juliasqueezer's Profile
Your all time favorite 'TV' cooking show chefs?
Sarah Moulton. Great at explaining what she's doing. Does not assume all viewers are Courdon Bleu grads or speak several languages.
Top Chef Just Desserts - the last 2 weeks (spoilers)
Watching last night's episode, I have to wonder why females even bother to try out for this show. Once again, one female contestant is in the final 6. I'm sure she'll be gone soon.
Oh, and Orlando is insufferable.
Does anyone else do their vacation souvenir shopping at local grocery stores?
Yes! It's one of my favorite things to do, especially in a foreign country.
Some favorites have been an Icelandic supermarket (candy and toiletry aisles were particularly fun), Mexican (Oahaca) (sp?) street markets and Russian food shops. Great foodie souvenirs and gifts. I seem to gravitate toward local honeys and soaps.
Why do restaurants do this when you're trying to book for large parties?
You're right, and I was not clear when I originally posted. What my civic group did was come up with a set price. Say $25.00 or 35.00. We would ask the restaurant if they could provide two or three different menu items for that price. No separate checks, ever. The bill was $25.00 or $35.00 times the number of people served or for whom we'd made reservations, and paid in full, plus gratuity, at the end of the meal. These were dinner meetings. Not lunch.
Still, restaurants refused. One told us the chef was "not running a cafteria". Hence, my "artiste" comment. The behavior was confusing. it didn't make me angry, really, as there were other places we could call. The culinary school ended up being the most accommodating.
What interested me, as a business person, was the fact that this group had some very visible, newsmaking civic leaders who could have spread word of mouth about a great dining experience. Instead, these restaurants were viewed as inhospitable. Word does get around. Very shortsighted, at least to me.
Why do restaurants do this when you're trying to book for large parties?
Nothing personal, and I understand your reasoning, but it may help explain why the restaurant failure rate is astronomical. Many just don't want to accommodate the folks who pay the bills. They seem to exist under some vague notion of providing a showcase for the public to see what an "artiste" the chef is. We puny peons should just shut up and throw money at them, under the terms they specify. Sorry, but maybe they deserve to go bankrupt (as did the restaurants mentioned in my example. Every single one.)
Why do restaurants do this when you're trying to book for large parties?
You'd be surprised, adamshoe. I used to coordinate dinner meetings for a civic group of approximately 50 members. Due to schedules and transportation problems, our usual attendance was around 25-30 members. These were not requests for evenings that restaurants were closed. They were usually Wednesday or Thursday evenings. We only contacted restaurants in the city that had banquet rooms or separate spaces for group meals. Since we were a civic group, with the city's name in our title, we wanted to support local city restaurants and not move to the suburbs.
We had so many negative experiences, we ended up holding our dinner meetings at a college with a culinary school.
City restaurants would require that we commit and pay for a minimum of, say, 30 dinners, even if we called in a reservation for 25 several days prior. We often were served overpriced, god-awful food ("roast beef" that would crack your teeth, canned corn, etc.) that had absolutely no resemblance to the actual restaurant menu. At one place, during a snowstorm, we were charged for 30 dinners. About 25 people miraculously showed up, and one of them had the bright idea of auctioning off the 5 unused dinners for member to take home to their spouses. The restaurant refused. We had to pay for the dinners; they kept the food.
The college was MUCH more accommodating to our needs, and through word of mouth (some of our members were pretty influential in the city) the college increased their bookings and thanked us profusely.
Need healthy and nutritious frozen food
My favorite for the emergency stash of frozen food is Schwan's. It's a home delivery service. The assortment is very broad and most of the stuff tastes good. The "LiveSmart" line of healthy foods is quite good. In fact, I can't think of anything that was bad. Go to the website http://www.schwans.com/ and plug in your zip code to see if there's a Schwans delivery route for where you live. I like them a lot better than most super market frozen foods.
What Kind of Cooking Show Host Do You Prefer?
Yup. I want a host to explain the food they're handling, the reasons why they're doing something a certain way, the spices, etc.
All the mugging for the cameras and the dancing around... ick. I've also noticed on a few shows, on the decorating-type shows as well as the cooking ones, they seem to think there isn't enough action going on. Like maybe the producer is bored. They'll do "krazy kamera tricks" and play ditsy music. Why? I'm with other posters: just show me the food prep.
