Sandra Levine

Is it tapioca you like or tapioca pudding? If the latter, as I suspect, it is really the eggs, cream and sugar that you like. To put it kindly, plain tapioca is a textural element, not a flavor component. For those who enjoy bubble teas, the tapioca adds some bouncy fun to what otherwise would be a simpler, sweetened, milky iced tea.

Try to find The Cooking of India by Santha Rama Rau in the long out-of-print Time-Life series. It has some warmth and many evocative photos as well as recipes. That book and Jaffrey's, An Invitation to Indian Cooking are the ones I like best. That being said, Suvir has taught me, and everyone else who visits the Indian board, more about India and Indian food than any book. I always suspected that I knew next to nothing about Indian cuisine, but not until now have I confirmed how much more there is to discover. Suvir, you are a wonderful guide.

It depends how you feel about tapioca. Texture is an important component in Chinese cuisine. Chinese Gastronomy, an important and fascinating book about the underpinnings of Chinese cuisine, states that the merit of each dish lies two-thirds in its flavor and one-third in its texture. At the most sophisticated tables, texture became an end in itself. In some cases the cook was challenged with the problem of providing taste for substances that had none, but were valued for their texture. Bubble teas seem to spring from this tradition.

The unborn chicken eggs are not necessarily fertilized. You can buy fertilized chicken eggs, but the embryo in baluts seems to be much more developed and recognizable.

Frangipane makes a great base for a caramelized orange tart -- a winter favorite.

Rose, it sounds as if the food at Mohonk has improved. I was there many, many years ago with the Victorian Society in America. The architecture is great, as well as the hiking trails. As for the food, fugetaboutit.

never mind

This restaurant has been in business forever. The lack of bathroom was grandfathered in. It has never had a bathroom (for the public). This was the pizzeria of my youth. Until they had a fire (must have been 25 years ago) they used an old coal or coke-burning oven that added that certain carcinogenic je ne sais quoi. The pizza crust, made in the new oven, was not the same the one time I had it since the fire, although the quality of the toppings was still very high and the crust was well made -- thin, but chewy. Not until I had pizza in New Haven did I find pizza that equaled De Lorenzo's. (I am assuming that the review was of the restaurant by that name on Hudson Street in Trenton. There is (or was) another De Lorenzo's in Trenton whose pizza was not nearly as good. Oh yes, "pizza" was unheard of. It was "tomato pie." When I was growing up, the story was that this place made the first pizza in America. Rosie, what did the reviewer have to say?

I always felt that The Russian Tea Room was more about "place" than food. As Cabrales pointed out in her description of the first floor, which seems not to have changed much since I was last there before LeRoy, it was always Christmas there. I hope the Museum of the City of New York acquires some of the artifacts and recreates a corner of the room,

How does this turn bright yellow? I expected curry powder or saffron or turmeric. It sounds good, but yellow? Really?

Falooda and the newly popular bubble teas have something in common: a starchy component combined with cold creaminess.

I can't wait to start tasting. Thanks, Steve and everyone else. This is eGullet at its best.

I have found that the hummus is gretly improved if you pinch each cooked or canned chickpea to discard the papery skin.

Suvir, for the biscuit dough you can use the recipe you used for the strawberry shortcake. It will be perfect. I like to make blueberry tart, inspired by the late, great baker Paula Peck. I think I've posted this elsewhere on the site, but here it is again anyway: For a 9-inch tart 2 pints of blueberries 3/8 cup of sugar grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 tsp. cinnamon Combine 1/ 1/2 cups of the blueberries with the sugar, lemon rind and juice and cinnamon. Cook, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved, Raise the heat and boil for 8 -10 minutes or more, if necessary until you have jam. Cool. Combine the remaining fresh blueberries with the jam and turn into a baked tart shell. I like to use a pate sucree that sometimes I just pat into the pan rather than rolling it out. I know this marks me as a just a rustic home baker, but so what. 2 cups of flour pinch of salt 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, to taste (the sweeter the fruit, the less sweet the pastry needs to be) 1/2 cup or more of room temperature butter 1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice grated lemon rind, if desired You can make this by hand, in an electric mixer, or the food processor. It should rest for an hour after mixing. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and butter. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until you have a smooth dough. Let the dough rest before trying to roll it out. If it is very hot, refrigerate the dough. Roll out or simply pat into a tart shell with a removable bottom. Prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. During the first few minutes of baking, take a peek and press the sides of the shell up if necessary. If the bottom of the shell has puffed up, give it a poke with the fork to release the air. Let the shell cool before filling. N.B. this makes quite a bit of pastry. You will have some left over, even though it should be rolled or pressed somewhat thicker in the pan than a regular pie crust. The dough freezes well, or you can use the leftovers to make some cookies. As you can see from all the blueberry posts, blueberries have an affinity for lemon. I can't wait to see the recipe for the cornmeal pastry. Blueberries and cornmeal -- so American!

How sad. This restaurant (pre-Leroy) used to be my family's favorite place for a certain kind of celebration, e.g., after seeing my niece in The Nutcracker when she was a student at SAB.

Yes, jaybee and I've had the lievre at A Sousceyrac and the choucroute at Maison Kamerzell, too (and the hot dog, and the...never mind) Thank you for posting the recipe. Where did you find it?

It should be noted that jaybee's preferred wine is an important element of this dish, as it is prepared at Chez Maitre Paul, a restaurant that specializes in Jura-nese wines and food. Another wine would make it a different dish altogether. The wine is a distinctive golden yellow.

One killer dish that you so associate with one restaurant that when you think of that dish, you automatically think of that restaurant or, if you think of the restaurant, or go there, you always order the same dish. Any number of dishes at any number of restaurants will answer the question.

If I come to Blue Hill in the next few weeks, what is the one dish I should not fail to order?

Wish I were there.

As for the definitions, maybe it is simply that, in general, Italian ice creams (gelato) are made with more milk than cream, while American ice cream is made, again, in general, with more cream than milk. I'm sure that there are hundreds of recipes or formulas and variations.

Malawry, once again, thank you for sharing the diary with us. It's giving me real pleasure to read it.

I like to think it wants to go home.

"Occasionally, one finds places that serve a particular dish that is killer, and I would go there for that dish, and that dish only," someone said on another thread. Are there any restaurants you go to for a particular dish?What dish is it? Do you decide what you are in the mood to eat before arriving at the restaurant, or do you simply end up ordering the same thing at a particular restaurant because you like it so much? For example: When the annual mood strikes me for a pastrami sandwich, I automatically go to Katz's.

Steve, you could try using something like the stuffing for stuffed derma and instad of stuffing it into a casing, make a patty.