mangosteen

Inspired by this thread I strayed from my typical salad routine tonight and skipped the greens. I made a salad with thinly sliced fennel, pink grapefruit, avocados and a little bit of shallot. I dressed it with a simple mustard vinaigrette. Elegant and simple - I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the inspiration. Katie For vinaigrettes... the basic ratio I keep in mind is 3:1 for oil to vinegar. You can try many different vinegar and oil combinations depending on the ingredients of your salad. With less acidic vinegars, like balsamic, you can get closer to 2:1. You will have to figure out your style/taste. From there you can add an emulsifier like mustard and other flavorings such as garlic or fresh herbs. I would recommend mixing your dressing on the side and dipping a piece of lettuce in to taste as you go. I hope that helps a little bit. Good luck!

Thanks so much for pointing out the macaron thread, bleud'auvergne. I obviously still have lots of reading to do on EGullet. Les macarons from Saint-Emilion are simply cookies made with ground almonds and meringue, with no filling. They are much simpler than their Northern cousins. When they are good they are crispy at the edges and chewy in the middle. They're quite addictive and it's easy to eat a dozen. At Maison Blanchez they claim to use the original recipe from the monks of Saint-Emilion, dating back to 1620. My husband is completely unhelpful... "Le macaron parfait est de Saint-Emilion, de chez Blanchez. Il faut qu'ils les goutent" I guess you just have to go there! I will probably have to go back to Herme's and try the more traditional flavors (no rose or olive oil!), but there are so many other highly touted patisseries to try also. I have a plan to get a couple of macarons from each of 4 or 5 patisseries and take them home to do our own little taste comparison. I just found http://www.lemeilleurmacarondeparis.com/ so maybe I can use that as a launching point. p.s. We can get Bernachon chocolates in Paris, but not macarons. The chocolate is very good but so intense I can eat very little at one time. It's almost too much for me.

It looks like I will have to be going back to Pierre Herme's again! for kougelhopf, Mille Feuille 2000, and a Kouign-Aman. What a chore... I had an Emotion Mahogany from the Vaugirard shop last week and it was heavenly. Layers of mango, lychee compotes and caramel marscapone, topped with little coconut "dacquoises". It was one of my most incredible dessert experiences. It's expensive but it's still 7 Euros expensive rather than 50Euros - an affordable treat. I was tempted by the ice cream but 24 Euros (for 1 L) crossed the line for me. On the other hand... I was not impressed by their macarons. The ganache filling was dense and excessive, overwhelming the delicate biscuits. I was excited to try them and we bought a selection - rose, passionfruit, wild rose with chestnut and olive oil. As I'm writing this I realize I really did choose some of the wackier flavours. Maybe I should have stuck with the caramel, chocolate, vanilla varieties? Of course my husband is from Saint-Emilion, the home of the TRUE macaron so I'm lucky I even got to taste these bastardized Parisian versions. I've been on a patisserie/chocolaterie in Paris for the last couple of weeks. What a great city for a dessert tour! A la prochaine, Lisa

Thank you Austin, Onigiri and Ptipois! All of your dishes look sooo delicious. I've been feeling Asian food deprived since I moved to Paris, but if Ptipois can find all of these great Thai ingredients so can I! I've downloaded Pim's recipes and Austin's directions and I'm so excited about making kao soi for myself. Now if I can just figure out how to navigate all this in my miniature kitchen with two burners, no oven, two pots and one wok ...

Go busboy! I agree whole-heartedly. I would also like to reinforce S-tran's point. We must be critical of information, even when it is presented by a somewhat ("The classic wine and cheese party should become a thing of the past, if US research is to be believed."??) objective source such as the BBC. In order to extrapolate a study's conclusions the study sample must be representative of the population it is sampled from. In this case I would not consider the 11 panel members (mostly, if not all graduate students) necessarily representative of the general population of wine drinkers, the cheeses selected not representative of the cheeses typically chosen in fine wine and cheese pairings (mozzarella or Stilton with Pinot Noir?), nor the wines representative of all wines or even all red wines used in traditional wine and cheese pairings. Most people do not randomly choose wines and cheeses to pair together so the population of wines and cheeses might more appropriately be classic, traditional or least previously documented wine and cheese pairs. I know some of the details of this research which make me sceptical of the far-reaching conclusions stated in the article. In general, much of the research done in the Viticulture & Enology department at UC Davis is based on wines donated by generous wineries. We did/do not have the budget to go buy bottles of Sauternes or Jurancons to include in a study. Dr. Hildegard funded the purchase of cheeses but these were inexpensive Mozzarella, emmental, etc, NOT farm-made Camembert, Roquefort or Humbolt Fog. The cheeses were stored from one week to the next by vacuum-packing. Already, all of these factors do not make for ideal conditions, but at no point did they even attempt to include a classic wine and cheese pairing such as a strong salty blue cheese and a Sauternes. Finally when I pair wines and cheeses I am looking for a synergistic effect. It is obvious, and even desirable, that the cheese will affect our perception of the wine. Classically, fat globules will coat the salivary proteins in the lining of your mouth and interfere with their binding by tannins, making a red wine appear less astringent. A cheese course at the end of a meal is not meant to be a forum for an objective evaluation of a wine. Concluding from this study whether or not one should serve wine and cheese together is missing the point of the research. Dr. Hildegard states "The research wasn't about bad or good combinations. We were instead looking at cheeses that may or may not affect the flavour of the wine." The conclusion that cheeses, particularly strongly-flavoured cheeses, do affect the flavour and mouth-feel of red wine should not be surprising. Making broader conclusions than that is not possible based on the reasons stated above. This study is just one of a whole series that Dr. Heymann is hoping to do with wines and cheeses and other foods. I feel that there is definite value in these types of studies; we just have to be careful how far we extrapolate the conclusions. American public agencies do not support alcohol-related research so UC Davis' wine research is all done with private funding (compare with the Australians). I'm sure if any of you out there are interested in helping to support research on (food and) wine the Viticulture & Enology department at UC Davis would be more than happy to hear from you. Viticulture and Enology Wickson Hall UC Davis Davis, CA 95616 Thanks for letting me get my 2 cents in. Cheers, Lisa M.S. Viticulture & Enology