Kent D

HOW did I miss this before NOW? Yesterday, I was reading about that guy with the deviled ostrich egg, and further down the page there was a mention of chicken-fried bacon. My first reaction was to involuntarily grasp my chest in alarm. (Once you hit 40, every little twinge could be the BIG ONE!). I went home and told my wife about it, as an example of bad for you food gone horribly wrong... and then I woke up this morning and said to myself: "You know, if you took a few strips of that, and laid it across a piece of toast with a little smear of mayo, and then add a nice fresh tomato slice and some lettuce, and top it with another piece of toast...BRILLIANT!" Now I just got to get my wife out of the house so I can experiment. She wouldn't go along with it, even IF I'm well-insured.

I gotta choose only 3? Some days I eat 3 different potato dishes, and they're all great. So many potato choices, so little space... 1) Hash browns: thin in thickness, fried crisp, preferably in bacon grease. My in-laws took me to their neighborhood diner for breakfast one morning, and they recommended the "heart attack special": 2 biscuits w/sausage gravy and crisp hash browns, with the gravy on everything. I nearly died, it was soooo good. Place closed, can't have them any more. 2) My Mom's potato salad. She's given me "a" recipe, although she says she doesn't necessarily follow it (now I know where I get it...), I've tried to duplicate it. Just never the same. The "secret" is pouring some Italian dressing over the still-warm potatoes before mixing everything else in: eggs, celery, onion, diced pickle, mayo, a little mustard, celery seed... 3) Grilled potatoes: Thinly-sliced potatoes, skin on, wrapped in foil with sliced onion and bell pepper, vigorously seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic, a few dabs of bacon grease or a drizzle of olive oil, and grilled with whatever we're having. Hard to say how long to cook, it depends on the thickness of the potato & the heat of the grill. But when they're done, the peppers and onions are tender, and the potatoes have developed a yummy brown coating from the paprika. Honorable Mention: thick, crisp french fries, light on the salt, with mayo for dipping. Oh, wait...kettle-cooked potato chips - malt vinegar/sea salt or jalapeno variety...no, mashed potatoes with cream cheese, butter, garlic, and chives...

Do you tend to mostly cook foods or recipes that spring from your home culture, or do you tend to mostly cook things from other cultures? I've tried to cook everything at one time or another culturally, but most of what I cook is "Americanized ethnic food" Where are you from and what is it that attracts you to the things you choose to cook? Born in Wichita, grew up in small town south of Wichita, lived in Wichita for last 20 years. Ancestors are Americanized German, with some Pennsylvania Dutch, Welsh, Native American, and who knows what else. We don't probe our ancestry back too far -- we're just middle-Americans who like to eat. How long have you been cooking, and has your cooking shifted from that of one culture to another over time? Cooked my first breakfast "solo" at 6 -- some inedible pancakes for my sister. Cooked my first family meal when I was 7. My family was polite enough to eat it without complaint. I think my Mom probably helped some with that one. Regarding cultural shift -- I've always liked to experiment with foods of different cultures, and I used to treat my family to "theme meal" nights ever month or two when I was in high school. Aside from East Indian food, which I didn't have much of a cultural reference to draw from, I never heard any complaints. How did you learn to cook - from a person, from books, from television, from (?) I know I watched and helped my Mom from as early as I could sit on the cabinet, I remember watching Julia Child and The Galloping Gourmet, and I used to read cookbooks for enjoyment (still do, actually.) And there was just a lot of "Get in the kitchen and wing it/trial-and-error". I'm very improvisational in the kitchen - I get an idea, and I just make it up as I go along. I don't measure well, I like to play in the spice cabinet, etc. My family/friends are my guinea pigs. What direction would you like to see your cooking go in the future - do you have a "plan" or any ideas as to what focus you would like to take? I don't see me ever making it career -- it would ruin things for me. Now, if I hit the lottery, I'd like to open a German Deli, but otherwise, I'll just cook for my family and friends and enjoy that.

The Wichita school district has a HUGE percentage of free- and reduced-price lunch kids, so if you meet the guidelines, your kids get a breakfast and a hot lunch for free, but if you DON'T meet the guidelines and go more than one lunch in arrears, your kids get peanut-butter crackers and juice. My younger daughter's school is at 83% subsidized meals, and it always bugs me during enrollment when I hear a parent describing their $150,000 house they've just moved into while they're filling out a free-lunch application. (Note to those of you living on the east or west coast -- around here $150,000 house is medium-to-upper middle class housing, NOT poverty level.) My younger daughter won't eat the school lunches anyway - she takes lunch EVERY day. My older daughter only eats when it's "delivery pizza" or nachos or tacos, so we make most of the lunches at home. I can't imagine ostracizing a student for eating a cheese sandwich, but maybe that's because around here 60-80% of the students are eating for free, anyway.

Maybe I could whip up some tiny little ones...or would that defeat the whole caloric concept?

