pennylane

I really feel for you, 'cause I have claustrophobia too, and it tends to surface mostly in aeroplanes and restaurants. I make sure I never sit in the booth seat, but here in Paris the waiters would laugh in my face if I told them I didn't want anyone sitting next to me. One is lucky if one only has to wait in line for half an hour to be squashed in between two other people with their elbows in one's ribs. But I would hate it if people sat down right next to me with the whole rest of the place empty. I guess after reading about your experience I know not to say anything. But you mustn't feel too bad about what happened. Maybe the guy was tired too and over-reacted. Perhaps he blogged about it on his own message board the next day to say how much he regretted it too!

Umm... I've been trying to follow the suggestions given in this thread and have run into a couple of problems. My first batch of pizza was good, but the crusts were too soft and cakey (don't even feel like I can call them "crusts", that's how soft they were). So I made the next batch of dough with bread flour instead of all-purpose. I let it rise once at room temperature and then put it in the refrigerator overnight. Only I ended up having an unexpected dinner engagement tonight so now the dough has been in the refrigerator for about 36 hours. Should I just leave it in there for another 20 hours or should I freeze it?! Please help!

Your site looks like a good place to go to read reviews of restaurants. Perhaps it doesn't get much traffic because not a lot of people know about it?

Assuming you are a foodie, and your son takes after you, he probably won't appreciate McDonald's for very long. So you might as well take him now. McDonald's was my favourite place to eat when I was small. Believe me, it didn't last.

I am going on vacation next week, so I'm also trying to get rid of all my food. I figure making a bunch of desserts is actually not a bad way to do it. I'll just have a whole bunch of desserts to eat before I leave for my trip!

It scared me too, at first. I did some Google searches before I actually bought it, just to make sure it was a normal thing. But it was fine. Apparently fresh tofu tastes better but I thought it was all right.

It's okay, hummingbirdkiss, I will make a pie for you. How does peach sound?

What about rue Montorgueil? That's accessible from Chatelet. It was introduced to me as "the food street" of Paris. And the atmosphere around Les Halles is pretty... er... vibrant. Although in the morning it shouldn't be quite so frenetic. Otherwise St Michel is a great area... can't think of a market there as such but there is always a lot going on and great atmosphere. I think you will like it.

Yeah, come on, guys! When I asked my hubby about this, he was like, "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't have any particular desire to gain 40 lb this weekend..." But I'm still going to do it!!! (Make the desserts, that is - not gain 40 lb {at least I hope not}!)

This happens to me all the time, and it is so aggravating. Like the fried tofu I get from the Chinese store. First of all, it's called "fried tofu", and secondly the stuff is glistening with grease, and yet lists no oil or fat whatsoever in the ingredients?!

This sounds like a brilliant idea. But wait, which weekend? And if people are just going to be posting in all these different threads, how are you going to keep track? And is it a competition to see which one of us can make the most, or how high we can get the staggering total of our combined efforts? Correction - just saw the name of the thread, which answered my first question! Sorry!

I can see what you're saying, but I don't think it's necessarily always the case. I can't really speak for Thai cuisine and I know we've already established that Indian/Pakistani cuisine is not very good here, but when it comes to fresh produce, especially ingredients used in Asia, not all of it is better over here. Mangos, for instance, are notoriously bad travellers. And even something as innocuous as carrots... the carrots in Pakistan are a different colour and taste different than the carrots here. So one just can't make carrot halwa and get it to look the same without adding food colouring. I know that's not such a big deal but it's just one example and there are probably others which I can't think of at the moment. Also, the fact that certain ingredients can only be obtained with difficulty makes them more expensive, so people tend to be stingier with them and it's just not the same. Having said that, though, I have been to Indian/Pakistani restaurants in the UK and the US where the standard was definitely higher than almost anything one can find back home. But in this case it isn't due to the products used but the techniques which are aimed at a more discerning clientele. For instance, there's a tendency to drench everything in grease and overspice things in Pakistan and I think many dishes benefit from a slightly lighter touch in that department.

I went to the Ka De We food court. Oh my God, it was so good. I still dream of it to this day.

Yes, you can buy shelf-stable tofu in pasteurised packs which keeps for a long time without refrigeration, or you can get dried/fried tofu which also needs no refrigeration. That might be preferable for snacking purposes, as it's already cooked and flavoured (kind of like beef jerky). Actually, speaking of jerky, you could even get tofurky jerky - I used to love that stuff, though it's a bit expensive.

Well, it turns out I'm even worse with a camera than I am in the kitchen. I actually did go on to make my first truly successful galettes after that last post, but just managed to transfer my pictures to the computer tonight, only to find out that I had accidentally taken a VIDEO of the galette instead (no wonder the memory card was inexplicably full!). But I finally managed to extract a screenshot of the damn galette, just to show off the beautiful lacy pattern which I finally managed to achieve! Here's what I consider to be the crucial factors involved: 1) Regular flour - I followed the suggestions given here and did use a little (about one part regular to three parts buckwheat). 2) Liquid - I used a LOT of water, for a very thin batter. 3) Rest - I let the batter sit overnight. This step I think is crucial, not really because of the fermentation (there really isn't much, in the refrigerator) but because it seems to help the batter hold together better. Otherwise all that water can make for a rather mushy galette, and we don't want that. 4) Heat - I made sure the pan was really smoking before I poured on the batter for the first galette. 5) Rozell - I was once again unable to use this implement correctly, and had to resort to swirling the pan, but still managed to obtain paper-thin galettes, probably because of the thin batter. The thinness really does seem to be crucial, once again in keeping with the advice I received on this thread. I have repeated my experiment a couple of times since then, with the same excellent results! My husband, who doesn't even like galettes, was flabbergasted and said that they looked and tasted really professional, just like the ones in the best restaurants! Yay! Thank you all for your help! Now I can finally stop making those damn galettes!

