ludja

Interesting, thanks for the link--I live in an area in the U.S. with one of the highest densities of Indian immigrants and restaurants but I've never heard of it. I need to check with some of my Indian friends to find out if it is also out here.

All of these sound great SobaAddict--I've made the shaved salad with fennel, mushooms, etc and variations a number of times and it is one of my favorite salads. When I don't have access to fresh truffles I have used some truffle oil--although I know some e-gulleteers aren't fond of this option. Also grilled baby artichokes are simply great. Two other preps I use often that I got from Chez Panisse cookbooks are: Artichoke Tart (sauted sliced hearts in butter and olive oil, then toss with lemon juice, s & p and herb butter (tarragon, parsley and chervil), custard of egg, dijon mustard, s & p and cream get poured over all in puff pastry shell and then baked) This is a great Easter dish and can be a main dish for vegetarians). Artichoke Ragout with New Finglerling Potatoes (cook potatoes separately, then saute spring onions in butter and olive oil. Add cleaned and quarterd baby artichokes, water, season and cover. Stew over low heat ~ 10-15 min until chokes are tender. Add potatoes, some nice olive oil, parsely and cook a little longer until liquid is a "silky emulsion". This makes a great side or main dish. ooohh... and Duarte's cream of artichoke soup is excellent; it's always a tough toss up though since I also love their cream of green chile soup. Either way you get the great homemade bread though!

Balti?

On a related note, I've never had shrimp n grits anywhere in the USA besides the Triangle. It's been a long time, but I'd love to have some Carolina bbq with some Brunswick stew right about now. I'm with you on Eastern Carolna BBQ (as supreme). Re: the shrimp and grits though, it is a dish that originally comes from the Carolina shores (although I've only had it at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill and at home when I've made it). Here is a quote from Bill Neal's Southern Cooking:

Although obvious, one of the real highlights of our trip was seeing the Michelangelo sculptures; besides David, the Medici Tombs and the Pieta in the museum behind the Duomo (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo). I also found the church at Santa Maria Novella to be among my favorites. Another absolutely fascinating church besides the other major ones is Orsanmichele (not far from the Piazza del Signoria). The building is a granary from the 1200's that got converted to a church not much later. Intriguing architecture and a special Mary inside. Also nice if you have time, is the food market at San Lorenzo; lots of great places to buy food to eat or take home--butchers, bakeries, wine stores, dry goods and upstairs is a vegetable/fruit market. I got some great deals on dried porcini to bring home for gifts (nice and light also!). Many days we got up relatively early and strolled around to find a new cafe and have our morning espresso and maybe something to eat. It was a great way to mingle/observe locals and the flow of things--even though it was August and there were many tourists besides us. Besides eating at the right places, we found it nicer to eat a little bit later in the evening for the same reason. Besides the art and food, one of our favorite things was just walking through different neighborhoods. I especially liked the old Roman neighborhood along the river between Ponte Vecchio and Ponte S. Trinita and further west. Also Dante's neighborhood. Across the Arno in the neighbord of Santa Spirito there are many artisan and craft studios for anything you could imagine, and walking around you could sometimes see artisans in action.

Re: the steep curvy drive down from the mountains in that area .. we took a "designated driver" with us for that very reason!! Will try the one in Cupertino the next time I visit the area! Thanks for the tip! True---a lot of great Santa Cruz Mountain Wineries (David Bruce, Storrs, in addition to Bonny Doon and Ridge) but a designated driver is definately necessary!

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful dinner with us--and snagging the photos as well! The whole blog has been just fantastic. What a week of food. Incroyable!

