markovitch

okay, i'm letting the cat outta the bag here... i've kept this one secret for a while. AVOCADOS. slice them and dip them in chocolate, make a mouse outta them, they are super creamy and impart no discernable flavor (the color can be weird) try this: cube avocados and mount on toothpicks. freeze. melt, temper, and melt some good dark chocolate dip avocados in chocolate, set on parchment. spritz with lime juice. right before the chocolate fully hardens, use a simply piece of the skin to add avocado-like indentations to the chocolate. they are fantastic. oh and Robert Pickarski invented a cheesecake crust which uses couscous as its base. it is really good.

yo mudpuppie, i think this might be your missing link Regardless of which religion/ethos/ belief system you examine what you should or should not do with the world around you comes down to entitlement. If, like John has stated above, we humans have 'dominion' over the earth, than the logical conclusion is that we should dominate as we please. I have a tough time buying that, since a human is retelling the story of creation and it just so happens we are at the top of the tower. It reminds me of Plato's Republic, in which (i am sure most of you have read it at some point) after much rumination, Plato, a philosopher, decides that the best person to have dominion over a rebublic would be... gasp... a philosopher king! The question of Dominion seems crucial to a lot of religious issues, not just meat. What about women's rights, the family structure, government (or institutions of any tye for that matter)? Christianity is the only Religion of which I can claim any modicum of expertise, so i will stay away from the others. But, There is a clear hierarchy of dominion in the christian church; these hierarchies exist on many scales and in many situations. The catholic church, as a whole, is one such hierarchy. The food chain is a hierarchy. The family structure is a hierarchy. In years past certain ethnicities of humans and certain genders were ranked only slightly above some animals. As time passes, these antiquated, sometimes misguided and sometimes dangerous conceptions of hierarchy and their connected notions of dominion dissolve. My question is, is the consumption of animals one of these heirarchies? Will it break down over time? There are numerous vegetarian and a handful of Vegan cultures around the world, so it isn't an issue of viability and survival. on a related note, why is everything a hierarchy? can't we just take a piece of a pie? sorry, i hope that does not come off as harsh, but I personally believe that there are a lot of catch-22s and problems with christian dogma. and, for the record, before Adam and Eve manage to fuck everything up, genesis 1:29-31 "And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good..." one might argue that eating meat is a facet of original sin. (i am not opening that can o' whoop-ass) There is a really interesting book by Carol Adams about the connection between vegetarianism and feminism called "The Sexual politics of Meat." You may like it, you may hate it (i'm somewhere in between, i thought she took a core correlation that seemed solid and stretched it to the point of failure) but it is a scarcely seen perspective on this issue. for the record, I am of the opinion that I was not put here to make anyone/thing else's life shorter or more difficult. I believe i have dominion over nothing but myself.

My great grandfather tore the guts outta his grandfather clock during prohibition (n.b. he was a fairly high ranking officer in the Army)... it now belongs to my grandfatherm who has rebuilt it to a working clock once again. He did, however, put me on the list to get it as inheritence, with specific instructions to revert it to its old uses. ~m

Now that i am no longer so horribly addicted to the gooey green stuff i have noticed a lot of things about the properties of munchie food (at least mine and my friends'): 1) it must be bland. All that smoke inhalation infuriates your mouth and throat so much that spicy food takes a much greater toll 2) it must be plentiful. there is no greater buzzkill than running outta guacamole half way through Half-Baked 3) for sweets, there is alimit to how rich and how sweet it can be. Maybe this one is specific to me, but too much sugar whilst very high causes my pancreas much distress. of and nothing beats putting the weed in your food to begin with. I know we e-gulleteers speak volumes about infused oils, but no one has mentioned this one. Adding a little THC never hurts. oh, and tommy, you were broke becuase you were smoking so much pot

Giggidy giggidy giggidy aalllllll riiiiight! i miss that show so much.... brilliance. I found a freestanding particleboard-with-cheap-veneer bar in the basement of a house that i was gutting last summer. Boss gave it to me and it now stands proudly in the house. Its empty of all but mixers, because i am in college, i have roomates, and we can't keep a bottle of liquor in the house for more than a week. i'll post a pic later if i have time. ~m

i will NEVER watch that movie again I wrote a paper for a class last semester profiling Pacino's "cuban" accent-- how he 'manages' to kind of sound cuban without really sounding cuban at all... i ended up watching the movie, beginning to end, about 16 times. got good remarks though.

thanks everyone... now i've to save my pennies for the resurrection of these beauties!

