Kikyo

I won't eat blue things either. I don't count blueberries, because when they are in a baked good, you can see that they are really kind of purple. I think it's true that blue is not so much a color that food occurs naturally in, so I balk at eating it, despite the fact that I am sure I eat food that's artificially colored in some manner all the time. Mentally I cannot deal with blue. And I especially hate things like "blue raspberry" flavor. There's no such thing as a blue raspberry! It's not nature's fault that so many good foods are shades of red. I also have the thing where I have to balance out what I eat, so that I finish everything at the same time, but I'm not compulsive about it. I can easily shrug it off it it's not going to happen. In addition, I try to save the best bite for last. (PS - to the other person who said this, but worried about eating too much, you can solve this by just eating the best bite once you start to feel full and stop there). Until it was pointed out to me, I used to always leave something on my plate. I never completely cleaned off my plate. I never noticed it, and no one else did either because I have a small appetite and rarely finish a meal unless I prepare and plate it for myself. But a German friend who stayed with us for a summer pointed out that I NEVER cleaned my plate. Even if I ate almost everything, I would always leave one small piece behind. As soon as she pointed it out, I started paying attention and noticed it was true. Once I noticed I was doing it, I stopped. But I have no idea where that came from.

That's weird, I thought Andy Dick was vegan. I've only ever seen him in vegan restaurants or the health food market. I guess it's just part time. I would be willing to to the Food section summaries if it's wanted and if you don't expect major masterpieces from me. Is there some formal induction, or would one just ... do it?

This is a fascinating discussion, and one my husband and I have argued over numerous times. We can't find a place in the law for this, but I think it's one that maybe diners can regulate by the force of their moral authority. We started to talk about it due to the experience of a friend. This is nowhere near the level of Alinea and major restaurant/hotel groups, etc. But it angered me because it was a friend. He owns a small Singapore/Malaysian food restaurant in which he prepares authentic dishes based on family recipes. All ingredients are fresh and some of his recipes are variations on what you would find on the streets in Singapore, tweaked based on his own family's traditions. In the same neighborhood, there is a restaurant that started out as mostly southwestern and mexican, but now serves some asian dishes as well. The chef is especially reknowned for his dressings and sauces. A man came into my friend's restaurant and began to quiz him extensively on his dishes. My friend, thinking he had an enthusiastic foodie on his hands, told him a lot about his foods, including how he made them and the ingredients he used. The next week, a neighbour and I went in to the larger restaurant and discovered one of our friend's dishes on the menu. While the dish is a traditional Malaysian dish, our friend does not follow the traditional recipe, so it was easy to recognize that this was his, and not just a coincidence. My husband and I got into a long, liquor-fueled argument about this. While, yes, on the one hand I think that the free exchange and spread of ideas only benefits society, I also think (1) giving credit where credit is due is nice, and (2) it's simply not cool for a larger restaurant that's in direct competition in a neighborhood with a smaller restaurant to use espionage to steal a dish and then pass it off as their own. Especially when the chef is reknowned for sauces and dressings, he will be able to add the dressing of this dish to his "famous repertoire," when he didn't, in fact, create it. To me, something like that takes away from someone else and it isn't nice. In these days, food is not just about skilled execution, it's about creativity and chefs make a name and a career off of their style of food and innovative dishes they create. Once upon a time, it wasn't about what was being cooked, but how well it was cooked. Now chefs become entire industries in themselves and their branding and innovations affect their business. I don't know how I feel about the business aspect entering into it so much, but when you have people like Grant Achatz creating distinctive, never-before seen forms of eating, then yes, it begins to seem like he deserves some credit for it. When food makes you go "ooh!" before you even put it in your mouth, then it begins to leave the realm of process and enter the realm of creative works, which are protected by our intellectual property system. It's merely a matter of figuring out how these types of works fit in and what kind of protection is appropriate to grant.

Thank you ... what great recommendations! As for the hiking, I am as prepared as I am going to be. I am actually counting on it to offset all of those meals I will be eating!

Does anyone think the green maraschinos taste different than red? Just me? I only had them one time, at Musso and Frank's in Los Angeles (so they are definitely retro in my mind!). I had one in my gimlet, as a matter of fact. I felt like it made the drink taste different, and I didn't like it, but maybe that's just my overactive imagination. Come to think of it, I think that's the only time I've ever had a maraschino in a gimlet period, so maybe it was the cherry and not the color.

