insomniac
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Posts posted by insomniac
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Lindsay, a heads up on the squid...open it outside and don't plan on a romantic evening
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Quite possibly the most delicious fruit in the world! This is called "sika" (sp?). It's very soft and fragrant, kind of like mango.
This brings us to the end of our trip in Taiwan. I may have double-posted some pictures since I didn't go back to check to see what I've already posted, but hope you enjoyed this thread nonetheless.
I think this is Soursop, not custard apple.
You know, you might be right. I've only seen them whole and then as juice (I drink it constantly when I'm in Vietnam). I've never seen it cut up.
I didn't have time to elaborate yesterday, but with custard apple, you don't usually cut it up. If it's ripe enough to eat, you'd just pull it open with your hands, so you'd not have straight lines.
Plus, you don't get straight lines with custard apple anyway, because you'd probably need to cut through seeds--custard apple has more seeds.
Well, I'm not persuaded on that point - I cut open custard apples!
I love soursops, custard apples and cherimoyas and after reading this thread I've gotten very confused so this is what I remember (I think) : cherimoyas are green and look like they've got scales, soursops are green and have little spikes and custard apples are sort of purplish but I think they are all from the same family...i actually think I normally see sousops and I did think they were custard apples for a while....errr. sorry, I've confused myself
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I searched for 'routier' and didn't find much. Can you enlighten me? What is a 'Routeir'?
Routiers are truck stops...there is a Les Routiers publication which is annual (I think)
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You don't have to achieve certainty on the issue of whether crustaceans or molluscs have consciousness / feel pain, and don't have to get deep into philosophy or neuroscience to answer the question.
As long as there is doubt and a possibility that the creature can feel pain, then act as if it can, and minimize cruelty. Why is there any reluctance about such practice?
to me that has got to be the bottom line...
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One perfectly fried egg....
The munchkin asked for green eggs and ham for dinner tonight. Since we didnt have ham, she settled for salami, but decreed it must be red instead. Food dye is a blessing and a curse.
Her father and I delayed our dinner for obvious reasons.
Lovely colors. It is always heart warming to hear of parents willing to go the extra mile for their young-ens.
that dish of food has got to glow in the dark! ...I am imagining a blue drink just off camera
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Rob, I salute you...
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I'm punting for Jackal10, albiet with a bad guessing track record
edited to add that those hills don't actually look like Cambridgeshire....hmmm
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Good news, though - it looks like you can mail-order chile pasilla and other Mexican ingredients from MexGrocer.co.uk (click).
Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK?
insomniac, have you looked at this website? http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/
I used to get a lot of stuff from them when I lived in London -
Also:
http://www.coolchile.co.uk/ - huge variety and a good stall at Borough Market and Portobello Road if you ever get into London (plus a new little resto)
And a place for Mexican tins/dried foods - El Azteca
http://www.elaztecafood.co.uk/productos.php
The website is in Spanish, but if you don't understand it, you can call them, they speak English - or pm me...
Lots of places to get Mexican type stuff in London, if you can't find what you need in these places, let me know and I'll try and find it for you, I always found almost everything, or at least the ingredients to make it!
thanks heaps Sandra, I guess because the standard of Mexican food here is so dire I didn't actually think about sourcing ingredients...
ps. hope you are enjoying my hometown
pps. I can read Spanish but speaking is work in progress
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Wow, Scud has really grown up!...he must be beating the girls off with a stick...and I just noticed that the quaintly named resto that Rona and the boy are posing beside is the exact description of the portion of offal I was referring to in the Thai offal thread
ps. love the off-piste way you cast your blogging spells Peter...
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I knew I had some shots of this.
These are from January 2007, when we were out to dinner with friends at their local over on Rama IV.
The waitstaff always get nervous around me when I make jokes about Phii Bowb and order liver....
Could be worse, I could order for a phii kraseu.
The food is taken hot pot style, working up the broth is as much fun as downing the solids.
We had a good selection of tripe, liver, and other assorted variety meats.
Not a bad feed for the four of us, and nary a phii to be seen (although it could've helped us with our lottery picks).......
More on the offal topic when I get to the horumon meal in the Japan trip.
that's my sort of meal...sadly I find it impossible to get the sort of offal I want in these parts...and don't joke about ghosts, the kids used to be petrified of phii phret, not to mentiion various Chinese ghosts...alas they don't have the same effect now
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Peter, I think I had that, but raw and sliced finely, did you see the pre-cooked item? was it white? and it tasted quite soft to eat...except that I was told it was not the uterus but something anatomically slightly lower,(use your imagination
) but there was a lot of laughing when they said what it was so maybe my leg was being pulled...Alas, we only saw it in its "crispified" state (as Scud would say).
I took it on faith that it was uterus.
Although I did wonder how to tell if it was really a virgin..........
...was there a ring on one trotter?
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Blood and guts, there's plenty of that in Thai food.
As an aside, not technically Thai, but rather Lao, you'll find wonderful yams of raw pig intestines in the North East and Laos, and my favourite menu item was "deep fried virgin pig uterus" at a place in Pakse.
Peter, I think I had that, but raw and sliced finely, did you see the pre-cooked item? was it white? and it tasted quite soft to eat...except that I was told it was not the uterus but something anatomically slightly lower,(use your imagination
) but there was a lot of laughing when they said what it was so maybe my leg was being pulled... -
There's David Thompson's highly praised "Thai Food". There's another that is probably better to start out on; I'll see if I can dig it out.
