[Paying Luxury Prices for Imported Goods]

There are a lot of food times that have pretty hefty tariffs imposed to import them, in either direction, which explains a lot of the high prices.

[What did you buy at the liquor store today?]

Campari, A bottle of Bulleit and one of Old Overholt.

[The argument in favor of crop subsidies]

It's (theoretically) all about National Security. It is in our nations best interest to keep farms running and making food so that we are not at the mercy of foreign interests.

As a farmer, do you know what crops currently are eligible for subsidies? I hear of them for corn and cotton, but neither of those really count as food. No one eats field corn, except in derivative products. And these crops are produced in quantities larger than we need so they get exported at the subsidized prices, which destabilizes farmers in other countries.

But for our own national food interests, are there food-related subsidies for things like broccoli, carrots, potatoes, oranges, etc?

[Marcel's New Show On SyFy]

Apparently it's just a six episode season, so they've probably all been produced already.

[Your best cheap dish]

Similar to the dal, I guess. I make lentil soup about once a week. If I leave out the canned tomatoes, it's probably less than 50 cents a serving.

[Modernist Ingredient Kits]

Just an FYI - The "Artistre" kit from Amazon is back in stock. I just ordered one.

[Q&A with the Modernist Cuisine Team]

The first sentence there seems to indicate the blender wouldn't work since pulverizing would release unwanted juices.

My main question about this was how to handle bones in the stock. Are they suggesting not to include bones, or taking all the meat off the bones, etc? I don't think I've ever made a meat-based stock without including the bones.

[Top Chef : Season 8 - All Stars]

I was, again, disappointed so little attention was paid to the best dishes. They spent a whole lot of time showing them wandering the aisles of Target and not much time on the cooking. Dale's soup and sandwich won, but other than the fact he used an iron, I never saw much more about its components or why it was good. I don't recall seeing anything about how he made the soup. I'm assuming he didn't just open a can of Campbell's? And I don't think I saw anything about how Richard did the braised pork ribs to go with the tenderloin.

Bourdain had a blog post about how sometimes the judging discussions go on for hours. I know they need to keep the suspense for the end, but it would be interesting to see more discussion regarding both the winning and losing sides.

[Top Chef : Season 8 - All Stars]

Did anyone catch the details of Carla's chicken pot pie? She mentioned something about putting a crust underneath it, but I didn't quite follow what that was about. And also there was something about a pea powder that I didn't understand either.

I wish they'd spend at least as much time discussing the winning dishes as they do the losing ones.