sanrensho

Thanks for posting this. Does the Trout Lake Farmer's Market tend to be sparse on vendors this early on?

Such a petty attitude. Given the number of other options you have in Paris, it makes complete sense to take your business elsewhere. If I were the proprietor, I would fire that salesclerk in a second.

I pretty much agree with the sentiment of the article. While the notion of eating local products should be strongly encouraged, the concept is anti-food when taken to its extreme. I have no interest in turning my back on what options we have just to prove a point. We might as well ban all travel outside of a 100-mile radius.

You can say bye-bye to coffee and tea as well. The idea is certainly noble and will hopefully encourage more people to think about their food choices, but I am not giving up my "imported" foodstuffs any time soon.

Count me as another santoku user. Nakiri comes a close second. I would probably use a gyuto if I had to do a lot of mincing or chopping such as for mirepoix.

How about a selection of loak cakes? The square shape is ideal for packing--if necessary, you can transport them in the loaf pans. Lemon, chocolate, grand marnier, olive oil & rosemary, fruit cake, etc.

It's definitely the portions. On the other hand, I have never been fatter than when I lived in Japan. If you live in a large city like Tokyo, there is so much good food that you can never get bored of eating. And eating. And eating. And eating...

Penne for us too. Regular spaghetti (Barilla No. 5, I believe) comes in a close second. Raviolini are also popular with my kids.

I had to laugh at this. You have no idea how many times I've considered bolting down the chairs in our dining room, for just this reason.

Silliest thing I've ever heard. Never seen it here in Vancouver and I'm surprised that it would happen in NY. The practice deserves to be mocked in the severest way. If one particular diner is only able to eat a particular item off the menu, then that person should just order their dish separately and let everyone else eat family-style.

^^^Looks great, Patrick. Have you cut into it yet? (Hint, hint, wouldn't mind seeing a cross-section photo.)

As far as subways and commuter trains, I think people are too busy text messaging and Web surfing on their cellular phones to be eating food. I'm not kidding, either.

I really enjoyed your blog, Klarys. It sounds like you had a wonder b-day party. How I wish I could hop on a flight and visit Holland, Belgium, and France right now. Thanks again for the pastry photos! -Kenji

I'd love to see some change. We can do much better than concessions stands where "vegetable" is a foreign word. I mean, this is Vancouver. Bring on the bahn mi, Vietnamese spring rolls, satay chicken, crepes, Belgian waffles, siu mai, BBQ pork buns, onigiri, kim bap, etc. [rant]I'm sick of (poor quality) burgers, hot dogs and fries, and I shudder at the thought of feeding that shite to my kids. Until they offer better options, I'm packing/buying a picnic lunch.[/rant]

Try posting in the Japan forum. Off the top of my head, everything that I know of is written in Japanese.

Thank you, Klary Very impressive indeed. I recognized the speculaas immediately from your Dutch food thread. In the above photo, what are the neat looking squares in the bottom shelf (2nd, 3rd and 4th packages from the right)? They almost look like squarish stroopwaffels? Wafers?

Some baked cheesecakes don't have a bottom crust. ← Quite true. And I prefer cheesecake with a thin layer of biscuit (cake) underneath.

For those who insist that cheesecake is pie, please feel free to call it cheesepie from now on. After all, if the shoe fits...

A resounding vote for cake. Cake, cake, cake, cake. I crave it most days and it helps me from stuffing my face with candy or straight-on chocolate. Not to dump on pie, but you have way more creative options with cake. Cake, cake, cake. I think about it, read about it, sometimes ponder it before drifting off into sleep. Definitely cake.

That's interesting. I'm guessing you don't cook from English Thai cookbooks (nor have any need to), but do you feel that Thai recipes in English typically recommend too much sugar? I'll second the comment about white sugar, I was surprised not to see palm sugar in its place.

Happy b-day, Chufi! I would dearly like to see some bakery/pastry shop photos. Not uber high-end patisseries (although those would be great, too), but neigbourhood bakeries and pastry shops. I'd like to see what kind of baked goods the typical Amsterdam resident buys and eats. Also, it would be interesting to see the baked goods selection at a typical supermarket in Amsterdam.

^^^Sure looks like octopus (tako) to me.

Yes, it was a major disappointment when they stopped the bento meals. (Butcher shops in Japan typically offer bento meals based around karaage chicken, various tonkatsu and croquettes.) In our case, the bento meals were an easy supper after doing our Saturday afternoon shopping along Hastings. The goods we got from Italia Bakery usually got consumed on the trip home.

I'll second (or third?) Italia Bakery, especially they're cookies and pastries. I don't think you'll find a more convenient location, considering that they're about a minute off the highway. Out of interest, Nikuya Meats (Japanese butcher) is located next door to the Italia Bakery, so you might want to take a look inside there as well.

Thanks for the mini-review. It's fairly close to us, so I'll have to check it out some time. I definitely have a soft spot for this type of bakery, and for places like Notte's.