TikiPundit’s Profile
Recent Comments
The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack
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."
That's Nuts: Is Kung Pao Chicken Authentic?
@Lorenzo: in Hawai'i, peanuts are boiled with star anise, too. Very tasty.
Snapshots from Paris: Perrier with Smaller Bubbles
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.
See more comments by TikiPundit »
Recent Posts
See more posts by TikiPundit »
Recent Favorites
TikiPundit hasn't favorited a post yet.
Recent Polls
TikiPundit hasn't answered any polls yet.
Recent Quizzes
TikiPundit hasn't taken any quizzes yet.
Recent Comments | Response to Comments
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Oh, I don't know re: communal tables. They're not that much different from those 'banks' in restaurants in Europe. Sure, the tables were separate from that endlessly long couch, but you'd still brush your neighbor's elbow if you reached out to take a hard cut at that overcooked pepper steak you just got served.
The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack
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."
That's Nuts: Is Kung Pao Chicken Authentic?
@Lorenzo: in Hawai'i, peanuts are boiled with star anise, too. Very tasty.
Snapshots from Paris: Perrier with Smaller Bubbles
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.
Seriously Asian: Stir-Frying Vegetables
@ Chichi Wang: This series becomes more valuable with each new addition. Very well done. Thanks for the blanching tip for stir-fry.
Video: The Grill Sergeants, the Armed Forces' Cooking Show
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.
Breakfast in Belgium
Wow -- never got offered chocolate for breakfast during the years in Bruxelles, but don't doubt it. For us, breakfast was usually an expresso (NOT 'espresso' -- see my recent rant/post on SE) and a croissant.
Occasionally, one of us would troop up to the French-speaking patisserie for something nice like a creme tart, or else troop down to the equi-distant Flemish-speaking bakery for some fresh white bread (never a baguette or baton at breakfast, please -- we were such snobs).
On holidays, solar eclipses or other rare occasions such as wins by the Belgian national football [soccer] team, eggs cocotte were the rule.
There was always, of course, chocolate muesli. Not "Mueslix" whatever the heck that is on the American grocery shelf.
Yea, the waffles are for tourists, but also for hungry Bruxelloises at Metro stops on the way home. :)
All in all, the Belgian breakfast is a complement and a compliment to the natural way of eating things to which all humans should subscribe, which is expressed here by way of mantra:
Small Breakfast, Large Lunch, Small Dinner.
@Solid Skink: despite the white bread, northern Europeans don't have the obesity problems Americans have, eh? There's a lesson in that, similar to the "French Paradox," I think
Cook the Book: Tomatoes All Dressed Up for Summer
"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."
Juan Posada, Taco Truck Photographer
This is missing in El Paso. The reason? So many MEX restos, more than 400, I hear. That's not a band thing at all -- it's a good thing. But for those who suffer from Americanized Mexican food, this kind of experience is hard to beat. There are some vans in ELP, but they can't compete with what the locals want, and get -- sit-down food for cheap. I miss the vans from CA, but appreciate the sit-down world-class N MEX food in ELP.
Should Hot Dogs Carry Warning Labels?
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."
The Pastes of Provence: Know Your Tapenade, Pistou, Aïoli, and More
This is a great post. Why, it practically inspires one to be a home paste-maker. That one with artichoke hearts, for example.
Or... why not pastes with similar products from one's own region. Hmm...
Share the Meat! Propaganda Posters
@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.
Why The Hate For Alice Waters?
I guess I'd compare Waters to an artist, and I've know a couple of rather famous ones. They seemed to have an artificial grasp on reality, and suffered for it -- financially, health-wise and socially. But they were very, very good at their art.
Waters is an artist more than a cook, is my assessment, and in my mind, that explains her position.
Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?
HogFather: nope, no stuffing. I cut out the backbone and removed the breastbone so roasted them flat.
Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?
I'm thinking 170, based on today's experiment, I browned the skin in a pan first, which rocketed the temperature upwards, meaning the veggies under the hens didn't cook as much (I hate nearly-raw veggies, no matter how much they retain their nutrients). But would go 165 and assume some more cooking while tented.
