Behemoth

Alas, I can only answer one of these questions -- the Penelope Casas book is a great place to start. Okay, I have not had tapas in Spain, but I have had them in a lot of other places and with spanish friends as well as people who go to spain quite a bit. As far as I can tell she gives a good idea of the overall, um, philosophy I guess is the word. Another thing: Is ordering pitchers of sangria with tapas an american thing? It is such a nasty combination with almost all foods involved in tapas I have a hard time believeing it would be the drink of choice. I usually go for red wine or fino sherry.

A follow-up question -- we also used to do a somewhat similar pickled seaweed when I was a kid in Lebanon. Any idea what kind of seaweed it was? Obviously the same stuff that was stuck to the rocks on the beach, but I don't think it looked like kelp, which would have been my first guess. Do you know if any company has bothered to package this? I was surprised to find the jars of thyme pickle when I came here, I thought that was fairly esoteric. I too used to pick zaatar with my grandmother, that wild oregano smell is something I can call up from memory.

I am SO jealous.

Pernod is stronger-tasting than Arak. I drink it sometimes but don't like it as much. If you don't like anise flavor, of course, all bets are off. I grew up with Arak, and given what I've been told was my childhood tendency to swipe drinks at parties, I must have developed a taste while still in diapers Sorry you didn't care for it. (Though glad you agreed it complemented the food )

Yeah, I can't get either sansyo or mituba here. Might try to think about what I might use instead. I know there are versions of this dish without those two ingredients, and with shitake mushrooms, so maybe I will try to adapt it a little. The recipe really helps, thanks so much!

I can't tell exactly from the pictures. I googled the ingredients, and I think what I had was called "yanagawa-nabe". Is that what this is? If so, would you be so kind as to translate a rough idea of the recipe? It seems fairly easy and I can guess ingredient quantities (and clearly the egg goes in at the last minute) but I need to know how the other stuff works. Is the broth something like dashi? Or just water that has absorbed all the flavors? Edited to add, it looks like this:

I bought some burdock a couple of days ago, figuring to braise it with carrots. Then I remembered, I have eel in my freezer -- a package I bought from a Korean supermarket, microwave & serve. There's this dish I used to love at a local Japanese restaurant that involved burdock, eel, a delicate broth and scrambled egg. Does anyone know what this is and have an approximate recipe?

Sounds like just the sort of delicate task I would absolutely suck at. Though it also sounds weird enough that it would be fun to try. I wonder if you would dry them the way vietnamese ricepaper wraps are done. On a basket (or maybe a linen towel?) in the sun (aka slow oven?)

And that is some BEAUTIFUL bread. What sort of oven is that? And would you be willing to move to central Illinois?

Just looked at Bread Builders on Amazon -- seems very cool but I am probably not allowed to build a brick oven on the patio of my rental. Though come to think of it, it says nothing about that in the lease.... Actually, I confess I happened to go to the local Borders for something and they happened to have the Bread Bakers Apprentice and I happened to open it and start reading and, yeah, I happened fall in love with the pictures and buy it. I am such an easy mark. I plan to try some something in the next week, first I need to see if my local supermarkets carry instant yeast. Don't laugh, only one of them carries flat parsley. Speaking of brick ovens -- I wrote about this in another thread, but I grew up in the middle east and some friends of ours used one for their flatbreads. You have to reach inside the thing at full blast and kind of "thwack" the bread onto the wall. Could kick myself now for being too chicken at the time to try doing it myself. Would have been a very impressive party trick over here, though there it was the 10-year old daughters who were doing it.

Has anyone tried Marcella Hazan's romaine salad with gorgonzola & walnut dressing? I made that once at my parents house and now it is quite possibly the only thing my father ever specifically asks me to make. Luckily it is really easy to make. And the best thing ever with steak. Oh, a rhyme!

