On 2006-03-21, Michael "Dog3" Lonergan > wrote:

> Our tree rats are also carnivorous. They eat almost anything. They are
> evolving. I think they will take over the world.

Only if you allow it:

http://www.straightshooters.com/aira...410clasic.html
http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/hunting.htm

nb

wff_ng_7 wrote:

> This past Sunday morning I heard this most interesting hammering noise. I'm
> sure most people wouldn't give it a second thought. But I recognized it for
> what it was: the distinctive sound of a woodpecker. I stopped to try and
> find it, but was unsuccessful. On one prior occassion I did spot one. Quite
> interesting to find in downtown Washington, DC. If you're not looking, you
> miss an awful lot of stuff.


Good memories. Many years ago and in another city, I was awakened by
the most awful jackhammering sound. It would stop for a moment, and I'd
go back to sleep only to be awakened a short while later. Given the
early hour and the neighborhood, I could only conclude, through my
sleepy fog, that someone had started construction early and should be
shot. I finally awakened enough to look out the window. I could see
nothing in the neighboring parking lot that would indicate workmen with
hardhats and protective ear gear tearing up the concrete. (My tiny
apartment was surrounded by about 5' of greenery, including a
sorry-looking tree, followed by a chain link fence and the dumpster and
parking lot of the larger apartment complex next door.)


It took me a moment to look up, and there was the culprit: A woodpecker
excavating a perfect circular hole in the tree. That was funny enough,
but when I looked down, I could see wood shavings below. It didn't take
long before watching the tree was the best entertainment I could ask
for. (Ah, for those halcyon days before I allowed television back into
my life.) (There was no camera in my life then either, or I'd have
pictures.) In time, a family of jays (some sort, don't remember, maybe
even sparrows) evicted woodpecker and took up residence in the prime
real estate spot.


--Lia

"Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
...
> Doug Kanter wrote:
>> "Julia Altshuler" > wrote in message
>
>>>You bring up an interesting point. If I see someone reading on a bus or
>>>at a restaurant, I get curious about the book and will try to manouever
>>>to a place where I can see the cover without making it obvious. I get
>>>curious about artwork in public places, store displays, ad copy, changes
>>>in manners, turns of phrase, all sorts of things but not strangers'
>>>weight and groceries. I guess there is a bit of the busybody in me.
>>>
>>>
>>>--Lia
>>>
>>
>>
>> Not busybody. Smart and observant. If you ran for president, I'd vote for
>> you.
>
>
> Gee, um, uh, thanks, I think. Considering what I've thought of all recent
> presidential candidates (nominees and winners), I'm not sure I'm
> complimented:-)
>
>
> --Lia
>

Well, that's the point. We've had a few who didn't seem to notice much. The
current one once admitted to "not reading much". Oh boy....

In article >,
The Bubbo > wrote:

> Bob Terwilliger wrote:
> > Heather wrote:
> >
> >> if I was going to make stuff up it wouldn't be about a guy and his
> >> milk purchase, it would be about moon people and meatloaf and hovering
> >> javelinas.
> >
> > Let's hear that meatloaf fiction.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
>
> With amazing self control she put the fork down on the plate, "what do you
> mean 'surprise'? what are you talking about?"
> "That's not steak you're eating my most precious darling."
> "don't you 'most precious darling' me you weiner patrol! What the hell have
> you put on my plate. Don't play me, little man, I've had about all I can take
> of your games."
> The dog trotted in and they both shot him 'the look', he made fast tracks.
> "Okay...okay..chill little princess, it's not a steak so much as a loaf...of
> meat...made from ...."
> She stood up, trembling, wondering if she's pull his heart out through his
> throat or just feed him to the javelinas. "Spit it out! What is it made of??"
> "Those...moon people...the ones that showed up the other night. They didn't
> leave as unexpectedly as I led you to believe...they grind up so nice"
>
>
> and later, she learned, so did he.
>
> Sorry, it's lame but the best I could come up with on the fly.

