ludja

Mangoes and Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid was mentioned earlier in the thread, but here is a link to a egullet discussion of the book: click.

While I've not had raw shrimp yet, I'd be willing to try seeing the beautiful fresh specimens in the photo. What an honorable way to use the first catch! Ponzu sounds like a great accompaniement. I guess my only reasonable chance of trying raw shrimp is to get some amaebi next time I have sushi. Thanks johnnyd; I really enjoyed your blog last year and I"m happy that you are doing this again!

I bought these recently out of sheer curiosity. They are just bizarre. There is no other word to describe them. On the first taste, I didn't like it at all, but then it kind of grew on me. I don't think you'd eat more than one piece in a sitting though. ← It sounds like they just are something you have to try! I really like fresh mangoes with lime juice and dusted with red chile so I was attracted to the idea. Thanks for the comments.

I'll pm you Behemoth.

Thanks for the info, Behemoth and Katie, and for the links to the photos. I *think* the "ue" can be a way to represent an umlaut over a "u". Probably the first half of the word is "Zucker" though. (correct spelling for sugar). Hute (with an umlaut over the "u") is plural for hat, as you mentioned. Thanks again! If I can track these down, this may be something else we need to spring on the family when we go home for holidays! Back to Gluhwein and happy drinking everyone!

Cafe Central is one of the famous Viennese cafes and this one is know to be one of Trotky's hangouts. He and other intellectuals hashed out their ideas while drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, playing chess, having conversations etc in turn of the century Vienna.

Hi Adam! Did you mainly eat at the Naschmarkt and Kriskindelmarkt in Vienna with all the wonderful food you've shown us or did you also get a chance to try some restaurants? I"m also intrigued my the mention of so many types of different hot drinks--I think you mentioned that there was Gluhwein and Mulled Cider. Any more comments? I love the wonderful photos of the sausages--not an easy thing to replicate at home or to buy here if you don't have a good German butcher. German and Austrian butchers are much less common now in the US but I'm lucky to have one that has a pretty good selection near me here in CA.

zukerhuete? (sounds like Dutch for sugar-hat?!?) I just read your link to "Feuerzangenbowle"; is "zukerhuete" the sugar cones for lighting on fire? If so, why is spelled that way?

Was the Gluhmost alcoholic? Was it apple cider?

We make our gluhwein with white wine also. White wine is more common in Styria (Austria) where my Mom and Aunt grew up. Their recipe is pretty basic using the following for about 1 cup of white wine: 1 piece lemon rind 3 cloves 1 piece cinnamon 1/4 sugar I mentioned this thread to my Mom and we decided to definately have Gluhwein this year after forgetting it in the whirl of all the other Christmas foods we make. Thank you for starting and resurrecting the thread, Jaymes! We typically eat roasted chestnuts with the Gluhwein; a nice combination. Thanks for the other information and recipes from other folks. I may try adding some other spices and/or try adding some 'improvemnts' via the addition of some hard liquor...

Thank you for the photo and story, Swiss_Chef, as well as the recipe! A book on Festival Baking I have that covers Switzerland, Germany and Austria mentions that another possible accoutrement for Grittibaenz (besides the white pipe) is to have him hold a sprig of evergreen. Have you seen this also? Adam Balic has a nice thread ongoing from a recent trip he took to Graz and Vienna here. He showed baked figurines of the "Grampus" or the counterpart of St. Nicholas who comes on Dec 6th for bad children and leaves them coal and switches rather than candies or nuts in the shoes they leave out before St. Nicholas Day on Dec 6th. Do you also have Grampus or something similar in German Switzerland? Nice to see you posting! ludja

Much greater soda and juice consumption The quality and portion size of the meals and snacks parents serve their kids (lots of processed food) Eating out at restaurants much more frequently, including but not restricted to fast food. Even non-fast food restaurants have much more calories per meal than an appropriately sized relatively healthy meal at home. (we probably ate out once a month at most) Less exercise (less gym at school, less playing outside, more tv, computer and video games) It was the same in my schools (mid 70's thru early 80's). Only sometimes was there even one poor overweight kid who would get teased on a whole bus of kids. As you said, about one or two kids per a grade of 100-200.

But the Thai chile lime cashews are nice... Has anyone tried the chile-dusted mango slices in the dried fruit section? Just noticed these the other day.

