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Dasha

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Everything posted by Dasha

  1. That was fabulous, Amy! I'm a regular reader of your blog but it was great fun to see your food live on a daily basis. I have to tell you that I returned from vacation on Friday, sort of bummed to be back in the cold, but I immediately squeed with happiness to see that you were the foodblogger of the week. I hope you do it again!
  2. Even at 6 in the morning, everything looks so, so good. Hiroyuki, you are an advertisement for living in Japan! My husband and I just returned from a vacation in Mexico where there was a supposedly Japanese restaurant at our resort. All I have to say is that if you have the opportunity to order sushi in Mexico, DON'T DO IT! The selections on the menu were appalling. Eel roll with cream cheese, anyone? Deep-fried California roll (with mushrooms in it, no less)? It was frightening. We're happy to be back in a city with some decent sushi, but it can't begin to compare to the gorgeous sushi Hiroyuki is showing us.
  3. Yay, another Israeli blog! Were you born in Israel, Lior?
  4. When does the new blog start? :::twiddles fingers impatiently:::
  5. You are SO lucky! I will do just about anything for good pelmeny, but only a few little Russian groceries here in St. Paul stock them and the quality isn't great. There's a fabulous Russian restaurant that makes incredibly delicious pelmeny but they're pretty expensive. But they're sooooo addictive! One of these days I'll have to try to make them. Have you ever made homemade pelmeny?
  6. What a fabulous blog, Pille! I'm glad I'm eating my lunch right now or I'd be going crazy from your pictures and descriptions. I spent a semester studying in Moscow in 1992, just as the Soviet Union was breaking up. While I made it as far as Lithuania, I never got to Estonia and now I regret it, especially after seeing the pictures of the wild mushrooms! I'm interested in hearing about how food has changed since Estonia became independent. When I was living in Moscow, I was really struck by how there was very little packaged food on the market and what little variety of fresh food was available, except for the wonderful (but overpriced) produce and dairy products available at farmer's markets. There were also very few restaurants back then, and not much ethnic variety, besides the fabulous Georgian restaurants and a few Central Asian places. We were dying for Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese food. All this has changed in Moscow, of course. What was shopping/eating at home/eating in restaurants like during the Soviet years and how has it changed?
  7. Yay, a Malaysia foodblog, the type of blog that gives me the most food envy of all! Glad to see you blogging again, yunnermeier! Your Mother's Day dinner looks amazing. What do sweet potato leaves taste like? They're gorgeous looking...
  8. Woo hoo! I LOVED your first two blogs and I'm really excited about having you blog again! I love the universality of food. Here I am, thousands of miles away from Amsterdam, and yet half the stuff in your fridge is what's currently sitting in mine...
  9. Hello to everyone. This is my first post in the Japan forum, although I've been lurking here for a few months... You all have really inspired me and I've made quite a few yummy Japanese meals, including curry, chirashi zushi, and tonkatsu. You've also turned me into a raving Pocky addict. Thanks, everyone! I made my first okonomiyaki last night and it was a big hit. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the camera out and take a picture. We made ours using a packaged mix with cabbage, green onion, shrimp and bacon, topped with crumbled nori and katsuo bushi. I forgot to get the proper sauce at the Asian market, but we used tonkatsu sauce and Kewpie mayo and...YUM! The leftovers were even good cold this morning for breakfast. The only thing that was a challenge was flipping the darn thing. We don't have a flat skillet so I used our biggest frying pan and flipped with two spatulas. Despite my best efforts, I sort of crushed one side of it. Is there a trick I'm missing or is it just best to not get greedy and make such a huge okonomiyaki?
  10. Part of the problem (but by no means the whole problem) seems to be how spread out the Twin Cities are and how many people live in the suburbs. People seem to be unwilling to come into Minneapolis or St. Paul during the week for dinner, especially for fine dining, when they can just go to the Big Bowl or the Chili's at the local mall. The problem can be seen even with not-so-fine dining, such as the woes recently faced by the Midtown Global Market. Many suburban folks (and I'm not trying to insult everyone who lives in the suburbs) have heard stories about how dangerous East Lake Street is and aren't about to drive all the way there and try to find parking, for first-rate tamales and free range chicken when they can get third-rate tamales at Don Pablo's and regular chicken at Cub Foods or Byerly's without having to brave the city. While I have no problem with MGM's location and even applaud the planners for trying to revitalize that part of town, I do think it was a mistake to put the market on East Lake. Similar markets such as Pike Place in Seattle are much better located, just off downtown so that they're convenient for people who happen to be downtown for something else to drop by and shop.
  11. Mmmm, I have to say that your pictures are the BEST in food porn! If I could crawl through my computer and have some of that fried rice for breakfast, I would in a minute. Funnily enough, my husband just bough me Hot Sour Salty Sweet as an impromptu (if a little selfish--since he gets to eat the results) gift. so I'm heading to the United Noodles, the big Asian supermarket here in the Twin Cities, and making this fried rice this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration!
  12. Dasha

