How Do You Define Truly Great Restaurant Service?

When was the last time you went to a restaurant and had service that was so skilled that it made your dinner twice as good?

Every restaurant patron has his or her own unique preferences. Some want detailed food and wine suggestions from the server, others couldn't care less what their waiter or waitress thinks. Some people want dinner quickly, so they can get on to the next thing they have planned that night. Others want to linger.

So it's no wonder that the job of waiting tables can be difficult when customers often want arbitrary or contradictory things. But during our recent stay in Hawaii, we went out for a special dinner (it was for Laura's birthday) where our server really nailed things perfectly. I'd like to highlight a couple of seemingly minor things she did that, to me, defines truly great restaurant service.

Everybody knows the drill when the waiter runs through the evening's specials. And it's all too often that I've had the most expensive appetizer and entree pushed down my throat by an eager waiter looking for a bigger check. But when our waitress went over her specials, she added that she'd be happy to suggest a couple of specific things if we'd be interested. She gave us the option to take her suggestions--or not.

And when we did ask for her suggestions, she highlighted a cheese platter appetizer (of locally grown Maui goat cheeses) that was so good that we spent more than a half an hour slowly enjoying it.

And that's when our waitress came through again. She saw us enjoying our food so much (if I recall correctly, I was so excited that I broke out my adolescent manners and said "this is kick-ass!" to her with my mouth full), that she came back a minute later and told us something that I'll probably never hear in my life in a New York City restaurant:

"I thought you might want to take your time with the cheese platter, so I took the liberty of holding up your dinner order with the chef for a bit. Will that be all right with you?"

Once again, perfect. She gave us the option. It's a great idea if you're in lingering mode, but if you have somewhere to be, you can say, "No thanks! Please bring our entrees out right away."

It's infectious to be served by a waiter or waitress who takes obvious pleasure in his or her job, who is excited to share great food, and who offers flexible customer service like this.

This is how dining out should be. It's the kind of service that makes me recommend restaurants and makes me gladly tip more than 20%.

Readers, let me hear your thoughts! What defines great restaurant service to you?
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PS: This post wasn't meant to be a restaurant review, but I'd be remiss if I didn't give out the details of where we had this amazing dinner. If you happen to be in Hawaii, do not miss the chance to try out this restaurant. I recommend it highly. Also, our gifted server's name was Kimberly.

Indigo
Located in the Chinatown district of Honolulu:
1121 Nu'uanu Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
808/521-2900
15 minutes by car or TheBus from Waikiki.
Reservations recommended.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Food Links--Friday June 26, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!

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And the Love is Free at stonesoup
Jules, author of the exceptional blog stonesoup and a fellow collaborator here at CK, just released a new cookbook: And the Love is Free. It's a collection of classic family dishes--real food--from her late mother, and it comes complete with Jules' beautiful photographs. On a related note, if you'd like to vicariously experience what it's like to conceive and publish your own cookbook, here are two interesting posts that talk about Jules' own journey.

Real Food Can Be Cheaper Than Junk Food at The New York Times
From a few weeks ago. Finally, someone in the NY Times (Mark Bittman, even) is willing to indulge in the possibility that it is possible to find inexpensive first-order foods. Notice how a large percentage of the commenters list reasons why it can't be done while calling Bittman clueless, condescending or ignorant.

Letting Go at Alosha's Kitchen
Melissa writes a blunt, insightful and thought-provoking post on how to balance food blogging with real life. Well worth a read.

Food Photography at Wrightfood
An extremely useful article on physical aspects of food photos. Read this and you'll learn a ton about lighting, bounces, scrims and plating. Thanks to @jules for the link.

Vietnamese Vinegared Onions at Wandering Chopsticks
A laughably cheap, laughably easy ethnic side dish that you can make in a matter of minutes.

Treadmill Running Tips for Beginners at 344 Pounds
If you're new to running, Tyler serves up some great advice for you for conquering the dreaded treadmill.

Celebrating the Yes with a Bunch of Nos at Cake Wrecks
Just scroll down and look at the very last cake.

Vegetarianism as a Sometimes Thing at The New York Times
Ha! Even boring old economists are discovering the benefits of part time vegetarianism.

Sweet on Stevia at BitterSweet
An interesting post on a natural herb that can be used as a sweetener, and you can grow it in your own backyard! A lot better for you than saccharin, nutrasweet, splenda, or any other "unpronounceable chemicals of indeterminate origin."

