prasantrin

Last year, one of my students made the most delicous caramel nut tarts with almond cream for Valentine's Day. I hounded her forever for the recipe, and she finally brought it to me today (along with some homemade macarons!). The recipe is from a Daiso cookbook! All the recipes in the book look really good, so I'm going to look for it the next time I'm at a Daiso (but just in case the book isn't published anymore, I'll probably photocopy the whole thing, too!). I guess cookbooks are another thing to go on my "must buy" at Daiso list!

As a Thai person, how do you feel about carrots in Thai food, in general? I sometimes see it in som tam and similar dishes, but used sparingly or as a garnish of sorts. I did once see carrots in a stew-like dish at the Siam Center food court, but only once. My dad claimed that most Thai people didn't care for carrots--I think he once said they smelled like feet! The worst insult! I like carrots, by the way. Just not in my Thai curries!

I don't have a sweetie, but if I did, he'd be making me a hamburger and triple-cooked fries for dinner, and making me some very rich hot chocolate for dessert. I'm a simple girl at heart Since it's already Valentine's Day in Japan, I'm stuffing myself with chocolates, pastries, and cookies made by my students. It's good to be loved.

Another one...no carrots in most Thai curries. Or broccoli florets. Or cauliflower.

Sometimes, you just have a craving for something like waxy "cheese" sauce on tortilla chips. It's a type of comfort food, much like Kraft Mac&Cheese is comfort food for some. Toufas, you might want to try to find an import shop that sells American products like Cheez Whiz or Velveeta, or if there are equivalents in the UK, start with one of those. With Cheez Whiz you can just melt it and pour it over your tortilla chips, or you can doctor it up with a bit more spice. I think you might have to make a "cheese" sauce if you use Velveeta, but I'm sure a Google search will turn something up that will suit your tastes.

Try acupuncture for pain management, and massage to help breakdown the adhesions. I've had tendinitis in both elbows, and carpal-tunnel in both wrists since 2002, and those have been the most helpful treatments (aside from resting my arms, but that's near impossible to do in my job, and in yours). I really didn't want to go down the road of injections and such, as my mother has done, but you really should start treatment sooner rather than later.

Is that pad phet? I love long beans and minced pork pad phet. It's one of my favourites, though my dad used to make it much too spicy for me!

I love that picture of you and Pete holding your...paoping? (that's what I've always called them, but I don't know if that's really what they're called) up in anticipation. "Hurry up and take the d*** picture! I want my food!" eta: nevermind...I see the paoping was for the duck...but your expressions are still priceless!

I'd go with one of the following: Kahlua type (or crema di Kahlua), cinnamon, and hazelnut (or other type of nut) Chai, chocolate and berry, but I'd replace the berry with something else. Like cherry. butter rum, caramel and pecans hot chocolate, marshmallow, cinnamon (not gingerbread, i fpossible, I'd rather replace the marshmallow with something else, too, like mint or chile. Or maybe just mint-flavoured or chile-flavoured marshmallow??) Mint, irish cream, chocolate (not white chocolate, because I usually don't like white chocolate)

I can get some and ship it to you, if you like! There are at least two grocery stores in Kobe that carry rosewater (I'm not sure if they have orange blossom water). If you want to search closer to home, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the stores in the Ameyoko-cho area carried it. Or some store in the vicinity of a mosque. Lots of mosques in the Kanto area, it seems. I wish I could help with brand names, but most of the stores I frequent only carry one brand, so I just buy whatever they have. http://park2.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tuics/mosques.htm#yatamachi for mosques.

Years ago, the most well-known (and notorious) restaurant reviewer in my hometown wrote of a Chinese restaurant that she deemed "one of the most authentic" in the city. My parents went, and ordered some of the same dishes she did. The dishes that arrived were far from what my parents were expecting. They were more replicas of that gloppy bean sprout-based Chinese food one finds in small towns everywhere across North America. My mother asked the waitress about some of the dishes and she replied, "Well, this is what's popular here." To this, my mother replied, "Oh, I thought this place was supposed to be authentic." My dad damn near crawled under the table.

I went to Kiddy Land yesterday, and they have every single possible Re-ment set except the Pierre Herme set! I think it may have been discontinued already . AND, it seems they have changed the rules about buying Re-ment stuff. You can no longer buy a whole set at once, but you are limited to just two boxes per purchase per set! I guess I'll have to go with four friends. Tokyu Hands in Shinsaibashi didn't have any. They must not be carrying them anymore.

