Jason Perlow

There has been an interesting development in the patent issues regarding the coffee pods. In Belgium, the Supreme Court has decided that only Douwe Egberts can produce the coffee pods, because they have registered this particular invention. This means that in Belgium, no other producers are allowed to make/sell coffee pods anymore. Douwe Egberts lost a similar case in the Netherlands a few months ago, but now that they have prevailed in Belgium, this may have interesting implications for the EU, the UK and perhaps the US. Translates from Dutch roughly as:

Inspired by the King Oyster Mushroom thread, I went to my local H-Mart (formerly HanAhReum) and bought some supplies: I sliced up some King Oysters, and wok sauteed them with butter, some whole bean shoyu (soy sauce), with the whites of green onions. I then wokked up some tiger shrimp (from Bangladesh, who knew) with more butter and garlic, green onions, bean sprouts, rice cooking wine, black pepper to taste, and threw in the King Oyster saute. Plated dish with store bought tofu banchan, jap chae noodles, and a baked potato with butter. I was sort of going with the teppan-butter-yaki-Benihana vibe with this one. The kitchen certainly smelled like a Benihana when I was done!

Inspired by this thread, I went to my local H-Mart (formerly HanAhReum) and bought some supplies: I sliced up some King Oysters, and sauteed them with butter, some whole bean shoyu, with the whites of green onions. I then wokked up some tiger shrimp (from Bangladesh, who knew) with more butter and garlic, green onions, bean sprouts, chinese rice cooking wine, salt and pepper to taste, and threw in the King Oyster saute. Plated dish with store bought tofu banchan, jap chae noodles, and a baked potato with butter. I was sort of going with the teppan-butter-yaki-Benihana vibe with this one. The kitchen certainly smelled like a Benihana when I was done!

TIVO ALERT! If you have the National Geographic Channel, tonight's installment of "Megastructures" is all about the USS Virginia. Its airing in about five minutes (8PM EST) and also 11PM EST, and also on December 15 at 3AM.

A bit more about capsicum taxonomy: http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/pepper.shtml

Datil is also beleived to be a capsicum sinense/chinense. http://pgrc3.agr.ca/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?8910 It is, however, probably the mildest of the varieties, and it is prized for its flavor without the overpowering heat.

Nobu Matsuhisa suggests baking them: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_an...article8812.ece Baking them with a ton of butter and a bit of shoyu maybe? Or braise the hell out of them in some sort of miso/seaweed broth.

-actual- matsutakes are crazy expensive. The domestic ones from Washington State are cheap. I've used them in nabemono-type soups, you could also try doing the tempura thing with them or stir frying.

Well, it never went beyond very limited market testing, from what I understand.

I think those are what are also called domestic matsutakes.

Wow, they even have a Diet Decaf Manhattan Special now. That I have to try.

This has to be another one of those "Only in New York" things. http://www.manhattanspecial.com/ We can get it in Jersey, you might be able to find it at Italian Delis in Philly.

Diet Manhattan Special, by the way, is a pretty damn good product, Katie.

I beleive if you are using Chinese cooking techniques and methods, and using condiments and ingredients used in Chinese cooking it is Chinese food, even if you are combining it with other unorthodox, new world ingredients or combining natively Chinese ingredients in different ways. You can't call them -traditional- preparations, but they are definitely valid. The tradition of Chinese cooking outside of China has always been about making do with and putting the best face on ingredients that are not native to China, and even adding Chinese twists to dishes from other nations, and vice versa. Hong Kong has been on the forefont of this kind of amalgamation and creation of "new" dishes for a long time.

It would be nice if any of the cut stuff was in there. In the New Jersey episode, a lot of content was unused, particularly the stuff with Jose' in Newark.

Are there any special features on them or are they just the straight episodes of No Reservations as they aired?

They are the same species but different varieties. Both capsicum chinense. Incidentally there is also a great deal variation within the individual varieties themselves -- there are many kinds of Habaneros and Scotch Bonnets, and hybrids.

You are using the Barilla Fettucini Rigati? I LOVE that stuff....actually, ALL of the 'rigati' pastas ! And I think their sauce is a very decent start for your own....... I just wish someone would tell me where I can buy tubettini ! Used to love them in tomato soup when I was a kid and can't find them anywhere .............. ← The Barilla is our basic in house pasta, and yeah, I like their Rigati stuff as well. Their marinara is as basic as you can get, its not nearly as artificial and preservative-laden as the American corn-syrupy stuff is.

You're right on with that, Richard. I remember harvesting a whole bunch of Red Savinas and Chocolate Habaneros I grew one summer, cutting them up and de-seeding for home made hot sauce, and not using gloves. I went to use the men's room shortly afterwards... Oh man oh man do I never want to repeat that. My you know what felt like it was on fire for hours -- even showering two or three times with heavy scrubbing didn't alleviate the fire.

I've never tried the coffee that comes out of the Senseo, so it's not appropriate for me to say. I defnitely think the Simplehuman is a very well engineered machine overall and it makes very good coffee provided you are using good pods. So far I can only compare it to the Melitta, and I would say its a better engineered unit than the Melitta overall and probably a lot more durable.

Rachel requested pasta tonight, so I made the following: Pseudo-Bolognese: Started off with ground beef, onion, chopped sauteed mushrooms with sherry, and added San Marzano tomatoes, a bit of jarred Barilla marinara (yeah, I know its cheating), milk, and a big dollop of sour cream. Not even close to traditional in terms of meat and ingredient proportions or even method, but it was tasty for lazy man's Bolognese.

A pseudo-ragu Bolognese I made this evening because Rachel requested pasta with meat sauce: Started off with ground beef, onion, chopped sauteed mushrooms with sherry leftover from last night, and added San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, a bit of jarred Barilla marinara (yeah, I know its cheating, but for commercial sauce its not a bad way to go), milk, and a big dollop of sour cream. Salt and Pepper to taste. Simmered for about 40 mins. Not even close to traditional in terms of meat proportions, ingredients or even method, but it was tasty for lazy man's ragu.

Both the Scotch Bonnet and the Orange Habanero (and the other types of Habaneros) are two different varieties from the same species of capsicum chinense, and are for the most part interchangeable in recipes. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/56662/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum_chinense

Here's a Flourless Satsuma Cake we made using Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake recipe: This uses whole satsumas, cooked for 2 hours in a pot of water, then blitzed in the food processor with eggs, almonds and sugar and butter and baked in a springform pan.

It has a clock and tells you about the status of the boiler and if you need to refill.