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Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-laas

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The Ten Most Recent Comments By mslaas

From Required Eating

Where's the (Kosher) Beef?

I gather from reading the Iowa papers that some sort of shakedown at Agriprocessors has been a long time coming. Along with the immigration issues the company had problems with workplace safety, environmental violations, sexual harassment and even trouble paying their workers on time. The meatpacking plant employees were a big part of the population in Postville, and the tiny burg might become a ghost town without them.

If there could be a silver lining to this it would be that kosher meat customers might demand that Agriprocessors clean up its act. Shady business practices in meat processing isn't limited to Agriprocessors, but Jews who keep kosher would have pull with the company. Whether anyone has pull with the immigration authorities who authorized the raid and the deportations is another question.

mslaas at 5:10PM on 05/21/08

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: Wine Bar Food

I like rich foods with yeasty brut champagne, like pate or salty nuts, like almonds. I really like to eat fried things with champagne. Most recently I fried squid and ate them standing up in the kitchen, when they were still piping hot - both the food and the ambiance went nicely with glasses of champagne...

mslaas at 4:21PM on 05/12/08

From Required Eating

Poutine: Curdy Canadian Comfort

I insisted on eating poutine while I was in Montreal for the jazz festival last summer. I was in Quebec, and I was determined to eat the national dish. I'll admit that I wasn't overwhelmed by the experience, probably because the gravy and cheese curds were not top quality. As my companion and I were finishing our beers and gazing uneasily at the empty plate the waiter came by and asked us, "Well? Was it almost good?"

mslaas at 9:09PM on 05/06/08

From Required Eating

Put Down the Scotch and Step Away from the Shaker

I like my single malt neat, but on rare occasions a rusty nail does the trick. It's equal parts drambuie and scotch served over ice. Curiously, it gets better as the ice melts. But I save blended scotch for this - there's no use in blunting the subtleties of a good scotch.

mslaas at 6:29PM on 01/17/08

From Required Eating

Mike Huckabee May Not Be the Serious Eaters' Choice

The Olive Garden mention was total red meat for Chafets's East Coast, high-class readership - it helped us size up Huckabee in one fell swoop, a la "well, if he thinks the Olive Garden is good Italian food, he must be a bumpkin..." It's a bit of a dig, sure, but Huck - a guy who didn't even bother to bone up on the NIE on Iran - might deserve it.

A way better dig against Huckabee was when Chafets called him out on describing the previous Arkansas governor's refusal to resign "the greatest constitutional crisis in Arkansas history" - Huck ignored the state's succession from the Union and the forcible integration of a Little Rock high school. This point isn't topical for a food blog, but it sure is delicious.

mslaas at 4:59PM on 12/17/07

From Required Eating

Has Today's Food Writing Gone to Pot?

Let a thousand food writers' voices bloom and all that, but Levy is right that a fair number of writers use bluster and bravado to cover up for the fact that they aren't great stylists. Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential was gripping as a tell-all about what goes on in professional kitchens, but it wasn't much more than that. It's too bad that Bourdain's approach has lead readers and writers to confuse clever insults with insight. Having a knack for tart, distainful commentary does not make for a smart critic or a honest writer - it makes for a one-trick pony.

mslaas at 12:02PM on 09/27/07

Responses to Comments by mslaas

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: Wine Bar Food

Thank you for participating, and congratulations to our winners:

garrettsambo
bria
akeeran21
tactful_cactus
negociants

Winners have been notified by email.

roboppy at 11:32AM on 05/22/08

From Required Eating

Where's the (Kosher) Beef?

The least of the concerns in postville is that it becomes a ghost town. The processing plant (which was shut down by previous owners) brought an onslaught of shady characters from eastern europe, central america, and western africa. The crime rate and gang activity was more than this very small town could handle and it essentailly became a "company" town then. The workers were the least of the problems, the horrid working conditions brought the dis enfranchised from all over but most dangerously also brought those that feed on hte disenfranchised. This was stuck in iowa away from the site of any informed consumer ..... On purpose.

The town has rallied to help the families setting up temporary housing, opening churches, etc.

Lemoyne at 6:31PM on 05/21/08

From Required Eating

Where's the (Kosher) Beef?

"whether anyone has pull with the immigration authorities who authorized the raid and the deportations is another question."
umm.... So you're saying it's okay to hire illegals, just as long as people get their kosher beef? (...shaking head, sighing)
Isn't "keeping kosher" spiritually based?
Here's a link regarding kosher slaughter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shochet

It would seem to me that a business that is breaking the law, by hiring illegals, giving them unsafe working conditions, causing damage to the environment, and sexually harrassing their workers, wouldn't be terribly "kosher" in the most spirtual sense.

I would hope people who would be trying to be kosher wouldn't stand for such treatment to their beef ....or other human beings. I do hope that more kosher beef eaters encourage the meatpacking companies to clean up their act, rather than "use their pull with immigration".

bisbee at 6:09PM on 05/21/08

From Required Eating