insomniac

Helen, I just brought back a couple of bottles plus one of the manuka honey flavour for my husb. (a Kiwi)....he adores feijoas. As for me, altho I enjoy eating the little guys I find the vodka quite detergenty, but definitely feijoa detergent if that makes sense , i.e not for the uninitiated, but I bet you'd like it..... they certainly use real fruit to get the flavour, rather than chemicals.

really?? I am trying to imagine it and I think it must be an interesting addition...we are discussing this at home and will try it as soon as we can get the raw ingredient

Peter, the kamcha ttang looked so delicious I immediately scoured the internet for a recipe....alas, none, could you point me to a source?? ...actually the method/ingredients would do ....hmmm isn't that a recipe ps. my husb. is enjoying your Korea, he pointed out that there weren't many comments, despite the large readership and mused that it probably was because most lurkers were thinking to themselves, 'I could NEVER eat that' (esp the liver and guts ) pps. Do you think not speaking Korean would be a handicap on a trip like yours? It is dawning on us that our Korean visits were woefully inadequate (except, typically, for the alcohol bits)

along with Prasantrin's recommendations, my favourites are kilauwin (sp?), especially the one made from pig intestines blanched and chopped, room temperature with a lemony dressing and finely chopped onions: pinakbet, a vegetable dish with pumpkin, bitter melon and pork bits and sinagang, which is a rich stock, normally with pork or chicken, morning glory leaves, snake beans,small taro and radish, finished with tamarind. you'll love it Ce'nedra

that soup looks stunning, had to laugh at the teeth, looks like a dental plate.....I thought fish teeth were pointy....hope it didn't die of old age hehe...was it taken from a tank or freshly caught?

why waste four syllables when one will do? Drinks...isn't that neater? Actually I think it is an English/American language difference...if I hear someone talk about beverages I want to giggle.....poshifying a normal word.....

I vac packed some camembert and froze it and altho the taste seemed ok the texture was a bit weird

I find the use of the word 'beverages' (rather than 'drinks') irritating in the extreme but I do think it's a cultural difference my ears aren't used to....just annoys me

excellent report rob...that's what I love about egullet, someone will always go the extra mile in the name of culinary research, thanks... ps. I use goose eggs every now and then either scrambled or boiled or in fried rice, but the season is over now, ended around August. Just have to be a tad careful as the little (actually not so little) guys are cholesterol laden....never tried them in baking, .....perhaps because I seldom bake

Montreal, would live there in a flash.....spent happy times there some summers ago while kids in an 'ecocamp' nr Mt Tremblant to improve their French (and give us child-free time ) ps. remember husb. getting very irritated with me as I kept trying to hail police cars instead of taxis look forward to yr services as a guide Gabriel (and yr cooking of course pps. have you heard of the baseloup??? prob. wrong spelling edited to add, I love the Fuschia Dunlop books, use both frequently

ha Doddie I made sinigang beef last night, pretty well the same recipe but I had some beef bones sitting there looking at me, just the weather for it......... ps. love that pork fat

I know exactly where your first photo was taken Jennifer....made me want to dive right thru the frame like Alice in the Looking Glass and grab a bite to eat, buy some ingredients I can't find here, then jump back out ha...or maybe I'd stay loved your report, lucky you ps. Luk Yu is aggravating

.....at the risk of repeating myself, (hmmm, never stopped me before ) gung chaer nam pla is my absolute favourite....well, in the top ten anyway,.......... where I come from (in Thailand that is) the dish is called gung ten, or dancing prawns, for obvious reasons,..... it's got to be one of the hottest of Thai dishes...........and I did drop my pestle,*sob*, but it was so big that even tho I only have 2/3 left it still works like a charm thanks Peter, superlative ......