All the Things You Don't Need at The Art of Nonconformity
A great column from Chris that talks about how many of the things we think we need are not only unnecessary, but they stand in the way of us achieving our goals.

Virtual Coffee
Caffeine addicts! Here's a coffee site dedicated to small specialty coffee shops. A few notable articles, 10 Essentials to Successfully Operating a Specialty Coffee Business, A Primer on Tea, and last but not least, The Art of Cupping.

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy to Make Hummus Recipes

There's nothing better than a delicious hummus platter, surrounded by fresh veggies or homemade pita. Hummus is a highly flexible food--it can serve as either a side dish or a full meal, and it's surprisingly easy and inexpensive to make at home.

Today I'll share with you my own personal list of seventeen (seventeen!) easy hummus recipes. There is every kind of hummus you can imagine here: spicy hummus, sun-dried tomato hummus, carrot hummus, a black bean-based hummus, and many other delicious variations on traditional hummus.

As with my other recipe blogrolls, my goal is to bring order to the hummus universe, and you can be assured that the recipes below are easy to make and contain reasonably easy-to-find ingredients.

I hope you find this post useful, but more importantly, I hope you eat more hummus! Enjoy.
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Spicy Three Pepper Hummus at Allrecipes
One of the key textbook variations on hummus. This recipe is particularly easy.

Chipotle Hummus at Coconut and Lime
An easy recipe combining the comfort of hummus with the fun of smoky hot chipotle spiciness. Delicious!

Sweet Potato Hummus from Restaurant Zola in Nashville, TN
Chef-owner Debra Paquette shares this killer recipe, courtesy of an interview with MSNBC.com. Hint: I'd consider the ground pistachio nuts garnish an optional ingredient.

Shiny Happy Carrot Hummus at FatFree Vegan Kitchen
A light variation on hummus made with carrots and some interesting spices.

Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus at Pinch My Salt
Possibly the best variation on hummus that there is. I particularly like this blog's suggestion to add optional cayenne pepper.

Lemon Ginger Hummus at 28 Cooks
Ginger provides a fascinating new dimension to this recipe. Particularly like the inclusion of both lemon juice and lemon zest in this recipe.

Thai Basil Hummus at 28 Cooks
A brilliant variation on hummus, with peanut butter and lime juice. One suggested edit: if you don't have peanut oil at home, regular olive oil will suffice.

Curry Pumpkin Hummus at Eats Well With Others
The unusual pumpkin flavoring and electric yellow color will convince any hummus-disliker to reconsider.

Lemon Walnut Hummus at GroupRecipes.com
Another classic hummus variation is to include pureed nuts, either in place of or in addition to the chickpeas. This one, with toasted walnuts, sounds amazing.

Avocado Hummus at Imagelicious
Here's a brilliant hummus variation I wish I'd thought of myself--it lets you increase or decrease the avocado/chickpea ratio depending on your preference.

Black Bean Hummus at Allrecipes
Who says you need chick peas to make hummus? Allrecipes shows us an easy variation on traditional hummus.

Cilantro-Jalapeno Hummus at Eats Well With Others
A delicious and colorful take on plain hummus. Those of you who might be genetically unable to enjoy cilantro are encouraged to replace it with basil.

Roasted Garlic Hummus at Andrea's Recipes
Roasted garlic makes this hummus recipe stand apart with signature smoky flavor.

Spinach Hummus at VegWeb.com
Do you love hummus but hate the beany-ness of chickpeas? Then this recipe is for you. It's got a similar texture and taste to regular hummus but you won't find a single chickpea here.

Herbed White Bean Spread at Beach Eats
A delicious variation on the traditional recipe with fresh parsley and cumin spicing.

Bessara--Moroccan Fava Bean Dip at About.com
Hummus fans will love this Morrocan recipe made from fava beans, garlic, lemon juice and spices. Easy and delicious!

Zucchini Hummus at ReTorte
Another simple hummus recipe that substitutes zucchinis for chickpeas to create a great hummus with a lighter texture. Again, consider the cilantro an optional ingredient.

Related Posts:
11 Really Easy Rice Side Dishes
The Granola Blogroll: The Ultimate Authority on Great Granola Recipes
The Apple Blogroll: 50 Delicious Recipes Containing Apples
The Muffin Blogroll: 12 Great Muffin Recipes You'll Love to Bake
The Favorite Cookbooks of My Favorite Bloggers

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Food Links--Friday June 19, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!

