chromedome

As his life leaks out of him, he explains to his mistress about a place where, at a certain time of the year, the wild boars live almost entirely on yams. You kill your boar, you see, and then you take out his intestines and gently grill them in your campfire. Then you eat them, pre-stuffed with yams. And he dies, gasping, with a beatific smile on his face. Personally, I loved the scene where the prim schoolmistress has her charges in a western-style restaurant, explaining to them the intricacies of occidental etiquette. Specifically, how it applies to the eating of spaghetti. The tableful of them are sitting about, delicately nibbling noodles in the most ladylike fashion, when a loud noise from another table distracts them. It turns out to be an oversized caucasian, slurping his spaghetti in the loudest "eight-year-old-boy-loaded-on-sugar-at-a-birthday-party" fashion. The girls squirm in an almost painful way, watching this vulgar display, but eventually succumb to temptation. Their painfully mannered meal disintegrates into an orgy of obscenely, loudly, VULGAR pasta-inhalation. One of many memorable moments.

Barney Miller. Hash Brownies. 'Nuff said.

I'd been using Patak's (with feelings of guilt) for a few years; whenever I didn't have the time or inclination to start from scratch. Then a Tamil friend whose cooking I admire told me that most Indo-Canadians use convenience products *a lot*, and that Patak's was the weapon of choice (probably because they're the most complete line that's readily available in Canada). Offered FWIW.

A fine microplane grater works pretty well...

Sage also has a natural affinity with most cheeses (basically all but the mildest - which it overwhelms - and strongest, which it conflicts with). Add fresh or fried leaves to anything cheese centred, like an omelette or even (don't laugh) a grilled cheese sandwich. Grilled cheese on a nice bread with sage is mmmmmm.....

It may have something to do with which potatoes you use. I've noticed that starchier ("baker") potatoes tend to get kind of glue-y when mixed mechanically.

At work we have a specific pot which is ideally shaped for our stand mixer's bowl to sit in. We use that for sabayons and suchlike. Admittedly the mixer doesn't lock down into place with the pot there, but it only takes a light hand on the top to hold everything where it should be. Of course, not everyone's going to have a conveniently-shaped-and-sized pot...but it's worth keeping an eye out when you're in the thrift store.

A willingness to experiment and compromise is sometimes required, too. I freeze sage because, even if it comes out ugly, it *tastes* like fresh sage...and fresh sage is a whole different thing than dried. With cilantro, I tend to freeze anything I don't use the first day; just because it doesn't hold very well and if I don't use it immediately I wind up sponging green slop out of the bottom of my fridge. Although frozen cilantro doesn't do a whole lot for your plate presentation, it tastes pretty good. Here in Alberta, the air is dry enough that I don't have to put the herbs I'm drying anywhere in particular. I can hang them pretty much anywhere except the back of my stove. If I understand correctly DC can be pretty humid, so you may need to experiment a bit to find the best place in your own digs.

In addition to the young/old turnips thing, you'll want to match your use to the type of turnip you've got. White turnips have a sharp, radishy flavour when raw...excellent where you've planned on it, overwhelming where you haven't. Yellow turnips ("Swedes" or rutabagas) are sweet and mild when raw. When cooked, they taste similar. I'll also second the part about the greens. I'm a big fan of most cooking greens, and turnip greens are one of my favourites. They have a nice edge to them; they can be substituted in some applications for broccoli rabe or one of the more pungent Asian greens.

...also the matignon generally becomes part of the meal, whereas mirepoix is discarded.

The differences in flavour perception are quite amazing, from one person to the next. To me, asparagus and okra (for example) have a lovely delicate flavour, similar to the best and freshest of new green beans. Yet, others I know find them intolerably bitter. To me, parsnips do taste carrotty...but it's a really skanky carrot, one that's been rotted and then made into jerky and then smoked over a garbage fire and then rehydrated in stale beer. You could say I don't care for them. I have had parsnips that bordered on being enjoyable, but they've required a great deal of artifice along the way; usually caramelization in one or another fashion. Submerging them in a *lot* of something else generally does the trick too; I've had them as the "mystery ingredient" in mashed potatoes and found the result rather interesting. Overall, though, they're far and away my least favourite root vegetable (and I dearly love my root vegetables).

I'll confess to getting a kick out of Food Hunter. If any of you are ever in the area of Halifax, NS, look up Pete at his boutique-y greengrocer shop ("Pete's Frootique") in suburban Bedford. Chances are you'll find him there, obsessing over his produce. In person, he's exactly what you see on the tube. Walk into the store, pick out an item that you've always wondered about, and march up to him. He'll tell you what to do with it. And tell you and tell you. He really, really loves what he does.

I've just recently gotten one, HV, and I do rather like it. I tend to only use my "standard" blender during the hot weather, when the kids are demanding smoothies. It's a royal pain to clean fruit pulp out of, let me tell you! I haven't had my immersion blender long enough to really put it through its paces, but I do find it immeasurably better for soups and (quantity) sauces. Ladling a pot of cream-of-whatever into and out of the standard blender was a too much trouble to be worth it. I've even used my "stick" to turn barley into barley flour, in a pinch. As for cleanup, well...shove blender under running water, rinse, remove, dry. Much faster, IMO. Mine's nothing special; just the cheapie Braun that they recommend at school ($20 CDN, less Stateside I'm sure). Works well, though.

