Small Talk: Lettuce Turnip On Thyme For Chat

[NikSac]

Ready the pitchforks. I think bacon is extremely overrated.

 

I'll join you on that one - and I even really like bacon a lot, will probably make BLTs for dinner tomorrow, but enough already!  No, bacon does not automatically make everything better.

[cooksdelight]

They're putting bacon on everything nowadays. I love bacon, but in moderation.

[Snarklepuss]

I'm sick of quinoa, chia seeds, acai, Israeli couscous in place of Moroccan couscous, panko bread crumbs, and of course kale and Greek yogurt.  Speaking of Greek yogurt, it's getting so it's hard to find regular yogurt anymore.  Despite hating kale as a fad ingredient I do like it once in a while.  I always considered it one of those "grandma ingredients".  At least my grandma used to make it.

 

And speaking of bacon, I could never get tired of it but I do hate it as a fad ingredient slapped on everything with cheese.

 

Also hate the "gluten free" craze amongst people who aren't gluten intolerant.

[Totale]

Ready the pitchforks. I think bacon is extremely overrated.

 

Tell it bro/sis.  I don't eat eggs as eggs in any preparation style anyway, but the drippy yolk eggs I keep seeing stuck on top of everything that might otherwise taste OK on food shows make me want to hurl.

[smiley13]

Ramps are a wild onion, they will grow anywhere and they have always been popular in the south. I've never attended the ramp festival since I don't eat the things.

http://www.kingofstink.com/NC.html

Interesting since I am Southern born and bred and really have never heard of them.  Guess you learn something new every day.

[xaxat]

 

Also hate the "gluten free" craze amongst people who aren't gluten intolerant.

 

I think it's funny that there are people who have no idea what gluten is yet want to be gluten free.

Edited August 5, 2015 by xaxat

[cooksdelight]

I think it's funny that there are people who have no idea what gluten is yet want to be gluten free.

Maybe they think it will make them lighter? LOL, j/k

I know the best way to determine if you need to avoid products with gluten or various other food items is to see a doctor and be tested. I worked with a lady who felt sick all the time and found out from her doctor that she was allergic to wheat products. Talk about having to cut down on carbs!

[Jesse]

I'm kind of embarrassed how much I like the trendy foods! (Trendy as of a couple of years ago, at least.) Literally one of my favorite summer dinners is kale cooked with bacon, with a poached egg on top. 

[Uncle Benzene]

My two "enough already!" ingredients lately are mint and cilantro. I don't particularly care for either, nor do I find either one particularly offensive. My objection is more on the basis of "Really? On pretty much every freakin' dish these days? Give it a rest already."

[leighdear]

I'm betting that Harissa is going to be the next trendy, use-it-in-everything spice/seasoning.  We've seen it a few times already.  

[Snarklepuss]

I'm kind of embarrassed how much I like the trendy foods! (Trendy as of a couple of years ago, at least.) Literally one of my favorite summer dinners is kale cooked with bacon, with a poached egg on top. 

 

Don't be embarrassed, I'd love all that too.  I'm just tired of every TV chef going out of their way to include trendy ingredients in all of their dishes EVERY FREAKING TIME. 

 

Oh - You just reminded me of another peeve trend of mine - putting a poached or fried egg on top of everything from soup to burgers to salad to pizza to ribs to hot cereal to you name it!

I'm betting that Harissa is going to be the next trendy, use-it-in-everything spice/seasoning.  We've seen it a few times already.  

 

That thought just crossed my mind the other day so it must be true.

[innocuouspuff]

Controversial opinion ahoy! Cutting out gluten is an expensive pain in the ass, so I'm not convinced anyone does it for funsies or that we can tell who the "real" gluten intolerants are by watching people eat. I'm sure restaurant servers always think I'm a big faker asking stupid questions about it, but I ask questions because it's not my kitchen. I don't know what goes on in there.

I did get tested but I don't think cutting out foods that make you feel worse is really a terrible life strategy. It's pretty much what the doctor will tell you to do absent a better idea. Plus I've been introduced to lots of interesting grains that aren't wheat (quinoa among them lol.)

I like sriracha but, like. It's just a hot sauce.

Edited August 5, 2015 by innocuouspuff

[NikSac]

My two "enough already!" ingredients lately are mint and cilantro. I don't particularly care for either, nor do I find either one particularly offensive. My objection is more on the basis of "Really? On pretty much every freakin' dish these days? Give it a rest already."

