Susan G

Yup, add me to the list of folks saying they have no heritage, but have found a love for the food. I'm an uber-WASP, and how I love my bagels and lox, the take-out matzoh ball soup, the honey cakes this time of year! Thanks to all who have given recommendations for great cookbooks.........

Even if my food is comped *and* I'm given a certificate for a future meal, that still doesn't balance the scales if I've had to get my stomach in knots for a confrontation about sub-standard food/service *at a time when I wanted to be pampered*. I've noted sub-standard meals at my favorite places and returned...........but if it's a new place, or the place is small enough so that there is no manager FOH (he's the chef/owner), I just don't go there again. I can bring problems to the attention of the appropriate people most of the time - -I just don't like to have stress at mealtimes. No. No. No.

Do. Not. Eat. These. (But if you have time, go to the biology department of the nearest college, and ask a professor there what you have, and where it came from! Someone in the Health Department or agricultural exchange may also be able to help). Hard to know what temperature destroys the helminth aggs...........and the meat will be riddled with these foreign bodies. Truly scary.

Best wishes, and thank you Craig, for all your work.

I was raised with the philosophy of trying a bite of everything, and *then* I could reject it as icky.............this has been an enormous help to springboard my palate into the truly odd realms. I often take a second bite...........

The grimy dust on the lampshade over the table. Gah.

"The job of America is to get out of cooking" ??? So FTV views its programming as if one were visiting a museum: See, this is the way people *used* to care for themselves and their families, before there was home delivery. Ack. So not my worldview..........but then, it's not my favorite form of entertainment, either.

I've got chili in the crockpot now, and in eight hours I will be feasting! Beef stew meat, some ground chuck, lots of onions, garlic and cumin. Chunky tomatoes. Enough cayenne to make me need sour cream as a topping! Black pepper. Pinto and black beans. I have no truck with green bell peppers. To me, this is heretical.

If your eggs are at room temperature before you add them to the batter, they can hold more air than cold ones. (According to Martha).

I peel off pieces of crispy skin from roasted poultry as I'm carving it for serving: Sometimes I sprinkle salt onto the skin before I pop the greasy bundles into my mouth. Heaven.

I'm all for going to the root of the problem, not to the symptoms: Your hands are too weak to break the seals of some jars............so why not strengthen them? One doesn't have to go all out for bodybuilding: Rubber balls to squeeze will increase your hand strength.

And maybe your refrigerator is too cold for the middle to warm up easily?

McIntosh, with a few Cortlands.

I think if you put the whole piece(s) of meat on the table, (lamb OR beef) neither will be as cheerfully received as if one were to slice the meat out of sight, and plate it with a little sauce. But maybe your dining companions are more adventurous than mine..........

Or the ginger tea carried by most Asian grocery stores. They come in foil packets, pre-sugared.

I check my eggs, tap and smell cantelopes, and check for fresh eyes and intact scales in fresh fish. I rarely bother with freshness dates, but I agree that Whole Foods occasionally does a poor job of rotating their product: I've gotten fizzy balls of mozzarella, and rancid prosciutto ends.

Stuffed grapeleaves? Sides of babaganoush and hummus? Cucumber salad? Carrot salad? Mint and honey teas?

But isn't the steam hotter than the water itself? Or am I imagining that?

Omelettes and a green salad are my stand-bys for exhaustion. I also keep tortellinis in the freezer and chicken stock on the shelf, for emergency elegant starters. How about using a crockpot? Put the ingredients together in the morning, they simmer all day, and you walk into a house that smells wonderful! Dinner is waiting for you!

My first and subsequent thoughts have been that the waitress was trying to tactfully wave you off a dish that was "off" that night, but couldn't tell you the real reason (a supervisor nearby)? The servers are the ones who hear the chefs swearing at their seafood purveyors because the order is fishy; they know the walk-in freezer has been down for ten hours and the kitchen hasn't yet dumped the supplies............ Anytime I get a, "You don't want this" cue from my server, I pay attention. The hints can come in all guises. Why take it personally? She may have been trying to protect your happiness (and her tip).

Never been to the Black Forest, but if anyone is travelling on I-25 in New Mexico, Renate's is a German restaurant just off the highway in Glorieta - very fresh, very tasty, and reasonably priced. I go there for comfort food: The bratwurst, the potato pancakes, the rum cake!

Locally-made kirsch! It's fantastic! Not food-related, but there's some beautiful embroidery and lace done in the mountain communities.............easily packed!

How about steeping a dark mint tea, then pouring it into ice cube trays for freezing?

Have a great time in Beijing! Eat a jian bing for me!! The Quan Ju De (on the West side of Tiananmen Square?) is as good for people-watching as it is for the duck. It's where I saw a woman-of-a-certain-age wearing a dark mink stole over a dark mink full-length coat........*inside* the restaurant. And what was most shocking about her expression of wealth was her advanced pregnancy............back during the heyday of the one-child policy. See if you can find Uigurville for fantastic bread and roasted mutton with cumin! (And waiters with green eyes!) It's in the neighborhood of the Beijing Normal College (teacher's college).

Ducks blood soup. The Chinese version was delicious! The Polish version (in Buffalo, NY), was a huge disappointment: As I recall, it had sauerkraut, vinegar and raisins!