Busboy

I agree with you here. But as a libertarian, I neither like laws favoring unions (such as not allowing employers to hire scabs or fire union workers) or companies (eg, requiring cooling off periods, laws not allowing unions to contract with employers to be union-only, etc). I'm all for sticking Wal-Mart's or Safeway's feet to the fire when they break the law, but if they're just tough business people, that's fine. But I disagree strongly, very strongly, that we as first-worlders or companies should be ashamed of the wages they pay in 3rd world countries or in exporting jobs. a) because their wages don't match our wages for equal work doesn't mean that the wages aren't good for them, b) service oriented jobs, such as financial and technical services, have been growing in the US much faster than manufacturing jobs have been shrinking; I'd much rather our country be working in offices than working in factories, c) why are so often the same people who lament greedy Americanism so worried about spreading the wealth, if that's what it is, anyway? d) the issue is still standards; it's not enough to assume that because Mexicans or Malaysians aren't on average as educated as Americans that they will make a poorer product, grow less healthy crops, or whatever; they still have the same brains and they can be taught what they need to be; what's necessary is standards from distributors and customers in the US. Actually we do have a monorail - in Jacksonville - the "people mover". It's not anything that most people want - or use - but it did cost a ton of money. As for your "jobs overseas" discussion - I'm afraid you're a bit behind the times. There's a lot of outsourcing of technical and financial jobs - to places like India - where a lot of people are better educated than US workers - speak better English than US workers - and will work for a heck of a lot less money than US workers. When the last time you called Dell technical support (all of it is in India now - except for the very large corporate users - they complained for various reasons and their tech support is being moved back to the US)? Also - take a look at computer programming. Again - there's a tremendous amount that's being shipped abroad. Our economy is - increasingly - a global economy. To remain competitive in the future - the American worker will have to show why he or she is worth more in manufacturing than a Chinese worker - or more in tech support than an Indian worker. It is perhaps round 2 or 3 in an ongoing battle. First jobs moved from high to low cost areas in the US (Jacksonville won out in the first round - because white collar workers who commanded salaries of $40-50,000 in the northeast were lucky to earn $30,000 here). Now - a lot of those jobs are being shipped from the northeast directly to India - where workers are happy to work for less than $10,000 a year. Robyn

Aldo Molina, the colourful and skilled former cheese buyer at Dean & Deluca, is now at Arrowine in North Arlington. The counter there now looks conspicuously like the old one at D&D, but the prices are about 25-30% less. He also is now working again with Tito, his protege from the old D&D days. Aldo - I loved that guy. I might have to drive all the way out to Arrowine just to say "howdy." He is a man who truly knows and loves cheese, I'm sure his selection is extraordinary.

Usually on New Year's Eve, we put a bottle of Stoli in the freezer and splurge on some caviar. My New Years have been starting out much better since I stopped going out the night before.

Thanks, everyone, foor assuaging my guilt and adding to my store of knowledge. I'll try the traditional method next time I get a chance, and in the mean time, eat instant guilt-free. My favorite recipe -- probably very inauthentic, from the Inn at Little Washington Cookbook -- is to sweat some garlic, add bay leaf and a dash off pepper sauce, use half milk, or cream and half water, and add grated parmesan in roughly the same quantitiy (before cooking) as the meal. Wonderful either hot and runny or chilled and refried (for breakfast!).

If someone the server knows is that the bar -- and I'm sure anyone who drinks stoly raspberry and sprite sticks in the bartender's mind -- says, "gimme the usual and make it a strong one," that's a cue for the bartender to say "what's wrong" rather than "don't tell me my job." Especially give the way you must have looked after being laid off.

Do they always do this? Or did they just have a bad day?

Back when I began making polenta, I was worried that the stuff requires some exotic or specialized cornmeal, so I picked up a box of instant polenta at the Italian deli (in meal form, not those funky polenta logs). It tasted pretty good. Over the years, I've made a lot of instant polenta, and played all the fun polenta games (mushy or firm? fried or grilled? cheese?), and it still tastes pretty good. In fact, better than most of the polenta I get at restaurants. So, the questions are: 1) Am I so wrong? 2) How significant is the quality difference between "instant" and "traditional?" 3) Does traditional polenta require any special corn meal, or can you just use the same stuff you buy for cornbread? And, do you still just hang out and stir, or is there some technique? 4) While we're on the subject, any favorite treatments?

