Eden

After the reviews here I had to stop by Chocoatl when I was up in Vancouver this weekend. Thank you SO much for leading me to this place! I can only echo how wonderful it was - I've added it to our list of must stops for every trip north - and yes the owner is a delight to talk to, he's SO excited by what he's doing! He loved that we'd already heard about him all the way down in Seattle and that elicited great news for me: he's actively looking to open a second shop here in Seattle!!! and FYI those pastries are still "coming real soon"

Back on the 25/$25 list I second the rec for Earth & Ocean, but also have to plug Brasa. spanish/portuguese ala northwest cuisine. and a good cheese tray. I've always had great meals there, even during the $25/25 promotion.

Totally coincidentally a friend just emailed me a description of her experiment with Egyptian baklava yesterday that sounded fascinating as it used shredded filo instead of sheets of filo. (is this really still baklava?, I've had wonderful desserts made with it before, but never by that name...) Turkish Baklava is my personal favorite, but I clearly need to try Syrian. Friends back East just sent me "Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking: a Mennonite Community Cookbook" so last night's dessert was a simple coffee cake with nut & raisin crumble/filling. There's a reason coffee cake is a classic - when done right it's just sublime. I was worried because when spread in the pan it didn't look like nearly enough batter, but it puffed up beatifully, and the cake was wonderfully rich, but light at the same time. I think I need some for breakfast now!

Just to look at other options, what if you put the eggplant & the bechamel inside the ravioli & then did a ground-lamb/tomato sauce on top?

That's too bad about the Savoy. I haven't been there in a while. I'm generally not a big fan of buffets but remembered theirs was really good. Just a quick note that Savoy has changed their name and is now called Abiruchi. We had another good meal at Tandoori Kitchen last night. No wussy spice levels there!

Since these guys are in our neighborhood we decided to go check them out tonight. Pretty darn good, especially for being so new. The space still needs sorting out. They have about 7 tables on the dining side and some of them are tucked into the corner in such a way that you'd have to climb over other patrons to get in & out of your seats, while some of the others seem to be a little lost in a larger space, but I'm sure that will get worked out with time... We started with the deep fried artichokes, and I have to say, I could LIVE on these artichokes! they were lighly battered, with a nice spicy flavor to the batter, and most importantly they were completely ungreasy! served with a spicy thousand island type sauce which appeals to the inner 10 year old, but really isn't necessary. I decided on the pulled pork sandwich while Bill had the Red Beans & Rice New Orleans style dinner topped with the same pulled pork. Bill wasn't excited by the beans & rice, which he said worked under the BBQ but would be too plain on their own (they are offered as a side). Now I have a personal preference for Kansas City style BBQ, but if you want to serve me what I assume is New Orleans style BBQ I won't discriminate this is a fairly mild sauce with a bit of vinegar to it. If you like hot BBQ I think they have jars of chili sauce that they'll bring you to spice things up. Most importantly, the meat was moist, and there was enough sauce to go around without drowning out the pork flavor. Seemed like there was less meat on the sandwich than with the Beans & Rice, for the same price, so carnivores take note. I also had a side of cornbread which they make on the light side to showcase the sweet whole kernels hiding inside. Very versatile, you could eat it on it's own as a sweet (with honey if you ask) or dip it in the sauce for a savory treat. Being full we skipped dessert, but next time I'll leave room. I want to see what they mean by "key lime cake" here's their webpage. By all means go check them out - and order the artichokes!

I was wondering the same thing. I couldn't find much but per Mary Taylor Simeti's "Pomp and Sustenance" the Superfino rices are all 20th c. hybrids which have mostly replaced the riso originario which was previously used. (A short grained Japonica rice) I'm highly tempted to order some riso originario and see how it compares.

Cafe Fanny is not really near a Bart station. It's about 1 mile from the No.Berkeley station, a reasonable walk on a pretty day, but not really accessibe for lunch from downtown Oakland unless you had a car. FYI the cafe is named for Alice's daughter, but owned by Alice and her sister & brother-in-law. Le Cheval used to be good Vietnemese, and Jade Garden? used to be good Dim Sum but it's been so long since I was down there...

I've been out of town & am just catching up with this thread. I'm really enjoying learning more about each region this way and looking forward to trying a few dishes alla Lombardia. the Malfatti look VERY tempting... Re the conjectural history of Risotto alla Milanese (RaM): The Viander recipe is simply rice boiled in milk and stock with saffron added for color. Nearly identical recipes for rice coloured with saffron can be found throughout early medieval Europe, which I think gives the lie to most of those RaM legends. Additionally, the process for cooking risotto as we know it does not appear in any pre 1600 cookbooks I'm familiar with. Slight error on Alberini's part by the way, the 1549 Messisbugo recipe for Sicilian rice recipe has no saffron (at a quick glance, it looks like a simple baked rice with whole eggs in it). However the preceding recipe in Messisbugo, A fare Riso o farro con torli d’uova e formaggio 'To make rice or spelt with egg yolks and cheese', is somewhat closer to RaM. Roughly it says to take rice & boil it in broth, and when it is almost done add a mixture of grated hard cheese & eggs with a little pepper & saffron, and then mix constantly till it's done cooking. No butter, no frying the rice, no soffrito, but the egg & cheese mixture does add a risotto like creaminess not found in simple boiled rice. I beleive that Artusi was the first to publish a recipe for "Risotto alla Milanese" as such, but I'm not as familiar with post 17th c. sources, so I could be mistaken.

we froze skewered bits of fois in order to make mini fois corn dogs at a class I attened recently - it kept them from completely melting, and the results were really tasty, although I must admit my favorite dish of the evening was still the clasic torchon

It would indeed. I have just finished reading Cooking for Kings, a biography of Antonin Careme, which includes tons of illustrations of his food molds, sculptures etc, they blow me away. I love Ivan Day's pieces. I really want some of those molds! along with several candy molds, and a couple interesting tart pans I have a few copper shortbread molds including a 16th c. style peasant man & woman, that I just love because they look much like early gingerbread molds.

