Behemoth

This isn't at all true in my experience. Inner city high schools are grossly underfunded, classes are overcrowded and most single mothers I've met work very hard indeed, and have too little time to spend with their kids -- all these factors make it very difficult for all but the most talented children to get anywhere near even a 2-year junior college, no matter how motivated they are. And sure, some of these people take advantage of the system, that is always going to happen. But a) I don't think it's as pervasive as people make it out to be and b) if the children are paying for the sins of their parents, that's not okay, either. Also I don't think the military should be an option forced upon someone for financial reasons -- especially now that it is almost guaranteed they would be putting their life in danger.

Didn't all the Fraggles eat radishes? I can't believe I am answering this. I had that type of spring roll for the first time today, at a new place in Champaign. I thought it looked like a chain but I could swear the woman behind the counter was the one from the old thai place down the street. I have to admit, I wasn't crazy about the rolls -- I was expecting something more like the vietnamese ones, which I adore. These were more like Lumpia.

I thought you looked familiar... Me, I went for the nice dinner-party sized apartment and Dimitry's. And semi-regular White Dog happy hours Edited to say, congrats, by the way!

What great pictures! Boy am I feeling nostalgic. My favorite memory of Ludwigs was waking up at 6:30 am and biking down from West Philly to catch the world cup on the big screen TV. I had always kinda liked the place, but after they did that they were elevated to the level of greatness, in my book.

Quiche freezes fine, but put it in a freezer bag and wrap it good with aluminum foil, the heavy kind. Thanks!

Had a ton of leftover roast chicken, so made "backup broth" with the carcass, and Diana Kennedy's "enchiladas sencillas" with the meat. Hey, does quiche freeze well? I have this bunch of sorrel I want to make a sorrel-onion tart with, but there's no way I can eat it anytime soon.

This reminds me of a great story I heard about a grad student in my former department. He graduated before I got there but I'm sure we would have been great friends. A math grad student at that time would have made about $12,000 per annum, maximum. This guy apparently brought sandwiches to lunch and lived very frugally all month, and would then take the pile of money he'd saved up and have lunch or dinner at Le Bec Fin or Susanna Foo's or whatever. An inspiration to us all. Me, I'm not so good with discipline, but even on a grad student income I managed to have some very nice meals, and quite regularly. I agree, it really is about one's priorities.

Just to update -- my dad very helpfully informs me it is called "hasheeshet el-bahr" which literally translates to, um, "sea-weed". He is going to look up the scientific name, and in the meantime as always happens when I ask about anything food related, I am getting a jar mailed to me from some relative

Bizarre. Bizarre that he still has a girlfriend, you mean. I can't imagine how fun he must be in bed...

Hear hear. The boy is travelling so I get to eat roast beets (and blanched beet tops salad, and roast chicken with lemons and black oil-cured olives and a wedge of v. goaty aged spanish cheese and Cote de Rhone wine and and and ....) But seriously, the man will not touch beets, whereas I love the things. And yet, I wish he were here for everything else

Huh, the name makes absolutely no sense to me, something must've been lost in the translation. I've only had matjes herring, in Hamburg. (Holstentor brand comes from around there, it is pretty traditional to that area).

No, schmaltz simply means "fat" ...(i.e. fat herrings) .... and they are not preserved in "schmaltz", which is actually a golden liquid fat rendered out of chicken fat. So far, this makes absolutely no sense, I am quite certain. I looked it up -- Schmalz Herring are preserved in oil. Schmalz = animal or plant fat. i.e., the fat refers to what they are preserved in, not to the herrings themselves. (Otherwise they would be what, Schmalzige herringe? My grammar, as always, fails me. ) Oddly enough, I searched on google.de and got only english links. Go figure. (edited for spelling)

Are schmalz herrings ones that are preserved in schmalz? Anyway, I found a bunch of matjes recipes, they call for things that aren't easily available here, but here is an approximation: One nice way to serve them is cold, topped with some finely sliced red onion, acompanied by new potatoes boiled with caraway and salt, and green beans sliced on the diaginal, blanched, and then quickly sauteed with minced onion and bacon. You can also stuff tomatoes with a herring salad made with minced onion, watercress and fresh farmer's cheese -- that is a pretty common treatment.

I was gonna say, schmalz herring sounded really revolting. I have some north german cookbooks I can look through for ya, just give me a minute.

