Stephmo's Profile
lamb for Easter that isn't gamey and isn't chops.
If you have a butcher in town you go to, it's all of a day or two for them to get in just about any cut you want. If you need lamb cuts the same day, visit your local Hal'al meat shop. More lamb cuts than you can shake a stick at...you don't have to be confined to the mega mart chops, racks stew meat and legs by any means. Heck, one of our mega-marts has started carrying a lot of Hal'al in general, so we can pick up quite a few more lamb cuts than we used to...just as the need to sell to the growing latino population means that looking for trotters, neck bones and ears at the mega-mart is no longer an exercise in futility either.
lamb for Easter that isn't gamey and isn't chops.
I don't know if you've had the chance to catch Jamie Oliver's At Home, but his lamb episode where he roasted a lamb shoulder was fantastic. We did the same thing and not only was it the most idiot-proof and simple lamb recipe I'd ever made, but it tasted fantastic. not gamey, great flavor and super-moist.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/incredible-roasted-shoulder-of-lamb-with
The real reson for the "Waste"
As much as blaming a litigious society is a fun pastime, it really is a red herring. Even if your local jurisdiction doesn't already have such an overriding legislative rule in place, Federal Law has had the Bill Emmerson Food Donation in place since 1996 - you can find out more here: http://feedingamerica.org/get-involved/corporate-opportunities/become-a-partner/become-a-product-partner/protecting-our-food-partners.aspx.
Long and short, if you give your food to a non-profit, you're good.
That being said, having a relative that works for a major food company that has food waste, I can tell you there are a few reasons that their food is tossed rather than donated to local organizations:
- Their food requires refrigeration and has higher-sugar levels. Food Pantries and Meals on Wheels don't have unlimited storage and do service diabetics. So while they'll take some of the food, they can't afford to take it all and give up space for food that better serves a larger nutritional need.
- Food Pantries and the like don't always have individuals available for pickup or the proper vehicles/storage. So if you want to donate a few hundred pounds of something requiring refrigeration, they may not be able to get there before it rots...and you may not have the time or ability to have your shipping company load a truck and drop off on their way to regular routes and meet normal business needs. If donating food becomes major effort, this is a hindrance. (Think about the success of general recycling in communities that don't make curbside part of normal trash pickup vs. those that put all the effort on the end-consumer to seek out centers and haul trash themselves.)
- Sometimes the Food Bank/Organization has too much of what you're offering. This comes down to storage and ability to give out. If the food bank has 500 boxes of cereal on hand and you want to give them 1,000 of about-to-expire and they only give out 200 boxes a week and they normally get 250 boxes a week anyway...well, your 1,000 box donation is really surplus that will likely become waste anyway.
As has already been mentioned, using waste for compost is perfectly valid. What was more to the point was the rather high-quality of the compost that came from carelessness through our own greedy behavior (sorting through a box and bruising other tomatoes in a search for "the one!" which meant we were effectively ruining 4 tomatoes for the one we wanted) and crazy high standards of perfection.
I'd say it's not so much the litigation (which we've established can't happen through legislation), but our own pride in a fake "OCD" where we expect everything to be just so and we've become so obsessed with protecting ourselves from germs and pathogens that we assume things are "bad" so much sooner than any sane individual should.
Pizza Hut Commercial
I promise we're not birds. I find most restaurant servings huge. I swear they use half a head of lettuce in their salads at Cheesecake factory. I will admit I've mostly had sandwiches and salads there, so I can't really speak to entrees, but I seem to recall being with someone that got chicken-something-or-rather and it was two chicken breasts with all of the accompaniments.
I'll say that even when we do Ruth's Chris and I get the lamb chops - these are 3 double-cut chops - I can usually only finish 1 and a half or so. Then again, I eat the entire plate of steamed spinach...so that probably doesn't help. Oh, and the wine...that takes up space!
