Behemoth

No, sorry. It was an entire thread started by someone who wanted to buy a decent knife for around $30 or so. Kitchen thongs do sound useful though...

I love that combination. The heat of the ginger really pulls out the depth of the tomato flavor for me. It seems to come up in indian food a lot. Madhur Jaffrey's (world of the east?) vegetarian cookbook has several dishes that really highlight this combination -- a cream of tomato soup with indian spices, and a couple of tomato chutneys, both hot and sweet. I make all of these fairly often. In fact, I have a jar of the sweet chutney in my fridge right now. (I had a bunch of heirloom tomatoes that needed using.) It is awesome on a cheese sandwich, and keeps for months.

Duck fat & goose fat, respectively.

Hey Rachel, have you tried TJ Maxx? I live in the midwest too and I drop by there occasionally just see what they have -- I've gotten really lucky a few times. They almost always have a few dutch ovens (sometimes Le Crueset even, though still not cheap) but also a couple non-name brand but sturdy-looking cast iron ones. They carry some nice pans, too. OK, here is my stupid question -- not exactly cooking, but embarassing since it calls into question my googling capabilites. Does anyone remember that "cheap knife" thread from way back? I tried and tried to search (honest) but couldn't find it. Someone had a link to an online chef's supply where they had these cute <$30 knives, I think made in italy, with synthetic green and red handles. If you know what this was, you would make me very happy.

Kieran?! First friendster, now this. Shouldn't you be busy watching reality TV or something? You were right, btw, TIVO did change our lives for the better. (Can you guess who I am?) Oh, right. The Topic. I miss Philadelphia like crazy. It is especially hard on July 4th or labor day, when my "friends" in the 215 call and "invite" me to their west philly backyard BBQ. (Okay okay, I am so socially desparate over here I was flattered that they remembered...) Sigh.

When I reall really really don't feel like cooking? Cans are my friends: 1) one can high quality tuna packed in olive oil, drained of oil then mixed with lemon juice, new olive oil and extra salt if it needs it. 2) one can canneli beans, drained, heated in a pan with olive oil and some chopped garlic 3) olives 4) pita bread, that I take out of the freezer and pop in the toaster. done.

Have you considered cork? I'm enjoying your blog very much, and absolutely coveting that keffir lime tree.

I finally got mine in the mail 3 days ago Haven't read the snoek article yet, but (ahem) devoured the rest pretty much. I found the story by the chinese author remembering her grandfdather's lard soup very moving. Speaking of food-related special issues, did anyone else see the Granta from Winter 1995? It was my first experience with serious food writing -- articles about cannibalism, diet of bengali widows, aphrodisiacs. Great stuff, and if you're interested in seeing it, you can almost always find the issue you're looking for at a used book store.

I once made vegan dim sum for a party of 30 (on my own, in tiny tiny apartment kitchen). It went smoothly since I could freeze all the dumplings ahead of time, store the fillings in the fridge, make the pastry types a day in advance, & yeast bread varieties in the morning. I basically adapted recipes from the Wei-Chuan "Chinese Snacks" book, and reverse engineered some items that we'd been served at a veg chinese place we used to frequent in philly. (I used to knead a mean seitan, back in the day...). It was a lot of fun, and went over very well.

We are planning a trip to Lebanon this June, (my husband's first time, and my first time in over a decade) so I plan on hitting you up for directions. I used to go there with my school friends but most of them are out of the country now and I am sure the city has changed beyond recognition... It seems like as soon as we decided to go, I started developing uncontrollable cravings for sfiha, hallab sweets and shawarma. I will probably be as round as a beach ball come July.

I can't get to the NY Post page six for the original version of the article, but from Salon, Sept. 6 entry:

Since I buy my meat organic, grass fed, free range etc., (which gets expensive) I especially hate to see any of it go to waste. I plan at least two, sometimes three meals out of a piece of meat. e.g., yesterday we grilled a spatchcocked chicken. Since you need to take off the breastbone & backbone, I made chicken broth, some of which we used today for chilaquiles, and some which I will use tomorrow with the giblets for mexican lime soup. Any leftover will be re-boiled or frozen. The rest of the chicken with probably end up as enchiladas tomorrow, since I have about a lb. of tomates verdes in the fridge. (Yes, I seem to be on a mexican food thing this week, probably the hot weather.) When I grill a butterflied leg of lamb, I use the bones to make a lebanese-style white bean & tomato stew. And we have the lamb the next day sliced in pitas with tatziki, like a gyro. Vegetables are easy to deal with. I tend to go a little crazy at the farmer's market in the summer so I have lots of tricks for using up tomatoes, eggplant, corn and squash. Vegetables and small pieces of cheese are great with eggs or in soup, as many people have already noted, but also in salsas and panini. Since I am also picky about bread and pay too much for it, I like to use that up too. So stale bread gets toasted and added to soups or salads like panzanella. Oh, and I love leftover pasta in a fritatta. Basically, I think my leftover-using skills developed as a way to reconcile my food snobbery with my tendency for thrift.

