Chris Amirault

I have seen discussions about "authenticity" on several threads (carbonara, Mexican restaurants, larb, etc.) but when it came up on the Next Big Food Trend topic, I thought it deserved a topic of its own. (Forgive me if this has been done and my searching didn't reveal it.) What the heck does "authentic" mean, anyway? In what contexts? "Authentic" Mexican or Chinese only has meaning, for example, if you treat those vast cuisines as monoliths -- which isn't a very authentic way to treat them. Who wants "authenticity"? What does that desire mean? Anyone want to start us off with a pleasantly assertive definition?

Thanks, everyone, for your posts. Most are focusing on higher-end fare; what do you notice among more common fare? I agree that "thai food" seems to be exploding in the burbs -- by which I mean "pad thai," judging from the folks I know. And then there's the higher-end/common hybrids like heirloom twinkies, which I'd consider a joke if not for the machinations of the folks who make Chips Ahoy these days. Hard to imagine a Latvian-Japanese-Navaho fusion drive-throughs, though....

I don't know what kind of nervous systems y'all have, but my criterion is quite a bit different from yours. As my pregnant wife, who recently wrapped up four grueling months of "morning sickness," would say when I asked her what she wanted for dinner, I would want "something that doesn't taste so bad first on the way down and then on the way up." edited because I sometimes forget my latinate singulars and plurals -- CA

Do some cart-snooping at Whole Foods or Pick 'n' Save. Listen in as the couple next to you giggles with delight about a menu item. Ask your foodie friends what they're dying to taste or to make. Or just make something up! You're on eGullet, perched on the culinary cutting edge. So beat Faith Popcorn at her own game (with references, if you see fit, to her namesake)! What big food trend will the mid-2000s bring us? Hmmm???

How 'bout... a slab of sauteed foie gras steamed lobster dripping with butter a fresh field strawberry a fried clam, with a massive belly, just removed from clean, hot oil (with a cold beer handy to wash it down) a scoop of homemade chocolate ice cream a soup spoon of balanced, steaming pho stock, with a few shreds of cilantro and scallion floating in it a piece of roasted chicken with a thick slice of truffle beneath the skin a shot of espresso, made with fresh beans just ground, with a thick layer of crema, just pulled a pile of smoky, vinegary North Carolina bar-be-que and, of course, larb!

My goodness! What a stunning early contribution to our fine eGullet! Many thanks! A question for you or others. I have just purchased a wonderful Peugeot peppermill (link for illustration only), which seems fantastic except that some of the Penzey's tellicherry peppercorns that we get are too big to fit into the grinding mechanism. This has been true with other peppermills, too; it's not just the Peugeot's fault. I have done a little preliminary pre-cracking with mortar and pestle, but this kind of defeats the purpose. Any ideas out there?

Outstanding parents, I wholeheartedly agree. Indeed they should be thanked regularly, your fine, fine parents, for this is resource-intensive work, deserving of full implementation of your excellent plan. So excellent a plan it is, and so fine a set of parents you have, that I believe your research would benefit from the addition of another member of the team -- an assistant to hold the camera or snap photos, or taste the food in order to help you clarify your opinions, to commiserate about weight gain, to help you make call assaults for reservations, that sort of thing. And, because your plan is so outstanding, and your parents so utterly wonderful, I will kindly offer my services gratis in humble deference as your assistant on the evening you dine at Per Se. No, really, I insist. I'm happy to do it!

Thanks -- and thank your parent backers! -- for the great start. Can you talk a bit about the texture of the slow-poached egg, white and yolk?

That's smart! It's a root, so bury it in the root cellar. Thanks!

I usually keep a knob in the freezer for emergency larbs, but stopped doing that as a matter of course because the ginger seems to become more spongy when it is frozen. I found that it defrosts very quickly, but it seeps juice, especially when you grate it, and the remaining grated ginger therefore tends to be drier. Does this happen with anyone else?

I just posted a few restaurant notes here, which include two raves for Mission 261 in San Gabriel and Mayflower in LA's Chinatown. Can't say they're the best of anything, but they were damned good.

This is fascinating anecdotal evidence. Seems to suggest that adjectival excess may, at least in these cases, be pedagogical, an attempt to educate the masses and their palates. If you have examples, dumplin, please share!

