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And no fat on a whole chicken, you say?
No interstitial fat or connective tissue (the necessary elements for good barbecue, which has the same, albeit dryier and smokier, effect on meat as braising) on the white meat of a whole chicken. And certainly none on a pork loin.
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The rum article was entertaining, and so was the printed recipe for rum and tonic.
You know, I always wondered how to make a rum and tonic. I mean I can make a pretty mean gin and tonic, but I could never quite figure out how to make a rum and tonic. Genius!
I've never done anything for the New Regime but, having written a couple of pieces for the Post a few years back, I think that the inclusion of all appropriate recipes -- regardless of how obvious or absurd -- is just SOP. There's always one person out there who won't get it but will complain.
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No interstitial fat or connective tissue (the necessary elements for good barbecue, which has the same, albeit dryier and smokier, effect on meat as braising) on the white meat of a whole chicken. And certainly none on a pork loin.

Of course I'm fully aware of what good pure barbecue requires, and have done it much myself ever since I was a kid in West Texas wrestling with the converted oil drum in the backyard. That's why I referred to this as grilling in the piece. More importantly, Lefty knew exactly what he was getting into, he had a blast, and he did perfectly well. At his restaurant, btw, he grills pork chops, steaks and burgers besides the low-and-slow stuff.

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I've never done anything for the New Regime but, having written a couple of pieces for the Post a few years back, I think that the inclusion of all appropriate recipes -- regardless of how obvious or absurd -- is just SOP. There's always one person out there who won't get it but will complain.
Of course. Thanks for the inside scoop.

I don't see what the issue is about grilling a whole chicken. Of course it's not real barbecue, but the article was fun. Though the hick vs. city slicker with book learnin' meme was just a little exaggerated.

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Sure, you called it grilling. But you brought in a "pit master" famous for his "hickory- and cherry wood-smoked ribs, chicken, pulled pork" at a Waldork barbecue place for a "Smackdown" (was "Throwdown" taken?).

And my heavy-duty, external-firebox, big-as-you-can-buy-in-a-strip-mall smoker costs less than that Weber kettle you gave him.

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Sure, you called it grilling. But you brought in a "pit master" famous for his "hickory- and cherry wood-smoked ribs, chicken, pulled pork" at a Waldork barbecue place for a "Smackdown" (was "Throwdown" taken?).

And my heavy-duty, external-firebox, big-as-you-can-buy-in-a-strip-mall smoker costs less than that Weber kettle you gave him.

Yep, we did bring him in, much to his delight. And the pit master was a hoot! He helped demonstrate all the issues I wanted to demonstrate, as did Doug Anderson. And "smackdown" is better than "throwdown," dontcha know, cause "throwdown" is too close to, well... something unappetizing for a food story.

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Speaking of mistakes in recipes: The "Dinner in 25 Minutes" recipe sounds very nice. Until you get to the last step, which instructs you to bring the sauce to a boil and "whisk in a pinch of corn starch." The list of ingredients calls for a teaspoon of corn starch. So, what happens when you throw some starch directly into a hot liquid???? A bunch of disgusting, undissolved lumps, that's what.

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I've never done anything for the New Regime but, having written a couple of pieces for the Post a few years back, I think that the inclusion of all appropriate recipes -- regardless of how obvious or absurd -- is just SOP. There's always one person out there who won't get it but will complain.
I understand including a recipe as SOP, but the writer could have chosen to make something just slightly less simplistic than a rum and tonic. I am not suggesting he start with a Zombie, but maybe a Pink rum and tonic, or a Flamingo would have made for more interesting reading.
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I'm just really curious why the Post food section doesn't go online until 9AM Wednesday morning. The New York Times food section goes up precisely at midnight Tuesday. The print deadline is noon on Monday. What's the scoop?
Not sure, but I'm curious as to why you post here instead of emailing them to ask? Either email TS directly, or use the "contact us" link on their website. I imagine most companies would want to hear the feedback as it often will spur changes. Then report back here what response, if any, you get. (I've emailed a question to TS directly in the past, and was pleasantly surprised by a very prompt response--it's not always necessary to post on the "chat")

(ETA: it's online now--you just didn't stay awake long enough ;) )

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I'm somewhat conflicted about commenting on this, because I don't intend to start any kind of row, but Alison Swope's recipes (or at least a couple of them) in the Chef on Call today really had me shaking my head. I thought the barley risotto looked good, and I could see why the one client raved about it. Pearl barley is cheap, nutritious, and filling and good in various preparations. But, the cost of some of the ingredients in the other recipes seemed not to fit the project (or what i understood it to be). This is the article. The recipes are linked in the sidebar.

