foodie52

I've seen the amchur powder for sale. I know it is mango, but how is it used and what kind of flavor does it impart to the food?

Too much salt in those....

Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, in Little Havana. There's actually a thread about this somewhere in here... Columbia is the oldest restaurant in the US. The bar is great, they had live music while we were there. It was recommended to us by an egulleteer.

You know what? Nobody's forcing anyone to buy it! And , another way of looking at this ( from a food retailer's standpoint, since I am working in food retail ), the expensive stuff is contributing to keeping your market OPEN. The profit margin on food is anywhere from 1 to 2 %. If you want your markets to stay open, then be glad that other people, lazy or physically challenged or well off, are subsidising your food market by buying the more expensive stuff.

Tripe is the only thing I've ever cooked that I classify as a total failure. Even my dog refused to eat it.

It's ridiculous to pay higher prices for the same stuff, granted....as long as you enjoy cooking and have the time to pound the chicken breasts or wash and cut the cauliflower into florets, while watching the clock and trying to get dinner on the table before the soccer game or the piano lessons etc. What's your time worth to you? Sometimes I buy the "convenience" packages of salads or prepared vegs and actually get a thrill from just ripping open a bag and not having to get out the cutting board and knives! And yes, I'd pay for someone else to do that for me, if I had the $$. Just to play devil's advocate, what is the difference between that and hiring a personal chef to prep for me?

Figs: make a slit in them, stuff with Humboldt fog. Wrap in prosciutto.

Good biscuits are one of the hardest things on earth to make properly! My sister in law , who hailed from St. Louis, made the perfect biscuits every morning when she visited us years ago. I thought, no big deal....until she left and I tried making them myself. Every morning for a month I made biscuits....read, "hockey pucks" until I finally got them right. I've never made them again! We gained 5 pounds that month, too! You have to have southern genes to get them right. I'm convinced about that.

Oh and I thought of something else. I hate the taste of chocolate dipped berries , specifically raspberries and also chocolate-berry desserts. I love berries with whipped cream though.. I really dislike the combination of acidity and that chocolatey whatever. Yuck. It just doesn't taste right to me. I think it makes the chocolate taste sour.

Oh dear.... I'll probably get some flak for this, but I just don't see what the big deal is about Truffle Oil I don't think that its musty flavor warrants the big bucks that it commands. Yeah, it tastes good , drizzled over stuff and the flavor is easily identifiable. But all it says to me is, this stuff is expensive. Should I be impressed?

I love the picture of your cats: what exactly did you bribe them with to pose so beautifully? And I love where you work. It looks so....so.....extraterrestrial!

Part of taking pleasure in eating is in the purchasing. I'm much more inclined to buy fresh, alluring produce from, say, a farmer's market than from my supermarket. Beautiful displays of raw ingredients are a draw. I think bleu shops mostly at small markets? How many Americans ( not living in a great metropolis ) have that opportunity any more? I'd love to know how many small towns have outdoor markets still. Bleu: what struck me about your diet is its similarity to the South Beach. Only, in phase 1, no bread, very few carbs. No favorite fruits: too much sugar. So we are eating lots of salmon, green veggies, hard cheeses ( parmesan mostly).I'm crazy about bread too, which is why I had to smile when I saw your post about craving bread. It is reintroduced after two weeks, though, along with some wine ( hurray!!) I have not been able to give up my morning cup of real tea. I draw the line at that! So I admire you for giving up your coffee: you are a stronger woman than I am!

What a pleasure it must be to diet in France.This thought occurred to me when I saw bleu's picture of the jar of goose fat and her display of fresh foods in her kitchen. This got me to thinking about the differences between dieting in Europe and dieting in the USA. I just started a personalized version of the South Beach diet, mostly because my husband and I want to lose 25 pounds by Thanksgiving. Luckily I have a wonderful source for fresh foods: I work at Central Market in Austin, Texas ( see nessa's blog for photos ), so fresh foods are not a problem for me. But for people in the USA with no place to shop other than Krogers or Safeway: the choices are much reduced. You are forced to eat the same thing day after day.... no wonder people resort to prepared diet foods. This morning I made omelets for us: one egg plus one eggwhite each. I sauteed fresh zucchini, onion and mushrooms first. When the omelets were nearly cooked, I added some smoked salmon and a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan. Sure does beat eating an Atkins bar....

