cdh

Any predictions, court watchers? This court has precedents going both ways with regard to the dormant commerce clause... though the way they phrase the issue for decision makes it a competition between an provision of the original text of the constitution and a later amendment to it... Anybody know any law on this? Hopefully the 14th Amendment is sufficiently distinguishable and different enough not to play any role in this argument, 'cause if the relation between the 14th and original text is the precedent they choose to follow here, then I think the direct shipping cause is sunk.

Who else in the food media biz do you consider your competition? To some extent Good Eats is sui generis, but I see some parallels between GE and David Rosengarten's Taste that was on TVFN concurrently with the beginning of GE. Any other shows on anywhere that you view as worth watching, if for no other reason than to keep an eye on them?

There is such a wealth of creative techniques that we've learned from you through watching Good Eats... I'm wondering how presenting such a thoroughly researched and thought out show has changed your own cooking style. What have you learned from your own GE research that you use in your own cookery on a regular basis? (You're not allowed to say you're too busy to cook for yourself any more, either.)

Is that crate in the first really from Frank's soft drinks in Philly? How did that get all the way to California?

Hey Scott-- Made any progress on the tonic compounding mission? I've not felt like springing for a pound of potentially stale or over the hill ground bark yet, though the crazy notion of making my own tonic may someday make me track down some quinine. My thoughts on how to do it would be to make a simple syrup with some lemon and lime zests boiled in along with the sugar, and then throw in some quinine. Research has indicated that the FDA has deemed 82mg/L of quinine to be a safe dosage, so getting the proportion of quinine to syrup to water will be the tricky bit... But take heart... it appears that Thomas Keller's bar at Per Se is (or plans on) making their own tonic using "quinine powder" and other assorted stuff... so others are thinking the same way we are.

Two great classic summery drinks: Pimm's, the perfect fruity summery punch-y libation that gives one excuses to put cucumbers into one's drinks. I generally make it by the bowlful by taking a cup of Pimm's, a cup of gin, an orange sliced into wheels, a peeled cucumber sliced into rounds, and two liters of good ginger ale. Place all of the above into a large bowl in which a large hunk of ice is already residing, and you're good for an afternoon on the lawn with a dozen friends. and Pastis, for those of us who happen to like anise flavored stuff... a shot of pastis in a glass of ice, and a tall pitcher of water to dilue it down with is all I need on a summery afternoon. As to novelty, a friend threw a party the other week that featured a potion of his own that was quite tasty (and which I'll christen a Kate's Birthday Cocktail)-- I'm unsure as to proportions, but the major ingredients were gin, elderflower cordial and blueberry juice. Served as a fizz. Delicious. (Got me thinking that the elderflower cordial would make a mighty fine pseudo-gimlet... ) Later in the evening I also found that a cucumber garnish (left in my glass from the Pimm's I'd had earlier) actually works quite well with this combination and makes it an even more pleasant experience... at least for those of us who like cucumbers in our drinks...

Well... my question came after looking at the pretty constant chatter over on the egullet wine board, and comparing it to the hushed quiet we see on the beer board. My theory is that since wine is always changing, it always has that magic media buzz that keeps it fresh in mind. Beer, on the other hand, seems to suffer from its uniformity, insofar as one or two good reviews of a beer really do pretty much do it justice, and will continue to do so for years to come. Anybody with a Michael Jackson book printed in the last decade or so knows what to expect from any beer MJ has covered, and what's the point of telling people stuff they already know or could look up. New releases are interesting... but they happen so infrequently... Are beer drinkers really such an inherently conservative bunch that there is a real market demand for uniformity and stability over innovation and improvement? Wine is a much more madcap, rolling-the-dicekind of experience, where you really don't know what is in the bottle until you open it... you can make educated guesses based on geography of origin and grape type, but you never know for sure unless you've found a review of that particular wine from that particular year... which aren't available for most wines. The wines most like beers are the NV champagnes from the big houses, which are blended with an eye toward uniformity of style... and even they change somewhat over time. Keeping beer fresh in the minds of consumers with media buzz can't be a bad thing, but the uniformity stifles that very buzz... A beer makes news when it wins an award... but that only happens so many times a year, and because there isn't regular beer coverage in the media, the story either gets buried or not picked up at all. It is sad...

