Chufi

I'm really enjoying this, the colors, the shapes, the information! I love how you sliced and arragend your kiwi and apple on that beautiful plate. I may have asked this question before on another Japanese blog, but if I did, I forgot the answer. With a meal like this, would you eat everything in front of you? and how would you eat the different components , one at a time, or in a certain order? you said something about the positioning of the different bowls so I am assuming it does matter what you eat first? I find this fascinating, it´s so far removed from just eating a bowl of pasta until it´s finished

I saw this a year ago at a documentary festival here in Amsterdam and really enjoyed it. Well enjoyed is perhaps not the best word! I think it was beautifully done and especially liked the fact that, like you said, it leaves you to draw your own conclusions. No morality forced on the viewer, just the cool eye of the camera showing you everything from rows and rows of cucumbers to enormous piles of baby chickens. I just wrote this on another thread, so it seems to be the theme of the day, but I really like to be made more aware of where my food comes from.

Personally, I´m much more distressed when I see the styrofoam packets of pork in my supermarket, having seen documentaries on how pigs are treated during there short and miserable lives, than I am by looking a beautiful healthy animal in the eye, knowing it´s had a good life, has been treated well, and now will end up on my or somebody elses plate. This is a great thing you´re doing and thanks for sharing it, and all your thoughts and emotions about it, with us. Looking forward to the rest of this thread!

Oh my that looks good! Is it just the warm dressing that's wilting the spinach, or was the spinach also cooked in the pan with the steak?

I've been eating my way through fridge, freezer and pantry now for a couple of weeks, because we're moving in 2 weeks! I haven't bought any rice, noodles, grains etc for a month now and I told myself about a month ago, I wasn't allowed to buy anything if I wasn't really sure I would finish it before March 10. This worked really well! I have to throw out a bunch of stuff from the freezer though.. stuff that should have been thrown out a long time ago! Tonight is risotto (bye bye arborio rice) and tomorrow is beef and barley soup (bye bye barley)!

thanks, all! my entertaining days, even the fast and easy ones, are over until March 10 when we move to the new apartment. But after that, I'm expecting lots of people over to see the new place, for exactly this: a fast but festive midweek dinner, so I think all of these ideas will come in very handy then!

it sounds good Prawncrackers.. what would the condiments for the chicken be? oh and btw.. this would be weekend entertaining... because there is no way I can find either a decent whole chicken in my supermarket.. or a whole fish for that matter.. I told you our supermarkets are horrible and really don´t deserve the word ´super´

Lorna, I don't hang out in the China forum much but I stumbled upon this thread by accident, how wonderful to read another of your trip reports! It looks like you had a wonderful time and ate really, really well Congratulations to you and Henry on your upcoming wedding, I wish you lots of great trips and great meals and happy (food) memories for your future life together! p.s. I keep going back to that dish of sliverd pork, chili and pressed tofu, for some reason that looks soooo good to me right now!

Peter, thank you, again, for a wonderful travelogue. I feel they are truly among the best stuff here on eGullet. I doubt that I will ever get to Bogota, but thanks to your pictures and great writing I've learned some things about it! Thank you and please never stop travelling, taking pictures, eating and reporting

I'm enjoying this so much. Market pictures, always my favorite, and then all that lovely bread and those pastries! Rugelach! I want one of those right now! I also love the mosaics in your pavement, especially the pomegranate. Beautiful.

