tino27

MSP?

I couldn't agree more.

That is one fantastic looking batard. And the grigne looks to be PERFECT.

I thought it was *I* who convinced you. Sniff, sniff. You call that *good* bread? Dude, we could've gotten that out of a freezer case and thawed it! I am obviously KIDDING and, again, can't tell you how much it meant to the Gathering that you made the herculean effort to drive all the way down and produce such incredible edibles for us. i think we're almost even for the foie in Ann Arbor. I think you should sell your story and become an ad rep for Best Western (think "no, but I slept at a Holiday Inn last night!"). You're the best. Again, thanks for being such a trooper. ← OK, it was a combination of Mr. Shaw's encouragement and your well-meaning harassment that changed my mind. And I'm beginning to think that it was one expensive piece of foie gras back in Ann Arbor (3 years ago, I might add) that I have now ALMOST paid back to you. Goodness, you're like a loan shark! Seriously though, I really had an outstanding 36 hours in Kansas City and between the dinner on Saturday and the brunch on Sunday at Crum Farm, I would totally do it all over again in a heartbeat. I also agree with MaggieTheCat ... why don't other regions do gatherings of their own?

Sorry I haven't said much since I returned, but it's just been a whirlwind of activity. I finally had a chance to sit down at the laptop, process all the pictures, upload them to the blog, blah, blah, blah. I'm intending to write a six-part series that will start this Friday and will cover pre, during, and post Heartland Gathering events. As many others have said, I wanted to thank Aaron and Judy for an outstanding job. I was only fortunate enough to be at the Saturday dinner and the Sunday brunch, but it was enough to remind me of why I return every year for the camaraderie, the fun, and the food. And of course, as always, there was never a short supply of any of them. Honestly, the thing that scared me the most was that my simple salt & pepper focaccia that I made for the cheese and hors d'oeuvre course would get lost amongst all the other breads and crackers that had been brought. I needn't have worried. By the time I remembered to get a shot of the interior crumb of the bread, only four squares were left. The dinner was also nothing short of amazing. I think we as a group have really started to grasp the concept of better portion control. It was also a blast helping out Edsel with his meat course. I never knew what it was like to rice 20 pounds of carefully cooked, cooled, and then reheated potatoes before last weekend. Now I know. I also wanted to extend a personal thank you to Mr. Shaw, who finally managed to convince me that I would be missing something very important if I didn't come to Kansas City this year. I'm not going to share a ton of the pictures that I took here on eG, simply because so many others are going to be sharing similar photos. Well, that and if I shared them all here, why on earth would you come visit my blog to see them there! However, one shot that I will share is probably one that is self-serving, but clearly demonstrates that you can make good bread in a professional kitchen as well as a room at the Best Western: Side shot of the rosemary and garlic focaccia crumb. From course #1 of the dinner on Saturday night. And don't worry, I plan on sharing the recipe and technique (words and pictures) for the focaccia bread on the blog so that anyone who'd like to try it is more than welcome to.

Lest you think Fat Guy is joking, I give you more than likely the first poolish ever created at a Best Western: Fat Guy measured out the bread flour while I measured out the active dried yeast. Add an equal amount of water (by weight) to the flour and yeast. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon to incorporate it all. Cover and let sit in a nice draft-free corner.

If it's italicized, is it still considered shouting? I, too, have already begun packing the equipment and ingredients necessary for the dough portion of the focaccia bread. Between moosnsqrl's generous donation of some fresh rosemary from her garden and a bulb of garlic, I should be all set.

Kris ... was your family's version done with thick-ish bread that was completely square (as opposed to having a crown on a regular loaf of store bought bread)? Texas toast to me is the actual bread as opposed to the fact that it had an egg cooked in the middle. Lots of places I remember growing up with used "Texas toast" style bread for things like grilled garlic bread and "French" toast. Of course, that may be the Bob Evan's background in me as well.

What about some type of flavored Italian Meringue? The egg whites are cooked when adding in the sugar syrup and think they would be fine out of refrigeration for a while.