My only issue with the blanket disparaging of anything is that it creates this level of food snobbery that I think actually stops most people from trying new things or going outside of their comfort zone. The interesting thing in the Cheesecake Factory philosophy with their menu changes is that they reach out to re-create what high-end dining establishments are doing. I think they were one of the first places regularly serving the now-ubiquitous Mojito outside of latin restaurants (as an example) a dozen years ago. If someone tries something new because they trust the Cheesecake Factory and they like it, that's a good thing. If it means they decide to try something more authentic, even better.
That's the way I look at it.
Pizza Hut Commercial
I don't think the point is that every place that is a "chain" serves horrid food. Heck, Ruth's Chris Steak House is a chain. Is any restraunteur with more than 1 place a sell-out/chain? I believe a number of chefs would be surprised to find out that they're "horrible" because they have more than 1 chain. Is N9Ne in Vegas out because they're the children of Morton's owners (Morton's also became a chain).
I'll eat at cheesecake factory because we can get good food that we either split then and there or make additional meals out of later. They actually had a rather interesting profile on The Cheesecake Factory for "Into the Fire." Their menu change by roughly 50% a year to ensure that they're not in a rut and highlighting newer tastes and trends in food.
I've never really understood someone dragging me to some hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they laud the food as being "so great because it's not a chain!" when it barely passes as edible. Basically, this person feels special because the owner was at the joint and did a great job of stopping by. If you take a peak into those independent kitchens, you'll find a lot of pre-done meals and sides (I'm never surprised when we check out BBQ joints to find out that the Mac n' Cheese is basically Stouffers frozen - that's actually one of my "tests" - if you make homemade mac n' cheese, you're already doing better).
I love a good independent restaurant. But it has to be good. Just like there are highlights at chains, there are definite lowlights at independent restaurants.
I really hate the automatic bashing of everything associated with a "chain." At some point, I think I'm going to develop a chain of "independent" restaurants where I go out of my way to hire "owners" that make folks feel like they've found some hole-in-the wall dream restaurant. I'll make money hand over fist and watch as I sucker people into believing they're not eating at a chain.
Really, it's just a 30 second commercial where people were being nice about food they likely got for free. That's all.
If you want to put down a chain, explain exactly what you ate there and the circumstances and why it was so horrid. Don't say "because it was a chain." Cheescake will always have my favorite grilled vegetable sandwich - I don't really eat it as a sandwich, but more as a knife-and-fork grilled vegetable and bread salad, but it's one of the few places that doesn't just rely on a portabella mushroom and the slimmest of burger toppings - most of the time, if you want grilled baby eggplant, you're out of luck unless you make it yourself.
"The Restaurant", Series 2 - filming started?
That's exactly the issue. Rocco Dispirito's "The Restaurant" ran for two years on NBC and still runs in repeats on Fox's Reality TV channel.
BBC America would have had to negotiate for naming rights to use "The Restaurant." I imagine that BBC America's budget for naming rights is roughly nil. I'm basing this solely on the fact that the Sci-Fi channel was able to outbid BBC America on US first-run rights for Doctor Who - so Sci-Fi gets to show Doctor Who about a year before BBC America does...
Either way, a lot cheaper for them to call it "Last Restaurant Standing" than pay for the ability to use the original name.
Pizza Hut Commercial
I don't think it was a working restaurant. Just one of those, "stop in for a pasta tasting!" meals where folks thought there was an opportunity to taste from a new menu.
This blog - http://www.sogoodblog.com/2008/04/21/pizza-hut-pasta-uses-the-whopper-freakout-angle/
says this was at Provence restaurant in NYC which has closed after going through some rough times. The last NYT review is here:
http://events.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/reviews/13rest.html
If any of this is true, I could see a "testing" dinner meal being bought by individuals (especially if it was all free). If people were expecting something new and different, this would have been it. The pastas would have also been plated in such a way as to look high-end. The looks of food can elevate taste - especially if you're not looking at an aluminum pan or pooled up grease in the corner of a take-out box. Throw fresh cheese and a sprinkling of herbs on top and you can have just about anything taste halfway decent.