But how many other people can order trocken-beeren-auslese or kartofflepuffen mit schlagsam properly? Play to your strengths... trocken-beeren auslese is fine with me, but i would not like to order the other stuff. something like "potatoes with whipped cream"? wait a minute. "schlagsam"? not schlagsahne"? i'm officially lost. I'm sure your spelling of the schlag-thing is correct, it's been some years since I've seen it written down. Actually, they're quite good. (Spelling apologies in advance) Kartofflepuffen are potato pancakes, similar to -- or perhaps exactly the same as -- latkes. The schlagsahne was similar to sour cream, rather than whipped cream. I may have ordered wrong, but we were close enough that our servers knew what we were after. German precision and all.

I am pulling on one string in this sweater. I agree that this is a political issue, but it seems to me that at some point employee wages could result in a public health issue. Am I reaching too far on this? I think so - but try to "connect the dots" for me. Robyn Okay, here's what I am currently thinking, it's early-ish so bear with me. Whether it's the food industry or any other, most employees are paid. The extreme low end of the pay scale tends to find people that a lot of times are, in my opinion, just trying to get by. No more, no less. So, a person working in a meat packing plant, for example, drops their knife on the floor. They pick it up, wipe it off on their dirty smock, and continue. The same thing happens at a unionized butcher shop. The butcher, who is paid more, cleans the knife before continuing. This is something that could contribute to a breakdown in the health chain. I'm not sure I'd argue that the wage or the union has as much to do with your point as the general operating procedures of low-wage processors. A company that's putting low-wage workers on the line is probably doing a dozen other things that contribute to unhygenic conditions: running the line to fast, neglecting cleaning and sterilization, ignoring "minor" violations that compound or accumulate, etc. Low wages are more of a symptom than a cause, I think. Re: sidebar. I think that manufacturers have an obligation to allow their employees to negotiate a decent wage. Laws that favor employers over union organizers in the U.S., and the systematic exploitation of poor, ignorant and beaten-down peasants (plus the occasional corruption or arrest of union organizers) abroad are the major source of low-wage and low-benefit labor.

According to this Richard Olney's Simple French Food has been re-released in hardcover. Excellent. Thanks. That ed. is not listed on amazon.com, and Grub St. doesn't appear to have a US distributor, but it can probably be ordered direct here -- or at least you can try to get a bookstore to do it for you. So, I have a copy of "Richard Olney's Provence the Beautiful Cookbook," part of "The Beautiful Cookbook Series." Acquired it before I knew who Richard Olney was because, as beautiful/cheesy as the series may be, a friend had given me the "Mediterranean" volume and it has some very good recipes in it, and when I went looking for a Provencal cookbook it seemed a logical choice. Cheap, too. I also somehow acquired "LuLu's Provencal Cuisine," supposedly the recipes of the proprietrice of Domaine Tempier in Bandol. This book is also "written" by Olney. The reason I bring this up, is that the recipes in the two books are almost exactly the same, down to the little tidbits of advice in the intro's to the recipes. So, I wonder if they are, in fact, recycling of "Simple French Cooking," that is, if Olney's heirs or publishers are just repackaging existing material.

Damn. I was going to say that. I stumbled across "Art of Cooking" kind of randomly one day, and ended up learning more from it than any other cookbook, or set, I ever bought. Had no idea who Pepin was.

Vace on Connecticut Avenue has filets of salt cod, of the slightly thicker, less carboard-y type in their cooler. My local bodega, on Mt. Pleasant St. at Kenyon streets (2 stores down from the 7-11) has the kind that kind that looks like fish roadkill: flat, hard, and the whole fish. My brandade tastes cruddy no matter which one I use.

That place was great, although during my vegetarian years it freaked me out. The Garden is still in use, for sandwiches and wine at Firehook. Slightly surreal and, sadly, just not the same ambiance.

I'm not against this -- I seem to recall that they used to call it Home Ec and all the girls took it while the boys were in shop. Keep in mind, however, that schools in many poor areas are failing to teach basic English and Mathematical skills, and that schools across the country are slashing non-academic programs in the face of severe budget problems. Throwing another mandate on top of all this may not be a realistic option.

Throwing this up as a benchmark, both the public assistance and the tightwad gazette numbers. The $259 figure for two is close to GS Bravo's number, and may actually be based on a realistic calculation, though politics always has an influence. I would run away from home if Amy Dacyczyn were my mom, or my wife. Based on a rough claculation of what my family could live on, my guess is that anything $20/day ($140) for a family of four is pushing it, assuming you're not trying to impose a punitive diet and allowing a little variety, meat and "fun."

