Episode 8: "Common Threads" Options

[bJason]

BJ implied (well... more like said straight out) that since I don't keep my station squeeky clean I must be a hack. That doesn't sit too well with me, as I know I'm NOT a hack. My editing bay is messy as all hell too... that doesn't mean I'm not a good filmmaker though!

What I said was one who doesn't keep a clean (nothing about squeeky) station LOOKS like a hack. My post was a bit harsh - snarky mood last night. I'm sure you're not a hack.

My sincerest apologies Really, best of luck!

I submit to KKs pinchings.

[SecondTry]

Second, you asked what people would do for the QC and EC. I had a thought. I think Mark got at least one foot headed in the right direction on his Quickfire, and just took a wrong turn.

To be accurate, someone else suggested it, and I was the first to respond.

He could have taken that turkey breast cutlet, cut in half, pounded them thin into medallions, and made a quick version of Turkey Marsala within his 15 minutes. In Pan #1 get his turkey sauteeing, in Pan #2 get his mushrooms cooking, add some garlic and shallots and basil when the shrooms are cooked and caramelizing, get the cooked turkey medallions out of Pan #1, deglaze it with the Marsala and dump that into Pan #2, mix some cornstarch with some turkey broth or chicken broth or even mushroom stock, add that to Pan #2. Meanwhile, in Pan #3 already be "melting" some finely minced shallots, just before time runs out add to that pan some watercress and arugula, and some baby spinach too if you want less peppery greens. Those cook in a hot pan in 1.5 minutes, boom.

So, he'd have the rice, some tender moist turkey marsala with abundant sauce and mushrooms, and some instant-cooking greens on the plate as well.

I'll be over with the camera in an hour. We're filming your audition video. That sounds absolutely yummy......

[SimonBao]

Simon, in my opinion, microwave rice is foul stuff. It is packed with enough sodium to cause sane dieticians to scream travesty. Some companies, like Uncle Bens, have a plain rice with out all that sodium, but honestly, it's not that hard to make real rice! I try very, very hard to stay away from the micro stuff. Now I have question for you. What makes corn bread packed with protein besides the single egg used to bind it together? Most recipes use about 1/3 cup corn meal, 1-2 cups white flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, a splash of milk (maybe a bit more) and one egg. Corn isn't a very healthy anything. It is simply sugar. So, am I missing something, here? Or were you implying the egg and milk?

Parts, last things first. Corn bread isn't packed with protein - but corn bread served right along with beans in chili, that specific combination is.

On its own, corn is just a cereal grain. All grains have *some* proteins in them, any *seed* of any plant does whether its a grain or a nut or a legume. Corn is an incomplete protein in that, by itself, it doesn't have all the essential amino acids humans need. But when corn is consumed in the same meal with beans, viola. Corn has the amino acids the beans are missing, beans have the amino acids the corn is missing. Serve corn and beans combined, and you're serving a complete protein. A combination that has kept people all over the Western Hemisphere fit and fed for around 10K years, even when they don't have access to a bit of meat or seafood.

As for the Uncle Ben's... I don't know if I have even tried even their regular products. Probably some of the wild rice stuff they make, but not microwave rices. There is one kind of "Rice in a Box" I like, it's the Rice-a-Roni Whole Grains Blend. It has brown rice, pearled barley, and pearled wheat, combined, and it is quite savory. What makes it convenient for me is that each of those 3 grains actually has a different cooking time, and making an identical side dish at home that combines the 3 grains is a true pain in the butt. I tried. The manufacturer does something to process the grains before they go in the box, so they finish cooking at the same time. Works well enough for me.

[SimonBao]

I was surprised last night at the comments from the judges, and am also surprised today, at all the posted comments expressing shock at the combination of peanuts and tomatoes. I don't have one-thousandth the culinary knowledge you obviously have -- but I too have eaten dishes in West Africa with peanut butter and tomatoes, and have found them delicious. (By the way, I would love to see that list of recipes you mention -- I would love to try to replicate, allbeit amateurishly, some of the dishes I have loved in Africa.)

I got a lot of flack last week by suggesting that some foods just do not go well together. I was wrong in what I wrote, and I deserved the criticism I got. I think a similar lesson may apply here regarding Stephanie's misture of ingredients. It's not the combination of tomatoes and peanut butter that failed Stephanie. She just didn't do it in a successful way.

KS, if you leave me a pvt message and give me your email address, I'll forward the list of dishes and recipe locations for the All Africa Live 8 party. Do you know how to use the pvt message system here?

