Toliver

A new recap...new clues and a new movie are in bold: Please don't assign numbers to your new movie foods...if a movie is solved before it gets put into a recap, it's not given a number since it's out of play. Also, we're getting some repeat movies. Try not to use "Pretty Woman", "The Godfather", "Cool Hand Luke", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "Fargo", "Moonstruck", "Repo Man", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Fried Green Tomatoes", "American Grafitti" and "Dirty Dancing" as they've all been used twice. CONGRATULATIONS TO: -petite tête de chou for correctly guessing that "A Mexicali Chili Barb A Double Chubby Chuck Two Orders of French Fries Two Cherry Cokes" is the "American Grafitti". -racheld for correctly guessing that "He sampled my hand, and liked it so much, he's been waiting around to consume the rest of me" is from the film "Peter Pan". ************ WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION: -petite tête de chou has guessed that #174 (Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery) could be "WarGames". #154 is not "The Notebook" nor is it "Jamon, Jamon" #174 is not "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" #184 is not "Lost in Translation" ************ STILL UNSOLVED AND TAUNTING US: 154. REVISED CLUE: A floor picnic of roast chicken, rudely interrupted by monetary concerns and time constraints. CLUE: Every meal in the movie was disrupted by SOMETHING, but no other by money. CLUE: The hero speaks to an older woman, and her comeback was quite memorable. CLUE: The lady came to the hero's place of work in order to watch him. No food was visible at the moment, though the aura of ham was present. 158. "I love their eggrolls" " Eat your eggs" and four perfect T-bone steaks 173. Jack Nicholson film: features a lot of barbequeing (as I recall) 174. Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery. 177. I hid behind the car. I didn't want to get any ketchup on my dress. CLUE: I've been carrying around this ketchup bottle for weeks!... WEEKS!!! 184. sushi, including 'masago' and 'amachi' CLUE: in a separate scene, Noodles eaten from a paper carton (on a park bench) CLUE: in another scene, Snapper - discussed but not seen. 188. Poem improvised by prospective husband-material at family dinner that begins with a pile of thick strands of pasta sauced with wild fennel: "Snails to eat And woman sweet-- An incredible treat!" Or something to that effect. CLUE: a) Another incentive to make the gaped-toothed dinner guest a member of the family: the prospect of lasagna and sardines. b) Takes place on an island, c) in black and white. 189. Creme de la Creme ala Edgar **** NOTE: If you post a movie, please check back to see if the guesses on your movie are correct or not so we can keep the "Still in Play" list accurate. Also, consider posting more clues if your movie remains unsolved. ****

I saw the report this morning on NBC's "The Today Show". Bill Gates himself demo'd the new technology. "Microsoft unveils revolutionary device" Most of the eGullet-pertinent information is in the video of the story (I apologize to those with dial-up connections). Bill Gates showed how at a restaurant, the customer could use the tabletop interface to drag and drop menu items to place their order. Then when it's time to pay your bill, you lay your credit card on the tabletop and choose how much of a tip you want to give and it's paid. The other party at the table can pay for their meal in the same way. No more worying about how to split up the check. Of course, I can think of a million and one ways this new technology could really screw up the kitchen and staff (just seat my mom at the table and let her try to use it ). And what about special orders? How flexible is it? On the plus side, at least it'd get rid of laundry costs for cleaning tablecloths. So is this something to look forward to...or no, thanks?

As mojoman said, what makes the difference is the building itself. From the Diner Museum web site:

Does watching "Iron Chef America" count? During the recently aired (rerun?) "Cowboy Rib Eye Challenge" with Bobby Flay as the Iron Chef, Alton Brown mentioned that infrared grills were added to the Iron Chef kitchen. There were quite a number of shots of the rib eyes being cooked on the new grills. I think the geek-factor (as in "I want one of those!") runs pretty high with those babies.

While visiting my family in San Diego this past holiday weekend, I spotted them in the store and bought a couple bags. On first taste, the reaction of two members of my family was "Dill" and my reaction along with my mom was "Mustard". My mom said they reminded her of those mustard pretzels that Snyder's of Hanover makes. I was disappointed there wasn't a "meat/steak" flavor in the chips. It's not likely I will buy them again.

Like there could be such a things as too much pulled pork. Make the bigger cut next time and freeze the extra, portioned out. You'll have smoked pork goodness waiting for you whenever you crave it.

Susan, if I recall correctly, you're a big fan of not letting the meat come up to room temp when you smoke. Am I remembering correctly?

Brad, how do you tip the sommelier? Are they tipped separately from the waitstaff? Obviously, I'm new at this, too.

