"big agriculture" have an incentive to use "bad dirt"

i'd feel safer eating the forest floor than anything 'sanitized' by monsanto and their genetically modified ilk.

"portobellos being so 1998"

hahaha - what was flay thinking? too much standing atop chopping boards.

"High fructose corn syrup is basically the same as sucrose (sugar). They're both equally bad for you."
sure, but it comes from unsustainable monoculture strangling north american petroleum-based industrial agriculture. that's what makes IT "all useless/annoying" (to put it that way).

one need not have been or doesn't have to go to chicago to have an impression of what food it's known for. and just because it's best known for it, doesn't mean it's the only good food they make. chicago's most popular and best known 'native' food is deep dish pizza - deal with it.

and if my country is known the world over for balut, then so be it - doesn't mean it's the only food here. accordin g to bourdain or roast pig was the best he's ever had and still that's not all we have here yet if that's what we're known for, then so be it.

"Sorry, but there are multitudes of people in the world..."

yadda-yadda-yadda... chefjune put it better and than someone whose imagination leads them to type the word ABSURD.

"Bayless may have chicago on the culinary map for his mexican food, but that's because the Mexicans (who have been in Chicago since before I was born--that would be '41) had and still have no pr for their food"

"does karine often seem like she's seeking affirmation/approval of her judgments?"
shouldn't she be on a diet instead of putting on more calories as a judge? women aren't immune to heart disease.

"who is the best judge in your opinion?"
martin yan, mrs billy joel (as the best eye candy). steingarten was there as ace-in-the-hole for batali and flay - when all else fails, they have his vote to guarantee they defeat their challengers.

"these people on the panel actuially think they are doing something really important and can't seem to get the fact that their role is not all that important and that their self-important posing is annoying"
pure brilliance in observing this - absolute brilliance!!! couldn't have stated it better any other way.

"he didn't know how to pronounce Oscar Meyer"

absurd

"Absurd."

right back at ya.

"I do a caramelized onion and tomato thing that is long and slow, then toss in some sliced zucchini just long enough for it to cook through. It's kind of like an "almost ratatouille," but better, if you can believe that."

if i can believe that?!?!?!?!?! i do almost the same thing and call it MY ratatouille!!! i use native eggplant but squeeze some calamansi juice over it before adding to the pan. i'm raising this cup of coffee to you, dear caroline.

"Bayless is nothing if not a good promoter of himself and his food. --not knocking that, but it just is"

well he's also a respected tv cook after winning topchef masters. and that doesn't take away from the fact that manhattan or seattle are probably better spots than los angeles or albuquerque for bayless to expand.

thanks for the wisdom as always. and Caroline, you NEVER sound stodgy or unimaginative. i'd rather take advice from you than some chefs i see on tv. i guess i took it for granted that other people do it like me. i came into assembly in stages.
i read an article about how chopping up and prepping stuff before they go bad to extend shelf life and not having to throw anything away. then there's another bit about intensely caramelizing onions before adding it's two siblings yields a better result. also, heston blumenthal always raves about just plain carrots and butter cooked down is a flavor all it's own. so i thought take the individual components to their maximum best before marrying them altogether. i've been doing it this way for quite a while now (two years at least). and there still is the melding of flavors, but i guess it's on a more subtle level.

when i use the word sofrito, i mean mirepoix that goes into ragu - i didn't mean a commercial product.

"The nickname 'Windy City' derives from the boastfulness of its politicians, not its weather."

thanks for the trivia. aren't ALL politicians boastful? to me at least, they epitomize the flatulence of society. they stink but we couldn't do without them or we all get gas pain.

"I doubt if a distinctive Chicago-Mexican street food will develop"

i don't know if that was what ChefJune was suggesting but bayless put chicago on the culinary map for his mexican food. chicago food to the world was deep dish pizza until rick bayless came along.

glad i got you interested and hope you try it soon. just remember not to salt as the whole vibe of kare-kare is to season as you eat with shrimp paste. and try to get the real fermented shrimp paste - the thai or cambodian stuff is easier to find than filipino bagoong.

ps: if you do try it, maybe you can start a thread with your comments - thanks.

hello all, i use sofrito on almost all my dishes that require tomatoes sauce and typically 'assemble' the meerpwah by having ready caramelized onions and buttered carrots. i am, however, not certain to what degree do i cook my celery for the assembly line? i am sometimes able to get it very sweet without caramelizing it too much yet it can also get brown and still taste very dull. also, i've read that some cooks frown at pre-cooked components and prefer freshly diced meerpwah and sauteeing them all together all at once - is that really preferable? thanks in advance.

"Are you suggesting there isn not a large Latino (specifically a huge Mexican) community in Chicago?"

no, only that los angeles has a strong claim for 'mexicali' cuisine and that chicago is better known for windy days and deep dish pizza (yum!) than illinois/mexican fusion gastronomy.

lavaca, maybe you can suggest a procedure for better testing? do you suppose the participants would've done better if the wine was served at "the right temperature"?

