Kent D
-
Posts
245 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Kent D
-
-
Heirloom tomatoes may be interesting, and dress up the plate, but ultimately they're a breed of tomato no longer widely grown because of their indeterminate vining, lack of disease resistance or propensity to crack or disfigure, or plain difficulty to grow. You might as well call them "Grandpa's tomatoes". Hybridization has bred out most of the characteristics that most home tomato growers didn't want, making for a more pleasing crop. Homegrown hybrid tomatoes are just as tasty, if not tastier than many of the heirloom varieties, except for Cherokee Purple heirlooms, if you can get them to grow they're INCREDIBLE. My aren't doing anything this summer -- too many 100-degree days and nighttime temperatures in the 80s. All my tomatoes are the size of golf balls.
Oh, and if you want to grow heirlooms, and don't want to mess with seeds, I actually ordered plants off of Ebay this spring. They came packed 4 plants to the standard USPS mailer box, and once I removed them from the box and splashed a little water on them, they perked right up.
And to stay on-topic, I wouldn't get hung up on menu designations like "heirloom" or "organic" or "free-range" without knowing the restaurant and its suppliers. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for those terms without a level of trust in the purveyor.
-
I feel like I just gained 5 pounds reading this thread, and now that it's over, I must wipe a stray tear from my eye, because they haven't invented Smell-0-Internet yet. You have truly contributed to the collective food community with this in-depth investigation. And the dog is cute, too.
No way I would have the fortitude to bring all that meat back unmolested - yes, I know you nibbled, but I would have been strapped to a gurney and wheeled right into Carnivore Recovery Services within the first 24 hours...
Thanks for sharing the pics and words.
-
As a once-trained but non-practicing journalist, we were taught (and I have observed) that most publications have a well-established method of dealing with profanity in print. Some run a disclaimer that "the following story contains strong language or graphic content", some just put (expletive) in place of the offending word, some use *s or dashes.
I moderate a message board for a radio show, and we pretty much let people go their own way, since we warn them when they join that the board is for adults and contains adult content. Members range between using a vocabulary that would curdle Koolaid to those who type "fsck" and "sh1t" because they're either at work or think they need to fool a profanity filter. We HAVE a filter, but we don't use it, except occasionally for comedic effect, replacing the word "f*ck" with "fluffypuppies".
Language doesn't bother me, personally, as I have a vocabulary that would be welcome in Bourdain's kitchen (even learned some new ones from "Kitchen Confidential"), but I try to police my tongue depending on my perceived audience.
I could have filled this post with profanity, and most of us wouldn't give a second thought to it, but I didn't feel the need to do so. And if I was being interviewed, I wouldn't scream "Censorship" because of an established editorial policy. I'm a champion of free speech, but there's a difference in my mind between telling someone to "F*ck Off!" and reading "The culinary artist, Kent D, told me to 'Fuck Off!'"
-
Well, I don't dislike pie, I just dislike the delivery vehicle/crust. Cake has no crust, so I got to go with cake...German chocolate please. Or carrot.
-
sometimes simple ketchup/catsup will give me the heartburn, but other than that I'm cast iron in the belly.
-
As much as I can recall, the only thing currently in my kitchen I haven't used is the juicer attachment on my Magic Bullet blender. Yes, I know I should turn in my gourmet card for even HAVING a Magic Bullet, but those late-night infomercials are SO convincing.
-
I don't know what it says about me that most of my "I miss"es are from McDonalds, but...
I miss:
The Arch Deluxe (with it's zesty Dijonaise mayo/grainy mustard sauce)
The REAL Filet o' Fish with the steamed bun
The Rye Melt (quarter pounder on Rye bun with cheese sauce and cooked onions)
The grilled cheese (off-menu item -- they'd take a regular bun, turn it inside out, stick a couple slices of cheese between it, and stick it in the bun toaster)
The old fried pies
The McRib, which I know returns periodically, but it's not as good as the one they originally test-marketed in Ottawa, Kansas back in the early 80's. I didn't see one again for almost 20 years.
