rconnelly

I agree! Guac should never be eaten beyond 24 hrs at the most. I would try using a wooden spoon to mix though. Metal might affect coloring and taste.

Actually, I've ended up watching all the career reality shows on Bravo! And say what you will, "Top Chef" is the most interesting, challenging and fun of them all. "Top Design' was a snore and the thing with the hairdressers is odd but interesting. Maybe it's just because I am into food, but TC is it.

BLTs. The best sandwich ever! So no mention of Philly cheesesteaks? Chicago hot beef? Beef on weck?

Mixed Meals =R= ← Guess my neck is really on the chopping block here. Just curious as to the why of the posting. Fire away!

In spite of all the discussion here, I'll bet the restaurant review is one of - if not the first - columns read in any paper.

Okay, so I know it's not in NYC. But a greart source for amazing sea salts (and mills) is Flavorbank.com

Marco's - great Italian - upstairs, small and cozy. Lisa will take care of you. Neptune Oyster - has got B & G beat by a mile and a half. Try a mix of oysters and then oddly, the burger! It's a killer! Both are in the North End I also love Eastern Standard - it's very "grown up". Clio but bring your credit card. I also love Hammersly's (sp ?) in the South End. It's one place you should order the chicken.

Is there warm weather in PA?

We sat at a table one night in one of Tucson's more famous restaurants - I was doing a review - and a group of six tourists were seated next to us. We knew they were tourists because for some reason they had a "tour guide". Now the visitors were cool, but this woman practically wrecked the experience because she gave a complete history of the city, the restaurant, every litle bit of flora and fauna found in the desert, the food, you name it. I came this close ( ) to telling her to shut up! And she was almost included in my review, but I restrained myself. It still pisses me off when I think about it. And while the info could be helpful to tourists none of them and certainly not us needed to hear this obnoxious women prattle on and on in her grating voice. She really thought she was interesting. Poor deluded soul.

← Thank you JAZ for the turn on to this book. I've jsut started it and I laughed with the very first sentence! Can't wait to dig in.

Bisbee Grill - right across from the Copper Queen Prickly Pear Cafe - I beleive they still have a wine store Cafe Roka ???? have heard good & bad but the citizens I've interviewed all recommended it.

I just heard a rumor that R.Reichl's memoirs are going to be a tv show. Does anyone know anything about this? I read it on a response to a blog I posted on "Circle of Food"

So what's the point of "$40.00"a day? Isn't that the biggest mistake of all?

Thanks for the laugh rconnelly. Just the names he concocted were hysterical: up and coming rock star chef of the near future, "Corey Speed," alleged world famous chefs "Everett Gavage" "Chas Mirepoix" and the senior fellow from the Brookings Institute, "Claudine Suvide." A couple of days late for April Fools' Day, but still much appreciated. The scary thing is just maybe in some culinary school somewhere, someone is at least contemplating the creation of a celebrity chef development division. Truth may indeed catch up with fiction sooner than we think. ← Didn't you love the quote from the well-known celebrity chef? Hmm, now who could that be?

Please when you get the chance, read M. Ruhlman's latest blogs re: Alinea and chef celebrity. Is it for real? Or just a sign of a slightly twisted mind?

Thank you Russ. Well put!

I don't believe the word "organic" unless I grow it myself. It is used way too often; such as at a local sushi joint where they claimed to have "organic sushi"! Turns out only the greens and veggies were organic. Rules: If you break a cookie or chocolate bar into pieces there are no calories. And as far as mushrooms go. It is better to brush them clean.

Hey, yeah. Or the same with being a chef. ← I had a great reply here but then I clicked and something went awry! Rats! First, I think we all can critisize the President because he is a public servant who has taken an oath to protect and preserve....do you feel protected? And I agree. Plenty of reviewers are poor writers and don't know what they are talking about, but then television writing has suffered also. Major mags aren't what they used to be. either. Hell, nothing seems to be. But to say the genre is dead is a bit of an exagerration. Reviewing is hard work if you really care. Bad reviewers don't really care and papers are advertiser driven. Put it all together and you've got sucky reviews.

The remarks from people who have done the job mean someting. From those that haven't, it seems easy to put the genre down. I look at it as ean evolution. Things must change and adapt if they are to remain. I agree that there are some reviewers who really aren't good, but then overall I think newspapers and even some magazines don't have the qualtiy of writing that once was either. Does that make sense?

As a reviewer some of these points are hard to take, but when I read other reviewers - especially local ones in other publications - I know that I am doing a great job and a service to both diners and the restaurants. I mean, if there is a place in town that is serving great food in a great atmosphere, I want people to know about it! I try to be fair. I try to learn about things I don't always know about. And I work very hard at not sounding like a broken record, although there are only so many ways one can describe sushi (for example). In other words, I try to be professional. Perhaps - with the exception of a few who have been there - the comments may have some sour grapes in the mix. Pun intended.

I wonder what these people do eat? And how sad their lives must be missing out on the pleasures of great food - bad for you or not.

1. As I was taught in writing classes - know your audience! If you knowe who you want to attract, what you serve, how you do it and the rest will fall into place. 2. Train your staff well. And honor them. Without them you are nothing but a bunch of tables and chairs with a kitchen in the back. 3. Management has to be willing to get their hands dirty. You need to work your ass off all of the time so eventually you will be able to enjoy the business. 4. Be clear in your own head what you want your place to be. 5. And don't think just because you like to cook that you should open your own restuarant!

Teach your children well! If kids are going to learn how to eat out - at a uptown place or a downhome joint - they need to experience it. That said children also must be taught how to behave and what is expected of them. This means the parents have to do some work and modeling, but honestly it pays off in the long run. Too many parents are too lazy or selfish to do so. I've been in restaurants where parents let their kids do any thing they want, including running around which scares the shit out of me. Hot food, little body, big disaster ( and a law suit, no doubt). That was never allowed when we took our daughter out to dinner. Never! she knew what was expected of her, we never got all nervous and edgy about it and in all the hundreds of times she ate out with us, there was only one time she flipped out. My husband went to the care with her and she fell asleep. He did too and all was well. Today, thanks to all her experiences she has worked at some of the nicest restaurants on the East Coast. And she is extremely patient with the little ones who come into wherever she has worked. The sad part is that it isn't only in restaurants that these parents let the kids misbehave. The kids don't know how to behave at stores, at church, at friend's homes, in school etc. And God forbid, anyone say anything to wither parent or child. We wouldn't want to "hurt anyone's feelings" would we. The parents are not in touch with reality and sadly we all pay for it. Yes, kids should experience all kinds of dining out but they must learn how to do so from Mom & Dad.

Or the Mexican place in a town with the best Mexican, that calls itself "different" and as you're eating a really bad meal, you watch the server run - really run - through the restaurant, while the manger spends his time straightening his tie. Add live music so loud and unending that your teeth rattle. The place has since closed.....

"The Man Who Ate Everything" & "60 Years of Writing - Gourmet" Just finished "For Alice" - ah what a love story