Behemoth

Yeah, what is that? I moved to the midwest a year ago and I have to say I was unprepared for that culture. I figured it would be hard to get certain things, like seafood etc, but judging from the supermarkets I really think people just don't cook, period. It's all convenience foods, meat counter is all pre-seasonned pre-prepped, really sad produce. I don't mind "plain" food but given what's in the average processed cheese slice I wouln't consider that particularly simple. You'd think with all the farms people would have at least figured out vegetables...interesting point to tie it in to canning... The other thing that surprised me is how much locals complain about developement and farms getting bought up but don't seem to tie those huge ADM trucks going back & forth on I-74 to what they buy in the supermarket. I think your "covering up" statement is true, but not in reference to the food so much as the person. Maybe it is a religion thing -- not wanting to look like you're trying to be "fancy"? Too bad it has gotten to the point that buying your vegetables from farmers is considered fancy. Sorry about the rant, this is a sore spot. Some things I do like though -- big skies, farms, I've met really nice farmers, crazy wildlife all over the place, cheap rents and also I like cows.

Amen to that. I will take a moment and fondly remember the stove in my last apartment. It had to be from the 1930s, pre-safety issues, about a foot square footprint and you had to light the oven with a match "whoosh!". Damn, that thing could get hot. Our new place has a fancy schmancy stove with grill tops and stuff but it is nowhere near as fun to use. My fellow grad students ate very well those years...

Today's was noteworthy: BBQ ribs, my first attempt. Nice hot/tangy/slightly sweet sauce success though getting the fire right was a bitch. ember-roasted sweet potatoes w/ cinnamon butter wilted arugula salad with slightly salty queso fresco crumbled in Negra Modelo beer Making a run for Rum Raisin ice cream any minute now...

Ha, I actually forgot about spam. I was thinking more of Dinty Moore products when I wrote that. I can't believe I am admitting this, but I have never actually eaten spam. Though I think one of the first things I ever made as a kid was corned beef hash, and I remember feeling very proud of it. A fine vehicle for ketchup, that dish.

Yeah, it's called procrastination -- search random ingredients in eGullet so I don't have to face my end-of-semester mountain for work I have some round steak in my freezer now, that sweep steak method sounds good. I'm thinking maybe I'll try it with some variation on a mexican-style chili typa paste instead of onion soup and use it for carnitas... Okay, I go work now.

Oh seductive bitch godess Caipirinha, how you lure with with your siren song and tart-sweet wiles and then toss me aside, leaving me to wake up dazed on the livingroom floor the next day. Surprisingly hangover free, though, in your favor... For one Caipi, I muddle a whole lime, in 1/8ths, with demerara sugar until the sigar dissolves. The granules help scratch up the lime peel, plus brown sugar tastes nicer, IMO. Once I did it with key-lime lookin' things someone brought back with them from mexico. That was even better, if one could imagine such a thing were possible.

Any form of meat or pasta that arrives in a little plastic microwaveable container. The food is awful and the container is not recyclable...it's like laughing at mother nature and then kicking her in the teeth! Canned meats in general. If you're gona eat the animal, at least make it feel like it died for a decent cause. Sheesh.

Ah top round! I shred at against grain while it is still frozen and fry it up wit' onions & provolone for philly cheese steaks. Good use for cheap cut of meat. (I joined a beef CSA so I would have to learn how to cook whatever's given to me, not just steaks or burgers. I'm getting pretty creative these days. ) Edited to mask my appallingly tenuous grasp of the English language.

This isn't a web version of a print magazine, per se, but I personally really like the food section of the BBC website. There is tons of content, you can easily waste many hours in there. And then when you have worked your way through all the BBC stuff, you can click on "webguide" to find links to all sorts of other useful food sites. I use Epicurious mainly if I have a specific ingredient and am looking for some ideas. The search function on recipes is pretty nice and ocassionally the little comments on the bottom of the page can be amusing. (aka "I used kraft singles instead of the chevre, crisco instead of butter and onions instead of the fennel and gosh, the recipe really wasn't any good!) I wonder how frustrating that must be to the writers? Anyway, bbc food!

I hope it happens soon! I came across his website about a year ago when doing a search on Lebanese wine reviews, and it has been bookmarked and frequently visited ever since. eGullet rocks.

