ludja

nice suggestions, tanabutler and thanks for mentioning that Tres Amigos is in Half Moon Bay. I mentioned Duartes in Pescadero if one is traveling between SF and Monterrey; not as a separate road trip. It is not out of the way; just about 2 miles off of Hwy 1. All people from outside the area (and also in the bay area) have been really happy with the visit there; it has a lot of charm of the 'old West' and great regional food. Can you tell I like the place? Anyway, there are a lot of good choices between SF and Monterrey, and nice to have the additional suggestions in Santa Cruz also. edited to add: another great reason to go to Zuni is if you like oysters. They always have a great selection of local and other west coast oysters.

Ditto on Zuni and Boulevard-both are quintessential SF restaurants--CA/meditarranean cuise. Some recs for some more casual cuisine: Brandy Ho's Hunan Cuisine on Columbus in North Beach. Check out Molinari's wonderful Italian deli up the street for snacks or things to take along. Stop in Stella Pastries also on Colombus for great Italian pastry such as cannolis. Ton Kiang on Geary in the Richmond for dim sum. Marnee Thai on Irving in the Sunset. Other nice place near SF MOMA, is Thirsty Bear Brewery. The food is spanish tapas and is very good; plenty of seating; pretty during the day or pm. If you're interested in Afghan food and can't get it easily near home; consider The Helmand in North Beach. If you are driving up or down Hwy 1 between Monterrey and SF--stop in Pescardero for Duarte's Restaurant Tavern (right off of Hwy 1) for famous articoke soup and green chile soup with freshly baked homemade bread. Also, homemade pies for dessert. Seafood is also a specialty. Beautiful orginal building (always a restaurant/bar) since the days of timber industry in Santa Cruz Mtns (turn of the century). It would be tough to pick between the two, but another awesome place to eat on Hwy 1 is "3 Amigos" Mexican Restaurant (just south of junction w/Hwy 92). Incredible carnitas burritos, creamy horchatas to drink.... Oh--and while I don't know too many restaurants near Fisherman's Wharf--one place you might enjoy is Ana Mandara at Ghiradelli Square. Owned by Don Johnson and Cheech Marin, it is a rather dramatic, multilevel space that is supposed to invoke French Colonial Vietnam. The food is pan-Asian with emphasis on Vietnamese. I've enjoyed dinner there, but also go to the beautiful bar area for drinks and appetizers...

I was curious about some issues after reading this thread and decided to look through some of my cookbooks, including Lidia Bastianich's, Lidia's Italian Table. She gives two recipes for fresh pasta; "Basic Egg Pasta Dough" (2 cups all-purpose flour, 3 large eggs, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp evoo, warm water as needed) and "Semolina Pasta Dough" (2 1/2 cups APF, 1 1/2 cups semolina, 1 large egg, 1 tsp salt, warm water as needed). Anyway, she says that fresh pasta in northern Italy is typically made with low protein content flour, '00'. She says that the closest equivalent in the US is all-purpose flour (APF) as Melkor described. She says that in the south where durum wheat (the hardest wheat) grows fresh pasta is usually made from flour ground from durum, i.e semolina. She also mentions that the textures of the two doughs are very different--cooked fresh or if dried at room temp. first. She mentions that although fresh semolina pasts can be be made with 100% semolina; she uses a mix. I guess I'll leave this without further comment. I have another question for people though, getting back to the original question on this post--which, if either, of these types of doughs would be easier for a beginner? (I've only made the "egg pasta' type doughs,, ie. just all purpose flour; that was not too difficult).

rat bastard... (I just wanted to say that; actually I don't mind cornichons in the sandwich at all; they look great!)

Here's a recent thread on the Carmel/Monterrey area: Carmel, Monterrey For SF, I'm sure people will ask for some details re: type of food and/or price range... Could also be helpful to browse around the California boards a bit; lots of SF suggestions there. Welcome to egullet by the way!

I can't decide whether reading this thread is helping or hurting me in keeping my Ash Wednesday (Lenten) fast today... ! In one sense the evocative descriptions can almost substitute for actually eating the dishes, but on the other hand, they have me salivating!

YES YES YES! it sounds silly, but i often top with roasted pepperoncini. i like the acidic bite. i'm a freak for acidity. for the same reason, good green olives... had always only had black olives on pizza but now I love the bite of the green ...but not for Monica I guess!

Wow, thanks for this variation... sounds fantastic. (I'm a big cherry pepper fan). I've gotton a lot of good ideas from this thread. My 'basic' tuna sandwich always has lemon juice, mayo (homemade or Hellmans/Best Foods), bl. pepper, grated onion and either celery or carrot. (Carrot makes a good substitute for me when there's no celery in the larder). Toasted bread. (If grilled with cheese: Swiss, please). Nicoise-inspired versions packed into a good crust French roll are, of course, great too.

Great cookbook; I haven't tried this yet though. Thanks for the rec. The texture seems like it would be very nice. (When summer comes, try the recipe for cantaloupe creams if you haven't... I serve them with blueberry sauce). Also, welcome to egullet!

Great tip for plane food. I've always loved eating raw green and red bell peppers. My mom would cut them in long strips like carrot sticks and I'd eat them alongside sandwiches. I'm intrigued by your mention of whole preserved oranges. Are they bitter oranges, in syrup? How are they eaten or what are they used for? Can you describe these more? Really enjoying your blog; what a bonus with your trip to Barcelona! This only reinforces my desire to visit there. I guess in Barcelona your day is 'only starting' at 8 pm! Thanks.

