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Mike G wrote:

"I shot an arrow into the air
She fell to earth in Berkeley Square"

--Louis d'Ascoyne Mazzini (re balloonist Lady Agatha d'Ascoyne)

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Where there’s smoke, there may be salmon.

My wife had lunch at Spoon Thai today and observed some very strange behavior. A man came in and ordered. When his food arrived, he started taking flash pictures from just about every conceivable angle. This became quite obtrusive. He also seemed sort of gaga at the coconut water beverage some woman had. The really bizarre thing was that he NEVER TOOK ONE BITE of the food. The food was beautifully arranged as usual at Spoon, but who on earth could leave without at least tasting. Pat's initial thought (for the first few pictures) was that it might be an LTHer, but she knew that no LTHer would ever just photograph food without eating any. She said that Vanna was there and seemed rather nonplussed by the whole business.

Or use flash!

Good point, riddlemay.

Heh-heh, if an LTHer owns a digital camera, it's *at least* ISO 800, right riddlemay??

One of our long discussions on this very topic is responsible for my owning a lovely Fuji F30.

.....
So what did the guy do, just pay his bill and walk out after the photo-shoot?? Amazing.

Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

Oh, what I wouldn't give for an F30/31. You can find them on ebay now for around $500. At that point, might as well go DSLR. Though i am considering the newish F100 (I think that's the model. Not the F50 that replaced F30. Feh. Blech.)

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"Strange how potent cheap music is."

Hi,

Over the weekend I was in a small deli waiting my turn for service. The guy in front of me was waiting to order a sandwich. There was a tray of stuffed mushrooms and breaded cutlets on top of the case. He was scarfing these while advising these were excellent samples and suggested I try them. While I am an avid fan of sampling products, these just didn't seem like samples. However I noticed the ladies behind the counter didn't seem very interested in his actions. I finally decided to try a mushroom, which was still warm from the oven and very generously filled. Yet it didn't seem right.

I walked over to the cashier to inquire if the stuffed mushrooms and cutlets were samples. She scowled, "Those trays are cooling. They are not samples." "Will you please charge me for a stuffed mushroom, I ate one believing they were." She wouldn't let me pay and she wouldn't stop giving me an evil eye.

Meanwhile this guy is eating quite a bit of these mushrooms and openly eating the cutlet while ordering his sandwich. Nobody bats an eye as he continues to do this. He eventually collects his sandwich, paying for it from the same cashier who wouldn't let me come clean, though never saying a word to him.

While I was getting my order filled, I talked this situation over with the counter girl. I asked if I could pay for the mushroom I ate, which was declined though without any critical eye. I suggested maybe they need to refrigerate these foods. She said they needed to cool before going into their display. Maybe their rear counter was a better place for cooling because it would keep people from confusing them as samples? She didn't seem to think it was much of an issue.

They wouldn't let me pay for the mushroom. I ultimately bought more than I had originally planned as compensation.

It was such an odd situation it was deserving of a Candid Camera episode.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

At what temperature does the practice of eating cookie dough go from verboten to enjoying a cookie? I'm just curious.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

You're trying to imply that there is an intemediate stage between the dough and the cookie. This is heresy and must be punished. When the state of cookiedom has been assumed by the body of the dough, it is a cookie and its former life as dough is completely forgotten. There may be underbaked cookies, but there is no in-between state where it is both cookie and dough, that is anathema.

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Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.

That may be my favorite post I've ever read on LTH.

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Well I got drunk and I ate a chicken
I ate a chicken I found in my kitchen
Not just a leg and not just a wing
I'd like to let you know that I ate the whole damn thing

I've seen this happen once or twice myself. I think that sometimes it can be confusing when food us left up on the top of the counter like that because at some places it signals samples. Especially if they staff is non reactive to someone tasting what they think are samples it makes you unsure as to what to do.

I too like you would think it'd be a better idea to move it to a rear counter to avoid confusion.

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One Mint Julep was the cause of it all.

You probalby haven't been in the research kitchen of Mrs. Field's. Coming to a tollway oasis or airport near you: NEW Mrs. Field's Cookie Dough Cookies. That's right, your favorite cookies now with raw cookie dough chips (ice cream mix-in's available on request).

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

How is that possible?

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I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert. ~ Jason Love
There is no pie in Nighthawks, which is why it's such a desolate image. ~ Happy Stomach
I can't go to Hollywood. I got biscuits to make. ~ Dwight Henry

Late-Nite Eats Database

EXCUUUUUSE ME??!! Mr. G, I'm the enforcer from the Union of Concerned Philosophers, and I'm here to tell you that you're practicing Metaphysics without a license! Cease, halt and desist. And I'm quite sure that the enforcer from the Quantum Physicists is on there way, even as we speak. No intermediate state between dough and cookie? Have you never heard of Schrödinger's Cookie??

A retraction, quickly, is in order!

Geo
A Philosopher

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

Anything is possible with the proper use of chemicals and high-fructose corn syrup.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I didn't realize there was any such thing as "the proper use of chemicals and high-fructose corn syrup."

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

Dig the shirt, Geo! If only my family had taken philosophy as seriously as you (sigh)

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

They don't have a blast chiller?

Anyway, a mushroom I can understand being mistaken as a sample, but a cutlet?