"don't feel like these blind tests are as enlightening as they're often made out to be"

what kind of enlightenment would you expect? take for granted there's only one color - i'm fairly certain coffee buffs would be more proficient identifying geographical source and level of roasting in a blind test.

"it's far too easy to engineer an experiment to produce the desired results"

perhaps this is especially true for wine or cola drinks (i remember pepsi and coke tests). more impressive is sir cliff richards (singer/vineyard owner/wine buff) telling gordon ramsay in a two-bottle blind test:

"i'll tell you whether i like it or not. i can only tell you which i prefer, i can't tell whether it's a fine wine or not 'cause fine wine can be crap"

here's my favorite kare-kare recipe that uses goat, oxtail and offal but works with lamb too. get some shrimp paste and don't use salt - i say again DON'T USE SALT cooking this dish.

brown (or seal) chops and set aside; saute onions and garlic in same pan and deglaze when done with water. add peanut butter, sliced eggplant, hearts of palm and bamboo shoots and return lamb chops. simmer until gravy is nice and thick. eat with rice and use shrimp paste as you would wasabi. this is probably this peak and pinnacle of native filipino gastronomy - no other local dish in my country is as creative, unique or tasty.

here's the wiki if you need quantities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kare-kare

"in the oven for a few minutes at high heat just so the flesh is easy to extract"

hmmm... does this work for all crustaceans? we don't get much lobster but often have crabs and tiger prawns. how is it different to blanching?

still my bumper crop of lemon grass hogging up the veg crisper but i do need some crazy glue. i use up alot of markers to label blank dvds - they never make it back to the fridge.

i've seen chefs less skilled than bayless act with more arrogance - he should be allowed to get cocky every once in a while. i do agree that with it's large latino community possessing the same tricks he has up his sleeve, los angeles is not the place for him to expand.

crazy glue, magic markers (wrapped tight), film negatives - yes, i still use an old 35mm pentax from time to time.

savory and sweet - not like it'll turn out to be oat custard... then again i could be wrong but i really like my scrambled eggs separate from my breakfast oats. if they're gonna get all mixed up, best they do in my gut and not in the rice cooker. actually, i prefer the microwave for my oatmeal.

this is hard. can i go with a three-way tie? i'll go with you on chili and bring it home to a cheeseburger - yes, the chili-cheese burger is the ultimate for me. or maybe a lamb kebab with char-grilled tomatoes and onion plus lots of hummous and mutabal. lastly, a deluxe pork dimsum bun (the ones impregnated with salted eggs).

"It sounds nasty but then then you do add egg to cake"

it does and believe me, eggs in cake batter cooking away in the oven is entirely different.

"cheap easy way to add protein to my usual breakfast"

beat the eggs and season, transfer to suevee (sous vide) bags (ziplocs work fine) and pop that into your rice cooker. protect eggs from oatmeal and oatmeal from eggs.

birds eye chili are tiny super hot asian chilis. i guess you can go with hot wax or a small amount of habanero. the lime zest imparts a fragrance that lime juice alone won't.

the fond that develops on the skin is better than what you'll get on the meat. keep the skin on.

ok, i'll take that as good advice. there's this really cute liebchien (maybe a frau now) a few streets away from where i work who does all these suckertorts (spelling intentionally wrong) - i'll go see one of these tags if she makes these frightful desserts. good luck on your voyage, i'll be reading your logs.

the trekky vibe to this thread is really nice - let it and live long and prosper. petit fours remind me of lee anne wong in the original top chef. if memory serves, it was wedding wars and she got sent home for them???? everytime i see petit fours in a cookbook i turn the page quickly in deep fear of something soooo french, only jacques torres can manage to read it off the page.

best to google this to be sure but if i remember correctly, many summers ago i discovered some stashed deep in my pack at campsite. it was early sunday morning and the eggs were cooked the previous thursday evening. they were ok for breakfast but not for the evening trip home.

i don't like instant coffee or most other instant stuff but milk, cinnamon, vanilla ice cream and espresso powder zapped in your blender will trump overpriced frothy filth any day. do it at home and save your money.

1. the stranglers!!!! golden brown, peaches and waltzinblack! in recognition of keith floyd, the greatest tv chef ever!!!
2. baba o'reilly by the who - anthem of my idol hugh fearnley whittingstall (incredible drumming the late keith moon too)
3. theme of boiling point and the f-word by babybird to salute my other idol - the great gordon ramsay.
4. digue-ding-ding by michel lgrand for the heston blumenthal vibe.

i started a similar thread but it was taken down by herr adolf the führer, tovarish stalin and scottish prince idi amin.