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hathor

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Everything posted by hathor

  1. I completely agree with you that economics of food are complex. There was an excellent editorial this week in the NY Times regarding food/farm subsidies. It actually broke through the emotion surrounding this topic and delved into the economic science. To stay on topic, I think the issue here may be that the Slow Food message is muddled. What do they want to be? What do they want to accomplish globally and in the US? I don't have any personal issues with SlowFood, unlike Steve who has some legitimate beef with how things were handled at 'his' market; I'm just genuinely unclear about what the overall message is that Slow Food is looking to communicate. Bear in mind, I've attended a Slow Food sponsored school in Italy which was completely devoted to local producers and preserving regional Italian traditions, I've visited the impressive Bra university (where they would be proud to be called elite food theorists) and I'm a Slow Food member in NY, but when someone asks me to explain what it is that Slow Food actually does, I do 'fumpher' to come up with a coherent answer. So, are we talking about a PR failure to communicate? Or is there an actual level of disdain for American growers and producers? edit to add NY Times link
  2. The essential conundrum, the inherent catch-22 of Slow Food is that food that is micro-produced is going to cost more than food that is mass produced. Therefore, the audience that is receptive to higher priced meat and produce will naturally be a wealthier customer. The person who is stretched to the limit to feed a family is not the natural Slow Food target demographic. I went to the Slow Food Nation website to see what the goal of the event is and this is the home page quote, “Join us in San Francisco this Labor Day Weekend for an unprecedented event! Taste delicious food, meet farmers, wander urban gardens, and discover the recipe for a fair and sustainable food system.” The website home page has flashy ads and a homey story about picking berries. My overall impression was that of a well marketed food fair with great cheeses, wines, fruits and berries. Oh, and I get to meet a farmer! As if this is some rare and unusual artifact that will be on display and I’m picturing a farmer locked in a diorama at the Museum of Natural History. Or I can wander an urban garden, which on Labor Day weekend should be just about bursting with harvestable foods, but who will actually benefit from and eat the fruit of these gardens? Wouldn’t it make more practical sense to spend the money on going into areas truly in need of this sort of education and helping them clear a lot and plant a garden? The whole marketing of the event has that preaching to the choir feeling rather than doing something at the needy, grass roots level. And ‘discover the recipe for a fair and sustainable food system’? That has to be one of the thorniest, complex issues facing us during this time of ‘global food crisis’. If Slow Food has indeed found the recipe they should start sharing it right now! I don’t mean to be bashing Slow Food, I just think that it is nearly impossible for an organization of this type, which rescues and promotes food that is more ultimately more expensive than the average person can spend on food, will naturally be perceived to be elitist. And is that wrong? I don’t think that all elitism is inherently bad, but we do need to scale our expectations for the Slow Food movement more in line with the reality of economics. What other organization is actively helping those on the lower economic rungs to eat clean, sustainable food? Steve, I know you do some of this work, is there any sort of national organization that addresses this?
  3. So, you're saying that there is no one consistent method for calculating a tip in Italy? Surely by now you've figured out that the phrase 'no one consistent method' could be applied to just about everything in Italy. Trust your instincts according to the place and the situation. Tipping is not mandatory, but always appreciated.
  4. hathor

    Orgeat

    The story/legend/theory goes that it was created in honor of the visit to New York by the first Japanese dimplomatic mission to the United States., which occured just a few years before the recipe was first published in Jerry Thomas' 1862 Bon Vivant's Companion. Full story here. ← Great bit of history. Kind of makes you wish you knew Tommy, he sounds like someone you would want to have a cocktail with.
  5. Another interesting guide is the "Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe". It's an organization of young chefs and we've been pretty consistently pleased with these restaurants. They have a web site....google them up. The Italian guide is all written in Italian, but it has the critical stuff like address and phone number.
  6. hathor

