feedmec00kies

oh god, that thing was horrible to watch, especially since i wasn't expecting it (i also have a fear of knives wielded nearby by anyone but myself, or when i see them cutting into fleshy things for seemingly no reason...) i was kind of thinking of dali references as well, with the clocks and such.. i worry about the blue food dye and stuff; haven't they found that certain colors of food provoke certain bodily reactions (aka nausea/vomiting)? i think the color shift is a good idea, especially versus possibly inducing vomiting for all your guests... otherwise, i third the sex-organ pasta shapes (i think they have breast-shaped pasta somewhere as well...) and all those crazy suggestions everyone's making (esp. Anna Friedman Herlihy's!) sound better than anything i could have thought up and mmmm, squid tentacles...

i third the soaking the eggs with cracked shells in water.. i think that's the suggestion i read in cooks illustrated once as well...

mkayahara: i haven't had a pastry cutter in my possession as of yet, but that's a great idea. i did most of my cooking in the last few years (which is when i started cooking regularly) at school in a kitchen with "common" (aka shared) utensils and things, and i was able to keep the stuff i bought for my own personal use to a minimum (aka a decent knife and some not-so-sketchy measuring spoons/cups). i also haven't done much baking, nor does my mom, so i haven't interacted enough with pastry knives to have one myself. Fugu, Pierogi: yeah, i kinda forgot about that, as i have yet to develop arthritis.. i guess they're not useless after all. my impression though, was based on the fact that my mom bought one of those, and the only one in my family who has arthritis in his/her hands is my younger sister... srhcb: yeah, i was trying to think of a reason to buy a grape peeler, and that kind of came to mind. but unless you're going to have like... 10 kids, who all need their grapes peeled for a year or something each... and actually, my dad used to cut grapes in half and pick all the seeds out with a knife for me to eat when i was really young. apparently, back 20 years ago there weren't seedless grapes, or at least they were so bad that my father couldn't stand to buy them (he grew up eating a lot of grapes in what is now southern ukraine, so he's picky) Zeemanb: all i can say to that miracle steel is "hmmmm...."

i agree with a lot of people; i've realized that i've been cooking (aka not including baking) long enough to eyeball most measurements. if it was a new dish i might measure a few things, but i haven't made anything new from a recipe too recently. the new stuff i'd made within the last half a year was something i made up completely out of the empty spaces of my mind, so i eyeballed the ratios. i try and taste things pretty frequently, even if i'm following a recipe, so unless there was a reason i couldn't taste it, i could probably go without measuring most of the time. it also means a few less things to wash. of course i rarely bake, and when i do i measure because i feel there's more chemistry involved and it needs more exact measurements.

not quite helpful but... i haven't really had many organic beers (actually, i don't think i've had any.. only a celiac friendly beer that my boyfriend picked up for a glucose intolerant roommate of mine to try... it wasn't pretty), so i can't really personally add to your list. however, have you tried looking at beer rating site like ratebeer or beer advocate for this kind of information? i don't really know beer advocate, but if you go to ratebeer and do a search for "organic", you'll get a long list of things that are organic (or at least have organic in their names, i guess... sorry, it's not flawless, but i guess most organic beers will say they are in their names.. and it looks like the list is longer than 100... eep!). if you click on beer names, you can get brewer information and such. plus, you can see how people on the site who have drank them rated them. there may or may not even be a list of organic beers on one of those site, though i somewhat doubt it - things are grouped by style, and i don't know if many ratebeerians are interested in limiting themselves to organic beers (they usually rather go out of their way for good/rare stuff they can't get in their area). also, you run into the problem that some of that stuff (like, not made by a larger microbrewery like magic hat) might not be available in your region... such is distribution. i have to warn you, though: you may or may not be unhappy to see that beers you really like are rated low. i've realized that sometimes it's best not to let people know that their favorite brew isn't favored by those who frequent the site... well, hope that helped anyway!

here it is! man, conspicuous consumption really does a number on a person, as far as useless objects. for every good thing williams sonoma seems to sell, there's also another completely useless thing... like this "Mini Burger Press" (it's new! my days of slaving over mini burgers is over! )