I already see a few of my favorites--Joseph Phelps, Gundlach Bundschu and Bonny Doon. Another favorite is Ridge Winery; especially their tasting room in Cupertino, on top of the Santa Cruz Mountains. They always have great wines to taste and on a nice day you have spectacular views of the bay, the valley and can even see SF. Nice picnic area up there to enjoy a picnic and some wine also. (But not too much wine, the drive down is steep and curvy. ) ridge winery

Here's a candidate for a veg. side dish: Brussel Sprouts in Celery Sauce Cook brussel sprouts in salted water until tender. Cook chopped celery in 1 cup water until tender; save water from celery. Make a roux with butter and flour and then gradually add in celery cooking water and milk. Cook until thick. Season with celery salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add cooked celery back in. Pour this lovely celery melange over the boiled brussel sprouts and serve from: The Southern Junior League Cookbook

I glanced through a few of the first cookbooks I bought in grad school. Here's a beaut from "Great Meals in One Dish": Frankfurter Sukiyaki 1 pound frankfurters 2 cups fresh spinach 4 carrots 1 med. onion 1/4 lb mushrooms 1 can (16 oz) bean sprouts (didn't know these came in cans!) 4 Tbs veg. oil 1/2 cup soy sauce 4 Tbs sugar 1/2 cup sake or dry sherry Cut up frankfurters and vegetables in chunks. The cooking method is "a la minute" for each diner (4). Heat 1/4 of veg oil in skillet; add frankfurters. Pour in 1/4 of soy sauce and sprinkle meat with 1 Tbs of sugar. Cook until frankfurters are glazed. Push to one side and add in 1/4 of vegetables. Sprinkle with sherry and cook until crisp tender. Remove to individual serving plates and repeat 3 times. Ugh!!!! This almost makes me ill just reading it.

Whichever it is (and Happy Birthday in advance) be sure to post on the new thread for sharing b-day dinners... Birthday Eating

I second that request...

Rome: Pasta Carbonara, Fettucini all'Alfredo, Artichokes, Roman-Style (steamed, and stuffed w/garlic, lemon, parsely, mint) Genoa: Pesto alla Genovese Gouda, Netherlands: Stroopwafel (a little difficult to describe these, but it is a type of large cookie made with two waffled-crisp butter cookie layers and filled with caramel inside). Lubeck, Germany: Marzipan Vienna: Viennese Coffee Venice: Bellini Cocktail (Prosecco and White Peach Nectar) Florence: Crostini di fegato (Chicken Liver Crostini) Paris: macarons (do other people agree? I learned about macarons on e-gullet (unfortunately after my first visit to Paris, but these seem to be 'native' and special to Paris. (This is a fun thread, reliving my travels; since--as I'm sure most e-Gulleteer's do--I love to find the dishes that are a specialty in the cities I visit)

Thinking about beverages... Can also use blackberry syrup/juice for making drinks--club soda + juice. Also might be a nice addition to homemade lemonade. I also like to flavor plain yogurt on my own... besides blackberry yogurt it would probably make a very interesting lassi.. edited: oops, I see now that you were looking for other things to do with the savory blackberry sauce!-- not other ideas for the blackberry juice per say...

Strasbourg: Tarte Flambe and Backeofe Venice: Risi e Bisi From Austria: Vienna: Wienerschnitzel, Sachertorte, Kaiserschmarren, Tafelspitz mit Apfelkrein, Wiener Backhendl (Kaiserschmarren: Emperor's Pancake (a shredded sweet pancake-like dish lightened w/eggwhites and flavored with rum, lemon peel and raisins) (Tafelspitz mit Apfelkrein: an Austrian "pot au feu" or boiled beef with apple-horseradish relish/sauce) (Wiener Backhendl: Viennese Fried Chicken) Salzburg: Salzburger Nockerln (a type of Austrian Souflee flavored with lemon and rum or white wine) Innsbruck: Tiroler SpeckKnodel (Bread Dumpling with Bacon or Speck) Linz: Linzertorte (tart with ground almond dough, filled with black currant jelly and covered with lattice topping)

While on the topic of double yolks, I recently had a carton of eggs in which over half of the 12 were double-yolked! Kind of weird.