Oh, and ditch the "my orgasmatron just hit 100" reaction when tasting something you just cooked. Tell me what it tastes like and ditch the eye-rolling swoon.
Sorry to sound like a curmudgeon, but this stuff bugs me.
Food Packaging that Drives You Crazy!
Ha! Maybe I need to move to a more bacon-friendly place!
Food Packaging that Drives You Crazy!
What a great idea! Then I won't have to deal with the repeated annoyance of handling big blocks of stuck-together bacon. I'm using this one, BobB!
Food Packaging that Drives You Crazy!
I saw the title of this thread and was just going to come in here and sream.... BACON!!! I see you mentioned it. My pettest of peeves is the ridiculous packaging methods used for bacon. Our local pork people haven't gotten on the ziplock bandwagon, and I have searched the bins looking for zip lock bacon. All for naught. All of our bacon is sealed, plastic to plastic, vaccumed up against the bacon. You have to use scissors and cut around the package, and then it can't be closed. You have to put the whole works into another plastic bag, and everything becomes covered in bacon fat. Ugh. Maybe I need to use my bacon salt more often!
Buying packaged food with a bite already taken out
I should have mentioned that my friend discovered this also when the food mill got tiresome. She and her husband reached a point where they just blended whatever they were cooking, before adding certain spices or seasoning. She also fed the baby a lot of yogurt and orzo. He turned out fine!
Buying packaged food with a bite already taken out
Not to squick anyone out, but several years ago a friend of mine had her first baby and was doing everything by the book. The book told her it was time to start trying solid foods.
You know where this is going, right?
She was standing in the supermarket aisle, reading various labels on jars of baby food when another mommy walked up, unscrewed a jar, stuck her finger in, licked her finger, said "ewwww", screwed the lid back on and stuck the jar back on the shelf. She did this several times, apparently not realizing that baby food didn't taste like adult food.
My friend promptly took everyhting out of her cart, re-shelved it, and found the store manager to report the incident. He said they would need to remove everything and restock that section. Was this actually done? Who knows.
My friend went to the baby store and bought a hand crank food mill and prepared her own baby food.
Crappy Canned Tuna at Whole Foods
I have to chime in here to agree with baseballfan. Considering myself a bit of a white-tuna-in-water afficionado, I find the Kirkland brand the tastiest, with a nice texture. Unfortunately, the nearest Costco is at least a 25 mile drive (I live south of Detroit) so a friend picks up an 8-pack for me every time she goes. It's around $8.00 for an 8-pack. I had a Costco membership a couple of years ago, but realized any savings were being eaten up by the cost of fuel to get there and back, so I let it expire.
Your "go to" convenience food is.....
Not as lame as Cheerios (kidding! I kid!) but my favorite in-a-pinch go-to food is Black Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits (divine!) with a schmear of plain whipped cream cheese. There's just something about the combination of textures and salty/peppery with cream cheese.
The Food is Great But I'll Never Go Back
Oooooh. You are so right. The headache-inducing bass pumping from a cheap system, layered under the general noise of bad acoustics. The. Worst.
It always leaves me wondering if the manager and staff actually LIKE it this way, or if they don't notice how irritating it is.
Or, how about this? It's intentional! It's a sort of water torture/wearing away at the last nerve of their customers so diners will shovel the food in and get the hell out, and the restaurant can turn their tables. If so, it's ingenious. Until people stop coming to the restaurant altogether.
The Food is Great But I'll Never Go Back
Loud music. It's weird that as I get older, I seem to be more sensitive to noise in general, but particularly to the muzak-type "elevator music" often played in restaurants. And stores. What's going on?
Are the managers or workers cranking up the volume for their own enjoyment? (hard to imagine enjoying that crap, but diff'rent strokes and all that)
When everyone at your table has to shout to be heard over what is intended to be background music, I won't be back, no matter how wonderful the food.
Top Chef-Kids
OK. Yeah. Unnecessary, but funny!
Maybe because I'd noticed how little cussing and swearing there was during the whole show (due to the kiddies in the kitchen, no doubt). I was lulled by the wholesome G-ratedness. Andrew's final comment was so unexpected that I busted out laughing. I'm 12.
Bacon Salt?
I ordered the sampler pack (3 flavors) a few months ago. Nice bacon flavor without the grease.
