chefzadi

Of course Quick is better than Chez Mac Do .

Even the ones at McDonald's? ← Bien sur. Is that even cooking? Isn't that food assembly?

Because in France most if not all professional cooks/chefs learned through an apprenticeship system (think a bit older) or attended culinary school which is affordable or free and is required unless you own the place. EDIT: I wonder if there is any other country in the world with such an accessible system for training cooks?

I recall seeing cornfields in France, but rarely seeing corn in markets for human consumption. I think most of the corn grown in France goes to making flour and feeding animals. I never ate it in France. Ptipois probably knows more about this than I do. My wife bought some slow roasted corn from a vendor in front of a Mexican grocery store in LA. It was delicious, plain, nothing added.

And i thought the French were culturally sensitive.. , may be it wasn't a French mime.. ← He must have been Belge or Canadian. He followed us around for awhile making the "I'm so sad you misunderstood, my tears are flowing"" mime gestures.

I wouldn't argue that is not correct to a certain degree. But I find it too Arab-centric. Along the way to the Iberain peninsula the Arabs (The Moors by the way were Amazigh led dynasties) picked up Amazigh and Sub-Saharan elements. Apologies for starting something that I do not have to the time to continue with on the boards at the moment. But I would be more than glad to send you some copies of my writings on the subject when they are complete.

My mother never took out the pits either. I don't know about adding cinnamon to clafoutis. Seems a bit strange. I wonder if anyone has tried stuffing a pitted cherry with an alomnd?

I'm curious to know in which region of France Bistro Onion soup is based on Chicken Stock with bacon and balsamic vinegar added. I'm not a stickler for authenticity. Just wondering.

For restaurant applications I prefer to make mine with a beef consomme base. But this might be too expensive for home. Make a good chicken stock and cook down the onions for a long time. It's pretty straightforward. I don't know the recipe you are referring to so I can't help shorten that one. Maybe Michael Ruhlman will post an answer.

I don't know if it's more than a fad. But I will say the younger generation is more casual and less inclined to embrace old fashioned protocal. As for English words in French, reminds me of the conservative French politician who wanted to extract such words. He insisted that a corner kick must be always be called coup de pied de coin.

Hi Chrome, I've been so busy with work this week that I haven't been able to keep up with your blog. I look forward to having the time to read it.

You better be, Gautam Da.

Layers of fat interspersed with meat will help keep the meat moist as already mentioned. If the shawarma is in view of customers covering it with tin foil could be visually unappealing. Turn down the heat or turn if off during slow times. When a customer comes to order, but the meat is not hot I've seen places slice off some meat and reheat it in a pan.

Chromedome- Looking forward to your blog and living 'the dream' (sort of).

I won't be in the neighborhood so I won't be attending. I am looking forward to your thoughts on event afterwards. I think Michelle is planning on going as well.

Sounds wonderful. Cheap lobster and sugar cane juice is so great! If you have any Tanzanian or Zanzibarian recipes it would be nice to see them / I need more African inspiration. ← I don't know if you can read French but if you google Cuisine Africaine alot of French langauge websites come up. For Norther African try Cuisine du Maghreb ← Please post the recipe.

Are we talking about Hell's Kitchen on Fox or RKN on BBC? A thread on how the kitchen line works might be interesting for the audience here.

I wouldn't argue that some of the assistance ends up the way you describe. However in an expensive city like Los Angeles with ever increasing rents it is increasingly difficult for lower income working parents with say two children to make ends meet.

That's part of it for obesity coupled with malnutrition. Most of the remaining calories come from porcessed/packaged foods. Also the kids I teach in the inner city are not obese. I suspect their parents simply do not have enough money to fill their tummies with food period. Sometimes I teach the classes right after lunch time but they still finish off everything I make them. I try to prepare pretty good portions. 1 full tortilla stuffed with vegetables and soy cheese and yogurt parfaits. The kids don't look like they are starving but the signs of inadequate nutrition are there, the skin, hair, nails, eyes... Nevermind the tattered, hand me down clothes and worn out shoes. Also at a shelter that I want to get more involved with, if a single homeless mother in transition has $1.00 to spend on food, I doubt she would spend it on soda, more like a bag of pasta.

