melkor

Obviously some jobs pay better than others, that isn't the question at all. Would you like to point out that working as a surgeon pays better than working as a clerk at the grocery store? The point that you seem to be making, that I take serious issue with, is that there is an entire class of people doing work that you believe shouldn't be paid a living wage. The reason for this topic is the 4% or 5% service charge that restaurants in San Francisco have added to cover paying a living wage to all their employees and to provide health insurance. I never said public assistance was a bad thing, I think it's important to have a safety net for anyone who needs it. The issue is that people who are employed full time shouldn't need help paying their living expenses. If businesses don't pay their employees a living wage then the public is simply subsidizing that business by contributing the difference between what the employer choses to pay and what they should be paying. Much like Chicago can somehow exist without Target, San Francisco will be just fine without Walmart.

So just to clarify - only people with real skills should be able to afford food and shelter. Dishwashers, cooks, and other people who you feel are in this "useless class of people" should live on public assistance or in group homes. Sorry, at least here in San Francisco we seem to think everyone who works deserves to be paid a fair wage. Your nephew were he working here would be earning at least $9.36 per hour, he would get health insurance, and paid sick leave. That it's acceptable wherever he lives to be paid so little for the work that he does that he can't afford shelter is a problem, not something to be proud of. If taking care of the people who work in this city means adding a 5% service charge to restaurant checks then I'm happy to pay it.

I flatten my 5000 grit stone against my 2500 grit stone, my 2500 against my 1000, the 1000 against my 250, and the 250 against the sidewalk in front of my house...

Actually it's a cappuccino semifreddo unless I'm mistaken. The hot donuts with the cold semifreddo is a great combo, and I don't even like coffee most of the time! ← You aren't mistaken.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make by suggesting that someone who works as a dishwasher doesn't deserve to be paid enough to shelter and feed themselves... Somehow I think Chicago will survive as a city without Target providing wages that require their employees to live on public assistance. Incanto has had their 5% service charge on the menu for several years - they were taking care of their staff before the city of San Francisco mandated that they do so. Now that minimum wage has gone up and health insurance is a required benefit for employees other restaurants are doing the same thing. Personally, I have no preference between raising prices and adding the service charge. They clearly think the service charge is a better way to go - that's fine with me. I think if you can justify spending the money required to go out to eat rather than cooking at home, you should expect to spend enough money that the people cooking for you can earn enough to cover their living expenses.

that which does not kill you makes you stronger. ← In general I agree, though I'm not clear how pickle-juice-arm can make me stronger so I've avoided it so far.

Unless you've got a compromised immune system I see no reason to act like everything at the grocery store will give you the plague. The reason to use tongs or the scoop when buying stuff in bulk is purely for convenience as far as I'm concerned. It's hugely inefficient to shovel oats into a bag using your bare hand. Pickles are best retrieved with tongs rather than getting pickle juice on your arm.

If you consider 140-155*F to be lukewarm, then yes. Milk based drinks in general are served colder than 160*F. edit: formating

I don't disagree with you, but cafes in the states serve American style lattes. The Italian latte macchiato isn't nearly as popular in Italian cafes as American style lattes are in American cafes.

Milk with espresso dumped on top may be what they consider correct where your son worked, but that isn't how a latte is made. You want your latte to look something like this:

The milk will burn at around 160*F, stopping before the milk is burned is in general a good idea. Forest is correct, a latte is not an upside down cappuccino.

Lots of good dives and taco trucks. Stay away from the tourist-focused food factories and chains and you'll be fine.

No surprise to hear that from a New Yorker. Bar Crudo is a NYC restaurant transplanted into San Francisco.

The shortcuts you suggest would produce a meal I imagine even he would be embarrassed to serve. The blitzes look good, the rest of the meal, not so much...

The frozen fries in Yountville are more common than you might think. They're a consistent product and Bouchon serves a huge number of fries every day of the year. It's less about saving labor and more about having a reliable product. Nevermind the mayo. The whole meal looks to have been quickly thrown together, taking as many shortcuts as possible. I'd expect better from someone who claims to be an authority on food.

If a chain smoking doctor had a regular column about the dangers of smoking in a magazine with national distribution, yes I'd be surprised. Would you be surprised if Ruth Reichel showed up to a potluck with a sack full of McDonald's hamburgers?

Something about people in glass houses...

Mayo certainly can be little more than eggs and oil, it also can be a wide assortment of chemicals - check the labels next time you're in a grocery store. The bigger issue I have with it is that using mayo instead of egg is that it is unnecessarily lazy. It doesn't produce a superior dish, no matter how heavily overdressed the salad is. I'd be surprised if your Jewish-American house had a significantly different menu than the Jewish-American house I grew up in during the 70s. I wouldn't call what Richman served any sort of cohesive menu.

I'm usually 100% supportive of my compatriots in the brotherhood of New York curmudgeons but somehow I'm really surprised to see Pillsbury pigs in a blanket, mayo based caesar, and such an eclectic menu from someone who passes judgment on other people's cooking for a living.

Fresh beans won't keep your grinder clean. Just disassemble it from time to time and clean it. The grindz stuff works, but no better than using a brush.

Pickled daikon or other veg.

Zaiqa has some seriously good Pakistani food and they're open more or less all the time. You're likely to be the only person there who isn't a taxi driver. Nihari for breakfast is a beautiful thing...

Keep your reservation at the Ritz.

I'm not sure that it's a matter of being more advanced, I think the book was written to address cooking fundamentals in a way that isn't concisely documented elsewhere. It's interesting to note that some of the content of this book overlaps with the content offered in the eGCI. I think the negative reviews that have been posted here are frequently inappropriate. The most obvious example is that once you make significant changes to a recipe you can no longer argue that the end result wasn't what the recipe described. The review posted by hjshorter is spot on.

If the durian has been frozen, you'll be better off buying it a bus ticket and sending it far far away. Otherwise, it should be quite delicious - even if it smells like rotting onions...