An Absolut gimlet straight up is my standard cocktail. Granted, when I ordered it out with my dad one time, he told me that I ordered "old lady" drinks, but the classics are my favorite. My husband drinks them too. I think he started drinking them after he read some Elmore Leonard or Dashiell Hammett books. I was introduced to them by a friend. I used to think of Manhattans as a retro cocktail, but now they seem to be in style again.

Well, it's retro to me, because the only time I have ever seen it is when my mom made it in the early 70s. Also, the overall - um - brownness of it, and the fondue pot just reminds me of the 70s.

The first time a potato raised my eyebrows was as a teenager, when my best friend and I were fledgling foodies, so rather than going to the hot dog place, or hamburger place at lunch that everyone frequented, we went to this little tiny restaurant that did a lot of rotisserie meats. It was mainly catering, but had a tiny restaurant area as well. It was the only place within walking distance of the high school where you wouldn't see any teenagers (except us!). They had a twice baked potato that I had to get pretty much every time. I had never heard of such a thing before. It was incredibly soft and fluffy, with a perfect balance of cayenne and cheddar cheese baked on. I still remember those with fondness, but the place is gone, now. I recently had steamed fingerlings in creme fraiche at AOC in L.A. They were amazing. They were so soft and the creme fraiche made them so rich. A bite taken with a piece of thick bacon stolen from another dish was like the Platonic ideal of a potato. Although now that I read the descriptions of potatoes fresh from the ground, I am feeling like clandestinely planting one outside my apartment to test it out.

1. My uncle's barbecue chicken and garlic bread. He uses some secret rub on the chicken that gives fantastic flavor and each piece is always charred on the outside and mega-juicy and tender on the inside. As for the garlic bread, he injects a loaf of french bread with garlic butter through the entire center of the loaf and then grills it and the butter slowly melts and infuses the bread. So good. He was my aunt's third husband and I guess he really knew he was part of the family when I forced him to cook this for everyone at my high school graduation party. 2. The branzino at Angelini Osteria in L.A. It's cooked in a sea salt crust and then plated for you tableside with a buttery lemon sauce that is lovely. I took my husband here for his birthday the first year we were together. It was the first time I had been out with a "date" to a real gourmet restaurant since high school and the experience of great food, great atmosphere and service and great company really turned me into a foodie. I felt so special as they freed my fish from its salty cage for me right there at the table and carefully separated it from the bone, bit by bit. I have never again had a fish that tasted that good.

My mom always made a dish for dinner parties called "picadillo." It is essentially ground beef with spices, raisins and pimiento stuffed olives, tomato and onion, browned and simmered. She would keep it warm in a fondue pot. It is not one of my fonder memories ... I really didn't like that dish. Ground beef and raisins? My great grandmother's specialty was shrimp cocktail and it became such a staple that someone still makes it whenever we get together for holidays. My dad's specialty was cottage cheese on a lettuce leaf with canned peaches on top. He thought it was so classy to put it on the lettuce. I have a real sensitivity to textures and "slimy" textures set off my gag reflex. One time my father and I had a three hour long stand-off over whether I was going to eat his cottage cheese or not. I won. Foods I remember with fondness are mainly from stays at my grandmother's: fresh gingerbread, and Fig Newtons with a glass of Ovaltine, which was my bedtime snack as a kid. She clearly got that from her mother, who did the same thing when I stayed with her. Some retro food that I can't believe I ate so much of: spray cheese. My mom loved this and so did I. I would eat it in gobs on Ritz crackers, which makes me feel nauseous now. Thank goodness I was a naturally skinny kid.

For tax purposes?

Mmm ... Miki sounds great, and the Villa Steno is where we are staying! I read that they have a good breakfast. I will have to ask the hosts if they have any new restaurant recommends, since they steered you right last time.

How would substituting an aprium for an apricot in a recipe that calls for apricots affect the recipe? It seems from the blurb I read and what I read here that they are both juicier and sweeter. Let's say, for example, you had a recipe for an apricot tart, do you think you could do a straight substitution or would you have to monkey with it a bit? Also, my husband remarked (as I was reading the LA Times blurb) that he didn't like the taste of apricots. Is the taste of an aprium markedly different, or just similar? These seem like something I would like to try making a dessert out of, but I'm not sure if (1) I should look for recipes crafted for apriums, like the one linked above, or if I could also use recipes that call for ripe apricots as well; and (2) if I should even bother making any for my husband (if not, more for me!)

