mizducky

Heh. I had Googled Lake Victoria and found out about the perch, but I didn't feel right posting about it since I consider falling back on Google to be kind of cheating.

The area in the lower Hudson River Valley (around Nyack) where I grew up had lots and lots of wild raspberries. I used to ride my bicycle down to Hook Mountain Park so I could pick and eat bunches of them that grew all along the riverside bike trail. We also had two huge mulberry trees in our yard; some of the older Russian emigres in town would make a traditional fermented drink out of them, but we usually just left them to the birds (I think I've mentioned elsewhere on eGullet about the spectacle of bluejays getting drunk on windfall mulberries--lots of squawking and flapping!!! ) There were huge blackberry bushes lining the yard of the Unitarian church in the suburbs of Seattle with which I used to be associated. One member would always make a couple of pies with the fruit for the annual church auction. Down here in San Diego, I can smell all kinds of sage every summer from the chapparal canyon nearest my house, but alas my cranky joints would not be up to clambering down there after the stuff. (Assuming I have in fact correctly identified the fragrance in question...)

Well, the second photo is definitely San Francisco (TransAmerica Pyramid). I'm guessing the first is somewhere in Hawaii. Am I getting warm?

I have to say, I have been extremely pleasantly startled by Yukon Gold potatoes I have gotten even at the local mega-supermarket. Lots and lots of flavor. Supermarket cherry and grape tomatoes also seem to preserve a helluva lot more flavor than their notoriously styrofoamy big siblings. Maybe the growers just haven't had enough time to breed them into styrofoam yet? However, I've reluctantly just about given up on *all* supermarket apples. Even when I was in Seattle buying Washington State Red Delicious apples in season, they totally bummed me out--like eating vaguely apple-flavored cellulose. Sometimes I have some luck with supermarket Golden Delicious apples--a bit overly sweet, but at least the apple flavor is decidedly *there*. Most of the time. It looks like I'll be shortly relocating to another part of San Diego, and once I've got my new place properly set up, I'll be signing up for a CSA share. That's probably the only way I'll have a reasonable chance of regularly acquiring produce that really tastes like something.

What she said. ← I'll ditto that too. I also learned (primarily through eGullet) many new and fascinating things about Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients. How I managed to live without fermented bean curd and pork belly all these years, I now haven't a clue.

I too had noticed a lot of people mentioning risotto, as well as starchy dishes in general. For what it's worth, this Wikipedia article says that some people think carbo-loaded dishes provoke some kind of opiate-like effect in the brain. Mind you, Wikipedia articles sometimes vary widely in reliability, and I don't necessarily want to wander *too* far off into a discussion of the properties of carbohydrates in the diet, but still, I thought the point worth presenting. Speaking of which, I'm enjoying a nice comforting bowl of mushroom risotto right this very minute!

This brings up an interesting question, though. I suddenly realized I had no idea of the kashrut status of ostriches and their eggs, so I went Googling ... and discovered this FAQ on the OU site that said that not only were ostriches not Kosher, but that there's apparently some Halachic controversy about the presence of ostrich farms in Israel. (Click on the link that says "questions about whether or not something is Kosher" to get that section of the FAQ to appear). I'm assuming this is yet another area of Kashrut in which there is a huge variety of opinion and practice--nu, vhat else? But now I'm curious about your perspective on this issue as it plays out in Israel.

I haven't had a chance to see that, but you just reminded me--among the many eye-popping features of the BBC-produced miniseries of Ghormenghast, there were some truly frightening-looking huge gelatin creations in the banquet scene in which the elder Lord Groan goes completely mad. No, the food itself didn't drive him crazy ... but he does proceed, in his madness, to start walking across the dinner table; as I recall, he actually steps on a few of the gelatin creations and they bounce back unscathed. (Edited to add: according to some article I read about this production, they did go out of their way to make these gelatin pyramids and things really outlandish looking--and they also put enough gelatin in them so they would hold together through the shooting, the lights, etc. -- and were way amused that the actor playing Lord Groan was kinda bouncing off of them.)

Looks like the article reveals another key to this dish's perennial popularity: Aha! Imagine all the holiday familial quandaries this dish must have solved! "Oh dear, that new daughter-in-law who can barely boil water is begging to make something for the big Thanksgiving dinner--I know, let's assign her the Green Bean Casserole, there's no way she could possibly screw that up!"

