v. gautam

Very sorry about your pain. As someone upthread suggested, the cost may be recouped as ADVERTISEMENT by creating an event, such as a free food giveaway. Suggest giving it to your local volunteer firestation & calling your radio station. You get goodwill in the community, name recognition and can write it off at the same time. You are also doing a good thing helping people who put their lives at risk for the community. So make some free sandwiches for the police, the sherrif's office & the firemen and you will have done yourself a very big favor for the future.

Bruce, Not a speck of sliced cucumber or even green bean in sight! For how many consecutive days? An essential food group. What on earth were you thinking? Besides Hoya Santa, plant a chayote, having sprouted it first indoors. It is a vigorous climber, so not much ground space is required. It will clamber a warm wall, like east, with partial afternoon shade, to flourish in your MD climate with 180+ growing days. The point is to harvest the greens & treat yourself to a unique taste. How many people have you known who have tasted chayote greens? Yet that is one of its most important functions in India. In the mild temperate hill climate, it is a perennial [even where it dies down and returns in spring] that makes a fleshy underground root-like organ that is prized. MD may be too cold for that to form to adequate size, but who knows? Interesting experiment, interesting tastes from the Latin American zone. Just take the whole pear, place it in a very shallow saucer of water, like a Bosc pear standing with its blossom end in the scant water. It will send out white roots along the suture. Then you may plant it in a 4 inch pot [potting mix] with the suture facing down and wait for the plant to get established before transplanting outdoors.

Try to go to the TOCKLAI research station website Director General TRA, Tocklai Experimental Station Jorhat -785 008 Assam, India Tel: (91)-(0376-360467) Fax : (91)-(0376-360474) e-Mail : TRATOK@ASM.NIC.IN "A species-specific primer was also developed for distinguishing between the Assam and China type tea cultivars. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were also studied in depth to detect diversity and genetic differentiation of several important tea clones, including the famous `Darjeeling tea', mainly to protect cultivars for intellectual property rights purposes." Tapan Kumar Mondal Centre for Advance Study in Tea Science and Technology Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidalaya, India mondaltk@rediffmail.com D. Singh: Advances in tea breeding in north-east India. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Symposium on Plantation Crops : p. 88-106 (1984). Barua, D. N. 1963. Characteristics of Tocklai released clones. Two Bud 10:26-28. [ Two Buds & A Leaf = Journal published by the Indian Tea Industry, get article by Inter-library loan request] Wight, W. 1956. Commercial selection and breeding of tea in India. World Crops8:263-268. Wight, W. 1958.The agrotype concept in tea taxonomy. Nature 181:893-895. Wight, W. 1959. Nomenclature and classification of the tea plant. Nature 183:1726-1728. Wight, W. 1962. Tea classification revised. Curr. Sci. 31:298-299. Wight, W., and R. C. J. H. Gilchrist. 1961a. The concept of kind of tea. Nature 191:14-16. Tea Breeding & Germplasm Evaluation [ 2005-6?], published by Dr. N.K. Jain Secretary, International Society of Tea Science Resident Editor, International Journal of Tea Science A-298, Sarita Vihar , New Delhi 110076, India Website: http://www.teascience.org Email: teascience@gmail.com See also my post in the Tea Rooms of America thread about Makaibari & other Darjeeling teas sold by Silver Tips http://www.silvertipstea.com/fusionecommerce/browse/ After many years of searching, I happened upon this place, clued in by another Indian. Super selection, gracious, superb service, a great relief from the HUGELY overpriced vendors elsewhere. It is unnecessry to add that I have NO commercial connections, merely great satisfaction to escape the stranglehold of insane, extortionate pricing I had experienced elsewhere and receive only the very finest quality teas: Darjeeling, and all other Indian, Nepalese and Lankan. Enormous selection, very knowedgeable owner, the sister-in law of the Makaibari planter.

