FoodMan

I haven't watched the episode yet, but I have it on my DVR. As for naming pigs, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to name your dinner (I ate Paolina when I was in Italy), as long as you don't develop an emotional attachment to them as Gordon had. He was putting sunblock on their ears so they wouldn't get burnt — which I found absolutely endearing. I didn’t know until the end of the episode I was watching that those little piggies are going to be food, and I'm thinking, uh-oh that isn’t going to end well. ← It's not necessarily 'wrong' to name them...but it makes it much easier to form that emotional attachment at least for me it would.

To each their own of course and this is all very subjective. I watched last night's episode too to see how it 'sits'. Yeah, he did not disrespect the nice people of the gulf coast and seemed happy to be there even though I still think the crowd their aming for with this show is the same one that watches Fear Factor. The viewers who actually watch it for educational purposes and actually enjoy the food he's eating -nothing wrong with that- like some posters here are few and far between. As for the host himself, well some people have what it takes to make it on TV and some don't. Zimern IMHO does not. I grew tired of his presence after 20 minutes. Just because he's a good food critic does not mean he can keep a show on TV going. My 2 cents

I like to get my butter nice and brown before tossing in the rice for a minute and then adding the water/stock to make the best 'steamed' rice. Also good as a different base for risotto.

I've never seen a whole show, mainly because I do NOT like the premise and that guy seems really annoying . I mean Bizarre Foods? Bizarre to who? It seems like the point of it (well other than making money for the network) is to see what other people eat, decide it is 'bizarre' and then Big Mac-eating everyday Americans can say 'ooooh....they eat testicles in Spain' or 'look at that...I cannot believe he's eating this crap'. I could be wrong, but the whole premise is bizarre to me. edit: typos and factual info and to add that I had not read the first page of this thread when I first posted. I see I am one of many who share this same view about BF.

It was quiet a coincidence too that I had just seen Delicatessen the night before and all I could see was the face of Clapet the butcher wielding his shiny cleaver with the pigs hanging and waiting to be dimembered and divied up .

yeah...it was rough, he was genuinely hurt. It was a bit tough to watch as well seeing as we also have seen these two very cute creatures every week (almost) since they were wee piglets. On the other hand I bet those pigs will taste great and they sure lived a life any 'factory/Smithfield' pig would envy. I kept telling my wife through out the whole thing though, why on earth did he give them names? I would not. They are meant to be raised for food...not pets. It just makes it much more difficult knowing you're eating Suzannah's loin rather than a pork loin.

Fascinating stuff everyone. I am afraid to say I've never eaten Akob before even though I was raised in Lebanon and have eaten the wild hinbeh many many times. I have never seen Akob in the US either. Thanks for sharing the pics Chef and Miriam now on to More details please???

Great info Sazji. It of course does not surprise me at all that many cultures around the region share a very similar preparation. Carrot Top- No idea actually. Where is that quote from?

No, she woudl simply not serve lettuce . As for water, I would think in keeping with the whole environmental thing, she either will have buy a complex filtration system or buy water from the closest and better tasting source.

Pontormo: I think I know what recipe you intend to make...the Farro with Potatoes and Greens from the Wolfert book. Correct? It does sound great. As for J. Oliver, well what can I say. He's no Paula Wolfert and he has a different set of 'customer base' shall we say. I own most books by both authors and enjoy them for very different reasons. About the regionality issue, I think we've mentioned this before, but most books including Hazan's for example can do a much much better job of identifying what's from where. Mitch: I am very very jealouse. Please, we need a full report and pics about the Salami.

Pontormo- I did not mean to chastise you for using the word 'banned', and I see where you're coming from. For that I apologize. This situation is a bit different thant he W. Puck one though. The WP thing is really a 'ban' effective in all of his multi-million dollar restaurant empire including forzen foods and the likes. It's a bit more encompassing and probably means that all the franchisees are actually 'banned' from using foi gras or veal or what have you in their restaurants. Just a different context is all.

Of course not! The customer is NOT always right. But again that is a different subject (see the 'cancelled reservation' thread in this forum). IMHO her decision is fine. As for the decision to be left to the customer. Well, that is all fine and good too and is not better or worse than her decision to just not serve the bottled water. Like I said, decades earlier she decided to serve local and organic produce and it was her decision. She did not give the customer the option to order locally produced vs. not.