(edited the img link) these are SO cute!

I think Northwest does, I just checked, an not only does NorthWorst not let you redeem for anythng but travel & magazines (nothing good), but they won't let you donate excess milage to charity except in 5000 point sums, so I can't zero out my account with them by giving the extra points away to a good cause... I'm very jealous that other programs have such cool options.

Great topic. I have a friend who was recently diagnosed & is currently only focused on controlling the phosphorus, so I have tried to make meals that limit the phosphorus content: less meat, cream rather than milk etc. Here's one of the meals I served recently bearing the phosphorus content in mind. (may not be appropriate for your case since I have no idea on the potassium content) I can't remember other specific dishes at the moment, but will share as they come to me or as I make new ones. And good luck to everyone going through this, and the friends & family supporting them!

Ooh Carmine used to make the BEST veal second the rec for Mae Phim, used to eat there at least twice a week when I worked in the area. Collins Pub is a tiny bit of a walk, but good burgers and Mac & Cheese.

While I agree the Savoy used to have the best buffet, when I was there a few weeks ago they'd moved everything around & shrunk the buffet, and the quality was not what it had been... Tandoori Kitchen hidden away in Kirkland/Redmond is also good & unusual.

That's what you make cooking charts for My friend Holly was allergic to All nightshades (tomato potato eggplant) all capsicums, strawberries, mangoes and a bunch of other things I forget now. Our friend Carol is allergic to wheat, eggs, dairy, soy, sulfites and chocolate. My friend Laura is a pescatarian allergic to honey, and I can't eat fish or seafood. You can imagine that planning dinners for this group was a bit of a challenge, but we did it and had some wonderful meals I might add! Indian , Greek, French, you name it, we made it work, with a lot of creativity, and seperate versions of many of the dishes. What I wouldn't give to have Holly and all her allergies back to work around! Now for nightmares, I have a host of them. One of my faves is the woman who when I bought overpriced artichokes for a dinner because she hated rich food and this way she could just have her vegetable straight while the rest of us dipped them in aioli gave a lengthy discourse about how she disapproved of artichokes because they're such a "wasteful" plant (you throw away most of the leaves) and yet I've seen her eat & serve corn happily without a peep!

I rescued the carbonade last night. Pulled the leftovers from the fridge & took off the 1/4" of solidified fat from the top, then put it back on the stove to reduce for another 40 minutes. The "sauce" came out dark and rich, with a velvety texture, the meat darkened up beautifully, and the onions were finally cooked sufficiently, I have annoteed my recipe to just do this in the first place next time. Served with a sagey polenta from the WholeFoods deli (I was WAY too busy yesterday to make my own) for a perfect comforting wintery dinner. Nathan, I have serious cheese envy right now! If I have time today I must go hit up the Italian cheese-monger and see if I can find something similar

Ooh I love fromage forte! plus I have a bunch or random cheese in the house, I think it's time to whip up a batch for a test run! I have the surreal gourmet on order form the library. thanks for the suggestions.

My mom used to make "babootie" an African dish with ground lamb, some tomato sauce apricots and bananas. I have no idea where she found the recipe, but it is SOOO good. And I usually beleive that bananas should only be eaten raw, on their own, no messing with them...

the problem w/egg whites as a glue is that you have to have time for them to harden. If we take that time the sauce will cool too much & get icky... and this is definately a savory dish, so I need a savory frosting/glue.

I'm working on an April Fools menu, and one of the things we're looking at is making fake eggs out of pie crust (I have half-egg shaped baking molds) and filling them with a hollandaise like sauce to be cracked open at the table. So the question is how do I glue the two egg halves together. The sauce needs to still be warmish, so I can't wait for something that needs to dry, and it can't need to cook to set either (unless a butane torch would do the trick) I was thinking something like a cream cheese frosting, but savory would work well. I can certainly wing it on this, but if someone's already got a working recipe that would be fab. Likewise does anyone have ideas for a hard drying whitish glaze like one pours on bundt cake, but savory? I'm blocked on how to make this work since sugar is integral to the sweet glaze...

in terms of it's shortening behavior ie how flakey your pastry came out, it would probably be similar though maybe not quite as perfectly flakey. However, pork fat tends to have very little flavor left & is thus usable in sweet applications, while duck fat retains IMO much more of the original duck flavor, so you'd want to A) choose even your savory applications carefully for their duck compatibility , and B) test it before serving to others.

Nathan, that fried zeupa looks incredibly good! And your version was much prettier than mine (cheese on top rather than bread is much more aesthetic!) I must try the variant with pancetta when I go for round three. Tonight we finally had time for the carbonade. I used a recipe from La Cucina Italiana Jan 2001, and I'm not really happy with it. Not that the final product isn't tasty, but I don't think it's right. The instructions weren't as clear as I'd like in various parts (what to do with the onions for example, they ended up very undercooked) and my final product was just not as dark as I'd expect from my understanding of the dish. What I really need for this is a field trip to the Val d'aosta to try the dish as it should be so I'm not relying as much on the printed recipe Here's my un-carboned beef cooked in red wine: We also made round two of the zeupa, probably a bit closer to the original recipe. There was no wine in the broth this time, and the store had restocked on savoy cabbage which I have to say was a real improvement. The texture added some extra body to the dish, but again no nasty cabbagey/sulferous flavors, so still a winner.

From whence comes this particular recipe? I'm always looking for ways to convert the turnip haters & this looks fabulous!