Culinary Fool: Rants & Raves

"Buyer" Beware: OpenTable.com

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:04:47 GMT

So right off the top I'm going to tell you that this is my own fault as the information is in their FAQs on the site but I still think the way it's handled stinks.

Occasionally I use OpenTable.com to make reservations mostly at local establishments but I had been thinking that I really should use it more often when traveling. However, I don't use it regularly for a number of reasons: I'm a pretty spontaneous diner; my friends and I generally prefer to sit at the bar instead of in the dining room; hardly anywhere in Seattle really requires a reservation unless you are really set at eating right at 7:00 on a Friday night; a lot of places that I like to go are not available through OpenTable; most places that are on OpenTable also take phone reservations.

If you're not familiar with the site it does offer a few nice features. For instance, you can put in a date and time and it will show you all restaurants in your area that have open tables which is a lot easier than searching for them one by one. And the primary reason I liked it was that for each reservation you get 100 points (sometimes more during promotions) and once you have 1000 you can redeem them for a $10 certificate - at least that's how it started. Now you can't redeem until you hit 2000 points and you'll get a $20 certificate.

Well, I hit 1000 quite some time ago but thought I'd hold out until I had 2000 since a $20 certificate just sounded better than a $10 one. But for several months I've been lingering in the no man's land of more than 1000 but not yet 2000 points. Apparently I've been lingering there for over a year. And apparently if your account hasn't been used in a year they take back all your points. Which I realized today when a newsletter was delivered to my mailbox and it said "Your balance is 0." And so I scurried to check my account and sure enough the balance was 0 because the last entry was a negative entry for the exact number of points I'd accrued.

As I said, when you read the FAQs it's right there plain as day so I'm totally at fault. But what I think is stinky is that they didn't even bother to send some sort of warning. And of course, they probably hope they don't have to pay out rewards so why would they? Well, maybe because part of their compensation comes from the restaurants and is based on how many reservations are made through the site so by reminding me it might have spurred some activity on my part because I wouldn't want to lose my points. And it would have kept me from writing this post which is now warning all of you to make sure you remain active on the site. (Although even bad publicity is good publicity, right?) Or maybe you should just skip the site altogether because, at least in the Seattle market, it really doesn't offer that much. That's probably what I'll do from now on. I'm sure the loss of my activity won't break the bank but I think, in general, it's always a bad idea to lose customers.

Accolades for Tealuxe

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:39:23 GMT

So often we complain when things go wrong or a company doesn't meet expectations but we need to also make sure we spread the word when a company performs well.

I've talked about Tealuxe before. And although I don't bore you with every order I place and receive from them I continue to enjoy their tea on an ongoing basis. A couple weeks ago I received my latest order. But when I looked at the packages I realized they had made an error. I had ordered one type of Earl Grey tea but received a different version - easy mistake to make, especially since the product numbers are just off by one digit.

At first I thought I'd just use what I had received but a couple days into it I remembered that I really didn't like the version that was sent as much as the one I had ordered. I called the customer service number and talked to a very nice man who, apologized, didn't hassle me in anyway and promptly sent out a package of what I had ordered, telling me to hold on to what I had and use it until the new order arrived.

The box arrived a couple days later with the version of Earl Grey I'd originally requested and it was twice as much as I'd ordered and paid for. Now that is great customer service.

Happiness is a Bookshelf?

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:58:41 GMT

There are days I really worry about myself. There are some sort of silly things that make me really happy. Most recently this has been a new (and very simple) bookshelf in my office. But what makes me happiest about it, is that I now have one place for all my mixology and cookbooks! And none of them are stacked on top of each other so that it's a major construction project to get the one at the bottom out and then stack them all back up again!

This was a more involved project than might be apparent from the description. And in some ways I'm not quite done. You can see a bit of a shelf in the photo - well there was another one of those that ran directly behind where this bookshelf now stands. And the most challenging part is that those shelves on the wall hold part of my shot glass collection.

