Smithy

Did that glaze start with fresh apricots, or with nectar?

My turn: what's the line after "add diced garlic"?

"cumin whole" eta ElsieD has quicker fingers than mine. :-)

What they all said! I am very impressed with that kitchen and with the well-packed organization. Shelby already asked about the red-and-blue item, so I'll ask about the bowl in the refrigerator. Is that the mixer bowl that was later put to use making the Leberkaese? If so, do you usually store the bowl in the 'fridge, or was the photo taken when you already knew you needed a chilled bowl?

This blog already promises to enlarge my culinary world. What would be the protocol for eating the breakfast you show above? Would one eat a small bit of each dish (except the miso soup) using the chopsticks, alternating among the various dishes? Would one mix them? Add them to the dan dan mian? Why are the eggs square? It all looks fascinating to me, but if I were presented such a meal I'd be looking furtively around in hopes of seeing how someone else ate it. The yasuhatchi boxes are charming. I'd be delighted to receive a gift like that, even if the cookies turned out to be abysmal.

...and it's started! Please join us as Duvel shares Tales from the Fragrant Harbour.

If it was a food-safe plastic I might have left it on; the sous vide bags are a food-safe plastic. Otherwise, I probably would have removed it out of general caution.

Here's the last teaser photo, which makes a lovely lead-in to the foodblog proper... "...Welcome to the Fragrant Harbour!..." Given the difference in time zones, I'm not quite sure when @Duvel will begin, but I'll post a link to his topic when he does so.

The penultimate teaser image...

I figured that sooner or later you (or possibly @rarerollingobject or @liuzhou) would spot something you recognized, and blurt out the answer. The most telling shots (I suspect) will come out tomorrow, our time.

Good question! It does look like it has quite a tide swing, and with that gap I can imagine a tidal bore to go with it. Keep questions like this coming, folks, as you think of them. @Duvel may or may not weigh in on this topic, but he promises to answer questions as expeditiously as possible, given the difference in time zones between him and the Western Hemisphere readers.

How do Chinese (light) sesame paste and tahini differ from each other? Are the grinds different?

I'll save a couple of photos for tomorrow, since his blog doesn't open until Tuesday, but here's one more for today: "...a place you can live (for a while) ..."

You'll have to ask him that, since he simply captioned it "wide open spaces". I assumed it was a view from one of the peaks of Hong Kong, looking out to sea the way the traders did to catch early views of their ships, in James Clavell's Tai Pan. Ah, I see you've posted an "oops" (see that, Anna N?) since I started typing. I'll leave this up anyway; Tai Pan is a great book. Maybe I'll go reread it.

That's above my pay grade!

Yes indeed. Our blogger reports that he lives where you can find "tranquility (if you just look hard enough) ..." It DOES look a lot like a cattail, without that burning tip. ...and again, yes, since you're going to abandon your Franci guess. This is such a quick group! I'm still trying to work out the optimum lead time for foodblogs: enough time to work up attention, not so much that interested readers will have to cool their figurative heels between the revelation and the opening. Over the next day, roughly, I'll share with you the rest of Duvel's teaser photos and captions.

Somewhere in all these guesses, the blogger has been named. Shall I reveal the winner now, or let you all puzzle on it longer?

It's always fun to try to identify an object from an image of a small section. Well, I find it entertaining. Some people find it irritating. I'll post the rest of that photo later today, but I'll wait a while to give others time to ponder the excerpt. Our correspondent reports "...the best food from the land and sea..."

What a shame the Espanola trip didn't work out! When I read about the power outage my first thought was that it was due to the same series of storms that rollicked and whalloped through here 2 nights ago. Glad this outage isn't due to storm damage, but that's no less inconvenient for the two of yez.

I can see why you might think so, but no. Here is an excerpt from the next image. I'll post the entire image later today.

Light tahini works well in salad dressings, IMO. This recipe for Smashed Cucumbers with Cumin Tahini has a very nice balance of lime or lemon, vinegar, oil, sesame, cumin, and garlic; the optional chili vinegar that goes with it is also a delight. (I generally am too lazy to bother with smashing the cucumbers, unless the news has been particularly vexing.) That same dressing has become a dip for other vegetables, a dip for cooked chicken, a dip for celery....hmm, maybe I'll add some to my next chicken salad. I had never heard of celtuce before. I'll have to see whether our specialty markets carry it.

This blogger is not allergic to shellfish...and, in case my last post was not clear, has not been named yet.

Domestic blueberries rarely do much for me, but wild blueberries from the North Woods are one of nature's finest treats. I have happy memories of pies made with wild blueberries picked in Northern Ontario, where a dear friend and her family spent their summers. I now have her pie plate. Maybe I'll go look for some berries.