I looked at your picture of dalk jjim and then went to the Andong city web site to see their version of the eponymous Andong dalk jjim. Sadly, they don't offer a recipe but this tantalizing clue: "steamed" and a photo that displays a very dark, soy-rich broth in contrast to the red-tinged broth in your Seoul (?) version. Other places seem also to suggest that dalk jjim should NOT contain any gojuchang type of thingie that might color it red but daktoritang is allowed to have such [Zenkimchi recipe]; DJ should only have this black soy base, but chunks of fresh peppers may/may not be added to the "stew vegetables", generally potatoes, carrots, onions(?), leeks (?) and....? Bean threads seem to be included in the Andong version. I am quite ignorant but curious to learn more, including what is the original "steamed" Andong DJ. Thanks.

Iowa has sufficient DEGREE DAYS to grow fresh turmeric between May through early October. You will get a decent harvest, perhaps 2/3 the full monte. Same with galanga, and mango ginger, another very interesting creature to be found in the Indian stores mentioned below. You can get the fresh rhizomes in NYC or CA stores, and have them sent to you. Pan is an expert on NYC Queens and knows where everything is to be found. Maybe he might oblige? All the Indian stores like Patel Bros. & Sabzi Mandi have them. Not expensive either. Start them in 4 inch pots right away if you want. Potting MIX, not potting soil. Make sure of this. Any brand is fine. Then transplant them outside, usually 15th May around Ames is fine. Pm me if you have questions. Grow good sweet potatoes in Iowa, KOREAN PURPLE & VIOLETTA from Sandhill Preservation Center, Glenn Drown, prop, Calamus, IA. Cook with these in Asian dishes to appreciate the difference.

Thank you both, very much indeed. That was something new to learn, and quite a relief! Actually, with regard to my own faculties, since I don't drink and don't like to put alcohol in my mouth, it becomes difficult to judge anything about wines; I also do not like the taste and burn, so that confounds things further, about being able to judge even something that is about to spoil, unless it has become vinegary. Someone once told me, vermouth is the only way to go when cooking with wine for day to day use because it does not spoil easily; and I did, just because I cook only very occasionally and then just to satisfy my curiosity. Then another person came along and declared, you are such an idiot! Vermouth, even the non-bitter sort, should never be employed. So I wondered why two admitted experts would differ so greatly. I am not going to spend $10-15/bottle of wine just to evaporate its alcohol away!! I cringe when the real, expensive traditional mirin is thus de-alcoholized for the sake of its sugary fractions in good Japanese cooking as well! One is paying for the difficult brewing process that creates the alcohol, plus the tax on the same. Amazake makes for a similar if slightly less complex range of sweeteners, being rice starch broken down by microbes into simpler sugars [one half of the mirin process]. Anyway, thanks for clearing up this problem so neatly.

When you advise " buy drinking sake", I did once; here it comes in a 750 ml bottle, like regular wine, and the gentleman at the wine store advised me to store it in the refrigerator and use it up within 3 days if possible. That would not be an issue in a normal Japanese family cooking many Japanese dishes, I realize, but what advice would you have for us who might want to cook single items and not necessarily on consecutive days to finish off the good (expensive!!) sake? What sort of sake can you have sitting around to use when the mood strikes you to make a Japanese meal? Even something that will remain under refrigeration would be nice. Please don't say Kikkoman! I have given up on Kikkoman, after I read on their HON (!!) Mirin label: first item : Glucose, Sugar, corn syrup, alcohol, water. Hello, I can put together all that junk for way less money I thought. Same with the dashi mix in the big box, Hon dashi: Glucose; .... Now I make my own (admittedly less exciting to tastebuds corrupted by you-know-who]. The less said about Kotteri-mirin et al. the better. We do not get here the mirin-fu that H-san uses . Thanks much.

You might even find a local artisanal potter who might make one for you. There are many eccentric and good-hearted craftspeople around, and no few of them have great expertise in Japanese and eastern glazes and firing styles. You will find them well-versed in the styles and product you want, and they may be no more expensive than other sources. Just a thought, if you live in an area where many such potters tend to settle.