So the beginning of the project required me to find a place to temporarily store the shot glasses; take them down (and dust them!); take the shelf down; spackle and paint to cover the nail holes and then finally get around to removing the smaller bookcase that had been there; assembling the new one; and moving all the books to their new home.

A while ago I whittled down my cookbook collection but then it grew just a bit again. The good news is that it has been holding steady for several months and that everything fits on this shelf with one small exception. So what you see here is 99 cookbooks; 19 mixology books; and assorted pamphlets, holiday magazines and combination user manual/cookbooks from various small appliances. The only thing missing from this shelf are the four Culinaria books that I keep in my living room as they are not so much cookbooks (although they are filled with recipes) as travel guides, history books, cookbooks and coffee table books all rolled into gorgeous volumes divided by country.

And it just works out that the size of the shelves works well for organizing the books, too. On the very top shelf we have the mixology books (being held up by two boxed sets of cookbooks). The next shelf down holds books devoted to appetizers, parties and entertaining. This is followed by cookbooks that focus on a certain ethnic region. The next shelf holds what I'll call "general purpose" cookbooks - those that pretty much cover all courses from soup to nuts. The bottom shelf holds all the titles related to desserts, baking and gift giving.

It's just such a pleasure to be able to see everything, have it all organized and be able to pick out any single volume that might catch my attention. (sigh of happiness...)

Why I Love Our Cooking Club

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:40:45 GMT

I'm in the midst of preparing for an Amarone Wine Tasting at my house tomorrow night. And I was just thinking how cool it is that several of the things I'm making are either entirely from one of our cooking club meals or are based on something we've done there. I've pulled recipes from my trusty binders and they are currently hanging on the refrigerator. They are guiding my early prep work tonight and waiting to be used for final preparation tomorrow. I love that so much of what we've done and learned through dinner club ends up being used over and over again. That was a hoped for outcome but when you start these things you never know for sure how it will work out.

Thanks to My Great Friends!!

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:13:12 GMT

I just need to tell you that I am one of the luckiest people in the world! I have really wonderful friends who not only celebrate with me but really come through in the bad times. The furnace repair that I alluded to in a recent post turned out to be much more of a hassle than I thought it was going to be. It turned out that the earliest they could get a new part here was going to be more like early January - that's a long time! Especially since a bunch of my family is arriving here on the 16th for our Christmas celebration. (We always get together as a family the weekend before Christmas so that we avoid conflicts with in-laws and allow each of my siblings' families to have their own celebrations at home.)

I put out a call for help and so many people came through that it really made me happy and proud and thankful! I can't tell you how much it means to me. I just love these people! And this just reminds me again to make sure I never take them for granted.

And then this morning I got more good news; my furnace guy was able to come up with another solution and it looks like I'll have heat again next Tuesday! Woo hoo! Keep your fingers crossed!

Rachel Ray Rant

Wed, 04 May 2005 17:25:56 GMT

I've been debating this entry for quite some time. I know that Rachel Ray can do no wrong with much of the American public and that I stand to alienate some folks with this rant but I can't hold it in any longer! Last week I saw a little article in the Seattle P-I about Rachel's new magazine and I decided it was time to speak up!

Now before I go into the "bad", let me say that I'm sure that Rachel is a nice person. This isn't about her, so much, as what she dishes out. Although, she is just a little too perky (don't her cheeks hurt by the end of those shows!) for my particular taste. Makes me think there may be more than just dried herbs going into some of those dishes...

My first encounter with Rachel was on the $40 a Day shows. Since I love to travel and mostly have a limited budget when I do, I was excited to see how she fared in some of my favorite places. And, I thought it would be interesting to actually see some new places, too. Well, the first few shows I found pretty interesting. Then I started thinking about some of her tips about saving $$ on meals. Thinking always gets me in trouble.

