Pan

Seems to me chezlamere is referring to both the movie and references to it in sitcoms. I think the movie is boring the same way I think "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" is boring - because it's played every year (and in the case of the song, over and over). Actually, "The Christmas Song" is a great song with imaginative harmonies, and I enjoy playing it. But man am I glad the station that played nothing but Christmas songs - most of them cheesy arrangements, and including that horrible female singer who can't sing on pitch doing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - for the last month will quit it until next year. One of my local laundromats played that all day every day. But speaking of chestnuts, good chestnuts are never boring.

So this is an electrical appliance, not something to be used on the stove.

I'm out of this because I don't celebrate Christmas and really don't celebrate Chanukah, either, which is a minor (non-Biblical) holiday and more fun for children than anything else, as far as I'm concerned. If I do celebrate Chanukah, it's not to exchange presents (that's more traditional for Purim and Passover). My father's birthday was on the 26th, but because of the flu, I haven't been able to get his gift yet, which isn't food-related. Gifts people get for me are usually either not related to a particular holiday ("just because" things) or for my birthday, which comes up on Feb. 2. But I have a question for Mabelline: Tell us more about that multi-cooker. I frankly don't know what it is.

I actually think It's a Wonderful Life is a great movie - or I thought so the first time or first couple of times I saw it. I think it's quite reasonable for them to show it every year around Christmas, since it's a Christmas movie. I just don't have to watch it every year. Almost anything can get boring if it's played too much, except Handel's Messiah.

What makes it rise by itself? Does it have yeast in it?

That is extraordinary, Mabelline. To what do you attribute this?

So I gather India is not part of Asia for the purposes of this thread. My favorite dessert for dim sum is the cool coconut agar-agar rectangles (well, tetrahedrons, really). I have no idea how easy or difficult it is to cook, however. Why don't you teach them how to make a dessert soup like red bean soup, white fungus soup, or Malaysian bubur cacak, which was always served to me as a breakfast and not a dessert when I lived in Terengganu in the 70s but has been adopted as a dessert in Malaysian restaurants in the U.S., at least.

Fifi, you'd be amazed (and disgusted) by the sweet barbecue sauce served at places like the Dallas BBQ chain in New York. Looks like a big part of the problem is that a lot of New Yorkers like everything sweet. For my part, sweet peanut sauce is OK with me - heck, I'm used to that from Malaysian satay, and the Thai Masaman curries are really just good Thai versions of Muslim - that is, Malay - curries from the former Malay sultanates that were "repossessed" by the Thai Empire for delinquency in tribute payment in the 19th century. But I don't want my Tom Yam Gung, Som Tom, or Jungle Curry (if I'm lucky enough to see it on a menu) to be sweet and wimpy on the spice. Gimme spicy and tasty, damn it!

Is barbecue sauce typically sweet in the Houston area? (I ask, of course, because I'm wondering about any correlation.)

You probably get spicier Thai in Houston because the regional American cuisine in those parts often has a lot of chili in it, right?

Enjoy!

Isn't there some sort of eGullet policy on that? Something having to do with libel or liability or some such thing? I explained the work-around on that. All she has to do is say that she has no medical proof that their food caused the reaction. She is not libeling if she simply offers a non-expert opinion rather than a claim of fact, which should be documentable. Then she can recount the story as it happened, including the rude response by the owner.

I had wonderful Thai food when I was in Seattle, but I've never been to Portland, OR so far. We have lots of very inauthentic Thai food in New York. It's really, really difficult to find Thai food that isn't overly sweet and wimpily unspicy for Americans. The only really authentic-tasting Thai restaurant I've been to in New York in the last few years is Sripraphai in Woodside, Queens. Yet based on my two meals there, I think its quality is about on par with a good neighborhood Thai restaurant I used to go to on Market St. near the Safeway that I think is not far from Castro St. in SF. What's better about SF (probably West Coast in general) Thai than New York Thai is that it's spicier, tastier, and just plain better.

Just speaking for myself, I would observe that Sam does not disagree in order to be disagreeable. If you don't like arguments that are on-topic, a discussion board is definitely not for you. But the pity is, if you don't make any further replies, you can't give us specific references to the studies you generically refer to. Could or would you please advance the discussion on aspartame by pointing to some studies that show any kind of danger from the substance? Frankly, I am suspicious of aspartame (and hate its taste, anyway), but when I did a PubMed search, I found that all referenced studies in recent years showed nothing but positive effects from aspartame. So if you'd just thicken your skin a little bit, we might yet derive some benefit from your presence in this thread.

ExtraMSG, respectfully, I ask you to reflect on whether your opinion on the effectiveness of the private sector (as if that's really a single entity, which it isn't) in combatting contamination in food isn't tinged by a strong belief in an ideology. Or is the key point "when it decides to do so"? In that case, you may be right, but if you're mainly just opposed to all regulations, you will have a hard time convincing me that all private enterprises will voluntarily adopt high standards for food safety, workplace safety, maximum hours, etc., etc., if not ordered to by the government. As I see it, the government must enforce minimum standards on all these things. Then, if very responsible enterprises wish to exceed those minimum standards, they are free to do so, brag about it, and reap the benefits of so doing. Best wishes for the new year!

I've always been impressed with Thai restaurants in San Francisco. I have no idea how authentic you'd rate them, ExtraMSG, but they seemed pretty real to me. It's too long ago for it to make any sense for me to mention names, though, even if I remembered names (and I don't).

For the rest of the story, click here: 'Human' Mad Cow Usually Not Tied to Diet

No. Evidently someone some time gave me some misinformation, but it's definitely not because of assonance.

Is it realistic to expect the Chef to cook your meal at a high-end restaurant? Why don't you trust the people he hired to execute his cuisine? Isn't that what being a chef at that level is all about?

Oddly enough, though I'm a New Yorker, I feel like I don't know enough to have any strong opinions about Grimes. I just haven't been to enough of the restaurants he's reviewed. I do think he's a good writer, though, and I do have the feeling - justified or not, I don't know - that I have a decent sense of what each place he's been to is like, or at least was like for him. Tim, I think 4 stars should be given out very sparingly indeed, as I've been disappointed in all three trips I've made to 4-stars so far (over a lengthy period though). However, your point about his not having reviewed Jean Georges and Le Bernadin seems unassailable to me. I definitely don't think he's responsible for limitations on length. The Times needs space for all the paid advertising it runs.

That remark caused me to do a doubletake, as I imagined a bias for the late Spanish dictator!! But you got your point across, and thank you for your remarks.

Speaking of picking things, there's always "I've got a bone to pick with you." And here's another: "Neither fish nor fowl."

Thanks again for the great pictures, Kris. I wish a fast recovery to your head and a happy, successful, and above all healthy new year to you, Helen, and all other eGulleteers. And may this year bring us peace.

When I was about 15 I remember a friend of mine went on a rant because M&M's always advertised, "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" -- and of course the stuff always got all over your hands. So she wrote to them asking how they could advertise like that when it was obviously so untrue. And they wrote back a very nice letter saying that their advertising slogan was "M&M's MILK CHOCOLATE melts in your mouth, not in your hands." The stuff that was melting in her hands was the candy coating, not the milk chocolate.

Jango, it sounds like the Australian meat industry and regulators can teach the American meat industry and regulators a thing or 50. If they're willing to actually do something and spend money, of course.