Dudes, it's not tarragon. I know what tarragon tastes like. I have employed tarragon. Tarragon was in the store where I bought this (this was unlabeled). Tarragon has a, may I say, "darker" flavor, much longer and thinner leaves, and a much less woody stem. All of these relative characteristics—except perhaps the woodlessness of the stem as compared to what I've pictured, since it didn't come through that well in the photo—are on display in LB's photo.
But the tarragon leaves branch directly out all along the stem, and on Ben's mystery herb (which also has long narrow leaves) the leaves only branch from the nodes. I'm still thinking...
It looks familiar, is the thing. I can see the differences from tarragon now that you two point them out, but I'm pretty sure I've seen your herb also at some time.
Just the thread for the question I had for you: I planted sorrel in my garden because Whole Foods never carries it and I like to use it for salads. But now the leaves are starting to purple. Do you know how that changes the taste, or is there a more appropriate use for purple sorrel (e.g., soup)?
Could it be a funny sage? The leaves are way too small and skinny, but they have the right sort of fuzzy grey look, or seem to, and something looks sage-ish about the plant.
The first picture looks like savory, which someone noted, above. The second picture looks like a Mexican herb that's marketed by greenhouse supply folks as "Texas Tarragon," because it's easier to grow in hot climes than real tarragon, and which does not taste remotely tarragon-like to me.
If it is savory, it is truly great on green beans, and for use in the liquid of any beans cooked longish.
You little bitches, watch her cooking on the show and then tell me if you think she's hot. It's the whole ethos, you know? She does have a huge forehead though.
God, the world is full of haters. If almost totally convincing showbiz sweetness doesn't turn you people on, you're dead inside. Anyway, before this becomes an albatross around my neck, let me clarify:
1. You see what dumbass crushes you develop after a month of daytime TV.
2. She does have pretty eyes, and a soothing voice, and does seem genuinely sweet.
3. She's no Christy Turlington, ok?
My college roommate and I (she was an MFA) once took out our frustrations by doing a "performance art" thing on the quad where we threw meat at one another for about ten minutes.
My favorite part was hearing some hippie complain about how we were wasting food.
I'm surprised anyone would talk to people throwing meat at each other in public, rather than simply ignore them in the hopes that they would stop and go away.
My BF has a total hard-on for Giada. She has the small-shoulders-and-big-boobies thing going on. Who's looking at her forehead anyway? It's a cooking show -- the counters are at waist height, so her boobs are in almost every shot. I like cooking shows; he likes boobs. It's a win-win.
Really, though, it's the saccharine perkiness that makes Giada intolerable to me. I have the same problem with Dave Lieberman, who is just far too chipper all the goddamn time.
It's part of why I'm coming back around to Bobby Flay.
Tag troubles, I guess. I didn't realize that she had written Everyday Italian—every time I see that book I think to myself that the woman on the cover is hot. Maybe if I agree with ogged, he'll change his mind?
Is there any evidence she's actually cooking the pasta rather than simply adding olive oil to it in a pan? It seems to me that many certified Italian cooks add the drained pasta to the sauce in its pan after cooking--that's what it looks like she's doing, adding olive oil along the way. In any event, actual Italian practice is so varied, it's silly to generalize.
But my god, what a giant head. It doesn't help that she's got a small frame and often piles her hair up, but she looks like a freak. She also has always struck me as basically chilly and insincere.
Tarragon, says I.
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:46 AM
(before seeing the photo's caption, which renders my answer wrong, wrong.)
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:48 AM
Looks like thyme to me. More importantly: Giada De Laurentiis: hott! Food Channel for President!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:49 AM
Not at all thyme, which has small rounded leaves and a woody stem. Tarragon was my guess before you ruled it out.
Did it have a square stem, with noticeable ridges at the corners?
Posted by Megan | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:51 AM
Yeah, jeez, ogged, thyme? Have you ever seen thyme?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:56 AM
It looks like tarragon to me too. And the taste description sounds plausible. Here's a picture of tarragon. Are you sure that's not what it is?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:56 AM
Fuck you, Wolfson, I was trying to make your game more fun. I don't know from thyme.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:57 AM
Dudes, it's not tarragon. I know what tarragon tastes like. I have employed tarragon. Tarragon was in the store where I bought this (this was unlabeled). Tarragon has a, may I say, "darker" flavor, much longer and thinner leaves, and a much less woody stem. All of these relative characteristics—except perhaps the woodlessness of the stem as compared to what I've pictured, since it didn't come through that well in the photo—are on display in LB's photo.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:58 AM
But the tarragon leaves branch directly out all along the stem, and on Ben's mystery herb (which also has long narrow leaves) the leaves only branch from the nodes. I'm still thinking...
