mongo_jones

today's denver post carried an article by wolfgang puck that gave away all but the winner of his battle. i won't spoil the theme ingredient surprise for anyone but i will say i was surprised to read puck as saying that he brought his chef and pastry chef from spago as his assistants and that the latter pretty much made the dessert. also, i may have missed this in the thread's early days, but is this a one-off special? puck made it sound like at least his involvement was.

with some foods, as with some posters, an initial taste can be pleasant, followed quickly by the realization that too much will cause digestive problems.

"do you have to know how to spell an orgasm to have one?"--kids in the hall circa 1992

though to be fair if you load up on a couple of items in your first pass and find them revolting you should be able to discard it and still load up on other items. these people's behavior seemed completely gratuitous though and goes against the code of professional buffet eaters everywhere.

perhaps they should have given them saucers?

sounds like too much water to me. soaked basmati rice shouldn't need a ratio of more than 1.5:1 water:rice. and maybe you need a shallower pan, made of a material that conducts heat evenly?

as meaningless and empty as such lists are...i am nonetheless pleased to see bukhara (at the maurya sheraton in delhi) on the list--it should be in the top 10; and its stable-mate dum pukht should be in the top 20. edit to add: but nothing from japan, hong kong or china?

she mostly wants to learn how to make a full range of banchan. when we lived in l.a she didn't bother making much banchan at home since very good prepared versions were available, and cheaply, at a number of korean grocery stores. it is a different matter here in colorado. also, she wants to expand her repertoire of jigaes and such. personally, i also require her to learn to make all the naeng-myuns. edit to add: thanks for the recos skchai. and no, we won't be buying the fusion books. unless that is there's a recipe for that gumball-nacho thing in one of them.

"naming" yourself after the restaurant itself is dedication indeed.

and even though it has nothing to do with food everyone should read amitav ghosh's "in an antique land"--about contact between egypt and india, his own--during his anthropology ph.d fieldwork in the late 70s--and medieval trade. perhaps the best book he's written.

hi all, my wife has asked me to ask for recommendations for comprehensive korean cookbooks. she wishes to expand her range, and i am happy to assist her in this. she's a native korean speaker and is already an excellent cook so she doesn't need flashy books with nice pictures or exact directions (in other words it doesn't need to be the kind of thing that most americans would recognize as a "good" cookbook); she's looking for a korean cookbook aimed at koreans, not adapted to american tastes/kitchens. we'll be in los angeles next month, so recommendations for places in l.a where these might be available would be particularly welcomed. thanks in advance! mongo

since your coordinates don't allow the san gabriel valley and since mixmaster b already got to emapanada's place and the apple pan (though technically those might be outside your map as well) i'll add the following: alladin on vermont and first for bangladeshi india sweet house on pico, between crescent heights and fairfax, for good rustic north-indian. there's also millions of korean places in koreatown where you can eat very well for <$10. such as the open 24 hours hodori on vermont/olympic. not to mention the bcd soon tofu houses. and for good budget sushi: menori on robertson, just north of pico. great combos for lunch and dinner.

which south bay is this? and mv?

hing: asafoetida. as you will find it doesn't have the word 'foetid' nestled within its english name for nothing. if you ain't got curry leaves, you ain't got curry leaves, is how i feel. but surely there's coconut available in japan? in my own experience dried or rehydrated coconut is a faint substitute for fresh in most indian recipes that call for them. though if you have no choice i'd suggest soaking the dried coconut in canned coconut milk, or in regular milk.

clearly a woman who has never cooked shutki (bombay duck), dried squid or this other korean fish dish that threatens to end our marriage every time the wife prepares it.

on the other hand do we trust cookbooks written by such svelte people? if they can't bring themselves to eat their own food why should we...he types while hoping no one who sees his recipes page ever finds out how scrawny his own build is...

all food--that is all food worth eating--is aromatic during preparation; however, it isn't a stretch to say that most indian cuisines (certainly the more heavily spiced variants) raise aromas that langurously linger longer (try saying that three times fast) than say the aroma of recently cooked tomato-basil-garlic sauce. furthermore, on the second day the stale version of this aroma is not as pleasant as the first day's version. on the other hand, i have to say that i have never noticed this in my parents' home. the house smells good while my mother is cooking but almost no trace of it when she's done. cooking smells have always hung out longer in all the apartments and houses i've lived in in the u.s than they do in our flat in delhi. maybe it has something to do with the fact that most indian homes have stone/granite floors; maybe it is the fact that my mother's kitchen has a window right by the door with a strong exhaust fan in it. perhaps indian kitchens have design elements that automatically solve this to some extent? and perhaps in poorer homes with charcoal/wood stoves etc. aromas are naturally quenched--i don't know. but no matter how powerfully something may smell/stink while you're cooking it very little can withstand opening some cross-ventilation and a slight breeze.

i wasn't particularly offended by the choice of word either--aromas can turn to odors after a while--but i'd point out that none of us (not even the excellent monica) can claim to be the final arbiter of what's going to be offensive or not to ALL indians, even just the ones on this board.

is there a page on that site which lists beers in the macro and regional categories? if so, i'm not seeing it. having started this thread i'm now unsure about which beers are macro-brews (as in over a million barrels). admittedly when i started the thread i was defining macro-brew in my head in terms of distribution (available everywhere)--but i can see how that's not helpful at all. my own list: negro modello bud pabst blue ribbon beck's dark sierra nevada pale ale (if it qualifies) dansberg (an indian beer from the 80s, not sure if it is still around or whether it was ever available outside india) which english beers would qualify? and where do things like shiner bock etc. fall? perhaps the better way to do this might have been to ask for everyone's top 6 non-micro-brewery beer.

good ventilation and a strong exhaust fan. it helps as well to have hardwood floors and blinds, rather than carpets and curtains which trap the smell.

The what? yoshinoya beef bowl--just a west coast thing?

Stand in line my friend and bring something to entertain yourself as its a long line. bhasin, if my current racket doesn't work out can i apply? i must admit up front that i don't know how to make chicken tikka masala--deal-breaker? :-)

whippy, whippy, we are having productive, partial disagreements over things of mutual interest--we aren't fighting! come on now.

speaking of the rushdies: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00120...~in~Hindu~style no word on what was served after

for those in the l.a region jai bharat in artesia makes the most divine dhokla. and none of this round nonsense for them :-) it is properly cubed and whatnot (kidding monica).