Behemoth

Last day of classes tomorrow, way too mcuh to do (and I am posting here why??) Fried eggs in olive oil, Lebanese style with pita bread and olives. Dessert was two mini snickers stolen from my husband's student treats (they have an exam tomorrow, hence the bribe). and I don't even like chocolate, much less Mars-derived candies. Right now I am gnawing on a piece of manchego. Espresso. Pathetic, I know. 10 more days to Christmas in Germany!!

Jinmyo, I hate to disagree with you but this is simply not true. As much as I like to complain about my countrymen, the one thing I do like about the US is the openness to many different ethnic cuisines. And I'm not talking only in big cities...in a "Heartland" town of 100,000 I can personally count 7 Korean places, 3 sushi places, two indian, at least 3 (real, non chain) mexican, at least one transcendantly good Italian place, 4 thai, 2 vietnamese, 2 middle eastern, the usual complement of chinese, good and bad....Some execute the cuisine better than others, but all these places are visited by both the recent immigrants and locals alike. Try finding that in a town of 100,000 in europe, or the middle east, or heck, even asia.

I think it's to El Paso's credit that you they don't have live lobster on demand. It's an indulgence that isn't very eco-friendly and has nothing to do with the local culture. I bet the chile selection was better and fresher in El Paso in 1992 than in say Pittsburgh or Washington, D.C. Re the basil- if it was winter in 1992, it would have been aenemic hot-house basil rather than the real thing which tastes of dirt and lust. I don't think basil should be available all year. I think El Paso circa 1992 is a bad example. I can't believe I'm defending the state that gave us this president, but it's very regional cooking and to expect a inland border town with a rich culture to meet an urban standard of Italian food isn't so fair, especially in a discussion of dumbed down food. ← Hear, hear.

Do you have to do anything to the fresh leaves? I seem to remember a dish where (even) my grandmother would always send it out to some village lady for cleaning, but I can't remember if it was molokhia or some sort of nettle. Same sort of chicken-stock based stew with rice, whatever it was. That's a dish that seems to skip generations. My cousins and I love it, our parents all hate it, so we never learned how to make it. (My grandmother's version was the one I loved, so it couldnt' have been her fault...)

Thanks, Susan. I suppose I could have tagged on to one of those threads. Primarily I am curious about the possiblity of bacterial infection from fresh juice -- that is, whether it is common in homemade unpasturized juice. I remember the big fiasco with Odwalla, and was wondering whether it was just something common in industrial juices but uncommon in juices made and promptly consumed at home. I was planning on dropping off a few pans of lasagne, assuming we will be in town when it happens, or in any case when we get back. I think they would be a little weirded out by me waiting on them, and they do own a microwave and dishwasher

Sort of more general curiosity -- I don't have much to do with babies. I figured it would be about 3-4 months at least but was wondering what the safety issues were before suggesting such a thing. I think we kids lived on rice with yogurt for a long time (I grew up in the middle east.) I have no idea what american babies eat. Obviously I would ask her first. I don't know how picky the couple is, as near as I can tell they live almost exlusively on kraft cheese products, but that could change once jr. gets a little older. In the meantime I think I will just invite the adults over for dinner, to take a little of the work off their hands.

My next door neighbor & friend is due in the next couple of weeks. I was thinking it might be nice to make organic apple juice for the baby at some point. I remember odwalla getting into trouble for selling unpasturized juices a few years back, is this something I would need to worry about? Also, I have a food mill which could be used for similar purposes once she starts weaning him. I'd love to hear if anyone has made their own baby food or juices at home, and what one would need to watch out for.

Or Alsterwasser depending on the city Can you get that stuff in the US? I really love it in the summer. Our dinner was homely but good: Marcella's baked rigatoni with bolognese. I was planning to make papardelle but I was out of eggs and too lazy to go to the store.

What pretty onions! I won't see those around here until sometime in late April. We were invited to dinner, but I did make lunch: a blue cheese and caramelized onion quiche. Good, good, good. Lately as soon as the kitchen starts smelling like food A comes downstairs to watch what I'm doing, so I feel weird about taking photos. I used a french tart pan with the removable bottom, it looked quite pretty. Anyway... We drank Riesling. For some reason our dinner guests always assume that since my husband is German, we must drink a lot of Riesling. We have 3 bottles in the fridge and I'm running out of space. I mainly made the tart because it would go with the wine. Dinner was at a German couple's house. Pork loin with some sort of cherry sauce, echt deutsch. Oh I nearly forgot the coolest part. The guy has a major telescope and I got to see saturn's rings for the first time! Also, a beautiful cosmic gas cloud.

Those yogurt drinks are really typical in Korea, you get a little bottle free with most lunch orders. Barley tea is also usually free. A place to keep in mind next time I'm in NY. Thanks!

Mongo, I've really missed your posts.

My understanding was that damascus steel is too soft to comprise the main part of the blade? But that knife sure is pretty....

I tried to hate sandler but the lunch lady song always made me giggle...

I guess the quesion is, would you skip 3 $50 meals to go to Per Se once? Or 6 $25 meals? If you look at it that way I think it starts to make sense why some people find value in it. Hell, I would get a better meal at home than most of the $50 meals I've had at restaurants. At least Per Se would be educational.

