"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
...
> On 5/16/2013 5:52 PM, jmcquown wrote:
>> On 5/16/2013 1:53 PM, notbob wrote:
>
>>> One has to wonder about the desserts, too. She sez she make's 'em,
>>> but dense rich desserts like that can be purchased and stored for
>>> quite some time in a cool case and remain excellent. Considering her
>>> monster ego and unrelenting arrogance, I'm doubtful.
>>>
>> Good point. I sure didn't see her doing any baking in the videos I
>> looked at, did you? Well, except for the crappy pizza.
>
> It struck me that it takes her forever to put out a plate of
> food, and those pastries all looked very time consuming to make.
> Also, her food didn't look attractive like someone accustomed to
> making pretty desserts. I would think some sense of aesthetics
> would be apparent.
>
> Who knows.
>
> nancy

I used to bake a lot of stuff and take it to work. Once day someone said to
me, "I know you can bake. But can you cook?" I always assumed that the two
went hand in hand. Apparently not. I have seen countless chefs on TV say
that they didn't bake. And although I don't bake much any more (mainly
because we don't eat much of that stuff), I still can do it.

Of the two, I would have to say that cooking is usually easier. Unless
perhaps it is certain kinds of candies. I have made many kinds of candies
over the years and the one that always stumped me was taffy. Mine always
comes out too hard even though I am careful to do the water test and check
the candy thermometer. I have made it in school and it was fine. Made it
at other people's houses and it was fine. But make it at home? I wind up
with a hard candy and I am talking the break your tooth kind of hard. But I
do think that candy making and baking are more of a science than most
cooking is. Although I guess it all is sort of a science.

I am always astounded when I get truly horrible food at a restaurant.

When we first moved here, there was a Mexican restaurant. It's no longer
there. Was two different Indian places after that and now an Italian place.
I just think that building is doomed. All of those places have gotten
horrible reviews. Even the Italian one! The owner of that has another
location in Everett and it has gotten excellent reviews. But at the Mexican
place, the nice man who seated us pointed out to us many times how we were
getting such a good deal because the portions were huge! And huge is
generally not what I am looking for in restaurant portions.

I started by ordering a dinner salad. He tried to talk me out of it by
saying that it was only a plain salad. And it all went downhill from there.
That salad, pathetic as it was, was the only edible thing on our table. The
chips were greasy, limp and stale. The salsa was like red water. Nothing
else seemed to have any seasonings whatever. My dad, daughter and I had
dined there. My mom was sick or injured or something and my husband was at
work. As soon as we could flag the waiter down, we got the bill, drove
straight to Burger Master for some good food and took it back to my house to
eat it. That place closed soon after. But being new to the area and not
even having my Internet up and running yet, we had no clue which places were
good and which weren't.

It also amazes me when restaurants that I consider to be truly bad are still
in business years later. There is another Mexican place that has locations
in several different cities. I tried two of the locations and each time got
the same bad food. Literally the only thing they serve that has any flavor
at all is the beans. But they have a very bad flavor! Now that I have
tried Epazote, I am wondering if perhaps it is that? Perhaps they put a lot
of that in there? I just don't know. I only used a pinch in my beans both
times that I tried it after reading cautions online not to use too much.

But the food was really, truly bad. Old looking meat with bad texture.
Flavorless sauces. Stale chips. Stale taco shells and yes, they use the
crispy "American" style shells. We all ordered different things and all
disliked the food. My daughter's friend did order a steak and although it
was huge, she said that it wasn't very good. She also had a baked potato
and they had glopped it up so much that she didn't want to eat it. I
personally would not order American food at a Mexican place but this was a
kid. This was several years ago. We tried the newer location by mistake.
I didn't realize that it was in fact the same place until we walked in. I
immediately had a bad feeling about it. Then it was confirmed when our bean
dip was brought to the table. They put diced chicken in it! Who puts
chicken in bean dip? They should have disclosed this on the menu. Totally
ruined it. Nobody would eat the stuff. And when my dad asked for some
hotter salsa, they brought him a bottle of something red and said that they
didn't know what it was. I suspected that it was Sriacchia (sp?). It was
just in a generic, clear squeeze bottle.

All of those locations are still open and all get mostly not only bad
reviews but REALLY bad reviews. But they also get a few rave reviews.
Makes me think those people were shills.