SuzySushi

What's the philosophy of zucchini?

Not as a late night snack, but sometimes for dinner when I'm feeling peaked, Cheerios with milk and banana hits the spot.

Margy, I'm sorry your original post drew so many vitriolic comments -- as you can see, this discussion has obviously unleashed some deep-rooted feelings about the meaning of food, and eGullet members can be a very opinionated bunch. I, for one, hope you decide to stick around.

I'm still not getting the picture... how would you have eaten a banana?

To be polite, I would have at least ordered something to drink -- a cup of coffee, a soda, or juice -- and excused myself with a white lie that "I'm not very hungry right now."

In the song, "macaroni" has nothing to do with pasta. It was a reference to a club of dandies in London. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._18/ai_95150309

"A new genetic analysis of ancient human remains proves that humans were unable to digest milk prior to the spread of agriculture and dairy farming within the last 8,000 years." Source

No, I wish I had them! Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in and tell me what it's really called, so I can buy some to keep on-hand.

I don't know about home-cooked Chinese food (there's always chicken soup -- "Jewish penicillin" -- for a Chinese touch you might add ginger), but years ago, a friend stopped by a Chinese herb shop where they prescribed something they called "sweaty tea." She said it tasted awful, but it worked fast to break her fever.

I am thoroughly enjoying this vicariously -- don't think I could keep up with that rice wine -- where is Bourdain when you need him, indeed!

My old friend "Martoon", when he was in 4H, grew a rutabaga in his sandbox that weighed over 14 pounds! It easily won the Blue Ribbon at the County Fair that year. In fact, it was so big that Martoon, who was good at math, figured he could have cut his giant rutabaga in two and won both the First and Third Place Ribbons with the pieces. Cutting it in two would have best been accomplished with a chain saw though, since rutabaga, when they get large, have the consistency of a block of wood. SB (Growing rutabaga in Hawaii would be like growing pineapple in Minnesota ) ← What a great story!

We do skewered foods a lot because they cook so quickly and are a crowd- and child-pleaser! Indoors, I used to do them under the broiler, but now mostly cook them on a George Foreman grill. I have an assortment of skewers: stainless steel and aluminum (inherited from my mother) and bamboo. The aluminum ones I have are easist to turn because they have a loop at the end. Bamboo is best for smaller cubes of food because the skewers are the thinnest. If you're using bamboo, make sure to soak the skewers in water for at least 30 minutes before using. Several tried-and-true recipes: Beef Teriyaki (I think this originally came from a Trader Vic's cookbook -- I got it more than 25 years ago from a Filipina friend in NYC!) Serves 4 1 pound beef, cut in 1" cubes 1 15-ounce can juice-pack pineapple chunks 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger 2 teaspoons sesame oil Combine all ingredients, including liquid from pineapple, and marinate, covered and refrigerated, 3 hours. Thread beef and pineapple alternately on skewers. Broil about 8 minutes, turning once. Serpentine Beef (Malaysia) Serves 4 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon (or more) curry powder 1 teaspoon minced ginger 1 large clove garlic, minced 1 pound beef , sliced very thinly, then cut in strips Combine first 5 ingredients, mixing well. Add beef. Marinate, refrigerated, 2 to 3 hours, turning occasionally. Thread meat strips on skewers, weaving them in and out. Broil 3 to 5 minutes, turning once, until cooked through. Note: You can also use meat cut in cubes, but then the beef isn't "serpentine." East-West Skewered Beef Serves 6 1/4 cup Dijon mustard 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon lime juice 2 teaspoons minced garlic 1-1/2 pounds boneless beef, cut in 1" cubes Combine all ingredients except beef. Remove and reserve 1/4 cup for basting. Add beef to remaining marinade. Marinate, covered and refrigerated, 30 minutes or longer. Thread beef on skewers; discard marinade. Grill or broil, turning and basting occasionally with reserved marinade, until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Grilled Chicken with Mint (Middle East) Serves 6 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1-3/4 pounds chicken cutlets, cut in 1/2" cubes Combine first 6 ingredients. Add chicken and marinate, refrigerated, at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours. Thread chicken on soaked bamboo skewers. Grill or broil 3 to 4 minutes per side, until cooked through.

