sanrensho

How was the quality? I seem to recall this bakery being mentioned in a thread about Diplomat cakes.

I found one review of the TJ Sao Tome Varietal bar here. Price is $3 according to another link. Thanks for everyone that responded. I've sent off my requests to my friend in Seattle, so hopefully I'll have some new chocolate in a few weeks. I also added the TJ brand "Organic 73%" bar to my list, based on some good reviews I've read.

Where is your closest major city? I would try to find a wholesaler for Japanese foods and ask/beg them to sell you a case (or two or three). Phone them up in advance. Another tactic would be to contact your nearest sushi joint and ask/beg them to buy a case for you from their wholesaler. We buy ours that way and keep it in the freezer, defrosting as needed. Barring that, I would go to the largest Japanese market you can find and ask them to sell you a case (still frozen). Some of the online prices I've seen for natto seemed a little outrageous.

* THUMP--Sound of Korean mother somewhere having a heart attack and hitting the floor...*

Thanks BastilaShan, MsRamsey and mamster. Any opinions on the TJ label single origin chocolates that Ling asked about?

She's a well-known cookbook author specializing in baking/pastry. She also writes on pastry/baking for Japanese magazines. As a point of interest, she studied at RLB's school in New York (Cordon Rose Baking School).

tsquare, thanks for the info. I'm pretty much limited to TJ's because my friend is a busy mom w/small kids--she frequents TJ's but anything else would be out of the way. Still, I appreciate the other suggestions and will consider them for when I head down to Seattle. Can anyone confirm the availability of Chocovic at TJ's?

I like the idea of sauteing and caramelizing bananas with spices, then folding into pastry cream. Would add an extra textural element. Or else puree the caramelized bananas before adding into the pastry cream (maybe not as attractive looking).

Cute photos. I think I spy a dosirak full of croissants...lucky kids.

This woud change the texture, but you could try folding in some whipped cream or anglaise stiffened with extra gelatin. Or perhaps folding in a bombe, but that would end up sweetening your mousse.

Interesting. Kimbap was the first thing that came to mind when this subject came up. Are school lunch programs very extensive in Korea? Is there a lot of variety, and who makes the meals?

I have a quick question for anybody who frequents the TJ stores in the Seattle area. A friend is coming up from Seattle and I thought I'd ask her to pick up a few of the higher-end chocolate bars available at Trader Joe's. Last time I was there, I picked up some Scharffen Berger Semisweet (yellow package) and Valhrona Noir. I have heard that they're also carrying Chocovic? Could anybody confirm this? Any chocolate fiends out there know if TJ's is carrying Domori, Santander, etc.? Thanks in advance. -Kenji (in Vancouver)

In addition to the above suggestions, I recommend folding into mascarpone or whipped cream to fill a roulade. Mmmm, chestnut paste.

The writer did a good job by correctly identifying ume as apricot, rather than the more common rendering of plum. Now if I could just get our local liquor store to carry the Choya brand with the plums, I could make some ume pound cake.

Here's the link, their full 74-page catalog is available online. I think I'm starting to get "apron envy." They even have kid-size aprons. http://www.blackwoodapparel.com/

My wife got me a nice durable one from Ming Wo. About $30. Very business-like in black, but watch out when you're baking...

That's been my experience as well, "minced" or "chopped" but not a paste. I woud leave out the food processor references throughout your book to avoid reader disappointment. However, you might want to make mention of specialized grinder/blender appliances like the Sumeet. (I haven't used one, but perhaps you can find and experiment with something similar in Thailand?) Also, I wonder if you could come up with a better alternative method than a food processor. Something like bashing up the paste ingredients in a ziploc bag with a rolling pin. Then whirring with some coconut milk in a blender?

Austin, I've got some constructive comments. 1. Have you actually tried making the curry paste in a typical American/European food processor? With the small amount that is involved, I wonder if this will actually process into a paste (as opposed to just chopping the ingredients)? Mind you, I haven't tried it myself, but I'm a bit skeptical. 2. The spelling I see most often is "galangal." 3. Kaffir lime peel might be a hard one to source. Can you suggest an alternative ingredient? Or should I leave it out? Otherwise, the recipe looks fantastic. I'd love to try it out, but would have to resort to a commercial paste due to lack of a decent-sized mortar and pestle.

Boy, it sure must be a shock to come face-to-face with what you're eating. I thought the essay/rant was silly.

I am not a pro, but this has been my experience as well freezing sheets of biscuit (genoise). After freezing, the results are passable but certainly not better. However, I did get decent results with a genoise walnut cake. I believe this was due to the cake being moist to begin with, as well as the extra fat from the nuts. OTOH, cakes like the CI sour cream chocolate cake (from the Best Choc. Cake thread) freeze extremely well. I found it actually tasted better out of the freezer. From my limited experience, it seems that moist cakes with higher fat content produce better results from freezing. I would love to hear more data on this.

Agree wholeheartedly. I've also tried some other Vietnamese brands and they fall short of Trung Nguyen. If anybody has recommendations for Vietnamese brands that are comparable or better than TN, I would love to hear them.

There's a microwave recipe by Andiesenji in RecipeGullet that produces excellent results. Make more than you need and just freeze the rest.

It sure sounds like a tuille. Perhaps you can adapt an existing recipe to incorporate the oatmeal/raisin flavor.

I do. We most recently discussed cafe sua da in this thread.