There's nothing worse than a terribly mediocre, or just plain bad, meal, especially when it's not cheap. When this happens, I actually get really mad, and it puts a damper on my mood. I think it's such a waste, not just in terms of money, but also a waste of stomach space and calories. And then I am full of regret :(

When was the last time you had a meal that was so disappointing, that you got mad?

My most recent regretful meal was eating at a food court, where I ordered a "falafel platter". It was over $5 and the falafel was microwaved greasy rocks, served with some sad leaves of iceberg lettuce and onions that got drenched in some kind of vinegar, and cardboard "pita bread" that soaked up some of that vinegar. I ate one of the falafel, some bread, and the lettuce. Worst. Meal. Ever. I wasn't expecting much, since it was a food court, but Panda Express would have been infinitely better.

I am going to be visiting my boyfriend this weekend in Chicago, and celebrating my birthday(it's Jan 19th). Any recommendations for affordable restaurants? I emphasize affordable since we are poor college/post-grad students. I am an adventurous eater; I like any kind of ethnic foods and love spicy foods.

He lives in Lakeview, so a restaurant in that vicinity would be nice. I am driving up, so driving to the restaurant could also be an option.

Thanks!

I just registered for the Rock n' Roll half marathon in October! This is my first half marathon and I'm starting now to train for it. I've never been a consistent runner, but I do run on and off.

Now I trying to run every other day on the weekdays and doing my long run on Saturday. This week's mileage is about 27 miles. I find that I have a huge appetite, even more so than usual... I've been eating a lot more carbs, especially.

Just curious about other Serious Eaters who are runners and what kind of foods you eat during your training. Any good recipes for pre-race carb loading, advice, carb to protein ratio, etc? What kinds of foods do you eat before running and for recovery?

There used to be a page with all the old columns (Nasty Bits, French in a Flash, Grocery Girl, Eat for Eight Bucks, etc.)
I might be blind, but I can't seem to find it. The page with all the old columns was pretty useful.

Some people eat their Thanksgiving feast earlier in the day while others eat it at a more "normal" dinner time. Is this a regional thing, personal preference, or logistical thing (i.e. to allow time for travelling to relative/friends' houses)?

When I lived in Idaho we ate Thanksgiving dinner around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but once we moved to the East Coast (DC 'burbs), we ate dinner in the evening. We don't have extended relatives living nearby, so dinner is usually an immediate family affair or with family friends.

When do you usually begin the feasting and why? This year I am considering starting dinner earlier in the afternoon. We'll see...

Inspired by the thread: What's your favortite food smell?

This time around, what food smells do you dislike or hate? I'm not talking about things that are inherently bad, like rotten eggs or something else equally putrid. Just normal scents of foods that make you gag or are unpleasant to be around.

For me, it's the smell of bacon. I don't love it, but I'll eat it if it's in something. I just hate how the smell permeates everything when it's cooking.

I am taking a course in the anthropology of food and I have to write a research paper. It can be pretty much on anything related to food and culture.
I am having a bit of trouble coming up with an interesting research topic. I want to write about something that's exciting to me... it has to be about 20 pages. Also, I prefer the topic to be locally relevant, either in St. Louis, MO, or the US.
Are there any food and culture related questions that you want answered? Or any recent food issues and topics that need to be addressed? I just need ideas, so throw 'em at me!
Thanks :)

The changing season always make me crave comforting fall flavors: pumpkin, apples, warm spices. A few friends and I are getting together to celebrate fall. We are going to a pick-your-own farm and getting apples and possibly pumpkins. Then, we are having a FEAST.
Any ideas as to what I should make? I am helping to plan the menu, and so far, I am thinking of pumpkin soup made with a whole pumpkin (soup inside the pumpkin). Has anyone ever attempt this and make it work? I can imagine worse case scenario where the pumpkin ruptures and spills soup all over the oven.
We did stuffed acorn squash last year, but it was so good I don't mind repeating it. We had an apple and sausage stuffing.
Dessert-wise, I am thinking traditional apple and pumpkin pies. Or maybe some other kind of apple-y pastry. Or CARAMEL apple pie. hmmm...
What else... we need something vegetal (greens/salad). I'm also not a huge fan of meat, so no huge roast or anything.
Please contribute to my brainstorming if you have any ideas. Thanks a bunch!