I'm also a big fan of Campari before dinner. If I'm not having a Negroni, I may have an Americano, else, I guess to qualify as an "aperitif' I'll just have it on the rocks w/a orange twist. I looked up the 'Shakerato' and that sounds great too--few dashes of lemon juice, shaken over ice and served up straight with a lemon peel. For another mood: Champagne

Varmint, thanks for the well-placed 'refinements' to my post. I forgot about the name "Lexington Style" for Western Style and got carried away waxing poetic using 'pulled pork' rather than just bbq, which as you say, is what any North Cackalackian would say. I agree too that bbq is not what springs to mind as a Raleigh specialty---and that Lexington has more bbq places than Greensboro/W-S. I guess I was stretching a little to encompass "food in that area" under 'signature dishes'. It seems like some of the cities listed may not really have signature dishes or that they have been obscured or changed in the mists of time. It might also be interesting to have a thread that discusses 'signature dishes' of cities/towns but without specifying the towns--i.e. Lexington for Western NC style BBQ. I wonder if Raleigh has any "old dishes/foods" that it used to be known for before the 'great nothern hordes' descended? I don't really think of sweet potato pie re: Raleigh either.

I've heard a bit about the "butter burger", but is it only one restaurant? (maybe that is ok, even if so). When you mentiond that it reminded me of another dish I thought is really big in Milwaukee (from good friends that live there and when I've visited): frozen custard. Milwaukee Frozen Custard and from: frozen custard in Milwaukee When I googled to check on 'Milwaukee' and 'frozen custard', I came up with a bunch of tag lines saying, Milwaukee: Home of Brats, Beer and Frozen Custard (All three sound like proper nominees)

Having a recipe is better than a restaurant, but have you tried the DanDan Mein at Brandy Ho's Hunan Cuisine on Colombus? I do know if it is the style you are used to but I find them to be very good-and the best out of what I 've tasted. (Great texture on the noodles in addition to the sauce). I've not had tons of success with a few different recipes I've tried at home. Maybe time to try bleudauvergne's recipe. Thanks for it!

I'm sure Pim will add to the description, but I believe the translation for "Kurbiskernbrot" is "Pumpkin Seed Bread".

ooh, just thought of some good ones for Greensboro/Winston Salem: Moravian Sugar Cookies and Western-Style Carolina Pulled Pork (Large Moravian settlement in Winston Salem going back many years; they are famous for their wafer thin sugar and spice cookies) (NC pulled pork can really be separated into "East" and "West" versions. West has vinegar, tomato and spices; East has no tomato. So you could change Raleigh/Durham to "Eastern Style Carolina Pulled Pork) If you have a non-coastal South Carolina town in there, Colombia?, could have South Carolina Pulled Pork (with mustard in the sauce)

I am much more at home in this club than the 'evil axis' one. I was actually really surprised to the see the wide variety of things I really love on people's 'evil list'. I had to think really hard to come up with margarine (which I think wouldn't count based on your starting post), licorice and calves brains. I've gotton over the childhood aversion and enjoy anise-flavored things. Calves brains we can take off also b/c they are probably not a good thing to eat in the age of 'mad cow'... Almost all vegs that I didn't really like as a child became that way because of preparation or source (canned). My mom was a great cook, but in that time and place she relied more on canned things for some vegetables--like beets. We had great fresh vegetables in the summer though. Other revelations were eventually having olives other than jarred with pimento or canned black ones (ugh).

I second Beans "thank you"! Also a question, have you tried the grapefruit recipe also? Is that just adding the grapefruit and alcohol to the base vin d'orange recipe? I just got a cookbook at Christmas called Aperitif by Georgeanne Brennan. Haven't tried anything yet, but there is an interesting recipe for "Vin de Peche" using fresh peach leaves! One recipe uses only wine (white) and cinnamon and vanilla bean. The second is fortified and has vodka and sugar in addition to the leaves and white wine. I'd like to try this if I could get a hold of unsprayed leaves... Some other wine-based aperitifs in the book are: Vin de Gentiane (dried root of yellow-flowered gentians) Guignolet (cherry; made with either cherry leaves or cherries and fortified or not) Vin de Noix (green walnuts) They all sound intriguing if one can get the ingredients.

excellent list; I didn't have my thinking cap on tight enough... Didn't know about the Chicken Tetrazzini... Also between your description of Celery Victor and the other celery thread I feel compelled to make this soon.