mamster

This book has come up on other threads (search for "sichuan cookery" or just "fuchsia"), and I've cooked from it quite a bit. It's a definite keeper, mostly for the Sichuan dishes you haven't tried before.

That Thai soup sounds like tom kha, not tom yam. Tom yam has at most a drizzle of coconut milk and often starts with water rather than stock; I make a quick shrimp stock and sour it with both tamarind and lime juice. I enjoy Chinese hot and sour soup in summer, too, especially the one whose recipe I gave in my column. Here it is in the recipe archive. There are also hot and sour soups in there from Anna N and =Mark which I'm sure are good. Tortilla soup is great in summer, too.

That sounds wonderful, maggie. I just inherited some issues of Fine Cooking, and one of them has a recipe for a veal soup called Soup of the Bakony Outlaws. Apparently Bakony is a region of Hungary, which was disappointing until I noticed that there is also bacon in the soup.

I can do that. Not right this second, though.

I thought I might respond to this in verse But my attempts just went from bad to worse Pray tell what went into the stew of veal? mamster's on the prowl for his next meal

I take offense to seeing the words "noxious" and "butter" juxtaposed. That said, I have some fatback-rendered lard in the fridge. It's nice, creamy stuff, although it's stronger than I was expecting--anything you make with it will taste like pork. I'm guessing either leaf lard is milder, or I was a little too aggressive in rendering the fat and browned it too much and got a lot of of those Maillardy pork flavors. Lard is really good for frying quesadillas.

I don't have a question, but this was an amazing lecture. Nice work.

Bruce, welcome to Pacific Northwest--I'm a big fan of your books. I definitely second Jim's recommendations for Pambiche and My Canh. Pambiche is the most exciting restaurant I know of in the region--the food is adventurous, delicious, and cheap.

I think olestra is pointless and don't buy olestra products. However, the reason the FDA is releasing PG from the disclaimer requirement is that a large study failed to demonstrate a correlation between eating olestra (vs a placebo) and an increase in abdominal complaints. Whether the decision should be based on one study is a fair argument, and I'd probably say the delabeling is premature. Diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems have a variety of causes. Many infectious diseases of the bowel have long incubation periods. To conclude, because you ate olestra and subsequently got sick, that olestra caused your illness, is a very bad conclusion. Once, that kind of superstition was the only thing people had to go on. Nowadays, we can do better. Oh, and for what it's worth, I ate a bunch of the olestra chips when they first came out, a my stomach gave not a peep. This proves nothing, but maybe you're interested.

Sounds interesting, bankchef--thanks for the plug.

Sure, why not?

A reporter from Florida called to ask if I could recommend any restaurants people could visit in conjuction with winery tours. He wasn't totally clear on what he meant by "wine country," but I'm thinking maybe Yakima valley. Any ideas?

Uwajimaya sells pork belly in smaller pieces than you want, but it's pretty cheap and they could probably do leave some whole for you.

Thanks for the mention. I haven't spent enough time in Bangkok to recommend specific vendors--generally I'll try something new, become hooked, and then not have time to try enough versions of it to make a real recommendation. I do recommend picking up the book Thai Hawker Food if you don't already have it--it should be easy to find in a gift shop.

I still miss Noodlehead!

I think of naem sod as having pig skin but not lemongrass, and fermented. It's like a bulk version of sai krok.

Dave, I've always thought it would be great to do a quiz where someone lists the detailed ingredients of a common natural food and people have to guess what it is. The idea was inspired by the book Can You Trust a Tomato in January by Vince Staten: "The label would read like this: Starches, sugars, cellulose, pectin, malic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, anisyl propionate, amyl acetate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A, riboflavin, thiamine, phosphate. Sounds scary. What is it? A melon." Those esters have particularly scary names, I think. As for junk food, I think it's food that makes you feel guilty when you eat it and superior when someone else eats it, but only in a certain way. As noted, you might feel guilty if you polished off a whole lobe of foie gras, but you probably wouldn't say, "I ate a lot of junk food." Junk food is what stereotypically lower-class gluttons eat. It would be very hard to come up with a nutritionally sound definition.

It's bubble tea. I've had it a bunch of places but don't really pick up on the nuances, so I don't know which place your friend means.

I love that this restaurant generates so much controversy.

I think dill makes a poor match with everything; I would have eaten all of the Booger jellybeans before trying dill. But that is just one of my lovable idiosyncracies. Parsley is my favorite with this recipe and many others, but thyme also works great here.

Beet Rounds with Fresh Herbs Serves 4 as Appetizer. 4 small to medium beets 1/4 c olive oil 1 T sherry vinegar 2 T minced parsley or a mix of fresh herbs sea salt 1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Wash the beets, wrap tightly in foil (you can wrap them all together), and roast 1 hour or until a knife slips easily into the center of a beet. 2. Let the beets cool to room temperature. Peel with your fingers. Slice the beets thinly on a mandoline or with a sharp knife and arrange the slices in a single layer on one or more platters. 3. Stir together the oil and vinegar and pour over the beets. Sprinkle with the parsley and salt and serve immediately. Keywords: Appetizer, Vegetables, The Daily Gullet ( RG581 )

I will sear and roast, then--the thought of overcooking this thing fills me with dread.

My Lobel's steak will be arriving on Wednesday, and I have an admission and a problem. I have never cooked a really good steak before (Costco rib-eye and tenderloin is as close as I've come) nor a steak as thick as I expect the Lobel's steak to be. I don't have a grill, and my broiler is a crappy electric (the kind where you can maybe get a single wire over the steak). So how should I prepare it? I was thinking of trying the Ducasse method--cook slowly, starting on the side with the fat. Would this make sense?

For general Asian, Charmaine Solomon's books (including the Encyclopedia of Asian Food) are good. But I'd encourage you to pick one particular cuisine to start with--there's not much similarity between Indian and Japanese food, for example--and choose a book with a narrower focus.

I knew my vegetarian friends would come in handy someday.