I think the rice was a valid complaint -- knowing how to cook rice is BASIC, people! -- but since it wasn't the entire dish, and the pork was so good, it wasn't going to be the sent-home offense.

sarameg, give me my sleep back please.

Jesse, surprisingly, I actually kind of wasn't. I sleep in drips of about 3 hours now. Then up for a bit then back to sleep. It's unhealthy.

Ugh, sorry.

I'm glad for the time change coming (though I hate the light situation in the evening ) because it's been getting harder and harder to wake up.

Seriously. I do not get up early! It should not be dark when my alarm goes off!

TC: oh, the rice. yeah. okay, you should be able to cook rice, but t memfault got off the hook a little from me because you can get shitty rice if it's left over the next day. not always, but often enough that I felt for him. he should have made new rice--with a rice cooker it doesn't take that long, srsly!--but it didn't make or break the dish the way the gelatin did. I was cheering him on, though, because he gave the team the reaming they deserved, and that they didn't get from the judges' table.

Does anyone else think Ilan and Marcel are kind of slashy? Just me then? Okay.

Sean, I agree with you. they all noted that Otto being gone really fucked with their time, and they deserved that because no one took freaking responsibility. But Otto shouldn't have had all the damn weight on his shoulders. Also, if the kitchen knew that the lychees WEREN'T BEING USED, that even pisses me off more that Marisa was such a bitch.

10 Useless or Even Dangerous First Aid Myths

I knew pretty much all of those. Particularly the bit about snake bites. Cutting sucking and spitting is just a bad idea all around for all the reasons they mention, and a tourniquet is basically telling the ER doctors to amputate here.

Neener, neener, sj.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting about the rice that Frank said they were all responsible but only he stepped up and took the heat for it. Group projects are so interesting because of that dynamic. Unless you get things like Betty taking the drink entirely, it's tough to know who did what and people slide sometimes.

But it's funny, because if they're throwing each other under the bus this early in the process, it should be a freaking bloodbath later on.

sarameg, give me my sleep back please.

I'm trying. It's getting ridiculous.

Top Chef: Marisa better go home soon. She's got self-righteous drama queen written all over her.

Frank's reaction was interesting -- he *was* the only one to both step up for his own mistake, and defend the team as a whole. Looks like he could be a real loose cannon temperamentally, though.

I can't believe I forgot to read Chef Tom's blog.

Oh, I think that Otto should have stopped and asked to see the receipt - and Marissa and Elia should have done the same, given that they both heard him. How difficult is it to stop for 5 seconds, read a receipt and make that decision?

And they definitely should have been able to make decent rice. How big a rice cooker do you need to make rice for 1000 people?

You can't make up headlines like this...