annabelle

Somehow, I don't believe I have ever tasted kaffir lime. Is it very similar to the limes grown in the US? The larger limes or Key limes? Does it get bitter upon standing, as that has been my experience with lime that is used to make limeade?

FWIW, one of my sons was a Film Major at University and those sounds of Tom's 'tooth-breaking' chewing are very easily dubbed in. That and the terrible continuity issues with filming/editing make this show less watchable every season. "this game show really should be called "Who Wants To Cook For Tom Colicchio & Co." (Win Money!!! Win Prizes!!!) rather than "Top Chef". " Excellent discription. Heh.

I have a bale of kitchen towels. Bar mops for wiping down countertops, cotton towels for drying hand-washed dishes. Flour sack towels (20 for $10 at the farm supply store) for a light drape over cooling cake layers and covering cooked rice that is done in the rice cooker, but is still steaming while being held for service. I use them for roling and storing salad greens from the garden, as well. I also have yards and yards of cheesecloth for squeezing lemons (no seeds) and spinach to remove maximum water. I have a jelly bag for making clear jellies and Greek yogurt. Cloth diapers as mentioned above are fantastic rags for cleaning, but I use them for polishing furniture and window glass, not in the kitchen. Paper towels are used for blotting bacon, draining sliced tomatoes and cukes. I use brown paper bags for fried items like chicken, fish, tempura and fries. I also have plain cotton towels that are striped and hang on the towel bar of my butcher's block island. These are mainly decorative, but sometimes get used for hand drying and then tossed in the hamper.

We have a Huckleberry Festival in July, but our weather is quite a bit warmer than yours. Birds are forever eating my tomatoes just as they are perfect. I need a new cat.

I love Ice Wine. Huckleberries aren't in season untill June, though. When was this filmed?

Oh, I agree Dave. Chef Hung was a joy to watch. I can still see him flying through cutting up four chickens in no time flat. Maybe the show has outlived its useful life? It seems to be more about personalities than cooking anymore. I really don't watch this show to see the chef's trash talk each other, drink beer and roll their eyes and make excuses about how they weren't able to execute their dishes. Cook already and do something really outstanding while you're at it.

For a show that is all about pushing the envelope, they do little of that. Pork belly, duck breast, pasta, ad infinitum. Nine times out of ten, not a chef can cook a piece of fish or chicken to suit them. And never, ever make risotto because Judge of Italian Descent will tell you that it sucks out loud and quite obviously you have no technique. Or crunchy pork belly.

Aha! I feel vindicated.

See, that's what I don't understand about Stefan's pork belly. He and Josh were eating the crunchy parts in the kitchen prior to service. How did it suddenly or seemly suddenly become so crunchy that Tom is claiming that he broke a tooth? (Which tooth-breaking I am dismissing as drama. If he'd truly broken a tooth, we'd have heard about it. Many, many times.) Personally, I think it was a different preparation of the pork belly than they are usually served plus the ravioli stuffed with parsnip which, according to Padma, eclipsed the flavors of the smoked eel. That also seems unusual since parsnips taste peppery and smoked eel is very strong-flavored. The description sounded good to me, but as we are always saying, we don't get to taste it. Next week, Sheldon would do himself some favors by cooking something that isn't Asian.

See Dave's post above. Crispy and crunchy are interchangable, to my mind.

I've not traveled outside the US other than to Mexico, so I couldn't tell you. I have had crisy pork skin cooked by European relatives though and it was very crunchy. We used to fight over the pieces that were crunchiest when I was a child. Pork cracklings are very popular in the South where I live, as are crispy pork rinds. Chef Josh and Stefan were picking the cracklings off the pork belly when it was on the speed rack and Josh is from Oklahoma, where I live now. Perhaps there are too many Yankees on the judges table?

I'm not being objective, I know, since I liked Stefan. If I'm agreeing with Curtis Stone, it's probably time to back away from the keyboard.

Too funny, Jaymes. I had the same thought when I saw that.

I'm going to miss Stefan, too. I knew he was a goner when it was between Sheldon and he. Tom hates Stefan and has hated him since he gave the win to Hosea (Who? Exactly.) in Season ? instead of Stefan. He's been gunning to get rid of him for weeks. I guess making soggy cold tempura (twice now) and lack luster steak is forgivable when matched against crunchy pork belly, in the European style. And that cruise ship food? "Enjoy your journey?" Dude, it's fiddly food served in a CD storage unit. I guess I'm just too old school for the Alaska Cruise Lines.

