Dakki

People have mentioned this before. I'll try the black pepper. Thanks for the miso soup tip.

No SO currently but one dear friend of mine refuses to eat anything with the slightest hint of garlic - his girlfriend, not to be outdone, has decided she won't touch anything that's been within six feet of an onion. Two other friends will not eat anything hotter than a bell pepper, and yet another one cannot stand the sight of pink on meat. Planning a dinner party can be a bit of a hassle.

When I was a kid most seafood came from a can. I grew up in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles and a major mountain range between us and the nearest coast, so fresh and even frozen seafood were something of a luxury. This is what I buy and what I use it for: Clams, whole or minced: sauteed along mushrooms with garlic and dry chiles, used to top pasta. I actually like the minced better. Smoked oysters: with saltines and pickled chiles or hot sauce, this is my favorite midnight snack of all time. Substitute some more substantial crackers, add some decent cheese, pickled mushrooms and some drinks and it becomes an after-party snack that allows you to talk to your date instead of spending 20 minutes over a hot stove in your party clothes while your date gets bored. Squid and octopus: squid either whole and stuffed with its own tentacles or coarsely chopped. Octopus coarsely chopped. Both are available in olive oil, in their own ink or in hot sauce. I like these over white rice, in a pasta sauce or with some saltines as a midnight snack. Sardines: available in oil, tomato sauce or hot sauce, this pig-disgusting fodder is fit only for the trash or the gaping maw of a moping, drunk engineer. Serve with saltines, two aspirin and copious amounts of water. Tuna: I only use this about once a year, in my trailer-style casserole. It has many variations but the fundamental rule is that nothing fresh or remotely fancy or labor intensive can be used. We're talking Campbell's Cream of Mushroom, vegetables from a can and plastic-wrapped slices of process cheese. It's a fun dish, I swear. Anchovies are also a staple, and mussels are an occasional buy I still haven't quite figures out what to do with.

I'm all for consumer education, and I dare anyone to come up with a good reason why the consumer shouldn't know what percentage of their McBurger 3/8 Pounder didn't come from mammalian sources. (Good reason for the consumer, not McBurger Hamburger Restaurants Corp, that is). Ideally (I think) you'd have a breakdown of the calories and their sources (eg, simple carbs, complex carbs, all the various types of fats etc) all immediately available to you, so you'd be able to make an educated choice about what exactly you want to order. Unfortunately, this would probably require menus that look like the back of a can of process cheese food. Not very attractive, or likely. But a business owner can always take advantage of things, and include extra information. So, if you're trying to sell a salad that has as many calories as a Big Mac you can always point out in that very same menu that X% of your calories come from carbs, not fat. Or the healthy kind of fat. Or, whatever. Nobody is stopping you. If a given chain is closing locations to avoid printing new menus, or to avoid publicizing the nutritional values in their meals, well, it amounts to (a)their business model is unsustainable or (b)they are hoping to sell things that give the impression of being something they are not. Screw them.

Twenty years training and still no luck. I like your blog, by the way.

I got you, just something a little odd you were reminded of. My comment was more along the lines of your-oddity-is-my-staple, (and presumably the other way around) which is a fun conversation but probably off-topic. Other uses for canned squid, octopus, etc: in pasta sauce, over white rice. I grew up in the middle of a desert, several hundred kilometers and a mountain range between us and either coast. Canned (and to a lesser degree, frozen or dried) seafood was more or less a local staple, while fresh was (is?) a luxury good.

A worthy entry. I should get a rock tumbler, put a sticker on it and sell it as Dakki's Flavor Tumbler . Wonder if I could get a patent.

Canned squid pieces? I actually have some in the pantry, along with octopus, in a variety of mediums (hot sauce, garlic, olive oil, etc). Good on crackers. Or are you talking about a whole squid?

This couple got one in 1956, so canned whole chickens have been around at least since then. It's a cute article, anyway.

