Food Dude’s blog

Food Dude has mixed feelings about fancy T-day recipes.
This morning, while looking for a cranberry recipe, Mrs. Food Dude lamented the fact that she could not find a basic cranberry recipe (you know, but the berries in the water, boil, eat). Sure, she found all sorts of cranberries with zest of tangelo and cranberries with pomegranates, blah, blah blah, but where (besides the Betty Crocker cookbook) were the basic recipes?
Is everyone cooking like this? Have barbecued turkeys injected with ancho chilis become the norm?
Food Dude had a similar experience while looking for stuffing. Do I really need stuffing with nine types of nuts, two types of mushrooms, some exotic dried fruits or three types of imported sausages. It's stuffing for Christ's sake. Bread, celery, onions, sage, butter. Finito.
On the one hand, I guess it's good that the gourmet food craze that's made everyone think they can cook like Mario or Emeril by simply watching TV has inspired people to try something different than just a dried out bird with mashed potatoes and dressing.
On the other hand, these new recipes strike me as overkill. And not that much better than plain old fashioned Turkey Day dinner.
Maybe my feelings aren't so mixed.
FD

Food Dude is going to defer to a friend on this one. My buddy Scott "Three Gels" Wolfe ate a meal at Mazzi's Italian restaurant in Eugene, Ore. that was an epic disaster. He and his girlfriend, Siiri, had some friends in from out of town and were taking a risk by going back to this place. During their previous visit, the waiter delivered their $50 bottle of wine with a corkscrew and told them he was too busy to open it.
Nice.
This time around, Scott and his friends were battling not just Saturday night crowds, but there also happened to be a football game happening that day. The restaurant was packed, but the host assured them she could accommodate a party of four outside on the patio.
After waiting quite a while to receive any kind of service, the group took it upon themselves to flag down a waiter. The helpful server showed up with one menu for four people, took a drink order and then returned with four plates of food that wasn't theirs. Scott tried to stop the waiter, but he kept walking. They waited for the staff to return and realize their error, with the food growing colder by the second.
Scott returned inside and let the staff know what had happened, but the news didn't seem to carry any urgency to anyone. By the time the plates got pulled, four entrees were ruined and the waiter still had not taken a food order. The group did receive their drinks, which they enjoyed on the patio and then promptly left.
Hungry.
 

If you've watched Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on Fox, you've probably noticed the American version of the show has one major difference: the free stuff.
It's not enough to just help these no-talent clowns by showing them how to run a restaurant. This being the U.S., Ramsay has to style these chefs out with thousands of dollars worth of restaurant equipment. Food Dude thinks there's something wrong with rewarding bad businessmen like this.
There's another difference with the American version of the show: the quick turnarounds made by the chefs. While it's not uncommon to see one of the proprietors on the BBC version storm off the set in a fit of rage and never come back, the American chefs always seem to come crawling back after they lose it. One moment they're frothing at the mouth, the next they're the good soldier who understands the error of his ways (anyone who saw last night's episode on Sebastian's pizza joint knows what I'm talking about).
Food Dude has a theory that these two phenomenons are related. I'm not sure what kind of contract these guys sign with Ramsay's people, but I've got a feeling they're required to complete their humiliation before they get to keep the free stuff. I've got this image of Sebastian -- the hot-head narcissist who attacks vacuum cleaners and goes off on Ramsay like some delusional American Idol contestant who thinks he's really talented and that Simon just has a different opionion than him -- suddenly seeing the light when a producer calmly explains to him that he can either continue his tirade and give up the $6,000 dough mixer he just got and go back to the glorious decor he used to have or he can swallow his pride and keep the free stuff and then go back to running his restaurant into the ground.
FD

Recently, Food Dude explored the cult of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (that's a fancy way of saying parmesan cheese). To see a cheese steward (fancy word for cheese cutter) cutting into an 80-pound wheel of parm, check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/lewisedwardtaylor
FD

Rumors of Food Dude's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Food Dude ain't dead, I've just moved.
If you've got a question about dining in, dining out or want to know what kind of wine to serve with tofu, send your quandary to me?

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