mizducky

Oh my goodness. Best of luck to all of you! (Used to have a two-pack a day Kools habit. Sandy, you remember me smoking those nasty things back in our old school? )

I mentioned this recipe in my blog--a really yummy aromatic pork belly hot pot that features just three star anise, which is enough to majorly flavor three pounds of pork belly and scent your entire house.

I'm pretty certain those warty vegetables are bitter melon. I've never cooked with them, but have eaten a little bit in restaurants. Yep, they are pretty danged bitter--but they're supposed to be super-healthy for you, and have been used as a tonic food in China and India for ages. Not sure of the ID of the brown tuberous vegetable, though--want to say it's some kind of cassava, but I could be dead wrong there. As to what longaniza is, there's a whole topic here on eGullet exploring that very question.

I vaguely recall fellow San Diegan eGulleteer kalypso mentioning to me that she'd found a live poultry seller here, and I even more vaguely recall it was somewhere out on El Cajon Ave. heading out towards La Mesa, an area with a whole bunch of little ethnic groceries. I haven't had a chance to explore that area in-depth yet. Hopefully kalypso will look in here sooner or later and aid and/or correct my flaky memory... One of the many tales my mom used to tell me of growing up in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1930s was of going with her mother to buy live poultry. I'm not sure of the exact location of the shopping district they frequented, but from her tales, the scene was much like Bathgate Ave., complete with pushcarts and vendors of street food--my mom's favorite childhood street-vendor treat was little paper cones of hot chickpeas. What she didn't like: when her mom (my Bubbe) would go to pick out a live goose, she would send my mom around the back of the cages to poke the geese from behind, so they'd quit all cowering in the corners where Bubbe couldn't see them properly. My mom hated poking the geese--they'd get nasty! I'm sure that entire scene vanished years ago. Sic transit gloria mundi, and all that.

Vicariously enjoying all the baked-goods food porn here ... :-)~ (crude ASCII representation of the "drooling" emoticon we so desperately need on eGullet)

I can do fast when necessary, and can even take a certain masochistic pride in whipping something up super-fast. But my preference is to be a bit more leisurely--not dead slow, but a more deliberate pace. I really enjoy getting into the zen of cooking, and that's much better experienced when you take a little time at it. Plus, when I get into frenzied super-fast mode, I'm afraid I have a tendency to wound myself with sharp things or hot things.

Heh. My favorite riff on this old line comes from Allan Sherman (you know, the "My Son The Folksinger" dude responsible for the "Hello Muddah, Hello Fathah" song). He had a spoken word bit on one of his albums called "Hail to Thee, Fat Person" in which he explained he got fat finishing all his food in a vain attempt to save the world from starvation and war.

I've never heard that "the American way" is to top the fish with ginger. The ginger is meant to be nibbled separately, to cleanse the palate between bites. Some purists don't even mix wasabi into the soy sauce. ← Nor have I ever heard anyone suggest this "American Way" of topping the sushi with the ginger. Yep, the ginger is for clearing the palate *between* bites of sushi, whether here in the US or in Japan or anywhere. This site has a nice summary of sushi etiquette, plus links to additional sushi etiquette sites.

This has got to be the easiest fish preparation in the world short of sashimi. I got the method out of the Boston Globe Sunday food section a bazillion years ago (okay, sometime in the 1980s). You need a few serving-size pieces of a nice firm white fish like cod or halibut, a small amount of butter or other cooking fat, a few sprigs of your favorite fresh herb, a skillet (preferably non-stick) with a well-fitting lid, a piece of parchment or foil cut to just fit inside the skillet, and salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste. Give the fish about 15 minutes outside the fridge to come up to room temperature. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Rub the interior of the skillet with a little butter. Place the fish in the skillet, and place herbs on top. Lightly butter one side of the parchment/foil, and place it buttered-side down on top of the fish. Fit the lid on top, set the pan on medium heat, and cook for eight minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat--still covered--and let sit someplace warm for another eight minutes. Only then do you remove the lid to reveal--voila!--perfectly cooked fish. Herbs I've used with this include basil and tarragon. You can sub other seasonings too instead of/in addition to the salt/pepper. Olive oil is a yummy substitute for the butter. You say a little fat is okay for your situation, but for anyone cooking for a super low-fat regimen, this method also works and tastes great even if you use cooking spray in place of the fats. Oh, and about frozen fish: there's frozen, and then there's frozen. Yeah, the fish in many supermarkets that had been previously frozen and then thawed for sale can be pretty dodgy in terms of flavor and texture. But then there's fish that has been flash-frozen right on the boat and never thawed until you get it home in your kitchen, and that's, well, a whole different kettle of fish. (Ow, sorry, couldn't resist.) Even a lot of West Coast sushi chefs use this well-cared-for flash-frozen fish, and it's pretty excellent. If you can find a store anywhere near you that carries this stuff, you can load up your freezer and have decent fish whenever you want.