dr teeth - i also hate wooden spoons. i actually hate most wooden kitchen tools (it's an obsessive-compulsive, germaphobe kind of thing.. not to mention that i'd imagine the flavors themselves would get absorbed by the spoon). i was cooking with my boyfriend at his house and asked for a spatula and he pointed to the wooden spoon-tula (half spoon, half retarted-looking spatula) that he had already started using and i gave him a look of "what the...! no!" but gave in because he wouldn't give me something better.. zoe b - i don't mind those egg slicers, they're great for making egg salad really fast, but i wouldn't buy one especially unless i needed to dice that many hardboiled eggs mkayahara - you don't need a device to peel grapes, you just get some slaves/scantily clad women, like back in the good ol' days of rome! and i second/third anyone who mentioned the avocado slicer thing. those things are ridiculous (a picture here, for those fortunate enough not to know of them) they also had special "lettuce knives" and "tomato slicers" (in the vein of the avocado slicer) in the produce section of wegmans, and i always wondered how many of those they actually managed to sell. i also have to say that the oxo angled measuring cups are really absurd to me. but worse still are the /stainless steel/ liquid measuring cups, because i'd hope that people know that the proper way to measure liquids requires looking at the meniscus at eye level! and those jar openers! (sorry, i'm not ripping on oxo.. they make some very good tools, but i already happen to be at their page and i knew they sold those things) i also think those things that chop your veggies for you are completely ridiculous (in the vein of "as see on tv!" gadgetry). that may be because i'm veeeery particular about how my vegetables are cut (to the point that friends have teased me about using protractors and rulers), but come on! one size of dice does not fit all! and i don't mind the smell of garlic or onions on my hands, thank-you-very-much.

a danger i see is that in the somewhat distant future, some people might get used to these "allergy-safe" peanut products and then go abroad and not think about the dangers when they have to because they didn't have to deal with them quite so day-to-day. maybe that's a crazy theory, but i can still imagine it happening.

used for getting the aforementioned pan goods out? it looks a little scoop-shaped, so maybe it would be better at pulling stuff like brownies out without breaking or completely decimating them. orrr.... maybe it's a tool you can both serve food with and garden with? (i only say that b/c of the first line..)

hmm, thanks for the information! i haven't really been to a sushi place without my family yet, so 4 people in a group at the bar seems a little clumsy and it's never occured to us. however, i'll keep it in mind for the future. we're somewhat regulars at the place near us that we go to, though, so hopefully they're not treating us so badly. :-) this kind of reminds me of stuff from a book i read last fall for an anthropology class. if anyone is interested in the more "academic" aspects of sushi and fish (and japan), you might be interested in the works of Theodore Bestor. we read a book called Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World for that class and it was fascinating (who knew that chilean sea bass is transported in the cargo areas of passenger flights? ) the reason i thought about this book when reading this post was because bestor develops a relationship with the sushi chef by sitting at the counter, and realizes himself that this was probably the best way to a. get the best stuff, and b. be treated well as a customer.

just copy the link and paste it into a new browser window/tab.. it's some measure to keep bandwidth down or something i think (correct me if i'm wrong; i'm not comp sci major!) see, this is why most of the time i'd just rather not cook meat myself; it just seems like too much to worry about, when i can just make lots of tasty vegetables and know exactly where they are in their growth/decomposition... unfortunately the boyfriend "needs" meat, so i'm going to have to start dealing with it once we move in together...

whatever, they can keep their florets and give us all the stems in the world! and sorry guys, i didn't realize (i admit it, i skimmed) that someone already posted that banana article!

oh yeah... I do that too and I heard that that was how monkeys ate their bananas. Why the heck wouldn't you peel from the soft end anyways, I mean its a lot easier to hold the banana from the other end, right? we don't eat it the weird way, we eat it the RIGHT way!! sometimes I will eat an entire peanut or sunflower seed WHOLE. I mean shell and all, I am too lazy to peel and plus my dad says its good for you because of all the fiber (he eats his peanuts like this). ← me too!!!! actually, i randomly came across an article by an economics professor from my alma mater here that talks about peeling bananas. though to be honest, i kind of think the guy is a little bit out of touch with reality at times (as seen by his infamous, economics-theory-based "more sex is safer sex" argument

a really pronounced weird food habit i have is probably eating pickles after ice cream. i think it's just that i'm not used to eating so much of a sweet food (though i can't eat more than a cup or so of ice cream anyway), so i "balance" it with the pickles... of course, everyone outside of my family likes to comment about my "pregnant" eating habit. a lot of eating outsides of things on this board... something i'll do is eat those ferrero rocher chocolates from the outside in; first the chocolate and nut coating, then pull the two halves of wafer shell, hopefully so that the chocolate and hazelnut filling stays in one side, and try to eat as much wafer alone as possible. actually, not unlike what the picture on wikipedia looks like. not really weird, but something people also like making fun of is my obsessive-compulsive behavior of spreading things evenly to the edges of the bread. i impulsively will sit and spread things to the edges without thinking about it. i'll also rearrange sandwiches sometimes, to make the ingredients more evenly spread across (i can't stand uneven sandwiches!) and responses... i couldn't agree more! to combat this, i just pour the milk in before the cereal, and eat as quickly as possible... then the least cereal touches milk. i've also found that eating cereals like kashi golean (aka with fiber) will result in less sogginess.

