Smithy

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.

I'll post another clue later this evening, unless dinner proves too much a distraction. Keep guessing.

Foodblogs are wonderful things, aren't they? We are lucky when adventuresome and ambitious members take us along with them on their travels. Recent examples are when @KennethT shared with us his Week in coastal Central Vietnam foodblog, while @Anna N and @Kerry Beal have been Kicking back in Manitoulin. Once in a while, an intrepid member pops up and offers in advance to show us a week in her (or his) life through the lens of food, AND we get to guess the where and when before it begins. So it is today. Our next foodblogger has delightful food and scenery to share with us for a week, beginning Tuesday, July 25. You might call this first clue an Establishment Shot, featuring wide open spaces. Put your thinking caps on.

Please do post about it, if not in this topic then in another. The ravioli idea sounds excellent, and I'm still working up to long cooks like 72h short ribs.

That's very pretty, and sounds like it tastes as good as it looks. I need more information about the oatcakes. Should the oats be finely ground or coarsely ground? I see both online, and I don't recall ever seeing oatcakes in a grocery store here. Alternatively, what would be a reasonable substitute?

@FrogPrincesse, those colors are glorious: summer in a jar.

Just the garden-variety (in the USA, at least) 6-sided dice, to support ship-board games. As it turned out, we never had time or inclination for table-top games. The general conversation, music and meals were entertainment enough. (My sister-in-law loved my cooking well enough to clean up after me, and seemed impressed with the food compared to what she's been fed on other trips. I was quite chuffed by her praise. )

That explains the higher price than I'd originally seen; I hadn't picked up on the stainless steel insert. There have been some wonderful ideas here. I pulled the trigger on the unit I linked to earlier when it magically reappeared for $15.77 on Amazon (the same one kayb has, as it turns out). I like that it has a colander and strainer together, as do the baskets to which ElsieD linked. Meanwhile I've been trying different cheap home solutions. Cheesecloth in my chinoise mimics the jelly bag to which Andiesenji linked, but it's too tall for my refrigerator space and I think the same problem would happen with the jelly strainer. The deep-fry oil filters also sound like something I'll need for our next trip. Thanks, everyone!

And now for a much less orderly approach: The contents are somewhat atypical because this was the final shopping list for a 4-day sailboat trip and for the 4-footed family to be left at home, but the approach is very typical. The back side of this paper will become the next shopping list...or household chore list. Scraps of paper reign (and sometimes rain) in my household!

When I think of lamb and rice, my thoughts go to a Greek treatment. Lemon, garlic, onions, butter (or olive oil), parsley, oregano, thyme if you like, and some Aleppo pepper or an available substitute, if you like a touch of heat. I would start the lamb and onions in the skillet, add the garlic just soon enough to sweat it before adding the rice, then build a pilaf around it. In your case the lamb will already have been sous-vided and the rice is already cooked, but I think a clever cook like you could work out an adaptation with these flavors, if they appeal to you. Cumin and sumac are also good with this dish, but the cumin pulls it in a different direction.

The food there all looks tempting and interesting, but my specific question regards the limes. Did that lime juice taste like it came from the same fruit we typically get in the USA? I refer to what we call Persian limes, not key limes. Have you seen the specific fruit, unjuiced? Did they add anything to the juice, like sugar?