My former landlady [from Cambodia] used to cook something she called an amok that was like Peter's and unlike the leaf-cup type I have cooked for my Lao boss in his restaurant [with dill, not lime leaf]. She used to make a huge bag of blackened red pepper flakes, minus the seeds, during the warm months. This she would use liberally during the middle to last stages, after adding the coconut milk. So: oil, paste, fry, then stuff, then coconut milk, then a huge fistful of the blackened flakes [enough to turn things a murky grey], then cook some more. Some northern Thai use blackened pepper whole pepper, either fire-roasted or fried until the skin is almost about to disintegrate, so do the Burmese, so do Indians, but never in such quantity that I know of, and never minus the seed (?). The flavor here is different from Chinese use of blackened pepper much like very dark Cajun roux is to the merely very brown. Has anyone seen or tasted this flavor combination? BTW, landlady was extremely coy & secretive about her kroeung, so no luck there!! But really delicious.

Use dried cranberries. Oceanspray sweetened dried cranberries are too sweet; see if you can find less sweet types in health food stores, more sour the better. Or use fresh cranberries instead, and balance with a tiny pinch of sugar. Farsi Shireen polo uses a lot of sugar and al-balo or sour cherry polu also depends on this sweet sour balance, so using sour, fresh cranberries for the red berry/color/tart element may be an appropriate substitute for barberries. BTW, and this is my Indian "chauvinism" trying to set the record straight about the oft repeated canard that the Persians taught the Indians how to cook polo, the opposite is true: 1. The very etymology of polo is palaanna, palAnna, pala + anna = meat + rice, Sanskrit 2. See the Mahabharata e.g. the Tale of King Nala, for a detailed picture of the culinary scene of ancient times when Persian, Kamboja and Indian culture were COTERMINOUS, like Canada & USA today; i.e. no separation was sharp. Thus x teaching y is nonsense endlessly repeated by food writers until taken as gospel truth. 3. Most importantly, ALL AROMATIC RICES originated in a single cluster in the foothills of the Himalayas near eastern UP, Bengal, westermost part of Assam [see Susan McCouch]. Diffusion of these rices into small, medium & long grain forms took time, and moved west + south, probably countercurrent with the diffusion of the Kamboja and other Iranian Aryan groups along the Ganga valley, where they created discrete kingdoms in Bengal, Assam, and infiltrated into Cambodia which supposedly bears their name [Kampuchea], carrying with them those same aromatic rices. At a certain time, Indian Aryans & Iranian Aryans were very close both linguisticaly & culturally, to the extent of having religious schisms. This you cannot enjoy, unless you are extremely intimate; Zoroaster's mother, Rbha, was part of a Vedic lineage or shared the same set of cultural and racial ties whereas he had some "Lutheran" things to say about his maternal culture ! So, a palanna by definition, is rice cooked with meat. Khecharanna may be rice cooked with other things e.g. legumes, vegetables, fruit etc. Indica rice originated in India well before the period of the epics, by which time the aomatic rice were well differentiated into their numerous classes. in the setting of the Mahabharata, we find a civiilization that is well-established around Delhi and which culturally sets the trend for food, dress, ornaments etc. for the entire region from Aghanistan to Bengal in the east to Gujarat in the southwest. There is an aritocracy where invidual nobles take great pride in being accomplished chefs and the fame of the tables of certain nobles is legendary. The King Nala is one such foodie. Fate plays a cruel trick and he finds himself enslaved along with his beautiful Queen. To effect their escape, and endure in the meanwhile, he puts his skills as a chef on display and becomes the head of his master's kitchens where he continues to amaze all with his creations. Among these are complex palanna/pulaos and meat and rice dishes!! So polo/pilafs have a common ancestry in the Indian-Iranian continuum of those times when Indian rice, eggplants, cucumber, citrus etc. were diffusing west and cumin, coriander, fenugreek, asafetida, mustard, beet-spinach, lentils and many other crops diffusing east.

