Panosmex

And text that's so tiny and so faint, it's almost impossible to read.

No, those sprouts in the photo are quite short.

I've made tepache several times. The first time or two was with only the pineapple rinds and the spices plus piloncillo. Later, I learned that it's better with some of the fruit in it. Another thing I learned is that I prefer to make it without the beer in it. It should taste more like pineapple, not beer. After it's finished fermenting, you can mix it with beer in your glass if you like. This blog entry describes my earlier attempts. A Batch of Tepache

Oh, please do name them!

I used to occasionally have very gummy sprouted wheat bread pan loaves in my bakery, The cause was over sprouting the wheat kernels to where they were producing enzymes with gluten weakening properties. This was especially likely in warm weather. Try sprouting the kernels to a very short size, and tinse them well in several changes of cold water, drain well and use as desired.

Beard's "American Cookery" is first among the top five cookbooks I use. I go back to it over and over again. "The New James Beard Cookbook" less often.

A Oaxaqueña amiga advised us not to dry epazote out in the sun, as it would drive off the volatile essences. So, she spread newspapers on a seldom uses dining room sideboard, and it dried slowly in the shade for about a week. That's how we still do it, and it stays pretty pungent. I used some yesterday (not from the same batch!

No, Chris, I think that their sales are limited to Mexico.

We prefer the line of Salsas Cosecha Purépecha, made in Chilchota, Michoacán. Of the several varieties, our favorites are the Chile de Árbol, the chipotle, and the Habanero Rojo. In the last several years, they have apparently increased production in order to expand their distribution to more retail outlets. We have noticed some slight slippage of quality, yet they are still ahead of the pack. Valentina is the most common bottled salsa here in Michoacán, Mexico (and everywhere else we've been in central and northern Mexico.) It's fine for micheladas and on papitas ("artisanal" potato chips.

I recently had a large taco of chicharrón prensado guisado, at the Birrería Don Rubén, in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. It was in a brick red chile salsa, and extremely rich. Although tasty, it was a bit too much for me, especially after a medium sized bowl of birria de chivo. Chicharrón prensado guisado en salsa colorada, in its cazuela.

I'm proud to say that after —what?— 4 years, I cleaned the slatboard undershelf of my Boos pastry table yesterday. The scale I store there still needs further doughy film removal.

Going beyond the ceviche tostada concept; one of our favorite appetizers when eating in a marisquería (seafood joint) are seafood tostadas. Begin with a base of smashed fresh avocado spread on the tostada surface. 1. Top with small, cooked peeled shrimp. Maybe some red onion for garnish. 2. Small pieces of calamares cooked in a salsa diabla. 3. Marlín ahumado. (true, you won't be able to get it up north, but you might try substituting mashed kippered snacks, sasoned with tomato, onion and chile. Or even sardines in tomato sauce with salsa picante. Moving inland, a very popular snack here in Michoacán is patas de puerco en vinagre on tostadas. Unless you bone them and cut them up, it's really necessary to pick up the pickled pig's feet in the hands. Carne Apache tostadas are popular here (but I normally won't eat them, especially on the street.) If you like steak tartare, you can use the Mexican version, minced raw beef, lime juice, minced onions, tomatoes, cilantro and fresh chilles to taste.

I suggest, for a start, Café El Cordobes, at the corner of Ayuntamiento and López, Centro.

It might be interesting to try, but it's not pizza by a long stretch of imagination or definition.

I'm not sure how it would come out with jasmine rice, but my house white is japonica rice - either from Korea or Japan. Sometimes, I'll even cut in about 25% mochi rice if it's hanging around. Is it exactly the same as a risotto made with arborio? Not really - arborio seems to be a longer grain, and seems more, "ricey" when I've made risotto with it. When I use the short-grain rice, it comes out very creamy and smooth. I like it, and it's a lot cheaper, so that's enough for me for week-night dinners. My shameful confession: I've never eaten, let alone made risotto. I would probably never order it in a restaurant. I'd eat it if it were served to me at a private dinner.

