KNorthrup

They're back and I'm slowly getting reports. I'm having trouble explaining why they're required. (And if she reads this, I expect Maggie to get the last line.) Paisano Tamale is this little nondescript looking place -- until you go in. Then it is still nondescript, but much bigger than it looks from the outside. When you enter you're in a fairly small room stuffed full of heavy spanish-knock-off looking furniture. At the far end of the room is the counter where you go order your meal. No printed menus, it's all up on boards on the back wall. Beyond the back wall, is the kitchen. To the right of the counter is an opening into another, cavernous room with more of the pseudo Spanish furniture. I had a tamale and a chile rellano. The tamale was wonderful, not the thick, heavy doughy things you get here. The filing was pork in salsa verde, not hot but very flavourful. The corn meal part was fairly thin and tasted of fresh corn. And the chile rellano was everything a good chile rellano should be. No beans and rice because it was too hot for that much. Kevin has the shredded beef tacos with beans and rice. He declared his tacos to be extremely good and proved it by wiping his plate clean. At Duarte's Tavern I had the cream of artichoke soup -- creamy, subtle, delicious -- and the crab salad sandwich -- thin sliced sourdough bread, toasted on the inside only, lots of crab salad that was basically lots of crab with a little chopped green onion and other crunchy veggies and just enough mayo to bind it all together. Glass of refreshing pinot grigio to wash it all down. The meal was simple but very sumptuous and decadent feeling. At great contract to the tavern, which is your basic wooden tables and chairs. But comfortable and with friendly, prompt service. No pie, though. We just didn't have room. Oh, Kevin's meal. He skipped the soup -- felt it was just too hot. Nothing like going to California when they're having a heat wave. It does get hot there. But I digress. I don't remember if he had a salad to start, but he had the french dip and was pleasantly surprised. It was in a sourdough hoagie type roll with lots of fresh roast beef -- not the stuff left over from three nights ago. And came with horseradish sauce as well as au jus. Very nice, very tasty.

I liked it when he channeled Jinmyo.

Really interesting article. My one trip to New Orleans, two years ago, Galatoire's was our one high end meal. We had a career waiter who was probably getting ready to retire, but definitely not this fellow. I think his name was Tommy and he took his job very very seriously. It was lunch and we sat upstairs and took about three hours. It all seems very stereotypically Southern, the story. I wouldn't expect to hear of such a thing in any other part of the country. But certainly in Europe.

Damn! I have never seen that. It would be great. Like a Cadbury Picnic bar maybe. Love those. Good thing they're hard to find in the US.

So what did you end up making, Klink? And what else was there?

Holmes and Irene Adler. Who was quite formidable in her own right.

I just asked my mother to ship me at least part of her collection, but expect disappointment. Maybe if I offer Wodehouse in return. Thanks for the rekindling. Edited to add the irresistably appropriate part of my mother's response :

So two people in my office made a related claim yesterday and I didn't argue because I don't know whether they were correct, but it seems off : Gram-for-gram, fat is more filling than fiber, so you'll lose more weight filling up on fat than filling up on fiber. Insights?

Of course, I'm also used to them being edible. Are these? The story doesn't say. release the hounds

My completely unverified assumption has been that tip %s are increasing because the wages to waitstaff have not been increasing at the same rate as most other occupations. In some (most?) states, they don't even have to get minimum wage. Assuming the restaurant lobby argues that if the customers didn't pay the waitstaff salary via tips, they'd be doing it via higher prices and those would somehow be even more.

We had Ruth's Chris and Morton's open here almost simultaneously about five years ago (ie, dot-com days) but I haven't tried either one. My parents ate at one in San Diego a couple years ago and their reasons were probably not very unusual. First, most people still don't use things like the internet to research their dining options when travelling. Especially when it's just a one night layover like in this case. So it's hard to find something reliable -- and not everyone is willing to risk time and money on a bad meal, although I am -- that isn't a well-known chain. Also, when my stepfather is traveling, he doesn't always want to get adventurous with his meals. We can drag him to new and different places for the first few meals, but then he needs to have 'just a steak' or sometimes a burger in order to re-ground or something. Something where he knows in advance exactly what it will taste like. I don't think that's unusual. It's not me, but it's not unusual. Also, they live in a very small town and there really is no local steakhouse. At all. And that could be the case with many business travellers as well. That it really is a unique opportunity. The one problem they had with their RC experience was the service. It was polite and all. But they'd never been there and didn't know all the gimmicks so they each ordered a veg and a starch. The waiter didn't say anything about the portions not really being single serving. And it was a layover, so quite a bit got wasted. They were annoyed about that. Not the price so much as just throwing food away in general when they would have ordered less had they known.

