Food Peeves

in TJOC the recipes don't stipulate either, but in the introductory sections this is indeed spelled out. still, since almost all recipes call for at least a pinch of salt the importance is, we shall say, relative.

ah, the larks my mates and i had as young scamps. like smoking the nitrous out of the whipped cream cans at safeway. we were a cheery lot!

it is indeed less easy to justify for wine the 300% rule of thumb used for cooking ingredients. but consider that even if there's less labor involved, wine represents a considerably greater outlay of capital than fresh ingredients and losses can be appreciable (what waiter hasn't opened up a corked bottle... or has had a customer refuse a perfectly good one, much more frequent.)

here's a good wine story in the other direction. many years ago a friend of mine took me out to domenico's on the wharf in monterey, it's apretty good joint. they had a romanee-conti on the list and i asked the waiter if they really had this wine and if the price was really $250. he affirmed they did and assured me it was worth the price (i neglected to point out it was actually worth several times more)... the big question however was how they could ever keep such a wine on a wooden pier. so the wine steward showed us their installation which was completely adequate... not a cellar at all, it was the first automated wine cabinet i had ever seen... and still the biggest, it was walk-in! and they had TWO bottles. so we drank one and my friend bought the other to take home.

actually, in very good restaurants, of which there are many here in lyon, much of their wine has spent several years in the cave de garde before going into the cave de service and appearing on the list, so 300% markup over purchase price would be like giving it away. and then there are bottles which could be sold at auction for incredible prices that aren't even on the wine list; these are reserved for the best customers and sold at a relative pittance of a thousand or two euros.

 

let me start by saying i agree with you and didn't mean to start an argument.

truly corked wine is indeed rare. but boorish nincompoops trying to impress dates are much more common.

i never worked in a place that served steaks but you're right, people send food back more than wine.

serving wine by the glass wasn't much done in those days, or at least not in the places i worked. today there's technology that makes it a perfectly good practice. but a bottle that was sent back never went to waste... .

your last remark 300% over liquor store prices is spot on, and i had put it into my post at first, but i'm long-winded enough as it is so edited that out.

 

My sister had a friend that used to put ketchup in her matzo ball soup. I still puke a little bit in my mouth thinking about that.

I'm with you all the way on the caramel! As an addict of dulce de leche the thought of anything detracting for the thick gooey sweet greatness is wrong.

As for the main topic, vegetarian meat alternatives drive me nuts. For whatever reason you choose to be a freak and not eat meat, why do you insist on products that mimic meat in taste and appearance? Soyrizo? Really? Tofu Dogs and bologna? How the hell can anyone miss bologna so much that they need to eat a vegetarian substitute?

Another food that grosses me out and also happens to be a favorite of some vegetarians and many raw food vegans is kimchi. Anything you bury to ferment better give you tracers and serious visuals if you are going to get me to eat it....yuck.

Wine mark-ups at restaurants also drives me nuts but not nearly as much as ordering a nice single malt which requires you having to spell to the git serving you. Those mark-ups are just as obnoxious as wine.

I feel so much better now that all that is off my chest

 

Never had them and don't want to try them, they look gross. Best ways to enjoy dulce de leche are on pancakes (panqueques), with flan, in a canoncitas and of course with a spoon!

 

i agree with everything you say here except for calling people who don't eat meat freaks.

it's one of the most pigheaded, close-minded, irrational things i've read in all my years on BS. i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean it as i felt it.

 

Clearly by the tone of this thread you are being a bit sensitive and if that was one of the most pigheaded, close-minded, irrational things you've read in all your years on BS then you aren't spending nearly as much time in P&CE/IN as it would appear.

Long story short my friend is that no I didn't mean it as you felt it......though I still find it freakish for someone to enjoy meat alternative products that mimic the ones they wont eat out of conscience

 

don't you start YH!

in their overwhelming majority they are by no means twunts (see, it's easy) and assuming they are is no more walid than assuming that all irishmen are as thick as two short planks or all white floridians have KKK hoods in their closet.

 

Great thread.

It really annoys me how some people have this burning desire to put coriander in/on everything. Growing up, my mother was one of these people so I don't actually mind the taste of it. But often I'll think "That tastes great already. Why do you need to cover it in coriander?". The usual answer is "to give the flavour a lift", which leaves me highly skeptical.

I also hate chocolate desserts with coffee in them. I love chocolate. I love coffee. I will often have a cup of coffee with my chocolate dessert. But please don't pollute the rich, chocolately goodness of my mousse/fondant/mudcake with coffee flavouring.

 

The leaf is what I'm talking about.

'Cilantro' must be an American thing.

 

Oh, I thought of another one.

'Deconstructed' food. If I'm paying big money for a meal at a fancy restaurant, put the damn salad together for me.

 

i always call it cilantro since i'm from CA.

i plant it in my garden but only for making fresh salsa. the seed pack says coriandre. here the seed is probably more used (more widely available in any case) than the leaf, which i find only in chinese groceries; logical as it's known as "chinese parsley".