chefzadi

Do tell me more about these smen recipes.

Okay, so I said my previous post would be my last. This one really is. Um, the commercial stuff is different from the homemade stuff my MIL uses. Have you tried the homemade stuff? Or are you talking about the commercial? My MIL's family made it when she was a little girl and when she can she gets the stuff from the country (shi-gol). EDIT: "Best" according to my MIL. I doubt she cares if anyone agrees and is not trying to convince anyone. Just a preference of hers I'm passing on.

MIL says "yeh nal, yeh nal eh" (however you transliterate that) it just wasn't that common, so yeah, it's possible that some people just don't know about it according to her. I don't really have the time to post her lenghty description of how it's made, sorry. She says it's the best for kimchi as far as she's concerned. And she does it use it to season soups and stews too. As for commercial brands, get this, she prefers the three crabs brand to the Korean brands. That's it for me on this topic. It's too hard posting information from other folks. My Franglish and their Konglish. It's too much for me.

Um, this is what I'm talking about Korean fish sauce called ack-jeot . I just had the wife verify again to be sure. It is indeed filtered, does not have bits of fish in it and MIL says it is like the better homemade fish sauces from Southeast Asia. EDIT: The link is to something by Ewha Women's University and it states that fish sauce is traditional for kimchi and it is indeed clarified.

wah, really? is it dark? is it pungent? can you describe how it tastes? how do you use it? in kimchi? jjigae? ← There's some post here by touaregsand about it. She has some photo of it somewhere. I can't find it.

My MIL brought a fish sauce from the country with her. It is pretty thick and did not have little fish or seafood things in it. It's not a common thing, the consistency is different, but fish sauce does exist in Korean cooking.

I spent many late nights/early morning in Seoul getting over...well you get the idea... hanogver cures? Soup, all different kinds of soup, the spicier the better. But my favorite is kalbitang at 3:00 am in the middle of winter at a tiny hole in the wall in Itaewon. Maybe the soup you are talking about is haejangguk? My reference for these things is taking a bath at the moment.

I missed this part. Yes, I've heard of this from my wife's parents, except in dishes where they are supposed to be touching like bibimbap. T hey're not that old though. LOL. They are just very strict about how Korean food is presented and eaten. EDIT But not the part about refusing to eat kimbap, that's not lower class food by anyone's standards, not that I know of.

My daughter's dosirak, the closed box has two compartments for banchan. My wife and her brothers remember the dosirak with the compartments and everything stayed separate. Her brothers say the teachers actually checked dosiraks before the kids ate, no shaking. I'm talking early to mid 70's in Seoul.

That has to some trashy dosirak. I've never seen one that sloppy and sloppy is not a given characteristic of Korean dosirak. You really have to go out of your way to find one that looks like that. I lived there for a few years... Dosirak is dosirak and not a Korean version of Japanese bento. Like jschyun said Japanese words were used because of occupation, doesn't make it neccessarily Japanese influence. boxed meals go way back in Korea. I saw them at museums.

Patents, food and big corporations? Monsanto and GMO corn seed, anyone?

Sorry for nitpicking, but this is a strange idea. ← Not really.

Well, we're no longer discussing national styles anymore but competence and price ranges. The more common versions of French-style pastry in France, or of any pastry anywhere, are not great either. Pâtisserie is a fragile art. As for creativity I'll skip the subject because I don't think the notion goes well with pastry-making. ← Well, I don't have the time to sit around nitpicking with you. The common versions are more indicative of National style than the "haute" ones.

Have you tried the more common versions of French style Japanese pastries? They are flat and insipid, no taste. They look the same. There is not much creativity there. It does not suit my tastes. I do not expect French pastries to suit the Japanese tastes. Goodie for difference tastes. There is nothing wrong with that. We are talking about countries with VERY different cuisines to begin with... This is all very subjective...

I should add that his flageolets remind me of France and in terms of food nothing much outside of France reminds me of home.

I tried Rancho Gordo's beans and ate more beans in 2 weeks than I did in the last 5 years combined! They are out of this world good. I'm a big meat eater, so beans as an alternative are very cost effective for me. I'm a big eater in general and I would say that I got about 6 servings for me out of a bag of Gordo's beans and I added only about 1/4-1/2 pound of lamb.

I would suggest asking this question in the Mexico subforum, not here. ← That's a great suggestion. I'm sure there is someone else in the Mexico forum who has looked for Moroccan produce in Spain. I will rephrase the question. What did you buy in Spain??? Clever way of figuring out what is not available in Mexico while keeping it on topic to Spain.

I orderd a bunch of beans from Rancho Gordo recently. I tried the flageolets first!!! Unbelieveble flavor and texture!!! Yes, it doesn't surprise me either at that Chef Keller uses Rancho's beans. They are definately top quality. Very distinctive products that help preserve biodiversity too. I made a spicy Algerian/Tunisian style lamb and bean stew with his flageolets. I soaked the flageolets overnight.

what are the oldest known records of the Chinese humoral system? ← Zadi, I did some extracurricular reading about 40 years ago, but I believe that there is a book called "Parmacopeia Sineca" written at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, about 2000 years ago. Please don't quote me exactly on this, my memory is not all that good these days. For those of you fresher and brighter people, perhaps you can Google it up. ← I'm not claiming to be brighter or fresher. I'm thinking of Zoraster and hot and cold foods. I'm not really capable of these dicussions. I'm just a cook.

Zheng He - the Chinese Muslim Admiral The rise and fall of 15th century Chinese sea power

what are the oldest known records of the Chinese humoral system?

Malays?? There is good reason to believe that the Chinese are originators and greatest adherents to the theories of the humoral system. The YY and humoral characteristics of a food can be altered by the maturity of the food and/or cooking length, method and style. A good example is a very popular vegetable that we Chinese love, watercress. When the plant is young, as sold in a supermarket, we would just pop it into a boiling pot of broth and have a quick refreshing soup (tang). But this quick soup made with very young plants is very, very YIN, so the cook knows enought to toss in a bit of yang in the form of a few slices of gingerroot, or pork liver to moderate the yin effect. But, give the Chinese cook a bunch of gnarly old watercress and he instinctively knows that "lo foh sai yeung choy tang" will be on the table...after 3-4 hours. (long cooked watercress soup). That soup will have a few pork bones, a dried oyster or two, maybe lotus nuts or gingko nuts. This soup and the main constituent (old watercress) is definitely NOT yin. In the belief of the Chinese, inherent or intrinsic qualities of any food can definitely be transformed. Malays, huh???? ← I'm curious about the reason to believe this.

As a matter or fact, I wasn't wondering at all. I was focused on the subject of pastry. Besides, not all French chefs expatriate for the money. ← I didn't say all did either. It is one of the major reasons. Look below at what I also wrote. I have a big pile of business cards and contacts if someone wants to interview French chefs who've left France and why. Not directed at anyone in particular here. But these discussions turn into nitpicking games. Oh look, I'm doing it too

Hiro Chef instructors are not allowed to discuss the particulars of curriculum on a forum like this. As far as I know there is one other instructor from LCB who posts here. If you are researching an article or a paper I can be reached via email. I have quite a bit of experience with culinary schools. Btw, I've been to Japan.

Lucy I'm talking about French chefs in response to Ptipois. I think she was wondering why French chefs leave. I gave her an answer based on my experiences and what I've heard from French chefs who've left. It is not simply a matter of priorites and chasing money. Hiro You can call Le Cordon Bleu office in Japan to ask about their curriculum.