Jambalyle

We enjoyed a nice bottle of Meyer Family Port that we picked up on our trip to the Mendocino Music Festival last summer. It was marvelous with the dark chocolate desserts being served. I wish I had purchased two bottles!

I just re-read most of Swisskaese's Food Blog on Hanukkah in Israel. What a wonderful thread! Thanks. In the thread there was a brief discussion of rugelach and strudel. Steve Baker wrote: "I wondered about that, being used to strudel like my Serbian grandmother made, which was apple (or cottage cheese) rolled up in phyllo." That sentence reminds me of a family dessert handed down over the generations by my wife's family. Great baubie (family spelling) showed Eve and I how to make "bagala" or "begala" (which could be a family name for the dessert) and she said that she had been taught be her grandmother from Turkey... Anyway, the family version of this dessert has evolved into this: sweetened cream cheese with crushed corn flakes for texture, rolled into phyllo, and coiled into a round baking dish. Lots of melted butter brushed on at various points during the process. Baked until lightly browned. Any clues or similarities to other desserts?

Interesting on the German one... I've never eaten with a German or Austrian who has ever let go of the knife in their right hand long enough to cut something with a fork. My stepdad was Austrian and trained as a chef in a hotel college in Switzerland... that man would starve if he didn't have a knive in his right hand when he ate. Lots of stories about him asking for a knife to eat with in a restaurant and often being given some variety of kitchen knife, which was especially amusing in Chinese restaurants.

Seems like there are a lot of people who don't eat blue m&m's... I have a co-worker who eats all the blue m&m's first before moving on to the other colors in the bag. He claims they taste better, even fresher! If I didn't think a wacko would stalk him due to his blue m&m fetish, I would post his address and let the lot of you send him your unwanted blue m&m's!

I enjoy Cazadores Reposado... they sell it at Costco here for $29.99/liter. Goes well with the mexican limes, carne asada, and fresh tortillas! I also enjoy Patron, Don Julio, and El Tesoro on rare occasions. I can't even look at any type of Jose Cuervo anymore. And Cruzan Rojo... my college roommate would make omlettes with the worms.

Tops on my list is cotton candy... I must be the only person who hates the stuff, even as a kid. My wife and children torture me with it when we go to the ballpark, carnival or fair. I'm swallowing hard just writing about it. Yuk! Mayo in small doses is OK, but Miracle Whip makes me hurl... but not as fast as hitting a stray eggshell in an omlette or potato salad. Sweet pickles are just plain gross, and I absolutely love a good dill pickle. Other dislikes include: eggplant, mushrooms, papaya and mango, oysters, and beets... most are mentioned somewhere in this thread. I'll eat them as I encounter them, but would never go out of my way to order them at a restaurant or buy them at the market. I generally choose savory over sweet and will often turn down dessert for more meat, cheese, bread, veggie or glass of wine.

I married into a Jewish family... I've only had my mother-in-law's homemade gefilte fish. She makes a batch for the High Holidays and for Passover every year. She runs down to the local Chinese fish market to buy very fresh fish heads and assorted parts. I love the stuff... though some batches are better than others, mostly due to saltiness or lack thereof. Otherwise... I think haggis is tops on the list, but closely followed by fur seal. You definitely need to be Aleut to enjoy fur seal.

My favorites restaurants for Mexican food in SD: El Cuervo Taco Shop (my favorite carne asada burrito) 110 W Washington St San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 295-9713 El Indio Mexican Restaurant (buy masa there for your next tamalada) 3695 India St San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 299-0333 La Pinata Mexican Restaurant (walked there from work, decent) 2836 Juan St San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 297-1631 Berta's Latin American Restaurant (great food, not just Mexican) 3928 Twiggs St San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 295-2343 Old Town Mexican Cafe (had our rehearsal dinner there, oh the tortillas) 2489 San Diego Ave San Diego, CA Phone: (619) 297-4330 Bustamante Coffee Shop (8 stools, four tables; best chilaquiles in SD) 956 Garnet Ave San Diego, CA Phone: (858) 483-7350 I heard the Old Town State Park restaurants are changing - Casa de Pico, etc. - for new ownership or something? Guess you can tell I lived in PB, Mission Hills/Hillcrest areas by the places I frequented. Still enjoy Rubios and Robertos too. As someone mentioned upthread, TJ is so close and there are great places to eat there (if you know where to go). And the bacon-wrapped hotdogs are fabulous... just choose your street vendor wisely.

Glad to see I was not alone with my fond memories of Quisp cereal. Another cereal I loved, that nearly no one remembers was Triple Snack. Peanuts and all! Alphabits (of the 60's) was another personal favorite. They seem way too sugary in their current form. I see lots of comments about the Trader Joe's cereals... we keep buying them for the kids, they'll eat them once, then we end up throwing them out after they gone stale (Puffins, Gorilla Munch, Koala whatevers). They keep going back to Cheerios.

Glacier beer from Creston BC! See: Kokanee Beer

Now: Ballard Bitters (aka Redhook IPA). Usually: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Sometimes: Lagunitas IPA

Warm apple fritters and cold Kokanee! Someone told me this was the Canadian national breakfast... I tried it and was hooked.

The sugar used for the carmelized topping came from a different source than the salt contaminated sugar bin.

They tended to get upset when you ate anything besides your "employee designated meal". And tasting the raw egg custard is not generally encouraged.

