Who said anything about soft tacos? Pulled pork is pulled pork, and in any barbecue place I've eaten in, a pulled pork sandwich is made with its barbecue sauce. Sez Wikipedia:

"In areas such as Tennessee, pulled pork is typically made from a mixture of the blade shoulder and arm shoulder meat and served with a tomato-based barbecue sauce. In areas such as North Carolina, either a whole hog, mixed cuts of the hog, or the shoulder cut alone are commonly used, and the pork is served with or without a vinegar-based sauce.[2] South Carolina pulled pork usually comes with a mustard sauce, and Georgia barbecue is served with a tomato-based sauce."

I fail to see or taste anything about this product that's specifically Mexican, except for that word on the packaging.

Just one: people expressing annoyance at the habits of their fellow diners. :=P

Thanks for the suggestion, then, but my legs don't allow me to roam around the city on the off chance of finding what I'm looking for.

Meh - Traditional Carnitas. "Mexican style"? It's a 12-ounce block of roast pork, without sauce or any special seasoning. The ingredients list says it's been marinated in concentrated orange juice and spices, but I don't taste it. Reheated, shredded with a fork, and mixed with barbecue sauce (TJ's All Natural Barbecue Sauce is good), it makes an OK pulled pork sandwich, so I can't say nay to it. But I can't say yea either. At least it's only $5.

Not until I got it home did I see in the small print that it's intended to be microwaved. I don't have a MW so I cut it up and put it in a toaster oven at 200° for 15 minutes or so.

Do they carry southern hams? Their web site doesn't say they carry any hams at all, though plenty of other pork products.

Seems to me that the greatest danger of infection isn't in the home but at the food processing plants. No matter how obsessively you wash your hands, it won't protect you against e. coli in the ground beef. You're probably immune to the microorganisms living in your home and workplace, or else you'd be sick all the time just from breathing.

Right, Smithfield is a variety of country ham, which is dry- and salt-cured, sometimes smoked, sometimes not.

Looking further, there's a Virginia country ham that some say is the best, produced by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons in Surry, Virginia. It would be great if a New York store carried it.

Americans obsess about cleanliness, even lacking any proof that it's truly next to godliness. :-) There's much here to think about. For example, birth by Caesarian and bottle-feeding seems to prevent infants from acquiring the mother's immunities and may be a cause of allergies, bio-intolerances, and worse. The idea is that nature's way is almost always best, since it's evolved over eons so that we can survive. Makes sense to me.

I'm not a chef. If someone wants to use one of my knives or anything else in my kitchen while I'm there, and is 16 or over, sure. I don't usually lend things out because too often I don't get them back.

A half ham (butt or shank) or some other cut would be OK as long as it includes plenty of bone. I'll see what they have to offer.

However, CostCo isn't an option as I'm not a member and won't pay $55 for the privilete.

Not in any supermarket near where I live. Could you name one or two that you know carry smoked ham hocks?

Can anyone tell me where I can get a southern country ham in Manhattan or Brooklyn? It has to be bone-in. There have been a few threads on this topic, but the most recent was in 2008. Ideal would be a Virginia ham, whether Smithfield or some other, but I'll take what I can get.

Also smoked ham hocks suitable for southern-style home cooking, if they can be found this far north.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a southern country ham in Manhattan or Brooklyn? It has to be bone-in. There have been a few threads on this topic, but the most recent was in 2008. Ideal would be a Virginia ham, whether Smithfield or some other, but I'll take what I can get.

Also smoked ham hocks suitable for southern-style home cooking, if they can be found this far north.

Crackers, cheese, dip, nuts, stuff like that which will keep and you can finish off at your leisure. Nothing like "appetizers."

Sorry, I got the channel wrong. It's WNYC, which is channel 25 on Time Warner Cable - in the New York area only.

New York's 92nd Street Y presents many programs in which chefs talk about their experiences and views. I saw this one on TV, the City University of New York's channel (Time Warner Cable channel 75). Michael Ruhlman was the moderator; Anthony Bourdain, Gabrielle Hamilton, and Eric Ripert were the panel. This show is now repeating and if you're quick, you can catch it. Ruhlman introduces this program in his blog:

http://blog.92y.org/index.php/item/michael_ruhlman_learned_cook_anger/

The Y also posts excerpts from its past programs on its web site. Here's the page:

http://www.92y.org/Uptown/On-Air-And-...