I hope I did not imply that all poor people were stupid dissolute, and if I did, I apologized. People who lack capital, like people who do not, can be moral or immoral, hard-working or slothful etc, and are more good than bad. I see that every day. Ignoring the many problems that face the most brutally impoverished communities -- which I was referring to -- is disingenuous, as well. There is no question, however that certain behaviors are associated with poverty, particularly in entrenched poverty area. These include illegitimacy, which I will not call immoral, and violent crime, which I will. The larger, food-oriented point was that people carping about bad eating eating habits, food stamp abuse etc. should understand that these things are part of a large and difficult cycle and needs to be seen and adressed as such, rather than taken as evidence of moral failure on the part some stereotypical welfare mom.

Keep in mind that many poor, and the most problematic, extremely isolated physically, socially, and intellectually from the rest of the world. They have no role models, or bad role models. They attend substandard schools. They receive very little moral training. They don't know or understand alternatives, or they don't believe they have the brains or talent to move on. They rarely leave their neighborhood or see anyone different from themselves. They make bad choices and do dumb, or evil, things because they don't know any better and they get trapped by the decisions they made, and they pass their ignorance on to their children. I know, many, probably most, poor people are not like this. But a significant portion are. And when you're the semi-literate 16-year-old mother of two children; workign part-time for minimum wage at the Popeyes; worried about money, a roof, and maybe a little affection; and the most economically successful members of your extended family are the cousin in construction who moved far away from you as fast as she could, and the drug-dealing brother, lectures on nutrition aren't really going to have much affect on your life. If we are going to claim the right to micromanage people's lives, you should at least understand something about them. EDITED TO ADD: I think I'm mostly agreeing with Cusina (and Fresco), and taking issue with some of the other, more harshly judgemental posts earlier in the thread.

From the FDA website: The homeless (no kitchen) and the elderly or disabled (unable to cook on their own) may in some cases be able to exchange for prepared food. Otherwise, no. To participate in the Food Stamp Program: Households may have no more than $2,000 in countable resources, such as a bank account ($3,000 if at least one person in the household is age 60 or older, or is disabled). Certain resources are not counted, such as a home and lot. Special rules are used to determine the resource value of vehicles owned by household members. The gross monthly income of most households must be 130 percent or less of the Federal poverty guidelines ($1,654 per month for a family of three in most places, effective Oct. 1, 2003 through Sept. 30, 2004). Gross income includes all cash payments to the household, with a few exceptions specified in the law or the program regulations. Net monthly income must be 100 percent or less of Federal poverty guidelines ($1,272 per month for a household of three in most places, effective Oct. 1, 2003 through Sept. 30, 2004). Net income is figured by adding all of a household's gross income, and then taking a number of approved deductions for child care, some shelter costs and other expenses. Households with an elderly or disabled member are subject only to the net income test. Most able-bodied adult applicants must meet certain work requirements. All household members must provide a Social Security number or apply for one. Federal poverty guidelines are established by the Office of Management and Budget, and are updated annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. 8. What is the average benefit from the Food Stamp Program? The average monthly benefit was about $80 per person and almost $186 per household in FY 2002. See the chart below for a listing of maximum benefits available to households of various sizes. 9. What foods are eligible for purchase with food stamps? Households CAN use food stamp benefits to buy: Foods for the household to eat, such as: breads and cereals; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and poultry; and dairy products. Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat. Households CANNOT use food stamp benefits to buy: Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco; Any nonfood items, such as: pet foods; soaps, paper products; and household supplies. Vitamins and medicines. Food that will be eaten in the store. Hot foods In some areas, restaurants can be authorized to accept food stamp benefits from qualified homeless, elderly, or disabled people in exchange for low-cost meals. Food stamp benefits cannot be exchanged for cash.

some do actually - or used to in the early - mid 90s. I think you are incorrect, on this. Restaurants, of any kind, have never been allowed to accept food stamps. EDIT: See below for partial correction.

Luiginos near the old convention center has alwasy done me right, not exactly cheap but always turning in a good, solid mid-level performance. Luigi's has been around for more than 50 years and is can be a pleasant place to eat utterly unmemorable (but not, in my experience, bad) Italian food. And just to see who rises to the bait, I'll say that I enjoy stopping in to AV Ristorante on 11th (?) and New York, just to hear the Caruso 45s on the Juke box and eat linguini with clam sauce.

