Chris Amirault

I want -- and let's remember, while we wonder why the Bavarians named their meatloaf thus, that hamburgers don't have any ham in them! I was reminded of this when I travelled in Muslim countries, where McDs sell "beef burgers." edited to clarify -- ca

Do tell, Dave. What is it? Why that one? How'd it work? Inquiring minds, etc. etc.

My god, man, that shatters the cook-off posting record! No wonder you wanted clarification on dairy products!

Yes, that's right. You just have to explain why it's actually ice cream, gelato, sorbet, sherbet, kulfi... you name it. I ran out of space on the title!

I'm going on a trip to southern Arizona to visit the in-laws and will be able to purchase lots of Mexican ingredients in Tucson, Bisbee, and the surrounding area that I can't get here in RI. I plan to stock up on a wide range of chiles and to try to find some huitlacoche, but I expect to be overwhelmed with the choices. So, instead of pouring through Diana Kennedy recipes, may I invite you to participate in this little game? Pretend you have $100 of my hard-earned cash, and you want me to bring back to Providence a healthy larder of goods that travel well, are hard-to-find back here, and will reward me in the kitchen. Gracias.

Eden, I'm not gonna touch that! It's your call entirely. If you can justify that it's ice cream, gelato, or sorbet, then that's what it is!

Just an update: elsewhere on eG I found this fascinating article by caroline, a.k.a. Rachel Laudan, on the connections between Islamic and Mexican cooking, which starts with a fascinating anecdote about mole:

I always do whatever Brooks says: Cook-off XI: Ice Cream, Gelato, Sherbet.

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. I think that T. S. Eliot was wrong: July, not April, is the cruelest month, at least when it comes to food. Many of us in the northern hemisphere are struggling with hot, humid conditions (conditions many of us in the southern hemisphere, especially those near the equator, tolerate year-round), and for folks in the U.S. the food-dreary holiday of Independence Day arrives soon. Who wants to be in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, or out back, pushing lousy franks around a grill? (Of course, if you were in on the previous cook-off, you know the solution to lousy franks....) So, for our eleventh Cook-Off, we're going to chill out with ice cream, gelato, and sherbet. How you define those things -- dairy or no? egg custard or no? -- is entirely up to you. "But frozen treats require special equipment!" you say. Well, er... yes and no. If you're game, there are ways to make ice cream et al with buckets, ice, and salt; perhaps a few intrepid members will show us the way. However, a Donvier ice cream maker does a great job, is inexpensive retail, and is widely available on eBay and at your local thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales. There's even a thread here devoted to inexpensive ice cream makers, as well as one devoted to machines that don't have those pesky frozen canisters. As you can see, those frosty eGulleteers have been doing some homework for us. We've got a thread devoted to ice cream recipes and tips, another concerning interesting ice cream recipes, the chocolate ice cream thread, another for sorting out ice cream making problems, one about sorbets and ice creams in general, even one on ice cream made from pig brains. There are also many, many sorbet threads and a few gelato threads, all of which you can find by clicking on the "Search" button in the top right of every window. So grab your cream or milk, fruit, chocolate, herbs, spices, and/or pig brains, and... Wait. On second thought, don't grab the pig brains. I don't even wanna know about that. So grab your cream or milk, fruit, chocolate, herbs, and/or spices and have at it!

Those were some damned pricey tinned beans.

And I'd bet that the little salted fishies that are already -- or, at least, should already be -- in a Caesar salad are bummed out at the competition from bland, farm raised crap....

They don't suck? That sucks. It's also very surprising and somewhat bizarre.... Steve, I'm telling you that I have about twelve of these that are at least a decade old and they are fantastic. It wouldn't surprise me if Chuck Wms changed them in the last little while. Damn. How disappointing. I bet now someone's gonna tell me that McDonalds isn't cooking fries in beef tallow anymore...

