laurenkusa

just saw the thread. Marlena, I sure hope you include the cucumber salad recipe. I like a good asian cucumber salad, they are so refreshing.

I am about to go to Peru for three weeks to Lima, Cusco, and Maachu Pichu. Can anyone recommend restaurant in addiotion to the ones covered by Docsconz for these three areas? I ordered Eat Smart in Peru from Amazon, but it may not arrive before I leave Thanks, Lauren

Growing up with Ashkenazic tradition has made Sephardic cuisine more interesting to me because it seems as unfamiliar and exotic as Italian or Moroccan or Chinese. Joyce Goldstein has a few books, as does Claudia Rhodan. I have tried and enjoyed several things from these books and gotten both my foodie jones satisfied as well as my cultural heritage expanded. So my grandma did not teach me these dishes, so what. They taste good and they are traditional.

quick update - I am seeing some sort of an oily film on the red wine vinegar, the white wine does not seem to be doing anything yet. the red wine oily film excites me. Lauren

BTW, the folks I bought my glass crocks from said you can finish the vinegar in oak or add oak cubes to give more flavor. Does anyone do this and what do you think of the results? Lauren P.S. I did not add any water to the wine, so I am hoping I am still successful.

I have started my vinegar experiment, thanks to Melkor (Dave) for helping me out and to everyone for answering my questions. Lauren

thanks for the links and responses. I appreciate the help and the love of good food and wine everyone shares. edited to add: do you put leftover Rose in the red or the white vinegar crock? Lauren

Hi, I am the only wine appreciator in my house and sometimes I have leftover wine. I have used it in a variety of ways but was thinking wine vinegar might be a good alternative to yet another pan souce or poaching liquid. I have both reds and whites. I am looking for a thread or article that may already provide the info on how to make vinegar and possibly provide resources. Can anyone offer some help or resources? Lauren

Lauren, I'll link you to a demo I did a while back on tempering milk chocolate here. For bittersweet chocolate you cool it to 27 C (81 F), and heat back up to a working temperature of 29 to 31 C (84 to 88 F). This is just one way of tempering, there are several other techniques you can use depending on the equipment you have and amount you want to temper. Excellent instructions can be found in Elaine Gonzalez (eG's own Chocartist) wonderful book The Art of Chocolate (if you are really lucky you can find a copy of her out of print 'Chocolate Artistry' which is just cram packed with excellent techniques and ideas). If you benefit from seeing things rather than reading about them you may want to have a look at my website for DVD's about working with chocolate. ← Thanks so much for the link. Do you need to use the heat gun to get back to working temperature or can I use another method? I read through the entire thread but was still unclear. I am looking forward to trying thisso I can cover some treats with chocolate. So far the only covering I have used was a ganache, which is suprisingly easy to make and use. Lauren

I am a bit of a hybrid I think. I do not like unrelated foods to blend together on the plate, but if it happens I still eat it. To use the thanksgiving example: I like the turkey with gravy or cranberry sauce, but not both at one time. I eat the stuffing separately, put gravy on the mashed potatoes, prefer the rest of my dinner separate. I am mostly a serial eater, eat the turkey with cranberry first, then eat the potato, some cranberry sauce all by itself, then the stuffing, then a baked sweet potato and so on. Occasionaly, I take a risk and mix 2 things together on the fork, like turkey and a green bean. I will drink wine with dinner. If food is server with other food on top or below I will try them together. If it is a side dish, I usually eat it separately. At times I will eat a portion of one part of the meal, eat a portion of another part and so on and then go back to the first part again. I think salad dressing does not enhance other sauces and vice versa. My serial eating habit bothered one boyfriend in my teen years so much that he insisted I eat 2 foods at once. I obliged and then went back to my usual way of eating. So people can feel very strongly about all this. I noticed that my father is a serial eater and my mother is not. Lauren

Kerry, you mentioned tempering chocolate. Is there a previous class or something else you can recommend that has good instructions and pictures for tempering newbies? Is tempering bittersweet going to be different than tempering milk chocolate? As you can tell from my questions, I have no experience here, but would be curious to try this. Lauren

I just ate at Tokkuri-Tei last week and cannot recommend it enough. Although I did not get a chance to try a wide variety of menu items, what I did have was delicious. I also tried Little Village Noodle House and enjoyed that as well. Ordered from the items on the blackboard and enjoyed the flavors very much. Lauren ←

Just came back from the Big Island, my personal best bets include: Teshima's - South of Kona in a small town that starts with an H Good quality bento box style lunch with nice sashimi and other tasty treats. Kuhio Grille - in Hilo in Prince Kuhio Plaza - good plate lunch dishes, esp. the kailua pig Missing but enjoyed in the past: Ocean View Diner and Sam Choy's in Kailua-Kona

Question about waiting lists: some restaurants do a waiting list for a couple of months. Even if you don't get in, is it helpful to keep calling in regular intervals to see if you can get a table? Thanks, Lauren

How do you convert from grams to ounces for confectionary? any special tips to use? My scale only does ounces.