I've experimented with all 3 and really liked them, especially in vegetable and egg dishes. The website has several good recipes, but it's fun to experiment. I didn't find it too salty; just cut back a bit on the amount of regular salt.
For those in the Midwest, there was a notice on the website that Meijer's in Grand Rapids would carry it in their spice section, and, depending on sales, it might be expanded to other stores. I have no idea why they chose Grand Rapids, but there you are.
I have not seen it in SE Michigan Meijer stores, so it may have bombed.
I plan to reorder from the website soon.
TC #4 -- what's with all the swearing?
Maybe we're trying too hard to figure this one out.
It very well may not be reflective of a lack of intelligence or limited vocabulary or lack of maturity.
I change my vote to Eminem Wannabe.
If it's an intentional grab for camera time, it would explain why a 30 year old man behaves all yo yo yo.
Or he's Mike Boogie.
TC #4 -- what's with all the swearing?
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant it's only shocking if the one spewing the f-bombs is an 8 year old.
But I concede... I'm just a cranky old thing. If I was younger (and presumably hipper) I wouldn't notice the reliance on f-bombs as sort of place-fillers. Instead of "um" or "ah" pauses, we get the f-word in all its formations. Maybe I need to stop reading Miss Manners.
TC #4 -- what's with all the swearing?
Obviously it's my own hangup and I need to learn to laugh at people who can't control themselves verbally. Even if it offends me and does not entertain me to hear someone drop the f-bomb 20 times in one minute. Does this person think they're shocking us? It's only shocking if you're 8.
And if they appear to lack intelligence or maturity, that's my take, and my take alone. Maybe lack of self-control is a better term. I'm sure you'll hate that one, too. No problem.
TC #4 -- what's with all the swearing?
OK, my personal prejudice was showing, with the inference that people who rely on f-bombs are less intelligent. How about "less creative"? Or "immature"?
As one poster on another board stated: "Andrew seems to suffer from some sort of hipster Tourette's".
The inability to control one's mouth or temper is one indicator of a lack of self-control. Being self-aware is something we all (hopefully) learn as we mature. I dunno. It's like people who hurl outrageous insults or behave like jackasses and then excuse themselves with "What can I say? I'm _____"!
And I must confess that I, too, can swear like a dockworker when provoked, but I know when to shut it off and I know that spewing it at a person holding a camera is just plain stupid.
TC #4 -- what's with all the swearing?
Agree completely. To me, it's a sign of limited intelligence. In addition to the proliferation of f-bombs was the continuous, annoying use of "street" or hip-hop terms. He's not a teenager, trying to fit in with the cool kids, is he? So why does he talk that way? Are we supposed to be impressed with his street cred? Blech.
Buffet-MGM Detroit-excellent!
I have to agree with you. Definitely NOT Las Vegas. However, we did have a terrific meal at the MGM buffet, overall. There were pockets of "meh", such as the desserts. Beautiful to look at, underwhelming (canned? boxed?) taste. The real negative for us was the service. Every time we got up to try another food station, the waiters and bussers removed everything from our table, including silverware and napkins. We would return to our table to find nothing to eat the food with and by the time we flagged someone down, the food was cold. Very annoying.
Gevalia coffee, why is this not better? [Moved from Chains board]
Similar experience here. I bought a bag of Gevalia coffee in Iceland, brought it home, brewed it and loved it. Signed up for the US version and hmmm....not the same coffee. Not bad coffee, just different. I stayed with it for a few months, until they mailed an unsolicited bag of "special" Christmas blend that I had not ordered and didn't want. It was expensive and not delicious. I paid for it, but cancelled my subscription (enrollment?) in the Gevalia coffee-a-month club forever. The coffee maker wasn't anything I'd use. I gave it to a friend for his RV.
Detroit and Michigan traditions?
Sorry to be so late to contribute to this.
Not only do I remember New Era Potato Chips, I have a big old yellow can in my kitchen! Right now, it's being used to hold packages of cat treats. Is it an antique? (Or just old?)
The label reads: "Science Says... The alkaline side is the healthy side" and "feast without fear". it touts the "highly concentrated energy producing" nature of potato chips. The woman's silhouette was apparently used to show how slender you can be eating potato chips!
They were made by the Frito-Nicolay, Dancey Co., Detroit and Wooster Ohio.
