lapageria

Hello, Gulleteers. I've been away for awhile. I'm doing some off topic research regarding gums and varnishes, and realized the Indian grocery was good source (and cheap) for this stuff. So far I've been able to ID the following stuff I purchased last night in Vallejo, CA. katri gund/katira goond = Cochlospermum religiosum or Astracantha heratensis or Astragalus hertensis guggal/guggol = Commiphora mukul (a type of myrrh) lobah dhoop = Styrax benzoin or a related Styrax, perhaps bezoinoides But I'm stumped by chaar gund/char goond I haven't yet run solubility checks (water vs. turps vs. alcohol). My thoughts are it could be a form of gum arabic (if so, it will dissolve in water) or mastic (but I doubt it; it's too red) I also purchased something marked "Edible Gum" in English, which looks very much like gum arabic. Any horticulturist foodies out there who can help? Noel in Napa lapageria@aol.com

Back from the trip and boy o' boy, United House of Pray rocked!!!! I'm still thinking about the rice. Also, I have a feeling they've opened another one (UHoP - Madison Cafe). We didn't stop in, but it looked the same (lions, etc.) In the Victorian section of town. I need to investigate that. Can't recommend UHoP enough. Great people, great price, wonderful food. And do go for the oxtail gravy. Have been hearing great stuff about Cargo in Brunswick, but haven't tried it. Back to Christie's there and I can't recommend it. The biscuits were so over the top they fell apart before you could get them out of the basket and tasted of baking soda and salt. Rawish chicken pot pie. Perhaps it was an off day. BTW, Darien now has a very upscale and reasonable wine & cheese shop (excellent beef and cheese from Thomasville). And The Painted Moon Cafe across the way had a caramel cake which was to die for!!!!!!!

Robyn (and All): Thank you for the recommendations! I was reading your e-mails outloud to Brandon and he started waxing poetic about St. Augustine. It's one of his favorities. I Googled it, and it's only 120 miles from Darien (2 hours), so we might just give it a go (if not this trip, then in the future). So, that's a long way of saying, "Yes, please" as to anything and everything recommendation-wise. Our current trip is January 5 to 17, but we go back frequently and I'm building a database. As a dedicated foodie-wannabe, y'all will be pleased to hear that my last trip on Delta involved an ice chest full of frozen roasted Chinese ducks, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, preserved lemons, chilies, and curry leaves. Thank goodness no one opened my checked luggage. I wanted to make Thai duck salad for friends, and I knew my chances of finding good roasted duck was slim to nil. On the return trip, I stock up on Georgia wild shrimp (the shrimp boats dock at the end of my street), which I bring back for my fellow Californians. Even my Hong Kong born-and-raised co-worker gave them a thumbs up. Believe it or not, our seafood out here in the Bay Area is not so hot, with the excetion of locally raised Hog Island oysters (really incredible) and, of course, our honkin' crabs. I'm tempted to bring a few of those back to the South...LOL. So, please, continue to fire away with any and all suggestions, and thanks again. Noel in Napa (and Darien)

Not sure if we'll make it much south past St. Mary's. We fly directly into Brunswick, and then dash up the road. But I'll put it all in my file, to be sure!!! Thank you.

