prasantrin

Royal Dragon Restaurant in Bangkok is supposed to be the biggest--more than 5000 seats.

I'm not sure, and I don't want to get my (or anyone else's) hopes up, but I think I saw Matcha Kit Kat Minis the other day at my local Lawson's!! The bag looked like it was plain matcha, rather than the matcha adzuki version. I was in a bit of a rush so I couldn't look more carefully, but I'm going to check it out again. I'm trying not to get too excited over this!

Especially on Sundays! Saturdays and Sundays are the worst for waits! But weekdays are usually not so bad. I once went at 10-ish on a Monday and the place only had a few people. But weekends are their busiest times, so you definitely have to get there early for those. I've heard different things about Hell's Kitchen--both good and bad. It's been on my list of "Places to Try" forever, but I always end up back at Al's. I'm a creature of habit, what can I say?

What's up with that? Even at the teeny tiny Beard Papa's in Japan, I've never had to wait for the choux to be ready. They don't fill until you order them, but the whole operation is very efficient and there are always enough choux ready to be filled, no matter how long the line. The only things that have ever had longer waits are the mochi choux (which they only make at certain times of the day, but they're seasonal, anyway, so they rarely have them), and other specialty products.

And get there at 6 or 7--whatever time they open. If you get there any later, you're due for a long wait. I love Al's and go there everytime I'm in MSP. But I find anything other than their wally blue and eggs benedict to be very ordinary. (I like their hash browns, too.) So if you go, I'd stick with the eggs benedict, wally blue and a hash brown on the side (that's actually my usual order...)

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the goals of the owners of these businesses. Many, many small grocery stores are owned by people who are not necessarily interested in the food business. In Canada, for example, a number of Chinese restaurants and grocery stores opened up in the late '80s and early '90s. They were not opened by people who wanted to provide quality Chinese foods to the masses, but they were opened by immigrant investors, for whom opening some sort of store was the easiest way to immigrate to Canada. They couldn't care less about the store itself, and there were those who didn't even care if the place turned a profit. In those cases, they probably didn't care much about cleanliness or product quality. The same might be said of earlier owners of these types of places. Many of them opened grocery stores and restaurants not because they really wanted to, but because they were shut out of every other business opportunity. The questions you asked above, you also somewhat answered. Yes, many of the people who shop at "ethnic" grocery stores are not as particular about the condition of the goods they buy. So as a business owner, if you're out to make a profit and find that you don't need to have a more attractive (and slightly more costly) display to get that profit, why would you bother? I think it's wrong, though, to assume that the customers will still shop at these places because they "will take anything they can get." Just because what might be acceptable to them is not acceptable to you (general "you"), does not mean they aren't selective or that they are desperate.

I have a co-worker who hates cheesecake, too. Thing is, she has never had cheesecake--not even a tiny little taste. She likes cream cheese, and even flavoured cream cheeses, but claims, "Cheese does not belong in a cake." It is from this idea that her hatred of cheesecake stems. She doesn't like pies, either, or cream puffs--anything that has crusts or things that are stuffed. She does, however, eat sandwiches and what is a sandwich but some stuffing/filling between two slices of bread/crusts? If we're talking about irrational food dislikes, I don't like hijiki. It doesn't really taste like anything (except whatever it's cooked with), but I don't like it. I"m not a big fan of konnyaku, either, except in sukiyaki. And chicken breasts. They're dry and flavourless, but I know they're not really that bad. I just don't like them. More rational (at least to me) food dislikes, I hate beer and coffee without milk. Beer has a horrible flavour and much too much carbonation. Black coffee (and coffee without sugar) almost always tastes bitter. But coffee with milk is fine.

For flavoured teas I always go with Mariage Freres. I once though some RoT flavours were similar, but when I tried them side by side I found a huge difference in quality between MF and RoT. Huuuuuggggge! I really doubt their claim that they sell the "highest-quality premium products." They might buy good quality leaves, but the flavourings they use are definitely not the highest quality.

Is what it looked like. The picture was taken with my cell phone, so the quality isn't the best. I'm just off to morning assembly, so I'll add comments in a bit, and address all your helpful comments above! That's what I was thinking of doing, since I have a souffle cheesecake recipe that does that, and it works out fine. But I thought I should follow the instructions, at least the first time I made it! My room is in Japan, and it has been a bit warm lately so the butter was pretty soft by the time I got around to making the cake. I got the recipe off Leite's Culinaria website, but it was from the French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis. I assume the recipe was developed for the US kitchen, though, since the measurements were by volume rather than weight. The butter did help a little, but the batter was still too think to properly fold in the egg whites. Isn't that more like a genoise? I vaguely remember making cakes in that manner in my baking class, and I think it was a genoise. I think what confused me was that this cake is called "Chocolate Pound Cake" but it's not very pound cake-like at all. The final result, even with all my problems, is really quite light. It's buttery in flavour, but the texture isn't at all what I consider to be a pound cake. If I make this cake again, I'm going to make it as Swisskaese suggests. It's the manner in which I would have made this type of cake (if I were not following the directions). And I won't bother whipping the egg whites (that was another almost-disaster--it's just too warm right now for the egg whites to stay "just this side of soft peaks"). The final result was fine (except the big holes), but the cake wasn't as strong in chocolate flavour as I would have liked. The Sour Cream Chocolate Pound Cake (found somewhere else in the pastry forum) was much more chocolatey, but this one did have quite a nice texture--very fine and moist. The people at work appreciated it, anyway!

