Hest88

I use chopsticks whenever I can (well, in private and at home). I use it for pasta and salad and cake and any other solid foods for which I don't need a knife. I find chopsticks more maneuverable and it makes it less likely I'll smear food on the sides of my mouth. With soup I like large Asian porcelain or plastic soup spoons. Western metal spoons burn my mouth and they don't hold enough soup!

Yeah, my mother used to make soup with them too, which I think is a waste of good vegetable! Watercress is so easy, because you can swish it around the sink, and then throw it into a few inches of boiling water. I just sort of let it sit in the water for 3 seconds, flip it over to get the watercress at the top cooked, let it cook for maybe 10-15 seconds or so more depending on how it's looking, and then take it out of the pot.

Heh. I actually put it in a Ziplock and then whack it a few times against the counter.

Bumping this back up because I was thinking of your wife and wondering how she was doing.

I'm Chinese too, so yeah, I like my greens stir-fried and still crunchy. Just about everything from traditional Chinese greens to kale and rapini get thrown in a wok. The only greens I can stand eating boiled are watercress, which I throw in boiling water for less than a minute and mix with soy sauce and sesame oil.

The way I see it, there are very few human beings on the planet who are so indispensible that they should be given free reign in regards to their behavior. "Sure, he's an *sshole but he's a leading cancer researcher/a historically-significant artist/a critical part of the peace process/etc." are valid reasons to give people a pass, but as much as I love food and admire chefs I think there are very few chefs who possess an irreplaceable talent. Sure she's creative, but so are any number of chefs who toil away even farther from the spotlight. When she's at the level of, I dunno, a Ferran Adria, then she can play artiste to her heart's content.

In the creative haute cuisine realm, I was very impressed by a recent dinner at the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton. The new Ame also has quite a buzz but I haven't been there yet. If you're willing to venture out of the strictly haute cuisine realm, the newish Canteen has creative plating and combinations, but in a casual diner-like atmosphere.

Oh, very good indeed. You be sure to let us know when it airs! Can't wait to hear about your experiences.

That's the most obnoxious thing I've heard of in a long time.

When slidng food into hot oil, do it gently. Otherwise, the splash is a doozy.

Wow, my best friend can't stand raw tomato either. She puts it very simply by saying "Those aren't done in the middle. Nope, not gonna eat it." I love them, especially raw, with a shaker of salt in the other hand. You are the first other person I have run across with the same taste as my friend. ← I actually dislike raw tomatoes as well, and I know someone else who feels the same.

I find metal spoons too small for soup. I favor a good porcelain spoon. Plus, yes, metal spoons can get too hot while porcelain spoons are always just right.

Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Digest, Thursday, December 29, 2005 CHEAP THRILLS / Top Bargain Wines of 2005 delivers two critics' lists for the price of one, W. Blake Gray "Bargain Wines are a different type of product than high-end wines, and deserve their own Top 10 list. So Chronicle contributor Leslie Sbrocco and I, who alternate writing the Bargain Wines column, have each picked our Top 10 Bargain Wines of 2005." The Chronicle's Top Bargain Wines of 2005, W. Blake Gray, Leslie Sbrocco Battle over 'Napa' moves back to U.S. Supreme Court "The 5-year-long battle over the meaning of "Napa" has moved to what should be the final arena -- the U.S. Supreme Court." THE CHRONICLE’S WINE SELECTIONS / Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc, Linda Murphy Sauvignon Blanc goes with everything, including pesto, Amanda Gold Recipe Arugula & Walnut Pesto-Crusted Halibut Ewe-F-O lands in Humboldt County; Italian sheep responsible, Janet Fletcher "Cypress Grove, the Humboldt County dairy that makes the acclaimed Humboldt Fog goat cheese, has a new member of the family and it's foreign-born." Lukacs' greatest 40 wines in America are debatable, Linda Murphy Beware 'portion distortion', W. Blake Gray "Order your bourbon in a short, wide glass and you'll get more, thanks to the phenomenon of "portion distortion," according to an academic study published last week." Letters to Wine: Bottles weigh heavy on some minds

I've actually stopped using my ridged pan for that reason. My regular cast iron pan is almost as easy as a non-stick pan to clean, but the ridged pan is a real bear.

Jerry, I'm in awe. Thanks so much for the great report!

Yeah, I do wonder how it's going to work as a drama. The book is very much non-fiction.

Define young. I'm 35, but I've always preferred eating early. Granted, I'm also Chinese so I wasn't raised with the idea that eating late was the norm.

Clorox wipes and sometimes a roll of paper towels. And yeah, one of our cats--the Japanese Bobtail--likes sitting atop the frig, so we can't put anything there she might want to destroy.

Green tea Kit Kat.

Interesting. I think of it more as relaxing. I'm winding down my day, chatting with my husband over a good meal, without the noise of a full restaurant. Plus, it means we never have to wait for our table.

Thank you Steven. Both my husband and I like dining early, and I've always felt so sheepish admitting it. I eat lunch around noon--often earlier to beat the lunch crowd and because my breakfast is sometimes not as filling as it should be--so by the time I get off work I'm starving. Plus, I like some time to unwind before going to bed, especially if I then have work the next day.

I know they're unpopular because they're so hard to eat, but the red ones are really my favorite. I just like the clean taste of them, and a couple of decades practice has made me pretty good at cracking them. I notice, though, that in the Ranch 99s around here you can't get them unless it's around New Year, so I must be one of the few who favors them.

Yeah, this shouldn't be surprising at all. It's pretty much what all the less radical diets (such as the Weight Watchers point system) is based on---regulating portion size so you don't eat more calories than you burn.

Ruth, thank you so much for joining us. Although I gravitate to any book food-related, your memoirs are among the ones most gracefully written. After plowing through Garlic and Sapphires (twice!) I was recently prompted to re-read Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples. I didn't notice the first time around the little notation that you had written someone calledMmmmmmm: a feastiary. Googling was of limited help, so I was wondering if you could tell me more about it? Was it a recipe book?

Well, I usually make the turkey "Asian style" with star anise and five spice power and ginger, etc. Our traditional sides are also always Asian. We have sticky rice instead of stufing and the relatives bring such dishes as stir-fried shrimp and vegetables, "jai"--Chinese vegetarian, buns of all sorts, etc.