chappie

I bought the exact box of Pasture Cakes outside of Oakland, Calif. last year at a huge pan-Asian supermarket. I was disappointed to discover that, unlike the photo depicting a gooey, moist center, these were quite dry and crumbly. Maybe they were old. They tasted like shortbread filled with a sweetened essence of hay.

Yeah, I love the mustard, too. Haven't had a big batch of crabs yet this spring, but am both anticipating it, as well as dreading the cruddy way they make me feel nowadays after I eat a bunch. Usually can shred through 10 or so at least.

A few comments: First, I cannot help but eat the panchan when it arrives at the table (though the places I've been usually bring the rice within a minute or so of the panchan). I also usually finish every last morsel of panchan, and have on occasion requested more of a certain variety. I usually try to fill lettuce leaves sparely so to be able to eat the package in one or 1.5 bites, but often feel like many Korean restaurants don't bring enough lettuce to the table. Secondly, I grew up eating Maryland blue crabs with my hands, occasionally smacking claws with a mallet (which I no longer use). But my wife was born and raised on Tilghman Island, in a family of watermen, and she taught me a much better way using a razor-sharp crab knife. (Small paring knife will work). You remove the top shell, scrape off the lungs, cut off the face and -- holding the body in your palm, make a diagonal cut (takes practice to find the right angle) on each side, from the center outward. The body should open up like an advent calendar or set of salloon doors. The smaller top part can be squeezed, and the lower, intact part now has convenient open channels of meat that can be slipped out whole with a finger. This method quickly removes every morsel from a shell.

First off, I have yet to understand this nonsense I've read over the years about "gently bruise a few mint leaves." I learned this from the lessons passed down to my mom from my granddad, who apparently in his day was quite a partying gentleman, but I want the most mint essense I can get. My strategy: pick a bunch of mint. Place a tight handful in cocktail shaker with a smallish grab of granulater sugar (the grains help extract mint). Muddle and mash for quite awhile, then pour in bourbon and a chunk of ice and shake for quite awhile longer. Pour over crushed ice (or any ice you have) and top with a sprig of mint. I have never heard anyone complain about these.

I can imagine it quite well. Growing up, a grilled peanut-butter sandwich was one of my favorite things, the gooey melted peanut butter contrasting with the still crunchy chunks. Nowadays I pair it with either hot pepper relish or Trader Joe's Tomatoless Corn Salsa. Delicious.

What??? The toxic aspartame empire burning off its competition?!? Do you have any links to this article or know where I can get it? Aspartame is frightening shit.

I read that WSJ article last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, that I awoke with a craving for burgers, not satisfied until I drove to a place called Creekside Deli I'd only tried once before and ordered a double bacon cheeseburger and fries. It put me in a delicious double bacon coma.

I don't call that a bad meal; I call that bad dinner guests. I would have loved to chow down on homemade Ethiopian food.

Sorry... someone above had mentioned the figure of $100/pound. As for preparation, I disagree with the edict not to salt the meat, though I would do so gently.

The alcohol in beer would do no such thing as "cooking" an egg. You would merely get a beer with raw egg blended in. But Peter, just wanted to drop a note that this thread is fantastic. My best friend Willie lives in Guilin right now and I can't wait to visit. He's been in China over three years now, first in Suzhou before Guilin, and when we chat, tales of the food are always at the forefront. It's amazingly cheap to stay in touch, too. Found an online calling card that lets me reach him for 1.3 cents U.S. a minute.

$100-a-pound beef in a hamburger? What's the point? If I'm paying that much a pound for a consumable good, it better make me hallucinate. Aren't burgers traditionally a vehicle for meat you otherwise wouldn't want to cook and eat intact?

I had mentioned before that I once made sourdough blueberry pancakes, with fresh-picked berries, using a mixture of spelt and AP flour, cooked in applewood bacon fat and served with real maple. Last weekend I was at a small airport cafe and ordered their blueberry pancakes. Yes, the berries were at least real, not the little artificially colored flecks, but they obviously used a really cheap mix, and the meal left me feeling bloated and ill the rest of the day. So I might add my own taboo of too much sugar/processed flour at breakfast.

I had read about the recent disappearances, but it's been years and years since I've seen honeybees in significant numbers here. When I was a kid I used to step on one a day, it seemed. Didn't a parasite wipe out billions of them in the early 90s?

