prasantrin

My mother made some kind of alcoholic beverage with them. I think she just put a bunch in a jar, and covered them with vodka and let it sit for months. She said it was really good. I'd have to ask her for more details.

I think they're a waste of money. I was given one once (Propel, maybe?), but I had to throw most of it out. I chose lemon-flavoured, because how could you go wrong with lemon? But apparently you can go very wrong...It was horrible! I kept the bottle, though. Makes a great water bottle for the gym. I think you could do equally well by adding some lemon juice, or lemon, orange, and/or lime slices to your water. It would certainly taste better!

Are you in Egypt? I always thought you were in Kuwait or Qatar. Exactly where are you? And what do you do? I has assumed in the past that you were in the foreign service, but now I'm thinking oil business...

The old Marigold had dim sum, too. We never went, for a reason I can't disclose on a public forum without backlash. Yes, they are quite a bit cheaper than KK. I'm guessing she had mostly seafood dumplings, because the meat ones weren't that good. The seafood ones were excellent, though! Do you mean Double Greeting on McDermot? They have (had?) dim sum, though not as much of a selection as at other places. I think HKSH did, too. One was owned by the family of a junior high classmate. I think they bought the place in around '83 or '84, when immigrant investors started to come to Canada in droves, then sold it when they got their citizenship. I can't remember the food at either, but my mother and I recently were discussing HKSH. She and my dad went there a few times, but said the food wasn't very good. Or maybe that was Double Greeting... I'll see if my mom and I can come up with a list. A friend of hers went to Asia City recently, and didn't like the food there, but we don't really trust her judgment so we still want to try it for ourselves. I'll ask her. You mean the wrappers at Kam Ho, right? She doesn't make anything like dumplings, too much effort (she likes easy and fast things), and she definitely doesn't make the wrappers! Though she used to make pao ping for when we did homemade peking duck (or sometimes we just buy the roast duck and make our own pancakes). If you use less meat, you can use that as an excuse for eating more of them!

Can we go to Tempura Kondo? I may be coming sooner than later!

That cookbook was written by the wife of my dad's friend! I think she started to write it (or was thinking about writing it) when they were in AZ at grad school. Back then Thai ingredients were difficult to get, so my dad always said the book wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. We had a copy, but I don't think he ever used it. I can't remember what those pancake things are called, either, but tong yod are the little egg-shaped things made of the same stuff as foy thong. ETA: khanom buang?

At both the kabab and the schawarma places, you got your food to-go, I assume because you were bringing back dinner for other family members. But could you have eaten it on the street, if you wanted? I mean, while walking around? Or is there an unwritten rule about not walking while you eat? (like there is in Japan)

This morning I packed my small filet in more salt/sugar mixture than I did my previous batch, as advised, and weighted it down again with my 1 kg block of cheese. I just checked on it (about 12 hours later), and it's looking good! It kind of looks like it might be ready, but I'll wait until tomorrow morning, just to be sure. One more question--is it supposed to be hard? Mine is quite hard--like a piece of poor quality leather. I don't even think it would bend without breaking. But I thought gravlax should be a bit soft and pliable...no? I used vodka again, too, just as Gifted Gourmet does. On the fish, of course!

I think in this past week, you've managed to increase future tourism to Tallinn and the rest of Estonia! It's now on my list of countries to visit, at least! Thanks for blogging this week, and giving us a taste of your wonderful country and life!

I saw those shrimp on someone else's plate at a tempura place, and I've been trying for months to figure out what kind of shrimp they were! I thought they were shrimp when I saw them, but they kind of looked like fried spiders... Was it really just the heads, or was there more to it? Was it a specific variety of shrimp?

