touaregsand

tazerowe- Thank you for the report, sounds like you had a great time. I'd probably eat the things you've tried in the same adventurous, generous spirit. I will add though it's difficult to judge a country's cuisine based on dining out. Even in countries with well established and highly developed restaurant scenes great home cooking stands on it own and perhaps better reflects the culinary spirit of a country. Of course not all of us are lucky enough to be invited into someone's home. I suppose it's a bit of a silly point for me make in the context of your trip.

Go to this thread scroll down to the picture of a dor (first birthday party) and at the far right and left of the second photo what you see are plastic towers of deok or cookies. Very rarely have I seen the real versions of those things.

Thanks, Theabroma. Duni mentioned as something she remembers from Bogata, and Taco also remembered it as something done in Mexico City. Apparently, he researched it a couple of years ago and was able to find information on it. The Spanish name was one of the things I'm trying to find, because that will probably make it easier to track it down. I've done quite a lot of research on these foods, and it intrigued me that I've never seen this one described before. ← Perhaps someone in the Spain/Portugal forum would know the name of the cookies. I do know that similar (possibly nearly identical cookies) are still part of the North African repetoire of pastries. I hazzard to say that they are still made in Spain as well.

This reminds me of the ubiquitous Korean plastic food towers at birthday celebrations and weddings. The faux foods are too expensive to make these days, especially considering that the foodstuffs in question never really tasted that good and nobody really wants to eat them anymore even if they were real. Sure enough my parents rent them (yes they are available to rent) for every 100 day celebration, every dor (1st birthday)... Most people don't even know what the foods in those towers is called anymore, not even the duk (rice cake) shops who rent them.

Sounds Arab or Moorish, the cookies and the flavors that is.

It's one those non-recipe dishes. It's a way to use up sour kimchi, if you can imagine that. Uncured pork belly is most commonly used, but you can subsitute a leaner cut of pork or beef. Lamb or chicken is not recommended at all. Following is the most basic version. You can add more or less meat or kimchi to suit your taste. You can also add onions, scallions and tofu. White beef stock can be substituted for the water. For those who are used to restaurant versions and prefer that taste and you feel that something is missing, it's most likely MSG or Hondashi. 1 lb Pork belly 2-3 cups sour kimchee, chopped into 2' pieces 1/4 cup kimchee liquid (optional) water (or white beef stock) to cover 2 tablespoons tablespoons Korean red pepper flakes 2 cloves crushed garlic Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer untill kimchi is tender. Adjust seasoning, salt or fish sauce if you prefer.

I would have responded, "YES I DO INSIST, CAN I ALSO HAVE SOME KETCHUP AND A LITTLE EXTRA OF THE PARMESSAN IN THE GREEN CAN THAT I KNOW THE CHEF USES."

You touch on a lot of that things that are of personal and professional interest to me. Yes, the ability to cook is bred in the bone- not genetic. My husband was the only one of 7 children who was deeply attached to his mother's kitchen. My 6 year old knows right away when I switch brands of somen noodles on her. My 2 year old knows where everything is in pantry and refrigerator. He enjoys trips to the grocery store more than the toy store. I was the same way. We are all good with our hands and are usually doing something with them whether it's writing, drawing, painting, sculpting or cooking. Sensing a sort of telepathic communication is not weird at all. Great food speaks to our hearts and souls. My choice of words is perhaps a bit corny, but these words come up again and again. The soul of the dish. The soul of the chef. Cooking with heart. Touching hearts with food... I've seen it time and time again, emotional, visceral responses to great cooking. Customers or students after eating a meal or taking a class have blurted out "I love you" to the chef. Given the tendency to respond exuberantly to such food, it's not surprising that when food is percieved to be lacking in "heart and soul" the response is one of sterile detachment. The problem of highly constructed dishes for some is that they are not really cooked, more than they are composed through a process of assembly line cooking. A euphamisim might to call the factory line process a studio, a lab or garage. Yes, I do realize it's more than a euphamism because a studio, lab or garage imply tinkering, experimentation, creativity, art... In order for the highly constructed, ethereal and heart, soul, love, good cooking to meet- a chef usually needs a huge, highly trained staff and an investor with deep, gilded pockets for money losing investment in hopes of building the brand name of the chef. So that the brand name can be marketed with more casual ventures, cookbooks, TV shows... and the chef is eventually seen has losing his heart and soul by shilling knives or putting his face on a box of frozen pizza. I believe that about alot of places, upscale and downscale.

I read the piece. I don't even know what to say. I appreciate you posting the link.

Waaza- I don't really have much to add here at the moment. Just wanted to let you know that I am enjoying your informative posts.

In certain realms of cooking fancy shmancy food isn't even really food anymore. I get the urge, the serious urge to cut a big one in the room when I read most reviews of top tier places. More often it has to do with tone of the writer than the food that is written about. Eeyore was always my least favorite pooh character. Not that pooh is my favorite, there is something disingenuos about him. Too many chefs these days learn how to talk about their food before they actually learn how to cook, some never even really learn how to cook that well. Somewhere along the line (I can actually trace this, but choose not to bore anyone here with it). The emphasis on ingredients turned into a wider trend of "shopping not cooking" which I don't have so much a problem with. I had access to better quality stuff in the trade then I do as a retail consumer. The fundementals and basic techniques of good cooking fell out of favor. Technique became extraneous (at least in cookbooks that are monuments to the chef and his restaurant) or it entered the realm of 'science' in a studio, lab or garage. Then there is the food writer who needs new things to write about... that's a whole other topic.