Who is the "no one"/"everyone" on your list? With the exception of cabbage, which I can take or leave, all those are among my favorite vegetables! I'd agree with srhcb about most Americans avoiding old-fashioned root vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas, and parsnips for that matter, either because they don't know what to do with them, or because they had bad experiences with them in childhood! Turnips are popular in French and Japanese dishes, however, and parsnips are great in soups and stews or roasted with carrots. I don't believe I've ever tasted a rutabaga, and it's rare to see them in the markets where I live.

Xie xie for a magnificent blog! (Don't know the Cantonese phrase, so this will have to do!)

Question to Jason and anyone else using quarry tiles in their oven: Do you leave them there all the time, or do you remove them (once they're cool) after baking pizza? If you leave them there all the time, can you place baking or roasting pans directly on the stones to bake cakes, roast meats, etc. or do you use a different rack above the stones?

Does using Coca Cola add a distinctive flavour to the chicken? Would diet Coke work the same? ← Dejah -- I would think that Diet Coke would not work because it contains aspartame, which breaks down in cooking.

One main difference between salted and unsalted butter (besides flavor) is the amount of water the butter contains; salted butter has a higher percentage of water. This can affect the results in baking, where it's recommended that you not substitute salted for unsalted butter in recipes (and vice versa). IMO, the same thing happened with the fudge. If the recipe called for salted butter and unsalted was substituted, the result would contain less water and more fat, producing the "greasy" texture.

From the perspective of someone who's not in the restaurant business, I bet one reason is that chain restaurants already have a reputation (maybe mediocre to many of us at eGullet, but they wouldn't have gotten to be chains if mass-America didn't flock to their tables), and independents are an unknown quantity. People will go to chain restaurants because they know what to expect. Conversely, they'll stay away from independents because they don't know what to expect.

Coffee, a well-established source of antioxidants, may also be a richer source of soluble dietary fiber than orange juice, researchers in Spain have reported. Source

I thought (and the Wikipedia article seems to back up the theory) that Dan Tarts were descended from British custard tarts. The Portuguese-style egg tarts are richer because they contain more egg yolks and/or coconut milk.

The "ground thyme" sold in supermarket spice jars is pulverized to a fine powder. I'm not sure you can do that in such small quantities in a coffee grinder. I'd go the mortar-and-pestle route, separately from the allspice berries, which "bounce" therefore grind better mechanically.

I'm really simple in this regard: I'd roast the whole chicken, eat some/most of the meat and skin. Whatever meat was left over, I'd use in a salad, stir-fry, or soup at another meal. I'd make chicken soup from the roasted carcass. The innards (heart, gizzard), I'd cook in the roasting and with the chicken and eat as my personal treat. The liver, I'd save up with those of other chickens until I had enough chicken livers to make sauteed chicken livers over salad (the French way), or chopped liver (the Jewish way).

A couple of other "overview" books I can recommend are: A Taste of the Far East by Madhur Jaffrey; and The Chinese and Asian Kitchen Bible by Sallie Morris and Deh-Ta Hsiung. The latter is a promotional "bargain" book that has a very extensive pictorial review of ingredients, equipment, and cooking techniques. I haven't tried any of the recipes from this particular book, but recipes from other cookbooks from this publisher have turned out well.

Ah Leung -- Safeway also operates in Hawaii, BTW. The layout you've shown in your photos -- with large "islands" of fancy cheeses, sushi, etc. -- is typical of Safeway's "Lifestyle Store" format for its newest stores & remodels, which emphasize fresh foods. In addition to what MarketStEl said about not having to restock shelves as often, another reason US supermarkets have so many "shelf facings" (as they're called in retailing) of the same brand and item -- such as "15 cans of Del Monte creamy corn" -- side-by-side is for visual impact. Manufacturers also spent lots of money (called "slotting fees") in payments to supermarkets to make sure they get prime exposure. If you've ever seen the Robin Williams comedy "Moscow on the Hudson," it featured a memorable scene similar to your culture shock at first encountering American supermarkets, where the character (a Russian immigrant) was so dazzled by the enormous selection of coffee that he fainted!

Another "normal" taste here. For once, I'm glad to be "normal"! It would appear that from the way the definition is structured, a "supertaster" is not someone who is more into the fine nuances of food, but someone who is super-sensitive to what s/he perceives as objectionable tastes in foods (mostly strong or bitter flavors).