Jaymes

Forgot to add that virtually all of the cruise ships now offer a fitness center, most with state-of-the-art exercise equipment, and classes ranging from aerobics to Pilates to early-morning walks and runs around the promenade deck. Seriously, gaining weight on a cruise is not a given. And, speaking of those early-morning runs on the promenade deck, here's a non-food tip. Try not to get an outside cabin located directly underneath that deck if you're a late-sleeper. You'll be unavoidably awakened every morning to what sounds like a very determined herd of buffalo descending upon your laconic waterside retreat. Again. And again. And again.

I've cruised a lot. And I mean a lot. For a couple of decades. Including one "Round the World," nearly 4-month marathon. What I've learned regarding food: The first tip to first-time cruisers is that most of us are so accustomed to eating in a restaurant where, for the stated price, the meal includes "one item from the appetizers, one item from the salads, one main," etc. And that's not the way it is on a cruise. It's more like eating in yo' mama's kitchen where you can just ask for whatever you want, including several items from column 1, and several items from column 2, and none from column 3. And if there's something that you don't like, or are tired of seeing, or want prepared a different way, just ask. Cali mentions that her omlet was "always served with 2 asparagus spears and 1 fingerling potato." All you would have to do on day three is to ask if you could have some sliced tomatoes, or hash browns, or maybe some fruit instead. I'd bet a lot of money that's exactly what you'd get. And the most expensive ingredients are invariably in the appetizers. I frequently order all of the appetizers, and then just a soup or salad. I find the main courses often to be not particularly to my taste. Also, you can order extras of most things. They might run out of something down in the galley, but usually there's enough that if you want extra lox, or grilled shrimp, or oysters Bienville, or king crab or lobster or whatever it is, you can have it. Especially if your waiter knows that there's something on offer that night that you really love, he or she will be certain to set aside an extra portion of that early on. Be sure to become dear friends with him/her as early on as possible. I like to tip them a bit the first night, rather than just waiting until the end of the cruise. That seems to sort of seal the deal. I very strongly advise that you order a main course of something that features a protein that you like, that is messed with and gunked up with as few ingredients as possible. For example, the prime rib. Or a lobster. It's when the galleys start adding sauces, or adding the protein to some other sort of constructed dish that you often run into trouble. It's hard to mess up a big piece of protein to which the cooks have done not much more than cook in some manner. Not to mention that these sorts of plain dishes are going to be far less caloric and far better for you than a heavily-sauced casserole-type dish. Also, many cruise itineraries travel through areas where folks like to fish (Alaska comes immediately to mind, but many cruise itineraries include fishing excursions). Most galleys are happy to prepare your day's catch for you, and you can ask that it be simply grilled or broiled. And you can count on the fact that the flavors of the so-called "ethnic" dishes will be toned down to the point that you won't like them. There will be bland curries, mild Mexican, mushified Chinese & Thai. The only exception to this is that if you find the kitchen is staffed with folks from a particular country, and there's something from that country that you like and you notify everyone in advance, they'll prepare it for you. For example, I used to live in the Philippines, and as soon as I get on board a long cruise, I find a way to chat up the Filipinos on the crew and ask if I can have pancit, or adobo, or lumpia, etc., one of the nights. Then the food comes out great. I particularly remember one cruise with an all-Italian kitchen staff. We were lucky enough to be sitting at a table with a bunch of Italians and the ship's hotel manager had brought his wife along for the cruise and she spoke no English, so they were seated with us. The hotel manager did all the ordering, in Italian, of course, and boy was the food terrific. I, too, always lose weight on cruises. For one thing, you walk the length of that ship many times over. You can't hop into your car and drive from the showroom that's all the way aft, up to the Eagle's Nest Cocktail Lounge that's on the top deck, all the way forward. Plus, when you go ashore, you're undoubtedly going to do at least some touring on foot. On that nearly 4-month cruise, I lost about 20 pounds. I'm sure doing things like climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the Acropolis helped work off a couple of those desserts. Cruising, and the caloric consumption, get a very bad rap. But that's certainly not the way it has to be. Nobody marches you to the midnight buffet and shoves food into your mouth and then wraps your mouth closed with a Hermès scarf like some sort of upscale ocean-going pâté duck, you know. It's all up to you. And, most ships now feature a "spa menu" with low-calorie options. I've never tried any of them but, with careful ordering, you can still have a very healthy trip and return home relaxed, refreshed, and several pounds lighter.

This does look really good, and easy. And it's a nice use for the lemons from my tree. I do have one question... the recipe doesn't say whether to roast the chicken with the breast up or down. Obviously, I know that breast up is usual but, for a while, it was sort of the fashion to roast breast down with the feeling that it might keep the breast moister. Thoughts?