Heh! It's better than a very bizarre dream I had one night a few years
ago... It was so bad, I've not forgotten it.
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

Doug Kanter wrote:
>
> "Goomba38" > wrote in message
> . ..
> > Doug Kanter wrote:
> >
> >> Like any societal change, this one requires 2-3 generations (or more) to
> >> change. My teenage son has other things on his mind, like talking on the
> >> phone all day while functioning as a heavy weight to keep the sofa from
> >> flying out the window. During his occasional moments of partial
> >> awareness, I rag on him about how he might want to spend some time with
> >> me in the kitchen so he learns, and doesn't starve to death when he's
> >> living on his own. What would sons have been told in the 1950s? Maybe
> >> nothing? Would there have been the unspoken expection that as soon as
> >> they were done with college, a woman would magically appear to cook for
> >> them? I don't recall what I absorbed when I was 8 years old. What I *do*
> >> know is that in college, there were plenty of guys whose entire
> >> relationship with women involved having someone to do their laundry.
> >
> > My son has discovered cooking... for girls! Besides that cooking is
> > another activity that he and a bunch of his frat brothers have been
> > doing..probably because it saves money for more drinking and debauchery?
> > <sigh>
> > LOL
>
> Hey...whatever works. What little my son does, he does because he's found
> that for maybe 95% of the food we eat, you can make it better at home.

Oddly enough, I learned the very basics of cooking from my mother (who
wasn't a very good cook, better baker) when I was perhaps 8-10. I found
I enjoyed it and started reading cookbooks and watching the (then fairly
new) cooking programs on PBS. I rapidly surpassed my mothers cooking
ability and soon was doing a good 75% of the cooking.

My mother has since improved her cooking skills, oddly enough around the
time I moved out, and has been known to call me for advice on a culinary
project from time to time. I never had an opportunity to take any home
ec. type classes in school either.

Things were similar with my father (he was a semi-machinist / setup guy
at a local firearm manufacturer) where I got some exposure to the basics
of machining and auto work, but then proceeded on my own to read and
investigate all I could and learn more. Once again the school system
failed me as I never had the opportunity to take shop class either.

In both cases it wasn't so much a case of my parents teaching me how to
do something, but more exposing me to it and providing some level of
support when I showed interest in it.

Today I have a reasonably well equipped kitchen (including Hobart mixer)
and do a fair amount of cooking. I also have a fairly well equipped shop
(including Bridgeport mill) and do a fair amount of machining projects.
My career path oddly enough involves little of either.

Pete C.

In article >,
The Bubbo > wrote:

> OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> > In article >,
> > The Bubbo > wrote:
> >
> >> The last neighborhood grocery store was in the burbs and the most annoying
> >> thing was the very slow moving old people (I know, I'm sorry, but I
> sometimes
> >> get impatient when I know what I want but they can't figure out the
> difference
> >> between ketchup and cocktail onions). Now I shop at the semi-ghetto grocery
> >> store and the people are WAY more fascinating, a better mix of people and
> not
> >> just bland suburbia. I love people, I think they're fascinating, hell
> sheldon
> >> is more fascinating than irritating because he's so weird.
> >
> > <lol>
> >
> > One of the more fun places to people watch (besides bars) is the zoo...
>
> nice!
> also the dog park! All manner of people at the dog park and you all have your
> dogs in common, you meet some interesting people. I always likened it to
> parents at their kids' school since you mostly end up talking about your dogs
> anyway.

<grins> As long as the dogs behave...
Sometimes you can meet interesting people walking dogs early in the
mornings. I'm fixin' to start an early morning walking program again
(when I get home from work), maybe I'll have some more stories to tell
like one morning when I went, and there was this older dude in his
boxers.......

>
> I live just a couple blocks from 2 lakes (nokomis and hiawatha for those in
> minneapolis) and you see all kinds of people doing their thing there.

People watching can be a lot of fun!
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

In article <laKTf.8781$gD4.2711@trnddc05>,
"wff_ng_7" > wrote:

> "~patches~" > wrote:
> > Squirrels are funny! I toss out peanuts to the blue jays so one Christmas
> > I got the idea to put out the leftover Christmas nuts. DH was not amused
> > cleaning them out of the downspout We live on the water now so have a
> > problem feeding wildlife although I still toss our peanuts to the blue
> > jays each morning. I have one fat blue jay that follows me around when
> > I'm outside, bold as anything! DH said no bird feeders as we've had a
> > rodent problem and we do have a lot of other wildlife.
>
> We learned our lesson about feeding squirrels many years ago. You can
> actually get them to take the peanut out of your hand. They get very
> friendly. In fact, way too friendly. Eventually they would sit on the
> railing on our front steps waiting for a handout. The last straw with my
> mother was when she wanted to go out shopping one day, and there was a
> squirrel spread eagled on the screen door. She couldn't get out. No more
> feeding the squirrels after that episode!

