fresco

I wonder. It's a pretty sure thing that the Times visits restaurants a few times before awarding stars. If the chicken was raw every time, probably wouldn't (certainly shouldn't) give four stars. But once might have been ignored as an anomaly, especially if everything else was fine.

Maybe you have higher standards than the NY Times reviewers.

Good Lord. Sounds like pedophelia. Although on your second point, I found my kids rather liked the Brothers Grimm and other scary, violent children's stories. It's kind of the literary equivalent of a ride on the rollercoaster, or through the Monster Cave, or whatever.

Jane and Michael Stern seem to work in "pillowy" "fork tender" and food slang not in current usage in most of their reviews.

So that makes you what, a loafer?

I'm not sure there has ever been a time when journalists were held in generally high esteem. Cronkite was the exception, and no doubt he had his detractors.

What about less conventional additives? I've heard or read people advising sugar or orange juice, in the first case to offset the acidity, and orange juice, I guess, to improve flavor. Do they work?

If you have an outdoor gas grill with a lid, it's perfect for smokey jobs like this.

Anna rocks pretty well right around the clock.

Good point. True turnips (the little ones with white flesh) are actually fairly delicate, compared with rutabagas. Is it actually rutabagas that have been discussed so far?

Anna, good luck with your bread making. It's amazing (and gratifying) to see how quickly other people in your household develop an intolerance for bought bread once they become accustomed to the home variety.

I'm also kind of partial to the idea of people who work, in, say, supermarkets, being able to command a wage sufficient to allow them to buy groceries and the other necessities.

I'm sure I've seen bar-laundromat combos, somewhere.

I've always pronounced it the way a South African would pronounce "crap".

Provocative piece by Mike Steinberger, who argues that the likes of big oakey shirazes from Australia, extreme experiments on restaurant menus and price gouging are helping to drive food and wine apart: http://slate.msn.com/id/2092511/

How did marshmallows ever come to be associated with a festive holiday in winter?

Yes, if you get them before they flower: http://www.backcountryrangers.com/edibles/...lygonaceae.html

Fascinating account. But it is worth noting that when you were learning to cook fairly involved meals, you had the great luxury of time, which, in some ways, is more valuable than money.

True. It's a cousin of rhubarb.

One thought that does occur is that North America and much of Europe are heading in opposite directions. North America, which succeeded perhaps too brilliantly in applying industrial methods to food, is now seeing the rebirth of small cheese makers, organic and heirloom fruit and vegetables and free range, organic beef, chicken, pork, etc. Much of Europe, which was slower to adopt these methods, and indeed, to let go of dining habits which encouraged the use of fresh local ingredients, is now increasingly eating fast food, imported food and food produced under "industrial" conditions. Wait 10 or 20 years and the two continents might reach some sort of equilibrium.

What about places that are great food towns--New Orleans comes to mind. Does the Times-Picayune (what a great newspaper name) cover food well?

I don't know about buckwheat's "importance", except that I think it was grown, and therefore used, in Britanny and Normandy. It was also widely grown in Russia, and eastern Europe generally and is still popular among some of the descendants who arrived in North America (Ukrainians come to mind,) Buckwheat tends to thrive in poor soils and in conditions where other grains don't.

If this gadget was actually plausible, wouldn't you be able to achieve the same result by running cheap vodka through your Brita?

If these simple tricks worked, why aren't the distillers already using them? I used to know a guy who vowed that adding a bit of sherry to a cheap rye would make it taste like an expensive rye, but not being a rye drinker, I've never been tempted. Has anyone ever stumbled across a successful trick for improving the taste of cheap liquor?

Ah, but come and try Mexican ponches. Sheer heaven Rachel Everything tastes better in Mexico. Except Nescafe. Not even the Mexican ambience can improve that.