It's easier to criticize someone else than to go out and volunteer and teach people about nutrition and cooking, and I certainly applaud Chef Swope for doing that. I've lived on slender food budgets, and it can be hard to eat healthy foods all the time, and you don't want to feel deprived. Still, the selection and use of some of the ingredients really has me puzzled.

For the chicken recipe, it makes sense to teach people how to cut up a whole chicken and make the best use of all of it. Some of the other ingredients, though, just... Two kinds of fresh herbs just to use a couple of sprigs?! That's a couple bucks a pop. Two kinds of fresh citrus peel? Peeling strips off lemons and oranges means you have to buy lemons and oranges and find ways to use them so they don't dry out from having part of the peel gone. And the peel gets discarded at the end of the recipe anyway. Emphasizing using good-quality brined olives over canned as a way of imparting flavor makes sense if you have cash for buying good-quality olives, but canned olives in water are a good deal cheaper. Dates are great, but raisins would be cheaper and more readily available. One could use the same type of raisins in the chicken as in the apple crisp and just buy the one thing. Is it really sensible to be burning off 3/4 of a cup of apple juice or cider for that recipe when someone could be drinking it?

And the salad :angry:. It's great to use avocado as a healthy source of fat, but avocados are up well over $2 a piece now, based on my recent shopping trips (weather in California a while back is the cause, I believe). It says you can substitute cranberry for pomegranate juice (expensive and not always available), but for that type of recipe you're going to want unsweetened cranberry juice, which is going to be harder to find and (I'm guessing) more expensive than sweetened. I'm also going to venture that pre-packaged baby spinach is not the cheapest salad green, either. I have no comment on the price of grapefruits. Haven't bought any in while. Couldn't the unused oranges that are being partially peeled for the chicken be used in the salad instead?

Maybe I'm way off base and I'm sure someone will tell me if I am B).

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First, I'd like to say that I hope that Yonan has put on his calendar "check back on Rock in a year." Nothing I saw on the show or read in the article has really let me know whether he's an arrogant ass, a talented and visionary chef, or just a good who's got a hot hand for the moment. Seeing what he's up to in a year wil be interesting.

Second, I'm going to take issue with Pat. I mean, one reason poor people (from broke college students to the long-term poor) eat crap is because fatty, salty food tastes great. Take away the herbs and citrus from a lot of these dishes and what do you get? Bland stuff that flings diners back in the arms of the Tater Tots and fried chicken. Besides, I shop in the kind of down-at the heels bodega that gets a lot of less affluent customers. In season, lemons and limes go four and five to the buck, (I don't know what they get for oranges and grapefruit, but I know it's a lot less than Safeway or Whole Foods). Avocadoes, which are not really in season, are just $1.39. A bundle of thyme is something like $1.89 and jarred thyme, like the bay leaf, is essentially free over the course of a year.

I don't buy the idea that people who have less money are obligated, inclined or even forced to forego a good meal. I had a friend whose family had been on welfare for an extended period of time (long-term success stories all around, btw) and someone made an offhand criticism of welfare families buying butter instead of margarine. She shot back something to the effect of "you don't have the vaguest idea how important something that small can be." A couple of modest indulgences over the course of a meal or three are a luxury to which even the poorest should have access, and can increase a too-short global supply of good karma.

