Susan G

I was taught by a Greek chef that you never hand a knife directly to someone....you have to put it down near them and let them pick it up. Otherwise the ungrounded metal will cause a fight between the two. I don't believe it, but I remember it, and I pass it on for your amusement.

Ohh, yeah! I second that one! The "creme" that doesn't melt in hot cocoa, and has little taste other than the oil.

*Vegan police*???! What??

Me, I drive to the nearest Asian deli and get a Peking duck with extra white rice...........something about the crispy skin and the succulent fat........I feel better for a few hours, at least! And if I eat it with a foul-mouthed, supportive friend, I feel better for the rest of the day! We've all been in that hole. I'm sorry about your break-up. Hope you find something here helpful.

So, Pickles, what did you decide was unfit advice?

Refrigerated tomatoes.

I read somewhere that the dish-to-be-returned is part of the social connection of sharing food: It gives the persons who were ill an opening to say thank you and to talk about other topics that hold our social webs together. This was especially so in the case of a death in the family. Persons who were mourning *had* to come out of their black hole, briefly, to talk to someone else. Has anyone else heard this?

Yup, I am so with you there. Part of hosting guests is making sure they eat well. I am food *aware*. I am food *appreciative*. I believe a great meal shared by good friends is a religeous experience..............and I am fortunate to have a small circle of friends with educated palates and generousity of hearts, so that we cook dinners for one another on a weekly basis. This is heavenly. The only persons who have ever told me I am working too hard for a meal are the same ones who mindlessly consume it (barely tasting the flavors), while complaining mightily about their quotidien lives. If they weren't in-laws, we wouldn't be breaking bread again!

Ditto gazpacho! I love them cut into long strips and seeded, then marinated in some rice vinegar, sugar, salt and chili sauce..........just before eating, drizzle them them with sesame oil. ooohh, lovely!

If it's a medical crisis with someone alone in a house, and ill, I make huge amounts of soup: pasta e fagiole with extra garlic if it's cold-related, french onion soup if it's not. It lasts a long time, and tastes better as it marinates! If it's for a happy occasion, (like a new baby in the house), I make an enormous cheesecake or carrotcake..............because so many other people are going to bring entrees! I really like the idea of showing up with gallons of beverages! How thoughtful!

I'm wondering if the British didn't cling to the Fear Of Food school of cookery longer than the rest of the continent.........and I'm thinking restrictive undergarments had much to do with it! Corsets were used by both men and women. British cookery was much concerned with avoiding "upsetting the digestion" (codewords for constipation). I suspect the former caused the latter. Foods that were bland would be filling without tempting one to overindulge, no second portions would be sought (thriftiness!), and overall, one would feel better about this diet, such as it is. Milktoast, cooked oatmeal, cucumber sandwiches, vegetables boiled until they're limp, roasts cooked beyond 'done"............John Cleese once said that the British attitude towards cookery was, "We've got an Empire to run".

I feequently eat unsupervised food samples, and to my knowledge, I've never gotten ill. I figure that what an immune system is *for*, and if it gets tweaked on a regular basis, it will remain functional. On the other hand, I prefer to keep my veil of ignorance about what other people have seen happen to said food.....................

"Do not let the sun go down on your uneaten bacon"

How much does that 1.5c. cheese weigh? Metric might make this clearer..........but since we're using English measurements, let me work through this.........um, a gallon is 8.8 lbs, or 128 fluid ounces, or 16 cups. You used 8 cups or a half gallon............in making cheese you're precipitating the milk solids - mostly the fats, and in whole milk that's about 4% fat. 4% of 64 ounces is, um, without a calculator here........2.6 ounces..........and I guess the rest would be the non-fat milk solids, like proteins. I wonder if the yield would be higher if one were to use a higher-fatted milk, like that from Jersey or Guernsey cows? Anybody know?

My weirdest experience was listening to the chef yell at the top of his lungs (and throw pans around the kitchen) from a packed dining room. It was incredible the way everyone froze: Forks halfway to their lips, heads tilted towards friends, or in a resting posture..............nobody moved until the (short) tirade was over, and then the volume of the room slooowly went up again as the diners tried to pretend nothing happened. I think this happened three or four times during the course of a two-hour meal. Never went back there again. It opened last week under new management .

I believe that part of the reason "American" food is so bland is because it was the Dutch/German/English decendants of pioneers writing our mass-produced cookbooks for so long. I'm thinking of Fanny Farmer, in whose earlier editions, garlic never appeared. Even Rombauer's "Joy Of Cooking" in a 1961 edition has the maker of spaghetti sauce "Cut a garlic clove in half and run the cut side around the bowl" or, "Skewer the garlic cloves on a broomstick and place in the sauce while simmering - -but be sure to remove them!" Oh, yikes!

And the folks at Fresh Herbs are especially attentive if you arrive between noon and 2pm................until noon, they're trying to fill all their restaurant orders, and they can be rushed; at 2pm they close.

Whoops! So sorry about the misquote! (Hate it when I do that)! Yeah, tete de veau.......oooh. If it didn't have such an obvious shape, I'd want some pelt left on it so I could be sure *sure* what I was buying!

Ooohh, shades of Sweeney Todd's!

I was intrigued by the description of the butcher's eyes: "Flat, like a goat's" (Actually I awoke this morning thinking about this). Tell me, did they glitter at all? Glittering flat eyes have been reported many times when reporting incidences of cannibalism: China in the 1880's, Japan in the 1890's, the American Wild West of the 1870's............ I wonder if your butcher could have been in the Foreign Legion and committed atrocities?

I recall "ba bao cha" or "eight treasure tea" was something I was told to buy alot of, because Chinese in other cities I would be visiting would especially appreciate it. I've seen t sold here in the States in several Asian grocery stores. Haven't tried it in the States. It's supposed to be a regional specialty of Xinjiang.

"Veni, vedi, vici the whole hog" "Fiat sequestra, ruat caelum.........the bacon's missing" "Her price was above a rasher of hickory-smoked bacon"

This was more *by* a restaurant than *in* a restaurant: It was Uigurville in Beijing in 1994: Long tables set up in the road next to an overhang with a rustic open pit made of concrete. Half carcasses of mutton hanging in the open air nearby. Shish kebabs of mutton rolled in cumin and black pepper and coarsely ground salt, delicious flat bread (which was a welcome change from white rice!); Ghana beer in huge bottles. During the meal the waiter asked our help in translating documents from the Central Committee: He was trying to get permission to make a hajj, and didn't understand enough of the Mandarin characters. He didn't speak English, but another of the waiters knew French, so among us the translation went Chinese-English-French-Uigurhua. It was such an odd juxtaposition: The skyscrapers of Beijing in the distance, the smell of woodsmoke behind us; Chinese-speaking waiters with green or hazel eyes and wearing crocheted headcovers. It was a series of very happy nights!

My current favorite supper is gazpacho: Blender-based and very few steps! Low carb and high fiber!

.........only if you add three two to three times as much sugar as rhubarb! (And I love rhubarb!)