Smithy

That is a delightful cup, liuzhou.

I spy an eggplant amongst those lovely tomatoes, Shelby. Whatcha got in mind for that beauty?

My mother used to make a cake along the lines of the Dump Cake referenced above, but it wasn't quite the same. The base was boxed yellow cake mix, put in dry, with margarine I think as a binding layer (dotted? melted and poured?) and cherry pie filling poured over that. The baked result had a firm crust and a glossy, well-set cherry top. She probably served it with ice cream instead of garnishing with whipped cream or Cool-Whip. There was never pineapple, and the crust was on the bottom. Does anyone remember that one? I've been through her recipe boxes and found the chocolate-wafer icebox cake (if anyone's interested, I'll post it) but not the cherry recipe. I don't know how likely I would be to make it, but I remember it as being tasty, and of the appropriate time period.

Welcome! Glad to see you here!

I have routinely wished that I'd kept a bunch of the chem lab gear when it was cleaned out of our company's water lab "because we don't do that here anymore". Old beakers and flasks that would have been perfect mixing and storage containers, a magnetic stirrer or two...and yes, there was probably some sort of flask stand or support pole that I could have taken. What a waste!

I was specifically referring to having prices posted but being charged extra as a tourist, either because they don't think we can read the (Arabic) signs or because they claim it's 'last year's price'. I've only had a couple of attempts at that sort of rip-off, but it's annoying. Bargaining, on the other hand - I don't expect to do as well as the locals, but if we all go away happy and have had a good time, that's good enough. The food from the resort on Koh Samui looks so fresh and tempting! That looks like a great way to relax. Is there a flavor difference between sawtooth coriander and the cilantro we normally see here? (I think I spotted some of that cilantro in the steamed fish photo.) What does morning glory taste like? I've always thought of it as a farmer's nemesis. Never occurred to me to eat it.

CharlieDi, you make me wish I had a trip planned to Madrid! I have a question about Casa Lucio: what, in this context, are Broken Eggs? I'm none the wiser after looking at their photos. I'm reasonably sure it isn't what happens when I try to juggle. :-D

Please tell more about the peanut salad. Your chickpea salad also sounds great, but I think I can figure that one out from your description.

In my Egyptian cookbook it's just called "Salated Betingaan", i.e. eggplant salad. (Good luck with the spelling! ) The ingredients are loose and the proportions forgiving. This cookbook is Flavors of Egypt from City and Country Kitchens, by Susan Torgerson. She lists 2 medium eggplants, roasted 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped 2 cloves garlic 1 tsp salt 2 tb finely chopped fresh parsley 1/2 tsp chili (pepper) 1/2 onion, finely chopped 3 tb lemon juice or vinegar 2 tb olive oil I generally make at least double the dressing (which begins with making a paste of the garlic and salt) for the amount of salad, and I often use more eggplants and/or tomatoes, depending on what's available. I favor Meyer lemon juice in the dressing when I can get it. Another fine salad from that book is called "Salated Mashwy" (grilled salad). The ingredients are onions, potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, a hot pepper, tomatoes, and capers if you wish. Everything but the capers gets grilled to char and cook through, then peeled if appropriate and chopped. A lemony salad dressing similar to the one above, but with sumac instead of chili, dresses the lot. This is another very flexible salad. Sometimes I'll add chunks of marinated chicken, lamb or beef to the grill and include it in the salad for our one-pot dinner.

One of our favorites is an Egyptian eggplant salad with roasted chunked eggplants, chopped tomatoes (sorry, is it that you don't like them?), a bit of chopped onion and parsley, all tossed with a lemon garlic vinaigrette. I could eat that salad for days. I think it gets better if it's allowed to sit for several days, but it never lasts that long. Fattoush: a wonderful way to use stale bread, pita or otherwise.

Those are adorable! What flavor is beneath those charming coats?

This is all a wonderful view into another world, and I thank you for it. Have you noticed a tendency to charge more because you're foreigners? I spotted that a few times in Egypt where the price was clearly marked in Arabic but they'd (try to, at least) charge more when an obvious foreigner was buying.

The last of the potatoes? Already? What do those plants do for the rest of the growing season? (Please tell me your growing season is not already at its end.)

Boy howdy. How have I missed the recipe before now? Time to break that book out again, and see what else I've been missing.

Righto...I've never tried this but I'm curious about it, and it seems to be very regional: Injera

Rhubarb and dates is a new and intriguing combination for me. Do you precook the rhubarb, or just chop it finely?

When the stepstool is almost, but not quite, fully opened there is a strong temptation to push down on the 'step' (top) part to flatten it the rest of the way quickly. Our first stepstool was kind, with enough gaps in the hinge to allow skin to escape. Our current folding stepstool has such tight tolerances that it must be opened All. The. Way. before someone steps on it. Do not try to push that bad boy flat with your hand, or you'll have blood blisters. Ours lives in the trailer and has many opportunities to fold and unfold, but has not loosened one whit. Boy, this is teasing at some memories of stores with some automotive name (like Canadian Tire) that had a wild hodgepodge of stuff not restricted to automotive material. I wasn't into cookery then but was fascinated with all the random stuff they carried - including cooking gear - more diversified than the Pep Boys now. Could that have been Canadian Tire? In California? A few decades ago?

Bacon, lettuce, tomato and dill pickle. You were missing two elements!

I have no immediate (more's the pity) plans to return to Ireland but I'd love to read about what's happening with food around Sligo these days.

What fun! Thanks for posting these photos. Can you describe the limes? Are they like the Persian limes that we routinely see here in the States? I'm craving satay now. Thanks for the observation that their meat chunks are usually smaller for a better surface to volume ratio. Makes sense. I'm going to adopt that trick.

Oh, by the way: http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/monthly_07_2015/post-34671-0-13701100-1437264008.jpg Those folding stepstools are wonderful, but beware of their pinch points when you're unfolding and folding them. They can be especially vicious when you're unfolding them; we've both been bitten from pushing down on the top of ours to flatten it quickly.

It looks like you had grand fun shopping! I'm glad you looked into the book and told us about it. I was wondering about an entire coffee-table cookbook dedicated to one form of bread alone. :-D

My first thought was chicken feet on the grill, and that sounded messy. I'm guessing now that the chickeny bits will go to making a nicely gelled base for the relish. There, I've stuck my foot neck out in public.

That discussion started about a year ago: Blondies. Are they nice?

Beautiful! I also thank you.