Here in the Akron area, most people would say it's Strickland's custard. And Strickland's is all over the Akron area. However, there is a competitor in a suburb of Akron called Stoddard's in Stow, OH that also makes their custards from scratch. Both companies have daily flavors-of-the-day and both make excellent custard. I actually blogged about both of them in my entry "A Tale of Two Sliders". Ok, ok, shameless plug for my blog (see my signature), but they both really are nice local places to get a cool summer treat that offer something unique.

This has been annoying me for years. As a bagger in high school myself, I definitely remember being "trained" on how to bag things appropriately. And like other posters, I've tried the "send the heaviest items first" trick as well as the "feel free to pack them heavy" trick and I've also met with very limited success. And unfortunately, the "pack them heavy" trick usually results in twice as many plastic bags as I actually need. I actually spend time at the front of the store de-bagging and disposing of the extra bags in the recycle bins. The biggest thing that strikes a nerve is when they pack something poisonous with perishable food items. That's just downright dumb!

This will work, however as we state in the instructions "If possible, to conserve our bandwidth, please copy and upload the badge to your own image-hosting service." I'll try to see if there are some general instructions written up for that anywhere, however because there are so many combinations of software and platforms out there, I'm not sure we can give universal directions. ← Oops, sorry Steven, I missed that directive. Wherever you end up putting the image (eGullet, your webserver, or a hosted service), the only thing that needs to change is the "src" value (src = source) in the <img> tag. Just change it to point to the URL where the image is actually located.

In Blogger/Blogspot, you would add a new HTML widget and then paste one of the following lines of HTML in, depending on the size of the logo you wish. Take your pick (they go from smallest to largest): <a href="http://egullet.org/ethics"><img src="http://egullet.org/egethics/eGethics_88x31.gif"/></a> <a href="http://egullet.org/ethics"><img src="http://egullet.org/egethics/eGethics_120x60.gif"/></a> <a href="http://egullet.org/ethics"><img src="http://egullet.org/egethics/eGethics_125x125.gif"/></a> Edited for clarity and misspellings.

I was in exactly this situation several weeks ago. Several friends and I went to the hottest new restaurant and only when the check was brought to the table did we learn that the desserts were comped (nothing else). Of course, I fully disclosed the comped desserts in my write-up, but since I ordered it and ate the course with the understanding that I would pay for the course, by the time the bill came, I had already formed an opinion. Does that in any way change my obligations to my readers?

Obviously Raymond Blanc thought that they were trainable too. I can't find a more definitive link, but it was reported on the Digital Spy forum in the uk (here) that they were to spend 3 months training at Le Manoir, although I haven't heard anything about them since. In the UK the finale of the series was broadcast in October, but the last that I heard RB was still searching with Michelle and Russell for a suitable place to open a restaurant. In the meantime they have spent the time training at both Le Manoir and at RB's "Brasserie Blanc" restaurants around the country. (We live near Oxford so the local radio and TV interview Raymond Blanc and the contestants from time to time). ← You are correct. A link I found on another food site linked directly to Raymond Blanc's blog and in a February 3rd, 2009 post, he basically said what you posted. I think the issue was two-fold: giving Russell and Michele as much overall training as possible as well as the fact that right now just isn't the best time to be opening a new restaurant, especially with neophytes running it. Ah, look, it was still in my browser's cache. The link is here.

Having watched my fair share of Top Chef, I know that how the episode is cut can keep the suspense up until that final moment when the reveal happens. However, in this episode, I overwhelmingly felt that Russel and Michele had won even before Raymond made the announcement. Especially right at the end of service after Russel's cookies(?) fell out of the oven aboard the train and it looked as though Raymond offered, if not assistance, certainly empathy for unexpected disasters in the kitchen. Besides, just based on how the found sounded, eating James' gummy risotto, cold lobster, and bitter turnips would've turned me away right then and there.

Before the terms "pre-cooked" and "cooked-to-order" get too out of control, when I used it earlier, I meant it in a restrictive way in addition to my earlier definition of fast food. Thus, fast food to me is food where once you place your order and pay for it, the staff quickly assembles the order using pre-cooked ingredients/components. Maybe that statement only works well in the context of burger joints. That was why when Fat Guy mentioned Fuddruckers earlier, it failed the test for me since they cooked the burgers to order.