I am a bit stumped about what Stephie was up to with her peanut butter and tomatoes. If she knows about Mafe and groundnut stews and the way the flavors are combined in African dishes, then she knows she was no where close to approximating it. If she does not know about Mafe and similar dishes, or some other culinary combo of peanut butter and tomatoes - then what the heck was she up, where was she going with that thing?

[SimonBao]

To be accurate, someone else suggested it, and I was the first to respond.

I'll be over with the camera in an hour. We're filming your audition video. That sounds absolutely yummy......

Jim, you know the problem is that I really don't respond to pressure. Or think quickly on my feet. I'd be the cheftestant who actually spent his 15 minutes staring into the coolers and pantry.

Turkey marsala, however, really IS good. Nope, it's not veal marsala, and it can't pretend to be. But on its own merits, it's soooo good. You could serve me a bowl of the sauce and some bread and I'd sit there dipping and eating.

[SimonBao]

Anyone who says tofu sucks has just never had it made well before. Like any other protein, if it's not made well, yes, it sucks. When properly pressed and marinated, it can be crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, with plenty of flavor. Plenty of meats can be flavorless if they're not made well.

I think that a lot of Americans have seen or heard about Bad Tofu too often, and that's why some are so predisposed against it. I have to be honest, looking at how my future sister-in-law treats Tofu, looking at recipes from my housemates' old "Whole Vegan Earth" and "Small Nutty Planet" type cookbooks, I wouldn't want to try eating it either. I don't know this to be the case, but I have the impression that some cooks got hold of Tofu at some point in the past and just started winging it... without examining how different kinds of Tofu are used in different ways, back in lands that tofu calls home.

In Vietnamese cooking, Tofu is a meat substitute only for some people. The rest of the time it's an inexpensive protein. We have a stuffed tofu dish, the tofu is seared on the outside so it's crispy, then stuffed with seasoned ground pork and mushrooms and sometimes shrimp, then braised in a fresh tomato sauce with lots of tomatoes and scallion and shallots, etc... I think there are similar dishes all over SE Asia, and it's just soooo good.

[SimonBao]

Third, after reading all last week's posts, I finally got convinced of the "worst dish loses" theory of judging. After this week's show, I'm not so convinced anymore. Up until last night, Stephanie was one of the three chefs I thought most likely to win (along with Richard and Dale). But last night, it is hard to believe that her food was not the absolute worst. The judges don't use words like "detest" unless something is really, horribly bad. I can't help believe that the judges chose to save someone who was the worst in one week because she has such a strong history of earlier performance (much like when Richard was saved despite the scales on his fish).

I think that, instead of eliminating one person with a really, really bad dish but otherwise proven culinary skills, they chose to eliminate someone with a record of nothing but mediocrity. The highest praise I recall Mark ever receiving was for making a dish where the NZ version of Vegemite actually, supposedly tasted good.

For me, however, the truth is that, if the judges were going to eliminate someone even if s/he did not produce the worst food, I wish they would have canned the chef whose last success was cooking bacon and who otherwise has demonstrated little other than having the absolutely most horrible personality in the history of Top Chef.

KS, you may want to hold on to the Worst Dish Loses theory, at least long enough to take a look at Colicchio's blog for this episode. In it, he says, "In retrospect, I think the episode was cut in a way that made it seem we took the greatest issue with Stephanie’s dish when in actuality, we debated long and hard about them all, and Mark’s emerged as the least favorite of the bunch."

That's at least consistent with what Gail says in her blog. "When criticized for not having enough protein in his Roasted Vegetables in Red Curry with Cucumber Salad and Garlic Naan, Mark claimed he did not feel the need to add meat to his vegetarian entrée. Never once did we insist meat was necessary either; there are plenty of ways to add protein without dropping steak in the center of the plate (think beans, tofu, nuts, and legumes)! His rebuttal seemed to miss the point we were making altogether. Our issue was that Mark’s food was not well planned. Compared to the other dishes we were served, his was the least complete. It was also the least liked by our young diners... We chose to eliminate Mark because, in addition to its lack of nutritional value, the curry he made was actually not very good."

