SuzySushi

That's true... And, to be honest, the food scene has changed considerably in the 14 years I've been here. My sister used to have to care-package me kasha and other grains, and we used to order our cheese from California! But the cuisine here is still primarily Asia-centric, and it's difficult to get ingredients for other cuisines. There's ONE Mexican/Latin American store (plus one that specializes in hot sauces), ONE Indian/Middle Eastern market (opened only in the last year), ONE place that makes fresh pasta (as an offshoot of a restaurant), ONE kosher/Jewish/Israeli store (also opened in the last two years)... If they're out of or don't carry what I'm looking for, tough luck! Mail order is also not a great option here. A lot of places won't ship beyond the contiguous 48 continental states, or the shipping is prohibitive. We once tried to order 3 pounds of sausage, and the company called us back asking "Do you really want to do this?" after checking with FedEx... the cost of shipping on dry ice would've been $75!!! (There's no "next day air" in Hawaii -- the fastest shipping from the mainland is two days.) Ah... the cost of Paradise!

Godiva is owned by Campbell Soup Co. The Godiva chocolate available in Europe, BTW, is a quite different formula than the chocolate sold in the USA -- the US chocolate is manufactured in Pennsylvania to "American tastes."

Best recipe I have is: mix half sour cream and half mayonnaise. Mash in as much Roquefort cheese as you can stand!

I don't know if it qualifies as "burnt" or merely "blackened," but I just read that Alex Patout's, a restaurant in New Orleans, offers blackened brie served in a salad of fresh greens.

Hey... try the whole State. Because we're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, some companies just have no intention of setting up shop in Hawaii, calling it "unprofitable." That means no Whole Foods, no Trader Joe's, no real deli, no artisan bread bakery, no gourmet cheese shop... (Yeah, yeah, we can occasionally get a few crumbs here.) And, not that I especially want them, we also don't have mainland restaurant chains like Applebee's or Olive Garden. Funny, Costco is making money here, and the Disney store in Ala Moana Center (Honolulu's largest shopping center) is the most profitable store in the whole Disney chain. I've tried pointing that out to other retailers (from Victoria's Secret to Trader Joe's), but they just don't wanna hear it, saying that they have "internal concerns." Hmpph!!!

I use it all the time... It's infuriating to find out that some unfamiliar ingredient is something I knew all along, but by a different name. I also like that he has photos, so I can identify what's really unfamiliar!

Yes, La Dua = Pandan according to Gernot Katzer's Spice Dictionary. Maybe some of the Malaysians on eGullet can weigh in with more information.

Ah! The wonders of Google! There's apparently a recipe for Leche Quemada (caramel custard) in a cookbook written by a Franciscan Friar in 1780. I would suspect the flavor derives from Spanish creme caramel.

Here, it's rare to find mandarin oranges fresh! (Closest relatives are tangerines and clementines.) I'm surprised you haven't seen canned ones in Australia -- they're usually in the Asian food aisle or markets. Most of them are canned in China, under Japanese brand names. Theyre peeled and sectioned, and canned in a light sugar-syrup. Good for eating chilled as-is, using in desserts (from mixed fruits to cheesecake), in spinach salad or other salads. Children love them as snacks and there's even one company here that offers them in child-size portions in plastic cups. Fast-food chain Wendy's has placed them on its menu as a healthy alternative to French fries in kids' meals.

I don't know who carries the Ito En teas in your area... maybe you can ask one of your favorite markets to stock them. They're about $1.59 a bottle here; less when I can find them on sale. None of their flavors has any sweetener or calories. My favorite is the Jasmine Green Tea but they're coming out with several new flavors this summer. I read that The Republic of Tea is also launching a line of bottled unsweetened iced teas. Check gourmet stores or coffee/tea stores in your area.

Tonight we tried frozen Peas Paratha, made by Pillsbury, India. We thought it was very tasty and I'd like to know how to make it from scratch. I can probably figure out the dough from other paratha recipes on eGullet, but would like to know how to make the nicely seasoned filling. Ingredients are: flour, peas, water, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, coriander, salt, glycerol [dough conditioner ???] onion, modified tapioca starch, cumin, green chillies, mango [amchur powder???], turmeric, chilli powder. TIA!

