C. sapidus

Leftovers for breakfast, tarted up with slivered almonds and more cilantro.

What was in your leek and carrot soup? I am still seeking ultimacy in carrot soups, but we have made some quite pleasant ones recently. From upthread: carrot soup with garlic and ginger (clickety). Last night we made curried carrot soup from Vegetables Everyday. Saute leeks until brown, add carrots, sherry, curry powder, and chicken stock. Simmer until tender, puree with milk, and finish with cilantro. Our sherry supply must have, um, evaporated, so we substituted white wine and a finishing glug of sherry vinegar. Not ultimate, but the acidity brightened the flavors nicely.

Two generally well-reviewed books: D.J. Mesfin: Exotic Ethiopian Cooking. I have this book but have not cooked from it yet, partly because I lack ready access to teff, and partly because I have shied away from the remarkable amount of butter in many recipes. Marcus Samuelsson: The Soul of a New Cuisine. This includes a few Ethiopian recipes in a pan-African cookbook. eGullet thread discussing Ethiopian cookbooks: Ethiopian recipes (clicky) I grew up near DC, so that is my standard for Ethiopian food. I have usually been disappointed when I have tried Ethiopian restaurants elsewhere.

Baguette! *slaps forehead* No leftovers, but I do have a breakfast-sized container of rice, mushrooms, and a smidgeon of thit bo kho juice stashed in the fridge. Whew, thanks, OnigiriFB, but you give too much credit. Most of the time I’m just following a recipe.

A strong contender for the best stew I have ever eaten: thit bo kho (beef stew with star anise and basil) from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Annato oil, fish sauce, and soy sauce provided color, and the come-hither aromas of frying garlic and shallots, browning beef, and simmering lemongrass, curry powder, and freshly-toasted and ground star anise filled the kitchen. Adding garlic, shallots, and basil in stages layered the flavors nicely, and the garnish of Thai basil, cilantro, and thinly-sliced onion added a fresh, aromatic punch. Mrs. C sauteed Portobello mushrooms with red wine and thyme, earning a score of nine from both boys. Served with jasmine rice, green salad, sliced cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. Thit bo kho

Kalypso, those soups would match our weather nicely. We made a batch of salsa negra from Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen. Ingredients: We fried the chipotles and garlic cloves, ground them to a paste with piloncillo syrup, and then fried the paste to intensify the flavors. The end result reminded me of a deliciously smoky nahm phrik pao, but without the oil slick. I can see adding a dab of this salsa to anything that can be improved with a jolt of sweet-smoky chile heat. You can see how salsa negra earned its name: We used this salsa to make camarones enchipotladas. We dry-roasted and pureed garlic, white onion, and tomatoes with ground cloves and pepper, fried the sauce to concentrate the flavors, added salsa negra, and then cooked the shrimp in the sauce. Unfortunately I added salsa negra too enthusiastically, so results were muy picante, too much so for the family. We have lots of salsa negra left over, so I am determined to make better use of it next time. Served with arroz blanco, fortified with chicken stock, white onion, frozen peas and chunks of leftover chicken. The camarones also made a nice topping for green salad.

Funny and hunger-inducing is a rare combination, one that you capture with aplomb. I always look forward to your travelogue, and appreciate the time that you put into them. Cool garden. Did you happen to notice what material they used for the walls of their raised beds? Concrete poured into forms, perhaps? I like the look of that curry, too. C'mon, you didn’t sneak a taste?

The recipe calls for crisping the bacon in garlicky olive oil, and then quickly boiling down dry white wine in the hot porky lipids. We happened to have sauvignon blanc dregs in the fridge, added a little extra to finish the bottle, and found the additional touch of acidity welcome. Fettuccine Alfredo was one of the very first things that I learned to cook, so (other than calories, of course ) I have no issue with rich sauces. As with many of Marcella’s dishes, the rich sauce is spread quite thinly over copious pasta. I generally use Marcella’s pasta-to-sauce ratio for fat- and cream-based sauces, and double the sauce for tomato-based pasta dishes. Sounds like a similar idea to a recipe that I have on my list: fettuccine al limone from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. Thanks, Rona!

Spaghetti with carbonara sauce (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, p. 202). This was my first time making carbonara. Pasteurized eggs and grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses soaked up generous quantities of bacon grease and garlic-infused oil. Boiled-down sauvignon blanc lent a subtle tang. Good stuff, but the youngsters were surprisingly unenthusiastic.

We live in a town of 50K located an hour from DC and Baltimore. Readily available: creme fraiche, Mexican crema, miso, frozen duck, pancetta, pig trotters/tails/tripe. Other pig parts would require a 45-minute drive. We have most of the other ingredients in the kitchen, but I had to mail-order them. No specialized butcher. I am amazed that so many people can find sherry vinegar locally. I searched for weeks, and finally ordered a bottle from Kalyustans (along with pomegranate molasses, oddly enough, and a few Indian spices). Good luck with the cookbook! (edited to add a few pig parts)

Thank you, Katie. Yup, the recipe is pretty simple. My Bombay Kitchen is well worth getting, but in the meantime here is a link to the recipe: pumpkin roasted with curry leaves (clickety). I hope you enjoy it.