Two that pop into my head immediately where you pay first are Ponderosa and Old Country Buffet. However, I'll concede the point to people bringing/refilling drinks and clearing plates.

"pizza is not fast food according to one person's proposed taxonomy" That's me, just bucking the trends. Honestly, if QSR had been bothered to ask my opinion first, then we wouldn't be in this quandry, now would we? I realize as much as the next eG'er that pinning down an exact definition to one succinct sentence is probably like trying to herd cats. And before Fat Guy skewers me again with another example (just kidding, there, FG ), even though the original poster was concerned about what makes a burger "fast food" or not, since we've broadened the scope to consider non-burger items, what about buffets? edited for spelling

So what would you say about the pizza chains, where you're always going to wait a bit for your pizza? Or a place like Fuddruckers, where the burgers are made to order, you go away from the counter, they call your number (or flash your pager) and you come back up for the food? ← I guess my simplest response would be that I don't consider most pizza places (here in Ohio) to be fast food. I think they get lumped in because so often we call ahead to place the order and then when we get there, the transaction of paying for your order and receiving your food happens fairly quickly. I think perhaps the thought that I was missing before in my earlier theory is the notion of assembling your order from mostly pre-cooked ingredients. In the '70s and '80s, if you ordered a burger from McDonalds, it came from a warming bin (as Holly said earlier in his post). While that doesn't happen today, the burger patties are cooked ahead and then the sandwich is assembled in real-time. With this additional notion, Fuddruckers wouldn't be considered fast food, since the patties are cooked-to-order (it's been several years since I've eaten there, but that seems to be my recollection). Pizza, on the other hand, is a little trickier. With the exception of Sbarro in the food courts of most malls here in Ohio, when people get pizza they are usually ordering a whole pie, which is cooked-to-order. Thus, not fast food. In the case of Sbarro (and I'm sure lots of joints in NYC), you can walk in and get a slice or two of a pre-cooked pie that is rewarmed in the oven. That to me is fast food. So, if a joint offers pre-cooked slices and cooked-to-order pizzas, they would live in a dual universe of being both a place that offers fast food and non-fast food. I suppose that introduces the question of whether you can really label a restaurant "fast food" or just the items they serve as "fast food". Which, if my memory is serving me this morning, was something that was discussed several posts back.

I think we may be unnecessarily burying ourselves in semantics. I think the clock starts at the moment you step up to the counter to order. If you order, pay for the food, and then receive the food, that is fast food. Regardless of how long it took you to get to the front of the line. The amount of time you are willing to wait in line is dependent on other suitable substitutions, perceived value/taste, and time available to you and others with you. I'm sure we've all been in a situation where we are traveling and pull off at the next exit only to discover that 3 buses are sitting in the McDonald's parking lot and the Burger King across the street is empty. Unless you have a real hankering for McDonalds, a real distaste for Burger King, or lots of time on your hands, most people I know would pick the restaurant where they will be able to get to the front of the line quicker. Both restaurants could clearly be labeled "fast food", even though the time from driving in to driving out would be different.

I'm happy with a 98% inclusivity ratio.

I think that brings in the subcategory of "junk food". If I order it from Crif Dogs, it is both fast food and junk food. If I order it from PDT, it is not fast food, but it is junk food. (Please, I'm passing no judgment on Crif Dogs ... I've never even had it. I just used it as an example to follow up on Steven's question.)

I've been interestingly reading this discussion. And while it's hard to precisely pigeon-hole the quality and time required to prepare the burger, for me what differentiates fast food versus non-fast food is when the transaction takes place. If I pay for my meal before I get it (and generally no tip is involved), this to me is fast food. If I pay afterward, then it is not. Paying up front also goes along with the theory that you are at the eating establishment only long enough to finish your meal.

I think Denise needs to be introduced to our good friend, Valium. While I can understand trying to do damage control, saying that, "overweight, unhealthy individuals would NEVER find what we do pleasurable because they are accustomed to eating grease, meat, toxic waste and sugar" will do more to alienate potential customers than what the original reviewer said. I am not vegetarian/vegan, but do occasionally dine that way if I feel a restaurant has a nice selection of those foods. Reading this type of response by an owner makes me steer clear of a place like this, regardless of how good or fresh the food is.