How does one handle when Chef friend's food is gross?
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.
Cornish Hen - Internal Temperature?
Thanks, twoojoe, and by touch, do you mean the chin, cheek, forehead touch to measure doneness?
(Sorry for the followup question and, yeah, the Cornish Hens weren't prohibitively expensive, but why bother messing them up if I don't have to?
The Kimchi Revolution May Finally Be Here
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.
A Waitress Sketches Her Clientele
Fantastic. I had to email her and write, "Ralph Steadman, move over." The satire and frustration are quite similar to his work.
In Videos: Camera on a Sushi Conveyor Belt
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.
Cook the Book: Milk Chocolate Malt Ice Cream
Inventor of the Doner Kebab Dies
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.
Weekend DVD Giveaway: 'Bottle Shock'
Blended, co-op Red
Poured into five-liter jugs
Southern Italy!
The co-op sells wine
In the hot Italian sun
Through gasoline pumps!
They water down wine
Not to rip off tourists
For baby bottles!
There's a special jug
Fitting Italian fridges
Five liters, plastic.
One thousand lira
For the special jug, I see
Eight thousand for wine.
Room-mate wants red wine
Landlord making lemon hooch
I'd rather drink free.
Slow Cooker Advice: What to Buy? Should I?
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.
The Hotdog(Sausage): Why so Good?
I don't know why hot dogs, brats and any other kind of forcemeat are so good. But my forensic examiner will know some day, because there sure are a lot of chemicals in the dogs I prefer.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Funny, I make cheesecake pops when I have a chunk of cheesecake that's too big to toss but too small to serve on its own. First I shove a plastic spoon into a big chunk of cheesecake, then dunk it in melted chocolate, then put it in the freezer. I served a tray of these things and all I heard were moans of pleasure. (My cheesecake is made from scratch. I've seen Shamdra Lee do this where she murders a frozen cheesecake with a scoop, winding up with a cheesecake carcass.)
Re: Soup Sips - do you mean in small cups? That does seem rather silly. I like to serve "dessert bites" on Chinese porcelain spoons. Even if you have 2 it's not like wolfing down an entire dessert - but you get to have a tasty sweet in small measure.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
So can someone do a list of the 10 worst catering trends? #1 Everything as a lolly pop. I believe David Burke started this with his cheese cake lollly pops.
When are we going to find a replacement for soup sips?
The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack
GREAT post!
I tried doing this on Friday night, and got some outstanding results.
Ground up the meat w/ my Cuisinart, and came out just fine. Just gotta make sure you keep an eye out so you don't get beef puree.
Used my trusty cast-iron skillet, and really digging that smash-n'-scrape technique.... thanks!
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
candidly, i quite agree with most of the list. i appreciate the "response" you offer here (but generally don't agree with you). many foodies i know have been grumbling about the "trends" identified in the Chicago Tribune piece for some time.... there is a lot of pretension and indulgence in the food world and i think it is a good thing for a provocative commentator to offer a "reality check" from time to time....
and you reference the Tribune piece as the "bashing of supposed elites"... "supposed"???? excuse me? who else but "elites" can afford $40 "bistro" entrees and most of the restaurants that feature "foam" and "molecular gastronomy"?
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I agree wholeheartedly with the critique of "foam." WTF???? I ordered only one dish in my life that had "foam" on it, and it looked like the chef (or maybe the waitperson) spat on my dish. It was hideous. I hope this trend dies as quickly as "vanilla lobster."
Chef as Media Whore - and who did they throw up as the photo? Rocco DiSpirito. This dude was a great cook and that ONE BLUNDER he committed called "The Restaurant" cost him about 5 years of productivity. After The Restaurant, I wouldn't pay to watch DiSpirito boil an egg. I'm sorry to say restaurant "reality" shows have not improved much. It's still drama, insults, distractions - with little attention to what the contestant is actually cooking.
Communal tables don't bother me - try getting into Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown at high lunch hour and see if you don't relent and sit at a communal table.
I think "knee-jerk" reviews are only a small problem, compared to a) inflatedly positive reviews written by the restaurant owner's brother-in-law and b) exaggeratedly horrible reviews written by someone who couldn't get a timely reservation - or worse - someone who has NEVER dined at the establishment whose food he or she is reviewing.