Can I just say I find the name "La Fendee" very cute? I am a falafel purist. Warm soft pita bread, tahini sauce w/ lemon and parsley, a little tomato and definitely a turnip pickle. The less stuff is in there, the more likely the bread will hold up. Definitely not toasted. The only time I had toasted panini-style sandwiches in lebanon was when they used those mini-baguettes. Cheese was the standard at the beach, but the better ones were garlic grilled chicken, or my absolute favorite, the garlicky grilled octopus sandwich we used to get from a closet-sized shop right near the port (in El-Mina). I still have dreams about that damned sandwich. Apparently the place is no longer there though.

Laksa, Raw kibbe: the meat is raw ground lamb. The bulgar is also raw, in the sense that all you really ever need to do to fine (#1) bulgar is soak it for about 15 minutes to get it soft. About 2 parts lamb to one part bulgar, and I think there is some onion in there too, very finely minced. If you need a more precise recipe I can try to dig one up (aka call the parents). You spread the mixture on a plate, pour a thin layer of the absolute best olive oil you can get on top, then scoop it up in pita bread with a basil leaf or two on top and cram the whole thing in your mouth. It is really really good, especially with arak and some pickles on the side.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is kibbe? Kibbe is usually ground lamb mixed with bulgar wheat. I think those sandwiches usually just have kofta meat in them though. Kofta is lamb with minced parsley and onion, no bulgar. What I am wondering is why anyone would put a dairy product in hummus? Weird. Also, give the hummus with meat a second chance. It is meant to be made with lamb rather than beef and can be really good when done right. I think foodman has a recipe somewhere in the Middle East forum.

I don't think looking at population as a number is enough to explain a restaurant scene, you have to look at income, education and ethnic mix as well. For example, the town I currently live in has a population of 100,000. Urbana-Champaign (where I study) also has 100,000. We are both in the middle of corn fields, equally far away from Chicago. However, most of the people in U-C work for or study at the University of Illinois, wheareas most of the people in my "home"town work for an insurance company, or for a much smaller university. My town has 3 indian restaurants (our major ethnic minority, oddly enough), a bunch of "#1 WOK" type chinese places, two "fancy" places, one "hippy" place and a bunch of chains. In Urbana-Champaign we have 5 korean places on Green street alone. A bunch of indian, thai, vietnamese, bubble tea etc etc places, a bunch of nicer places including at least two affiliated with the slow foods movement. Several huge asian groceries, several middle eastern groceries and so on. Same number of people, totally different population. Having recently made the move from the city to these very distant suburbs, I think urban/suburban generalizations are to a certain extent a myth. But where there is truth is that urban generally means lots of people, noise, friction, rapid spread of information, and with it, sophistication. Hence political and social engagement (on either side of the debate), being open to different cultures not in a naive "crab rangoon" way but in a well informed, first hand kind of way. Not seeing an unfamiliar situation necessarily as a bad thing. Urbana-Champaign fits that description a bit more, and I think you can see it reflected in the food. Similarly, in my town you would hardly ever run into another person on the street, and I think that is also reflected in the food. Unfortunately, I think the one common trait that unites people who choose to live in this type of suburbs is pragmatism. This explains Wal-Mart, this explains vinyl siding, and this explains the massive portions at Applebees. But suburbs, like unhappy families, are not all alike. In Urbana people will order sushi, whereas people in this town by and large will not. You need to look around and see income levels, education, what has so far been successful, how far you can push the envelope in your particular suburb.

Youch. See, this is exactly what I am worried about. I have a Kai santoku knife I got as a gift. The blade is Damascus steel and really distinctive looking, really pretty. It is about as nice a knife as I could ever afford without getting into custom stuff. I also have a Chef's Choice electric sharpener (again, a gift) which I have been really loathe to use on it. While the latter does a good job of sharpening, I always feel like it is taking too much off the blade, and I just don't have enough control over it, even though I try to be really careful. With my WMF knife (I think made by same as Wusthof, only less expensive because of the name), I feel bad but not so bad that I don't sharpen it. But with this other one, ack! I realize my blade's steel is probably better quality and I would be taking it only once a year, but I think a knife should last more than a decade. Am I being naive? I read the eG course on knife sharpening (actually, that is how I found eG) but I just haven't been able to muster up the courage to try sharpening a knife by hand, without the crutch of an angle guide I should probably just bite the bullet, eh? I've been waiting until its time to replace the WMF, then practice on it, poor thing.