Nice start so far! Austrian-inspired: chesnut, vanilla and rum chestnut and dark chocolate, with or without rum hazlenuts and dark chocolate lemon, rum and vanilla walnuts, lemon, rum, vanilla walnuts, dark chocoalte and rum apricot jam and dark chocolate hazelnuts or walnuts and apricot or raspberry jam ground poppyseeds, (raisins), lemon. vanilla caramel and dark chocolate anise and lemon and vanilla Other: mexican chocolate flavors: chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, alnonds (plus or minus orange zest) and (plus or minus chile) peach and habenero chile apple and New Mexico green chile cherries and chipotle chiles (this are inspired by the pie man in Albuquerque--I've tried the peach combination but can also definately picture the cherry being good as well) coconut and lime coconut, dark chocolate (and plus or minus cinnamon) lemon, almonds and vanilla almonds and kirsch fresh figs and raspberries and anise Vanilla by itself!!!

Thank you very much for posting this Rebel Rose. I had always heard that the nutritional profile wrt vitamins and minerals was very similar. Most species are reduced at least in half going from 4% to 2% fat. Now I'm wondering how much less of these vitamins and minerals are in in non-fat milk which I have been drinking recently! edited to add: I just saw therese's post above; it will be good to get clarification on this... maybe I'll google a bit as well.

Welcome to egullet, vkn. Hope to hear more about Indian cooking and other topics from you here, in addition to checking out your blog! Are you a chef at a restaurant?

and Curlylocks! How cool is it that this thread has just brought three new people to egullet--two from Australia, and one from The Netherlands! Hope to see more of you guys on this thread and others, including in the Australia and Elsewhere in Europe forum! Welcome back Chufi! Sending warm thoughts to Amsterdam for your continuing recovery. Ludja

All this talk of bratwurst is feeding a yen for them. I had vegetarian friends over for dinner last night (well, one of the three is vegetarian, but when we break bread together we all are!). I made the egullet roasted cauliflower which I love using in pasta dishes. The full menu: Bonny Doon Ca' del Solo Big House Red Pichetti Pavone White Table Wine Stilton cheese and English Cheddar crackers spiced pecans picholine olives Porcini Mushroom Soup garnished with parsley and creme fraiche Fusilli Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Red Onion, Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes Pear, Manchego and Bitter Greens Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Pomegranates Cinnamon and Clove Custard with warmed Fresh Grape Syrup Dark chocolates filled with chestnut cream Italian Spiced Cornmeal Cookies Coffee and Grappa The soup is a standby for me from "New Basics" (Rosso and Lukins) although this is the first time I converted it to a vegetarian version. I replaced the chicken and beef stock with a good vegetable broth and a dried porcini "boullion" cube. I tasted the porcini cube broth before using and it was actually quite good. The soup uses dried porcini soaked in Madeira and many fresh button mushrooms. Note on making Roasted Cauliflower for a larger group--if the roasting pan is too crowded it will take much longer for the cauliflower to brown. I should have used two pans. (The cauliflower did eventually brown.) I will definately repeat this salad combination--the relatively salty Manchego went very well with fresh pear and balsamic and the pomegrantes added good flavor, color and crunch. Parmagiano Reggiano would have also worked very well and more in keeping with the Italian flavor of the meal but I had good Manchego at home asking to be eaten. The dessert was new to me; a recipe that I had eyed for awhile in Rosetta-Kasper's, "Splendid Table). Wild grapes from a friend prompted the idea to make the sauce which is a variation on Italian "Sapa" made from wine grapes. No sugar is added, but concentrating the grape juice results in a pretty sweet sauce, even with the red wine added. The cinnamon clove custard came out pretty well although they did not release as prettily as I would have liked from the ramekins. I might make this again because the flavors are pretty interesting in combination but I would probably try to make the sauce a little less sweet.

Just saw a great dessert possibility mentioned in another context on jamiemaw's awesome foodblog currently underway: chestnut souflee with gingered quince which also made me think of: marron glace ice cream as nice first dessert or for a second dessert a rich chocolate chestnut cake or Mont Blanc... (I guess I'm trying to work chestnut back into the menu... )

