Shalmanese

Spicy like chili pepper spicy or garlic spicy?

Ugh, I'm pretty sure when I left Australia, Herbies was still an online only business. That's one of the things I think the US does much better: The widespread availability of bulk spices. Glad there's finally an Australian store replicating the same model. Also, Mexican food is definitely something the US is categorically superior at (also, BBQ).

I worked inside the Australian Technology Park at NICTA. Bay 11 of the railyards IIRC.

Aww... crap. I used to *work* out of the Everleigh train yards around 2006 or so. The food options around that area were dismal and now you're telling me there's a freaking farmer's market there? . Also, you went to Woollahra to gawk at the rich people and didn't stop at Simon Johnson's? That was always my favorite spot to gawk at what you could convince people to spend money on. I remember a set of copper pans they sold where I calculated it would have been cheaper to fly to the US, buy the pans and fly back than to buy them at Simon Johnson's. Also Formaggi Ocello is excellent, they always had a booth at the Fox Studio's Farmers Market and I would always go home with a little treat. So many great memories from this blog .

I thought Marigold shut down, that's the one on the top of the Haymarket building right? My favorite Chinese Restaurant in Sydney is still Golden Century. Their seafood hotpot is something special.

Are bitters allowed? If so, I recommend Lemon-Lime Bitters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon,_Lime_and_Bitters

It's weird seeing folded puff pastry in the US. It was always sold unfolded in Australia and I can't understand what possible benefit there would be to it being folded.

Which farmers market are you going to this weekend? The Fox Studios one was always my standby.

If they don't need to be whole, I generally find it easier to slice them in half and use my fingers. edit: If you place them stem side down on the chopping board, you can cut from the tip almost to the stem, then pull the strawberry away while the pressure from the knife will keep the stem in place.

There's no way any smoking related taste impairment could account for a 15% brine. For reference, sea water is less than 4% salinity. Someone with taste so impaired wouldn't be able to taste anything else, full stop.

Over in the Marks of a bad cook thread, several posters noted that some of the best cooks they've ever known have horrifically bad cooking habits (for example: "My grandmother cut every single thing holding it in her hand using a paring knife. Again, a phenomenal cook." - Kim Shook). What are some other cooks you know who manage to produce excellent food despite managing to cook massively "incorrectly"? I'll start: My mother is a pretty great cook but, to her, all beef was just beef, and all pork was just pork. She didn't understand that a ribeye would have a different taste and texture from a bottom round and always bought whatever cut was cheapest at the market that day (chickens were small enough that she understood how each part worked).

It doesn't take much energy at all to keep a pot of water at temp. I can keep a pot at a low simmer on a gas stove with a flame that isn't much larger than a cigarette lighter.

Also, I'm insanely jealous of the fresh passionfruit. I don't think I've seen a passionfruit since I got to the US .

Ah, Harris Farm, how I miss thee. Their orange juice is some of the best I've ever tasted, almost indistinguishable from freshly squeezed. Also, they used to have a fantastic house brand olive oil. It was something like $8 for 1L and packed an immense, peppery punch. Are you planning on going to the Haymarket? That was the other main place I loved to shop.

As a former Eastern Suburber who made many frequent trips to Chinatown, I look forward to seeing all the places and brands I recognize .

I bought a jar of Tarama (Carp Roe) on a whim the other day. After hunting around on Google for a bit, it appears to be overwhelmingly used for Taramosalata. Apart from this one dish, is there other things the roe can be used for?

Those are yummy! When we're in San Francisco, we're lucky enough to have one of those stands (along with handmade dumplings and scallion cakes) at the farmer's market. There was always a line. Which farmers market is this?

The grilled lamb skewers (Yang Rou Chuan) that they serve across northern China. I still have dreams about them sometimes.

Someone who has an industrial sized container of something tableside which they apply liberally to all foods. It could be ketchup, sriracha, sweet chilli sauce, mustard, ranch, garlic salt... If everything is doused in the same sauce, then you can't taste anything which means you're not really paying attention to flavor. I've known quite a few hipster "foodies" who wax rhapsodically about the wonders of sriracha because they could barely make anything edible.

I've definitely over umamied a dish before. It was a pasta sauce made from braised goat, cream, dried porcinis, dried morels & truffle salt and it just tasted too umami for me to eat more than a tiny portion of.

Yes, a heavy hand with umami obliterates other flavors and just makes something taste generically savory. It's the taste of bad chinese restaurants.

As long as you're willing to shake it once in a while, the sugar will all eventually dissolve. I don't know how oxidation will affect liqueurs but throwing it all in a blender and running for a minute can get it dissolved much faster.

Yes indeedy, in a recent piece in the Sunday NY Times magazine section, Mark Bittman wrote the above line. It appears this sentence has been removed from the online version of the article...

Do carbon steel pans warp easily?

If it has bitters, it doesn't meet many people's definition of non-alcoholic. It will work for people who just want to avoid driving drunk, or don't feel like drinking, but probably not for recovering alcoholics. By my calculations, it would come out to 0.1% alcohol which means you'd have to drink 50 of them to get the same effect as a single beer. Hardly a risk for recovering alcoholics, IMHO.