15 Comments

Every week I read this I am happy this found a new home to live on in

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It means a lot to hear people say that, because even though this is dumb as hell I do put a lot of work into it. Please share far and wide!

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"The tie-in? Paris is hosting the Paralympics this year." They're actually hosting the Olympics AND the Paralympics in 2024. I assume (based on the timing of your recaps) that you receive an advance screener, but those of us watching on Bravo got to see Olympics-on-NBC promos despite the fact that the opening ceremony is still over a year away. Corporate synergy, baby!

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I'll take it over the Fast and Furious tie in any day. That was so egregious it made major league baseball painting Spider Man II on their bases look well thought out.

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Vince stared at the pigeon again, daydreaming. He heard vague shouting from outside, a common occurrence in the Tenderloin.

A phrase was being repeated, though he couldn't tell what. Curious, he opened the window.

"... eat your... right... son"

Still not quite making it out, he leaned out the window and looked around. An old man, a caricature of a 30s hobo, was standing across the street, very deliberately yelling to Vince.

"I'll eat your mushroom right out of prison! Ah he he he he heeee!"

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Gabs cured that egg yolk, not fermented it (I quibble)

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I got (in a raffle!) a free six week course at the French Culinary Institute and we indeed peeled mushrooms. Super easy and elegant - just use a regular veggie peeler and work from the outside in. Also, thanks again for writing these, Vince. What would you put the odds on Buddha to win? I’d say 85%, with Sara at 10 and Gabri at 5. Feels like the Blais all star season when there was no doubt he was going to win (though it seemed then that the fix was in to make up for him blowing his own finale).

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What does peeling it accomplish?

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It’s just a very old school French thing to do, both because it looks good and (back in the day) mushrooms might be grown in dirt containing manure and other gross stuff. No reason whatsoever to do it today.

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They're still grown in manure, often sterilized.

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It accomplishes a peeled mushroom with less flavour, and nothing else.

Japanese chefs would fucking gut a person for that bullshit and I don't disagree. Peeling mushrooms is not an exercise in futility, it is a anti-flavour violence.

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Yeah but the most famous Japanese mushroom has the word shit in it, so I'm gonna go with the French on this.

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I think that the "parsley is pointy" mnemonic is to tell the difference between parsley and cilantro, which has rounder leaves. They would definitely be diabolical enough to put both parsley and cilantro in the basket for this challenge.

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Did you hear the news, @vincemancini, that Padma is retiring her TC champagne glasses?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/padma-lakshmi-quits-top-chef-1235506193/

(Do you do @s around this joint?)

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If any of you are able to resist saying "parsley is pointy" to yourself next time you're buying some, you're much stronger than me.

I have a conspiracy theory that the reason that Team America lost a couple weeks ago was to prevent the possibility of an all-US finale, which woulda been kind of a letdown for an international season. By that token, I'm rooting for Gabri (and also because it would be awesome if someone who was in the bottom for like half of the episodes ran away with it) but obviously I'm EXPECTING Buddha to win.

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