Verjuice

Gelatinous foods, slimy foods, foods that quivered on the spoon or in the mouth. Including but not limited to Jell-o, yogurt, pudding, cold cuts, bananas, milkshakes, preserves and jams, most condiments, particularly mayonnaise (which always appeared to tremble) and anything bathed in it; potato salad, coleslaw etc... Also, milk, which I still can't drink very much of without gagging, though I now love the taste. Tuna, which I swore I'd never like. That conviction lasted about seven years. Tomatoes, which I absolutely knew I would eventually begin liking. They always tasted to me like something only adults should enjoy. Blue cheese. Every fibre of my infantile to juvenile self would shudder in revolt at the merest whiff of the stuff. Mouth sweats and all. However, I couldn't get enough eel and sweetbreads and wakame and capers and brussels sprouts and anchovies and bittersweet chocolate. Go figure.

Are we talking in terms of ingredients used most often, say, in national dishes, or are we talking about the stuff that an outsider most associates with the country of its origin, like what one would want to bring home after visiting the foreign country? This is tough; ingredients rather than national dishes. I'm sure to be wrong on lots of these, but here goes: Lebanon______bulgur wheat Greece_______yogurt Turkey_______apricots Iran__________sturgeon, pistachios Armenia______grapes and their leaves India _________mangoes, cashews United States___cranberries Bolivia_________maize Egypt__________fava beans Pakistan________rice Brazil__________black beans China__________peanuts Morocco________harissa Poland_________kielbasa Syria__________rosewater Ecuador________bananas Mexico_________papayas New Zealand____lamb Germany______cabbage Spain_________almonds Vietnam_______black pepper Senegal_______groundnuts Ghana________cassava Scotland______salmon Indonesia_____cinnamon Denmark______licorice Philippines_____coconuts Sri Lanka______black tea The Caribbean__plantains Ivory Coast____yams Thailand_______pineapple, rice Ireland________potatoes, pork Belgium_______beer, mussels Netherlands____cheese St. Lucia_______green figs? France_________pastry... surely its own food group.

Word. Yep; I sigh in tiny deaths.

-The soft, doughy, undercooked "fetus" of a cinnamon roll or pecan sticky bun. Right in the middle there. The beating heart. -The initial rap, crack and shatter of a creme brulee. -The gelatinous fat stuck to salmon or sable skin. "Feeding it to the dog" when nobody is looking, obviously. -The bottom part of a muffin. Yeah, most people prefer tops. More bottoms for me. Their discreet goodness even comes nestled in paper to nibble on afterwards. -The melted chocolate stuck to the wrapper it comes in. I've been known to keep chocolate in a very warm place just before eating it in order to have this happy "accident" deliciously occur. -The hardened and crumbly hyperfrozen dreaminess stuck to the inside of the canister when making ice cream at home. -The soggy or wilted shreds of red onion or cucumber left at the bottom of the salad bowl. Funny: I hate overdressed salads so they lose their appeal if they're drowned in dressing. -The cashews in the bowl of mixed nuts. -There's nothing like the first spoonful of peanut butter. Something about marring the surface's impeccable uniformity send shivers down my spine. -The maple syrup/salty buttered runny egg yolk/toast overlap on a breakfast plate. -That very first sip of steaming hot tea or coffee when it's exactly what you want. -The foam left at the bottom of the cup after a latte. -The peaks of maramalade on buttered toast with uneven marmalade coverage. -The caramel ribbon that runs through desserts. I chase it with my spoon. -The little bastard scorched nuts in the tray after I've toasted lots. -The pesto stuck to the pestle.

Okay, I have 56, but that's not including books about food. I have an Edward Gorey canvas tote that reads "There's no such thing as too many books". Perhaps it's time to sew a "c-o-o-k" on top of the last word Edited to add: Scratch the 56. I just counted 108. Missed a shelf.

I'll gladly plonk down a pretty penny for a great cutting board. It matters with almost all preserved and/or canned foods, the quality of which has everything to do with the cost of the stuff its marinating in. For example, have you ever had a cheap anchovy that didn't taste like a rat brined in sea water? Also, as far as everyday red wine, sherry and balsamic vinegars go, almost everything under $8 a bottle is disgusting. And I am not suggesting that a $200 bottle of tradizionale should be used with abandon, either, just that there is a huge gray area, and I have found that I generally find that I get what I pay for.

Black coffee is, quite simply, the good and right thing to do.

Comfort food Lebanese breakfast style for me. Honey. Figs. My mother's labneh. Olives and their oil. Zaatar. Real tomatoes. Good chewy bread, warm and blistered from the oven. Raw kibbeh. Turkish coffee. Milky tea. Cheese kunafa, pistachios and basbousa/nammoura all around.