The other point the blog makes is that this is all that anyone's seen out of the commercials is the one commercial. They're comparing it to the Burger King Whopper joke which netted a ton of commercials and a 7-minute movie on their website with people irritated that Burger King may have really stopped carrying the Whopper.
If this is all Pizza Hut really has, getting 30 seconds of folks saying, "this is great" or even part of "this is the best!" (leaving out "free meal!" in the edit) isn't all that hard.
Top Chef-Tailgating
You're thinking of TC #1, the first episode - the loud-mouthed Irish guy. When they were in the chef's restaurant with limited time to show their line-cook skills, he dipped his finger into the sauce to make sure it tasted right. This was not acceptable in that chef's kitchen, so he was sent outside.
At elimination, the loudmouth Irish guy (I don't remember the name, just the accent, sorry!) kept saying how he'd been in a million restaurant where it was perfectly fine to do that, so he was right. No amount of "you operate under the chef's rules, not your own when it's not your kitchen" would dissuade him.
It wasn't so much the hygiene as it was the attitude for that TC contestant.
I think none of us really want to think about tasting spoons, fingers and whatnot...we'd never eat out if we did! ;-)
Any truth to this?
Oh - I believe I forgot to mention the he's "insane" part. Yes, the well-done is for mad-cow. E-coli was a temporary switch over to chicken. I believe he hasn't had spinach since the outbreaks...or peanut butter. He only uses the broiler at home because grilling causes cancer...
Acquaintance is the key-word. He's not really invited to dine out anymore. Picky eaters are one thing (we have one of those in our lunch circle), but the whole, "you'll die if you don't make sure this and this and this and this" takes place was just humiliating. We couldn't even mention certain foods for fear of another lecture that he'd picked up from his mother. Basically, if they hear one thing horrible, it's fact.
I'm willing to risk the odds for a good meal and a lot less aggravation.
;-)
Any truth to this?
The thing is, the germs are there, but at no point do they tell you how many germs need to be present in order to make you sick. The answer is rarely "one." Not to mention, the ice submersion can actually help kill certain germs.
The local news will trot out these stories every so often and everyone will panic for a few weeks until all goes back to normal. Well, unless you're an acquaintance of mine who still won't eat green onions or medium-rare beef due to news stories from a few years ago. (It is PAINFUL to wait for his "well-done" burger to get done at certain places; since most establishments want the food to come out at the same time, we suffer while his burger goes through the inferno of inedibility just so he can be assured he has no mad cow disease...)
If you were to stop and think about a million things, you'd probably never eat a thing.
;-)
LOVED the latest installment of Kitchen nightmares
Reality Shows can be largely scripted because the "writers" are given the title of "segment editor" or "story editor" and are then not considered writers at all. They don't belong to the Writer's Guild, either.
My assumption was that FOX wanted to see how Kitchen Nightmares would fare and only filmed so many episodes. Not to mention that Ramsey can only be so available between the Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares US, Kitchen Nightmares UK and the F Word...oh, and that pesky running businesses thing.
Basically, the segment editor can manipulate situation (i.e. a bus full of people, asking leading questions that can lead to confrontation) or when "reality" happens in the form of a comment or accident, ask to have the comment re-done or the accident to take place again for better effect.
Dallas newspaper doesn't know what Champagne is
The good news is that many California wineries are fighting pretty hard for their naming rights now - those that have worked Napa and Sonoma hard are having a hard time giving their name to people that open an office in those areas, import grapes from wherever and still call it by the region name. As they work to get these rights, maybe we'll get on board with Champagne treaty.
As much as folks want to say Champagne = Kleenex, that's exactly what wineries all over the world are working against. Imagine if Dodge started making a truck and called it the F150 - and said "everyone knows F150 is synonymous with Pickup Truck" or if every single red-headed comedic actress demanded to go by "Lucille Ball." In both cases, the brand and what one should expect would be diluted.