I haven't tried asking them to tone anything down, but the staff seemed pretty accommodating in general. Plus they offer a number of dishes that are milder to start with (no little tell-tale chile graphics next to their listings on the menu). It would seem that even those who grew up with this fire-breathing cuisine like a little contrast now and then. There's also a page of standard American-Chinese restaurant dishes at the back of the very long menu, if it would help to pick one more familiar item along with the more exotic stuff. In fact, I was tempted to pick one of those myself just to see what their version was like ... except the more exotic stuff was way more tempting. Since that last visit, I've been back for takeout--tried the chicken gizzard and Husband-and-Wife cold appetizers, the fish fillets "boiled" (probably more like simmered) in hot sauce, and a braised pork kidney dish. All excellent again, even if my system kinda complained about the spiciness the next day. Ahhhh, but it did hurt so good! For still more descriptions of Ba Ren's menu offerings, check out this entry from mmm-yoso's excellent blog.

Hmmm ... my favorite hangover strategies are mostly repeats of what others have said: 1) Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Before, during, and after. Just plain water is fine by me. 2) Dilute the alcohol with some food. Again, before, during, and after. Foods heavy on the grease and protein, especially typical diner food like burgers or omelettes, work best for me. 3) Choose the booze carefully. Overly sweet mixed drinks, and overly sweet booze, seem to give much nastier hangovers, all other things being equal. Having said that, my favorite booze is bourbon, which is still a little sweet compared to, say, vodka--but I'm used to it and sort of have calibrated how much I can drink before I start to do major damage to myself. I have a perhaps superstitious fear of tequila in heavy-drinking situations--just have heard too many anecdotes from friends who got especially vicious hangovers from the stuff. I absolutely don't get those of my friends who drink Jagermeister--not only does its flavor remind me of cough syrup, but the sugar content strikes me as instant-hangover-in-a-bottle. 4) Afterwards: healing beverages not already part of the hydration routine. Cola and ginger-ale. Both the cola syrup and the ginger help to sooth my poor over-abused stomach lining. Hot tea can also be soothing--preferably herbal, but black tea will do in a pinch. 5) Modest amounts of over-the-counter drugs. As MaxH has pointed out, acetaminophen is especially bad juju--messes with the liver, which is already feeling the strain of filtering all that booze, so I avoid it. Ibuprofen and naproxen, alas, don't do so well for me either (I am especially sensitive to their stomach irritating properties), so I only do the recommended dose at most. Mylanta helps; Tums will do in a pinch. 6) Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Sometimes there's nothing for it but to just crawl back into bed and have someone wake you when it's all over.

Heh. I confess (confessing is supposed to be good for the soul, right?) that I've often wondered about the ethical implications of taking free food samples at supermarkets, Costco, and the like, with no intention whatsoever of actually buying any of the products sampled. Not that this question has caused me to stop making the rounds of the sample tables. But it's stopped me from going back and getting multiple samples of the same item. Erm ... most of the time. (Oh yeah, speaking of Costco--I usually get a maximum wad of sauerkraut on my Polish sausage at the Costco cafe. But that's the amount of sauerkraut I usually pile on a hotdog etc., even when I'm paying for it. )

What I want to know is: what the heck are those white horizontal bands around the bowls of the glasses? Measuring marks? Say, you pour up to the top line when folks first arrive at the party, but only to the lowest line once they get really soused? I realize that demanding some kind of sensible explanation out of such nonsensical-looking glassware is an exercise in futility. But this is far from the first time my brain has sought in vain for rationality in an irrational world. Are the stem-thingies by any chance hollow? If they are, maybe you could use the darn things as finials on some really "artistic" fence posts. I know I must have received some inappropriate cooking-related gifts over the years, but for whatever reason I can't recall them. The inappropriate clothing gifts, however, shall live forever in infamy in my mind. ("Oh my god ... I hope she doesn't expect me to wear this out in public, where people can actually see me!!! Maybe I can spill something on myself at dinner!")

Heh. I figured this topic would take off. A few more of my own adopted comfort foods: Mapo tofu -- I find the mouthfeel of the simmered tofu really soothing. Variety-meat tacos -- lengua, cabeza, tripas -- love that offal! Squid--any style, any cuisine -- just love that soft-yet-slightly-chewy texture. Plain white rice -- with nothing at all on it. For some reason my mom very seldom made rice, but especially when I'm feeling ill or under the weather or just physically out of whack, a nice bowl of hot fluffy rice really does it for me.