Recently, one read that Japan's exports have fallen sharply, 45% over February 2008 numbers; also that the Japanese economy shrank by 12.7% over the past year. A few thoughts arose and I hope you will help critique these, that are in the nature of thought experiments, meant to explore a horizon, not prescribe solutions. One major expense to the economy is petroleum imports. Efficient use of oil is relevant also with respect to the Kyoto Protocol, since carbon trading rights have a market value. Thus, there are al least two immediate layers of savings to the economy with reduced use of electricity, say. Agriculture practiced the the intensive modern way anywhere in the world, Japan included, consumes a lot of energy and its productivity, the efficiency with which inputs are used as a function of yield and unit area, is quite difficult to determine. The reason behind this is: what philosophical parameters do we include when defining efficiency. For each Production Function, only a finite number of factors can be included, and only a limited sphere can be stressed e.g. biological efficiency, efficency of return to capital, efficiency of energy, nitrogen use efficiency, water use efficiency etc. Efficiency is an apparently simple definition, harboring a universe of pitfalls, including the size of the system. For now, let us just consider a single element, Nitrogen. It is vital to agriculture, and being an inert gas, dinitrogen requires considerable energy to be converted into biologically useful compounds. Consequently, living agents exist in great numbers who derive life energy by converting these compounds back into the inert gas. Nitrogen is converted into agricultural fertilizer through a process using electricity. Petroleum to electricity is less than 33% efficient and leaves a carbon footprint, i.e. a carbon trading right debit. [Even a nuclear power plant or hydroelectric plant has associated with it relatively high high environmental costs including atmospheric heat load and water requirements.] That Nitrogen applied to flooded rice fields either as urea, ammonium sulfate or various NH3/ammonium complexes experiences enormous denitrification by bacteria and relatively inefficient uptake and use by the rice plant with its C3 respiration. A millet with a C4 respiration conserving carbon dioxide does a little bit better under certain circumstances; so do those Amaranthus with an operational C4 pathway. But hold this thought for a moment! All the nutrients produced with so much Energy + N leakage end up in human sewage sytems where yet more energy is used to throw the valuable N compounds (just recently manufactured at such expense) BACK into the atmosphere!! This is like using brand new carboard boxes that then get thrown out after a single use! This is a vicious cycle that is eating up petroleum energy at both ends of the Nitrogen cycle in this particularly futile manner. Now Japan is the world leader in trapping every iota of heat from industrial processes and recycling them back for the greatest efficiency. It also has an ancient culture of recycling human and animal waste most efficiently fr enormously productive agriculture. Japan also has the capacity to think radically out of the box in terms of INDUSTRIAL PROCESS and create exceptional technological solutions. Therefore, it is necessary that this FUTILE NITROGEN CYCLE be interrupted. Many tens of billions of dollars can be saved directly by reducing petroleum use, and also by saving on carbon trading rights. The other path to carbon trading rights is perennial agriculture of fruit, nut and woody grasses, including bamboo and sugar palms. Japan may have limited flat land but her lower hill slopes have immeasurable potential. She could be flooded with reasonably priced apples, figs, grapes, nuts of diverse kinds and many other wonderful things. This land has a magnificent climate, enormous north-south spread, superb drainage, a magnificent horticultural tradition, sufficient rain, great lower slopes. Everything is perfectly in place, ready to take up any economic slack. Perhaps more (young) people will be encouraged to take up part-time horticulture and creative ecological technologies, now that the export economy and the artificial lifestyle is souring! There already are a few back-to-the-land types clearing homesteads in the foothills. With them, we can see a return to innovative cropping systems, with an array of grains like millets, buckheats, quinoa, tarwi, Andean vegetables, perennial lupins [ L. polyphyllus], NAGOYA chickens, High egg prodcing geese [e.g. ZIE], small grazing pigs and many more exciting innovations.

