chappie

Does anyone here know anything about mushroom hunting on the Delmarva Peninsula, or do you know of any local resources people can check? I am interested not just in mushroom hunting but in finding a great guide to all wild edibles.

To remove any doubt next time, go for the goat. I love goat and next time I'm near Falls Church I will have to stop in and get some. Sounds like a neat market. That area has the best of everything: Vietnamese shopping center, Korean barbecue everywhere and Great Wall, the best Asian supermarket south of Flushing and 3,000 miles east of the Bay area.

Is this the right place to talk about odd international snack foods? Surely there must be a threat somewhere already started. If not, I can tell anyone and everyone here: Never, when happily browsing the shelves of a Vietnamese/Thai grocery store and encountering a metal, Pringles-eqsue snack can with a cartoon and the name "Mr. Squid" on it (baked, not fried!) assume that, because you enjoy calimari, this might be a great new treat. It tastes like seafood left to rot and then dry out on hot pavement, the horrible decay and fish-funk hardly masked by the liberal amounts of sugar and spice. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Nightmare inducing, and I like a lot of funky flavors including fermented tofu, etc.

Yeah, I see where they have regular Marmite, but I can already buy that here. I was talking about the Guinness variety.

Please, please, please share that recipe once you make it.

If you're near the Chinatown area, why not grab some 5 Guys or better yet, pizza at Matchbox?

That's the stuff. I think it's flavored with some sort of herbs indigenous to Central America. Can't recall the name, but there's a famous Mayan soup down there. Maybe it's similar seasoning? I really like this sauce, and I've been eating the other Yucatecos for years. Is this one new? I hadn't seen it before snagging it off the impressively well-stocked Latino product shelves of my local Food Lion. Also agree with you about Crystal. Though on the Tabasco front, Dad had a gallon jug of the stuff that got all brown and funky looking but was still probably edible. I don't think it's possible for hot sauce to go bad. What is kind of an "essential" pepper product for me, though not exactly a sauce, is this super-strong habanero mash/puree sold by a local guy at the farmer's market. A great pure habanero flavor for use in small quantities as an ingredient.

Marie Sharp's habanero ... is that the one with carrot juice in it? I had a bottle of it years ago that I absolutely drained in no time. Great, great sauce. I prefer Crystal or Texas Pete for a cheap, common Louisiana-style sauce. Something about original Tabasco that turns me off, but I really love their chipotle sauce. El Yucateco makes a good Mexican habanero sauce, and I have one right now ($1.79) that is some "original Mayan recipe" variety with special seasonings in it. Also when people are speaking of a good Chinese chili oil, is there a good commercial variety, or how do you make it properly? When I tried, using I think peanut oil, the dried chiles got way too burned (even though I did it very low) and the flavor was nasty.

A true love of pizza enables one to love it on many different levels and thus appreciate a perfect margherita from Two Amys or a deliciously bubbled pie from the 90-year-old oven at Lombardi's, yet also enjoy a 3 a.m. cheap bar pizza (probably Sysco?) baked to crispness at Carpenter St. Saloon in St. Michaels, Md. Preceded by the proper quantities of corn soda, the latter fulfills just as important a niche. Nearly any frozen pizza, in my opinion, beats Domino's, a company that has mastered the art of melding sauce, crust and cheese into a product that tastes like absolutely nothing. But there are limits. An old college roommate used to stock up on the cheapest of the cheap tiny frozen discs (I think they were Fox's brand?), meagerly covered in pseudo-cheez and tiny dots of sausagish, rubbery substance. They were maybe 50 cents each on sale, and he'd cover them liberally with French's mustard. When I was in high school, our lacrosse team held a fundraiser involving this Music Man of a pizza scheister, in which we'd sell pizzas to be delivered at a later date. My mom still played in a tennis league, so she got all the bored ladies to buy three or four, most of them having no interest in actually receiving said product. Pizza Hawk gathered all the spring athletes in the school's cafeteria to make the pizzas, splitting us into different tasks like saucing, cheesing and shrink-wrapping. They could either be delivered fresh, or frozen. I don't know what he got off all this free labor but I imagine he left town quickly. Anyway, we had this freezer in the basement already loaded with ice cream novelties I'd inherited upon the end-of-summer closing of the pool at which I lifeguarded. None of our buyers seemed to want their pizzas, so in went 40 or more stacked pizzas, and for the next couple of months we had some great after-school (and late-night after-party) grubbage. Until the power went out down there and I lost my entire trove. I nearly wept.

Any more info, photos, etc. on this spoon? If it's such a great device we all must have one.

Growing up, shad roe was an occasional treat (like artichokes dipped in mayo) relished by my parents. I cooked it for the first time a few years ago, but I have to say the Joy of Cooking's method was terrible. It called for removing the membranes, which of course caused it to crumble apart, and par-boiling it I think. The fishmonger down the street from me sells it right now, and I think I'm just going to dust it with flour and fry it in bacon fat. Should I leave it slightly pink in the center? Funny thing is, my wife, who eats no red meat other than liver (!!!), likes liver but hates shad roe. I am the opposite.

206 Talbot, eh? I think that might be a tackle shop. I think you meant 208. Just ribbing you. Hmmm... In Tilghman I've heard good things about the Tilghman Island Inn for brunch, and Bay Hundred (which used to be phenomenal, has changed hands countless times and is doing well in its latest incarnation). In Easton I recommend Out of the Fire. I know the chefs, owner and much of the staff and it's great food made with impeccable ingredients. A chunk less expensive than the two places you've mentioned, and a modern, busy atmosphere you should enjoy. If you're up for late nights I sincerely recommend a weekend night of drinking in St. Michaels at Carpenter Street Saloon. One-of-a-kind place.