I've been salaried for ages. I wouldn't have a clue what constitutes 'normal hours' or overtime pay. I'm with radteck on organic not being high on my priority list. It's fine if you are passionate about it and have enough disposable income to feed your family nothing else. I don't care for the snooty attitude of the "I'd never eat anything that isn't organic! I'd rather starve!" Most people don't have that luxury.

Ouch! The J, thank goodness I'm not alone in burning and cutting myself.

Jaymes, I know that Padma is there for a number of reasons; she knows about food and she is pretty. I happen to have a preference for Gayle, but the producers haven't contacted me about my opinions regarding casting.

Weisenheimer. Yentas throw each other under the bus when one is out of earshot.

Wolfgang is Austrian not German. His father was a butcher, not a soldier and he abandoned his mother either shortly before or shortly after Wolfgang's birth. Puck is his adopted name of the man his mother married when he was a toddler. Of course it is possible that his mother made fried chicken, I'm just skeptical since my own German grandmother, right off the boat, never did so and she was a fantastic cook and quite adventerous. I have made a number of remarks about Padma. Age is everything in modeling and she may as well be walking around with a cane at 40, was my point. Most models get their start as teens and retire by 30 or so. All of the judges get on my nerves. I think they are too snarky and they drink too much. I also, like Dave, dislike all of the cursing. I lost respect for Wolfgang when he had to be bleeped out many times at dinner. Maybe they are showing off for each other or the cameras, but it isn't necessary. They are supposed to be professionals, not a bunch of yentas.

Wolfgang may be indulging in a little fantasy about Mutti's fried chicken since he's been living in the US since 1973. Anecdotely, my father's family is from Germany, both parents, and they never had fried chicken when he was a child. That whole exchange between Wolfgang and Tom sounded scripted to me. Since Wolfgang made his name and his bones with Spago, and Austria isn't noted for its pizzerias, I guess anything is possible. Probable is another matter.

So what was the complaint with Stefan's chicken cordon bleu? It's fried chicken. Was it horrible? They said it wasn't great, but no one spit it out and said it was crap. Tom called the dish itself what he thinks of as "bad banquet food". I've eaten at a lot of banquets and I'd be thrilled to get a cordon bleu. In fact, he made a bigger deal out of the CCB than Brooke's dried up skinless chicken breast. Re: all the boozing by the judges. Are they sober enough to make a judgement call that isn't clouded by their personal prejudice toward a particular chef? I've seen Padma get so plastered that she had to have her voice dubbed in later. Bourdain and Tom were sitting around Judges' Table drinking gin out of a flask a few seasons ago, as revealed by one of them in an interview. No wonder so many of the contestants have bad things to say about Top Chef.

Joe, that was Kathy Joel. Billy Joel's now ex-wife who is also a cookbook author and chef, but not an aging fashion model.

Stefan is a Finn. Finn's tend to be taciturn, in my experience. Also, he has a strong accent and is being edited as the Seigfred (re: "Get Smart") of this season. Dave, no one told the chef's they just wanted fried chicken, no matter what Tom said at Judges' Table. I suspect if that had been made clear, there would have been the usual number of interpretive chicken dishes, but the Judges would have gotten a different product. I have to say that I did not like David Chang or the other chefs who were at Tom's dinner, excepting Emeril. Rick Bayless and Jonathan Waxman would never have made the snotty remarks these fellow and Michelle made.

Padma and Tom are both obnoxious. That's good looking chicken, gfweb.

Tom has outlived his useful life on Top Chef. He's always been a little too cool for school, but the past couple of years? Get lost and let Emeril fill your shoes at least he has constructive criticisms. Re: Fried chicken. I make fantastic fried chicken. Soak it in a buttermilk and kosher salt brine overnight. Rinse, shake in seasoned flour twice, fry in a covered Dutch oven, turn once, drain on paper towels and voila. It's not some mystical fiddly thing like a terrine or a mille fleur pastry, for Pete's sake. Of course, my fried chicken would have been dissed for being too pedestrian. But hey, it isn't greasy.