Oh dear! Poor kitty! Hoping all goes well at the vets, and with your cakes. Oh yes, and happy belated birthday! (Edited because I'm still half-awake and not processing cats and cakes properly... )

Oh yeah--ya just gotta mention Ivar's, and its colorful founder and totally Seattle original, Ivar Haglund. "Keep Clam!" Which reminds me--festival foods at Bumbershoot and Folklife and the like definitely deserve a mention. My personal favorites are the humongous strawberry and blueberry shortcakes from Biringer Farms. And I suppose if we're going to mention these foods, we should also give a shoutout to the scones at the Puyallup Fair (and the associated rite of passage for all newcomers to the Greater Seattle area--learning the correct pronunciation of Puyallup ).

Weeeeellllll ... no, but that's alright, we can agree to disagree. I thought the purse was kinda fun in a silly impractical way--something I might get as a cute gag gift for another New York expatriate. And I actually thought the Fallen Fruit site was kind of cool--yeah, the idea of helping to feed those in need by letting them know the locations of publicly accessible urban fruit trees is kind of idealistic, probably more symbolic than practical, but I think they're right that it's a shame to let all that bounty go to waste when people could use it.

I have to tell you, I must be really out of it but I cannot say that I recognized 25% of what was on their list ! Looked like random word generatoring, kinda like the names for new housing developments in SoCal ! BTW, Miz Duck~ loved your blog, made me miss SD......... ← Thank you! As to the list: I didn't recognize a bunch of stuff either. Just for grins, I plugged a couple of the unfamiliar things into Google and had some interesting surprises: Coffee Cup Coin Purse Fallen Fruit

Here you go: The Saveur 100 And yes, the Costco cake is at #25. And it is not the only odd thing on this list. It's pretty much a cliche to say that "Best Of" lists in periodicals are mixed bags, but just from my brief glance through this list, this bag is more mixed than usual.

Oh yeah--speaking of indigenous fast food thrills, ya gotta mention Dick's burger drive-ins--they're a Seattle institution. Kidd Valley probably deserves a mention too, as well as Red Mill Burgers--but Dick's is the one that's got the classic un-gentrified un-yuppified burger vibe really going on.

Y'know, I was going to express a certain skepticism as to whether smoked turkey parts were really all that healthier than ham hocks, but then I did a little research on www.calorieking.com, and discovered that smoked turkey parts are indeed significantly lower in calories and fat than hamhocks (per oz.: ham hocks--90 calories, 6.5g fat; smoked turkey leg--59 calories, 2.8g fat). In the immediate wake of my foodblog feeding frenzy, I have just been saddled by my HMO with a "healthy eating" plan, and my intention is to figure out how to make it as enjoyable as possible so it won't either make me crazy or make me quit. So using products like smoked turkey will be a big help in that effort. (Though I'm still going to give myself permission to indulge in the pork products for an occasional treat--that's part of the "not making me crazy" aspect of the operation.)

Getting even more Seatte/Washington State-centric: Not just salmon in all its delightful variations, but especially the style of alder-smoked salmon originally developed by the local Native American tribes. Not just cherries in all their wonderfulness, but especially the gorgeous and yummy Rainier cherries with their distinctive blush-and-golden coloring (hey, they're even named after Mount Rainier, right?)

Man, I never realized bacon had this whole other life as an ingredient in sweet things ... but between these cookies and the whole bacon candy thang, my eyes have definitely been opened. Okay, I just can't resist: Could this become the official theme song of the eGullet Bacon Lover's United?