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Second, I'm going to take issue with Pat. I mean, one reason poor people (from broke college students to the long-term poor) eat crap is because fatty, salty food tastes great. Take away the herbs and citrus from a lot of these dishes and what do you get? Bland stuff that flings diners back in the arms of the Tater Tots and fried chicken. Besides, I shop in the kind of down-at the heels bodega that gets a lot of less affluent customers. In season, lemons and limes go four and five to the buck, (I don't know what they get for oranges and grapefruit, but I know it's a lot less than Safeway or Whole Foods). Avocadoes, which are not really in season, are just $1.39. A bundle of thyme is something like $1.89 and jarred thyme, like the bay leaf, is essentially free over the course of a year.

I don't buy the idea that people who have less money are obligated, inclined or even forced to forego a good meal.

I don't think people on a limited budget should have to do without good quality flavorful food. I'm questioning the use of some ingredients rather than others that would seem more cost-effective but equally healthy and close to as flavorful. How do you balance relatively small qualitative differences in flavor against the price differential for one type of ingredient as opposed to another? That's something individuals have to answer for themselves. I don't know that I'd be reducing apple cider to make an apple crisp just that much better if it meant having to head back to the store that much sooner to buy apple cider to drink.

The recipe that really jumped out at me was the salad, as it looked like that alone couldn't be made for under $10, based on typical prices at my neighborhood Safeway. (Maybe I'll have to take a notepad with me to Safeway and see if my impression is accurate :angry: .) Personally, I doubt I'd spend that much on salad ingredients unless if it were for a special occasion, but that's me. I gathered that the lessons on this class/article were to improve the quality of people's everyday eating on a tight budget. The recipes suggested were then published for a general audience.

The availability of ingredients is certainly an issue and some people may have better access to places with cheap produce than others do. In how many parts of the city are high quality brined olives available? Given that Chef Swope was trying to work with variable ingredients that may or may not show up in people's food bags, part of the lesson seemed to be in how to utilize what you've got to make a healthy meal. Not using fresh oregano if you have it handed to you would be a problem in the other direction.

I'm questioning things such as how realistic it is to expect people to buy fresh thyme and oregano to infuse flavor into a sauce when a small amount of the dried herbs (staples that can be kept in the pantry for a prolonged time) could be used just as easily. A tablespoon of orange juice from the refrigerator (presuming that's an item people keep on hand) would add flavor to the sauce for the chicken. Because the barley dish was one that I had no qualms about, I didn't examine the ingredients as closely as I did for the other recipes. That also called for fresh thyme, so if these recipes were meant to be made together, that would make more sense in terms of the expenditure for the herbs. The salad dressing used a little lemon juice, so that could utilize more of the lemon being peeled for the chicken dish. (Many of my initial comments were based on thinking this was set up to be a meal with 4 components: salad, poultry main dish, grain side dish, and dessert.)

My primary concern with this was the cost and availability of some the ingredients if people on a limited income were going to have to be buying them. Pomegranate or cranberry juice might add a lot of vitamins, but that's only part of the equation.

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I think you raise a valid point as does Waitman. But this issue could be solved by capping the amount of money per person, per day to a dollar amount allowing the chef to cook tasty meals with a budget in mind. I remember when I was growing up in Spain Karlos Arguinano (I mention his name b/c he's quite famous and has a 2 or 3 michelin star restaurant in San Sebastian) had a cooking show where he capped himself at 10 dollars (1000 pesetas back then) and had to make a meal for 2, it was a great show and lasted a while until he got the ax in favor of Jose Andres' show

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I'm somewhat conflicted about commenting on this, because I don't intend to start any kind of row, but Alison Swope's recipes (or at least a couple of them) in the Chef on Call today really had me shaking my head. I thought the barley risotto looked good, and I could see why the one client raved about it. Pearl barley is cheap, nutritious, and filling and good in various preparations. But, the cost of some of the ingredients in the other recipes seemed not to fit the project (or what i understood it to be). This is the article. The recipes are linked in the sidebar.

It's easier to criticize someone else than to go out and volunteer and teach people about nutrition and cooking, and I certainly applaud Chef Swope for doing that. I've lived on slender food budgets, and it can be hard to eat healthy foods all the time, and you don't want to feel deprived. Still, the selection and use of some of the ingredients really has me puzzled.