It's that time of the year when pumpkin-y, season-y spiced foods and drinks are becoming available. I just tried some Schlafly Pumpkin Ale for the first time. I enjoy the spices, but the syrupy mouthfeel is a bit too much for me.
I would like to try other seasonally available beers. Any recommendations? I am in the St. Louis area, btw, in case there are some other regionally available beers you can recommend me.
What are you drinking as the seasons are changing?

I've been cooking most of my life and consider myself pretty skilled with a knife. However, sometimes I get careless and cut myself. At least I have a good, sharp knife, so the cuts are pretty clean and heal well. However, many times, the cuts are deep and bleed a lot.

Today, I was chopping herbs and got a bit too close. I snipped the tip of my thumb off, but thankfully it was mostly fingernail. It was deep enough to bleed significantly, though, and now that it's a few hours later, it's starting to throb ): Owie... I was just starting to cook dinner, too, so I had to cook thumbless, trying to keep it dry. I had to clean and devein shrimp with one thumb, which was pretty challenging. Dinner got cooked, though, and it was delicious, so all is well.

Anybody else as careless as me? It happens to everyone, but I feel like I cut myself rather often. Care to share your knife cut story?

Had a delicious lunch and dinner today. I went to the farmer's market this morning and bought heirloom tomatoes, patty pan squash, and zucchini.

For lunch, I made pizza with dough that has been fermenting in the fridge for 3 days. One was topped with tomato, onion, spinach, basil and mozzarella. The other one, my favourite, was topped with caramelized onion, banana peppers, tomato, olives, and mozzarella. I also topped it with fresh arugula. It was the perfect combination of salty, sweet, and sour.

Dinner was grilled, marinated shell-on shrimp. Also grilled that patty pan squash (tried it for the first time), sweet potato, white potato, and lotus root. Another dish was stir fried lotus root with pork and jalepeno. Had a gin and tonic to drink. It was a very satisfying meal :)

What are you cooking up this weekend?

I am spening a long weekend in the Black Forest in southern Germany next week. I am definitely going to try specialties of the region, like the famous Black Forest Cake.

I am looking for recommendations for foods to try, restaurants/cafes/bars/hole-in-the-walls, etc. Also, what kind of food souvenirs should I bring back? (I am going "back" to Goettingen, Germany for 4 weeks after the trip, and then to the US, so I can get food souvenirs that are illegal to bring back to the US. I'll just eat it before I go back home)

I will be in the "Suedlicher Schwarzwald", the southern portion around Freiburg, Titisee-Neuestadt, and Triberg. If you know of a great little village/town that I should visit, please mention that too!

I'll be studying abroad in Goettingen, Germany for 8 weeks. I'll also be travelling around the country on the weekends. What are must eats/drinks (aka beer)? I'm open to any suggestions! I'm a very adventurous eater and I want to try as much food as possible :)

Also, of course I'll be looking to take home food souvenirs (like I would buy any other kind!). What is worth to bring back? And is it legal? If not, any smuggling tips? (I'm half-joking)

Apparently, May 6th is Beverage Day.
I guess we celebrate by drinking... beverages. Cheers :)

I have recently gotten into this food blogging thing. You know, it's the latest craze and food blogs are popping up everywhere. Most are mediocre, some down right bad. But there are a few that become widely popular, and everyone seems to have heard about them (Pioneer Woman, Smitten Kitchen, off the top of my head). These blogs lead to cook books, book tours, fame.
Well, I'm not that ambitious, at least not yet, since I am new to this whole thing. So I want to ask those who are more experienced: what makes a food blog successful? A clean layout, cool graphics, frequent updates, good recipes? I know some of these are obvious, but I would like some advice to I can become a better blogger.
Your help is greatly appreciated!