Only on Mondays, to confuse the guest drummer! Hope you had a nice birthday.

Same here.

Nessa, try making your own labneh -- you just drain good yogurt through a cheesecloth, that's all there is to it. If you make your own yogurt you can also control how sour it is. I don't like commercial labneh because they usually add stuff like carageenan and whatnot. Also, try those labneh balls preserved in olive oil for a different treat. I love those cucumbers, my parents still grow them in Philly. I can't get them here They are given such high praise in Elisabeth Schneider's vegetable book, I have no idea why they haven't caught on. They have the nice texture like the english cucumbers, but much more flavor. Those things they sell in most supermarkets are an embarassement to the species.

Oh, I didn't realize you were in Europe -- may I ask where? I go to Germany about twice a year to visit family and I stuff myself with good bread the entire time I'm there. There is a good possibility we will return to Europe at some point, but right now our careers are very well served here. European food is great, European academic job market, not so great. In the meantime, Illinois politics are actually far less depressing than the rest of the country's (Obama!). I like technical books also -- will definitely look for the two you suggested. I do math for a living so I like the idea of "self study". But the idea of babysitting sourdough starter is terrifying to me. I already find my 5 or 6 herb plants to be too heavy of a commitment I never knew about the grape method though. That is so cool I am almost (almost) tempted to try it. Maybe when I am traveling less. (edited for all sorts of reasons)

That place is probably one of the things I miss most about Philly. And one of the top things on my list next time I come visit. I think it was just about the only bar that couldn't be summed up as "hipster bar" "rocker bar" "hip hop scene" "college kids" "brokers" etc. They all showed up there, no one looks out of place no matter how over or under-dressed they were. And when did they stop calling it a happy meal? At some point they would always correct you and say "you mean the special?". I wonder if they got a cease and desist order, or if they were just being careful

Oh, here is an old article about the bar mentioned up-thread. The main reason to go there is the music. If you are ever in Philly you need to stop by there on the Friday or Saturday night (or Monday if you can play), to see Nate Wiley & the crowd pleasers before they retire. I don't know when the PBR theme started there, though as far as I know the specials predate all that. BTW, that's the back of my head in the picture, looking at the jukebox. I think the white guy in the picture was one of this large & funny group of recent CIA graduates who were there for some reason I can't recall. (But, uh, food related, sorta...) Bob & Barbara's Lounge

I remember when my (german) husband filled his car here the first time and was pleasantly surprised that the pricing was for gallons, not liters Actually, when we moved to the midwest I knew I would have an hour commute to Urbana several times a week. People tried to convince me I would need an SUV (because of the weather!) but after researching quite a bit I went with a little Honda Civic, 40mpg on the highway. I love that car, and in terms of driving in bad weather, frankly, it handles so well I feel a lot safer than if I were in something heavy and prone to tipping. So no, gas prices have really not affected anything I do. I remain annoyingly smug.

I love those things! You can buy these at J-list. Look under "Japanese snacks and candy". They have tons of them, including pork katsu and fast food themes . I once got my brother a bunch of funny food-shaped erasers for his birthday and have ordered various things from them (including some very cute kiddie bento boxes). They are fast, cheap and very nice to deal with.

others seem to think so too.. there's a link at the bottom to pics of the temple sculpture.i've seen it and can confirm it looks just like corn! Hey, cool! I will forward that to him, thanks. Ha, this thread is going so off topic at this point, but it is really interesting! There's not that much to say about thyme pickle anyways. It's good. Eat it.

I honestly don't remember. I would have to ask my dad...I don't think it was called snan though, because that would be a pretty good mnemonic (as in, teeth). But the names of these types of things differs so much by dialect & region. And then add a romanization in there and I am completely confused. For a while in your book I couldn't figure out what kind of fish "Hut" was (rhymed with rut) --- then I remembered that North African (& gulf?) arabs refer to fish as "Hout" which for us Levantines would be whale I guess. My father was trying at one point to collect accounts of different medicinal herbs and plants, and even just going by classical arabic the names varied so much it was really unwieldy. He found an account of corn from the 1600's though -- we had thought it was introduced from the Americas, but maybe not. Or else they meant a different thing. Weird, huh? Anyway, I just emailed him. I will let you know what he says

A sharp knife? Nah...