chefzadi

that would be great. thank you Adam. according to teresa de castro who contributed to the encyclpaedia of food and culture with an overview of the Iberian penisula flatbreads are a Moorish influence. Cocas have different names in Algeria depending on the region. Some places they are simply called Kesra with whatever topping

hmmm, I wonder where the Algerians got their Cocas? Does anyone know how Spanish cocas are prepared?

MIAM is of course excellent and you get free French lessons as well. I'm planning on translating my friend chef Sergio's recipes into English for the site. He has some wonderful photo turtorials taken at his restaurant. blog appétit a peak into what French bloggers are making at home. You will see a diverse array of dishes. If the French have an aversion to something I don't see it in home cooking or in our own forums.

Hey more power to ya! But if we catch you waxing rhapsodic about great Rachel Ray is, we're coming up to Ithaca and deprogramming you. As for your tech problems, domain name-servers do flake out every once in a while, but usually not as much as you're experiencing.... you could write all your links with the absolute URLs, eg -http://www.prettytothink.typepad.com/pagename.html- etc, instead of using minorgourmandry.com if that's causing problems. In any case, keep blogging, hopefully the IT guys will straighten the rest out! Sorry, I'n getting further OT than chefzadi! (But while we're off track, "hits" doesn't tell you much, "page views" might actually have some meaning....) ← since we're off track. I agree page views mean more, it shows that people are reading not just clicking through.

I was thinking of you when I posted this. So what is this place in Toronto?

I wonder what business people eat during power lunches in Vietnam?

Bravo Pedro and Chef Santimaria! Brilliant. I recall Chef Corelli said similar things. I couldn't agree more. Thank you for the interview and I look forward to the final installment.

will there be photos? prefereably of pastries.

I'll help a little semaine means week or something like that.

quelle nightmare ← sounds like something that would obliterate the lingering aftertaste of the zone bar.

What's a twix?

I add less salt with sous vide than with say braising, because the normal amount of salt would render the dish too salty. How's that for science? I liked Hesser's article by the way. I also liked her last one "Bleu plate special"

How does it taste?

Someone emailed me and to tell me about a few places in Kansas City, MO Frozen merguez is available at the Mediterranean markets there. I know that several Whole Foods in LA carry it as well. Apparently other locations in the country do as well. There is a Palestinian bakery there as well and of the cooks is Tunisian. My Kansas City contact as promised to come back with addresses. I wonder if anyone here from KC knows of the places.

How many per month do the more popular blogs get? I've been wondering about that. There's one that's been around for a couple of years, claims 700,000 hits per month. I don't know if that' really representative of focused readers or people who click on accidently through search engines for a topic and then quickly leave. Oops, don't mean to hijack the thread. The link works fine for me.

I saw alot of vacuum packed foods in Korea. There's a garlic pickle that packaged that way, extradordinarily crisp. Not something I really eat, but the texture is incredible. Maybe a fancy restaruant will serve it "this garlic has been cryovaced"

Thank you Chris. I'm sure the information you provided is very helpful to those in your area. I really hope we get a good list going here. In New York Zeitoun told me of this place: Naseem, Halal and Mediterranean Grocery 25-65 Steinway St. Astoria, NY. Apparently they have real Tunisian malsouka leaves perfect for making brik and basteeya. I'll post my LA list, but really most of the ingredients for basic home cooking are readily available. Not my first choice but even the a starter range of spices can be found in regular supermarkets, trader joes and Whole Foods.

I know there are websites that list such places. But I'm looking for more personal information. I will post my list of places where I shop a little bit later. I can't seem to access the file at the moment. So where do you get your spices, merguez, couscous, grains, meats, vegetables, etc? I would appreciate names and addresses. It would be interesting see the situation in different parts of the world. Thank you.

That's great list. I still cannot get over the variety of home cooking you. Excellent.

I would not accuse of them of using food coloring, but I would not rule it out either. ← yeah the thought did occur to me but i would hope at that level they wouldn't be stooping to that ← could be parsley juice.

Hi, finally catching up on this thread. Is cashcavallo a sicilian cheese? The fried preparation reminded me of something I've seen done with Cypriot haloumi cheese, and cashcavallo sounds a lot like the Arabic term we use for a similar Lebanese cheese -- Kashkawan. There must be a connection there, either Arab or just Mediterranean. I find it really interesting. What's funny is, my last name is Arabic, but I've had a number of Italians ask me if I am from southern Italy, as there is apparently a large population with the same name. I was looking on the Ellis Island site one time, and put my last name in out of curiousity -- there were as many people with my name from Italy as there were from Arab countries. Weird! I think I need to buy Clifford Wright's Arab Sicily book now. BTW, as far as Sicilian couscous, Paula Wolfert posted a recipe yesterday on Chefzadi's blog. ← That's an excellent book. And Paula's recipe is excellent as well and she offers some backstory to the preparation. I very casually assumed that the North Africa Sicily connection began with the Saracens. But it was much earlier The Phoenicians (modern day Lebanese and Syrians) settled Carthage (Tunis) and quickly expanded to other ports into Algeria and one time Carthage rivaled Tyre in wealth. Those chic Phoenicians were also accomplished seafarers trading with Mediterraneans on all sides of the Basin. My last name Zadi is also found in Italy (mostly with Italian first names and just a few Arabic first names) more than in France. I know it's found throughout the Med, North Africa and the Middle East. Don't know where it originated exactly.

I'll have to try fried kibbe with sweet chili sauce next time I visit my parents. If only to see the look of disgusted resignation on my dad's face. No, that's too long to wait. Maybe I'll phone my brother and have him go over there and report back. ← Chili sauce (especially sriracha) is just plain good on alot of fried things. I did try haggis in Scotland. Now that I think about it, lots of chili sauce would have been welcomed.

Thanks for the link Abroma Chef Ramzi is referenced in this forum often. I know he has a website, I can't find it at the moment.

Summer in Scotland? I remember an hour. Really nice blog Adam. You do some amazing home cooking.

She has some really beautiful photos on her website. Such a fine hand!