theminx
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Posts posted by theminx
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Pick up a copy of the Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore, a new publication from Globe Pequot, for a slew of recommendations for area dining.
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As a food blogger who reads a lot of other blogs, I am pretty happy with just about any and all descriptive words that actually mean something. Unctuous, gelatinous, drizzle, melted - they are all good. "Tasty," "yummy," and especially the overuse of exclamation marks are what stick in my craw.
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I'm a woman, and I can't stand looking at Curtis Stone. He's like some creepy cartoon character. Or a muppet.
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IndyRob - Spike had an online show with Kelsey Nixon, called Kelsey and Spike Cook. Food2 belongs to the Food Network.
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I got to see a preview of Rocco's Dinner Party and am surprised at how mean-spirited his comments are. He seems to think that because he's a household name he's better than the chefs competing for the $20K prize.
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I only watch Food Network Star so I can make fun of it in recaps on my blog. That said, I hope SexyBack gets eliminated fairly early in the competition. I'd rather watch Orchid, Jeff, or Whitney. Not that I get up at 7am on Saturday to watch cooking shows....
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Batali hasn't been a part of the Food Network family for over a year now. They're hiring his replacement. Freitag is already a Food Network employee, so my money's on her.
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I mostly read cookbooks from cover to cover and then cook stuff loosely based on what I've read. The first cookbook I remember devouring in that way was James Beard's American Cookery. Other books that stuck with me over the years are the Silver Palate cookbooks, and Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase (a co-writer on the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook).
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Ah...sorry that went so badly for you.
I would have tried all of it!I suppose I've just been very lucky with potlucks. Our office Christmas party is usually a potluck affair and I've brought "weird" stuff like savory bread pudding and sesame noodle salad and all of it was devoured. One of my co-workers is Thai and she usually brings something like homemade Pad Thai and it disappears in a wink. There are only two other real foodies in the group, but apparently everyone is fairly adventurous.
For other occasions I usually make a double batch of brownies (from the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli Sweet Chocolate and Cocoa tin), and they always go fast. Sometimes I'm told that I *must* bring them.
Kent D, your avatar looks like Rick Bayless.
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My Cajun Kate's story:
Back in 2000, my husband and I made a pilgrimage to New Orleans with a group of Emeril fans. There was a group reservation to eat at his flagship restaurant, but hubby and I wanted to try NOLA too. Although we were told it wasn't as good, we went anyway, for lunch.
At lunch, we had the best seafood gumbo I have ever eaten. It was dark and rich and flavorful and I practically licked the bowl clean (ok, I did). I thought about that gumbo a lot over the next several years, tried to reproduce it, and failed.
Fast forward to 2008. My best friend had moved to Wilmington and while there stumbled upon Cajun Kate's, just over the border in PA. She suggested that the next time I came up to see her we pay a visit to sample the gumbo and po boys. She had become friends with Don, the owner, and said he had worked for Emeril some years back.
You guessed it - he had made that stupendous bowl of seafood gumbo we ate at NOLA.
Now my freezer is full of quarts of gumbo - I pick one or two up every time I head north. My favorites are the duck and wild mushroom and the pork, but they're all fantastic. I'm also a fan of the brisket po boy, the regular crabmeat/tasso mac and cheese, and the crawfish pies.
Don is a great guy, and a hard working chef. I'm so happy to read the praise he's getting in this thread, and I'm happy to now call him a friend.
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Ottavia, dear, you and the baby must be making Tony very happy. He's a much kindler, gentler guy in this season's shows. Anyone else notice this?
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I think the fact that she is a "little Miss Sunshine" personality is the reason why people hate her so much. I think a lot of people don't like her for that reason alone. Perhaps if she dressed like Siouxsie Sioux and was a big Cure fan she might be taken more seriously amongst those of us who don't identify with her cheerful personality. I might not be a fan of her show, but I don't deny that she has an ideal amount talent and charisma, and way more of both than I have in what she does...
It's fine to be "Little Miss Sunshine," but when the personality is the only reason why she is on TV, it becomes grating. One 30 Minute Meals show is fine. Broadcast in the same rotation patterns as any of the other TVFN shows (other than the daily Emeril). But when it's on every day, and then wow, let's give her ANOTHER show, one where she doesn't cook but eats other peoples' food and mugs for the camera about how "yum-o" it is. And even more wow, lets give her a THIRD show where she basically does the same thing, but without the $40 budgetary restraint. And then the ridiculous talk show thing, and the magazine....ugh. That's why she's so hated. Overexposure. She's become the culinary Paris Hilton - her face is everywhere. I, for one, stopped buying Nabisco products because I couldn't stand looking at her.
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In his blog exchange with Tony, Rocco asked Tony how the two of them are so different. He said, to paraphrase, we both used to cook, now we do TV and sell things. You call Rocco a media whore. Would you call Tony a media whore? Is it all because of the 15 minutes of "the Restaurant", where he left such a virtual bad taste in so many TV devouring mouths?
If not for his writing, I doubt anyone would know who Bourdain was. It was his skill with a pen that brought him his fame, not his prowess in the kitchen. That's what sets him apart from Rocco. I thought it was funny that he even tried to make the comparison. I do love Bourdain; his particular brand of evil snark is right in line with my own. Doing a TV show to educate the masses about interesting cuisines and travel is fine, but crossing over into Top Chef judging and Bravo bloggery is getting close to media whoring. And that's ok too - the more Tony, the merrier.
Rocco, on the other hand, still a little defensive over his Restaurant fiasco and the demise of Union Pacific, is whoring himself to 1) make money; 2) keep himself in the public eye. He's not stupid. He's not being defeated. His blog on the Bravo site is full of insight and judging from the positive comments he is getting there, he's being forgiven for his mistakes. I think he'll come back, eventually, but he'll not be the same ingenious young chef he once was. That chapter of his life is over. He's moving on, and really, we should too. Why do we waste time hating someone we don't even know for mistakes he's made that hurt only himself?
