prasantrin

Despite predictions for a huge catch this year, Fraser River Salmon Fishery will be closed for the 3rd year in a row. It's not looking good for the future of salmon in BC. If you see wild salmon at "average" prices now, buy it. The prices will only go up.

Just a note--Pembina Valley Meats isn't back, and the St. Norbert Farmer's Market website is in need of an update. I'm still annoyed that it got my hopes up. Spenst is an adequate substitute now that they've got homemade relish to add to the burgers. The Farmer's Market seems to have fewer vegetable stands this year, but more other stuff--more prepared foods for sure (Danny's Whole Hog kiosk gets bigger ever year, and lines get longer, but seriously, it ain't that great).

The Gathering is still about a year away. Is it really necessary to decide right now? There are three people who have expressed interest in hosting next year: tammylc--Ann Arbor/Detroit NancyH--Cleveland snowangel--MSP-area Two have hosted the gathering before, so the volunteers are very familiar with what's expected (from the organizers and the gathering). Would it be possible for someone to post those expectations for others who may be interested in hosting, but who have never attended? And perhaps also comments about what is necessary (i.e. post about expectations vs necessities--for example, does there have to be a Thursday night dinner, or is it merely expected? Does there have to be one "higher-end" dinner, or can the whole weekend be done "on the cheap"?) I think knowing what's involved would help people decide if they're interested in hosting, and perhaps people from other areas previously unvisited may volunteer, as well. It would be great if the event could move around more--the Heartland is such a large area with each state having something different to offer. Even if I can't attend each gathering in person, I'd be just as happy seeing the different areas vicariously.

Glad it helped! I don't know if you noticed, but the North Shore Cattle Company also sells at a couple of farmer's markets on the island, so if you're near either of them, you can always go and check out the meat in person. And they have a restaurant, so you can always taste it before you buy!

I borrowed the book from the library. I love it. I'm buying it before I leave even though I won't be able to take it back to Japan with me (I could, but it's heavy and I'll be moving back to Canada early next year anyway). It's so clearly written, and I love that she provides volume and weight equivalents for a whole slew of ingredients (skipper10 mentioned it above). Interestingly, many of the recipes in the book are posted on various blogs--Cindy Mushet's blog on Sur la Table and the publisher's website, too. Not all provide complete recipes, but the only parts missing are the "What the pros know" and "Getting Ahead" portions which are very useful, but not vital to understanding the recipes. (edited bad editing)

Really? Jarred caponata (usually called "antipasto" in Winnipeg) often has carrots in it, and I've had homemade caponata with zucchini, too. Of course, the addition of zucchini has always led to my confusion of caponata vs. ratatouille. I always thought they were pretty much the same thing based on my experience with them in Winnipeg.

Along with new basil plants, I'm thinking of growing some tomatoes. Do you think September is too late to start a tomato plant if I can still find them when I return?

I noticed most recipes call for green olives--why is that? Are green olives more common in caponata-making areas, or are they really better in the dish? I'll probably use black olives, but if there's a compelling reason to use green, I'll try green (or maybe half and half).

I haven't flown through NRT in years, but the last time I flew into KIX at 6am, I got through immigration and collected my luggage within 30 minutes. I usually dash to immigration, though (more like a fast walk), so I can catch the limousine bus home. I'd put aside at least an hour, 90 minutes max at that time (barring a multitude of other arrivals at the same time), and make sure you fill out the immigration card stuff while you're on the plane, so it's ready to go when you get to the officer. And make sure you have a copy of your itinerary at the ready, in case they ask you to show it (since you won't have a contact number/address in Japan). If you've got your heart set on sushi, and don't mind the long lines, I'd go to Tsukiji. You've got time, anyway. The fish auction will be finished, so you won't be going for that experience, but there's still plenty to see and, of course, plenty of sushi to eat. I'd go there straight from the airport, though, rather than wait until later in the day. They close pretty early (Daiwa closes at 1:30, Sushi Dai at 2, so if you go later, you may end up not eating there if the line is too long and you don't make the cut off). If you get there around 10 and you end up having to wait 90 minutes, you'll get to eat by noon. But if you get there at noon, you may be out of luck. From there you can go to Ginza (just 3 minutes by train, or you could walk), and from Ginza you could go to Shibuya and Shinjuku (Shibuya involves just one train line, Shinjuku would require a transfer or you could walk from Shibuya). Lots of pop culture things in those areas if you're interested in that. Good ramen places in Tokyo (like the one BryanZ went to) also have long lines. chowhound has at least one extensive ramen topic you could look at. It's the easiest way to get information in English.

