Pontormo

Yes, arroz con mango is a real dish. Some Italians put strawberries and balsamic vinegar in risotto, though, I have never had the urge to try it. Sorry if the name chosen for mish-mash food sounds provincial. Kathy & Clancy actually lived in places such as Hawaii and Japan before moving to the midwest. It's just that, for them, rice and mango was neither typical fare nor much of a dinner.

I have always wanted to go to England just to find out for myself if the food is as bad as some people claim. Your experience makes me think it would be a good idea. ← Generalizations should always be approached with trepidation , but while that reputation may have been justified decades ago, the United Kingdom has changed. Even then, there were some nice things to be had just as one could find a few decent meals served in the U.S.A. before the changes wrought by James Beard, Julia Child, Alice Waters among others, even in Chicago. London in particular is one of the great cities for restaurants in Europe...and for groceries, too, judging by Kim D.'s comments. Check out the regional forums dedicated to this part of the world.

Regarding Vivoli's, the gelateria gained its stellar reputation way back when there was little competition. Now in the <<citta degli stranieri>> (city of foreigners), tourists have more to choose from before they wind their way through those hideous bleachers set up in formerly beautiful piazze* for the annual summer festival, or stroll past Footlocker and the Disney Store on their way back to the hotel, cup or cone in one hand, little plastic shovel in the other. As fabulous as these other places happily prove to be, I must say the pear gelato at Vivoli's remains one of my favorites. *squares

See my original post. Never had a problem cooking for friends, colleagues or fellow expatriates abroad. With family members ranging from ages 4 to 63, everyone gobbled without exception. Since I had made a very large amount of ragu that Christmas, my stepmother rapidly froze individual portions RIGHT after we ate so that none of her house guests would find it while foraging through the fridge. The stepsister who really cooks well and married someone with similar gifts asked for the recipe. I think everyone liked it so much BECAUSE they were used to jarred tomato sauces or Italian-American recipes for tomato sauce with sausage or meatballs that are heavy on oregano, basil and garlic. The novelty was appreciated. Then again, most do not splurge on Parmigiano Reggiano either and I am sure that was a major part of the charm. As for fresh pasta, indeed. Another dish that often surprises Americans is an authentic lasagna with ragu and hand-made spinach pasta. Many of us are raised on large pans piled high with ricotta and mozzarella (instead of Parm & white sauce) and eggless noodles. A quick disclaimer: I own and appreciate Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen and am glad to have grown up in an Italian-American neighborhood.

This topic is somewhat related to a recent thread on Weird Food Combinations. It is an homage to Kathy and Clancey, co-founders of the E. F. Glutton Society of Ann Arbor, who came up with the idea even if "Arroz con Mango" is neither their invention, nor exclusively a culinary topic as fans of salsa music know. However, when they were in graduate school, they came home quite late and discovered that all they had in the fridge was a single mango. There was rice in the cupboard, so they put the two together and called it dinner. Would have been better with chicken, with the mango served in a salsa on the side, but no time, no money, and now the refrigerator was bare. Things are better for them nowadays far from the midwest, but the tradition endures. Whenever they, or the rest of the disbanded cooking group combine odds and ends of leftovers and the one last spoonful of sour cream, we call the dish Arroz con Mango. Yesterday, for example, I defrosted a little bit of the eggplant leftover from a pseudo-tagine (9/15/05) and the last quarter pound of ground beef. There was less than a teaspoon of minced fresh chilies on one shelf along with half a cup of a thick tomato sauce. I didn't use up all the baby bok choy on Monday. There was one left. They all ended up together along with minced garlic and olive oil, served over brown rice. Homemade hamburger helper, I suppose. Nothing I'd serve Daniel, but not as bad as the disasters some of us post. At least I didn't add that egg yolk that is still sitting in a small jar. You?

It's funny, I wonder if there are any home cooks in the United States who didn't learn how to make ragu from using Marcella Hazan's recipe. A few Christmases ago, to give my overworked British stepmother a break, I made Marcella's ragu for the lot of us. This was in Connecticut where there is a sizeable Italian-American population. They had never had the stuff before and were as transfixed as I was when I first used her cookbooks. I just checked out an old issue of Cook's Illustrated (Jan/Feb 1999) which boasts the "Best Italian-Style Meat Sauce" on its cover. Basically, it's Marcella's recipe, except a "meatloaf" mixture of ground beef, veal & pork is recommended. A second variation uses chopped pancetta and RED wine vs. white. Kevin mentions most of the divergences I have tried, except one. I like to throw in chopped, pre-soaked dried porcini sometimes, especially when stuffing a baked polenta. I use white wine instead of water to soak the mushrooms and then strain the liquid to incorporate it into the ragu, adding more white wine if it's not quite the amount specified in the recipe. This is a great topic for a forum and an inspiration for trying new things. One question, though, might we broaden the topic to include other ragus? That may be the subject of a new thread, too, once this particular one is no longer current.