There's plenty of room in this word for both Bourdain and DiSpirito.
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I recently found frozen naan at my local Indian grocery...Pilsbury brand.
One just puts the frozen round in a hot skillet, turning it frequently, until done. Tasted pretty good, although not as good as fresh of course! -
I had some tasty crabs in August at Costas Inn on Northpoint Road (Dundalk? Essex?) Good onion rings too. And I didn't suffer from orange hand syndrome after the meal.
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i like the penzey's blends. perhaps not as authentic, but extremely fresh. if i'm not going to toast, roast, and grind my own, they'd better be fresh.
I like the Penzey's blends too, but just out of sheer laziness. I don't find them to taste much like any Indian food I am familiar with, but it works in chicken salad and to give "oompfh" to non-Indian dishes.
I don't have an Indian grocer nearby, so I tend to rely on Patak's jarred seasonings. I like the biryani paste, and usually have a jar of it on hand. I haven't made biryani with it, but I like to rub it on pork tenderloin or leg of lamb before I roast it. Mmmmm!
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Mmmmm chocolate - what's not to like?
Believe it or not, there are people out there who don't like chocolate! Strange but true! Not in my household though...both DH and I adore it.
Any way to get chocolate in an Indian dish? I was thinking maybe something akin to a molé dish. Not authentic, of course...but trying to keep to the thread here ;)
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I feel like such a rank amateur with my paltry collection of Indian cookbooks. I think I have 6 or 7, including Monica's Everything Indian, one Madhur Jaffrey, Curries and Bugles, and one called Mughal Microwave.
I have about 300 cookbooks in all, a goodly amount of which feature chocolate :)
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It seemed like the primary intent of the Pappardelle was to fill you up so you wouldn't leave hungry (the portion was much larger than the other dishes and it was served last before the cheese and dessert courses). Did anyone else feel the same way?
I took my hubby to Babbo on 8/10 to celebrate his 40th bday. He's extremely fond of pasta, so we had the pasta tasting plus wine pairings. I did feel the portion of pappardelle was larger to make sure diners left feeling full...I sure did! I didn't find it lackluster in comparison to the other courses, however, because I love bolognese and Mario's rendition is much much tastier than mine (although nobody's has compared to the version I had at a tiny Italian cafe in Paris 20 years ago!).
All in all, the meal was pretty fabulous. My favorite pasta course was the first one - black tagliatelle with roasted corn and parmiggiano in a butter sauce. Everything sang in that dish, and I plan to re-create it this weekend, sans the squid-ink. And my favorite wine was the one paired with the Coach farms cheese course. The name escapes me, but it was an effervescent red dessert wine that tasted strongly of blackcurrent. Our captain called it "Kool-Aid."
The wobbly breast-like panna cotta had us in giggles, but it was delicious, as was my peach crostada with honey vanilla gelato and fennel pollen. Unfortunately, my husband suffered an allergic reaction to the pollen and sneezed for a while after dinner!
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I recently added the Le Bernardin Cookbook (sorry, but does anyone else think Maguy Le Coze expresses far too much Angelina Jolie-esque brotherly love in this book?) the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and Monica Bhide's Everything Indian to my stacks.
Source for discount cookbooks: www.newbookscheap.com. Not sure if anyone's posted that on this thread yet (but I haven't read all 30+pages).
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Its their take on an M&M, except the candy shell tastes like any number of the flavors that the jellybeans are.
I've tried 'em - and they don't work for me. I'd rather have plain M&Ms with Jelly Bellys on the side.
My favorite Jelly Belly flavors are cotton candy, caramel apple, Dr. Pepper, margarita, and wild blackberry (which has a strange perfume-like quality that, to me, is reminiscent of Jujubes).
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I can't remember where I first heard of Pocky, possibly the Iron Chef list I'm on, but I bought my first supply from jsnacks.com when they were an actual snack vendor. I think my husband and I tried men's, coconut, and almond crush, along with a variety of other strange and wonderful Japanese snacks, and was hooked. Then I found that Han Ah Reum has a decent selection and so I am happy to buy locally now (Baltimore).
We usually run through our Pocky supply pretty quickly, but we have a box of Giant Pocky languishing in the cupboard. There's just not enough chocolate in proportion to the too-dry cookie, which reminds me of a non-salty Pepperidge Farm Goldfish cracker (yuk).
We're most fond of the almond crush and men's Pocky, but find Pumpkin to be pretty tasty as well. I love Pretz too, especially in the Corn and Chocolate flavors. Shrimp Pretz was kinda bland. Pancake flavor was ok.
.....polishing off the last stick of Strawberry Decorer Pocky that I packed in my lunch and wishing I had a few squares of Meltykiss.....
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He get's that he is a narcissist. But he also thinks he is a great chef. He may be a great cook, but he must have cut all the kitchen management courses.
I wonder if someone familiar with both the Union Pacific Rocco and Rocco's Rocco could do a compare and contrast. I'd be amazed if he was as clueless at Union Pacific as he has shown himself to be at Rocco's.
I can't recall if this has been mentioned at all on this thread, but Rocco's cookbook won a James Beard Award this year, oddly enough for the category "Cooking from a Professional Point of View."
No matter what we all think about him and his shenanigans on TV, apparently there are professionals out there who think Rocco does some good work. Shocking, no? He can't be as clueless as he appears on TV.
Baltimore – Where to eat
in D.C. & DelMarVa: Dining
Posted · Edited by theminx (log)
Considering how infrequently I post here, I would hardly call me a "participant."
et alors - how was the trip?