Maggie: check out the Louisiana forum: there's a thread devoted to Upperline restaurant. I was there a few weeks ago and had the Jefferson menu as well. I agree with you that it was simply one of the most delightful meals I have ever had. Did you get to meet JoAnn, the owner? Or the chef? Both are wonderful.

If I ever, EVER have the chance to pay $500 for a meal, the chef had better be standing at the door, ready to shake my hand and thank me for coming.

I've generally found that most drinks taste better with a shot of tequila! What's your favorite? Mine is still Herradura after all these years. Used to be able to buy it in Laredo for $14 a liter. Boy, do I ever miss those days.

Even though portobellos are getting a bad rap , I still like them. Take off the stems and keep them for stock. Make a mixture of goat cheese, fresh herbs and minced garlic, some olive oil and fresh bread crumbs if you have them. If you're grilling, rub the gill sides of the mushrooms with oil and sear. Then put on the topping and grill some more. Or bake them. Do the same with the large buttons.

I've worked for CM for 8 years. The aisles are really wide, come to think of it. It's all food porn there. Great food, great people.

nessa: is that the Dallas or the Plano store? - I work in the Austin one -

I guess the restaurant in Manarola, above the train tunnel is gone. Had the best meals there in 1979...all conversation would come to a halt as the Rome express barrelled through every night!

Forgive me if I don't really add anything to this thread: I'm not a baker, nor do I own my own business. I do work in retail food and supervise a number of people. Would you agree that some people are talented but just plain sloppy? In their work and their thinking? Short attention span, flashes of brilliance. I have someone like that who works for me. When she's good, she's very very good. When she's not paying attention, she screws up. I keep her on because I appreciate her good qualities and I coach her constantly. But I don't think she's ever going to change. And I'm not signing her paycheck! As a consumer, I will visit a bakery a couple of times. If the quality is consistent, I go back. If it isn't, why bother? Plenty of other bakeries out there. That's what would worry me if it were my business.

I agree : all you get is a greasy tube with very little inside. I seem to remember them being larger in diameter when I was a kid. More filling. We actually used to have a great eggroll stand here in Austin, on campus. The eggrolls were two for a dollar. They were greasy, but huge, with lots of filling. The stand got shut down a couple years ago because the owners were supplementing their income by burglaring the campus area.... Waste of a good eggroll source...

I once spent about a month making biscuits every morning until they quit ressembling hockey pucks. A light hand is key. Don't overwork the batter. Shirley Corriher, in her cookbook Cookwise has a good biscuit recipe. I've been lucky enough to have sampled ones she's made. She starts with White Lily self rising flour. They are the lightest biscuit I've ever eaten. She barely works the dough.

Twenty or so years ago a friend and I went to Laredo, right on the border of Texas and Mexico. We went into a restaurant that must have been recommended to us. We were the only customers. The chairs were all red velvet. The windows were covered with red velvet curtains. The walls were covered with art prints: no rhyme or reason to them. Some modern, some Old Masters, all of them ugly. There were at least 10 waiters, all in tuxes, waiting to wait on us. We ordered. The food was .....let's say, faux French. We had shrimp, scallops, fish. Now that I think about it, it's a wonder we weren't poisoned at this land-locked restaurant. But that's not all. The electricity went out and the waiters rushed around lighting candles. It had started to rain. Every time the door to the kitchen swung open, we could see buckets on the floor to catch the drips. There was also a piano player. He obviously had had the same classical education I had had, because he played Fur Elise a couple of times. Then the childhood pieces that Mozart wrote and every kid in America who has ever taken piano lessons knows how to play.Every time he got bogged down, he started from the beginning. A few of the waiters stood around admiringly. He eventually ran out of his classical repertoire at which point he began playing Chopsticks. Over and over, variations on Chopsticks. By this point, we were speechless but having a hell of a good time. The piece de resistance of the meal was the dessert. We ordered Cherries Jubilee. The waiter brought out the icecream and the cherries and a big bottle of brandy. Four or five waiters stood around while the icecream was ignited on a table next to ours. The flames were tremendous. Applause was loud. The bill came to $10.

OK: but can't you get the same intense experience by eating peas, say, right from the pod? Would one wax quite as eloquently about them then? I'm being devil's advocate here: I realize that the pea raviolis taste nothing like raw peas. So the process of taking the raw and turning it into cooked but without compromising the flavor....or is it about enhancing the flavor...is what El Bulli is all about? Or is it kind of like Cirque du Soleil, where your eyes are tricked into believing. In this case your taste buds.