Thank you! Guide books are fine, but I really like to get "foodie" suggestions for trips, especially if I am going to be staying somewhere a while. I remember looking at the Gianni Franzi website when looking for hotels and remember the restaurant did look quite nice. I'll have to remember that soup! I'll be checking out all of those links now, as well.

I am travelling at the end of July/beginning of August to Cinque Terre with my husband and parents. We will be there for a week. We are staying in Monterosso, but plan to spend time in all of the villages and perhaps take some day trips if something seems worth it. Does anyone have any recommendations for restaurants, or other food/wine related things to do either in the Cinque Terre or as a day trip? We have the Rick Steves book, but perusing other travel books, we found not much info on the Cinque Terre. Any help would be appreciated!

Love the Jon Stewart quote in your sig ... the only reason I even have a blog is because my friends all do, and we all read each other's blogs at work and comment. It really is like passing notes in the classroom.

I don't know what else can go IN a tuna salad, but I do have awful memories of coming in to work at a deli in college on Friday mornings and wondering if the tuna I was unwrapping was the same tuna I had wrapped and put away on Monday afternoon. I always threw almost everything away from the fridge when I came in on Friday because the food was stored in saran-wrapped open bowls, and it sat out in open bowls all day and we were actually told not to discard anything but let the bowl empty. I got yelled at every time I mass-dumped stuff, but it really should have been replaced every day since it was meat and produce, mostly. Not to mention that it sat out all day before being re-wrapped and put in a fridge. Ich! Just remembering back grosses me out. There was only one kind of sandwich I would eat, which was made fresh everyday (including the bread-foccaccia baked overnight, the meat and cheese freshly sliced, and the pesto sauce fresh made). The rest were fresh made to order, but I was never totally sure about the ingredients. I think the things we went through a lot of, like bread, tomatoes, mayo, mustard, etc. were pretty safe, but other than that I couldn't say. My roommate had similar tales of nastiness from the frozen yogurt place.

Since I am in L.A., I always stop by The Delicious Life and Eating L.A. But since I left my heart in San Francisco, I also regularly check out: The Grub Report Any other particularly San Francisco oriented food blogs? Especially with restaurant reviews? I want to live vicariously. I very recently started a food blog of my own after deciding I needed a focus for my blogging: Gastronomy 101 I also participate in a group blog that's more loosely based around food-related stuff but isn't necessarily limited to food, if we feel the pressing need to post something else: Survival Art

I think of the amuse as a surprise. I don't go to a restaurant expecting to get one and I don't expend effort trying to find out much about it. Most of the time it is some sort of raw seafood or other cold slimy thing, which is a texture my palate can't take, so I end up giving it away. Sometimes it is delicious and interesting and then I am pleasantly surprised. Other times I don't care for it or end up giving it away, but since I didn't order it and am not paying for it, it doesn't take anything away from the experience. On the other hand, I always love a place that gives free goodies at dessert, like petits fours or tiny cookies or something. But again, to me that's like a surprise and it plays no part in my consideration of whether to eat at a restaurant. As far as my estimation of how good a dining experience I had, I generally don't give negative points for a lack of amuse or for an amuse I didn't like, but there would be bonus points involved for an amuse I enjoyed. Although I can't particularly remember any. I know I have had some good soups, but really the only thing that stands out in my mind particularly are the dessert goodies from Michelle Myers at Sona that were offered after our ordered dessert.

As a consumer of wine, I have no problem paying a tasting fee, especially if the service is friendly and educational, the pours are generous and the fee is not too high. I regularly go to a tasting at a wine shop where you pay $12 for three pours (the pours are generous--pretty much full glasses of wine) and assorted artisan cheeses, crackers, bread and salami, all you can eat. The service is always friendly and they always tell you just enough about the wine to educate you, but not too much so as to be condescending. My husband and I always come away with about six bottles of wine, and always one or two are ones that we tasted, and we generally go with another couple who usually purchases the same amount. The store is always packed and they definitely do a tidy business. I've never minded the $12 tasting fee, although in a winery as opposed to a wine shop, I would expect to pay something less, only because they are trying to sell only a particular type of wine to me, whereas in a wine shop I have many choices and the wine shop is giving me an opportunity I usually don't get, which is to try some of their wares before i purchase them. At a winery I think it's pretty much expected that you should be able to taste some before purchasing.