percyn

Well, it seems to depend on the person. While I have not taken portraits of the Amish themselves, I have several pictures where they are in the frame and they do not seem to mind. An odd fact...do a search on Lancaster or Amish, and most of the websites returned in the search results will be Amish run....so much for not leveraging modern technology.

Yes, it does...I eat everything in sight Actually, I do not have any religious or cultural dietary restrictions. In fact, the culture is one where food plays a major role and we take every opportunity to celebrate and have a feast (including most Sundays). I may provide web references to typical Parsi celebrations and "ghambars" (big feasts where the entire village/town was fed for 3 days straight) in this blog, if there is interest. Cheers Percy

OK, Susan wins !! Not only did she precede this blog with a great installment of her own, but she also guessed the identity of this humble blogger, based on Soba's teaser. Good job Susan...have a beer on me Being a first time blogger, I studied the masters who blogged before me. So who am I to give tradition a cold shoulder? From what I gather, we are all supposed to Hail to the temple of caffeine.... And keeping with tradition...a little about your blogger for the week (the foodblog Czars must really be scraping the barrel if they asked me to blog)... I belong to a small (approx 100K worldwide) religion/community called Zoroastrian or Parsi, who's origins date back to 1500 BC. This community originated in Persia and settled in India around 700 AD. Throughout this time, they have maintained their unique culture and cuisine. (The only reason for me mentioning this is to share some of the hard to find recipes from this community....see list of topics below). Having spent my formative years on 3 different continents with very different culinary outlooks put my taste buds through the wringer and frazzled my poor little mind. WARNING: what you may be exposed to in this blog will be from my own twisted perception of "good eats", so proceed at your own risk !! Seriously though, while I enjoyed "good food" for as long as I can remember, my interest in cooking only peeked when I was in college, where I did not have my mom or the private chef who helped her to cook family meals. It was at this point that I decided to get an off-campus apartment and start making my own meals. I soon realized that I could not do much worse than the so-called chef in the college cafeteria, though I did come close a few initial occasions. Soon friends and friends of friends showed up for weekend dinners (that's college weekends, which start on Thursday and end on Monday), many of which we would start cooking around 3am after a few rounds of "social drinks" at the local bars. Anyway, having spent most of my life in big cities, I currently reside in a suburban area, bordered on the East by Philadelphia and Lancaster (Amish country) on the West. Over the next week, I hope to bring you a glimpse of each (city dining as well as Country/Amish dining). I would like to make this blog as interactive as possible and I plan to answer each question, but I do ask for your patience, as I have a busy work week and a sick family member. Speaking of family, there are 3 of us, my wife, myself and our cat Peanut, aka "little miss foodie" (she prefers foie gras and caviar over almost anything else). Wendy, you may have that alias on eGullet, but in this household, it is already taken You may see some posts of what I have for lunch while at work, but for legal reasons, I prefer not to go into details or identify of my employer (remember the Google and American Airline incidents?). All I can say is that it is a large multinational company, for which I get to do a little overseas travel and enjoy the local customs and cusine. This is where I need some audience participation...... I already have a few special events planned (on Wed and Sat evening) and given the limited amount of time we have, I need your help in prioritizing a list of topics you would like me to feature on the blog. Please post or PM me your top 3 choices: * Lunch at an Amish restaurant * Visit to an Amish farm * Tour of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market * Philly Cheesesteak Kings * Breakfast Bonanza * Special "Parsi dishes" like Dhansak or Sali Gosht or Machi (Fish) nu Sauce * Typical Indian dishes like Tandoori or Goan Curry Rice * Other food topics of your choice (please specify) While it is with some trepidation that I embark on this journey, I hope you are as excited as I am about this blog. Cheers Percy

I've done eggs with cream cheese and mushrooms, but never garlic and ginger! That sounds really interesting...I will have that for breakfast sometime this week. Do you add the minced aromatics to the egg mixture, or to the oil in the pan before pouring in the eggs? ← I use garlic and ginger paste (but I am sure thin slices will be fine too), which I add to the pan after I sautee the mushrooms.

Great blog Susan...I pity the fool who's blog follows yours

Susan, The wine event looks and sounds interesting. Was it one of the Wine Spectator run events? Besides the Champagne vs Sparkling wine session (BTW, which did the crowd prefer and were they able to tell the difference in a blind tasting?), were most of the wines from California? Thanks Percy

Yahhh Susan !!! Looking forward to this blog...

Agree with Philadining that the Enchiladas de Mole were good and that the sauce on the Carnitas as great, but my pork as neither crispy nor tender. Overall, not the same caliber as Senoras in West Chester, but not bad for a place in Phoenixville. Oh, and to support Philadining's claim of Phoenixville becoming like West Chester, I also swung by an artisian cheese store that just opened last week (they carry some raw milk cheeses and will be increasing inventory soon).

This weekend I made scrambled eggs with garlic, ginger, mushrooms and cream cheese. Served with croissant and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Dinner tonight consisted of- Cheese Plate (Etorki, Emmental & San Simon), wine and bread Enchilada Mole & Carnitas in green chili sauce from a new Mexican restaurant.