Not only pros, but average joes like myself. I have only 2 knives that I use in the kitchen and I take them both to NW Cutlery once a year for a good sharpening. They do it for a couple bucks, while you wait. Also, they carry "Mystery Oil" which my butcher block just loves. Ooh! How much do they charge??

What is this cordial of which you speak? First week of the semester, no time. Only notable dinner was Sunday, kind of a multiethnic romp: -grilled butterflied leg of lamb which I'd let sit in a paste of garlic, EEOV, rosemary and oregano for a few hours. -grilled pitas -cucumber yogurt raita - potatoes that were first boiled, then cubed and fried with cumin, mustard and sesame seeds -Caipirinhas while cooking. Beer with food.

Bwahaha. Close second is that spaghetti they bake in the oven to the consistency of fried shoe leather. I can't say I've ever had "italian in italy" myself, but the lebanese versions are even more foul than the german versions (which I am horribly familiar with -- pizza with tuna and boiled eggs in honey-mustard sauce, anyone? Gah.) Having said that, some americanized versions of chinese dishes remind me of my childhood with my american grandparents. I don't compare them to an authentic version, it's just "shrimp in lobster sauce" -- entirely its own thing. I don't mind shrimp paste but I bought a bag of bhel puri mix the other day that was particularly generous with the asafetida. I'm sure it was authentic, a little too much so and it took hours for the smell to dissipate. By the way, I too have been working my way through the David Thompson cookbook lately (what recipes I can find ingredients for) and the stuff that seems really fishy is not that overwhelming once you add in the limes, tamarind, sugar, chilis etc. It just gives it a sort of "depth", like pork fat in chinese cooking, for example. One new favorite easy lunch is rice with a little nahm prik gapi (basically, shrimp paste, garlic and chilis) & a steamed or medium-hard-boiled egg. (edited to add that last paragraph)

Exactly. And frankly, lots of recipes given to me by indian friends generally involve: One box Shan Achar Gosht curry mix... That said, I would love to try to make Achar Gosht from scratch (I'd love a recipe, if anyone has it) but what the hell is papain anyway?? The box just contains a combination of spices I would have to mix myself anyway. So long as its fresh, I don't see the difference. (yes yes, I know it's from pakistan, not india, its just I have the box right here in front of me so that's what leaps to mind and you will have just to put up with an imperfect example.) By the way, Lebanese people do the same thing. My grandmother, rest her soul, made her own olive oil, pomogranate juice, yogurt etc etc but she went to the souk for her spice mix. It was the same as what she could grind at home, but if she bought it fresh she couldn't see the point, and the guy had much higher tunover than what she could maintain at home.

Mexican is another possibility, familiar but available in better quality than at a chain. I wouldn't worry too much though, the "cool uncle" mystique is already money in the bank. I'm sure she is looking forward to it. Hell, take her to a bar. Take her to south street and buy her a jar of manic panic (do people still do that?). She would probably love Jones or Continental, too. Be a bad influence. Every kid needs at least one

I have a holy basil plant (so far it has survived a lot of abuse) but in a pinch I think subbing regular basil and a little mint would be the better option. If light is the only problem though -- I am thinking of getting a plant lamp for the basement so my herbs can survive a winter without getting all sad & scraggly looking-- maybe that's an option? Here is a site with some info. (Okay, they start out at $170, which would only be worth it if you plant more stuff, or if you REALLY REALLY like your thai basil...) but I think you can also find incandescent bulbs for plants for a lot cheaper, might be worth a first shot. Actually, do some shopping around under "grow lights". I just saw a system for $48 on ebay. They include some "magic bud potion" so you might get some unwanted attention from the feds

For dinner then -- how about one of the better (wood oven, etc) pizza places? Can't go wrong with pizza.

Reading Terminal is the best. Its kind of like a food court, so it will seem like familiar turf. There is tons to choose from so she's bound to find something she wants to eat, and the exposure is likely to pique her interest in stuff that might be off the beaten path, even if she doesn't go for it the first time around. In fact, I still remember my first trip there as a 12 year old (a long time ago, this), visiting a relative. I was very impressed! (I had 12th St. Cantina! )