Howdy, everybody. Have read with great interest the various postings re Savannah and environs. My partner and I live in the Napa Valley (and I work in San Francisco) so we're default foodies. Have a little place in coastal Darien, Georgia (61 miles due south of Savannah, about 14 miles north of Brunswick--home of kicking shrimp, oysters, clams, blue crabs, and, believe it or not, hackleback sturgeon caviar). Back for a quarterly jaunt, and wanted to know if anything new is shaking foodwise. We're traveling with a English gal-pal who's never "gone South" so anything "typical" would be great. My other half is an Albany, Georgia native, so he knows Southern food. So far we've tried Lady & Sons (obligatory visit--Paula went to school with his sister--I found the food a bit dull and the whole "scene" off putting), various fish shacks near Darien, the Old School Diner near Harris Neck/Midway (crazy ambience, interesting food by Chef Jerome, darling of Ben Affleck and Paris Hilton!!!!), Meredith's cooking at Melon Bluff (awesome), Sterlings in St. Mary's (excellent the two times we went), Sapelo Station in Eulonia (New Orleans-style & good--odd service, though. You bring a bottle of wine and they pour the entire thing out at one time into three water glasses!), The Buccaneer near Pine Harbor (scary!!!! fried everything and tons of it). So, anything I'm missing starting in Savannah and heading south???? Speed's Kitchen is on the list, but it's never open when we're there. I'm particularly interested in local stuff (smoked mullet, shad row, oyster shacks). United House of Prayer sound like a winner..... Unfortunately we no longer do pork (pet pig at home) or beef, but seafood is high on the list as are chicken and game birds. Thoughts? Noel in Napa

A late addition to this thread, but.... Read all the previous and wanted to make a comment. It comes from a cross-training perspective. I've used ghee for Indian cooking for years. Part of the "deal" with ghee is that it does not go "off," even in the hotter areas of the subcontinent. Research by me and explanations by Indian friends seemed to point to the fact that clarifying the butter (removing the solids) renders it more stable and storable. As an added benefit, it doesn't burn (that seems to be the European motivation for clarifying butter). When you in India, the ghee pot just sort of hangs out in the very hot kitchen, undaunted. So, when I'd make smen using clarified butter it just sort of sat there. Nice, salty, flavored, but nothing more than that. I'd used unsalted, organic, pasturized butter, boiled/cooked it thoroughly, so I shouldn't have been too surprised by this. Back in the day I'd also used Paula Wolferts "bathe and store" technique, but had lost hope when it, too, sort of sat there. I don't think I let it sit long enough, to be honest. Fast forward to present. Last spring I bought some certified raw butter (unpasturized) at our local Napa farmers' market. Quite a different taste to be sure. Pleasant, a bit "wild," a little sour. Delicious. As I'd purchased a pound tub and don't eat much butter, it crept to the back of the refer and hid. A few months later I was cleaning out the fridge and found it. BINGO! There was a little bit of mold, but all in all the flavor was delicious. Sort of cheesey, not rancid. It jogged the old grey cells so I went back to "Couscous and Other Good Foods from Morocco" and there was the bit about adding a little bit of blue cheese to your smen-in-the-making to get the right note of pungency. So, in the future, I think this is the direction I'll take. Live butter! Pasturized butter is (blessedly) inert and inactive. This raw butter was pretty frisky, and the results of my negligence reminded me of the smen I'd had in Morocco.... All this for what it's worth. I guess it pays to be a bit of a sloven from time to time. Finally, I'm planning on finalizing some interest warka/dioul/malsouka tricks I've been using. It involves a 14" Lodge cast iron dutch oven lid turn upside down and it works about 100% better on my old gas range than the honest-to-God, purhcased-in-Fez-el-Bali "tobil dial warka" which I've been using for years. Can't wait to try popiah skins on it. Noel in Napa

I'm posting this on behalf of my friend Karen who's wending her way through eGullet registration as I post but wanted to extend her thanks sooner rather than later to Ammini: From Karen: I am the friend for whom "Noel in Napa" was kindly searching for information on Paal Ada Prathaman. I want to add my own thanks for your quick response – with the most thorough recipe I've found, by far. I add my compliment to Noel's on your well-written articles at Peppertrail.com. After reading them and looking at the photographs, I'm looking forward to my upcoming Kerala visit even more! Since I've never seen Ada flakes (or eaten this dish), I wonder if I could pose a few questions to you. 1. Could you tell me how big the flakes should be? Should I expect the cooked cylinders to have a texture that will flake into very thin pieces, or will I be cutting them into small pieces? 2. Also, I've seen elsewhere a suggestion to use red rice, to make the result pinkish in color. Would that change the flavor very much? 3. Finally, how far ahead of serving could the Ada be made? How about the completed payasam – would it stand chilling and reheating? I will appreciate any advice you can impart! Karen