I'm the opposite. As I've previously posted, when I was a kid my mom made La Choy Chop Suey. It was sold as two cans (one on top of the other) of hideous glop, as far as I was concerned. I ate the dry crispy noodles but nothing else. And yet, today I love all kinds of chinese food. Where you were driven away from it, I was driven towards finding the real deal and I haven't looked back.

I use beer in my marinades for cheap steaks and chicken.

Susan is correct. They're two different animals. And welcome, Manley!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with Caramel. The packaging doesn't say it's a limited edition version but I don't think I've seen these before. I knew it was going to be bad before I took my first bite..."Hey, here's an idea....let's take the sugar we already have and add more sugar to it!" The caramel really didn't have any flavor. It just added an overall cloying sweetness to the already sweet peanut butter cups. I was ready to go into sugar shock after the second cup. The texture was a little chewier due to the (very thin) caramel layer at the bottom of the peanut butter cup. But other than that, it might as well not even be in there. Donning my gourmand hat: If the caramel layer were thicker it would have had a more assertive presence in the overall experience of the peanut butter cup. Pass this candy by.

Here is a previous "In Search of the Perfect..." discussion: Yellow and white cakes, search for the perfect

A recap to remove solved puzzles: Please don't assign numbers to your new movie foods...if a movie is solved before it gets put into a recap, it's not given a number since it's out of play. Also, we're getting some repeat movies. Try not to use "Pretty Woman", "The Godfather", "Cool Hand Luke", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "Fargo", "Moonstruck", "Repo Man", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Dirty Dancing" as they've all been used twice. CONGRATULATIONS TO: -petite tête de chou for correctly guessing that #186 (Our villain gets sprayed with eggs, milk, showered with sugar and dumped with flour and eventually gets baked in a big cake) is the filn "101 Dalmatians". -dsquare for solving #187 (Our heroes try to get watermelons from a group of crazy ninja-karate birdbrains. Nobody gets the watermelons in the end) as the animated film "Ice Age". ************ WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION: -petite tête de chou has guessed that #174 (Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery) could be "WarGames". #154 is not "The Notebook" nor is it "Jamon, Jamon" #174 is not "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" ************ STILL UNSOLVED AND TAUNTING US: 154. REVISED CLUE: A floor picnic of roast chicken, rudely interrupted by monetary concerns and time constraints. CLUE: Every meal in the movie was disrupted by SOMETHING, but no other by money. CLUE: The hero speaks to an older woman, and her comeback was quite memorable. CLUE: The lady came to the hero's place of work in order to watch him. No food was visible at the moment, though the aura of ham was present. 158. "I love their eggrolls" " Eat your eggs" and four perfect T-bone steaks 173. Jack Nicholson film: features a lot of barbequeing (as I recall) 174. Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery. 177. I hid behind the car. I didn't want to get any ketchup on my dress. CLUE: I've been carrying around this ketchup bottle for weeks!... WEEKS!!! 184. sushi, including 'masago' and 'amachi' CLUE: in a separate scene, Noodles eaten from a paper carton (on a park bench) 188. Poem improvised by prospective husband-material at family dinner that begins with a pile of thick strands of pasta sauced with wild fennel: "Snails to eat And woman sweet-- An incredible treat!" Or something to that effect. **** NOTE: If you post a movie, please check back to see if the guesses on your movie are correct or not so we can keep the "Still in Play" list accurate. Also, consider posting more clues if your movie remains unsolved. ****

Finishing up the Ogre-sized Shrek Peanut Butter M&M's today I noticed that the "M" that's painted on the candy has little nubby ears, just like Shrek. It's quite funny that I didn't even notice that little detail until I was on about the last one.

Yeah, what he said. It's probably an old wive's tale but I've also heard a good indicator of a sweet watermelon is the "bee spit" on the outer skin. It looks like dried plaster/mud. Here's a picture of a watermelon with the outer skin blemish that I am referring to (not sure how long the link will be valid): Watermelon

Wendy's is joining the Fast Food breakfast crowd. The brief article: Wendy's to serve Folgers coffee in breakfast push Are Folgers' Gourmet Selections coffee flavors good enough to attract the breakfast crowd? As someone who grinds their own beans everyday, it wouldn't be a selling point for me. But then I'm probably not their target customer. The article says the company is already serving breakfast in 160 stores. Has anyone tried their breakfast menu?

Thanks for chiming in, Pyewacket. Being a Food Stylist may sound like an easy job but as you've pointed out, it's not. It's quite involved, as it should be, to guarantee a great looking end product. Are Food Styleists self-regulated? I was trying to find the specific guidelines for what can and cannot be done and, also, what are the repercussions to not following the guidelines? I find it to be a fascinating profession. Again, thanks for your input.

