Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

If you have a flame-tamer, put that on burner first. Put 1 part brown rice to 1 3/4 parts water and salt in a stainless steel saucepan. Without covering with a lid, bring water to a boil until bubbles appear through the rice and water is at same level as rice. (Surface will appear 'pock-marked'.) I

Immediately turn down to low, cover and cook 20-30 minutes. Check to make sure rice isn't sticking to bottom. This will NOT jinx the rice cooking technique. Fluff rice gently with a fork. Remove from burner and let sit 5-10 minutes before serving. This is an unconventional method that Bonnie Stern, Canadian culinary maven advocates and it works. I confess I most often use my rice cooker, one of my favourite appliances. I've downsized to a smaller rice cooker since my children left home.

The same method works for white rice but the ratio is 1 part rice to 2 parts water.

I won't "hammer" any vegetable and especially asparagus that for me, must be tender-crisp. Over-cooked asparagus is soft and shreds into long unappetizing lengths - very poor 'mouth feel'. Grilled asparagus aren't 'hammered' on my grill but just heated through and succulent with a glistening anointment of of olive oil. Over-cooking any vegetable is a sacrilege.

Mojo sounds even better than mayo or Russian. Will make mojo next time. What do cubanos think of using egg buns? "Memories of a Cuban Kitchen", Mary Urrutia Randelman and Joan Schwartz, suggests them.

Removing the green 'germ' in a garlic clove takes no time at all to do. There are serious North American problems with the desire for total 'convenience', hence preservatives, over-packaging, freighted fruit and vegetables. Easy to trace a lot of our foodie 'woes'. Sometimes, often, good food takes a bit of time.

It's been a whole lot of fun reading these comments. I too have heard of making bread pudding with donuts and it was a Southern recipe. Oh well, nothing succeeds like excess.....

I love good rice! I noticed several entries that mentioned cooking rice in a pressure cooker. I recently inherited my Dad's old Mirro and I would love to try it for my next rice cooking. Could someone please describe how to do it in a pressure cooker? Thanks!

Ellios: It's Ramsay, not Ramsey.

I have to say I LOVE burgers, all kinds of burgers. Cheese, chicken, turkey, pizza, anything! Burgers with onion rings, burgers with bacon, even burgers with mash potatoes like the new one at BK! But this is not a burger. A DONUT? A FRIED EGG? That is disgusting, especially the donut part. Theres some foods you dont mix and this is the best example of that.

I have to agree with Sara! I just tried one this morning (part of being an underpaid editor is never turning down free food) from the cart that was set up outside my office, and it actually inspired me to google it, I was so surprised by how good it was.

The thing is, it's weird, it doesn't actually taste like a bagel and cream cheese. I've seen Gothamist and Consumerist flipping out about how it's a sin to eat one of these in NYC, since we have some pretty awesome bagels here. But this isn't something I would eat if I were in the mood for a bagel and cream cheese. I would eat it if I were in the mood for a Bagelful. The cheese inside tastes more like the cheese in a blintz than straight up Philly cream cheese. it's almost sweet -- maybe it's the bagel dough they use? And I'm assuming they used a convection oven or something, because the crunch was amazing, while the inside stayed soft.

So thumbs up to this! Mind you, I'm not a very picky eater, but, being from here, I am a New York food snob (only our pizza and bagels are true Pizza and Bagels, blah blah), and I still thought this was great.

(Okay, maybe great is a little much. But it was definitely not the abomination everyone's making it out to be. And I probably wouldn't actually buy it, but if someone yelled at me "delicious and free!" on my way to work, waving it, I would definitely eat it.)

check out www.eveningedge.com. good recipes!