I noticed that in order to save money on meals, she was spending more in other ways. A classic example is when she recommends that you "get out of the downtown area". True, food will be cheaper, but how much are you going to spend in cab fare to get there? Or, if you are driving, on gas and parking? I didn't see the show she did in Seattle, but one of the places she visits is a place in my neighborhood, Bick's Broadview Grill. I love this place and I'm glad she found it. Since I didn't see the show I don't know if she cabbed or drove to Bick's but I can tell you that a one way cab fare would be well over $20. That's one way. And, although their meals are less expensive than some comparable places downtown, we're only talking a buck or two, maybe three but no more than that. If she was driving, parking is free but gas-wise (especially at today's prices) it would probably be a wash. So she's making her $40 a day food budget but overall spending more on her travel budget. How smart is that?

Also it seems that most of her "dining" does not include alcoholic beverages, sometimes, but always limited. Now, not that I need alcohol in my life or massive quantities of it, but for me it's a pretty basic part of dining - especially when you're traveling on vacation. So I don't think her $40 budgets are realistic.

Now having said all that I would say that when I travel, I probably mostly spend less than $40 on meals, at least for the overall trip. In fact, I know that because I've done a lot of business travel and had to track my expenses, so I know. It can be done, especially if you are averaging expenses over a number of days, it's just that Rachel's way doesn't really make sense to me.

So now let's talk about 30 Minute Meals. Another great concept for millions of people, although one I balk at a little, because for me the preparation isn't something to "get through" but a big part of the dining process. However, there are times we all need to be efficient and I recognize that's the case for many people on a regular basis.

So who are the people who are most likely to need 30 Minute Meals? Single parents, dual-income families, single people working more than one job or working while going to school. For many of these people budget is as important as time.

So when I see Rachel recommending things like shredded cheese (instead of shredding your own) or packaged greens or cuts of meat that have already had all the "prep" work done I cringe a little. I don't know about your grocery store but mine charges a lot more for those items than for the ones you need to prepare on your own. I'd say that cheese costs about 4 times more per pound (maybe more) when you buy it shredded instead of shredding it yourself. And I question the nutritional value of some of these products, not all, but some. The other day she was using a single serving package of shredded carrots! Any fresh fruit or vegetable begins losing nutritional quality as soon as it's picked and even more when you process it and expose it to air.

So, while I agree these things all make meal preparation faster, I wish she would talk about some of these trade-offs. That prepared or partially prepared food will cost more, that you may lose some nutritional value, and that you may have less control over the quality. And maybe, when you are making these meals, it makes sense for you to adopt some of the ideas but take a little more time on others. It doesn't have to be all or nothing either way. Just explain the trade-offs and let the viewers make informed decisions.

Then her third show was announced, Inside Dish with Rachel Ray. Again, I thought this sounded like it had potential. I'm not a huge celebrity watcher but it would be interesting to hear how some people incorporate food and dining into their lives. So I watched the first couple shows. The people and subjects were interesting but, unfortunately, you didn't get to hear much about them. Every time they'd say something Rachel would relate it to some experience or story in her life! And then the discussion would be all about her. Sure, something you do when you have a conversation with someone but not something that should be done when the focus should be on the guest. And since these shows are (presumably) edited, I can only imagine what the actual conversations were like!

But, what do I know? The world continues to watch her shows, buy her books and generally love the girl-next-door-ness of her. So now, we are going to have this magazine, "Everyday with Rachel Ray". It makes me want to scream. I know, however, that all I have to do is turn her off, not buy her products. Which I do or don't do, as appropriate. However, she's also crowding out FoodNetwork shows that I do like, and that's what really gets me. People like Sara Moulton are not having shows renewed. I find Sara to be much more educational than Rachel. But, you know, her food takes time.

Phew! I feel so much better! :-) Thanks for letting me rant.

Update: My take on $40 a Day

BYO Wine Rant

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:19:56 GMT

This is actually a Public Service Announcement! :-)

I decided to post this rant today for two reasons:

It's Worldwide Wine Blogging Wednesday so the day seemed appropriate
More importantly, I haven't had a recent party where this happened so hopefully I won't upset any friends by them thinking I was talking about them specifically!