Lee Anne says, "Mark was dead set on making his curry from the start. This reminds me of Micah, from last season. I love curry. However, most kids in this country are not raised eating curry. I understand the risk in trying to give them something new to eat, but when elimination is at stake, curry in a hurry is not so good... Mark’s curry was a tad rich and complex for this particular situation. Kids can be your toughest critics and one of the most important things for a chef is to recognize is who their audience is. I tasted the curry. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either though. In the end, it was the least favorite of all of the dishes for the kids, and the judges agreed the same..."

[Kristlkrost]

KS, you may want to hold on to the Worst Dish Loses theory, at least long enough to take a look at Colicchio's blog for this episode. In it, he says, "In retrospect, I think the episode was cut in a way that made it seem we took the greatest issue with Stephanie's dish when in actuality, we debated long and hard about them all, and Mark's emerged as the least favorite of the bunch."

That's at least consistent with what Gail says in her blog. "When criticized for not having enough protein in his Roasted Vegetables in Red Curry with Cucumber Salad and Garlic Naan, Mark claimed he did not feel the need to add meat to his vegetarian entrée. Never once did we insist meat was necessary either; there are plenty of ways to add protein without dropping steak in the center of the plate (think beans, tofu, nuts, and legumes)! His rebuttal seemed to miss the point we were making altogether. Our issue was that Mark's food was not well planned. Compared to the other dishes we were served, his was the least complete. It was also the least liked by our young diners... We chose to eliminate Mark because, in addition to its lack of nutritional value, the curry he made was actually not very good."

Lee Anne says, "Mark was dead set on making his curry from the start. This reminds me of Micah, from last season. I love curry. However, most kids in this country are not raised eating curry. I understand the risk in trying to give them something new to eat, but when elimination is at stake, curry in a hurry is not so good... Mark's curry was a tad rich and complex for this particular situation. Kids can be your toughest critics and one of the most important things for a chef is to recognize is who their audience is. I tasted the curry. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great either though. In the end, it was the least favorite of all of the dishes for the kids, and the judges agreed the same..."

Thank you Simon ....I haven't had time to read them and thank you KSboy for pointing out that tomatoes and peanut butter sauce can be good thing.

No curry in a hurry.

My new slogan.
Thank you TC for being the greatest
show on TV.
OK not the greatest...but pretty darn good.

Thank you Tom for having such beautiful blue eyes.

I didn't know this was gonna' be an Oprah's
things I am grateful for journal whenst I started.

Thank you WILFRED ..I start my new shift today.......12:30 to 9 which is perfect to me.
No traffic and I can get stuff sone in the morning.
9 to 5 really is b*tch.
I mean you can't get nothing done.
No post office... doctors...no phone calls no govt offices...no cars getting fixed.
I mean what is wrong with this world????
You gonna' make it so you are open only when I can't get there???
Ooooops slipped into my ungrateful journal.

And a song ....and thank you all for being so funny and clever and sexy and all the rest.
Reading here is better than sex(Uncle Bobby)
Well OK not really but almost....nah not even close..But it is better than sex with John Delores

This really isn't a love song to youse.
I mean I like you all very much but...
But thank youse all around.

Tis for Psh and bJ..The kind of men
God would want to make if he really did it.
No lie....They are all that.
Led Feet!


This post has been edited by Kristlkrost: May 2, 2008 - 09:19 AM

[WhataJoke]

Tofu is the first thing i would have yelled, though as a vegan, I know I'm not the target demographic for any cooking show. I'm constantly waiting and hoping to see some professionals give tofu a chance. It's a great ingredient because you can do anything with it - give it a variety of textures depending on the preparation, and an infinite variety of flavors depending on the seasoning.
I thought that Dale and his partner were very clever with the tofu regarding the rules of this contest - though now they just need to make it in a way that a vegan would eat it. I mean, face it, in a restaurant situation, no vegetarian would eat beef tofu, and you'd have a hard time convincing most carnivores to eat beefy tofu when they could just have the beef.
Anyone who says tofu sucks has just never had it made well before. Like any other protein, if it's not made well, yes, it sucks. When properly pressed and marinated, it can be crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, with plenty of flavor. Plenty of meats can be flavorless if they're not made well.

Welcome aboard!
I thought using beef fat to flavor the tofu was pretty brilliant but I completely understand your assertation. Why cook it in beef when card carrying Vegan/Vegetarians won't eat it and us meat eaters would perfer meat. I think it simply comes down to the nature of the challenge. It was a random thing yelled out so they could use it in any way they liked as long as it was featured. Also the term "perplexed" was supposed to be relivant to the dish and Tofu that tasted like beef would perplex me a bit. And I do enjoy tofu. But I'd also probably enjoy rubbing A1 on a cow and taking a bite out of it so go figure.

