mukki

Funny you should post this because I just bought one (chorizo and roasted peppers with a cornmeal crust) at Wild Oats yesterday. Haven't tried it yet, though.

I'm not sure if you meant Mozza's or Otto's pizza by "those pizzas", but I'd just like to say that the two pizzas are completely different. I believe Otto's is grilled and it's pretty flat, with no large air holes to speak of. Mozza's is the exact opposite with a puffy crust and much lighter texture. I went to Otto last December and found the pizza pretty disappointing. Spaghetti carbonara, on the other hand, was wonderful and that olive oil gelato with tangerine sorbet was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth! Wish I were in NY right now to try the orecchiette.

I've been there several times over the years and have enjoyed it. It's actually quite good for OC, although I prefer Stonehill Tavern since it came on the scene. Sometimes I've found the atmosphere a tad annoying (lots of families who've obviously spent a long day at the park), especially when I've been for a special occasion, but, hey, it's Disneyland, it is what it is. Going later in the evening is better in that regard. Service has been quite good, espcially when we've requested John (if I remember his name correctly). They once comped all of our wine for the evening when we had to wait more than 30 minutes for our reservation.

I recommend Ottolenghi -- great passionfruit tart (among many other goodies) and tasty salad-type dishes, too.

If you're interested in trying turron (and I think you should be! ), you might want to check out Planelles-Donat, which is near Las Ramblas. This thread has more info, with some pics I took.

Wow, ludja, that's great that you photographed all those desserts! I've been drooling over the blueberry slice for a while; I didn't know the red currants were traditional, which is too bad because TJ's had red currants a few weeks ago but I used them for red currant jam. I've never seen them around here before that.

The Ischl Tarts are delicious, although I seem to remember a problem with adding the amount of water called for to the chocolate coating. I can't remember if I had halved the recipe or not, though. Also, the dough is a bit crumbly, so I usually add a touch of cream to bring it together.

When I was about 5, the family of a little girl I had met on a beach in Maui invited me to eat lunch with them. Teriyaki beef -- though I didn't know what it was at the time -- grilled on the beach with white rice. I can still envision the shock of how flavorful it was. I think it's my first food memory. Curry at the Hong Kong airport when I was about 11. We had a long layover and the glop on white rice didn't necessarily look very appealing. But, man, was it ever good. "International Day" lunch in high school. A Romanian mom prepared delicious Romanian sausages, stuffed cabbage leaves and the best baklava I've ever had.

I LOVE milk! I always have, but it was chocolate milk when I was a kid. In fact, I think chocolate milk made up the bulk of my calories growing up. Well, that and pickles. It was low fat while growing up because that's what mom bought and then skim for a while in college. Whole actually tasted gross to me back then. Now, it's 2% organic from TJ's. I love TJ's organic milk; other milk often tastes a bit nasty to me now. Don't even talk to me about that ultra-pasteurized organic "milk". I go through about 1/2 gallon of 2% every week and 1/2 gallon whole for cappucinos. I think I probably like whole more now, but it just seems too decadent given how much I drink a week. The only time I stop drinking milk is when I travel. I did try raw milk and liked it, but not enough to pay extra and have to go to Mother's Market every week to buy it.

You should just be able to stir in a few spoonfuls of rum when the pudding comes off the heat, just like adding vanilla at the end. As long as you don't add too much, it shouldn't change the texture of the pudding.

Wow - thanks so much for sharing your pictures. Vienna and Prague have been on my list for a Christmas-time visit; perhaps this year!

I was told Marshall's sells it and here on their website.

You may want to consider putting some sort of netting over the grapes so the critters (feathered and otherwise) don't get at them. Consult your local nursery/garden center for more info. ← I'm thinking I might have to do that with the peaches, too, since I'll have so few this year. If the rats or opposums get them, I'll be so mad! I can just see myself waiting for months in anticipation of the day the peaches are perfectly ripe and then I go out one morning and they have nibble marks all over them.

My brand-new Babcock peach tree has finished blossoming and appears to be setting quite a few teeny fuzzy peaches. Persian mulberry is still dormant. Boysenberries are just beginning to leaf out. Orange and lime have begun their spring growth. Last year, I had two oranges: I think a rat ate one and the other was picked too early by me. Brand-new Venus grape vine has a few bunches forming. Tomato plants have just started showing up in nurseries so I now have 3 Red Currants (tasted amazing last year, but I only had one plant and it got spider mites) and one Moromato, which was highly recommended by Laguna Hills Nursery.

Hmmm... I was hoping someone would reply since I'm interested as well. Has anyone looked at The Patissier: Recipes and Conversations from Alsace? Three nice comments on Amazon, but that's all I've seen.

Last month, I brought home a giant crock of mustard from Maille in checked baggage and it made it through just fine (well-wrapped, of course, and in a sturdy suitcase). It wasn't even checked at our stopover in SFO; however, a friend of mine had a crock in her suitcase and while the crock made it home in fine condition, TSA at JFK did open it and smear mustard around. We also managed 6 bottles of wine and several other jars of jam and honey in our checked bags.

There's one on the Williams-Sonoma website that is based on Mario Batali's. And, of course, Batali's recipe was published in the Babbo cookbook. Have you tried the one at Otto in NY? -- it's delicious with flaked sea salt sprinkled on top and served with a tangerine sorbet.

If you google "frozen mangosteen puree" a bunch of manufacturers come up, most of which (at a quick glance) seem to be located in Thailand. Perhaps check with your local Thai grocery?

Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake in SF will be coming out with a book called Demolition Desserts this fall.

According to a conversation with Sherry Yard posted on David Lebovitz's site, Yard will be coming out with a new book in the fall called Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills, Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever.

Devon cream butter (salted) and homemade apricot jam Eggs-in-a-Hole Scrambled eggs with scallions or (on that rare occasion) white truffles I haven't tried the butter and honey, but I just bought some Manuka honey and I have an unopened jar of Tupelo in the pantry...

I visited in late December and thought it was quite good. Fried zucchini blossoms were delicious. The crust on the sausage pizza was very good (light and flavorful with large air holes), but I didn't like the sparse scattering of large balls of sausage. Ingredients were good, I just didn't care for how it was put together. Butterscotch budino/pudding was ok. The caramel overshadowed the pudding part.

For what it's worth, I've never really enjoyed a dessert at JG and have decided to quit ordering them since the rest of the meal is usually such a pleasure. The signature molten chocolate cake was fine, but not better than versions I've had elsewhere. On the other hand, I really enjoy the tiny macarons and the chocolates, which are a fine substitute for dessert.

I've done it and the stone turns out looking like new again. I remove the stone from the rack (since I've read that it can warp) and place the stone on the oven floor during the self-cleaning cycle.

I have the Sitram Profiserie line (got the boxed set at Costco a few years ago) and am in the process of weeding it out of my collection. I just don't like the disk bottoms. I get burned marks sometimes around the inside of the pan where the disk ends (even when keeping the flame low) and, when pouring hot liquid out of the saucepans, it oftens spatters when it hits the sides of the pan. I'd much rather use my small Creuset pot for making soup (2 3/4 qt). I also just picked up a Staub 2 qt. cocotte at Amazon for 1/2 off ($49.99) which I'll also use for small batches of soup.