fresco

Hmmm. Finally, someone who agrees with me about Gourmet. Suspect you may be right about Reichl being more inclined to writing--it's not an easy or natural transition to make. The newsstand is about half of some of their competitors. Really too bad, because I thought Reichl was making a difference for the better in the early goings. But the masthead below her hasn't budged much, which may indicate that she is losing interest and the regulars are just back on autopilot. Here's a link to a story that discusses circ and newsstand: http://archives.medialifemagazine.com/news.../news30223.html

"I'd say they have little to no newstand revenue. " Gourmet's single copy (newsstand) sales are around 100,000 an issue, on a total circulation of about 900,000.

Sung to the tune of "Fry Me a Liver."

"How about: "Offal King"? Or perhaps simply "The Fifth Quarter"? I can see it now... fried lamb sweetbread nuggets, tripa alla parmigiana heros..." McDonalds is borrowing your concept for a boutique burger chain called The Organ Grinder.

"If it comes from a aerosol can and is meant to be eaten it is junk food. " What about stuff that comes in squeezable tubes? Or is it the propellent that makes it junk?

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and even Wendy's are all getting a bit long in the tooth. If you were to launch a fast food franchise today, unfettered by history, but with a realistic prospect of making a profit and with broad enough appeal to eventually attract customers in several countries, what are the considerations that would guide your choices? What would the menu look like?

I haven't seen a single episode, but it does seem as though there is more wit and entertainment in this discussion thread than in the entire series.

Are fruit crisps--topped with oatmeal, flour, sugar and butter--considered to be a subcategory of cobblers? Is there some other name for them?

I would have guessed that the U.S. led the world in per capita ice cream consumption, but that honor goes to New Zealand: http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/icdata.html

Commercial grade composites seem to have gone in and out of fashion a couple of times in Canada in the past 10 years. Have you considered cork flooring? Easy on the feet, fairly economical, and comes with a laminated coating in whatever color you want.

Spanish for fat guy

Butter. Margarine tastes like shit. Let me rephrase that. Margarine tastes like it has already passed through your digestive tract. Why put it through twice?

"Portuguese rice dishes (except for the traditional duck rice) are usually slightly soupy. " Eric, recipe sounds delicious and will try it. Your observation about Portuguese rice dishes is dead on--it's like in the middle of making soup, they decided to make paella instead, but left out the saffron. The squid and octopus versions are especially good.

Sometimes even zealots can be right.

Only that the really thin stuff tends to discolor and dent easily. I think Fine Homebuilding a few years back had a piece on stainless steel sinks. If I can find a link, I'll post or PM it.

Think it is our old friends the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who recently took on ice cream: http://www.cspinet.org/nah/chinese.html

Is this what you meant? http://chinesefood.about.com/gi/dynamic/of...r%2CWSIHW000%7C

The only advice I might offer is to get your sink in heavy gauge stainless--as heavy as you can find. A prep sink is a great idea, and if we can ever get the plumber back in here would love to put one in in a corner of the island.

The beef glut in western Canada seems to have finally found its way into supermarkets in eastern Canada--ground beef has hit 99 cents a pound.

After this issue, think I'll leave the heavy lifting to him as well.

"It seems to me that if foie gras was a poor folk's food, it would be lumped in with burgers as junk food." Yup, exactly. But when prole food or soul food--polenta, ham hocks--become items on expensive restaurant menus, they have somehow acquired the cachet that takes them out of the junk category. There is a strong class element to the whole fat debate. When only the rich could afford to be fat--say up to a century or more ago--it was fashionable. When even, and especially, the poorest became fat, it became even worse than deeply unfashionable-- a quasi criminal corporate/government conspiracy against our most disenfranchished.

Picked up the August issue and it is completely free of dissonant headlines and stories. In fact, the whole issue could be from the Eighties or most of the Nineties, pre-Ruth Reichl. Dissonant in a different way.

Items that are frequently referred to as "junk food" have two things in common: they seem to occasion a great deal of guilt among a lot of people who eat them ("empty calories" is a close synonym) and are mass produced. While celebrated dishes from expensive restaurants may be (and often are) loaded with calories, their celebrity and expense are, it would seem, enough to ward off the "junk food" curse.

Bergman night: Persona Grilled salmon with mustard basil cream sauce Potato salad Yellow beans Tame strawberries and wild blueberries

These things go in cycles, but recently, I started getting a trickle of cooking school spams.