Monday, January 19, 2009

Good Eats

At long last, Netflix has seen the light and gotten a season of Good Eats. For those of you who have not seen this show, take a look at the coffee episode. Even if you don't like coffee, it's interesting and entertaining. (Or maybe not; I don't actually have any idea what it's like to not like coffee. I might as well be saying, "Even if you have three heads and see X-rays, it's interesting and entertaining." Watch it anyway.)

In some ways I feel like I've moved on from the show. I really enjoy watching it when I can, and I feel a great deal of affection for the series. But Food Network has done such a poor job of making new episodes available for those of us who do not get cable, that I've moved on to other sources of cooking education and entertainment. Most of these sources are books, but if you like Indian food, I recommend Manjula's Kitchen. (She's totally revamped her site, by the way, and made it much more useful)

While I watch Good Eats when I can, then, I find that I almost never make the recipes in them anymore. There are a lot of factors in that. Having found other sources is one factor. The other major factor is that I don't cook for myself anymore, and so I don't really have the luxury of sitting at home to watch an episode, and deciding that that's what I want for dinner that night. My waistline has thanked me for this change, but planning means relying increasingly on a smaller set of recipes liked by everyone involved. I find that a lot of the recipes on the show, while they require planning, do not often survive planning for too long: it's hard to tell what we'll be in the mood for, or how tired we'll be.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link to Manjula's Kitchen! I've been looking for a good source of Indian recipes.

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  2. It's good stuff, but a little eccentric -- we have a common friend who would be horrified by the lack of garlic in those recipes.

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