Butternut squash with curry leaves, adapted from My Bombay Kitchen. Sliced squash tossed with olive oil, garlic, fresh and dried chiles, and salt. Strewn with curry leaves and baked in a hot oven. The savory flavors contrasted nicely with the sweet squash, and the browned bits were especially delightful. This was not our whole meal, but for me, it could have been.

My favorite take-out pizza topping combination is jalapeno and anchovy. When a large group orders pizza, this can be a surprisingly popular combination, often one of the first to disappear (definitely before the pineapple pizza -- sorry Katie, I shouldn't pile on ). When we phone in an order, we invariably get a call back: “Did someone order a jalapeno and anchovy pizza from this address?”

Chris, we installed a Blue Star RGTNB366BSS (36-inch rangetop, six burners) when we renovated our kitchen three years ago. We have been delighted with it. The 22K burner does a great job when we stir-fry, although one must still avoid adding too much cold food to the wok at one time. I also greatly value the Blue Star’s ability to hold a low simmer on all burners. If you choose a Blue Star, consider whether the standard burner arrangement fits your cooking style. If not, you may be able to specify an alternate burner arrangement. If you can swing it, giving up an extra six inches of counter top yields a bonus of two extra burners. If you get a powerful range, pair it with a comparably powerful ventilation hood. We do a lot of high-heat cooking and the 600 CFM Vent-A-Hood captures cooking oil effectively. In our previous house, a wimpy vent hood allowed an underpowered stove to leave a film of greasy gunk throughout the kitchen. We looked at induction but options were much more limited three years ago. I am not a particularly gentle cook, so I was also concerned that banging and sliding pots and pans on an induction cooktop could scratch or crack the ceramic. Good luck!

A friend's daughter is living with us while her parent is stationed overseas. A few of the boys' friends have become honorary family members and live with us from time to time. Thanks, Shelby!

Wait, even better (or worse) -- bitter melon instead of Brussels sprouts.

Braised shallot confit (clickety), from Molly Stevens' All About Braising.

The children prepared and served a romantic dinner for two. The boys cooked and temporary teenage daughter served. We began with beer, wine, and shrimp cocktail in the “lounge” (ok, the living room couch). After being seated, we perused the printed menu by candlelight while enjoying the warmth of a roaring fire. To begin, we chose a green salad with slivered almonds and ranch dressing. For the main course, we selected steak burgers with bacon, Swiss cheese, and sliced avocado, accompanied by fried potatoes. Dessert was turtle cheesecake and chocolate-dipped strawberries with mascarpone cheese. Truly, this was one of the most enjoyable meals we have eaten at this establishment. We tipped generously.

Rocky road ice cream, Brussels sprouts, shrimp paste. If no shrimp paste is available, substitute sardines packed in mustard.

You are quite welcome, bobmac, and I hope you enjoy your wok. Batard is right, thin cast iron woks are reputed to be fragile. I am not especially gentle with ours, and we have had no trouble. As long as you don't sing like Frankie Valli.

Hmm, I see this thread as primarily about cooking Italian food, with a strong subplot of doing so in Japan. Besides, in a year or three nakji may be spending Tuesdays with Marcella in Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Bangkok, Shanghai, or . . . Anyway, I followed Marcella’s food processor method to make pesto for the first time. So easy and so delicious tossed with fettuccine and a little pasta water. I look forward to making pesto this summer with freshly-picked Genovese basil rather than plastic-packed basil from the supermarket. Has anyone tried making pesto with Thai basil? We accompanied the pasta with store-bought “Italian” bread and trout meuniere, which was cooked with sufficient butter to qualify for Marcella’s approval.

When I was single and burning way more calories, I used to make fettuccine Alfredo weekly. After a while I stopped looking at the recipe, stopped measuring anything, and even forgot where I found the recipe in the first place. This became a problem when I tried scaling up to family-sized portions. It never turned out quite right. We don’t make Alfredo sauce much any more, but I did finally rediscover the recipe. It came from a slim paperback Good Housekeeping cookbook that dates back to when I first started feeding myself. I cooked up a batch of fettuccine Alfredo not long ago, and the scaled-up recipe tasted as good as ever.

I do safety for a living, so risking life and limb for kitchen implements would be hard to justify. The calculus would be different if you asked whether I would save my vinyl records, though . . . Sigh. Okay, I’ll play by the rules. Assuming that insurance would cover replacing pots and pans, I would probably grab my gyuto. I can cook with any old pots and pans if necessary, but I hate working with crappy knives.

We have a 14-inch and a 16-inch “traditional cast iron wok” from the Wok Shop (click). These woks are made from thin cast iron. They are lightweight, season readily, heat up quickly, and seem to transmit heat better than our old carbon steel wok. The finish is a bit rough, and some don’t like that, but I love them and use them constantly.

Wow wow wow, what an amazing spread, and what gorgeous photos. How did you ever decide where to start digging in? I would go for one of the gorgeous shrimp dishes first. The difficult question would be what to enjoy next. Hmm, probably yue sang. I have never tried it before, but it looks like a fabulous mix of flavors and textures. Great action photo, too. Thanks so much for sharing!