When I was living in Hamburg as a student, I shared an apartment with a friend. There were 2 bedrooms and one kitchen. While the kitchen would have been big enough to be nicely equipped, it wasn't. There was NO counterspace. I mean, really NO counterspace. There was 1 tiny freestanding sink, attached to one of the walls, with a mirror above it which was handy, because this kitchen sink doubled as bathroom sink.. because the kitchen was ALSO our bathroom (though we did have separate toilet ) So there was this little sink, with no counterspace around it, a stove and a fridge. The only area that you could do any prep on was the top of the fridge, or the kitchen table, but the table was usually covered with newspapers and books etc. .. there was also no storage. NO cupboards or anything. Just 2 shelves that held everything we owned: pots and pans and plates and glasses and the big breadbox that was always filled with lovely German sourdough bread. It was the worst kitchen I've ever had, or seen. I guess It was a good thing that I survived on crackers and cheese and full-fat German dairy products, and wasn't much of a cook back then. Serious cooking in that kitchen would have been a serious challenge.

How fortunate! I was just looking at this thread with interest, thinking about how to explore local eats on our trip to Europe this summer. May I inquire what you charge for this service? (Feel free to PM if preferred.) ← Hi, You can contact me through my website (link in my signature)!

maybe I do, but I don't even know what that is okay, report back on last nights dinner: the Delia chicken was great, it has to be in the oven for close to an hour but mixing the sauce takes very little time. Sticky sweet and spicy chicken, dig in and eat with your hands kind of food. For dessert I made semolina puddings, which were very quick and easy: throw some fruit (I used bottled apricots but I think bottled cherries, fresh raspberries, blackberries etc would also be very nice) in 4 ramekins. Heat 500 ml full fat milk, stir in 3 tablespoons semolina and cook for a couple of minutes until it begins to thicken. Add 100 grams sugar, some vanilla, and 2 well beaten eggs. Pour over the fruit and bake for 15-20 minutes until just set. Served lukewarm (with thick cream)

Doodad, check out the regional threads in the Italy forum. Use the keyword Cuisine in the lower left corner (Search This Forum) and those threads (The cooking and Cuisine of Campania, Emilia Romagna, etc) will pop up. A wealth of info to be found there!

I do this in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

there are some great ideas here, thanks! Asian food - yes, I agree it's fast and healthy and good.. somehow I never make it for company maybe because I haven't been cooking Asian-style dishes that long and I'm still not that confident about them? rachel, I would NEVER think of fried chicken as fast and easy Roast chicken, yes! for tonight, I decided on a baked chicken dish (this Delia Smith recipe) couscous panfried belgian endive Abra thanks to you mentioning clafoutis I remembered a sort of apricot semolina clafoutis-like pudding. I have a bottle of apricots in the pantry and a ton of semolina to use up before the move so that's what's for dessert.

Quesadillas is a great idea. Supermarkets here in Amsterdam are pretty horrible. No good meat, no fresh fish. Decent, if expensive, vegetables though. I usually make pasta, a salad, and a simple dessert (storebought icecream, a quick fruit crumble). And have a bit of cheese, pate etc. with crackers to start. But the friends who are coming over tomorrow eat a lot of pasta at home. Which is what prompted my question - I just could not think of anything but pasta I don't have a crockpot, but it's on my wishlist of things to buy right after we move to the new apartment. I've wanted one for a long time and seems like the perfect piece of kitchen equipment for me!

So, you're busy, your spouse is busy, your friends are busy, you're all busy. But you all have to eat, so dinner seems the perfect opportunity to meet, and catch up. Which means you have to cook something. Something just a little bit more interesting than if it were just the 2 of you at home. You don't have time to go to out of the way little delis to pick up some high quality stuff, you have to make do with supermarket ingredients. And you don't have time to cook ahead, and put something on to braise, say, the night before... You're home from work around 6 and you want dinner on the table around 7:30 Oh, and it all has to be budget friendly. What are your standbys for night like that?

and, slightly OT; why are Barbera and Vernaccia feminine wines? (and even more OT... why does the answer to a question always lead to new questions ... )

Ok, I understand. there are a LOT of scaloppine alla Marsala roaming the internet though which leads me to the question.. how 'bad' a mistake is this? Ofcourse from now on I'll try to do it right.. but, if an Italian sees alla Marsala, will he be horrified or just slightly annoyed?

