Philanthrophobe
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Posts posted by Philanthrophobe
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Why, when I saw the commercial, a violent shudder of shock and dismay caused me to drop my whole bowl of TaterTots! thereby ruining my copy of People Magazine!
What does Appleby's need with Tyler Florence? I think he ought to mosey on over to IHOP: they need the help.
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Excellent article.
I live in Las Vegas. I've said this before and I'll repeat it: we're the Mall of America of the restaurant industry. We're also the Disneyland of gluttony. And all of the money Steve Wynn throws at the latest celebrichef won't change that. We're all about pretense and artifice and bright shiny objects. --which is great if you like that sort of thing.
The real test of any city's praise-worthiness regarding its cuisine should be "Can I get a decent tomato within city limits without having to shop at Whole Ass Foods?"
I'd give my firstborn to live within range of the farmers' markets, produce stands, and the fishing/crabbing sites I had available to me when I was a kid. [sob]
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As for the food - it confirms what I have always believed. If I could make Indian food well, I could almost become a vegetarian - you don't miss the meat with the intense flavors of those Indian dishes.
The trick is to buy the spices from an Indian source, not your standard supermarket--there can be substantial differences. My local Indian grocery has tons of different spices, specialty produce, and lots of Bollywood DVDs. --which I'm a freak for.
This was another remarkable episode, and such a relief after Pivenfest. I didn't scream, "GET THE HELL OFF THE CAMERA, PIVEN!" even once.
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Just one example: my copy of the 1970s-era Joy of Cooking. Frankly, a lot of the recipes just don't spin my propeller. I can't remember the last time I used a recipe out of it, either straight or, well, warped. But hey--what a terrific compendium of info! If I ever had to do the survivalist thing, I'd be all set with instructions on how to skin a squirrel!
Yes, yes, yes!!! I bought the new JoC and almost tossed the old version, but when I realized that the new version didn't have the squirrel recipes I changed my mind. --Not that I have ever eaten squirrel, nor been in a position that required that I disassemble one. (I have White Trash Cooking I and II for the same reason. Because someday the world could blow up and one might be reduced to eating possum. Or something.)
Having said that, the cookbooks I have found myself discarding sooner or later are ones that are more on the frou-frou side, devoted to very exquisite fancy dishes that are long on beauty and presentation, and giving reference-type material short shrift. Lacking such underlying meatiness, such foofy books just don't have any staying power for me. But even if a book is frou-frou-ed out to the max, if it does have any useful reference material in it at all (say, an appendix of interesting sauces and stocks, or an illustrated glossary of ingredients previously unfamiliar to me), I'll still hang onto it.In other words, I'm not at all against food porn, but I majorly prefer porn with redeeming social value as opposed to purely gratuitous porn.
Right there with you on this as well!
I bypass coffee table-style cookbooks: I don't need the photos which are probably visible from space, I need information. I'm always afraid of cookbooks with a celebrity chef's name attached to it--or, in fact, celebrities of any stripe. I tend to get these as gifts from my food-impaired friends sometimes--I eventually swap them for something else. (the books, not the friends. Heh heh.)
And because I have a seriously stupid amount of cookbooks, I'm trying to weed out the one-trick ponies, so I guess the old Joy of Cooking really should go...
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Unsalted fries are just wrong, and I don't care that one serving has 1378% of my daily allotment of sodium. If I wanted healthful food, I wouldn't have asked for fries in the first place.
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The Wei-Chuan series are loaded with photos, as are the Quick & Easy series published by JOIE, Inc./Japan Publications.
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People complain that one city is just like another, but they don't know how to travel, or they aren't willing to put in the research. I travel all the time to places full of cookie-cutter chains, and I almost always find terrific, unique places to eat. In fact, some of the best restaurants I know are in suburban strip malls. Why does it matter to me that the chains are going higher end?
I see I changed my .sig quote just a bit too soon. (It had been a quote from Jane Jacobs, recounted in her obituary: "The most awful thing is when you go to a city and it's like 12 others you've seen.")
For better or worse, no one can say that about Las Vegas. It is to urbanism what hip-hop is to music. It serves up recognizable samples of other cities as part of a larger fantasy. It should be only natural, then, that the city extended this practice to other cities' fancy restaurants--and that chefs in those cities willingly played along.