For the chicken recipe, it makes sense to teach people how to cut up a whole chicken and make the best use of all of it. Some of the other ingredients, though, just... Two kinds of fresh herbs just to use a couple of sprigs?! That's a couple bucks a pop. Two kinds of fresh citrus peel? Peeling strips off lemons and oranges means you have to buy lemons and oranges and find ways to use them so they don't dry out from having part of the peel gone. And the peel gets discarded at the end of the recipe anyway. Emphasizing using good-quality brined olives over canned as a way of imparting flavor makes sense if you have cash for buying good-quality olives, but canned olives in water are a good deal cheaper. Dates are great, but raisins would be cheaper and more readily available. One could use the same type of raisins in the chicken as in the apple crisp and just buy the one thing. Is it really sensible to be burning off 3/4 of a cup of apple juice or cider for that recipe when someone could be drinking it?

And the salad :angry:. It's great to use avocado as a healthy source of fat, but avocados are up well over $2 a piece now, based on my recent shopping trips (weather in California a while back is the cause, I believe). It says you can substitute cranberry for pomegranate juice (expensive and not always available), but for that type of recipe you're going to want unsweetened cranberry juice, which is going to be harder to find and (I'm guessing) more expensive than sweetened. I'm also going to venture that pre-packaged baby spinach is not the cheapest salad green, either. I have no comment on the price of grapefruits. Haven't bought any in while. Couldn't the unused oranges that are being partially peeled for the chicken be used in the salad instead?

Maybe I'm way off base and I'm sure someone will tell me if I am B).

Yes, you are, and I will. First of all, Alison Swope, having taught at DC Central Kitchen in the past and having been an active participant in Share Our Strength and other like events for many years, in addition to knowledge she possesses as a chef de facto, is fully aware of what things cost.

She also knows that poor does not mean unsophisticated. People make choices with the resources they have. The question was raised at the lesson if another juice could be substituted for pomegranate or another fruit for the dates. The questions were not a function of cost; they were a function of taste. ("I don't like pomegranate juice. Can I use something else?" Another attendee said, "I love pomegranate juice!")

Having had experience of my own subsisting on $5 a day, I know that avocadoes regularly go on sale for $.99, and one avocado can last for 4 days used on a salad or in a sandwich.

She used spinach because it is an ingredient that could easily be donated from the Anacostia farmers market, with which BFC has a gleaning arrangement. Also, bags of spinach often go on sale for $2, and one bag is sufficient to make a salad for 4 people.

Dates cost $5.99/lb, but are available in bulk and can be bought by the piece; 4 or 5 dates would cost less than a dollar for the recipe for 4 people. Raisins cost $2.79/lb. Alison, when asked, informed the clients that they could use any dried fruit they wished to. Again, the question was posed as a fucntion of taste preference rather than cost.

Brined olives are also sold in bulk, and I have witnessed on several occasions, low-income people purchasing them at Whole Foods.

A tablespoon of orange juice does not have nearly the flavor of a strip of oil-rich lemon zest. As you pointed out, using the zest leaves the rest of the lemon/orange, etc. in tact for other uses.

Due to space constraints, not everything that occurred during the lesson could be reported. Chef Swope indicated that dried herbs could be used instead of fresh, with the caveat that they should use a lot less of the dried variety because of their greater intensity. The attendees were also informed that all of the fresh herbs Alison used were being grown at the Seventh Street Garden next door and they could get them there for free if they wished. Also, Bar Pilar grows fresh herbs in giant bins in front of the space and next to the bus stop at the corner of 14th and T. On many occasions I have seen people waiting for the bus avail themselves of those herbs, which they are welcome to do, or at least were when Barton Seaver was the chef there.

Moreover, I purchased pots of fresh herbs at a garden center at the beginning of the summer for $1.79 each and have not had to buy any more for the entire summer. Herbs do not just come in ridiculously overpriced plastic packages for $2. An interest in gardening and the wherewithal to indulge that interest are not characteristics reserved for the economically privileged.