And I agree with you. Tofu does get a bad rap as it is pretty much a blank slate where a cooks skill can really shine interms of the flavors imparted to it. Richard really impressed me in that challenge.

[WhataJoke]

The alternative is that Ted would be willing to lie to protect the producers and I'm just not willing to go there, especially since he seems a little disgruntled with them right now. I think that's he's pretty independent.

Also, everyone who's hung up on rules should read the first part of the current blog. He pretty much says what I've said is the case with the judging and what seems to me to be the correct way to judge a show like this one.

Maybe he's disgruntled because he has to carry the water for them in his blogs as well as his other reasons?

Yes that would be the exact way I would state the rules to if I was running this type of show. Why pigeon hole production and the overall product with cumbersome rules when you can be deliberately vague about them and mold them to your linking challenge to challenge.

Again the rules were pretty strict when Tom wanted to get rid of Dave, Mark and Ryan, but pretty lax when he wanted to keep Howie and the Sausage sisters.

[Kristlkrost]

Maybe he's disgruntled because he has to carry the water for them in his blogs as well as his other reasons?

Yes that would be the exact way I would state the rules to if I was running this type of show. Why pigeon hole production and the overall product with cumbersome rules when you can be deliberately vague about them and mold them to your linking challenge to challenge.

Again the rules were pretty strict when Tom wanted to get rid of Dave, Mark and Ryan, but pretty lax when he wanted to keep Howie and the Sausage sisters.

And thank YOU for giving us all something to talk about.

Without you it's all Tom is SO
great..SO wonderful SO fair and has SO much integrity.


SO hot.. SO gawjus ...SO sexy..Oh no that would only be me

This post has been edited by Kristlkrost: May 2, 2008 - 09:41 AM

[Radyms13]

Lisa's food was bland...she says because she used canned beans!!! What?? When she got her kid she asked him if he liked garlic---kid said no and she tossed the garlic.

[WhataJoke]

KS, you may want to hold on to the Worst Dish Loses theory, at least long enough to take a look at Colicchio's blog for this episode. In it, he says, "In retrospect, I think the episode was cut in a way that made it seem we took the greatest issue with Stephanie's dish when in actuality, we debated long and hard about them all, and Mark's emerged as the least favorite of the bunch."

That's at least consistent with what Gail says in her blog. "When criticized for not having enough protein in his Roasted Vegetables in Red Curry with Cucumber Salad and Garlic Naan, Mark claimed he did not feel the need to add meat to his vegetarian entrée. Never once did we insist meat was necessary either; there are plenty of ways to add protein without dropping steak in the center of the plate (think beans, tofu, nuts, and legumes)! His rebuttal seemed to miss the point we were making altogether. Our issue was that Mark's food was not well planned. Compared to the other dishes we were served, his was the least complete. It was also the least liked by our young diners... We chose to eliminate Mark because, in addition to its lack of nutritional value, the curry he made was actually not very good."

Lee Anne says, "Mark was dead set on making his curry from the start. This reminds me of Micah, from last season. I love curry. However, most kids in this country are not raised eating curry. I understand the risk in trying to give them something new to eat, but when elimination is at stake, curry in a hurry is not so good... Mark's curry was a tad rich and complex for this particular situation. Kids can be your toughest critics and one of the most important things for a chef is to recognize is who their audience is. I tasted the curry. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great either though. In the end, it was the least favorite of all of the dishes for the kids, and the judges agreed the same..."

Well I'll say one thing for Tom, he's learning. It's much better to post a blog a few days after the show airs so you can form your thoughts around the arguments on the net instead of putting them up right afterwards and having them routinely used against you. No need to delete & redo a blog this week!

And then we have the guest judges blog who says the flavors were good on Stephanie's and Mark's dishes while Lisa's was the worst flavor wise and had bones in it. His biggest complaint about Mark was his "attitude sucked." Apparently I was wrong and the Guest judge didn't get the Pravda memo about the Blogs. lol.

And for those keeping score at home (keep it on the down low we know how Tom hates scorekeepers!) Unseasoned was more than enough to ignore a scaley, mushy, nasty looking piece of salmon. But Lisa's lack of seasoning is less of a crime than not enough protien?

I guess along with the rules, Tom's preferance for seasoning can change challenge to challenge.