    Orgeat

    One "Adapted Japanese Cocktail"! I like it...we might cut back on the lemon. We've got some very strong lemons in the house. Jeff is not so sure, but I think it's rather refreshing and the orgeat gives it a nice mouth feel. thanks!
  7. hathor

    Orgeat

    Great info, thanks. (My e-mail notification is completely random, so I'm sorry not to respond sooner. I honestly thought that since no one answered, none of you really knew what to do with the stuff ) We were at a cocktail bar the other day, and I noticed that they subbed Cointreau for the Curacao, so that might be an option. We'll give the Japanese cocktail a try, it sounds intriguing. Uh, I'm a sissy-girl, I think the Fog Cutter would KILL me. That is a whole load of booze: rum, gin, brandy, and sherry. Oh, look. It's cocktail time in Umbria, I just placed my order with my personal bartender, I'd like an adapted Japanese cocktail. I'll let you know how it goes. But, Cocktail Historians: why is it called a Japanese cocktail?
  8. hathor

    Menu Input

    Is that a menu?? It's overwhelming. I just sort of glazed over. I'm not understanding the project. What is the focus? Who is the target market? What is the venue? Price points? Location?
  9. Honestly you stopped me dead in my tracks with that menu. Unlimited crayfish and meatballs...what a combo! Then again just seeing the words unlimited crayfish would certainly turn my head. Sounds like it was some good, tasty fun.
  10. hathor

    Orgeat

    My cocktail mentor, Weinoo, sent me a short e-mail: Make Orgeat Syrup. Of course I obeyed, and I now have a bottle of orgeat syrup. Uhmmm....now, what do I do with it? Please don't say MaiTai because the chances of me finding curacao are slim to ridiculous. I live in the hinterlands, a cocktail wasteland, a mecca for cheap nasty gin and no rye.... (however, grzie dio and saints preserve us, the gelato is good). We just had a little aperitivo of pastis, orgeat and a bit of water. That was nice, refreshing; but I've got a whole bottle of the stuff now!
  11. Unless there are updated versions, this was written in 1996...so there has been some changes.... Talking to people, ask a shop keeper, the toll booth guy where they like to eat. The toll booth guy outside of Rome sent us to one outstanding seafood place.
  12. Absolutely on target reply! And oh so true about the indexes.... they just don't come naturally to Italians! Grab a guide or two, and trust in serendipity.
  13. Doesn't Gambero Rosso publish some sort of restaurant guide? But I'm not sure if there is an English version
  14. Holly, I couldn't agree with you more. One reason to go out to a restaurant is to experience what the chef has created and when a generic salad is created, then chain or no chain, it becomes a generic restaurant. That being said, there is certainly a place for generic restaurants where people will feel comfortable with the non-challenging food. It becomes disheartening when a restaurant presents itself as something special, and in fact, they are just treading the same old water.
  15. Sometimes, I'll give the dough 30 minutes to an hour out of the fridge, other times right into the oven (or dutch oven)...play around and see what works best for you. Be careful when spritzing into a hot oven, however...I've read horror stories about shattered oven glass or shattered oven lights, but it hasn't happened to me. Jude, do you ever spritz your actual breads before putting them into the oven...certainly gives them a nice, shiny crust. imo. And, this topic makes me a little jealous, as I curtail pretty much all baking activities during the months of June, July and August...no a/c in the kitchen, and it's bloody hot here. ← Ciao Mitch! If the dough is that soft then I can see why you would want to go from fridge to oven, it would never hold a slash. I'm pretty careful with the spritz direction....I go to the bottom and the walls, and yes, I do directly spray the bread or rolls. But usually after they've been in awhile and are starting to get brown, if I spritz too early I get little blisters on the surface of the crust. Now...as far as it being too hot in the kitchen....I thought you were made of sterner stuff! Here's today's bread: regular rolls, olive rolls, little salty knots and a totally bizarre baguette/loafy shape. I made it too thick and the poor thing wanted to be a loaf while it was trapped in a baguette skin. I've been getting really nice bread using Bertinet's ale poolish recipe, but I'm using 700g of bread flour and 600g of my natural starter. My starter is more like actual bread dough, it's not the runny kind. The rest of the formula is the same.
  16. Eilen, nice looking bread! I'm curious about the baking straight from the fridge business. Any of those more scientific oriented brains, step in here. What happens to the bread and yeast if it goes directly into the oven? Does the rapid heat escalation change anything? To go directly from fridge to oven seems innately wrong, but that's probably based on habit and nothing more. But, Eilen, if you free yourself from the dutch oven, you can make all sorts of shapes and sizes, which for a family of two is handy. From a typical batch I'll makes some rolls, some loaves, or a baguette or two, whatever my needs are for the coming week. Everything goes into the freezer and gets pulled out when I need it. Then your dinner guests think you are some sort of super hero...which of course, isn't true, but that's our secret. Spray bottle is what I use for hydration. Spray the bejeezuz out the first minute of so, then maybe a spritz or so later. The hard part is to only open the oven door a crack so that you don't lose the precious heat. You know I'm just enticing you over to the knead side of things........right? Bread is great fun, and that's probably the only truly immutable fact about baking bread.
  17. Hold on to your deep dark secret plans...they keep you going when your feet won't move another step.
  18. In bocca al lupo! Good luck! Having been through a similar experience, all I can say is "Buckle your seatbelts. It's gonna be a bumpy ride." - Margo Channing May your sense of humor keep you company every day and every night.
  19. Here's a link to Divina Cucina's website Judy is fantastic and has excellent, excellent info on her website regarding Florence. Although the Florentine beefsteak is divine, most restaurants will offer you lots of other choices. Here is another link to a recent blog post of mine that gives addresses for two of our favorite little trattorias in Florence. If you live in the US, you will want to be careful about what you bring back. You can bring back hard cheeses like parmigana, but nothing soft or fresh. I'm not sure about oils, but in any event, the disaster leakage factor is pretty high with olive oil! I'm a little out of touch with what can and cannot be brought back into the States, but you can probably google up some good info. And clearly it's time for us to head back to Sienna so that we can update our food files. Have a lovely trip!
  20. You make the brandy manhattan....and I'll be there with bells on!
  21. I'm picturing perfectly made and chilled cocktails, Myrna Loy, cigarette holders, ladies in gorgeous slinky gowns and a torch singer with a back up orchestra. Maybe some steak and a lobster, already out of its shell...... And it's all in black and white.....
  22. hathor