LBNL, the first category "onion blossoms," and the "proudly obnoxious" categories could be combined. It's all about vulgar amounts of fat and calories - and pokes fun at gluttons who go in for this sort of thing.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I completely agree with number 9 and 4 - Molecular Gastronomy and Foam! I went to wd-50 for a friend's birthday celebration about a year ago and it was a truly horrifying experience. I ordered the foie gras "gravel" (essentially foie gras that was freeze dried and then shattered with a hammer) and a fish dish and shared a dessert with the table. All of the dishes were too tiny for a proper meal and all covered in or accompanied with foam, I went home with a horrible stomach ache. My boyfriend and I both rolled on the bed feeling the pain of eating dishes of science experiments. I wanted to like wd-50 but I am sorry to say I can't and I won't.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
BangieB, you're totally right about that. Isn't it sad that the poorer, working classes of our country are forced to subsist on such unhealthy food because of cost. Fresh, whole food should be available to everyone at a price which makes it reasonable. But that whopper is still disgusting.
The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack
This post is awesome. You sir are a sandwich engineer!
What childhood food do you wish they still made?
Oh, man, I thought I had blocked out my Gatorade Gum cravings!
What childhood food do you wish they still made?
I miss bbq munchos, planters cheeseballs (there is another brand available now in a large container that are good but...) and morton raspberry filled powdered donuts. Oh, those were the days.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I agree on some of what you said, Michael. But, you can keep the communal table.
And, the elevation of chefs to rock stars has just given us expensive food cooked by someone who isn't the celebrated chef, since he or she is out on a book tour.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Regarding community tables... they have their place. I don't want to go to a sit down restaraunt and eat at a communal table. Hell, I don't want to go to most places and sit at a communal table, and certainly not one that seats 20 people on each side. A deli is a reasonable spot for a communal table, maybe 6-8 poeple deep. Anything more is absurd.
I find molecular gastronomy to be kinda gimicky. It's good and fun here and there, but not something I'd actively pursue more than once or twice a year.
foams are just horrible. Give me a sauce over bubbles any day.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Foam always looks like the waitron spit on my food.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
In another threat I said deconstructed everything was my pet peeve.
I'm not sure if bloomin' onion is really a trend though
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Personally, I find the whole, "onion loaves and fried everything and ewwww, 7-layer Whoppers" to be more classist than anything else. It bugs me, and frankly makes me want to wolf down that entire 7-patty burger.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I find it ironic that the paper that (rightfully) swoons over all things Rick Bayless would complain about celebrity chefs. I love the Trib, though I admit to having worked for a number of years at the Sun Times. But I think this particular gripe is more indicative of the Second City mentality: "We hate celebrity chefs...EXCEPT FOR OUR OWN, of course."
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
That's not an onion blossom; that's an onion loaf, and Tony Roma's Steakhouse has been doing them for over 25 years. An onion blossom is more like an onion ring, and was popularized by Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion. It looks like this:
http://luluslaundryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/bloomin-onion.jpg
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Meat guy,
I would never complain about packaged food products using the same ingredients as MG chefs.
Transglutaminase, Sodium citrate, Calcium Chloride, Xanthan, Gelatin, Sodium alginate, and Lecithin all have their place.
And sure, the industry figured out the uses of a lot of those things (but not all) before hand. What exactly is the problem with that? Just because a technique was invented by science doesn't mean it's evil. Brining poultry and pork became popular because of the enhanced meat that the big companies were selling. Does that mean I should just buy the enhanced Butterball instead of brining my own bird? Just because xanthan is used to make a stable emulsion in that horrible bottle of Italian dressing I can't use it to make my home made dressing stable?
Sous Vide was invented for institutional cooking in France, but that doesn't mean that it can't make the tastiest steaks and duck confit I've ever had.
I'm sure cooking potatoes in a water bath to set their starch was invented by the instant mashed potato producers, but that doesn't make my potatoes inferior when I attempt it.
