prasantrin

Pastry flour would definitely be a problem, though I don't know if it would cause the crunchiness. Cinnamon rolls are a type of bread--use all-purpose or bread flour.

Re: Cabbages and Condoms, the food we had there was OK, but like Peter said, they have a good selection of appetizers. It's one of the few restaurants (or maybe the only restaurant?) I've been to that has both khao tang na tang AND krathong thong on the menu! (Though I didn't really like their krathong thong, I was just impressed that they had it.) We went to a very good high-end Vietnamese restaurant somewhere around the lower end of Sukhumvit--in the same area as Shinawatra (the silk place). And while not really high-end, but with high-end clientele, is Klang Soi which is, not suprisingly, on Soi Klang near the Smitivej Hospital. The first time I went there, I thought it was great. The last time was so-so, but they also have krathong thong (and yum pla dook foo).

Have you tried searching the NYTimes archive? Travel/restaurant articles which are in the archive are available to read for free (as opposed to other archived articles for which you have to pay).

I found an opened carton of cream in my fridge--well past it's best before date. I opened it (I've used old unopened cream before with no ill-effects), and found the cream had separated into solids and liquids, but the liquid part did not seem to have a spoiled flavour. Did I accidentally make clotted cream? And can I use the liquids as one would use buttermilk?

I hope they don't start screwing around with the products to make them "more appealing" or "more affodable" for the mass product.

I had a scrambled egg with broccoli eaten with two corn tortillas. It was supposed to be scrambled with cream cheese, too, but I misjudged the heat of my pan and the egg cooked before I could add the cream cheese to it. Sucks to be me!

I made the Lemon Cheesecake Squares from Fine Cooking last Thursday. I finally got around to eating one today (most of them were brought to work and to a lunch I went to), and it was fabulous!! I had cut them into 32 small rectangles rather than 16 squares, and they still had 3.2 ww points each, so I'm thankful most of them are gone. Just 3 rectangles left...I hope I have enough will-power not to eat them all tomorrow!

I was thinking of Food for the Gods when I first read this topic. I've never had it, but I keep thinking I'll make it for my mother (from whom I first heard about it). I bought a lot of dates when I was in the UAE, but I can't remember what I did with them.... I think I'll make some in the next couple of weeks, and bring it back to Canada with me for my mother. And of course I'll post a picture here. Do you have a particular recipe you like, reenicake? I was just going to take on of the 'net, but if you have a good one, please post it!

Popcorn. Yum!!

I admit, I love it, too. But that they put the cover on upside-down, and can't even spell "yaki" correctly annoy me enough to think I would never ever buy it. Just buy him a nice flat grill pan to put on top of his gas bbq for now. And add a few TV tables around it. That should tide him over for a bit, and the two of you can still have a good time!

Noooooooooo! Please don't teach anyone how to embed those pictures! They gave me the shivers, and I was terribly glad they weren't embedded! Definitely go to the farmers with your pictures (and some of the meat). Don't discard any of it just yet, because they may ask to see it in person.

They're a lot more expensive if you buy them separately, so it's a good buy for what it is. I like tirol chocolates a lot. The best ones are almond, matcha, and kinako. The vanilla shio (shio vanilla?) is not bad, but a bit sweet, and my coworker loves the ume one (I think it's too sweet). I kind of like the new cheese one. I thought it would be like cheesecake, but it's really more like a savoury cheese flavour. It's a bit of a surprise given the chocolate is sweet, but I quite liked it.

Shaya--everything looks amazing! You need to do a pasta-making demo. How did you use that mould-type thing to make the pasta? It's just for the ridges, I assume, so how did you make the shape? And that florentine!! I love florentines--what recipe did you use?

I'm not a private chef, nor do I play one on TV, but an acquaintance was a personal yoga teacher to the stars, and she said they could be very, very demanding. Most of her celebrity clients were far more demanding than her other clients. That could be the downpoint to taking a job like this..

I think the Brattleboro reference may have gone over many people's heads. One must have lived in/near Brattleboro to truly appreciate that comment. (I did a graduate degree at SIT.)

Are you cutting into the bread when it's still warm? It needs to be cooled for a few hours before you slice into it. I noticed when I can't resist that fresh-out-of-the-oven slice, it's always a bit soggy inside.

I'm not Doddie, but baked ones, in particular, are even better at room temperature. Fried empanada are not so good at room temperature--in my opinion. In the same line as empanadas, Jamaican patties are also very good at room temperature (also baked).

For getting from one station to another, there's the website called Hyperdia--punch in the stations, the time you want to arrive or depart, and it will give you clear instructions and options for how to get where you want to go. It's pretty finicky about spellings, though, so you might have to fiddle around with station names. And having lived in Kyoto, I can say it's quite easy to get lost there except in the center of the city. The central area of Kyoto has a grid arrangement of streets, but the rest of Kyoto does not. Kyoto Station used to have a very very good tourist information office, but I heard it was closing. If it's still around, drop in and get a copy of Kyoto Visitor's Guide--it has excellent maps, especially of the downtown area, and it's free! (They have a website, too.)

I haven't read anything about your food influences--your parents cooked Northeastern Chinese, but where did you get your "fine dining" (other than the bottled spaghetti sauce, that is ) tastes from? Who taught you how to cook? Did your parents teach you, or are you largely self-taught?

Ah Leung, I do hope you'll find the time for us again, and I also hope your current work/health situation doesn't interfere with our cross-NA trip to XiaoLing's house for that feast! Best wishes, rona

I think you have to let us know what kind of empanadas you're making. Filipino empanadas (traditional ones) tend to be on the sweet side (with raisins in the filling), so the pastry also tends to be a bit sweet. Whereas Chilean ones I've had are not sweet at all, so the pastry is a little more simple. If you let us know your filling recipe, we can give you better advice about your pastry.

In Kyoto, O-men would be a good place for a non-Japanese speaker, specifically the one near Daimaru. The chef (maybe nephew of the owner?? I know his uncle owns the branch in New York, but I'm not sure if the uncle owns all of them or only the NY one) lived in NY for a bit during college--in Buffalo, so he speaks English quite well, and can help you with the menu. It's also a famous Kyoto place for udon. We didn't have udon when we went, but had grilled sansho chicken, tempura, and 15??-grain rice (quite expensive for a bowl of rice--about Y600 or Y800 regular-sized bowl). It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't really expensive (total was about Y4000), and it was quite delicious. I think about the tempura often, and I think I might eat there again this weekend!

I used to do something like that when I was younger, but I would slice off part of the top rather than the bottom. The bottom was necessary for holding the bun together! I don't do that anymore, but I do slice by hot dog in half lengthwise and flatten in out. That way I get no topping overflow (I hate it when my hot dog leaks) and a good topping:hot dog:bun ratio.

Way back in the '80s, (mid-late '80s), an acquaintance wrote a letter to Kraft Canada complaining about their Kraft Dinner (aka Kraft Macaroni and Cheese) boxes being impossible to open without scattering the macaroni everywhere. She got a nice letter back from them, some coupons, and a $10 cheque! She was only 12 at the time, but the incident made quite an impression on her. She's also the reason why MuchMusic in Canada has (had?) the show "Too Much for Much?".

Wonderful! Do you think the children will start to pester their parents to make bread now, too? If you have pictures you need to distribute to the children, just add the certificate along with those! I think it would be great (though a little more expensive) if you put the picture/certificate in cardboard double picture frames. I'm sure they'd get a big kick out of getting something so official looking!