Tess

You post made me think of great meals in villages in Italy and Greece where there are a few local specialites(smoked fish in Ioannina!). In the US, it's more like clambakes and, in the midwest, fish boil. The classic US rural meals are very good but I think of them as once in a while stuff even for the residents. Like the hunters' dinners they have in New England with all the game meats. My friends who live in quaint little villages in the UK and go to the pub after church mostly seem to eat things like satay and vindaloo.

Thank you, ducphat, I'll be hunting for them this weekend. Very nice indeed, Abra! Thanks for the picture. Wow does that look good.

By the way, does anyone know any literature about picky eaters-- medical or otherwise? I find it a really interesting topic and would like to know what it is like being an adult who's a very picky. I try to think of the few foods I hate, and imagine how it would be to feel like that about most food, but I can't. I've had two male friends who were extremely picky and kind of a pain in the butt about it. They always seemed so scared that someone was going to make them eating something they would not like. There was always a fuss of some kind about food. Last I heard of either of them, they were both single and wondering why and I really suspect it had something to do with what it was like eating meals with them.

Me too, therese. That meal is gorgeous.

I agree that it's up to her. Unless she's interested in expanding her horizons, it ain't going to happen and you'll both just end up frustrated.

I got the peppercorns and the cacao nibs! They had the nibs out to taste and they were so good I bought some. I put them in some coffee, and that was fine, but have no idea what else to do with them.

Check out the Summer Pudding thread!

Yes, more summer pudding porn, please! I am going to make a summer pudding with currants this season, if it kills me.

This doesn't sound much like the dish you describe-- it has spices and the zucchini are diced-- but I wonder if the flour and baking powder might get you something like the texture you're looking for.

Deborah, I was actually thinking of mentioning the Canadian connection. Then I figured this wasn't the only import from elsewhere in the continent besides the US that was mentioned on the thread.

I think it's a cool list. Nice distribution. My #1 addition would be maple syrup. Blueberry pancakes and maple syrup. The genuine stuff, of course. (Maple syrup always seems to be what people want you to bring them from the US.)

Thanks for these ideas! What kills me is that there was a currant bush in my garden when I moved in, but it died. For a couple of summers, I did have a certain number of currants and I did make summer pudding. Although, even then I varied the other ingredients.

Yes, thanks for saying that. Customers can vote with their feet but not all workers have that luxury.

Looks delicious! Now, where am I going to get some currants in Chicago? I see them so rarely.

The first time I had Campari was when someone was mixing tall drinks with Campari and Pellegrino Aranciata Amara. I liked it from the get-go. (This drink isn't nearly as good with regular aranciata-- got to be amara.)

Thanks for the cool report, Ron. The oxtail does look fantastic, as do the loukoumathes. In fact, I would go over there tomorrow if I didn't have appointments all day.

Now, there is something I should not eat, but I'm about to! As it happened, I had seen your mention of the brownies and just bought the chocolate so I can make them for the 4th of July barbecue we're going to. Of course, I had to buy double so I can make a batch for a dry run. Heh. Man, I should also not be eating something that expensive! Valhrona bittersweet as on sale at Trader Joe's but I had to go to Whole Foods for the SB, and two packages of that (albeit really enough for three batches) set me back a bundle! (Ling, do you use dark or light brown sugar?)

I'm not a French speaker even though I was married to one-- I just find that language impossible to pronounce. Still, I find it very funny that people think the way to pronounce it is invariably to chop off the last few letters, as in "vichyswah." OK, if you don't know how to pronounce something, take a stab at it, but if you have to say it ten times a day, you might as well figure out how it's pronounced. And the absolute worst is if you say, "I'll have the vichyssoise [approximately right pronunciation]" and they say, "vichySWAH," like they're correcting you.

Steingarten (whom I tend to trust on matters of fact) said something to the effect of scampi actually being langoustines in his recent essay on raw fish in Vogue. I don't have the copy here so I can't give you an exact quotation. It's the issue with Salma Hayek on the cover.

Freezing can screw up seafood, no question. I stopped buying frozen fish and seafood from my local Trader Joes because it was mushy too often. But some of it can be pretty good. I've had frozen fresh-water shrimp which I cooked from frozen on the grill and they were fine. You would think those would be pretty delicate.

Food Tutor, when you worked there did people call up wanting to have a phone put in? I knew a guy who moved to New Mexico and honestly made that mistake.

You mean like the skin off donuts? Salt. Hey, it's healthy; it's sea salt! I'll take the liquid from a bowl of salted tomatoes, pour it into a glass and drink it.

I haven't had anything bad off the Steak'n'Shake menu. I haven't made a big effort to try everything, though. My boyfriend and his best friend between them have probably had everything on the Jack in the Box menu, but that has more to do with being drunk late at night in Honolulu than with aiming for completeness. I've had the tacos and really liked them. We don't have Jack in the Box where we live, or I would surely be more familiar with it.

That peppered ahi recipe looks particularly good-- thanks! I'll be making that. Lately, when I get quality raw tuna, I've been making some variation of poke. (My local Japanese mart sells sashimi quality tuna cut up in poke-sized pieces for less than the whole block.) I do love Hawaiian type food.

I don't mind crusting seared ahi - it's the multiple ingredients used to crust (recent example seen locally - "sesame seeds, togarashi, black pepper, wasabi, cumin and furikake crusted seared ahi") and the overdressing of the dish itself that bothers me. Must be a market for it though so I may be in the minority. Wouldn't be the first time! ← Wow, that is an awful lot of ingredients! It almost sounds good to me-- time to get back to Hawaii I guess. Did that whole craze start there? Anyway, I was partly joking. I think most places can't sear ahi right (i.e. without cooking it too much) and a coating may just barely keep the whole thing from getting cooked. Also, if you are cutting it in slices a crust makes it look nice on the plate, I guess.