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zilla369

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by zilla369

  1. zilla369

    POM Wonderful

    More info on the health benefits of pomegranate here
  2. Well, I'll take creme brulee: a shiny brittle shell that cracks when tapped - only to reveal lucsious decadence.
  3. C'mon, y'all....it's NOON and the only word from Raleigh is a plea for wood? Get busy posting! I'm trying to live vicariously here. Damnit.
  4. Maybe I wasn't clear...I didn't mean that the bank was charging the consumer interest. I meant that they were earning interest (most likely from the Federal Reserve Bank.) And again, I am unsure if this is the case in a credit card situation - but in a debit card situation they are - aren't they? - deducting the money from your bank account. That money's going somewhere, temporarily. It's real money. If it's not in your account, it's been moved somewhere. And I'm convinced that "somewhere" is an interest-bearing account. They're earning interest on your actual bank account balance every night. *sigh*....maybe I'm totally off-base. Probably.
  5. This blog is going to be a classic, johnny!! See how skillfully he embeds the internet links. Watch as he makes lobster stock on a portable burner. Experience an underwater wonderland. Envy his photographic virtuosity. In a world gone mad, one man takes the entire coast of Maine by storm and hopefully makes a fantastic corn chowder. (Please?) Coming soon to a monitor near you, don't miss: johnnyd: Pine Tree State Pickle Pimpin'!!!!!
  6. I know you were kidding, but - has anyone else ever had to peel a hundred-plus boiled quail eggs? I have. You do not want to go there. Speaking of which: I wanted badly to go there (to Raleigh) but, alas, I cannot, as it turns out. My dad's coming to town on a medical mission (getting a second opinion) and I haven't seen him for a little over a year. I am sorely disappointed, once again (much as I love my Dad and am excited to see him). Hopefully, third time's the charm. Because there's gonna be a third time, I know. I'm not even asking. I'm telling you, Dean. Don't bother to protest or deny. "Year after next in Raleigh" has been my slogan for two years and I ain't about to abandon it now.
  7. No, it doesn't surprise me at all. Before I decided to become an underpaid, non-benefit-receiving kitchen slave, I myself worked at various banks for over 15 years; my last job title was "senior banking officer" (making more than twice my current annual salary). What does surprise me is that more people (and specifically, someone who works in the industry and spends a great deal of his day defending the policy that generates the windfall in question) don't realize it's going on. I'm still waiting for someone to bust me on my math, though. Lord knows the old brain ain't what it used to be, calculation-wise. Washing sheet pans and whisking sabayon all day has kind of repressed my inner banker. Anyone care to check my work? Edited for grahammar. I mean grammar.
  8. Someone I know works for BofA, and we had a HUGE argument about this just the other night. He had come home from work, full of frustration at having had to repeatedly explain this exact situation to people in his help desk capacity. The point he kept trying to hammer home (to me during the discussion - not to callers) is that it's all in your member agreement when you sign up for a credit or debit card, and also expained in detail in the agreement you sign when you (as a vendor) contract with BofA to provide your credit card processing. So it's completely "legal and fair". Okay, conceded. However, the point I kept trying to make is that (at least in the case of the debit card transaction) during that day or two or five, somebody somewhere (probably BofA, possibly Visa/Mastercard) is earning interest off that "blocked off" amount while it's parked temporarily in a general ledger account somewhere. Sure, the interest in the example transaction would be miniscule. Let's see... $40 at, let's be generous and say 1% interest for two days: I'm coming up with something like US $.00219etc., or just a little more than one-fifth of a penny. (Somebody please, check my math.) BUT: Multiply one fifth of a penny times a paltry, oh... fifty million transactions a day. That's over $109,000 US in a single day! Not to mention all the overdraft charges and over-credit-limit charges the banks are raking in when people don't realize those funds are set (temporarily) aside. Anyone remember "Office Space"? Damn, it must feel good to be a gangsta.
  9. glenn - A couple of years ago I had this costume made for under $100. A friend of mine worked as a graphic artist in the marketing department of a local bank, and he spent an hour or two working on the design (while I sat at his elbow). Then he e-mailed it off to a sign-making company and I had it back in two days. It's quite professional-looking, don't know if you can tell from the grainy photo. They simply enlarged the images he sent them, affixed them to a piece of heavy-duty plastic-coated white corrugated cardboard, and die-cut around the edges of the images. Granted, he didn't charge me for his time, but hopefully you could get two big bread slices made up for a price well within your budget. It's quite durable. I've worn it several times. The back piece has four slits in it through which I threaded a really wide piece of elastic for a belt and two more higher up for shoulder straps. On the front of the belt I sewed a hefty square of velcro to hold the front panel on at my waist. And yes - yes I did win the costume contest. Hope this helps.