A lot of restaurants in North America do it (I would even venture to say that most use ketchup, but I've never done any kind of survey). And you'll find many recipes on the internet that list ketchup as an ingredient. It supposedly makes a good substitute for tamarind, but "good" is relative. In all the years we lived in the cold frozen prairies, even when most people there had never even heard of Thailand much less pad thai, my dad never resorted to using ketchup in pad thai. It's a sin!!!

Don't put ketchup in pad thai. Period. As for pesto, the ex-pat Italians I know here in Japan say pesto alla genovese with anything but basil is wrong, but that pesto comes in many other forms.

I was thinking of picking up in Minneapolis (I always pass by Grand Forks, but I never ever stop there...not even at a Target!). I know both UPS and Mailboxes Etc. can be found in MSP, and UPS has a branch relatively close to where we usually stay. $10/shipment is quite a lot if I order more from more than two places, though. I'll give the UPS closest to our usual hotel a call to ask for more details, then if I don't like what they offer, I'll ask in the Heartland forum. If I can just do a one-month rental and sign-up for it off-site, I'll probably go with them. $22 for one month isn't so bad. Even if I only order three packages, it would still be cheaper than paying duty into Canada, or paying for shipping to Japan. Thanks for all the help!

Does this mean the next edition of your current book, or a new book altogether?

Thanks for the offer! But I know I saw a place that sells an entire set in one go (shrink-wrapped pack of 8-10 boxes depending on the set)--I thought it was Tokyu Hands, but maybe it was Loft? I will try a couple of other places, and if I still can't find it, I'll let you know!

This might not answer your question, but the place that I use (just across the border in Washington) is a dedicated mailing service. You phone them up, give them your name and telephone number, and they call you when a package comes in. No P.O. box, just their physical address. ← UPS and Mail Boxes use physical addresses, too. At least from what I can tell... I remember hearing about a service that would collect all your packages for you, then repackage them and forward them to any address outside the US. I wonder if there's a company that does that!

Question about cross-border shopping, for those of you who have a US-based p.o. box, did you have to go to the UPS or Mail Boxes Etc. in person to set it up, or can it be done online or via fax? I've been browsing their websites, and it only says to contact the individual stores. I'm thinking of doing a one-time pick up when I head to the US this summer. I think it's time I got a stand mixer!

I went to Tokyu Hands last night, and not only did they not have either the Pierre Herme set or the Kyoto one, but they no longer sell the sets in packs! Their section of miniatures is quite small now, too. I wonder if they might be phasing them out. I guess it's Kiddyland for me tomorrow! At least the chocolat chaud was worth the trip!

It wasn't quite as good as usual, because I had the usual number of eggs, but only half the usual amount of milk and cream. I prefer the quiche to be more custardy than eggy. But it was still might tasty! I use a ring-mould that's smaller than the recipe asks for (I think mine is 7 or 8 inches by 2 inches), but the full crust recipe, so that if I lose some crust, I'll have extra to make up for the loss. But this time, there was just too much of the crust gone. I think my crust was overprocessed, so the overhang melted off, and the crust in the mould melted down. Oh well, the crust sure did taste good! I have a new one... I will never again cover food in a pan at night, then reheat it in the morning, only to realize after it has reheated that the cover was a plastic microwave food cover. Oops. Not too much damage was done, but it's a good thing I have two of those covers! (and they're from the Y100 store, so it wasn't too much of a loss).

I was thinking something like that, too! Except add some ketchup and use the ramen noodles to create a tomato-based pasta dish. I'd go for corned beef rather than vienna sausage, but vienna sausage is probably more appropriate. It could be gussied up (did I really just use that word?) by cutting it into cute little heart shapes.

What's in Yonago? It doesn't seem like a place most foreign tourists would venture to. But since you're going to be in Tottori, anyway, Tottori has some of the best milk I've ever had in Japan. Very rich, very creamy. I'd look for some milk products out there (don't know if you'd be able to bring them back to wherever you're from, but they're still great for immediate consumption).

Are you looking specifically for a Heartlander? I would look at the chefs in the Chicago area who were most vocal against the ban. Perhaps one of them would be willing to take on the Alderman. Failing that, Tony Bourdain, if he's in the country.

I'm not sure if this is the best topic for this, but it was the closest I could find... I dropped by a tiny little cigar/alcohol store and found a lonely bottle of Picon Biere. According to Wiki, it's an aperitif that accompanies beer. Has anyone tried it? Would it be worth the Y4000 it costs to try it? I'm just a teeny bit interested (I've never even tried Amer Picon, but all the fuss about it has me wondering if I should try it), but if anyone else would like to cough up the Y4000 for it, I'd be happy to pick it up for you! I'll be in Canada (and perhaps the US) this summer, so shipping could be arranged.