So have you been air-drying chickens since it was discussed in this thread? I'm always afraid it will make them dry out. It just seems so counterintuitive. And how can brining fit in with this method?

I want to say that, inspired by the current discussion on roasting the perfect chicken, I remembered this post by Pierogi and dug it up. This is the best description I've ever seen, and I had planned to try it immediately. Somehow, never got around to it, but never forgot it. Once again, I'm planning to try it immediately.

Mind? Why, I'm flattered! I usually went with the Spice Islands Cookbook for the basket because it's smaller, and looks so pretty with all of the herbs and spices arranged attractively around. I gave it, not only for wedding/shower gifts, but also to neices, nephews, friends's children, etc., that were headed off to college, or to their first apartment, or something like that. It always went over really well. For one thing, those herbs and spices are expensive, and can be quite a shock the first time you head to the market to stock up your spice rack. Especially if you're a neophyte at the cooking and seasoning game and have no idea what to buy.

Back in the late 60's, when I was first learning to cook, I bought two cookbooks devoted to spices: The Spice Island Cookbook - http://www.amazon.com/The-Spice-Islands-Cook-Book/dp/0016811828 And The Spice Cookbook (which Lindacakes references) - http://www.amazon.com/The-Spice-Cookbook-Lillie-Stuckey/dp/0872500225 They have both been devoted and valued companions to me, lo these many decades. I can't possibly tell you how frequently I've been working on a dish, thought it needed a little flavor boost, and consulted one of these two books to see which herb or spice they recommended be added. And, for years, my standard wedding/kitchen shower gift was a basket filled with assorted herbs and spices, and one of these two books. They still hold an honored spot in my cookbook rack and I still refer to them at least once a month. I've cleaned out my cookbook shelf a time or two through the years and never would consider getting rid of either of them. So I do recommend them. But I will say that it's obvious now that these two old friends are, like me, I suppose, somewhat dated. Often, as I'm perusing this recipe or that herb/spice description, I run across some bit of information that seems passé.

Interestingly enough in South Florida, we have LOTS of Colombian and Peruvian restaurants, particularly in Broward County, but again, we have enough indigenous Colombians and Peruvians to support them. Very vew legit Mexican restaurants, though. Cuban/Puerto Rican/Dominican cuisine is pretty much centered around the Miami area and not Broward. Lots of Venezuelan in certain towns, like Weston. But we have a major dual-cusine problem with Asian, and also we have entire cuisines that just do not exist, period (Ethiopian, etc) and a lack of specialization in sub-cuisines like Sichuan or Hunan or Shanghainese or Malaysian Chinese.. The only Asian cuisine that has not succumbed to the dual-cusine problem is Indian, but I suspect that is because there are enough Indians in this area to support actual Indian restaurants. And even with Indian we are limited to North Indian style food for the most part. And so there you go. The reason why is not really so much of a mystery. Or so it seems to me.

I definitely think this is the problem. And the entire problem. For example, where I live, there is a restaurant owned and operated by Colombians. The name of the restaurant is Palma de Cera, which is the wax palm, the national tree of Colombia. It was originally their hope to offer just Colombian food. But that wasn't working. There was just not enough interest to keep their doors open. The Colombian population in our town is pretty small, so now they say they have "Latin cuisine," having incorporated the more popular foods of other South and Central American counties. They are still struggling, so whether or not they can survive remains to be seen. As a contrast, there is a very large population of Venezuelans here. So the restaurants dedicated to Venezuelan food do better. But even so, they are small cafe-type places, and not large full-service restaurants. And, there was a woman from Singapore that operated a successful restaurant in Houston called the Singapore Cafe. She was doing just great in downtown Houston, where the population is large enough to support many restaurants specializing in some sort of pure, "authentic" foreign cuisines. But due to several factors, she decided to sell that restaurant and relocate out here to our suburb. She quickly discovered that offering simply Singaporean cuisine out here wouldn't keep her doors open. So she incorporated Malay and Chinese as well. Now she's running the "Cafe Asian." It's been my experience, when chatting with these owners, that they'd much rather run a restaurant dedicated to one cuisine, if the local customer base would support it. ETA - So you're in South Florida. Seems to me that, when on vacation in Miami, I've enjoyed quite a few meals at various cafes and restaurants specializing in Cuban food. We don't have so many Cubans in Houston so, here, that's a cuisine that gets lumped in with something else. I think it's just regional. Your first goal, after all, when you own any sort of business is to keep your doors open. Another example - Houston has an enormous Vietnamese population. This was a top choice of the Vietnamese due to a familiar climate and the opportunity to earn a living by fishing. There are a great many restaurants here specializing in Vietnamese food, and offering absolutely nothing else. There's no need to combine Vietnamese with other Asian food.