Oh, I love all kinds of little metal boxes like that. I especially love the little hinge-lidded tins of the sort that Altoids come in. They're so handy for ... erm ... materials you want to keep handy ... As to the resealable ziplock-type plastic bags: man, do I ever have a love/hate relationship with those. When they work, they're terrific. When they don't--i.e. there's no way to get the damn bag open without wrecking the plastic zipper-thingie--they're a royal pain in the toosh. I have a similar love/hate relationship with the aseptic shelf-stable packaging that many brands of silken tofu come in. The fact that it keeps in your pantry for seemingly eternity is pretty darn cool. However, I've yet to figure out how to get the tofu out of the package unsquished, without needing a knife or scissors fo serious package surgery. Oh, and those anti-tampering safety-seals they put over the mouths of jars, just under the lid? I can't seem to pry/peel/tear those things off without destroying a fingernail. Oh well, I guess that means nobody could get in to poison my peanut butter. I do like the bottles of water, sport drinks, etc. that come with the sport-bottle pop-up squirt-nozzle top. It's nice to be able to drive around sipping on a bottle of water without having to either worry about spillage or worry about getting in a wreck while you try to get a screw-cap back on the bottle.

Oh god--if I ever opened my refrigerator and it looked as nice and neat as yours, I think I would faint from astonishment! Happy blogging, Darcie! As to cakes--I've always been partial to the combination of chocolate and cherries, so some kind of Black Forest Torte immediately springs to mind.

Yep, I love raw meat. I used to sneak raw hamburger as a kid too. My mother caught me once, and it actually scared me how badly she freaked out--apparently she had some kind of issue about it being gross/disgusting/barbaric/oh god I don't even know. Anyway, the way she carried on, you'd think I'd made like the family cat and killed a bird and was eating that! Didn't stop me, though--just made me a *lot* sneakier about it. And boy, did I ever feel vindicated when I grew up and heard about tartare, carpaccio, etc. -- see, Ma? I wasn't being a freak, I was being precociously gourmet!

Bingo. People spend big bucks on all kinds of personal hobbies/obsessions/whatever. They plan vacations around major sporting or cultural events. Hell, I'm afraid to even check how much it costs these days to take a family of four to Disneyworld, and people plan their vacations around that joint all the time. Why many people--including some of the same people who think it's just jolly to blow big bucks on the Big Mouse and his kin, or a brace of ATVs or jetskis or snow skis or whatever--find it weird that some of us are willing to be spendy around our personal obsession, has never ceased to amaze me. Heh. I think Fearless Housemate has been a little bemused by my foodie obsessions, especially my just-finished week of blogging. But when I told him that at last count my blog had been viewed over 8000 times, and sent him the link so he could check it out for himself, he was definitely impressed. He may not totally get the foodie angle as such, but as a musician he totally understands about artistic obsession. And as an entertainer he recognizes a well-executed artform and an appreciative audience when he sees one, and was suitably (and gratifyingly) complimentary to me.

Well, folks, as you recall, our Master of Ceremonies SobaAddict70 said this thread will stay open until 12 noon EST tomorrow ... but since that's 9am around here, and I'll actually be not asleep but scrambling out the door for an early (for me) appointment at that time, I'll say my formal blog farewell now. Once again, let me tell you how much your positive feedback throughout this blog has meant to me. As a writer, I often get little or no immediate feedback on my work--all too often I see a story simply languish on some editor's desk, or if it does get published in some obscure literary magazine, it gets read by maybe three people before it sinks below the waves never to be heard from again. That's one of the many reasons I originally turned to spoken word events--at least I get *some* kind of immediate feedback. But doing this blog for you all, in many ways, blows even the spoken-word experience right out of the water. Not only can I share with you stuff that I happen to be passionate about, but I can do so in picture as well as story--and best of all, it's interactive. We can have a dialog, we can teach each other, we can make each other laugh, we can inspire each other to greater creativity ... or at least to greater waistlines. So, I thank you all for being such an appreciative audience for my whimsical wanderings, and for your encouragement as I puttered about my life showing you the simple kinds of things that really turn me on. I hope it's been inspiring to you all. I know for a fact that it's been majorly inspiring for me. I'll probably stick my head back in here a time or two more before I turn in for the night. In the meantime, cheers, y'all--and don't take any wooden wontons.

Hey, sazji--the quote in your sig line is a pretty danged funny food joke too!

Geez, my memory is doing all kinds of funky tricks recently, innit? I think I must have recalled the raisins and molasses, glommed it onto a general image of New England, and stored the whole memory under "brown bread" rather than "black cake." Kudos to you for trying out the recipe--boy, does it ever sound old-school New England-y!