[SimonBao]

Lisa's food was bland...she says because she used canned beans!!! What?? When she got her kid she asked him if he liked garlic---kid said no and she tossed the garlic.

Rady, I think the time constraints on the challenge precluded the use of dried black beans, soaking over night. And she may not have known for sure there would be a pressure cooker in that kitchen they used. My own feeling is that those Fast Cook methods for dried beans aren't better than simple canned beans. That said, I'm surprised she didn't find a way to flavor them better, she seems to have used just some citrus.

About her being so obliging to her childtestant, I did think that was odd. She may have found that kid more likeable than Dale, and hence was more willing to accomodate and compromise. In a rush of a moment, even I can be more obliging to a kid's taste than I ought to be.

Had I been Dale, I would have been signaling Lisa's childtestant when Lisa wasn't looking. "Psssst... hey kid.... c'm'ere. Come here! Look, here's 10 bucks. I want you to tell Lisa you love deviled eggs. You and your friends eat deviled eggs all the time, there have to be deviled eggs on that plate..."

Did anyone notice, did they give Antonia's childtestant a prize of any kind? Set of chefs' knives?

[dogabone]

Our Turtle's name is Testudo, a much more fear inspiring one than Holly (although Holly is sweet - but sweet is not really what one is after when one is trying to win at sports, well, a turtle is not really symbolic of what one is after when one is trying to win at sports unless you consider the story of the tortoise and the hare, but then it is a tortoise and not a turtle.... but I digress...)

You a Terp, too, NiCi? Class of 1973 myself. Terrapins rule!

[teleburst]

Maybe he's disgruntled because he has to carry the water for them in his blogs as well as his other reasons?

Yes that would be the exact way I would state the rules to if I was running this type of show. Why pigeon hole production and the overall product with cumbersome rules when you can be deliberately vague about them and mold them to your linking challenge to challenge.

Again the rules were pretty strict when Tom wanted to get rid of Dave, Mark and Ryan, but pretty lax when he wanted to keep Howie and the Sausage sisters.

So, you think that maybe he's lying outright about the sausage? Well, I just don't think he would bother doing that, esepcailly for a production team that he thinks is increasingly pigeonholing him as "the gay guy". Well, I know that if they did have Polish sausage, it doesn't help all of the conspiracy theorists, who are using that as the basis of their complaints about why the SSes stayed and Jenn had to go. Because it's quite clear that their dish was superior in flavor to the rather soggy, oily mess that Jenn's team produced.

I prefer to look at the flexibility of the show's "rules" as what you need when you have two types of challenges and variations in both challenge categories. Different issues come to the forefront.

How do you see "the rules" as being strict when it came to Mark and Ryan? Both dishes were a mess to look at. Ryan's was a conceptual misfire and tasted lousy (and if you want to be technical, if they were abiding strictly by the rules, they would have tossed Nikki for not completing her dish). Mark's tasted lousy, didn't fit the challenge and was the least liked among the target audience. He wasn't canned for a "technical violation of the rules" as you keep claiming. He was canned partially because he didn't provide a nutritious meal. Had the meal tasted great (or the unlikely event that the kids might have liked it), he might not have even been on the chopping block as one of the middle dishes that didn't taste as good might have filled in for him. Or, had he provided a nutritious meal but made the lousy flavors, he might have beaten Stephanie. Who knows what the tipping point is? That's why it's good to let the judges decide what's important.

The day they have a "set" set of absolute rules that can't be argued about at JT is the day that the show kills itself.

BTW, I've hit on why Mark's curry tasted so bad, Smith and Wong notwithstanding. He only used three spices - tamarind, cumin and cinammon. The cinammon killed it. Cinammon is a common component in many curries, but not as a third of the mix. That would taste pretty horrible to my mind, especially if it were commercial cinammon powder instead of ground cinammon bark, as is usually used in curry blends. Had he substituted coriander for the cinammon, he might not have been on the chopping block, although he still had to deal with the overly sweet aspect of his curry, which wasn't counterbalanced by any heat. At least the coriander wouldn't have compounded all of that sweeteness as cinammon did. However, if it wasn't in the pantry and he was forced to buy it at Whole Foods, it would have broken the bank because coriander is pretty expensive these days (usually runs between 6 and 8 bucks for a small jar).

[Radyms13]

Rady, I think the time constraints on the challenge precluded the use of dried black beans, soaking over night. And she may not have known for sure there would be a pressure cooker in that kitchen they used. My own feeling is that those Fast Cook methods for dried beans aren't better than simple canned beans. That said, I'm surprised she didn't find a way to flavor them better, she seems to have used just some citrus.