Oh, and Pizza Hut's Priazzo double-layered pizza and Cavatini baked pasta dish.
-
I made the mistake of picking up the Diet BC/FV version in a 12-pack, only because I have to try everything once, and buying just one 20-oz bottle would have been too easy. It is without a doubt one of the nastiest concoctions I've ever had to gulp down despite the chills running down my back. Yecch. Tastes like drinking cream soda while chewing Juicy Fruit gum. At least that's as close as I can come.
-
About the chicken pet idea--get a hen, not a rooster. Roosters can be cranky, and they crow, which may not make your neighbors happy.
I had a pet chicken for a few months -- she showed up perched in a cedar tree on our property line. I went out every morning with a Frisbee full of bird food, put fresh water out for her, named her Daisy, although I don't really think she picked up on her name. When winter came, I worried about her, and tried to build her some rudimentary shelter, which she never bothered to use -- she just sheltered in the trees. Some days I would pull into the driveway to see her perched on the fence, waiting for my return. (Okay...maybe she was just sitting there...)
One day, she was gone -- either someone got themselves a well-fed free-range chicken, or she wandered down the alley to a house that had chickens and roosters. I never saw her again...
And to stay on-topic -- I like food, but I don't even PRETEND to know enough about it to put on airs. I suspect that given some opinions on what IS gourmet cuisine in this thread, I'd likely not be welcome at your tables. Sometimes you have to be a gourmet on a tight budget.
-
The hospital where I work has its food service managed by Aramark (previously it was Marriott), and while it's not "world-class" cuisine, it's for the most part both nutritious and palatable.
I know that the patients don't always receive "piping hot" food, because once it's loaded into a warming cabinet for transport to the floors, there are often delays in distribution due to patient tests, doctor rounds, visitors, floor activity, etc. And let's face it, when you're hospitalized and ill or being pumped full of chemicals, it's unlikely that your taster's fully functional.
I don't have any real reason to defend hospital cuisine, as I work in Medical Records, but the people in the kitchen ARE trained chefs (at least two are CIA grads), and the food they put out for the employee cafeteria and coffee shop is quite good. Our head of food service is from Lousiana and he really "kicks it up a notch" (to borrow a tired phrase) around Mardi Gras. It's just that they're limited by the restrictions imposed by the dietary requirements of the average patient. And most doctors look the other way if family members sneak the occasional "outside food" in for long-term patients, so long as they're not in an ICU. Nobody CHOOSES to go to the hospital to eat a meal.
-
Well, I'm not going to get any work done here tonight -- I'm going to have to pour the drool out of my keyboard after looking at all those scrumptious photos. I love fair/carnival food -- can't wait until my hometown has their Old Settler's Days in 2 & 1/2 weeks. Barbecue, funnel cakes and lemonade...
-
darn it -- missed it. I've got to pay more attention to my TV schedule. Guess I'll have to run over and see when it repeats.
-
As far as the food, what I remember from my days at good ol' Derby High, proud member of the Chisolm Trail League, was the excellent chicken fried steak, terrific hamburgers and onion rings, delicious steaks, and the afore-mentioned pies and other baked goods.
And plenty of beer at The Flame.
And canned corn. Something I still don't understand.
I do 'wander the Kansas roadways' from time to time, most recently a few months back. And took some recomendations from Roadfood. Couldn't understand why, after driving for countless miles past fields of ripe corn, in the restaurants there was nothing but canned.
Wow, small world -- I'm a CTL Mulvane Wildcat.
You're right about the canned corn -- I NEVER choose corn in a restaurant around here, unless I see it coming out of the kitchen on a cob, or I know the cook. I just double up on the potatoes.
And I'd hate to think that Kansas was for quitters -- my ancestors came here willingly, for the inexpensive farm land and clean living. We're not farmers anymore, but there was really no reason to move on. We like it here.
