ludja

Maybe it was Burma Superstar on Clement (in the Richmond). I think that is the name of the place in SF that I alluded to earlier in this thread. click 309 Clement at Fourth Ave.

What's red and green and goes 100 miles an hour.... ba da dum.... It will be interesting to hear a real answer...

I wondered the same thing, but I think that the "sour" comes from the fermentation of the pickles sitting on the counter. New pickles arent really sour and I find Half-sour's not that sour either. ← click (There is a recipe in the link as well.)

I didn't notice that Jasie's recipe didn't have vinegar in it! The way I made my refrigerator pickles was to immerse the slices in a mixture of white and cider vinegar along with the flavorings. I didn't add any water and I put the pickle slices in the fridge immediately and just stirred them every few hours.

Thanks for the tips, Jasie and Fat Guy... I saw some pickling cucumbers on sale last week and tried something close to Jasie's recipe and couldn't believe how easy and how great the taste and texture were. For my first batch I used salt, vinegar, black pepper, crushed garlic, crushed coriander and dill. I like the chile idea!

I went there a week ago and order this same drink; it was excellent. One of my friends had a ginger-based (I think vodka) cocktail that was very good. I was also intrigued by a special cocktail they were offering that day that included elderberry flower syrup... but we only had one drink before dinner. The bar has about ~ 12 bar stools. (I enjoyed the food there as well and would go back.)

Or even a separate dinner thread for Russian dishes in "Elsewhere in Europe"...

"Pasta with meat sauce" is fancy talk for "spaghetti with meat sauce"...

... The dough is potato based. I was originally worried because the recipe didn't call for any sugar in the filling or in the dough; the only sugar was simply poured on at the end, after frying some bread crumbs in butter, adding the dumplings and toasting them just a touch, and then removing them from the frying pan. The bread crumbs, butter, and sugar all combined together to make the dessert work. Very comforting food. Earlier, the dough wasn't working out for me (I was unused to working with that type of dough and I didn't put in enough flour; I think by the end I had added about 3 or 4 times what the recipe called for), and had become quite frustrated, when someone's Eastern European mother showed up to the event and helped me make a couple dumplings. She told me that I was just worrying to much and they'd turn out ok. She was right, on both counts. By the end, I was turning out a few dumplings a minute. I'll have to make them again sometime. Sometimes all it takes is a lot encouragement. ------- Alex Parker ← In the Austrian version, which I suspect is very similar to that which migrated over the border to what is now northern Italy post WWI, there isn't any sugar in the dough either. Usually one puts a whole or half sugar cube inside the apricot or plum where the pit used to be. When I saute the bread crumbs in butter which will be used to coat the dumplings I sometimes add a little granulated sugar to the mix at the end when I turn the heat off. Then, the dumplings get dusted with powdered sugar or vanllla powdered sugar just prior to service. They are not extremely sweet as they are often eaten as a meatless dinner. The dough is pretty easy to work with once you tried it once or twice. The amount of flour that gets added can vary according the moisture of the potatoes, flour, the size of the eggs, etc. Glad they turned out well in the end; it was a creative dish to think up for a crowd of people during plum season! One variation I've done is to also add some ground walnuts to the breadcrumbs when they are sauteed in butter. This adds a nice taste and richness as well to the final dish.

Just a small note on some logistics--- Tartine and Mitchell's Ice Cream are close by together in the Mission district so they could be lumped together. It's It ice cream bars are typically sold in the frozen case of small corner convenience stores or at gas stations. I'm not sure if they are down in LA or not but I'd check the freezer case at each gas station you hit. You might run across them this way. Roughly how many lunches and dinners do you think you'll have in SF in addition to the places you already have reservations for? And can you recap what you have reservations for in the Bay Area so far?

I've only picked wild mushrooms in Austria with experienced mushroom-picking relatives. Here are two simple but delicious preps for chantereles (Eierschwamm or "egg mushrooms" in Austria" and "Buetzlilng" (I'm guessing on the spelling via the pronunciation as the dialect is strong in Burgenland and I've never seen it written). "Buetzling" are porcini mushrooms. For chanterelles, the classic prep in that neighborhood is to sautee them in butter and incorporate into "Eierspeise" an Austrian egg dish that is halfway between an omelette and scrambled eggs. So, one would sautee the chopped chanterelles in plenty of butter. Lightly beat 3 eggs in a bowl with some salt and pepper and maybe some chopped chives or parsley. Pour the eggs into the pan with the mushrooms and let it cook until the eggs set a little bit. Lightly break up the eggs in the pan--the whites should still be discernable and cook a little bit longer. Take off the heat while the eggs are still moist. Some of my relatives who still lived on a farm would often serve this up as a special first course if they had picked some chanterelles in the morning. A terriffic prep for porcini that is popular there and is served in many casual "Gasthaus" (pub/country Austrian bistro) is to bread and pan fry/deep fry them. The breading is a the same as for a Wienerschnitzel, ie. seasoned flour, egg, dry bread crumbs. They are served with a tartar sauce and a lemon for squeezing. The absolute luxury of biting into a juicy, breaded hot porcini is amazing.

