Malawry

Excellent, Mark. I was supposed to teach a tapas class next week, and it got cancelled...too close to the holiday weekend to garner enough interest I guess. Too bad, I was looking forward to demo-ing a few of these dishes...

I'm finally getting over there on Saturday. It sounds like it's easier to ask what to avoid than it is to ask what to order at this place.

I used cheap supermarket eggs, sized large. I am pretty sure the mix rested longer than 5min, because I was cooking about 6 things at once and taking pictures of them all that day.

Mark and Bilrus, did you let the egg soak into the chips thoroughly before adding the last egg and cooking? I am also wondering if this is an egg-size issue.

Pontormo, D'artagnan makes a delicious Spanish-style chorizo that I love. You can order their products online. Also, parts of their lines are carried at Whole Foods and Dean and Deluca last I checked, so I'd call both places. Not cheap, but good.

In a satisfying black-and-white, there should be a bitter cocoa undertone to the chocolate side, and the white side should be pretty sweet in contrast. The best black-and-whites have a dried surface on the frosting that "cracks" when bitten. I would love a good recipe for these myself.

I've heard that the Andres restaurants in Crystal City (Jaleo and Oyamel) haven't been as successful as hoped when they first opened. I don't have an outstanding Galileo gift certificate, but I think Galileo closing and remodeling is a good thing for the restaurant. The interior was starting to look a little dated. I hope the Laboratorio is a part of the new Galileo, though--the white truffle dinner I had there on my birthday many many years ago still stands out in my heart as one of the best meals I ever had.

JJ, how do you hone your knives to keep them so sharp with one hand?

I specifically want something with a Louisiana flavor. And I'm the kind of girl with file stocked in the cabinet. Thanks for the ideas.

I have some shrimp. I have lots of fresh green peppers from the farm market, and I always have celery and onions. I don't want to make NO BBQ shrimp, nor do I want to make a gumbo. I do want to make something where the shrimp is the only protein. Any suggestions? Something that goes well over rice would be ideal; no pasta dishes please.

Rockville isn't really that close to Silver Spring, though. If you're a vegetarian in Rockville you owe it to yourself to eat at either Vegetable Garden or Yuan Fu for all-vegetarian Chinese food.

It's also not far to Takoma Park, where Mark's Kitchen has many wonderful vegetarian options. I used to order their vegetarian BLT-club type sandwich often in my vegetarian days. But really, go to Mandalay--it's more exciting than Mark's and more worth a special visit.

JJ, I started a thread about one-handed cooking here. There are some links in that thread to equipment that may help the one-handed cook. I ended up using my Cuisinart and an OXO pizza wheel to do a lot of my cutting...or enlisting my husband to do a lot of the dirty work. My standards for cutting lowered significantly during that time, and I didn't eat things like steak that must be cut as they are eaten. Now that I have a baby on my hands, I still cook one-handed--'cause I have to hold him with my other hand!

Here's one that was new on me recently: since my husband earned his doctoral degree, we've been told several times by several people that making a reservation for "Dr. Jones" rather than just "Jones" can improve the service experience. I think this sounds like BS and have never tried it, but a part of me is curious. I've never had problems getting good service when I've put the effort into it without dropping a formal title into the equation. What do you think?

JJ, I broke my right arm while I was 7.5 months pregnant, and delivered my baby in April while still wearing a cast. The experience gave me a newfound appreciation for the struggles with the mechanics of cooking somebody with access to only one arm might experience. (I'm right-handed, which didn't help the situation much. My left hand got really tired really easily, especially at first.) I've healed up mostly now--still have trouble carrying heavy things with my right arm, but that's about it--but it still makes me really impressed with how people learn to adapt to their bodies' capabilities rather than allowing this sort of thing to keep them down. Kudos to you! I figured out how to use chopsticks with my left hand during the 2 months I was in the cast, so the idea that somebody who'd only had one arm his whole life might not be able to use chopsticks strikes me as especially absurd.

I don't own any other tapas or Spanish cookbooks. I've found this one to be valuable for both its overview of classic Spanish tapas and their key ingredients. But the exciting thing about this book is the funkier recipes--it's encouraging me to move my Spanish food beyond my classic tapas favorites like garlic shrimp, asparagus and Romesco sauce and tortilla Espanola. Take a look at Bilrus's gazpacho above for a hint of what I'm talking about--Chef Jose is a master at turning a Ye Olde Spanish dish like that into something unique and refreshing.

Most excellent, Bill. How did you like the chocolate-bread-olive oil dessert? What kind of chocolate did you use? I love the frisee salad idea.

I've bought sour salt at Shalom Kosher in Wheaton. It's Rokeach brand--essential to a proper sweet-sour stuffed cabbage.

I just got off the phone with a very nice lady who confirmed that yes, Ray's the Classics is open, and they do accept reservations. Unfortunately, they are closed this Sunday when I will next be in the Silver Spring area, but I will be checking it out and reporting back as soon as I get back to town thereafter.

For part of a dinner tonight, I made the gambas al ajillo--garlic shrimp. This is such a simple recipe, I think it should be a part of everybody's repertoire. It's fast and doesn't heat up the kitchen, too, which is more than I can say for the other things I cooked tonight. (Heh.) My favorite aspect of this recipe is the use of brandy--until I got this cookbook it never occurred to me to add some brandy to my garlic shrimp. It adds a certain depth of flavor and I prefer it to the acidity of white wine, which I used to add to my garlic shrimp before seeing the light.

It's easier to find work teaching recreational cooking classes than it is to get a job teaching in a professional program, in my limited experience. Besides the Sur La Table/Williams Sonoma route, you can always check with area community colleges, area public schools (many offer adult education courses in the evenings) and, if you like working with children, talk to some summer camps. I started off teaching children at a summer camp, which worked well for me since my regular job was as chef for a sorority that gave me my summers off. I now am a member of the adjunct faculty at a community college and am trying to position myself for future openings in their professional program. Teaching in a professional program requires the same skills as teaching recreationally, but it also requires a willingness to push paper and to make hard decisions like devising and grading tests. Some places may offer continuing education credits for some of the classes they offer--my culinary school alma mater does this--and teaching some of those classes may help you out as you try to go full-time. You can also market yourself for private cooking classes. This requires a lot of organization and self-promotion, but in my experience it pays far better than any other kind of teaching. Plus it's real fun to come up with classes from scratch. Most of the places I teach have strict no-alcohol policies, so for me one of the best things about teaching privately is the chance to work with alcohol and bring wines into the classroom environment.

As a fellow North Carolinian, I am really looking forward to seeing what you are able to source locally. As a fellow mother of a little one, I am curious as to how you manage to get so much cooking done when your hands are so full--mine is far from walking age and I already have a hard time getting things done in the kitchen! And here I was, about to suggest you get grits from the Old Guilford Mill, whn I see you got yours from Lindley Mills.

Somehow, it had not occurred to me that gazpacho would require superior EVOO. Why is that? Not that I use crap olive oil in mine (I don't ever buy crap olive oil), but I think of the vinegar and vegetables as the important components of the gazpacho--not the oil.

What's the oil you used, Pedro? I use the Goya EVOO widely available here in the US--it's Spanish, easily accessible, affordable, and--oh yeah--delicious. I'm sure there are better oils available in US markets, and I'm curious about your choices in Spain. Olive oil is obviously essential to many of the recipes in the cookbook.

I plan to make maki and nigiri. I like chirashi sushi but am not as interested in making it as I am the others. Thanks for the tips.