Posted by Megan | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 11:59 AM
You can see the thick, stout woodiness of the stem on the far right in the upper corner.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:03 PM
It looks familiar, is the thing. I can see the differences from tarragon now that you two point them out, but I'm pretty sure I've seen your herb also at some time.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:06 PM
Just the thread for the question I had for you: I planted sorrel in my garden because Whole Foods never carries it and I like to use it for salads. But now the leaves are starting to purple. Do you know how that changes the taste, or is there a more appropriate use for purple sorrel (e.g., soup)?
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:07 PM
Could it be a funny sage? The leaves are way too small and skinny, but they have the right sort of fuzzy grey look, or seem to, and something looks sage-ish about the plant.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:09 PM
I have no idea what that is, but it's no tarragon, and ogged is on crack for suggesting thyme. The third photo looks delicious.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:09 PM
summer savory
http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/herbs/savory_summer.html
delicious, no?
Posted by mk | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:14 PM
It looks kind of like savory to me. Hard to tell without actually holding it and smelling it, though.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:16 PM
By god that looks very plausible!
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:17 PM
Shit, pwnd.
And after I posted I was googling and found that exact picture and was thinking about posting it . . .
Here are some other decent photos.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:20 PM
Ah, too slow. mk got it in 15.
Also, Giada di Laurentiis? Seriously?!
Posted by mrh | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:23 PM
I can't talk to you people.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:30 PM
di Laurentis is not only unnervingly thin, but she could batter down massive walls with her giant forehead.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:46 PM
Well I think she's hott, but I've only seen her in photos in cookbooks, and they were the "in motion" kind, so I could be mistaken.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:49 PM
The third photo looks delicious.
Thanks much, JM.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:51 PM
This photo looks non-delicious.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:53 PM
Giada De Laurentiis: Hot or Not?
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:55 PM
Ogged, I've found your other secret blog.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 12:58 PM
The first picture looks like savory, which someone noted, above. The second picture looks like a Mexican herb that's marketed by greenhouse supply folks as "Texas Tarragon," because it's easier to grow in hot climes than real tarragon, and which does not taste remotely tarragon-like to me.
If it is savory, it is truly great on green beans, and for use in the liquid of any beans cooked longish.
Posted by TomF | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:00 PM
Does anyone have any photos of Giada and Rachael Ray wrestling each other in a huge tub full of pannacotta?
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:01 PM
If memory serves, the German name for savory translates literally as "bean herb".
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:02 PM
TomF, the pictures are of the same bunch. I would like to know whence comes the de Laurentiis reference in 19?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:04 PM
You little bitches, watch her cooking on the show and then tell me if you think she's hot. It's the whole ethos, you know? She does have a huge forehead though.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:05 PM
30: See 3.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:05 PM
Oh, from comment 3. I was so blinded by the craziness of the thyme suggestion that I couldn't read on.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:06 PM
Cripes, ogged. You really are the committed metrosexual, aren't you?
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:07 PM
Olive oil!.
Her show just happened to be on when Ben posted, is all.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:09 PM
People! Be nice to Ogged! What if the cancer has metastisized to his brain?
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:09 PM
It's the forehead, the choppers (no offense, Chopper), and the Stepford-perkiness.
Posted by mrh | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:15 PM
Rachael Ray is hot, though.
Posted by mrh | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:16 PM
Rachael Ray is hot
Quit trolling, mrh.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:18 PM
Be just like Giada.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:20 PM
I agree with 39.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:21 PM
God, the world is full of haters. If almost totally convincing showbiz sweetness doesn't turn you people on, you're dead inside. Anyway, before this becomes an albatross around my neck, let me clarify:
1. You see what dumbass crushes you develop after a month of daytime TV.
2. She does have pretty eyes, and a soothing voice, and does seem genuinely sweet.
3. She's no Christy Turlington, ok?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:25 PM
Ogged, you *do* know that saccharine is carcinogenic, right?
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:33 PM
Damn. I was picturing her as having this sexy Italian accent or something. And HOLY COW, but that's a big forehead.
Still kinda hott, though.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:34 PM
Giada looks far too wholesome. Is she connected to a church group of some kind?
I agree with Ogged about the stupid herb, though. It's thyme, it's spinach, who cares?
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:41 PM
Men who can cook are men who get laid.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:44 PM
You know who is totally hott? Amy Devers. An MFA that welds!
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:45 PM
Men who can cook are men who get laid.
Men who can cure sausages, now...
...have basements that really smell like moist sausage. Seriously, it's a little overwhelming.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:47 PM
Mmmmm, moist sausage....
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:49 PM
Surely many MFAs weld? All those who sculpt with metal?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:49 PM
48: Does a good job of covering up the stench of the decaying corpses, though, I bet.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:49 PM
"His basement really smells like moist sausage, IYKWIM, AITYD."
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:50 PM
Surely many MFAs weld? All those who sculpt with metal?
Yes, and this makes them hott. Duh.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:52 PM
52 -- are you trying to say he's not the gutsiest bard in the tavern?
