Carrot Top

Honestly, I think it was very nice (in the best sense of the word) for White Castle to put together something like this, and in the end it really doesn't matter how "fancy" something is, it matters if you enjoy it. And obviously it was fun and the food was good. Can't beat that, really.

If the decision as to moral or ethical finalities comes down to a measurement of anthropomorphism as deductive reasoning, then probably one should bring in the discussion of plants, too. There are several biology professors I know who can argue well and long that plants (even the ones we eat) feel pain. Based on things like stress tests, you know. Personally my own viewpoint turns more often to seeing people who resemble animals (whatever that word would be) or alternately, plants - (people and cornstalks always seem a good comparison to me) in many ways, not in seeing animals who resemble people. Seems a bit self-involved, this anthropomorphism idea.

No, personally I can not think of one. But on the other hand, I think it is just as cruel and hurtful (inhumane?) to see those human beings that inhabit McDonaldland (hmmm. . .Old McDonald had a farm ee ii eii o) shovelling huge double burgers jumbo fries and supersize sodas down their gullets apparently in search of the goal of their own bodies becoming every bit as engorged as any lovely piece of foie gras. What a waste. After all, nobody bothers to make a fine meal out of them.

And it might be even more interesting if what was left for Elijah was this: Aphrodisiac Soda Indeed, perhaps a night quite different from all others.

Sitting in front of me is "Peter Pan No Sugar Added Creamy" peanut butter. Ingredients peanuts, peanut oil, partially hydr veg oils, salt, sucrose. No stirring needed, no separation. It is a new item on the shelves of the market I usually go to (Kroger). The sauce recipe I use is peanut butter (about 1 C); 1 T minced garlic; 1" pc. ginger peeled and chopped; 3/4 C coconut cream; 1 Tbs soy sauce; 1 tsp. hot chili sauce (Chinese). Can't wait to see what you finally come up with!

This menu would suit Bond Girl's vanilla guys she mentioned in her story, don't 'cha think? Sounds sort of like sweet vanilla dreams while floating on a soft toothless cloud. . . Might end up with one seriously enamoured after this meal.

You could always make one of those "porcupine" cakes (individual small oval shaped cake base with buttercream topping and pignolis or slivered almonds stuck in to resemble quills) but instead of just leaving it "au naturel" (looking like a porcupine) make it out of dark chocolate cake, use small dark chocolate slivers to resemble fur, then stencil a white stripe down the back (of confectioners sugar) and add a small tail (of cake). A skunk. Two tiny little evil cinnamon candies for the eyes. . .and a note that says "You stink" and you're set. Hide a ripe durian under the table for extra effect.

I hate to say it, Grub - but the bread does not look bad enough for this thread. However, I LOVE your idea above. Please document it with photographs so that all bakers of hard loaves everywhere will be able to do the same. . .(P.S. Bad bagels might be particularly good for knocking someone out with. . .)

And some fine apron-strings they are. . .Elizabeth David's recipes are mostly firmly ingrained upon my memory - there's something about the form that remains in my mind "just as written" and Jane Grigson, well. . .I'd like to see her and Fergus Henderson together some day. That would be fun. I am curious though, since Onigiri had asked for cookbooks that dealt with "normal" cuisine i.e. mostly American (for Americans, anyway ) since you live in Japan, is there a *normal* Japanese cookbook that you "keep going back to"?

Yes. . .mine is terribly battered also. And yet it soldiers on. . . I am always startled by the encylopedic magnitude of the thing - and his comments often make me do a double-take (which is sort of fun ) It is good to know that the book lives on, on other bookshelves besides my own.

The sauce is put together in the mini-foodprocessor then is poured over the rest of the recipe which is already hot and almost-ready-to-serve in a wok on the top of the stove. Just a few more minutes of heat and some tossing together and all is set. (The rest of the ingredients are previously-cooked noodles and stir-fry veggies. . .oh! with chicken or shrimp or beef sometimes, too.) I've never heated the sauce separately before tossing with the other ingredients - it does seem possible that it might break if brought up to a certain temp, even with the peanut butter shortcut. Yummy stuff. (And thanks, about the story. . . ) P.S. Scubadoo, how do you heat your sauce (if you do?)

Here's my story of a desperate meal: The Moon is Made of Green Cheese (Post #5)

Well - this probably is not what you want to do for it might not be considered "authentic" - but I do a similar recipe but have always used the shortcut of simply using unsweetened peanut butter rather than the peanuts themselves. Not sure about "exact" proportions but I guesstimate as to what the peanuts *would* be in measurement after the intended chopping-up/pureeing then use that amount of peanut butter -probably for 1C peanuts it might be around a little more than a half cup peanut butter? Anyway - it does work. Just an off-the-cuff answer. Probably someone can come up with a much more scientific one that will help, too.