Bienvenue Vlad! I've also always made them with a pastry bag also--plain round tip, ~3/8 inch opening. Pipe onto sheet holding the tip almost vertical. Hold tip close to sheet in order to get very thin layer of batter. I remember enough of my five years of French to read most of the above--but too difficult to write...

Thank you glucose333. I assumed it was sheets but thanks for the confirmation and conversion. mmm... Pistachio Bavarian.

During visits growing up to my grandparents in Austria they would always want to have some different things for breakfast--but all we wanted were those rolls with good sweet butter and either local honey or my Grandmother's apricot jam. Besides the small rolls, they have similar ones that are in the shape of a crescent, called 'kipfel'. I'm not sure what the french equivalent would be for these breads/rolls although I bet there is one. This was my first great, great bread memory. In CT growing up we were also lucky to have an excellent rye bread called "Waterbury Rye". They distribute all over CT to Austrian, German, Polish delis and such. It has a nice dense crumb and a great crust. Hmmm, perfect to eat with butter and excellent ham like a Westphalian. Can only get this kind of rye from a real bakery. In SF Bay Area I'm lucky to have Acme bread; I love their walnut wheat bread for breakfast or with a cheese course (many SF restaurants use it for this). (Acme has a good rye also). Although I have not done a lot of serious bread baking, I would try if I could get this recipe or something close to it.

Ambassade d’Auvergne in the Marais. (I know nothing of their hours but they were open in August (also vacation time); wonderful food).

Thanks for the recipe glucose333. Sorry for the layman's question, but what is the unit on the gelatin? (leaves of some size, ounces?). Thanks!

Nice descriptions. We also stopped by Bouchon Bakery for the first time before the Northern CA potluck this past Saturday. As I mentioned in the other thread, we used it to maintain our fortitude between visits to Acacia, Artesa, and the Hess Collection Wineries. I really enjoyed the pate de fruits (I tried the cassis/? and mango/apricot ones). Yum, intense flavor and great texture. I had never had french-style macarons before so I was eager to try them. I got a caramel and a vanilla. Now, I have no benchmark to compare them with--but I really liked them. Jschyun's comments only inspire me to taste more examples. (The other two flavors that day were raspberry and chocolate) We did also get a taste of the peanut butter chocolate mousse cake that Jschyun brought to the party. It had a very nice unprocessed peanut butter taste and the chocolate was not overwhelming. Peanut butter/chocolate is not usually my favorite combo, but I enjoyed the cake very much. It wasn't too sweet and had a nice underlying flavor that at first I thought was coffee-like but was likely due to the good chocolate and not too much sugar. Thanks again for bringing it Jschyun; it was great to be able to taste another Bouchon creation.

Pim--if you're still here, please comment. I really love this dish would like to know more!

I'm no expert in Thai cooking, but I have made Mangoes and Sticky Rice at home quite often and had it in lots of restaurants. My recipes have a thick coconut cream sauce spooned over the mangoes (and this is also what I've had eating out). For the 1 1/2 cups cups of sticky rice you used, here is the recipe for the sauce: 3/4 thick cup coconut cream 2 Tbs sugar 1/4 tsp salt Just mix all three ingredients together in a saucepan and heat until just boiling. Then turn off heat and let cool. I use 'regular' coconut milk for cooking with the rice and the thick cream for making the sauce. If using canned coconut milk, chill the can and spoon off some of the thickened layer on top to use for the thick cream (can mix with some 'regular' coconut milk; just want the final coconut for sauce to be thicker than the other used for rice cooking) I f making your own milk and cream from coconut try the following: for the coconut milk: 3 cups grated dry or fresh coconut and 5 cups hot or cold water, respectivelly for the coconut cream: 3 cups grated dry or fresh coconut and 3 cups hot or cold water, respectively. To make any of these, put coconut and water in bowl and let sit for 15 minutes. Mix well by hand, then strain through strainer or cheesecloth. In restaurants I've had the dish where the rice is warm or not. I prefer it the following way: warm rice, chilled mangoes, sauce at room temperature. And yes... toasted seseame seeds sprinkled over all is very good. For me this has made a wonderful dish that tastes as good as the best I've had in restaurants. I'll give the caveat that I defer to any student of Thai cooking though, since all I've learned of Thai cooking has been through cookbooks and restaurant eating in the SF Bay area. (I've never been to Thailand). edited to add: and yes, if you aren't already doing this and per Comfort Me's post, salt is added both in cooking the rice and as above, for the sauce. I've cooked rice with the following amounts: 1 1/2 cups sticky rice, 3/4 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.

Could be; I do think the ones I had previously that were not rubbery were labeled "belly" or "soft belly". (It would be fun to see Ute Lemper in a smaller venue like a cabaret).

For the fried artichokes, are the chokes cleaned and quartered; or are baby ones fried whole?

Hi Pan-- I think you already know my weakness for tortes (I loved your earlier descriptions of Hungarian ones)-- can you give anymore details on the Pesadicher cake and where it comes from? Thanks!

I've had really good sushi at Japanese Kitchen. (I've been there ~ 3-4 times). Japanese Kitchen In the Park Square, Albuquerque Near Winrock Mall.

Liptauer cheese served with dark bread would be good; maybe could work with some veggies like celery. It would certainly fit in with Czech food. (I use cream cheese as base; try to get one without gelatin in it). liptauer cheese

I only know one Australian/New Zealand dessert---pavlova. Maybe hard to get some fruits like strawberries this time of year but kiwis and oranges may work. I made one with passion fruit puree swirled into the whipped cream and it was pretty great. Could make one big one or else individual ones...

Just got my March issue of Saveur today. If you have access to it; there is a short article by John Winthrop Haeger along with some tasting notes for primarily Austrian 2002 Gruner Veltliners.