mamster

You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it: Fluffy Kittens, Zoka Coffee, Saturday, May 3, 8pm. MsRamsey was lying about the Supertramp thing, unless we cook up something wacky in the next week.

I remember hearing a rumor that the world's best ginger comes from Jamaica and/or other Caribbean islands, but all of it goes into ginger ale and local consumption. Anyone know if this is true?

It's a good thing this ended up in Cooking, not in Pastry, because then I would have asked a bunch of pastry chefs to name a bunch of pastry chefs, and sooner or later someone would be beaten with a whisk. capers, can you summarize the changes in the Vancouver Sun version of the recipe?

The link works for me, but I think the LAT may require free registration like the NYT does. If that's a big problem for people I can put it in my own words and add it to the article.

I didn't make the chocolate stove link, although I have seen a picture of it. Not to be macabre, I think when foodies commit suicide, they stick their heads in the oven of the chocolate stove and suck down a fatal quantity of gaseous chocolate. Mamster, mamster, Mr. Mamster, master, whatever.

Oh, if you don't want to use a bunch of oil, you can just use a couple of tablespoons and stir-fry the beans over medium to medium-high heat for a long time, as much as 20 minutes. The frying is way faster, but I hesitate to deep-fry unless I'm going to be frying several things.

I knew I'd seen that recipe before! Thanks, BH! And clearly I was wrong about the pork. That's pretty much exactly how I make them at home.

PM, heck! Grind some pork shoulder and mix with garlic, lime juice, chiles, and fish sauce to taste, then stuff into pork casings. I'm working on an article about this, but don't expect it too soon--it's something of an epic.

Unagi-don all the way.

I'm going to be at work. Dang!

I've been once and had a great meal. Foie gras, scallops, and a good chocolate dessert. I think I described it on a thread previously; I'll try to find it.

If you count Pike/Pine as Capitol Hill, the neighborhood is now home to three upscale Vietnamese Bistros, plus one on 12th near Seattle U with pretentions. The three I'm talking about are Monsoon, Green Papaya, and Bambuza. The latter is actually downtown, but only barely (9th and Pike). I had lunch at Bambuza today. The restaurant is in a corner of the omnipresent convention center. They've been open two or three weeks, and their full menu debuts tonight (wouldn't you know I'd miss it by mere hours). The temporary menu has a couple of types of pho, some grilled things on skewers (beef, pork, shrimp), and a couple of stir-fry entrees, including the lemongrass chicken I had. I supplemented it with a grilled shrimp skewer for $2. The chicken dish was pretty good. It consisted of sliced chicken stir-fried with slivered onions and Vietnamese curry paste, along with a mound of steamed rice and few pieces of raw cucumber and tomato. The shrimp skewer had three medium-sized shrimp, nicely cooked. The chicken itself was very tasty, but the onions were undercooked. It actually made me tear up. Bambuza seems to be doing well. I go by there several times a week on the way to the central library, and there are always people in there, even for weekday lunch. They have a good wine selection, including about a dozen by the glass. They're pouring glasses of Trimbach riesling and gewurtz, which would go well with a lot of the food. I asked what the new menu would add, and my waitress said it would be a lot bigger and include fish entrees, which have been missing so far. Total price with tax and tip: $17 Now, I am all for these Vietnamese bistros, and I'm not at all opposed to paying good money for Asian food. Of these three restaurants however, so far only Monsoon feels like it's worth the price. Their dishes are that much more complex and full-flavored, and the service is professional. One thing I'd like to see happen at these places is to see more than one thing on a plate. Rice and salad don't count. For example, you could do that chicken dish with a small side of Chinese broccoli and a single shrimp summer roll. Something like a sit-down version of a takeout lunch special. Has anyone else tried these places or other Vietnamese bistros around town? How about Pho Van in Portland? How does it compare?

Jinmyo, I love mackerel, too. It's a fish that really tastes like fish. I don't eat sushi very often because of the cost (I'd rather save up and make it count). Since starting to eat sushi (just a few years ago), it's funny how often I've been eating a piece of grilled or broiled fish and thinking, "This would be much better raw."

When Laurie and I went we had the duck and the green beans. I wasn't very impressed with the satay, but I'd definitely get those two things again. I'm pretty sure there's no pork in the green beans but they are deep fried. You should try making these at home--they're incredibly easy and good. I like to throw in some szechuan preserved vegetable.

I'd just go to one of the Salumi dinners. On the way I'd get a banh mi at 88 and hope the guy is there.

Food phyte! I've never really thought about eating moss. Now, thanks to this thread, I've thought about it, and now I will go back to not thinking about it. This recipe includes the instruction: "Shape the shrimp mousse, coriander, black moss, sausage like flowers" Is black moss moss?

This is a small thing, but it amazes me that some people still don't know that when you serve pasta, you should sauce it first rather than bringing a pot of sauce and a bowl of congealing pasta to the table. Sometimes people say they know this but that they want everyone to be able to sauce to taste. Well, then sauce lightly and offer additional sauce. Then these same people ask for tips to keep their pasta from sticking. Put sauce on it!

I have all three of Alford and Duguid's books, and I think the recipes in HSSS show a major improvement over those in the previous books. The Thai and Lao recipes, at least. I can't vouch for the others.

This has become the standard anniversary wine in our house. I don't know why it's so automatically romantic, but it is.

The sommelier recommended skipping wine for the dessert course. Can't say I blame him. That Dr. Loosen "Dr. L" bottling is a perfect example of what I (and everyone else) have been saying about the 2001 German vintage. This is a cheap bottle of wine and easy to find. I got a couple of bottles for $12 at QFC, and then found it for $11 at Whole Foods. Everyone was knocked out by its complexity, and it went perfectly with that terrine. My favorite course overall was the scallops. I want to try to recreate that dish at home, or maybe just get some best-quality scallops, sear them with nothing but salt, and eat them one after another, from a bag.

New Jersey tour 1988, Portland, Oregon! Is there any truth to the rumor that "Livin' On a Prayer" is about tommy? So what dishes do you most want to make, jeniac, besides larb?

Okay, what's chawanmushi?

Hot Sour Salty Sweet is the more valuable of the two, I think. Either of Kasma Loha-unchit's books would be a good place to start, too.

And the roots! The roots are the best part.

They should have injected fish sauce!