Project: Thanks for such a thoughtful and wise examination of the agricultural mindset over time. I'm probably two generations past you, and my grandparents generation was the last to farm for a living. Even in Princeton, NJ, where that farm is, the 'plain is better than fancy' ideal was prevalent amongst my family. There was less indifference to flavor, however. Something quite the opposite, as a matter of fact-- after they stopped doing the dairy themselves in the early 1970's, only milk from one particular commercial source was good enough. Store bought eggs were never good enough, and the chickens outlasted the human inhabitants of the place. Vegetables not grown in the garden were avoided like the plague. There were flavors that were decidedly unwelcome, however... strong flavors were out... no garlic, no strong cheeses, no cured meats other than salt pork... I think there was some vestigial ethnic preference there as well, since the thanksgiving menu bore quite a resemblance to menus consumed by Dutch immingrants hundreds of years before. (And this side of the family were of Dutch extraction and had been in America for a few hundred years...) The commonality I see between your story and my experiences is the headstrong insistence that they knew best and anyone who disagreed about matters of taste was wrong.

All commercial breweries seem to strive to consistently create a lineup of beers that don't change from one production run to the next. If you've tasted one good example of a particular beer, there's nothing to be gained by trying it again except the same pleasure you got the first time around. I've tasted Orval and know I don't like it, and if I taste another I'll probably have the same reaction. I think that this property of most beers might be doing them some harm... Look at wine: every year the raw materials are markedly different. Tasting a 2001 German Riesling is a very different experience than tasting a 2002 or 2003 from the same vineyard. This wide variety of experience also sparks a wide variety of conversations and press about wine. It is always a moving target, and moving targets draw press attention. Any press is good press, after all. So the few beers that do change annually, like Anchor's christmas beer, do get some coverage as to what's new about it this time... wouldn't it be a good thing if producers allowed something to vary from batch to batch, if for nothing but the press attention it would get? The lineup of stable unchanging beers should be smaller than it is... and until a real classic emerges, the recipes of a lot of the beers out there should always be in flux in hopes of running across the next classic. I'm sure that there are regulatory reasons that nobody is doing this, but it does sound like a neat idea, no? Whaddya think?

Most people's perceptions of beer are based on the most advertised and most common beers... light colored pilsner type beers, and their light bodied "Lite" derivatives, and Guinness, which is almost universally misperceived as super strong and thick and heavy. There's so much more to beer than just that, but if people were asked to name five beers, I'd bet most if not all of the responses would be in those styles... I remember back in the days when Michelob tried to broaden people's horizons with their "Don't be afraid of the dark" campaign... but there hasn't been anything since that hints that there's more to beer than yellow stuff on the one hand and Guinness on the other. Any ideas how to correct the misperceptions and get more people interested in the vast variety of beers that are out there?

Are quadruples traditional at all, or are they a modern invention... the marketing equivalent of the amplifier that goes to 11? The only european quad I've ever seen is from La Trappe... are there others? Any recommendations?

In all of your beery travels, how does the homebrew you've run across compare? As a homebrewer, I'm generally quite pleased with what I make... but I'm biased, of course. In your opinion, is brewing truly great beer within reach of anybody with a little time and commitment, or is there is special touch in the hands of commercial brewers that us at home aren't going to be able to match?

What is your greatest pet peeve about the system that is in place? Great beers that can't get distribution? Huge beer factories buying quality small producers and sucking the life out of them, while increasing distribution? Something else entirely? If you could make three big changes to the beer marketplace, what would they be?

If there's no show, and we can do the Rodizio at that price point any time, then I'd push it off until a later date. Two culinary blowouts in a week is seeming a tad bit decadent for my present circumstances. I really wanted to see the flamenco... lets hold out until they're performing, As to a spur of the moment get together for a tasty beverage or such, I'm game.

I'd like to come along too! See you all tomorrow.