Want to add that showing up regularly to even the local ethnic place gets noticed by the staff, especially if you bring in friends who then also return. I was thanked the other day by the owner of a place I go for lunch fairly often. That is a warm fuzzy even for the casual dining experience and makes it more special than the anonymous high-end dinner. Also, the higher-end restaurants do recognize you even when you only come in a few times a year at most. I was made very welcome at one such restaurant due to my enthusiasm about the experience, asking questions about food and wine, and being gracious to the staff. so all these tips do work. Question about waiting lists: some restaurants do a waiting list for a couple of months. Even if you don't get in, is it helpful to keep calling in regular intervals to see if you can get a table? Thanks, Lauren

I have been lucky enough to get a chicken with the feet on a time or 2. The feet make the soup more gelatinous. I also always cool the soup overnight so the fat is more solid when I take it off. I use leek tops (the dark green part), mushroom trimmings, and sometimes when I am not making a kosher soup, I will throw a parmesean cheese rind in. I find these things also help give a better color. Lauren

We were in Seattle last weekend and ate at Ettas seafood during the 25 for $25. I thought the food was great. I had trout, my husband had the salmon, the appetizers were duck breast and risotto and a soup, dessert was triple coconut pie and the choclate pistachio cake. We thought it was a good deal given that the regular price of an entree was more than the special menu. Lauren

Howdy, I realized that I fit into this thread as I recently made a "leftovers" frittata. I took a basic frittata recipe from Bittman's How to cook everything and just substituted my leftover pasta, sauteed mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, garlic mixture, cheese, and of course 6 eggs. I cooked it on the stove for a few minutes then transferred it into the oven to cook for another 20 minutes or so. Came out great, brown on the bottom, fluffy in the middle. I used a 12 inch stainless steel calphalon pan.

thanks everyone for participating. I hope we can continue the food + wine discussion as I am finding it very interesting and I feel like I am learning quite a bit. I do like the idea of thinking about what kind of flavor the food will have to try to match the wine. I think the next step is to give myself some notes on flavor characteristics I notice when I taste the wine so I can match it to the food more easily. Once I can determine what flavors I detect: sweet, salty, earthy, sour bitter, etc. I can match or mix with the food. Katie's post about the flavors cancelling each other out is something to play with. Thanks again everyone.

Here are some other wines that generally get recommended: Sparkling wines, which is what I usually serve. ← Okay, so i have some Roderer (sp?) Estate sparkling wine, can it be served throughout the meal then? It sounds tasty. I just found out my mom is bringing brussels sprouts and asparagus, so if it will work with that, I guess it will work with the baked sweet potatoes and the turkey. Also, can I still add some sherry to my gravy without causing a bad match? Enquiring minds and all that, Lauren

That sounds like a good philosophy too! thanks for the confidence booster. Lauren

thanks for the tips for describing the general characteristics of wine when asking for help. BTW, I just started reading a food and wine pairing book by Andrea Immer earlier this month and she makes the same point about american food-wine relationships. Lauren

Well I will have to see if I can find those books. I just got a book from the library by andrea immer about pairing so i hope that will help. Of course, here is my latest crisis: Thanksgiving. Everything is pinot noir or chardonney. Has anyone tried drinking something other than these 2 wines during the meal? What did you like? thanks again, Lauren

First, let me thank everyone for their advice. I have recently gone on a holiday and tried to find wines to match the food, but found some difficulty with the limited selection of wines available. What I like (You asked): I like most french and italian whites especially alsatian whites, vouvray from the loire (I think), viogner, etc. I belong to the anything but chardonney club for sure. I have had some good white wine blends, including one from Venge this summer that I truly enjoyed. Also I love hard to pronounce and spell german wines, not just reislings, but also Gewurtztraminer and so on. One person mentioned Gruner Veltliner and I like that too. I like Rose, not white zin, but the french dry style Rose, not too sweet. I also like dry french ciders. an example of rose that I like is from Bonny Doon - Vin Gris de Cigare if I recall correctly. Also Gundluch -Bunschau Tempanillo Rose is good In reds I like pinot Noir ok, tempranillo, carignane, mouvedre, etc. Not a big Cab or Merlot fan I seem to respond unfavorably to a wine that is heavily tannic. And Yes I like champagne/sparkling wines - prosecco, Roederer estate from CA is good and once I had a very good red wine champagne from Schug - Wow! that was back in 02 and I still remember it. I also enjoy port. So recently, I went on a holiday and had a pork dish, so I ordered a glass of Gewurtztraminer, it was okay, but maybe I could have picked something better. I would have gone for a rose, but none was available. The next night I had venison and my husband had duck. I ordered a Pinot noir since it was on the list. The venison was served with kalamata olives and some sort of sauce. It went better with teh duck than the venison, I think due to the olives. Anyways, I look forward to learning more I thank everyone for taking the time to help. Lauren