Busboy

Learning about the way that propaganda is used in advertising, politics, etc. should be part of every child's education. Learning how to construct honest arguments that are not mere propaganda should also be part of every child's education. Many students think that ignoring any opposing view makes their essays stronger, rather than less believable. Perhaps exposure to advertising has something to do with that. But I think we can see that awareness of advertising methods is an issue that goes way beyond food... ← These are four-year-olds. They believe in Santa Clause. They're not quite ready for rhetorical training. They just want to eat what that cool kid ate on TV.

I'll stand with those asking for a bit of corporate responsibility, as well. Aggressively marketing crap to children is indefensible; creating one more hassle for parents is at least a misdemeanor. The idea that manufacturers and marketers are blameless but that some exhausted parent who caves to a whiny child under the influence of their pernicious little advertisements -- and if you haven't had one, you may not know how annoyingly persistent the little bastards can be -- and buys a Happy Meal just to get a little peace is a bad parent, is offensive. For those parents with the energy to be perfect 24/7, or who are blessed with perfect children, God bless. The rest of us would rather not see billions of dollars in marketingly spent to shamelessly undermine what energy and authority we have. PS -- if the government is to abandon its role in promoting public health, I look forward to the return of cigarette advertising on to TV and the end of those annoying "parents, the anti-drug" public service announcements, as well.

The devil is in the details. Council, Mayor argue over exemptions.

That particular recipe may be a little beyond the contents of my cupboard -- short on yuzu and truffles are so expensive this early in the season -- but something baked might work well with the pork belly we snagged the other day.

According to one website I was messing with, "king oyster mushroom = eryngii mushroom = eringii mushroom. Substitutes: matsutake." It appears, then, that they may be kissing cousins rather than the same thing. Also, I think matsutakes are premium priced, now? Ours were cheap.

I think I picked up a bunch of what may well be king oyster mushrooms in an Asian market the other day because they looked cool -- and somewhat like brutally expensive porcinis -- and they were cheap. The label was in Chinese, but they look a lot like this. Any suggestions or traditional recipes beyond the Euro-centric uses we can come up with on our own?

Omigod, I don't think I could drink it! God forbid they come out with a rose'. Excellent suggestion. I would really love to see some wine shows that are not the boring let's-tour-your-Architectural-Digest-house-then-walk-through-the vineyard drone. Andrea Immer's shows are fun and sparky--I enjoy watching hers. I even think it's great for wine shops to have 'theme' nights with floral labels, or critter labels, or wines-to-go-with-sushi. At least women will be introduced to some good wines. ← Yeah, but the kind of companies behind shallow femme-friendly marketing gimmicks have no more desire to educate women about wine than Budweiser has to educate men about beer. They're not in the wine game, they're just unloading another liquid commodity.

I'm a lightweight smoker -- one or two at the end of a good meal or long night -- but I'm always happier to eat outside than in. I hope some vindictive butt-smoking restaurant owner decides to turn his patio into a smoking section so I'll never have to wait for a seat outside. Sette would be fine. On the cigar bars, I believe that the establishment has to earn a certain percentage of its income from tobacco sales.

Thank you, Charles. Also, did you notice the face transplant that I was given free of charge? You thought the French were ahead of us on this. Ha! ← I did notice the transplant -- I liked the old one better. Who got the famous Slater palate? Actually, in the pre-coffee dawn I was so confused at the thought of serving Merlot with Cassoulet that I thought the face transplant was just some kind of post-modern layout thing. You know, new section and all. The article is now (finally) up on the web with Kathy Morgan's CV more or less corrected, I see.

Any practical differences between using blanched or raw almonds? My wife and I often find ourselves standing in front of the display, flipping a coin. bushey -- If you have one, a blender gives a finer grind than a food processor, in addition to making superior frozen margritas.

I wonder what it takes for a place to rezoned as a cigar bar.

I still harbor a deep distrust for wine-tasting panels, but this weeks did feature eG's much-beloved MarkSommelier and other locla wine pros with palates almost as refined as his. Not a bad read.

← That list doesn't appear to be much more useful than a phone book -- his obvious enthusiasm interferes with his critical faculties. 30 "must try's" -- including no Vietnamese; Indique, which has declined dramatically; Soder, which isn't even the best Ethiopian on the block, much less the region; CityZen, but not Citronelle, Marcelles or Maestro? A good list, but it would be much better if it were much shorter.

DC City Council Passes Smoking Ban. No coincidence that the gutless wimps won't put it into effect until after the next election. But, since DC is otherwise perfect.... Oh, did I mention that someone was murderd on the sidewalk three doors down from my house, minutes after my dinner guests had walked by on their way home?

I never took anyone up on it, but in Provence, chefs and hosts at "nicer" several times offered to prepare special meals for my children, if they weren't happy with the menu. The dirty secret is that my kids were damn well old enough to eat what everyone else ate, and I would have been embarrassed to ask for something special for a nine- and twelve-year-old. A nice gesture, though. And if I let my kids eat pizza at breakfast (those mobile pizza trucks at the markets) they were happy to eat like an adult at dinner.