It's all about Odwalla. The orange juice is absolutely delectable, but the tangerine is divine. And I loathe tangerines. This stuff tastes like sunshine itself.

So grateful for the input. Good stuff. Also, we're going to start planning more seriously now that we've decided to do it .

Wow! I hear you guys loud and clear. I was asking for my mother, who lives in the Middle East, and is considering opening a health food/breakfast joint; a couple million people where she lives and nowhere to get breakfast outside of a couple of lousy French pastry shops and a few traditional Lebanese bakeries for warm zaatar or cheese manaeesh. I think it's a great idea, actually. It's not a ratrace there like it is here. I have been discouraging her but secretly I hope she goes through with it regardless . Or maybe I just want a place to have a latte and some granola or a breakfast burrito when I'm visiting...

Af, for me, it is all about the food with the biggest chew. No mush. No crunch. I go through a 48 hour period every 28 days when I just need to work my jaw with, well, you name it. Rare steak. Old gum. Slightly stale sourdough baguettes. Undercooked radiatore. Octopus sashimi, calamari ceviche. Powerbars; the original ones that supposedly wreck your kidneys and your jawbone and have the consistency and appearance of impacted turds. Frozen Charleston Chews. Turkish Delight. Wha Guru nut chews. Antiquated Swedish fish. Knudsen caramels if possible, otherwise the little French fleur de sel ones will do. Plain old naan with peanut butter and unripe banana (plus avocado, when the going gets rough). Frozen dried fruit. Frozen cashews. Frozen bars of Kookaburra licorice. Frozen crystallized baby ginger or yogurt raisins. Saltwater taffy. Ice cream that has frozen rock solid and needs to be sawed at with knife and fork. Grape nuts that have softened in yogurt. Dark chocolate covered marzipan; either stale or frozen, obviously. I don't get it either.

Thanks for the info.

Thank you very much. So... how about three personal faves in all pf Tokyo that you can personally recommend? I've read lots of your posts and you certainly seem like you know your stuff.

Um, I think it's Hiroo Shibuya-Ku? The code is Tokyo 150-0012. No dislikes whatsoever. However, an absolute LOVE of sushi. Any suggestions?

Hm. I thought the book delivered exactly what it promised to. It had a pink gingham dust jacket, but so what? I thought Amanda's book was quality lunchtime reading. It improved my spirits and my appetite, which is all that I hoped for. And I appreciated her walking the tightrope between introspective self-deprecation and her high and mighty culinary soapbox. I found it rather charming, actually. I'm tired of all the moderate writing out there. Amanda was feisty and spunky and shameless enough for it to endear her to me, regardless of whether or not I agreed with her. Granted this might not have been the case if she were twice her age, but whatever. I still think she's special. Didn't anyone else think she was being tongue-in-cheek? She even admits to be a snob- bravo. Or maybe I just have a hard time taking the book seriously in the first place because the cover is so outrageously frivolous

I am wondering what the best literature is on opening and running a restaurant. There's a lot of it out there. Any guidance would be appreciated.

I'm going to making my first trip to Tokyo pretty soon. I'm so excited that I involuntarily emitted half a dozen squeaks en route to the grocery store after booking my ticket last night. I'll be there for a week and a half in mid-May, and I would love to get some suggestions on good eats. My main concern is that we eat fabulously; our budget is somewhat flexible and we are willing to spring for a couple of heftier meals, wallet-wise. What should I not miss? Any must-eats that would be criminal to bypass? And I mean, sushi, soba, nouvelle, steak, whatever. I know next to nothing about Japanese food in Japan, but I've already begun salivating.

