SuzySushi

Robyn, While for the most part, I agree with you that warning labels are going overboard, I completely disagree about peanuts/tree nuts and other foods that can cause anaphylaxis (seafood, etc.). Even a trace of these foods can cause death in a matter of minutes to someone who is highly allergic. My daughter's school is a "peanut free" zone because one of the children is deathly allergic. And I'm happy to comply with the voluntary "rules" by not sending her to school with PB&J sandwiches, granola bars, peanut candies, and the like. Why would I want to risk being responsible for the death of someone else's child, who could go into anaphylactic shock if he sits down at a table where someone sitting there before him had peanuts??? Same with the airlines. I like peanuts, but I don't mind it the airlines no longer serve them because I know that someone who is highly allergic could go into medical emergency or even die if s/he breathed the peanut dust. Yes, there are more people who die from hypertension. But it's not from immediate, one-time exposure to salt.

My maternal grandmother (German-Austrian-Jewish) used to cook chicken feet. She didn't use duck feet, but then, she had no access to them.

Here's something I saw for the first time a few weeks ago. It's a dessert pastry with a flaky pink-and-green tinted crust and a lotus seed paste filling. The yellow crumbled over the top is more pastry flakes. The waitress (whose English was poor) just mumbled something about it being called "lotus bun" when I pressed her for a name. The restaurant made this for Chinese New Year's and I tend to think it won't be on their regular menu. It looks better than it tastes.

The Japanese eat jellyfish. I've had fried pigs ears as a Vietnamese snack. How about birds' nests? Since they're from a particular type of swallow, I don't imagine that's a widespread delicacy.

My favorite is Elizabeth Andoh's At Home with Japanese Cooking (out of print) because the food tastes like the Japanese food I "grew up with" (cooked by my Japanese friends and their parents). I haven't tried the recipes from her new book Washoku yet, but it's a good bet they would similarly appeal to me. The recipes in Shizuo Tsuji's book tend to be more complex. The book, BTW, is not organized in a "unique way" but the way food is perceived in Japanese culture (and how it's presented in most Japanese-language cookbooks): not in "courses" like Western meals, but by cooking techniques that are meant to be balanced in each meal -- e.g., one serves a steamed dish or boiled dish along with a fried dish, rather than two fried dishes together. Makes complete sense to me!

Fascinating topic and experiences! Offhand, through all my travels, I can't recall ever joining or being joined by someone when dining alone. I always seem to meet people elsewhere, and end up dining with them! One favorite memory is the two Japanese flight attendants I met at the Parthenon in Athens; since I spoke Japanese (rusty now, but good back then), we struck up a conversation and ended up going to dinner together. Corresponded with them for a while, too. Of course, there was also the time I was dining at a trendy London restaurant at a table opposite from a younger Michael Caine, who was also dining alone. It would've been very un-cool to ask him to join me (or vice versa!) or bother him for his autograph, so a brief head-nod sufficed!

Count me in from Hawaii. Do you want the "on sale" prices, warehouse club prices, or standard supermarket fare?

As mentioned, my sister has a serious milk/dairy allergy (not just lactose intolerance). When dining out, she almost invariably will dine in Asian restaurants (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese) where she can be reasonably certain that dairy products are not used in cooking. If she's unfamiliar with a dish, she'll question the waiter as to whether any milk/butter/cheese was used. She still occasionally has problems with doughs where milk or butter is "hidden." Her friends know her food allergies and work around them when she's invited for a meal. If she's going to a strange house (rare!), she'll mention her allergy to the host or hostess beforehand and bring a dish to share that she knows she can eat, just in case. My daughter is dangerously allergic to pine nuts. They're pretty easy to avoid on a general basis in American foods, but are commonly used in Italian, Greek, Turkish, Middle Eastern, and Korean cuisines. When in doubt, I ask the waiter to ask the chef. And I carry her Epipen at all times.

SOFT inside??? Bagels aren't supposed to be soft inside!!!

I'm also very troubled by the "there, I've fooled you!" concept. My 9 year old daughter is deathly allergic to pine nuts. Not peanuts, which are a ground nut. Her allergist says there's a 50% chance she will be deathly allergic to another kind of tree nuts. So she avoids all foods with nuts, I carry an Epipen in my handbag, there's another at home, and one at her school. Another child at her school is deathly allergic to peanuts, so her whole school is a "peanut-free zone." A friend of mine also has a peanut allergy. If food is cooked with peanut oil, and her food is cooked on the same pan or grill afterwards, she can go into anaphylactic shock. My sister is seriously allergic to milk and other dairy products. Not just lactose intolerant, but allergic to milk protein (casein). She needs to read the fine print in labels, because sodium caseinate shows up as an unexpected ingredient in foods as disparate as canned tuna and salad dressings. (Never thought there was milk in tuna, did you?) Yeah, I suppose some people use "allergy" as an excuse to avoid foods they just don't like, but why take a chance? The only picky eater I'm trying to convert is my daughter, to get her to eat more vegetables. If they're grown up and their food likes and dislikes are set, it's no skin off my nose if they don't want to try something new.