Las Vegas has worked hard to bill itself as the place where the middle class can be naughty (and maybe spy a drunk idiot like Paris Hilton doing something tiresome). In the process, we've become the Mall of America of restaurants. (--well, that and the place where anemic old rock groups go to die. Anyone up for a little Air Supply?)
Great article, jayrayner!
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What are the 3 best places for BBQ in Las Vegas? I want to be ready and I love BBQ. I know there are top flight places and I want to taste bbq.
Here's the discussion thread link to Memphis Championship Barbecue. They have three locations in the Las Vegas area. They have a cookbook that got nominated for a Beard Award. Unfortunately, the book didn't win. But the ribs are great!! And they don't boil their ribs, thank God!
joiei, it sounds like you are very focused on one thing, ehh?
Thanks, rjwong!--especially since my link is screwy!
John Curtas, the food critic for our local NPR station, thinks they're the best in the city. I think he's right.
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I was at Target today, and I saw a guy in their food court putting mayonnaise on a hot dog.
I know, I know...I've got to start frequenting better restaurants.
Why does Target even have mayonnaise anywhere near hot dogs?
Frankly, it took me some time to get used to the Eastern habit of putting mayonnaise where ketchup should go.
Eastern? Eastern? Listen, I grew up on the east coast, and I also worked at a hot dog stand in high school (impressive, yes?); I never saw anyone put mayo on hot dogs until I moved to Detroit and hosted visitors from Ohio. I just figured it was part of the whole white gravy phenomenon.
And I think I remember reading somewhere that people in Utah are excessively fond of mayonnaise. (-- and Jello.)
Oh, and I add Claussen's sweet pickle relish to the mustard/ketchup mix!
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What are the 3 best places for BBQ in Las Vegas? I want to be ready and I love BBQ. I know there are top flight places and I want to taste bbq.
We really like Memphis Championship Barbeque! (But don't you live closer to the real deal?)
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I do have to say that we were quite put off when being entertained by a visiting British friend and his associate at a very elite Newport Beach club. We were given a lovely table and after we had just begun our first courses, another couple arrived and were seated directly next to us. We were the only two parties in the room.
We didn't say anything--it really should have been up to the newer party, but we haven't been back since."It really should have been up to the newer party"---are you serious? Or do you really expect absolute strangers to intuit your own notions of personal space? (Although I have a sneaking suspicion that Maison Rustique wrote this with tongue planted firmly in cheek, I still have to ask...)
I've known a few delicate rosebuds who feel that an experience will be "ruined" if the outcome is not just so. The characteristics that contibute to this sort of personality include outsized feelings of entitlement; insanely high expectations (perfection is always just beyond grasp); control issues (expressed as a need to impose one's own values on others); selfishness/lack of regard for others; and the inability to compromise or tolerate disappointment. And I have no idea why they behave this way because it just puts people off-- they're forever cycling through new batches of friends.
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I took my date to one of the finest restaurants in New York for a special occasion. "Halfway through the main course...another couple was seated directly next to us," even though there were "several empty tables!" Our "intimate dinner was ruined."
Where do these people get off. Couldn't they tell we wanted to be alone? And when I brought the matter to their attention they look at me like I was crazy! I could even see the other party talking about as behind their napkins.
My date was completely devastated, and wouldn't eat again for days. Even my dog, sensing something was amiss, wouldn't touch the left over foie gras I brought home for him.
I was so embarrassed I asked my credit card company to refuse to honor the payment for dinner, but they said even accute embarrassment isn't reason enough for them to take action. (and I almost always make my minimum monthly paymen to them on time!)
What's this world coming to? I wrote a letter to Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post so he can alert his readers to the shockingly insensitive and inept behavior of this establishment's staff.
I figured this was the only place I could find a sophisticated enough audience to commiserate with me.
SB
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Spouse and I are introverts; we take this into account when we venture into the world of Other People. We KNOW that we're the weirdos with personal space issues. So, we either ask to not be seated directly next to other diners--nicely, and if the restaurant is mostly empty (which we largely accomplish by going during off-hours). Otherwise, we deal with it. We have the choice to not eat at a place that won't accomodate our oddness; to impose our issues on an entire establishment is patently ridiculous.