 

I know this isn't exactly on topic but we're in the small talk thread right?  There was a news story on last night about how cilantro's been identified as a possible link in a bunch of cases of cyclosporiasis (yes, I had to copy/paste that one).  I was cracking up because the news anchor repeatedly pronounced it "chill-ANT-ro."  She was even rolling the "r" sometimes. Her speaking voice was totally normal the rest of the time but every time she had to say cilantro she'd pause, take a breath, and really gear up for it. Someone really should have practiced it with her beforehand, but I'm imagining they had no idea it'd be a problem word.

[leighdear]

Cilantro possibly poisonous?  I've long suspected as much.  I ABHOR Cilantro. Really, really hate it.  It tastes like soap to me.  I always have to ask somebody to try the salsa first because my deep and abiding Cilantro hate.  

[NikSac]

Cilantro possibly poisonous?  I've long suspected as much.  I ABHOR Cilantro. Really, really hate it.  It tastes like soap to me.  I always have to ask somebody to try the salsa first because my deep and abiding Cilantro hate.  

 

haha I know many people who feel the same way!  Not poisonous exactly, more like contaminated with a parasite. I'm not entirely sure if it's the same thing but it sounded like what I've heard described as "Montezuma's Revenge" for tourists who dare to drink the water in Mexico. But hey, if you wanna use that as another reason to avoid cilantro, I won't blame you.

[leighdear]

Thank You NikSac, I'm feeling nicely vindicated now.  *LOL*

[akr]

That's an intestinal parasite - just means it wasn't properly cleaned and was grown somewhere with lousy sanitation. But maybe careful restaurants and skittish customers means you'll be spared the addition of gratuitous cilantro for a little while! (I like cilantro - not genetically programmed to have it taste like soap - but it's a strong flavor and doesn't everywhere. I hope people provide adequate warnings for cilantro haters if they include it in dishes where you wouldn't expect it to show up.)

 

Things I don't want - papayas (ripe; the green ones are fine); truffles. Fortunately, the former does not seem to be trendy, and the latter is expensive and so rarely shows up where I don't expect it. 

 

edit - i see somebody got there first! I always take way too long to revise and reconsider . . . . and by the time I'm done, I could just as well have kept my mouth shut!

 

Wishing you cilantro-free outings for a while ;)

Edited August 5, 2015 by akr

[smiley13]

Awe, I love cilantro!

[cooksdelight]

Add fennel to my list. I don't like the taste of it, it's used on almost every cooking show.

[Pallida]

Tell it bro/sis. I don't eat eggs as eggs in any preparation style anyway, but the drippy yolk eggs I keep seeing stuck on top of everything that might otherwise taste OK on food shows make me want to hurl.

Maybe I'm your sis and I was switched at birth! Eggs are disgusting but the rest of my family loves them.

[Rick Kitchen]

The taste for cilantro is genetic.  If you don't have the gene for it, you won't like it.

 

I don't like kale.  It isn't the taste so much, as it is that it's just dry and like chewing straw.

[Clanstarling]

I'm kind of embarrassed how much I like the trendy foods! (Trendy as of a couple of years ago, at least.) Literally one of my favorite summer dinners is kale cooked with bacon, with a poached egg on top. 

That combination makes sense and sounds good to me.

 

Don't be embarrassed, I'd love all that too.  I'm just tired of every TV chef going out of their way to include trendy ingredients in all of their dishes EVERY FREAKING TIME. 

 

Oh - You just reminded me of another peeve trend of mine - putting a poached or fried egg on top of everything from soup to burgers to salad to pizza to ribs to hot cereal to you name it!

 

That thought just crossed my mind the other day so it must be true.

My go-to light dinner is salad with a poached egg on top. And crumbled bacon. It is really tasty, and easy when you don't want to do a lot of prep. (I have these little silicon cups for poaching - so it's dead easy) But burgers, soup and pizza - I'm right there with you.

 

haha I know many people who feel the same way!  Not poisonous exactly, more like contaminated with a parasite. I'm not entirely sure if it's the same thing but it sounded like what I've heard described as "Montezuma's Revenge" for tourists who dare to drink the water in Mexico. But hey, if you wanna use that as another reason to avoid cilantro, I won't blame you.

Not too long ago, I realized just how dirty the cilantro I was getting from the store was. I had been just rinsing it clean. Then for some reason I put it in a bowl of water, and was promptly horrified by how much dirt fell to the bottom. It took three soakings to get it clean. So I don't use it much any more. I used to use it for a salad dressing I'd accidentally invented when I bought cilantro instead of parsley. (I'm short, and couldn't read the shelf markings). It had a real kick to it.