Luckily, Japan doesn't have those limitations--some airports (I know Kansai International does) even have day-trips organized from the airport, specifically for people with long stopovers, but less than one day. KD1191, I don't know if group bus tours are your kind of thing, but something like this http://www.japanican.com/tours/tourdetail....c=GMT01TYOOA030 might be interesting. After a long flight you might be a bit tired, so a bus tour will let you sit around for a bit. Then you'll have the rest of the afternoon free to do what you want, and eat what you want. This tour doesn't leave from Narita, though, but it would be pretty easy to get to the Hamamatsu-cho bus station. If your plane is light, though, you might be SOL. Anyway, the tour ends in Ginza, and there's tons to eat around there, including sushi and tempura places (some of the best tempura places are in the Ginza area). I don't eat a lot of sushi, so I can't really recommend any specific places, but bento.com has a lot of restaurant recommendations (I'd take the reviews with a grain of salt, however). Tempura I'm more familiar with--what's your price range?

A sort of related anecdote to the anecdote about not knowing heat applied to ingredients is cooking. . . Last week I was at a large supermarket checking out the Asian food aisle. A young woman (early 20's most likely) stopped me and asked, "Excuse me, do you know what orange marmalade is or where I'd find it?" I replied, "It would be in the jam section; it's a kind of jam." She responded, "Oh, I thought it would be in this aisle, because I found a recipe for Oriental chicken, and it needs orange marmalade." I laughed a little when I told my mother the story, but I was also impressed with the woman. Just judging from her ethnicity (and her likely socioeconomic position) and the rest of the stuff in her cart, she didn't cook much, but here she was trying a recipe out of her comfort zone, using ingredients she didn't even know. Props to her for trying, and for teaching her child (she had a young daughter) to try new things. What's my point? As many people as there are who don't cook, there will always be people who do, at least once in a while.

I don't shop at Whole Foods or Dean & Deluca (and don't even have either at which to shop, even if I wanted to), and I can shop just fine. Even when I was a child, we did the bulk of our grocery shopping daily (or near daily) at an Asian grocery store, where one can get decent cuts of meats and "exotic" vegetables without paying an arm and a leg. As I've aged, I've found more products available which promote my style of cooking (primarily Asian), and I am thankful there are more products available to me. I predict as the world gets "smaller", more and more products currently unavailable to the "common man" will become more available, not less. He makes valid points, but to me, he's still making a mountain out of a molehill. Good food and quality ingredients will always be and has always been available--to those who want and can afford them. Going back further: There must have been more to the conversation, because just from what has been reported, I don't get "she doesn't know heat applied to food is cooking" from "Why does it get hot?" Maybe she was asking how you lit the fire, or wanted to know how coals get hot and stay hot. And regarding If there is a two-person family, and only one person is preparing dinner, that means s/he is spending 54 minutes a day on food prepation. Assume the day is simple eating--yoghurt and toast for breakfast--2 minutes prep. A tuna sandwich for lunch--5 minutes prep, 10 max if you're adding shallots and celery. That leaves 47 minutes to prep for dinner--one can easily make a quick tomato sauce and boil some spaghetti in that period of time. Are most people eating so simply? Probably not. But I'm not going to lament the death of cooking and quality ingredients, because I know there will always be good food and quality ingredients available to me, whether I cook or not. (As an aside, until my mother got married at 29, she spent next to 0 time in the kitchen, and therefore spent no preparation time on any given day. Does that mean she didn't know anything about food, or didn't care about it?)

Great minds think alike! I was just thinking about caponata the other day, and was about to start searching for a recipe. I like to skimp on carrots and go heavy on the olives, and go easy on the sweetness. Well, I would if I'd ever made it, but I'm always too afraid to end up with a crap load of caponata that tastes crappy. That happens with ratatouille all too often (and zucchini are so expensive in Japan!), so I'm gun shy. I'm going to have to experiment when I return to Japan. It's too easy to buy good caponata in Canada, so I don't bother with making it here. Of the recipes above, are there any that really blow you away? Or is there another source I should be looking at?

