prasantrin

Is tome (sp?) ever used as a sauce for falafel? The sauce/dip made with garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. I can't remember its proper name, but I'm sure there was a topic on it in the ME forum once. I imagine it would be good with falafel--I'm not a big tahini fan.

For those of you who are familiar with Tirol chocolates (those little chocolate squares, usually with chewy stuff in the middle), they have an Uji Matcha flavour out. It's awesome! The chocolate part really tastes like matcha. I'm not thrilled with the middle chewy part, but the matcha makes up for everything else. It's even better than the kinako one!

We have both a microwave and a toaster oven in our office space. I don't mind microwave smells--in Japan you get a lot of fish-based lunches. But I do mind the smell of burnt bread. Our toaster oven runs very hot, and people repeatedly leave their baked goods in the oven for too long, resulting in the smell of burnt bread wafting through the office (and through the hallway, and the nearby classrooms). It's the same people every time, too. What pisses me off even more is people who don't clean their splatters off the inside of the microwave or their crumbs or cheese drips off the inside of the toaster oven. That stuff gets smellier and smellier with every subsequent use of the appliance (and harder to clean, too).

The 25th anniversary edition of this just came out recently, though I haven't actually seen a copy in a store (I've only seen ads for it in the paper).

I think he went to Tien Tien (Tian Tian?) in one of those shows--whenever I've been there it's had a loooooooong line of mostly Singaporeans. Wouldn't that count as a "regular" place?

I also went to the Chiang Mai Cookery School, and I didn't really care for it. It was several years ago, but while I thought the teaching was OK, I didn't care for the food. Granted, the recipes are starting points, and you can adjust as you see fit, but the starting points they give are, in my opinion, definitely geared towards farang tastes. And I vaguely remember asking a more detailed question or two, and not getting satisfactory answers. That may have been more because of language differences rather than lack of knowledge, but I'll never know. I had also wanted to create my own class (like a Master Class, but with dishes of my own choosing) and it wasn't possible. I think maybe the dishes I wanted to learn weren't in their repertoire.

I've been taking super doses of ascorbic acid followed by a couple of teaspoons of cherry-flavoured cough syrup. Mmmmm....it reminds me of Lik-m-Aid fun dip! Now if only I had some grape-flavoured cough syrup!

Doddie, do you ever bake Filipino goods? I'd love to see a good ensaimada or pan de sal (new style, rather than old style) tutorial! Or a Filipino-style empanada tutorial. When I was in Bacolod last spring, my aunt special-ordered some empanada from a place in Silay that still does the crust the old-fashioned way, using leaf lard. The filling was a bit too sweet for my tastes, but the crust...oh my!

Agree on North Garden. They expanded into the space next door, so they're quite a bit larger now. If you can translate the Chinese-only menu, they have some really wonderful things on there. If you tell them what you're looking for (flavours, etc.), some of the waitstaff will go through the Chinese-only menu, trying to find dishes that might suit you. But that might not apply to all wait staff, and they seem to be a lot busier now than when we were originally offered that service. Even some staff from other (fairly good) Chinese restaurants prefer to eat at North Garden. Their green onion pancakes, though, were a disappointment. They weren't bad, but not was I was expecting (deep-fried, not with flakey layers).

I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I have always been impressed with Nishimura and Inoda. I've given Inoda sampler packs to coffee drinkers who have raved about it. Both have several branches, though only in Kansai--Inoda is in Kyoto while Nishimura is in Kobe.

My favourite gingersnap cookie was posted to rfc many moons ago. It's called Snappy Gingersnaps and it's from one of Emily Luchetti's books. It's not, from what I remember, a soft cakey cookie, but the chew comes more from caramelization of the sugars. At least that's what happened whenever I made them, but I think I usually overbaked them a tad.

Y'all are just cruel. Posting all these pictures of beautiful rib roasts, pastas, breads, curries, mascarpone cakes....and here I am, sick as a dog, unable to eat a thing. Cruel, I tell you.

I love milk, and have always loved it. I can drink it with any kind of meal and be happy. In Canada I drink 1% or 2%, and in Japan I drink regular milk--usually around 3.8%. I love full-fat milk in Japan, especially from the small dairies around Tottori. I don't drink low-fat milk in Japan because it tastes horrible. It reminds me of milk made with skim milk powder.

One of my favourite lunchtime treats was a dish called foul mudammas/madammas. I've had it served cold, but I prefer it served hot. The little stand I used to get it from served it with garnishes of chopped onion, jalapeno, and I can't remember what else, served with a nice roll. Served cold, I much prefer it to hummus.

I love cereal anytime of day, but one of my mother's favourite bedtime snacks is cereal with....sweet vermouth. She can't have too much milk (she's allergic--not lactose intolerant, but allergic), so she uses sweet vermouth instead. Sometimes, when she's feeling dangerous and she's willing to risk the allergic reaction, she uses Bailey's Irish Cream.

I saw those at Yosemite National Park last summer under the Lays brand. I wanted to try them, but for some reason I didn't get any. Now I'm regretting it...

