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The Ten Most Recent Comments By Bando

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Very French Fries

This reminds me of something I wanted to comment on last week with respect to another recipe.

The suggestion here for using peanut oil is unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Peanut allergies, long among the most deadly, are increasing in prevalence geometrically, and yet TV chefs and restaurants are trumpeting peanut oil as a frying medium despite this unique risk. There are a number of healthful alternatives that have the same or better smoke-point attributes, and to ignore them in the face of a known fatal allergen is most unfortunate.

Cookbook authors would do well to be mindful of such public health concerns before using ingredients whose benefits are essentially mythical. Recipes like this only exacerbate the allergy problem.

Bando at 5:43PM on 05/14/07

From Serious Eats

Eating Organic On A Food Stamp Budget

That's not thrifty, that's insane. 200 Canadian per month comes out to $1 per person per meal, which is only incrementally more expensive than in those ads for sponsoring starving children in Africa.

Bando at 11:56AM on 05/11/07

From Talk

Uh, Starbucks breakfast sandwiches actually taste ... good?!

I fully agree with Sandro's report. I've tried the sandwiches in Chicago, DC, and NYC, and I've been uniformly impressed with their quality. In fact, even compared against other "fresh" breakfast options near me on the UWS, I'd prefer an eggs florentine or peppered bacon sandwich from Starbucks.

Yes, there are certainly places to get really excellent egg sandwiches, but in my experience many establishments are just as likely to use cheap buns, unmelted cheese, or leave shell bits in the eggs as they are to consistently beat the selections at Starbucks.

Bando at 7:23PM on 12/18/06

Responses to Comments by Bando

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Very French Fries

Well actually the peanut oil, if a commercial brand (i.e. the stuff they use for frying) will not cause an allergic reaction in anyone allergic to peanuts because the allergen in peanuts is a protein not a fat; however, if you try and get fancy and use cold pressed peanut oils you will inevitably get proteins in the oil. Commercial peanut oils are like veg oil, almost neutral in taste, chefs only suggest using it because it has a very very high smoke point.

kitchenlove at 7:32PM on 08/14/07

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Very French Fries

I'm sure that people who are allergic to peanuts are aware of such, and compensate accordingly. For home frying, it is not necessary to put up stickers all over the place, advertising "DANGER. POSSIBLE ALLERGENS." People are smarter than that, or so I believe.

Erisian Saint at 11:07AM on 05/15/07

From Talk

Uh, Starbucks breakfast sandwiches actually taste ... good?!

megnut, all of my 'Bucks eggwiches have come from two branches in lower Manhattan, by Wall Street (@111 Broadway, and another one @ Nassau and Liberty Streets). I'm confident that Ed's tastebuds aren't off, but rather that with a little more time Starbucks has seemingly taken what any "buon gustaio" would think is a bad idea and made a positive. My most recent one, eaten the morning I wrote the above post, was the best I've had, the muffin being not only warm but actually crispy, too, and the pepper bacon adding a tasty element to the meal.

Sandro at 10:57AM on 12/19/06