I have a griddle pan, with a handle, that's fine for doing pancakes. Not this one but looks like it:

http://www.amazon.com/Emeril-All-Clad...

Haven't used it for bacon but don't see why not.

:-P to you too!

Nope. My Zire ain't broke, it does everything I need, and I'm used to it. Some people drive vintage cars, I use a vintage PDA. :-)

The Daily News, New York's leading tabloid, loves to make a big deal out of this kind of thing. It's in huge block letters on their front page - the biggest news story of the day, according to them.

The story says the rule against butter in school lunches dates back to 2008. Five years later, some kitchen managers have been flaunting the rule and are now being called to account. I suppose one or more of them ran crying to the Daily News.

The public school system is responsible for providing kids with healthy and nutritious meals. Butter is not a necessity of life, and our diet is arguably healthier without it. What's the big deal?

I've owned one Palm or another since the '90s, and am nursing a Zire72 for as long as its battery will last. Without it I'd be lost. In fact, I've already replaced it once thanks to eBay.

I keep my running list in my head. Make a shopping list only when I need special ingredients for a dish or to try out something new at Trader Joe's. Not on paper, in my Palm PDA.

I have a universal lid with vent holes for the skillets that have no lids of their own; otherwise all the lids here are solid. Can't say that I've ever noticed a significant difference in the finished product or the cooking time.

Lots of other uses for a Dutch oven - making soup, stewing, braising and slow cooking, just about anything on the stovetop or in the oven that needs a multiquart capacity and a serious lid. If you're cooking just for yourslf and occasionally one other, you might find the smaller piece a better fit for your cooking and more comfortable (lighter) than a big one. (It doesn't have legs, does it?) Since you already have two, a third might seem a luxury - unless you decide to part with one of the larger ones...

Vienna and London - just for starters.

It's not about merely "women working in the culinary world." That's shifting the ground. It's about women chefs, as distinct from line cooks and home cooks, who are notable enough to feature in TV programs and magazine and newspaper articles about cuisine(s) and cooking.

Certainly there are some, such as Alex Guarnaschelli and Cat Cora, but as far as I can tell without having done exhaustive research, they are few. Most of the women who appear in such programs aren't chefs but home cooks, from Julia Child to Rachael Ray. (And many of the men too, of course - Alton Brown and Mark Bittman never worked in a restaurant kitchen in their lives.) To persuade me that I'm mistaken needs more than denial. Names, please, and plenty of them.

As for confirmational bias, if a "bias" is confirmed by the relevant facts, it's not really a bias but the truth, whether one likes it or not.

"it is contradictory to describe something as both a stereotype and a truth." - No it isn't. A stereotype is a simplification, as is any generalization, but it can be essentially true nonetheless, exceptions notwithstanding.

For the rest, you disagree that notable women chefs are few and far between. This may be no more than a disagreement over what "notable" means, and maybe also "chef," or even "few." I won't argue it with you.

Did you see the episode on Koreatown? The chef's mother was given a lot of screen time and attention, with never a put-down, and both here and in other shows, Bourdain has shown as much appreciation and respect for those who cook in the home - almost all of them women - as for the three-star chefs. But maybe you've missed all those shows?

That said, Bourdain is Bourdain, and he has never been the least bit politically correct. I would never expect hiim to go out of his way to give women restaurant chefs equal time, which would be pretty difficult anyway because notable women chefs are still few and far between. It's pretty much a men's world, while the kitchen at home is still pretty much women's domain; if it's a sexual stereotype, it's nonetheless true. I'm not aware that Bourdain's show has unfairly excluded any top female chefs in Montréal and Québec City, Koreatown, Colombia, or Myanmar, but maybe that's just my ignorance of those places.

Amazing indeed. I was riveted. After it was all over, I kept thinking back to L'Affaire est ketchup, with people swigging out of wine bottles and the young cooks producing amazing stuff on a stove just like mine in a kitchen barely big enough to swing a goose.

The web page for the show names a dish that will catch your eye: boneless wild hair in a sauce of its own blood. Whose hair did they use?

http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthon...

They've opened a branch in downtown Brooklyn. I thought the burgers were just passable, very thin and not much meat flavor. Next time I tried their hot dogs; flavor OK but not exceptional, and a strange rubbery consistency. I don't think I'll go a third time.