PBJ, skim milk, carrot sticks, apple slices A jar of applesauce, straight Gingerbread (bought) and applesauce and skim milk Bags of white-cheddar cheese popcorn Grilled cheese Roast chicken from the grocery store Chocolate-covered raisins Bananas and peanut butter and skim milk Apple slices and peanut butter Handfuls of raw almonds Raspberry-flavored, zero calorie, seltzer Whole Foods thrives on deadline-culture & desparation of new parents for whom $ is no object. They do roasted vegetables, quarts of noodles, soups, curried chicken salad.... In college I kept one of those metal creamers found in diners on my desk filled with M & M's. Finished a section on outline or a page? Flip the lid.

Do you use this often???? just kidding. ← Not as much as the miniature guillotine. It works for mousies too.

James Peterson's Essentials of Cooking has very detailed photographed section on butchering lamb, including the saddle. I bought my copy remaindered fairly recently and still see lots of PB copies of the book on sale around town. Edited to add: Just checked. The section on lamb covers: leg (including removal of shank), the rack (separating, trimming, "Frenching", cutting into chops); and trimming & roasting a saddle, including carving the latter. I don't see references to a rolled shoulder roast.

Have you looked into the Great Wall of fish that was featured in this week's Food Section of the Washington Post?

Go take a look at Clotilde's recent trip through Southwest France and into Spain on Chocolate & Zucchini.

M.B: While I am sure you will take advantage of everything here on this site when you start making plans, I hope one way that you will deal with your impatience is by clicking on the regional forum for Italy & Italian Cuisine. Cf. The Nerdy Guy's New Year's Resolution Blog (or normal guy's nerdy resolution...don't remember, K., sorry). The recent photographs of a rustic Chard pie and an excellent ragu are enough to make you squeal as you rub your hands together.

Chris: You've answered one of my questions toward the beginning of this thread when referring to cookbooks that were not published in U.S. Both of mine were produced for cooks in the U.S. And as for Duck Caller's question, I have a foodie friend who is a fabulous cook. She prefers breast meat and eats a turkey breast sandwich just about every time that she brings her lunch to work (two young kids, quick and easy) and always eats that part of the bird on Thanksgiving.

Well, the Monty Python routine of Spam, Spam and Spam does originate in the U.S. contribution to the British diet during WWII, a debt repaid by the Saturday Night Live routine of Cheeseburga, Cheesburga, Cheesburga.

I like the experimental, creative spirit that inspires you. There was a two- or three-year per iod when the dessert I always served company was the pear tatin in Patricia Well's Bistro Cooking with creme fraiche. If you need a simple, great recipe, I recommend using hers. I also agree regarding choice of pears, though, since hard Bosc pears are the ones I turn to all the time, probably due to countless recommendations in published recipes. However, I would have to question the comments above regarding the grainy texture of Asian pears as being unsuitable to a tatin, on second thought, since Bosc pears are also grainy, if in a less pronounced fashion. Maybe you just have to go with a very hard, unripe Asian pear. The recipe by Wells might work for them, too, only I would be tempted to use some freshly grated ginger. Test one pear first by sauteeing it in butter and sugar for a long, long time and see if you get the same kind of juicy syrup that a Bosc pear renders. You could always use it to top ice cream.

Elsewhere, eGulleters have expressed preferences for the humbler darker, juicier dark meat when it comes to eating birds. Megan Blocker & I have been commenting back and forth on this topic, if indirectly, in the thread on McDonald's in the forum devoted to Food Media & News. Thanksgiving is upon us, so the topic is relevant in this respect, too, I suppose. However, what inspired me to post this topic was an accidental purchase of boneless, skinless chicken thighs that were on sale. I thought I was gettting the bone. When I realized what I had done and started to look through my Chinese cookbooks for inspiration, of course, all the recipes for boneless chicken listed breast meat. The only thing I could think of as I was prepping to stir-fry is that it is easier to prepare the breast meat, especially when it came to removing the fat. The shapes are going to be more regular for the most part. Breast meat sort of cooks faster and is therefore a bit safer, maybe, to velvet (Tropp) before adding it to the wok during the final steps of a recipe. Nonetheless, the boneless thighs, of course, were just fine and probably asserted themselves more than white meat might when competing with the flavors of roasted peanuts, chilies, ginger and so forth. However, perhaps others might have a different perspective to offer: Why are chicken breasts called for more frequently in recipes? I am thinking about Chinese or pseudo-Chinese cooking, especially, but not exclusively.

