Philanthrophobe

I just did exactly the same thing on Thursday--bought a big jar of homemade kimchi at LV's Korea town, which is more like a Korea half-block. It's gorgeous, but absolutely no fermentation, no fire...just mildly salty. I'm confused. The jars aren't even labeled, so I KNOW that it isn't the kimchi made for pasty white girls. I don't ask the grocer's help anymore either--they're really lovely people, but don't understand that I don't want the Korean version of Wonderbread. Also, the vegetable in mine looks sort of like a carrots with the top attached, only the root part is white, and the greens, although wilted, are deep green and a bit succulent. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I'm going to check for the vinegary ones this week. (Inquiring minds and all that.)

How does it compare, taste-wise, with chorizo?

Duchess of Duke Street! It originally aired on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre in the late 70s, and the first series just came out on DVD last fall. It's excellent. The Chinese Feast is another great one worth checking out if you haven't seen it. A Chef in Love is fun, and although it got really crappy reviews, I really like the film version of Roddy Doyle's The Van. Peter Greenaway always makes gorgeous films about appetites gone awry, and I think that The Belly of an Architect is one of his best. The Triplets of Belleville for the endless frog feast! Oh, and the newly-released Criterion edition of Burden of Dreams for the 20-minute short that documents Werner Herzog fulfilling a bet by cooking and eating his shoe. And of course, Chef! and Faulty Towers.

I cooked them up last night in a modified version of the locrio recipe NYC Mike bookmarked upthread, using rice IPO bulgher. They were very sweet--much sweeter than any chorizo I've ever had. The recipe was pretty good too, although I added two chopped green peppers and 1/4 cup of chopped garlic and subbed a large can of chopped tomatoes for the 2 real ones the recipe called for--it's not like tomatoes are really tomatoes at this time of year, anyway--and added a couple minced serrano chiles, and a can of kidney beans. So in the end, it was only approximately locrio, but it certainly was tasty. Even my husband liked it, and he generally doesn't like rice, beans, OR sausage. Yummmmmmmm.....leftovers.......

Point to something and exclaim loudly to divert others' attention away from the table, then pick up whole steak and quickly gnaw the marrow out of the bone and return it to my plate. Then resume continental-style steak-cutting.

Thanks! What I'm finding is that it's spelled "longganisa" in the Filipino parts of the world. I did find a Dominican recipe that looks really good--I'll give it a go as soon as the hubster returns with garlic. What probably adds to the confusion is that the market is Asian, and the bulk of the employees are Latino. The results of Iberian colonization certainly are impressive. Oh, yeah--does your wife remove the casings or leave them intact?

Is it used fresh or cured in the Dominican Republic?

I found this thread after I picked up some fresh longaniza at the Asian grocery last night and was wondering what they were and what to do with them. Here's an interesting link. And this link explains why the Asian market had stacks and stacks of them for sale for Chinese New Year!

My ex had a weird, ferocious, possessive thing about food, which surfaced sometime after we had been married about a year. I forget what I had made, but I served each of us a plate of it and then watched as he added a little soy sauce. Curious, I speared a small forkful to try it, and suddenly he lunged, grabbed my arm, and screamed, "DON'T F#CK WITH MY FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I know, I know, I should've cut and run immediately, but it was just so damned weird that I almost couldn't believe it happened. Oh, yeah--and toward the end? He actually complained to his shrink that I wouldn't allot him one whole shelf in the fridge and another in the freezer for HIS food, which was likely as not leftovers from meals I'd cooked.

The hours listed in the article are as follows: Settebello 1776 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway. 222-3556. Hours: 11 :30 a.m.-9 p.m. Bit of a drive for me too, but it looks great. Thanks much for the heads-up, rooberu!

No. It's not only pointlessly dishonest, it's pathetic in a very small sort of way.

White trash hors d'oeuvres from my childhood: Festive Bologna 'n' Cheez Roll-Ups! 1. Unfold five slices of bologna from the package. 2. Spread each slice evenly with approximately 1 T softened Velveeta Processed Cheeze-Like Food. 3. Roll the cheez-bedecked slices into jelly-roll-shaped logs. 4. Slice into 1 inch pieces. 5. Spear each piece with an ornate toothpick. 6. Serve with large glasses of Hawaiian Punch for the kiddies, or equally large glasses of Colt45 for the adults. 7. Puke and repeat.

I've made a handful of recipes from this book, and all have been truly easy to prepare and taste great.

Blowfish!!! We used to catch it in the 60s/70s off the mid-Atlantic coast. Lightly breaded and fried. (I still remember how to clean them.) And yes, it's related to fugu.