Okay, I really have to get on my high horse about this one. Mixing good arak with anything but water is like drinking lephroaig with coke. The proper way to drink it is this: 1/3 arak, 2/3 cold water. If you want ice in there be sure to put it in after the water, otherwise the arak with curdle. Arak is always consumed with meals. (Pretty much unsurpassed as an accompaniment to kibbe nayeh, olives, salty goat cheeses). "Arak" means sweat, which refers to condensation during the distillation process. It is not like Pastis, as it properly contains only two ingredients, grapes and native anisseed. The best kinds are made with obeidi grapes (ancestor of chardonnay, I've read...), distilled 4 times, and aged in clay jars for a year. It is expensive to produce, so if you are buying something cheap it is probably just ethanol infused with anisseed -- a common trick, and the reason why this drink gets its bad rep. Ksara or Fakhra are acceptable commonly found brands, but if you can get your hands on it, Massaya (in the blue bottle) is probably the best commerical brand available, and is worth the price. I have one bottle left and I ain't sharing. I'm not militant about most things, but Arak is the exception. I really think it is a misunderstood beverage and in my experience when people have it done right they become converts. eGulleteers will allow me this one pedantic moment, right? It's for your own good! Oh, the clouding comes from the emulsification of the anise oils suspended in alcohol. If you really want to know more, you could always read this paper on small angle neutron scattering. Actually, this is why arak curdles when you add the ice first: the anise oils seize up instead of dispersing evenly throughout the drink.

I was considering that for my next purchase...My lovely wine store in Urbana carries it. I love after-dinner "digestifs" & have only recently discovered the northwest US aquavitae/grappas. Here's a tip: Ransom Guwurtztraminner Grappa was my most recent "big success" discovery and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a postprandial digestiv. (I came across it at the above-mentioned wine store and was intrigued enough to plonk down $30). It is lovely and complicated -- more on the order of cognac than anything, very smooth. At the risk of completely embarassing myself, I will admit that sometimes I just open the bottle for a little whiff. It's that good. He also does a pinot noir and a muscat version, both of which I am planning to try. Oh yeah, "he" is a guy named Tad Seestedt and he lives somewhere in Oregon. Here is the website: Ransom

I never knew about eating the leaves! I used to steal the sour grapes right off the vine -- I would eat them until I got a stomach ache. And those yellow flowers that grow all over the place and taste like lemon? Sigh. A macrobiotic would have a field day analyzing the overload of yin (or is it yang?) and the average lebanese diet.

Oh.my.god. I can't believe how fast you answered this. I can't believe it took me so long to find eGullet. I love you people! Reading this website I think she did mention she bought it in the early 60s, not 40s. Who knew my grandparents were such the vanguard coffee drinkers? I feel like I should send her the entire contraption but I am willing to bet it is the same machine, and she would get such a kick out of getting the filters as a surprise in the mail, without having to waste her old machine. You have absolutely made my day/week/month. Thank you SO much!! I think I might get one of those things for myself. If it does such a great job with the canned stuff, I can only imagine what it would do with fresh ground.

You will earn mad cosmic karma points if you can answer this one for me. So my 95 year-old grandmother makes coffee with this big contraption she bought from Abercrombie & Fitch back in the 1940s when they were still a camping store. How to describe? A large white jar-like thing which she balances over a large mason jar and into which she places a filter, which feels something like a tightly compressed sponge. Fills the white chamber with an entire 1lb can of supermarket coffee and then cold water, leaves it to drip overnight. The result is a mason jar full of very concentrated coffee which she keeps in the fridge, waters down and heats up whenever she wants it. I have to admit I probably use twice as much concentrate as she does but the stuff tastes surprisingly decent, especially considering it comes from a can. And makes fantastic iced coffee, btw. So obviously (apart from the difficulty of finding honest-to-god 1lb cans of coffee these days) the filter hasn't been replaced since the 70s. She soaks it very lovingly after each use so it is still useable, but it clogs up on her occasionally. She really needs a replacement. I feel real sorry for the family member who had to go to Abercrombie with her last year to enquire about this item I tried searching outdoor stores without any luck. Any ideas on where I might find something like this or some way I could jury-rig a substitute? She really doesn't want to try a new method, which at 95 I find completely understandable.

Last year I came up with this: fennel bulb, shredded 1/4 of a preserved lemon, slivered some of the fennel fronds, chopped, for color oil cured balck olives olive oil, a little lemon juice & a little paprika (again color) for dressing The idea was a cross between an italian fennel & orange salad, and a moroccan preserved lemon & olive salad. The fennel was sweet so the salad wasn't too sour or salty overall. Great with any grilled meat or fish, like a slaw. Another cool thing that my grandmother used to do: she would pick about 2 well-packed cups of wild oregano, chop, dress with salt, lemon and olive oil, to be eaten with pita bread. Supermarket oregano is a little too furry, but if you have access to an herb garden it is the most wonderful thing in the summer. On the "less is more" front, I have to admit Marcella Hazan's green beans with just red wine vinegar and olive oil & salt just blew me away, it seemed absurdly simple but if the ingredients are top quality it is really amazing. edited for the sheer hell of it.