According to a JP Morgan study, the companies most likely to be hit with obesity-related lawsuits first are Cadbury Schweppes and Hershey. Also at high risk are Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, and Unilever. There was also a study released by Glascow University last month that purported to show that a diet high in junk food let to premature aging. Maybe Balic can shed light on that one.

Nature's Path Organic Optimum Power Breakfast. If I'd read the label before, I never would have bought it. It's cereal, for God's sake. Which I don't actually like but this looked very healthy and it has blueberries and they're supposed to make you smart. Plus it has 40% of your daily fiber and I'm supposed to focus on that. Also 8g of protein (soy) and lots of trendy things with sci-fi names like bioflavonoid. What the heck is a lignan? They also tell you on the side that the good thing about Certified Organic Goodness (their redundancy) is 'No sewage sludge on fields.' Mmm.

I actually went to a genuine old lady potluck yesterday. There was a pasta salad from one of those women's magazines -- shells and diced salami and halved cherry tomatoes and some green bell pepper and squares of unidentified white cheese and a generic Italian dressing. Also a sort of Waldorf salad except just apples and dressing. Deviled eggs. Fried chicken from the supermarket deli. (Because KFC didn't open early enough.)

and what not to try

The mahi bento bowl was a big disappointment. But I would have probably been more surprised if they'd carried such a thing off. I'm totally hooked on the Alaskan halibut rolls in the deli case. Also the Italian chopped salad. Both beat the heck out of Hot Pockets when eating lunch at your desk. Do love the blintzes.

There was an interview with Ripert in today's local paper (he was in town recently for a booksigning etc) and this was the accompanying recipe. She included extra tips on the sauce so maybe this thread's question has come up frequently : article/interview recipe (This is the same Sara Perry who wrote the recent cookbook Everything Tastes Better with Bacon .)

Is there a reason it has to be special occasion? Every summer, it seems every food magazine and any sort of Middle America Oprah/Martha/BH&G/Redbook/etc publication has some mention of the New England summer tradition of lobster rolls. So most of his customers will have heard of them, will have even wondered about trying them, and it's hard to think of something less intimidating to make. Not that I have any idea whether it would work with frozen. But if so, something more laid back would have to move more units than something special because you automatically have a larger market base.

That Astor/Churchill/poison quote is one of my all-time favourites. After Benchley hailing a cab. Two women in a Woody Allen sketch : "The food here is terrible." "Yes. And the portions are so small."

I miss the chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough. That was dinner for about two weeks running in college. The list of discontinued flavours on the website is really interesting because there are many many things I never saw. Some testing must be regional.

Well this is odd. I have Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink (1946, intro by the great Lucius Beebe) and Mai Tais aren't included. Did they used to have a different name?

I just finished David Rosengarten's Taste and dry German Reislings are his favourite wine with food. He includes 4 dense pages on understanding the labels, particularly in terms of sweet vs dry, and other things to look for. If he still has a website, there's probably quite a bit of information there too. Supplier recommendations he makes are importers Terry Theise on the East coast and Rudy Weist on the west, and The Age of Riesling in Berkeley for direct mail order. He also lists ten specific wineries but that could be getting into copyright issues to post.

I've also heard that credited to Alice Roosevelt. "Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili." Supposed last words of Kit Carson. "Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies." Milton Berle (Didn't FG do an article on this theme?)

I read somewhere recently (here?) that B&J literally saved Heath Bars from extinction. At least in the US. Marcel D has a cookie variation of the coffee kind that's pretty good. I just called the local scoop shop and they still carry it. She said she wouldn't know if it was being discontinued until after it happened, though.

Do all teas contain caffeine? I thought herbals didn't.