mcohen

Any tips for grilling peaches? And, what do you look when you're selecting peaches? At the farmers market, they told me that you should select peaches with a speckled appearance but I've never heard about this before.

I used to like Sara Moulton until I heard her refer to NYC as 'Jew York' on a food podcast. Now, PBS will never get any more of my money.

In another thread about amaretti cookies, FatGuy made an interesting comment: One of the reasons I ended up buying those same cookies was to also get the beautiful red tin the cookies came in. Sometimes, I'll buy or try something because the packaging strikes my eye as something beautiful worth having, irregardless of what's inside. I figure even if I'm disappointed by the product inside, at least I can reuse the jar or container or pacakaging. Or, sometimes, I'll just buy something and not even open it just to keep it as a decorative ornament. Are there any kitchen goods or products that you bought just for its aesthetics?

Given some of the other countries NR has visited, I doubt this is the first time NR crew has been hit for a bribe or some meedling officials got in the way. If this were in some third world country where its not as PC to make fun of, I wonder if NR would have been as willing to make that the focus of the show or label the national cuisine to be 'primitive'.

Why hasn't another company tried to copy these cookies so they could then sell them at a cheaper price? Given the cost of its ingredients, I'm sure Lazzoroni has some really, really fat profits and there's room for somebody else to come in and undersell Lazzoroni. Lazzoroni can charge a premium because it basically has a monopoly in the sense that if you want amaretti cookies with the same distinctive taste and flavor, you have to buy Lazzoroni. There may be other amaretti cookies, but none of them really tastes the same as one from Lazzoroni.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of better alternatives. The OC Register's food section simply cannot compete with the LATimes, and the OC Weekly website is not very user friendly to search. And, there simply aren't a lot of other sources covering the OC area. But, that still doesn't mean his blog isn't any less terrible. The Frank Bruni wannabe is highlighting particular places not because the food is any good, but because it gives him an oppurtunity to write about the scene or location. He's spending most of it on anything but the food. While having lunch somewhere, there was a nearby accident and that's why he wrote up a particular spot to go eat. Now, this wouldn't necessairly be a problem if he was a better writer. He's a good writer in that he comes up with interesting descriptions. But, he's a poorer writter because he gets so wrapped up in his descriptions, where he doesn't tell if the food is good or not. Too often, he'll write something up and readers' comments will be swooning about how they now want to try it. But, then, he'll respond and admit that the place really wasn't that good. Its just poor writing if the reader can't tell if a place is good or not.

Have you ever been in a real kitchen? The way they've conducted themselves doesn't strike me as that unusual- swearing, drinking, etc..

I've been buying fava beans from the farmers market, and I'm getting a signifigant portion that turn out to be yellow when I shell them. One time, I think about a third of them turned out to be yellow vs. green. Are the yellow ones still okay to eat? And, how do I pick out which fava beans will be green vs. yellow? I've tried asking the farmers selling them, but they're not much help- its always 'oh, they're all good..."

I had this same experience with the artichokes at SoCal farmers market- not very fresh, with no squeek noise when you rubbed them, small heart, etc... Every week I'd go to the farmers market, and check out the three or four vendors who sold them and end up so disappointed with their products that I'd always leave without buying one. And, now, summer is upon is and the artichoke season has almost passed. Sigh... But, the weird thing was that I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up some 365 balsmic vingegar and stumbled upon their artichokes. WF's artichokes just blew away the artichokes I'd been seeing at the farmers' market all spring. And, without any sale, they were also cheaper as well! I got excited by them that I just swooped in and bought five artichokes.

So, without a previous relationship with the sushi restaurant, how do you know if they're using fresh or frozen?

Thanks, Steve. I can't wait to read your new book. But, now, I have a further question. So, if most of the sushi fish is frozen, then why are there such differences in quality between the sushi in one city vs. another like LA vs. NYC. With both cities, and the economic base to support fine sushi, wouldn't both cities get the same quality frozen sushi? Or, is it because there's a higher concentration of better sushi chefs in one particular city vs. another?