You could write explaining your situation to Bruno Goussault at CUISINE SOLUTIONS and request that you be allowed to purchase from their food service section. Ask also for reduced drop shipment quantities and distributors near your destination. The chilled sous vide retains shelf life for 2 weeks or more, up to 21 days. Preparation is simple, quality excellent. You can choose many low-fat combinations of fish, apsta rice, vegetables, sauces, along with meats & poultry. http://www.cuisinesolutions.com/ http://www.cuisinesolutions.com/FoodService.aspx?saleid=1 Sample: 1. GRILLED SEASONED CHICKEN BREAST Product # : 3660 Description :Grilled, Bnls, Seasoned Chicken Breast with Skin-on Portions Per Box: 6 pieces per pouch, 6 pouches per case, 36 pieces Product Weight: 6.50 oz. per portion Price : $123.50 2. CHICKEN, ROASTED HALF WITH GARLIC AND ROSEMARY Product # : 6032 Description :Roasted Half Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary Portions Per Box: 12 pieces per case. Product Weight: 26.0 oz. per portion Price : $105.77 They suggest pairings, like this: Suggested Pairings Demi Glace #3743 Eggplant Confit Celery Puree #3814 EGGPLANT CONFIT Product # : 5320 Description This vibrant and flavorful dish showcases Eggplant in a rich Tomato Sauce with Onions, Olive Oil, Garlic, Thyme and White Pepper. Great to serve cold as a canape or hot as an entree. Portions Per Box: 8 pouches per case Product Weight: 2.0 lb. per pouch Price : $93.13 Thai selections as well for poultry.

Firstly, what you describe isn't Monel. As said above Monel is an alloy, the pan bottom you mention is a roll bonded plate. The way galvanic corrosion [or battery action] you mention is to have a complete circuit of two dissimilar metals connected together by an electrolyte to form a battery. Then to do any thing about galvanic action the two metals must be connected together as a load on the battery. The circuit you describe is not a complete circuit so it isn't going to happen. Oh and the liquid in the pan would be the electrolyte any how and you would not have a load circuit. I'm not sure of the load circuit even exists in your example but unless the bonding between the copper and other metal [stainless?] fail allowing the electrolyte to connect them you haven't a battery portion of the circuit. Now if we are talking about acid pitting of the S.S. thru to the copper and that being taken up into solution, possible for sure. I hope I made myself clear. Trying to explain this is hard to avoid trade jargon. Monel may be used for cookware, I've never seen it; but it is used in valve seats. It contains Cobalt as well as a hardener. I suppose it would also be part of Monel if used for cookware. ← Robert, I you are going to pronounce judgment and pontificate on chemistry, you should take some time out to study seriously this topic: Predictive models for determination of pitting corrosion in stainless steel pipes. Then, let us discuss redox reactions in micro-pitting & corrosion. There is a great deal of work on how pitting occurs in cast iron pipe, in copper piping etc. All worthy of your attention. When pitting occurs, as it does in minute amounts even in tap water, metals need somewhere to go, which is in the food. Yes, I know what copper-nickel alloys are called, as also copper-Al ones. I did speak before writing to a specialit in metallurgy who assured me tha the bonded layer, however many atoms thin that might be, between the copper and stainless steel surface in could correctly and usefully be termed "a Monel metal" in terms of its structure and properties. BTW, Robert, more than one educated person write on eG, and even you may be surprised to learn what some of them are qualified to say on redox reactions. It is just that they hew to standards of courtesy apparently foreign and inimical to you.

Slk, Thanks for your research. Another idea down the drain...

Rona, I saw this : Onsen Tamago Maker 貨品編號BS00220 $120 and wondered what might make such an appliance more expensive than a top-of-the-line rice cooker? What indwelling mystery? Thanks! gautam

With all his care, if your friend has restricted himself [for his soft cooked treats] to chicken eggs but NOT tried guineafowl eggs, his quest for the perfect egg may yet be incomplete! Guinea eggs, fortunately, are not terribly exotic, expensive or difficult to find today, even in their free range, organic versions. I believe urban outlets in CA can supply excellent product from amateur backyard flocks. Here are 2 sources that may help him locate guinea eggs: http://www.gfba.org/ http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/breeders_directory.html The shells are much thicker than chicken eggs, so care must be exercised re: egg cups! However, a beneficial corollary is that guinea eggs keep fresher longer under ambient conditions than do chicken eggs. These already-delicious eggs will retain their fresh-laid sparkle longer, a bonus for the soft-boiled egg-in-the-cup lover.

