Cookbook of the Day – Jeremiah Tower Cooks

Jeremiah Tower Cooks by Jeremiah Tower Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Edition edition (October 2, 2002) Language: English ISBN-10: 1584792302 ISBN-13: 978-1584792307 After there was Julia Child, Paul Bocuse, Pierre Franey and Jacques Pepin and before Thomas Keller, Paul Prudhomme and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, there was Alice Waters and her chef Jeremiah Tower. Her restaurant Chez Panisse was legendary [...]

Hottest chile pepper in the world

And no, it’s not the habanero. No, it’s not the Red Savina, a special variety of the habanero specially bred to be especially hot and the previous top dog. No, dear friends, it’s the Naga Jolokia, from the home of some fiery cuisine, India. The name translates as king cobra chile. And for good reason, [...]

New link added – Caution : Blonde Thinking

Thanks to this Hooters Girl who’s added me to her “Sweet Reads” blogroll. Very cool. She obviously has impeccable tastes. Everyone should check out her blog and read about the unique issues that Hooters girls have to deal with.  Like this: “Along with a few changes and additions to the management team, we received a [...]

Find your lanes

Every restaurant floor plan has its own unique geography. If you were able to look from above during service, it might resemble watching rats in a maze all trying to get to the cheese. So it’s important to find your lanes and learn the flow of traffic and the “rules of the road”. In most [...]

Cookbook of the day – The Joy of Japanese Cooking

The Joy of Japanese cooking by Kuwako Takahashi Publisher:Shufu No Tomo-Sha (September 1992) Language: English ISBN-10: 4079751508 ISBN-13: 978-4079751506 This is one of those standard reference works that non-native Japanese cooks should own. For such a compact volume, there’s an amazing amount of information – from nice photos and line drawings of various ingredients to various [...]

A milestone – 2000 hits

2,000 hits!  More than 1,300 this month alone already. It took me the first full month just to get over 700. Who’da thunk it? Sure, that’s a drop in the bucket for some blogs, but I’m pleased that folks are checking out the blog and are even coming back for more. Or perhaps there’s one little [...]

Wine topic of the day – German wine regions – The Mosel, final part

This month, we’ve concentrated on the Mosel region of Germany. I hope that the previous posts have given you a broad overview of he region and has inspired you to investigate further.  I avoided getting too specific about the high end “dessert wines” of Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswine, mainly because I rarely get to drink [...]

New link added – Restaurant Gal

Posting from as far south as you can get in the United States (and formerly from the very cool state of Colorado), this Key West bartender has some great stories and trenchant insights on the behavior of Homo Barstoolis, that species of Homo Sapiens known for a dominant lizard brain,over-sized ego and poorly developed and alcohol-impared [...]

Food ingredient of the day – galangal

What??!!!??? What in the hell is galangal? Don’t worry – it’s not as weird as you think, but if you like Thai food and wonder why your homemade Pad Thai never tastes exactly like the Pad Thai at your favorite restaurant, this could very well be the reason. You’re probably using regular ginger for your [...]

10% a waiter can get behind

Many waiters, especially new ones, don’t think about the fact that most waiters will owe money on April 15th to the IRS. Those of us who do tend to block it out throughout the year. Why do we owe money at tax time? Why is a refund out of the question for most waiters? The [...]