Which one do you think it is ? Two or three of the species listed are sawara or sub-types of sawara, in Japanese. Of course, their all being known as 'Spanish Mackerel' in the market suggests they're alike from the consumer's point of view. All I know is they're locally caught in or near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

The neighborhood seafood market is stocked with beautiful Spanish mackerel right now. I enjoyed Pacific mackerel pan-fried years ago, and believe I've had the Spanish mackerel in sushi. Does anyone have any recipes or methods to cook it? They're only $2 a pound, so I want to pounce while they're available.

I've never tried stir-frying it, but we like to cut it into planks, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and sugar (just a little, to draw out some juices), squeeze with lime juice and add some chopped mint. Great cold snack.

OK ... just watched last three episodes of Season 1 today, and I definitely agree with whoever said it was much better.

Don't want to turn this into a mackeral thread, but when working on a fish-processing vessel off the NW tip of Washington State we caught lots of Pacific mackeral (and sardines) as bycatch. The Filipina chef would cook them, just spiced on the outside, in a hot pan so that the skin was crispy. Absolutely stunning, and I'm wondering if I can do something similar with the Spanish mackeral on sale at my local fish market?

Lots of graham crackers, all the way up through high school. But here's a testament to youthful metabolism. Sometimes between school's end (2:45 p.m.) and lacrosse or indoor track practice, I would skitter off to 7-11 and whack down the largest Gulp worth of Mountain Dew, a bag of cheese puffs and some Slim Jims. Then go run several miles.

There is nothing remotely "gross" about that; it's not like Saltines are seasoned with chicken boullion and garlic salt. They're just neutral flour squares liberally salted (and most people know salt goes well with sweet). Not much different than pie crust without the fat, or a crispier cone without the sugar. For a similar effect I used to cover ice cream with oyster crackers. It's funny how many innocuous flavor combinations or preparation methods elicit an "ewwww, gross" just because they differ from the norm. I always used to make grilled peanut butter sandwiches. Same as the regular one but it makes the PB gooey and melted inside of buttery, grilled bread. (Even better if you add Trader Joe's corn-chile tomatoless salsa, or a few mini-marshmallows before throwing in the panini press ...). But just the phrase "grilled peanut butter" used to draw so much gaggery from friends with timid palates. I bet mini ice cream sandwiches on Saltines, refrozen to harden, would be good.

I didn't think I would respond to this, but I've watched the reruns enough now to warrant it. I never saw Top Chef's first season, and caught this one midway through. Wow, the editing and directing behind the scenes is amazingly manipulative, turning a show about cooking into something little different than the Real Housewives of Orange County, only with more drama. The show wants people to gang up on Marcel, and what results is really creepy, hazing incident or not. What kinds of adults feel proud behaving in gang-think, especially on camera? So many of them, Frank, the annoying blonde hag, even everyone's favorite humble hero, whatshisname cool jock, look like absolute idiots with their aggressive explosions against Marcel, who is clearly not an easy kid to work with, but so what? I didn't taste the food, so I can't judge who was best, but he clearly had talent, and it's as if some of them felt they could hide their own shortcomings by forming a middle-school clique and trying to "put him in his place." How seventh-grade soccer tryout. I worked under stress on Alaskan fishboats alongside a kid with a similar personality, and while, yes, his bragging about nonsense prompted an occasional retort, you just learn to ignore it. If someone's character is unprofessional or unsuitable to a certain work environment, it will surface on its own without sycophantic colleagues running to tell the boss. When the Frank dude got in Marcel's face and threatened him in front of the crew for placing his toiletry bag on the floor (not, as one would have assumed by his demeanor, the litterbox of a diarrheal Maine coon cat who lives on asparagus) I felt embarrassed for him, not Marcel. And you know as it all went down, the editors reworked scenarios to make the feuds even worse. Probably because they can count on a predictable number of viewers falling into the bully club. I really didn't care who won the thing, but it sure wound up with a bunch of losers.

I used your method last night, using heavy cream plus chicken stock, adding salt, pepper, a splash of white balsamic vinegar to which I added lemongrass long ago, pinch of red pepper flakes and a good bit of cumin. Dad used to make orange-cumin bread a long time ago, and the flavors work really well together. Served on broiled salmon atop a bed of quinoa, alongside asparagus I pan-cooked until slightly carmelized, with a splash of (dark) balasmic, and a salad of fennel, (regular navel) oranges, baby spinach and celery root (was going to use jicama but store was out). It was a delicious, healthy meal. Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely do it again. I also use blood oranges for attractive vinaigrettes.

Last night we made dinner for six and I broiled salmon lightly oiled, S&P-ed, dusted with orange zest and then topped with a sauce that follows: Take the zest and juice of four blood oranges, reduce awhile in a pan, then add equal amount of heavy cream and a splash of chicken stock, salt, pepper, tiny pinch of red pepper flakes and some cumin. Reduce again, then mount with butter at the end. I served salmon over quinoa, then topped with sauce. It was perfect.

I love Saveur, and understand it's all about food and culture and not really hard-hitting journalism. However, some mention should have been made in the latest issue of the insane amounts of bycatch that dies for every pound of shrimp caught. The only mention whatsoever is something along the lines of "then the bycatch is shoveled overboard." Any thoughts? Not that it's their business or motive to slam the shrimp industry, but I think it deserves mentioning.

I would think the thread meant the Delmarva Peninsula. Because there are regions of Virginia that are definitely barbecue country, and D.C. doesn't have too much in common with the Eastern Shore, etc. But whatever, I guess. (Although, even if one is reading it to mean the three states, technically that excludes D.C.) As for shad roe, that's definitely Delmarva food. Mmmmm.

Half smokes are a D.C. staple I've never seen on the Delmarva Peninsula.