Once you start jumping into the world of wine, being able to clearly state what you like becomes important - if for no other reason than to be able to get that bottle you kinda sorta remember but can't quite put your finger on the name. If you really love that little Italian Sparkling wine in the stout-ish dark green bottle but are asking for Champagne, the wine folks will be pushing French wine upon French Wine upon French wine on you. It's not as silly as it seems when you realize that not all wine is the same and your favorites are easier to find once you get the naming. I understand the temptation to lump all wines into one big "who cares?" means that everyone can call those with knowledge "wine snobs," but once you consider it akin to knowing your way around town instead of aimlessly driving around for "whatever," I think it makes more sense.
I Love Anthony Bourdain, but...
Political? He did an excellent job portraying the deep influence this particular group has on the way we eat today. I guess when we see a story about the positive impact of immigration, someone is automatically being "political."
I thought this was one of his better shows - and let's face it, no one would be cooking in those restaurants if they didn't have the skills. 4 star dining is 4 star dinging - no one is going to risk their reputation on individuals that can't cook.
Tony did a show in Season 2 on Mexico - that one featured the sushi chef in Texas in the midst of getting his papers (which made him unable to leave the country) - Tony took a gift and visited the chef's family for a home-cooked meal. That might have been political too - and he ate pleanty of street food in Piedras Negras.
Tony's shows are not strictly about food. I found the episode on Korea especially moving as I really didn't know much about those caught between the border. To see the show on Vietnam showcasing a country trying to establish itself as a tourist destination instead of a war memory was a rather overt political statement. Even in his two visits to Russia, we've seen the emerging wealth of Russia and how it impacts the food.
Tony merely dedicated a show to the big white elephant in the room that is the way a good number of us don't think about the individuals that cook our $100/plate meals.
Gordon, Gordon, Gordon
Best Week Ever's blog did a brilliant "Every Episode in one Blog Post" write up:
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/11/15/the-script-of-every-episode-of-kitchen-nightmares/
I'll still watch it every week!
Fine Cooking online subscription- ridiculous!!
Wine Spectator does the same thing. I did suck it up for one year simply because the main thing you can't get to are past ratings on wines. But then I stopped because I was somewhat miffed about the fact that I was just being charged for the fact that I didn't feel like leafing through the 800 back-issues of Wine Spectator for a quick blurb on a wine. Luckily, more on-line wine distributors are printing the WS (and other magazine) blurbs so when you're buying you don't have to remember whether this was the iffy year or the stellar year (damn Pinot Noir for being so persnickity!).
I once had to speak to a representative on the phone regarding the on-line subscription and asked why a print subscriber would have to pay for the on-line version since so many other magazines offered full access to subscribers (and limited access to non-subscribers). He simply said that they were different entities and that that on-line version did offer additional articles. Being that the twice-monthly magazine already offered me enough articles to read, I didn't see the "exclusive" on-line content as any great bonus.
Food Network Next Iron Chef -- Ethical Problem
I think this is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. I've been a regular reader of Mr. Ruhlman's blog for quite some time and the Monday reports of the show have been a great treat - as long as I avoid the comments. It seems that the know-it-alls have come out with their Junior Mr. Inspector kits has come out of the woodwork to cry "favoritism!" and attempt to goad either Rhulman or any number of regular readers into defending the relationship as not being favoritism.
In the very first episode it should be noted that in the aired judging that their relationship actually hurt Symon. Rhulman knew that the bacon dessert wasn't new and was, in fact, a recipe of an employee of Symon's. While the dessert was good, he was called out for not being creative - the whole point of the challenge.
On top of everything else, you'll find that the judges all have relationships outside of the show with the chefs to one degree or another. You really think that no one had ever met or knew or ate or were friends with Traci Des Jardins? Or that Andrew Knowlton doesn't really KNOW these individuals or has helped them in one way or another via Bon Appetit magazine?