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Food Legislation (maybe) at Food Politics
Marion goes over a sampling of food bills currently working their way through Congress. Particularly interesting to see bipartisan support for requiring chain restaurants to list calories on their menus and menu boards.

50 Pasta Salads at Frantic Home Cook
Francie posts a mega-blogroll of excellent pasta dishes just in time for summer. While you're at it, try using Casual Kitchen's own Pasta Salad Permutator to compose your own original pasta salad recipes!

Food, Inc. Changed My Life at Cheap Healthy Good
Kris shares how, in 93 minutes, the movie Food, Inc. permanently changed her eating habits. While you're there, be sure to read her Three Essential Documentaries About Food.

Food, Inc. at Cooking For Engineers
Because we try to be fair and balanced here at CK, here's the contra case on Food, Inc. Michael Chu considers the film one-sided and says you're better off reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

Weight Loss Support at 344 Pounds
Tyler gives some great suggestions on how you can be supportive of a spouse or significant other who is trying to lose weight. One of the keys: compliments.

Caribbean Style Pork Loin at An Island Gourmet
I love recipes like this that are really easy, have just a few ingredients, and yet they are just a little bit.... different. A keeper from a blog I recently discovered.

Spatchcocking a Chicken at Banging on Pots and Pans
I discovered this blog a few days ago and I'm completely hooked. Kasie has a gift for carefully and clearly explaining interesting dinner ideas and cooking methods. And unlike most food bloggers, she freely talks about her mistakes. See also her Baja Fish Tacos, her Homemade Tortillas and her post on storing bakeware vertically.

Chicken Piccata at Food Alla Puttanesca
Kmays posts a laughably cheap and laughably easy recipe that seems like it's a lot more work than it really is. That's exactly the kind of meal we look for here at Casual Kitchen!

How to Be a Better Diner at 7x7 San Francisco
Table server Ella Lawrence writes up an intriguing series on restaurant behavior, including how to politely (and successfully) flirt with your server. Thanks to Food Woolf for the link.

The Truth About Grocery Store Flyers at The Simple Dollar
Those grocery store flyers that are supposed to contain great bargains? Sometimes those items advertised aren't on sale at all. I know I've ruthlessly beaten up on grocery stores before, both for boxed cereals and for overpriced spices. Now I don't feel quite so guilty for it.

Sufficiency at The Art of Nonconformity
Chris shares his thoughts on what is "enough" for him. Interesting thoughts on abundance, scarcity, money and having the ability to make choices in life.

Bankruptcy Epitaphs of 2009 at The Reformed Broker
Off topic, but funny. Tombstones of some of the most famous bankruptcies of the year. A sampling: "You Must Be This Tall to Mourn at This Grave" for Six Flags, and "Here Lies Circuit City: Best Buy's Stores Rule, Ours Were Sh*tty." Thanks to Abnormal Returns for the link.

The Road to Bankruptcy at The Atlantic
Off topic, and not funny. Remember a link I posted a couple of weeks ago about Edmund Andrews, the economics reporter for the New York Times who talked openly about his financial failing--and thereby compromised the credibility of the Times' economics coverage? Well, Edmunds may have blamed greedy mortgage brokers for lending him too much money, but Megan McArdle of The Atlantic says there's more, much more, to this story.

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Six Tips to Fight the Diderot Effect in Your Kitchen and Home

In our last post, we defined the Diderot Effect, and discussed how it can cause us to spend far more money than expected when we undertake any upgrades or renovations in our kitchens and homes.

Today we'll go over a handful of solutions that will help you resist this pernicious consumer trap.

Solutions to the Diderot Effect:

1) Defer the Initial Upgrade
Any major big-ticket purchase decision, whether it's a new appliance, new furniture or any other new kitchen feature, can potentially set off an entire chain of Diderot-related upgrades in your home. Therefore, the best way to inhibit Diderot Effect costs is to defer that initial big-ticket purchase.

Take your time making any major buying decision. Do extra research in the meantime to make yourself a better-armed consumer. Put the purchase off for three months and then see how you feel. You never know, you might find that you don't need the item as badly as you thought and you can defer the purchase still longer.

