danf

Critiques of elitism in a design magazine? I know the guy's got to get his work out somewhere and he probably has a relationship with this publication but come on. Does this antagonism really do anyone all that much good in the long run? How many people fit squarely into one side of this argument? How many are 100% invested in either Slow Foods or the world that could be imagined from Mr. Sterling's critique? I would think that of those reading this site, it is a minority that maintain strict allegiance at all times. The future of food on this planet is not something to take lightly but a lot of these arguments seem about as enlightening as the exchange between two tables in a high school lunch room. There is a lot to caricature about Slow Foods-ish people (capitalized as representatives of the formalized organization) and it seems to me like they can be particularly easy to wind up. But Slow Foods as an organization has a right to defend itself against pompous attacks like this one, and the original poster has done a great job as an emissary of his group. But whenever an organization or a person sets themselves as an authority (let alone a global authority) it (and its adherents) should be ready to take some serious shots. I think it would also do Slow Foods well to try to disassociate itself from the overall foodie/foodblog population that sort of provide most of the ammunition for people to attack its good ideas. Overwrought descriptions of super-expensive butter or salt don't really have anything to do with SF, but in my mind and probably in the minds of a lot of other people they are easily conflated. Too bad those are probably your biggest fans and supporters. anyways...

Damn, that's awesome.

I was thinking of some kind of layered bird thing after I had them all deboned and flat on the table, it would have definitely done away with some of the more annoying parts of this thing, namely putting it back together and keeping it in one piece. I like the idea of this being "so last millennium." I wonder who decided that the turducken was no longer to be "done" after 2000. I can see how it doesn't really have that much glamour appeal but come on, look at it, its not supposed to be serious. Maybe if I had made with local birds, heirloom cornbread stuffing and cooked it sous vide? or some "molecular" turducken - chicken, duck and stuffing caviar surrounded by laser fried turkey skin? Anyways, I'm sure there will always be someone willing to stuff/stack any food with any other food and cook it.

Wrigleyville Turducken Project Result: So it's done and eaten, it was tasty, but it was a lot of work that might have been better spent just roasting the birds individually and enjoying them that way. As a brag-y cooking project it was worth it, but probably only once. All of the flavors kind of blend together, all of the birds and stuffing and skin and it makes some kind of super bird, that while tasty might not equal to the sum of its parts. I saw the pre-cooked chicken in a youtube video of someone's turducken, it seemed like a good idea. With so much meat mass I liked the idea of giving the inside of the bird a head start. I did not chill it, it sat on top of the stove in its pan until being placed on the construction. I must confess I probably violated lots of food safety rules on this one, but so far everyone is ok. It was really hard to get everything all lined up an done at the same time so there was probably too much sitting. Definitely this is an occasion food. It was a two day project, I did do most of it myself (except for the sewing and trussing when I had an assistant) so maybe if everyone took their own bird it would be done faster. It is also crazy heavy, physical weight wise and in your stomach. That might have been the butter and duck fat and gravy, but even without that you are going to get really full really fast.

Wrigleyville Turducken Project Results: It actually worked, all the meat was cooked and was quite tasty. Drippings made some really great gravy as well. Would I do it again...eh, probably not, better to have all of the birds have their own tastes rather than all muddled together but as a technical project it was pretty fun. Hope everyone else enjoyed their evening, I could have cared less about the game even with the shocker finish, but at least the food was good. Thanks Shelby, my "trussing" used the same technique I use to wrap bundles of tree prunings and lawn garbage, apparently these landscape skills can work in the kitchen to.

Wrigleyville Turducken Project Report Part 1: PREP: Tools: Where it all went down: Bird 1 - Chicken (note unfollowed instructions in upper left): Bird 2 - Duck - no picture, not really worth taking one, I wanted to take the skin off and in doing so I was left pretty much with a random pile of meat and two breast, even less photogenic than the other ones. Bird 3 - Turkey (post brining - forgot to take the picture the night before): The aftermath (not shown - totally stuffed fridge or gross floor): Duck Fat and Skin Rendering: ASSEMBLY Chicken (stuffed and tied for pre-cooking) Duck on Stuffing on Turkey: Chicken on Stuffing on Duck on Stuffing on Turkey: Sewn Up (yes the other side is done to, it just looked really bad): Trussed Up (first try ever at this, did not go awesome): Buttered Up - Ready for the oven (and only an hour late):

Wrigleyville Turducken Project Live: So liveblogging the turducken wouldnt work, too much poultry in the keyboard. This is a midway updated. It's in the oven as we speak, hopefully it will be ready to eat around game time. I'll post the rest of the gory bird shots over in a turducken thread. This is what is looked like ready for roasting. Yeah that's butter on top, and fatty (18lbs with bones) down there barely fit into a roasting pan. I know the trussing is probably wrong, this was the first time I've had to do it, but its the best we could do with a bird stuffed with two birds and no bones.