My mother went to the Age&Opportunity's Moon Festival celebration. She got a little box of stuff from Maxim's (just a sponge cake, coconut tart, pork bun, and mooncake), but more importantly, she got some info! She sat next to a Chinese woman who told her the new Chinese place in the old Marigold location on King has some very good dim sum! The woman told her it was better than Kum Koon's! But my mother forgot to ask her how it compared to Kam Ho's. Here's the thing, I read that this place has the same cooks and staff (and owners, too?) as the Marigold that it replaced. I'm thinking if this is true, they perhaps went through a name change to avoid the connections to the multiple health department fines and closures they suffered through. Anyone want to try the place and report back?

Is it possible that my fridge is too cold to make gravlax? Last Monday, I packed two small salmon fillets with a some salt, sugar, and black pepper (no dill around here), splashed it with a bit of vodka, and put it into my fridge weighted down with about 1 kg of cheese. I took it out every 12 hours or so, but barely any liquid came out. After the second or third day, I added more of the salt/sugar mixture, thinking perhaps I didn't use enough. The fish didn't smell spoiled, but it just wasn't turning into what it should have been. Now, 7 days later, I'm not any closer. I've decided to throw away this batch, and try again. Should I try to find a warmer place in my fridge? use more salt? I only had about 2T salt with 2T sugar (for two small filets, not weighing more than 300g total, I think). The filet I have for my next round is only about 150-200g. In the absence of fresh dill, can I just use some dried dill? One more question...how important is the weighting down of the salmon? Peter the Eater just put his in a Ziplock plastic container, and it looked OK, I thought.

That is an amazing price for the type of book this sounds like it's going to be! I would pre-order, but I'm not in the US. What's up with all this chauvinistic patriotism?

I did a little further searching, and I think I was right. If you look at her red braised beef chuck recipe here, it has the full ingredients printed out and the liquid ingredients comes to well over 6 litres. And the quantities of the ingredients are similar as the ones in the red braising stock over here. Finally, the red braising stock can be traced back to the red braised brisket recipe which calls for 1 quantity of the braising stock. So it seems that she wants a heck of a lot of liquid in her braising recipes. I have to admit, after seeing your and Dejah's braised dishes in the Chinese forum, I really wished I could do some braising right now. But with temps of 35C inside my house, it's not going to be happening soon! And I have a really big craving for brownies, but no baking, either!

There's another topic on eGullet addressing what foods to bring onto planes. You should be able to find it if you want more ideas, but for now... Have some good pizza delivered to your hotel. It can last many hours, and isn't so bad served lukewarm. We had some pizza delivered to our hotel in Minneapolis, kept the leftovers for a couple of nights, then brought it on our 8-hour drive back to Winnipeg. It was still tasty, though the crust was a bit tough after two days. Pack your bread and fillings separately, so they can last longer. You can get a bit more creative with your fillings that way. Or make a muffaletta (sp?) which is perfect for longer trips (though it can be messy to eat). If you do pack separate fillings, be careful about what you choose. It has to be able to get through security, after all. Condiments can be especially tricky, though if you can put them in containers less than 100mL and put them in the same ziplock as your carry-on toiletries, then you should be fine. Mac and cheese isn't so bad served at room temp. Neither are barbecued meats. We were lucky enough to have both with us when we were stuck overnight at O'Hare (actually in the airport, not just in the area). If your hotel room doesn't have a fridge, you can bring some ice packs to keep your food cool overnight. Then the next morning when you check in, put them in your check-in bags so they don't get confiscated. Cheese filled croissants and other filled breads with protein in them are also good choices, as long as the bread doesn't get too stale too quickly.

I did a brief google, and it seems to refer to ingredients that are other recipes. For example, for the Red Braised Beef, she calls for "1 quantity red braising stock". The red braising stock is another recipe, so I would guess you would make a full recipe and use the full amount for the Red Braised Beef. If she said "1/2 quantity", you would only need half the recipe of the red braising stock, for example.