What I like about the concept of deferring a major purchase is that it doesn't mean never. It means sometime in the relatively near future. And the key advantage of deferring a Diderot Effect item is this: by postponing the initial purchase, you postpone the expense of the entire chain of additional purchases too. Finally, a deferred purchase means more money in your pocket today that you can save, invest, and perhaps spend more wisely tomorrow.

2) Don't Over-Upgrade
But what if one of my critical home appliances breaks down and I don't have the option to defer a purchase?

Great question (even if I did ask it myself). If your refrigerator breaks, I don't expect you to defer replacing it and subsist on rotting food for a year. You have to have a fridge.

But do you recall the example of the Sub-Zero refrigerator from our last article? That's an excellent example of an over-upgrade. It's an extremely high-end appliance, it's distinctive-looking, and as a result it's likely to stand out like a sore thumb in any average kitchen. Guess what? That is like pouring gasoline on the Diderot fire. That fancy fridge looks so out of place, you'll simply have to upgrade everything else.

When you're shopping for a critical home appliance, don't go straight to the highest of highest of high-end products. You'll find that if you bias any major household purchase down a notch or two in luxury, that item won't stand out so radically in your home. Result: you'll be better able to resist the pull of the Diderot Effect.

One important note: I didn't say to bias down the quality of the item. Casual Kitchen readers know that there is often a highly tenuous relationship between price and quality for most kitchen items, foods and appliances. You will obviously want a quality product that lasts, and that's where you can make good use of the extra product research you did during your deferral period.

3) Consider All Potential Costs of a Big-Ticket Purchase.
There are three types of consumers, each with a different way of considering the cost of major purchase: A naive consumer thinks of the cost of a big ticket item in terms of that item's monthly payment. A smart consumer considers the total purchase price, and thinks of that total price in terms of possible alternative uses for that money. A really smart consumer will also think about all possible ancillary costs--including Diderot Effect costs--that this item may eventually generate. Needless to say, this third type of consumer is likely to make the best long-term purchasing decisions. We'll talk about how to arrive at a rough estimate of Diderot Effect costs in the next tip.

4) Estimate Future Diderot Costs by Using a Multiplier
A good rule of thumb is to use a price multiplier of 5-7x of the cost of the first big-ticket purchase or renovation to your home. Of course, you might spend more or less depending on the circumstances (our refrigerator example in the last post had a theoretical multiplier of 10x). If it makes you queasy to think about eventually spending that amount of money, don't worry, it just means that this tip is working perfectly. Go back to Tip #1 and consider deferring that initial purchase.

5) Surround Yourself With the Right People
Most of us are well aware of how the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the homes we live in, etc., make de facto statements about our values and our social class. Unfortunately, a key reason why we impose Diderot Effect costs on ourselves is our fear of what our neighbors or our friends might think of us.

It follows, then, that if you try to surround yourself with friends and peers who aren't all that concerned about the cars they drive or cost of their countertops, you'll have less reason to mindlessly waltz down the Diderot path. And remember, your real friends are happy for you no matter what you have.

6) Recognize the Cycle of Work and Spend
This is an admittedly general tip, but it gets to the root of why so many people are powerless to resist the Diderot Effect. The work and spend cycle is a powerful and effective trap for consumers--so effective, in fact, that Americans at every socio-economic level spend all (or worse, more than all) of their discretionary income on fundamentally meaningless stuff, having no idea that they're caught in a trap at all. Life is meant for so much more than working too hard to make money that you mindlessly spend.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: If we collectively rethink this point and only this point, I believe we'll be much better off as a culture.

Related Posts:
Spending to Save: Frugality and Expensive Food
How to Enjoy Wine On A Budget
Make Your Diet Into a Flexible Tool
Brand Disloyalty

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!


Defeat the Diderot Effect in Your Kitchen and Home

If you decide to make any big changes to your kitchen, either by renovating it or buying any new big-ticket appliances or gadgets, beware! There's a disease waiting for you called the Diderot Effect that will cause you to spend far more money than you ever imagined.

What is the Diderot Effect? In its most basic sense, it's a term for a pernicious consumption trap. It's named after a famous essay, Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown, by the French philosopher Denis Diderot (for French speakers: Regrets Sur ma Vieille Robe de Chambre). In the essay, Diderot receives a brand new scarlet robe from a friend, only to find that so many other things in his study look shabby by comparison. Ultimately, he finds himself compelled to spend enormous amounts of money to replace practically everything in his room.