I suppose the internet should know that in a drink-addled fit of culinary bravado I told various friends and relatives that I would cook anything they could come up with for the superbowl. Turns out that means I am making a turducken. I'm not quite sure how this happened, every large meal I've ever made for these folks has been Thai, Vietnamese, or some combination of S and SE Asian food, and this is what they come up with. At least I'm not paying for the materials and I'll get bones for stock. Preparations start tonight after work...

OK, second post to Dinner, the one before probably shouldn't count as this one kind of blows it out of the water. This is the Cooks Illustrated butterflied roasted chicken, made with russets and sweet potatoes under the roasting rack. Served with Molly Stevens's braised green cabbage and a bottle of Two Brothers Prairie Path beer. I abandoned my fork about a minute into dinner and was just tearing at this with my hands. The skin was super crispy on top, I think that next time I'll flip the bird for part of the time to get the bottom as well. For anyone that hasn't tried this, the whole segment for the preparation is on youtube in three parts, just search high roast chicken.

proteins (tuna, chicken), canned fruit and vegetables and stuff thats pretty much a meal-in-the-can - soups, chili, pastas, etc. I definitely make sure to get cans with the easy open tops, I think my local pantry actually requires this. Also: shaving supplies, toothpaste, soap and other toiletries.

Putting everything in a McDonald's wrapper.

These are also called tuna, right? I just got some red ones from the market near me and, not really knowing any better, I've been peeling and eating them plain. I've found that they have tons of seeds though, I end up spitting a lot of pulp and large seeds into the sink. I've tried to cut them up to get around the seeds but it seems like they are everywhere in my fruit. Are these usually used more for juicing or preserves, which would deal with the seeds, or did I pick up a bad lot to eat?

Oh man, I love their veggie pizza. I don't think I've ever eaten in the restaurant itself but their pizzas were awesome at home to. peace

My first grocery shopping experience when I was studying in London was to a tiny Sainsbury down the street from my dorm. I bought regular groceries and was so intrigued by the brightly colored squashes and cordials that I couldn't help buying one (lemon I think). After getting back the dorm I unloaded my groceries put the squash in the fridge and a little bit later started drinking it straight out of the bottle. It was so awful that I spit it into the sink. Luckily no Britishers saw me. It wasn't until later that I saw the directions on the bottle to add water.

True srhcb, but dropping a grand on salumi for a one-year-old's birthday party or worrying so much about what particular guests will think of your food that you stop cooking for them seems pretty ridiculous. I totally like to impress people with my culinary ability (erm...such as it is) and ingredient selection (same) but I appreciate this article more on the satiric side. I really like the New York Times but in anything other than the news like the food or society section I read most of the stories as "LOL, rich new yorkers doing crazy things."

Shocking to hear that big-city wealthy folks now are using food to show off their position, they've never done anything like this before... Don't know much about NYC society, but that sounds totally on the money Busboy. People like this are in everywhere, I think their food obsession is probably just one more example of a whole bunch of other social competitions that the author of the article seems to want to just gloss over. I bet you that before these people were so into their food they were freaking about the breed of their pets or their wallpaper or whatever. Now there's just a new language to dinner party oneupmanship, instead of the money you spent now you can talk about the miles or the cultivar. It means the same thing but you sound like less of a jerk I guess. Purslane is just the new french bulldog. (those are cool right?) Thank you for the original post, it was entertaining on a boring morning at work. I laughed at that line about serving food copied from a restaurant being like reading a book with the Opera Book Club sticker. (an aversion that I am totally guilty of, btw)

At Jacob's Field in Cleveland, which was one of the parks built at the beginning of the new style of parks, the right field restaurant and the premium "club" seats are some of the better seats in the stadium. I haven't been in a while but the few times I got club seats it really did seem like a lot of people just spent the entire game waving down food and drinks service to their seats. I've always thought that Jacob's Field had a lot of people who showed up for something other than the game, but seriously, the food? I can remember a Sports Illustrate article from several year ago comparing the cuisine at each stadium (they may have done this more recently as well). The west coast stadiums fared much better in the comparison than most of the older east coast ones. I think they had the Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Los Angeles at the top but that was a while ago. For me it's always been a bag of in-the-shell peanuts and a soda, or more recently a beer.

My girlfriend is constantly mortified by my inability to correctly use chapati eat her mother's Indian food. By the end of the meal there are bits and pieces of food totally surrounding my place at the table and I never can get the hang of tearing off pieces of the bread with just one hand. I make up for it with the sheer quantity of the food I consume, so her mom has yet to get mad at the mess. I'm sure there are tons of others that I do though. ....wait a taco isn't supposed to be eaten all at once?