I second that thought. You can make a very lovely vegan mushroom risotto by either leaving out the parmesan altogether or using a vegan substitute, subbing a nice light olive oil for butter, and using a vegetable stock augmented with the liquid from reconstituting dried mushrooms if you use them. Lots of other grain dishes can be fancied up without animal products. Pilafs, biriyanis, couscous ... go with mixtures of grains, and more unusual grains. A veggie friend of mine used to make a wild rice dish with cashews that was really good. You can also go to town with lots of really cool gourmet vegetables. Heirloom tomatoes, "baby" veggies (I saw some incredibly cute baby patty-pan squash today at the local Trader Joe's), haricots vertes, fingerling potatoes, different colors of asparagus, artichokes (big and baby ones), etc. etc. etc. These so often wind up being side-players to the "main event" in meat-focused meals, but I think a selection of these, perfectly prepared, would be terrific on their own. Eggplant is another incredibly versatile boon to fancy vegan meal prep. Bread slices and either bake or fry them, then use the cutlets in all sorts of ways. Or stuff the halves. Fancy pastas also give you lots of options. Either leave the cheese out of the toppings and/or fillings altogether, or test out some vegan substitutes (some vegan/soy cheeses taste and melt a lot better than others, so you should experiment first). Legumes are a little harder to make fancy, but it can be done. I love making a nice lentil vinaigrette salad.

That is correct Cakewalk, it is Beit Govrin. The cubbie holes were used to raise pigeons for food and use their feces for fertilizer. ← Wow, was I ever off with my guess! Don't you hate it when you confuse fermentation and composting? (Somewhat) more seriously--I just went and Googled Beit Govrin--fascinating! I'm tempted to ask more about how they managed pigeon-husbandry in those caves --for instance, were the birds free to come and go through the cave mouth as they pleased, or did they wedge little cage-fronts into all those cubbies? -- but I'm afraid that'll take you way the heck off-topic. (Although, if they were raising the birds for food, I guess it's still semi-on-topic ... don't mind me, I love to play armchair nutritional anthropologist... )

Reading through Fresser's entertaining topic The Anthropology of Poultry, I started thinking about a lot of my own adventures in cross-cultural food exploration ... only to realize a lot of these were no longer "explorations," but dishes that had become personal favorites. Comfort foods, even. I think the general idea about comfort foods is that part of the comfort comes from associations with childhood and home cooking. And I do have a number of personal comfort foods that hail from my past, like chicken soup the way my mother made it. But I also have adopted a significant number of comfort foods my mother never made. Granted, some of them I frequently had in restaurants growing up, like American-style Chinese food (and we've also visited the topic of the Jewish affection for Chinese food a number of times here on eGullet, most recently here). But in addition, I've added other, more authentic Chinese dishes to my repertoire of comfort foods, like congee and pork belly. And then there are foods from other cuisines that I never knew about as a child, but have adopted and/or adapted into personal comfort foods. Like southern-style greens with ham-hocks (what business a nice Jewish girl from New York has attempting to make this dish, I can't tell you, but I do a pretty decent job of it if I do say so myself ). And then there's risotto. And sushi. I could go on... Judging from the vast amount of passionate posts here on eGullet about cross-cultural food exploration, I'm sure I'm not alone in this adoption of comfort foods from other cultures. Personally, I think it's really cool. So--what are some of your own favorite comfort-food dishes that you didn't grow up with, but it feels like you did? (Stories about how you came to discover and adopt that dish would be cool, too.)

All I can think of is that perhaps jars of some kind of fermentable item were put in those niches to, well, ferment. Wine? I dunno ...

Why do I keep hearing Cibo Matto's "Know Your Chicken" playing in my head whenver I look in on this topic? Probably because I was going to say: at least by my admittedly anecdotal observation, blacks, Jews, and Chinese are three groups of folks who definitely know their chicken.

Oops, forgot this in my last post--this website has a list of weekly farmer's markets in San Diego County (including one in Escondido): Farmer's markets

There was also this recent topic on a restaurant in Escondido called Asia-Vous--don't know about the chef's availability, but it sounds worth a visit. Also, there are a couple of organic farms in the general vicinity of Escondido that also sound worth a visit. They both participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs--check their websites for various other programs and features they offer: Be Wise Ranch Tierra Miguel Foundation I have not actually attended any classes at the following establishment, but they do advertise a lot here in San Diego: Great News Cookware Store and Cookery School Hope that helps!

Heh. I know that Kowloon joint mentioned in the article. It's one of a number of restaurants along that stretch of Rte. 1 housed in outrageously over-the-top buildings. Check out the Tiki Madness of Kowloon!

Hag Sameach, Swisskaese and Tapenade! Your blog is off to a great start. After attending all sorts of Jewish weddings here in the US, I'm definitely interested to see how it's done in Israel.

Brava, diva!!! A totally entertaining blog!

All of the above. Plus ... ... nosh a whole bunch of the leftovers to make more room in the fridge. Speaking of which ... I think I hear some leftovers calling my name right now.