-
When we go out to eat, we're hungry, and want to eat, not sit and wait two hours while someone else eats. So we either go before the "dinner rush" or we select any one of a number of fine, locally-owned restaurants that are being driven out of town by rampant consumerism.
That's not to say we don't eat chain, we just won't WAIT for chain.
And from what I've heard from people who live where the Cheesecake Factory rules, I can get just as good a meal for half the price with the options we already have.
-
I don't have ready access to fine cheeses (although the selection is getting better in the grocery stores, but no cheese shops), but I once had a 3-year white cheddar from Canada that I somehow overlooked in my refrigerator for another 18 months -- Good Lord, that was a cheddar to bring tears to your eyes. But I've never been subtle in my cheese choices, I like to nibble slices of asiago as a snack, and I've got my 6-year-old daughter asking for "stinky cheese" from the store. Both my daughters enjoyed some Marigold goat cheese I ordered from the Netherlands that has marigold flower petals in it.
Sorry no pictures to share -- still trapped in the film age...
-
I've been chewing on the topic for a couple days now, and have decided that Kansas, by its nature as a crossroads for continental migration, doesn't have a well-defined cuisine of its own. We literally are a melting pot made up of Russian and German immigrant farmers, the Swedes of Lindsborg, the freed slaves of Nicodemus, the native tribes of the Great Plains and southwest, the cowboys of the cattle trails, Hispanic and Asian immigrants, even displaced victims of last fall's hurricanes.
I could certainly argue for the pie-making skills of our resident Amish/Mennonites, for anything beef (including the chicken-fried steak, which Kansas deserves equal credit with Texas and Oklahoma), breads, fried chicken dinners, church-sponsored chicken & noodle dinners...we'll claim them all, without taking credit for them. We enjoy them, we treasure them, we'll brag about them when prodded, but we just consider ourselves lucky in our diversity. I used to hate that I grew up in a podunk farm town, but I've learned that you can eat a variety of foods for a reasonable price without ever leaving the state, while enjoying clean air and four very distinct seasons.
Oh, and I'm not embarrassed about Wichita's "cowtown" roots - I live in the Delano "district" (which used to be where Wichita kept all the saloons and brothels, safe on the other side of the river), and on a good day, when the wind is right, I can smell our Cowtown Historical Museum just across the river.
-
Great article -- perhaps finally an explanation why I paid more attention to what the characters in stories would be eating, and not so much what they were doing.
My two favorite books to read, even before I was given the opportunity to cook dinner for my family when I was 6:
My mother gave me the Cooky book (still can't get over that spelling!), my older sister got the Boys and Girls cookbook (she might still be using it, I imagine.). I still reference the Cooky book when I want to make a batch of Molasses Crinkles or Refridgerator Cookies. The pages are smeared with molasses and chocolate stains and butter spots. It's gritty from flour dust. It still smells faintly of Mom's house.
-
True, in some cases, but I have to believe that jgm's wording "devastating piece of news" implies that the food wasn't the problem. They offered consistent quality for over 40 years and managed to compete head-to-head with another little Eye-talian joint known as Pizza Hut, offering (at various times) pizza, pasta, salads, sandwiches. Add the 4 or 5 more-upscale/fast-casual - whatever you want to call them - players and mix in a healthy dose of apathy and indifference on the part of the consumer and you have a recipe for disaster for an independent, regardless of herculean efforts on their part.
As an aside, I was in that part of Wichita enroute to CA last month. Sadly, it was w-a-y too early for them to be open, but I was a little shocked at how down-in-the-heels the area seems to have become. I'm not familiar enough with the demographics or economics of the city these days, but the appearance of the neighborhood leads me to believe it might have contributed to Angelo's demise. I even thought to myself that, if my mother were still living, I probably would have had a hard time convincing her to go there in the evening.
Well, the neighborhood wasn't the greatest, and that location, not being on a major artery, ultimately doomed them. It's why 80% of the new restaurants in Wichita open in far east Wichita or far northwest Wichita, and the middle of town is rotting out for dining options.
