Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I like it simple: French a rack of lamb and grill it on well-seasoned (i.e., not well cleaned) iron racks to 120 degrees internal temperature. Rest for 5-10, depending on how your drink is doing. Slice the racks and eat them with your hands; they're like grown-up lollipops!

A very entertaining and informative post. And it's got life advice to boot: "
Note to self: always ask nicely before moving on to breaking-and-entering."

Perrier is fine and it's all over France; perhaps the basketball-bellied American should get out more and stop spouting nonsense. One of the joys experienced in Europe was the marvelous selection of sparkling and mineral waters.

My favorite was Valser.

And I do like them "chalky."

Here in my area in the USA, it's San Pel, Perrier and the occasional find of Gerolsteiner.

Fun! Nice to see the military is making more than "SOS."

I remember reading a story about a chef drafted into the Navy in WWII. He was sent to a "cooking school" at the LA Coliseum, where he observed the finest cuts of beef being dumped into huge cauldrons to be boiled. That was dinner for sailors.

Sometime when I was in Europe in the 1980s or 1990s, a US military pastry team won a pastry olympics medal. Times have indeed changed.

"Do the books with the most beautiful covers and photos necessarily have the best recipes?"

Certainly not. Julia Child's French cooking books will win no graphic design awards.

Though it is certain that increased talent in the areas of graphic design, photography, writing and more liberal applications of recipe design mean that we have a much larger base from which to select books than, probably, ever before.

But I'll still take Childs, or Pepin, or that Belgian chef who I can't find any info about, over "coffee-table kitsch."

I think non-profits should put warning labels on their advertisements.

Such as, "The X Project" is a non-profit organization marginally devoted to bringing awareness of X to the general public, but is more devoted to providing paying wages to its members and, oh yeah, trolling for hot dog lawsuits."

@marchpane: Funny!

Love those propaganda posters. Wacked-out, wannabe hip and current artwork and layout, probably always constrained by bureaucrats.

But I have to say, no one (not even the Chinese) has anything on Soviet Russians for over-the-top Politburo-style sloganeering, backed up by hilariously-idealized figures.

HogFather: nope, no stuffing. I cut out the backbone and removed the breastbone so roasted them flat.

The chicken thing sounds very, very bad. Try to use as much tact as possible to alert him (he may not have done the cooking) to the state of the meal. Be positive for all things that are not a health risk.

Make sure that your feelings about what constitutes "raw" are to health standards before going foreward, however.

I have found that when I stir-fry chicken, it comes out (well-cooked) much more soft than in restos in the local area. One audience didn't appear to like it, though it was cooked throughout. Me, I was rejoicing over eating moist white meat, and practically doing knife-tricks with my cleaver in the kitchen in exuberance. But I think they were used to dry and hard "round-eye" chicken in a Chinese dish... at least the kind of Chinese dish the audience was expecting in the USA.

Kimchi Revolution? Not a minute too soon!

And it's not just the well-known cabbage. There are also cucumber, radish, and green onion. Who knows what else? (Well, someone on SE will come along who does.)

One of the most satisfying things to eat is kimchi w/ steamed rice.

OK, I've never used this word in public before, but this is nifty.

Besides that, it's stylish and cinematic (!). There are all these little "movements," and interwoven pieces, like watching the cook's hands working, and the watching the mechanical pieces, and then the diners rolling by.

Way cool. Well done.

Had no idea the Döner was only invented in 1971.

Then, I lived in Germany before it was invented.

Don't know how I survived.

I remember a Döner stand near the main rail station in one town I lived in (near, in a nearby small village). After arriving home on a Saturday night after an away football match, it was the only place still open. Man, the wonderful food I had there. A Döner with fries, or a Currywurst. With fries. Everything came with fries, or "pommes frites." The guys serving the food would ask about the match, the fouls, the riots, or whatever. That vertical spit of meat was like heaving hanging off a metal rod. It circled endlessly, and they would use an electric knife to cut off the charred, hottest pieces. They had a condiment tray under a sneeze-guard, and cases of beer lying about in the "dining room," and it was so casual and so tasty, that I can't forget it. Or find that atmosphere, or taste, in the US.

RIP, Döner Man.

I have "Old Reliable," a Rival like yours. It's too small (though good for two people + leftovers). So, after many, many years (I think the Rival might have been a wedding present), I've been looking at this one. It's the right size, but freaking expensive, and I've heard that, owing to fear of litigation (?), the low and high settings on new crock pots are different from old-school one. Don't know how true that is -- since "Old Reliable" keeps perking along.

Would like to know what you decide on -- I too am keen on the "keep warm" function, and I REALLY need a timer.