I dunno, refrigerated cookies changes the texture from what I've experienced. But the slice & bakes -- I meant you could keep the dough in the fridge (as if it would last more than a few days...) and slice off a half dozen or so whenever you wanted them. You know, like the ready-made tollhouse things they sell at 7-11. The baking part doesn't take more than ten minutes. I bet you could even do it in a toaster oven. Or, have you tried putting the day-old cookies in the toaster oven? A regular toaster might work, if they are not really goopy.

As a couple of people already mentioned, CHEESE. I used to think that so long as parmesan came in a hunk, and had Parmiggiano Reggiano stamped on the side it would be at least decent. But the supermerket brand I bought here tasted bland, texture like plastic. Maybe I have just been really spoiled but last month when my parents visited from Philly I made them haul me a lb. from DiBrunos. Heavenly stuff. I would think given the sticklerishness of labelling in Europe the quality would be at least comparable. Meh. Canned tomatoes are another biggie. Okay, they are not in general expensive but the better brands are about $.50 more than the cheap ones. Definitely worth it.

I've always had the same problem and now that I think about it, does there exist a good slice and bake version of this recipe? It seems like exactly the sort of cookie that would work well in that format.

That wine store is the best. I think I may have been to Mutter, is it on the corner of Juliusstrasse & Stresemann? If not, uh, there's another good one. I don't know about Subito (?) Max Planck Hamburg...You do meteorology? I used to cut through that buliding to get to the subway at Schlump. I have been around Rödingsmarkt a little, but haven't seen any galleries. Are these smaller places? Anything good? I have been to that big exhibition hall on the Harbor a few times. Did you ever see that ambient noise machine in the basement of Gallerie der Gegenwart? I love that thing. I realize this isn't quite the forum for art geekery but maybe we can convince our fellow eG-ers that this city is worth the trip. It's kind of like the Philly of Germany...It gets forgotten by tourists between Munich and Berlin, but has a lot to offer and is a great place to live. As for the german hippies, I find them sort of funny. But then again, I lived in West philly for 7 years

Oh wow, Jamaican Jerk Hut is on there. I ate there a couple times a week before I moved away, just so I would be sick of it for a while. That feeling has officially worn off. Chloe was also one of my favorite back in the day, I hope that is still good?

I had Dolsot Bi bim bap for the first time yesterday. As if regular Bi bim bap weren't addictive enough (I have a thing about runny egg yolks over vegetables)...the rice on the bottom tasted like popcorn! Absolute freakin' heaven...... Edited 'cause I can't remember no grammar

2- The non-vegetarian version is a totally different animal. It is a meal fit for kings and is certainly regarded that way. In the home where I grew this was a typical weekend meal where all the family and friends got together to enjoy. The stuffing is made with rice, ground meat (lamb, beef, or goat), S&P and a good amount of Samen (clarified butter) mixed in. Usually a few pounds of beef (at my family's home we used goat for it's distinctive flavor-especailly the tail) bones specifically from the shank and neck were simmered till almost done then layered in a large pot. The grape leaves (and usually some stuffed small zuchinnis) are layered on top and everything is covered with the bones broth and simmered till the stuffed veggies are cooked and the meat is falling of the bone. This luxurious meal is usually serevd with some homemade yogurt mixed seasoned with some salt and with pita bread alongside. Elie Oh God, I haven't had the meat version since leaving lebanon. I never had it with the yoghurt as you mention but otherwise it was quite a production: grape leaves stuffed with rice, spices and ground lamb, rolled up into tiny little pinky-sized cigars that tripoli women are famous for. (This in itself was quite a social event, the evening before everyone would be sitting around rolling these things). Cooked in a giant pot with along with intestines stuffed with rice and more lamb (kind of like a lurid, long sausage and my absolute favorite food as a kid), and then a bunch of giant lamb bones. Dinner would be very noisy that night, with everyone banging those bones against their dishes to get at the marrow. Then we'd all sit around in a gluttony-induced stupor, kind of like Thanksgiving. I think the main difference I noticed between the lebanese version and the turkish versions I've had is the lebanese version was always lemony, the turkish ones incorporate either raisins or cinnamon or both. (Needless to say my Lebanese genes drive me towards all things sour, so I prefer the lemony ones...) There was also a vegetarian version with swiss chard leaves (usually eaten cold) that I always really liked. Again, really lemony. To be honest, there are only two things that can mess grape leaves up for me: one is if the leaves are stringy, the other is if the rice is allowed to dry out. Surprisingly, I come across these bad versions far more often than good. I should probably try to make them myself. Well, I did once, but my dad made fun of me 'cause they were too big

I think it was meant to be log "base" e (log_e) as in natural log. (Hello, my name is Behemoth and I am a math dork.)

There's Rx, on 45th & Spruce. I have had some very good meals there, and the atmosphere is nice. I think there are probably menus somewhere on the web...