JanGilbert59

The problem also is transportation. I did a series for my newspaper several years ago on the lack of supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods. In America, the people with the most access to transportation (people with reliable cars and the money to put gas in them) have the shortest trips to supermarkets, which are usually over-represented in their neighborhoods. The people with the least access -- people who are dependent on public transportation -- tend to have the longest trip to a market. The markets in their neighborhoods usually stock food that is poor quality, high in fat and sugar, and far more expensive. That can be changed, but in every example I found of a successful supermarket that came into a lower-income area, it usually took about 10 years of community activism to make it happen. When it does happen, it pays off -- customers are incredibly loyal. But it's a battle to convince stores there profits to be made from selling good-quality, fresh food to people with incomes below $50,000 a year. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent. I know that doesn't have anything to do with Julie's piece. We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion . . . ← I have never found a supermarket in the lower income areas in Savannah, GA. Those markets within walking or biking distance (grandmas do send the grandkids to the store with a shopping list and a ten dollar bill) charge more for lower quality foods than Publix, Kroger, or the farmers' market. I think it is a function of transportation and the diet of the market these stores in low income areas serve, plus the consumer has not been education in how to buy food.

We will be in Aix-en-Provence for three weeks in May. We have rented an apartment on the Cours Mirabeau and will make daily forages through the markets. About 10 years ago, I bought a huge panier of vegetables from a seller as the market in Apt was closing for 2 francs, less than 40 cents and made a wonderful rattatouille that night. To this day, my wife speaks with wonder of that meal. My question is: Can anyone suggest decent places to eat in Aix. I really like bistro food, and I'm the one in the family who orders steak tartare or fruits de mer, and if it's on the menu, I promise I will try museau de vache. Thanks for any suggestions. Jangilbert59 @ yahoo.com

Good Lord! Who do you serve that dish to? A picky grandchild, perhaps an uninvited drop-in.

Jin, Why is okra full of snot? If it wasn't for that I'd eat the hell out of it. ← Okra is an acquired taste that once acquired can never be lost.

Same way you'd thicken gravy itself. Use a roux. Mix equal parts flour and butter (oil or crisco if you prefer) and brown in a little pan. Lighter colored rouxs give you thicker gravies and sauces. A roux is equal parts butter and flour? Who knew? Apparently everyone but me To be utterly technical, a roux is the cooked version. The uncooked version of equal parts butter and flour, uncooked, is a beurre manie. another way to thicken the sauce in stews that doesn't resort to rouxs or slurries (or reduction, if reducing too much will make the sauce bitter), is to take out some of the vegetables (you may wish to add a few more to begin with), puree them in a blender, then add the puree back into the stew. ok, then here's another stupid question. Do you melt the butter first and add the flour to it and mix together, or do you add each part to the sauce separately? If you mix the flour with softened butter, you've got "beurre manié." You pinch off bits of it and stir it well into the sauce to be thickened. You can add it little by little, letting each addition cook, before adding the next bit. This is different from a roux, for which you melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it to the desired color, and then add the liquid (or if you're making gumbo, adding the cooked roux to the liquid). Beurre manié is easier to use, IMO, when thickening sauces that are already there in the pot. And you can made up a batch of it to keep in the fridge or freezer in small balls, for whenever you need it. ← ←

Same way you'd thicken gravy itself. Use a roux. Mix equal parts flour and butter (oil or crisco if you prefer) and brown in a little pan. Lighter colored rouxs give you thicker gravies and sauces. A roux is equal parts butter and flour? Who knew? Apparently everyone but me To be utterly technical, a roux is the cooked version. The uncooked version of equal parts butter and flour, uncooked, is a beurre manie. another way to thicken the sauce in stews that doesn't resort to rouxs or slurries (or reduction, if reducing too much will make the sauce bitter), is to take out some of the vegetables (you may wish to add a few more to begin with), puree them in a blender, then add the puree back into the stew. ok, then here's another stupid question. Do you melt the butter first and add the flour to it and mix together, or do you add each part to the sauce separately? If you mix the flour with softened butter, you've got "beurre manié." You pinch off bits of it and stir it well into the sauce to be thickened. You can add it little by little, letting each addition cook, before adding the next bit. This is different from a roux, for which you melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it to the desired color, and then add the liquid (or if you're making gumbo, adding the cooked roux to the liquid). Beurre manié is easier to use, IMO, when thickening sauces that are already there in the pot. And you can made up a batch of it to keep in the fridge or freezer in small balls, for whenever you need it. ←

311 here after last years yard sale. More on the way, though.