Went to La Famiglia last night and got the thickest wine list ever (approx 14" thick mainly because they have 1 wine per page side, with label and vintages, etc) The food was excellent. My wife has the insulata for starters, and a veal course as an entree. I had the crab cakes for my first course and filet in barolo wine as the main course. There was only 1 dessert option on the menu, which featured 3 mini desserts, including a delicious pear cooked in wine. The service was good, but we did feel a bit rushed, enough though we had ordered a bottle of wine. This is an upscale place and we were dressed appropriately, but did see a few people in jeans and a collar t-shirt, who were seated at a distance. By the time we ordered a $120 bottle of wine, bottled water, etc, our bill was over $100/pp, but to be fair, we could have ordered a cheaper wine by the glass. Might go again with some friends later this week. Cheers Percy

This looks so tasty! All that lovely sausage...mmm. What's that sauce covered mound on the right side of the plate? Some sort of mashed tuber? ← The picture above is a dish called Farmer's Pan, order in Fatal (meaning traditional wooden plate in Hungarian) restaurant, a place known for good and cheap down to earth food. As you can see, they serve a lot of meat and potatoes. The Farmer's pan has veal sausage, black pudding and paprika sausage (which you will see all over Budapest, and is not that spicy). It is served with great tasting potatoes, sauerkraut, tomatoes, hot peppers and the big ball is stuffing covered in a gravy. Here is another view of the dish... Cheers Percy

Just returned from Budapest so I will try to catch up on my Dinner postings: Visited the wine festival at the Buda Castle Meat grill at the wine festival at the Castle The most popular ingredient Beef with blackberries Wild Duck Soup with smoked quail egg Pike with balsamic reduction Sandwich for lunch Filet Mignon with onions and peppers on a bed of potato pancakes Hungarian Dreher Beer Paprika Sausage and potatoes Medieval funnel cake with walnuts Garlic toast with paprika

Well, I just returned from Budapest, where I spent 5 days. I was lucky enough to be there during the wine festival and enjoyed almost every wine I tried. Amazingly Hungary growns some great Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cab, but are most known for Tokaji Azu (the sweet version) but I prefered the dry Tokaji. As for pastries, they have a delicious variety of savory pastries with various stuffings like mushrooms or bacon. They also make something similar to a Sicilian pizza and fry a piece of dough and top it with garlic, sour cream and cheese. Paprika and peppers accompany almost everything. Try the paprika sausages. As for restaurants, I was not overly impressed, but liked the following: Pest Side Cyrano - A small restaurant with great food and a chic setting. Michelin rated. Spoon - This is a stationary riverboat, with good food and a great view of the Buda Palace. 100 Yr Restaurant - I have not been to this place personally, but some of my colleagues said they liked it. Great wine list. Fatal - Down to earth, hungarian version of meat and potatoes cusine. Order the beef bouillon with bone marrow. The potatoes accompanying my Farmers pan were just amazing. There are many hotels on the Pest side by the Danube, which serve excellent cusine. Most of my lunches were catered by the Marriot and I was pleasently suprized by the quality and taste of their cusine. Buda Side Fortuna - Next to the Castle and the Hilton hotel. Nice, but not great, though some dishes stood out, such as the wild duck soup with smoked quail egg. A few pics of the wine festival at the castle and what I ordered at the restaurants: The closest thing I found to a farmers market was the City Market Hall. Hope this helps and feel free to post further questions or email me. Cheers Percy

Hungarian Breakfast - Cottage(?) cheese with paprika, onions and hot peppers. Eaten with bread.

Nice buns Alinka!! (err...that didn't sound right) While in Budapest earlier this week, I had a great cappuccino, a fresh squeezed orange juice and a ham and cheese panini (with the obligatory peppers you find in Hungarian cusine)

OK I'am back.....and sorry I missed this trip...guess I will have to swing by tonight. However, I stumbled into Szechuan Tasty House last week while in Philly and ordered their version of ChaoShou (dumplings in hot oil) and loved it. Cheers Percy

Chicken and Lamb with roasted vegetables (Fennel, Carrots, Celery, Red Onion, etc) While I had the oven on, I put in half a slab of Organic, grass fed beef ribs Since it was a holiday, I also decided to make from Lamb Biriyani:

Thai inspired omelet: With green chilies, garlic, ginger, cilantro and topped with sweet chili sauce.

Good looking (and I am sure tasting) dinners all.... My uncle owns a fishing charter business so when he brought we some fresh caught flounder, I decided to make: Pan seared flounder with preserved lemon and caper sauce: Used some shallots, greek wild capers and thyme. Drizzled with some Manzanilla Olive Oil, which is a cold pressed, unfiltered Spanish olive oil. The lemons were preserved for 2 months, after reading Eric Ripert's cookbook.

After my trip to Bangkok, I was going through withdrawl of fresh-squeezed, unpasturized orange juice. So I got some Just Pik't OJ from whole foods. Also picked up some pastries (Brioche and crossaint) from Aux Petite Delices, a local French pattesserie, which we enjoyed with some coffee.

OK, just don't go without me

Fresh Corn Chowder that my SO made Pepper seared sushi grade tuna open faced sandwich (Inspired by Alinka, but not as good looking or probably tasting...need that Panini press).

This is truley a great little BYO. Here are some pics from a visit a few weeks ago... Amuse Bouche - Rabbit something (if I remember correctly, it was shredded pieces or rabbit topped with what seemed like prune puree). The Mussels - This was a recommendations in the Philly Mag review as well....very nice broth. Steak Frites - This was the most tender hanger steak (onglet) I have ever tasted, including the ones I have had in France. Hope to visit them again soon...if I can get a reservation.

Forgive me for reposting with the images, but personally I think the wine parings are easier to envision with the picture of the dishes next to them: We started with an explosive (quite literally, as the cork went flying as soon as the wire cage was removed) Ratzenberger Riesling Sparkling Brut as an Aperitif.