Cooking and Dining

[DigitalGypsy66]

[Shyster]

Oh, man, so many good episodes and memories. The ones with Eric Ripert were always great because it was obvious how good of friends the two men were. It crushes me that Ripert was the one to discover Bourdain's suicide. The episode in Japan with Masa Takayama is also a favorite of mine.

[tifosi77]

The ones with Eric Ripert were always great because it was obvious how good of friends the two men were. It crushes me that Ripert was the one to discover Bourdain's suicide.

The story of their meeting is kind of bromance cute. Someone called Ripper to tell him he and Le Bernardin were mentioned several times in Kitchen Confidential; Tony became such a staple of pop culture that it's easy to forget the book was fairly divisive when it came out, and finding repeated invocations of your name in that text was not necessarily a good thing. So ER got the book and read it, and everything Tony had to say nothing short of effusive praise. So Ripper called him up and invited him to the restaurant for lunch, it extended into a several hour initiation in which they both got, in Ripper's words, 'smashed', and that was that.

I might be mistaken, but I think their first ever meeting is actually documented on video. (Don't remember if it was press, or if Tony had the KC TV show crew in hand.)

[DigitalGypsy66]

It was fun following #BourdainDay via Twitter yesterday, except for the porn bots that capitalize on trending hashtags and insert their pr0n into my feed.

@tifosi77 please tell me you visit the Venice First Friday food truck rodeo once in a while? That looks amazing. Also, I don't think Roy and Jon Favreau could survive a second season of The Chef Show. Death by overconsumption seems like a good way to go though...

[tifosi77]

For sure, I've been to it, but Venice is a bit out of range to go regularly. First Friday is one of the last remaining regular truck events like this, because as the trucks became more and more popular there was aggressive push back from brick-and-mortar restaurant owners who bristled at the lack of expense a truck operator faces, and don't like them operating tax-free in the same locations as them. (El Segundo, where I used to work, has become a truck desert for this reason.) First Friday is organized a bit better, and works in concert with the local businesses, who I believe get some sort of consideration from the monthly take. The thing is also way more spread out than they portray on the show; there are trucks along the street (Abbot Kinney Blvd) for blocks in each direction. I mean, they actually have valet parking for this thing. lol

Our first house was in San Pedro (basically, the bottom of Los Angeles, next to Long Beach), and they have a First Thursday Art Walk thing where the first Thursday of every month they'd close down 2 blocks downtown and have artists and makers come in and set up stalls, and they'd bring in trucks for a quasi-street fair thing sorta like the Venice deal. It was fun, because they'd have a good mix of known and established trucks along with startups. But the trucks have more or less been banned because of the foot stomping by local restaurants. If you go to the First Thursday website now, under the 'food and drink' tab, all they promote are the restaurants along the couple blocks around the walk.

[tifosi77]

It is kind of bonkers to me that the Modernist Cuisine cookbook set is still selling for $500+ new, and the cheapest Amazon reseller has it at $430 used.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Hot on the heels of the Chef Show, I discovered Ugly Delicious - as it’s hosted by David Chang, who was featured in the LA episode.

It has its Parts Unknown tryhard moments, but it’s pretty good: the first two episodes feature Mark Iacono of Lucali pizzeria in Brooklyn traveling to Naples to eat pizza (Ariz Ansari shows up in Tokyo to eat pizza there with Chang) and the second is all about tacos, including riding around with Jonathan Gold eating truck tacos. Really worth checking out.

[tifosi77]

UD is a great show, and I hope they produce more seasons. There's an episode later in the run that tackles the cuisine that has evolved among the Vietnamese immigrant community in the Mississippi Delta region that was particularly enjoyable. There's a Viet chef (from Saigon, iirc) who he visits that I've seen pop up in more than a couple food/travel shows in the past couple years.

[DigitalGypsy66]

They just confirmed another season, btw

[Dickie Dunn]

I couldn’t make it through Ugly Delicious. Had the same problem with that as Mind of a Chef. I just really find David Chang unlikable.

[blackjack68]

Couple ribeye steaks seared on cast iron with Jersey Fresh corn and green beans made a perfect summer meal without having to go out in the storm this evening.

[mac5155]

Yep. It's sweet corn szn finally. I probably eat sweet corn 3 nights a week from July through September. Love that ish

[Dickie Dunn]

My 150 lbs. grandfather would pack on 10+ pounds every summer because corn became the focal point of every meal. There was no food he loved more.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Also: peach and watermelon season. So good.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Also: peach and watermelon season. So good.

and cherries

it is a good time to be a human being.

[shafnutz05]

Last night, we had sweet corn, and I put a little bit of that Butter Boy French butter from Wegman's on it. Absolutely perfect--the saltiness complemented the corn wonderfully.

[mac5155]

Yins do Salt or butter or both?

[grunthy]

Also: peach and watermelon season. So good.

and cherries

it is a good time to be a human being.

Rainier cherries are the best.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Yins do Salt or butter or both?

Both, unless the corn is excellent. Then just salt.

[skullman80]

Yins do Salt or butter or both?

Both.

[LITT]

just butter

[Kane]

Butter and pepper.

[Cionew]

Scallops With Thai Curry-Lime Broth 2.0 --- The Leftovers



Also, Top Chef.

Great skills!

[count2infinity]

Yins do Salt or butter or both?

Growing up, we had a stick of butter that was devoted to rolling corn on it during the summer months. I'd then coat mine with pepper and a touch of salt.

[Kane]

My wife views butter-stick-rollers as incels.