This is an interesting subset of the topic as it represents trying interpretations of one's own food culture in other countries. I have to admit though, that aspiring to any degree of cultural literacy regarding McDonald's has never been important to me. ← except that recently my friends in China (both local and foreign) have been more reticent about eating local,i.e. polluted water = suspect seafood, pesticides, food sanitation, duff food products,... and at least MacDs imports its food....so you takes your chances latest scandal, don't drink the free tea, it's mainly leaves swept from the floor and I don't doubt it as daughter was at a 'secret factory' last month where people were employed to piece together shredded documents found in rubbish, so if they can be bothered to do that.... caveat emptor ps. my kids, born and raised in HK, feel Chinese sorry, edited for spelling

How long ago was it? My mother talks for going to the German Club for German food, and eating Hungarian food in Bangkok--this was in the late '60s. Not important, really, but I'm just wondering... ← it was in a very rural seaside village, and yes, there was a cafe nr the beach run by an German expat and his Thai family, but the ingredients were locally sourced, eg buffalo meat, but not complaining, just NO CHEESE.....seems to me the Germans 'discovered' Thailand long before anyone else. actually the resto was an experience as the marriage was stormy to say the least and on one memorable occasion there was a violent disturbance followed by Gert emerging from the 'kitchen' with noodles all over him, saying 'ze spaghetti is off' hahahaha, well the kids enjoyed it,...they also enjoyed the wife's 2 brothers arriving on motorscooters shorrtly after carrying cleavers...ah, memories.....

even tho there are lots of chinese ingredients the presence of the Nishiki rice (expensive) and bonito flakes don't scream China to me, and there's a toaster for the bagels, hmmmm, actually no idea (the kitchen looks Asian to me, all ours had white walls) ...just noticed the sichuan peppercorns,the plot gets thicker

when the children were small we spent several months of the year in Thailand and as there were no alternative cuisines at that time (yes, it was ages ago) I would get back to HK longing for nothing but baguette and cheese, so, yes, it is nice to intersperse cuisines unless the trip is very short. Ha Tracy you said which triggered the very unhappy recent memory of trying to remove said fish smell from my son's car, as his chef at the time (from Iceland, and BTW now opened in London at Texture, to instant 2 star standard and rave reviews, give it a go)had hidden some under the flooring for a joke...thanks Aggie, there goes the resale value

My local Xinjiang food area is packed every night. The locals queue up for 羊肉串, 牛肉孜然夹馍, 羊肉泡馍. ← hey liuzhou mutton kebab I could sort of read but...., the beef unwearied effort however clamps steamed bread, the mutton soaks steamed bread??? actually a lot of my southern chinese friends can't stand the smell of lamb cooking, but if I can get them to eat it they love it

no, Peter,if you were in Wales the grope would have been followed by a smack in the mouth from the B/F and then projectile vomiting on your shoes by the groper.........ducks and runs (I love Wales but am happy that Fiji just beat them in the rugby )

Bruce, the fresh green peppercorns taste hot like black peppercorns but, funnily enough, greener and sort of pop in your mouth releasing the heat in a clean burst, without the crunchy dry flavour of the balck ones; comparing fresh with pickled, the same difference as fresh vs green chilis....hope that makes sense

I totally agree v. gautam.....I have to, I'm an Aussie who lived in Fiji for nearly 5 years ps. love your Bengali saying but I will hide it from the kids.... just for the time being..... ...........basically, I'm just jealous of the boundless energy of youth

just curious, Peter, .....does kiiniao mean sticky um, 'poo'? I haven't heard that one....the expression I'm extrapolating from is farang kiinok, (bird poo)the thought lurking behind some Thai smiles describing unattractive western tourists. ps. the kids and I are great fans of Hayao Miyazaki, beats the Wiggles every time pps. no green papayas within 150 miles of us I'll send you quinces if............

Ce'nedra, enough already with the prolific cooking and posting.....you are going to fail uni if you keep up the pace here......and you never seem to sleep, I don't want to see any more posts after midnight your time, now GO TO BED

