Okay, we've had our "Food Snobs" thread, but tonight's dinner at the
Salt Creek Grill on PCH in Dana Point CA made me think of the number
of truly awful (to me) menu offerings there are here in SoCal and, I
suspect, elsewhere. Why does a chef take a pretty simple, nice idea
for a dish and torque it into a ridiculous parody of the original
dish? The DH ordered a barbecued pork sandwich that was "Upscaled" to
the point of inedibility. After being offered a taste from a DH who
was making faces, I couldn't identify half the ingredients, but can
testify that they don't belong in barbecue. I had a Caesar salad with
chicken, but the chicken had something on it that clashed horribly
with the Caesar dressing and the Asiago cheese they used instead of
Parmesan was way too strong. If you look at their online menu, it
looks pretty tame, but their online menu doesn't show the more goofy
concoctions. I see this time and again where a chef, in an attempt to
be creative and have a "signature dish" just goes way over the top and
uses "wasabi remoulade," "Cajun spices drizzled with a
ginger soy wasabi ," "confetti of beurre blanc with blah blah blah."
Macaroni and cheese can be presented with a dizzying array of spices
and be presented as "pasta il formaggio con blah blah blah spices." Ya
just never know when you're going to get sideswiped by some chef's bad
idea. I guess everyone's mileage varies as to taste, but some
"creations" should have stayed on the drawing board, IMHO.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
AAC(F)BV66.0748.CA


"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "spaminator" with "cox"

"Terry Pulliam Burd" > wrote in message
...
> Okay, we've had our "Food Snobs" thread, but tonight's dinner at the
> Salt Creek Grill on PCH in Dana Point CA made me think of the number
> of truly awful (to me) menu offerings there are here in SoCal and, I
> suspect, elsewhere. Why does a chef take a pretty simple, nice idea
> for a dish and torque it into a ridiculous parody of the original
> dish? The DH ordered a barbecued pork sandwich that was "Upscaled" to
> the point of inedibility. After being offered a taste from a DH who
> was making faces, I couldn't identify half the ingredients, but can
> testify that they don't belong in barbecue. I had a Caesar salad with
> chicken, but the chicken had something on it that clashed horribly
> with the Caesar dressing and the Asiago cheese they used instead of
> Parmesan was way too strong. If you look at their online menu, it
> looks pretty tame, but their online menu doesn't show the more goofy
> concoctions. I see this time and again where a chef, in an attempt to
> be creative and have a "signature dish" just goes way over the top and
> uses "wasabi remoulade," "Cajun spices drizzled with a
> ginger soy wasabi ," "confetti of beurre blanc with blah blah blah."
> Macaroni and cheese can be presented with a dizzying array of spices
> and be presented as "pasta il formaggio con blah blah blah spices." Ya
> just never know when you're going to get sideswiped by some chef's bad
> idea. I guess everyone's mileage varies as to taste, but some
> "creations" should have stayed on the drawing board, IMHO.
>
> Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
> AAC(F)BV66.0748.CA

I have eaten at specific Salt Creek where you just ate as well as the Valencia
Store. We decided to cab over there from the Ritz so I could have a reasonable
amount of attitude adjustment and net worry about the CHP. Our experience was
also mediocre at best. Let me rephrase that. It was terrible. I think it is
typical California pretentious BS. At least In N Out has honest food.

;-o

Dimitri

Terry Pulliam Burd wrote:
>
> Okay, we've had our "Food Snobs" thread, but tonight's dinner at the
> Salt Creek Grill on PCH in Dana Point CA made me think of the number
> of truly awful (to me) menu offerings there are here in SoCal and, I
> suspect, elsewhere. Why does a chef take a pretty simple, nice idea
> for a dish and torque it into a ridiculous parody of the original
> dish? The DH ordered a barbecued pork sandwich that was "Upscaled" to
> the point of inedibility. After being offered a taste from a DH who
> was making faces, I couldn't identify half the ingredients, but can
> testify that they don't belong in barbecue. I had a Caesar salad with
> chicken, but the chicken had something on it that clashed horribly
> with the Caesar dressing and the Asiago cheese they used instead of
> Parmesan was way too strong. If you look at their online menu, it
> looks pretty tame, but their online menu doesn't show the more goofy
> concoctions. I see this time and again where a chef, in an attempt to
> be creative and have a "signature dish" just goes way over the top and
> uses "wasabi remoulade," "Cajun spices drizzled with a
> ginger soy wasabi ," "confetti of beurre blanc with blah blah blah."
> Macaroni and cheese can be presented with a dizzying array of spices
> and be presented as "pasta il formaggio con blah blah blah spices." Ya
> just never know when you're going to get sideswiped by some chef's bad
> idea. I guess everyone's mileage varies as to taste, but some
> "creations" should have stayed on the drawing board, IMHO.

