lueid813

I've noticed that when I cook salmon (either on the grill or in a pan) a whitish liquid oozes out from the flesh. I usually cook it skin-on, so this liquid appears on the flesh side. It doesn't have much of a taste. I usually scrape it off before serving. Does anyone else see this? Know what it is? Know how to prevent its appearance? ? Thanks!

There are many recipes from many African countries at http://www.congocookbook.com/

This may not be the traditional method, but my wife came up with this idea once — barbeque the easy way: I was grilling chicken on a charcoal grill and as soon as it was done my wife came outside with the pressure cooker. "What the . . . ?" I wondered. Unbeknownst to me, she had taken a pork roast that we were planning to eat the next day and put it in the pressure cooker with a cup of barbecue sauce and some water. She had pressure-cooked it for about 30 to 45 minutes. It was already pretty tender, but certainly not barbeque. We put it on the still-hot coals and put some more bbq sauce over it and left it while we ate the chicken. It looked beautiful when we took it off the grill about an hour later; had lost its boiled looked and was smoked and a bit crusty on the outside. We let it cool and put it in the fridge. The next day we warmed it up in the oven and it was superb, and was some of the tenderest meat I have ever cooked. I don't know how big your butt is, so I don't know if this would have worked for you.

Most States have a State bird or a State song; New Mexico has an official State question: "Red or green?" http://www.abqcvb.org/abqinfo/faq/

As has been mentioned, aluminum is a good conductor of heat (or cold) so it draws the cold away from the ice and dispurses it through the entire pan and into the air. Think of it this way: Suppose you had a room with both a tile floor and a carpeted area. At any given time, both will be the same temperature, i.e., room temperature. Yet if you sat on the tile floor your bottom would feel cool and if you sat on the carpet your bottom would feel warm. Why is that, if both surfaces are actually the same temperature? The floor feels cooler because tile is a good conductor, it has a very large capacity to draw heat away from your body and dispurse it, so your body can do little to warm the floor where you are sitting. In the case of the carpet, you feel warm because the carpet is an insulator (note, that's the opposite of conductor). The warmth from your body stays in one place and raises the temperature of the carpet enough for you to feel the difference.

In old cookbooks (1700s, 1800s) you can often find several ketchup recipes for almost anything that comes out of the garden: mushroom ketchup, cucumber ketchup, onion ketchup, etc. Until I discoved this fact, I always wondered what was the point of calling it tomato ketchup. non-tomato ketchups for sale: http://www.ketchupworld.com/ketchupnews.html

I think "spices" on an ingredients label is to allow manufacturers to keep at least part of their recipe secret. This creates problems for people with allergies or who want to avoid certain foodstuffs for ethical or religious reasons. But it's also easy to understand that food manufacturers don't wish to tell their competitors exactly which spices they use. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/flg-4.html

I think this is the most important part. There is NO substitute for time. When we make Peruvian style chicken we marinate for at least 8 hours, sometimes more like 12 or 20. For chicken dinner in the evening, either start marinating early in the morning, or the night before. Also, we find it useful to marinate in a ziplock. Squeeze all of the air out while you close it. Refridgerate and turn a few times while marinating.

I gotta say, those pics do look pretty disgusting. And I am a person who can eat a burger or steak as rare as any restaurant will cook 'em. I think it's a perception problem: on red meat it doesn't look bad, on white meat, ick!

My favorite chain is Fuddruckers. I've always been real happy with the burgers there. They cook 'em the way you want. The buns are fresh-baked and toasted. The do-it-yourself toppings bar is good. The kids like the fresh-baked cookies.

I had a restroom attendant experience in Bangkok, Thailand, about a dozen years ago unlike any other I have ever had before or since. I went to a nice restaurant with some other tourists I met at the hotel. Not one of the best restaurants in the city, I guess, but fancier and more expensive than anywhere else I had eaten in Thailand. The place was very large and built on wooden decks that overlooked the river, there were tableclothes and full table settings, etc. Halfway through the meal I had to use the restroom. There was an attendant who had a supply of hot washclothes and towels. Pretty normal, so far. I proceeded to the urinal and, while performing the function normally associated with that bathroom fixture, the attendant came up behind me and, unannounced and unasked, gave me a very vigorous shoulder massage. After the initial surprise, shock really, wore off, and my mind partially returned to the pleasant buzz from a few Thai beers, I sort of enjoyed the two sensations, which I had never before experienced simultaneously: peeing and getting a massage. I washed my hands and dropped a coin into the tip basket and went back to the table. A while later another man from my table went to the restroom. I kept my eye on him when he returned to the table. He looked a little undone. I asked, "Did something unusual happen in the restroom?" and he burst out laughing. At least then I knew it wasn't just me. The women at the table were very curious. We told the story. The other guys were undecided whether they wanted to try it or wait and go to the restroom back at the hotel.

I agree. I bought a couple of cast-iron skillets at a church yard sale. I have no idea how old they might be, maybe 10 years old, maybe 50 . . .l They were a bit rusted and looked like they hadn't been used in years. I re-seasoned them and began using them regularly and now they are my favorites. Every time I use them I think, what a deal for $5. Seasoning instructions http://www.lodgemfg.com/useandcare.asp

Brilliant. I can't wait to try this method. As has been pointed out (here: The Kitchen Scale Manifesto), improper ingredient amounts are probably the main cause of recipe failures. Now I need more bread machine recipes that give measures in weights, not volumes.