    Gnocchi Bianchi

    Bump. ....no one else has heard of this?
  23. OK - I hadn't thought about that aspect of it. If you have lots of gin, lemons/lemon juice and are in Italy, find a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino and start making Aviations! When life gives you lemons, make a cocktail! ← I can't find Luxardo, I did find some maraschino....but it was in the baking section! We're going to give it a whirl and see how it tastes. The other night it was manhattans made with some outstanding Glenfiddich scotch. Had that scotch funk thing going on, but they were pretty good. I need to start a making cocktails in the hinterlands thread....
  24. hathor

    Gnocchi Bianchi

    I had someone ask me if I knew anything about a desert type pudding/custard called gnocchi bianco that involves semolina, milk, cinnamon and is served warm. Maybe from up around the Friuli region..... I came up with gnocchi latte from my Artusi book, but it doesn't include semolina.
  25. Afraid so. Almost everything has at least a splash of fresh lime juice in it. Have you looked into mail order frozen fresh lime juice? There's a company called Orchid Island Juice Company that bottled fresh frozen juices that are excellent quality. Don't know if they ship to Italy, but it might be worth a shot. ← That's the emotion range as I think about the Italian postal service delivering fresh frozen juices. I may not be Beachcomber Don or Dan....but I'll be Umbrian Hathor and figure out something to do with a whole lot of lemons and cheap, nasty gin. The trade-offs we make...... This is why you need to visit Katie. It would be a humanitarian visit!
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