It was the anthropologist Grant McCracken, however, who first used Diderot's name to describe human consumption patterns (by the way, McCracken hosts an exceptional blog for those of you interested in learning more about culture and consumer behavior). According to McCracken, human beings strive for a "unity in appearance"--our possessions, clothing, homes and cars must accurately represent what we consider to be our "desired social role."

Okay, this is all very interesting, but what does this have to do with our kitchens? I'll start with the conclusion: Unless you want to be rapidly separated from your money, be very, very careful before you make even the most minor upgrades or renovations to your kitchen.

I'll give an example. Suppose you decide to buy a new refrigerator for your comfortable, homey little kitchen. You've got some money saved up and you can easily afford it, so you decide to buy a high end Sub-Zero. And how excited you are the day the deliverymen arrive and wheel that big, shiny, buffed-steel box into your kitchen!

But a few weeks later, that shiny new fridge starts to look a bit out of place with all of the other old stuff in your kitchen, doesn't it? Maybe it's time you replaced your comfortable, but ratty, table and chairs. And, really, the room ought to be painted, and the floor needs to be ripped out and replaced. And of course now we need granite countertops and new cabinets. And jeez, with all this new stuff, how can we keep our old oven and stove now?

Here's the problem: our kitchens are the site of many of the biggest-ticket items in our homes. Our fridge, dishwasher, stove, oven and sink reside there, as do optional (and coincidentally, also expensive) appliances like wine refrigerators, trash compactors and boiling water dispensers. And of course, who could forget extremely costly decorative features like granite countertops and high end cabinetry where we can demonstrate "our desired social role" by displaying the kitchen gadgets and fancy china that we'll never use?

You didn't know it at the time, but the purchase of that innocent-looking refrigerator set off a chain of events that ultimately cost you ten times the cost of the fridge itself. That fridge isn't really a fridge--it's a shiny, metallic money pit!

That's a textbook example of the Diderot Effect, and it helps explain why it's so easy to get separated from your money when you undertake even the smallest upgrades or renovations to your home. Moreover, the one room in your home where the Diderot Effect is the most contagious and the most costly is your kitchen. In fact, the Diderot Effect is a key source of substantial incremental business for clever contractors and home remodelers, because they know that once we start with our first upgrade, we will keep coming back to spend more to satisfy our need for "unity of appearance."

We like to think that we decide things on purpose, so most people won't (or can't) admit it when they discover, after the fact, that they've embarked on an entire chain of unconscious purchases. But we've all seen our friends and family mindlessly waltz down the Diderot path. And we can't entirely blame our modern consumerist culture for putting these social pressures on us. After all, Diderot wrote his famous essay in the 1700's, long before we started comparing our homes, kitchens, cars and flat screen TVs. The truth is these social pressures have always been there, and it's up to us to resist them.

The worst irony about Diderot was that his comfortable little study became a stiff and sterile room once he finished upgrading it. The room lost its character and it just wasn't the same anymore.

Well, at least everything matched.

Readers! What kinds of experiences have you had like this, and what did you learn from it?
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Stay tuned! In Part 2 of this article I'll give six solutions that you can use to defeat the Diderot Effect in your kitchen and home. Look for it in a few days.

Related Posts:
Mastering Kitchen Setup Costs
The Crockpot: How I Admitted I Was Wrong in a Cooking Debate
How to Team Up in the Kitchen
Cooking Like the Stars? Don't Waste Your Money

Related Links:
Grant McCracken's consumer behavior blog
Denis Diderot's Wikipedia page

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Food Links--Friday June 12, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!

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The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck
Serious Eats calls it a playful new mobile dessert business. I call it the best thing to hit NYC since Sting left. And Doug Quint, a bassoon player, PhD candidate and entrepreneur, will be launching his brilliant twist on the old childhood ice cream truck tomorrow, June 13th at the Brooklyn Pride Day Festival in Prospect Park. After that, look for him in the West Village, Chelsea, and also on Twitter, of course. If there ever was a perfect example of why I love New York, this is it. Thanks to Dana McCauley for the link.

Living with “Restaurant Syndrome” at What I Weigh Today
Joy posts an exceptional list of tips on how to avoid overeating in restaurants. As a pro restaurant critic, she oughta know.