I had exactly the same experience in Central Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer. I was eating at a "host family" house. They had a fish stew. I accidently ate the chile pepper. As I gulped down water and gasped for breath they said, "You shoudn't eat that; that's for flavor". Of course, they knew not to eat it. But I spent years in my youth eating Tex-Mex and Mexican and I was used to chile peppers. I hardly noticed what it was, and it was covered in sauce. Hours later I could feel a burning sensation in a long track that led from my mouth, down my throat, and through my stomach. It was like nothing I have ever experienced in any Mexican, Tex-Mex, Thai, or Indian meal.

Dan Savage answered a similar question: -- Please note: the first question & answer that this link leads to deal with "human breast milk cheese"; the subsequent questions and answers are very sexually explicit and may be offensive. http://www.portlandmercury.com/2002-02-21/savage.html and the answer is pretty good: It's also interesting to note that all cheese is made from breast milk, because all milk comes from breasts (of various mammals).

I think the economics of it are that the food costs are among the lowest-cost inputs that the restaurant has. It's much easier, i.e., less expensive, to make the portions bigger than to do anything else (such as hire more staff to increase the staff-to-customer ratio, reduce the number of tables to give customers more room, etc.) that might improve the customer experience.

I have had some success finding African recipes on French websites. I assume you speak French, so try Google with words like "recette", "Tunisie", "Tunisienne", "patisserie", etc.

I can't say whether or not the practice originated there, but "bread bowls" of curry are standard fare in Durban, South Africa. They are called Bunny Chow (evidently no one knows quite why). There is an interesting story about their origin: in the days before throw-away plastic containers, restaurants that were not permitted to seat "colored" customers could sell take away food to them. Someone at an Indian restaurant came up with the idea of putting curry into a hollowed-out loaf of bread.

I think you are correct in your assessment of the differences between the cuisines you mention. I wonder if maybe Filipinos are less likely to go into business on their own, compared to people of other nationalities? That's just a guess. I would imagine that certain ethnic groups have more of a business tradition than others.

These aren't noir . . . but if you're looking for a movie that's partially about food: Italian cuisine is well represented in Goodfellas There's some good cooking in Moonstruck And that famous eating scene in Tom Jones and Like Water for Chocolate is a fave of many people (but not me) Babette's Feast is a very fine film, and ALL about food Big Night is about a little restaurant a Mexican-American food movie: Tortilla Soup What's Cooking? is a multi-ethnic Thanksgiving day film art-house Chinese/Taiwanese -- Eat Drink Man Woman Japanese: Tampopo African-American Soul Food and of course . . . Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? -- Part of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House involves ad executive Cary Grant trying to come up with a catchy name for a canned meat product a la "Spam" Imitation of Life is partially about pancakes (interestingly, in both of those films it's an African-American maid who provides the essential contribution)

My thoughts exactly. So long as you are not a commercial producer of a product, like Coke or Pepsi, how petty it is to keep it secret. I'm suprised that a person with such an attitude would even attend social events where something they say or do might provide enjoyment to others. What's the worse that could happen? Someone else might cook the same dish and serve it to other people? Someone else might make it, and bring it to a potluck supper to which you have brought the same dish? So _______ what? You're still the inventor of the dish. Be proud that other people enjoy it. I would suggest that not an hour goes by without our lives being made easier or more enjoyable because someone at some time in the past discovered a better way to do something. If you can contribute, you're just doing your part.

Now that you mention it, there was an item in the newspapers a week or two ago about a restaurant in Manila that served only Spam dishes. Things like Spam spaghetti, Spam meat loaf, etc. The restaurant is called "Spam Jam". 'Morning Edition' Returns: Spam Heaven Specialty of the House: Spam

I have always had very good results in a Crock-pot (or similar slow cooker). The heat comes from the sides as well as the bottom. http://www.crockpot.com/

I think you are quite right when you say that Moroccan and North African dishes constitute a very large portion of what is known as "African" cuisine. South African, with its mix of Asian and European culinary influences, is the up and coming cuisine of Africa. Even West African cuisine (e.g., Senegalese) is somewhat well known, but the vast middle of the continent, the area around the equator, is still quite an unknown. Of course, it's hard to generalize about so large an area, with many different types of geography and different ethnic populations. Still, there are some general observations. The staple foods in the central part of Africa are cassava (also known as manioc), corn (maize), plantain bananas, and yams. All of these are boiled and pounded into a porridge-like cereal called Fufu (and known by many other names, see www.congocookbook.com/c0170.html. Before the arrival of cassava and corn (from America), and plantains (from Asia), indigenous cereal grains were more commonly used. These staples are always served with a sauce or stew that might be made with chicken, fish, or meat, depending on what is available. Commonly used vegetables include eggplant (aubergine), okra, and many varieties of greens. Hot chile peppers are a common seasoning in many areas. Depending on scarcity, meat or fish may be more of a flavoring than a main ingredient. Bushmeat (wild game) is used in many parts of Africa and is a valuable commodity that is traded in cities and even exported from Africa (albeit perhaps not legally). Of course there are different traditions among various ethnic groups, but almost every living thing imaginable -- birds, fish, insects, mammals (including monkeys and apes), and snakes -- end up in cooking pots in one part of Africa or other. The previous post mentioned peanuts in Sudan. Peanuts are also very much used in Central Africa too. (As has been mentioned, peanuts came from America, but were quickly adopted by Africans soon after the era of the Columbian Exchange, see www.congocookbook.com/c0175.html). Unlike in America, peanuts are mostly used in sauces and stews, to thicken and add protein. Of course, in urban areas, local cuisines have been much influenced by colonial European cuisines (British, French, Portuguese, even German). The North and East parts of Africa are much influenced by Arab cuisine, which has permiated towards the center of the continent. And there are large Indian communities in East Africa and Southern Africa. That's a start.

Is that what the word "draw" means in a soup/stew context? I have seen it in a couple of old cookbooks and couldn't figure it out.