I'll add my vote for this book. Fascinating read, and the recipes are delicious and well-written.

Revallo, Do you know what the chickens are fed while being raised - and how old they are when slaughtered?

I like these sayings. They all cut the mustard, each one of them. And there's no cheese-paring going on here, either.

You're excused this time. Probably in your line of work it would not do to substitute ingredients in any given recipe. (i.e. literalism is a good thing) Edited to add the above for literal readers.

You are kind, dear. I didn't think my words had amounted to much. But merci anyway.

To be quite serious for just a moment, yes Ptipois there is a problem. Without going into defense and counterdefense, it must be said that merde de cheval is not exclusively a French product as some might wish to have others assume. And merde de cheval does happen to be something that is created by a demand by the consumer who sometimes would rather have romance than reality - ease without comprehension, or time taken to truly be informed. In this world, it is sometimes mind-boggling often to be fully informed as to anything that exists. But again, "myths" have been around since the beginning of time and no geographic region that I am aware of is exempt from them nor more prone to them. They are merely shaded in different ways to take different appearances in display. France is often chosen as example of food-related things. Let us assume it is so because it *does* have so very much to offer. . .not because it is full of myth.

Is that how the saying goes? Oh my gosh, for all these years I've been walking around thinking it was that you COULD make a silk purse from a sow's ear! Sigh. That explains a lot.

As Carrot Top rightly points out, de la Pradelle’s research delves deeply into the wizzened apples, dead rabbits, 'lots of oil cloth' displays. That section culminates in this paragraph . . . She clearly makes the case that these displays and stall holders are as equally inauthentic as the 'artful display/battered chapeau' types. ← Meh. Here, even, in the hallowed halls of eGullet! Is a good example of how easily one can be hoodwinked. Mr. Maw thought it was me, Carrot Top, speaking - when really it was Ptipois speaking! Now it is true that we are both fine specimens, me a green top of a carrot, she a fresh spring pea - but there the sameness ends! She is French and undoubtedly chic - I am merely the American girl next door. Tonight we will blame this on the fact that it is the fin de la semaine, and probably Mr. Maw was indulging in some excellent old Burgundy as he read, then afterwards as his fingers hit the keyboard so masterfully. Burgundy. That *is* French, isn't it? But it just goes to prove how easily one can be fooled as to point of origin by even the finest produce (whether intentionally or not! ) .

Mr. Maw is indubitably right, as is his usual way of being. And if I didn't have to rush out right now for dinner (where I am dining upon some Authentic Cantonese Cuisine (shriek) right here in this small city in the state of Virginia, I would add more lines. Nudge nudge wink wink.

I've been to many a Farmer's Market here in the states where the products came straight from the wholesalers. Farmer's Markets rules and regulations all vary as to what they will allow. . .

No, it certainly is not; and yes, they certainly are.

Serendipity in both cases with the books I mentioned, also - in finding them. I always pick up cookbooks that look interesting at yard sales - and at that time (the 1970's) there were some very interesting finds, or so it seemed to me. Both of these books were immediately post WWII - a time when "food" and what it was in and to America was shifting to a different shape. "The Settlement Cookbook" I'd read about in other places - it was always mentioned as being a classic - and so it was. The recipes were for common-sense good basic cookery, "American", mostly, sometimes with some Eastern European or Jewish additions. No snobbery to this book, nothing fancy in word or posture - just a sort of focus on how to really prepare some good things to eat at home, every day, from "scratch". And that it was from scratch was taken for granted without any heavy panting done over it. The recipes always worked, always provided something delicious to eat, and there was extra information about cuts of meat, grades of eggs, preservation of foods etc. etc. You could sense the author behind the book. . .and I liked her. "The Gold Cookbook" I found a link to on Amazon: (it is out-of-print):The Gold Cookbook The comments on the page say some of the things I felt about the book. He's written seventeen other books, some of which I've read, and each was incredibly comprehensive and also amusing:Cookbooks by De Gouy Louis De Gouy was a chef who had worked in some of the large fine hotels on what was then called "The Continent" (as if there were only one. . . ). He was incredibly knowledgeable and this book is massive. You can find any formula for any basic French sauce soup entree etc etc you may want - plus more more more ad infinitum. Simply presented, and his cogent commentary adds to the sense of the thing. Again, an author that one could sense - and, again, I liked him. He presented cookery as a trade, a vocation, something that was a living part of each day as a natural thing, and not something that one would find separate, pick up, and struggle at to arrive at somewhere intended that was of a higher power. Well. Heh. There's my short answer, Onigiri.