Actually porupine meatballs are served at some fairly high class places. I've served them as appetizers for business luncheons. One of the differences is the type of rice you use. A long grained rice gives you more of the look from the picture. Smaller grained or sticky rices work nicely and make for a more uniform look. Personally I find them both yummy. Also, addressing the meat crust picture, that method is used in a lot of recipes. Tatertot casserole has a meat crust, shepherd pie can...part of the problem in these pictures if the fact that whoever was taking them needed a new camera.
The paving stone works fairly well for breads and pizza crust, makes for a nice crisp to it. I prefer shiny aluminium for cookies and pies in glass. Some main dishes work well, but there can be problems with dripping, so make sure you line your oven so that clean up from spills is easy. In a self cleaning oven remove the stone before setting the oven to clean or you'll ruin the season of the stone and potentially break it. A nylon or silicon scraper is a very helpful cleaning tool for your stone, as well as for other things, as it won't scratch, but you can put some muscle into it if there's baked on cheese to deal with.
Foods I won't eat: No Subway for me. Not to say no sub sandwiches, but specifically Subway is a killer. Foor poisoning once and now I just can't bring myself to go back.
~J