Can This Fruit Be Saved? at Popular Science
A fascinating article about the history of the common banana and how it may face grave risks. This article eventually gave rise to author Dan Koeppel's book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World as well as his entertaining blog The Banana Blog, which just became the latest addition to my feedreader.

If the Food Network Reflected Real Life at Accidental Hedonist
Kate holds forth on the bizarre unreality of TV cooking shows. My favorites: All meals could be made between 30 to 60 minutes, and No one would have to clean the kitchen, as the interns would do it. That's what I need--an intern!

Homemade Ginger Ale at The Amateur Gourmet
Adam tells us how to make one of life's most refreshing drinks, with explicit (no, not that kind of explicit!) photos and instructions. Also includes a great quote from Julia Child, rest her soul: "anyone who doesn't do a recipe because they're missing an ingredient or two will never be a cook."

Early Summer White Sangria at REC(ession)IPES
An easy and delicious sangria recipe that only costs 50-60c per glass, and you get to fish out and eat "boozy macerated hunks of fruit" after you're done. Perfect timing for the coming hot summer.

It's Not Too Late to Save the Tuna at The Wall Street Journal
Interesting op-ed written by Charles Clover (author of The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat) and Prince Albert of Monaco.

Transition United States
An interesting organization with the mission of helping communities across the country "localize" (meaning eating, buying and even manufacturing locally) and "reskill" (meaning learning the basic skills of self-sufficiency, like growing food and making things we'd otherwise buy). Their philosophy is fundamentally Malthusian--this group sees nothing but shortages of everything over the next century--but there are still some fascinating ideas here. See also a recent NY Times article about Transition. Readers, are any of you familiar with this group and its ideas? Are they malthusian utopians? Or are they on to something?

Brave New Traveler
If you ever want to satisfy your dreams of traveling to unusual and exotic places, here's an excellent travel blog to get you started. A few posts worth reading: 18 Most Scenic Places For Teaching English Overseas, Machu Picchu on the Cheap, and Best Nude Beaches in the World.

TARP: Sweet Deal for the Feds? at Bankstocks.com
Off-topic. One of my go-to financial sites puts up a short post arguing that the Feds made a killing on the TARP program. Proof that governments don't always make awful financial decisions.

Humans Prefer Cockiness to Expertise at New Scientist Online
A study shows that we prefer advice from confident-acting people, even when they have terrible track records. Explains why pundits who give advice routinely exaggerate how certain they are, and "it spells bad news for scientists who try to be honest about gaps in their knowledge." Worth keeping in mind for many subject areas, including diet, health care, investing and even politics. Thanks to Abnormal Returns for the link.

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

How to Use an Ibrik to Make Easy Turkish Coffee

In our ongoing quest here at Casual Kitchen to find the perfect cup of coffee, I'm going to share with you yet another delicious and relatively easy way to prepare coffee: Turkish style.

Making this amazingly strong and energizing coffee requires just a little bit of extra alertness--as you'll soon see--but once you've had a bit of practice you'll find the entire process quite easy.


Here's all you'll need to make a great cup of Turkish coffee:
1) an Ibrik (this is the name for the long-handled pot that you'll brew your coffee in)
2) Turkish grind coffee
3) water
4) a teaspoon
5) optional sugar

Directions:
1) First fill your ibrik up about 3/4 full with cool water. If you prefer sweetened coffee, add 2-4 teaspoons of sugar to the water, depending on your preference for sweetness.

2) Then, add the coffee. You must use extremely finely ground coffee--Turkish grind coffee is more like coffee powder than grounds. We've successfully used espresso grind coffee too, but powdery Turkish grind is best.

For our ibrik, which holds about 8 ounces when 3/4 full, I'd add 3 heaping teaspoons of coffee. For larger or smaller ibriks, use a similar ratio of coffee. Don't try and make this coffee too weak, or the ghost of Ataturk will come and get you.


3) Gently set the grounds on top of the water so that they float. Do not stir. The grounds should form a smooth mound and should cover the entire surface of the water.


4) Place the ibrik on a burner set to medium high heat (note: from this point forward, pay very close attention to what you're doing. And it goes without saying that this is one of the key times when you should never leave the kitchen). After a few minutes, the grounds will start to absorb the water. A few minutes more, and you'll see the coffee start to foam up around the edges. At this point, turn the heat down just a little bit so the water doesn't come to a boil too rapidly.