    Dinner! 2007

    Oh my! I would happily eat the oxtail dish, little ms foodie, even for breakfast!
  13. I made your version of kimchi jigae and it was soooo easy and delicious! I should have taken a picture but that would have involved getting the camera out of the desk drawer and I'm lazy... Thanks for a great dinner idea, jeanki!
  14. If there's one culture that really knows how to do dinner, it's Russians. I studied in Moscow in college and I loved being a guest in Russian homes. Fancy dishes didn't matter, nor did fancy manners, nor the did the fact that my Russian (even after 3 years of study) sucked. What mattered was having a great big crowd around the table, tons of amazing food, even more vodka, and lots of conversation--language barrier or no. I miss those days and miss my friend Anton's father's borscht.
  15. Garlic salt. No, seriously. There is a time and place for fresh garlic (and right now my hands smell of garlic after chopping it), but garlic salt is handy for some things, like adding a last-minute jolt of garlicky taste to a soup or a stew. Or, my favorite, old school garlic toast like my mother used to make. Smear any kind of bread (the other night it was leftover onion buns) with garlic, sprinkle with garlic salt, and broil. Slightly trashy, but yummy goodness! Also, celery salt. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't make decent cole slaw until my husband pointed out that celery salt was the key. I'm forever indebted to him for that.
  16. These are a few things that I always like to freeze, basic as they are: Chili Spicy black beans (serve with rice) Beef stew Hungarian goulash Lasagne Chicken soup (make it without noodles or rice and add those when you make it) Ah, winter is such a good time to make meals that freeze well!
  17. I have to say that I'm really intrigued about the idea of broccoli slaw in borscht. Have you made it with this before? How does it taste? Cabbage is, of course, de rigeur for borscht, but broccoli...sounds yummy. (I'm a big, big fan of the borscht...the ultimate winter comfort food. And I'm a HUGE fan of the Please to the Table cookbook.)
  18. I have to say that while I'll eat just about anything, the idea of watermelon and creamy blue cheese sauce seriously made me want to hurl. I can't think of a worse dessert combination.
  19. I love The Best New Recipe, by Cook's Illustrated. Just like the magazine, they test and re-test, and tinker with basic favorites until they are as delicious as possible, with a minimum of effort (usually). It also has lots of sections on fundamentals, which is really helpful if you're just starting out, or getting back into cooking. I use my cookbook all time and many pages are splattered with various sauces and condiments...
  20. I'm really looking forward to this blog! The pancakes make me wish I'd made some for breakfast this morning. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!
  21. We definitely don't have spires that that in Minnesota, unless there's some architectural wonder I've missed out on!
  22. I'd just like to add my voice to the chorus of Fage addicts. So creamy and delicious, even the nonfat! I only wish every supermarket carried it. This week we ordered groceries from Simon Delivers and they don't have Fage, so I bought some Stonyfield Farm plain nonfat yogurt for our breakfasts. While it tastes just fine, it doesn't have the lovely consistency and the tang of Fage.
  23. Dasha

    Pride

    Oh, that sounds soooo good! Do you have any pictures to share? I find that half the fun of Japanese food is the beauty of it...
  24. Because I frequently pre-order some of our groceries from Simon Delivers, I usually try to plan 3-4 meals for the coming week. This is a fairly new thing for us, and it seems to work well. I used to aimlessly wander the supermarket in a daze, throwing things into the cart. This led to spending too much money and coming home and finding that I had $100 worth of food that didn't actually amount to any concrete meals. Also, we're trying to bring our lunches to work, rather than eating out/ordering takeout all the time, so I need to think about what would be good as leftovers and what else I need to order to make healthy lunches. I only plan 3-4 meals for the week because 1) we'll probably want to go out to eat at least once in the week or do takeout and 2) there may be a night when we're too tired to do anything besides make a sandwich or defrost some chili or soup from the freezer. I'm definitely more flexible with this in the summer/early fall, when we have the St. Paul Farmer's Market , and my shopping tends to be inspired with what I find on my weekly expeditions there. Same goes for weeks when I go to United Noodles, the huge Asian supermarket, or one of the Latino markets.
  25. I made the Korean Home Cooking thread's dak galbi earlier this week, only in the crock pot, so it turned out as more of a stew. Although I should have added the cabbage later, as it disintegrated into practically nothing, it was delicious! Your version looks even better. Nakji, your fabulous blog has given me a horrible 7:00 a.m. craving for pho, bahn mi, or anything involving bun. Unfortunately, in St. Paul we can find excellent renditions of Vietnamese food, but not first thing in the morning! Thank you so much for such an informative and appetizing blog. I'm truly jealous that you get to have such fascinating experiences in other cultures...
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