Let's keep this discussion focused on the thread topic, shall we? In particular, please refrain from any personal references; if you feel that someone has in fact made an inappropriate personal reference, please report the post. Keep in mind that one of the things that makes the Forums a special place on the internet is respectful dialogue between those who work in the food profession and those who are customers in those folks' restaurants and stores. Those two groups will certainly not always agree or see things from the same perspective, but those differences are precisely what help us learn more about this subject for which we all feel such passion!

I heard a brief comment on the radio today that the tide is abating -- johnnyd, is it so?

Thanks, Erin, for bumping this up. I'll start by linking to my post on Persimmon, which is Champe Speidel's new place in Bristol. He was the one who put Gracie's on the map, btw. I have to agree with Sun and Moon, which we also love. (If any of you see a couple with a little baby there, introduce yourself -- it's us!) You mentioned not liking India and Ran Zan; I urge you to try Kabob n Curry on Thayer St (which I like very much) and Haruki (one in Wayland Square in Prov and one on Rt 5 in Cranston) for Indian and Japanese, respectively. What have you been having at Al Forno? You aren't the only one who feels it's gone down hill, certainly, but I have had some great stuff there recently. The midnight tagliatelle was fantastic, and their pizza and antipasti are great. Finally, the best of the best: Have you been to Lucky Garden in North Providence for dim sum?

Dove back into David Thompson's Thai Food again this weekend for my birthday party dinner. Along with the green mango and smoked trout salad in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, I made one of Thompson's pork sausage recipes, the cucumber salad, the grilled eggplant salad, and a grilled shrimp curry in banana leaves. All of them were just outstanding. I also really confirmed the radical difference in texture between a food-processor ground paste and a paste that had been pounded in the mortar. The ingredients in the pounded paste have a far more silky, smooth texture; no matter how much you process, the ground paste is not really similar.

I just finished a terrific Campari and soda, with a healthy dose of lime.

Milagai wins the prize! Taken from the US Navy military history web site:

Brooks beat me to it. Beef tallow fries at McDs.

Back in the day, Michael Jordan's teammate Scottie Pippen, believed to be a bit cautious in the paint, was known disparagingly by his peers as "Cake Boy."

I am a very big towel nut: one on the shoulder, a few strewn around the kitchen for easy access, one under the cutting board, a couple to dry vegetables.... I have a towel drawer and an implicit towel ranking system (ITRS, we call it around the house): clean dishes (white cotton only) quality towel (the workhorse William Sonoma kitchen towels only here) mediocre quality (under the cutting board, cleaning up crap on the floor) decorative And you had better know the ITRS if you're cooking or cleaning in my kitchen, bucko.

Perhaps I'm a bit touched, but I use our attachment weekly, if not more. I made Thai sausages this weekend, for example, and I use it to grind meat for hamburger, larb, you name it. I really think it's worth getting: you make much higher quality ground meat this way, and it's cheaper. I bet we've already paid for ours.

Well, not entirely. In my experience, while most will have Western/US breakfast items, there are usually local or regional things out as well. For example, in Saudi Arabia, every hotel serves foul madamas, which looks pretty much like refried pinto beans, served with olive oil and other condiments. When good -- and it can be very, very bad, as can most hotel buffet food -- it is amazing....

Sorry for the shorthand! I was referring to Thai fish sauce, nam pla, which is ubiquitous in Thai cooking. Click here for a supplier -- who has a mango salad recipe! The trick is to use it very sparingly; it adds depth of flavor against the spice of chili and the tang of lime. Given what you just said about shopping in Omaha, I think that you should grab whatever you can find! There are, of course, obsessive discussions about fish sauce here on eGullet somewhere (oddly, I'm having a hard time finding them...), but Three Crabs, Tiparos, and Golden Boy are possibilities.

I was thinking of a rice side dish, too, but more along the rice and mint approach. I also think that a grated mango salad (peanuts, lime, some more coconut, cilantro or mint, touch of fish sauce, maybe a shallot minced) would be swell and would fit with your quasi-southeast Asian theme. Let us know what you choose!