I thank you kindly for the suggestions. I will elaborate a bit on Ms. Vegan's keenness for tofu, tempeh and seitan. An ovolactovegetarian diet is a heck of a lot more accomodating than a vegan one. Ms. Vegan makes a nice "Almondaise", which is a hollandaise-like all purpose spread made with almonds, nutritional yeast and olive oil. She also like salad dressings and dips made with pureed silken tofu; a personal favorite includes garlic, parsley and fruity Provencal olive oil, whipped with silken tofu. Ms. Vegan has hyperthyroidism and generally avoids carbohydrates because they are so taxing on her thryoid. This includes grains like rice (which contains cadmium). Protein is good. Quinoa in moderation. Beans and nuts are great vegan foods and easy on the thyroid, but she eats them with every meal and between meals, and they get tiresome. Other high protein foods are a natural alternative for her (yes, a medium rare steak comes to mind), so she relies on things like Fakin' Bacon and Scrambled Tofu in her breakfast burritos, and "cottage tofu" salad on sandwiches, seitan on her pizza (hey, it could be worse: at least she's not gluten-free!), and tempeh added to rice dishes and casseroles or curries after she has served her SO his plain portion and added the meat, cooked separately, to his plate. He finds it all rather off-putting, and claims that no dish has ever benefitted from the addition of tempeh and tofu; THIS is precisely where he is wrong. She can't make him like the stuff, but he won't ever give it a fair chance if he only encounters it lurking discretely in his starches. He doesn't need the bonus protein, mind you. She would simply like him to stop detesting it, These are some great suggestions; agedashi tofu got me hooked on tofu when I was eleven years old- in fact, I just had some for dinner. Another idea: Highly seasoned crumbled tofu in a burrito instead of ground beef for the skeptical carnivore, yes. Also: Indeed, most things taste good after they're fried, skewered and served with peanut sauce! Ms. Vegan once added crumbled tofu, to a dish of spaghetti squash and ratatouille. He couldn't tolerate a single bite. He swears that tofu tastes like curdled baby sick. Methinks it was the ratatouille. Favorite tofu dish? I'm all about the agedashi.

A vegan friend of mine recently got engaged to her hot-dog-slamming bacon-grease-frying boyfriend. After three years together- and many botched attempts at seducing him with homecooked vegan food- she has resigned herself to the likelihood that they will simply have eat different dinners for the remainder of their time together. Since they are banking on their partnership lasting a lifetime, I think it's really a shame that he hasn't been exposed to tofu or tempeh or whatever in dishes that really showcase the magic of these ingredients, not simply using them as some paltry meat-substitute. I have no vegan inclinations, personally, but I love tofu and tempeh (although I avoid highly processed meat substitutes- pathetic stand-ins like Tofurkey, since I'm scared of TVP, and also, they're nasty). My friend enjoys all of that stuff, however, and in any case I suggested to her that we get together and cook a vegan meal with tofu or tempeh or seitan (which she adores) for her fiance, if not to win him over, then at least to get him to consider riding on the bandwagon every once in a while. Any suggestions for killer tofu-and-friends-starring meals?

You've got the right idea. In the "Snacking" thread, I confessed to being a Grade B maple syrup imbiber myself. There truly is no other. For me, it's always the tbsp measure I reach for. I suppose I'm tricking myself into thinking I'm showing some restraint/ measuring portion control, or some such nonsense.

Good point. I'm not a member of the Clean Plate Club by any stretch of the imagination, but I take the importance of a palatable attitude quite seriously; a rotten one can ruin any great meal. An old Muslim folk tale tells of a tribe that is making its way north from Mecca during Ramadan (the month of fasting; no food or water from sunrise to sunset). They stumble onto another tribe's turf. The leaders meet, and the travelling tribe is invited to set up camp for the night. A huge feast is laid out (before sunset). There is an entire roast pig (Muslims don't eat pork). The Muslim chief thanks his new friends and helps himself to a portion of everything. One of his associates pulls him aside, appalled, and asks him why he is 1) breaking his fast, and 2) eating pork, to which the elder simply responds, "Better to commit a thousand forgivable crimes than the sin of offending our host". Eh. A good friend of mine recently broke a 28 year stretch of vegetarianism by eating goat's blood soaked rice that was offered in her honor by a tribal elder in Uganda. Eat the brownies.

That's intense, yo.

I ended up at Antonio's one night by accident and it turned out to be one of the best meals I'd had in months. So good; don't miss it. Also, killer margaritas. Check out their dinner menu here or their lunch menu, which is child-friendly, here.

The last time I was visiting my immediate family in the Middle East, my (American-born Lebanese) mother was pining for the desserts that we usually eat together when we're in the States. Feeling ambitious on Christmas Eve, I threw together a feast of her favorites based on what was available (I was thrilled to find canned pumpkin, for instance). I made the most awesome pumpkin pie any of us had ever tasted (I'm not exaggerating; it was that good), pecan pie, lemon meringue pie (my brother's favorite; I can't stand the stuff), a dark, sticky gingerbread, oatmeal raisin cookies, Maida Heatter's Palm Beach brownies (you know, with the peppermint patties), penuche fudge, peanut butter cups- all from scratch. Guests (none of whom were American) dropped by throughout the day and helped themselves from the platters of the stuff. The sweets were barely nibbled at. Some Scottish friends enjoyed the gingerbread, and ate the fudge which was not unlike Scottish tablet, but that was pretty much it. The next day, I sent tupperware containers of the stuff with my teenaged sister to a barbeque at her friend's house. Lots of hungry kids scarfing pizza and burgers; the containers came back full minus two peanut butter cups and a cookie that someone had apparently been brave enough to try. Lack of a sense of adventure, I say.