You may also be interested in "Traditional Recipes of Laos" by Phia Sing - authentic and traditional recipes from the Royal Palce at Luang Prabang. Phia Sing was chef at the palalce.
I'd second Phia Singh's book. I've worked with it, and it forms the "text" for a number of the cooking schools in Laos (at least in Luang Prabang).
Another good one, if you can find it (I know Prasantrin has a copy, too), is Thai Cuisine in Rattanakosin Era, by Wandee Na Songkhla. Beyond the recipes, which work well, the "General Knowledge" section in the back is a wealth of info on the handlling and prep of the ingredients (which is where all the work lies). ISBN 974-86722-7-1
Plus, I like how the corrections have all been done on tape and put into the books by hand.
I'll third 'Traditional Recipes of Laos'
Does the 'Thai Cuisine' book have a list of ingredients also written in Thai script Peter?....I can't find mine? but if it is the one, I used to copy out ingredients I needed and hubby would take list to the market when he was in Bangkok for the night and get me what I wanted...very handy...
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Chat Thai in Sydney has a great breakfast menu. A dish called in English "Thom Liead Moo" - its menu description is a "pork sweetmeats and blood pudding in chicken consomme lightly seasoned with flash sauteed garlic, chinese celery, salted turnips, shallots and coriander" - has pork intenstines and other pieces of offal, as well as perfect squares of set blood similar to what I've often had in pho. It's a delicious dish. I'm sure that there's plenty of offal in Thai cuisine - but it's also very rare on Thai menus in Australia.
My guess would be the reasons are a combination of the difficulty these days in sourcing offal in western countries like Austrralia, anticipated customer resistance on the part of the restaurant, and possible real resistance on the part of many customers when it's offered (I have no idea but I'm willing to bet that the majority of the people who eat Thom Liead Moo for breakfast at Chat Thai are people who grew up in Thailand.)
which area of Sydney is Chat Thai?? Sounds like it would be worth a visit!
thanks SD
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thanks for taking such trouble Fengyi, I'm sure that blogging can be very disruptive....really loved seeing it all, especially your relatives at home...that is truly the essence of living in another country...you are very lucky to have the family connection...
ps. good luck with your business venture...not that you need it!
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I have eaten warm, freshly slaughtered buffalo liver in a sort of laab treatment with plently of chillies while in the north ....also had a dish of the meat mixed with the contents of the stomach or perhaps the intestines just below the stomach...it was a greenish mass and made the meat quite bitter...I was not that keen to enquire exactly what the stuff was at the time but in retrospect I wish I had...I enjoyed the liver...
ps. edited to add that offal in soup is readily available, some delicious examples in Chiang Mai..
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Laksa - sorry about the lack of Hooter's food pictures - I've never eaten there, but people say it's pretty much standard Hooter's fare (whatever that means!)
Pan - "snap" to a Malaysian childhood! My malay birth certificate causes no end of trouble but it's pretty cool to try and read it!
I haven't seen many of the yellow haw about - they *are* difficult to get, aren't they? Well, I'm supposed to wrap this up but I've have two more meals that I think may be of interest.
They're a contrast of extremes: the first is the dinner from last night with my Yilao (my maternal grandmother's cousin) in a fairly typical Beijing apartment and the 2nd is lunch today at the glamorous Whampoa Club with a bunch of high officials.
Both truly beijing food - but at pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum.
I'm afraid I won't be able to post the photos today (a combination of time-crunch and a very bad-tempered internet) but will post first thing tomorrow. I hope that's OK!
you'll be going out on a high!! looking forward very much to the reports and the pix...I'm dying to hear what the Whampoa Club is like (have you been to the one in Shanghai to compare?...actually in retrospect I'm now guessing you haven't
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Good news, though - it looks like you can mail-order chile pasilla and other Mexican ingredients from MexGrocer.co.uk (click).
Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK?
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Beautiful salad, Prawncrackers.
Jicama, watercress, and red onion salad, dressed with a roasted garlic and jalapeno balsamic vinaigrette.
Chile pasilla picadillo Oaxaqueno on warm flour tortillas. Guacamole and a variety of salsas at the table.
Bruce, what is the flavour of pasilla chili?? as I am certain not to find them in this neck of the woods...any substitutes using Asian chili??...thanks
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Good stuff texan, I am a huge tongue fan. I do mostly stews yet totally appreciate the variety of dishes....i will definately give the caper one a try.
I'm also a huge tongue fan but I prefer brains...
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I love Gandarias. Fantastic service, and they sell Belondrade (beautiful white wine) by the glass... Mmmm
me too... like a one trick pony I drank the Belondrade y Lurton only at Gandarias for the 4 days we were there....interesting husband and wife wine!
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What do you do with nettles? I've never cooked or even them, but I just bought some so I'm looking for some ideas. Do you just use them in a soup primarily?
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has one of the best recipes for nettles that I've ever had. Risotto of nettles and wild herbs.
this risotto is superb...
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I don't see how a server saying "Have a nice day" is any different from saying "Good evening" or "Good afternoon". The server is merely following prevailing social protocols.
Don't be hatin', start participatin'.
"Have a nice life", on the other hand...
there is a perception by people other than in the USA that the greeting is not perhaps as sincere as it initially sounds. i.e it is not a prevailing social protocol elsewhere
eG Foodblog: Rehovot - Prague: City of a Thousand Forks
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
great blog and thanks a bunch! ...just wondering as I have never been to Prague, do you really get shedloads of drunken Brit stag parties every weekend as that is the image we get from the media over here?... and it all looks so tranquil and beautiful from where you stand...must hop on Easyjet very soon (not in a hen party
)