ludja

Which way do you plan on driving to Carmel and about how long after leaving the airport do you want to eat? (SFO is located right off Hwy 101, so unless you were planning on crossing over to coastal Hwy 1, the most direct route would be to drive south on 101 before deciding whether to split off at 85S and Hwy17 to Santa Cruz or else continuing on 101 south of San Jose and then heading west to the Monterrey Peninsula).

Thank you very much Adam! It was fun to see the shelves filled with Baumkuchen and also extremely interesting to see the snaps of the menus. (I must remember that traveling truc). It looks like you really did well in the few days you were there in experiencing a cross section of the local food. It was also fascintating to see the particular version of Cenral/Eastern European cuisine there. I wish we could have a copy of this thread also over in "Elsewhere in Europe". It would be easier to find ithe thread again over there and it would be a very nice addition to the thin, but growing content there.

I don't remember having that impression, but there were so many other flavors in the dish as well. I feel it may really have been the preparation and recipe that sank the dish.

Thank you very much for linking to this recipe, ruthcooks. I once had an Engadine Torte with walnuts in Switzerland which I very much enjoyed but I did not have a recipe. I had temporarily forgotton about it too, until I saw your post! This will be a great torte to make for autumn.

First time I ordered (and ate) rabbit in a small restaurant in SF. It was a really ungodly combination of mustard and cranberries and the texture of the meat was slippery and rubbery. I've blocked out any other recollection of the dish. I know that mustard is extremely traditional with French rabbit dishes and I don't think that by itself was the problem. It was the complete flavor combination and texture. This was probably one of the only times past childhood that I can remember not being able to eat what was on my plate. I would like to try rabbit again sometime (I think) but I will wait until I'm in a good bistro here or in France.

Hi chromedome! This may be too late for your class, but I thought I would at least include it for future discussions on this thread. I was reading a German/Austrian pastry book and came across a typical treat that is made and sold at Oktoberfest in Germany: Oktoberfest Lebkuchen-Herzen They are lebkuchen cookies made in the shape of a heart, decorated with icing and made with two holes through which a ribbon is strung. They can be hung around your neck before eating. Here is a quote from Festival Baking by Sarah Kelly Iaia" Here's a link to a photo. The saying on this one is pretty cute, "Susse Maus" or "Sweet Mouse". I saw another one that said "Kuss mich" or "Kiss Me"... Sounds like something fun to teach a class; they could even get involved in decorating their own cookies. Have you decided on what you will be teaching in the class yet? It would be interesting to see what you decided on.

Beautiful photo. Is is typical to crush grape bunches that seems to have such a spectrum of ripeness? If so, is this triggered by a necessity to harvest the grapes before losing them to frost, etc or by the desire to have a range of ripeness within a grape cluster for the final impact this has on the wine? Is the answer the same for different varietals? Thanks for sharing this nice snapshot of harvest, CraigCamp.

A favorite flavor of ice cream I've made at home has been pear. I served it ungilded, except for serving it side by side with a pear sorbet, but I think chocolate or caramel would go well with it. Another fall flavor idea would be persimmon. Use the type that is very soft when it is ripe. Nut ice craams would be nice as well--butter pecan, toasted almond, rum walnut...

Any ideas on where to buy salt cod out here? I'm hoping to find a source close by to me on the Peninsula between, say, Santa Clara and Redwood City. An Italian deli would be one likely spot, but they are in short supply around here to my knowledge. In the past I've seen it for sale in a market in Half Moom Bay and I suspect I might be able to get it in SF at Molinari's, but it would be nice to find a closer source. That being said, I'd appreciate any suggestions even if they are in SF. I checked in at one market down here, but I wasn't even sure where in the store to look for it. My sister back in Boston has been regaling me with tales of cod cakes and I've developed a hankering to make some. It's still pretty easy to find in regular supermarkets in CT and MA given populations of Italians and Portuguese and its use in New England cod cakes.

I'm also happy that my guess that you would be the next foodblogger turned out to be correct. Have a fun week. Another ethnic group I tradtionally associate with Providence are the Portuguese. Are there Portuguese restaurants and bakeries around? edited to add: I just cross posted wth Chris...! I'm not that familiar with Portuguese food but I do like what I've had including linguica . I just used some to make an excellent pot of caldo verde.

The wine shop attached to the Casa Sena Restaurant (in Casa Sena Plaza) is not extremely large but has an excellent selection of wines including French. The knowledgable owner also stocks a very good selection of Austrian wines that he can give you advice on. It's one of my favorite stops on a trip to Santa Fe. La Casa Sena Wine Shop Featuring a Large Selection of Fine Wines. In Sena Plaza, next to La Casa Sena 125 E. Palace Ave Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505 988-9232 There is also a Whole Foods in town so that would be another option. La Casa Sena restaurant is also a a great place to do some wine tasting by the glass in the lovely courtyard. I know that there is a large liquor store in the northern part of Santa Fe (on the way to Taos) but I've never been there to see their wine selection.