This is exactly why I have no interest in watching any
of those Iron Chef things. I saw one and thought it was
incredibly stupid.

I'm afraid there's such a thing as being *too* creative.
I see it in the other arts as well as cooking.

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?

Kate Connally wrote:

> I'm afraid there's such a thing as being *too* creative.
> I see it in the other arts as well as cooking.
>

If it is creation for the sake of creation and not for taste, then there
is such a thing.


jim

In article >,
Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
>The DH ordered ....
>After being offered a taste from a DH who...

What's a "DH"? Dumbhead? Dickhead? Da Husband? What? Just curious.

-A

axlq wrote:

> In article >,
> Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
>
>>The DH ordered ....
>>After being offered a taste from a DH who...
>
>
> What's a "DH"? Dumbhead? Dickhead? Da Husband? What? Just curious.
>
> -A


Depends on the persons mood, but sometimes it means "Dear Husband". All
of the others could probably apply depending on the circumstances. ;-)

--
Steve
Ever notice that putting the and IRS together makes "theirs"?

Yes, there IS such a thing as being too creative with the cooking. And
definitely such a thing as failing to acknowledge that an idea didn't
work. =o\ But trial and error is how we find out what we like.
SOMEBODY had to eat the first snail, first oyster, first caviar, etc
etc etc. I'm not a fan of "Let's throw in the kitchen sink and see how
this tastes" kind of cooking, though. Test first, taste, if it's
awful, scrap it, but don't serve it! Some tastes truly DO not work
together.

Melissa

wrote:

> Yes, there IS such a thing as being too creative with the cooking. And
> definitely such a thing as failing to acknowledge that an idea didn't
> work. =o\ But trial and error is how we find out what we like.
> SOMEBODY had to eat the first snail, first oyster, first caviar, etc
> etc etc. I'm not a fan of "Let's throw in the kitchen sink and see how
> this tastes" kind of cooking, though. Test first, taste, if it's
> awful, scrap it, but don't serve it! Some tastes truly DO not work
> together.

It's great that modern transportation and storage systems allow us access
to ingredients that we never used to see in the stores. A lot of us have
moved away from all the old standards that we were raised on. It was meat,
potatoes and local vegetables in my family when I was a kid. Even so, I
think that some restaurants have gone a little overboard. I am pretty
adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, but I also have to deal with
some sensitivities to certain foods, like avoiding nuts completely, and
avoiding tomatoes and potatoes as much as possible.

Eating at some of the better (more expensive?) local restaurants has become
a bit of a challenge. They seem to be trying to outdo each other in the
use of exotic ingredients and strange combinations. I was at one of these
places a while ago and trying to select something interesting from the menu
but ended up making my selection more by the process of elimination.
Things looked interesting, but they had ingredients that I just didn't see
going with the dish. I settled on grilled salmon with a honey mustard
sauce. It was the least objectionable selection, but I had my doubts about
the honey mustard with the salmon. The salmon fillet was a good portion
and cooked to perfection. The sauce was just as I expected. It tasted good,
but it just didn't go with salmon. It would have been great on ribs or
maybe even a loin of pork, but not salmon.

On Wed, 11 May 2005 22:43:46 +0000 (UTC), (axlq)
wrote:

>In article >,
>Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
>>The DH ordered ....
>>After being offered a taste from a DH who...
>
>What's a "DH"? Dumbhead? Dickhead? Da Husband? What? Just curious.

"Dear Husband." Once upon a time, everyone was worried about using up
bandwidth, so Usenet has always used acronyms. They're not used nearly
as much as, say, ten years ago, but a few old favorites linger. Go
here for a fairly good list of Usenet acronyms:

http://www.geocities.com/eedd88/abbr...ns.html?200511

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
AAC(F)BV66.0748.CA


"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "spaminator" with "cox"

axlq wrote:
> In article >,
> Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
>
>>The DH ordered ....
>>After being offered a taste from a DH who...
>
>
> What's a "DH"? Dumbhead? Dickhead? Da Husband? What? Just curious.
>
> -A

You forgot designated hitter.


jim