This recipe is...potentially a disaster! I followed it to the letter, and the pre-butter batter was like seized-up ganache. The butter lightened it up a bit, but the not-quite-soft-peak egg whites were a b**** to fold in. I resorted to using my hand mixer to mix in the egg whites. I've just taken it out of the oven, and it's not very pretty, but it did seem to rise a little. I must wait a bit before cutting into it, but I'm hoping it will at least taste good! (Judging from the batter, it will!)

I would think so. It says you can use the whisk attachment of an electric mixer if you have one, or just to whisk it. That's what I would think, unless the butter were either melted or very very soft. But the recipe specifically states "room temperature". I think I'm going to have to try it as written (whisking by hand, since I don't have a stand mixer), and then if the butter stays in huge clumps, I'm going to take my electric mixer (with no whisk attachment) and just beat the butter into the batter.

I'm trying to make the Chocolate Pound Cake from the French Farmhouse Cookbook. The recipe calls for beating egg yolks with sugar, then adding the dry ingredients. Then, you whisk in some butter in three parts and finally fold in egg whites. To add the butter, the recipe says However, the recipe calls for butter at room temperature. How can one whisk room-temperature butter into a cake batter? Won't I end up with clumps of butter in my batter? I thought perhaps it should have been melted butter, but there's no instruction to melt the butter in the recipe. And I assume the recipe should be fine as is, no?

I didn't notice spanakopita or tyropitakia on your list. But I think both fillings usually have eggs, so if your boyfriend doesn't eat eggs, then those will have to be striken off the list.

Did you ever post how you did the caramel/nut part? I remember waiting for it to show up, but I don't recall seeing it (and then I probably forgot about it). I suppose this is the wrong place for it, but if you haven't already posted the rest of that recipe, and have the time and inclination, I'd love to see it! I'm going to have to do all my tart/pie crust making very soon. It's getting much to warm in Japan to do any kind of pastry making.

According to that wagashi shop's website, wari goori (lit. cracked ice) is made by drying kanten slowly for six days. One 150-g box (red or blue) costs 700 yen. ← I'm not sure if it's the same, but the other day I had a bit of usutsuyu from a depachika counter. It was made with kanten, was a bit hard and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and it had adzuki beans in it. I quite liked them, and I could buy individual servings for only Y80 each!

I remember that picture well. Nuts and caramel--my idea of a perfect dessert! 2" fluted edges (we're talking inches, right?)? The picture makes the edges look a little shorter. I'll have to see if I can find 4"x2" pans here. I have several 8cm by 2.5 cm pans, and a couple of 15cm by 3-ish cm pans. I'm sure my 8cm pans will do fine, but they don't have removable bottoms, and it's always nice to have removable bottoms.

I never thought Vic's was all that special (and I even said so above somewhere!). I think the quality of some of the produce might be better than at some of the larger grocery stores, but not so much better that I want to pay Vic's premium prices. They do sometimes have things not available elsewhere--I once wanted to make a berry tart and Vic's was the only place I could find raspberries and blackberries. Just a few more weeks till St. Norbert's Farmers Market opens! I'm already thinking of farmer burgers and lemon tarts--and I still have two more months to go!

Mmmmmm...looks delicious! How many tarts would this make? I'm guessing one 9"x1" tart or a few 4"x1" ones? Japanese tart pans tend to be smaller (usually the largest is about 8", but most are 4-6"), so I usually end up with leftovers (not that that's a bad thing, but I prefer to make what I need).

Based on the above, is it safe for me to assume that I can use either dutch-process or regular (Hershey's) cocoa for a Chocolate Pound Cake recipe, the ingredients of which are: 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder Pinch of sea salt 4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature I have both types of cocoa, though I have more dutch-process than regular so I'd rather use dutch-process.

Interesting! Your prices are a bit more than Japanese prices (regular choux is Y126 including tax, and flavoured choux are Y136 including tax). The eclairs in Japan are also shaped like regular eclairs (though they are shorter and more narrow than regular US ones). I'm still waiting for cocoa choux to come back to my local Beard Papa. They've been on a matcha run for the past couple of weeks, but I want cocoa! If only they were a regular item on the menu like at the SF location!

But if you think that way all the time, you'll never get to eat, or you'll just never be able to live with yourself. In many parts of the world, even the $5-10 you might spend preparing dinner for your family of 4 would feed a family of 4 for a week. And the car you drive would be able to feed a family for years...or the money you spend on gas....(cars, to me, are not necessities of life but luxuries, as are foie gras and truffles, so I include them for comparison).

I've never been to Maisen, but I think Katsukura could probably top it any day. I've never been to the one in Tokyo, but frequented one of the ones in Kyoto often when I lived there. They are top quality--excellent flavour, not too greasy, very crispy/crunchy outside. And you get to grind your own sesame seeds--how much fun is that? The one in Osaka (Umeda) is closer to me now, and the quality is as high as the ones in Kyoto, so I would imagine the ones in Tokyo would be equally good.

You must not have left California very often, then, because there are entire sections of the US which are immersed in frying oil. And fried twinkies, funnel cakes, corn dogs, etc. were not invented in Canada...

Are you kidding? Then I wouldn't be a good Canadian!! As a brownie, I'm already on perilous ground. Should I ask for malt vinegar, I'd be run out of the country, and my citizenship would likely be revoked! I think it would be more Canadian to ask for gravy with your fries. And then add vinegar (white, of course) and ketchup.

mayonnaise, Penzey's Sunny Paris, toasted almonds or walnuts, salt, pepper, and cranberry sauce (which is mixed in, not layered). I like to to stuff it into a toasted petit boule (which has camembert in it). The perfect bend of sweet, savoury, soft, and crunchy! Except I usually end up putting too much mayonnaise--I abhor dry chicken salad, so I err on the side of overkill.