oh yeah, about the tuna salad discussion: i like my tuna salad with hard boiled eggs, which my dad always did. i've never thought tuna salad without them are just quite the same...

i think a lot of the foods i personally put in this category would be food that had to do with my ethnic background (especially since my parents are both immigrants) jewish holiday foods (from my dad's side) are definitely in that category. one of my favorite things is probably matzoh brei, which we make by soaking the matzoh in boiling water for 30 seconds, draining it, and mixing it with just enough egg to bind, fried mushrooms and onions, and salt and pepper. then it all gets poured into the frying pan and cooks as one big pancake. (i detail this because there are at least 4 general methods for making matzoh brei, and i think my family's way is probably more comforting to me than the other ways). i also, of course, like latkes and matzoh ball soup and such, but matzoh brei really sticks. also, i love those kosher toasted coconut-covered marshmellows they sell during passover as well, probably more than regular marshmellows. i think those stick for my childhood because it was one of the things that didn't get nixed by my mother's unhealthy-food-filter. stuff from my chinese side... those really wide rice noodles (ho fun... they're the last ones on this page), those fluffy white steamed buns.. i also used to absolutely hate congee, because it was something my mom made me eat when i was sick, but now i actually really enjoy the stuff. i think in general, not as a childhood thing specifically, i have grown appreciate asian noodle soups as a comfort food as well.

hmmm, funny thing is i found this site a few weeks ago (and subsequently joined) because of that "Chicken of the Sea" Op-Ed that "fat guy" (Steven Shaw, as I was first introduced to him) wrote for the NY Times, talking about seafood and such (he mentioned the pregancy thing earlier in this thread). anyway, after i read eric schlosser's fast food nation and some other stuff for a class i took my last semester of college called "culture and consumption", i've been a lot more aware of this food safety stuff. plus, culture (and food+culture) really interests me. i think fat guy was right on when he talked about raw fish in that piece. i disagree that people are really as aware of food safety in the US as we might think; sure, there's the whole e.coli thing, but something i have become more and more infuriated with is the fact that, unless you read a work like FFN, you're not going to be aware that the meat industry that produces most of that beef on the national level doesn't actually recall a large percent of what could be contaminated, because they just aren't required. it's a voluntary recall system, thanks to certain decisions by those in power (and probably under influence), and people are getting ill from the fact that they feel (and rightly so) that those who produce their food should be protecting them. for me, seafood isn't really an issue. i won't get shellfish or raw seafood from a place that seems really sketchy (especially if it's too cheap), and one of the things i find easiest to digest is a plate of plain sashimi with a bowl of rice. the thing is, i realize that most food is unsafe in some way, and there is a lot of sensationalism in the media of some things, while a complete ignorance of others (a simple example of this would be the difference i see in coverage of bovine spongiform disease instances and cases in europe and the US). unless i produce all my food from scratch (which would be interesting, but time consuming after a certain point), i realize that every bite i take is a risk. that's basically what it's come to for me. i think a major problem, though, is that food safety is handled as a matter of personal responsibility, and not a social issue as it should be. why are these foods unsafe? well, it's because of the way the industries surrounding them have developed (a point that seems to be COMPLETELY lost by the mass-media when discussing schlosser's work - it's not about the fast food, people, it's about what all food has become as a result!). ground beef produced at the level for which most fast food chains buy is produced in such bad conditions, at such a rushed pace, and there could be three months of contaminated beef (or worse) inside one burger. however, what we hear is that "you should cook all ground beef to 160 degrees, or until no liquid seeps when you press the burger". who wants to live like that?? dry burgers?? eegghhh.. it's not my fault poor illegal immigrants are paid badly and treated worse to slice apart cattle at breakneck speed in terrible conditions. it's almost enough for me to be come vegetarian (again, though not because of that). sorry, i ranted, and i sort of went off topic. i do that. once i start posting more regularly (this is my first!) you'll all come to realize that. i almost love ranting as much as i love food! ps. i know it's very conspiracy-theory-esque, although i think that there's certainly very sketchy stuff coming out of china food-wise, i've been tempted to feel that the massive coverage we've been faced with is a way in order to hold off china's economic growth... i do admit that's just my theory (which i hope is wrong). it's also based on the fact that there's still a possibilty for spinal matter in your good ol' american hot dogs, but no one says a word about that... damn you, media! ::shakes fist::