We just got back from the Colorado grand tour, but tragically, the highlight of our dining experience in Denver WAS Casa Bonita. I tried to talk the kids into a more cultured choice, but you can't argue with cliff diving, guys in a gorilla suit, and unlimited sopapillas. And I will say this -- although overpriced for the quality of food served (guess some of that pays for the entertainment and the light bill), the food WAS better than my last trip 16 years ago. It was NOT cuisine, but it was maybe a half-step up from Taco Bell. It was hot (temperature, not Scoville level), and the service was prompt and friendly. And it made my kids happy, and no one got sick from it. Maybe by the next time the girls will be old enough to get dressed up and dine someplace nice.

During one of my Atkins diet attempts, I suffered through the low-carb whole-wheat or spinach "wraps", which tasted nasty, smelled nasty, and were not bread-like by any stretch of the imagination. But it was all I had to remind me of bread. And now, apparently the fad has worn off, and you can't even FIND the nasty things anymore. If I'm making a wrap, it's with a homemade lavosh, not those nasty, overpriced tortillas on steroids.

Well...that's not EXACTLY ready-to-eat... I've never been crazy about pot pies because of the whole "crust factor" - the same reason I don't like pop tarts. When I have eaten them, they were just Banquet or Swanson, back when they still had actual FOOD inside the crust.

I was talking more of the two committed gentlemen who won together and got a painfully difficult to watch "how to entertain" show.

I like YOUR show...

I have a real problem with "dining is a privilege, not a right". If I'm eating in a place where the staff believe they're bestowing some great privilege upon me by allowing me to partake of their services, I don't want to eat there. I wouldn't have a problem paying a "split entree" charge, and tip accordingly to make up for the loss of revenue, but I see some restaurants who charge a silly amount for an entree (mostly steakhouses) and then charge you $6 for a salad, and $8 for a steamed veggie on the side, and $8 for a potato, and end up charging you as much for the sides as you're already paying for the entree. We've got a restaurant here that charges $5 a shrimp for shrimp cocktail -- you want 6 shrimp in your shrimp cocktail...$30. But like I said, it's a moot point, because restaurants who treat me like I'm an inconvenience to them or just a revenue stream aren't going to get my business.

I'm not watching it, because the last time I watched, the annointed ones had their show dumped on Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. That doesn't make you a network star, it makes you filler across from the infomercials. The direction that the Food Network seems to be taking is the same wretched path that ruined MTV and VH1 and now the History Channel. Yesterday the HISTORY channel was running something about the science behind "Star Wars"? WHA? I still watch FN for some entertainment like "Feasting on Asphalt" and "Hungry Detective" and "Diners Dives and Drive Ins", but I can't in good conscience watch woefully unqualified persons compete to host a cooking show when they're not even qualified to work the grill area at a neighborhood "Denny's".

ooh, what restaurant -- I don't wanna get that table, either. I observed two roaches placidly make their way up the wall of a booth we were dining in, and when I called the server's attention to them, she just smiled and walked away. Didn't offer to move us, didn't offer us some bug spray or a fly swatter, didn't say "don't worry, they don't each much...". We don't eat there anymore. Which is too bad, because although there are plenty of Chinese restaurants where the cooks are Mexican, there aren't many Mexican restaurants where the cooks are Chinese.

Oh, don't get me started... My younger daughter's elementery school this past year decided that they were going to improve the lot of the common child by banning candy and cookies at the "fall festival" (No Halloween here for fear of offending the litigious parents of a single child). They were asking for single-servings of fruit, apple wedges with caramel sauce (because caramel is evidently not considered a candy!), and carrot/celery sticks with individual cups of ranch dressing. There was a mutiny of parents, and about 75% of the kids brought candy and cookies, anyway. They really didn't have an "end-of-school" snack party this year. My daughter, before she moved on to middle school this year, always took treats the last day of school because her birthday always fell after school ended, so at least in her class we WERE the end-of-school party. I bought 5 pizzas for her class last year, and the kids loved it, because if you offered them pizza for lunch 5 days a week, and for breakfast 3 days a week, they'd eat it. I just think all these dietary restrictions take all the fun out of school.

I have to avoid the end of the mall where the bulk candy store is, or I go in and buy a pound or two of every flavor available (mixed, of course, I couldn't afford to buy a pound of each flavor!). The popcorn flavor's amusing from a technological standpoint, but the problem with mixing them all together is having to make sure you haven't combined jalapeno, coffee bean and blueberry in the same mouthful. But I even like generic jelly beans, as well as gummy bears, gummy worms, gummy cola, swedish fish, gumdrops, etc. There's something invigorating about having a gummy piece of candy lodge in your back molars and frantically trying to dislodge it with your tongue.

I haven't seen it anywhere around here, but I wasn't looking for it. Next time I need a refill I'll look about and if I find it, give it a try. I'm a test-marketer's dream - I'll try anything once just because someone made the effort.