Here we go. Thighs had a piece of the ribcage attached, which I removed. Weapon of choice was a cheap but sharp 5" boning knife. Whole thigh on the right, trimmed on left. Surplus bits went into a freezer bag for stock. I didn't have any cajun seasoning or the ingredients listed by ChefCrash so I used generous quantities of powdered chile cascabel, black pepper, dry oregano and kosher salt. The chicken was allowed to rest for about 1 1/2 hrs coated in seasonings. Oil was half a bottle of fresh canola, a generous shot of previously-used oil (also canola) and a chunk of vegetable shortening. In another departure from the original recipe I used a cast iron skillet in place of a pot. Heated slow to try to equalize heat distribution. Thin flour and water batter. Too thin? Also, you can see a lot of the spices ended up in the batter. Flouring the meat. Floured chicken, ready to fry. This doesn't look as well-floured as the ones in ChefCrash's pics. Again, batter too thin? Oil is about 375 F, let's get started! Chicken was fried three pieces at a time to avoid overcrowding. My stove would be even filthier if it wasn't for this thing. Flipped every 7 minutes for a total cooking time of 28 minutes. Not scientific but it works for me. And the final result. The chicken wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be (spice the dry flour next time?) but the crust's texture was great, very crunchy and much thicker than I'm used to (I usually do dry flour and spices only). The meat itself was quite moist and tender. Overall impressions: The thin-batter-and-flour method is a definite keeper but I'm going to go for a thicker batter and spices in the dry flour next time. The first part was definitely a cock-up and the second is just my personal preference for strongly-spiced chicken. Photos are unretouched. Sorry about the bad quality.

Got two bags of thighs (8 or 9 pieces) defrosting under running cold water as I type this. I'm cloning ChefCrash's recipe today, pics (maybe) and notes later.

Chip tongs and avocado scoops are worthy contenders but I think the hell of pointlessness that is Infomercia may offer something to beat that. I nominate that double-bladed knife from Calphalon. Does that count as a gadget?

I'm not sure I'm saying exactly what I mean myself Chris. I'm a huge fan of the nastiest (yeah, there's another nice, clear word) sort of Mexican candy myself but I don't think that's contradictory. How about we scratch out "low quality" in the part you quoted and change it to "uninspired" or "boring" instead? EDIT: OK, what I mean is, a lot of the foods made for the mass market are not very interesting. Obviously there's space in that market for some interesting foods, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the things most people prefer to eat (or at least, are OK with eating) are pretty boring. On the other hand, the sort of things most people who care a lot about eating are more complex and maybe challenging to someone who isn't used to them.

Jenni - I think you make some strong points and you're absolutely right about getting tripped up on language. Percival - I thought you'd misunderstood me before and now I'm sure of it. Probably my fault, or maybe I can just blame the vagueness of the English language as applied to food and try to get away with it? I'll give it another shot. Food as prepared by gigantic restaurant chains is designed to satisfy the palates of the vast majority of people. On the other hand, food as prepared by restaurants at the other end of the scale, whether it's the artisan, locavore variety, molecular gastronomy joints with a lab for a kitchen or an extremely traditional "ethnic food" places that fly in their ingredients are often challenging to the untrained palate. This doesn't just apply to restaurants; to recycle an example from the OP, homemade mac and cheese prepared with real cheese (and here I'm going to insist that cheddar is "real cheese" in a way powdered cheese from an envelope is not; if you insist there's no difference, we could just argue about that or agree not to get hung up on semantics) is something most foodies will recognize as a worthy dish, while the box variety is notoriously preferred by children, who presumably have the most untrained (which call also be called unspoiled) tastes. Now, the majority of people like, or at least are okay with, foods that people who care deeply about food recognize as being low quality; and these people who care about food, in turn, seem to prefer foods that are at least somewhat challenging to the mass consumer. So there's a contradiction there. Now, I feel that this sort of non-mass-consumer-oriented food is better, and I'm trying to figure out if this is a rational position or not; and, based on that reasoning (which I don't have yet) figure out a starting point from which one could derive an objective standard for food, which could be applied to restaurant reviews and so on without letting the reviewer's personal preferences intrude. Anyway thank you both for putting so much thought into this topic.

Seeing this thread pop up has made me curious about fruitcake. I don't think I've had any since I was a small boy. Looking at David Ross' post makes me suppose some style of fruitcakes are better aged. Am I in good time to try making one of those for this holiday season?

Welcome to the forums Borgstrom. Best first post ever.