All of this farm cuisine is not just typical of the midwest. I got doses of just this sort of cookery on the family farm in Princeton, NJ. Granted it was really something of a family time warp, but the farm on which my grandmother and her 7 brothers and sisters were born ( 1899 to 1912) and raised stayed in the family until this year, and my great aunt and uncle (my grandmother's youngest brother and sister who never left home) farmed the place until the mid 80s, when they were in their 70s. Their cuisine sounds just like this "midwestern cuisine" that everybody here is talking about. Absolute simplicity, overcooked vegetables, and beef (farm raised) cooked beyond well done to fully stringy. Garlic was anathema, largely because "it is smelly", and was not ever allowed into the house or the cuisine. The condiment for just picked Jersey tomatoes was apple cider vinegar and pepper, and they were served in a dish, not a plate. Stewed onions, in a flour thickened sauce were another staple. Succotash (lima beans and corn, both fresh grown) was another. All of this reminiscing makes me wonder how much the place matters to this cuisine, as it is the time warp aspect of it that seems more consistent.

Good Manhattan bars that can do an Aviation for you: Angel's Share. The King Cole Bar at the St Regis. Maybe (but I'm not sure) the bar on top of the Peninsula Hotel. That's all the places I've had one... and I'm not sure about the Peninsula. Good luck in the hunt.

Thanks to Chef Tim for letting us sample his culinary creativity last night! What a spectacular evening! Pictures will surely follow since Lisa made sure to capture each of the dishes before they were devoured. The space, the food and the company were all first rate, and the four and a half hours it took the meal to progress from the delicious scallop through to the fried rice pudding wonton seemed to fly by. There were about two dozen of us altogether, and we were seated in the private room at the stern of the ship, which was a truly elegant space. We walked in to find a properly set table with the white linen tablecloth and array of beautiful flatware and glasses set out before us. The waiters poured a glass of lovely bubbly (Marquis de la Tour Blanc de Blanc) for each of us, and the friendly chatter began. I'll leave the details of the seven courses to our fine photographer to flesh out, but I'll say that everything showed that real thought and hard work went into it. Just wait until you see the pictures of the scallop and the gnochetti with chanterelles and parsley puree... my two favorite courses. After the meal ended, our gracious host Chef Tim gave us a tour of the kitchen, which was quite a space to find aboard a ship. Yet another wow moment. So once again, I must say a hearty thanks to the beneficent Chef Tim, and exhort anybody who didn't get to the Moshulu for this extravaganza to go and check it out.

Pity your distribution system doesn't give you the opportunity... even us Pennsylvanians can get our hands on it. And it is a great product.

Huh? "taste that is elusive to the point of erudition"????? Huh? What does this mean????? So invisible it is learned??? ! This just doesn't make any sense to me. Is he trying to say that it is subtle in its simplicity, or that its apparent simplicity masks an underlying complexity, or was he just reaching for an apropos alliteration that the Times editors let slide? Maybe I'm just dense, but that description makes no sense and is all but worthless to me. Anybody care to clarify it for me?

Don't think copyright... but there is trade dress protection, the most famous case about which dealt with the interior decor designs of two Mexican chains... So there is some protection... just not copyright.

Chris: In your day job, have any stories similar to this made the rounds? What is the general attitude of the cops who get called by guys like this restaurant owner? That side of the story seems kinda interesting... how much importance is assigned to calls about trespassing of this sort?

Their grapefruit vodka makes a stellar vodka tonic too. Perfect citric aroma that works so well with the bitterness of the tonic. Worth checking out.

I'm coming too... see you all there!

Hmmm... sounds like an unpleasant guy runs the place... nobody told him he was going into the hospitality industry??? Putting on the lawyer hat for a second, if he told you to leave and you didn't, then he might be able to get you for trespass... but probably only civilly, which would mean he'd have to front a lot of money for a lawsuit against you, and would likely only receive nominal damages, like a buck or so. If he never even told you to "git offa my land" you're totally in the clear... So if the guy really wants to be an ass, he might be able to spend a thousand bucks to get a judgment and a dollar from you, and thereby either prove that he was right, or prove that he is an ass... or both.