I just inherited an old but sexy set of copper pots that are badly in need of re-tinning. does anyone know a place in PDX that could re tin them for me? how much does re-tinning cost? i've noticed that newer copper cookware has a stainless-steel lining instead of tin. is it possible to have s.s. replace the aged and worn out tin? thanks

nope. i have heard of folks adding water to oil to prevent scorching, but that's it.

other than fresh ingredients (fish is pretty easy in PDX) i think the rice is the best indicator. a good test is Whether the rice is well made, and the right kind. Tani's (woodstock and 49th, RIP) made good sushi but towards the end they started using really cheap rice. you could really tell. oh... another good one is to go in and sit at the bar. if the chef's knife skills don't boggle your mind, i'd leave.

so I'm not much of a sushi fan, but i'd like to hear opinions of PDX joints. I've been to some of them, all in SE: Saburos Mio Sushi Yokos. where else is good?

George & Son Cutlery downtown will do it for you (well) or sell you the equipment necessary a lot more cheaply than sur le table or elsewhere.

in my experience, in areas of Mexico where Avocados (Aguacates) are available, guacamole is to mexico as pasta sauce is to italy-- everyone has their own idea of the best recipe, and there are regional variations based on product availability... and everyone else's recipes are wrong. When the spaniards hit Mexico, they referred to guacamole as 'mantequilla de pobres" or in english, "poor (man's) butter" (or most literally, butter of the poor) since it was the favored creamy complement to meals amongst the peasants who coudn't afford butter. Guacamole first hit the USA under this moniker, i seem to remember a mention of 'mantequilla de pobres' in a James Beard book. As to the most base form, Avocados, Finely diced (red) tomatos, white onion and lime juice. This is just my opinion. Avocados provide a great vegetable base for elevating other flavors, just as the garbanzo bean in hummus has provided a base for 'experimental' versions. If it's avocado dip and still resembles avocados, i'd call it guacamole. and you're not a slut, you're adventurous :) (edit) ...oh and i am pretty sure guacamole is a mass noun in spanish, it is only pluralized when there exists more than one entity of guacamole. e.g. mucho guacamole (a lot of quacamole) muchos diferentes guacamoles (many different types of guacamoles)

my mother refused to serve me peas, prussel sprouts and lima beans. I'm glad, because if she had, i'd hate them. one thing she did screw up consistently were Beets. I love beets now but it took a long time for me to even touch them again.

fava bean flour and tapioca starch. As with most things GF, substitutions must be ratios and combinations of things. when i make roux i put inthe flour until it is still a bit watery, because if you over do the flour you'll get clumps, and i finish it off with tapioca starch. complicated, i know, but it works for me. good luck!

So for the past week Portland has been snowed/iced in, and i have done nothing but cook and rent movies. I started hunting out food related movies, but i haven't found any good ones. I have seen: Mostly Martha, a german romance flick... but like most german romance flick the final goal is friendship not love. Dinner Rush, starring Danny Aiello (sp?) and the head chef looks like John leguizamo any better ones out there? am i just going to have to wait for the Kitchen Confidential movie? edit: one day i will learn to type

Daniel Boulud's 'Letters to a young Chef' its part of this 'mentor books series' that hs produced some serious shite (Daniel DeSouza's 'Letters to a Young Conservative' in shich he indicates the best way to find a liberal is to look for juice drinkers) but it was fairly interesting... though if it had been longer than 90 pages it would have been too much

this one is better Chick Corea asked for Kim chee and hummus

wu-tang requested... oh that's too easy

cleaver all the way baby. i just took back the one i gave my parents-- they kept cutting themselves and complained it was too unwieldy. Now it needs some time on the stone, but i've never sharpened a cleaver like this before. Is there a different technique? it does not seem to have a v-angle blade, everythng is smooth from edge to bolster. -m

is it just me or do most of these 'ethnically located foodstuff terms' american in origin? in spanish (as far as i know) they are more likely to adapt the foreign word itself (sandwich in spanish pronunciation) as opposed to inventing a term such as 'pan con carne americano...' it also seems strange that so much of 'american food' is 'foreign borne.' at Denny's you can get a hamburger, french fries, salad with russian dressing and french silk pie. hmmm........... sorry, etymology is an interesting subject.

In the new issue of Saveur there is an article about Ethiopia and Coffee. I liked it, except, like most Saveur stories, it is a bit brief. Anyone else read it?

? And ? sorry, they don't eat out because they say all the restaurants have watered the food down for american tastes. They, however, have the benefit of talented wives. Honestly, the food i've had at their houses barely resembled the food i've had at the viet restaurants.

i work with a bunch of vietnamese guys-- none of them eat out.

MARY'S LUCKY DOLLAR MARKET best mexican food in the world. Southside, a little ghetto and definetly not a 'restaurant.' to gice you an idea, however, if you don't call by 9am, there is no soup for you. Mary makes the best tortillas in america. i haven't been back in years (i live in oregon now) but i think it is in the neighborhood of 10th st and Utah ave. i know this doesn't relly fit your criteria, but you will have an adventure. oh Janos Wilder is amazing. i went to preschool with his daughter. Eat his food.