Behemoth

Have you tried the kefta recipes? She nails them. People always seem really reluctant to try the kefta mkaouara because it sounds weird and not as "fancy" as other dishes but it was always my hands down favorite thing I ever ate in Morocco. I also made the slightly less exotic kefta "emshmel" a few times and that gets inhaled by guests, I often don't think they even bother chewing. Quite disturbing actually.

Did anyone watch the Daily Show last night? Finally, a woman in the white house! Er...cooking.

A movement is accomplished in six stages, and the seventh brings return.

Aha. Now I know where the tail fat goes. Not that it's a bad thing.

My local Schnuck's started carrying the organic Smart Chickens just this week! $2.99 per lb, which is about what I was paying before for free range organic but this is not frozen. I don't know whether the final packaging is done by the company or by the supermarket folks -- mine was missing the neck & giblets and they had snipped off the tail. Does everyone get theirs that way too? I have a couple of situations where I do use those so that might be a concern. Anyway, in the meantime there is one roasting in the oven right now, I'm looking forward to the results. edit: k43 -- I just saw your post. Annoying, huh?

I was able to buy good ones once last year. The fruit CSA guys that hang out next to my "meat lady" on delivery days had some surplus that they could sell me. They were very good but super expensive if you're not a member (about $4 or $5 for a pint) and they don't generally have surplus. (I can't join the CSAs because we travel too much, especially in the summer.) Anyway, I get my berry fix in Germany every summer so it's not such a big deal for me. Really, none of the farmers around here seem to be growing much fruit, apart from some surprisingly uninspiring apples and peaches this one couple brings in. Either they pick too early, or the strains they are planting are commercially developed ones. In any case they were farmer's market priced, with supermarket flavor. Sorry for hijacking the thread here...

Ah, that pretty much describes the ones we get here. I was thinking of the lovely specimens you get at kiosks in Germany around late may early June. The ones in the states aren't even improved by roasting.

Okay Chufi, I finally wrote it! You can link to the story and some photos here: Our Friend Bacchus Wow, my report took me longer than our actual visit. Anyway, I'll leave you with some extra photos of baalbek. In the foreground, I could only make out the word Caesar. Temple of Jupiter visible in the background. Temple of Bacchus, side view. Medusa, queen of the bad hair day. Intricate carving.

To get strawberries like that in the US, you'd have to give up your firstborn. (I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth it, I'm just saying...)

Hey buddy, I prefer "devil's advocate" to "inherent western paternalism". As for Mr P. and cuisine. This isn't just his position, earlier in the week there was a discussion on "Cuisine" v "Kitchen" where it was proposed that the worlds cusines were French, Chinese and Italian. I have no opinion on such things as I don't understand the discussion. ← Easy: 1)define French food as having a certain desireable but hard to pin down property: refinement, cuisine, etc. 2) Add a couple of other countries to the list, so you can call it a category 3) without actually defining what it takes to be included in this category 4) When questioned, point out some property of the example that differs from at least one of the members of the existing category, and therefore excludes it from this category. Okay, I don't understand it either. It just seems like different cuisines have focused on different things. The french like to whip eggs around, the chinese like things that have weird textures, and in india they spend a lot of time thinking about spices.

It was the beansprouts that put it over the top for me. I don't think they've caught on yet to the fact that you can't just dump a random assortment of vaguely asian-looking veg and a hunk of meat in a pan, pour some soy sauce over it and call it Chinese. God knows I love my Germans, but they make midwestern Chinese restaurants look good, which is impressive considering we gave the world crab rangoon. Anyway, enough hijacking of the thread, sorry!

Ooh, I will have to inform my husband's friends that "Essen mit den fingern ist 'in'!" I still don't think they'll go for it edit: Chinesische Leberpfanne? On second thought, maybe I need to polish up my French.

Ludja, there's this forum, though I don't find it really in the same calibre as the French sites you gave here. ← Many thanks, anzu. I will check it out! ← I was just about to ask the same question

I'll have to try fried kibbe with sweet chili sauce next time I visit my parents. If only to see the look of disgusted resignation on my dad's face. No, that's too long to wait. Maybe I'll phone my brother and have him go over there and report back.

