scott123

Here is a link to a product that includes kamar kas in an Ayurvedic mixture for treating sexual disorders: http://www.kudosindia.com/super-speciality1.html

Himaj is described as being astringent and bitter. The ripened version, haritaki is ground with water into a paste or chewed with honey. That's the extent of my knowledge in this regard. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say that neither of these herbs is that palatable by themselves - the addition of honey or jaggery helps the "medicine go down."

Today was my first stab at making ghee. The browning of the milk solids went without a hitch but the straining ended up being a huge hassle. I thought I had a strainer with a fine enough mesh to do the trick. Alas I did not. My backup plan was a drip coffee filter, which ended up taking about 20 minutes of constant stirring/tapping to get the ghee to flow. Even after all that work I still ended up with a slight haze of milk solid particles floating in my ghee. There has to be a better way. The browned milk solids will always sink to the bottom of the ghee, right? I was thinking of freezing the block of unfiltered ghee and then scraping off the bottom layer of milk solids. Sound good? Any other ideas?

Out of the foods I prepare with it, the one that relies on tamarind the most would be Pad Thai.

My onions have been especially juicy lately. I've been trying to counteract this by dicing the onions and then laying them out on a single layer for a few hours to dry a bit. Seems to work nicely. I choose onions not by color but by pungency. If it doesn't make me cry, I don't want it. Vidalia, Maui, and all those 'tasteless' sweet onions... you can keep 'em!

Ganthoda and Himaj are both Ayurvedic herbs. Ganthoda is a small brown root which is boiled with jaggery and taken by post pregnant women. It is also taken for warmth in the winter. Himaj is unripened Haritaki, a brown, nut-like fruit. It is chewed for stomach and throat ailments.

I've been reading the ingredients on every Chinese sausage I can find. Is there such a thing as a Chinese sausage without sugar?

Crap. My brief attempt to protect an underprivileged food was all in vain. My sense of humour belongs on the back of a milk carton.

If a food exists, a certain percentage of the population, however small, enjoys it. Saying "I don't like shrikhand" is one thing. Saying "shrikhand is vile", is an insult to those that do. Is it your intention to insult these people by insulting their food?

Is the author of the article actually saying anything other than "this I like, this I don't like"? Cuisines from other regions have just as much emphasis on texture - it just happens to be a texture he doesn't prefer. Who decreed crunchy as good and non crunchy as bad?

Define "the area" My grocer (Parsippany, NJ) carries "White Haldi" along with the regular fresh haldi. That's mango ginger, correct? They also have "H. Ginger" along with the ginger. Is that just mature ginger or something else?

After putting in a few hours of research, this is what I've learned: The quinine in tonic water is either quinine sulfate or quinine hydrochloride. Up until a few years ago, quinine sulfate was available in over the counter leg cramp remedies. Due to a handful of overdose fatalities, it is now only available by prescription. Quinine is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. Cinchona bark can be obtained either as an extract or in powdered form. Here is one source for bulk (1 lb.) powdered cinchona bark: http://www.rain-tree.com/quinine.htm Cinchona bark is also available in small amounts as a homeopathic remedy: http://www.smartbomb.com/boir115.html I am not absolutely sure about this, but my research leads me to believe that cinchona bark extract is just a slightly less processed version of the quinine flavoring used in tonic. Measuring it might get a little tricky due to the lack of standardization. None the less, this may be what we're looking for.

Wouldn't it be grand to be able to control the sweetness in one's tonic by mixing the ingredients (CO2 water, sweetener, quinine) onself? Has anyone ever tried this? Sources for quinine?

After about an hour of calculations I was able to reverse engineer an approximate carb count for my favorite beer, Anchor Steam: 15g +/- 1g. No wonder why I love the stuff! If my daily goal for carb consumption is 30g, then 2 beers is all I get to consume for the day. Obviously, that's not going to happen. I'm not going anywhere near Michelob Ultra or any light macro swill and Guiness doesn't thrill me all that much. Where else can I turn?

Minado, or something of that ilk, no doubt ... Atkinsing people would not eat the rice and did precisely what you have described .... and it is why the owners inevitably have to say or post something ... stands to reason ... I have seen signs like those at sushi buffets dating well before the Atkins craze. Sushi at all you can eat buffets tends to very light on the fish, so people will fill up on the much cheaper rice instead. I've heard stories of people getting very creative in hiding sushi rice. I'm definitely not on the side of wasting food, but at the same time, the ratio of rice to fish at some of these places is fairly ridiculous.

London Pride is an excellent beer on cask, indeed. Bottled London Pride found here (NE USA) and casked London Pride are an entirely different animal. Wes, if you can afford an occasional trip to London, by all means go. You won't find that kind of ale here (yet).

RBM, Thank you. This has been, as other members have already stated, a very informative thread.

That's pretzels--you can either boil them with some lye in the water or give them a lye wash to give them their shiny, brown, pretzely-tasting crusts. No wonder my bagels always end up tasting like pretzels!

Marks & Spencer have these phenomenal square caramel bars that have shortbread on the bottom and chocolate on top. Bombay Sapphire gin might be a little cheaper over there. But it weighs a ton in your carry on (I know).

I believe lye is used to increase the PH of the water bagels are simmered in to facilitate better browning. My bagel recipe uses baking soda for the same purpose. As does my chocolate chip recipe.

May I ask what kind of wood you use? Does it make a difference? Does the wood have to be perfectly flat?

I have been noticing a trend in recent years towards much milder Indian buffet food in the area. I guess it's an attempt to entice the large number of people in the area that don't enjoy spicy food. I am disappointed by the trend, but can see the economics involved. If you are looking for heat, go for dinner, where special tastes can be accommodated. Depending on how much you eat, though, dinner will cost anywhere from two to three times as much for the same amount of food.

There is a member of this forum struggling with diabetes who has had success following a low carb diet. Here is the link where it's discussed: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...=0entry474755

When I think of the wafting aromas of my kitchen, an image of gleeful grizzly bears smearing themselves with whale fat comes to mind. Such bliss these odors bring me. If I could bottle it, I'd wear it as a cologne.

Isn't food grade hydrochloric acid used to disinfect the majority of our drinking water as well? That's really strange that the FDA would allow companies to adjust the PH with hydrochloric acid and lye, when vinegar (acetic acid) is already part of the ingredients. Tomatoes, being a natural product will certainly vary in PH, so some adjustment will be necessary, but why hydrochloric and not acetic acid as part of the adjustment equation? Money? Is hydrochloric acid cheaper? As far as secret ingredients go, bleach and lye are about as far as you can get from "love", that's for sure. They won't be making it into my ketchup.