On second thought, one food that definitely doesn't jive for me on the breakfast table might be oysters. Several years ago, Dad reminisced about a cook at one of the snooty Richmond, Va. clubs who used to occasionaly prepare something called the "Rush Special." According to Dad's perhaps tainted memory, it consisted of cornmeal pancakes, oysters sauteed in a pan with butter, and real maple syrup. So with much fanfare on Sunday morning, Dad made us a Rush Special. The combination of briny, rich oysters with their unmistakeable sea funk, and the penetrating sweetness of maple made me gag. Nobody finished their plate. No oysters for breakfast, particulary doused in sweet syrup. I don't think lamb would be my morning choice, either.

I don't know ... One of the best dinner I've ever made was sourdough blueberry pancakes (with berries fresh off the bush), cooked in applewood bacon grease on a hot griddle, served with said bacon and some grade B maple syrup (the best for such an application).

Señor Gordo: I have been on a bean kick lately, mostly what I can buy bulk, organic at my local natural foods store. Your posts have inspired me to cook them low overnight in the crockpot, plain except for maybe a few cloves of smashed garlic, a dried chile pepper and a few bay leaves. Occasionally I'll use homemade chicken stock as part of the liquid. I have learned beans make a great breakfast... Also, and this a habit I picked up with grains in the Nourishing Traditions book, I have been soaking my beans with either keffir milk or fresh, cultured whey added to the water. Don't know if it helps unlock nutrients the way it does with, say, steel-cut oats. This week I've had romans and adzukis. But your site offers some real beauties I'd love to try. Can you suggest a combination to order? I probably will go with four or five to get the most of your flat-rate shipping. Too bad you don't sell a cookbook. Also, some of your beans are so pretty uncooked I think you could peddle bean necklaces. Now if only I could convince my wife to like beans ... (in the meantime I have no problem enjoying them by myself).

I bought a ketchup-like bottle full of tiny shrimp in a small Asian market in Montgomery County, Md. I was in the refrigerated section and I think the english words "fermented shrimp sauce" are listed under its name (I'm at work right now, so I don't have it in front of me). Does anyone here know how I should use this stuff?

What's up with all the dissing here of chicken fingers? One of the first replies told you it was too "eh," and then recommended white rice and string beans? Hardly a pinnacle of nutrition there. For someone who will eat anything, and who craves things like kimchi, raw escolar, green papaya salad and pho, I find nothing wrong with a good chicken finger. One bar around here must douse them first in hot sauce before breading them, and they're delicious.

I can't let this thread fade into the forgotten realms. Told Mom about the miracle fruits today, and she too is curious. Could they be grown for profit in a greenhouse? We brainstormed various foods and drinks that might go well with this effect (which still exists for us only in the imagination): cider vinegar, sauerkraut, rose hips, pure vitamin C tablets? But the best comment came when she gasped and said, "Buttermilk! Buttermilk would taste like pudding!"

Mom used to, in a pinch when she probably didn't feel like cooking (she was/is a great cook), microwave a Stouffer's container of Welsh rarebit and serve it on buttered toast. I hadn't thought about it in years until finding the recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook. So much better homemade! Butter, flour, garlic, horseradish, hot sauce, mustard, beer, cheese, and I added some Marmite. I see myself making it over and over again.

I routinely throw chicken carcasses (usually from rotisserie birds) plus any veggies I have on hand, garlic, herbs, peppercorns, fish sauce, etc. into a big pot and simmer well into the night, then turn off and let cool till morning. Last night I turned the heat off at 2 a.m., then strained it out at 8 a.m. I have done this for years, but then again I also reboil the stock when I'm making soup. I have never gotten ill from my own chicken juice. Then again, I grew up with a father who keeps things in his fridge for decades, so I probably have a veteran gut.

I missed the Austrian glass-clinking puzzler and the Polish fish wive's tale. But 9 of 11 ain't too bad.

A couple observations: First, I saw a "Good Eats" episode last night where Alton Brown flash-froze fresh strawberries solid by mixing them in a cooler with broken-up dry ice. I wonder if this would work for miracle fruits, thereby extending their freezer life. Second, where can they be grown? I live in Maryland and am guessing they can't be grown here without a greenhouse. What a shame. If they're going for $1.50 or so a pop and some trees are popping out thousands... I could at least see them selling well at a farmer's market, with demonstrations available. I really want to try one.

How do you keep it from getting soggy in the crockpot? Do you brown it first in pan? Also, could I use chicken parts for something like this?

I am the primary cook of our humble household, but because my wife and I have conflicting work schedules — she works all day, I work nights — our meals together tend toward weekends. Or, I'll tinker in the kitchen at 2 a.m., or in the morning. I'm looking for meals I can prep in advance and leave in the crockpot for her, so she can come home to a healthy and home-cooked meal. But she doesn't eat much red meat, and she hates most legumes, both of which comprise a lot of crockpot recipes. Any ideas using fish, chicken, veggies, etc?