Edited August 6, 2015 by clanstarling

[Snarklepuss]

The taste for cilantro is genetic.  If you don't have the gene for it, you won't like it.

 

Yes, I've heard that too - Fortunately I have the gene to like it.  I've also heard that they suspect beets are similar.  A lot of people think beets taste like dirt.  Me, I'm sensitive to dried thyme.  A normal amount is OK but in large amounts it tastes like moldy dirt to me.  Fortunately I'm OK with poultry seasoning so Thanksgiving stuffing is fine, unless it's too heavy on the thyme.

[Snarklepuss]

On a different note, I took a leisurely stroll through my local supermarket tonight, paying attention to things I usually never look at much and saw two things I never saw before.  One was paella in a box, complete with the seafood!  The other was a turducken in a huge box in the freezer case.  Next to it was a smaller "turducken roll" for those who want theirs scaled down for two.  Just the thought of the kind of seafood they'd have in a pouch inside that paella box makes me want to hurl.....And the unrecognizable brand frozen turducken - It wasn't something I'd have high hopes would turn out anything close to one made fresh by a chef.

[xaxat]

My grandmother has no idea what foods are trendy. But she is really not happy that stuff that used to be cheap (offal, ham hocks, kale, catfish) is getting more expensive as they become more popular.

[DeLurker]

My Mom and your grandma should get together.  Mom's gripe is about chicken wings - they used to basically give them away, but since hot wings became a thing they've been priced up.  It's been a couple decades and she still grumbles about it (and refuses to pay "that" ridiculous price).

[JTMacc99]

Not too long ago, I realized just how dirty the cilantro I was getting from the store was. I had been just rinsing it clean. Then for some reason I put it in a bowl of water, and was promptly horrified by how much dirt fell to the bottom. It took three soakings to get it clean. So I don't use it much any more. I used to use it for a salad dressing I'd accidentally invented when I bought cilantro instead of parsley. (I'm short, and couldn't read the shelf markings). It had a real kick to it.

Cilantro is really easy to grow if you want to do so. It works in a pot or in the garden.  Pretty much just throw down a bunch of seeds, cover them up and water regularly. Boom. A big pile of cilantro.  The hard part is that it goes to seed pretty quickly after it's ready to start eating, so you need to either spread out the plantings or just try to time it for when you have all of the tomatoes.

[xaxat]

Here's a hilarious parody of how pretentious current culinary lingo can get.

 

The Timmy Brothers – Water Makers

 

 

(For those not familiar with New York City, Gowanus is a reference to a Brooklyn canal that is one of the most polluted water sources in the US. And for you youngsters, Love Canal was a major toxic waste site in the seventies.)

[Totale]

Oooh, Ooo, I can even relate it to FNS, when everybody was dousing themselves with ice water for whatever cause that was I saw Justin Warner do it with Gowanus water.

[xaxat]

So, last night I had a dream about being a contestant on the show. There's only two things I really remember about it. The first is that after every round, the contestants would go back to the stew room, get very drunk, and have a dance party. That was fun.

 

The second thing I remember is a contest were everyone was assigned an Italian dish to describe to the judges. The other contestants talked about the depth of the red sauce, the enjoyment of having perfectly al dente pasta, the slightly salty gooey texture of fresh mozzarella. . . Me? What did I get to describe?

 

A cup of room temperature, very flat, Coca Cola.

 

I don't remember what I said, but I did get a smile from Giada (shark teeth and all). So there's that.

[NewDigs]

I'll go to the small talk thread for further ramblings, but what are we all gonna watch now? The threads are fun..... more fun than the show. :)

Brought this over from the episode thread.

The Great Food Truck Race starts tonight and they will travel Route 66.

[Aquarius]

I don't know what I'm going to watch now!  Waaah!  Food Network Star is really the only "reality" and only "competition" show I watch.  I'm sort of bereft at the moment.  :-( 

 

It's also starting to get dark earlier and earlier here in NJ and that doesn't help.

 

Maybe I'll watch the finale on OnDemand again so I can see my TV husband Eddie win.  Good times.

[cooksdelight]

Guy's Grocery Games, which is on right now, has a series of all-star chefs competing for charity. Tonight's show has been very funny so far.

I've had two shows which I mod end last week. "Alone", and "The Astronaut Wives Club".... TAWC was probably one of the best-written shows on TV that I've seen in a long time. It is only the one season because it was based on a book about the wives of the Mercury 7 astronauts. The clothes....food....retro homes with the decor... it was like being a kid again every week. I will miss that show so badly.