AND he does the very unlaudable act of placing it as number 1 on the list. As if to say...looky here I am banning Foi Gras too. sad really.

Someone really needs to change the title of this thread! It is totally driving the discussion in the wrong direction. I mean it was a simple dicision the restaurant made for what seems to me like good enough reasons. They have excellent tap water, so why get bottled. The same reasoning that they use to cook food produced locally. Nothing wrong with that. It's the 'B' word that is making an issue of this. As if Chez Panisse and Waters are lobying congress for a ban on bottled water. Personally I think bottled water is mostly a waste of money. I'd rather spend my cash on wine (which does not kill people BTW. Excessive wine drinking might though just like excessive ice cream eating)

Yeah, the Marchigiani chickpea soup is what started this recipe and the rest was the need to use what I had on hand or in the freezer. The Farro in there was a filler, again I had a handful left fromt he last time I made a soup with it during the TA month so I just dumped it in. Thanks for the warning about the FT recipe. Seems like the same problem as the sweet raisin rolls I made upthread. What is it with this guy and using a ton of eggs???

...we have to add the cardinal rule though 3. Don't cook with 'cooking wine' Isn't that covered by #2 above? Cooking wine is in no way drinkable. ← not unless it is edited to say "...This primarily means cooking wine, spoiled (corked, etc.) wines and wines with serious off-flavors."

...we have to add the cardinal rule though 3. Don't cook with 'cooking wine' I've figured this myth is a myth a long time ago (well actually I think it was Alton Brown who first mentioned that it was BS. He is right.)and my go to white wine is a $4.99 bottle of Pinot Grigio for white wine recipes made by something like Barefoot or such. For red a cheap merlot around the $4-5 range works well. I do like the idea of box wine that keeps for a while though...and the freezing wine slushy option that FG recommends makes a lot of sense only I hardly ever have any wine left . Speaking of Mario and what he uses, in Heat, Bill Buford specifically tackles that and says that the Beef or short ribs in 'Barolo' are really braised in an affordable California Merlot.

I feel the same way about this. I have 2 young kids and I get a babysitter when my wife and I need a night out for ourselves. I would not appreciate it very much if I have to wait an extra hour here or there to be seated if I have a res. simply because the restaurant needs to overbook to compensate for no-shows and last minute cancellation. Why should I pay more for a babysitter just for that reason? or eat at 9 if my res. is for 7:30? More restaurants should start the -widely accepted in hotels and such- policy of taking cc numbers and those who feel it is their right to make 3 reservations and show up to the one they decide on last minute can start paying or become better customers.

Franci- I'll add my compliments to the rest for that beuatiful bread. FT has a recipe for it in the book and I have to give it a shot after looking at those pics! Last night's Marchigiani inspired dinner: This is what I imagine would be a Le Marche spring time food, and I did get my inspiration from the the thick and hearty chickpea soup from the region. I also had some good Asparagus and frozen fresh egg pasta that needed using up. So here is my Marchigiani Spring Time Minestra with chickpeas, beans, farro, Asparagus and fresh pasta. Totally vegetarian, healthy and loaded with flavor.

This is such a great read. Chef, you certainly have the talent of a top notch thriller novel writer. The whole excerpt was written with such a simple and engaging style, I could almost see the kitchen and hear the voices and could not stop reading. Any plans for the chef to write fiction?

Looks wonderful Kevin, and that is what cooking is all about. Do what you like and make it your own. Why did you decide against fish though? Too flaky?

I am not sure who on this thread ever said that rudeness is ok. I certainly did not. The issue some of us are arguing here is the complete belief of some posters that the customer is infallible. that they have the RIGHT to cancel and reschedule whenever they want regardless of what their actions' impacts are on the restaurant. It is rude to make a reservation and cancel on the last minute or not show up for no good reason. And we all agree that rudeness is not good. Is it breaking a contract? well sort of, a verbal and civil one. I say I will be there at 7 and the restaurant owner says he will be there to cook for me. We might not like it if a restaurant chooses to enforce their charge the CC rule, but ultimately it is their right and we agreed to that 'contract' when we made the res. and gave them our phone number.

not really, but since the meat is not ground but rather diced, having the squash in tubes is probably a better way for the filling not to come out. If you use ground meat there really is no reason why you wouldn't just make them into 'boats'.