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:53 PM
Does a good job of covering up the stench of the decaying corpses, though, I bet.
What decaying corpses? All I have are these sausages...
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:55 PM
LB, I think that might be the dirtiest thing I've ever seen you write!
Brava.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:56 PM
IIKMIM?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 1:59 PM
If I Know My Implicit Meaning
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:02 PM
57: (Whistles innocently, looking up at the ceiling.)
Me, edit spelling errors out of a comment? Never.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:02 PM
All those who sculpt with metal?
Whatever. Now an MFA that sculpted with meat, on the other hand... Rrrowr!
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:07 PM
My college roommate and I (she was an MFA) once took out our frustrations by doing a "performance art" thing on the quad where we threw meat at one another for about ten minutes.
My favorite part was hearing some hippie complain about how we were wasting food.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:12 PM
You pelted the hippie with meat, I hope?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:19 PM
No, but I'm sure I rolled my eyes and told him/her to lighten up already.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:22 PM
I'm surprised anyone would talk to people throwing meat at each other in public, rather than simply ignore them in the hopes that they would stop and go away.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:29 PM
61 -- I don't think it really qualifies as performance art unless you are naked.
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:30 PM
Also, we need something more specific than "meat" -- chicken breasts? sausage? ground beef? chops?
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:32 PM
salmon?
Posted by Clownæsthesiologist | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:34 PM
rather than simply ignore them in the hopes that they would stop and go away
They'd probably met B before, and therefore knew that wouldn't work.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:36 PM
I think it was "stew beef" or something--you know, cheap and bone-free.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:41 PM
68: Hey!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:41 PM
We also once had chocolate fondue in the quad. We were all about using the quad for public displays of our attempts to not crack up.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:43 PM
"His basement really smells like moist sausage, IYKWIM, AITYD."
Chopper needs the male version of one of these.
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 2:55 PM
PZ titty!
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 3:00 PM
PZ Myers is so, so banned.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 3:11 PM
For biting apostropher's rhymes?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 3:18 PM
Wait, I thought your response was supposed to be "hooray! Titties!"
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 3:18 PM
My BF has a total hard-on for Giada. She has the small-shoulders-and-big-boobies thing going on. Who's looking at her forehead anyway? It's a cooking show -- the counters are at waist height, so her boobs are in almost every shot. I like cooking shows; he likes boobs. It's a win-win.
Posted by Wrenae | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 3:44 PM
Really, though, it's the saccharine perkiness that makes Giada intolerable to me. I have the same problem with Dave Lieberman, who is just far too chipper all the goddamn time.
It's part of why I'm coming back around to Bobby Flay.
Posted by mrh | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 4:57 PM
cheap and bone-free.
Like a date with ogged.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 08- 4-06 8:32 PM
That Giada woman looks really annoying. If you want female tv chefs, it has to be Nigella Lawson surely?
So, did you all have fun last night? Where are the incriminating photos?
Posted by asilon | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 4:23 AM
Where are the incriminating photos?
They'll look just like the previous ones.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 5:17 AM
Men who can cook are men who get laid.
Not in my experience.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 5:33 AM
Maybe you're cooking the wrong dishes, Ben.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 5:41 AM
Also, a big forehead is a sign of intelligence; everyone knows that. Why do you think it used to be the fashion for women to pluck out some of the hairs at the front of their heads? However, Marcella Hazan would not approve of this maneuver here, which makes me suspect de Laurentiis' Italian bona fides.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 5:44 AM
Tag troubles, I guess. I didn't realize that she had written Everyday Italian—every time I see that book I think to myself that the woman on the cover is hot. Maybe if I agree with ogged, he'll change his mind?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 5:47 AM
"Men who can cook are men who get laid.
Not in my experience."
She meant by each other. Also, men with a flair for interior decorating.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 6:13 AM
She really, really looks churchy to me.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 6:14 AM
86: The point stands.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 6:16 AM
Hm, maybe she really meant "Men not wearing SCA regalia, who cook, get laid" or something like that. A hermeneutic approach seems required.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 7:37 AM
However, Marcella Hazan would not approve of this maneuver here, which makes me suspect de Laurentiis' Italian bona fides.
What part of that maneuver would earn Marcella's disapproval?
Posted by M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 3:07 PM
She's expressed disapproval of the practice of cooking pasta after boiling it in the pan with the sauce.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 3:41 PM
Is there any evidence she's actually cooking the pasta rather than simply adding olive oil to it in a pan? It seems to me that many certified Italian cooks add the drained pasta to the sauce in its pan after cooking--that's what it looks like she's doing, adding olive oil along the way. In any event, actual Italian practice is so varied, it's silly to generalize.
But my god, what a giant head. It doesn't help that she's got a small frame and often piles her hair up, but she looks like a freak. She also has always struck me as basically chilly and insincere.
Posted by JL | Link to this comment | 08- 5-06 4:35 PM