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Everything posted by mizducky
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As a kid I used to love it when my mom made sardine sandwiches for my school lunch. By the time I got to eat them, the juices would have soaked a bit into the bread, which was particularly yummy. It still surprises me that I never got any grief about them from my fellow students. I have a special fondness for the huge fat Mexican sardines in tomato sauce in oval cans. But any canned sardines are fine with me. I have yet to try fresh sardines ... I keep meaning to correct that. I'm a big fan of stinky fish in general, and I can totally "blame" my parents for initiation into the delights of these funky foods at a young age. It was definitely an ethnic cultural thing with us--we ate mostly classic Eastern European Jewish preparations like smoked whitefish, sable, and of course lox. I was indoctrinated about the joys of canned fish about the same time. We treated the canned stuff as a more convenient, storeable, and economical alternative to the fancy stuff, suitable for everyday use--the fancy (and pricey) deli smoked fish were for occasional weekend brunches and special treats.
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Oh, I'm loving this topic! Okay, the following three observations are all on various tangents related to "chain restaurants of yore", but hey, it's the best I could come up with that hasn't been mentioned already. Here's a real obscure one: when I was growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 1960s, there was a local fried chicken delivery chain called Chicken Delight. I have fond memories of their jaunty little jingle: "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight!" Pretty decent chicken, too, as best as I can recall. Oh, and who in the New York metro area can forget Tom Carvel on the airwaves hawking his own ice cream cakes. Oy. he sounded just like my father. Yeah, I know Carvel the business is still around, but this would fall into the category of "chains that just ain't the same no more." Off in another direction: there's a handful of former A & W Root Beer stands in the suburbs of Seattle that have become Asian-run eateries, most often hamburger/teriaki joints. It always tickled me to see what color the new owners had painted the place, rooftop barrel cutout and all. My favorite Thai restaurant in the Seattle area, Bai Tong, just outside SeaTac Airport, is housed in one such former A $ W. I recall it being painted a tropical green, at least at some point--it's been awhile.
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Heh. That's why it's adviseable to use only photos not previously posted on eGullet for foodblog teasers. Too many "Alert Readers" in this bunch.
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With all the beautiful soup-making going on, you all have succeeded in enticing me to soupify as well. Last night I made a messy, unsightly, but definitely delicious fish head soup. And right now I have a couple pounds of chicken feet, plus appropriate veg, working in a brand-new crock pot I bought yesterday. (Man, chopping all those toenails off of all those footsies was a trip!)
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If I bring pork belly can I come to dinner? ← It's a deal! Heh. Now I'm imagining a whole dinner party theme: Messy unsightly but yummy dishes you can only serve to people who are also into them.
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I'm baaaaaaaack ... No pictures this time, for reasons you'll understand shortly. Inspired by the current foodblog's soup theme, I decided to act on my recent urge to try my hand at fish head soup. Shopping in one of the local Asian markets, I scored a nice meaty-looking fish head -- 2.5 pounds, I think it was off of a small tuna--and the fishmonger obligingly chopped it into six pieces and cleaned it of gills and other unwanted bits. At home I had half a packet of Filipino sinigiang soup mix kicking around, so I used that as the flavoring base, along with some finely sliced lemongrass, a few slices of gingerroot, and a few whole cloves of garlic. Other solid ingredients included chunks of yellow onion and eggplant (Euro eggplant was what I had in the house, so that's what I used), plus a container of shirataki. Throw it all in a pot with about 6 cups of water, simmer till the eggplant is done, and voila! The result tasted pretty damn good if I do say so myself, but oy the visuals! And eating the stuff was a gloriously messy procedure, making dissassembling a whole lobster look like a dainty teaparty in comparison. That's why no photos--I didn't want my camera getting icked up with fishy fingerprints. I sure had fun eating the stuff, but I could easily imagine a diner with a low tolerance for ick running screaming from the room. And oh yeah, a chunk of simmered skin-on eggplant can bear an uncanny resemblance to a chunk of simmered fish head, at least when submerged in soup. I will definitely make this again--and maybe even get pictures next time--but unless I can find some fellow diners not weirded out by picking carefully through the most weirdly-shaped bones ever to come out of a fish, I'll probably be eating it solo.