Besides, Rhulman is 1/3 of the vote - do you really think that Donatella and Knowlton would really just go, "yeah, you like that guy? Okay, we have no professional reputation to uphold here and you seem to really like this guy and we'll vote whatever way you want." They've already had one episode where the vote was split - even if Rhulman voted every single time for Symon to win, they'd simply be able to out vote him 2-1.
They all know each other - they're well-established individuals in the cooking industry. It's no conspiracy. If you simply look at the food that's been produced and the last few episodes, this has been a two-horse race for quite some time. In my opinon, anyone that thinks NIC hasn't been Besh vs. Symon (based on food alone) since episode 2 is not watching the show.
I don't think it would have been possible to get judges and chefs with an Iron Chef Pedigree together without anyone knowing anyone well. They would have either had to have gone with a) judges who were completely outside of the food world or b) chosen chefs that would have been of the Top Chef variety. Imagine that as Next Iron Chef and you won't care much about Rhulman and Symon's friendship.
Pro food critics who know nothing about a cuisine - helpful or harmful?
Not to get too geeky here, but you're describing McLuhan's depiction of "hot" and "cool" mediums and his infamous "the medium is the message" theory. In a nutshell, a cool medium is harder to learn from than a hot medium because cool mediums require more participation. Back in the day, TV was considered a hot medium and books without pictures the ultimate in cool. Most base communication courses go over this as if things are always hot or cool, but this is a disservice to the theory that gets into the amount of information presented - in 2D it gets down to characters per square inch (McLuhan would be rolling in his grave at the thought of PowerPoint and would still probably mulling over the impact of HDTV and news channel scrolls). Unfortunately most lecturers boil it down to "hot media is produced quickly and cool media takes time" to simplify.
To the review - I think while McLuhan was alive, he would have considered the majority of the newspaper "cool" since it was all about the typeset, number of photographs and articles were longer (the comics would have been largely "hot"). In today's USA-today style simple graphics, larger fonts, shorter article requirements and the need for reviews to come down to a graphic (number of stars) would bolster the idea that reviews are diving into "hot" territory and lessening the need for the reader to interact with the article. A 4-part series on an ethnic food type that included photographs would definitely be a "cool" section that would engage more individuals.
Geek moment over, my apologies to everyone, but I couldn't resist.
Gordon Ramsey Nightmares, USA version
Fox...so you know it will be a bit different from the British version (more on the rants and raves, I'm afraid less on the humanizing side of GR).
Winemakers Are Bozos In A Glass
Give it up on the "duped in blind tastings" already. 2 buck chuck has its place, but anyone that believes that the "blind" tastings that have 2 buck chuck placing well aren't reminiscent of his grape-swapping days doesn't know Fred all that well. That's right, some wine-makers deliver samples that aren't representative of those that they bottle. I firmly believe that Fred's been banging this whole, "oh, don't be a wine snob" drum quite successfully and is going to ride the gray train and will do whatever he needs to do to make as much money as possible. The man still makes a more expensive wine - if he's so convinced that super-cheap is the way to go, why does it still get made? Fred's a self-serving guy who was smart enough to get into Trader Joe's exclusively - this makes his cheap wine the holy grail of cheap wines to folks. If he got out of the exclusive deal, he'd be stuck with wines that are within a buck or two of his and just be another bottle of cheap wine with no story.
As far as blind-tastings at homes, parties or even wine shops go - well, you may not have been to many. When you're doing tastings with regular folks, the spit bucket is for one thing only - junk wine. I look back on some of my tasting journals (when I thought it would be helpful to remember), I laugh - the larger script, the semi-coherent half-sentences, the sort-of words ('YMGOOD, BUY!!!") - it all points to someone that's enjoying all of the wine. There's a point at which you could feed me anything from a 2 to a 200-bottle of wine and it will produce the same happy smile where you're convinced that I have just found my favorite bottle.
That being said, there's no perfect price point for wine. Anyone that has had more than 5 bottles of wine in their lives will know that price is not an indicator of how good wine will be - heck, this is the rule for anything in life. Since when has expensive ever meant that something will automatically be better than something cheaper?
