fresco

I'm reserving judgment until I know what Rick Bayless is actually prepared to say. So far, the only news organization that seems to have got him on the record is the Miami Herald. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/busin...ss/6806176.html His remarks to the Herald are pretty temperate, and hard to fault: ''I'm not normally a fast-food kind of person,'' Bayless said during a phone interview. ``But I think this is a step in the right direction. It's healthier, fresher-tasting and much less processed.''

I'm trying to figure out why it is so important to brown sausages to an exacting standard if they are going to wind up, as I assume they are, either in chunks or out of their casings in a soupy dish with many other ingredients. Does Swartz say why?

Nah ! I've eaten there. They have Sauted Mushrooms and Potaoes. Real vegeterian options, Even serve salads. Irwin The salads must have been added since the move to their larger and not so congenial new location. I knew it had gone downhill, but that is a steep drop.

You are preaching to the choir. I grew up in Alberta.

I was just about to add that Jinmyo is the resident savoury meat pie authority.

There is an extremely popular greasy spoon/cheap steak place in Toronto called the Tulip. I've always suspected that brandishing a vegetable on the premises would get you thrown out.

Never tried one of these, but does seem similar to Shepherd's Pie, except with puff pastry. When you google "Australian meat pie recipes" BTW, after half a dozen more or less legit entries, it segues into what seem like extremely raunchy porn sites.

would ron come over to your house and cook and clean it and make your dining room look like a room that has been around for 100 years with pipes on the ceiling and does he bring a great wine list that will give your guests something to read for 1/2 hour or so? if so, sign me up. Don't underestimate Ron. And don't encourage him.

If Ron Popeil ever gets around to inventing a high-temperature grill that you could operate safely and smokelessly in an apartment, he could put most steak houses out of business.

But the high temp cooking suggests that steak house steaks appeal to an unusually sophisticated palate, which seems, uh, counterintuitive. Either that, or the best kept secret in the culinary world.

Calgary may be the one place where I'd actually choose a steak house over many other restaurants. But that's probably more about nostalgia than food.

I do agree about Chinese food. Using a wok at home is often very disappointing.

I'm sure there must be more to the experience than the food, but just what eludes me. Most seem to have this fake men's club ambience. Can't imagine it's the clientele.

All true. But I don't think it's too much of an overstatement to say that grilling a steak requires not too much more skill than grilling a Whopper. If you go to, say, a celebrated Italian or French restaurant, there is at least the prospect that your money will buy some real cooking expertise.

That's probably the case for a lot of people who post on eGullet. But the same people are probably much more inclined than the average person to dine out because they believe some restaurants are worth the price of admission. Is there anything that would put steak houses in this category?

Friends arrived for dinner last night, bringing strip steaks from an extravagantly expensive but excellent specialty food store. They were very, very good, which raises the question: why would anyone who knows much about food or cooking and has access to quality beef go to Ruth Chris's, Mortons, or any other overpriced steak house? A steak house seems to be the one type of restaurant where you are not going to learn anything positive about cooking or experience anything that you could not experience at home. In fact, you are pretty well guaranteed to be disappointed by the appetizers, the bread, the vegetables, the desserts and probably the beef itself. Anyone care to make a case for steak houses?

Never eaten them myself--they don't grow this far north. Here's just about everything you'd want to know about them: http://southernfood.about.com/library/week...ly/aa091998.htm

They're grapes, popular in parts of the south and used to make a bunch of stuff, including wine.

I've always heard that Canadians of the generation who were in the Second World War were turned off lamb because of the quantities of awful mutton they had to eat overseas. This story seems to support that, insofar as people in the US are concerned: http://web.ask.com/redir?bpg=http%3a%2f%2f...%26newscat%3dGN

No comment.

Less and less of them less and less often. As I think has been observed before on eGullet, you tend to internalize recipes and methods. But I did use The Complete Asian Cookbook yesterday in making a curry.

Fish head curry: http://www.kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1588 Think Marcella Hazan has a recipe for fish head pasta sauce

I've never dined at her restaurant, and likely never will. From all that I have heard and read, Waters has styled herself as an evangelist for fresh, local produce. It seems almost trite now, which is probably a testament to her success. My direct experience is that she not unique in featuring fresh fruit unadorned as a dessert. A lot of people are eager to bypass more elaborate confections to sample the best and freshest, including, if some recent threads are any indication, folks who post on eGullet.

Isnt there an eGullet rules requiring people to give a recipe in cases like this? If there isn't, there should be.