Subject says it all: what are some good Mexican restaurants in the Boston/Providence area? Surely there must be a few decent places in both towns. Not every place sucks as badly as Tortilla Flats in Providence, does it, or is so wildly overpriced as Don Tequila's in (yes, again) Providence, is it? I mean, just because we live in New England doesn't mean we can't get a single decent Mexican meal, right? (Forgive if this has been covered elsewhere; I did a big search and didn't find a comprehensive list.)

Hmmmmm.... I have tree-ness envy....

Fifi, can you say why you don't rinse the pozole/hominy? Thx!

Thanks! The pot, btw, is from Target. We got our first frost in Providence this past week, as one can see from my finally-dead parsley out back.... It was probably about ten inches when I got it a month ago, and it's grown those couple since then. It seems to have been made very happy by frequent watering and a bigger pot. Not yet -- waiting until it gets bigger. I'm loathe to snip, as the sprouts are coming from the ends of branches, and I'd hate to thwart one. Only a little, but that seems to be picking up. Yesterday, when I was getting my larb supplies, I saw another little tree in the store where I got this one, sadly lurking down below a vegetable cooler. I wish I could send it off to you somehow!

Though I can't quite justify driving down to NJ for a day of hot dogs, being a weiner-fiend I considered it (see my post on Pink's in LA recently). So I will be very happy if you report back, with pix if possible; slanderous arguments concerning both the quality of the dogs' "snap" and eaters' application of proper condiments would be particularly appreciated. If successful, perhaps your jaunt can produce other similar tours around the U.S. I've always felt that a definitive NY system weiner review was in order for these parts....

Sorry to make it sound like we always have sticky rice when we're a-larbing -- we don't. I love it, though. I just started making it recently, and, given the need to soak it for a few hours beforehand, I don't often get dinner going until it's too late. But I really feel that making the little rice balls is a wonderful thing, and my daughter, who likes getting her hands into food when she helps me cook, is a rice fan. edited for a typo -- ca

If you go to the NECCO website and read the history, it states the following: Too bad it's left Cambridge; I love that smell when driving on Mass Ave, too! I'm also addicted to the chalky little wafers themselves, much to my wife's astonishment....

I just want to say that I love this thread, snowangel. It's precisely the sort of writing about food that makes eGullet wonderful for me. Thanks!

I offer, humbly, the following thread on LA restaurants from a recent trip of my own!

I just hadda larb today, what with a couple of Bell and Evans chicken breasts all thawed in the fridge. Had most of the ingredients here save lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves for the toasted rice powder, so I went out shopping at the SE Asian places around here. Lo and behold, the kaffir lime leaves were a mess. One place was out, one place had shriveled up not-utterly-green specimens, and the leaves at the final store, which I bought, were much smaller than usual. I almost had to pull a few tender leaves off my new kaffir lime tree! One shop owner told me that the supply was bad because of the storms in Florida earlier this year. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Oh, and dinner was larbilicious! Because it was short notice, we didn't make thai sticky rice but had jasmine instead. I really am finding the sticky rice balls to be a key component of the meal, though. Do people serve rice with their larb? What kind(s)?

Oh that's so cool. I can completely envision how it works. The sides and bottom of pots are straight, usually at a right angle, the part where they come together is curved. The Squadle will fit right in there, much better than a traditional round ladle, which leaves a gap at the joint. ← For the cash conscious consumers (like me), I want to point out that a traditional wok ladle, which has a large surface area and is less concave than traditional western half-sphere ladles, does the trick as well as a squadle, for about $6-8. No catchy name, though! While on that subject, I'll point out that most Asian food stores have a ton of small cooking and eating things that would make great, inexpensive gifts. Wire mesh and bamboo strainers (great for deep frying) also come to mind.

Though I'd never had it before meeting my partner, Andrea, who is Mexican-American, I now believe I'd say that pozole, or hominy soup, is my choice. It's very simple: you brown some salted and peppered chunks of pork in olive oil, take them out and saute onion and some garilc, toss in a large drained can of diced tomatoes, a large can of drained pozole, and 8-10 cups of chicken or beef stock, add the pork back in, season with ancho, cumin, chipotle, cayenne, black pepper, Mexican oregano, and salt to taste, simmer for an hour or two, and serve with tortillas. Something magical happens to the hominy; it infuses the broth and is infused by it. Wonderful.

I do -- and here's my first attempt at sharing a pic: I put Julia in there to show height (the book is about a foot high). The purple xmas bulbs are miniature, btw! You can see a few little sprouts coming through, especially on the highest branch. The tree is in a northeastern window right now, though I think I'm going to move it to a southern window soon.