I was thinking about scaloppine with marsala and as I looked up recipes online, I found it described both as scaloppine AL Marsala and scaloppine ALLA Marsala. Which is the correct Italian spelling? Or are they both correct but mean different things?

I don't disagree with you, but cafes in the states serve American style lattes. The Italian latte macchiato isn't nearly as popular in Italian cafes as American style lattes are in American cafes. Right. But I figure that, in Amsterdam, she's getting an Italian-style treatment. ← Don't be too sure! I've been to Italy and I've been to the US. This really is a Starbucks clone. And they TRY the latte art but they're horrible at it 70C is pretty warm, I'd say. If you're getting latte that seems lukewarm to me, I have to believe that it's significantly cooler than that. ← I guess I just have a high heat tolerance. I now ask them to take out the little thermometer, stick it in the milk and heat the milk to 90 C. This gives me a hot latte & sullen looks from the barista person. I go and sit in my corner and sip my hothot coffee, and I'm happy. Now I know I'm wrong, but that won't stop me from ordering it that way.

I don't disagree with you, but cafes in the states serve American style lattes. The Italian latte macchiato isn't nearly as popular in Italian cafes as American style lattes are in American cafes. ← and this American style latte is supposed to be lukewarm? or is there a way to make a steaming hot latte with milk that has not been heated over 160F?

In Amsterdam, we have a couple of chains, I call them Starbucks wannabes (no Starbucks in The Netherlands yet). They serve all the usual suspects, espresso, latte, a 'regular' coffee they call Americano. While in most cases, a regular black coffee, is my preferred coffee-beverage, I cannot stand their Americano. It's bitter, ist's too strong no matter how much I makte them dilute it, it's vile. (okay. why am I going there anyway? because they have one place, near the market where I always shop, and it has the best view, nice people come there, it's on my best friends + dog route to the park so I always meet him there, they have all the newspapers and magazines I want to read, it's quiet and I just love to sit there for hours, reading, working, writing, thinking, looking out the window). So, no Americano. After ordering all their coffees I settled on the latte, with skimmed milk. It has a good flavor. I like the skimmed milk. But. It's COLD. After they pour it, I could just swallow the whole thing in one gulp. Now to me, that's not coffee. I like my coffee steaming hot. So hot that you have to take a careful first sip, and then slowly a second sip, and after 5 sips, the coffee is still hot. Their latte is lukewarm. I ask for a hot latte. They preheat the cup, which helps a bit, and then I ask them to make the milk extra hot. They do this, but it does not help much. I ask for extra extra hot milk. And then they tell me that they are not supposed to heat the milk above 150 F. That it will ruin the flavor of the milk. I go home and look this up online and yes, they seem to be right. So. Should I stop annoying them and ask for hot latte? Does nobody else care about drinking lukewarm latte? Am I missing the latte-point? Should I just learn to drink their black coffee (which is hot)?

Hi everybody I'm sorry to announce there will be no big birthdaydinner this year. Don't worry, I still have a husband, and he has his birthday next week. But there are circumstances which made us decide to skip the big dinner this year, or at least postpone it. We're moving in a couple of weeks, and between sorting out all our stuff, packing, and keeping the current house in perfect condition for the viewings, I just wasn't up to it. But, there will be a small and simple and very casual get together for the family this weekend, and because it seems so sad to not post on this thread this year, I will report about that, and ask your advice here's what I have planned for 7 people. This is for our parents, who like 'plain' food, nothing too spicy, nothing too weird. But ofcourse it also has to please Dennis, after all it's his party! appetizers the tiny appetizer version of these smoked eel rolls shrimp cocktail devilled egs then: leek soup with fresh tarragon celeriac, bacon and mushroom quiche (I'm making these in muffinpans so they're like individual tarts) a big green salad I feel this needs something else. Ideas? For dessert I want to make something special but preferably without a zillion calories. I'm really at a loss there. all advice very much appreciated