Adam Balic

One major reason for moving from Australia to the Uk was the ease of travel to Europe from the UK. I have many great big fat books on "The regional cooking of X" and while these books are good and the restuarants that aim to serve the cuisine of X back in Australia or the UK give some impression of what the cuisine of X is about, the experience of eating in X is completely different. How many "Tuscan" cookbooks have I seen (dozens?), yet very few of these actually resemble what I see at the markets or in the restaurants. I'm not sure how this relates to dining, but it certainly effects the way I make a choice about where I eat now.

Ah yes. I like conger eel, nice and firm flesh, great in a stew.

Nice skate, I really like these fish. What are the 'tails' in the top right corner?

People I know definately say "Barbie", either naturally or in a kind of ironic salute to the Paul Hogan Ads which were made for the American market. I think that others have covered types of cooker quite well, I have never seen and American type barbecue, but when I move back I may introduce one to Melbourne. During the summer, if we want meat (most days) we often BBQ it as it obviously doesn't heat up the house. In our house meats were mostly: Steak, lamb or lamb chops and sausages, but we also made kebabs of marinated meats (Middle-Eastern, Greek, SE-Asian etc) or just marinated chunks of meat. Amoungst our friends, "Fish Barbies" were common, this involve a lot of fish grilled, plus squid/cuttlefish, prawns and crayfish. It is very common (in Victoria at least) to have public BBQs. These are maintained by the local council and are basically are large electric hotplates. You put 20c in the slot and it turns on, in Melbourne they were mostly free. I always like this, I wonder how long it will last. We are increasingly having BBQ for Christmas meals, New Years Eve and Australia Day. The last time I was there we had porcetta and Vietnamese marinated prawns in the Weber for Australia Day.

I'm afraid I don't know the local name (will try to find out), but while I was in the Dauphine I notice that the local butchers sold a version of pâté en croûte that I have not seen before. A relatively rustic pork terrine of about 1.5 inches thickness in a puff pasty shell of about 12 inches diameter, so quite flat. It was very good for "pique nique" eating. Alsace-Lorraine come to mind when savoury tourtes are mentioned as well.

Sorry I should be more clear, occassionally you see fresh table grapes labeled as Thompson seedless or sultana to distinguish them. RE: drying golden sultanas. Grapes have a waxy layer that reduces the efficiency of drying, originally (in Australia) this was removed mechanically (the wax was highly prized as furniture polish), now they are sufactant treated, which in effect makes the wax barrier useless for retaining water. This means a quicker drying process and a 'better' colour. I prefer the SO2-less dried fruit, especially apricots. They may not look as pretty, but the flavour is better. What a pity you don't get a broader range of dried grapes in the USA (surely in Middle-eastern stores?). Muscatel grapes dried on the stem at Christmas are a real treat. If you soak them an brandy for a minute, then light them you can play "snapdragon", which basically means grabbing and gobbling as many soft, smokey-sweet, musky raisins as possible..

Is science wonderful. Also, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute states that "the only registered varieties of farro belong to T. spelta or spelt." They are based in Italy.

It's very complicated. T. monococcum (=piccolo farro = "einkorn"), the most "primitive," is diploid. T. dicoccum a.k.a. T. turgidum subsp. dicoccum (=farro medio = emmer) is tetraploid (i.e., the offspring of T. monococcum and a wild relative with a different genome). T. spelta a.k.a. T. aestivum var. spelta (=gran farro = spelt) is hexaploid (i.e., emmer plus a third genome from a different wild grass). You are unlikely to see piccolo farro, so you will have one of the other two or a mixture even. At the end of the day it most likley doesn't matter too much. But to in case you are ever in Montana "Emmers marketed and grown in Montana and North Dakota are often mistakenly referred to as spring spelt.". So in the USA real emmer non-spelt farro medio could infat be sold as "Spelt".

I think that we have missed the gahambars? But I would be very interested in specific Parsi foods .

Combine them with a few hot chillies, blend well add back some diced peppers and an equal weight of pectin sugar and white wine vinegar to 1/2 the weight. Boil until gelled. Great with boiled meats or roast pork or duck or...

Are there "sultanas" in the USA? Thompson seedless is know as "Sultana" is Australia and most of the rest of the world (I think), although sometimes the phytohormone treated grapes (to give the large table grapes) are called Thompson seedless to distinguish them from the smaller berried sultana. Confusing what? All dried grapes are technically "Raisins"* (hence, a "Currants" were originally "Raisins of Corinth"), but we get different dried grapes marketed under specific names, either of the grape variety or from the origin on the grapes; "Current", "Sultana", "Muscat" etc, "Raisin" is more of a generic term for any large dried grape. They look like "Flame Tokay" grapes to me, which have been grown in the Lodi region of San Jaoquin county, California from the begining of the 20th century, mainly as a table grape, but sometimes for wine. Not to be confused with "Tokay", which is another variety. * Originally, "Raisin" just ment "Grape" or "Bunch of grapes". Dried grapes were called "Raisins of the Sun", so you title is a nice coincidence.

We have raised and cooked them ourselves, thay can be as fat or more then a 'regular' duck. They can get quite large, so size will be a consideration. If you have a larger bird then cook it like a goose, allowing for time per lb etc. Like a goose there is a relatively high ratio of bones to meat, so make plenty of trimmings.