<lol> Hummingbirds can be nearly as bad...

Mom used to keep 3 one liter feeders hanging from the awning when we
lived in California. We'd count up to 40 birds around those three
feeders at any one time during the summer. They'd have babies in the 3
big oak trees near the awning.

When the feeders got empty, they would hover in front of the windows
begging. :-)

Cute!

The hardest thing was taking the feeders down in the late fall so they
little buggers would migrate when they were supposed to.
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

In article >,
notbob > wrote:

> On 2006-03-21, Michael "Dog3" Lonergan > wrote:
>
> > Our tree rats are also carnivorous. They eat almost anything. They are
> > evolving. I think they will take over the world.
>
> Only if you allow it:
>
> http://www.straightshooters.com/aira...410clasic.html
> http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/hunting.htm
>
> nb

<lol>

They are good eating...
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

wff_ng_7 wrote:
>
> "~patches~" > wrote:
> > wff_ng_7 wrote:
> >> - Long commutes. Some people insist on having the "perfect" house and
> >> then drive hours a day getting to and from work. That time could be spent
> >> on other activities, cooking being but one of them. At some point one has
> >> to say what good is the perfect house if you are never there.
> >
> > I was guilty of this when I was getting my education. My daily commute
> > totaled 3 hours in good weather. The reason behind this is we decided
> > commuting was a better choice than moving our kids to a city. So for 10
> > years, I did that daily. Yet my kids ate home cooked meals every day and
> > they were healthy meals. DH and I made sure of that. DH is a good cook
> > in his own right and our kids all learned to cook. During that time, I
> > also did all my own home preserving - canning, freezing, drying - and I
> > still do.
>
> I know the problem well because I also used to do it. For about 11 years, I
> was driving between 36 and 42 miles each way to and from work. That was in
> the 1980s. I thought the traffic was bad then, but little did I know how bad
> it would eventually get. It would be pure insanity to try and drive those
> same routes today. But plenty of people still regularly do it, so I guess
> there is a lot of insanity going around! ;-)

It doesn't matter how short the commute is if you can't stand to live in
an area.

>
> I think a lot of the problem is people looking for bigger houses and yards.
> My house at 1,500 square feet is actually slightly above the average for
> when it was built (1963). But today, it is well below the average (I believe
> it is around 2,200 square feet now). Funny thing is as families have gotten
> smaller, the houses have gotten bigger.

The critical part here is the yards. There are far too many 4,000+ sq.
ft. micro mansions squashed into tiny postage stamp lots that provide
absolutely no play area for children. When I was looking for a house the
requirement was an absolute minimum of two acres, you can easily add on
to a small house, it is far more expensive and difficult to add on to a
small lot.

>
> In reality, there is tons of available, underutilized land close in to most
> major American cities in the northeast. There is so much in fact that you
> really couldn't build on it quickly without depressing the market. Here in
> the Washington area, there was a large rail yard just outside downtown,
> adjacent to National Airport. When it became available over a decade ago,
> the thought was there was no way to make use of it immediately because of
> its size of hundreds of acres. The building on it will take decades. As a
> temporary measure, part of it was leased for the building of a large strip
> shopping center with a life of something like 20-30 years. By that time they
> figured they could tear it down and put more appropriate development (for
> the center of a major metropolis) there.
>
> There are also large tracts of land within DC itself that were essentially
> ignored for decades. Within walking distance of my house (which is 8 blocks
> from the Capitol), there are such things as a metal scrap yard, a huge
> abandoned office building right on the river, and an abandoned power plant.
> This land was only "discovered" when the city decided to build a new
> baseball stadium in the midst of this stuff.
>
> You wouldn't be building big detached houses on big lots on these sites, but
> there sure is a lot of room for townhouses and apartments, amongst other
> things.
>

The big problem is that nearly all development in recent decades has
centered around micro mansions and apartments, i.e. pseudo high end and
very low end. There has not been nearly enough development of decent
mid-range neighborhoods with 2+ acre lots and 1,500-2,000 sq. ft.
houses.