  10. It's a party staple. Everyone should have a story like that to tell!
  11. Okay, I can’t resist posting this one, and since it involves an empty liquor box, I guess it technically qualifies. Several years ago, I was living in a second-story apartment in a restored Victorian, and I didn’t have any screens on the windows – but I had floor-length sheers that pretty much kept the mosquitoes and moths out. It was late at night, and I had been asleep but was suddenly awake, having heard a “skittering” noise. I held my breath for a few heartbeats and heard it, faintly, again. A mouse, I thought muzzily. When I was just about to surrender to sleep again, I not only heard but felt the critter running across the bed and over the covers. Now, to this old country girl, a mouse is a goddamned nuisance but nothing to get out of bed about. However, when one starts going near Where No Man Has Gone Recently, it’s time to spring into action. So I got up and turned the overhead light on. Nothing. Silence. I shook my head and headed for the light switch to turn it back off. Wait a minute, I said to myself. What is that? About eye-level, on the wall next to the light switch, there was a dark brown lump, about the size of a clenched fist. Since I’m practically blind without my glasses, I took two steps to the nightstand to retrieve them, and returned, squinting myopically, to the wall-lump. It was furry. Suddenly, the lump exploded into action. It was a brown bat, with about a ten-inch wingspan. It got confused and started a frantic circuit around the ceiling fan blades, circling in the opposite direction from the fan’s movement. Now, I’m no shrinking violet. But I don’t want to kill it, because of a) the unsanitary mess I’ll have to clean up and b) the fact that I feel sorry for it; it’s scared and confused and surely did not mean to come inside. Probably it was just chasing a moth and got tangled in my curtains, and fell inside inadvertently. So I look around for a way to capture it without hurting it. Eureka! There’s an empty cardboard wine box at hand – and you know how they razor the three sides of the top off and leave a flip-lid? So I grab that, flip the lid open, climb on the bed and try to time a ceiling-capture to avoid injuring the bat. And you know what? I did it! I trapped that bat right against the ceiling with that box. Did I mention I was not, uh…wearing a nightgown? So there I am, starkers, standing on my bed, with a frantic bat trapped against the ceiling, scrabbling around in the wine box, and me in all my glory, with the open box top pressed against the ceiling. Well, I thought, this is a fine how-do-you-do. I started yelling for my roommate. “STEVE!!! STEVE!!!” Steve was a relatively new roommate, and he was a shrinking violet; as a matter of fact he had a new friend, Sergio, over for a “sleepover” for the first time. “STEVE! HELP ME!” I screamed. Naturally, Steve and Sergio (hadn’t met him yet) come bursting into my bedroom, and There. I. Am. “Hi,” I say, conversationally. “Uh, there’s a bat in here.” Well, you would have thought I’d said “Uh, there’s bubonic plague in here.” After about five minutes of them screaming and waving their hands about, I managed to convince them I didn’t need them to do anything except one thing…open the window in the kitchen that led out onto the fire escape. “I’ll take care of everything, just open the window in the kitchen,” I said. Traumatic for them. Not only a bat, but also a naked girl. So I finally convince them to open the kitchen window and I wait until they retreat to Steve’s bedroom and close the door. Then I oh-so-carefully tilt the wine box and slam the lid closed. I make a run for the kitchen window, plonk the box on the fire escape, flip the lid open, and slam the window shut. The next morning at work, I bragged about both my bravery and my humanity, having performed a perfect catch-and-release operation. Around 1:30, Steve called me. “You know that bat?” he says, the disgust apparent in his voice. “Yeah,” I say. “I saved its life! How cool is that?” “Not exactly,” he says. It was summer, and the temperature was topping out at about 102F that day. “You know that box? Well, it had a dry-cleaning plastic in it.” “Oh, NO,” says I. “Yeah,” he says. “It’s still out there on the fire escape, tangled up in the plastic, inside the box. It’s actually sizzling. I’m pretty sure it’s dead.” So I had to dispose of the bat after all. Poor bat. Poor Steve. Poor Sergio.
  12. That is your prize, man.
  13. Thanks for that, Bux. In light of that comment, I'd like to relate a little scenario from earlier this week. In addition to pastry chef/catering duties where I work, I'm also in charge of ordering, receiving and inventory. I recently implemented a change in our general goods supplier from Sysco to a smaller, regional family-owned food supplier. As a thank-you (not at my suggestion, but at the suggestion of the new supplier), they scheduled a regional company reps' dinner at our restaurant. 