Well, I am really getting left in the dust - I visited at 101 Cookbooks, and the current post is all about molecular gastronomy, extreme cooking, and liquid nitrogen (LN2) ice cream. I have to admit (only a tad smugly) that when Harold McGee was here to speak last month, and the topic came up, I could at least nod knowingly about El Bulli and Ferran Adria, and the guys in Chicago, Homaro Cantu's Moto and Grant Achatz's Alinea, and edible menus, herbal sprays, edible foam ... but I have never cooked with LN2. Evidently, although scary, it makes great ice cream. That sounds more appealing to me than rice paper menus and rosemary fumes sprayed around my head.

In other food news, Julie Powell discovered Nigel Slater this week (well, she probably discovered him some weeks ago, but wrote about him for the Sunday March 5 NYT magazine) described him as a "yuppie hooligan" which is probably spot-on for why Brits like his food writing so much - he writes about greasy pub food and home cooking with the same thoughtfulness as Proust. Julie also speculated that maybe Nigel isn't so well-known in the US because we just can't keep two cooks whose names start with Nigel straight (Nigel & Nigella) I actually got Nigel's Appetite and Nigella's How to be a kitchen goddess for Christmas gifts in 2003, and I thought the coincidence of their names was funny, too. So kudos to Julie for at least 2 bon mots in one article (and reproducing Nigel's pistachio cake & mackeral with paprika crumbs)

As for me, I know it seems like I am a sloth blogger again this week, but actually what I have been doing is steadily adding recipes to the Party Menu entry - see, I just put all that whining about my weight at the beginning to frighten everyone off. I also have been looking at houses to put my underground restaurant/catering biz/ cooking school into. I haven't fallen in love with any houses yet, and in that same NYT mag where Julie Powell write about Nigel, there is a long article about how, contrary to the conventional wisdom, real estate is NOT actually a great investment ... so I guess I do not have to feel too guilty about not buying. I still have not seen anything as nice as my current house, at least not anything that I could afford.