That sounds interesting. Unfortunately, it appears my granddaughter is one of the unlucky souls thus afflicted. I'd like that recipe, Soba, if you have it. Or a link... You can also make it with cauliflower, by processing the cauliflower into small grains to replace the bulghur; you can steam or sautee it or leave it raw. Hey, thanks, you two! We eat a LOT of Med/Middle Eastern food in our family. And having a gluten-free tabuli substitute will sure be helpful.

That sounds interesting. Unfortunately, it appears my granddaughter is one of the unlucky souls thus afflicted. I'd like that recipe, Soba, if you have it. Or a link...

I ask also. No mint in Tabbouleh is like no chocolate in chocolate cake. The best (to MY taste, so your mileage may vary) tabbouleh I've ever had comes from a local Lebanese bakery. They don't use mint. They also use plenty of oil and lemon, which I like. And because, as most knowledgeable authorities agree, tabbouleh was invented in the Lebanese mountains, I think the Lebanonese know best when it comes to what to put into Tabbouleh.

I'm speechless. (I didn't hear him mention mint... ) Hilarious, right... "First you take parsley from your sister Chop it up like hands of shoplifter."

Well, there's this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/8240-taboule/ And this one: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/25697-tabbouleh-recipe/ And this: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/17291-tabouli/ As for tomatoes, I agree with Remy, who says, in the Tabbouleh Song (: ) "Met a girl, she was a cutie She said she'd make me Tabbouleh But she made it without the tomatoes, So I had to tell her, 'See you later.'"

And, I have a suggestion for you. I suspect pretty strongly that the Mexican restaurants in your Pennsylvania countryside are probably owned by Mexicans. Assuming that's right, I suggest you talk to some of those owners, ask which region in Mexico they're from, ask what their regional specialties are, ask if they offer any of those specialties, either on the menu, or specially-ordered. For example, one of my very favorite Mexican dishes is Chile en Nogada - a specialty of Puebla. While dining in Mexican restaurants in Springfield, I always asked the owners/managers what region of Mexico they were from. If they were from anywhere near Puebla, I asked them if they ever had Chile en Nogada on their menu. It turned out that one of those restaurants featured it every Sunday in the fall months - when the chiles were in season. But you had to ask for it - it wasn't on the menu - and they were just making enough for the local Mexican population that knew enough to seek it out.

Right. But I experienced the exact same thing, although on a reduced level of course, when I lived in Springfield, Missouri. Hardly a hotbed of Mexicana. There were different types of "Mexican" restaurants there, as well. But none of the white folk in town seemed even slightly aware of that. To them, "Mexican" was just, well, Mexican. ETA: Not to mention that a large portion of my point was that the belief that all Mexican restaurants are the same is largely the fault of the customer, not just the restaurants. As evidenced by the fact that the acquaintance that I spoke of figured that all Mexican restaurants must be making terrific cheese enchiladas. If he could think that, and he does, in a place that is as saturated in Mexican heritage and culture as Houston, I believe that proves my point that, largely, the customer is to blame for catagorizing all Mexican restaurants as being identical.

Admittedly, I've lived in locales that have a great many Mexican residents - first generation, second generation, and just-got-here-yesterday Mexicans - but I've sure not found that to be the case at all. We have everything from very high-end, to Mom & Pop taquerias, and everything in-between. Often I think the tendency to lump all Mexican restaurants into the sort of generic "Mexican" you describe is more on the part of the non-Mexican customers than the restaurants themselves. For example, one of my very favorite local Mexican restaurants is Ostioneria Mar Azul. I don't think it could be any clearer that it's a seafood place. Not only from the name, but once you arrive, the interior walls are painted turquoise blue, and are decorated with fishing nets full of starfish and seashells. When I go there, I always get the ceviche to start, and then either the fried whole mojarra, or one of the marvelous big seafood stews, the caldos de mariscos. So I recommended the place to an acquaintenance. A few weeks later, I asked him if he went and, if so, how he liked it, and he said, "not much." It turned out that, despite the fact that he had said that he was looking for a "Mexican restaurant that serves something different," and I told him this was a seafood place, he ordered cheese enchiladas. And, surprise, surprise, they weren't particularly to his liking. I'm sure he would agree with you, gfweb, that "all Mexican restaurants are the same - 'diner food', a lowest common demoninator." And you say that you think the Mexican cuisine at the restaurants in your area seems "authentic enough" because they "seem popular with Mexicans." But before I reached any conclusion from that, I'd have to know what those Mexicans are ordering and how they liked it. Because, in truth, if you look hard enough, it's been my experience anyway, that you can find a wide panoply of Mexican restaurants - regional (just in my neighborhood, there's a sandwich shop specializing in the foods of Tampico, especially the Torta de la Barda; the cuisine around Guadalajara, La Tapatia; Cocina de Michoacana, the foods of Michoacan, Las Alamedas high-end Mexico City), types of food (like Ostioneria Mar Azul specializing in seafood, La Fogata Mexican grilled meats). But I'd be willing to bet that probably 80% of the Gringo population that walks into each of these places has very little idea, if any at all, that to a knowledgeable customer, these restaurants are completely different.