As far as I recall, Joyva halvah doesn't contain eggs, but I don't have a package in the house right now to read the ingredients label. I'll be curious to see what it says. Arthur Schwartz (www.thefoodmaven.com) has a recipe for halvah on his website that supposedly replicates the Joyva product. It calls for sesame oil, flour, tahini, and honey. Halvah Recipe There's also a new mail-order source called The Halvah Superstore (www.halvah.biz) that I'm planning to check out... not for halvah, which I can get easily here, but for Joyva's raspberry ring jells, which are impossible to buy here. I'd previously found other online sources, but the shipping was exorbitant.

The book "Washoku" arrived at my door today and it is truly beautiful. The colors, the photos, the print, the everything! Thank you for the recommendation, Suzy. It also startles me to discover that there is something about this "cookbook" (for I think it is more than that) that is pulling me to read it, really read it - rather than skim it lightly and transparently which is my usual way with cookbooks. This is really a treat. Again, thank you. ← You're very welcome! Elizabeth Andoh is one of my favorite cooking experts and this book is a gem.

Oooh, oooh!!!! I'd buy it! Years ago, I suggested Ben & Jerry's make a "Black Forest Torte" flavor: chocolate ice cream with cherries, chocolate chunks, and pieces of chocolate cake. They never took me up on it. Their loss!

Chiquita Brands International is starting to sell single-serve bananas in convenience stores and expects to reach 5,000 U.S. locations this year. Chiquita will sell the bananas individually, for 75 cents to 99 cents each. That's significantly higher than what a single banana would cost by-the-pound in supermarkets and provides a larger profit. The bananas will use a special packaging technology designed to keep them fresh longer. Link Excuse me? I thought bananas already were single-serve, and they come in convenient individual wrappers, too. Does this strike anyone else but me as overkill?

I'm of the school of thought "ask your pharmacist" or "ask the manufacturer of your particular medication." Doctors are rarely experts in pharmacology (sp?) and may not know all the possible interactions/side effects. I'm also taking a statin drug, and wouldn't want to take my chances eating grapefruit unless I've seen reputable scientific studies saying it's okay. Overdose of statins can cause all sorts of unwanted side effects, including liver damage, and if grapefruit increases the medication's potency, it might increase the potential side effects. Personally, I'd rather not risk it. (Now, if someone told me I had to avoid chocolate for the rest of my life, that might be a different story...)

Yes, I'll admit I cheat and use filo pastry. My mother said her grandmother used to stretch the dough tissue-paper-thin by hand, on a tablecloth reserved just for that purpose. My favorites to make: Sweet -- apple strudel, pear and ginger strudel Savory -- Reuben strudel, filled with corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut

Where is "here"?

That would've been in the 16th century when Castella cake (aka kasutera), a delicate spongecake, first made its appearance in Japan. It's thought to have been brought to Japan by the Portuguese, although the name may have been derived from Castile, Spain. Castella became further popularized after a bakery called Bunmeido was established in Nagasaki in 1900. Bunmeido is now based in Tokyo and is one of the main commercial producers of castella in Japan; there's also a branch where I live in Hawaii. I don't have any hard evidence to back it up, but I would bet that French-style pastries were popular in Japan by the early 1900s, at the latest the 1920s, when there was a Japanese passion for foreign products.

What a wonderful thread! Thanks, Abra! A couple of months ago, I also scored a cookie press -- a Hutzler plastic one -- at a yard sale. I've had no experience making pressed cookies and never got around to using it at Christmas as I planned, so this is a most welcome shot in the arm.

