SuzySushi

Are you toasting the Sichuan peppercorns first? That brings out the full flavor. (Place in a dry pan and heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until they smell fragrant -- this takes less than a minute so don't walk away from the stove!)

Several copper-colored aluminum molds that are shaped similarly to the first few in your photos (fluting, surface designs, etc.) decorate my kitchen walls. They were manufactured in the 1950s as molds for gelatin, and can still be used that way. A couple of times, I've baked cakes in them, but the cakes stick badly to the indentations even when the molds are heavily greased/floured, and the molds need to be fine-cleaned with a toothpick!

Something tells me you will get back there before I do, so I'll want a full report on these. What are they, anyway? ← Pupusas

Wonderful report so far, and great photos! We'll have to compare notes next time you (or I) are planning a trip to San Francisco. With your coming from Philadelphia, I shouldn't be surprised that you opted for a Mexican taqueria, but next time I'm in SF, I plan to check out one of the restaurants that specializes in El Salvadorean pupusas.

Hey... there's also the buy the item, get the free stuff, hold onto it for a couple of years, and sell it as a collectible on eBay! [Edited 'cause I got only 4 hours sleep last night and the typos are incredible.]

helenjp -- Would you happen to have a recipe for piiman-zuke (pickled minced cucumbers and green peppers). I love that stuff, and would love to be able to make it without green dye and preservatives! My brunch today was my magnificent new invention: "nori tacos" -- place a portion of rice mixed with House ume-jiso paste on a quarter-sheet of nori, add a slice of maguro, top with shredded daikon and a dab of piiman-zuke, and convey to mouth!

Googling determined that it's a steak sauce with a "tom yum" flavor. Accordingly, you can use it as a table sauce on foods, or in marinades before they're cooked. Looks interesting! Taste it and decide.

Oh, yeah, and a friend of mine in France has a whole set of swirled glass drinking glasses that were originally Nutella jars. I only managed to bring back two on our last trip there, and lost the snap-on plastic lid to one. In the USA, Nutella comes in floppy plastic jars with screw-on lids.

Doesn't everyone who has young kids do this? I distinctly recall buying brands of cereal we don't normally eat because my daughter wanted the toy inside! For myself, I'm more apt to buy items that come in attractive reusable containers, such as an Italian pottery biscotti jar, or a plastic bento tray.

I 'd agree with Andrew. I got a sample issue in the mail and, like him, chose not to subscribe. The recipes were too blah, like something out of Taste of Home magazine, but made-from-scratch.

What I meant to say about using fresh/local foods as a "marketing angle" is that although "fresh" is always pertinent to perishables, retailers and marketers have other marketing pitches on which they can hang their hats -- e.g., convenience, gourmet foods, better-for-you formulations, etc. They don't depend largely on local farms for their business and don't need to be into "locally grown" for the long haul.

Great article, Russ, and your comments are very cogent and timely. As we speak, I'm finishing up a market research report on fresh & local foods (exact title yet to be determined by the publisher) and their marketing possibilities for retailers, foodservice providers, and food marketers--and farmers, farmers' markets, and CSAs are very much a part of the equation. However, for retailers, foodservice, and marketers, farm-fresh foods are just another marketing angle. Farmers have to make a living at it!

Oh my goodness! Natsukashii desu!!! (It makes me nostalgic for Japan.) I have to bookmark your thread for when (if!!! no plans at the present time) we go to Japan with our 10 year old. Unlike your daughter, she Japanese food, but with three of us traveling, we need to choose carefully to conserve our budget. It looks like you had some great experiences and discovered the real "family" Japan, and I'll be forever greatful that you turned me on to the Ghibli museum, which I hadn't known about before!

That's even more creative!

Probably sold out... that happens quite a bit around here at holidays. If it's not too late, why not try a garden store and buy a tiny plant?

I'm not a burger and fries person, but I love, love, love Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad. There are copycat recipes online for the dressing, but who wants to be bothered when it calls for a gazillion ingredients and it's only me eating it?

Ooooohhh... where in the world does one find black dishtowels??? ← My SIL bought his at Bed, Bath & Beyond, I think. I found mine at...... Wal-Mart!

I don't really have a strategy for storing dishtowels (Carolyn's BF's suggestion to roll them up is, indeed, brilliant!). But a neat trick I learned from my son-in-law (also in San Francisco -- must be something in that SF air!) is to use black dishtowels: they don't show food stains!!!

A coyote walks into a Quiznos ... The Quiznos restaurant chain took full advantage of a unique marketing opportunity when it issued a playful, tongue-in-cheek response after a wild coyote wandered into one of its shops in Chicago's busy Loop area on Tuesday. Full story

Full story in MediaPost's Marketing Daily. I can't stand to eat marshmallow Peeps, but I love what's being done with them artistically!

This sounds similar to a famous Swedish dish called Janssons Frestelse (Jansson's Temptation), which is made of potatoes layered with pickled sprats or anchovies and cream.

Sorry to hear this! Need to give it some more thought, but just off the top of my head, some herbs used in Southeast Asian cooking -- eg, lemongrass and lime leaves -- add sprightly flavor without acidity. If she can eat yogurt and tahini, I make a creamy salad dressing/dip using 3 parts nonfat plain yogurt to 1 part tahini. Add garlic if desired.

Another nice room-temperature veggie side dish is a Japanese standard, Green Beans in Goma-Ae Dressing. Everyone seems to love this dish with its sprightly sesame-soy-sugar flavors. Torakris posted a recipe on RecipeGullet.

Interesting! I hadn't thought about the dough flattening out... some doughs hold theiur shape better than others (such as the kinds used to make pressed cookies). But that's a clever idea!

Way too cool! Now how did you cut those cookies like that if it's not revealing a trade secret? It seems like I oughta know how to do that but I can't think of it. Just slice them all ribbley??? Or something... ← I would say it looks like he used a ribbed vegetable cutter (the kind used to slice potatoes) -- there must be a specific name for it, but I can't think of it right now. I did the eyeballs thing last Halloween, using cherry tomatoes stuffed with cream cheese and an olive center.