Most of the time when I entertain I provide everything - all the food, beverage, snacks, whatever. I really enjoy doing it and often I want all the individual pieces to add up to a coordinated whole. But since I've been taking time off over the last several months I have, on occasion, asked people to bring their own wine. Sometimes leaving it open and sometimes asking for something within a parameter - for instance, when I did the Tapas Parties last summer I asked people to bring Spanish wines.

When a host asks you to bring your own beverage be generous in what you bring.

What I find happens is that the single people bring a bottle of wine. Perfect. The couples bring a bottle of wine. And that's where my rant begins. I can tell you that during the course of an evening, two people will almost certainly drink more than one bottle of wine - even if they plan to be "good". They may not (or they may!) drink two whole bottles but they will definitely be well into the second bottle.

I mean think about a normal evening and the number of hours you will spend at your host's house. As people are arriving everyone sits around, gets introduced or caught up on news and has a glass of wine. Depending on the type of appetizer or snack some people will probably pour a second glass. If you are part of a couple your first bottle of wine is basically now gone. Next comes dinner - everyone has the next glass of wine or adds to their glass to bring it up to level. Since dinner is normally a social event, it's not uncommon to need to fill a glass a second time during a meal. And even once dessert and coffee or port have been served, people often linger at the table talking and laughing and having one more glass of wine. Or even two. It's not uncommon for dinner parties to last 6 hours from beginning to end. Do you really think you'll only have 2 1/2 glasses of wine in a 6 hour period? Or even a 4 hour period?

Since I normally have a mix of singles and couples, the singles end up picking up the slack for the couples. This is just not fair at all! Or I end up pulling out a few bottles when the donated stash runs dry. Which, in some ways I don't mind, but sort of defeats the request to bring your own.

So if you have been asked to bring wine to an event, please bring one bottle per person. I mean what it the worst thing that could happen? You don't drink it all and have to leave some for your host? Hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

This is an end to this Public Service Announcement!

No-Update Update on Plugra at Trader Joe's

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 14:55:50 GMT

I haven't had much success checking out the status of Plugra at Trader Joe's here in the Seattle area. The last response I received when I asked a clerk if they were going to quit carrying Plugra (as I was buying several pounds of it!) was, "Hmm. I don't know but it would make sense since we often quit carrying products." Not exactly a satisfying remark either way! Anyway, I'll probably be stopping by a different location later this week so we'll see if they have anything more interesting to say. :-)

Update Update: Been meaning to add this for some time... bad me! In Seattle, I haven't seen Plugra on the shelves for some time. There is now a "Trader Joes's European Style" butter offering, however. Since I stocked up on Plugra a bit ago I haven't had a chance to check it out, but knowing Trader Joe's it's probably a good substitute.

Synchronicity

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 22:49:22 GMT

I love when different parts of my life or different interests come together. It's another gorgeous day here in Seattle and I was just out on my deck. It's on the south side of my house so even when it's not technically warm it often feels very warm there. Anyway, I've written about my herbs in past entries but I've never mentioned that I also happen to really like birds. One of my favorites is the hummingbird (isn't it everyone's?). The little balls of energy completely amaze me! One of my favorite sights is when "my" hummingbirds come down and feed from whatever herbs are in bloom. Today the miniature bomber has been spending a lot of time buzzing around the rosemary, which is in full bloom. It makes me smile.

Additionally, I was taking fruit and vegetable scraps out to my compost pile a little earlier and happened to notice how many worms I have this year. (This is a good thing for those of you not familiar with compost!) I'm very excited as I will have good compost this year. Last year no one could believe how tall my tomato plants grew and how many tomatoes were on them. Especially because I cram them into a little bed and in an area where I have planted tomatoes for many years in a row. (Which is not good, as they really deplete the soil. You should really rotate other crops each year.) Why did they do so well? Because in the spring I prepared the planting bed with my compost and the tomatoes loved it! If the weather holds I'll have a bounty of tomatoes again this year! :-)

New Year's Resolutions

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:08:44 GMT

I was getting caught up on the postings on The Recipe Collector's site and came across a link to a set of Food Resolutions. I thought they were really great and decided to post them here (with a few comments...). For the full article check out the link above.