I hardly ever see movies in theaters any more, but when I do, I usually bring in a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Most annoying story: when I lived in NYC, I once went to one of the movie theaters on East 59th street after doing my grocery shopping shopping in Katagiri, a major Japanese market down the block. I was toting two shopping bags and the tickettaker refused to let me in with "[my] own food." I had to argue with the theater manager that canned and packaged Japanese groceries were not snacks for consumption inside the theater! Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

Karen, Here's another good definition of wabi-sabi, which is mostly a visual aesthetic consideration. Shibui in the design sense (not astringency, like an unripe persimmon) has always struck me as being closest to our meaning of "understated," although it's currently being translated as "chic." For instance, a traditional kimono in muted colors is shibui. A brightly colored kimono is not. Japanese cooking expert and author Elizabeth Andoh, in her newest book, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen, describes the culinary aesthetic you're seeking, calling it washoku. The word "washoku" is used to indicate traditional Japanese food, as distinguished from Western food ("youshoku"). The character "wa" is often used as a prefix to designate things indigenous to the Japanese culture. It also is dictionary-defined as meaning "harmony." Andoh defines washoku as "the harmony of food," writing: "The term describes both a culinary philosophy and the simple, nutritionally balanced food prepared in that spirit." She describes the philosophy of washoku as embodying five principles of design and aesthetic and nutritional balance: color, flavor palate, cooking method, senses (eg: food must appeal not only to the taste, but to the eye, smell, touch/texture, and even sound), and a spiritual/philosophical principle compelling the diner "to appreciate both human endeavor and the natural foces that provide for us," including seasonal cycles and regional products. She writes, "Most Japanese today would have a hard time articulating washoku notions, and would not usually discuss among themselves the guidelines for assembling a nutritionally balanced, aesthetically pleasing meal," yet the principles are put to use instinctively on an everyday basis to create culinary harmony. [edited for spelling]

Personally, I've always been impressed by Japanese-style French pastry because of its more delicate touch. Back in 1973, on my first trip to Japan, a friend met me at my Tokyo hotel bearing a gift of two pieces of cake, both on genoise bases: one layered with whipped cream and slices of ice-cold fresh honeydew melon, the other with perfectly ripe canteloupe. Biting into them on a sweltering summer afternoon I was awed. In my personal experience before and since then, noplace else has ever presented cakes with filled with fresh melon, yet it was such a perfect combination! When in France, I prefer to order classic pastries such as fresh fruit tarts (raspberries or pears being my favorite) or local specialties such as cannele rather than frou-frou new wave pastries, which as Ptipois says, are too full of fat, air, and gelatin. Still, I think that Japanese pastry chefs often make a pilgrimage to France to gain a grounding in techniques because that's the original source.

Hi Hiro, and welcome to eGullet! I think it's impossible to generalize that Japanese pastries are "better" than French pastries, or that Japanese chefs are more innovative, but Japanese pastries and indeed Japanese baking in general (whether it's bread, cookies, cakes, or pastries) is different than Western baking in several respects: Japanese products are generally light vs. dense or heavier, less buttery, and less sweet. In great part, that's to cater to Japanese tastes. I can't give you an equivalent example in French pastry, but about 20 years ago, when American Mrs. Fields cookies chain entered Japan, they changed the recipe for their cookies to suit the Japanese market: the Japanese cookies contain less butter and less sugar than Mrs. Fields cookies sold in the USA. There are also differences in ingredients. Japanese flour is different than American or French flour. The butter is different because the cows graze in different fields. Breads and pastries are often made with yeast that's a product of sake-brewing, leading to a different flavor as well.

I definitely vote for renting an apartment with a kitchen. On two of our trips to Paris (each 5 weeks or more), we did just that. First apartment was in the Marais; we found it through a local real estate agency whose name we'd gotten from the French Government Tourist Office. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my trip notes, I probably still have the name. The apartment was tiny but cute, with a fully equipped (from a French point of view) kitchen: two burners, tiny oven, good coffeemaker, nice pots & pans, contemporary tableware, and even spices, EVOO, and vinegar! The only things inexplicably missing were potholders and dishtowels, which we bought. A typical neighborhood shopping street was around the corner with several bakeries, a butcher shop, fishmonger, greengrocer, charcuterie, and convenience store. Bus and metro stops were on the corner, and there was even an Asian grocery store a few blocks away. Second sublet was in Montparnasse completely out of the tourist loop, in an apartment belonging to a friend's boyfriend (he'd moved in with her, so his place was available). Kitchen was more haphazard: a mixed collection of cookware, a stove we had trouble lighting, an oven whose temperature was so off that a roast I made came out half-raw at the appropriate time. It was about a block away from a market street with a Monoprix supermarket and a good cheese shop, but it was situated so distant from the center of town that we were rarely back "home" in time to shop in any of the neighborhood food stores.

I don't remember... but somewhere in the back of my mind, I recall a "helpful hint" that putting pantihose in the freezer before wearing them helps extend their life by preventing snags.