It is sensible to reduce apple juice as a way to cut the amount of refined sugar used in a recipe that serves four people. The nutritional reward outweighs the benefit of one person using that amount of juice as a beverage, if you buy into the absurd notion that the clients of BFC are in such dire straits that they would be faced with having to choose between reducing 12 ounces of apple juice and dying of thirst.

Whereas I am pleased that you read this piece, I am saddened that you seem to have missed the point of it, which, as its writer, I would view as a failure had I not received so many positive responses from others who did get it.

Fit for Fun's goal is to shift the low-income-poor health paradigm by addressing directly the root causes of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease: poor diet and lack of exercise. BFC seeks to change unhealthful eating habits by educating people in a supportive, respectful environment and empowering them to participate proactively in what will hopefully be a prolonged future.

As BFC's executive director says, which I quoted in the piece, "People may be poor, but they don't have to eat like they're poor." Alison Swope proves that point at her new restaurant, where the spinach salad and the braised chicken with dates and olives she prepared at BFC appear on the menu. In Alison's book, even people on K Street should eat as well as those on Seventh Street.

So I encourage readers and bloggers to rethink their choices when donating to food banks. It does not take much time to cull through a cupboard, find a package of dried apricots or a bottle of olive oil, and take it to Seventh Street. In fact, it takes much less time to do that than it does to pull apart a chicken or an article about someone making a difference.

David Hagedorn

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Whereas I am pleased that you read this piece, I am saddened that you seem to have missed the point of it, which, as its writer, I would view as a failure had I not received so many positive responses from others who did get it.
I don't believe that I did miss the point of the article, but I felt that the published recipes seemed somewhat at odds with what I took to be the point. It may well be that the recipes selected for publication in the Post were intended for a different audience than the original class targeted. I realize that you could not (absent publishing a transcript) cover everything discussed in the class, but dried herbs were not offered as an alternative in the chicken recipe. It was hard to tell just which fresh produce would be readily available for people in the program and what they would have to buy. Since the contents of the food bags are variable--a point you made--that was understandable. One thing I am not clear on is whether those 4 recipes were samples of four courses or intended to be prepared together as one meal.

I followed up on my original comments already, so I don't need to go into a reiteration of my belief that people should be able to enjoy healthy flavorful food, regardless of their income. And while ingredients do go on sale (only $5.54 for a quart of pomegranate juice at Safeway yesterday, comparatively cheaper than a pint of POM at $4.99; 6 oz. of prepackaged baby spinach, normally $3.49--buy one and get one free), people have to be able to get to the places that have them to get the items cheaply.

Finally, I was not launching an attack on you or Chef Swope, and I tried to make that clear.

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I was too distracted by the burgers to concentrate on any of the other articles.

Yes, it was a fun article to read. I wonder why Colorado Kitchen's burger did not make the list? Was it because of the fact that it is only offered on Thursday's and Sunday's? It is a great burger and even better at only $7.50, which you can add grilled onions and/or bacon for a small extra charge. I think it may be time for a burger crawl.

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Is this where one also sings praise for good articles in general?

Because of the record-breaking dry spell, each time I pass a working public fountain or a sprinkler these days, I cringe and worry about farms and reservoirs in the area. Earlier in the growing season, a gov't administrator who came to Washington after giving up farming said that the drought was no big deal given irrigation systems. Hmmm.

At any rate, I was grateful for Jane Black's article on October 17 since it addresses an issue that hadn't occured to me: "Grass Fed? Not Without Grass".

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Yesterday's piece on tailgating was a joke. Why would they choose to highlight a Lions fan (who had never been to FedEx) to showcase the ethnic food available? Oh, I know why, because tailgating at FedEx sucks. Out of the dozen NFL stadiums I have visited and I make sure to tailgate at all of them, M&T ranks in the top 5 (with Arrowhead, Lambeau, the Link, and Solider Field -- 31st St. Lot.), FedEx well that is by far the worst, but it is fitting since it is the worst stadium I have been to.

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Senor Andres brings Iberico ham to DC today...according to the New York Times. The WashPo scoops the merrit of parsnips.