So, what, exactly, is this guy's problem? That the server didn't read his mind? Oh, wait, I get it: his poor communication skills are the restaurant's fault. If I were Tom Sietsema, I would've blasted this precious little assmonkey into the stratosphere. --but that's just me.
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I was on, like, a second date with an MIT student whom I wanted desperately to impress. We went to a Japanese restaurant. He ordered for me. Raw fish and bits arrived; the restaurant was a sushi place. I was thoroughly confused: I'd fished all my life, and I knew bait when I saw it. I surreptitiously asked the server if I might have my fish cooked. She was shocked, and my date was incredulous. I've never felt like such a rube in my life.
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Very, very proud of the Border episode--and taking a lot of shit for it. We shot the thing a few months ago--before the full xenophobic furor--and I couldn't be happier about the timing.
****
I'd really planned to do nothing more than explore the "Who's actually doing the cooking" thing--something of a personal cause for me--and look at another side of Texas and Texans than the stereotypical one--and was surprised at the blowback from some really angry angry people...
Well, sure : this episode showed that Mexicans are, gasp, people! --instead of an evil, cunning sea of brown seeping across our border! --hell-bent on exposing white folks to the horrors of Spanish grammar! --right before they steal all the migrant worker jobs from white college graduates! How dare you!!?? Damn you, Travel Channel!!
We cheered. Loudly. You and your crew have achieved Stephen Colbert status in our house.
Oh yeah, and the food looked amazing.
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...one episode featured Morgan Freeman, and another Penn & Teller....
I caught both of those. The Freeman one was good only for one single reason -- there was a very brief shot, that shows Freeman with a facial expression that made him look as if he was thinking "Jesus, is there a VOLUME button on this woman?" when she was having a particularly spastic moment...
I saw that!!!! It was priceless. Ah, memories.
And I'm completely with you re the P&T episode. The producers could've subbed in Steve and Edie Gourmet and no one would've been the wiser.
Correction: It's Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.
Yes, kids, it's true: drinking while typing produces curious thoughts and random spelling.
But back to Rachael Ray....
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...one episode featured Morgan Freeman, and another Penn & Teller....
I caught both of those. The Freeman one was good only for one single reason -- there was a very brief shot, that shows Freeman with a facial expression that made him look as if he was thinking "Jesus, is there a VOLUME button on this woman?" when she was having a particularly spastic moment...
I saw that!!!! It was priceless. Ah, memories.
And I'm completely with you re the P&T episode. The producers could've subbed in Steve and Edie Gourmet and no one would've been the wiser.
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Papa Murphy's pepperoni pizza, tarted up with any kind of brown mushrooms, pickled peppers, pine nuts, olives, and fistsful of extra oregano and fresh garlic.
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I adore my own company, and so, I relish eating alone. Especially in a restaurant with good food, and comfortable seating. I can eat and giggle with myself, people watch, and read a book. Write a bit, eat some more. All by myself. Yay! I'm a very social creature, my friends can't believe that I go out of my way to eat out by myself. But, hey, I'm my very oldest, closest and best friend! My second favorite alone outing is the cinema, or a lecture.
Exactly! Besides, if you want to try out new anything, what are you supposed to do? Wait until others decide "oh, okay, we guess we'll go"?? That's just crazy talk. (I used to go solo to opera performances years ago when I had access to such things.)
And I've never had even the slightest problem being treated as anything other than a paying customer. It's always been a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
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My favorite ( that I can't find anymore ) is "Great Chefs of . . . " .
D.B., are you thinking of her "Celebrities I Can Get" show? I can't remember the real title, but one episode featured Morgan Freeman, and another Penn & Teller....
How many shows has she had, anyway?
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This borax-based liquid works well too, but not such a good idea if pets and kids have access. But we've used it for years with excellent results.
The Gardens Alive site has some great stuff.
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Add me to the list of women who don't care for chocolate. I don't hate it, but I don't care for it all that much either. I also don't like anything sugary; other flavors have to be present to balance or counteract the sugar. I love carrot cake, for example. But buttercream frosting? GAAAAAAAAK.
And any sort of mealy fruit is revolting.