Here are most of the pictures. Sandwiches and sausage rolls--the cherry tomatoes were thrown in for colour. Three-pepper cheddar quiche--my filling always sinks to the bottom, even when I froth the custard a lot. It's my fate to be bottom-heavy, I think. Mini BLT (I just realized they were BTs, not BLTs) cornbread muffin sandwiches and spanakopita. I added some coloured pepper slices and olives to the plate for colour. I really should have had some L in there, because I could have used the green for more colour. Sweets tray--from 12 o'clock, chocolate chip cookies, thumbprints, lemon curd shortbread tartlettes, peanut butter cookies, rum-soaked vanilla poundcake, and almost candy-bar (I can't remember the name) bars. All the recipes were from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, except the lemon curd shortbread tartlettes. I used Tiptree Lemon Curd (too sick to make my own) and a shortbread cookie recipe for the tart shells. Had a hell of a time getting them out of the mini-muffin tins, as you can tell. I don't have any pictures of the cream cheese spreads, okonomiyaki, or mango pudding. Time to rest with some ginger tea. Thanks again for all your help!

I'm sick as a dog, but my tea party was today and I didn't want to cancel. Luckily, I had started preparing for it more than a week ago by making things that could be frozen, etc. And the party was a success! I had much too much food, and many items were very similar (very carby, similar textures, etc.), but the guests enjoyed them and were impressed with the variety. While I was finishing preparations, the guests snacked on two cream cheese spreads (a layered cream cheese, cocktail sauce, and crab one, and also the chopped olive and nuts one teagal posted--I had to use pecans because I didn't have walnuts--the guests loved it, by the way!), crackers, and carrots, served with mimosas. Savoury items: bacon and tomato cornbread mini-muffin sandwiches, spankopita, sandwiches (chicken salad with pecans and cranberries, egg salad with chopped pickles and red peppers), 3-pepper cheddar quiche, sausage rolls, mini-okonomiyaki, olives, cherry tomatoes, and 3-coloured peppers, all served with earl grey flower tea (which kind of sucked, but I took Beebs' suggestion of using different teas for different foods, and it was the best tea I had for savoury foods). Sweet items: rum-soaked vanilla poundcake, thumbprint cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies (notice a trend here?), lemon curd shortbread tarts, almost candy-bar squares, strawberries, and mango pudding, served with Bolero tea, and cafe au lait made with my Mukka Express. Things that didn't get made--gougeres (the chicken and egg salads were supposed to be gougeres fillings, but by last night I knew I would be too sick to make them this morning, so I picked up sandwich bread instead), chocolate truffles, and caramels. Everyone had different lists of favourites, but the quiche (Bouchon recipe) and cornbread mini-muffins (thanks to OnigiriFB for the mini BLT idea, and to K8memphis for the idea of making them into mini-muffins) were probably the favourite savoury items, and the mango pudding was definitely the favourite sweet (I added it at the last minute, because I realized I had too many crunchy cookie-like things, and I saw some mousse-things in one of the pictures that Mooshmouse posted--so thanks for the pics Mooshmouse!). The mango pudding recipe is the one I posted to RecipeGullet eons ago, but I decreased the water and cream amounts, and added milk. Oh, the spanakopita was very popular, as well. No one had ever had it before, not even the guest from the US, and they really enjoyed it. I have pictures, but have not downloaded them, yet (did I mention that I'm as sick as a dog?). And remember, it wasn't an afternoon tea party, but a party in the afternoon with tea! And food--lots of it! Thanks, all, for the suggestions, comments, and pictures. They were of great help in putting the party together, and thanks to all of you, I was able to give my friends a fabulous good-bye! Now to deal with the leftovers...I think I had enough food to feed 10 people!

Now I'm confused. I thought you had scholarships to any number of top level universities lined up, but you chose to go into the restaurant business. Was that someone else?

But in this situation, who would be the "royal controlling bitch"? The person who insists the other eats, or the person who refuses to eat? In my opinion, they both have control issues.

I think the statement above is more important than if someone is or isn't being rude. The most important thing is whether one cares if one is perceived as rude or not. I'm guessing the op does care, or she would not have asked. And yes, most people (in most cultures, I would guess) would perceive her as being rude.

Is it possible to use powdered spices to make truffles? I'm not really worried about a slightly grainy texture since they're for personal consumption only. I was thinking of adding some chai spice mix--it's just ground spices, not an instant chai mix--to ganache.

I went to Frontera Grill around opening time on a Saturday and had no problem getting a table. It was more than 3 years ago (Sept 2003), though, so things may have changed since then.

Take a look at this topic on bake sales. I can personally vouch for Teepee's lemon bars (recipe is in that topic somewhere). They were a huuuuuuuuge hit with my co-workers. I would add a savoury item or two to the list. Like savoury scones or biscuits. Some people love baked goods, but don't care for sweets. Oh, since it's an anime club, something a little more Japanese might be nice. It could just be a little thing, like adzuki blondies. My coworker makes them sometimes, and they're surprisingly good. I could ask her for the recipe if you like.

If I wanted to add salt to the caramel recipe, as in to make fleur de sel caramels (actually, I would be using some coarse Sel Marin de Guerande), how much would I add and when would I add it? Or should I just sprinkle it on top of the finished caramels?