Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I am surprised that only @Divadog mentioned banana pudding - my, my, how well I remember my first taste in South Carolina - would love a real recipe - up here in Canada one can get banana cream pie, but it cannot touch southern banana pudding.

Also, hush puppies, not the mass produced ones, but the lovely crispy, fluffy ones produced in small restaurants - bliss.

Frogmore stew or Brunswick stew - I have seen it called both, but I have reproduced it in Canada to rave reviews - I had to buy my Old Bay seasoning stateside, though I believe if you shop around in specialty stores you can find it now.

Deep fried okra, biscuits, shrimp & grits - need I go on - our vacations in the South necessitate a great deal of restraint.

I have mentioned before how lucky people in the South are, to have both sweet and non sweet ice tea available at almost every restaurant you enter. There is absolutely nothing nicer than to walk in from the torpid heat and humidity and have a large, cold glass of tea!

HerbyN at 7:34AM on 08/06/09

You nailed it. I agree exactly with everything you said.

This show is my little guilty F**king pleasure.

Crusty baguette style bread, sliced lengthwise
Over-ripe tomato squished up and down
So the insides are slathered over the bread
Olive oil generously drizzled over all.
Salt. Pepper.

First of all,
Intensity is any any kitchen even a wing joint. In HK it is amplified.
Talent, well put any person in a new kitchen and have them cook food for a chef they never worked for with people they never worked for and a menu they never learned well, if that's a sign of a hack then your standards are pretty high.
Showing off talent, that's what challenges and dealing with ambiguity during service is for.
Contestants are horrible, your watching Fox a channel that every other show is more cras then the contestants, look at Family Guy even the baby is an a@##hole.
Ramsey is one of the best chefs in the world but it's true he shows no talent on this show.
Insults are they same each year and they do get old.
Conflict is played out in all reality shows.

Ramsey is just a bully. He wouldn't talk the way he does to anyone if there wasn't a camera crew around. What a hack.

I like it. I watch it. It's not a cooking show. Recipes... anyone!!! Without making it more than it is, it's a show about what ordinary people think passes as character on TV. We see the proud, fall, the humble, survive, the talented, excell, etc, etc.

This is Fox formula reality television. It's all in the editing!!! But when the shock value wears off, it's all the same recycled nonsense. I've found that the ONLY way I would ever consider watching Hell's Kitchen is to DVR it ahead of time---give it at least a 15 minute head start--so I can fast forward through all of the "cliff-hangers" through all the commercials and back.
I'm a bit surprised at the "Prize" this year--running a restaurant in Canada for the Olympics? Then what? Strange that they're not handing out money as a prize anymore, isn't it? Maybe I'll just watch re-runs of Top Chef-Masters--it's a pleasure to watch REAL chefs compete (without all of the nastiness and venom).

Let's focus on what a fraud Gordon Ramsey really is. He has the gaul to position himself as the master culinary entreprenuer precisely as his restaurant empire teetered towards bankruptcy. He and his father-in-law were humbled into ponying up millions to gain some forebearance from their creditors. I wouldn't be surprised if all of Gordon's net proceeds from these TV programs goes to support the restaurants. But it doesn't look like many of the contestants could balance their own chequebooks so perhaps the real agenda of the show is to clone some more Gordon Ramseys for the World. Has anyone asked us if that is what we need? Perhaps the next series will be a cook-off of competing bankruptcy attorneys vying for Gordo's business.

I keep it simple.

White bread.
Mayo.
Tomato.

Eat.

Yikes. Tomatoes are my one food aversion I've never overcome. The idea of just eating a tomato sandwich to me is very yucky. I've tried everything, but I am just not a raw tomato eater.

a tomato sandwich has thick slices of tomato, a piece of cheese (whatever is handy), lettuce, butter on one slice of bread, and a little mayo on the other.

I prefer to grill it and make a tomato grilled cheese, though, if i access to a pan... (no mayo, another slice of cheese, butter on outside only, and no lettuce).

as for the bread as long as its hearty and not falling apart when i butter, i dont care.

1. bread, mayo, sliced red tomato, salt and pepper.
2. bread, mayo, sliced yellow tomato, salt and sprinkled parsley.
3. bread, mayo, sliced german tomato, salt and pepper and parsley.
with a glass of real cold milk. delish.

For me it has to be a fresh from the garden tomato, sliced, put on toasted homemade bread (can be any kind but not too squishy), spread with some Hellmann's and then a nice shmear of pesto sauce, Covered and eaten with face over a table or plate. Mmmm...

I also love chopped tomatoes in pita bread with some tzatziki sauce. Maybe a bit of onion.