ludja

It looks and sounds delicous. It's neat that you were able to maintain an upside-down element. I love the look of the brittle with the openings in the middle and how you incorporated the brittle as both a vertical and a horizontal garnish; a very successful look. I would certainly order this, just based on the description!

The photo in this link is a pretty typical example: Dobos Torte edited to add: Here's the link to the Dobos Torte Thread.

I like honey ice cream... It's very nice with apple tarts. I don't think that orange flower honey really has an orange taste, but I guess your tastebuds will be the final judge. Here's a thread on honey cakes with lots of nice recipes. Other flavors which pair well with honey: rosemary and honey chile and honey

Yes, thank you very much; it was incredible from start to finish. You also shared a lot of great information for anyone visiting the area or in the meantime, perusing Kalustyan's online catalogue... Thanks also for photographing some of the cocktail menus!

I agree with fyfas re: The Appletree in Taos. We ate there awhile back but have been much more happy at Doc Martin's re: both the food-menu and execution- and the atmosphere. The other dining options you mentioned in Santa Fe look nice. I would also recommend going to one real New Mexican restaurant while you're there, especially if it's your first trip to New Mexico. Three options are: La Choza, Tomasita's or The Shed. Another option to fit in a New Mexican meal would be to have breakfast at Tia Sophia's, right off the Plaza. Besides the area surrounding the Plaza and Canyon Road, I'd recommend the short walk to the Guadeloupe/Railroad District. There are nice galleries, shops and some food options there too. (Tomasita's is there) The farmer's market is there on Saturday mornings as well. It's wonderful to see the abundance of chiles and other food. I would highly recommend looking inside St. Francis Cathedral; it is a particularly lovely church. You may not have time for any museums beyond the Georgis O'Keefe museum, but the "Museum Hill" complex a little south of downtown is very interesting. The setting alone is nice because you get beautfiul vistas of the surrounding countryside that aren't available from downtown. I think there are buses that can take you there. Here is a link to the complex: Museum Hill So far, I've been to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. If you are interested in art and other crafts by contemporary Indian-Americans you may want to check out the musuem that faces St. Francis Cathedral. (fyfas also mentioned this in his previous post.) Up in Taos, I'd recommend stopping at the San Francisco de Asis church in Rancho de Taos, just south of downtown. It is a quintessential example of New Mexico adobe architecture. I also really like the Millicent Rogers museum in Taos. The musuem is the old adobe hacienda this former NYC sociallite lived in during the first half of the 20th century and it houses an incredible collections of vintage Indian rugs, pottery and silver/turquoise jewelry. You can visit the museum over the course of an hour or two. Also, I guess the bar you mentioned was the rootop cantina at La Fonda hotel. I'm not sure how late in the season they keep it open but you can always check with the front desk.

Thanks for the Hungarian and German/Austrian recs, Mel. My sister and I both get to Pittsburgh from time to time and look forward to trying some of these places out.

You may also want to call up Dittmer's Gourmet Meats and Wurst Haus, a German butcher/deli in Mountain View and see if they carry it. They will also special order things upon request. (I'd love to hear about the results of your searching for my own information... ) Good luck!

Congrats on your lard and cracklings stash! Here is an earlier thread on some uses for cracklings: click

One recommendation I'd like to make is to make each challenge a separate thread instead of having a huge thread with all sorts of information and ideas lost in it. Eg. Rename this thread: Upside Down Pineapple Cake, Egullet Iron Baker Challenge The information and thread will persist a lot longer this way and the information will be more easily searchable. Later, after the challengee has completed their offering(s) others can add related material/questions and contributions to the thread. Each new challenge thread can have an index of the previous eG Iron Baker challenges in the way that the communal Cooking threads started by Chris Amirault have.

I've never seen it in the "kraut salat" or cabbage salad--if that's what you mean. It is a nice salad; simple to make and the tartness is a nice counterpoint to a rich dish. I make this pretty often. Thanks for posting the recipe, Swisskaese.

^ It's a good song and they do it well...

polenta (grits, as rlibkind, mentioned) or sauteed greens I think these would have a nice neutral flavor to let the flavors of the apple cider/mascarpone reduction come through. With the sweetness of the cider I don't think I'd like the additional sweetness contributed from the corn or sweet potato, for instance. I think I would prefer the purees of celer root, cauliflower that Marc Olsen mentioned. Another vegetable puree option might be jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes. Small, cooked white beans are delicious with grilled calamari or shrimp. These might work here as well although the texture of the scallops is more delicate. (I love lentils with grilled shrimp...)

Experienced retailers can give the best advice, like Pam R, but personally I think 50 cents is reasonable (from a consumer perspective) for smallish rum balls. I probably wouldn't pay 75 cents and I wouldn't want a large one for $2.75... For 50 cents, I'd easilly be tempted to add a bunch on to what ever the rest of my order was. edited to add: I think Tartine Bakery in SF has Scharffenberger Nib meringues for 50 cents. I was always add some of the on to my order to bring home...

I suspect you already know this, but for anyone out there who doesn't, you have to cook the pineapple if you are going to get the gelatin to set. Raw pineapple contains an enzyme that interferes with gelatin. ← Sorry for the disappointments, Ling... Here is some other pineapple/gelatin information: click

Is there any food worth seeking out the Tamarack/"Bset of West Virginia" complex? A friend from WVa, who hasn't been Tamarack but knows of it, mentioned it as an idea. There wasn't much info on the web but there appeared to be restaurant?/concession? operated by staff from Green Briar Resort. I guessing the Green Briar itself and the town it is in are too far away?

To me, it looks like some stock photo that an ad for male "performance" issues would use. ←

I thought the anchovy pasta dish looked and sounded great also. I don't know if you can remember it well enough, but if you were trying to recreate this at home, what would you try? (It look like there may be cheese in the dish although I know the dictum about 'no cheese and pasta' usually...)

Thanks for the wonderful report, Chufi. It is fun to get a glimpse of your the culincary aspect of your travels. So many of my friends from Europe dislike peanut butter in any form! Can you get chocolate-peanut butter candies in Amsterdam? Do you think you are unique among your friends in liking it? What did you guys think, in general, of the microbreweries in PNW and how they compared with those in the Netherlands or other parts of Europe?

Are there any more good German/Hungarian/Austrian restaurants in Pittsburgh? I saw some mention of sausages above...

What flavors/textures are you thinking for the dessert? Spaetzle sounds good wlith the venison, especially if there is a sauce.

In case you you haven't seen it, Maggie started another thread to gather entries for a new literary smackdown... You can submit your limericks from 2006, including those in this thread, in this new smackdown. (link below). My favorites so far... Our cats demand petting, those two... and A nouveau Chinese chef from St. Louis...

How do I cook a red mullet? I think I’ll just look on eGullet! My search went astray browsing New Threads Today, My new dish is tender young pullet.

A rhetorical question, I'm sure, but it's German for an epicure or gourmet. (schmecken is 'to taste')

I've wondered about this. In a story on the news tonight they were discussing this and some restaurants/bakeries said they had already eliminated transfats without changing the flavor or cost... I don't think they're subbing butter for the transfats but I don't know how they do it...

Here is yet another older "Italian Cream Cake" topic... (triple merge???) another Italian Cream Cake topic