fresco

Matthew, I always use shears to cut up chickens. I find it much easier to split the breastbone with shears than with a knife, although maybe that's because I'm not a good sharpener. You gotta be careful with shears, though, or you could snip off a bunch of meat from a thigh or breast unintentionally. Does anyone else use a Chinese cleaver? I can take apart a chicken, reasonably neatly, in under two minutes with one. You can even use them for boning breasts, and they're handy for pounding breasts for cutlets, too. Plus, they cost next to nothing.

Add three for me--Portuguese Table Wines, By Giles McDonogh (also discusses Portuguese food); The World on a Plate by Joel Decker (a FG recommendation) and The Food of Paradise by Rachel Lauden (eGullet's Caroline), a Julia Child Cookbook Award winner about Hawaiian food, which I can't wait to devour.

They're probably Scots or Irish in origin, but I've come across recipes a few times for oatmeal and mussel soups. Never actually tried them, though.

So what you are saying is that eGullet is guilty of helping to drive people into the arms of BK.

Maybe the situation is somewhat different in Canada, which has perhaps the most open immigration policy in the developed world, but what I see here in our major cities (and a surprising number of smaller ones) is an explosion of mom and pop type restaurants offering food from all over the world. In our smallest towns, I'd argue that the arrival of McDonalds (it's usually McDonalds) actually was a big improvement over the often poisonous and invariably unpalatable Chinese/greasy spoon menu at what was often the only dining spot in town.

Mussel potato salad This is best prepared in the fall or winter, when mussels are plump and most flavorful. I've tried it without cilantro, but it just doesn't work. 4 lb waxy potatoes (red are best) 4 lb fresh mussels 2 medium apples (crunchy and tangy are best) 1 large onion 1/2 c mayonnaise (Miracle Whip won't do) 1 T curry powder splash of white wine good handful of fresh cilantro, chopped salt and pepper to taste Peel and boil potatoes in salted water until cooked, but still firm. While still warm, cut into 1" dice. Check mussels carefully, remove beards if necessary and discard any mussels that will not close. Put in large stock pot with splash of white wine and simmer at medium heat until all mussels are fully open, about five minutes. Peel and dice apples to about half the size of potato dice. Roughly chop onion Add potato, apple, onion and chopped coriander to large bowl. Remove mussels from shells and add, along with a bit of mussel broth. Add mayonnaise and curry powder and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix again. Let sit, covered with foil or plastic, in fridge for a few hours for flavors to meld. Keywords: Salad, Side, Dinner, Easy, Potatoes ( RG738 )

Mussel potato salad This is best prepared in the fall or winter, when mussels are plump and most flavorful. I've tried it without cilantro, but it just doesn't work. 4 lb waxy potatoes (red are best) 4 lb fresh mussels 2 medium apples (crunchy and tangy are best) 1 large onion 1/2 c mayonnaise (Miracle Whip won't do) 1 T curry powder splash of white wine good handful of fresh cilantro, chopped salt and pepper to taste Peel and boil potatoes in salted water until cooked, but still firm. While still warm, cut into 1" dice. Check mussels carefully, remove beards if necessary and discard any mussels that will not close. Put in large stock pot with splash of white wine and simmer at medium heat until all mussels are fully open, about five minutes. Peel and dice apples to about half the size of potato dice. Roughly chop onion Add potato, apple, onion and chopped coriander to large bowl. Remove mussels from shells and add, along with a bit of mussel broth. Add mayonnaise and curry powder and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix again. Let sit, covered with foil or plastic, in fridge for a few hours for flavors to meld. Keywords: Salad, Side, Dinner, Easy, Potatoes ( RG738 )

That's really good. Boiling the cans is just no fun. What about running them through the dishwasher? Is it hot enough to get them sterile?

I don't want to be put in the position of defending Burger King or its fast food cousins, but to blame them for much or all of the bad food in the world is just plain wrong. If anything, the appreciation for and availability of good (ie fresh, locally grown) food in Canada, the US, the UK and doubtless some other parts of the world has actually increased greatly over the past 30 or 40 years, coinciding, in fact, with the rise and spread of fast food chains. It would be possible, I guess, to make a case that the market for good, fresh ingredients has been created at least in part by people reacting against the spread of the fast food giants and their ilk. What we do have is many more choices now than our parents or grandparents did when it comes to dining at home or out. How well we eat depends more than ever on the choices we make, but I certainly appreciate having the choices.

I do find it interesting that so much energy is expended speculating about or proposing food (and other) choices for people of limited means. To the very best of my recollection, I don't recall any such unbridled speculation or proposals regarding people of unlimited means in any eGullet forum.

You missed the climax.

