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Favorite foods: Lychee fruit, wild blueberries, hot sauce, anything spicy, falafel, tzatziki, cashews, onion rings.

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The Ten Most Recent Comments By vituperatrix

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

I think it's wrong how whole classes of children are punished because of the behavior of others. Not all kids are obese and not all kids will turn obese simply because they eat a few cupcakes every month.

My siblings and I were all given at least one sweet snack everyday for school (e.g. chocolate chip cookies, rocky road granola bar, bag of chips, etc) and none of us had weight or health problems. However, we weren't going to McDonald's 5 times a week like some kids today appear to be doing.

What kind of a childhood would it be if kids weren't allowed to eat sweets? I still eat at least one sweet thing a day and I still don't have health or weight problems.

Let's not ban the sweets altogether. Why punish kids whose parents are responsible and aren't stuffing them full of Big Macs every day.

From Talk

What's Worse???

I'd rather have slow but gracious service. Amiableness can cure many ills.

From Talk

What's Worse???

Well done is great for people who prefer not to see blood in their meat. Bloody meat is just so caveman. If I wanted blood, I wouldn't bother cooking meat. I'd buy a hunk from the deli and my dog and I would fight over it on the kitchen floor while the blood is flying and the sinew is ripping. Ah, that sounds so lovely. Doesn't it?

From Required Eating

Hell's Kitchen's Rock Harper on 'Tarjay' and Bonnie's Breasts

I love Rock. He seems like a great guy. I hope he does well in Las Vegas and in the future at other restaurants.

From Talk

Help! I am rice challenged

If you prefer dry, fluffy rice to wet, sticky rice use this method:

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Forget the ratios of 2:1 etc, just ensure that there's a lot of water compared to the rice you plan on cooking. Rinse your rice. Throw your rinsed rice into the boiling water and allow it to cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes or until it looks mostly cooked. Test a few grains. Don't be afraid to test. I do not cover the pot while the rice is cooking.

When it seems the rice is almost cooked, drain the rice and place the drained rice into a casserole dish or other ovenproof dish. Put a little margarine or butter on top of the rice and bake in the covered dish for about 15 minutes at 350. Take it out of the oven, fluff it with a fork and it's ready to eat.

I've used this method with Jasmine, Basmati, etc, and the rice which normally turns out sticky when cooked in the normal way becomes perfectly dry, fluffy and clearly separated into individual grains. I hate wet, sticky, clumpy rice so I find this method is perfect.

From Recipes

Serious Sandwiches: The Girl & the Fig's Pork Tartine

I never know how to eat an open-faced sandwich. I tend to eat mine with a knife and fork because of the potential mess and awkward eating factors. Does one eat a tartine with a knife and fork or pick it up and eat it? And if you are eating it with your hands, how are you holding it so that the toppings actually stay on while you're biting and that you're not getting condiments all over your fingers?

I once saw a fellow diner attempt to eat an open-faced steak sandwich with her hands by the balancing the underside of the bread with her fingers while attempting to bite through layers of steak, cheese, onions, etc. She ended up with a bite of bread and most of the steak hanging from her mouth. You see, the second slice of bread really gives you something to squeeze onto in order to allow yourself an effective bite.

From Talk

Question of the Day: You have 6 lemons. What to make? GO!

Lemon vinaigrette to be served over chick pea salad.

From Talk

Question of the Day: You have 6 lemons. What to make? GO!

Lemon vinaigrette to be served over chick pea salad.

From Required Eating

Meet Our New Recruit

Yay! Robyn is the best. Serious Eats just made it's best decision ever. I hope you're paying that girl well, because she's worth it. Don't let Gourmet or Bon Apetit snap her up.

Responses to Comments by vituperatrix

From Talk

What's Worse???

A-1, well done & butterflied is PERFECT for people like me who aren't fans of blood & have spent a LOT of time around cattle (they are messy).

cheez whiz, I am a rotel addict.

expensive meal, I expect cheap fast food to be icky, not a fine dining experience that I have wheedled into my small budget

hates eating out (Oh the horror!)

fast impersonal, ick.

BOTH poor tipping & complaining

kids meal

apostrophe abuse

giant bad meal

bad entree

I AM finicky (have food allergies too so I'm NOT kidding when I say no tomatoes please!!!) & I am paying for what I order, so adjust. I do tip well as a result of my 'difficulty'.

seasons first, just taste it!

wow, both are bad, a perfect time to make rotel alone!

