enidjane

I hate cheesecake, too! I generally dislike that feeling of cream coating my throat when I swallow - I can't seem to get the cheese part of the cheesecake swallowed. I don't like mayonnaise or ranch dressing or other creamy dressings for the same reason. I hate cream in my coffee. And oh man, those Ceasar salads clogged with dressing are disgusting!

Yes, yes, welcome to the special hell that I live in 5 months of the year. We crank the air-conditioning, ignore the weather, and cook whatever the hell we want.

I'm from Montreal but live in Tallahassee now. I wonder if my dinner party guests here in Florida find it strange that I make them sit at a table for 5 hours while I serve them course after course. I guess I never thought about it! My longest restaurant meal is probably about 4 or 5 hours for the tasting menu at Lumiere in Vancouver.

I'm so grateful for everyone's advice. I'm going to print out your suggestions to bring with me, and I'll report back with photos when I return. I can't WAIT to try cloudberries!! :)

Wow, thank you so much for the wonderful advice! :)

I'll be doing some travelling in Scandinavia next month and I'd love to hear any restaurant recommendations for Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo and Copenhagen. My preference is for meals with typical Scandinavian foods and preparations. Also, what are some typical meals that I should try? Herring!? Gravlax!? Lingonberries!? Meatballs!?

Florida State University has a lemonade cart. /shouldn't it be orange juice??

I'd make soup! I'd boil up the bones with ginger, star anise, five-spice powder ... and then add some vegetables and the duck meat to serve.

Furters

2 lbs beef steak cut into small pieces 1 tbsp seasoned flour 6 tbsp butter 8 rashers of bacon, chopped small 5 onions, chopped 1 tbsp raisins 1 tsp brown sugar 1 1/4 cups Guinness shortcrust pastry beaten egg to glaze Brown meat and simmer for two hours with other ingredients. Top with pastry & egg glaze, cook in a hot oven until golden brown. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This recipe is adapted from a little cookbook that I bought at the Guinness factory in Dublin. The cookbook is magnetic, so (a) it sticks to the fridge and (b) the recipes are certainly fabulous!

It looks almost like we have a consensus that the best thing for a cold is some sort of chickeny-spicy soup.

I like Ginger Ale Carrots. The recipe is: add carrots, butter, ginger ale to pan. The ginger ale makes the carrots sweet and gingery. Delicious. I also love soup made with roasted carrots - I either go with ginger here as well, or some orange juice.

When I visited Ireland, I had great oysters, mussels, smoked salmon and trout dishes. We also had some delicious local cheeses (Gouda style, though, really) and pates and terrines. My husband liked beef stew made with with Guinness, beef ribs made with Guinness and beef pie made with, yes, Guinness. I have a recipe for Steak and Guinness pie if you're interested. It involves bacon, raisins and brown sugar.

I really enjoy the process of making the kind of cookies where you have to make little balls. You know, you grab a lump and turn it into a neat little sphere and put it on the baking sheet. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I find it very relaxing.

The World66 website marks the countries that you've been to in red. I've got 22 countries. <img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries/worldmap?visited=CAUSBSDOATBECZDKFIFRDEIEITNLNORUSECHUKCN"><br/> <a href="http://www.world66.com/myworld66">create your own visited country map</a> or check our <a href="http://www.world66.com/centralamericathecaribbean/costarica">Costa Rica travel guide</a>

I love Budapest. Their Translyvanian Wooden Plate is delicious and a great value, and the restaurant itself is cosy and comfy.

As far as waitstaff, I also don't enjoy those who squat, those who announce "I'm Susie and I'll be taking care of you!!!!111!!!!", and those who touch my handsome husband. And as a French-speaker, I just simply cannot get used to the word "entree" describing the main course. "Entree" is the entrance; "main course" is the main course. I recognize that "entree" has become the generally accepted term, but it sounds very wrong-o to me.

Totally agree with your comments. I highlighted your bit about the "wilderness and Mounties"--did anyone notice Kevin Brauch's comment that perhaps Morimoto's miso/crab cooked over an open flame on the wooden paddle is an "homage" to Canada? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hunt some caribou for my lunch. ← Kevin Brauch is Canadian, eh. :)

Canned button mushrooms. *shudder*

Oooh, ketchup chips. Does this snack-food phenomenon even exist south of the border? When a high school friend moved away to California, he begged a group of us to regularly send him care packages containing, among other things, king-sized bags of Hostess ketchup-flavoured chips. ← I can't find ketchup chips here in the U.S. But my biggest culinary disappointment is the lack of Coffee Crisp chocolate bars. (They make a nice, light snack.) :)

Wow, I'm a little freaked out, in a good way. I've just found this site, and there are people here who, like me, ate tomato sandwiches as a child because of Harriet! And not only that, there are people who put potato chips into their bologna sandwiches! My particular Canadian touch is that the chip flavour has to be Ketchup. Yup.

How about one based on Armenian kefta kebabs? Lamb, onion, sumac, mint...

I've always been a big fan of the humble carrot, seasoned, tossed in olive oil and roasted. Sweet, orangey deliciousness. Leftovers make great soup, too, with orange or ginger or dill.

Hey! This is pretty much my fall-back dessert as well. I take apples, pears, bananas, whatver I have on hand, slice 'em up, saute them in butter, add cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and serve over ice cream.

Big shots seem to enjoy Gotham Steakhouse although it doesn't do much for me. Tojo's is my favorite Japanese place, and you can tell them about how Martha Stewart profiled the place for her TV show, and went behind the counter and made some rolls. :) I like all your choices West, Le Gavroche and Le Crocodile. I guess I might add C for seafood in a lovely setting. /I moved from Vancouver to Florida last summer. I miss all the great restaurants!! /Hooray for Rob Feenie! Woo wooo!!!