5) The coffee will now start foaming up more and more, and soon the foam will approach the top of the ibrik. When this happens, remove the ibrik from the heat and let the foam subside. And if you didn't believe me before when I said to pay very close attention, you should believe me now. It only takes a few seconds for the foam to overflow the edge of the ibrik and splatter all over your stove, thereby ruining not just your coffee but your entire morning! I speak from experience: it's critical to keep a careful eye on things.

6) Next, put the ibrik back on the burner, and let it foam up again. Again, after a few seconds, remove from heat to let the foam subside.

7) Put the ibrik back on the burner for a lucky third and final time and let it foam up once more. By now, very few of the grounds will remain floating on the surface of the water and you'll clearly see the coffee is blended and nearly ready.

8) Finally, remove the ibrik from the heat source and let it sit for 30-45 seconds so the grounds can settle to the bottom of the pot. Then, gently and slowly pour out the coffee. Pour smallish cups (this stuff is strong, don't forget!) and pay close attention to the coffee as it pours. You'll want to stop pouring when you start to see coffee sediment coming from the ibrik. After all, nobody wants to drink the sludge in the bottom of the pot.


That's it! Enjoy your Turkish coffee!

Two final items:
1) Here is the exact model of the ibrik that we have in our kitchen. It's lightweight, easy to clean and not that expensive. I've also included links to some other Turkish coffee-related items from Amazon at the bottom of this post, if you want to consider buying other related accessories. Remember, whenever you head over to Amazon using links on my blog, I receive a small affiliate fee from any purchases you decide to make (and I thank my readers for their support!).

2) A note of caution: there are some mornings when Turkish coffee just isn't the right thing to make. If you wake up and barely have the cognitive skills to push the "on" button on your automatic drip pot, you are not in a position to make a pot of Turkish coffee. It will all end in tears and you'll have a big mess on your stove.

Related Posts:
The Macchinetta: Stovetop Espresso Coffee
The French Press
Calling All Coffee Addicts: 100% Kona Coffee
Spending to Save: Frugality and Expensive Food
Stacked Costs and Second-Order Foods: A New Way to Think About Rising Food Costs





How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Hawaiian Food Porn

Food Porn: (noun) Gratuitous closeups of delicious-looking food.

Thanks to several trips over to Honolulu's Chinatown, we are floating in fresh fruits here during our stay in Hawaii.


Food is extremely expensive here on the islands. I'd say prices are roughly double what we pay in our grocery store in New Jersey, and certainly 50% more than prices in Manhattan grocery stores. This would be a difficult place to eat on thirty bucks a week.

But if you spend some time wandering the stalls and shops in Chinatown, you'll find produce at much more reasonable prices, and every so often you'll stumble onto some great deals, like the pineapples we saw the other day that were selling for just $2.00 each, or huge mangoes for only $1.25 a pound. These are some of the best prices you'll find on the entire island of Oahu.


If you ever happen to visit Hawaii and you find yourself in the key tourist area of Waikiki Beach, take a side trip over to Chinatown. It's just a short $2.00 bus ride, or if you're ambitious, about a 4-mile walk.



Related Posts:
A Simple Way to Beat Rising Food Prices
Fattoush! A Middle Eastern Salad Recipe
How to Prepare and Eat a Rambutan Fruit
Invigorate Your Cooking with Fresh Herbs
Green Bean Salad: Another Ridiculously Easy Side Dish

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!


CK Food Links--Friday June 5, 2009

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: follow me on Twitter!

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Why the Food Establishment is At Fault at Accidental Hedonist
Kate Hopkins is one of the more strident critics of the food industry, and after reading this column, you'll see plenty of reasons why. It makes a great counterpoint to a recent post here at CK where, for once, I actually defended the food industry.

Kumquat Upside-Down Cake at Alexandra's Kitchen
This recipe reminds me of the cakes my Mom used to make when I was a kid--well, except for the kumquats. A fascinating variation on the standard pineapple upside-down cake, accompanied as usual with Alexandra's arresting photography.

How to Tell if a Recipe is Cheap and Healthy Just By Looking At It at Cheap Healthy Good
Lots of excellent rules of thumb from Kris on how to judge a recipe before it's too late and you've already cooked it.

Buttermilk Brined Chicken at Food and Fire
Dave shares yet another really easy recipe with an unusual marinade that will keep your chicken oh-so-tender on the grill.

Get Ready to Grill at Home Ec 101
Great tips from Heather on grilling. See in particular her specifics on using "the hand test" to measure your grill's temperature.

