Hospital food... Who cooks this crap? I was always talking my parents into sneaking me in a good meal. Mercy Childrens in Sacramento had a particularly inept kitchen about 1985. I developed a strategy. Breakfast was at least...

Foods. Goodbye to the absence of cheese and good meat. Goodbye to Regina Bakery with its four-day old cookies and the red cat shedding in the corner. Farewell and best wishes to Al Di La, to Olive Vine (though I’d spring for...

appetite and am willing to go out of my way to find the good stuff. Needless to say, he is a chowhound, too. And he used to hate taking someone out to eat and watching her pick around her plate, while he had spent good money to...

, pizza gets a nice crispy crust 4. Microwave Oven- (does that count as a “gadget”?)- Plate warmer, re-heater, defroster and can be used to cook lots of quickie foods (nachos anyone?) 5. Grater- I used it to grate...

The WHITE is very unappetizing . If this new page was a restaurant plate I’d eat at home . Without a change in color ( some color ) I’ll pick a new restaurant ( website ) .

“professional” (which is a topic in and of itself), is the decor fancy or DIY, food-style, what is the food presentation/plating like, what is the surrounding market like (something upscale in a rural community might...

I give every neophyte cook a copy of Rozanne Gold’s Cooking 1-2-3. Most 3-ingredient cookbooks are crap, and rely heavily on processed foods, but Gold uses really creative techniques and combinations to create sophisticated...

more Mexican restaurants." The interesting thing about 1 is that the chef may have intentions that are not obvious but once pointed out, bring things into better focus. All that other crap you mention doesn’t fall into any...

, oily, orangey sauce I thought about all day. Not even a sauce, it just pools on the (styrofoam) plate. And a couple more hot noodly things. So far no pork at lunch, but I may not be staying long enough for her to finish...

No, consideration is something you’re getting out of the deal, not necessarily money. In this instance, you’re getting the plate of food. The fact that one agrees to it without knowing the price, still means it was...

not fully recovered, simply because I wasted a highly anticipated dessert order on awful chewy crap exuded from a tube, like Jujubees in a restaurant dessert. I was not a happy ten year old chowhound. Danger, Will Robinson. I am...

Burnt eggplant rocks!!! So do burnt broccoli and cauliflower... adds a new flavor dimension (and I love 'em w/ ketchup). I like a whole plate with zucchini, raddichio, yellow squash, etc. I make a spinach or broccoli souffle that I...

I wouldn’t finish my dinner. Microwaved zucchini with canned parmesan cheese on the top didn’t improve by getting cold on my plate for half an hour because I simply wouldn’t eat it, and it took a long time...

cheap and makes very tasty stews. I’ve never actually costed it out, but one of my favorites meals of pork goulash with noodles can’t cost more than a dollar a plate if I buy the meat on sale. The other trick is just...

a crap load of money... and you want to trick yourself into savoring every moment... but otoh sometimes you just want to tell them... look I can go down the street, hunt down a roach coach & buy a $1.50 taco that surpasses this...