I just saw this one, Pontormo! It actually pushes the Chicken Selects, which, being made with "all-white breast meat," are the antithesis of everything I love about my McNuggets. However. Interestingly lame ad, though I can see how they're trying to target wannabe hipster young 'uns...I wonder if yuppies-to-be are the new McDonald's targets? ← Oh , I had forgotten that when you slum, you slum, Megan ! Actually, I saw that commercial again yesterday, too, before I switched the channel to PBS to see Diane Keaton serenade Steve Martin. In part, what McD's is doing is courting, too, but in a transparently slick way, trying to appeal to the slacker, older teen/college age crowd which is supposed to be too savvy to the traditional ploys of advertizing to take them seriously. So, the company winks back. See, we're not taking ourselves too seriously, either, ya know. It's a bit of a take on car ads that have the same kind of guys driving around town in their VW (? Honda, whatever) picking up couches from the curb. It is not trying to grab this crowd. As Chris and Carrot Top have pointed out, that crowd was bought in childhood. It is trying to retain them, as you say, by bringing them into their young adulthood when they get their first jobs. It's also playing with gender roles, foregrounding sexual difference while catering to the young male (in this case heterosexual) viewer who has a keen interest in what makes girls girls and desperately wants to crack the code before they're all men and women. So, it's all just you know, low key, playful, a bit of a narrative going on here, just hangin' out.....until suddenly, the girl tries to be one of the guys by joining in and riffing on the word "chicken" which all three of her companions have done. All of a sudden, the atmosphere changes. It's charged. SHE cannot play the same game. When she utters, "Sheek-ON!....On!" it sounds like a woman satisfied in bed to them....or what they've heard happens there. Ut oh. They look at her. She looks at them, as if saying "Oh, wadda I do?" What is interesting in the midst of all of this is the product that is being hawked. You'd think it would McNuggets. They're all not into pressed button-down shirts. They're cool. But, no, it's Chicken Selects! The more refined, more sophisticated, more adult version of the nuggets that they had as kids. Now, I don't want to make too much of the fact that we're talking breast meat here, in the age when sitcom writers think you only have to talk about hooters, boobs and so forth and man, are you funny....no, that really isn't the point. Instead, this is intimations of maturity. These kids are still kids. But they're moving up.

Nice exchange, there, Gifted & Carrot!

Let's see, lined up in a row that is interrupted by a ceramic Gevalia coffee canister (remember those offers in Gourmet circa 1988?), a paper-towel holder and bookended by cutting boards are the following: A toaster oven A coffee grinder A Marcel Duchamp chocolate grinder A sous vide A juicer for root vegetables A juicer for fruits A dehydrator for making jerky and fruit leather An electric potato peeler A miniature guillotine for decapitating chickens; also works for removing feet A marshmallow roaster A food processor, first, purchased only three years ago since grinding soaked but otherwise uncooked chickpeas was too much of an ordeal in: The blender, ca. 1979. That would be twelve. Not quite a baker's dozen, but that's all the space I have. Ruling over these are two Italian postcards. One is a photograph of Michelangelo's David imprinted on cheap, but washable plastic that is molded and adherred to a paper backing so that the marble body of the statue is three-dimensional. Next to that spectacular if disproportionate specimen is a detail of a black and white mosaic from the floor of an Ancient Roman dining room in Pompeii, now in Naples. It bears a very schematic, linear image of the skeleton of a servant who holds a water jug in his lifeless hand. His expression is wide-mouthed, almost like this , but without the color or volume. Paired, this is my momento mori, reminding all who cook and snack at this site that after our days of physical abandon and gastronomical delight as facilitated by our array of consumer goods , honey, we're all gonna die.