Well, speaking for myself, I'm drinking just as much beer as I always have, in addition to adding wine to my repetoire. Yes, I'm only one man, but I'm doing the best I can to keep market share up.

I really should have gone looking for this info before I smoked my first brisket this last weekend. Amazingly, despite myself, I came out with something both edible and flavorful. I threw together my standard secret rub:salt,pepper,garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, ground coriander, allspice and thyme. Rubbed it into my brisket the night before. I have a standard cylinder smoker/grill that I've always used for grilling, so had to go find the center section where the water pan goes. I do keep a couple types of wood chips on hand for when I throw them on the coals for some flavor, so I used apple with just a hint of mesquite, soaked and drained beforehand. Without knowing it, I even put the brisket into the smoker cold, and keep feeding chips to the coals for a couple hours. Then, because it was raining intermittently, I brought the brisket in and finished it wrapped in foil in a 200-degree oven. Then I pulled it out of the oven and let it rest before slicing. I nearly cried when I opened the foil and started slicing. There was a beautiful and distinct smoke ring in the meat, and it was still juicy but done through. It really didn't need sauce, but I served it with sauce anyway. Now I'm just kicking myself for not doing this earlier. Of course, before last year, I only had a gas grill, which was totally inadequate for producing useable barbecue, but now I'm inspired to try some more things - chicken, pork, turkey, etc.

I've always been afraid of the fried chicken dinners for precisely the reason stated in that letter -- I was never really sure WHAT PART of the chicken is contained under that breading. Hope he gets a response, most times when I send a letter of constructive criticism to food manufacturers/purveyors, I never receive a response, or I just get a "thanks for writing, here's some coupons!" letter.

I would have a problem giving up one of my spare beers for cooking, although I like some good brats simmered in summer wheat with some onions and ground coriander before grilling, maybe a dark beer in place of water in a chocolate cake, slow-cook a roast with some beer for the gravy, the previously cited beer bread recipe, or use a beer when making regular bread. I've never had problems sloshing some leftover wine into things, but I'm just starting to waste my beer in food...

Well, maybe I'm just a rednecked barbarian, but I eat the same way no matter what culture of food I'm enjoying. I didn't grow up with chopsticks, never got the hang of them, so there's no point in embarrassing myself or others trying to get food into my mouth with them. The world's too big to worry about meeting the etiquette and manners of every culture who've had thousands of years to work out all the kinks. If the food's good, and you're enjoying it, and most of it gets to your mouth safely, no one should say anything. Sometimes I eat fried chicken with a fork, sometimes I scoop up stray Mexican food on a tortilla chip, and sometimes I put soy sauce on my fried rice. It's MY fried rice, and I like it that way. This past winter, I observed my uncle, who's been living in Japan making bamboo flutes for 35 years, and his son and "female companion" at a dinner honoring my Grandmother's 95th birthday. He attacked his steak dinner with a single-minded intensity that I've never seen. He piled his baked potato with a significant quantity of sour cream and butter, because he said "they don't eat sour cream over there, and when you can find it, it's in a tiny little tube." It's quite possible that he might have brought eternal shame upon his son and friend, but he sure looked like he was enjoying himself.

We just got a new neighborhood "TJ's New York Deli"...it's not. Lots of brass and mirrors and ceiling fans, where they have an all-you-can-eat salad bar, some guy hidden back in the kitchen making sandwiches ("We proudly serve Hormel meats!"-WHY?), a cabinet of second-hand Krispy Kreme Donuts for sale. Three fresh-faced young ladies at the counter, nervously wiping the counter and tugging at their aprons while they wait for the orders to come out the window. I ordered a pastrami and swiss to go. Choice of side -- potato chips (bagged) or potato salad (commercial-grade). You can have soup for a couple dollars more. For $6.00...it's no better than the Arby's Market sandwiches. Thick sliced marble rye with no character, a small smear of dijon mustard, and about a half-inch of homogenized pastrami. My wife stood looking at the menu, said "there's nothing there that even sounds good". I picked her up a burger on the way home. I doubt that the place will last the summer. At least I hope not.

Don't forget the tip for the server/bartender, too. The two chief reasons I rarely drink while dining out is 1) I'm generally driving and I'm responsible in that way and 2) I refuse to pay hundreds-of-percent mark-up plus a tip on top of that for one drink that in some rare cases approaches the cost of the entree served. Oh, and I'm notoriously cheap.

I just heard that Coke's discontinued Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke...dangit! This Coke Plus better not be to blame. Every time I find something I like, they pull it off the market.

Well, if you don't give them the constructive feedback, I'm sure a restaurant critic will be along soon to provide them some feedback. Actually, you can't count on that happening in a timely manner, so if it's a place you think has potential, tell them the truth. Otherwise, stay away and let nature take its course.