Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

An awesome tribute to one of my favorite eats. I just ate dinner, but now I'm hungry again.

I'm seriously torn between the NYC kosher variety and the good ol' chicago dog dragged thru the garden. I think Grays Papaya wins, by a nose.

Oh, and when in Kennesaw, GA, check out Betty's Hot dogs next to the hospital. It's conveniently located close to the ER for when their amazing chili dogs give you a coronary.

They got the "cold" part of "cold-smoked", but the gratuitous use of that wretched liquid smoke makes me want to build a smokehouse.

Most people say "dark meat!" because they've never had really good white meat. Last year I made a brined turkey that was so flavorful and juicy that no one touched the dark stuff.

White meat, FTW!

Ha! The cover needed a little work, though:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ntscblog/1748203801/

That really sucks. I'm just waiting for Good Eats to move to Discovery (where it was originally intended to be) for me to not have to watch FN anymore.

This is especially troubling as I just got back from a vacation to NYC with my wife, and we had the best meal of our life at Babbo.

We also went to the Chelsea Market, the "home" of the Food Network. There was a big banner out front for their new Latin-themed show. My wife hadn't heard of it, and I let her know it was their latest take on boobs with a cooking show.

By the way, if I have to hear the FN announcer guy butcher the word "Delicioso" again, I'm going to hurl.

Sorry for the vitriol, but I'm so pissed at how crappy the network has become. Everything I loved about it years ago is gone.

That's the funny part! I'm hyper-nice to all my servers. My girlfriend in college was a server at a really high-end place, and she came home crying pretty regularly because of how badly she was treated by her patrons.

It's also funny because I'm a really heavy tipper.

Oftentimes I loose our server because I don't generally drink booze at dinner. Once you order water, the server seems to "know" that you're a cheap-ass and leaves you for the rest of the night. Oh well, it's their tip.

Seriously?!?! Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that the FDA/Health dept./etc should create a special exemption for street vendors and just lay off.

Let's say that they can operate, but they have to prominently show a sign saying something to the effect of "The food provided by this vendor is not inspected by the dept. of health yada yada yada...eat at your own risk."

Here in Atlanta, taco trucks, street vendors, etc. are not allowed to operate, period. With such a huge Hispanic population I'm left to wonder what kind of mobile delights (tacos, hot dogs, tamales, etc.) I'm missing. I'm a big boy now, and I can make my own decision as to what's safe.

Tony Bourdain ate at the Red Hook fields on his show, and I think he said it best (paraphrasing) "This is food made by people who care who make it right in front of you, and people would rather eat a taco stuffed with meat made in a factory 2000 miles away."

Here Here!

I don't think people realize how close we are to losing a lot of our food traditions in this country. I hope to pass on the traditions in my family to my kids and a love of home made foods.