msp

Thanks for all your input. Hope the piece turns you on to a new Garden State goody or two. Marge

My children were required to read the newspaper (NYT) every day in grammar school, and were tested on "current events" once a week. Through sixth grade, they were able to converse about a broad range of topics (as long as there was no real depth to the conversation). When they moved on to middle school and were no longer required to read the paper, they both stopped. And didn't replace it with any other source for getting the news. As proud as I was of my little fourth graders, I think the school did a disservice by starting them before they were really interested. I'm hoping they'll rediscover the world beyond their friends and their teenage interests by the time they go to college. In the meantime, I will blame both their grammar school and the hormones that surge through most kids from 13-18 that enable them to make adamant, sweeping statements about how dumb and wrong most polititians are without having to read the newspaper. Russ, you give me hope.

I'm in search of delicious and/or unusual food products, such as jams, sauces, candy, etc, for a story I am working on. Got any favorites? (Besides Bobolink cheeses!)

The article was about classic Korean food, and about recommending the best of the Korean restaurants we found. Actually, there are many more than 27 restaurants in Pal Park. That's how many we counted in the most dense stretch of Borad Ave, but more are nestled into the side streets.

Hwang Hae Do is not a particularly "authentic" Korean restaurant, as it's owner/manager confirmed to me in an interview. He takes pride in the fact that they are serving fare with unusual twists and tweaks. The fare starts from a North Korean foundation, but it is not classic. The variations are not merely changes in the amount of spiciness or regional influence, but manipulation of flavors, ingredients and balance.

I thought it was Umbrian, no? I am also a fan....

And I believe that the longer you're at it, the more you're able to balance the poor paying and extremely rewarding works with the more lucrative less stimulating ones. But I agree with Russ...sometimes, the very act of making a humdrum topic interesting through good writing is reward enough. ('Though never when i'm sweating blood to do so) And when you're at it a good long time, then you get paid enough for the juicy stuff, and do the other that much less. I figure when I'm 90, maybe...or at least when my kids have graduated college (just shy of 90)

That is not the point. If I get paid for my work, and someone uses it for free without my permission, haven't they stolen it? Don't I deserve to get paid for every use of my work?

There are a lot of us who DO make our money coming up with recipes (clever or not), and few of us work exclusively with professional chefs...most of us develop those recipes in our own kitchens, working by ourselves or with an assistant. We are often paid a fee per recipe, and for the rights for that recipe to be published for a specific length of time and in specific venues. Magazine x pays me $xxx for North American publishing rights in their magazine/web site for six months, after which the rights revert back to me. I may then choose to add the recipe to my next book, sell it again to another magazine (for a lesser fee) or sell it as part of a package of recipes to, say, a web site. That is MY intellectual property, and I see it appearing on a web site, with no attribution and no fee paid to me...multiplied by the hundreds of times it happens... I also am sometimes paid for those "re-appearances", through Authors' Registry, which tracks the use of my work and gets me paid for it. Those payments are legally classified as royalties.

I make a living, supporting two children, from food writing. I don't always get to write about topics that thrill me to the core, or develop recipes that I love. But sometimes, I get to do both. And that's what keeps me going. Story ideas may come from me-- in which case I talk to the editor whose readers I think will be the best fit for the topic. Understanding a publications' reader gives me a better starting point in my relationship with the editor, and makes the editing process run more smoothly (most of the time). Editors also come to me with story ideas. On rare occasionas, I will turn a story down because it is not a good fit with my expertise/style/interest/belief system. But most of the time, I learn as I write and develop the editors' idea. I've had great editors who make me a better writer and editors who make me feel ashamed, after they've hacked away, that a story still carries my by-line. I've published pieces where not one word is changed, and pieces that are greatly re-worked. (Recipes, in my experience, are rarely changed). Every story has it's own story, and that-- along with a never-ending supply of subjects-- what keeps food writing always interesting.

Why do we think the drop off in business is because of SARS? Have other NJ Chinese restaurants experienced the same drop off in business? I ask because I have recieved PMs indicating China 46 lost business specifically because of fears of SARS...

Oh dear, was I just likened to a suburban Sally Struthers??? I am baffled that my meaning was so frighteningly misconstrued. I certainly would not attempt to "guilt" anyone into giving to charity. In fact I was responding to an avid diner-out remarking that the cost seemed steep. It was merely the value of the $150 to which I was pointing.

The point of this event is to raise money for people-- families, children, who don't have enough money to put food on the table. Have you ever been hungry? Truly, painfully hungry?The kind of hunger that sears through your belly, making you feel hot and cold and weak, that takes over your brain so there seems to be nothing in the world to think about except your need to eat. Now seat yourself at your favorite restaurant. It's the end of the meal and you are uncomfortably full. You've been sitting there for hours, and the place is ready to close. In the kitchen, the chef looks at his counter with dismay. He cooked more than he needed, and now it will have to be tossed. It's so easy, so obvious. All we have to do is get that extra food to the child who can't think about anything other than the pain of hunger. All we have to do is pay for the refrigerated trucks that bring the food where it's needed-- for ELEVEN CENTS A MEAL!!! So let's look at the $150. That meal we just ate cost, say, $50. (And it wasn't all-you-can-eat from top local chefs, either) So let's take the $50 out of the $150, leaving the evening costing $100. After all, we pay to eat under any circumstance. So we've given $100 for charity, while eating this great fare. For that $100 you just fed 909 meals to families. And regardless of your politics, please bear in mind the very, very important fact that the MAJORITY of hunger in New Jersey occurs in the working poor--people who have jobs and are doing the best they can. If you kept the $100, you might have eaten two meals with it. Please don't look at the cost of this event as what you might be willing to spend going out to dinner. Think of the 909 meals you got in addition to what you normally pay for yours. And then gloat about the power of your money, be proud of your choice to use it in such a smart way.

Slow Cooked Chicken 5 garlic cloves, slivered 3 T flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 2 lb chicken thighs 20 pimento stuffed green olives 20 dried prunes 1 T grated lemon peel 3 bay leaves 2 T fresh thyme 2 T honey 1 c Rioja wine 1 c orange juice 1/2 c loosely packed parsley, chopped Place the garlic in the slow cooker. -Combine the flour, salt and pepper on a plate. Dredge the thighs in the flour and set, flesh side down, in the slow cooker. -Distribute the olives, prunes, lemon peel and fresh thyme over the chicken. -Combine the honey, wine, and orange juice and pour over the chicken. Cook on low setting for 8 hours. -Serve chicken with pan juices and sprinkle generously with parsley. Keywords: Main Dish, Chicken, Crock Pot ( RG372 )

Let's talk food here. Of the umpteen million courses we shared that night, fellas, how many were memorable? How many were better than decent? How many were innovative, or elegant renditions of classics, or...delicious??? Or service: the famous "we've put it away" cheese incident, and the meals brought to and then sitting on the table when one diner left between courses to powder her nose. Or price: a tasting menu with adaquate wines for $360 per person. THREE HUNDRED SIXTY DOLLARS PER PERSON FOR MEDIOCRE FOOD AND FLAWED AMATUERISH SERVICE. No wonder the dining room was empty that night, and no wonder the place is shuttered.