My parents took us to Angelo's as long as I can remember, and at the old Harry Street location we were greeted as regulars. I kind of drifted away as I grew older, but my parents still ate there regularly as recently as last week. Sure, we'll still have DeFazio's and Savute's, but hopefully Angelo's can come back in some form soon. I worry that something similar might start happening to our long-standing family Mexican restaurants if people don't start stepping forward and eating "local".
It makes me angry to hear Wichitans up in arms because The Cheesecake Factory doesn't want to locate to the RiverWalk because we don't make enough money or spend enough money to justify their presence. (They want a $77,000 median income and $5 million in gross sales, and the highest grossing restaurant in Wichita makes about $2.5 million). Fine, don't come here, we don't need you -- we're overrun with cookie-cutter chain restaurants already.
-
I've got to get busy WORKING ON a legacy. I keep telling myself there's always time, but my girls are getting older and they're still afraid of getting their hands messy in the kitchen.
Sure I can leave them my cookbooks, my pans, my knives and sundry tools, but if I leave them without my joy of culinary creation, my "need to feed", then I've left them nothing. So I'd better get to work. Soon.
-
Asking "what's my favorite beer?" would almost be like asking which of my children is my favorite. (Okay, maybe not THAT bad...) Right now, because it's summer, it's Pabst for a cheap but necessary chug after mowing, Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat for refined enjoyment. And in a pinch, anything cold...
-
Okay, I'm not against mixed or layered foods (hot roast beef or turkey sandwich, a Thanksgiving leftover pig-out, etc.), but I'd never buy one of these. Not because of the cheese, not because of the nuggets -- I'd not eat one of these because with the exception of KFC's chicken (extra crispy, please), there is nothing on their menu that I care for. I tried one of their Wednesday $1.99 chicken fried steak dinners (sometimes you've only got a couple bucks in your pocket before payday), and it was one of the singular worst things I've ever forced myself to eat. The chicken fry was tasteless and tough, the corn was just WRONG, the potatoes...eh, they're instant, what can you say. So layering all that stuff into a sludge pile is not going to make it any better.
I AM fascinated with the concept of poutine, having done some research recently after seeing it featured on Tony Bourdain's NR, but so far haven't convinced my wife to eat any culinary attempts I might make. But it's GOT to taste better than a bowl of sodium, pasty gravy and chicken fat...right?
-
Be safe and get out ASAP! Pretend you're French or something, both sides like France...right?
Really, there HAS to be some more safe and interesting places to eat and drink in this big wide world where a Kevlar vest isn't necessary under your formal wear.
Good luck, and love the shows!
-
I've not tried it, and probably wouldn't try it unless someone GAVE it to me, but while listening to a radio program syndicated out of Washington DC, they had a gentleman on the program who sold it over the internet at green fairy. org He apparently has quite a variety of styles and formulations in a wide range of prices. They apparently enjoyed his samples, but I guess if someone's giving you some free bottles of $100 hooch, you're really going to enjoy it.
also found a German company.
apparently, ordering it is legal to the U.S., if you're of a mind, you just can't buy it here.
-
I've found myself a new love...
How to make a sandwich
in Cooking
Posted
MMMMmmmm, I want that sandwich.
Not so strange to use Challah for a BLT -- my first year of college, our cooperative living hall had a very nice student of the Jewish persuasion who would always come down the kitchen on BLT day and start loading up a sandwich with bacon. "Jordan", we would say, "you can't eat that -- you're Jewish!", to which he would reply "Today, I'm not!". But we also had a couple strict vegetarians who during finals would skip the veggie lasagna and reach for the meat lasagna. Hey, I'm not going police their diet for them.
And to stay on-topic, I actually grew up on Miracle Whip, but I've switched entirely over to Hellman's Mayo -- better to dip french fries in. And I put mayo on both sides.