But let's not kid ourselves. You can tell me that a BMW 3 Series and your Toyota Avalon are comparable. You can even tell me that the Mercedes C-Class and your Volkswagon Jetta are on equal footing. But when you start telling me that even the Camry and the Kia Rio are on equal footing, I'm going to call major BS. Just like 2BC and expensive wine, you can say that both cars will get you from point A to point B just fine. They'll both come from grapes and they'll both have alcohol (aka - they'll both have doors and a steering wheel and will be covered in something resembling steel on certain body parts). Beyond that, they'll start to differ. If you don't require certain appointments (oak aging, aging at all, older vines, etc.), then you'll be fine. However, if you do believe that certain things add to your "driving" experience, you'll seek those things out. This doesn't mean you won't be able to drive 2BC and be happy, but you'll be aware that there are better models out there when you want to enjoy yourself.
You may be perfectly happy with 2BC. But for goodness' sake, be happy with 2BC. If you're only happy if you're putting down more expensive wines and calling people stupid or "duped" then you're lying to yourself.
Keep in mind that the greatest thing about wine is the ability for wine to keep your food in that "happy place." I save my best reds for the best cuts of steak simply because I will forever be able to have that fantastic first taste of steak followed by a bold red over and over again as my palate gets to rock back and forth between fantastic flavors. If I'm having whatever, I can drink whatever - and that's the good thing about 2BC or any of the cheaper wines. If I'm making spaghetti sauce with ground round and Prego for a 20-minute dinner, a bold Sangiovese is a waste of money and my taste buds - nothing will compliment anything properly and I'll be disappointed in everything and wonder why I opened an expensive wine for nothing.
If one wants to demystify wine, I suggest anything put out by the Wine Brats. Fred is a businessman intent on selling you more of HIS wine and nothing more. The Wine Brats actually want you to love wine, no matter what the price.
They finally stopped airing Molto Mario
It's actually worse - the network has dropped him period. Not even going to be on Iron Chef anymore:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09052007/news/nationalnews/food_net_chef_mario_flames_out.htm
It's sad. Mario was one of the few left who would actually teach while cooking and was genuinely interested in new things. Everyone else is such a "personality" and I fear that's the direction FN keeps wanting to head in...no more of the actual chefs, just chipper personalities that will encourage us to be mediocre...
My favorite go-to Mario recipe has always been his Sicilian chicken - spicy, tender, fantastic!
Can a food critic be a vegetarian-or have dietary restrictions?
I would imagine it would only be possible if you were 1) writing for a vegetarian-centric (or gluten-free, nut-free) publication or 2) if the publication had enough room for multiple critics and spun one of the positions as the veg/dietary restrictive column.
Frankly, if you wanted to be a fantastic restaurant critic, you'd have to be able to taste everything. I imagine I'd have to overcome the issues I have with sea urchin if I were to ever embark on a reviewing career along with the issues I have in general with peas and lima beans. As a vegetarian, how would you do reviews of steak houses? Could you really talk about what fois gras brings to the plate flavor-wise when you eschew meat of all kinds for ethical reasons? And what if you're just vegetarian - imagine the angry letters from the vegans! (This is all extreme, by the way - and a regular reviewer that is a carnivore must also know how to properly review vegan and vegetarian restaurants.) Conversely, if you're allergic to something major - say gluten - and a restaurant is known for its artisan bread, you'll be forced to say you weren't able to review a major selling point...same with seafood allergies and the seafood place or nut allergies and trying to review a good number of dishes containing pestos, peanut sauces, nut garnishes and the like...
I would say this would be akin to being a travel reviewer that cannot fly. Sure, you can do the "two-day drive" reviews, but your audience will view you as being very limited in what you're able to tell them...
Edited to add...I thought of another issue. If you're allergic to something and this is mentioned in your reviews, I imagine it would be very difficult to maintain anonymity. At the very least, every single patron that said, "are there peanuts in any of these dishes?" would be eyed with a certain level of mistrust. With a tell that large, you'd likely be made every single time you stepped into a resturant to review it.