About her being so obliging to her childtestant, I did think that was odd. She may have found that kid more likeable than Dale, and hence was more willing to accomodate and compromise. In a rush of a moment, even I can be more obliging to a kid's taste than I ought to be.

Had I been Dale, I would have been signaling Lisa's childtestant when Lisa wasn't looking. "Psssst... hey kid.... c'm'ere. Come here! Look, here's 10 bucks. I want you to tell Lisa you love deviled eggs. You and your friends eat deviled eggs all the time, there have to be deviled eggs on that plate..."

Did anyone notice, did they give Antonia's childtestant a prize of any kind? Set of chefs' knives?

Simon that's a great one! Kid could take the 10 bucks and make a complete nutritious meal for his family of four.

[teleburst]

Well I'll say one thing for Tom, he's learning. It's much better to post a blog a few days after the show airs so you can form your thoughts around the arguments on the net instead of putting them up right afterwards and having them routinely used against you. No need to delete & redo a blog this week!

And then we have the guest judges blog who says the flavors were good on Stephanie's and Mark's dishes while Lisa's was the worst flavor wise and had bones in it. His biggest complaint about Mark was his "attitude sucked." Apparently I was wrong and the Guest judge didn't get the Pravda memo about the Blogs. lol.

And for those keeping score at home (keep it on the down low we know how Tom hates scorekeepers!) Unseasoned was more than enough to ignore a scaley, mushy, nasty looking piece of salmon. But Lisa's lack of seasoning is less of a crime than not enough protien?

I guess along with the rules, Tom's preferance for seasoning can change challenge to challenge.

The problem is, you're trying to force a binary choice when it's not appropriate for judging cooking. Unless you're willing to discount a factor like underseasoning completely, you'd have to decide that underseasoning is ALWAYS going to get you tossed, or it's NEVER going to get you tossed, if you are looking for consistency that is. The problem is, it's only one factor is the success or failure of a dish. You also have texture, appearance, proper cooking technique and imagination just to name a few. That's why you have to be flexible in what you consider from challenge to challenge and week to week.

And if you have a dud that is misfiring from week to week, he or she better get it far more right that someone who has been strong but has had an off day because they're damn sure going to take that into consideration. And that's how it should be, to my mind. Even a Top Chef has a bad day once in a while, but you can't be a Top Chef if you're screwing up more than you're hitting on all cylinders.

[Radyms13]

Next week Wedding Wars---preview is called Pointing Fingers----Ain't gonna be pretty. Looks like Lisa and Dale have to work together again. Dale goes off yet again!!

But it also looks like the quickfire challenge is mis en place. I love that challenge and I really hope it's not over by 10:05.

[SimonBao]

BTW, I've hit on why Mark's curry tasted so bad, Smith and Wong notwithstanding. He only used three spices - tamarind, cumin and cinammon. The cinammon killed it. Cinammon is a common component in many curries, but not as a third of the mix. That would taste pretty horrible to my mind, especially if it were commercial cinammon powder instead of ground cinammon bark, as is usually used in curry blends. Had he substituted coriander for the cinammon, he might not have been on the chopping block, although he still had to deal with the overly sweet aspect of his curry, which wasn't counterbalanced by any heat. At least the coriander wouldn't have compounded all of that sweeteness as cinammon did. However, if it wasn't in the pantry and he was forced to buy it at Whole Foods, it would have broken the bank because coriander is pretty expensive these days (usually runs between 6 and 8 bucks for a small jar).

Tele, I hadn't even thought to look closely at the seasonings for his Red Curry. Granted those TC recipes are never very reliable but... well. That recipe would produce one very peculiar tasting curry, wouldn't it?

That's not even what I think of when I think of a Red Curry dish. The man's got No Ginger or Galangal. No lemongrass. No chili peppers, no lime leaves or lime zest. No shallots. No shrimp paste.

Other than the cumin and cinnamon, he has None Of The Usual Suspects for what I usually think of as Red Curry, or any curry, and the recipe shows him using equal parts cumin/cinnamon. Feedback said his curry was too sweet, I now have images of a Thai Curry Cinnabon in my mind.

That's a very soft use of the term Red Curry, don't you think?

I'm guessing that at Whole Foods, they do sell some Red Curry pastes he could have used... but at some outrageous price. No Red Curry paste in the TC pantry???