Sorry, I thought it was clear from the context of my post that "real" refers to ingredients that have a close relationship with their sources, eg chocolate vs chocolate flavoring, cheese vs process cheese food, vanilla extract vs vanilla flavoring. Anyway, following to your argument, McD's is objectively just as good as The Fat Duck, and any preference one way or another is purely subjective. It follows that the rational choice (given the price differential and relative difficulty of getting a reservation) is to train oneself to prefer McD's. Given you're posting on eGullet I'm pretty sure that's not what you believe but that is what you're saying. Try again?

You know how this goes. You serve mac and cheese made with real pasta and good cheddar. The kids request Kraft. You offer a very good homebrew/microbrew ale. Your friend would rather have industrial ultralight lager. You attend a Mexican-theme potluck and your handmade mole goes untouched while the taco shells filled with commercially seasoned ground meat and shredded lettuce fly off the table. Your local paper's restaurant reviewer complains the local/organic/artisan eatery is overpriced, the servings are small and the dishes are weird and faddish, and suggests readers should hit the generic Americanized Chinese buffet place instead. -------------------------------- So here's my thing. It seems self-evident to me that the stuff made from real ingredients just tastes better than than the Minimum Common Denominator, mass-market, industrial stuff but obviously a lot of people (talking about the general population here, not eGullet members) actually like that crap. I put this difference of opinion down to experience, exposure and just having an educated palate. And I'm not very comfortable with this. On close inspection, the argument is dangerously close to being circular. "The things I like are better than the things you like, because I have a better judgment of things. You can tell I have better judgment because the things I like are better than the things you like." I don't think it's a secret that there's an ugly strain of reverse elitism in our culture. "Rich, selfish bastards enjoy weird food like raw oysters and lobster and organ meats, McD's should be good enough for everyone but those effete sybarites will eat whatever just so they can look down on working stiffs, who do they think they are." You get the idea. But the opposite, common, garden variety form of elitism is just as ugly and ignorant as the reverse. "I could only cook on a LeSnooty 5000, and it makes all the difference. I just don't know how you make do with that nasty, cheap stove, darling." So, yeah, here's my conundrum. If something is objectively, inherently good, it should be recognized as good by people without any education or training. (Mass food producers cater to this demographic). On the other hand, most of the things I really enjoy (and this I think is true of most of us - remember the very first time you had a sip of beer) are acquired tastes. So it appears an education of some sort (using the word in its widest definition) is necessary to enjoy food beyond the most basic, tastes-sweet-and-leaves-a-satisfying-feeling-of-fullness appreciation. Obviously if I recommend a restaurant or dish I'm going to suggest something I think the person I'm talking to will enjoy, even if it's a fast food chain, while I'll go have whatever I like. So lets leave that aside. What I'm talking about here is rating food objectively. I feel the handmade Mennonite cheese I'm munching on right now (which has a smell that kinda reminds me of a barnyard, to be quite honest) has inherently superior taste to process cheese food, even if many people prefer the second but I can't really define why in a satisfactory way. What do you guys think?

I realize this is (probably?) a facetious reference to culinary school, but I'm all in favor of making Home Economics mandatory at the Jr. High and High School levels. I'm not particularly skilled or knowledgeable in the kitchen compared to most people here but the general public has a way of surprising me by finding ingenious new ways of screwing things up trying to cook. Not trying to be some kind of elitist foodie, just asking that people be taught how to safely prepare and handle food ferchrissakes.

Put me down for Campbell's condensed as well, particularly Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Whichever breeds faster, has more resistance to diseases and parasites found in the wild, is better at avoiding predators and is generally better adapted to the environment it encounters is going to "win." If growing faster gave salmon in the wild a big advantage, wild salmon would grow faster. That's how natural selection works.

Ah, thanks!

Amazon only has the 12 cup ones I think, and I didn't find them on the KitchenAid site.

Where does one get workbowls for an 11 cup KA? The safety tab on mine has broken (under normal load but out of warranty by now). One complaint (besides the lack of ruggedness of the bowl assembly) is that the lid has an internal lip where food catches, particularly if I'm using the mini bowl. It catches rather a lot of stuff, which makes a mockery of my careful measuring of ingredients, spills all over the counter when I remove the bowl, and is hard to clean, to boot.

I imagine it depends on corporate policy and city regulations more than anything else, so I think it would be hard to generalize? OSHA probably has some say in it as well. And LOL paper shredder pasta.