This amazing lady with a great personality, whose videos I love to watch, claims BBNM as her favorite food. So her recipe should carry some weight, nicht wahr? http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/naengmyeon

Hi Johung, You mention Singapore & Malaysia as the origins of your cookbooks. Oseland uses recipes specific to certain individuals or micro-locales in the MALESIAN region, where the similar names can signify vastly different spice combinations from island to island or locale to locale. Take RENDANG for example. Oseland uses a specific Sumatran woman's version as his entry into the world of rendang. That preparation has fierce partisans of style and taste [that differ markedly from Oseland's version] elsewhere within Indonesia and the entire MALESIAN region! (You will be familiar with what I am repeating below, but it is relevant here, I think..) In Malaysia, rendang means quite another flavor profile with considerable amounts of kerisik (sauteed/browned grated coconut) incorporated into the paste, and added later as a garnish. For some Malaysians/Singaporeans, kerisik is inseparable from the rendang experience, but is never (?) found in most Indonesian rendangs. Singapore, with its Nyonya cuisine, likewise has preparations that possess names, ingredients and cooking styles SIMILAR to the MALESIAN REGIONAL CUISINES but are NOT EQUIVALENT to Oseland's recipes [which again do not exhaust, nor claim to, Indonesia's 100s of island and local cuisines]. While your cookbooks are undoubtedly authentic & excellent, I think you may be missing a few new things if you believe that Oseland's book quite duplicates their contents. You may INDEED discover eventually that it DOES. OTOH, there is no guarantee that it will. I am just nitpicking here on the logic, so please pardon me. Not that I am a fan of Oseland [quite the contrary!!], or trying to sell his book!

I had heard Naeng myeon originally (?) might have included acorn flour as well. Would that be correct, and would there be types of NM commonly available that still have acorns as part of the flours used to create the noodle? Thanks.

Please forgive me for interjecting an issue that has become personally relevant to me for some while. As an Indian in India, I used to eat a great deal of whole meal durum flour and whole legumes etc. that stopped when I came to the USA and my diet became white starches: rice, refined flour, potato, sugar etc., because of money issues. One of my teachers, David Kritchevsky, a noted researcher on diet and health [1920-2006: http://www.ebmonline.org/cgi/content/full/232/3/337] warned me in the early 1980s about many things including this. Like him, I am a lipid biochemist. In the items noted in the earlier posts, there is a significant representation of these WHITES, with high glygemic index, with the exception of soba. A bread machine might allow one the freeedom to include more whole grains, sesame seeds, buckwheat groats etc. into the flour mixture. If feasible, economically, logistically, etc. any effort to reduce the udon, ramen, white bread, white rice components with more of adzuki and whole sprouted soy/mung bean, other legumes, maybe even okara gotten at reduced prices might not be such a bad idea. This unproductive fixation with white rice is comparatively recent in Japanese history and culture. In the shogunate, rice was an expensive grain reserved for the upper strata. The commoners made do with a diet enriched in millets, barley, coix and a wide variety of legumes, vegetables, tree and forest products ----- a made-to-order nutritional profile for today!!!! David Kritchevsky studied the Nisei and Sansei morbidity profiles and diets in Hawaii and discovered some amazing, counterintuitive data from which he began to construct his acclaimed thesis on lipids, residence time in the gut and heart disease. What I am trying to urge in an oblique way, but need to say directly, is that I damaged my health severely trying to economize with a diet comprised of the elements cheap in the USA, the terrible whites. I had almost no money for a while. I have seen the same scene repeated with many Indian students, where white rice, bread, noodles & potatoes become their mainstay and wreak silent damage unbekownst to them. Fruit & fresh vegetables are several multiples the same price, so they shy away from sticker shock. Eventually, the results are terrible in mid-life. Health is more important than short-sighted savings of a few $, because health cannot be recovered once undermined. Please pardon me for the unwarranted presumption but I had to say this.