He did it three times on three different table checks. He must have to take his medication fairly often if it was for that reason... It was my understanding, that at least in the US, you tip regardless of the service. And if there there is a problem, then you bring it up with the management. I would have talked to the management at that time, but I didn't want to do it in front of our guest. Then I had planned to write a letter, but I just haven't gotten around to it (I haven't even unpacked since coming back to Japan, and that was 3 weeks ago).

Lemon pepper. I know I'm boring, but lemon pepper makes the best seasoning for fried chicken!

I was thinking...I wonder if Tim Hortons would do well in Japan. I have Japanese friends who lived in Ontario for 6 or 7 years (the husband worked for Honda), and they loved Tim Hortons coffee. The liked it so much, that they bought the Tim Hortons coffee maker, and ground coffee from TH. I find the average Japanese coffee to be very strong and bitter. Does that sound like Tim Hortons? Weak coffee here, by the way, is called "American coffee".

In Nashville, I really liked Parco Cafe and Wilma Kaye's. They have both moved since I was there, and Parco Cafe had a full restaurant now, last I heard. Both were perfect spots for lunch. Parco Cafe had fresh sandwiches with interesting fillings (I had an eggplant sandwich, with chunks of eggplant in a tomato sauce, and my friend had a salmon sandwich in which the salmon chunks were marinated, and it was served cold). Wilma Kaye's was Cajun-style food. Awesome hush puppies and fried shrimp...or did I have scallops? I should note that I was there several years ago, so much may have changed with the food.

I'm really looking forward to this! Lebanon was on my "must visit soon" list until the 2006...shall I say "conflict"? (Trying not to get my reply edited). Did you find that the country, or at least Beirut, has recovered sufficiently to encourage tourism once again?

If you like savoury French toast, you should try savoury bread pudding. I don't normally care for bread pudding, but I love the savoury kind! Are the flowers that garnish the food at the creperie edible?

I have to admit, I've never much cared for mooncakes. But I read a short blurb in Newsweek recently about some mooncakes I'd love to try! A short quotation: If only I could be in Singapore right now!

Cool! I want to eat at all the places you're eating! Maybe next time I'm in Tokyo, I can get to some of them... I want to try Ryugin, too, but damn! If that website isn't one of the most annoying websites I've ever used... If you come down to Kansai, and you want company to go to Koyoshi Sushi, I'd be happy to show you the way! It's one of the places that Anthony Bourdain featured in No Reservations, and it's right by Hankyu Umeda Station!

I know this is premature, but while I was in Chicago last month, I kept thinking about our accommodations and this event. We stayed at a bed and breakfast that was run by Benedictine monks. They have two places available. One is a loft which has three bedrooms (2 each with one double bed, and 1 with a single bed), a kitchenette, large living room, small dining room, etc. The other is a little house with a complete kitchen. I can't remember how many people it holds, but I think it was fewer than the loft apartment. The loft includes a full breakfast, while the house includes all the fixings for your breakfast. It was very reasonably priced ($145 for two, more for additional guests), and though was not centrally located, it was in an area (Bridgeport) very accessible to public transportation (bus). The two locations are very close to one another (the house has a garden from which the monks get their vegetables, so it must be very close), so people could easily get from one place to another. I was thinking that if people wanted to stay at the accommodations, the monks may also be willing to rent out their own larger kitchen for the event. If not, the kitchen at the house may be adequate for the party. They allow alcohol on the premises, though they do not provide it, but there is no smoking on either of the properties at all (not even outside). There is also plenty of free parking available. If anyone is interested in contacting them, they're the Monastery of the Holy Cross. They do take reservations up to a year in advance, so it wouldn't be too soon to contact them if you have possible dates in mind already. The website is a bit misleading about the accommodations they offer, so it's best to email them to ask. The loft apartment is called "St. Joseph's Loft" and the house is the "Garden House". I think parties would be OK at either location--Brother Edward told us we could have a party at the loft, and they wouldn't hear a sound! (the loft is actually attache to the church!) If this reply was inappropriate, please feel free to remove it. I won't be offended!