Smithy

You've had too much rain, haven't you?

Assuming that that is not a rhetorical question -- and of course it should not be! -- the answer is that one can never have enough 1 c containers with lids that snap shut. Think of the uses! Which is to say, ought you not collect both yogurt cups and cute little ramekins? Yogurt cups for daily use, and ramekins for company! ← I like the way you think. If I could figure out a good hiding place for the yogurt cups that might work, but right now there's no place for them without dislodging the ramekins from their hiding spot. Our usual plastic reusable container cupboard is already overflowing with the larger, generally more useful sized containers. Throwing out the occasional yogurt cup seems a small price to pay for domestic tranquility. I should add that the brand of yogurt I generally has a flimsy lid that falls apart at the drop of a lemon, so they aren't that great for refrigerator and freezer storage. I learned this the hard way.

Yeah, when I first started getting serious about my mise-en-place, back when I was first teaching myself how to do a proper stir-fry, having a flotilla of little bowls became key. Those itty bitty Pyrex bowls, the ones my mom used for instant pudding when I was a kid, are just perfect for most small items like yer garlic and other aromatics. For the larger-volume items, I wind up pressing into service all sorts of random bowls and containers, so that eventually my flotilla looks pretty motley--especially when I start creatively stacking some of the bowls because I'm running out of counter space. ← That sounds a lot like me. The little glass bowls - bless my sister for starting me on these - work really well. I usually end up breaking out the soup bowls, mixing bowls, everything else as well. For a time I saved those little plastic cups that yogurt comes in. They were perfect, but as the population of plastic containers boomed in our household they had to go. I see Chris has weighed in while I was writing. OK, I confess, needing an excuse at the yard sales and cool kitchen shops was the other reason I stopped saving yogurt cups. Why save plastic yogurt cups when you've always wanted an excuse for cute little ramekins?

I am a horribly, terribly disorganized cook. With few exceptions, the only way I can pull a dish together - especially if I'm working from a cookbook - is to have everything out, diligently chopped and measured, and ready to go. I *know* I should be able to mince the garlic while I'm sweating the onions. But if I count on doing that, something will come up: the dog will decide he has to go out now (which means the cats have to come in), or I'll realize that I forgot to cut the basil and have to go outside to get it just when the sauce is thickening, or I'll get to the "add broth" stage and realize it's still in the freezer. Even with the advance prep, I manage somehow to take up every square inch of counter space and then some, with chopped prepped things mixed up among the stuff waiting to be prepped, and a jar of spice toppled over into the sink. I've been thinking I need to start a thread titled "how can I use my space more efficiently?" but I'm still working on an adequate description of my kitchen flailings so it could be useful for critique. It's worst when I'm trying to follow a recipe I've never made. Let me hear a piece of music only a few times, and I can play it for you. Let me read a recipe a dozen times, and I'll still have to read it, step by painful step, ingredient by ingredient, when I actually make it the first (and maybe second) time. "Let's see...3 cloves minced garlic, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tsp salt, pinch of pepper..." <starts mincing> <walks back over to the cookbook> "Was that 1 tsp salt or 1 tbsp salt?" <measures> <walks back to the cookbook> "Gaah. Was that 1/4 tsp pepper or a pinch of cayenne?" It's mayhem even with the prep. Without the prep we'd advance to full-blown bedlam.

I'm in northern Minnesota, quite close to Lake Superior, and our temperatures are still often below freezing at night. The snow is finally gone in most places, but there's still a lot of ice on the lakes. My grass is only beginning to think about turning green. The buds on the birches and maples will do their magic act and unfurl into leaves in about a month. The only thing I have sprouting so far is my chives...but they're coming up! Yahoo! Our farmer's markets also don't open until May sometime, and there won't be much worth eating there until June.

