Chris Amirault

OK, I want to see some googly eye creations here. Surely eGullet Society members can do better than that sloppy creature!

You might also have a drink that's too cold. My freezer is at 0F, and cold water would be around 34-38F. If all your hooch is in the freezer, that Negroni's likely going to be colder than 25F.

Fake crab meat and cream cheese aren't staples of Burmese cooking, insofar as I'm aware. However, as examples of "stuff we think Americans will like" given goofy "exotic" names, they're impeccable.

From what I remember seeing the Kuhn-Rikon tool in Sur Le Table, I think that the strips are wider with the Kom-Kom. At the SEAsian market I frequent, green papaya salad is made fresh each Saturday by the wife of the owner, and she uses some gizmo like this to do it. I

OK, some more detailed shots. The channel cutting blade sits on a black plastic frame that rotates. So, effectively, it's an ambidextrous tool. The spacing between the channel blade and the flat edge isn't perfect, and if you press too hard, you don't get separate strands. There's a corer at the end. That little plastic notch is for scoring rinds. I didn't have a papaya around, so here's a cucumber cut into thin strips. I think that the julienne blade will work well with a light touch, and for ten bucks, I'm pretty happy with it.

There was no "original" Polynesian/Hawai'ian version. Don simply sold Americanized "Cantonese" food as "Polynesian." The name given to the appetizer platter (by him or someone, I'm not sure) was pu pu platter. ET clarify that I'm not sure of the source of the name. -- CA

Were they platters of pu pus or pu pu platters? It's my understanding that pu pu in Hawai'ian means, roughly, appetizer, and that's why the word was stolen for "Polynesian" restaurants like Don the Beachcomber's. So there certainly are lots of plates of Hawai'ian apps in Hawai'i, but I'd be surprised if there were wacky wooden bowls with fried won tons and chicken wings. Of course, if there are, then that's pretty damned fascinating.

Go for it! Meanwhile, I'm just trying to stick a thermometer into drinks as I prepare them. Tonight, a Bennett Cocktail, which, shaken for about 20 seconds, reached a fine drinking temperature. I measured: again, 25F. I'm not making the case for perfection here. But there's gotta be some reasons for why these drinks all seem to be in the mid-20s. Below freezing but above tongue-numb.

Guest for dinner, so went with a sort of Indian roast chicken. Cut chicken into 8 pieces (halved breasts). Tossed with a spice rub (Penzey's vindaloo, garam masala, black pepper, salt). Melted some butter (no ghee handy) in peanut oil. Tossed in some fenugreek, cumin seed, black mustard seed, and a cinnamon stick. Let 'em pop, then added a large sliced onion, and when that started to wilt, added a few crushed garlic cloves for a few minutes. 1/2 c stock, then the chicken on top in a 450F oven for about 45 minutes. Served the chicken, onions, and rice with a sauteed carrot with ginger and garlic side. Oh, and mustard pickles, which I eat like candy in meals like this.

Atmosphere.

Tell us more. What recipes have you prepared? What does "contemporary" mean?

Harry, say more. Where are you located in the globe? What is in season there? Do you have good sources for meat? seafood? poultry? game? We'll have better ideas if we have some sense of what you've got to work with.

Can you explain a bit more? Donate meals? What's the budget? Where are they prepared? Where are they eaten? I've never heard of anything like this, so it's hard to think of examples.

Folks, we are being transferred to a new server tonight, 9-10 January 2008. We know that we'll be down between 11pm and 8am EST, but it's not clear whether that will be 15 minutes of downtime somewhere in that range or whether we'll be offline the entire time. Once things are back up, please report any concerns to me via PM (if you can) or email (camirault@egstaff.org).

I see spareribs, wonton skins, and egg rolls. What are the other two things?

I'll do a demo tonight with the digital camera. We'll see what's so miraculous about the Kom-Kom.

Stopping by the Sunny Market on Reservoir Ave at the Providence/Cranston line, I spied a new gadget behind the counter. "The cheap one or the expensive one?" she asked. Given that the expensive one was $9.95, I went high end. So now I'm the owner of a Kom-Kom Miracle Zig Zag knife tool thingie. According to the packaging, I can use it to core, carve, peel, and "slice the skin/meat." I haven't tried it yet, but I think that I'll be able to make some serious julienne. Does anyone else have this? What do you use it for?

Holy crap, menuinprogress. That ranks among the top first posts ever! Say more about the interior. The exterior is perfect.

More experimentation, this one just ok: a pisco sour variation. 2 oz pisco (Barsol) 1 oz lemon 1/2 oz pimento dram 1/4 oz simple syrup egg white dash Angostura

McDuff, you need to give this a try, record every step, and report back, is what I think.

Priscilla, you get it exactly -- and I've got all of those ingredients. It's what's for dinner. Tomorrow, I mean.

Made the Achanese Curry with lamb and Ching Lee's Braised Lemongrass Long Beans as a side. (With pomelos also in season, I also made the pomelo salad from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet.) Winners, all. I particularly liked this preparation for long beans, which are slim and tender right now in our Asian grocery stores.

It's worth noting that, like many things, costs more doesn't mean tastes good (though when it comes to premium quality chocolate, the reverse is nearly always true). I wonder, phan1, if that expensive bar was packaged as fine chocolate but not made well from quality ingredients.

Welcome to eG Forums, fmed! Tell us your recipe for this. How do you make it?

Hi phan1! For the rest of us: what four or five things might we recommend for this new member's taste-off that are easily available? It also would be a good idea to suggest cacao percentages down around the milk chocolate range. Given that Hershey's Cacao Reserve milk chocolate is 35% cacao (I can't find the percentage for the base Hershey's bar), I don't think that a 70% bar is going to convert phan1!