You'll probably live. I meant to say this earlier, but one of my favorite things is to take some of the curds in the earlier stage (Arisha) and eat them drizzled with honey and rolled up in flat mountain bread. As for the cheese, I find it harsh on it's own, but it is very nice mixed with chopped tomatoes, onion and good olive oil.

My grandmother used to make this, and I still do. There is a recipe in Joy of Cooking, actually. One of my very favorite desserts. If you're careful you can unmold the thing so that the cake is on the bottom and the custard on top.

I've stopped worrying about who got there first...I just find it interesting how much people got around back then.

Hi, finally catching up on this thread. Is cashcavallo a sicilian cheese? The fried preparation reminded me of something I've seen done with Cypriot haloumi cheese, and cashcavallo sounds a lot like the Arabic term we use for a similar Lebanese cheese -- Kashkawan. There must be a connection there, either Arab or just Mediterranean. I find it really interesting. What's funny is, my last name is Arabic, but I've had a number of Italians ask me if I am from southern Italy, as there is apparently a large population with the same name. I was looking on the Ellis Island site one time, and put my last name in out of curiousity -- there were as many people with my name from Italy as there were from Arab countries. Weird! I think I need to buy Clifford Wright's Arab Sicily book now. BTW, as far as Sicilian couscous, Paula Wolfert posted a recipe yesterday on Chefzadi's blog.

it WAS meant as a joke even though one could sometimes feel deserted no matter in which part of this great country one is... ;-) ← Ah, the desert of the modern condition.

Having co-written a few grant applications back in the day, 'socioeconomic status' is a more common term, and avoids those, er, 'class' distinctions. ← D'oh, thanks, I should know that. It's been a while since I've taken any social sciences classes. I'm all about the anti-social sciences these days.

Boy if that sentence doesn't encourage the multitudes to try this dish I don't know what will.

Might be more of a class* issue than a nationality issue. It may very well also be an age thing. I've found it really differs by household, no matter where you are. For better or for worse, I've found that Germany and England are actually very comparable to the US in terms of how people eat, possibly because so many of us come from there. Ha, okay not me but normal U.S. people. Anyway, back to ranch. I've never had it. I like buttermilk but don't like mayo on salad. I like the potato chips but given a choice I will always go with nacho orange. *Lacking a better word for it. I mean income level, education, city of residence, circle of friends, exposure to other cultures etc.

i assume right in the middle of a desert the repertory is somewhat sparse Desert? I don't get any of this. Don't know which "midwest" you all are talking about. I've lived in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri. And certainly traveled throughout the rest of the "midwest." It's all farm country. In fact, it's called the "breadbasket of the world." And it is. You drive for miles and miles and miles past row after row after row of cultivated crops. And there are roadside farm stands throughout. There's no "desert" here whatsoever that I've been able to ascertain. On the other hand, I've also lived in Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas. I know from desert. And the Great American Midwest ain't it. ← I think it was meant as a joke. Or perhaps, a reference to it being a cultural (as opposed to physical) desert. The use of winking smileys would seem to support this assumption.

Without getting too off topic... Anzu is right, I will be in Munich. I live in a small conservative midwestern town now, but even here the farmer's markets seem to have really picked up in the past 5 years. Even in the short time I've been here I find more and more people attending these things, and it is no longer limited to just the minority associated with the university. They recently added an extra day, which makes life a lot easier. It runs June through October. It wouldn't be fair to compare this type of market with a normal supermarket produce section anywhere, as the products are grown in small batches by attentive producers. But the nice thing is that it has pushed the local supermarket produce departments to become at least marginally better. (Though I still can't get heirlooms in a regular supermarket.) In Germany I find supermarket produce absolutely awful, even by midwestern standards. I was really shocked the first time I shopped there. Turkish and Asian kiosks are marginally better, but the weekly markets usually have a lot of nice stuff. For instance, I simply cannot get good berries or chanterelles where I live, and even if I could they would be extremely expensive. In Germany, when they are in season they are affordabe at the wochenmarkt and moreover they taste good. I've just never seen any nonstandard tomatoes. Are they common anywhere in Europe? edit: anzu, next time plant your family in the Viktualienmarkt biergarten for an hour or so. They'll have fun soaking in the Bavarian-ness of it all, and you can do some shopping

I wonder if you could mimic the effect of dolsot by using one of the persian techniques for getting crust on the bottom of the rice pot. Then you could serve the bap with little shards of crust stuck in.