Thanks everyone! 1) The eggs were cooked perfectly - 2 batches - bring to boil, then set for 10-minutes-ish, then into cold water to stop cooking. No green yolks... in fact the yolks were so orange-yellow that the guests commented that they'd never seen yolks that color before! And they tasted wonderful. 2) Unfortunately, not one egg peeled easily. Like Culinary Bear, I think it has a lot to do with the freshness (and source) of the eggs. The eggs were fresh - pulled from under my neighbor's hens within the past day or two. I've noticed that these fresh eggs have harder shells with a very tough lining (and that the yolks are orange-yellow, not the pale yellow that you find in the store). Once we got the shell off, we still had to deal with the lining on some which was quite stubborn and hard to remove. -Lyle PS: Best part... there are leftovers for egg salad!

I love reading the embarassing cooking moments and worst meal threads, but most appear limited to home or another's home. My most embarassing cooking moment was went I was working in a restaurant... I made a whole batch of Creme Brulee/Burnt Cream desserts (3-4 dozen) using salt instead of sugar. Yup, someone had mixed up the bins and refilled the sugar bin with a 50# bag of salt. I prepared the custard, cooked it in its water bath, and refrigerated... ready for that evening's crowd. The first burnt cream that night was served with the sugar top carmelized to perfection, only to be sent back to the kitchen by a gagging customer. The chef was mortified and I gobsmacked when it was discovered what had happened. Lucky for me, it was the dishwasher or prep cook that got canned for dumping the salt in the sugar bin. My ears just got red reliving the moment! OK, I'll sleep better tonight for living up to my mistake. What's your story?

Ditto... was there in '93. I couldn't get enough of the Crawfish Monica and the Gospel tent. What a way to spend TWO weekends!

There is a raging debate here at work about duck sauce... 1) East coast version made with apricots? vs. 2) West coast version made with plums? vs. 3) Chinese person saying: what the heck are you talking about? Should there be a debate? Recipes?

Between seders on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I need to hardboil 48 eggs. Is this a multiple batch process or is there a reasonable way I can do them all at once? Any recommended methods? Thanks!

Reminds me of Dean, a college housemate, whose idea of dining was gnawing on a raw potato. Dean loved clam chowder and often made (and served) his own. He would go down to the bay (Bellingham) and gather "clams" (or anything else in a shell that would wash up). He would throw them on the stove in a sauce pan and boil them in milk, shells and all. He would ladle it out and serve with saltines (borrowed from the college dining hall) and Buckhorn (see bad beer thread). He loved it and so did some of our other friends, until they ended up in the hospital with paralytic shellfish poisoning. They thought the "numbing feeling" was from the beer! It doesn't count as my worse meal, because I wouldn't eat it. I think Dean just turned 50 and is still living in Bellingham... he probably has another batch of his famous chowder on the stove as I write.

Close-up of the Wendy's Chili the finger was found in?

Lasagna is one of those dishes where everyone thinks they have the best recipe… I earned my reputation as a foodie and good cook having worked in restaurants during college (I know, not always a direct correlation). As such, women were always asking me to cook for them and occasionally they would want to return the favor. Julie and Jackie wanted to come over a fix a wonderful lasagna dinner for me and my housemate, Jon. Julie assured me she had the best lasagna recipe in the world. Armed with a key, Julie and Jackie let themselves into our house the next afternoon to begin dinner preparations. A nicely dressed table, candles and all, greeted Jon and me when we arrived home around 6:00. The lasagna was on the table, cheese melted and slightly browned on top, tossed salad, garlic bread, and wine poured. The girls were glowing. I was hopeful. Not sure why I went in the kitchen… it was a disaster, but what caught my eye were the empty cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup, an empty cottage cheese container, an industrial size green cylinder of parmesan cheese, and two large bottles of “Spañada” – one opened, one empty. With my doubts, I headed back to the table. At the table, the salad was served and Julie was just putting the knife to the lasagna. The force of the knife pushed the top skin of melted cheese to the bottom of the pan displacing several cups of red lava onto the tablecloth. It seems that they managed to construct and bake a “lasagna” totally forgetting the requisite layers of noodles. I could almost (but not really) grasp that one person could forget the noodles, but two? Blame the Spañada? Anyway, we laughed until it hurt, used the bread to dip into the tomato soup and cheese “fondue”, ate the salad, drank more wine, and ended up having a good time. Worst meal ever, probably not… but I did convince Julie to throw away her lasagna recipe and swear never to try and make it again.

Here are two places I try to frequent when I get up north... 1) Gordy's Smokehouse in North Bend (you did say Eastside ). If you are into breakfast meats, Gordy smokes his own. I also heard he opened a second place in Tukwila. 2) Salmon Bay Cafe in Ballard. Here is a link to an older article Seattle PI.com Food&Dining Section Edited for stupid spelling mistake...

The kids chose last night... Hebrew National Dinner Franks, Annies White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese, green grapes, and Girl Scout cookies. It tasted wonderful, especially with my second glass of Mazzocco Zin.

This picture was taken by a colleague in New Dehli a couple of weeks ago... I'd be interested in trying the Uncle Chipps Chilli-Cha-Cha, the Kurkure Masala Munch, Lay's Chaat Street, and the Lay's Spanish ...<something> Tango!