livelyhood, but to physically interfere by doing that, that's different. To sabotage someone in the act of carrying out their duties, that's different. How would that work in a real restaurant? I'm guessing you'd just take it and move on, but I'd like to know... I was halfway wondering if Ramsay might jump over the counter and bitchslap her, or drag her out of the place by her collar, like he did with his line cooks. It almost made me feel sorry for the prick, to see him stand there and just call for security, like all impotent; all bark and no bite.

I dunno what Guy Food is. There's yer big steaks and huge burgers, but that's not as much a reflection of maleness, as much as an inverse reflection of some womens' desire to eat light and achieve that oh-so-sexy Nichole Richie Bag-O-Anters look.

The Slashdot article says foodie is just an alternative to gourmet or epicurist, since the latter two have negative, elitist connotations -- but I've also seen people say that foodies are elitists... Of course, in this day and age, you risk being called an elitist if you breath through your nose -- much less admitting to such extreme uber-snobbery as not liking McDonalds very much... Now people who cook, and people who don't cook can both be labelled foodies. Still, just because you cook doesn't automatically make you a foodie. Yet, methinks there ought to be two different words, to distinguish between foodies who cook, and those who don't...

That's really interesting; peculiar, that... Cannot look like what it is -- "clean." Is that to prevent the eater from realizing what the meat is, or where it came from?

Devotay, that's an excellent review... I only know of the book from an NPR interview with the author, which focused mainly on the food aspects of the book. Very interesting stuff, what you write about.

Have you considered asking? I mean, it COULD be oyster sauce. Or something else. Somthing traditional, that an informed egullet member might recognize and tell you about in this thread... But then again, it could just be a sauce that the cook made up him/herself, and thus the only chance you have of figuring this out, is to ask at the restaurant -- and by so asking, you'd even pay some respect to the cook by taking an interest. Win-win situation. Go ask em. And report back.

Yeah, baby, now that's living -- have another Bacon Martini, why dontcha?

I don't think Leonard can hack it anymore. I think Leonard's a Section Eight.