mcohen

Isn't this a tad bit... By this logic, you don't think Steve can write an authorative book about Asian dining because he wasn't born and raised in Asia? And, that Trevor Corson shouldn't be allowed to write a book about sushi because he's a gaijin. What about David Thompson and Thai cooking? Or, what about Barbara Tropp and Fuschia Dunlop with regards to Chinese cooking? And, dare I say, what about Julia Child and French cooking? The culinary world would be much diminished if we placed such restrictions. Sorry, Tyson Cole, you can't cook X cuisine because you weren't born and raised in X country. And, sorry, Julia, you can't write about X cuisine because you weren't born and raised in X country.

Is there a difference between the translucent containers vs. the clear containers that would explain the price difference between them where the clear ones are so much more expensive than the translucent? Is there some difference in quality between the two? Otherwise, why would people more to get the clear containers? And, once you close a container with a lid, does that give you a tight, vacuum seal? Are there some things that shouldn't be stored in these containers? I'm just trying to figure out why these containers are so popular.

I saw this on sale and I was wondering if you can you use this as a chef's knife? The tilt to it seemed a little strange.

I picked up some heirloom carrots at the farmers' market where these carrots have different colors than the ubiquitous orange but I'm not sure what to do with them. Do you treat or cook them differently than the orange carrots? Are they best served raw, or cooked?

I would argue that any sushi will be not be good or as good as it could be if the inatame needs to mold the sushi so as a patron can pick them up with chopsticks. Remember, the thing that separates good and bad sushi is the rice. And, sushi rice should be molded just enough so that somebody can pick them up with their fingers and then fall apart in the mouth. But, once the inatame needs to mold the sushi rice firmly enough so that it won't fall apart when picked by chopsticks instead of by hand, then the sushi will no longer fall apart in the mouth as a proper piece of sushi should.

When will Target and Wal-Mart break into the California market? That would certainly shake things up. I listen to a podcast of Splendid Table, and one of the sponsors is Target advertising a new concept combining a traditional Target store and a grocery store.

I found another cookbook on clearance, Tom Kime's Balancing Flavors East and West, which I thought would be a useful exercise to skim through and compare to Rocco's book since it seeme so similar. Both books are by young western chefs who are heavily influenced by SouthEastern flavors and spices, where they're both trying to explain to the reader what makes a dish work. Maybe, its just me, but from the title of Kime's book, I thought it would be more about fusion and balancing traditional eastern and western. Instead, Kime's book has both eastern and western dishes, but they're traditional dishes that don't really mix it up. If its a eastern dish, then its a traditional dish with eastern ingredients and vice versa. From a food porn perspective, I liked Rocco's book more in that regards. There's a overall high production value in Rocco's book with its ravishing pictures that Kime's book just can't match. And, not just the pics, but Rocco's dishes themselved seemed kinda interesting. Another thing I noticed is that Rocco's dishes seemed more 'doable'- its not a long list of ingredients that only a chef in a profesional kitchen would do. This may or may not be a good thing since I haven't tested one of those recipes to see if Rocco ended up compomising the dish in order to make it more accesible for those at home. Surely, his dishes aren't that easy to make. Both books try to show how they incorporate salty, sour, bitter, sweet taste sensations in their dishes with the ingredients they use in the dish. A really cool trick Rocco does is to use different colors for his ingredients, where the color indicates if the ingredient is salty or bitter or sour or sweet. It seemed Kime wanted to do the same thing, but didn't quite succeed. In kime's book, there's a list in the beginning that divides all these ingredients into those four basic tastes. The problem is when you're looking at the recipe, you'd have to continoulsly refer back to that page. After looking at Kime's book, I have to begrudingly acknowledge that Rocco did write the better book.

I got some truffle salt from Napa Style as a gift, but I don't know what to do with it. Other than with eggs, what can I do with it? Unless I can think of something else to do with it, I think I might end up re-gifting it.

I wasn't a big fan of Peterson's book. When I needed to find a recipe for catfish, there really wasn't anything in his book that got me excited.

So, with all these new players like Sprouts and Fresh&Easy coming into the Southern California market, are they paying their workers the same wages and benefits that other supermarkets' workers fought for and went on strike for?

Another etiquette question: When you go sit at the sushi bar and the prices listed on the wall are market prices, what's the proper way to find out how much those items are that day? Or, are you supposed to take a blind leap and hope it doesn't end up costing more than you'd have wanted to pay?

The proper and correct way to eat sushi is with your hands and to use your chopsticks for sashimi. Steve himself has said this, and he's a writing a book about asian dining. Sushi is really about the rice, not the fish. And, the sushi master is trying to mold the sushi for this optimum mixture of rice and air so that it falls apart in your mouth. But, if you use chopsticks, then the sushi master must clump it harder so that it won't fall apart when you pick up with your chopsticks. The way I see it, I'm already behind the eight ball as the sushi chef views me as just another gaijin. If I use chopsticks for sushi, then I'm singalling to him that I don't know anything about sushi and thus am unlikely to appreciate his craft. Its kind of like ordering spicy tuna. As such, a sushi master isn't going to give the best cuts to a gaijin who's using chopsticks and ordering spicy tuna.

