Behemoth

Apart from what was mentioned above, I love creamed sorrel under eggs en cocotte. Another good trick I learned from a Patricia Wells book -- to first puree the sorrel with butter in a food processor and add the resulting paste to the rest of the soup at the end. It keeps its bright green color without having to mix in extra spinach. The green color lasted at least through the next day and a gentle reheating. Very tasty.

I didn't know Tenglemann owned Super Fresh. The latter is still a hell of a lot nicer than the any of theTenglemanns in our our neighorhood though. My life is really coming around full circle here, freaky. Just looking at the corner of 12th and Walnut makes me feel slightly hung over.

Actually, I have a dedicated drawer with insert I am really happy with for now (it fits my monster cleaver, which is saying something. I got the knife insert thing from martha stuart for Kmart -- wood & seems to stay clean) but good to know about the other if I am in the market again (good chance I will outgrow this one in a few years...) there is a place near my apartment that is selling them, will have to check if the price in euro is better than what I can find in $ online. Don't want to do the magnetic strip since we have a tile backdrop, plus the spouse finds it a little too scary looking.

I always liked this one.

You must have known you were tempting fate with that one. Better to hold off until 5am and head down to the harbor. Having said that, there was a very nice little place in Eimsbuettel, near the Lutterothstr subway stop. Limited but excellent menu, mostly lamb and fish. Specifics, pretty please?!

Do your daughters have specific interests? Beyond food there are a lot of great museums/cultural events/outdoorsy stuff to check out. If your older daughter is at all interested in art then lenbachhaus and alte pinakothek are musts. For shopping she might get a kick out of the store "Servus Heimat" on Ledererstr. They carry very funny and untypical Munich theme t-shirts & things like that, if she wants a non-dorky souvenir to take home. I would also try to take her to one of the more traditional bookstores like Werner or Lemkuhl -- German bookstores are really an inspiring sight to see. There is also a toy museum in the alten rathausturm & the Deutsches Museum science exhibits that might be of interest for the younger daughter. That time of year you can also rent bikes and ride through some of the park areas. Very pretty. Keep in mind the biergartens also sell sodas in large beer mugs, so the younger ones can pretend to participate without getting anyone in trouble.

He gives the conversions in the beginning of the book -- I think you can find it if you look under "yeast". Are you sure you can't find instant yeast in Charlotte? I live in the very rural middle of nowhere and our big supermarkets all carry it. It is just the stuff labelled for bread machines.

How old are these kids? Its fine for 7-year olds but if I were my 12-year old self I'd be rolling my eyes and handing my friend-with-easier-parents my cash to buy me the candy bar. It would be nicer if the school didn't sell brownies, period. It makes a lot of sense for allergies though.

Can anyone tell me more about this? Exactly what is lahmacun? What is known as lahmajun in turkey and sfiha in lebanon is essentially a flat bread dough topped with ground lamb, tomato, onion and spices, then baked at a high temperature. It's like a lamb pizza without cheese or sauce, sort of. Unfortunately in Germany they tend to pile it up with all sorts of stuff like tatziki and salad (sort of like the american approach to falafel) but the traditional way to eat is plain, with a bottle of ayran (salty yogurt drink) to wash it down. I don't know where it is good in Berlin, but if you are ever in Hamburg there's a very good place for it in Sternschanze. Bah, I suppose you'll want it polluted with neon green relish and tomato wedges next. As far as I know, anytime you buy doner kebap from an imbiss place it comes as a sandwich, oder?

Wow, sazji -- that's quite an impressive difference. A couple months from now you should be a master. Istanbul could use a noodle shop, I know at least a few people who would become regular customers once they move back! Something to fall back on if the research grants fall through. I think there is a big texture difference between rolled and hand pulled noodles. The hand pulled ones always felt a little "springier" to me.

Smithy, as you no doubt already know it's hard even for native speakers to tell what's what when one is dealing with a transliteration. For example, my first thought was Damascus-style, but since fatteh is female and shamy is male it didn't sound quite right -- "fatteh of some guy from Damasus" -- and there was also the unusual use of vinegar. So then the assumption is either well they meant fatteh shamieh (damascus-style fatteh) or fettet-el-shammeh, which would make sense in reference to the holiday even if it was something I'd never heard of. We need to get arabic keyboards, I am really jealous of the asian threads' use of characters. So -- did it taste good? I've never had fatteh with vinegar, or one without yogurt! (Then again, we all remember the cactus debacle so what do I know )

The funny thing is that a jelly donut is actually called a "Pfannkuchen" (a pancake) in Berlin. It's only in certain other parts of Germany that they are called Berliner. BTW, if JFK had said "Ich bin Berliner" rather than "Ich bin ein Berliner" he would have been calling himself a Berlin resident rather than a jelly donut. Sorry to disagree, but this is a myth. Germans I have spoken to about this (incl. my German husband and his colleagues) have told me that what JFK said was not only not perceived as odd or funny by the audience at the time, but was not even linguistically incorrect. German speakers leave the definite article out when talking about their profession, for example, but otherwise it is an issue of style, and the definite article may be added in for emphasis. (eg I am one of many Berliners.) link to a collection of discussions about this. I definitely agree about the merchant with the stale peppers though. nice excuse!