My mom told me her sister, who raised her, canned chicken. Yes, some jars did go bad, but most didn't.

Google is your friend...Here's an FTC policy statement on Deception (in Advertising). It doesn't mention product photography specifically but I think it can be applied to it. I am still scouring the FTC site...will post more when and if I find it. edited to add: What I'm finding through more searches is that if there is manipulation of food in a food photograph, artificial "tweaks" aren't used if the photograph is about the food item itself. The tweaks seem to have to be edible/food themselves. For example, in one article I came across in my search, the food stylist/photographer used a Hawai'ian Punch syrup to give a sliced tomato in a hamburger a richer red color. On the other hand, if you show someone blowing out candles on a cake and the photo is for an insurance company, the cake can be frosted cardboard. It doesn't have to be real since the photo isn't about the cake. While I'm still looking for the regulating body over food photography in advertising (anyone know a good food stylist?) I found some interesting articles on Food Styling and related subjects: First off, an related article by Frank Bruni on not trusting restaurant photographs: "When Looks Deceive" Some behind the scenes look at food styling: "Why food won't taste as good as it looks" Some Food Styling tricks of the trade. A food stylist's recipe for Fake Ice Cream and Sorbet. Now back to Google...

I disagree. It is what you make it, whether it's produced for PBS, HBO, or other commercially driven television networks. Unfortunately, FoodTV just doesn't seem to want to make it well. They're constantly repackaging present products/people in the hope of stumbling across another hit that will hold the old audience and bring new viewers in. Restaurants repackage all the time ("We've got too much ground beef...let's come up with some new dishes that will use what we already have on hand."). It keeps costs low. FoodTV actually was enlightening back in the early days. That's why we complain so much about it. It's about the squandering of the potential opportunity to be something more than they are and we're constantly disappointed because they aren't. We used to be their target audience. We aren't anymore. It's too bad they don't realize that their programming doesn't have to aim at just one audience. And while we're complaining, has anyone else noticed how "white" their programming is these days? Where are the chefs of color? Don't they cook anymore? Or is that not the audience they want?

New movies have been added and new clues have been added to some movies: Please don't assign numbers to your new movie foods...if a movie is solved before it gets put into a recap, it's not given a number since it's out of play. Also, we're getting some repeat movies. Try not to use "Pretty Woman", "The Godfather", "Cool Hand Luke", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "Fargo", "Moonstruck", "Repo Man", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Dirty Dancing" as they've all been used twice. ************ WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION: -petite tête de chou has guessed that #174 (Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery) could be "WarGames". #154 is not "The Notebook" nor is it "Jamon, Jamon" #174 is not "1492 - Conquest of Paradise" ************ STILL UNSOLVED AND TAUNTING US: 154. REVISED CLUE: A floor picnic of roast chicken, rudely interrupted by monetary concerns and time constraints. CLUE: Every meal in the movie was disrupted by SOMETHING, but no other by money. CLUE: The hero speaks to an older woman, and her comeback was quite memorable. CLUE: The lady came to the hero's place of work in order to watch him. No food was visible at the moment, though the aura of ham was present. 158. "I love their eggrolls" " Eat your eggs" and four perfect T-bone steaks 173. Jack Nicholson film: features a lot of barbequeing (as I recall) 174. Raw corn, bananas, scenery CLUE: The actor won't eat the banana, but does chew the scenery. 177. I hid behind the car. I didn't want to get any ketchup on my dress. NEW CLUE: I've been carrying around this ketchup bottle for weeks!... WEEKS!!! 184. sushi, including 'masago' and 'amachi' NEW CLUE: in a separate scene, Noodles eaten from a paper carton (on a park bench) NEW MOVIE 186. Our villain gets sprayed with eggs, milk, showered with sugar and dumped with flour and eventually gets baked in a big cake. NEW MOVIE 187. Our heroes try to get watermelons from a group of crazy ninja-karate birdbrains. Nobody gets the watermelons in the end. **** NOTE: If you post a movie, please check back to see if the guesses on your movie are correct or not so we can keep the "Still in Play" list accurate. Also, consider posting more clues if your movie remains unsolved. ****

I believe, in the U.S. at least, there are laws for advertising that basically state that the food in the picture has to be real and truly reprentative of the final product. I remember hearing that in the "old days" they used to use mashed potatoes in place of ice cream in photos since it didn't melt. And soap in coffee to recreate the bubbles/foam normally found in a freshly poured cup.

I think he's trying to give Daniel competition.

Come to think of it...whenever my mom was running low on her stash of plastic produce bags, during the next trip to the grocery store she'd bag apples (or what have you) individually. Yes, she got looks from the checker, but her suppply of plastic produce bags never ran low.