fresco

Is mayonnaise (or was, now that McDs smears it on Big Macs) on burgers a regional thing? I first encountered it in British Columbia, and suspect it may have been something that migrated from California. Not common anywhere else, I don't think. Dutch and Belgians dip their french fries in it, which is a bit strange.

In some of these markets it may also be a question of the ad department or the publisher bringing advertisers along so they understand that ads and stories are different beasts, and an advertiser is not necessarily well served by uncritical coverage.

In very small markets, it must be extremely tricky to maintain editorial standards. Publish a critical review or story in a big city publication, and the results are often quite diffuse. Publish the same kind of story in a place where people all know each other, and life can become difficult. That leads to self censorship, and the ad people don't even have to bother intervening.

A few people on the Maggi thread say they find the widespread use of this "enhancer" in various countries quite disturbing and unnecessary. Having only encountered it at a distance (as far as I know), Maggi doesn't bother me much. But when I see people putting ketchup on their eggs, it's enough to put me off my food. Nor do I much like to see people pouring huge amounts of HP sauce over everything on their plate, as is sometimes the case here in Canada and in the UK. What misuse and abuse of a condiment bothers you the most?

Think it is fair to say that editorial employees of suburban weeklies are much more likely to face such attacks on their integrity by the dark side of the paper than, say, their counterparts at the NYT. I would guess, too, that such encroachments are much more common when a publication or group of publications is under financial pressure. Hollinger, the corporate parent of this particular publication, is not doing well at all.

In the current issue of Simple Cooking, John Thorne takes a long, thoughtful look at Greek salad: "Is it called 'Greek salad" in Greece? Probably not, you would guess, and in fact, in that country it is called horiatiki salata, or, roughly, villagers' salad. But country folk don't call it that, and chances are, they don't eat it, either. Horiatiki salata is an urban fantasy of country life; it has a flavor that the Greeks taste but that a recipe can't convey: yearning for the countryside." Thorne does, nonetheless, include three Greek salad recipes.

I've checked all the closets and couldn't find anything in yellow. Is yellow attire optional?

Food and Drink is published by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It does discuss food and drink and has recipes, but mainly its purpose is to promote products sold by the LCBO.

It's a Nestle product--isn't it made all over the world, pretty much? But think it may have been invented in Switzerland.

Now that you mention it, think I kept kitchen door and a few windows open AND venting system revved up. Junior does have the advantage of a restaurant kitchen at his disposal. But you left out the important stuff: how did the roast turn out? Not all that good. And I am talking about more than one of Kafka's "recipes". The charring from the high heat in the bottom of the roasting pan (the same pan she recommends) gave an off flavor to the whole thing. After several tries, I have not cooked anything from that book since. Placing the roast on the rib bones (assuming you had it boned and kept the bones) helps to prevent charring on the bottom, but sounds like you are off high heat roasting for good.

Now that you mention it, think I kept kitchen door and a few windows open AND venting system revved up. Junior does have the advantage of a restaurant kitchen at his disposal. But you left out the important stuff: how did the roast turn out?

Was the Periquita a reserva or some such? I've had a few bottles of this (99, I think) and it was pleasant, not especially "Portuguese" in character. They sell a lot of it in Ontario, and, I've heard, Quebec. My impression, and I could be mistaken, is that it was made to conform to North American, or at least non-Portuguese, tastes, in wine. It retails for the equivalent of about $6 or $7 US here.

Although, as a Canadian who travels a lot, I am generally delighted to see McDonalds, especially, abroad--not for their fare, but for their washrooms.

This is going to sound incredibly narrow, but about 99.9% of my wine consumption is red. I've tried a few of the "green" wines (they were brought into Canada in quantity, along with some of the more egregious Portuguese roses, early on), and agree with you that they can be pleasant summer drinking.

I'm planning to spend a month in Portugal next year and would dearly love to get some solid advice on what wines are worth drinking. My experience is that Portuguese wines are hit and miss, and price and quality don't always match up. What I'm looking for, specifically, are some recommendations for everyday reds, a couple of suggestions for pricier, "special" reds, and your best advice on a couple of ports in both categories. Many thanks.

The timing thing is an excellent point. I've never done a bison roast, but did an enormous beef version of the same roast for a large group of people at high heat (a la Barbara Kafka) and it turned out well. Thermometer is a must.

