ludja

You could have a "New England" Theme main course... Clam Chowder and Fresh Baked Cornbread with butter and Cold Beer Could make a pot of vegetable chowder as another option. (I've made fresh cornbread for crowds before---Super Bowl party w/chile, Carolina BBQ... It's easy to have all the dry ingredients measured out in separate containers for each batch; then just add buttermilk and go. The fresh warm cornbread is always a hit). Note: guacamole is a must for me at Super Bowl parties!

Sounds like you've stumbled across Violet Crumble. Yes? No? I like marmite. The key is to eat very, very, very little. Spread a tiny bit on toast. A little goes a long way. An amount the size of, say, a pea, is about right for a piece of bread. No, not Violet Crumble.

Thanks for sharing your experience cooking the Zuni roast chicken at home. And please share your impressions of tonight's dinner at Zuni. Which reminds me; haven't been at Zuni in the last six months...

I like Absinthe a lot; see if you can fit in their pomme frites as well and if you like cocktails, they have an interesting list of older ones. If you like chccolate; I've really enjoyed the Scharffenburger pots de creme there as well. Please keep an open mind w.r.t. Zuni. It is one of my absolutely favorite SF restaurants and I have always had a great time there and really enjoyed the food. The chicken is great if you (and your dining partner) are in the mood for that. I haven't had the Caesar salad yet, but always manage to get other good salads there, for example, celery, house-cured anchovies, lemon and EVOO. Had another wonderful appetizer there that I can recall that included perfect proscuitto rolled around sauteed bitter greens and served with olives. I can never resist the oysters, but Absinthe is one of the other good places to get them in SF. Zuni's string fries are also excellent, and I've also had great fish there. Another memorable dish was some herbed, grilled shrimp served on excellently, olive-oil stewed white beans. I remember a perfectly grilled sandab! Again, if you like cocktails, also leave space for one at Zuni. And the cheese plates... One of my favorite things about Zuni is the choice on the menu. There are always so many things that I want to order that it is difficult to decide. Sad to hear about FoodZealot's experience with the ricotta gnocchi; it is also one of their 'sig' dishes, but I've never tried it. I envy you; have a great time on Sunday!

One of the more vivid food gathering and eating scenes in a book for me was the "catching of the eels" and the subsequent obssessive overeating of eels and other smoked fish in the The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass. You may or may not want to read it; so I've attached the sections as links to make it optional: fishing for eels and obsessive fish eating edited to note: Gunter Grass won the Nobel prize for this book; it's an interesting read if you've not read it. A good movie was also made from it.

I apologize profusely in advance to our Canadian and/or English brethren, but one of the most nasty 'food products' I have had was a chocolate bar. I can't remember the name, but here are the clues in case someone can figure it out: 1. can usually purchase in Canada but not in the US (may be popular in Montreal, don't know about other countries) 2. the chocolate is 'nominally' milk chocolate and has a (purposefully) wrinkled, bark-like exterior which I guess it to create some desired effect, not sure what though 3. there is some type of unidentifiable crunchy matter in the middle of the bar; it may even be interspersed with the chocolate 4. I did do a little searching on the web but couldn't find it; I'm really not sure what country it is made in. I'm sure if you grow up with this candy, it may be an old nostalgic flavor from childhood, but this was one of the few items I've eaten where I spit the food back out of my mouth (I had opportunity to do so discretely). The chocolate was wax-like with very little chocolate flavor and had some other indescribable but undeniable off-taste and the crunch texture inside was also somehow very displeasing (crumbled in a weird way). On a side note, I've alluded to the aesthetics of this candy above but let me describe further. My mouth was primed for disappointment just by the look of the thing as I peeled it out of its cocoon-like wrapper. Not to be vile, but it literallly looked like a turd!!! This may have influenced my subsequent taste rejection... Whew... just reliving the memories....

Here are three books I found at a discount store: Quick Pickles by Schlessinger, Willoughby and George. (Looks like a lot of fun; international pickles, same authors as "Thrill of the Grill") Aperitif by Georgeanne Brennan (includes recipes for Vins Maison, description of classic french aperitfis, food to go with) Shellfish Cookbook by A.D. Livingston (Looks like it has a lot of nice basic, and regional recipes; mainly American; I bought this just to tortuously exacerbate my feelings of clam-deprivation after traveling from CT (for the holidays) back to the West Coast)

Curious how you feel about: Amber India Mountain View, CA 2290 El Camino Real 650.968.7511 Northern Indian, tandoori Amber India Review Sue's Indian Cuisine Mountain View, CA 215 Castro Street 650.969.1112 some Southern Indian Udupi Palace Sunnyvale, CA 976 E. El Camino Real (408) 830-9600 South Indian Vegetarian udupi review1 I am a special fan of Sue's; haven't been disappointed in over 10 years. Flavors always bright and balanced. Some favorites are: Lamb Vindaloo, Green Chile Chicken, Mushroom Kofta Curry.

