chefzadi

I googled and dogpiled some Lebanese garlic sauce preparations. Most have fresh garlic, lemon juice and olive oil or mayonaisse. The garlic sauces I tried at the Armenian places (I'm guessing about the ingredients- Version 1: Butter, margarine, fresh garlic, garlic powder, lemon juice and lemon salt. Version 2: fresh garlic and thinned down tahini. There's a Lebanese marinade for shawarma here (vinegar of course) http://www.student.virginia.edu/~arabweb/recipes.html along with a few other specialties.

Lucy- To throw the question back at you what have you seen in France that you would identify as having an Asian influence? Dishes? Recipes? Have you seen any restaurants, grocery stores in Lyon? Ptipois mentioned Paris. But there is Paris and then the rest of France, so to speak.

John- There are several categories of soup in France. Just the simplest descriptions here... Potage- Thick soup with pureed vegetables. Veloute- Smooth, creamy textured soup. Often made from a single vegetable. Potee- Regional Cabbage soup Creme- Thickened with potatoes, sometimes flour or both. Bouillon- Clear broth for beef, fish or vegetables. Consomme- Concentrated beef broth/stock. Bisque- Shellfish soup, such as lobster or shrimp. Gratinee- Melted cheese on top. Soupe- Can have a lot of ingredients. Usually not pureed. Soupe du Jour= leftover ingredients at most restaurants.

You're right Zeitoun. Alot of the Armenians in Los Angeles are Armenian plus another Middle Eastern country (Lebanon, Syria and Iran seem to be the most common), some Armenian-Russians too. So it's an Armenian family from Lebanon. Zankou chicken has quite a following. The place has a steady flow of customers all day and gets packed during peak hours. They come mostly for the chicken, but the other items sell well too. Is the garlic sauce for the chicken Lebanese or Armenian? Also in Lebanon is chicken or beef shawerma very common?

I think it was Salmon. And no I have not tried this at home.

Okay Zankou chicken's website claims that there beef for shawerma is sliced. I had it there once, but the portions were way to small for me. It's this other Armenian place called sevan chicken that does the molded shawerma, it's this molded stuff I see at alot of places in LA. EDIT: Foodman you are FAST!

Yes, it's called Shawarma, Shewerma, Shewarma (there seems to be no consensus on the English spelling amongst the Armenians). And it's the shawarma that mosts Los Angelenos seem to be familliar with. Zankou Chicken is an Armenian chain that serves shawarma as well. http://www.zankouchicken.com EDIT: The pureed and molded style took me back abit. But I got used to it since there's not much else conveniently available around here.

I've never tried a Lebanese version. In my part of town the Armenians seem to have the stronghold on Shewarma places. Now that I think about it I'm almost sure they add vinegar to the marinade. It gives the meat a tang that I didn't find in the Turkish places in France. The Armenians in Los Angeles also use beef and chicken (I don't know if the beef is "traditional" or more to cater to American tastes). The beef also seems to processed in some way, more than ground, it's more like pureed and molded. Anyone familiar with this? The texture is not quite as dense as the commercial produced Greek gyros.

Andy- I support Carolyn's idea. The Cal/French thing or Cal/Asian or Cal/Med for that matter has been beaten to death. At least in the press, it's been written about a lot. Why not a different cuisine. You could even do a comparison piece with Momo's place in London (Mourad Mazouz) . As a side note, SF is a fun city to visit. The people are warm, relaxed, friendly.Lots of things to do, places to eat. I can't say enough about it. It's great for couples and for kids as well. As far as all around city vacations go alone, couple or family SF is second on my list after Paris.

The onion soups are still there because it's perceived as a bistro classic that most people don't make at home. It's also pretty easy for a chef to make "passable" versions of one without spending alot of time or money on ingredients. Even so we had a pretty hard time finding onion soup of reasonable quality the dozen or so times my wife and I have been in the past 7 years. Whereas when I was a student in Paris many moons ago a good onion soup was a relatively easy find. The quality of food is "going down" in France, not because of a lack of skilled chefs or arrogance on the part of chefs (as was implied in some threads) nor is it because French people have gotten lazy or unappreciated of quality (as was implied in some other threads) it is more because France is becoming a less agricultural country and the cost of doing business for the small owner or the artisan is much too high. It's not just restaurants. Where are the artisanal bakers? It's more and more about "big business" in France. I read somewhere that over 100,000 small businesses have closed in the past 20 years. (I will get back later with the source). Big business cares about the bottom line. Cheap, filling, nutritious AND made from scratch just isn't possible in areas with high rent, high taxes and high wages. Unless the owner hires illegals, but that's another topic.

incidentally it is also "The Year of the Cock"

Bouland- You ARE obessive. At home my wife makes sweet crepes with whole grain, stone ground pastry flour. Melted butter in the batter of course. Walking into a home with the sweet buttery smell of crepes cooking... LOVE. We pack them as snacks for our daughter, the other kids beg and plead for her to share. Needless to say we always pack extra. A little sprinkling of sugar or some nutella.

