Reignking

Since it's your birthday, there's an excellent spa right on the beach there -- very inexpensive. You could treat yourself to that, as well. Here it is: http://www.la-perla.net/ What were the street vendors selling paper? Is it shrimp? I recall those right outside of where bushey was talking about... I didn't get to hit the good restaurants, due to bad timing. Tapas are always good -- the only problem is that they are all so similar. Be sure to look for regional specialties (cheese, fish, pinxtos), and get anything stuffed in a piquillo pepper.

Maybe this can be used to cure bacon I tried to order some, but the online store isn't working.

http://www.baconsalt.com/ Bacon-flavored salt! As soon as I read the words, I began salivating...

As I soon as I saw the elk, I thought of venison, and the Iron Chef-like competition that I saw between Tyler Florence and Tom Colicchio at the Charleston Food & Wine Festival. Both of them wrapped the venison loin in bacon (due to the elk's low fat content). I was quite surprised that we didn't see something like that this time, with the elk.

Speaking of which, that came back in last night's episode... I miss the reality in this version of the reality show. In the BBC version, you know how things are getting done. Last night -- voila! -- we've remodeled your dining room in a commercial break.

Interesting editing. Why didn't we hear about Hung's past and family earlier? Because Bravo wanted to make Hung the villain. Now that we're down to the finals, they are trying to humanize all of them.

I think they had two hours for this one -- and Hung had an additional 30 minutes from winning the 20-minute quickfire.

Is it on FN? From the title, I thought it would either be a network show ("So You Think You Can Dance" eg) or on her syndicated show... There's no indication on her website.

Any excuse to see anything on Charleston is a good excuse for me...

Best part about the US version of Kitchen Nightmares? I didn't have to watch Gordon strip.

Apparently, her knife wasn't sharp (per Tom's blog). I, too, said "Yup, one of them is gone" as soon as they focused on Tre and Casey...

My house doesn't get hot, but last week I wanted some cooler sides, so I made: Cucumber salad (soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, sesame, rice wine vinegar) Chickpea salad (borrowed from Cooking Light; basically chickpeas, red wine vinegar, herbs de provence (or whatever I have on hand), red onion, garlic, and some lemon)

I pronounce it seh-veech-ay. While living in Mexico, I learned that they put lime (limon) on everything. Originally, it was to kill bacteria. Now, it is part of the cuisine, like having salt & pepper in an American house.

Howie should be booted for using cream in his risotto, and still thinking his food was fine...

Oh yeah, Brian did look like he was in trouble, in the credits. I call Howie -- it's a team challenge, so I'm sure he'll sabotage it directly or indirectly.

Depends - any idea what the challenge is?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews

That ice cream quickfire sucked. I appreciate Hung trying something different, but that was just crazy. Simple and boring won it. Yawn. I hated how they played the chefs like that -- they've been cooped up with nothing to do but eat and talk and sit in a pool, they finally have a chance to escape, and they pull a fast one, like its a joke. Not to mention what a severe disadvantage it was for the women... On the losing team, they each tried to not screw up enough to get eliminated. CJ is sitting out there, not getting food out, so he just sits there and waits? Howie thinks he knows what should be done, but says nothing? And milkshakes aren't going to do well when they are sitting out during a Miami spring night. At least ice wasn't added...

FYI I received a email a few week ago that Seasons de Provence, in Acworth, is closing at the end of the month.

I'd have to guess Legal Seafoods...

Perhaps I should've said that I enjoyed the idea of the quickfire -- but yes, the execution wasn't great. I'd expect some gimmes, but there were a few too many. Bertolli must not be completely happy -- they were obviously trying to demonstrate the quality of their IQF'd products, and some of them produced meals that were unappetizing and ugly. OTOH, I might try one of these, now.

Ditto from me...

No worse than bertolliGail'sbertolli blog...

Why? I thought it was a no-brainer -- Hung knew what to do, but just wasn't forceful enough. Joey was clueless, started putting things together, and destroyed their pasta. As soon as they started cooking, and said the pasta was mushy, I knew he was gone. Loved the quickfire...but hated the camerawork. I'd like to play at home, but these side-angled shots don't help.

Based on what we saw during that episode, I'd agree. She made two mistakes -- not spotting the missing crab and some bad risotto.