A couple more ideas... If you're in Cleveland Heights looking for (more) bread there is a bakery on Fairmount, in the little strip of shops just east of S. Taylor. I think its called "On the Rise" or something close to that. My sister used to work at the stationary shop next door and would bring us home bread at the end of the day, it's very good. And speaking of bagels, I always rep for Bialey's Bagles on the corner of Warrensville and Silsby. Also, a bit farther afield, there is a place in Lakewood called Melts Bar and Grilled that served a variety of unique grilled cheese sandwiches, all with great ingredients on fresh thick (Orlando Bakery?) bread. If you've ever wanted a grilled cheese with american cheese, sauerkraut, grilled peppers, and bratwurst (aka the Municipal Stadium) this is your place. It's a bar so the kitchen probably has longer hours. Address for the GPS: 14718 Detroit Ave. Lakewood, OH 44107 peace Dan

Hey white lotus, hope you enjoy your trip to Cleveland, I don't live there anymore but I grew up there and I've only been gone about a year and still love that city. I know there are tons of knowledgeable (and current) Clevelanders on this board that will have lots of suggestions for your trip but seeing your post on the front page I couldn't resist making some suggestions of my own. My biggest suggestion would be to visit the Ohio City neighborhood, just west of downtown across the river. You can see the awesome West Side Market for a wide selection of food (and it's cheap) if you want to do your own cooking or if just enjoy looking and old-style market in a great old building. It's also got some stalls selling cooked food that you can eat there - try a roll from Frank's Bratwurst. If you'd rather get some food from someone else's kitchen there's a bunch of places around there as well, all within walking distance from the market and from public transportation if you don't have a car (RTA red line West 25th stop). Some I would suggest: Phnom Pehn (Cambodian/Vietnamese) 1929 W25th Cleveland, Oh 44113 Great Lakes Brewery (local beer, American/pub food) 2516 Market Ave Nate's Deli (middle eastern) 1923 W. 25th St. Johnny Mango (Caribbean/etc) 3120 Bridge Ave Heck's Cafe (burgers) 2927 Bridge Ave. Have fun! peace Dan

I was just there on Saturday with my mom. I thought that it looked pretty good, it looks like the other whole foods I have been in, maybe a little smaller. It was pretty crowded and from what my mom told me it's been busy since it opened. My parents' house is a couple of blocks from cedar center so she's up there often enough to notice. It looked like quite a few people were hanging out in the cafe area at the front of the store and there was a big calendar with events going on at the store so it looks like whole foods is trying pretty hard to integrate into the neighborhood. Parking was kind of an issue, at least close to the store. The produce and bakery looked good, the butcher counter looked alright. We had already spent the whole morning at the west side market so we only picked up some bread. I can't comment on the quality of their stuff except for raisin bread which was good as french toast. It seems like a good store, certainly better than the tops that used to be across the street. Better than TJ's for produce, but more expensive. Probably not better than WSM or miles, but I might be biased. I've never been to mustard seed. seems like a nice place go check it out peace Dan

First time posting here but I've borrowed so much from this thread I though I should at least try to give something back. Dinner tonight was stir fried beef, swiss chard, spinach and onions. With szechuan peppercorns and five spice powder... It turned out really well and then I nearly ruined it by eating it over an absolutely horrid bag of uncle ben's instant microwave rice. There was this awful cloying sweetness from the rice that was not at all pleasant. I still ate all of it though, that's what happens when you're too hungry to wait to make real rice or noodles I guess.

Right, it is a really small part, but it's small part of something enormous. In terms of food and money moved, even a part of BK's breakfast sales has got to be more the sales of all of the restaurants that make a point of using ethical food products. If nothing else it could keep a few pork and egg producers out of a race-to-the-bottom approach when it comes to raising and slaughtering animals and that's got to be good for people that are concerned about where their food comes from. I'm far from a corporate apologist but, if there is going to be a Burger King I would like to see it at least make an attempt to make food that isn't ethically compromised. Of course this assumes this isn't part of some nefarious plan or dodge on BK's part.

While you can find hypocrisies in BK's move, to me it's at least a little encouraging that there are enough food producers that work in this relatively more humane fashion to supply the US's (world's?) second largest fast-food chain. I don't think Burger King would have switched if they weren't absolutely positive that they could keep the same volume of meat or whatever moving through their stores. Yeah, it's not much more than a marketing gimmick but it's better than introducing a super-huge new sandwich. Hopefully getting a corporation this big making at least a few "ethical" purchases will spur even more improvements in the food production industry, it's not really like there's any other incentives for huge industrial producers to re-think how they work. So not a bad start, but lets also consider where they're getting their lettuce, fruit, soft drinks, food containers, employee uniforms, restaurant locations, etc. before Burger King gets that ethical crown. peace Dan

I saw this trailer online a little while ago, this will be purchased for the apartment Wii. I look forward to the quick chopping and food flipping without all of the bleeding and dirty floors.