I made that for a homesick Punjabi friend, last year. I found that the end result (though sweeter than I like a dessert to be) tasted disconcertingly lemony. Actually not "lemony" as such, but more "lemon verbena-y" or "lemon grass-y". How that came out of carrots, cardamoms, milk and sugar I'm not sure. Apparently in India it's common to add red food colouring, but I didn't bother.

I had an instructor last year who kept a file of deliberately "off" recipes. Once a week or so, he'd hand somebody a recipe with a joker in it: double the flour it should have, or half the butter, or something like that. His point? Trust your common sense, not the recipe. If it seems screwy, question it. He also kept a broken scale around, just to see who was going to be hardheaded enough to keep trying to use it. And metric and imperial balances and weights on the same shelf. I think his 30 years in the military may have had something to do with his "training by gotcha" mentality.

Interesting. I've been thinking about orthotics, since the plan at my school covers me up to $150CDN/foot. I have a few issues with footwear. Clogs I find insanely aggravating, since they tend to fly from my feet at unpredictable intervals. My left foot is a EEE1/2, my right is a EEEE. I have *NO* arches, never have, so anything with any kind of an arch support is absolutely crippling within the first hour. At present I'm using my ongoing compromise; a pair of cheap canvas flats with a gel insole (modified with a razor blade to remove the arch support). This is not at all ideal, and my knees in particular pay the price...early arthritis was part of the genetic package. I can be on my feet all day, outwalk people half my age, hike in the mountains, but stairs? Bad, bad, bad.

My chef is the owner of the restaurant, twenty-four years and counting. On Saturdays after service you'll see her on her hands and knees behind one of the prep islands, scrubbing the floors. She frequently chases our dishwasher out of the pit and *orders* her to sit down and eat with the rest of the kitchen staff once service is over (which, of course, is the busiest time for the dish pit). Lead by example, anyone? It's worth noting that she's got no formal culinary training (she's a mathematician and an engineer); though of the three other cooks two are certified journeymen and I'm two-thirds of the way down that path. Hang in there, Steve, and keep plugging. -Chromedome <========== (40-year-old culinary student)

Parchment as well, just 'cuz I find that peeling my nice delicate fish off the damn' foil is disheartening....

My Hungarian co-worker blows a gasket at the mention of a Dobos with anything other than seven layers. Is this one of those things like making polenta for an Italian? They all do it differently, and only the way they do it at home is the correct way?

I lost three irreplaceable hours there, last night, and didn't even get through the whole site. Thanks a bunch. I've sent the link to a pile of my friends, who will doubtless love it as much as I did. (Must...stay....away..........)

Two east-coast holiday traditions are ribbon candy (all hand-pulled sugar, made in the same factory for decades); and molded lollipop "toys" of clear golden or red candy in various shapes (ships, teddy bears, etc). Newfoundland's Purity Foods makes a number of products not seen elsewhere (except in stores catering to homesick Newfs); their "peppermint knobs" are a minor classic.

My friend in Rio suggested that you check out this site for recipes and context. Hope this is helpful...

Wednesday I was at the travelling road show that California producers do every year, to promote their wines here in Canada. My interest in wine having only recently gotten serious, there were many well-established wineries that I was not familiar with. There were two wines which caught my attention because of their art: Bonny Doon's "Cardinal Zin" and the aforementioned R H Phillips "Toasted Head Chardonnay." The fire-breathing bear of "Toasted Head" was represented at the side of the table by a 6' carboard standup figure. I couldn't resist, I had to go and ask what it was about. I didn't taste that particular wine (I detest oaky, malic Chardonnays), but I did try their EXP Syrah; which I wouldn't have done without the bear. In the case of the Bonny Doon, I was simply passing by their table and spotted the Ralph Steadman artwork on the label. Having spent many, many hours sniggering my way through Hunter S Thompson's books I was familiar with Steadman's work; and I reasoned that any winery cool enough to put him on their label deserved at least a moment of my attention. I liked the "Cardinal Zin," but I have no context for it as I've only had one or two glasses of Zinfandel in my life.

Foodman, I hadn't found egullet yet when this course ran, so this is a little late...but thanks for a great introduction! I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which has a thriving Lebanese community. Falafel and tabouleh are common food-court fare, there, and ingredients are readily available. Unfortunately, I now live in Edmonton, and I don't know yet where to find Mid-Eastern ingredients. But I will... Mottmott: Tess Mallos' "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook" does a fair-to-middlin' "compare and contrast" of the different national styles in the introductions to each section.

I remember years ago seeing a magazine interview with an anthropologist and his wife. They'd met in the Amazon...he went there to study her tribe, and wound up studying one of them (her) in significantly more detail. The interviewer asked the wife what kind of adjustments she'd had to make, changing from the Brazilian rainforest to (I think) Iowa. "The tarantulas you get in the pet stores here," she replied. "They just don't taste like the ones back home."