I've been driving past the gas station at the corner of South Mason and Cinco Ranch Blvd in Katy for a couple of years now. Sure, I noticed the sign on one corner of the building that said, "Deli's Cafe," but I figured that particular "Deli" probably was short for "delicatessen" and, all too often, "delicatessen" is short for "cold sandwiches in a vending machine." So I never bothered to stop in and check it out. Imagine my surprise when, about a week ago, while waiting at the doctor's office, I struck up a conversation with a woman newly-arrived from Venezuela. While chatting about her overall impressions of Katy, she said something to the effect that Katy's population is very heavily Venezuelan and that she had even found a brand new Spanish preschool to which she was planning on sending her 3-year-old daughter. I have a 3-year-old granddaughter, so I was interested in this "brand new Spanish preschool," so I asked where it's located. "It's at that mall on the corner of Mason and Cinco Ranch," she said. "You know, where the Deli's Venezuelan Cafe is." I didn't know where Deli's Venezuelan Cafe is. But I sure do now. The place is run by Venezuelans, and it's as authentic Venezuelan cuisine as you can get. Not only is it not "cold sandwiches in a vending machine," it offers just about anything one could want: empanadas, pastelitos, arepas, asados, sopas, tostones, tajadas, tequenones, ensaladas, etc. And my new very favorite thing: cachapas. Especially the one featuring "queso de mano," homemade cheese. I've never had anything quite like this. It sort of resembles a taco, but the texture of what would be the corn tortilla in a taco is softer, with large pieces of corn, kind of like if a corn tortilla and corn pudding had an illegimate love child. The homemade cheese in the one I ordered was a soft, mild white cheese. I noticed people at several tables pouring a delicious-looking green sauce over their cachapa, so I did the same. This was easily the best fast-food type of lunch I've had in a very long time. I can't possibly recommend this place highly enough.

Right. And a classic to use for pink lemonade, or Shirley Temples. Summer will be here before you know it. Lots of cool summertime drinks benefit from a splash of maraschino cherry juice.

Yes, Stubb's. A Texas brand. So less sweet. You're heading in the right direction.

A great many Texans (at least in central Texas; although not so much in east Texas) really loathe the sort of sweet barbecue sauces you find elsewhere, like the deep south - Memphis, etc. - and Kansas City. In fact, in many of these central Texas iconic old smoked-meat markets, you'll find a more vinegary, spicy, thin sauce, more akin to Tabasco or, more usually, the Mexican hot sauces - Tapatio, Cholula, Valentina, etc. - which are often on the tables there. I don't have any specific brands of Texas-made barbecue sauce to recommend, but I'd definitely start there. I know, for example, that Cooper's in Llano has a thin, peppery sauce that they very quickly dip their meats into right after they take them out of the smoker. I'd bet pretty good money that it has no sugar at all. Don't know if they mail order it, though. And Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, has a very thin spicy sauce that they set on the table. Again, don't know if it's available via mail order. But it sounds a lot like what you're looking for. Like Cooper's, I'd be pretty surprised if Mueller's has any sugar at all. Here's their description: When it comes to barbecue sauce, we've thrown out the "rule" and taken a different path. Most barbecue sauces are thick and act as a covering for the meat. Our sauce is better described as a "thin-dip". Tomato based with heaping amounts of onions and pepper, our sauce was created to compliment our meat, not cover it. Yes, it is spicy!

I'll vouch for it as well. Attended an olive oil tasting some years back and it was a clear favorite. I've not been without it since.

Boy, I agree with this. I will say that the Oster I mentioned above has an excellent timer system. All in all, a pretty good product. Especially at that price.

Right, but the construction and features can vary widely. That Cuisinart didn't even have a timer for the bake function. It did have a timer, in seconds, for the toast function, but if you wanted to bake something for, say, twenty minutes, you had to set a separate timer, like the one on your range or microwave or something, and then when it rang, go turn off the Cuisinart, which would cook until Taylor Swift finds someone to marry, if you didn't turn it off manually. No timer and no automatic turnoff. Which was a real turnoff for us, too. Among many other turnoffs. Like extremely shoddy construction, for example. "Hated it" is not too strong a phrase. In fact, "actively loathed" is closer to the truth. .

I don't want to contradict anyone that said they liked the Cuisinart, and perhaps they had a different model than we did, but we hated ours. So we tossed it after a year or so, and got that Oster at Sam's. Not perfect, maybe, but at $40, the price was right and we liked it fine. Much better than that Cuisinart and half the price.