How to Make Hamburger Buns at The Knead for Bread
While we're on the subject of grilling, why not learn how to make your own stunning-looking hamburger buns? You can, using TKFB's free step-by-step directions.

Two Local Food Writers Love Meat at Philadelphia Weekly
So you want to ditch your workaday life and become a food writer, eh? In a ringing review of one of my favorite new cookbooks, the Philly weekly tells the story of how Tara Desmond morphed from cubicle rat to a full-time food writer, and how she came to co-author Almost Meatless.

Is Cooking Without Tasting Senseless? at The Washington City Paper
Reporter Tim Carman is shocked to find that food writer Monica Bhide, author of the highly regarded Indian cookbook Modern Spice. never tastes her food when she cooks. A fascinating article on cross-cultural cooking issues.

Masa Harina Cookies (with Tequila!) at 30 Bucks a Week
Could it be true that there exists a cookie recipe with tequila in it? Proof that there is a god and he is good. PS: Masa harina is a special cornmeal flour that you can usually find in your Latin/Spanish foods aisle. If you can't find it, try substituting very finely ground cornmeal.

When a Corporate Donation Raises Protests at The New York Times
Off-topic but thought-provoking article about an Ohio-based non-profit children's hospital that accepted a $10 million donation from Abercrombie and Fitch, and the controversy it faced when several groups criticized the message sent to children when a children's hospital takes money from a company "known for provocative advertising and revealing clothing." Readers, what do you think? Thanks to The Last Psychiatrist for the link.

Scientific Tattoos at Unique Scoop
Tattoo ideas for those of you out there who want to proclaim your inner geek.

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Why Our Food Industry Isn't So Bad After All

Longtime Casual Kitchen readers know that I love beating up on rogue subsectors of the food industry. Nothing arouses my indignation more than overpriced spices or branded boxed cereal, or any other area in the food industry where companies limit competition and extract profit out of proportion to the value they provide consumers.

But on the whole, I have to admit that our food industry generally gets it right. The industry adapts to changes in supply and demand very quickly. It supplies a massive amount of fresh and prepared foods to stores all over the continent in a dizzying display of logistics. And, as long as you arm yourself with just the tiniest bit of knowledge about things like cost-stacking and which foods are cheapest in what seasons, you can buy most of the food industry's products at surprisingly low prices.

Yes, there are some Malthusians out there prophesying the end of the food industry as we know it. But, seriously, do you remember the last time there was any kind of a meaningful food shortage in our country?

I do. It was the "rice shortage" of April 2008. Admittedly, some countries--those not fortunate enough to have a food industry as efficient and as responsive to market conditions as our own--clearly suffered.

But in the United States, our rice shortage got fixed in about three weeks. Or in about 1/100th of the time it takes to finish off one of those only-four-per-customer 20 pound bags of rice. That just doesn't happen unless you have an innovative, adaptive and highly effective food industry that gets the right products to consumers quickly and efficiently.

It's funny, I remember a lot of panicked media coverage of the horrors of the rice shortage, but I didn't see a single positive article discussing the fact that our food industry adjusted to it so quickly.

I'm still looking.

Readers, what are your thoughts?

Related Posts:
The Problem with Government Food Safety Regulation
41 Ways You Can Help the Environment From Your Kitchen
What's the Most Heavily Used Tool in Our Kitchen? Our Rice Cooker.
The Limping Dinner: Spicy Brown Rice
How to Make Fried Rice

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Casual Kitchen's Top Five of the Month: May 2009

This once-a-month post is for those readers who may not get a chance to read everything here at CK, but who still want to keep up with the best and most widely read articles.
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Top Five of the Month for May 2009:

1) What's Your Take on Going Vegetarian? A Poll of Meat-Eating Bloggers

2) Brand Disloyalty


3) What Have You Given Up That You Don't Miss?


4) How to Fight Back Against Overpriced Cereal


5) Hawaii and its Love Affair with SPAM


From the Vault: Top Five Posts from One Year Ago:

1) Seven Ways to Jazz Up Your Morning Eggs

2) The Limping Dinner: Spicy Brown Rice

3) A Rebuttal of "The Last Bite"

4) Tapas-Style Potato Chips

5) Austrian Cuisine: Viennese Potato Soup (Wiener Kartoffelsuppe)


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!