Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

1. tough tables sounds like a good idea, especially if you donate the money to charity.
2. Top Chef is entertaining. It's like they put american idol + real world together. It is worth watching for entertainment value and if you really like your Kenmare appliances and Caphalon cookware... but America's Test Kitchen on PBS seems way more informative and useful.

hey man, my chinese take out joint (Egg Roll) is a fine dining establishment full of cheapies.

and isn't this what mister Ed Levine talks about? Inclusivity (is that a word?) Isn't serious eats a forum for those who love a 19xx vintage wine and those of us who drink a case from walmart and add artificial sweeteners that kill lab rats?

Some of us (probably just me), enjoy the two weeks in the year when six piece nuggets are a dollar from McDonalds and eat saltine crackers for breakfast. Serious eats isn't about a dictatorship, is it?

Those around you, who understand your passion, probably just want to eat whatever they want to eat. You sign off in a way as to suggest you feel it is a sad day because people don't want to be ordered around. Isn't it enough if your passion is so effervescent that it becomes contagious? Or must your passion be the Ebola of all contagious passions?

[munches on pretzels for the 9th day in a row]

Good article, Adam, but if you were a girl you would have figured all this out by the time you were ten.

as a proctologist, I loved your article!

I think Holly is eating a donut. I like donuts.

Besides that, having lived in France for the last four years, I would say that the French paradox is not a paradox whatsoever. The lifestyle of most of the French is geared towards enjoying food, though this is not played out in quantity but quality. That's the key difference. While North Americans suffer guilt about any ounce of fat, they forget that a little fat won't hurt you, it'll make you happy, and make you happy enough not to obsess about food. Plus, the produce is just BETTER. Less prepared food, more time set aside for eating properly, a lifestyle that isn't geared to moving around on four wheels, and the focus on eating for pleasure have created a culture that doesn't gorge itself for guilt. I'm not sure if Americans eat for beauty so much as they eat for inadequacy.

holly golightly may not eat a bacon, egg tomato sandwich, but she does eat some type of pastry in that opening scene, thereby associating baked goods with glamour; or should we take it a step further and say what is appealing about that scene of her with a white bakery bag in front of tiffany's is that she is a collection of oddities - evening gown in the morning, sunglasses in fog and pastry in remarkably thin body - that aggregate of oddities is what's alluring. it's just like how michael pollan warns against extracting any nutrient from its food, nutrient: food as pastry: scene of contrariness, SAT what!

I can't remember where I read it today, but I agree with the point of view that says "What difference does it make what time you eat? It supposed to be all about the food isn't it (and a little ambiance doesn't hurt)? Why do people feel that they must be part of the herd at 8?

Both Prime Time Tables and Tough Tables offend my sense of egalitarianism and is a blow to people like me that practice relationship building with restaurant owners/chefs/front of house staff/etc.

Selling reservations made with phony names is just plain low class. I hope the Danny Meyer's of the dining world learn how to defeat it.