Ah, my favorite topics: food & horticulture. I, too, have a curry tree here in the North Bay Area, and it does okay with some winter protection. If you're trying to find one for your mom, be sure you give the Latin name for the plant (Murraya koenigii, it's a member of the Rutaceae (citrus) family I believe) and/or put your eye on it before you purchase one from a nursery. There is another plant in the trade (a type of Helichrysum) which is sold as a "curry plant" due to the fact that it smells like cheap Madras curry powder (which, of course, the curry tree smells nothing like). This Helichrysum is inedible and not at all what you want, but I've seen uninformed individuals at nurseries try to foist the plant off on unsuspecting folks who've never seen a real curry tree. With regard to tulsi, you can now get the "real deal" from a few nurseries nowadays. For years when you bought holy basil you'd get a basil which although used for Thai cooking and looking a lot like tulsi, was not the true plant. I've even seen the red-leafed variety available of late. Again, you just have to be careful as people assume that all Oncinum sanctum is "tulsi" and it often isn't. Your best method is to get some seeds from a friend's plant as it's quite easy to do from seed. Noel in Napa

Thank you so much for the excellent recipe! I followed the "pepper trail" to you website and am seriously overwhelmed by the bounty there. Absolutely amazing site. I can hardly wait to try some of the other recipes. I treasure my terracotta chattis and appam pans (well-used) which I picked up in Cochin during my stay there, as well as fond memories of the "take and cook" fish market down by the Chinese fishing nets. Your wonderful website brings back many, many great memories. Thanks again. Noel in Napa (stomach growling already!)

My friend (and excellent chef) has decided to "do" Onam this year and is interested in making the payasam called adda (or ada) prathaman. From what we can ferret out on the web, you can either purchase the adda component ready-made or make it yourself. Of course, being a dedicated foodie, she'd like to give adda-making a go. Any Malayalis or Kerala wannabes out there who have a clue about how the adda might be made? From what we can gather, the process involves making a rice flour "dough," spreading it on an oiled banana leaf, rolling and binding this up and boiling it, then slicing the end product, which can then be dried for later use or used immediately. Quite the process!!!! We live in the San Francisco Bay Area and do have access to adda, but the process sound so intriguing it's hard to resist (sort of like making your own warka, kueh pie tee shells, or rolling your own couscous-why the heck not?!) So, does anyone have an thoughts, feedback, cautions, suggestions, advice? I'd love to hear. I was in Kerala a few years back and of course shoved vast quantities of everything into my maw (yum!!!) I somehow managed to gain weight on a trip to India, but that's not a hard task when faced with such deletable food. I unfortunately missed this delicacy (wrong time of year), so I'd love to learn more. Noel in Napa, California