Actually the articles states "serious malnourishment" but it didn't fit into the box. Article According to census reports in filthy rich LA County the percentage living below the poverty line is 17.9 % compared to the National level of 12.4%. Another paradox amongst the poor is obesity coupled with malnutrition.

In Egypt the accent is on the first syllable, as you assumed, with the broad a sound of your 'ah'. The 't' at the beginning is stressed such that it's almost, but not quite, a 'd'. I hear it as "TAA-jeen" or "TAA-geen" (with a hard 'g') depending on the area. Chefzadi, I apologize for apparently misunderstanding you. ← No need to apologize at all. I pronounce it TAA-jeen. A Tunisian family and a Moroccan family moved Montmerle where I grew up. The Moroccan woman used to take care us when my parents would go away, yes all 7 kids! That's North African hospitality! The Tunisian family never gave us a crumb (another side of North African hospitality. ). Anyway the spicing for Moroccan tajines was so different from the Eastern Algerian style we would wonder "what mysterious thing is she making" but I still dream about her pastries to this day. As for the word tagine being referred to certain kinds of dishes made in a particular type of vessel, it's grown beyond it's local usage. If a Tunisian chef instructor is doing a demo on his couscous and maraqa in Los Angeles he will simply call the maraqa a tagine because the word rings a bell. He might call a Tunisian Tajine a Tunisian frittata. Because to call it a tajine in LA would cause too much confusion. It's not like most people are interested in the finer points of it all and even if one knows the finer poins, common usage begins to define meaning. If you look at French langauge Magrhebi cooking sites there is some attempt to provide more descriptive names, but we don't want to lose our local heritages either. It's beginning to give me a big headache. It's important but not so important in another sense. I have a collection of Kabylie recipes but alot of the recipes are not particularly Amazigh nor are they Arab, it's a combination of both. When I get together with other Maghrebis to talk about food, alot of times we don't know what from the names untill we see the food or describe it's components. In Algeria some dishes literally translated mean "food with meat" The food being couscous. The meat being a braise or stew. So we don't talk about it, we prepare the food together and enjoy it together and that is when we realize how similar we are.

I've had a number of tagines in Luxor at various restaurants. I may have had them in Cairo also. They aren't at all like Moroccan tagines in flavor or cookware, but they are stews of various sorts (lamb tagine, fish tagine, chicken tagine, etc.) I won't make a sweeping judgment about how it works all over the country, but in these particular cases I don't think they're trying to evoke Morocco, since the restaurants are Egyptian and make no reference to any other country. Finally, my moussaka pot (Egyptian) is *always* called a tagine in Luxor; that word specifies a particular type and size of pot. It bears no resemblance to the Moroccan tagine. Perhaps the word "tagine" is drifting across countries and taking on new meaning? ← Smithy, I'm not saying the word tagine evokes Morocco. I mentioned that Algerians and Tunisians also use the term when speaking French or English when we are talking about our own food. What I am saying is that the word rings some bells with those who are not familiar with certain types of dishes with an Arabic name, so the word 'tagine' used to ring some bells of familiarity. There are several countries in Northern Africa between Morocco and Egypt where it is not a part of the traditional lexicon. Also a tagine is traditionally an Amazigh (Berber) cooking vessel. The population of Amazighs in Egypt is fairly small. Also I am from the edge of the Kabylie. My family is culturally more Amazigh than Arab. We do not use the term to refer to stews/soups. And yes we do use the cooking vessel called a tagine.

Of course Jay, I didn't mean to exclude anyone. I could have said Arab world, but that would exclude the Amazighs

I have heard Saudis produce the deadliest hooch known to mankind. But Farid, you will no doubt be pleased to know the modern Lebanese wine industry was begun with Cinsault vines imported from Algeria Actually, I think one of the articles linked above mentions that. ← The Phoenicians were in North Africa before the Romans. I guess we keep passing things back and forth.

Add Algeria to the list of cuisines/cultures 'under the radar'. I really miss the variety of Arabic, North African and halal products they have in France. But in Los Angeles, I'm not left wanting too much except for the halal charcuterie. I wonder if most of the Islamic countries produce wine? I know they do in North Africa. Algerian wines can be very good and I'm not saying that for patriotic reasons. I'll look for the Lebanese wines mentioned, I'm sure they carry it at the Middle Eastern stores around here.