Behemoth

Not true of my midwestern small town. We have a twice-weekly very vibrant farmer's market, several places to buy good olive oil (not to mention fluer de sel, picholine olives etc), two indian groceries, two mexican groceries, two thai restaurans, three japanese places, lots of chinese & italian mom & pop etc. etc.. We do also have a lot of chains, and admittedly you can't find everything. (It really is a small town.) But a surprising amount of stuff is available and seems to imprive every year as people learn more. I am optimistic, actually.

Dear God, I really am turning into Yoda. Boil watermelon and cornstarch together. Right. That's what I meant.

I did so!! I knew I'd seen you make at some point it but the google search turned up only the ice. Even more cornstarch, huh? Might try that, will definitely try cooking it down more first. Thanks!

Hi Kevin, Can I ask you a question about regions past? I tried to make the watermelon pudding in Clifford Wright's Sicily book but the thing never set up. I mean it is straight liquid. I see what you have above is granita, but I was wondering if you (or anyone else here) have tried the pudding and can tell me where I am going wrong.

You can dip toasted sesame bagels into it, which approximates my favorite lebanese street food. I also use it in a lemon/olive oil salad dressing now and then. That was a pretty big bag

You mean by signing up for the credit card? Nope.

TJMaxx has been carrying "second quality" LC for a couple of years. It is basically real LC with some barely visible fault that keeps it from being sold in a regular store. For example, I got a blue 5.5 qt round oven for $99. It has a barely visible black speck on the inside of the lid. I also got an All-Clad MC2 12 inch skillet for about $50 -- little c-shaped ding where the handle meets the pan. It usually takes me a while to figure out what's wrong with them, and they are always just cosmetic faults. They also carry all the Oxo stuff, and the occasional John Boos cutting board, not damaged at all in this case. All in all, I would strongly recommend them. Then again, why am I sharing this with you? I hope not too many eGulleteers live in central IL. Also: I just bought an off-brand 11" enameled cast iron gratin pan. $2.99. I figure if it falls apart I'm out $2.99. It sure looks nice though! As for the 9 Qt oval, I really don't think it is enameled. What does the inside of a matte black one look like? Is it smooth, or rough? It may be a moot point. I just ordered the 6 3/4 oval and free soup pot from Amazon. If you get them in white it is $139.99 for the pair. ($199 for any other color. Not bad, but not jaw dropping either.) Yeah, they don't match the blue one, but it's not like I'll have them all out at once. I needed something that would accomodate an leg of lamb, and I think the 6 3/4 should be just big enough.

This is possibly a dumb question, but is the Creuset matte black enameled? There is a 9.5 QT one at the local TJMaxx with a decent price on it but I don't want to buy something that will react with tomatoes. I'm not even sure it is matte black, it looks more like plain cast iron.

It does mention it, under Szechuan cooking (see page 105, bottom third of the page

That's cause they're German, dude. (Running away before Farid, Ptipois and a few assorted Germans give me a well-deserved ass-kicking... ) ← Sauerkraut doesn't qualify as a green vegetable? ← I would say it's more beige. Much like myself, in some ways.

That's cause they're German, dude. (Running away before Farid, Ptipois and a few assorted Germans give me a well-deserved ass-kicking... )

I'm not sure they're still edible once they've been up the yingyang. Seriously though, I love Jaymes' idea, or the shepherd's pie.

You're going to make me google Noel Coward quotes at 8am? I don't know if it's the butchers' fault. Once I managed to get hold of a slab o'pig with the skin still on (I have a good butcher ) and the dinner guests ate around it I dare not serve proper lamb because the pinkness would freak them out. At what point did people become such sissies? Do I really need to mention how great all the food looks again? 'Cause it does.

Oh, I just mean the night setting is good for parties! I've gotten some some really cool shots that way. For food I just mess around with a manual setting. tripod can't hurt though.

kitchenmage -- I love the composition of your photos but I am noticing that you may have the same problem I was having with my D70 when I first got it -- indoor shots come out much too dark. Reading their user group website, it seems like they did this for some reason that made sense when I read it but I've now forgotten what that reason was. In any case, I find that lightening my pictures afterwards gives good results. Play around with the manual settings a bit -- I really like their auto setting outdoors but not at all indoors. The night setting works really well if you're careful about keeping the camera steady. Which reminds me, I really need to take some cornfield photos soon, they are so nice and golden in the afternoon...

The poem is not about food at all but I've always loved these lines from Ted Hughes: ...Was it then I bought a peach? That's as I remember. From a stall near Charring Cross Station It was the first fresh peach I had ever tasted. I could hardly believe how delicious. At twenty-five I was dumbfounded afresh By my ignorance of the simplest things.

Inserted [. . .] mine. Edited to add: Forgive me, please. The idea of a landlord for dinner just appealed at the moment. ← Slow day?

We had a lot of success with humane traps, baited with peanut butter. As for your main question, I'm not vegetarian anymore but I do try to pay attention to where my food is coming from. But seriously: spring-loaded humane traps. If those don't work my former landlord, an animal cardiologist, told me poison was the kinder choice.

Nah, I tend to think Elie is right on this one, otherwise the double s would be replaced by a "zain" sound. I am familiar with "Har'et issibou" (cuter name, too) and thought this sounded similar, but I was out of town so I couldn't look it up. BTW, archistratus, this is totally off topic but humor me : my copy of cucina paradiso just came in the mail! Tummun is the word for rice in Iraq -- Now you have me wondering if it refers to the vessel "tummala" and shares a common ancestry with the Sicilian dish. Sorry, please continue your regular topic

I just need to add this because it would amuse you -- the Korean market I frequent in Urbana actually carries the full range of middle eastern ingredients. (Including pita bread, yogurt, labneh, rose water, tahini...) Weird, huh?

haloumi is that sqeaky stuff that I love so much, but I don't think it gets all that stringy. Have you tried a middle-eastern brand of string cheeses? I suspect it might be that. Not the kind you get in the supermarket, I mean the kind with the nigella seeds.

We were able to buy Pitu Cachaca two years ago at Canal's in NJ. We got a case for our wedding, I think it wasn't so expensive (by American standards), about $10 per bottle I believe. All alcohol is way overpriced in the States. The in-laws are German so they are good at drinking. Christmas there is a ridiculously fun time. I've always wanted to go to Brasil though.

I have to give a shout-out to another overlooked Penn institution: Rami's Lebanese truck on 40th street. Best shawarma in the city, and extremely nice guy to boot.

Or Beirut: great nightlife, hot women, the occasional car bomb. I have to admit I haven't gotten into the show (apart from the Jersey episode, which was sorta cute.) I suppose I was hoping for something more like a culinary version of Globe Trekker. This is more like the overheard conversations of frat boys on vacation -- self-absorbed and almost entirely devoid of content or insight. I guess I will be TiVo-ing old ACT episodes and rereading kitchen confidential until our man recovers from the spell of his own hype. Sorry!

Caipis are hugely popular in Germany -- I don't understand why they haven't caught on in the states. We make them almost every night in the summer. The caipirinha is also, is by the way, the Behemoth family christmas eve cocktail of choice. We use key limes and demerara sugar, the drill is one person muddles and another crushes the ice. We go through about two or three bottles of cachaca by 4 am. I heart my in-laws... Lovely photos, btw. I feel like I am still on vacation, which is impressive considering I've locked myself in a dark little room to get this damned paper finished!