Behemoth

Thanks -- then I guess it's a go! Yeah, there really aren't any clunkers, and some have become staples. The ciabatta I make at least once a week, and there is always pizza dough in the freezer. I can't think of too many cookbooks that have justified their price like this one has for me.

Ah, looks great Elie and thanks for bringing up this thread -- I've been invited to a texas chili potluck thing, and I am supposed to bring cornbread. I wanted to use PR's recipe, but our hostess is big on the weight watchers and would probably hate me forever if I sullied her home with bacon. Has anyone tried this recipe? Would the omission of bacon make it too sweet, and if so, any ideas for a substitute?

I just made two jars of sweet tomato chutney. Lasts for months and especially nice in the winter when you want something bright. I also make and freeze sauce. Basically I never met a tomato I didn't eat. edit: how about a canning and pickling cookoff? I also just made eggplant pickles, but I need to do something with green beans. *technically I participated in the salad cookoff, that's basically most of what we eat on summer worknights: Tonight: roasted golden beet, wax bean, tomato, olive, goat cheese Last week: Nicoise Week before last: Spanish style: hard-boiled egg, roasted red pepper, olive, potato, tuna etc.

Cute article about Beirut nightlife in the Daily Star: link

I did remember, and I LOVE sea urchins. I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather.

Pretty! I miss seeing large bodies of water...

I suspect it's more the quality of life that people are talking about than the actual "living" part.

The slightly less "Gattaca" version of this argument is in the direction of nationalized healthcare.

you can get mustard oil in indian groceries. I would think it's the same thing? (Piercing but mellow and nutty once cooked.)

I bought the book at the beginning of summer, so while I have made a bunch of the appetizers (great, BTW, and now is the season for tomato jam) it really hasn't been braising weather for me. Really looking forward to the fall now. But I did try the expatriate chicken recipe, and the potato tagine, both big winners. I really appreciate all the testing that goes into these books. I've gotten so used to having to make some adjustments in recipes that it is almost weird being able to follow one through as written from start to finish. I cook out of the Moroccan book quite a bit -- I have some idea of how the stuff "should" taste and the recipes get it right on, no adjustments needed. I am currently trying to justify buying canele molds...

There's really no point if you live in Philly, you have Bell & Evans and the Reading Terminal guys. But around here before this brand arrived, if you wanted organic you were stuck with frozen. Oh, ours came out very well. Not that much better than the frozen stuff I was getting, but the convenience of it makes the biggest difference.

It took me a second take to read this right. I was wondering what a mumpkin (rhyme with pumpkin) was I'm thinking of getting A the Pimsleur Arabic (Eastern), I've heard very good things. How did you start learning Arabic?

It will take about four hours to find your gate in that hell-hole.

I think many people are initially drawn to mathematics because they are hard-wired to look for meaning in patterns, and to find beauty in symmetry. Similarly I have always suspected that people prefer 3 or 5 on a plate because tension is created when you can't pair things up. In other words I think that it is being human that is the common denominator for aesthetic preferences, not mathematics per se. Math is just a way of stripping out the extraneous stuff and explaining how the patterns work. Having said that, I have a hard time explaining what makes an "elegant" solution so damned pleasing. Maybe at that level we really do start to leave our bodies behind. As much as I love eating I've never gotten that particular rush from food. Music gets a little closer -- actually, that might be where food and math have some real common ground. I think other people have made that connection.

Yay, logic.

They think small changes in spicing can cause large changes in final flavor? Math I love. Pseudo-math, not so much.

To paraphrase and thus associate myself with Mark Twain, Rumors of the significance of the Golden Ratio have been vastly exaggerated (Sorry, you hit on a pet topic )

Time Out London puts out a restaurant edition every year. I found it really useful for finding basic everyday stuff like good dim sum, indian places, pubs. Their reviews are fair and give you a good idea of what to expect in terms of the crowd, prices etc. Here is a link to the website, and you can order the book from there too.

Since we're on the flying tangent -- a friend of ours with a pilot's license from Germany came by to visit last year. We have a little airfield here where it is apparently relatively cheap to rent a plane, he took us for a spin. Fun! I would have thought you would feel the wind a lot more in a little 4-seater but it was like being in a car. Anyway, A and I were sorely tempted to take lessons but got bogged down with all the work and moving-related stuff soon after that. Anyway, you are a short flight away from me so if you want to do the $100 burger run sometime (or in my case, maybe $100 coucous run) feel quite welcome.

No no, I just meant that some of the savory couscous recipes involve sweet ingredients, e.g. chicken with saffron, honey and raisins. Kind of a nice switch after eating something with very salty/savory ingredients such as preserved lemons and olives. But there are some couscous recipes that are meant for dessert. (Paula Wolfert posted one called "bil zbib" on chefzadi's blog a while back...)

My (maternal) grandmother read those to me when I was little. She currently lives in a fairly nice condo/assisted living type place. The dining room is by and large quite good, but whenever she's bored with the food she turns to me and recites the rice pudding poem.

Wow, that is really depressing. Steven Starr restaurants. Feh.

Off the top of my head: What is the matter with Mary Jane? She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain. It's lovely rice pudding for supper again. So what is the matter with Mary Jane? And: The King said, "Bother!" And then he said, "Oh, deary me!" The King sobbed, "Oh, deary me!" And went back to bed. "Nobody," He whimpered, "Could call me a fussy man; but I only want a little bit of butter for my bread!"

Wow. I'll let other people try to answer that one The couscous, tagine and bisteeya threads that are floating around would be a good place to start. In terms of flavor, there really is a wide range. Usually you can think spiced but not "spicy". Though some things are certainly spicy. Some savory dishes use honey, orange blossom water, and cinnamon. Others use preserved lemons and olives, not sweet at all. Lots use some combination of the above, plus paprika, garlic, parsley, saffron, cilantro etc etc etc. And then there is the mint tea, and the almond paste cookies...

Some of them are in fact snakes. Those don't get invited back. edit: the kefta mkaouara is just good home cookin', nothing fancy in the least. The only thing that makes it weird for people is that they're not used to eating eggs for dinner. (We're talking easily-weirded out types here.) But the kefta Emshmel is a real showstopper in terms of flavor. In fact, I am making it again this Friday, by request. It's the sort of thing you'd want to serve a sweetish couscous after, but I think I'll just have a couple of moroccan-style salads and some nice bread, saffron panna cotta for dessert.