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Sorry to be checking in so late, folks. I've been flat-out busy with interesting but time-consuming work projects for the past couple of weeks, so I didn't even discover this blog until last night. I still have a bunch of catch-up reading to do, but I wanted to say a general "Yum!" to the whole soup topic. I have all sorts of fond childhood memories of soup-making, and have created several new soup memories since being on my own as an adult. I was eating congee, pho, and bun bo Hue seemingly every day for weeks and weeks last year, and I think it played a major role in my successfully navigating last year's health issues. But unless my quick searches of this blog have missed something, I've yet to see any mention of one of my favorite literary references to soup! So I must offer it as a gift to our noble trio of bloggers: "Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beautiful Soup!" P.S. You've inspired me to turn out a quick little soup of my own this evening ...
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Now this whole story sounds like a little piece of paradise.
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Ooooh! I just saw some very nice blood oranges in a local market the other day. I am totally doing one of these--they sound excellent. The pizza and the fennel salad seem to be calling my name first... Andie, what's the absolute minimum amount of sugar one can do your quick marmelade with successfully? I adore marmelade, and it would be lovely if I could indulge in it with minimum caloric hit, because then I could indulge in more of it.
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Hmmm. I always remove both the stem and root end. I realize keeping the root end on would keep the onion from falling to pieces, but trimming off both ends was the way my mother taught me to do it, and while I have abandoned other cooking techniques I learned from my mom, somehow the onion-cutting habit persists...
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Interesting Ingredients From Chinatown Markets
mizducky replied to a topic in China: Cooking & Baking
I keep on looking at those herb packets every time I visit Asian markets. I need to get bold and ask a staff person a few questions myself. -
eG Foodblog: C. sapidus - Crabs, Borscht, and Fish Sauce
mizducky replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Hi, sorry I'm late--life has been hectic recently, but now I'm all caught up with your delightful blog. Everything looks great, but I have to give a special shout-out to your greens, which looked gorgeous. I got hooked on greens at some point, and wound up teaching myself how to cook them out of this terrific Kwanzaa book which features a whole bunch of festive recipes from all over the African diaspora. The recipe I use from this book has an interesting twist: it specifies using three types of greens. The types can vary according to availability and taste, but you have to use three of 'em. And it says to throw 'em all in at the same time, so you wind up with a variety of textures all mixed together, which I kind of dig. -
At my favorite Chinese buffet in town (East Buffet, as featured in my first foodblog, in case any locals are curious ), I regularly see certain patrons tanking exclusively on some personal favorite item. No staff person as much as raises an eyebrow. This place does such a huge business, the management obviously did the math and realized it all equals out. Plus I'd just like to see one of the young servers attempt to take on one of the matriarchs I have seen going to town on the blue crab--my money would be on the matriarch every time. I could understand a buffet charging if you took and then wasted a whole bunch of food--not only from a business standpoint, but because I was brought up to think of food wastage as seriously Evil. But if any staff of any buffet ever gave me guff about taking too much of one item, I would feel no compunction whatsoever about letting them know what a stupid business decision that was--especially since they'll have lost not only my business but that of every person I can alert over the Net. Chintziness is its own reward. (Signed, she who, before her weight management odyssey, regularly porked out on spareribs at various Chinese buffets)
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Thank you! I'm so glad it turned into such an interesting adventure. And I'm glad you dug the soup too. About the offal: one of the things I love the most about Asian cuisines are the whole new worlds of offal to explore. I had to be gently insistent the first couple of times I ordered bun bo Hue here in San Diego--the servers were concerned the nice Caucasian lady might not like it. Once I assured them that, yes, I knew about the pork blood, and wanted it in, they obliged--and were kind of tickled that I liked it so much. Standard meats in bun bo Hue around here include slices of well-done beef (I think brisket), some beef tendon, a slice of pork hock skin bones and all, and a couple cubes of the pork blood. One or two places also put in a couple of slices of that peppery mortadella-like meat loaf (whose name has just slipped my mind). Veggie add-ins here usually include finely-shredded cabbage along with the bean sprouts and herbs and etc. Some places provide fermented fish sauce on the side, in others the fish sauce is mixed in before serving. I dunno why the pork blood turns my taste buds on so much. Maybe it's because I love liver, and it's like super-liver. Maybe it's because I'm slightly anemic. Whatever it is, I feel so damn healthy after a bowlful of the stuff.