Agreed on that. ← Absolutely! He's exhibited other examples of antisocial behavior. Such as, at a party (not at my house), sitting by himself in a corner for most of the evening, then standing up abruptly and shouting to his wife across the room, "It's time to go home now!"

Which reminds me of my worst dinner guest... A good friend's husband, back East. He's Orthodox Jewish, and for him she keeps a Kosher home, though she's happily tucked into lobster etc. when she and I have had "girls' night out" dinners. So I invited them over, carefully prepared a vegetarian (pareve) meal using only Kosher ingredients. He wouldn't touch it. Not a bite. Because my dishes and pots & pans weren't Kosher. The only thing he accepted was a glass of water, in a glass glass, which could be purified to his satisfaction. My friend and I ate dinner, as he circulated through the house. It was not a comfortable situation. I've never invited him back.

Papaya sorbet in a papaya shell. It's easy to hollow out!

A couple of suggestions: Go grains. Grain dishes made from fragrant brown rice (I've been buying Nishiki brand), whole-grain kasha, barley, etc. are filling and satisfying. Get the "umami" in by sauteeing the dry grains first in a little olive oil, or adding mushrooms (I like reconstituted Chinese black mushrooms/shiitake). Watch your beverage intake. Juices and anything sugar-sweetened pile on the calories. I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners... but I recently discovered that ice water in which I've floated a few slices of cucumber or a few fresh mint leaves is surprisingly refreshing, and I don't miss the sugar. Can you swim for exercise, or exercise in water?

Just came across this article on Moroccan Cuisine in the current issue of Prepared Foods.

When you've made 40,000 of them, you get pretty proficient....

Scary!!!

To what Chris said ("lack of time and a lack of pleasure in cooking") I'd add "average taste buds and a less-than-burning interest in food." There are, after all, a lot of people who think chain restaurants like the Olive Garden are the epitome of fine dining. Not everyone's a gourmet.

Lucky you! Of course I eat mooncakes! Only two more months to wait, only two more months to wait (mutters).

I've never set out intentionally to make Mango Chicken, but once threw underripe frozen mango cubes (they had been bought to use in desserts but were too sour) into a chicken stir-fry. Trying to remember what sauce I used.... probably added some hoisin sauce for a touch of sweetness/richness. It turned out pretty well.

We have a winner! What the hell is this, anyway? Have you had one, SuzySushi? ← Haven't had one for a long time, but as I remember it's chicken, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and dressing packed into a pita bread. Pretty tasty, too.

Jack in the Box has had Chicken Fajita Pita on its menu for at least 15 years!

Tapioca iced tea/aka boba tea/aka bubble tea reportedly was begun in Taiwan by a vendor across the street from a middle school or high school. She wanted to sell the hungry kids rushing out at the end of the day a snack that was different and more substantial than the usual soft drinks they could get from other vendors. Why tapioca in particular? I don't know... maybe she had it on hand. Anyway, the idea caught on across Taiwan, then with young people in areas of the USA with Taiwanese immigrants... and so a fad is born! I think the novelty is what sells it, slurping up something chewy through a gigantic straw. It's like those gummy candies. That, and all the different flavors available. But if you told most kids it's the same stuff that's in tapioca pudding, they'd go 'eeeeuw!!"

It begs the question: why do you need to refrigerate black beans? You open up a bag (or a box), just keep the rest in the cupboard. There really is no need to refrigerate them. They are already fermented. The only thing that would bother me is if you don't use them for a long time while keep them in an open bag, they gradually dry up. I resolve that by keeping them in an air-tight jar. They can be kept for over a year without losing the flavor from my experience. ← Well I guess I don't need to! Force of habit! I pretty much refrigerate everything after opening except for dry staples like white rice, wheat flour, and dried mushrooms! (Even my soy sauce goes in the refrigerator as that's what the bottle suggests.)