If you have a patch of sunlight, a 5-10 US gallon container like a styrofoam cooler can become a home for 1 plant of SUNGOLD cherry tomato that will produce very useful amounts of fruit for 8 months; or, 1 plant of ODORIKO slicing beefsteak type, from which you may get 60-70 lbs of very high quality fruit if you are just a tiny bit careful. Plus, herb basil, from the same ensemble that should last you a couple, 3 years at least, then switch to cucumbers, melons etc. for a while. We can guide you step by step from here. Lemon & Meyer lemons are another possibility, depending on how dear they are in your area. I have made a few more suggestions here regarding passive hydroponic systems and types of growing media: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=121203 You are welcome to pm me for further ideas. I do not know how expensive electricity is in your area, but even indoors, a simple shoplight with ordinary fluorescent tubes [18 h on, 6 h off] will happily grow seedling flats containing good quality potting mix + some potting soil [for flavor] seeded with Genovese basil [relatively thickly, seed USD 18/lb in USA, last you 500 years!!! lol ], say 1/2 flat, dill BOUQUET 1/2 flat. If your shoplight is longer, it can accommodate 2 flats, so you can grow 2 more herbs, or as many as you like. The second flat can be used to produce MICROGREENS : mizuna, choi sum, various Japanese brassica, lettuce if you like, amaranthus etc. It all depends on what your tastes are, and what is most expensive in the stores but worthwhile and easy to grow at home. For example, here is a blurb for MENEGI, a scallion or green onion with a specialized use. If this item is something that you like, AND it is costing you a fair amount, you can easily grow it at home at lower cost: Menegi: This delicate, white green onion is a young shoot of a Japanese scallion. Specially cultivated to produce young shoots that are used as a sashimi and sushi garnish, Menegi are harvested very soon after planting when the scallion has grown to a height of only 3”-4”. Because they are harvested when they are young and thin, Menegi needs heavy planting. Menegi onions look very much like chives and can be interchanged in recipes. Their most popular and typical use is as a garnish. Maturity: Approx. 25 days Planting season: Year round in mild climates Traditional "kyo yasai" or Kyoto vegetables: some of these can be an interesting choice for those who have the space, even a food service bucket or foam picnic cooler is sufficient. My favorite is the KAMO-NASU: a special eggplant for frying. 1 plant goes a long way, but less productive than the tomatoes. Sorry if I have not been of an immediate, practical help. If you do consume quantities of lentils, beans and other split legumes, one way might be to make friends with Tibetan or Indian restaurant staff, if any in the locality. When they get their goods delivered, you could see if you could buy wholesle too from their distributors: basmati rice, legumes, spices etc. Space, storage, MEAL MOTHS [pheromone traps], weevils, all need to be kept in mind. A buying club may make sense where several households of like mind create a business license [i don't know what laws or social conventions apply in Japan] and purchase from food distributors in bulk quantities, say every 2 weeks. In the US, many people have space for a small freezer the size of a washing machine: this helps a LOT!!. I have no idea whether such ideas are practical in Japan. Here in Ithaca, NY, you can just walk up to restaurant distributors and ask nicely if they will sell say, a bag of onions. In the grocery store, medium size cooking onions are 60-70c/lb in 10 lb bags. With the distributor you get a 50 lb bag of huge sized onions for 17-20 cents/lb. Ditto similar price differentials for eggplant or cauliflower that are 3.99/head retail during the winter. But quantities are too large for single familes, so coordination is the key. Other places have restaurant cash & carry trade, in the larger cities like Syracuse or Buffalo where anyone can buy restaurant quantities at commercial prices, no license or anything else needed. Huge baking warehouses there sell all kinds of exciting stuff from flour to hardware to the general public at the same terms as to the trade. Ditto meat and vegetable purveyors. In Japan, the wholesalers must have something similar going. How to access that is something that our esteemed friends here can advise you.

Austin Bush has Google Map Links, e.g. http://www.austinbushphotography.com/2009/...t.html#comments for alll the street eats he has reviewed. Plus, you get a picture of the place, where it is and what to expect by reading the actual blog. For example, http://www.austinbushphotography.com/2008/...kor-market.html And, http://www.austinbushphotography.com/2008/...g-market-2.html Enjoy.

