percival

Oops. Nix what I said above a few posts re:APS-C sensors. There are APS-C P&S available: the Leica X1 and the new Fuji Finepix X100 coming out. But check out the S95 Flickr photo pool and Panasonic LX5 photo pool for examples on what you can do.

I know nothing of Oaxaca cuisine, but it sounds interesting. Found a good interview of her here.

Au Pied du Cochon! You can't go to MTL without having some real Quebecer food. Here's a link and some pics from NYT. It's a temple to meat and game, all local. Martin Picard not only gets his from local farmers, he goes hunting, bags, and butchers his own, often. They make their own butter. They make their own beer. It's not an an upscale classy look. It's an after work kinda place, bright, mostly 4-man booths and a long bar in front of the kitchen. Seats I dunno, 60, packed and very loud. Best restaurant I've ever been to -- thrice. Amazing pork chops from their brick oven, which is like five feet from the front door as you walk in. The hands down best dish is plogue à Champlain. You cannot beat half a lobe of seared foie gras, bacon, cheese, pancake, drowned in maple syrup for an appetizer. I wish I had three stomachs. Every dish here is amazing. You have to get the pied du cochon here as well. I'd go for the regular one, not the one deep fried and stuffed with foie gras -- you can get foie gras seriously with every dish here, even dessert, though can and should are different things. MTL has some amazing cuisine. I've had the best hamburger ever there from a bar -- Les Foufounes Électriques -- that got their 500g burgers from next door. And some ridiculously good ribs from a Kansas style barbecue joint that's been there like 30 years. Oh and you don't need to go to Schwartz's -- many restaurants buy their viande fumée from there. And there's good viande fumée everywhere, though it really is different everywhere you go, and there are definitely places you can find better than Schwartz's, if you prefer fattier, thicker cuts. Too bad you're not going now. It's the best time of the year for drinking till 4am and drinking all day at the grand terrasses like Bar St. Sulpice. God, I miss Montreal.

From what I've read, the LX5 is a gentle upgrade from the already great LX3. I'd see if I could give it a test run or demo it in a store first before making the plunge. But I'd also give the other ones in the category a shot first. The Nikon P7000 comes out next month and looks very, very nice.

Here are some comparison shots b/t LX3 and LX5. Panny says the new sensor is 31% more sensitive. The pix seem to back it up. More importantly, the LX5 can be pushed to 12800 ISO with reduced MP (which is fine as most people are posting to web JPEG, not blowing up 24"x30" appetizers.) Also another bonus with P&S -- you can easily use them with the mini ~2-3" table tripod. The baby mama uses one with her P&S with timer to get dining out group shots all the time.

Bill Buford does just this in Heat. He's an editor in I think Esquire, works for a stint for Mario Batali, does it for a year for free, gives up the day job, goes to Italy, learns how to be a chef, including how to be a butcher and cure meats from the guy that taught Mario Batali's Dad (Boeing exec who quit his day job to become a butcher). Quick version: quit your job, beg to apprentice under someone, work for free till you learn all they'll teach you, then find a job or start your own biz.

QFT. The show needs to axe some people and rethink their format.

Just use one of the new APS-C point and shoots: Canon S95, Panasonic LX5, or the Nikon P7000 coming out next month. Same exact sensor as on dSLRs -- thinking a full-frame dSLR would be just a bit crazy large to bring to dinner. These new point and shoots are fast (f/2.0), have great macro capabilities (focus down to 0.8"), and great lowlight capabilities (ISO 6400+). They do everything you might need, spit out RAW + JPEG, even HD video with stereo audio. They even have hot shoes -- but not like you'll be using speedlights on a dSLR in a restaurant anyway. And you won't ever really need to swap out lenses.

Quick Q: anyone ever SV banana leaf for an extended period of time? Wondering if it will go bitter like aromatics.

Made some chicken stew tonight and wanted to share, as it ended up being ridiculously good for looking so simple. Sauteed cabbage, celery, onion, carrot, tomato, pressure cooker chicken. Sorry for the ridiculously huge photo -- it's the smallest I have online. I don't actually eat it like in the picture -- more broth makes it less purdy, though. The toddler ate two bowls and wanted more, even though he had eaten leftover okonomiyaki a few hours prior. If you're interested, the recipe's at my blog here.