What coming down the pipe now in your CSA boxes? (besides pumpkins, that is...) Now more than ever it would seem to vary quite a bit depending where you live. Does anyone particpate in a CSA that delivers year round?

I made a Huguenot Torte from Bill Neal's Southern Cooking this past weekend for a friends birthday. It is a southern cake that has been on my list to make ever since I bought the cookbook 15 or so years ago. Bill Neal mentioned that it was one of his favorite cakes which added even more to the allure. It's a great cake! The cake layers have finely chopped apples and ground pecans in them. Unlike many nut cakes, the eggs are not separated. Rather, they are whipped very well with the sugar before adding the flour, nuts and apples. They baked up beautifully. The filling is simply sweetened whipped cream with vanilla. Per the recipe suggestion I decorated the top with rosettes of whipped cream and glazed pecans. It's a nicely rich cake but is light at the same time as there is no butter in the cake layers and no frosting other than the whipped cream.

I love raw oysters, but also agree about the surprisingly good combination of fried oysters and blue cheese. The time I had it was at The Red Fish Grill in New Orleans. I had it served in a sandwich po' boy style and it was really an unexpectedly good combination. As a side note, Red Fish Grill is apparently one of the few restaurants open (at some level of service) right now in New Orleans.

Carmelizing sounds like a good idea, and one nice use right away would be to use them to make a pizza or tart. (walnuts and blue cheese are a nice addition). If your stock larder is low, use this opportunity and some of the onions to make some chicken, beef and vegetable stock to have frozen for fall and winter soups and stews. For the short term, I'd probably make a nice pork roast cooked on generous layer of potato and onions... Though one would usually slice them, I'd also make a nice French onion soup to have for lunch for a few days...

Can anyone remember what the cakes were mades of? (i.e. cake layers, fillings, frosting)? At least one of them was a chocolate cake but I missed the other details.

Yum, one of my favorite soups. The drizzle of good olive oil on top really sends it into orbit.

Thanks for the cool story Megan Blocker. I'm not surprised by it either, in the sense that she did really start from her own small business and went from there. Did anyone else watch the show? The pink-trimmed, off-set ovals cake did not get a single buyer. The ivory cake with alternating round and square layers had five buyers. I think they grossed ~ $3500. On an interesting note, the losing team (this time, and for the two previous tasks) is composed of people who grouped themselves together as having creativity as a particular strength. The other team self-assembled as the group with a strength in business. In their planning stages, the second (winning) group did speak about making a cake that would be more classic in style in order to appeal to the largest cross section of brides and bridezillas. It seems like this strategy paid off for this particular setting as the winner was the group who sold the most cakes. Guilty pleasure, I admit, but I've been enjoying the episodes of Martha's Apprentice I've seen so far... (I missed last week.)

Thanks for the great link anzu; liver dumpling soup is indeed both delicious and classic. One of my favorite German/Austrian soups. Here's a few other ideas for a multicourse meal: Liptauer Cheese with either rye or pumpernickel bread Mushroom Barley Soup Gemischtes Salat (a composed mixed salad of dressed greens, cucumber salad and (not mayo, but oil, vinegar, onions, parsley, etc) potato salad) German Roast Pork with roasted potatoes and sauerkraut Apple kuchen Note: I'm not sure if the Liptauer Cheese is more Austrian than German, but it is a very good snack/appetizer with beer. The bread dumplings might be fun to make with the pork; people may be less familiar with them In any case, if make the roast pork be sure to make a nice gravy to along with.

Sounds like a good idea.

Tablas Creek Vineyard (located in western Paso Robles, as is Dover Canyon Winery)

Classic Austrian and Hungarian pastries and desserts named after notable figures of the past or with other historical references always have a fanciful ring to me and often have stories attached to them as well: Esterhazyschnitten (Esterhazy slices): nut meringue slices Malakofftorte: (Malakoff Torte) Ladyfinger Rum Cream torte Kaiserschmarren: Emperor's pancake/omelette Spanishe Windtorte (Spanish 'Wind" Cake); a baroque fantasty fashioned out of meringues and filled with wild strawberries and whipped cream Mohr im Hemb (Moor in a shirt) steamed chocolate pudding covered in a meringue cream sauce. A couple of non-Austrian dishes that come to mind: Nesselrode Rudding Pavlova Robert E. Lee Cake

Batali also has some comments in the NY Times article:

Thanks for sharing a special week with us--great food, stunning variety and documented in such a beautiful way. I enjoyed everythng but especially the Amish lunch, the Parsi food and your adorable kitty! I'm glad to hear that your aunt is doing better as well.

Ay up, that is pretty funny...thanks for the nomination (I could say it was intentional in order to lure more visitors to the thread rather than admit I was clueless when I posted it... )