Just got an e-mail reminding me that local legend Ris Lacoste will be spending her last night behind the line at 1789 this New Years Eve, and for those who go out that night, it might be well worth the trip. ($75, five courses, wine tax and tip not included). I, personally think that 1789 is much-overlooked and if you haven't had ris cook for you, you're missing out. Then it occurred to me that "where should I go" is kind of a perennial trauma, so if anyone else has any questions, suggestions or favorites, please feel free to post here. (I will merge a previous thread into this one for convenience).

On the advice of the guy we bought it from, we kept one ham wrapped in the white butcher's paper it came with, held in place with a rubber band, and it held up fine for weeks. The current ham is jammed into a large plastic bag, that seems to be working, too. I'm not sure it much matters, except the exposed bit can get hard if you don't eat the ham often enough (so get eating!). The chopped side down thing will become untenable as you slice the ham away from the bone, I think just sticking a little plastic over the exposed area will do fine.

Honeycomb is tripe which is cows stomach. There are other types of tripe, as well, they differ based on which of the cow's four stomachs they come from.

Yeah, we avoided the scallops ourselves. But the razor clams were still squiggling, though, and tasted appropriately clammish when I cooked them up at home. The tripe had clearly been bleached, but cooked up well and left me with kind of a tripe hangover, where I'm not sure if I crave more or if the very thought makes me queasy. A little tripe goes a long way. I also bought two whelks despite the fact that I hadn't the slightest idea how to prepare them. I ended up dropping them in boiling wayer for a couple of minutes and the prying the flesh out of the shell with a fork and a paring knife. I tried slicing and pounding the little bastards but the pounding went poorly -- if you hit them with a sauce pan hard enough to actually tenderize them, the slices kind of shatter. Batter-dipped and deep fried, they were passable. My wife went into a frenzy similiar to one Paris Hilton might go into if trapped in a room full of billionaire Greek shipping heirs, stocking the house with more Asian spices and liquids and preserved eggs than we can possibly use in a year. We were also treated to a gruesome little eel gutting -- all squirmy and bloody even after evisceration and decapitation. I don't know much about Asian baking, but there is a Banh Mi joint -- the rhythmically named Banh Mi D.C. -- not far from the store, they may have what you need.

It was honeycomb, but I'd like to try one of the other varieties. More than anything, last night was an experiment, so I'm hoping to cook it again, better. Last time I had Asian tripe it was a little nasty -- a poorly prepared dim sum dish -- but simmering in 5 spice powder sounds like a great idea. Spooning it over bread -- and gratineeing -- sounds great, too. A good texture combination. I have to confess, as much as I like the stuff, it can get overwhelming pretty quick. I think a little bit will go a long way. Tripe is fun stuff and cheap to play with, so I'm looking forward to preparing it again. BTW, how many cultures think that trip soup is a hangover cure? I know that the Salvadorans in my neighborhood swear by it, and the Greeks do, as well (just cut to the last post or two) .

No one liked the tripe but me. It was clearly bleached, so I simmered it for about an hour -- at Mario's suggestion -- in water spiked with vinegar and vanilla. Eventually, I browned onions, carrots, garlic and celery and threw the tripe on top, with wine and tomato sauce. The texture was perfect; the taste: pretty good. One thing I learned, though: a little tripe goes a long way. I don't think anyone -- even me -- should have to go through more than a few spoonfulls. The Mario recipe said that a pound served four, we had a little more than that for two and it was a bit overwhelming.

Jesus that looks good. Until two minutes ago I thought the "perfect cure for a late evening of drinking" was the pint glass of cheap white wine and vietnamese submarine sandwich -- aka bahn mi -- I was working on, but that may be even better. Got a little honeycomb going on the stove now, but am not sure I can equal your production.

Different question. I don't think anyone's saying that the oil or salt is the same thing as a real live truffle. But, for those of us unable to afford the little bastards at $200/oz -- or using it to add a flavor note under the fresh truffle aroma, which is what I think TK uses it for -- it's nice stuff to have around. My wife puts it on her pizza. I'm just curious to see if I've been duped all these years.

I did not find my sea urchins, sadly. But I'm going back tomorrow for the scallops (still in the shell) and the tripe, and will look again, more closely. Alas, I have little knowledge of fishmonger trends. I wonder what the economics of shipping live fish from a central location in, say, NYC, up to Boston and down to DC are, as opposed to having indiuvidual stores stock live sea cucumbers on their own.

Did some more googling and some calling around. Both the lady on the phone at Petrossian in NYC and the customer service representative I got on the line at Dean & DeLucs maintain that their oils are made with real truffle. Again, I don't consider this definitive, but it is relevant. In looking over oils available on line, there some products that seem clearly to be chemicall assembled: "Truffle Flavored Oil" and Truffel Scented Oil." And the D&D CS rep said that their white truffle oil was "infused with truffle flavor " while the black was made with truffles. Could be a wording thing. On the other hand, other products were clearly implying that they were made with truffles. Not that I'm obsessing...