What is worse?
A) being served the wrong order
B) wishing you had been

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

I think everyone was in agreement that the school cafeteria needed to go on a diet. But banning cupcakes is tantamount to outlawing one of the last remaining bits of childhood that kids today have left. Merry-go-rounds, walking to school, trick-or-treating, and simply playing outside are now nearly things of the past.

OK, so the cupcake crisis is not exactly up there with global warming. But it is, nonetheless, important to our national heritage (and to our fundraisers), and it doesn’t take a think tank to solve the problem.

It’s apparent that the only way we’re going to have our cupcake and eat it, too, is to build a better one. Americans do it all the time. It’s our nature. Ban it? Why, when we can just improve it.

To be successful, it must be indistinguishable in flavor and texture from the original. Can it be done? It already has been done by hundreds of thousands of parents across America who have risen up (ahem…) and have overcome the cupcake crisis by simply adding a few healthy, and sneaky, ingredients.

As a “sneaky chef,” I discovered that because kids love them so much, cupcakes are the perfect “carrier” to deliver valuable hidden nutrition. How? By simply adding a few hidden ingredients. And what school nutritionist could object to a cupcake invisibly enhanced with pureed blueberries, spinach and whole wheat pastry flour, and with only half the fat and sugar?

With this simple solution–call it a “nutritional compromise”–our kids can enjoy a time honored tradition, and we can relax in the knowledge that they are also getting some much needed nutrition.

Parents, we must unite to save the cupcake, and the bake sale, as one of the last vestiges of childhood innocence and American nostalgia. By adding some sneaky nutrition, we can get cupcakes taken off the endangered species list and back into happy tummies. Let’s start baking again for fundraisers, and keep the fun in childhood and the specialness in birthdays.

It’s time to let ‘em know there’s a new cupcake in town!

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

When I was a kid (in the 80s), my schools didn't allow any treats at all in the classroom. We were told it was for food safety reasons- like the no homemade treats on Halloween idea. In hindsight, I doubt anyone really thought someone would try to poison their kids' class. They were some pretty inner city schools though so I imagine it was so the less well-off kids wouldn't feel bad if they couldn't bring anything in.

From Talk

What's Worse???

Well done.

What's worse?

A) Eating dinner at Jack in the Box with your ex-husband
B) Eating a steak & shrimp dinner with your best friend who slept with your ex-husband?

My answer? C

(For jaf: my answer for what's worse? #2 --- someone who hates cooking)

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

Talk about a "Knee Jerk" reaction! The cupcakes are certainly not the problem. Shorter recesses, less frequent gym classes, school lunches full of starchy, overcooked, over-processed foods are some of the real problems that need to be addressed. It is amazing to me sometimes how the people who are responsible for educating our children can be so unintelligent!

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

To the question of raising one's own children (ie, parents being deemed "unfit")...the cupcake thing isn't a question of one's own children, but rather all of the children in that particular class or school. If a parent wishes to send a cupcake with their own kid to school, excellent.

I'm very confused about the notion that not having cupcakes at school is some sort of punishment for children. Certainly parents can organize birthday parties outside of school where they can serve cakes of many varieties.

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

Maybe these schools who are banning sweets and cupcakes ought to stop making chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza "healthy" lunch fare.

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

Maybe instead of "No Child Left Behind" it should be "No Child's Fat Behind."

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

Is there a reason that all parents are now being deemed unfit to raise their children the way they choose? Why do we need all this outside policing and influence from schools and society? A better approach might be to target the source like parents that don't have time, knowledge or money to teach their kids healthy nutrition and lifestyle, or advertising that pushes extremely bad food on kids, then we would see real and long lasting impact.

I really agree with lemons on the whole recess thing, people complain that their kids are fat, but don't let them go out and play because they might get hurt.

From Required Eating

Cupcake Crackdown: Have the Food Police Gone Too Far?

I just love Robyn's photo titles. Crack me up every time.

As far as the cupcake issue goes, we didn't have cupcakes in school. On the other hand, many students sold chocolate, lollipops and other treats to raise funds for their sports teams or other pursuits during school. Does this stop as well? And, what about Girl Scout Cookies?