Cake and ice cream. When I was growing up, I thought I hated cake--turns out I only hated boxed cake mixes. Same with mass-produced ice cream (and this was waaaay before the era of Ben & Jerry)--homemade ice cream doesn't even occupy the same food galaxy. (God, I hated birthday parties.) My husband is allowed to keep one, and only one, jar of Grandma O'Houlligan's Authentic Inuit Sad-Assed Spaghetti Sauce* on hand in case of emergency, which is defined as me being trapped under a combine or an earth-mover and incapable of reaching a stove. Marcella Hazan singlehandedly rescued me forever from using craptastic ready-to-use pasta sauce. I've been making my own yoghurt, hummus, bread, and salsa for a long time. I also grow my own herbs whenever possible--cilantro and parsley reseed themselves every year, and Mediterranean herbs like oregano, rosemary, and thyme thrive here in the southwest. And I love the superior flavor and convenience of frozen homemade stock. I also heart Gloria Bley Miller, whose book, The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, showed me that I didn't have to subject myself to the vagaries of restaurant dining to enjoy really really good hot and sour soup. *I apologize for inferring that any self-respecting Inuit would stoop to using spaghetti sauce from a jar.

Adopted comfort foods.... I was raised in a gastronomically impoverished household. Our introduction into the scary foreign world of Tex-Mex came courtesy of Frito-Lay in the early 70s by way of a bag of Doritos, which we called "tor-till-ah chips." My first taco came from Jack in the Box when I was 18. Garlic came from a little bottle stored next to the gas range where, along with the other elderly herbs and spices, they could absorb plenty of heat from whatever happened to be cooking. So, basically, everything I now consume is "adopted." I especially love middle eastern and Indian... hummus bi tahina tabbouleh fattoush yoghurt! yoghurt! yoghurt! (Especially once I learned to make my own.) bhindi masala eggplant bhartha mattar paneer Great. Now I'm hungry.

You guys are the freaking BEST!! I'll be trying all your suggestions and I'll be sure to let you know what results. --and if any other ideas strike you, let me know!

Thank you for the kind welcome! I love this site. I'm spending waaaaaaay too much time here... Just for fun, here's a local newspaper article about the Liangs. And I'm curious: regarding the Leung/Liang difference, if they were Liangs elsewhere in China and moved to Canton to teach at the university, would they have kept the same spelling? --or would it have been more likely that they changed the name to Leung? Back to the food: the sauce was brown and there was just enough to coat the tofu and limas. I remember tasting a bit of garlic, a bit of ginger, and scallions. I tasted no obvious sweet notes. It was was mildly salty but in a subtle, complex way that I couldn't figure out. The heat came from visible chile flakes. There were no peanuts and no other vegetables; just some finely julienned black mushrooms (I think he said they were tree ears). Mr. Liang told me that this was a variation on something his grandmother in China used to make--this made me think that someone else might know of a similar dish. The more I try to describe it, the more elusive this quest seems. Yeesh. How about this: given these ingredients, what sort of condiments would you be inclined to use, and in what proportion? Thanks!

I pledge to never ever again forget where I put the bag of potatoes, only to be reminded months later--by the smell. The very very very bad, even-the-dogs-left-the-room smell.

Please indulge me in a small veer away from the topic.... ...oh, yes indeed. And don't even get me started on "rustic." (Forget the cookbook count--if all the eGullet threads discussing adjective abuse were measured, how many miles would they cover?) I have a 1926 edition of the Settlement Cookbook: one of the recipes for salad dressing calls for substituting MINERAL oil for vegetable oil, "for those who wish to loose weight." Yep, that'll do it, all right.

Yep, I tried soy sauce--too one-note. Then I tried soy sauce/oyster sauce, and it was closer, but still...no Cantonese cigar. I think I might well have to forego duplicating it as Mr. Liang did it, but I intend to have fun trying!! (I should also mention that I have a bunch of Wei-Chuan publications--still can't find it.) I'd love to know what seasonings might be good for the combo of tofu, limas, and rice. How did your grandmother make it? (I go to a really great Asian market, so get as esoteric as you'd like with ingredients. ) All suggestions will be enthusiastically attempted! Thanks very very much!

I ordered this item all the time at a small, local Cantonese restaurant run by an elderly couple, Howard and Jennifer Liang. It was REALLY good. Unfortunately, they sold the restaurant about a year ago, and so far, my attempts to replicate the dish have not been particularly successful. I miss these people so much. And Mr. Chiang was such a great cook. (I presume they retired.) The ingredients are fried cubed bean curd, limas, rice, scallions, and hot chile flakes; it's the sauce I can't seem to get right. Any suggestions? Anything at all?

Badly-prepared food is such a HUGE shaping influence!

I hated candy and ice cream; loved olives, mustard, salami, and fresh fruit. The first cookbook recipe I ever mastered was Bunny Salad from the Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook when I was six--and I made it night after night after night, until one evening when I overheard my father groan to my mother, "Not the goddamned Bunny Salad again!" At that point, I moved on to the Joy of Cooking's easier salads.