With almost 1/20th of the population of the largest US city's periodical, Washpo food's section can be excusably anemic, though The Post is no lightweight in significant investigations or editorials. Perhaps the food & dining community (enthusiasts and professionals) might be interested in recent developments such as the ICCAT Mediterranean Bluefin tuna fishing quota disaster, or other consumer affecting legislation once in a while, what with NOAA, WWF, EPA and FDA having important local headquarters. Readers eat more tuna (and ham) than parsnips.

It would be nice if those same articles weren't written in the first person too.

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Senor Andres brings Iberico ham to DC today...according to the New York Times. The WashPo scoops the merrit of parsnips.

With almost 1/20th of the population of the largest US city's periodical, Washpo food's section can be excusably anemic, though The Post is no lightweight in significant investigations or editorials. Perhaps the food & dining community (enthusiasts and professionals) might be interested in recent developments such as the ICCAT Mediterranean Bluefin tuna fishing quota disaster, or other consumer affecting legislation once in a while, what with NOAA, WWF, EPA and FDA having important local headquarters. Readers eat more tuna (and ham) than parsnips.

It would be nice if those same articles weren't written in the first person too.

Didn't see this post before, but yeah I don't know what it is, but it seems like every week that I've been reading the Food Section I've usually been bored out of my mind. Most of the stuff seems targeted toward Grandma. Bizarre given the fact that most food nerds nowadays are yuppies. The malaise has been increasingly noticeable since Yonan came on. And it really counters the fact that this town has some real vitality and range.

I realize we're still behind the bigger food cities, but this is ridiculous. I think that they do have the power to influence the direction of food in this city by telling stories that will have people asking for more innovation in the restaurants. C'mon give it to us, we can handle it!

Until then I'll just keep reading the NY Times Food Section and dreaming about the day when someone in the Wapo food section wakes up and smells the Iberico.

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The Washington Post food section has a "Chef on Call" piece this morning, featuring Eric Ripert and a recipe for Roasted Veal Loin with Black Truffle Madeira Sauce. It's understandably too much to ask the average reader to have unsalted veal stock on hand, so the recipe calls for chicken broth or stock reduced by half, still fine. But, doesn't specifiy unsalted or low-sodium broth. :( Salty canned chicken broth reduced by half? Gaaaahhhhhh.

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Pulitzer count in this decade: New York Times 16, Washington Post 13. I'm just sayin'.

(Obvious disclosure: I am employed by The Washington Post Co. I do not, however, write for Food. Except for the two times that I did.)

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Contrast: McGee's NYTimes article about heat and The Washington Post's article about Good Housekeeping. What does it tell you about the target audience of each paper? :(

And I do so wish that the WaPo would dump the "Dinner in 25 minutes" column.

I rather like that column although I can never pull any of them together that fast.

The banana fish soup recipe is a real keeper.

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Columns like "Dinner in 25 Minutes" or what Pierre Franey used to do for The New York Times back when people thought 60 minutes was little time to prepare a meal may seem tired, but at least they're useful and potentially inspirational.

Now that we spend so much time online, new resources that appropriate the genre don't always seem to get it.

Take Serious Eats, for example. The web site is a year old and thriving. I just can't understand the reasoning behind the selection of some of the clueless, unskilled bloggers who contribute regular features for Dinner Tonight. Rarely is the dish something that might serve as a main course. There's never any advice about what to serve with it. Often it's unappealing and seemingly just something thrown together for the sake of posting an entry rather than a recipe the guy actually cooked or intends to cook. It makes SE seem like one of those "hidden marketing" concepts rather than a real food site.

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Columns like "Dinner in 25 Minutes" or what Pierre Franey used to do for The New York Times back when people thought 60 minutes was little time to prepare a meal may seem tired, but at least they're useful and potentially inspirational.
The "60 Minute Gourmet" is what I compare it to, and it invariably falls short.

AB, that website is dreadful.

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Did I miss something looking through the food section today, or are the recipes on the back page a standalone collection and not connected to an article? There's no reason they shouldn't do it that way, but I'm accustomed to the recipe collections being attached to something else. I might even prefer it being done as a separate feature.

