ScoopKW

I keep my knives sharp enough to shave with. (Hyperbole, yes. But barely.) Having cut myself with both sharp and dull knives, I can say with certainty that sharp knives don't hurt as much as dull ones. Hell, I've cut myself and not felt it. I only noticed from the bleeding. Wounds from sharp knives heal quicker and are less likely to get infected. Naturally, I'm talking minor cuts here. I've never required stitches from a kitchen mishap. Although when I jabbed myself with a dull oyster knife, I probably should have gotten at least a butterfly closure. The dull oyster knife cut hurt for weeks and went septic. When I cut myself with a gyuto, I wash the cut, slap on a Band-Aid, and I'm good to go.

I bought a hamburger patty press once. That and a "bloomin' onion" cutter. They both went into the "sell this crap at the next yard sale" box. Now I only buy knives and pans. (And tried-and-true things like ricers, food mills and stick blenders). Can't go wrong with that.

McDonald's. (Most fast food, in fact. I'll have an In-N-Out or a Fatburger occasionally. But that's it.)

Then the owners of the more complex restaurants should travel to Las Vegas to see how it's done. From what I'm told by restaurant managers who have worked many areas, LV has the toughest inspection system in the country. Getting an A grade here isn't all that hard, but there are hundreds of things inspectors are looking for. And 10 demerits means a B around here. Most big places will hire a consultant (a former health inspector) to inspect them every few days for a set period of time. Eventually doing the things that make health inspectors happy* becomes second nature. *The main reason a restaurant is closed around here is 1) no towels at the hand sink; and 2) no hot water present at the hand sink. In fact, most violations involve hand sinks. The other big one is the dishwasher -- lack of sanitizer, insufficient water temp. We all read the weekly health report looking for cross contamination and temperature abuse issues, though.

This confuses me -- from a biochemistry standpoint, no water, no salt, no life. Cut and dry. We can't live without salt. While I'm the first to agree that Americans consume FAR too much NaCl, I doubt the people who shop at Penzey's fall into that subset.

I'm lucky in that my state college has a very good culinary program. I'm slowly going through the program so that I can open my own place "someday." I've found that about one in four students in my classes are disgruntled former Cordon Bleu students who switched over for the lower tuition and better instruction. That being said, all the chefs I've talked to are more interested in on-the-line experience than school. Knowing the "whys" is important, sure. But knowing the "hows" is more important.

IIRC trussing is key to roasting a chicken, because it turns the bird into as compact a unit as possible, making the cooking more even. Pretty sure I saw TK explaining this on some food show -- No Reservations?

I'd still go with prescription pain relievers for the "after-moving" aches and pains. But, in retrospect, if people want them, they're not all that hard to find.

To me, nothing says "You're a slob" like receiving a broom. I'd go with bourbon, sourdough starter, two cases of IPA, and a couple quaaludes.

>>> Has anyone else seen Paul Prudhomme's show? No! And I wish my satellite company carried it. I'd be all over that. I'll have to turn to the dark side of the internet to find it. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Hubert Keller. If you can get past all the times he uses the words "nice" and "really," there's some good info there. My school is calling for volunteers to work the taping of the new season here in Vegas. But I've got way too much on my plate here at the brewery. A shame, because a lot of my favorite cooks hail from Alsace. I'll bet I could learn a bunch.

Sounds to me like your rotisserie motor doesn't have enough torque to do the job. I just truss my birds well, and everything goes nice and smooth.

George Carlin addressed this in "Brain Droppings" -- When the pepper-guy comes, tell him to keep grinding. And grinding. And grinding. For 10 to 15 minutes. Then send the dish back, saying, "This has too much pepper on it."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it ws the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way." Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities In terms of volume of food sold, we're in the worst of times. In sheer tonnage, I'm sure that fast food, packaged microwave "food" and processed crap reigns supreme. Some days, it seems like we're trying to hold back the tide of McNuggets, Hot Pockets and Cool Ranch Doritos with a broom.