These fruits are gorgeous and bizarre! The suggestion immediately brought to mind something that I once saw in an exhibition devoted to the cults of Indian goddesses at the Sackler Gallery of Art, here, in Washington, D.C.: a stone carved so that it seemed to bear the imprint of Krishna's footprint! The problem with using a name that derives from religious traditions, is of course, a matter of respecting the piety of their followers. That in mind, I nonetheless searched the internet for those footprints and came up with something more relevant. I'll link an image of it shortly. First, though, I thought there might be something to this beautiful devotional chant that might inspire you, such as the word: Sidhu although I kind of like Rasane too, but mostly for its meaning which you will find translated below the verse: Radhadeti nama nava sundara sidhu mugdham Krishneti nama madhuradbhuta gadha dugdham Sarva ksanam surabhi raga himena ramyam Kritva tad eva piba me rasane kshudarthe. Glossary: Radha – Sri Radha; iti – this; nama – name; nava – fresh; sundara – fine; sidhu – nectar; mugdham – intoxitcating; krishna – krishna; iti – this; nama – name; madhura – sweet; adbhuta – amazing; gadha – condensed; dugdham – milk; sarvaksanam – constantly; surabhi – sweet fragrance; raga – strange fits of passion, or deep passion; himena – cool camphor; ramyam – gratifying; kritva – thus mixed; tad – that; eva – only; piba –drink; me – I; rasane – O tongue !; kshuda-arthe – if you are really hungry. This verse is from Shrila Raghunatha Das Goswami’s Stavavali, in which he addresses his tongue: "If you are really hungry then take Shri Radha’s name which is like fresh fine intoxicating honey, mix it with Shri Krishna’s name, which is like sweet wonderful condensed cow milk, add to that the sweet fragrance of saffron, cardamon, a little camphor, etc. and mixing all the above drink constantly with deep passion.” The prayer refers to a fast in which the Lord Krishna's name is meant to satiate all hunger. What I love is the sensuous evocation of all these delicious things that seem antithetical to asceticism, comparable to manna and honey in biblical texts. (This was taken from the following site.) Now, the image I mentioned above is: The Tongue of Gordvardhan Gordvardhan is a manifestation of Krishna, from what I gather. His tongue is a heavy rock said to have been lodged within a well. Upon discovery, it was enshrined in its own temple which has become an important pilgrimage site.

This is being discussed tonight, any minute now, on All Things Considered: Silver Spoon

I think Jujubee's right to point to the author's intentions. When the phenomenon of coffee shops first migrated from Europe and Seattle, though, I had romantic expectations of sitting in a corner, sipping, reading and writing in relative peace. I guess I have gotten more tolerant of young children and strollers not just because I live close to a tourist destination, but because I assume they'll be there for a very short stay...if sometimes only to be replaced. What I am more impatient about is music. I don't understand why we always have to have a soundtrack to our lives. I know of only one manager of such a place who feels the way I do and always turns it off when he works, pleasing the folk who plop down in the plush chairs with their books. Sometimes I fantasize about my own place where nothing's piped over the crowds. It will have tables lining an inner courtyard, like a monastic cloister, and silence would be encouraged without requiring the swearing of vows or use of sign language. Problem is that the name Silos, pronounced "see-loes" looks a bit too agrarian. But it is inspired by Santo Domingo, Silos, near the bottom of this site.

Judging from the subject line, I initially thought the article would be about a phenomenon here in my neighborhood where there are two Starbucks roughly two blocks away from one another, one augmented by an independent coffee shop. Ever since they opened, they became the cool place for Junior High and HS students to hang out, whether or not they were purchasing whipped-cream topped coffee drinks which some of them they do. They are very loud and well, act like noisy, young teen-agers who use volume to impress and entertain one another. They also monopolize tables for long stretches of time, disrupting the conversations of adults who meet there as well as the thought processes of students and professional writers who have come to view these places as their alternative libraries and offices (another subject there, granted). One of the Starbucks is across the street from the National Zoo where the only alternatives are a bar that sells hamburgers and the mediocre cafeteria within the zoo proper. Needless to say, many tourists find the Starbucks familiarly comforting, like McDonald's, and certainly a godsend after pushing strollers up and down rolling paved hills in search of the baby panda while keeping an eye on Max. Young, tired kids are to be expected.

It may be due to very different nature of experiences, but at a large (major) birthday party in the evening, I found the food Bethesda location superior to the fewer dishes eaten with just a couple of people in D.C. at lunchtime on weekends.

I'm too much of a Girl Scout, I suppose, and have only concealed a single bag of organic farro in my bags on flights back home. Regarding guanciale from NYC (thanks for tip), if the shipping charges are outrageous and the Chinatown bus is only, what, $40 round-trip....