I've been on a health kick lately. With the upcoming spring, I am craving fresh veggies and fruits. I make this smoothie everyday to get enough green leafy vegetables, and it tastes great! A green smoothie can be made with anything, really. Just use whatever fruits you like, and add a large bunch of some dark, leafy greens. Herbs, like basil and parsley, are also good.
In addition to fruits and veggies, I also added chia seeds to boost its protein and omega-3's. Other healthy additions are flax seeds, nuts, goji berries, etc.
Recipe from here
Have you ever had a green smoothie? And what's your favorite combination?

I want to buy my mother a meat grinder for Christmas. I'm hoping to find a good one, but relatively cheap (under $100). It will probably be used infrequently. Can anyone recommend any models?
Also, my mother mainly cooks Chinese food. Other than making ground pork for wontons and stir fries, what other Asian-oriented recipes could she try with it? She doesn't make things like meatloaf, sausage, meatballs, or hamburgers, though my brother or I could make use of it for those applications. I could always teach her how to make these thing, of course. I am just trying to figure out if getting a meat grinder would be practical.

I bought a lot of fresh herbs for my Thanksgiving recipes, and I only used a bit of each. Now, I have a lot of fresh herbs that I don't know what to do with. I have rosemary, thyme, and sage. I usually don't use these herb fresh, so I need some ideas on how to use them up.
I am also leaving home in three days, so I need recipes that call for a lot of herbs.
I could freeze them, but I don't live at home, so they won't get used until around Christmas time. Maybe they will still be good, then?

Apple picking is a fall tradition. I went every fall when I lived with my parents, and we would pick enough apples to last us through a good part of the winter. Everytime I pick apples, I eat as many apples as I can. It is pure bliss to be crunching on a sweet, fresh-from-the-tree apple on a sunny, autumn day.
Today, I finally got to go apple picking. I haven't been in two years, since I moved to St. Louis, so I've been suffering from apple-picking withdrawal. I went a little crazy today, and ended up munching 9 apples. Oh the shame, but I haven't eaten much fruit lately! I bought about 9 lbs of Suncrisps, which I will savor in the next few weeks. I like to eat apples out of hand, but I also want to make something with them.
My favourite varieties are Suncrisp, Pink Lady, and Gala. Yes, my apples must have a tartness to them. Unfortunately, the farm that I went to today only had Fuji and Suncrisp left, since it is nearing the end of the picking season.
Does anyone else have an apple-picking tradition? What are your favourite apples to pick?
Also, does anyone have suggestions for savoury recipes?

What's on yours?

There are so many places I want to travel to just to experience the food that I don't even know where to begin. I wish I can travel all over the place and get to try all different kinds of food.
I also want to experience fine dining and drop a few hundred bucks on a tasting menu or something. I'm not usually interested in ridiculously priced gourmet food, but I think fine dining is something to experience at least one in my life.

Hope to hear some of your ideas. What is something that you always wanted to do in your life time (that is food related, of course)?

I ordered a pre-seasoned Old Mountain cast iron grill pan from Amazon and it just arrived in the mail (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AT911Y/ref=oss_product) It is double sided with the grill on one side and a griddle on the other and it fits over two burners. This is the first grill pan I have ever owned. I also don't have a grill, so I am excited to learn to grill indoors.
I am planning to use it today, and I plan to grill a steak on it. I am also going to grill veggies, like eggplant, onion, peppers, potatoes, scallions, etc. Any other suggestions/recipes to make on a grill pan?

One concern I have is that there was a review of the product on Amazon that said their pan cracked after a few uses. I have gas burners. Is there a way to heat the grill pan carefully to prevent it from cracking? I'm afraid of scorching hot chards of iron flying all over my kitchen. Maybe I should start with the lowest flame to let it slowly heat up? Does anyone have this particular cast iron grill pan and know if it is good quality?
Maybe this could make a good article for those kitchen gadget reviews (hint hint ;))