Works for me. Any perfectly ripe fruit s sure to get my juices flowing. With the exception of prickly pear fruit, hate those bastard things.

I have read that Alan Davidson could boil and egg and that it pretty much it. It think that if such a wonderful great food scholar didn't cook, then no you don't actually need to cook to appreciate food. And not cooking does not exclude an understanding of the basic principles of cooking. I imagine at the top level of cooking there are very few (if any) home cooks that could achieve the same level of food. It may make you as in individual appreciate the food of a top chef more, but there are many ways of doing this and by comparison with you own efforts is only one of these. Equally I guess you could say if you don't talk to producers or suppliers can you appreciate the food or drink that consume? I know that I have lost a lot of interest in wine, now that I have moved to Scotland and unable to talk to producers. But obviously there are many people in Scotland with a deep interest in wine (mainly Buckfast, sure ) Most activities that are worth while are diverse enough that there are many ways of appoaching them.

It is interesting to see how good the condition of many of these pieces is and how intact the sets are (suggests that they may not have been used much in the day to day). I consider fish knives to be an abomination, but the antique dealers in Edinburgh love then, they are the No.1 item for Italian customers (for use with the Antipasto it seems). Marrow knives are now much in demand too.

Quite simple to explain actually: in Campania "ragu" is only Neapolitan style ragu, i.e. a sauce based mainly on pork meat (usually ribs) and tomato, traditionally conserva -i.e. sun dried tomato concentrate, what Sicilians call strattu-, but more and more often made with tomato concentrate. What they make up there in Northern Italy is simple "la Bolognese" . Try to convnce a Neapolitan that ragu Bolognese also deserves to be defined as ragu if you can . ← I imagine I would have as much luck with the Neopolitans and Northern ragu, as my sister-in-law did with trying to name her Northern Italian baby Sebastiano. Still I can imagine the true horror of both Southeners and Northeners to the information that ragu is most likely French in origin.

we continued with some nice mezzanelli with tunafish bolognese, Interesting that it is "tunafish bolognese", not ragu etc.

The water in London has been through seven other peoples kidneys, why would you want to drink that!

A new fish for me "Cusk" Brosme brosme. This is a cod relative and looks a little like a Burbot/Eelpout (although this is a freshwater fish). Nice white flesh, good flavour, not quite as flakey as Cod. Having filleted the fish I know why it isn't more commonly seen, the skin in incredibly tough and slimey, making it hard to work with. Incidently, people sometimes ask about worms in fish on egullet. Here is one encysted in the fishes flesh. I don't think that I have had a fish that didn't have a few worms like this.

Yes, maybe. I have never seen a grade of salt cod here, labelled "Labrador". What I do find, is (1) large skateboard cod, requiring a lot of soaking, in many ethnic stores, such as Caribbean or Portuguese, or Spanish; (2) A softer, boneless cod, packed in poly wrap, usually from Nova Scotia, but still "Grand Banks" though the fishery is banned within our 200 mile limit. Labrador is within the limit, as well, but there is a lot of rule breaking, by Canadian and foreign trawlers. I buy the softer version because it freshens easily. I have been served bacala and cod with ackee in Portuguese and Caribbean restaurants in Toronto that was too salty for me. And too bony, but this is a matter of taste, and culture. For those on a budget, salt cured pollack is available, but doesn't have the same taste. We can also get salted and smoked haddock from Eastern Canada. Great for chowder. When visiting the area, you can find a lot of home curing and smoking for sale, by the roadside, in the Atlantic provinces, as well as Quebec. ← It is possible that the grading system is added at a latter stage then point of origin I guess. Mark Kurlansky mentions that for historical reasons the poorest quality salt cod was graded as Caribbean or West Indian. This market in Florence also sold presoaked stuff, so that you didn't have to bother with it yourself, some of the higher grades were pearl white and nearly three inches thich.

Actually, I did mean the Faroe Islands (I was to ignorant to realise that Labrador wasa an Island at that point).

So it is likely that the sign referes to a pticular grade of Salt Cod, rather then to where the fish was caught as it seems unlikely that this fish actually came from the Grand Banks. Maybe.

I was too sick to eat much in Marrakech and so therefore are completely useless, but there are all sorts of interesting plaes that you just kinda of find randomly in Morocco. Some advice. If you speak French you will be very happy, if not you will have to make more of an effort. If you have somebody to show you around good, if not hire a guide. They invaluble in what they can show you. Food is all over the place in terms of quality/interest. Two favourites were some offal kebabs in Fez and a dish of ultra thin potato scales that had been over-lapped and formed into a "crepe" which was then used to enclose duck confit that had been cooked with local spices. Avoid the pizza.

Croatians also stuff cabbage leaves (thank you Austro-Hungarian Empire I guess). Pickled cabbage leaves were used and according to my Grandmother, the meat filling must contain a proportion of pork, otherwise it is too dry. Obviously, this will not work for everybody...

Possibly the most important fish species in the Europe Gadus morhua "Cod". These are salt cured cod on sale in the Mercato Centrale (Florence). Notice the wide range to grades availble and where they come from. Are the still cod in Labradorian fishing grounds or does the name refer to a particular grade (such as "West Indian" salt cod)? I also like the fact that one of the most isolated islands on the planet is well represented here.