1. Resolve to cook something completely new. Take any cookbook, close your eyes, open it to a random page, and cook the dish that appears there. If it’s a rich dessert, you peeked. Try again. If you picked a dessert cookbook, you’re incorrigible; go on to Resolution No. 10. <I had made a similar resolution, except not to do it with my eyes closed! Instead I want to cook at least one new thing from each of my cookbooks and I have over 50, not including the Cocktail books!>

2. Resolve to take a photo of a dish you cooked, and pretend it’s for the cover of Gourmet magazine. This will encourage doing something really dramatic or unusual, and it will make some feel less like a slave to their partners’ conventions. <Since starting this blog, I've realized just how poor my digital photos are. So, I want to get better - first with the old camera I have and at some point with a new camera.>

3. Resolve to grow a new herb in the garden. Pick one that’s a perennial so it won’t die off depressingly in the winter: rosemary, sage, thyme, winter savory.
Alternately, grow an herb in a pot indoors. Chia pets with parsley hair do not count. <As you may know from my Herbs post, this one is a no brainer for me, but I encourage others to try it out.)

4. Resolve to make friends with a new fruit or vegetable with an unusual name. Yucca is not a four-letter word. Red banana is not an oxymoron. And Belgian endive need not be pronounced “on-deeve,” except by the exceedingly pretentious. Also resolve not to cook for that queen. <I sort of do this but not so well that once I try something that I think to include it in future recipes, so that will be my goal.>

5. Resolve to buy an interesting cooking tool, or to replace at least one junky utensil with a really good, classy one: a heavy stainless spatula, a solid maple rolling pin, a marble mortar and pestle. Don’t get too artsy. A silver bejeweled lemon zester is only appropriate for the ex-Czarina of Russia, and you’re not cooking for that queen either. <This has to be someone's resolution??>

6. Resolve to make one thing from scratch that usually comes in a bottle, box or can: mayonnaise, yogurt, macaroni and cheese, chicken soup, cheesecake, salsa.
Libraries boast shelves of cookbooks on end, and the Internet offers thousands of sites to help overcome culino-phobia.

7. Don’t resolve to never eat junk food again; that just sets you up for self-recrimination. Instead, set aside some junk food days to indulge in the sins of slutty food.

8. Resolve to regularly buy one food marked “organic,” even if it’s just a carrot or cucumber. Buying organic supports a movement and makes a statement, and it’s just as important to make a culinary statement as it is to make a fashion statement. <Support your local Farmer's Markets!>

9. Occasionally go meatless. Remember that it takes about 16 pounds of grain to raise 1 pound of beef. Eat more grain, and let the animals remain bucolic for another day.

10. Resolve to cook more and microwave less. With hectic schedules, it sometimes seems like cooking is a waste of time. But if eating can bring us together, so can cooking.

Invite family and friends to a communal cooking event, and enjoy preparing what sustains us for life.

Please feel free to share your resolutions, too! B

RSVP Etiquette

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 21:08:39 GMT

Each year I resolve to throw more small dinner parties - in the 6 to 10 person range. My goal is to do one a month and in my mind this small group is sitting around a table talking, laughing and, of course, loving every bite of the food!

And now I'm going to take the chance of alienating people but I'm hoping they will understand...

Each year I do one or two of these small parties before I give up. I don't give up because it's too time-consuming or too expensive or because I lose interest. I give up because so many people don't really understand RSVP etiquette.

When I plan these smaller parties I really try to balance the guest list with a good mix of people who know each other and those who don't know each other. My goal is that each guest will have a certain comfort level yet be introduced to new elements. I also like to balance the profile of the people. This is the most challenging part for me, as I know lots of single women, a few straight couples, several gay men - either single or coupled and comparatively very few single straight men. If I'm not careful I can easily end up with 7 single women, 1 single gay guy and 1 straight couple around the table. People don't mind the first time it happens, but the second or third they start getting a little tired of it all. The mix is just a bit off, no matter how nice everyone is or how well they get along.