Fish heads of different species e.g. major carps, shads, major catfishes [Pangasius spp.] etc. fried and then cooked in various ways, with specific vegetables or split mung beans or forms of rice (to name just three) form a very important part of both the formal & informal repertoire of the cooking of Bengal, east & west. The head is relished in all its different parts, which includes the brain, the various cartilaginous bits as well as the eyes, which are a special treat enjoyed for their texture. Different species have different sized eyes, whose attributes also vary with age and treatment. They turn opaque and generally become chewy in these dishes. Entrails, float bladders, liver and frames [even gill rakers] call forth another specialized class of extremely delicious dishes that used to be de rigeur on certain formal lunchtime menus. Eating with one's fingers allows one to have a remarkably intimate association with something as anatomically detailed as the fish-head and get very deep satisfaction from the union of that with rice. Coming from a culture that likes to get to grips with its food, one always remains nonplussed by the use of chopsticks when employed in the context of rice and fish-heads, crabs and shell-on shrimp [shad too]. As Nehru remarked about eating with knives and forks. "It is like making love through an interpreter." (!!)

In addition to the excellent cookbook suggestions above, cooking videos are another medium that can be very useful. Here are two dissimilar sets of videos that taken together might offer a lively introduction to Thai cooking. No special stuff, just something to please YOU. The first is expressly meant to teach a Western audience with no previous experience of Thai cookery. The second set records the activity of a busy street corner take-out stall in Thailand. If you absorb these two in conjunction with Austin Bush's fascinating blog, you will naturally find yourself picking up the rhythm and flavors that make for success in Thai cooking. [ Of course, after reading the cookbooks mentioned or along with them]. http://www.thaifoodtonight.com/thaifoodtonight/home.htm http://www.ifood.tv/user/recipe/2205 http://www.austinbushphotography.com/category/foodblog/ Here are some more textual material that might be useful. Ms.Pim comes from the " high society'' of Thailand, so her perspective has its unique value. Ms. Yu has her roots in the Chinese settled in Thailand, and her perspective is also very interesting, e.g. her family story of the Massaman curry. Whereas Thompson often focuses on the cooking of the Imperial kitchens and the arisotcracy, Bush writes about the "boiled" "curries" of Southern Thailand, and Ms. Yu about other strands of life in Bangkok. [bTW, that word "curry" needs to be abolished from the international vocabulary: it conveys no meaning other than a spectrum of misrepresentation] http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/thai_recipes/index.html Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking by Su-mei Yu

Could someone please enlighten me on the toxicity of Monel metal when used for cooking acidic long-stewed foods? From what little I have learnt, Monels are alloys of copper and stainless steels and are very tough and durable. The interface that forms when Falk anneals copper to SS is one form of Monel. There are other types. I wondered what might be the characteristics of a Monel cooking vessel; specifically, a braising pot or a wok with a tight fitting cover that cooks Indian [note, not Chinese] types of dishes [some of which might have tamarind or yoghurt, just as a braisier might be employed for meats with acidic marinades or wine simmered for extended periods]. Over time, minute pits, aided by kitchen tools, appear on any surface. These then begin to act as tiny electrical batteries: charge separation into cathodes and anodes, causing a feed forward response and increased pitting. Over time, this translates into the release and regular (if minute) ingestion of heavy metals, including copper and the constituents of the stainless steel, e.g. chromium, nickel, etc. Monels are very tough and resistant to corrosion. How tough and how toxic they are under cooking in acidic environments and other FOOD/COOKING situations is the question to which I cannot find good answers from toxicological studies. I shouldbe most grateful for any leads. I wonder if monel vessels would be any more useful than copper or stainless steel, incorporating some of the conductance of copper, without its softness or toxicity? Would it be non-stick for frying as in crepe/omelette pans where only fats are used or non-stick also where water comesinto the picture, e.g. fish fillets?