Its nothing that bad, where I got sick or anything. But, to answer your question, I've been on a quest to find a favorite brand for ice cream, as well as trying several different flavors. (Vanilla is my favorite, but I wanted to be open to new flavors). And, I bought several diffferent flavors from a particular expensive brand(avg. price for a pint costs about $8) thinking that with there would be some correlation between price and quality. I admit it, I fell victim to its marketing- small batches, artisinal, etc... Now, I didn't necessairly expect it to be OMG! the best ice cream I've ever had. But, then again, I wasn't expecting it to be the worst ice cream I've ever had which was what it turned out to be. You put ice cream in front of me, and I've never refused it. But, this time, I couldn't finish it. One of the things was the texture of the ice cream. You know how ice cream is supposed to have that luxurious, creamy mouth feel. Well, this ice cream's texture was kind of rough like a cat's tongue- I think the ice cream was too old even though this brand touts that it makes their ice cream in small batches and I tried this ice cream before the best used by date.

In the panthenon of All-Clad lines, where does the LTD fall? Buy it, and if you decide you don't want it, you could always sell it to somebody here on egullet for the same price. PM me if you decide to sell it.

Any other suggestions for specific brands of brown rice for those who don't go to Ferry's?

What happened? After all that hard work to win the show, why did they walk away from such a sweet set-up?

Anybody ever had any success with writing a complaint letter for a food product they bought? And, if so, what made it so succesful?

And, that sounds like students across the field in almost every educational endeavor. You could make the same argument for those students as well- they could save the money and just buy the textbook, how the educational theories in the classroom is a waste of time and not practical, etc.. At one point in time, medical doctors were not highly regarded either and now look at them. Without schools like the CIA trying to raise the bar, cooking will be seen as a trade, instead of a profession.

Can somebody break down when fish is delivered to a restaurant, and thus what day it would be the freshest? I remember Bourdain warning readers to avoid eating fish on Mondays as it was likely to be leftover from Thursday or Friday. But, what about the rest of the week? Is a fresh batch of fish being delivered each weekday, or do they come in big shipments every couple of days?

I think you're confusing Frankie and Memo(Manuel).

You would taste it, and know immediately its gone bad, right? And, is there anyway to determine this before you bought and opened the bottle?

That's good to hear. I was watching his PBS show, Simply Ming, and I have to admit, I was skeptical about those dishes- some of the combinations of eastern and western ingredients simply didn't sound too appealing.

'Memo', the sous chef, in the book has probably become well-known to TV audiences as Manuel, the chef on Top Chef 4. In some ways, I don't think I would have known that Memo in the book and Manuel on TV were the same person unless I had been told that.

Is La Tourangelle Walnut oil considered to be high quality? Cause I just bought some, and I don't know if its just me or if its the product, but I'm not terribly impressed. What some would call 'delicate', I would say that I don't really detect any nut taste or flavor. To me, it comes off as bland than anything else.

Do the recipes actually work if you follow them, and how do they end up tasting?

I have several issues with CI: First of all, its freakin' ridiculous to find some of their recommendations if you don't live in Boston. Since it is a national magazine, you'd figure they'd take into account. They point out something as best value for the price, but once you start calculating the gas you used driving to look for the item or the mail and shipping, is it really best value anymore? And, the only reason they started off with no advertising is because they initially couldn't find any advertisers. These days, they don't put any ads into their magazines but that doesn't mean there's no promotions or advertising. On PBS, you see ads and when you buy an OXO salad spinner, there was a promotion about CI magazine. Plus, I actually wouldn't mind if they accepted advertising, esp. something non-cooking related, if it would stop the shilling. I've noticed how their recommendations have changed through the years, even with really no new products in that marketplace. For example, this month's recommendations for mandolines and how much that varied from its previous testing. If CI wasn't as reliant on subscriptions, would they keep on needing to always change their previous recommendations?