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Who and where please. ← Thai Cafe in Clairemont Mesa (4722 Clairemont Mesa Blvd). Mind you, this is not fabulous Thai cuisine--but it's definitely decent Thai grub. Except for the pad thai, which has got a bad case of the sweet-and-gummies. But then, if you're following good buffet practice you're avoiding the noodles anyway, right? Do have some of the coconut rice, though--that's definitely worth the carb hit.
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I am currently having a culinary love affair with any cut of pork that has the skin still attached. Braised long, low, and slow, all the collagen in the skin converts into the most luciously gelatinous texture. If I had a couple of fresh pork hocks in my possession right now, I'd probably do some kind of a Chinese red-cooked dish with them--a long slow braise in a liquid including dark soy sauce, ginger, star anise, shaoxing wine (or other alcohol--lots of recipes adapted to Western kitchens suggest sherry as a substitute), and a little sugar. I often also add some garlic and a dried red chile or two, just because. Whatever braising liquid you decide to go with, simmer the lot, covered, in a moderate oven for some two to three hours, until everything is meltingly tender. Heavenly.
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I enjoy a good Indian buffet, and the ones around here have licked the na'an problem by bringing a freshly-made batch to your table rather than letting the stuff languish on the buffet table. There are two reasons I don't currently do Indian buffets more often: 1. All the heavy--and tempting!--starches, meats, and gravied foods make it a bit more challenging for me to put together a meal that works with my health regimen Although I do have a couple of all-vegetarian Indian buffets in my rotation that make this situation a bit more manageable. 2. I confess to getting a little bored with standard Americanized Indian restaurant cuisine. Although I do know of a buffet in town specializing in southern Indian/Madras style foods which is a refreshing change of pace in this regard. While Indian cuisine may seem to be better built for longevity in a steam table, in my experience it really doesn't fare all that much better than Chinese cuisine. Tandoori chicken can get unpleasantly dry; sauces and dals lose moisture and get unappetizingly gluey; samosa crusts get soggy and pakoras get greasy ... so you still have to use all your best mad buffet skillz to get the good stuff at the right moment. Bringing in another regional cuisine: There's a Korean lunch buffet I like to frequent on occasion--it's not the best Korean food in the world by a long shot, but there's something to be said for all-you-can-eat panchan. Oh, and I haven't been yet, but I hear good things about a Filipino combination buffet/turo-turo restaurant south of San Diego down in National City. Knowing how meat-centric Pinoy food can be, I'll definitely have to save up a bunch of food-slack before I go ... but hey, anything to further the cause ...
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I'll try to do this. I haven't seen it around much here - I guess it's a specialty from Hue? But there's a student in one of my classes who's from Hue, she'll be able to point me in the right direction. I'm curious to try it myself! ← Yes, my understanding is that it's a variety of bun soup popular in Hue. I have no idea how far beyond Hue it may have spread ... or not. But ever since I got introduced to it, I've almost stopped eating pho, I like the bun bo Hue so much better. It's like pho on steroids--the broth, meat, noodles, and even the "foliage" are all studlier than that of pho. But again, I've only experienced either of those soups here in the US, so I'd like to see how the original versions stack up against each other.