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"Johnny thought when all purpose had been forgotten the world would end this way, with a dance. He slumped back in a corner, drew his knees up to his chin, and watched."-Derek Jarman

A friend of my parents' once scarfed down a plate of something fancy (I think glazed apricots dipped in chocolate) thinking they were samples, and was then informed of how much money he owed for them. I have to admit, it can be confusing in some stores. Some places put samples and stuff that's not meant to be sampled out in fairly similar fashion.

My recent head-shaking moment: I went to a cooking demo by Rocco DiSpirito in Joliet on Saturday. The kind of cooking he was promoting that day is not my thing but was probably quite appropriate for an unknown audience in a general venue (Harrah's casino). He is a sweetheart of a man and his presentation was extremely well thought out. Everyone received generous samples of two dishes on real plates with real silverware. What made me shake my head was the way some people talked to DiSpirito. As he was walking down the aisle chatting with people, a woman stuck her plate out at him, started stabbing the meat with her fork and said loudly, "This is tough!" like she expected him to personally take the plate away and give her another. It wasn't remotely tough unless it was very different from my portion; it was skirt steak marinated and cut against the grain. Another person said in an accusing voice: "Why are you so thin?" I got the feeling that on another day you would find these people at Costco eating free samples and complaining loudly about them; it was the same inexplicably angry behavior. Is there something about free stuff that makes people crazy? (The demo was free for most of the audience, I believe. I paid $25 to get in, but like everyone else I was given a signed copy of a $20 cookbook.)

This was a very tiny Ma and Pa place.

I didn't give one detail that will set you more on edge: I guess he thought the cutlet was a bit too big, breaking in half with his hands and leaving the other part in the tray. Don't worry, he eventually came back to claim the other half plus another cutlet.

The cashier seemed mad at me for trying to come clean, but treated the other guy without any hint of irritation.

Regards,

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Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

I'm going to go cry now.

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Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode: Soil, Corn, Cows and Cheese
Watch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning Key Ingredient here.

The subject of partial bake cookies invariably inflames passions on both sides of the issue. I just hope this doesn't lead to folks holding signs over the expressway.

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Objects in mirror appear to be losing.

God help me, I hope this lawyer isn't an LTHer, but writing a letter to complain to a farmer about what amounts to a 7-cent charge for a plastic bag gets her this award. Not like there aren't a bunch of stores in the near vicinity of the Evanston market where you can buy a re-usable bag...

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No guts, no glory.
http://www.chicagonow.com/quips-travails-braised-oxtails
http://quipstravailsandbraisedoxtails.blogspot.com/

I can't believe someone would complain about that, particulary when they readily explain that it's not for the money, but for environmental reasons. You don't even have to go anywhere to get a reusable bag; the Evanton farmer's market sells them. Fortunately, Henry's stand was busy as ever this past weekend, bag fee and all.

I shopped at the Evanston Farmer's Market this past week. I did not mind at all paying for my plastic bags at Henry's stand. It makes sense to me.

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-Mary

It's his business, he can do whatever he wants!

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

My friend you are attempting to explain the concept of (I think) quantum superposition. There can be both cookie and dough, depending on the observation. There can be a state where something is both cookie or dough but it is unknowable which it is. But it was posited above that there is no intermediate state between cookie and dough. Schrodinger's Cookie paradox is uninvolved (yet delicious).

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I'm not Angry, I'm hungry.

Nope, I would say that there's a high probability that it is:

The cookie is both eaten, and not-eaten at the same time. And nicely enough, it is also either eaten or[exclusively] not-eaten at the same time. But don't watch Mike while he's interacting with the cookie. As they tell us in Copenhagen, the probabilities will collapse, and the cookie will be exactly as he describes it. Good ol' classical Mike G!

Geo

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Sooo, you like wine and are looking for something good to read? Maybe *this* will do the trick!

My WCA goes to the writer and editor of that story. Human interest, I suppose. But smug, pedantic, snobby...that would be the tone of this FRONT PAGE article.

Shouldn't have been written this way.

Doesn't belong there.

[Mild non-PC alert.]

So I'm in the checkout line at Stanley's today. As anyone who has been there knows, those lines move pretty fast. I'm in line, kind of zoning out, when I start to notice that the two lines on either side of me are moving much, much faster. I look around, and I notice that the guy two-in-front-of-me in line decided he would refrain from using those evil produce bags which we all know kill trees, dolphins and little kids to contain and group together his vegetables. Except that he had a cart half-full of like 3-4 pounds each of loose apples, beets and carrots, among other things. I wish I had a stopwatch to time how long it took this dude to place, handful by excruciating handful, each bunch of carrots, apples and beets on the belt, whilst grouping them together by type. Now, imagine how long it took the checkout girl to corral these items sans baggie onto the scale. She had to resort to using her full arms to corral and maintain these loose vegetables on the scale and her shirt sleeves were getting really dirty from the vegetables, to her understandable annoyance. (I mean, she's a cashier, not a farmhand.) I really felt bad for the guy in front of me, who only had a head of lettuce to pay for.

So after something like 10 minutes of this, he finally pays so I expect another 10 minutes while he packs each handful of vegetables into what I'm sure will be a hemp/burlap environmentally friendly bag. Instead, I see him pack his vegetables in the goddamned freebie plastic grocery bags! ARRGGGHH!!!!!! (For cripes' sake, couldn't he have asked for those in advance if he was only going to use them anyway?????)

P.S. Pardon my grumpiness, which I blame on pre-election anxiety.

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Local Beet