Favorite Food Blogs?
http://www.maegabriel.com/riceandnoodles/index.php
http://101cookbooks.com/
http://sweetandsavoryfoods.blogspot.com/
Registering for my first fine china...oh my!
You've actually got a lot right off the bat - simple designs, something lasting so they'll be replacement parts and high quality. I recommend the British route - Royal Doulton's French Quarter pattern is incredibly close to what you're describing - if you want pattern on top of the platinum band, RD carries Gordon Ramsay's line and his platinum has some good ridge texture. In addition, the bigger the name, the easier it's going to be to find pieces in the future. Established china makers like RD don't retire often and if they do, you will find the pieces on retired china sites (places like dinnerware depot). However, your desire for something simple does put you in the "least likely to be retired" column.
As far as where to buy and/or register, don't limit yourself to one place. You may limit yourself to telling friends about 1 or 2 places, but this is the time to clean up. Most major stores will have some type of "table top" plan. Basically a store will offer you 10-15% off of items as you complete your registry. Good stores will also tell you when their major clearance sales take place - so suddenly your fine china is 20% off with a compounded 10-15% off on top of that - register at a place where you don't have their card and you can take 10% more off on top of that.
It's fantastic the first time you have a chance to have out the china and serve dinner on it. Even better to know that you took some time to splurge and get something that's really nice for the two of you with a bit of the wedding money. Congratulations!
feature request: number of posts
I'll agree with the no post count folks here - it really creates more problems than it can ever solve. In more established communities, it can discourage new users from posting simply because they'll see everyone's got 5000+ posts and out of their first 5 or so posts, 3 will inevitably be met with an "we soooo discussed this in 37 separate threads 3 years ago, so please learn to use the search feature before cluttering up OUR boards, kkthxbye."
I've participated in communities where post-farming was a common problem - the admins spent half of their time locking threads where people were so bold that they'd actually post "+1" as their response. Admins eventually were given the power to "NoPost" individuals which meant that their post counts would never go up. To think that moderators here would ever have to spend their time a) reading "I think so-and-so is post-farming" threads & b) NoPosting people is a sad thing.
I realize that the single posters can often be individuals looking to troll boards, but I've come to realize that these individuals love the fact that a new poster gets the old guard so riled up. So seeing that the person is an under 10 poster doesn't help matters. Not to mention the "Report" link is incredibly handy for the pot stirrers.
Food problems
Not to sound like a pain, but are you 100% sure that it's MSG? MSG appears in tons of foods - not just as a flavor additive in Asian cooking. Basically, if you see "natural flavor" (or something along those lines) the foodstuff has MSG. MSG is actually the most consumed food product in the US today. Anything canned or frozen you eat will have MSG in it.
I just want to encourage you to enjoy food in Japan - there's many, many fantastic things to try while you're there. Perhaps before you leave, you could guinea pig yourself and/or try to go through the "can get migraines" part of your meals and see if it's not really a trigger to more specific foods. I might also check with your doctor and see if you've developed an allergy to peanuts and/or shellfish. Most studies trying to replicate the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" that was attributed to MSG in one study in the late 60s couldn't ever tie it back to MSG. No one's really found anything solid, but the better theories say the amount of peanut oil and shellfish and common cooking dishes for all items (i.e. a pan that just cooked a shrimp dish cooks a chicken dish for someone allergic to shellfish and lighter allergic symptoms appear).
If you have had this confirmed, my apologies. I figured I'd just offer this up for you in case it's the case of "it could be that you're sensitive to MSG" comments that's stuck.
Outside of that, I'd recommend you'd go light on any soy sauce as that will be your biggest MSG offender. (Well, unless you go for Italian - then you'll want to avoid Parmesan Cheese since that's got tons more.)
cheap eats?