Central BBQ. Memphis, TN

This issue used to drive me nuts in my bakery, especially when my well-meaning employees would bring in empty whipped margarine and Cool-Whip containers for us to use. There were unique lids and containers all over the place. Sometimes it would take 5 minutes to find the lid to a specific container. Eventually, I upgraded to Cambros and got rid of the home containers (by the way, they were also in violation of our local Health Dept. rules.) Now retired, our collection of containers and lids is thus: we have a large, metal basket which contains all the small to medium containers. I stack them whenever possible. The lids are roughly organized, standing on edge, to the sides of the basket. Very small containers, 1 cup or less, and odd items are stored in a covered plastic bin atop the fridge. None of this is ideal, but it's functional. Dry grains, nuts and seeds for cooking and baking are stored either in cambros or used, plastic salted nut jars from Costco. They are store on their own three shelf unit in our spacious hallway. I just upgraded that shelving to a more capacious one yesterday. (I feel so proud!)

El Bajío has update their web site. It's long overdue for such a worthy restaurant. El Bajío

Por favor; corn tortillas are not made with lard, as mentioned in the OP. "Enchiladas benefit from corny, lardy homemade tortillas but also can mask mediocre ones to good effect, and they are an excellent way to showcase a perfect salsa"

Fish Veracruzana is a standard in my house. I've done it a gazillion different ways using a variety of different fish. We don't see a huge amount of grouper where I am, but it should work just fine. I've used the rock fish labeled as red snapper on the West Coats, halibut, swordfish and mahi (which I think would be called dorado where you are). I've made it with filetes and I've made it with with whole fish. I made it on the range top in a skillet and baked it in the oven. No matter the fish, and no matter the cooking method, it almost always turns out pretty well. The fish isn't the star of the show in this dish, it's the sauce On the range top I've both slipped the fish into the simmering sauce to cook, or briefly sauteed the fish and then poured the sauce over to finish cooking. For the oven, I slash the fish on each side, rub with a bit of lime and salt, arrange in the baking dish, cover with foil and punch a couple vents into the foil and then bake. Mike, you can't go wrong with Pescado Veracruzana, it's a hard dish to mess up. Have you looked at a whole huacinango, it might be considerably less to purchase a whole fish than filetes. My favorite fish for this dish are - in this order - huachinango, halibut, mahi. All of these fish have a fairly firm flesh. IIRC, grouper also is a fairly firm flesh fish. I say, give it a whirl and see what happens. Focus on making the sauce as good as you possibly can and it may not really matter what type of fish you use. ← Thanks, Kalypso for the encouraging reply. The only time I made Pescado a la Veracruzana that was really bad was with pieces of bony fish, baked in the oven. It overcooked and fell apart, leaving us with bones at every forkful. I'll look into get a whole huachinango, although I prefer the fillets. EDIT: I should add that one of the guests will be a 4-y/o boy, who is not accustomed to chiles. So, I'll need to make the sauce quite mild, and add strips of Jalapeños to part of the finished dish. It's either that, or it's back to fried fillets with optional sauces and condiments. My guests have simple tastes, and may prefer that.

From Pátzcuaro, México: For Friday's dinner, I'm planning on making Filetes de Pescado a la Veracruzana. Our local pescadería offered tilapia, cazón, huauchinango and mero. I haven't used mero before. I Googled it, and it seems to be grouper. How would that work for pescado a la Veracruzana? I like the thick, meaty filets. Tilapia is out of the question, as I find it nearly tasteless and lacking is substantial texture. Cazón may be fibrous, in my limited experience with it. Huauchinago is expensive, over $130 pesos the kilo! Maybe I'll revert to Plan A: fried, breaded fish filets, Southern catfish style, oven-fried potatoes, slaw, tartar sauce, pickled chow chow, and corn bread. Saludos, Panosmex

It makes a nice (and better) substitute for pepperoni on homemade pizzas. It would undoubtedly be good in a pot of frijoles.

It was many years ago, but we had a terrific steak with twice-baked potato at the Gage Hotel in Marathon.

Looks great! What colonia is it in?

Events turned out differently than expected. After checking the menus of both the Casino Español and visiting the weekend seafood buffet at the Círculo Vasco Español I concluded that while the CE was a magnificent setting, the menu didn't ignite my imagination; while the buffet at the CVE seemed like not the optimum way to treat seafood. We made a 180º turn, and reserved a table at El Cardenal for late Saturday afternoon. (Since that is a restaurant serving a distinctly refined Mexican, neither Basque nor Spanish cuisine, I'll post our experiences separately.)