I read the article and though, "Oh for f***'s sake, who cares?" There will always be people in the world who know about food (and/or cooking), and those who don't. There will always be people in the world who can cook and those who can't. There will always be people in the world who care about food, and those who don't. Focus on what you're doing and what you can do (whether that includes educating others or not), and move forward. No point judging people who feel differently from you. I'm sure there are things they'd be surprised/chagrined/disappointed you don't know about, but they do.

You haven't mentioned if you've called them or e-mailed them about the problem. If you call them, they may allow you to send in your subscription request (but most likely using a postal money order rather than a cheque).

Crap!!! Lost my reply because your post had been moved while I was composing! How annoying!! IIRC, I wrote that you should check on Hawai'i's import laws regarding food. I know their very strict about some types of produce (fruits, in particular), but you should check if you can even import meats to the islands. You can also try contacting http://www.hicattle.org/Industry/Default.aspx who may be able to put you in touch with producers, who then may be able to put you in touch with retailers of their products.

What about a vita-mix? You could also just use a mortar and pestle along with some physical labour. Some nuts are naturally less fatty, by the way, so to get a smooth product, you may need to add oil.

It's a shame so many of the original participants no longer participate, but it's interesting to read how the site began.

Those links just bring me to gmail.

Alluded to by others, it is very possible that your boredom with food is just a symptom of something else. I can't remember when you first moved to Seattle, but it could very well be that you're hitting a low point in the culture stress cycle, and it's just a matter of time before you find your way out of it. Just bide your time till it passes, and until then, eat simply, but healthfully (if you were like me, you'd be eating Costco-sized bags of potato chips for dinner). edited--darned second conditional!

Any kind of visual art--photography, painting, etc. It helps with plating and general creativity. I've notice that a lot of food people seem to have a natural inclination to the visual arts (off the top of my head--Patrick S, Pille, Alinka, Abra, dystopiandreamgirl. . . more I'm sure).

$6.95 is actually pretty cheap, unless it's only for that channel. My mother only has the channel for a month as part of a free trial cable upgrade, but if she wants to keep it (and the other channels that go along with the package), it's another $20 a month! She usually just has basic cable which doesn't include W. But the show itself is not worth $6.95. No way! But the next time you're at someone's house or a hotel, it's worth checking out! An update, they did surprisingly well with The French Laundry cookbook, even with the pork trotters! I mean with the final result, that is. The actual cooking part was a little painful to watch, but they both gave the book a buy!

It definitely starts to wear thin, but it's still interesting. Much of the time I think they're silly to choose recipes much less cookbooks so far out of their comfort range. That being said, they represent the average home cook fairly well, I think, so if nothing else, they do show that if you can read, you can cook regardless of your starting level. It can be inspiring to people who think they're hopeless in the kitchen, but for anyone who has a fair amount of knowledge, it's frustrating to watch them sometimes. I do appreciate their comments at the end, though. They state their reasons for liking or disliking the books very clearly, and their final judgments are not based merely on the results of their "cooking day" items or on the comments from the guest chef. Their critiques remind me of the old cookbook reviews Cook's Illustrated and Fine Cooking used to do in every magazine. I wish those magazines still did them. (An aside, I don't think the show is as old as 2003, and this topic wasn't started until last week.)

You're too kind; I'd have said insulation in general is not the greatest. I'm going to start my basil after I return, so it'll be the beginning of September. Hopefully it'll be warm but not overwhelmingly hot by then. (wishful thinking?) I'm thinking of starting a few plants a week for a month. That way they'll last me through the winter and hopefully until I leave. (except my absence during the three-week Christmas break might be the death of them) I'll prepare some kind of shelter (I've got lots of foam things saved up for my move) for them to help keep them warm. Thanks for the advice!

Bryan, how long in advance did you reserve Tempura Kondo? It's been on my "to do" list for a long time, but I still haven't gone. I usually end up at French-influenced places when I'm in Tokyo. I've not been to Menya Kissou, yet. Ramen is usually way down on my "to do" list when I'm in Tokyo. I'm only willing to wait a long time for cakes and pastries or Neapolitan-style pizza, but not ramen. Maybe next time I'll make the trek. I do like ramen, just not "90-minutes waiting in line" much. I think you should try Malaysia the next time you're in SE Asia. I've always loved Singapore, but I thought KL really out-did Singapore in terms of food. The only problem is that transportation is more difficult in KL and the rest of Malaysia than it is in Singapore. Getting a chauffered car rental is a very good idea.