Whoops! Sorry about that, but I'll continue for a moment anyway. Part of my point was that some foods can mimic pollens in their allergic effects. But aside from that, you can also be tested for food allergies. If your allergies aren't causing you any physical danger then I can understand not wanting to know what's causing the problem. Remember, though, that some allergies get worse with age and/or exposure. In that case (yanking this back almost on topic) you may need to know what foods to avoid. I can certainly understand not wanting to avoid anything, though. I'm a bit leery of hazelnuts because I can feel that reaction in the back of my throat, too close to the airway for comfort. But apples? Naw, I eat 'am anyway. OK, we return to Wendy's thread. Apologies if this was too much like a highjacking.

Fifi, that eggplant gratin is excellent. Thanks for including it and the stew with the Mexican twist. (I haven't tried that one yet, but I will soon. I love eggplant.) I got an interesting transoceanic echo a couple of nights after trying your Eggplant Gratin, when I cooked up an eggplant casserole from one of my Egyptian cookbooks. The chief differences between that recipe and yours are that the Egyptian casserole is a stovetop exercise - at last, I finally have fried eggplant without getting it greasy! - and that it's meatless. The casserole was smoother and oilier than your gratin, with everything collasped down nearly past recognition from frying and/or sauteing, but the flavors were very similar anyway. (Well, except for the chorizo.) Both lend themselves well to sandwiches, or refrigerator raiding.

Try Indian stores if there are any in your neck of the woods. ← There aren't any here, but I'm sure I can find them in other parts of the country. I see them in Egypt, too. My question is, are they worth the trouble? Those blocks of pulp, with seeds and fiber, are pretty darned convenient and much more compact.

I am in awe of your photos and your work! That Easter spread is gorgeous. Others have already admired the bunnies and the egg, said the things and asked the questions I wanted to ask. I'll just say the cakes are durned pretty too! If this is your idea of below-your-usual-quality workmanship, I can hardly wait to see what you normally turn out. Oh, wait...there was that tiramisu tart to die for. Wowowow. I love it that you have an entire bookshelf devoted to chocolate. You're my kind of pastry chef! On a practical note: if you can see your way to making an appointment with an allergist, it will cost you time and money but may save you a lot of pain and trouble working out what's causing your allergies. I finally broke down and did that to work out what was causing my lip(s) or other facial areas to swell unexpectedly and stay that way for hours. It turned out I'm allergic to birch - especially but not only the pollen - and that a number of foods (raw apples, some other red fruits) have allergens that approximate the birch allergen enough to cause a minor reaction. It was well worth the time and money, AND the allergist came up with an antihistamine that works for me when necessary.

Yes, please. I don't know whether I can sell the rest of the gang on oysters, but I'm sure pushing for it. Thanks to all of you so far for the great advice - more is welcome too, if you think of it! I'm getting really excited about this trip!

Beer was well-known in Egypt before there was any Arabic influence. I assume you're just referring to spirits, i.e. strong alcohol. My favorite chemistry professor used to say that humans figured out how to make alcohol long before they figured out how to make soap, and that that fact said a lot about the human race.

The olives picked and packed as ripe olives around where I grew up (in Tulare County - think Visalia, Lindsay, Porterville) are Mission olives. Maybe I should say 'were', since a lot of those groves are being pushed over and replanted with more lucrative crops. I think the pickled "Spanish" olives still are usually Manzanillas, but I'm not sure how close to our area those were grown. I can find out, if you're interested.

Nullo, I've never seen tamarind with added sugar. I wonder if you're looking at tamarind drink mix? (Tamar hindi is the Egyptian - Arabic? - name for a wonderful drink - think lemonade, but with tamarind instead.) I can't remember where you live, but I'm pretty sure you're in the eastern half of the U.S. If you can't find tamarind pulp in an Asian grocery, try looking in a Middle Eastern grocery. That's where I get mine. ← As you can see here, tamarind is a fruit that looks like a brown pod with fat little beans in it. You can buy it in the pods, or in blocks of mashed fruit that you have to dilute with water as in this diagram, or in prepared canisters of the liquid. If not that, then... well, sure, maybe vinegar with palm or brown sugar to cut the sourness? ← It's funny, I've never seen tamarind pods in the U.S. markets I've visited, just the pulp in blocks. The pods look like a lot of work compared to the pulp block - but then, that's the argument for most convenience foods, isn't it? I think vinegar with sugar wouldn't have that fruity sour flavor you get from tamarind. Perhaps if you added lemon juice to the above-mentioned vinegar and sugar mix? <Quick change of subject> MOUSSAKA, YES! There's an Egyptian version, too!