There's a big ol' picture of him on the cover(which you could take the sleeve off) and photos of him in the introduction, but after that, its not that bad. Then, the photos, which are really high quality, are focused on the dishes. Completely unrelated to food, but the book that best matches that discription would be Stacy London and Clinton's What Not to Wear book. With that book, it really was all about them where all the pictures were focused in on them where they completely overshadowed the person who was supposed to be the body type that chapter was discussing.

I keep on seeing these cheesy commercials for this product, and I'm curious if they actually work?

I know you're supposed to use your hands for nigri sushi and chopsticks for sashimi, but what about battleship sushi, the ones with nori wrapped around the rice and something like fish roe on top? Do you use your hands or chopsticks for that? With regards to soy sauce, are you supposed to use more or less for fattier cuts like tuna? And, are you supposed to burp outloud to show your appreciation for the meal?

I've been amazed at some of the produce I've been finding in your run of the mill supermarkets, and oftentimes the quality and the price surpasses those at the farmers market. At the same time, I've noticed a number of supermarkets closing. Maybe, the market is oversaturated with supermarkets. But, then, you see new companies like Sprouts and Fresh & Easy coming in.

Yep, it would be pretty expensive. I remember listening to a food podcast about a similar situation with the person who writes 'table manners' on chowhound. And, if I recall correctly, it was going to cost tens of thousands, maybe a hundred thousand, to do that.

For those interested, I saw them on sale at TJMaxx on clearance for about seven dollars alongside all these anonymous, crumpled cookbooks strewn about the bargain bin. To me, it seems like a metaphor for Rocco's career. Is it a worthy addition to a cookbook library, or is it one of those vanity chef books with recipes don't work in the home kitchen?

With asian supermarkets, I feel that they're best at obviously asian goods and seafood. In the LATimes, there was just an article about how asians' standards for seafood and how fresh it has to be. For spot prawns, if both Ranch 99 and Pearson's are fishing the same area and catching the same product, I'm still skeptical how much of a difference there really can be. Maybe, if we were talking about something else where there the vendor might have a bigger influence on it by the way they grow that product, I might be inclined to believe such a difference in quality. I've read a number of studies where people's perception of the quality of something to ate or drank could be easily manipulated if they were misled about the price or the quality. When you were eating Pearson's seafood, you probably really wanted it to be better because you wanted to support this small, local family owned shop and that could have easily influenced your perception about the quality. Not that there's necessairly wrong with wanting to support local, but my quibble is that's a different matter whether or not something is better in quality. I propose a more scientific test where you buy something from Pearson's and Ranch 99 and eat them without knowing which is which and see if you can still taste the difference.

My bad. Yes, its Good Food. I must have mistyped it. (I'd recommend this podcast for others to listen to, notwithstanding Mrs. Moulton's comments.) I'm not sure I follow that. That would be like punishing Nightline and Ted Kopell when some baseball executive made racist remarks on the show about blacks. Instead, I hold those responsible who harbor such racist and anti-semitic remarks and their employers- do the employers give such employees a pass or do they suspend or fire them.

Even when I'm at a farmers market, I usually don't pick up the smell from produce. I don't know if its my allergies or if the food isn't as ripe as it could be. And, if you can grill peaches and nectarines, does this mean that you can grill any type of fruit? Or, do some work better on the grill than others? I've even heard about grilling watermelons which I can't wait to try this summer.

YMMV, but if I can buy these same prawns at Ranch 99 for about three or four dollars less, or about 25% less than what Pearson's prices, than I call it that 'much cheaper'. I thought these spot prawns were found mostly on the West Coast and so I don't buy the argument that the asian supermarkets spot prawns must not be local and less fresh because they're shipped in from other countries. And, none of this matters if there isn't the customer base and turnover to continously buy all these spot prawns at Pearson's. If anything, a customer should welcome larger crowds at Pearson's. As to the perceived difference in quality if both sources are catching the same prawns from the same area, I'm frankly skeptical given all the documented cases where people can be misled into judging the quality of something if they are misled about the quality and price of that product. Sure, you tell somebody that I got these prawns from small, local family owned shop and they cost a small fortune and compare them to some other cheaper prawns from a souless, dirty asian chain supermarket, most people are going to pick the former even if they're eating the same exact prawn.

Um, link please? ← I was so shocked and hurt that she would use such words that I had to relisten to the podcast, and that's what she said- "Jew York". But, if you want to listen to it yourself, its on KCRW's Good Fast Podcast on June 7, 2008.

Yeah, but Balocco is still fairly expensive. Are the ingredient costs to make ameretti cookies really that expensive?

Why not just go buy some at an asian supermarket? At almost $20 a pound, the spot prawns at Pearsons sounds expensive when you can find them at a lower pricepoint at an asian supermarket. And, its been my experience that seafood at these asian supermarkets tend to be fresher than what you'd find at other supermarkets.