On a recent trip to Chicago, we needed a place last minute to treat our hosts. The hosts are two college students who were nice enough to allow us to stay with them. Ok, so one of them is my wife's cousine but still, it was very nice of them . Frontera is what we were thinking but after being told that we had to wait for 2.5 hours for a table we decided to try something else. Green Zebra came to mind because I remembered reading about it around here somewhere but had no idea what kind of place to expect. We checked the website and honestly both myself and the cousin were a bit turned off by the 'mostly vegetarian' description of the restaurant's style. He calims he is a big steak lover and me, well I love some good animal protein a few times a day. With only a 45 minute wait and a menu that looked promising and my constant reminder to him 'trust me...this place will not just grill a mushroom and serve it on a bed of lettuce and call it dinner', we headed to Green Zebra. Figured at least it is something different. We were all in for a very big and pleasnat surprise. Dinner at GZ was one of the most pleasurable dinner experiences I've had. The food was outstanding, finely tuned, beautiful to look at and utterly delicious. For the four of us we ended up eating about 15 different dishes and not a single dud on the list! Service both at the bar while we waited and had some drinks and at the table was perfect. A little casual and very efficient. on to some pics that are sadly lacking on this thread -Buratta (sp?) cheese, Meyer Lemon gelee... -Apple Thyme Soup...this was so popular we were almost thinking about ordering another one Clockwise from the bottom: - Sunchoke raviolis, hazelnuts, goat cheese sauce - Eggplant dumplings - Fried chickpea patie. This was very good but in the grand scheme of things, my least favorite. Probably because it tasted too much like a falafel patie that was not cooked enough. - Sauteed rice noodles with bokchoy and fennel. Not sure how the Chef makes such a simple thing taste so good, but the noodles were the most perfect of their ilk that I've ever had. None of that too slimy texture, instead they were a bit chewy and a bit rough and held on to the sauce perfectly. - Salmon with flageolets. The only non veggie item on the whole menu and like everything else it was cooked perfectly with crispy skin and moist sweet flesh. The beans had a very nice texture to them as well - Turnip risotto cakes with hedgehog mushrooms. We ordered this beauty after seeing a server drop it off at a neighboring table. It is Shiitake Muchrooms and Napa cabbage wrapped in potato and served with and herb foam (I think it was an herb foam). There were four of us and five pieces...so there was some arguing as to who deserves the last piece. Since it was my idea to come here and my idea to order this I got it . On to desserts The best of the four we ordered and mine...a Meyer Lemon parfait with a grapefruit sorbet and cream. Absolutly heavenly. Honestly I am not sure what that was but it was good Front: Chocolate Pave, with breaded fried bananas. the combo of hot and cold, choco and banana is classic and perfect. Back: Apple Butter Beignets, riesling reduction, caramel thyme ice cream. Most everyone thought this was good but a bit too sweet...so I really had to polish it up. There is no such thing as too sweet! Our hosts by the end of the night were very glad we 'found' this place for them so that they can head there whenever they want. As for my wife and I, well it totally proved that a vegeatrian meal can be an excellent fine dining option. I'll still avoid those joints that somehow stick tofu in everything and make a salad of everything else and call it vegetarian. If a place like Green Zebra ever opens up in my neck of the woods (Houston), I'd love to give it a shot.

More catching up was Saturday's dinner. Being Lebanese, when I see a recipe for any stuffed vegetable, immediatly my interest is piqued . So, the FT recipe for "baked stuffed zucchini" was a must try. It worked out great BTW and is highly recommended for those on no-pasta no-carb diets temporarily (hint...Kevin). I used turkey breast instead of veal here, something I do quiet often. Other than chopped turkey, the filling included sauteed mushrooms and pancetta. I also never use fresh tomatoes to cook with, so here contrary to the recipe I used canned San Marzano tomatoes. The end result was excellent served with good crusty bread. I used a zucchini corer that I bought from a middle eastern store to perfectly core the squash. I hate how the camera flash messes up the color of the dish...but you get the idea.