I'm learning so much more about history and geography through this forum than I ever bothered to learn in school. Then again, in school I didn't care so much about food, so maybe this entry into the topic wouldn't have helped either. The little Turkish food I've had has reminded me strongly of Greek food, and until I opened the cookbooks I thought that was the main influence. However, after I started getting interested in Middle Eastern cookery (by way of Egypt), and after I started collecting cookbooks with a vengeance, I picked up a couple of Turkish cookbooks. Lo and behold, I recognize a lot of those names - and dishes - from Egypt and other Arabic countries. I'll be interested in seeing what more knowledgable people have to say about this. All I can might be able to contribute is from my cookbooks, and that's second-hand knowledge at best.

Clarification: it's important to understand that, in the case of your run-of-the-mill California olives (Lindsay ripe olives, for instance) they are not picked 'green' in the sense of being picked early. They are picked when ripe. The curing process turns them black. Lindsay also markets "Green Ripe Olives". They're the same olive, same picking time according to the ranchers who grow them, slightly different curing method so they don't turn black. The taste is much the same either way...and I agree they're quite different from the Mediterranean cured olives.

I had no idea before this that diamond is a good heat conductor. A quick check (Google is a wonderful thing) shows that this isn't just some marketeer's hype. Thanks for showing us the brochure. You've talked before about the relative thicknesses of the Swiss NanoPro pan vs. the Swiss Diamond pan. Where does the Ikea non-stick that you used upthread fall into the mix? I'm wondering if pan thickness/mass is at least partly responsible for the different tenderness you got from the two steaks. I don't know why that might be, but we've been seeing a correlation between pan thermal mass and meat tenderness over in the braising discussions.

*bump* Late next week. 4 adults, 5 nights, Cambridge and Boston area - we'll be staying near Harvard, but we plan to visit historic Boston. We like wine. We like almost any kind of food. Being Midwesterners, we're especially interested in finding good seafood places in which to gorge ourselves. However, I'll be out and around during the day and looking for good inexpensive hole-in-the-wall joints for lunch, especially Middle Eastern, North African, or possibly Indian or Afghani. No doubt a wander around the Harvard area will turn up the usual university complement of good cheap international cuisine that doesn't exist in Duluth, but I welcome recommendations. Does Boston have a waterfront area with good restaurants? Any in particular that we shouldn't miss? Are there any food shops that I absolutely, positively must not miss? (Too bad Penzey's doesn't seem to be open yet.)

Tagine/tagine etc are derived from the Greek "teganon", the word for pan. ← Thank you Adam, thank you thank you, for finally scratching that itch for me.

Nullo, I've never seen tamarind with added sugar. I wonder if you're looking at tamarind drink mix? (Tamar hindi is the Egyptian - Arabic? - name for a wonderful drink - think lemonade, but with tamarind instead.) I can't remember where you live, but I'm pretty sure you're in the eastern half of the U.S. If you can't find tamarind pulp in an Asian grocery, try looking in a Middle Eastern grocery. That's where I get mine. Thanks for starting off with all the questions. I've been lurking on this one too, since I've never even heard of pad thai before now. Your questions just *might* tip me off into the unknown...maybe...the photos certainly look appealing....<wanders off musing over chopping and buying new ingredients>

Darn, this conversation is about a year late. Mom had one of those for over 30 years. I'm sure she had it right up to the point of clearing out the house when she and Dad were downsizing, a year ago. I never gave that particular piece a thought, and it's long gone since neither my sister nor I spoke for it.