I am full of admiration for your stamina as you MUST have been jetlagged for most of those days......what an idyllic place your sister-in-law and her family lives in, and how lucky are you to have all this bounty in front of you in the years to come...just gorgeous, thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Pointer to a New Hallucinogen of Insect Origin E.B. Britton 27 Galway Place, Deakin, Canberra ACT 2600 (Australia) (Accepted August 28, 1984) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of this note is to draw attention to a long forgotten observa- tion which points to the existence of a new hallucinogen, unique in that its source is an insect. Augustin de Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) travelled extensively in eastern Brazil between 1816 and 1823 and after his return to France published valuable observations on the geography, ethnology and natural history of the country. In two of his unpublished works Saint-Hilaire (1824, republished Jenkins, 1946, p. 49; 1830, pp. 432-433) described the use of an insect as food and medicine by the Malalis, natives in the Brazilian province of Minas Gerais. The relevant passage (1824) (translated) is as follows: When I was among the Malalis, in the province of Mines, they spoke much of a grub which they regarded as a delicious food, and which is called bicho de tacuara (bamboo- worm), because it is found in the stems of bamboos, but only when these bear flowers. Some Portugese who have lived among the Indians value these worms no less than the natives themselves; they melt them on the fire, forming them into an oily mass, and so preserve them for use in the preparation of food. The Malalis consider the head of the bicho de tacuara as a dangerous poison; but all agree in saying that this creature, dried and reduced to powder constitutes a powerful vulnerary (for the healing of wounds). If one is to believe these Indians and the Portugese themselves it is not only for this use that the former preserve the bicho de tacuara . When strong emotion makes them sleepless, they swallow, they say, one of these worms dried, without the head but with the intestinal tube; and then they fall into a kind of ecstatic sleep, which often lasts more than a day, and similar to that experienced by the Orientals when they take opium in excess. They tell, on awakening, of marvellous dreams; they saw splendid forests, they ate delicious fruits, they killed without difficulty the most choice game; but these Malalis add that they take care to indulge only rarely in this debilitating kind of pleasure. I saw them only with the bicho de tacuara dried and without heads; but during a botanical trip that I made to Saint-Francois with my Botocudo, this young man found a great many of these grubs in flowering bamboos, and set about eating them in my presence. He broke open the creature and carefully removed the head and intestinal tube, and sucked out the soft whitish substance which re- mained in the skin. In spite of my repugnance, I followed the example of the young savage, and found, in this strange food, an extremely agreeable flavour which recalled that of the most delicate cream. If then, as I can hardly doubt, the account of the Malalis is true, the narcotic property of the bicho de tacuara resides solely in the intestinal tube, since the sur- rounding fat produces no ill effect. Be that as it may, I submitted to M. Latreille the description of the animal I had made, and this learned entomologist recognised it as a caterpillar probably belonging to the genus 'Cossus' or to the genus 'Hepiale'. These observations are repeated in Saint-Hilaire (1839, pp. 432-433) with the addition of the information that the "bicho de taquara" are half as long as the index finger. The intoxicating effect of the larvae from bamboo has apparently been forgotten in Brazil and the seven volume Handbook of South American Indians (Steward, 1946-1959) while referring briefly to the observation of Saint-Hilaire in Vol. 5 (p. 557) gives no additional references. This is perhaps not surprising as the Malalis were a near-coastal tribe long ago overrun by the advance of civilisation. The name "bicho de taquara" is, however, still in use and according to Ihering (1932, p. 236) and Costa Lima (1936, p. 266; 1967, p. 246) refers to the larva of the moth Myelobia (Morpheis) smerintha Huebner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae : Crambinae). Costa Lima (1967, p. 246) states that the larvae feed in common bamboos including Nastes (=Nastus) barbatus Trin., "taquara lixa" (Merostachys Rideliana Rupr.), "taquara poca" (Merostachys Neesii Rupr.) and "taquaras- su" (Guadua sp.) (Hoehne, F.C. et al.). The larvae feed inside the internodes of the bamboo and attain a maximum length of about 10 cm. The moth emerges in September and has frequently appeared in plague proportions. There are 24 species of Myelobia in South America, one in Mexico and one in Guatemala. The statement by Saint-Hilaire that the larvae are only found when the bamboo is in flower probably means that the host bamboos flower annually (as do a number of Brazilian species) and it is at that time that the larvae reach their maximum size. As the adult moth emerges in September this is probably in July or August. It appears from the observations of Saint-Hilaire that the active substance is not destroyed by drying, and the need to remove the head and gut to avoid intoxication suggests that it is contained in the salivary glands. The active material could therefore be concentrated initially by removing the head plus salivary glands and part of the gut, discarding the rest of the body. In view of the interest in the pharmacology of hallucinogens and the medicinal use of the dried and powdered larvae it would seem to be woth- while to investigate what appears to be a new source, and as the insect is large and common it would be well suited to biochemical study. It is of particular interest that this would be the first hallucinogen of insect origin.