Pete C.

Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:
>
> wrote:
> >Lidia: Young people. They're busy working, they're bombarded with ethnic
> >cuisines and they try to do it all. They should focus on a single one --
> >like Italian. They should just get in there and do it.
>
> Does anyone else think Americans are bombarded with ethnic cuisines? I
> know I grew up primarily with Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Italian
> foods, although my family liked foods from other cultures and my mother
> often learned to cook foods about which I'd inquired or in which I'd
> expressed some interest.
>
> Orlando

Perhaps that's part of the problem, the potential average new cook is
overwhelmed with the wide array of cuisine's that are seen today and
they can't seem to find a direction to start learning.

Pete C.

Curly Sue wrote:
>
> On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 08:05:15 -0500, ~patches~
> > wrote:
>
> >Curly Sue wrote:
>
> >> Eating habits are learned at home. Kids who are not impressed with
> >> the importance of health at home are not going to seek it outside the
> >> home.
> >>
> >> One thing about cooking per se, is that it has become a hobby that
> >> some people will learn because they like to do it rather than because
> >> it's their function in life. Most of the people lamenting the loss of
> >> cooking skills are talking about loss of cooking skills of women.
> >> Apparently women many women today would rather get an education and
> >> have a career than agonize over "dredging." Good for us. In
> >> addition, there still are parents who need to work long and hard to
> >> keep up and cooking is the least of their worries.
> >
> >You'd be surprised at how many women have educations, have careers, and
> >have kids yet still find the time to cook.
>
> I'm very familiar with what educated women do. In the past women who
> disliked cooking would have been stuck at home (or in a menial job)
> with the expectation that their function in life was cooking (etc.)
> and passing down that knowledge to their daughters. Now, such women
> have other options. The well-off women you speak of who do cook, have
> careers, buy exotic ingredients, etc. are doing it because they enjoy
> cooking rather than because they have to. And they are probably doing
> a better job of it than someone who dislikes cooking.
>
> Sue(tm)
> Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

True, however before the (sad) advent of the "home meal replacement"
type fast food chains, the fact was that someone had to cook, or you
would starve - it's that simple. Now it's quite common and acceptable to
the man to cook, though oddly in the pro chef world it's been just the
opposite.

My theory is that there are seven days in a week, so assuming a two head
family unit, you each cook three days a week and eat out one day.

Pete C.

Nancy Young wrote:
>
> "~patches~" > wrote
>
> > wff_ng_7 wrote:
>
> > Squirrels are funny! I toss out peanuts to the blue jays so one Christmas
> > I got the idea to put out the leftover Christmas nuts. DH was not amused
> > cleaning them out of the downspout We live on the water now so have a
> > problem feeding wildlife although I still toss our peanuts to the blue
> > jays each morning. I have one fat blue jay that follows me around when
> > I'm outside, bold as anything!
>
> They're too much! I never see them around then I put out
> peanuts, the screaming meemies come out of nowhere.
>
> The squirrels have their own feeder when I get around to filling
> it. I remember like yesterday, the kid next door ... maybe he
> was 10. He stood there with his little 10 year old chin dropped
> as far as it could, eyes huge, staring at this squirrel sitting on this
> seat in front of a box of nuts, lifting the lid taking a peanut at a time
> and eating it.
>
> First time he'd seen it in action. Hilarious.
>
> >> This past Sunday morning I heard this most interesting hammering noise.
> >> I'm sure most people wouldn't give it a second thought. But I recognized
> >> it for what it was: the distinctive sound of a woodpecker.
>
> I have to chase them from my window, they hammer a pretty good
> hole. Never do see what the heck they're looking for.
>
> > a really messy bird. We have a lot of hawks of which I kind of have a
> > love hate relationsip with. They are gorgeous birds but bring a whole new
> > meaning to natural selection!
>
> I chase them away if I catch them ... was easier when I had
> Rascal ... I'd let her out and bark and she'd run around like a
> nut barking and it would make the hawks go away ... yes, I know,
> they have to eat, too ... but not my birds, and most especially not
> my catbirds.
>
> nancy

If you find a woodpecker pecking at your house you need to carefully
investigate what the infestation might be (ants, termites, etc.).
Woodpeckers have very good senses and if they're pecking at it there is
a very good chance it's because there is food there.

