Carolyn Tillie

Color me GREEN! with envy. Blog on -- give all us slugs the encouragement we need to follow our dreams! Congrats, Gerhard!

That's Greece, I guess?. Probably very similar. There's a Turkish variant also: "Börök". It's all from the time of the Osmanian imperium in the Balkan region. You find my detailed recipe at the end of page 1 of my blog. If you take pyhlo, a lot of butter to "paint" the foils and if you create several layers, you've got the original. Be careful when using Feta only. It can be too salty, so need to place it in bowl of water for several ours. I always had sensational succes with that simple dish. Really. A a side note, it is difficult to give a precise recipe when critical products (feta, phylo, puff pastry) vary from continent to continent. I suggest you do an aditional google with "Banitsa". All I remember when I visited Bulgaria some 40 years ago that the process was simple and the result great. And I was around 6 years old then. Sorry I missed the recipe on the earlier page -- and, yep, Spanikopita is Greek.

So, I need a little explanation... How is Banitsa different from Spanikopita? Both cheese, filo, and spinach, n'est pas? Banitsa recipe needed 'cuz it looks so damned good!

Hey Carolyn, Got any recs for us? On the oaky side, I like Lail Vineyard's Georgia and, thanks to a dinner with Melkor at Angele, I got to taste a SB from Araujo that was stupendous. Both of these are hideously expensive. On the more reasonable side (and less oaky), Gundlach Bundschu produced its first 100% SB this year (they used to buy it to mix in their White Bearitage). This offering is crisp and affordable and goes really well with heavily-garlic'd seafood. Beckmen Vineyards also has several offerings -- all of which I have found drinkable and price-accessible. I remember tasting both Honig's and Markham's offerings several years ago when they did wine dinners at the Music Center in Los Angeles, but haven't tasted recent offerings. Apparently Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' SB are getting good reviews and all this talk (and the heat) is making me think I should go out and just taste SB for a day.

For those of us just getting into Japanese cooking (god bless the Okonomiyaki thread!), I'm curious about longevity: What is the shelf-life of hiya yakko? I prepared a kaiseki meal for guests almost two weeks ago and have quite a bit of the tofu left. I've been changing the water every other day, but am still debating how to finish it off. Thanks so much Kris!

Regarding SB -- not all California Sauvignon Blanc is made with oak. Some never see any oak whatsoever! Some use new French Oak, some use use American oak. Some use used French and/or American oak. Others use stainless steel tanks with oak chips! It is a matter of style. Please don't assume that all California SBs are oaked -- the ones I prefer never see any oak at all!

ImageGullet is back up again! Hooray! Took these pictures yesterday (I try to always take them on Monday). For the vine, I'm having to stand completely out on the edge to get it all in. I keep pestering Gabriel on when we'll be suckering and he keeps muttering, "it is still growing...." I figured I would actually hold the grapes to give you an idea of proportion with my hand - getting bigger and bigger, aren't they?

Okay, so now I'm confused... I thought raw meant that nothing was cooked. Rolls? Cookies? Lasagne? All these un-cooked versions or am I missing something obvious?

I am at Ladera Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. It is the job that pays the rent. Ladera is an appointment-only winery so you need to call before "stopping by" as our Conditional Use Permit restricts walk-in visitors. 707-965-2445. I am at GunBun on Sundays only -- and may cut back on some of those days in the next month or so as a six-day work-week is getting to me. The tasting room is open from 11:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and is open to the public seven days a week. BTW, I have pictures this week, but am waiting for ImageGullet to get repaired.

Boris -- while some would accuse me of being a wine elitist, I'd love to hear more about the wine you are drinking. I used to live by a 'German Village' in Southern California and cherished the fact that I could buy very interesting Georgian, Austrian, and Swiss wines. Oddly, they sold more of those than they did German although their German beer selection was pretty awesome! Looking forward to pics, too (I'm one who is anxiously awaiting the ImageGullet fix as well).

Squeat Mungry and I both bought scapes at the SF Ferry Market a few weeks ago. I wasn't terribly impressed but am now wondering if I should not have cooked them, but eaten them raw? I pan-sauteed them along with fresh porcini mushrooms and tossed along with English peas (blanched) and a light walnut oil/balsamic vinaigrette. The rest of the salad (served cold) was great, but the scapes didn't add much to the dish.

Jay -- sorry you've had such a time with the cannele. I'm in the Wolfert camp and love her recipe but here is the previous thread in which many of us read along and worked through cannele issues which you might find helpful.

and it's nice to be had. Here's hoping to be had more often, eh?