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The conventional Western terms "ethnic" and "generic" are culturally biased, because they are meant to distinguish between things that are "not white" and things that are "white."
I disagee. At least, that's not how I would interpret the terms. To me, the term "ethnic market" has always meant, very simply and just as the dictionary would seem to imply, a market that specifically caters to a particular group of people associated with a particular geographic derivation or ancestry. That would include, for example, the local Italian or Armenian or German or Polish or French (or whatever) markets that are largely run by, and cater to, caucasian persons. I've never understood "ethnic market" to mean "market catering to nonwhites," and I don't think that most other people do either.
Although I absolutely understand that "ethnic" might be misunderstood as "non-white," I too equate it with "having roots more closely associated with other cultures." When I say "ethnic markets" as I did in my post upthread, I was specifically thinking about the Korean market, the Indian market, the Lebanese market, the Russian market (I forget which country), the two pan-Asian markets, and the Latino market I go to. (I actually have a route and hit them all on the same day.) And additionally, we're lucky enough to have a huge store here called International Marketplace: half the store is pan-Asian, and the other half, everything else not-U.S. So, yeah, I do use the phrase, "ethnic markets," but only to my husband when I tell him where I'm going. However, if I do use language that offends others (including my mom), I'd like to know about it. Ethnocentrism is a sneaky SOB.
But back to the question of unkempitude, most of the shabby/dirty markets I've seen were either A) in impoverished neighborhoods, or B) run by people occupying the lower end of the economic range. I've seen some pretty filthy 7-11s.
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Okay, to reiterate, I'm not talking about produce here, where "dirt" -- otherwise known as "earth" -- is to be expected. The produce in the Chinatown markets is fresher and cheaper than what's in conventional markets, and I have no qualms about buying it.
What I'm referring to is dented and rusty cans, bottles and jars that are weeping their contents, and other signs that the integrity of previously manufactured products has been breached.
Some interesting points have been brought out in this discussion about imported products not always faring well in transit, and larger markets being able to afford more staff to dust and arrange the merchandise.
But I still get the impression that general grunginess of shelf-stable areas of the store is more acceptable in ethnic markets, and I'm still curious as to why.
This thread touches on a lot of very interesting issues. I'd like to return to the question of "cultural prejudice," because I think it is both important and in need of clarification. It strikes me that a number of responses to this question interpret the idea of cultural prejudice as straightforwardly pejorative, and I take issue with this. If one holds an evaluative stance (either positive or negative) towards a type of state of affairs and associates that type of state of affairs primarily with certain cultures that are identified as "ethnic" or "not generic", then it seems pretty obvious that cultural bias is involved. The conventional Western terms "ethnic" and "generic" are culturally biased, because they are meant to distinguish between things that are "not white" and things that are "white."
HOWEVER, this does not mean that anyone who uses these terms is a bad person. My opinion is that we would be better off if Westerners didn't divide the world up into "ethnic" things and "generic" things. But I am no less guilty of doing this than most people (and I am not white). Moreoever, I don't think that experiencing aversion to the conditions of some "ethnic" markets makes one guilty of racism or some other equally horrible moral crime. The really important question seems to be whether the aversion is unwarranted.
One way to approach the question is to try to discern whether or not "our" standards of cleanliness are better or worse than "their's." I think this is a mistake. A person may be able to change his or her current standards to some extent. But if that person has tried to be open minded by is still really disgusted by things like bottles leaking their contents, and continues to be enculturated in a society in which bottles leaking their contents is typically deemed unacceptable, changing one's own (or possibly someone else's) standards is going to be a pretty frustrating task.
Another way to approach the question is to try to discern how the aversion affects one's attitudes and behaviour towards the people associated with the aversion. Does the seemingly dirty market make the people associated with it seem dirty, less civilised, backwards, etc.? I think this is a more fruitful approach.
I really hope that this post does not offend anyone, because that is not my intention. I think the question of cultural prejudice is extremely important and difficult, and I also think that it is extremely relevant to those of us who want to discuss food culture thoughtfully.
Whoa. Awesome post!!
Steak in Vegas
in Southwest & Western States: Dining
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Has anyone been to the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn Resort yet? The menu looks killer. (I'd add a direct link were one available, but just go here and follow the prompts. The site's a bit pokey.)