Yep. Rendered saturated fats don't go rancid like vegetable oils.Keep it cold and airtight and you should be fine.

In terms of fries and fish sandwiches, it's hard to beat McD's fries, but Jack in the Box definitely has a better fish filet. And I love trying dives -- where I live, most restaurants (90+%) would qualify as dives -- but I've gotten food poisoning from them far too many times. I've never once gotten sick from fast food. Corporate America definitely has Mom & Pop beat on food safety, without question.

A paper thin lollipop would cut you if you ate wrong...

Most supermarket fish should be marked avoid. Instead, they're marked often by only a sell-by date. I only buy fish either flash frozen ("sushi grade") or fileted the day of purchase. That, more than organic or wild, matters far more in terms of meat quality. And I would have no problems eating GMO salmon. If it weren't for human genetic intervention, we wouldn't have broccoli, cauliflower, orange carrots, modern day corn, bananas, dairy cows, etc...

Why all the love for Forschners? I read the reviews, recommendation from Test Kitchen... Bought the 10" chef, boning, and a set of paring knives. Good grip, but they don't hold an edge. I have to sharpen the chef's knife after every other night or they just drive me bonkers.

I wanna see tables and chairs, not benches welded to plastic tabletops. I wanna see better ventilation and lighting like Starbucks. I wanna see a salad bar that has no fried foods, corn, or potato.

I don't shop at Whole Paycheck, but I think it's a very smart strategy. In one blow, you appeal to environmentalist consumers, help mark out buys for the must-try-before-they're-extinct crowd, and pressure suppliers to give you better volume pricing on greens, and discounts on reds and yellows.

My toddler can nearly eat as much as I do, if I let him. He loves cheese. Noodles are one of his favorite foods, if not the tops. He won't eat this stuff. Every time I've made the stuff for myself, I've always used less liquid than suggested. People prefer runny mac n cheese?

That's how I feel about cold cereal and milk. I feel better hungry than I do with cold cereal in my belly! I'm the same way. Lemme splane. I'm very anti-grease for breakfast, but I'm also anti-cold for breakfast. You definitely need something warm, but you also need something light. My go-to's: rice porridge, veggie/mushroom risotto, toast, bagels, etc.

Now that I'm home raising the kidlet, breakfast is an always, though it may be closer to lunch than traditional breakfast times. Lunch is the lightest meal of the day, and a good dinner for him to sleep through the night. And yeah, "American Breakfast" is way too heavy to start off the morning. Nothing ruins your day like a cup of grease churning in your belly all day.

No...! I hope some edits and additions are added, with the extra four months. Missing a Thanksgiving launch will definitely put a dent in sales. More recipes -- say, modernist versions of mac 'n cheese, pot roast, Thanksgiving dinner, ice cream cake -- or more details on specific ingredients would be stellar. Wish list: the deep skinny on glutamates and how they affect foods, dishes, and eaters as a whole; differences on every type of commercial cooking oil and type of fatty acid from culinary and nutritional perspectives; cooking differences between all common cuts and offal of beef, pig, chicken, duck, lamb, assorted fish. That's a start. I guess the delay will give me more time to play around with my new Nikon D7000.

Scotty, that is some amazing wagyu. I've had SRF wagyu before, in Idaho. Best beef I've ever had. I'm in the Bay Area, too. Where can I find that stuff wholesale?

Sous vide them, in the shell. 150 Fahrenheit or so for at least an hour, plus/minus depending on how set you like your whites. There are charts availalble to show what temp equals what hardness. Whether you're doing one, two, or a dozen, they'll all come out the same. Plus you can serve in the shell, or traditional, with a lot less mess and wateriness. If you're patient and lack the hardware, you can always simmer with a drop-in thermometer and control the flame manually.

The whole season leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What bugs me about Iron Chef is that since it's best chef for the night and not for the entire season, someone can consistently be at the bottom, play it safe at the end, and still take the win. Weak season with very low level cooking.

These are huge in the SF hipster bar scene. $3 for a hot dog that's been slowly browning in bacon fat, with bacon, onions sauteed in bacon fat, and a hot dog bun toasted on the grill with bacon fat. Condiments on the side: ketchup, mustard, mayo. Good eats? Only if you've already knocked back half a dozen PBR's, at which point your taste buds have already committed suicide...