Yeah, I've rarely had good chinese food in Germay -- mainly because I think people expect it to be "cheap" food so the quality is really low. I have had okay Indian food but it really depends on the place -- rumor has it (at least in Munich) you can get it extra spicy by asking for "English hot". I've had decent and quite spicy thai though, and keep in mind that younger germans are well-travelled and more open to new stuff so they don't break out into the white person "sharf" sweat quite as quickly as the old crowd. Never heard of a place getting sued for spicy food though -- sounds like Snopes.com material. Anyway, go to neighborhoods with recent immigrants, or cheaper artists neighborhoods for the good ethnic eats, but that's true pretty much everywhere. I have a trip coming up to Berlin in March so I'll make note of the recommendations. Mainly I need "my people" food: I'm craving a good shawarma, falafel and a lahmajun with a bottle of Ayran. And of course a currywurst... Jackal, even Berliners refer to themselves as Berliners. But in Munich the donuts are Krapfen. That JFK speech could have come out much worse in Bavaria.

Whiskey and a shotgun. (I see srhcb beat me to it. )

Lebkuchen (those big German heart-shaped cookies) with phrases like "I'm seeing someone else" or "I'd rather just be friends" written on them.

It is a weird way to rate chocolate, unless (presumably) you are average Consumer Reports general reader in the market for a box of Valentine's Day truffles. Having said that, I have to admit that their ratings strike me as relatively well-sorted given what they tested. I've never cared for Lindt of any percentage and I'm glad to see Moonstruck got some national recognition. I'm not a truffle fan but I love their plain dark bars. Very nice complex flavor, and not at all waxy or oversweetened. I do wish they were cheaper though...

Yes, and it is always amazing to me that people don't find it strange that just that one giant stand happens to have giant ripe tomatoes and peaches, in central Illinois, in early June when all the other guys are basically limited to onions and turnip greens.

Are you still going? The nightlife might be a bit cautious after last Sunday which is a damned shame. I really wanted to see you do a Beirut show. Well, knowing beirut you'll still have an interesting time, no matter what...

In this case I imagine there was originally and 'n' in the name? ← Yeah, I can't say I like those as much. (Although I will rarely turn down a citrus fruit in general...) I grew up with the old world varieties. There's a health food store near me that has the old skool kind for about a week out of the year and I tend to eat about ten lbs worth in that one week. I don't know where they get them, they are only lightly streaked and more deep red than purple.

It's interesting about the holiday, I had never heard of it prior to this. I should correct my statement above by saying "sham el- hawa/sham el-nassim" in Lebanon at least would be understood as going out for a breath of fresh air. There are so many differences between the levant and egypt it is really kind of amazing to me sometimes. Maybe it is because as kids we were always fed the arab unity line (after all several countries share the egyptian flag) it is always a little weird when you realize these countries are really much less similar than you grew uo thinking. Anyway... I would have to look at the name as it is written in arabic to even presume to think I knew what it referred to. It's always funny when I read middle eastern news in arabic newspapers -- I always have this moment when I think, oh that's what the Times was referring to!

This has been a long-running mystery in my life. What exactly is sa-cha sauce?

I'm afraid I have to disagree, but that name is really cute. First time I've heard of the dish, but "sham-el-nasim" literally means smelling the breeze. It is a common term for taking a stroll on a nice day. Shamy (not having seen the arabic, and assuming this is the correct origin) would then probably refer to the "smelling" part of the phrase. Sun as you probably know is "Shams", but always appears with the "s" on the end. Naseem/nasim/neseem means breeze, and is also a very nice boy's name, IMVHO.

I generally prefer they hand it to me on a small plate, but to each his own.

Interview with Adria about "Fast Good" on the PBS show Foreign Exchange: You can watch a video by going here

I agree completely. Also, I think it drives drinking on college campuses into frat houses and private parties, which means there is less adult supervision, and a higher incidence of fatal alcohol poisoning and date rape.