Also blanch the milder tasting vegetables first, than move on to increasingly stronger flavored ones.

regarding spices. Freshly ground spices are preferable to preground. The bad experiences with cumin I suspect were liberal addition of ground cumin to dishes. Cumin is a topnot in much of Algerian cooking. I have made many a convert to spices with my tajines. But then again, there are some things that some people will never develop a taste for. Even though Indian cookery uses many of the same spices as Algerian cookery, I don't think that I will ever appreciate the amounts used. Sometimes it seems almost ten times the amount that I'm accustomed to. Herbs are also much abused in cooking. My French training tells me to use herbs thoughtfully. Tarragon for fish in a beurre blanc. Tarragon vinegar for chicken. Thyme for chicken as well. Herbes de Provence however works well with quatres epices in an Algerian style rataouille. I suppose my approach to using spices and herbs is too perfume not mask. I will NEVER like cilantro! My wife on the other hand can eat like a salad almost.

I didn't even read the article before posting the link. Am I supposed to do stuff like that?

memory and pain. Assuming that lobsters feel pain, if they don't have memory, isn't their pain "in the moment" so to speak. They don't remember pain that came before the pain they are feeling NOW. Does it make a difference than whether I kill it by piercing it's brain or by taking longer to do in boiling water?

Look what I found. http://www.forward.com/issues/2000/00.12.0...stforward1.html I can't wait to try it when I'm in New York.

How many us will admit to trying the fly catching crap though? ;-)

Having visited Guam and Saipan (not Hawaii though) I can only imagine that authentic poke benefits greatly from the flavorings that Asian immigrants brought. The fish was really fresh and tasty on those islands. but basically we were served a hunk of plain raw fish. The seaweedsand nuts sound like a great additions.

FornoBravo How is Paella pronounced in Valencia?

But forty years ago no one in the US called it cilantro. I'm sure you're right that the term was imported from Mexico, but we really didn't need it. Arugula is another plant with a perfectly good English name, but instead we call it not "rocket", nor even by the standard Italian word (rucola), but by an Italian dialect term. That these are major issues to me demonstrates how smoothly runs my path through life. ← But forty years ago most Americans weren't probably familiar with the herb. It seems Americans would have been familiar with Mexican food and Mexican restaurants before they were with other cuisines that use the herb. It only makes sense that in a Mexican restaurant it would be called cilantro. Also it seems to me that cilantro is more conspicuos in Mexican food. It's used like a condiment of sorts, stocked at the salsa bar. Also rocket lettuce "the craze" for arugula started off as a trend in Italian restaurants in the states. It only makes sense that the menus at such restaurants would have Italian names. So we call it by the name we (as a nation) became first familiar with an ingredient? Does that make sense to anyone? For instance in France Algerian couscous is the most commonly known. Here in the States couscous is almost immediately associated with Morocco (thank you Ms. Wolfert ).

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=World&cat=China (article about last minute rush in China) I'm beginning to think that I should have titled the post "lunar new year" because I'm noticing that folks from other Asian cultures that celebrate aren't posting. My wife just got into the habit of calling it Chinese New Year in English so that's what I call it. Of course in Korean or Japanese it's not Chinese New Year, it's probably not called that in China for that matter. Nonetheless I'm really glad I started this thread. The food looks great. Gung Ho Fat Choy everyone!! (I really hope I got that one right, because I'm going on memory here) :-)

I agree with your approach. It is a salsa where it really gets to me. If it is a minor seasoning note in a curry, stew or something with fat in it I can deal with it or sometimes ignore it. There is this current flurry of grilled fish with some sort of salsa on top with lots of cilantro. I always wonder who thought that was a good idea. I am guessing here but I think we call it cilantro in the US because that is what they call it in Mexico. Someone may have a better explanation. ← Cilantro can also be called fresh coriander or coriander leaves or leaf coriander to distinguish it from the spice. My wife recalls being introduced to cilantro via Mexican cuisine which was more commonly available in LA before say Thai or Vietnamese pho places started proliferating like rabbits. EDIT: it's also sold in supermarkets by the name cilantro. And we all know who does alot of the harvesting in California anyway.

Fresh Coriander or Cilantro seems to be one of those hate it or love it herbs. I HATE IT. It's a common herb in Algerian cookery. My mother used it quite a bit to finish stews and soups. She used smen too which is preserved butter (okay it's not an herb, but I can't stand the smell or taste). Cinnamon is another spice I don't like. Actually cinnamon in sweets is a general aversion that French people have.

When my wife was very young in Korea it was a whole neighborhood affair. Alas not so in the States. Even the churches where so many Korean-Americans congregate for social events don't seem to put out elaborate tables. I also think sometimes we get spread out. Between all the cultures in our home we have so many holidays to celebrate we get a little burned out at times. We do the double Thanksgiving (American and Korean harvest holiday), double New Year's, Christmas, Eid, Fourth of July, Bastille Day... So this year for Chinese New Year we'll just be having mandu gook.