Arak would be perfect. One part Arak to two parts water, then add ice after it has gone white. Arak goes really well with feta and olives, very palate-refreshing. But you probably don't have any -- raki would of course work just as well. You could try Sambuca or pernod but I think they tend to be a little sweeter. Other than that, I would probably drink a beer or crack open a Cotes du Rhone -- which is produced with grapes very similar to those used in lebanese wines and goes well with that kind of food. Scotch is also nice with that kind of stuff -- stong enough to stand up to feta. That used ot be my dad's fave (after Arak, of course ). But for future reference, see my little, erm, diatribe here: Arak

Thanks for all the responses! I was spoiled in Philly, what with both Metropolitan and Le Bus in town, I never bothered to make my own (plus my oven was tiny). In my new place the closest we get to real bread is the "shipped half-frozen, baked in store" La Brea stuff that is a) v. expensive, for supermarket bread and b) hit-or-miss, depending on how good the supermarket staff is on that particular day. The supermarket that carries this annoys me in general. It is the supposedly "fancy" one in town, but as I like to call it, "Pathmark quality at Whole Foods prices". So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. Also, my husband really loves Ciabatta and we can't get it anywhere here except at (Bleh) Panera. Oh, I looked at the La Brea book as well, but it seems like everything starts with a sourdough base. I like sourdough sometimes but not all the time, and my husband doesn't care for it at all.

Thanks so much for the great presentation. My question: I love the stuffed bean-curd skins they serve at Dim Sum. I used to be able to buy bean curd skins at my local asian market but here in the midwest they never seem to carry them. Are these the same as Yuba? If so, is there a way to preserve the skins for at least a day or two until you are ready to use them?

There's a great savory bread pudding recipe in the Greens cookbook that I used to make fairly often. It comes out all nice and souffle-like...uses eggs, like a sweet bread pudding would. Great way to use leftover bread and varoius scraps of cheese. I think a Panade may be slightly different...those recipes don't seem to include eggs, which is what I think of when I think "pudding".

I am looking for a bread book, one that focuses on yeast breads. After reading a bunch of Amazon reviews it seems like The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread is the one to buy....but reviewers keep mentioning gas ovens. My current place has a (good) electric oven. Is anyone familiar enough with the book to tell me whether this is a deal-breaker? Or just a situation where I will get suboptimal but still good results? If it is no go, are there any other book suggestions that are more sympathetic to those of us who rent our kitchens? Thanks.

Let's see if I can get my first image to work: This will no doubt amuse Paula Wolfert and make everyone else feel a little sorry for my lack of protein. Since I put the boy on a plane today, I get Lebanese bachelor dinner! (Zaatar, home-cured olives, organic goat cheese feta, turnip greens stewed in olive oil, with caramelized onions.)

That's exactly what I was thinking! A Burmese place in Philly did beautiful fried breads, curries, rice with coconut milk and a wonderful spicy/crunchy yellow lentil salad that seemed to be almost a perfect marriage between indian and thai cuisines. It might be fun to look up some Burmese noodle dishes for some direction...using turmeric in the sauce for example might be a first step.

I tend to agree with the undercooking statements -- I get the fluffy mussels when I am too impatient.

If we really want to keep the riff-raff out, we should go back to eating it with bare hands. Fun! And reinforces my suspicion that 2-year-olds know everything but play dumb because the're lazy and want to be carried everwhere.

This is way past when you need it but just in case anyone does a search on the topic -- I would like to give props to MANNA. They catered my wedding reception and they were fantastic. Great menu, very well executed. Friendly, professional staff, very reasonably priced and for a great cause to boot. Amazing wedding cake. They would have been my first choice even if it hadn't been for the cause. the website is http://www.mannapa.org edited to add: Their main site, with a couple of sample menus.

yeah, they do a decent job on the low-end. and they make very NYC restaurant-appropriate shoes from what i've seen. Actually, I was just teasing. But there was this really old episode of Will and Grace where Karen is complaining about Will's basement-level law office. You can see all these shoes walking by (street-level window) and Karen looks towards the window, shakes her head and says "nine west! oh, honey...". That's all I can think of now whenever I hear the name. But yes, they do make nice shoes. And considerably more affordable than Blahnik, Choo and Prada.

Isabella Fiore, Manolos, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Nine West, Enzo. or so i'm told. Nine West, huh? Okay, most of the time I live in lime-green adidas sneaks. For slightly more dressed up casual, I have a few pairs of Costume National boots. When I worked in a brokerage firm my boss called them moon boots. But then he wore those man-pumps. You know, with the tassels. You know what I'm talking about, don't pretend you don't. A couple of Kenneth Cole non-stilleto heels when I need to look a little taller and that pretty much takes care of things. I try to keep my birkenstock wearing to home use, but now that I am in the midwest, they look so much better than white keds I almost feel tempted to wear them around. Actually, nothing says "street cred" in a math department like showing up in birkenstocks. And black socks, natch So I have my department birks, when I need to impress But I'd rather talk about restaurants.

Yeah, add another rave. My freezer runneth over...but not for long.

It has the importance of providing us with food porn. I love all the photos.