I may have missed a peg for it, though. All I read closely today was the article on the greening of the House cafeteria.

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TS whines about tasting menus this week.

I don't completely disagree with his theme, as it's easy for a tasting menu to morph into an ordeal - some perverse form of trial by gluttony. Even equipped with the super-expanding Asian belly, I often find myself switching to space-conservation mode long before the end of a multi-course meal, just so I'll be willing to taste the last couple of courses. A great bread basket is a two-edged sword here, as grains have a remarkable ability to absorb and expand after you've eaten them.

And, of course, it's his right to dislike what he dislikes. But I thought this column was pretty poor. What's with wheeling out 1981-vintage Mimi Sheraton complaints? How many American restaurants from that era can even be reasonably, much less fairly compared to any of the top tables today? Small portions? Feh - Americans were still complaining that Chevy had downsized the '77 Caprice too much. Gimme a break.

I'm surprised at how much my opinion is diametrically opposed to his, particularly his examples. Komi may rank towards the high end for number of courses, but IMHO it's one of the best examples of how to manage this successfully with European/American cuisine. About the only people who pull it off better are Japanese chefs. Portion size, pacing, variation and contrast of dishes, and a bell curve of richness as the evening goes on...Chef Monis is one of the few I've encountered who truly gets it, and can reliably put more than six or seven courses in front of a diner without wearing them down. It's a strategy I also noticed in use by Catalan chefs. I didn't dine at Moo, but at places like Abac there was a distinct pattern to the build-up of small seafood plates, peaking with rich meats (often pata negra) and then heading into a long tail of increasingly light desserts. His criticism of Moo (which does sound...painful) seems to be the fault of its avant garde cuisine, rather than anything to do with degustation, doesn't it?

And then he selects Chef Armstrong to speak for the defense. Now, I am an ardent fan of Restaurant Eve (and you should be too), but my one criticism of the Tasting Room menu is precisely that I find it to be unrelentingly rich from start to finish, unless you opt for a vegetarian meal. Especially when there's game or organ meats to be had. It's a guilty pleasure in the same way that Au Pied de Cochon is, but I always leave the Tasting Room at Eve feeling absolutely stuffed.

*shrug*

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I believe the earthier, more Anglo-Saxon term, "whinge," is highly appropriate here. Yes, tasting menus can be too much food. But TS uses as a throw-away line the whole point of Komi's format and why it is different from, say, Vermilion, namely, "We want to be the entertainment for that evening." Komi (and Minibar) follows up that ethic by striving for, and achieving, a higher level of connection between diner, front-of-house, and back-of-house, such that (most) diners are comfortable with turning their evenings over to the show.

TS isn't. Apparently, for TS, even top restaurants are the fine-china equivalent of filling stations--fill the tank, maybe a Toast-chee amuse-bouche or Ho-ho mignardise and allow me on my way.

And explain to me why this is worth a top-billing feature screed in the Food section? Couldn't we get Dornenberg and Page on Banfi Brachetto d'Acqui instead?

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Wow. He describes eating at Komi as "torture". This is quite a dig for a restaurant that he gave 3.5 stars and is widely considered one of the very best in town. He clearly doesn't prefer tasting menus, but this piece crosses the line from opinion to agenda. I don't really think it's the role of the critic to be telling chefs how they should be cooking or the public how they should be dining--which is what he appears to be doing.

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I found that article incredibly annoying as well. It just seems odd that a food critic for a major newspaper, whose JOB is to eat and critique food, would not like the concept of the tasting menu. I think we all realize that the point of the tasting menu is to showcase the talents of the chef and we should look at it as the "entertainment" for the evening. I dont' know, the more I read Sietsema's reviews the more I think he is a bit behind the curve in regards to the contemporary dining experience.

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I dont' know, the more I read Sietsema's reviews the more I think he is a bit behind the curve in regards to the contemporary dining experience.

Perhaps he is attempting to create a space for him back in the normal journalism world. I believe this is referred to as a "Reverse Grimes."

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