I could easily do all that for the London broil, asparagus, potatoes, and salad in 45 minutes: prep it, cook it, serve it, and do all the cleanup. I'd just have to subtract that from my TV allowance and settle for 3 hours and 15 minutes, I guess. Learning to cook, sure, that takes time. But kids have nothing but time to learn stuff. That's why it's important for people to learn about food and cooking when they're young, because once they're working double shifts at some crappy job they're not going to bother. And as I mentioned before, I doubt this trend will ever be reversed. But that doesn't change how lame it is in the first place. Fat Guy, you've observed a couple of times at least that home cooking is becoming the preserve of hobbyists, and I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. Preparing one's own food is, obviously, a strong value for people on eGullet, and there are probably all sorts of cases to be made that there are sound financial, nutritional and social reasons to cook and dine at home, just as there are strong cases to be made that people should refrain from driving cars and all sorts of other things. But many of us are going to continue to drive cars and to take most of our meals out at places like Burger King, some for convenience, some because they don't know how to cook, and some because they just prefer Burger King over home cooking. I guess I'd prefer to see a world where most of us prepare our own food and made it impossible for places like Burger King to thrive. Mostly, though, I'm grateful to be in a position where I can cook at home or not, as I choose.

Back in Toronto, still overwhelmed by the open-handed generosity and welcome extended in Grand Rapids by the Heartland crowd. It was a pleasure to meet all of you, and I hope we can get together again, and soon. Thanks especially to Matthew and Michele for being big-hearted and courageous enough to play host to such a mob, to Alex for being such an accomodating and knowledgable guide to the folkways and pleasures of Grand Rapids (Guajolote was so carried away with Alex's enthusiasm that he said it was enough to persuade him to move back) to Col. Klink for his alchemy with smoke and meat, and to Guajolote and his amazing extended family for their warm-hearted hospitality, and to all of you for demonstrating that the preparation and partaking of food is, above all, an act of grace and communion.

Saveur, occasionally. But it's hit and miss.

Don't think you're supposed to keep it in the fridge. I just keep it on the counter and it seems to last for a couple of weeks.

Someone gave me a subscription to Vines, and my first issue just arrived. It seems to have been around for a while--anyone read it? As the name would suggest, it's mostly about wine, and since it is published in St. Catharines, the emphasis is on Niagara wines. Haven't gone through it all, but there is one interesting piece about a guy in Hamilton who is having barrels made (in the US) from Canadian oak. He insists that Canadian oak barrels lend a taste to wine that is closer to French barrels than those swaggeringly assertive US oak barrels. Whatever. There does seem to be some minimal food content as well.

Legalese isn't short for anything, in my experience.

Because when you tell someone "I am going to give you some fresh, not frozen, onions," the accepted meaning of the term is that you will be given an actual onion not some glop that is only allowed to be called fresh thanks to the fact that everything in the universe that has never been frozen is technically fresh. The whole Bayless question seems to come down to perceptions. I just don't see that he is doing anything satanic or that BK is being misleading, but I guess if you are completely opposed to the whole thing you will see it in a very different light. There doesn't seem to be a way to come to any objective conclusion.

Maybe I'm missing something. Bayless's statement says that vegetable ingredients are delivered "fresh to every restaurant, not frozen". How is this misleading?

They sell salads, so I assume they have a mechanism for acquiring fresh ingredients. However, it does seem unlikely that anybody at Burger King is actually chopping onions or even using a machine to process onions. More likely it is indeed a fresh (as in never frozen) product that is not actually prepared on premises. But of course the statement is designed so as to push the average reader towards the conclusion that Burger King's restaurants are cooking with actual whole onions and peppers. Do you think the average reader thinks about or cares whether the onions and tomatoes are chopped on premises or off? The average reader probably buys her or his salads prebagged from a supermarket, which almost certainly does not bag them. Same with "baby" carrots, and a bunch of other semi-prepared vegetables.

If Bayless does not believe what he said in his endorsement, and if his endorsement flies completely in the face of everything he stands for, then of course he's a hypocrite. But I am willing to believe that he believes what he said and that he truly does see this new sandwich as a step in the right direction. I also refuse to believe that BK was able to pay Bayless enough money for him to turn his back on his long held beliefs--that is, Bayless at least is convinced that his endorsement is not a violation of what he says he stands for, although many others may not be.

how much sodium is in a sandwich, say, like this one. Probably about 1000 mgs, and that's just the bread. This whole thing is much easier to take with a gram...er, a grain of salt.

I thought I recognized your artful touch in Bayless's statement. Very clever of BK.

I mean that if and when BK customers start demanding organic food, many of the folks who sneer at BK will be sneering at organic food. Or new sneering targets will emerge. Yes, there's always a market for that.

Thirty years ago most people weren't sure how to spell organic. Now it's a fast growing (in some places, the fastest growing) segment of the food market right across North America. If BK customers started demanding organic food, you can bet BK would find a way to deliver. And if they couldn't, their customers would go to a fast food joint that could. You mean "organic" is an emerging rationalized economic market? I mean that if and when BK customers start demanding organic food, many of the folks who sneer at BK will be sneering at organic food.