Rather than bacon, which would impart a quite strong taste, especially if smoked, an option is sheets of beef fat. And one more thing--cook at high heat (500F).

Preferences vary, of course, but my inclination would be to let the flavor of the meat shine through. Since you have a few weeks, have you thought about doing a couple of small bison roasts before then, one with marinade and one without, and deciding which you like best? That region, BTW, seems to be one big extended game farm--bison, elk, wild boar and probably a whole bunch of stuff I've yet to discover.

Just out of curiosity, why would you marinate bison? Anything you could buy would likely be grain fed, or in any case, not gamey. Soaking it in vegetable or canola oil would not, IMHO, do much positive for the flavor. Congratulations, by the way, and good luck with the catering. You are brave. Notice you are from Saskatoon--I was in your part of the world a few days ago (the Alberta side of Lloydminster) for a family reunion at which we did a whole wild (but farm raised) boar. It was quite lean and the only seasonings we used were salt and the occasional application of beer. Texture and flavor were great.

The only consumer magazine that seems to be able to do "theme" issues well is the New Yorker, and some of their efforts suck. That said, Gourmet's Food and Television issue is getting a lot of attention, at least on eGullet--it's also mentioned, unfavorably, on the thread about Bourdain's cruise line piece. My impression of this issue is that it is the result of one of those head-scratching sessions in which the question is posed, "What is the theme that will appeal to the broadest cross section of potential readers?" Haven't read the whole thing, but one or two stories are interesting, including the one on the founder of the Food Network. But overall, the issue is a laundry list of pairings of "food" and "television" and some are either a stretch (obscure or has-been TV personalities who started their own California wine labels) or vastly overdone (Saveur, for instance, would probably have handled the 50th anniversary of Swanson's TV dinners in about 100 words, which is about what it is worth.) That it was thrown together without a lot of thought or planning is, I think, particularly evident in the piece that appears under Sara Moulton's byline. It starts with a quite irrelevant crotch reference, and ends with one, which is at least one too many. The piece reads as if it were put together by some hired ghost, probably male and in a hurry, based on a quick interview with Ms. Moulton. And this may be my particular pet peeve, but I am mighty sick of the Sterns venturing forth every month and mostly finding hamburgers.

Newsstand?

Damn, Jin, that sounds good. Where's your restaurant? Do you actually serve pork liver? I've never seen that on a menu (of course, maybe I wasn't looking). If you dine out on Chinese food often, you're bound to run into pork liver.

Do you have a copy of Jane Grigson's Charcuterie?

Too true. Ken and Carlo make the worst US TV chefs seem positively adorable and charismatic.

Tim's essay is neither a restaurant review nor a news report. It is a piece of social criticism. A good comparison would be to the writings of someone like Dave Barry: he's a humorist and social critic who shoots from the hip and tries to entertain while delivering some serious messages. And contrary to the above-quoted claim, op-ed pieces and columns do not necessarily involve reporting at all. They are often opinion pieces based on news reports. Take a look, for example, at the lead editorial in today's Washington Post. It's about terrorism. Its content is unimportant from an eGullet perspective. But it is significant that it seems to be mostly an analysis of news reports. There's no actual reporting. I'm sure there was some fact-checking, which we do here at eGullet as well (though certainly not with the rigor of a fully funded international newspaper), but it's just an opinion piece that could have been written by any savvy writer who reads the newspapers and watches TV news. Is that bad journalism? Of course not. It's standard operating procedure. But we should also be clear that yours is an entirely different argument from the one we've been hearing, and that you've answered a question with an answer to a different question. I asked for a source that says there's "anything wrong with writing a piece of social criticism about a chef without eating at that chef's restaurant." You answered with, in essence, "Tim's essay is bad journalism because he probably didn't read Adria's books or conduct any interviews." And maybe someone else will come along and say it's bad journalism because Tim isn't a professional food writer, or hasn't been to culinary school, or doesn't speak Spanish, or hasn't netted one of a thousand other red herrings. I don't see why all sorts of tests have to be applied to this piece, or any other piece, to determine whether it is "good" or "bad" journalism. It has a point of view sufficiently original and diverting to hold one's attention; it is written with some style; and it raises some interesting ideas. Isn't that enough?