mamster

I used to sometimes buy supermarket "fresh" beef ravioli and serve them in Thai green curry.

I like the seedless English cucumbers better than the seedy type. And BC Hot House grows all sorts of tasteless greenhouse vegetables (peppers, lettuce, and especially tomatoes), but the cucumbers are probably their best product.

Yes, it's now Mr. Gyros. I haven't tried it.

I don't know, but I saw a dejected-looking Schielke loping out of there with no pants.

There that book Mediterranean Street Food that's getting great reviews. I have it waiting for me at the library. Hedgehog, I hope someone serving that dish (which sounds great) has put up a sign reading "Charlie's Trotters".

Oops! Thanks for letting me know.

I'm skeptical of the idea that a chef would automatically turn out better food if he could taste things more strongly. There's a lot more to it than that, no? Hell, maybe your smoking chef was a supertaster to start with.

nightscotsman, do you know what the current menus are? And does anyone want to join me for lunch tomorrow?

Me too!

I'm not a big tuna fan, except raw, but Laurie loves canned tuna in olive oil, so maybe I'll surprise her with this. Don't let her see this page.

I think it comes down to three things: 1. Atmosphere. There's always going to be a difference between eating som tam on the sidewalk of Thanon Prajatipatai and eating som tam sitting in front of the TV at home. Context is everything. 2. Ingredients. Many of the best street foods are based on ingredients that don't travel well or that vary a lot around the world. Gai yang, Thai grilled chicken, is often made with these scrawny chickens that you'd never see in the US. You have to gnaw the meat off, but it's worth it. 3. Maybe this falls under atmosphere, but: smell, that deceptively powerful sense. Places with bountiful street food tend to have characteristic smells, a mix of the cooking and a lot of other things. There's nothing else in the world that smells like a Bangkok street--fish sauce, diesel, grilled bananas. Okay, I said three, but of course the skill of the maker has a lot to do with it. I occasionally get a craving for khanom buang, these little Thai tacos filled with golden threads (cooked egg yolk), but recreating them at home would be an incredible amount of work and practice, for a snack.

As a cook, tastes and smells are my memories.(1) 1. I'm lying.

I have no problem with myoglobin, but isn't that where the heme lives?

That was lovably mean-spirited. This is what he said: "The Jell-O arrives in a large Coke glass, topped with a cloud of whipped cream and dotted with a cherry. After several moments devoted to admiration, someone, inevitably, dips in with a long-handled spoon and actually tastes the thing. That's when ooh and aah turns into ugh. I don't know what toxic waste tastes like, but I am prepared to say that serving it chilled would not improve the flavor."

Aha! Myoglobin! I've eaten a peck of this stuff in Thailand, but that doesn't prove anything. At this point I think this will make an interesting sidebar, but I can't exactly recommend it to readers. It is odd that it appears in David Thompson's book--wouldn't the legal department be upset about this sort of thing?

I moved in 1977. Had a traveling jones, wanted to see the world. As a cook, tastes and smells are my memories.

It is not generally recognized that Bourdain and I go way back, since I was born in P-town in 1975. Probably there is nothing scandalous about this coincidence, but you never know.

This idea is sounding better and better! Klink, next week is fine. Hey, I found this: Wilawan Charernjiratrakul, Assoc. Prof., Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science Angkana Sukboon, Student Published : Songklanakarin J Sci Technol, 1998, 20(4) : 429-436 Key words : traditional fermented Thai sausage, lactic acid bacteria, Salmonella A total of 83 isolates of Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, members of lactic acid bacteria, were isolated from traditional fermented Thai sausage (sai-krok-prieo). When tested by agar spot method, 81 isolates showed inhibitory activity against Salmonella typhimurium 3292 and S. enteritidis 3294. Of the 81 isolates, 24 which exhibited the inhibition zones >10 mm against 6 strains of Salmonella (S. anatum, S.enteritidis 3289 and 3294 S. typhi 3299, S. typhimurum 3292 and 3230) were chosen for further studies. Under the anaerobic condition and the use of 0.2% glucose MRS agar which eleminated the effect of hydrogen peroxide and organic acids, 3 isolates of Lactobacillus and 1 isolate of Pediococcus showed a little antibacterial activity against S. typhimurium. After the culture super-natants of these four isolates were neutralized and treated with catalase, no antibacterial activity against S. typhimurium was detected by well diffusion assay. So it sounds like I may or may not also get salmonella. This is also interesting.

Okay, then why is botulism named after sausage? Is it because Clostridium is a bacillus and therefore sausage-shaped?

"Coffee and doughnuts" could be pretty good, too. I had the $12.50 lunch today at 727 Pine, and it was great. I went in thinking about risotto, but today's selection was with mascarpone and English peas, which didn't tickle my fancy, so I started with the pureed garlic soup. I've been happy with cream soup at 727 before, and this one was great, nice cooked garlic flavor with some crisp garlic chips and croutons. Then, arctic char, beautifully cooked (crispy skin!) on top of braised brussels sprouts with bacon, all topped with a bit of lamb's lettuce salad. It all came together wonderfully, and I was scraping up sauce with my bread. Finally, I had the chocolate dessert, which consisted of a light chocolate macaroon (egg whites, no coconut), inverted and topped with some teardrops of chocolate pastry cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the plate garnished with orange sauce. It was a good but not great dessert--the cookie had a nice springy texture but not a lot of flavor. Great ice cream, though.

I know Clostridium is anaerobic, but wouldn't it be possible to get anoxic pockets inside a fermenting sausage if aerobic bacteria suck out the O2? I guess, ideally, the acidity is going to kill anything botulicious in there. klink, you up for some more sausage antics this week?

I've got to say, based purely on the posted menus, the Georgian Room has this one locked up: Starter choices: Smoked Black Cod Jerusalem Artichoke and Roasted Garlic Soup Entrée choices: Roasted Sea Bass Sarah Joe's Cracklin' Pork Bellies American Kobe Beef Dessert choices: Coffee and Doughnuts Black and White Chocolate Souffle Mmmm.

OK, I'm putting my life on the line...for you.

Actually, let me just blow the whole story here. The sausage I'm making is Isaan sausage (sai krok), which is a pork and sticky rice sausage with lots of garlic, enjoyed all over Thailand. When I've had it in Thailand, it's had a wonderfully sour flavor which I attributed to lime juice, but I think I'm wrong, because I've tried making this at home with lime juice, and it's good but not the same. So there's a recipe in David Thompson's Thai Food (page 519, Fermented Pork Sausages) that calls for no curing salts or culture base, just rice, casing, coriander root, salt, garlic, pork, palm sugar, and fish sauce. He then has you hang the sausage in a "warm, airy place" for 4-7 days, then cook them. I want to recreate this taste of Thailand in my home, but I'd also prefer to be alive when I'm done.

I'm not easily alarmed, but I do know that the word "botulism" comes from the Latin for "sausage." So I'm looking at a sausage recipe (for an upcoming column, so I don't want to give away the whole story, but it contains rice) that calls for the stuffed links to be hung at room temperature for five days to give them a nice fermented tang. No curing salts are called for. How risky is this? Would curing salts make it safer? If so, would the curing salts change the flavor a lot? I'm looking for a lot of lactic acid production and not a lot of botulinum toxin production.