Sleepy_Dragon

Places I've been that are still in business: Pan Africa (downtown) -- really like this place, they also do other African food in addition to Ethiopian. Get either the sample platter, the beef or chicken tibs, or any of the other non-Ethiopian items. If I'm lucky enough to get a serving of lamb stew with the lamb still on the bone, I don't hesitate making a disgrace of myself by sucking out the marrow. Fasica (Columbia City) -- another favorite, especially for the red lentil stew and the doro wat with egg. Zobel (Central District) -- inconsistent. Used to be my favorite place, but not lately. I want to go back though, especially for the sega tibs and shiro. Blue Nile (Central District) -- not bad, but if I'm in the area I'd rather go to Assimba or Mesob. Assimba (Central District) -- pretty good all around Mesob -- very good, also the only place I know of that do sambusas (Ethiopian pastry parcels filled with lamb or veg.) Meskel -- lentil dishes seem bland to me, but I love the meat ones and the aforementioned tomato fit fit (injera with tomato, mashed together into a sort of salad) Tagla -- breakfast only on weekends. Owners are working on opening a full service restaurant. I love going here for the shiro, so buttery and creamy and loaded with cardamom. I like the injera here the best too, the lady who does all the cooking always makes it fresh. Queen Sheba -- never had a good Ethiopian experience here. Nigerian food was decent back when they did it, don't know if they still do. Both Fasica and Zobel have live music on the weekends if that's your bag. And Tagla has a bunch of Ethiopian foodstuffs and groceries available as well. Pat

Indian food is a godsend to me for eating well on a budget. I am an omnivore, but make myself vegetarian food every now and then because they are just another choice to me that adds nice variety. Making a big pot of dahl to have all week and/or freeze in meal sizes for later works for me. Channa and other pulses' long cooking time isn't a problem to me because they don't have to be constantly minded as they soak or cook. Very easy to take care of them during brief study breaks. As for the bread, I'm terrible at making it, but am under the impression they can be kept raw in the freezer, then cooked as needed? Pat

That was a great meal. Of the kind that makes one bask and glow for hours afterwards. Ahem. The cold tomato soup tasted like spirit of tomato in a bowl, main course was juicy buttery tenderloin over a toothsome cake of polenta with cheese, and even though it was a hearty hunk of meat, dessert still went down so refreshingly easy. And DRColby brought us all chanterelles from his forages earlier. Thank you very much Dave, and thanks again laurel for organizing this and getting us all sorted over the bill. final word on knives: we think it's the same guy doing the sharpening at both places. The work certainly seemed identical. I'm imagining Bob Kramer wondering at the sudden glut of knives appearing in his mailbox. Pat, happily digesting

Grilled chicken breast with Asian inspired glaze, kit-bashed Italian/Asian beef and pasta stirfry, and spinach salad. Pat

Hehe cool, eG knife show and tell for everyone. See y'all in an hour. Pat

I wouldn't deny people's symptoms either, but I think there's reasonable doubt as to whether or not we've got the right culprit. Especially considering its natural occurrence in all foods umami like soybeans, mushrooms, etc. For the record, I'm all for cooking without it, if only as a way to measure skill and an eye for good ingredients. Pat

Not a pain at all, and I already got a PM asking to see them too, so I'll bring them tomorrow night. See you all then! Classmate observing me carefully washing my knives at school a few months ago: "Are your knives *glowing*?!" Hehe, Pat

If anybody wants me to bring my knife kit in order to check out first hand bladesmiths.com's sharpening work (re: SEA sharpening thread), please let me know, otherwise I'll leave them at home. Looking forward to this. And thank you again laurel for all your organizing. Pat

One of my books ("Banquet: Ten Courses to Harmony" by Annette Shun Wah & Greg Aitkin") mentions an Australian study by Leonid Tarasoff and Michael Kelly with findings that not only indicate MSG is harmless but the so-called "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" illnesses people get are related to histamines created by the body in reaction to certain fermented ingredients common to Chinese and Asian cooking. Sadly, a Google on those two names only yields a single document in German. If anyone here is fluent in German, maybe they could translate? German science page citing Australian MSG study The International Food Information Council also states MSG is not an allergen: Everything You Need to Know About MSG Pat

Reminds me of a documentary we saw in class a few months ago (sorry, don't remember the name), involving a girl who lost her sense of smell one day, and was given all these different flavored lollipops to taste. She said they all tasted like plain sugar. Sounds downright miserable to me. Pat

Don't know if this is usual or not, but I mentioned needing my knives back right away for school, mailed them to him UPS Ground on a Monday, he got them Tuesday, then had them back out on Wednesday and into my hands on Thursday. Probably best to get a time estimate from him though, he may have other projects lined up. Pat

There is -a- Chinese rice pudding (maybe more than one but this is the one I know), kinda doubt there's any relation to kheer though. It's called Eight Treasure Rice Pudding, and not only is there no dairy, but the old school version contains lard as well. It's glutinous rice, candied fruits, nuts, lard, sugar and sweet red bean paste underneath. Pat