If we set our limits as not doing anything that any industrial producer has done before, our options are going to get pretty limited quickly.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I'm with @meat guy on the irony of molecular gastronomy. They use a lot of stabilizers and chemicals that are used in "processed food" that people avoid... lol
And @#6, I'm getting worried about my country. maybe they are unconsciously trying to shorten life expectancy (since it's causing serious issues).
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Molecular Gastronomy, Deconstruction and $40 entrees can all be great if you get them in the right place, done by the true masters of the craft.
What's dangerous is any of these things in the hands of undertrained chefs/cooks/restauranteurs looking to cash in on a trend.
Most food bloggers / writers / cooks know the difference between a place like El Bulli or Alinea and inexperienced chefs just throwing foams and dusts on every plate so they can double the prices.
Or the difference between a $50 steak thats really worth it and some mediocre hotel restaurant just turning & burning and raking in the dough.
The problem is that most people don't know the difference, and these places give a bad name to molecular gastronomy, fine dining, and professional cooking in general.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I will miss the blooming onion. I never opted to take my chance to have one before they were declare illegal. I snooze, I looze (yep).
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
I've eaten at Fat Duck (no, I wasn't paying) and some of it is brilliant and some is nonsense. The chips...I would die for those chips. Dried in a special machine to make them extra-crispy, as we all know chips should be. The turbot was amazing, packed with flavour which the sauces added to rather than masked. I didn't like all the nonsense of the various amuse-bouchee or the silly desserts. Do I want snails in my ice cream? No. No I do not. I don't want snails in my anything, to be honest.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
Great review MichaelNatkin, I thouroughly enjoyed the bottom-line conclusion. Like: food is food. People love it. Loving food might be a trend? But it doesn't mean we still can't love it!
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
What I find intriguing (scratch that, RIDICULOUS!) about the attitude toward molecular gastronomy is that when I design a packaged food product using the same ingredients these chefs use, it triggers the rants about additives in food. Don't use them in a $2 can of soup, but as an item in a $200 + tasting menu its good eats. It makes no sense to me.
Molecular Gastronomy is Better living through chemistry, to steal an old tag line. The things you see in those restaurants used to be the parlor tricks ingredient companies used to trigger developers of Industrial food products to try their products, only with more trendy ingredients. When I went to Alinea, I could remember which company showed me similar items way back in the 70's. Don't tell me these guys are so creative, good marketers maybe, but they are standing on the shoulders of giants (Dow, Monsanto, FMC corporation etc (good thing they are international so they fit into the buy locally trend)) to succeed in their niche. Sous vide was a food industry practice before chefs made individual entrees using the technology, industrial processors made the equipment reliable and affordable for chefs to use.
The 10 Worst Food Trends? Really?
This quote just baffled me: "something feels disconnected when a chef has to buy a machine costing tens of thousands of dollars to cook."
Like an oven? Or a Stove? I'm not sure what piece of equipment costs outrageously more than any of the other equipment that you'll find in a professional kitchen. A thermal circulator is under $1000. An anti-griddle costs about that. I assume most kitchens already have a cryovac (if they don't they probably should). A smoking gun is like $75. This is nothing compared to the cost of other professional equipment. The only thing I can think of which someone might use for modern techniques is a combi oven, but I don't think many chefs feel they need one to do any special techniques (and they're useful for a whole range of other things).
Recent Posts
Recent Favorites
TikiPundit hasn't favorited a post yet.
Polls
TikiPundit hasn't answered any polls yet.
Quizzes
TikiPundit hasn't taken any quizzes yet.
About TikiPundit
Location: Hawai'i
About: Friendly local Hawai'ian god.
Favorite foods: Poke, lomi lomi, any kind sashimi, laulau, rice, any kind bento, miso, Thai, good dim sum, French (yes, French), Greek, some Italian, American pizzas (not European), and better believe cheeseburgers.
Last bite on earth: Sashimi at the beach.
Oh, I don't know re: communal tables. They're not that much different from those 'banks' in restaurants in Europe. Sure, the tables were separate from that endlessly long couch, but you'd still brush your neighbor's elbow if you reached out to take a hard cut at that overcooked pepper steak you just got served.