Pete C.

Pete C. wrote:

> Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:
>
wrote:
>>
>>>Lidia: Young people. They're busy working, they're bombarded with ethnic
>>>cuisines and they try to do it all. They should focus on a single one --
>>>like Italian. They should just get in there and do it.
>>
>>Does anyone else think Americans are bombarded with ethnic cuisines? I
>>know I grew up primarily with Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Italian
>>foods, although my family liked foods from other cultures and my mother
>>often learned to cook foods about which I'd inquired or in which I'd
>>expressed some interest.
>>
>>Orlando
>
>
> Perhaps that's part of the problem, the potential average new cook is
> overwhelmed with the wide array of cuisine's that are seen today and
> they can't seem to find a direction to start learning.
>
> Pete C.

You might have a point. I grew up in a small town with no fast food
restaurants and only one actual restaurant. Fast food was frozen pizza
or school cafeteria food. Dinner was meat, potatoes, and vegetables.
Plain, old fashioned, country cooking, nothing fancy. To this day, I
still do a lot of cooking this way. Then fast food restaurants came on
the scene and I discovered Chinese food etc so it opened a lot more
opportunities to experiment with food. Now there is food network where
you can get recipes and learn techniques on just about any type of
cuisine and the internet makes it even easier. My kids are a lot more
adventerous cooks than I am! It's no surprise that new cooks could
easily be overwhelmed with the choices. One problem with some new cooks
is they expect to do gourmet cooking right away and fail to realize that
first you have to find your cooking style then build on that.

~patches~ wrote:
>
> Pete C. wrote:
>
> > Orlando Enrique Fiol wrote:
> >
> wrote:
> >>
> >>>Lidia: Young people. They're busy working, they're bombarded with ethnic
> >>>cuisines and they try to do it all. They should focus on a single one --
> >>>like Italian. They should just get in there and do it.
> >>
> >>Does anyone else think Americans are bombarded with ethnic cuisines? I
> >>know I grew up primarily with Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Italian
> >>foods, although my family liked foods from other cultures and my mother
> >>often learned to cook foods about which I'd inquired or in which I'd
> >>expressed some interest.
> >>
> >>Orlando
> >
> >
> > Perhaps that's part of the problem, the potential average new cook is
> > overwhelmed with the wide array of cuisine's that are seen today and
> > they can't seem to find a direction to start learning.
> >
> > Pete C.
>
> You might have a point. I grew up in a small town with no fast food
> restaurants and only one actual restaurant. Fast food was frozen pizza
> or school cafeteria food. Dinner was meat, potatoes, and vegetables.
> Plain, old fashioned, country cooking, nothing fancy. To this day, I
> still do a lot of cooking this way.

I grew up in a mid sized town so there were a decent number of
restaurant options and we did visit them periodically. My mother wasn't
a particularly good cook other than baking so what I was initially
exposed to was not overly complex. Probably the modest start with actual
cooking and the exposure to a variety of cuisine's at restaurants helped
to build both my cooking confidence and my interest in trying new
things.

> Then fast food restaurants came on
> the scene and I discovered Chinese food etc so it opened a lot more
> opportunities to experiment with food. Now there is food network where
> you can get recipes and learn techniques on just about any type of
> cuisine and the internet makes it even easier. My kids are a lot more
> adventerous cooks than I am! It's no surprise that new cooks could
> easily be overwhelmed with the choices.



> One problem with some new cooks
> is they expect to do gourmet cooking right away and fail to realize that
> first you have to find your cooking style then build on that.

I think it's the same with most anything people have to learn, the kid
taking drum lessons want's to do it all on day one, not spend many days
practicing the basics. With cooking it was just a function of the bar
was set lower before people had exposure to so many different cuisine's
which mad for a shorter learning curve until you were able to cook what
everyone else was cooking.

Pete C.

Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote:

> I know I've got it. I couldn't find it but found 2 badly battered
> cookbooks.

you could lightly dust the cookbooks with flour before battering them;
that might help.

-goro-

"Pete C." > wrote:
> The critical part here is the yards. There are far too many 4,000+ sq.
> ft. micro mansions squashed into tiny postage stamp lots that provide
> absolutely no play area for children. When I was looking for a house the
> requirement was an absolute minimum of two acres, you can easily add on
> to a small house, it is far more expensive and difficult to add on to a
> small lot.