Wonder if something's been going on at Cafe Campagne. My last three meals there have been cold too, including the eG one during the summer. Shouldn't have cursed it when I said to FWED that "I've never had a bad meal here." Pat

http://www.bladesmiths.com/ You have to mail your knives to him, but UPS Ground will get them there in one day. I had all my knives done by Bob Kramer on recommendation from one of my chef instructors around 6 months ago, and I haven't had to even use a steel on them since then, because they're so crazy sharp and stay that way thanks to the perfectly smooth curved mirror polished taper that leads right up to the edge. Not as inexpensive as taking them to local places, but definitely worth it to me. If anyone interested is also going to be at the FareStart dinners later this month, I can bring my knife kit and you all can see for yourselves. Carefully. Pat

Had kangaroo for the first time recently on a trip to Oz, Katoomba to be precise. Very tasty, and I would happily eat it again as well as make it a regular part of my diet if I lived there. The place we went did it saltimbocca style with sage and prosciutto, nice and juicy and flavorful. I suppose it is somewhat gamey but lamb strikes me as gamier; kangaroo is more like steak from a cow but richer with almost nori-like overtones. Didn't get a chance at the emu and croc, next time perhaps. Pat, happily sated in the fish 'n' chips department too!

I really like Hidmo, but have found that my enjoyment of the food depends on which of their two cooks is doing the cooking. One I definitely like a lot better than the other, and I've mentioned this in the past to the guy who manages the place. He said he'd try to get their styles closer together, but we all know what a personal thing that can be in a small family joint like that. I've been there I think 10 times since they first opened, 7 great meals, 3 not so great ones. Love their awaze paste too, ask for this on the side. Pat

They can be cooked in a toaster (the kind for vertically toasting bread, as opposed to the horizontal mini oven-like ones), but only if babied. The way I used to do it before succumbing to the microwave: Place large bowl next to toaster, have tongs on hand as well if you have trouble holding things above heating elements. Chop desired stack of pappads in half right down the middle. Set toaster on highest setting, press the bread-lowering switch. When the heating elements are glowing, grab a half of pappad in each hand, and place them into their own toaster slot as far down as they will go without causing them to squash or fold up. Watch them heat up, when they seem evenly blistered (won't take long), take them out and lay them in the bowl. Repeat for all of the pappads. You'll now have a bowlful of half slices cooked on one end. Then repeat the entire process again this time grabbing the cooked ends and inserting the uncooked end. Start with the ones you began with, by now they should be cool enough to easily handle the cooked side. Takes a little practice to not get brown spots from overcooking, and the results will always be a bit wavy, but they do cook evenly and it works. The ones with plenty of black pepper bits interspersed throughout are the easiest to handle because they generally stay pretty flat. Pat, also not a microwave fan

Any crispy crunchy spicy snacky thing and chai! Pat

In addition to a previous suggestion about the color (thanks skyflyer!), peaches also ripen and get juicier with a fuller bouquet when placed in a brown paper bag for a day or so. If you want to space out your peaches a bit, pick a few out that are a little on the hard side and stick in the bag the ones you want to eat tomorrow. Some of the folks at Sosio's are also good about picking peaches out for people and differentiating between ones to eat right away and ones that are better in the very near future, though it depends on which person there does the picking. Pat, also enjoying the peachfest

Oops, our Grand Buffet is actually next Tuesday, not Monday. Monday and Tuesday are the last two days of lunch service for summer quarter. Pat

Themes for this week are Asian and Indian/Pakistani. It's our last full week of lunch service. Next Monday will be the Grand Buffet, which will close out our summer quarter service. Hope to see you. Pat

Themes for this week are European (French, German, Spanish) on Tuesday and Mediterranean (Greece/Italy) on Thursday, along with our hot and cold sandwich buffets Monday and Wednesday. Pat

Yesterday's staff meal: seared ahi tuna chunks, halibut chunks, romaine salad, roasted red potatoes with rosemary, Vietnamese rice wrapper rolls. Good lunch, but I ended up with a really bad blister later on from dicing a large box of raw yams. Not a big deal usually, but this session ripped off that all-important callus under my index finger. Culinary school is going to suuuuuuuuuck this week... Pat

1) Pour hot pea and potato soup into a blender to puree, and mess up everything while burning myself because I didn't put the stupid lid on! 2) Clean up this mess, then attempt to find the correct lid, see that there is none (I'm in culinary school, this happens a lot...) and decide this round flat aluminum mini pizza pan should work ok if I hold it down hard enough. It didn't, more soup went all over the place anyway, and I couldn't hold the pan down because it got too hot. 3) Clean up the mess a second time, then when almost done, accidentally hit the on switch on the blender and *blat!* again all over the work area. Yes, three times cleaning up the table with all of our blenders and robocoups, removing soup, pea and potato bits from everywhere. Somedays I wonder how I manage to leave my home without both legs stuffed down one side of my checks. Pat

Ah, that was the other part of that gig I forgot, the cheese! We stuffed ourselves with three different kinds of it, the favorite being this cheese with bits of black truffle all throughout, plus slices of bread and pear. The ahi tartare leftovers also made up part of Sunday's lunch. It got pretty sick between all that and the truffled hors deouvres and tastes of caviar. Pat