touaregsand

Korean moms and guilt? This is not an uncommon combination. I've never been to howondang. Where is it? I think I'll go buy some stuff for my mom there to make her happy only to have her scold me that I spent too much money on things she can buy in Korea for better quality and better prices. But she'll be happy, after she's made me feel bad...

It's used to stuff game hens in Korean cooking. As well as what Jschyun has already mentioned.

Why would you assume we're talking about Caucasians?

That brand is the most popular in Korea. And I also see it everywhere in LA even at Mexican markets and catering trucks that cater to a hispanic crowd.

I prefer my patbingsu plain, the way I had it when I was little. Just the pat and mitsugaru.

Sacrilege! Big fat red letter S for you! I'm having bibimbap for dinner tonight. I just walked to the Korean market and bought the vegetables already prepped.

I suppose you can serve this menu or is that too obvious?

Nuts added to tajines or savory pastry stuffings for briouts such as spinach, pine nuts and raisins. Ground almond sauces. Ground walnuts added to Korean bbq marinades. I have some recipes I can post later if you're interested. I have to take the kids to the park now.

Which brand? I have to admit I have a general aversion to almost all jarred/canned vegetables. So I'd probably just use a fresh red bell pepper.

Which LA farmers market? ← Probably Glendale and Santa Monica. I just bought some at an Armenian/Middle Eastern Market called Golden Farms on San Fernando Road. They also have fresh fava beans and fresh garbanzo beans.

Fantastic thread Kevin. I haven't made much Italian since I married this French guy but it's one of my favorite cuisines. I'm inspired now.

What is a pork roll? Scrapple? ← For pork roll, think a tangier, more heavily processed version of Canadian Bacon. For scrapple: all of the bits of pig too undesirable for sausage making, ground up with corn meal, spiced, and pressed into a brick. It is usually fried up as a breakfast meat, and gets wonderfully crunchy on the outside, and soft, steamy, andmelty on the inside. ← Come to think of it I've probably seen pork roll in supermarkets around here. I don't recall ever seeing scrapple though. I'm in backwards LA. The last time I went to a friend's house for brunch she served soy sausage.

How about a North African theme? You can serve hashish brownies and dress up as a belly dancer to encourage silly behaviour. It's great party food, alot of the dishes can be made ahead and reheated or just served room temp. I don't think I have ever met anyone who did not like good North African food. The flavors can sound exotic but it's very appealing to most people.

In LA I can get 750 grams of fleur de sel for $2.49 so it's really not expensive. I use it for everyday cooking.

Exactly -- all he keeps telling me is what other kids brought into school. Today we settled on some yogurt and with much discussion a banana. Tomorrow its chips. ← I think you wrote he just started first grade? Year round school system? I let my first grader choose what goes into her lunch bag. She knows she has to choose from the healthy food groups and she's allowed to have a "fun snack" everyday. The peer pressure thing at her school isn't so bad. She attends a French private school with a large International student body, lucky for me most of the other parents are like minded about junk food so her classmates don't pack too much. Her cousins on the other hand are allowed free reign on sugary, processed crap. After a visit with them she starts whining about all the "healthy foods" she has to eat, even though she actually likes the "healthy stuff." The problem is the good stuff doesn't come in cute packaging with cartoon characters. Anyway, I talk to her about overall nutrition and good health. She prides herself on being pretty and smart so lines like "this makes your hair shiny" or "this is brain food" usually work. Great blog by the way. Looking forward to more this week.

What is a pork roll? Scrapple?

At home we usually cook with fleur de sel. I recently bought some Kosher salt to make preserved lemons. I usually keep the salt in the box, but this time I put some in a little glass container. My highly trained, oh so experienced chef husband put some salt into his coffee thinking that it was sugar. Our six year laughed hysterically as her papa gagged on his morning coffee. She told him, "Papa the crystals are different. It doesn't look the same as sugar."

Average price for 87 unleaded in LA is in the range of $2.65-$2.75 per gallon. I don't do much driving around to save money on groceries anymore.

The jarred peppers have a flat flavor. Just omit it from the recipe if you can't find fresh.

This really applies to a specific category of well known chef. One who has a restaurant and writes a cookbook to promote the restaurant. I can think of just a few cookbooks like this that are actually cookbooks, they are more often than not monuments to the chef erected by the chef himself. These chefs have their PR machines who create the idol from a mold. Who buys these cookbooks but idolators? They put themselves in the position of having to be 'perfect." I'd rather listen to fingernails scratching a blackboard than hear another precious chef talk about his little organic garden, painstaking techniques, taking cuisine in whole new directions, experimenting in a garage... I remember reading a post somewhere that questioned Bourdain's boeuf bourguignon recipe because it seemed so simple. You know what it is simple. There you go, it's a simple dish that should have a simple recipe that works.

Ever since Rosie magazine went out of circulation there's been a literary void in my bathroom reading. I trust Rachel will tackle more controversial subjects such as Boeuf Bourguignon in 37 minutes or $40 dollars a week in her magazine that she doesn't have the platform to delve into more deeply on her FTV shows t w e n t y s e v e n t i m e s a w e e k a n d e l e v e n c o o k b o o k s.

This is how I felt at the Korean restaurant when I was told to choose a duck. The restaurant had outdoor seating overlooking a pond full of ducks that could fly away. I told the server he could choose for us. I glanced over at the ducks in the pond and I felt a tinge of guilt. Afterall I could be eating a relative or a friend. But as the thinly sliced pieces of duck cooked on the hot grill I realized that the ducks were oblivious to the smell of duck meat cooking and that even though one of them would periodically dissappear they stayed in the pond. I came to the same conclusion.

I suppose I would also be thinking that I have multi-millions on top of the multi-millions that I pay to the stars because of endorsement deals I've cut myself with all the banners strewn around the stadium.

I feel for you. For my daughter's first birthday we made a lot of food and invited her friends from Gymboree. Biggest waste of time, money, effort and love on a bunch of people I wouldn't be 'friends' with were it not for my daughter's baby classes. I should have ordered from Panda Express. There was no next time with these people.

I just remembered there is a place in downtown Los Angeles on Washington Blvd, east of Broadway called Imperial Chicken that has live birds. They also have a little restaurant next door. The owners are Chinese but the menu is Mexican. Roast chicken, chicken burritos, enchiladas, sandwiches, taquitos and chicken soup which they serve with a chicken foot. The broth is intensely flavorful and unctuous.