I don't have kids, so the issues might be quite different. Here in the city
I have minimal yard space (a 10' x 12' patio with 1 to 3' of garden border
around it), with a 60' x 80' common courtyard beyond that. But within a very
short distance (10 to 15 minute walk), there are vast tracts of public
parkland, much of it river front. That is my space. (There are smaller parks
right in my neighborhood.) I think newer cities tend not to have some of the
vast parks that cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and
Washington, DC have, and that's certainly true of the suburban areas
virtually everywhere. If you don't got the green space on your own property,
you don't got it at all. There's a dearth of convenient park land in much of
suburban America. Anyway, it's a different way of doing things... private
green space vs. public green space.

When I was a kid in the 1960s living in Philadelphia, we had I guess what
would be a rather large house on a quite small lot. Though it was a twin or
duplex, it had 6 bedrooms and 3-1/2 baths, and a 2 car garage on a 39' x
170' lot, built in 1926. To some, that would be a small lot, but with 5
kids, we didn't seem to think so. We did have the closeby parks in that city
too.

> The big problem is that nearly all development in recent decades has
> centered around micro mansions and apartments, i.e. pseudo high end and
> very low end. There has not been nearly enough development of decent
> mid-range neighborhoods with 2+ acre lots and 1,500-2,000 sq. ft.
> houses.

Around here that would be a developer's dream... to demolish and rebuild at
a higher density! ;-) There have been at least two major land deals in this
area that involved buying up entire neighborhoods built in the 1950s/60s
with 1-2 acre lots and relatively small houses. The developer will tear down
ALL the old houses and built townhouses and condominums in their place,
along with some retail and office. Land near major transit lines has just
gotten too valuable to leave at low density. Of course, stuff such as this
has gone on for centuries. Midtown Manhattan was farmland once, was
residential once, and is now skyscrapers.

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

In article .com>,
"Goro" > wrote:

> Michael "Dog3" Lonergan wrote:
>
> > I know I've got it. I couldn't find it but found 2 badly battered
> > cookbooks.
>
> you could lightly dust the cookbooks with flour before battering them;
> that might help.
>
> -goro-

Boo, hiss... Bad pun. <lol>
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

wrote:
>I've found that as long as you don't choose an insanely busy time to ask,
>many restaurant chefs will step out of the kitchen to answer a quick
>question. I know a couple of professionally trained chefs, and when I've
>asked about certain things, it's been hard to get them to shut up. :-) Sort
>of like gardeners, fishing addicts, and most other happy obsessions.

The Puerto Rican chef at the restaurant where I play every week has
struck up quite a food related friendship with me, to the point that we
bring in things for one another to try nearly every week and talk a lot
about preparing different foods. I think he's surprised that a blind
musician like me is so into cooking.


Orlando

wrote:
>Compared to 30-40 years ago, I'd say yes. There were few to no cooking shows
>introducing other cuisines, so restaurants were the primary place one might
>encounter them. A typical city might have a few Italian and Chinese
>restaurants, and that was the extent that most Americans were exposed to
>ethnic food. Next came Mexican (or more likely Tex-Mex), followed by a whole
>slew of others. At the same time cooking shows started appearing on TV
>(around when cable became popular). It might be hard for some younger people
>to believe, but at one time you only had three channels to watch, ABC, CBS,
>and NBC, and they didn't broadcast 24 hours a day. Not much room for
>programming under those circumstances.

More accurately, do you think Americans feel overwhelmed by so much
ethnic cuisine, or do they just view it as exotica? I imagine there are
still parts of the country unfamiliar with most ethnic cuisines and
happy to keep it that way.

>I know in our house growing up (1950s,60s), my mother's only adventures in
>ethnic cooking were Italian and Chinese. I remember a food company that used
>to heavily advertise the fixings for Chinese cuisine, but the name escapes
>me at the moment. Of course, one also saw Manischewitz products in the
>supermarket if there were any Jews in the neighborhood. We were also exposed
>to some other ethnic cuisine from our immigrant relatives from Germany and
>the Ukraine, but that was about it.

I fondly remember my mother's Indian food, which she learned to prepare
simply because we both enjoyed it whenever we ate it in restaurants.
The rest of my Indian adopted second culture took off from food and
music.