So, I'll carefully compile a guest list and even work out the "backups" so if anyone declines I can still fill the seats with a good balance. Well, this all sounds well and good but the reality is that people don't always answer in a timely manner. Or they answer but they reply "maybe" or they reply, "Well I can make it but I don't know about (insert partner's name here)".

Now, I am flattered that people do not want to decline because they'd really hate to miss one of my parties Really, I am. But I wish they understood what kind of havoc this causes. Especially if (and this happens quite a lot) several people have this situation. I've tried hinting that, "Well I'll just make sure you're on the list for next time", but that doesn't even work. People insist that this other obligation might not happen or will fall through so they stay as a maybe until it's too late to graciously invite one of the "back-ups".

And, there are those who accept and then a couple days prior or day of the party cancel. Sometimes they have a good reason (they got sick that morning) but sometimes, it's just that something else came up or I find out that they accepted without really checking with their partner and the partner also made plans for the same date.

If you are having a larger, unstructured party all of these things are a bit irritating but can be overcome (although there can be other impacts, but don't get me started on that right now!). With a small dinner party, however, they have a huge impact. There have been times that in the 48 hours prior to a party I've gone from a table of 10 to a table of 3. Not only has the food already been purchased and, most likely, the preparation work already been done but I feel badly for the people who come expecting an interesting mix of people and find they are the bulk of the party!

So, it's January 2005. And again, I'm thinking that I'd really like to do a small dinner party each month. But I'm sitting here struggling with the logistics. I love it when it works but I hate the agony of the "maybes". Hmm, which way will I go? Maybe I should make them really small like for 4 people. But I already do several of that scale. Maybe I should just always invite 20 and hope 10 actually show up; with my luck all 20 would show up or, maybe worse, 12 would. That's just two too many for my table. :-)

In the meantime, if you are invited to a dinner party, RSVP within a day or two. If you need additional time at least let your host know that you received the invitation and that you just need an extra day or two to reply. And then make sure you reply, when you said you would. And make it a definite yes or no. If you can't make it your host will miss you - they did invite you after all - but they will appreciate your quick response and you will soon be on their list of invitees again.

Much Maligned Fruitcake

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 15:33:40 GMT

I made fruitcake this morning. Okay, knock off those groans! I understand the issues people have with fruitcake. The modern version full of candied cherries and pineapple is tolerable, at best. First of all who ever came up with idea to dye fruits such garish, unnatural colors? I guess, it might be the same people who are now marketing green ketchup and blue french fries. However, you are not forced to use those ingredients in your fruitcake.

I use dried fruits and over the years the selection has really grown. It used to be that raisins, dates and prunes were your main options. Not so today! I take my basic recipe and substitute all kinds of fruits, just making sure that I use an equivalent amount to what is called for in the recipe. The recipe I use lists both weight and volume measures so you could substitute using either method, although I normally just use volume.

In the batch I made today I used dates, raisins (this mix from Rosendahl Farms is my favorite!), tart cherries, cranberries, apricots, mango, strawberries, and pineapple. All dried, all natural colors! The cakes are now in the oven and will be ready to come out in a couple of hours.

So, I challenge you to make fruitcake this year! Visit the bulk goods section in your grocery store and pick out some items that appeal to your taste. Look for a mix of colors to add interest to the cake. And get started today! Fruitcake needs to sit for two to three weeks to allow the flavors to properly develop and the cake to set to an evenly moist, dense loaf. If you get going you'll have a beautiful fruitcake just in time for Christmas!

Update December 2005: Check out the recipe I posted here.

Costco

Mon, 06 Dec 2004 00:50:00 GMT

In today's "Pacific Northwest" magazine in the Seattle Times, there is an article by Greg Atkinson about why he likes Costco. I was SOOO happy to see this. As a person who shops Costco on a regular basis, I have been trying to convince some people that many of the foods you find there are actually better quality than can be found other places. And Greg (formerly of Canlis and other great local restaurants and a Certified Culinary Professional) agrees! I'm feeling very smug at the moment! :-)

You can read his comments here: "Trust in a Big Box"