Ha! You mock me. Not for long!

or a lonely goatherd...

edit: oops

Any other chinese restaurants in the Bay Area that you could recommend? Cantonese in particular.

The movies of Satyajit Ray are incredibly beautiful and moving. I have deeply enjoyed all of them I've seen. They can be difficult to find in the US but it may be easier in England. I don't know which movies may or may not be set in the area of Delhi, but the "Apu Trilogy" - "Pather Panchali" (1955), "Aparajito" (1957), and "The World of Apu" (1959)- is very good. (think it is set primarily in Kolkata (Calcutta). If he has movies set in Delhi, someone else may know. On a food note, the movies show so many details of people's lives, that there are invariably many interesting scenes of food being prepared and eaten...

A tortilla press is great for homemade corn tortillas... (IMO, worth the effort, unless you have a good local factory)

Good point; that was my second epiphany with cumin---no more preground! The taste was so much better with freshly ground that this experience 'turned the tide' in my spice use. I switched to mainly using whole spices and mashing them in a mortar to order.

Interesting topic. I think the first time I noticed how much I really liked cumin was after tasting some Leyden cumin cheese. Previously, I just hadn't had cumin much on its own (primarily only in commercial chile powder mix, yuck) and wasn't familiar with the wonderful lemony overtones. Now I love to use it with grilled shrimp and roast pork. Looking forward to hearing other people's favorite uses... edited to add that I will definately try the cumin burgers...

Thank you Mark; for some reason I can't get it to work; but you've gotton me on the right track.

For a good lighter style wine that might appeal to someone easing down or exploring wines, how about dry style roses? (sorry I don't know how to add the accent on the 'e'). Although a few CA wineries are starting to make more of these, I can't remember any now offhand. It would be safest to stick with French roses. I usuallly drink these at a cooler temperature than most wines and more in the summer, but...

One of my favorite pizza topping combos that I recently discovered is: italian sausage green olives (not jarred pimento stuffed kind) can also add fresh tomatoes... I really love the briny taste of green olives against the sausage, cheese, etc. Have ordered it with a few different people now and they are all hooked! This has nothing in common with the taste of canned black olives on pizza... I've had this on restaurant, thin crust, East coast style pizza... haven't tried it on my homemade pie yet. Although, I think I'll make it soon!

But when people say "NY style" pizza, I believe they generally mean, Neapolitan style. Isn't Sicilian style thick crust? That's the way I remember it... Not doubting Spumoni Gardens has a good slice; and interesting point that the sauce was on top. I've seen that a few times also.

Hmmm... yes... great pic It's funny, when I first saw this thread, I though of visual recogintion of a NY style pizza--not a guarantor of success, but definately a necessity...

If you eat a thin crust pizza, that bends a little (ie. can be niftily folded as doscanz notes), maybe has a little charred bottom (as slkinsey notes) and has only cheese and tomato sauce... maybe a little red pepper or oregano... and you DON'T even dream of wanting any other toppings on it... It's likely you have a NY style pizza on hand. (This is not to say that great NY style pizzas don't have toppings on them; just that they are incredibly delicious and addictive with only sauce and cheese...) and then there's white pizzas....

Oops--sorry for the too quick question; I re-read it a third time and saw "parchment lined"-- Thanks again! Edited to add: I'm still interested though, if anyone has used parchment successfully (or no) with Healy and Bugats recipes in The French Cookie Book...

Thank you very much for the recipe Naomi and personal testimonial. In the recipe, it says 'lined' cookie sheet; have you used parchment? Thanks

There is nothing wrong with using a silpat. Just freeze the silpat and attached macarons (or parchment even) for a few minutes, and it will be much easier to get them off. I've read about the best places to get Macarons in Paris Best Macarons in Paris and now I'd like to try my hand at making macarons at home. I've read through this and related threads, read my book, The French Cookie Book by Healy and Bugat and my knees are knocking a little... One question I had before I jump in and try these is the cooking surface. I don't have Silplat and I also don't have the newsprint heavily suggested in Healy and Bugat's book. Does anyone know if parchment paper will work? If so, should one use the method of running some water in between the parchment and cookie sheet to help steam them off? Thanks, just wanted to check if I had a reasonable chance of success without purchasing a Silplat or trying to hunt down unprinted newspaper!!! Edited to add that Healy and Bugat say that parchment paper will negatively effect the cooking and subsequent steaming to release.