No breakfast, lunch at twelve, crazed snack frenzy at seven, dinner at ten thirty.

I don't like the places on passage Brady (although Velan is a great place for ingredients to make it yourself at home). As Ptipois mentioned, La Chapelle is a good place to go for South Indian food, but I have found good North Indian cuisine at Aarchana in the 20th. I discovered them at Galeries Lafayette Gourmet during the Bollywood festival a while back. The mattar paneer was excellent - real homemade paneer. My husband liked the lamb with spinach. Prices are a bit steep for what you get, but at least it's the real thing and not just some crap. They even deliver, but I wouldn't recommend it because it can take up to two hours!

Hailing from the Indian subcontinent myself, I can say that certainly the typical North Indian fare in France is sadly well below the standard that I've seen in the U.S. and of course England. There is a tendency towards bad substitutions (La Vache Qui Rit for paneer!!), garish food colouring etc. I would agree with Ptipois that the Sri Lankan/Tamil eateries in La Chapelle are more authentic, but they are a little... er... "budget". I know the restaurant on rue Cail (Dishny?) and I like it, but still think it's not quite up to the standard you find in London. I went there with a South Indian girl and she said the sambar was very good... the rest just okay.

My co-workers are always raving about this Italian restaurant down the street from where we work. They do a fixed lunch which consists of an appetiser buffet followed by one of their signature fresh pasta dishes. We went there one day to celebrate something or the other. We all had a great meal and then on the way back to work they were ragging on me as always for being vegetarian. "How can you be vegetarian? What can you eat when you don't eat meat?!" It was only in retrospect that I realised that, in fact, every single one of them had just had a vegetarian meal. The menu for the pasta course had been entirely vegetarian! My co-workers just had not realised this because they don't think of those Italian dishes as "vegetarian". There is a fabulous vegan restaurant very close to where I live: Tien Hiang, at 92 rue Chemin Vert, in the 11th (01 43 55 83 88). They serve the best Pho I've ever tasted. Hard to believe it's vegan, but it is! Certainly, most of the Indian/Pakistani restaurants here leave much to be desired. I have tried many, and the only one which seemed halfway decent was Aarchana, on 19 rue du Télégraphe in the 20th. They were chosen by Galeries Lafayette to cater their Bollywood festival recently. A lot of French restaurants do have vegetarian options now, and if not, I usually just pick something which looks good and ask them to leave out the meat. They are also usually willing to do an omelette or an "assiette de legumes", which can be hit or miss, but I've had some great hits - some which were even the envy of less fortunate meat-eaters at the table!

I know someone whose aunt runs a crepe restaurant in Brittany and he swears she leaves the batter in the refrigerator for weeks on end, topping it up whenever needed. Perhaps I shouldn't mention the name of the restaurant (not that I could if I wanted to - I don't remember it)! Definitely, save the leftover batter for later - I find freshly made crepes so much better than flabby warmed-up ones.

You really need to practice a lot with the T tool before you get it right. One thing I read which really helped me was about dipping the tool in water before you use it. That helps prevent it from sticking to the batter. If you're having trouble with the crepe setting too fast, you can try taking the pan off the heat as soon as you've poured the batter, then use the T-stick to swirl it. In my experience, high heat is crucial for the lacy pattern, but you could also try using extra butter in the pan. Many traditional recipes do call for quite liberal amounts of butter. I think increasing the sugar in the recipe might help too. Give it a try. My experience is mostly with galettes, which are made from just buckwheat flour, water and salt, yet even with such a simple recipe I had to try many, many times before I got it just right. I made really small quantities each time so as not to waste too much!

I've read practically everything ever written on the Internet regarding lacy crepes. The best tips I found were to make sure your batter is very liquid, and your pan very hot. Grease the pan and don't pour the batter until it's faintly smoking. Then add a ladleful of batter and quickly spread it around with the rozell (the T-shaped wooden thing). Don't be surprised if you find this difficult - it is a skill notoriously hard to master. I don't know any French people who use this tool at home. They all use the swirl-the-pan method. But you have to use the stick to get a really thin, lacy crepe. I hope you really love crepes because you may have to eat a lot of them before you get it right.

This is my favourite recipe for channa dal, and it uses a pressure cooker, too!

There is no right or wrong texture, but as Milagai mentioned, different types of dal tend to be cooked in different ways. The red lentils that you used are normally very soupy with no trace of the original shape or texture of the lentils. So your first attempt probably gave you a more authentic result, but personally I like my lentils a little thicker so I would have preferred the second. Chana dal generally holds its shape more and while the soupiness may vary, the lentils should be a little firmer. Then there's urad (maa) dal which also can be cooked in different ways, ranging from very soupy to completely dry, with each grain distinct, though fully cooked, of course, because otherwise it would be impossible to digest. What is your personal preference and how do you intend to serve/eat it? The reason I don't like soupy dals is because I tend to favour bread over rice, and it's harder to eat the soupy dals with bread.

I got 7/11 with 340 points. Who would think a bagel could be worse than two Egg McMuffins?!