The chestnut spaetzle sound so good--but a very good point has been brought up regarding the roasted potatoes. They would probably be the best anyone has eaten. Red cabbage also sounds very traditional (Germanic) and tasty. For the rest of the menu, perhaps, also incorporating annatstee's suggstions: cold, briny oysters on the half shell with wedges of lemon watercress soup (pureed with or without cream) the main attraction + goose fat roasted potatoes and sweet and sour red cabbage as suggested above tangerine sorbet with cloves or an ambrosia made with fresh coconut and oranges a raspberry trifle or a plum pudding with hard sauce (Less compeletely traditional but in keeping with the menu might be a quince tart--Saveur had a great recipe two years ago in which this was featured after a British hunt day. I've made the tart and it is beautful and delicious). Port service with Stilton and walnuts (Another option for incorporating oysters and greenery into the menu in a different way would be to make an oyster stew as annanstee suggested and to then follow this with a green salad of some sort--perhaps watercress or spinach salad with walnuts and pomagranate seeds.) It is blending cultures a bit but somehow it seems festive and right to me. Having the citrus course may not only be refreshing after the rich main dish, but it also evokes older times when getting tropical fruits was a special treat at the holidays. Will you get to enjoy the goose yourself with family and friends or is this for your personal cheffing clients? I hope you get to eat it!

In doing a recent search, it seems like there is not an Mandelbrot topic! I have a specific question, but perhaps the thread can be more inclusive to discuss favorite types of mandelbrot. I'd be interested to learn. My specific question is for a recipe that migiht be similar to a delicious mandelbrot I bought back East in an Italian Bakery. It is different in some ways from mandelbrot I have heard described, so I'm not sure if it is just an indiosyncratic albeit delicious version. This mandelbrot was still in a whole loaf. The dough appeared to be studded with almonds, walnuts and candied cherries. The dough was not crunchy like biscotti, to which I've often heard mandelbrot compared. It was more of a firm, cakey texture; delicious at breakfast Is anyone familar with something like this? I.e. a mandelbrot served as a loaf which is sliced for eating and which has a softer texture? Also, this version, which was probably not kosher in any case, definately had flour in it so it would not be a Passover version. Please also share your favorite types of mandelbrot as well...

I probably haven't paid enough attention to the veggie options out here; I'll keep an eye out next time. I've not had toasted rolls out here though... We need someone in the Philadelphia area to visit there and snap some photos for us...

My Confusing Horoscope just posted about a new cookbook on Cajun cuisine here. That led me to the Hippocrene publishing site and their list of new 2005 cookbooks here: here. There is a paragraph with further description of each cookbook at the link. STIR THE POT: THE REAL HISTORY OF THE CAJUN TABLE by Marcelle Bienvenue, Carl A. Brasseaux and Ryan A. Brasseaux POLISH HERITAGE COOKERY, Illustrated and expanded by Robert and Maria Strybel TASTE OF NEPAL by Jyoti Pathak ESTONIAN TASTES AND TRADITIONS by Karin Annus Kärner CUCINA PIEMONTESE: COOKING FROM ITALY’S PIEDMONT by Brian Yarvin And Maria Grazia Asselle SWEET HANDS: ISLAND COOKING FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO by Ramin Ganeshram FARMS AND FOODS OF THE GARDEN STATE A New Jersey Cookbook by Brian Yarvin BRAZIL A CULINARY JOURNEY by Cherie Hamilton A VIETNAMESE KITCHEN TREASURED FAMILY RECIPES by Ha Roda Recipes and Reminiscences A PIED NOIR COOKBOOK French Sephardic Cuisine from Algeria by Chantal Clabrough TASTES OF THE PYRENEES CLASSIC AND MODERN by Marina Chang Now in paperback MY MOTHER'S BOLIVIAN KITCHEN by Jose Sanchez-H.

Good one, mizducky! My current cats are not good leapers so they never make it up there. But previous Siamese were terrific jumpers and loved sitting up there--for the high perch and for the warmth from the fridge, I suspect. OT, but had to comment since you mentioned cats leaping down on people's heads like panthers. A roommate and I had a "good leaper" and hyper-intelligent Siamese cat. He loved to make eye contact such that if you were sitting on a couch and stared at him he would come rushing towards you and run up your chest to stare right back at you. Even well-established cat lovers were sometimes taken aback by this. In addition, we found that if we stared at him fixedly in certain parts of the apt he would leap up vertically towards our face and we would catch him in our arms about chest-level. It was a rather silly thing to train a cat to do; he did do it once to an unsuspecting guest. Our cat was a legendary terror within the graduate department. He wasn't mean at all but was very intense. He could also jump to the top of an open door and would sometime sit up there balancing between the top of the door and the wall...

Typically on top of the fridge: napkins, cereal, my scale (easy access for when I need it, which is pretty often), a large crystal carafe that doesn't fit easily in the cabinets and in back, out of sight, dried beans I re-use for blind baking tarts and pies.