I have heard, and experience seems to confirm, that bottles on the very low end of the wine list often have higher markups than other bottles -- and that the very high end often presents lower markups -- because the restaurant has a bottom line amount it needs to earn off every bottle sold. I can't speak to wholesale pricing, but a wine list that sells bottles at about twice retail has always seemed fair to me. That means that the $20 bottle goes for $40 on the wine list, giving the restaurant $20 in cashflow plus whatever the difference is between wholesale and retail. The $5.99 low-end bottle, however, becomes a $20 bottle because the restaurant needs to make more than $6/ a bottle to stay in business. The $20 bottle may cheapest wine, but it may not be the best value. On Easter eggs, I don't think that sommeliers bury the best values, rather, it's their relative obscurity that lowers demand and makes them better values. Before Parker ruined it all, there were a bunch of unclussified and underclassified Bordeaux, for example, that were almost as good and dramatically cheaper than the first and second growths. New wineries from California sometimes are great values before they catch on (Groth). And anything not made in France, Italy or California is more likely to offer a good value, if you're willing to comb through the list, listen to your own taste and not the "expert's" and talk to person who put the list together.

I was googling choucroutte recipes and stumbled across Forum SuperToinette. This was about the time eGullet made the change-over, and it made me wonder if the Powers That Be had been trying to improve eGullet's finances by selling "used" formats abroad. ("Have we got a deal for you. Only driven during working hourse by a small assortment of gormands and malcontents. Bien sur, une bonne marche.") Even if you don't speak French, it's worth clicking a little deeper into the site, to see the similarities and differences between the two. Note that the little description of posters includes "sexe", one assumes so that on-line flirting can begin without any confusion caused by the "noms de forum"; and that members are given ratings including "genial," and "habitue," "hyper-actif." Also, they have seasonal decorations on their site.

No problem.

Oh, I hope I did that quote right...i've lost the poster...sorry sorry This isn't exactly about food, but it is about groceries. WalMart grocery stores are "forcing" other grocery stores to reduce employee benefits, and so regardless of the consumer, let's think about the workers. I think it's important to realize that WalMart shoppers are, very often, WalMart employees. And that WalMart employees make minimum wage, often, which often isn't enough to feed their families. And so, if this isn't too off-topic, I would like to say that a) It's fair to take big chain stores to task...even if they are offering ok-to-good selection, can their own employees afford to shop there? Can they afford to shop anywhere BUT there? And, if not, shouldn't we be ashamed to patronize them? b) The way to get people to buy good produce and cook meals from scratch is to give them enough time and money to do so. WalMart is currently the top employer in 35 states (from the nytimes, i can dig it up if you like). So 35 states of people are going to be buying convenience food for a long, long time until those of us with the luxury to do so start taking these companies to task. Your points are well taken, but are on a bit of a tangent -- the point I was addressing was whether moderate-income shoppers should be forced to give up disposable income to mee someone else's ideal of gustatory sophistication -- I felt that the poster to whom I was responding was being, at best, glib, regarding the situation many people face. hjshorter is now carrying this ball more effectively than I ever could. Regarding the crushing of the American working class through scab-only work rules, I'm with you. Heard a report on the radio the other night about a textile worker in NC who had to shop at Wal-Mart because her wages were so low. Wal-mart sold so many cheap imported garments that the textile mill shut down. It's a pretty vivious cycle, but a complicated one. Those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to feed and clothe a family while buying high-priced local produce and without patronizing Wal-Mart need to think before we start telling the less wealthy where they should and should not shop. Here in DC, Safeway and Giant may be multi-national conglomerates, but they are union shops and take care of their workes. The much more earthy-crunchy Whole Foods is very much a non-union shop.

Maybe they're using the money they save buying cd players at Costco to buy good imported prosciutto. Personally, I think there are many more places to buy good food now than there were 25 years ago. I have the advantage of swimming in a smaller pond than NYC, so I have a pretty good idea of what could and could not be bought in DC and the close-in suburbs, and there's no question that the quality and variety of ingredients available today is much better than it was when I came to town in 1977. We've lost a few old friends (anyone remember Larimer's or Suzanne's? Or when Sutton Place was good?). But many remain -- Litteri's, Vace, Da Hua, the butchers at Eastern Market and fishmongers on the wharf. And, in the mean time, asian markets have popped up, local bakery chains have brought excellent baguettes to neighborhoods across town, and Dean and DeLuca and Whole Foods have brought a vast array of quality products into town. These are the good old days, here. Edited to emphasize the explosion of farmer's markets, as well. I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that the concept of heirloom tomatoes was unknown in DC before 1992.