TrishCT

Exactly what point do you think you'd be conceding? I don't think anybody has asked for a concession on the point that vegetarian restaurants don't serve meat, though if you go to the macrobiotic, vegetarian, Japanese (at least that's how I always see it listed in guides) restaurant Ozu on the Upper West Side, they have a small ghetto on the menu with a few salmon dishes. But what does that have to do with anything? The question here involves somebody bringing some meat-based baby food into a vegetarian restaurant. Do you believe there is a universal (or even common) assumption among vegetarian-restaurant consumers that the threshold of the restaurant marks a meat-free zone in all respects? What if somebody goes to a vegetarian restaurant after shopping for groceries and leaves a leg of lamb at the coat check? Is there a universally or commonly understood rule that such conduct is unacceptable at vegetarian restaurants? What if somebody takes vitamin pills at a vegetarian restaurant, and those pills contain meat byproducts? Is there some sort of expectation by the other customers that vitamin pills containing meat byproducts need to be declared at the door? What about the stomach contents of the diners in the restaurant? And yes, though it was dismissed early, I'd still like to know what ethical distinction permits leather shoes and handbags in a vegetarian restaurant but doesn't permit a jar containing a dead bird. The most important question, though, is whether or not it's okay to eat your leather handbag. Is it okay to bring the handbag, but not okay to ask the waiter to heat it up in the microwave so you can feed it to your baby? But I digress . . . Just wondering if the customer wanted a bottle warmed if that would also have been denied... Would the restaurant's decision depend on whether the bottle contained soy products (like Isomil), cow's milk, or breast milk (whatever the heck THAT is...) The slope...slippery...

Rendezvous, In hindsight, do you wish you just gave the customer a cup of hot water...?

From the promos it seems possible (and i say that a bit skeptically) that this show could be what The Restaurant wasn't.... (honest, intelligent, educational). Or it could be more of the same old "Our-viewers-are-so-dumb-we-must-provide-new-story-arcs- every-15-seconds-even-if-we-have-to-fake-them-(more-camera-mugging-please)-or-they-will- fall-asleep-in-their-pjs...." reality kind of thing....

I was fortunate to live near Ancona's Supermarket in Ridgefield, CT, Route 7, when my (2) kids were little and I took them grocery shopping all the time. Ancona's has a policy of no lines at their cash registers. If more than one person is in line they open another register lickety split. And their baggers offer to take the groceries to the car and unload for you. They are NOT allowed to accept tips for this, it's just part of their service. The courtesy at this store is amazing. It's worth a stop if you find yourself driving by. Enjoy their wonderful fried chicken. Taking the kids shopping also proved to be educational.... The first thing they recognized of course was cereals.... They would recognize the kind they liked... But they also started reading words on labels and boxes at an early age.

Holly, is that Jack McDavid you referred to the same guy from Grillin' and Chillin'? I often wonder what happened to him.

Finished reading it last night, and the ending was as satisfying as the main course. Wheeeeeeeew!

Just made the Chicken with Diced Lemons recipe from the book....very good, tangy and juicy at the same time... kinda like Ugo...

Peter: All I can say is Wow! I bought The Food Taster yesterday, and with the rain and all decided to spend a quiet night in with it. I am up to page 174... this is a GREAT read! You truly capture the feeling of living in an Italian royal court. The characters are engrossing and the plot has a nice labyrinth of twists alternating between laugh out loud funny and horrifying pain... nicely surprising. Also, enjoyed your little observations of life such as if you go to a city with a gate, and the gate has a guard, then the guard is bound to be stupid. Don't want to spoil this for others who may read it, so pardon my crypticness, but kudos to you for a particular section in the book where a certain person discusses his faux "royal" lineage in such a manner that it turns out to be a little joke within a joke within a joke... Can't wait to find out the ending! Definitely movie material!

Just one more reason to love Mario...

Indeed, I picked the book up this morning. Barnes & Noble in Danbury, CT...shame on them... didn't have it in stock (probably because it flew off the shelves....) but Waldenbooks at The Danbury Fair Mall had 3 copies, they now have 2 available... Tomorrow night I am going to make the Chicken with Diced Lemons... Glad I read The Da Vinci Code this summer...to prepare me for this tome.