I think that hits the nail on the head... The additional thoughts include -- in bringing in this cake, are you also bringing in your own plates and forks? If not, are you going to go and wash the plates and forks for the restaurant? Who is cutting and serving it? There are always hidden costs in running a restaurant and by providing your own dessert and expecting to use their serviceware, you are costing the restaurant money that is not being made in the cost of the food. I think it is rude, unless arrangements had been made ahead-of-time. This why, in large catering gigs, there is a "cutting fee". It is a pretty standard charge that venues charge, knowing that a bride would want to bring in a pretty cake. A simple charge of $2.50 a person (give or take) is charged to cover the costs of the servers and dishwashers.

What IS this obsession with putting down White Zinfandel? OK so it's not a great wine but it is well made, i.e. it has no faults, for the undeducated palate it is approachable and served well chilled you can forgive the fact that it is a tad sweet for the more sophisticated palate. It doesn't present any kind of challenge and works well with most food, assuming you're not looking for a match made in heaven or something to complement your gourmet meal. I know it's bland, lacks body, length and complexity and I wouldn't normally drink it, but sometimes it just fits the bill. Not unlike coffee, we may normally prefer espresso or French Press but sometimes the very dullness of an instant coffee appeals. If you consider your taste too educated for White Zin that's OK, but as Craig says it's not a bad starter for those whose taste buds are still in kindergarten. I think the bulk of the dismay in WZ is exactly what you said: "bland, lacks body, length and complexity". But it is more than that. Craig argues that WZ is a starter wine for people -- however I would counter that many who drink WZ rarely go beyond it or its mediocre accomplises. DoverCanyon said She is lucky -- at GunBun, I get that reaction every other week or so. I believe the severest dectraction of WZ is that while there are some decent producers of the product, the bulk of the offering is Sutter Home & Beringer who, instead of relying on the grape's natural brix, ADD SIGNIFICANT SUGAR to make the wine deliberately sweeter. Instead of a potentially lovely rosé with a hint of sweetness, we are left with a wine that is akin to a Bartles & James wine cooler. I have tasted good WZ, made in the classic rosé style. It is nigh-on impossible for a winery to make a respectable WZ because of the deluge of Beringer & Sutter Home products. How can the good ones compete when the bad ones dominate the market? Therein lies MY obsession with putting down WZ.

I can see it now.... Thumb Envy!

An interesting marketing idea, put together by the folks at Alcoa, from this article in today's MSNBC: Thoughts anyone?

My rule of thumb is to never cook with something I wouldn't drink. Never, ever.

possibly. and there are plenty of examples of decent to good restaurants that have cookie-cutter wine lists. those are the ones i'm worried about, as they should know better. Unfortunately all to true. I have to admit when I see these I always wonder what short-cuts they must also be taking in the kitchen. Ah.... but don't forget the cookie cutter restaurants (P.F. Changs) with decent wine lists! There is some hope in the world!

I want to thank you for this. I am totally amazed and impressed. I wish I were a 3rd grader in Japan....

Them's the rules in my kitchen too! Amen. In my old house, when I was throwing a large party (cooking dinner for over eight or ten people), there was an unwritten rule that you took your life in your hands if you walked into my kitchen while I was cooking. It was a very wide-open set-up so all the guests had perfect access to look and see what was happening, but I wanted them to stay out for the simple reason that as soon as one of them wandered in, someone would follow. The next thing I'd know, the entire party had moved into my work space. With small dinner parties, it is no big deal -- as long as they just watch and don't try to help. Now and then, a guest will ask if there is anything they can do to help. If they can, I'll advise them with VERY explicit instructions.

Here is the complete run-down of the TOP 25 OF "TOP 100 WINE BRANDS" ON-PREMISE 2003. The scary part is that Sutter Home is #3 which means there are still people drinking White Zinfandel... Edited to add: Please note that the TOP WINE BRANDS are ALL large corporations. Not that it is a huge surprise, but simply an awareness note of the power behind these wines.

I love them both -- but I'm a wimp; I like my Indian food prepared mild. I could Japanese food every day, if given a chance...

I want to know what raw wine is....

Another favorite of mine is Frog's Leap. They have some accolades in that their label has won design awards and is now in the Smithsonian. On the back of their label, in itty-bitty letters, you will find: TFWYHF, which means "Time's fun when you're having flies" Very funny.