JerzyMade

Honestly, all you need is a wristwatch to conduct your own experiment. I "suspect" that you won't be surprised by the outcome of the experiment. If your friends can accomplish the opposite they're on the short track to developing a perpetuum mobile.

I haven't actually how long it takes to boil water, but it'll do it. The toughest job I've thrown at mine was poppy seed. It was blitzed into a smooth paste, and I doubt many blenders would survive that test.

I wonder how you pronounce that word. I pronounce tongue "tung" or sometimes "tun-g@" with the @ being a schwa. ← I found this Polish Pronunciation Guide - it's much better than my attempt at "hooked-on phonics."

Your father was probably following a Ukrainian pronunciation. He also might have been influenced by the predominant pronunciation of the immigrant community where he arrived. For example, the Polish community in Chicago speaks a distinct dialect of polish, and many words are pronounced quite differently than in Poland.

The correct spelling is gołąbki. My attempt at the pronunciation is go-WOMP-kee. In Polish, the first sound is definitely a 'g', not an 'h'. Holoopki sounds like Chech, or another Slavic language. The ł is roughly equivalent to 'w' in english, ą is similar to 'on' in the word tongue. It literally translates to 'little pigeons'.

The cuisines are quite different, as everyone so far said, but the real question is the menu of the new "cuban" restaurant. Call me a sceptic.

Why even bother reheating? I've recently discovered Costco's rotisserie chicken. I think the mark up is less than the energy cost to roast your own. And I second (or third) the TJ's gyoza, especially with their Teriyaki sauce.

So they claim, but I don't believe it.

Despite a strong curiosity, I've been unable to force myself to try Zima (the clear beer). Suds without color remind me too much of a dishwashing liquid. I still see this thing in the supermarket, although I have never seen anyone buying it.

A couple of years ago I felt that I was coming down with a flu, so made myself a nice pot of chicken soup. My sense of smell and taste was so out of whack that the concoction was inedible. Hard to imagine that one could screw up a chicken soup - my other senses must also have been affected. The next day I woke up with a nice case of chicken pox!

The "organic heirloom" tomatoes I picked up at Pavilions a few days ago were the epitomy of negative connotations. By far, the worst tomatoes I've had in a long time. Mealy, flavorless and overpriced. I know, what was I thinking buying organic produce at a supermarket?

My view is probably very close, but I'd word it: "I have a slight preference toward organic, as long as it's not pure hype." Organic-only snobbery is almost certain to turn me off.

My 7-year old loves feta cheese and hates mushrooms, my 11-year old loves olives and mushrooms, but hates feta. Actually, the younger one hates the word "mushroom" and the sight of them; she likes them when she doesn't know what she's eating. Of course, the older one loves tricking the younger one and then bragging about it. Fortunately, I can always feed them a grilled cheese sandwich, or I'd go nuts.

I'm more worried about clogging my arteries than the drain pipe. A plumber's visit costs about $150, a bypass surgery costs about $150,000. My $0.02

Maybe it wasn't clear from my original post, but these little guys were not just a little saltier than average. They were pretty much inedible. Yes, I managed to flush them down with a good dose of Chardonnay.

They did have a tag attached, but it's gone now. Maybe I'll give it another chance, and next time I'll keep the tag. If they're salty again, I'll take it back to Costco.

Don't be so sure. I live in the greater Los Angeles area, and most Mexican places around are atrocious. The chains are the worst - the food has no character, but there's plenty of it, and it's very greasy. Once in a while you stumble across a hole-in-the-wall kind of place where you may find something remotely interesting, but even these place are cutting corners. I recently stopped by a family owned/operated fast food joint, which I used to frequent few years ago. I had my obligatory steak burrito ,about as good as I could remember, but the kids ordered a chicken torta. The chicken was a chicken breast from a can. Yuck! And this is one of the best Mexican places in the area.

Yes, they were live, kept on a bed of ice. I wonder if someone had the "brilliant" idea of sprinkling the ice with salt to make it colder.

Last weekend I bought a bag of clams at Costco. The label said they were harvested in Maine, I'm in California. Kept them under cold running water until I got everything else ready to go, maybe about 15 to 30 minutes. Steamed with wine, shallots and thyme, adding parsley at the end. Without adding any salt, they were too salty to eat. To be exact, wife and the kids didn't eat it. I paid 10 bucks, so I consumed the huge pile, with proper lubrication, of course. Anyway, I don't want to give up on clams entirely, but I don't want to repeat this experience. Are there any steps I missed during the preparation, or is there anything to look for when buying clams?

If you do need a blender, this is one of the best you can buy. If you don't need a blender, it'll sit on your counter. So only you can answer that question. As for variable speed, I think that it doesn't matter much if you're going to fill it to at least 1/3 of the volume, but for really small amounts it's easier to get everything rolling nicely if you can control the speed. It's pricey, but it'll last a life time of home use.

I second the idea of using an induction cooktop. The model I have has a temperature sensor and maintains the bottom of the pot at a constant temperature. I set it 190 F and don't have to worry about it.

This discussion got me thinking that a restaurant needs a certain number of potential customers within a reasonable proximity. Of course, all area restaurants compete for these customers, so the higher the population density, the more restaurants can crop up. In areas with low population density you tend to get the Outbacks, Olive Gardens and other chains. As the number of possible restaurants increases, they tend to specialize, to avoid competing with the usual suspects. Also, urban centers like NY, SF, LA have a very diversified population, ethnically and financially, offering more opportunitities for specialization. There are some interesting stats about people's spending habits at www.restaurant.org

I'm a few thousand miles away, in Southern California, but we have a number of ethnic markets where amazing finds are possible. Most of the time I'm just not adventerous enough to buy something I don't know how to use. I wouldn't be surprised to find the laksa paste.

Looked like it was grilled and served with a wonderfully spicy and tangy sauce on a large leaf (banana?) At that time I new only the eating side of food, so my ability to reverse-engineer the dish from memory is quite limited. And yes, it was a stingray.

Laksa, Exciting blog! I've made several trips to Singapore and have fond memories of many of the dishes. The best skate I've ever had was at a hawker center near Orchard Road. Would you mind posting the list of ingredients for Laksa so we could go shopping early and cook along?