Alone will be back with another season, and I am not sure the History Channel knew what a mega-hit the show would be. The winner this season lives not far from me, he was a very deserving winner. It's unlike any other survival-type reality show on TV. They are truly alone... no one around to talk to except their cameras.

I feel like I've had two kids go off to college.

[NewDigs]

I've grown rather fond of GGG. I am not a big Guy fan but the show can be fun. Kind of a cross between Supermarket Sweep and an unconventional Top Chef challenge.

[Snarklepuss]

Hah, I catch the occasional GGG - Just saw that one tonight - They'll have another all star round next week with Marcel Vigneron, who seems to have made a post Top Chef career out of doing FN competition shows.  Not that I love him or Blais but it is fun to see familiar faces, and it's always nice to see Aarti again.

 

I'm spending the lull watching MasterChef, although I'm finding that unsatisfying this season.  I'm just biding my time until the old snark favorite "Sister Wives" and "My Big Fat Fabulous Life" come back on.

 

My favorite surprise hit of the Summer has been "Deutschland 83" on the Sundance Channel - Another show that takes you into another time, in this case the late cold war in 1983 in Germany.  One of the reviewers on this site called it "Life changing" and I agree.  We still haven't heard when or if another season is coming out.  If it does, it will likely be set in 1986 according to some write ups.  We had gotten so enamored of the characters that it's hard to come to terms with losing them, possibly for good.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Snarklepuss

[xaxat]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Twitch (a video streaming service) is now running a marathon of Julia Child's The French Chef, starting from episode one.

 

It is absolutely fascinating. She is an amazing teacher. 

 

(Caveat, the viewer comments can be quite crude.)

[Totale]

Apparently they're holding auditions for next year's FNS over on Cooks Vs. Cons.  They found some dude to play there this week who made Pah Style look like Ina Garten.

[HyeChaps]

If only they would repeat the exact same challenges they used for Guy's season and Jeff's season. 

[smiley13]

I found this article about Ana.  For a lawyer, she seems to not be the brightest bulb.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/real-housewife-ana-quincoces-arrested-blames-cockroaches-7551001

[Court]

2 hours ago, smiley13 said:

I found this article about Ana.  For a lawyer, she seems to not be the brightest bulb.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/real-housewife-ana-quincoces-arrested-blames-cockroaches-7551001

The most surprising thing in that article is she's a lawyer!

[Sew Sumi]

Yes, she was introduced as a lawyer when she was on the Real Housewives of Miami. "Housewife" being a misnomer because she was going through a divorce that she was reluctant to end. You think she was Debbie Downer on FNS?  You should have seen her then. Yowza! 

I want to hear about how Guy cheated on the Kids' Cookoff Show. 

[cooksdelight]

FN's inability to properly vet their contestants strikes again. A dumb lawyer who gets arrested. 

[Sew Sumi]

Who? Ana?

[cooksdelight]

Yep, read the article in the link posted just above. 

[kj4ever]

On 7/18/2016 at 9:59 PM, Sew Sumi said:

Yes, she was introduced as a lawyer when she was on the Real Housewives of Miami. "Housewife" being a misnomer because she was going through a divorce that she was reluctant to end. You think she was Debbie Downer on FNS?  You should have seen her then. Yowza! 

I want to hear about how Guy cheated on the Kids' Cookoff Show. 

Me too!  God I hate that dude.

[PRgal]

NOT a fan of the whole juicing thing, but I have to admit I like going to hipster-y juice bars for their (raw) nut milks.  I DO think they need to up their unsweetened nut milks though - even if it's just dates. 

[Lura]

Somehow, I can't get too worked up over Ana driving on an expired driver's license when Giada has continued to create raunchy headlines for years.  Granted, Ana broke the law (a little bit), but give Giada time.  The difference, to me, is that Ana manages to come across as a fun lady, while Giada openly, on the air, behaves like a cat in heat.  Besides, I'd much rather watch Ana than I would Giada any day of the year.

Apologies to Giada fans, but this is just my humble opinion.

[Lukeysboat]

I'm wondering why Ana's license was suspended in the first place. 

[spiderpig]

Google "Giada" and "John Mayer" for some R-rated fun.

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, Lukeysboat said:

I'm wondering why Ana's license was suspended in the first place. 

Me too, but as an attorney, she should have known better than to be driving....or in posession of a car....with a suspended license. Not smart.