23 people attended (11 reps, their wives/husbands, and the owner of the company, who flew in from Michigan). The charge was $29 pp (don't laugh - this is Louisville, not NYC or Chicago or LA. They had appetizers, salad, their choice of CAB filet mignon, sea bass, or a pasta dish, and their choice of dessert), so the bill came to $667. Because the dinner was considered a catering event, there was an automatic 18% service charge on the meal. That's an additional $120, that the house splits with the servers (I'm not sure what the split is). Also because it was a catering event, the servers (two of them) clocked in under their catering pay scale ($10, same as me). That's the justification for the house keeping part (maybe most) of the service charge; the servers are working at three times their normal hourly wage. I came to work at 8:30 that morning. When the party arrived at 6:30 PM, I greeted and schmoozed, answered questions about the meal they were about to enjoy, then went and cleaned up the pastry kitchen; said my goodbyes to the party, and clocked out at 7 PM. The next afternoon I asked the servers how the party went. They were very happy to report that the party went swimmingly, and that the host had paid the servers a 20% tip on the party total (after 18% service charge added). Let's do the math: On that day, I worked 10.5 hours at $10 an hour. Total compensation before tax: $105 US. On the same day, the servers worked 4 hours at $10 an hour. That's $40 US. Then they split a 20% tip on the food+service charge (one server's half would be $78.71) On top of that they each got some part of the service charge - admittedly I don't know how much, so let's leave that out. So, I worked 10.5 hours, doing what I do, cooking, ordering, receiving, running up and down stairs to the pastry kitchen, hauling hot heavy things, for $105 pre-tax. They each worked 4 hours, in an air-conditioned dining room (granted, with brief forays into a hot kitchen to pick up food), folded napkins, cut lemons, polished silverware and brought 3 courses to 23 people, for a pre-tax total of $118.71 each, plus whatever their cut of the 18% service charge is. Keep in mind all three of us work without benefits of any kind - no paid vacation, no paid sick days, no health insurance, no retirement benefits, no uniform subsidy. Is the kitchen fairly compensated compared to the FOH? You tell me.
  14. and what prizes! Can they afford these magnificent gifts?? ← I judged a State Fair contest last year. I had my choice of the Pillsbury Pie Crust contest or the Hidden Valley contest. I had to taste 37 pies by myself, then 18 of the other judges' picks. But I still didn't have to eat "Super Tostada Rancheros" or whatever. Ick.
  15. There's an old pantry line joke that starts out "You know how you get a redneck to give you a blow job?. . ." At the first fine dining restaurant I worked at, we didn't offer ranch dressing. The chef didn't want it on the menu or on the salads. But we ended up making it (the servers just couldn't bear to tell the guests it wasn't available - if they asked for it, we had to break out the packet o' spices), at least once a service. There's at least one in every crowd. In my current job, we buy the commercial ranch, whereas we make all our other dressings. However, I would say that ranch is the dressing of choice at least half the time when you offer it up front. I get mad when I ask for blue cheese dressing and what shows up on my plate is ranch with some blue cheese crumbles mixed in. Blech.
  16. I made rosemary icebox butter cookies for a wedding with 400 guests. They were super easy, rolled in demerara sugar before slicing & baking. If anyone's interested, pm me for the recipe.
  17. Susan - The dimples are a distinct advantage in one way - they form air pockets that keep moist ingredients from sticking to the side of your knife as you slice. Example: slicing a wet potato to make fries - you know how the slices just hang onto the side of the blade and you have to stop slicing and unstick before you make the next cut? As for maintenance, it's not really a big issue, as far as I can tell (although I don't own one and have never sharpened one manually). Hope this helps!
  18. Just be sure to compliment her evening gown and talk smack about MaryAnne Seriously, though - I peel fresh ginger root with a spoon! No kidding! A regular service spoon works great, but so does a plastic picnic spoon. This is the best method I've found for peeling, because it removes only a thin layer (mostly the brown "skin" and any imperfections). It's not perfect - you'll still have some skin left in between close-set knobs, but unless the root is old (which translates to tough, thick, stringy skin), those few pieces of skin won't affect your final product. After peeling, either grate it on a microplane or a chocolate grater, or slice thinly (and mince if required) with a french knife.
  19. I've been lusting after the crunchwrap ever since I saw the commercial for the first time last weekend. I haven't been lusting after the "good to go" guy in the commercial, though.
  20. I've never been to a Cheesecake Factory, but their online menu says their Chinese Chicken Salad is "tossed in our special Chinese Plum Dressing". So it's probably got plum sauce in it. Help me out here, folks: plum sauce usually includes plums or plum jam, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and chile oil?
  21. zilla369

    Taku

    Uh-oh. I hope eGulleteers don't bankrupt him in his first month in business! Michael - what kind of cuisine is Adam featuring at Taku?
  22. zilla369

    Prison Wine

    Steve, of ("Steve, Don't Eat It!" fame), is at it again: making "wine" from ingredients available in most correctional facilities: Prison Wine
  23. Here is the other thread about Dragon's Beard Candy. Included in that thread is a link to a website that includes a video you can download (bandwidth allowing) that shows a demonstration. It's amazing - watch it if you have the technology!
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