Lessee...I've given away one (count it) book some time ago, and gained at least 3 in the meantime: The Gourmet Cookbook (what was I thinking?) Paula Wolfert's Couscous and other Good Food from Morocco (that one's already gotten a lot of use) The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine (I refuse to send Mayhaw Man a check for the suggestion that cost me more money, but it is indeed a fine book) That last book will make a good weapon if someone wants to challenge me in the kitchen. Mm. My mother passed a couple of cookbooks on to me also, although the names escape me at the moment. Count me for a net of 4 more since my last post. Don't ask me the total.

This all looks wonderful. Sorry if I missed an earlier explanation, but what is kabocha? It looks like eggplant? How to you fix it for that gratin? (Whether or not it's eggplant, I may change my plans for the eggplant presently in my refrigerator.) That bread looks terrific, too. I wish I could get a good olive bread around here, or learn how to make it myself. That raises a question about food variety available to you. The olive bread looks very European. European-style breads have only started to become available, possibly even common, outside major U.S. cities in the last, oh, 5 years from what I can tell. There's been a huge increase in variety of foods available in the Midwest, and in the quieter parts of California that I frequent, in the last 15 years. Now it isn't unusual to find different kinds of olives, rice, Middle Eastern food, panko, fish sauce in a middling-sized town. 10 years ago there wasn't an "ethnic foods" section in the grocery store, but if there had been it would have had Mexican, Italian and Chinese condiments. Have you seen a similar increase in "foreign food" availability during your years in Japan?

I always thought of iced coffees as a very Japanese thing... 10 to 15 years ago everyone in Japan was drinking iced coffee and when I would ask for it in the US people would just stare at me and have no idea what I was talking about. Matcha lattes are quite common and they even show up at Starbucks and other similar coffee shops. ← I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, where iced coffee had long been a well-known thing ... but up until relatively recently, if I asked for an iced coffee anywhere in the U.S. outside of the New York metro area, I'd get nothing but blank looks too--or at best a glass of coffee that was tepid because they simply dumped some ice in the glass and poured hot coffee in direct from the coffeemaker. Since Starbucks has taken over the planet, now at least seemingly everyone's familiar with iced and/or frozen latte drinks. But I still can get some puzzled looks in some places in the States when I ask for straight iced coffee. ← I grew up in California knowing about iced coffee from my mother, although I personally never took a shine to it. She knew it wasn't a local thing, though, because she often got strange looks when she offered it to others and she rarely could get it in restaurants. Eventually she took to ordering coffee and a glass of ice. Since she grew up in Florida, we always assumed it was a Southern thing.

Boy, howdy. It isn't just the obscure citrus. I weep at the loss of quality in oranges, mandarins, tangelos, and to some extent grapefruit (lemons seem to be an exception) from the present packing process. It isn't that they're being picked unripe as the stone fruits are; citrus is sturdy stuff and doesn't have to be picked early to survive shipping. Something happens in the packing plant - whether it's the fungicide to kill the bugs, or the wax that's applied afterward, I don't know - that blunts the smell and flavor so the poor things come to market tired-smelling and -tasting. I've noticed this in the organically grown citrus as well as the standard crops, so it must be common to both packing processes. If irradiation can keep that blue mold from growing (it really does happen overnight, but not on every orange) so the fungicide and wax can be avoided, more people would know how oranges are really supposed to taste.

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but the only questions I'd have had were already addressed by others. This part, however, made me smile: I wouldn't get a barometer to measure temperature, either. I presume you meant 'thermometer' in that sentence? I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. Thank you, chefzadi, for all this detailed work. It's a fine tribute to your writing that you are getting so many valuable contributions from the eGullet community, luminary or lesser-known. I really appreciate the linguistics lessons that are coming along with the food; I'm learning a lot, here.