fresco

Did this concoction taste really terrible or was it mostly the shock of expecting one thing and getting another? It doesn't sound any worse than the Buffalo style wings that are served up in many a cheesy bar.

Has anyone heard of the apparently popular sport in Oklahama of catching giant catfish barehanded, known as "Okie Noodling" or the apparently popular documentary of the same name: http://64.4.14.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN...odling%2ecom%2f

We are definitely coming at this from entirely different perspectives. I live in a country adjacent to the United States, which shares a common language, more or less. Throughout much of my adult life there has been an enormous amount of official and unofficial fretting about the "influence" of U.S. media on hapless Canadians--TV, movies, books, magazines, newspapers, etc. The assumption of the chattering classes in Canada is that US popular culture is ruinous and in a better world would be banned outright. But failing that, they have erected and support all manner of bizarre, and entirely ineffective barriers, including Canadian content laws for tv and radio, etc. etc. etc. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I keep hearing echoes of this in the debate about Sandra Lee. At the end of the day, people will watch or read or listen to whatever they desire, and as that slightly more evolved version of Ms. Lee says, that's a good thing.

If Sandra Lee's show and books are successful and have a huge audience or readership, someone is getting something from them, I'd have to guess. These books are purchased with real money by people who make independent decisions to do so. No one is forcing anyone to watch her show, and there are no shortage of alternatives, including not watching tv at all. I'm not sure that any of this is necessarily an indication that the world as we know it is going to hell or is otherwise a cause for despair.

I still don't get, in a 500-channel universe, and with so many more pressing problems to think about, why this woman gets up people's noses in the way she does. Full disclosure: Have never watched her program, and have the great luxury of preparing just about anything from scratch. But can anyone explain to me why there's anything here that a channel changer couldn't fix?

A good place to start is Craig Camp's excellent Daily Gullet piece on sherry: http://egullet.com/?pg=ARTICLE-campsherry

Perversely, it is money she doesn't really need--she's the "trophy wife" of the wealthy CEO of a $5 billion home construction company. She does this out of the pure, rotten, evilness of her heart. For all of the general lameness of many of the shows on Food Network, I think this is the only one where the motto of the show would be "Eat Sh*t and Die!" It's true that one doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of quality from commercial television, but Sandra Lee is actively harmful and deceitful, just another way to convince people they need to be dependent on the producers of industrial food products. Think what she could do if she used her powers for good! She is doing a good job of making a lot of people feel superior.

We have a long, cold, winter without much sun here. So while soups, stews, etc., are comforting, sometimes it's pleasant to evoke much warmer, sunnier places, with Mexican food, satays and all sorts of stuff grilled on skewers, and margaritas.

the 1,000 islands are in upstate New York. Saveur had a piece a few issues back about fishing guides and "shore dinners" in the Thousand Islands region which mentioned that the salad dressing had been invented by a semi-legendary guide and shore dinner cook. The gist of it was, I think, that the dressing became so popular among fishermen from places like NYC that eventually it spread to restaurant menus, etc.

English muffins. (Never seen anything like them in England). Canadian bacon (back bacon, although mostly consumed by the "hoser brothers" Bob and Doug McKenzie on SCTV.) Nova Scotia smoked salmon (never called that in Canada). In Spain, something called a "Russian salad" is popular. Unlikely that it is popular in Russia.

You know, I'm perfectly fine with people who ice their cakes with stuff from a tin. But I'm perfectly fine because I don't know anyone like that, so the prospect of being served something so daunting is very remote indeed.

Am I alone in thinking there is something hilariously funny about this, without ever having seen the show? I'm having an awfully hard time working up a good lather of indignation about...television.

"White Trash Cookin'" is one of the funniest books about food I've ever read. Great photographs and the tone is just exactly right, which is a tougher thing to pull off than one might think.

I have to see this woman in action. Anyone this bad has got to be great television... for at least five minutes.

Would it help if you watched this on a black and white only tv and pretended that it was 1959?

Sounds like the "ginger ale of champagnes."

The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong, a novel told from the point of view of the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Recommended, if memory serves, by JAZ.

Don't think anyone has mentioned it on this thread, but Richard Olney's Simple French Food does present a quite unique perspective on cooking.

I'm all in favor of moderately priced wine. But "Two-Buck Chuck" does seem like a Wal-Mart-style squeeze on small producers. If paying a few extra dollars means that more vineyards remain viable, it seems like a small price to pay.

I'm working my way backwards to a peasant economy--soon there will be hams and flitches of bacon hanging in the room behind the kitchen. Probably prepare somewhere between seven and 21 meals a week, depending on the week. The more basic things get, the more pleasant life becomes.

He may also be exaggerating a touch to make a legitimate point, a practice not unknown among essayists and columnists.

it's that hair, my god i'm sick of the hair. He always looks like he needs a shower.Don't get me wrong i like his show, but that restaurant this with 15 down and outer's I mean what did he expect. Did he do any research. It seems like a complete set-up to me. Why would anyone invest that much money into a loosing proposition. He didn't that's the point. How many times have I seen the reruns already. It wouldn't have been much of a show without the screw-ups. I hate shows that treat me like i'm stupid. and that's what his restaurant show did. His other's are ok Isn't it possible that he knew exactly what he was getting into in hiring that crew and had the balls to do it anyway? Some of them worked out, which is a victory.

It's Nov. - Dec.

I can fix this. I could sell you some bottles of these for $250/bottle The world would be a better place if more physicians prescribed wine. But at those prices, I fear many of your patients would be coming to Canada to have their prescriptions filled.

Pan, if I could afford $250 wine I'd drink it every day, probably. I make do with stuff that costs much less. There is a short list of things I've never regretted spending money for--books, travel, food and wine. If any one of them, regardless of price, creates pleasure, and the memory of pleasure, it's a bargain.