If you end up in the Mission District and/or are eating there you could check out the 500 Club (500 Guerrero St; I think the cross street is about 18th or so). It's a fun low key place. click There are a bunch of nice casual bars in the Mission; not all that I know by name. Another part of the Mission that has a bunch of low key bars is on 16th st between Mission and Dolores. A restaurant in the Mission that may fulfill your needs is Range. (click) at 842 Valencia. Casual, mildly hip place with good food at reasonable prices. Not a "small plate" place per say, but they have a great selection of first course options you could choose from. The bar knows how to make cocktails and also has some good specialities. I recently had a great rye cocktail that is not on their onlilne menu that was finished with a burning orange peel. It was great. My recent meal consisted of a raw hamachi appetizer with avocado puree, cucumber and basil oil which was excellent. A friend ordered the chicken mousse which was also heavenly. One friend was not excited by their california bass with roasted gypsy peppers, melted fennel, sungold tomatoes and herb vinaigrette but two of us really enjoyed the pan roasted bavette steak with red gold potatoes, early gilr tomatoes, broccoli rabe and a horseradish sauce... Another restaurant I really like in the area is Delfina's; an Italian restaurant with a semi-hip, laid back style and very good food. click

Another nice flavor combination with fresh figs and raspberries is anise. I think I saw this in one of the Chez Panisse books, but I've served split figs and raspberries with Pernod/pastis/ouzo flavored whipped cream that is also lightly sweetened. It is a great flavor combination. Pernod flavored ice cream with the figs and raspberries? (I think I sprinkled everything *lightly* with some crushed anise seed as well.)

Other peach dessert ideas if they are still plentiful and good right now. Here they are a good value and good quality at local farmer's markets. Chilled Peach Wine Soup drizzled with Raspberry Coulis and served with some good crisp elegant cookies Cream Puffs filled with Peach Mousse and served with a raspberry sauce Peach sorbet and raspberry granita layered into parfait glasses with whipped cream in between the layers. Serve with a good crisp elegant cookie. (to help your budget, frozen raspberries can be used for the raspberry elements. For the raspberry sauces/coulis, kirsch is a great element to add) Buttermilk or fresh bay leaf panna cotta with a red wine/blackberry sauce. Crisp cookie on the side. In general, cookies are not expensive to make although they do take time. A trio of three elegent French, Italian or Austrian cookies with a homemade sorbet or ice cream could be very impressive and not very expensive.

Welcome to eGullet, lenabo; looking forward to future postings!

Thanks for the recipe; I've made another style of lemon cake that has slices of lemon (with the peel) in it and I like the slight bitterness it provides. It will be fun to try this. It would be great if some of your friends considered joining eGullet and expanded our Russian-US food exchanges!

Looking forward to photos of the dumplings. Is the dough potato-based or farmer's cheese based? These types of dumplings are very popular in Austria filled with either small plums or with apricots. Hope you have some photos of the finished product!

Just to make sure that my request was clear--I'm not asking for all the recipes to be posted online but rather a listing/index of all the recipes in which the issue and page number for a given recipe is indicated. This would allow subscribers to track down recipes from their past Saveur issues. Some of the listings would presumably also include the recipe as there are a subset of the recipes available online now. It would be nice if the index of recipe listings was searchable by keyword, cusine or course as the full recipes are now.

Congratulations on your new position and thank you for stopping by and filling us in on some additional details about the transition and future of Saveur. As a long time subscriber with many issues of Saveur collected over the years I have a request and/or a suggestion. Please consider having an electronic, searchable index listing *all* the recipes and major ingredients that have been published in the magazine on the website. Having the ability to search online for a recipe that I recall having seen in Saveur or to search if a recipe has been published in Saveur in the past would be extremely helpful. Of course only a subset of the recipes would be available online as is the case now, but it would make our subscriptions much more valuable to be able to access a complete index in order to make full use of our Saveur collections. Having all the recipes in a searchable index would be a great start although it would also be nice to have other feature articles/information indexed as well. If it is not possible to complete the current online index to make it comprehensive it would still be helpful going forward to have an end of year index in the December issue, for example. Thank you for considering this!

I haven't used my cannoli forms yet and I've had them for awhile. I *almost* tried making some during the recent month of cooking from Sicily... This is an item I know I will use sometime, but maybe I need to make an internal pledge to use them this year!

Already enjoying your blog immensely, Alinka; and congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family! Thank you for linking to your previously posted borscht recipe. For the beet version, would that posted recipe be approached the same except for the addition of beets or would some of the ingredients be omitted? Perhaps the beets are boiled in the stock after the potatoes are cooked and removed? Thank you again for sharing your week with us!

Check out Wendy's recommendations in post 11. click She maintains that most cracking results because the dough is too dry, overbaked or too thick.

When I've had kebobs in Afghani restaurants they are often served with a hot red chile sauce similar to harrissa or a cilantro based sauce without dairy. Here is a recipe for Afghan marinated lamb kabobs w/o yogurt click and a recipe for a cilantro sauce to go with the kebobs. I'm thinking of making some Yugoslavian/Balkan cevapcici. These are also popular in Austria which is the only place where I've had them. They are oblong kabobs grilled on skewers that are formed out of a mixture of spiced ground meat. I think they are typically served with chopped onions, and either a yogurt or spicy chile sauce.

I know that the exact number of people in the US is besides the point you were trying to make, but just to mention that the US population has already grown a bit past 200 million. It is nearly 300 million, counted as 281 million in the 2000 census and now estimated to be closer to 290 something million. Just an FYI.

Wow, this is both terrific and informative to follow along with. Everything looks great so far!