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Loving the blog! Looking forward to drooling over more Vietnamese food. Personal request: I'd love to see what a bowl of bun bo Hue looks like as served in its native land. Thanks!
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eG Foodblog: SuzySushi - A Tropical Christmas in the Suburbs
mizducky replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Happy New Year, Suzy! Thank you for remembering! And also for clarifying how saimin relates to ramen--I had sort of wondered about that from time to time... I'm glad you explained about the crack seed store--every time you used that phrase, my brain persisted in trying to read it as "crack house." Though I suspect that people could well develop a crack-like addiction to those dried fruit/snack concoctions. -
Heh--I'm trying to visualize how big a 1.5 lb bag of dried shiitakes must be. I use dried shiitakes for just about anything I'd use any sort of dried mushroom for, whether it's an Asian dish or not. They're terrific for reinforcing a quick broth/stock for soup or rice/grain dishes. You can either soak them in advance and add both the shrooms and the soaking liquid to the recipe, or just throw them in if there's a lot of liquid and it's going to simmer for a long time. I break them into pieces and add them to my congee at the beginning of cooking; after a couple of hours, they're nice and tender but still with a bit of chewiness to them. I also used shiitakes the other week to add some bottom-note umph to a batch of vegetarian borscht--those I soaked in advance, so I could cut the shrooms into thin slices to match the cuts of the other vegetables.
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Happy New Year, everybody! Last night instead of venturing out among all the partying drunks, I stayed home and cooked. One more whack at the red-cooking thing, this time with pork belly and daikon: That should keep me in leftover pork belly for a little while at least. I've got some congee simmering right now, which I'm going to top with some more of this stuff.
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You're definitely on top of your Asian buffet-strategizing game, FG. I'd say the only fine points I could add are the following: --At buffets, size definitely does matter--the size of the establishment as a whole, that is. My current favorite here in San Diego seats a huge number of people, and the staff is extremely efficient at replenishing all the food those people hoover up, resulting in high food turnover an a high degree of freshness during most of their hours of operation. --Yes, it is possible to fashion a relatively healthy meal from an Asian buffet--just minimize the obviously high-calorie-hit items (fried stuff, starches, sweets) and rock out on all the vegetables. I have been known to deliberately pick out lots of veggies from the "stir-fried"/braised dishes--I don't feel guilty about this, because I just know there are other customers trolling for all the meaty bits and leaving their veggies to me. Also, some buffets do offer healthier selections, as much because of their ethnic specialization as anything else. For instance, there's a Thai buffet I'm quite fond of--ah, the luxury of all-you-can-eat papaya salad! --Buffet sushi is nearly always a dissapointment at best, and a horrorshow at worst. The exception being Japanese buffets that specialize in sushi, and that have a high enough volume to guarantee frequent food turnover. I used to go to such a buffet in Bellevue WA (The Eating Factory) that was pretty good in this regard. Oh yeah, that buffet also excelled in maxing the cheap filler foods up front/pricey target foods in back strategy. You could tell who were the newbie customers and who the veterans at this place by how much room was left on their plates by the time they reached the sushi station at the very end of the line. --As with any other Asian restaurants, the presence of customers of Asian heritage is a major (though hardly foolproof) clue as to the quality of the establishment. --Above all, it's important to set one's expectations properly. You're gonna encounter lots of Americanized Chinese restaurant fare; but how you play the right buffet dictates whether you get better or worse exemplars of that kind of fare.
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Y'know, any dish with beets in it is a little challenging to photograph, as the whole thing has turned this more-or-less uniform bright purplish red ... This was a beet/cabbage stew--kind of a borscht with relatively little water in it--and it does taste heavenly, even if it does look a little ... odd. I don't quite know why it reflected the flash like that...