Interesting concept. Fish and meat really don't taste good together to begin with. And what are the chances of confusing meat with fish even if it's cooked together in the same dish? Even so, if I feel a thorny thing in my mouth I'm spitting it out. I see a loophole. Fishsauce doesn't have any bones in it.

I must be a careless mom. My daughter starts school at 9:00AM and has lunch around noon. I've never really worried about food going bad. I usually pack it in one those insulated lunch sacks or boxes.

Carob.

Yes I'm interested. Please post the recipe.

Adorable! I can just imagine your 3 year old at camp. Too cute. How about pasta? It will keep well with a frozen drink. I'm assuming that at this age, a camp supervisor will encourage and help the little ones at meal time.

It's also simply not true that the children are always in charge in the United States. I am afraid this is turning into another blah blah blah Americans are such bad parents blah Americans eat shitty food blah blah blah Americans are fat blah blah, etc. Therese said upthread: And that's a big difference. Not all American parents leave the bad ones at home - not everyone here has Grandmere to watch them while the parents go out. ← Now, now I think we can agree that there is no need to bash Americans or American children. There are too many cultural differences to sum up the results of child rearing practices in one or two statements. I think Kelly makes the point succinctly. This applies to France as well and probably more other countries/cultures than it does not. (Note the other thread and the extensive discussions about how children are welcomed or treated excpetionally well in 'ethnic' restaurants.)

I agree. This is an accurate way of summing it up. ← DC Mark's response was to a post by Jonathon Day who is presumably English, but spends alot of time in France (I'm guessing based on his avatar). The English and Americans are seperated by a common language and culture.

Waitron? What exactly is a waitron? A robot that bends over backwards and takes it any which way?

True, but not so simple. The cultural differences in child rearing, education and attitudes toward children can take up volumes.

Hers is a photo of North African communal dining. There is a saying, "To eat with one finger is a sign of hatred; to eat with two shows pride; to eat with three accords with the prophet; to eat with four or five is a sign of gluttony." It's a quote form Bryan Clarke's Berber Village. (I won't get into the problematics of the title ). But it echoes what I've heard from my North African friends, husband and family. The three fingers are the thumb, index finger and middle finger, imagine them meeting together to form a scoop. It's common to serve kessra with couscous and tajine (we already discussed the problematics of calling a soup or stew a tajine in that other forum). The kessra is used to sop up the sauce and scoop up pieces of meat and vegetables. But it's not neccesary. Kessra can be very thin like pita bread or it can be thick. Adjust eating techniques accordingly. Anyway, spoons are acceptable to many North Africans. It is used to scoop food and cut into meat and vegetables. As for your "eating like a rabbit" I hear this all the time from my Korean cousins and other Koreans in general. If I can stand to watch someone chewing with his/her mouth open (like my dad) without making a comment, I don't see why comments have to be made about my chewing with my mouth closed. Apes in every culture.

No way, you haven't offended me. I understand the tines down, but tell me, how do you eat rice? You can't spear it, and you don't use a spoon, right? ← Okay, for loose stuff you do use it like a shovel I guess (don't see how else you could do it) using the knife as a pusher. I probably do that with peas as well. But I really get a kick out of watching people try to get the rice/peas on the fork without using a knife. ← Depends on the type of rice. If it's the steamed rice that Koreans eat, we eat with a spoon. Apparently this is not done in China or Japan though. The thing about French table manners is that the French don't eat much rice. They use a fork for couscous which makes North Africans laugh hysterically.

A fork for ice cream has to be the stupidest joke. Someone can give the reasons for it, which I sort of remember right now.

My husband can't explain this to me either. And it really upset him when we first met that I didn't keep my hands at or above table level. It took him about 3-4 years to stop commenting on it. It's not like I took his remarks lightly. I'm more the type to say "they're my fookin hands, okay??!!!" Especially after hearing it 100 TIMES. As far as my idea of table manners goes... Mostly I love to see people enjoying eating without worrying about etiquette so much. When you talk about etiquette especially on an International board things can easily degenerate into a food fight. I firmly, absolutely believe that a refined person in one culture will do things that make him/her seem like an ape in another culture. (Note the chopsticks thread, like someone in Albania is gonna tell me what good manners are at an Asian table, puhleeze.) I can give numerous examples from my family where ideas contradictory ideas about good manners and etiquette come from 4 different continents. When I'm eating Western/European (white people) food I usually hold my fork and knife the French way, because that is more comfortable for me. But I have noticed that when I am dining with Americans, sometimes it is percieved (well people actually comment on it) that it's the 'fancier' way. And you know in America we're all the same. So I switch to eating the American way so that my fellow diners don't feel uncomfortable. I think it's all silly. But I have good manners. Usually. I've also noticed that when we have dinner guests there is almost always hesitation on the part of diners. There is some anxiety about having to display "French table" manners. Non, non. In our home guests eat the way they want. By the way I always leave a bite of food on the plate. It's a pathological habit I've had since childhood. My husband always inspects my plates to see what I've eaten. He will usually finish it. He HATES this little habit I have.

Life cereal. Didn't Mikey die because he drank coke while eating that rock candy that 'exploded' in your mouth. The Urban legend theory was that the candy and coke caused his stomach to explode.