Orlando

"Orlando Enrique Fiol" > wrote:
> More accurately, do you think Americans feel overwhelmed by so much
> ethnic cuisine, or do they just view it as exotica? I imagine there are
> still parts of the country unfamiliar with most ethnic cuisines and
> happy to keep it that way.

I think there's a tendency in America these days (perhaps the whole world?)
to try and do it all. I think that's a mistake. I think a lot of people are
overwhelmed. There's an old saying about being an apprentice of everything
and a master of nothing. There's a lot of truth to that as it applies to
cooking. I think that's partly what Lidia Matticchio Bastianich was getting
at when she said focus on one cuisine. I've found it often takes making a
dish many, many times before I get it right. If I only make it once or a
couple of times, I may never know what the dish is really like. I think a
lot of people dabble in cuisines making recipes only once, producing a slew
of mediocre results over time, rather than progressing to making something
great with a single recipe.

I'll do my adventures in ethnic food in restaurants for the most part. In my
fifties, I'm still trying to master a lot of things in American food, which
itself has things from other cultures, though mostly European. There are so
many things I haven't even tried to make that I want to some day. Absolutely
mundane things like chicken fried steak.

I know there are people and also whole areas of the country that are
unfamiliar with any more than the first few ethnic cuisines that became
popular. There are vast differences between various areas of the USA, and
between rural, suburban, and city, and exposure to ethnic cuisines is just
one facet. I was reminded of that fact when I visited NYC a few weeks ago.
That's me coming from Washington, DC, a city with some similarities in terms
of ethnic diversity, and me having lived in the NYC area in years past. I
can't imagine what someone from the rural south, for example, might think of
NYC. You might think you're getting a good idea of what a city is like on TV
or movies, but you really aren't.

--
( #wff_ng_7# at #verizon# period #net# )

"Orlando Enrique Fiol" > wrote in message
.. .
> wrote:
>>I've found that as long as you don't choose an insanely busy time to ask,
>>many restaurant chefs will step out of the kitchen to answer a quick
>>question. I know a couple of professionally trained chefs, and when I've
>>asked about certain things, it's been hard to get them to shut up. :-)
>>Sort
>>of like gardeners, fishing addicts, and most other happy obsessions.
>
> The Puerto Rican chef at the restaurant where I play every week has
> struck up quite a food related friendship with me, to the point that we
> bring in things for one another to try nearly every week and talk a lot
> about preparing different foods. I think he's surprised that a blind
> musician like me is so into cooking.
>
>
> Orlando

How's the mofongo at that place?

On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:59:40 GMT, "wff_ng_7" >
wrote:

>- Long commutes. Some people insist on having the "perfect" house and then
>drive hours a day getting to and from work. That time could be spent on
>other activities, cooking being but one of them. At some point one has to
>say what good is the perfect house if you are never there.

It's not always a search for the perfect house. In expensive cities,
people with families can't afford a house, period. They are forced to
drive longer distances in order to find living quarters, especially
space suitable for more than two people. Living in Manhattan, for
example, to be close to a job and/or to be close to the cultural
facilities now entails unbelievable sacrifices in space for a family,
with dining rooms and closets being turned into nurseries etc. There
was an article in the NYT a while ago about couples who bought
relatively modest apartments several years back thinking that they
could sell later and move into a more family-sized apartment.
However, when the kid is on the way, because of the run-up in prices
in the past few years, they find that they can't afford a bigger
place. They are stuck. We're not talking huge houses, it's the
difference between a couple in a studio apartment (or 1 bedroom if
they are lucky) and a family of 3 in a studio. At some point, they
will probably have to move to the outer towns, Long Island or further
upstate. 30 yr ago I had a friend who lived in Queens and she slept
on the couch because her family's apartment wasn't big enough.

As far as having a nice house and never being there, some people with
kids live further out because of the school district. Some parents
make big sacrifices in commuting so that kids can get into the best
school districts. Or they might have bought a house years ago when a
15 mi commute was 20 min, but now is a nightmare because of
congestion.

I wouldn't make those choices myself, but saying that people choose
long commutes just for the sake of a certain type of house leaves out
many more important factors.

Another reason not to learn to cook is that if you live in NYC, you
don't have to!

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!