For Ugo: You had a dangerous job fer sure... To quote the prophetic Meatloaf, "I will do anything for love, but I won't do that..." Of everything you had to taste for the royal court was there something you ever balked at and refused? For Peter: I remember you in The Times Square Two from the Smothers Brothers.... Although that would seem to make me 97, I am in fact just 45.... You have definitely whetted my appetite for The Food Taster... I am gonna see if the local Barnes & Noble has it this morning (if not I'll cause a scene and demand they order it forthwith)... Have the movie rights been secured? It seems like a natural....

And who exactly are you Bothameaboutyadayada? I don't have it in me to flip 20 pages back...

As a non-professional cook of leisure I'd like to know if you think prime beef is always the way to go for steaks and roasts. Are there any budget conscious alternatives you would recommend. Prime is difficult to come by here, even at my local butcher.

What kind of oil do you like best for fried chicken?

huh ? 20% is a little under the "great" territory. It's closer to average I made a promise not to turn this into a tipping thread and I meant it. Please bash me elsewhere, thanks.

I grew up in New England where pie (especially blueberry) is eaten for breakfast.

As a writer myself, I am thrilled to get the chance to chat with you. Who excites you right now in the culinary field? Is there an up and comer we should be on the lookout for? Are there any exciting (or scary) food trends you have noticed?

It is Visine. Trust me. EDIT: I didn't know it gave you the shits, though. Around here, it's used to make someone puke a lot. According to the links provided by Ambra, visine makes you nauseous and does not give you the runs, hence the urban legend stuff...

Ambra, welcome and thank you so much for sharing those Web sites. The info about visine was... eye opening...

I don't want to turn this thread into one about tipping, because it isn't. My point was I saw a "celebrity" waitress on television openly say she puts something in the drinks of annoying customers to give them the runs. I was curious what the substance was. I don't know how widespread this practice is, nor am I making a generalization. Went out for dinner last night with my family and my husband and I ordered drinks... Even though it was abusy Friday night, the service was friendly and our food was good. We tipped slightly higher than 20% because I like round numbers on my credit card.

When I dine out I like to have fun, and being liberal I'm a great tipper.... Usually I am very welcomed as a customer. Trish = $$. A couple weeks ago I had a rare problem with a restaurant. I'm not going to name it, but it was in Newport, RI. The service was terrible, and the whole thing from soup to nuts, even the water, was a disaster. Just thinking about it again is painful. I had to call the manager over because the restaurant had automatically added a 20% tip and this was one time when I needed to make a point and give a zero tip. When the manager caught on to what I was doing she offered a free round of drinks. I said "No thank you." She offered again and said she insisted. I said "NO THANK YOU." With that we left. I am so wondering now if we were going to get the Visine treatment. Ms. Sedaris's comment gave me pause to reflect on that free drink offer...

Beach, yes! I was thinking of Kathy Hoshijo. She is an interesting cook, and now I am going to order some of her books. For presence on tv though she didn't click. She appeared awkward and monotone. But she definitely has some good styles and techniques. Thank you! Trish, please let us know what you end up cooking from the books! I remember being really frustrated by the book I bought - Kathy Cooks Naturally - because it seemed every single recipe called for fresh mango and coconut, galangal, or something else impossible to obtain in Fort Lee, NJ in those days. Also, how do you feel about asafoetida? Kathy Cooks Naturally and Kathy Cooks Vegetarian are both out of print but I have a cheap source for procuring them. As for asafoetida, I had never heard of it until your post so I looked it up.... ok...it sounds kinda yucky at first blush... I assume she makes significant use of it?

Thank you all for the info. Knowing that waitstaff do this though is a little difficult to swallow....

I think Ronco and K-Tel were quite different companies. K-Tel was started by the Kives family out of Winnipeg. The Kives started as carnies, I believe, selling things like the veg-o-matic on the fair and carnival circuit. Fresco, I seem to recall that during an interview on Larry King (where Ron rotisseried a chicken during real time to show how fast his product was) that Ron said he was also K-Tel.

And somewhere at my mother's house is a box of KTel records I once bought from Ron... 50 songs on one album and nicely edited to get rid of all the boring parts....