Blogging Rant

Yesterday, through the miracle of my Google Reader came the title of an entry called "illegal or not", from Melissa of Alosha's Kitchen.

Please read her saga here and then come back and tell me how you feel.

I'm about to tell you how I feel. Melissa, like any good food blogger went on a search for a potato salad and she found one she liked at Cooks Country, part of the conglomerate of America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated.

Although she made many changes to potato salad recipe, she still gave credit to the original inspiration (Cooks Country). Now imagine the shock and disbelief when Melissa received an email from them that they do not allow their recipes to be modified in print.

Yep...you read correctly.

Let me get this straight...the folks at America's Test Kitchen make their careers out of re-tooling food classics and they swear that their recipes are refined, tested and flawless. Bullshit!

Years ago, before my blogging days, I had made their Jambalaya and to my horror, it tasted like shit, looked like diarrhea and rightfully ended up being dumped down the toilet.

As food bloggers, the extreme case of plagiarism and passing off work and recipes as one's own is the extreme and rare case but by and large, most of us will link to an inspiration or laud with pride how a dish we made had turned out fantastically.

As true food lovers, we want to share our experiences with other lovers of food. It's our nature.

I can assure you I will not watch America's Test Kitchen (locally on PBS Buffalo), buy any issue of Cooks Illustrated or peruse Cooks Country for a recipe. Their attitude has left a bad taste in my mouth and until I see some serious reversal of policy on their behalf, they've been 86'ed.

While we're on the subject of linking to recipes and giving credit, here's my take on it...any dish that you see here is from myself, family or friends and the remaining dishes are linked back to the cookbook, chef, website, blogger, article or TV show.

One peeve I have is when people link to a recipe and they merely post something to the effect of "I got my recipe from here".

Why do the bare minimum? The inspired dish was good enough for you to try, make, eat and blog about it - why not give that dish it's 5 minutes of fame?

I'm delighted and humbled that many of my dishes have been cooked, enjoyed and blogged about by my peers here. All I ask is that you let me know you're going to post about the dish, link to my original post, citing myself and the site, "Kalofagas" and the courtesy will be reciprocated.

If you haven't gone over to Alosha's Kitchen by now, here's your second chance and don't be afraid to state your opinion. Melissa did and I salute her!

Dr. Kalofagas or Mr. Hyde?

Somewhere between when I started this blog just over a year ago and now, some people have gotten the impression that I'm some Wally Cleaver or something. The nice guy next door who will never say the wrong thing or curse or swear.

I think the reality is that I'm probably closer to an Eddie Haskel, use profanity to help express myself and to the chagrin of some women, I've told them exactly how I feel if they are annoying, nagging or expect the world handed to them on a silver platter. I was just called a Prick (again) last night.

The George Carlin clip is a classic and he's still relevant. So, do you want me to recite my favourite cussin' words? Really? I knew you'd say that.

I got fired up this past weekend watching Giada's Everyday Italian. She appeared on an episode called "Greek Fusion".

If it wasn't for her great set of tits I'd write her off completely. At least she has tits...Rachel Ray doesn't.

The 5 foot titted wonder blasphemed Greek dishes by trying to put an Italian twist on Greek classics. Giada, you're a nice gal, I'm happy that you're now the proud mother of a baby girl but ya fucked up.

Greek Caponata? Look here, Tits...the dish is called Tourlou, it's not a stretch of the ingredients to make it like a Greek.

Orzo Stuffed peppers? What's wrong, in all of Italy or Los Angeles...you couldn't find one cup of rice to stuff some peppers? Oh yeah...your hubby stuffs his crotch with them.

Crispy Smoked Mozzarella With Honey & Figs? This sounds like something Pizza Hut would serve me for dessert rather than at a Greek taverna.

Her pinnacle of fucking up Greek food came with her take on baklava. Her simple baklava was phyllo pastry jammed into muffin tins with the expertise of a 12 year old applying her first tampon and she had the nerve to call it baklava.

Oh, I forgot...her show's called Everyday Italian and, apparently she forgot too.

Allow me to bring everything home here. To my Italian friends...imagine the horror in my adding crumbled feta in a Spaghetti Bolognese?

Would you fancy a Greek adding 7-Up to a FATTORIA LE PUPILLE SAFFREDI MAREMMA ROSSO 2004 or wouldn't it be cute...no, brilliant if I blogged about my ultimate pasta dish and put my Greek twist on things...the perfect pasta...cooked in 20 minutes (almost to a polenta)?

I think you get my drift. You as bloggers have every right to cook anyway you see fit but if you're stepping out and trying a dish outside your culture then pay some respect to the dish and to the cuisine.

When I make an international dish, I always think to myself, "will the Chinese, Italian, Frenchman or Japanese person sit down and genuinely enjoy the dish I've just served?

Giada failed miserably and many bloggers are guilty of it too. Please stop...it's fucking annoying.

While I'm "at it"...allow me to remind some people that a Greek salad consists of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, red onions, salt and pepper, dried Greek oregano, extra virgin olive oil, Greek feta and that red wine vinegar & olives are optional.