Hey Hey, I've been charged with finding a suitable venue for my Mother-in-law's 70th birthday party. I have a couple ideas, but I'm betting Jeff, David and many others know just the right place. Mom is Taiwanese, and I'm looking for a Chinese restaurant that: 1) Has round tables with lazy-susans on top, with dinner served family style. When I was in Taiwan, every restaurant operated like this -- we chose a menu, paid by the head, and several courses were dropped on the lazy susan throughout the evening. 2) I would really prefer Taiwanese cuisine. It isn't a deal-breaker if it's Mandarin or Cantonese, though. 3) Family friendly. Our party is seven adults and one infant. Preferably with a private dining room so if the baby cries, we won't be upsetting other diners. 4) Not too upscale (nobody is going to want to dress up). But not some all-you-can-eat joint either. I'm a brewmaster of modest means, I can't afford an eight-course, seven-top at Jasmine. Roy's, sure, but not Jasmine.

Scoop? Dip? I weigh. If the recipe doesn't use weights, I find another recipe. I don't even like recipes that use both weights and volumes -- they may have converted from volume to weight.

I wasn't being sarcastic. Fruitcake. Fruitcake is likely the first dish in the sense that we think of a "dish" that involves kitchen skills more advanced than fire and a spit. Bread and beer are the oldest written recipes. It's unknown which came first. I'll throw my hat in with beer, mainly because that's what I do for a living. But a bread made with gathered fruits and nuts, all macerated with juice, honey or mead would be just about the most nutritious thing early man could consume. And it's shelf stable. Not that early man had shelves. But the analogy still works. After harvest, a bread supplemented with alcohol-soaked fruit would not only last for months, but still be tasty for months. So, my answer stands. Fruitcake. We ate it 8,000+ years ago. We're still eating it today. AND we started prepping it at the same time of the year, with similar ingredients. Fruitcake. Any nutritional anthropologists out there want to chime in?

Fruitcake.

I don't watch commercials -- except during NFL games. So all I ever see is Cialis and beer commercials. I guess I fall in with the "drunk, impotent" demographic. The rest of the programs are recorded by my computer. The commercials are automatically stripped out (with surprising accuracy). So I watch a one-hour show in 40 minutes. Seeing as there are about six hours of shows I watch per week, this method of watching TV saves me 2 hours for other things. I'm sure it also helps me keep my fragile grip on sanity. I think I paid $100 for the TV tuner card for my computer. The TV software comes with Windows. Two free add-ons handle the commercial skipping.

The best way is to treat it like learning a language. IMMERSE YOURSELF. Toss ALL the imperial measures, except one Pyrex and one set of measuring cups and spoons. Pack those away and make them hard to get at. (Someday you'll find a recipe that doesn't convert easily.) Find a scale that doesn't have imperial measures. Quit COLD FREAKIN' TURKEY. You'll ruin a bunch of food at first. So, don't cook anything pricey until you're past the fits and shakes of tablespoon withdrawal. Soon, you'll feel liberated. When you visit luddite friends who still use the inferior system, you can ask them things like, "I forget, how many drams in a hogshead?" "How many furlongs is it to Dean and Deluca from here?"

My Cuisinart is woefully underpowered. I'll buy the Robot Coupe when it dies -- besides torque it has two distinct advantages over all competitors -- ubiquitous and easy-to-replace parts.

Even after switching the whole house over to R.O., we still keep a Brita for when we go on vacation. (Providing it's a driving vacation, naturally.) But I'm sure you would probably be happier with a more permanent solution -- inline tap filtration, under-sink R.O., etc. PS -- I would love to have NYC-quality water here in Las Vegas. Our water tastes like baking soda and chlorine.

Smoke a small piece and see. What's the worst that can happen?

I'd say skip the can of sweetened condensed milk and replace it with a nice bottle of wine or beer that will appreciate 13 years of neglect. Dan Port. I've kept bottles of port lying neglected in my parent's basement for decades. Port's the best control for this particular experiment.

One thing I haven't heard -- do people in the LA food scene think Ms. Virbila's reviews are, in fact, "unnecessarily cruel and irrational?" I haven't read any of her reviews.

Based on your taste in cookbooks, I have to recommend that you find a copy of "Garlic and Goosefat: Country Recipes from SW France." Totally authentic unfussy French provincial cuisine.