<<About the banh beo, should I try adding tapioca starch to Mai Pham recipe or it cool on its own?? If yes, how much? What variations of toppings are consider good?>> My failure with Mai Pham's "as-written" recipe was based completely on not following the recipe (it's a guy thing, I guess), which is no reflection on recipe. I don't think it would cause any harm to add tapioca starch (as Andrea writes above, I believe it aids in thickening up the batter). As I wrote above (somewhere), both of the prepackaged banh beo mixes I bought has some sort of starch (potato or tapioca or both). I think this is more of a fool-proofer than a necessity as in Mai Pham's excellently written account of a master banh beo maker, no starch is mentioned. I know that other rice batter-based dishes firm up quite nicely (idlis, dosas, other types of banh), but I think the starch adds an additional layer of safety. I'd make up the batter without, try a few and see how it goes. My one observation, though, is to avoid the temptation to make the batter too thick. When I used the packaged mix (and followed the instructions for a change), I was quite surprised as to how thin the batter was. Almost like milk (cow's milk, not coconut). You definitely need to stir the mix between batches as the rice flour settles something fierce. If I were to redo my banh beo with soaked and ground rice, I would make the batter much, much thinner than my first try. I was thinking idlis and it got me into trouble. <<I heard that beer makes banh xeo crisper but could leave a bitter aftertaste. Should I then just use carbonated water???>> I've heard of soaking rice papers in beer for cha gio (and also heard of objections to this), but haven't seen it listed in a banh xeo recipe. A bit of sugar, yes; beer, no. I'm sure the sugar aids in browning. By a strange coincidence, I'm also on a parallel banh beo/banh xeo jag. I think the crispness will come from the oil, not the type of water. <<I remember having it with shredded jicama once. Is that a typical filling??>> My grocer was out of bean sprouts the other day, so I intuitively punted with jicama. Excellent result. I was obviously channeling a Vietnamese cook! <<Should I add the yellow mung beans to the batter or is it better w/o.>> Never tried adding them, but I've read of them as a filling, not an additive to the batter, although this is a bit of a moot point as the traditional method seems to be be to leave the partially cooked filling in the pan, and then add the batter to it (rather than the crepe or method, where you pour in the batter, let it set up, and then add the filling). When you douse the filling with the batter, it embeds some of the filling in the banh itself rather than having all the ingredients roll around on the "surface." My first few banh xeo failed because I used too much batter. Go easy or you get something cakey rather than crepey. <<And I've seen several recipes including mushrooms. Does it taste better with them. If yes, what kind? Straw or button or any other kind you recommend.>> I think that's a matter of taste. I'd pre-cook the mushrooms a bit so they don't weep too much though (if you like your mushrooms cooked). Although they're called crepes or pancakes, I think conceptually banh xeo is closer to an egg-less filled omelette in which the filling is precooked and "lodged" in the egg matrix. kai-chan

Alas, Andrea, the fault was entirely my own, not Mai Pham's. I went a bit too far off the book, as they say. I think if I'd been more attentive, and not such a Noel-It-All, things might have come out better. I am particularly enjoying the cookbook (thank you again for referring me to it). I made the cilantro/prawn with cellophane noodles and it was just delicious. And, by the way, I'm really enjoyed your article in an old Saveur I had at home about going home to have your mom fix a dinner for friends. I'd never made the connection before, and lo and behold, there you were! Great story and recipes! I will be on the look out for Banh Beo from Hell. They sound quite daunting! Noel

I don't have a specific answer to your question, just a comment about "banh" in general. "Banh" seems to be the collective designation for "cake" or "disc- or loaf-shaped" object. Used in much the same way as "kueh" in Malaysian/S'porean circles. I was just of on a "banh beo" tear recently, but there are a multitude of examples. Two ends of the spectrum might be "banh mi" made with a Vietnamese-style baguette (made with some rice flour, I've read) and "banh cuon" (rolled banh?) made with steamed rice flour batter (like a flat noodle). The English term "cake" has as broad-ranging a usage (think hoe cake, coffee cake, etc.) I hope Andrea reads your inquiry as I'm sure she'll have an answer. I'm curious, too. Noel in Napa

Fatback....no. LOL. Although Boolie the Hog wouldn't mind. As I mentioned, he is morally adrift and a cannibal. I think Trillium is right about Nep Chien being a sort of "fusion" recipe, especially in light of ECR's fish ball post. It's just fascinating to me that it is isolated to the US West Coast (or as far as I can discern). Made another batch today and they were pretty good, although I'm not much of a deep frier. I also took a tip from Barbara Tropp and ground up some nep (glutinous rice) and used that with the soaked rice to dredge the meat balls before frying. This made them a bit more manageable (they're quite wet and sticky) and added a very nice crunch to the shell. Noel in Napa