If you're looking for cheap, you'll be in the train station in at some point Hiroshima (I didn't visit Nagasaki when I went last year). There are a ton of eateries there and most of it is very reasonable. Frankly, when we visited it seemed like either the first or last day we ended up in the train station for a quick meal (Kyoto, Honshu, Hiroshima...and while not the Train Station, we found a business park in Tokyo with a pretty fantastic soba place). You should be able to find anything you like. At the very least, stop by the ice cream place and get some black sesame ice cream. =)
Season 4 of Top Chef - In Chicago!
Very exciting stuff - and the guest chef/judges are huge. I'm assuming Charlie Trotter and Rick Tramonto are possibilities?
While I very much enjoy the show, I do hope that the producers promise themselves that they won't cast someone more interested in being the villain than winning? In all honesty, I think Stephen was interested in winning - while Wolverine and Hung are just desperate to be the Stephen character to get face time. I'd much rather have folks hungry to win and let the natural characters come to the surface eventually. Let's face it, chefs are rarely a super-sane lot.
Gordon Ramsey Nightmares, USA version
Calvin Trillian's love aside, I believe the restaurant is now closed. With all due respect, if you've seen Kitchen Nightmares no one on that show had a desire to be Shopsin's. I can guarantee you for the "hundreds" of menu items (let's face it, 30+ kinds of pancakes is cheating it and is basically batter with whatever thrown in), if you really wanted to get the best of something in town (let's say Banana Pancakes), Shopsin's wasn't the absolute best place to get them. It was a great place to visit as a tourist and much of the charm was in the atmosphere. They are clearly an exception to the rule, although I doubt Shopsin's was ever constantly on the verge of bankruptcy and desperately adding menu items in hopes of luring new customers.
In watching Kitchen Nightmares, you will find that GR's message regarding too many menu items is incredibly consistent and makes complete sense. If you have 30 + menu items that require a ton of ingredients, you open yourself up to three big problems: 1) you do a lot of things decently but nothing extraordinary which means that you're not likely to get people talking about how fantastic you are and coming back; 2) due to the huge ingredient list, you will either have to use sub-standard items (read: premade sauces and the like) or if you use fresh, you'll kill yourself with food waste; 3) the more your kitchen has to switch gears when they cook, the more likely you're to get behind, the more likely your service will suffer.
It's really a brilliant series that we're fortunate enough to get on BBC America. I do hope that they don't tinker with the formula too much to get the Fox factor going. As others have noted, there are many fantastic business lessons to be learned from this show - and it's amazing to see how blind people can be in trusting the wrong sorts of people with their dreams of owning a restaurant.
Bonefish Grill --How is it?
Honestly, it's decent. If I had a complaint, it would be that they tend to give you too much sauce - the two times I've been, I've always had the trout and I've always ended up scraping a decent amount of sauce to the side. They do offer options and they're good.
The only real complaint I have about the one near us is that the rice is just bad. It's overcooked and ridiculously mushy. This could be my local one, but bad rice is just a peeve of mine since it's so easy to make good rice.
Picnic food between Columbus & Lancaster, OH?
In all honesty, the drive from CBus to Lancaster isn't all that long - and along 33, I don't recall anything too spectacular. Depending on what time you're leaving and where you're leaving from in Columbus, I can suggest two places.
The first is the North Market which is located downtown. If you're leaving early on Saturday AM, you'll find local farmers selling fresh goods as well as anything you could want from cheeses (Curds n' Whey) to wonderful meats, breads and salads and plenty of ethnic goods.
If you want to be closer to 33, I'd just stop at Whole Foods - it's still in Columbus, but in Dublin. You'll find everything you could ever want there and they also have cold bags available to keep everything fresh that you could possibly want. Maybe you'll get lucky and one of the potato salads will be the blue cheese & bacon salad. Outside of that - cheese, antipasta, an olive bar, a BBQ bar, fresh seafood, prepared salads too numerous to count, hot foods from every corner of the globe and a good amount of home-cooked items.
Other than that, as far as 33 goes, you'll pass more than one grocery store on the way to Lancaster.