God, would you really want to be a 4-star chef? Restaurant hours are bad enough, but that kind of pressure? Thanks, but no thanks. I love to ride my bike, even if I have no hope of getting anywhere near the tour de france. It doesn't make my bike riding any less enjoyable, and frankly I love my day job. Similarly I enjoy trying out an elaborate cooking project from some 4-star cookbook every once in a while, to learn a new technique or flex my chops a little but I would far rather invite friends over for a well-executed 2 star meal (maybe even the occasional shot at 3) and my undivided attention than some insane 4 star overreach where I spend the entire evening freaking out in the kitchen. I never really got the point of torturing one's guests with an elaborate 10-course tasting menu. They're here to see me, not my damned china collection. (Well, they do get to see a lot of my liquor cabinet, but that's a different topic...) Edited to add: I think two things are being confused in this thread: being able to cook a 4 star meal vs. being able to cook it at home. Also: The Talent thing. I bet Thomas Keller works his ass off, and I have no doubt that is the largest reason for his success. People tend to mystify talent, but talented people are a dime a dozen. It's the ones who put in the hours who get to that level. Plus some luck and good management skills etc. etc. From what I've seen a lot of people on eGullet could cook at that level given the equipment and the same time investment Keller has made in his career. But it's not for everyone, nor need it be.

Finally got a chance to cook a meal again. I'm out of practice with the camera. I won't subject you to blurry photos. Anyway, just the two of us, we watched The Third Man and had: puree of winter squash soup, with pistachio oil brussels sprouts, sliced & sauteed with bacon and shallots grilled prime NY strip, which was on special at my favorite butcher shop. So weird to think I was a vegetarian 5 years ago... None of these things were recipes, just ideas I picked up from here and there. Oh, the wine was a Spanish one, La Legua Crianza 1999 red Cigales. Quite good.

The only reason I had them as a kid is we used to pass through Morocco each year on the way to visiting my grandparents in the U.S. (Royal Air Maroc was a great airline back then. I wonder what they're like now.) Preserved lemons really don't seem to be used in any Lebanese food that I know of. We sometimes ate the lemon slices my aunts threw in with the olives, but we never cooked with them.

This is seriously freakin' cool. Thanks for doing the blog this week.

Dude, I commented in the dinner thread way back! Reprise: It looks fantastic. All the versions I've had were overcooked mutton with curdled yogurt (yick). This looks like something I would actually like to try. Oh, and I went off about the dried mint thing too, on some other page. (I think it was the "Saudi Arabia" thread.) Oh and Dejah, I make my own preserved lemon all the time. (I think most people who use it do). It is really easy but needs about a month to "pickle".

I just wanted you to know the term "plumpy eggplant" will now forever dwell in my brain, alongside "look is good, taste is hi-excellent" from a chinese takeout menu from...golden dragon? No, I think it was that place on 18th & walnut maybe. Dammit, I knew I should have saved that menu...

Okay, you gotta give me some poetic license here . I'm in central Illinois. The veg situation is not bad when the farmers market is running, but right now it is not, and the weather is cold & bleak. The local krogers recently yuppified their produce section, so it is a little better than last winter. I don't have high hopes of ever getting a fish with a head on it though. I must admit that Urbana-Champaign (where I work) has great food stores. As for the politeness, I was REALLY weirded out by it at first. Our landlord looked and spoke like Macey's character from Fargo so I was sure he was going to have someone kidnap us for ransom money. But now I don't notice so much (and the landlord is a total sweetie). I dunno, I don't think people in philly were less friendly to me, it was just more of a gruff friendly. I kinda miss it: "Hey hun, youse want some cheese wid dat?" I had heard the term "Theftway" before, but never this one for the Grays Ferry Avenue Pathmark. (Prior to the opening of the Freshgrocer, this was the closest halfway decent supermarket to the Penn campus. Penn Transit used to run shopping shuttles to it.) ← I believe my friend coined the term, I always thought it was funny. Well, especially at 3am. Maybe more like socio-pathmark... edited 'cause when I'm tired I use the word "actually" entirely too much.

I'm a year out of Philly. I don't know how much it has changed since that time, but food shopping in West Philly was a giant pain in the ass before that Freshgrocer opened. What's the one on 43rd? Bleh. Fresh Grocer was always nice and clean and for the most part the employees were even fairly nice by Philly standards. (I've since moved to the midwest where everyone is unfailingly nice but completely baffled by all vegetables other than carrots. Plus freshgrocer is a mere couple of blocks away from the Indian grocer, so you can kill two birds in one stone. If only there were a good liquor store nearby. (By good I mean one where you don't just walk up to the counter and ask for "red", "white", or a shot-size bottle of gin. ) Also, great view from the roof of the freshgrocer parking lot. I used to hitch a ride with a friend to "Psycho-Pathmark" once a month or so before fresh grocer opened. Always an interesting cultural experience at 2am. (We kept weird hours..) Other than that, RTM & Italian Market, and the occasional foray to the giant south philly asian marts. There was never a great middle eastern grocer though. And don't say Bitars.

caffeine makin' ya a little quick on the trigger, there, markovitch?

Hear, hear. I can't eat anything before 10am, and before noon just about all I can handle is toast. Would love some Percy eggs for dinner though...

I use my ricer quite a bit when making small quantities of mashed potatoes. There is a caveat, though...make sure you don't use hot food items in this kind of ricer. There's nothing quite like the sensation of having hot riced potatoes squished out onto your fingers as you grip the handle. However, this ricer will prevent such burns from happening since the holes are only on the bottom of the ricer. ← I love my ricer for a couple of potatoes but for hot foods in quantity a food mill is unbeatable. Also great for spaetzle. Plus it takes the stringy bits out of veg and bean purees. A little bigger than a stocking stuffer, though...