Dorine

If that's their plan, I'd like to see them add materials for serious baking, especially an assortment of high quality flours (such as King Arthur's), including various specialty flours, whole wheat bread, all-purpose and pastry flour, whole grain rye flour, semolina, etc. Natural Connection has been falling down on the job of stocking flour, and for months they have only had one kind of whole wheat flour--a kind far too low in gluten to bake the kind of bread I prefer! They still do a good job of keeping bulk yeast on hand. Maybe Iovine's could carry baking soda and baking powder.

I find their breakfasts to be traditionally good, the bacon and egg type meals. They always fry my eggs right, sunny sude up and very runny, which not everybody gets right. It's the other meals that aren't so good. I'd rather eat lunch at Pearl's Oyster Bar. The raw clams and oysters are always briny bliss and the lobster bisque is velvety and good. Now if the service were just a bit better! A niece who visits a few times a year alway wants to be taken to Pearl's for the raw bivalves, too.

He is crazy and inappropriately interfering in free enterprise, as I pointed out after clicking on our link and seeing the new discussion. Whom can we flood with protesting emails, and at what address? Thanks!

While my personal choice is to make Sunday a day for church and family, so I do not expect to shop at the RTM on Sundays, I totally support the opportunity for those who want to sell and buy on Sundays to have the RTM available to them and equally support the merchants who want to stay closed on Sundays. It should be a matter of completely free choice. I also hope that the larger merchants, such as Iovine's, who open Sundays and who have employees outside their families will respect the ones who wish to keep Sunday a day for church and will not penalize them for choosing not to work on Sundays. It would be equally good to see them give weekly free time to any who keep their day of prayer on Friday or Saturday. I'd like to know that moron Street's reasons for his opposition!!! McD's inedible junk and booze, so why not fresh meat, fish and produce??? I agree with those who think the RTM should stay open later in the evening and I wish the Amish would stay all the way to 6 PM. I recently asked one of them why they closed early and even earlier on Wednesdays and was told "That's how it's always been". I wish they'd open longer. But I also suppose keeping the shorter hours has something to do with their family values, with actually being home with their families for dinner, etc. I also understand that their culture is wedded to tradition and they don't like changing things. One can also understand that staying open after 6 PM may be a hardship for the small family stall owners who personally put in all the hours the market is open. Rosa (she and her husband Leo own Golden Seafood) was recently telling me how hard and exhausting it is to be open on Sundays, but that they appreciate the extra income. It is especially hard for her; she is the mother of a boy of 2 and is away from him an awful lot of hours. Street has no business interfering with the free enterprise of all the stall owners, whichever choice they make about Sunday opening.

I first ate there when it was brand new, 3-4? years ago. DH and i were wandering Chinatown as we sed to love to do and came upon it. What a delight! Watching the show of the hand-drawn noodles being made is as much fun as eating them! The food is delicious and unbelievable cheap! the portion is immense, too.

I've recently read about a new (maybe 4 years?) cheese from a monastery in Tibet made from yak's milk. Apparently it failed the first year but got help from Slow Food and as been coming to the US in small amounts (1500kg/year). It was created by a monk for a good cause; he had started a school to educated Tibetan nomads' children in Tibetan language, culture, literature, rhetorical styles, etc. (rather than the Chinese system imposed by China), and didn't want to charge fees to the very poor nomadic families. He decided to try making cheese from the yaks that are essential to their culture, and selling it to support the school. The nomads always use the yaks' fresh milk, butter and yogurt but these do not keep well enough to sell in the west (Chinese do not traditionally consume dairy so China itself is not a market) so he looked into aged cheese. Long story--he had a year 1 failure but with help from Slow Food volunteers, he has produced something nice in small but increasing quantities and ships to the US, which--surprise--has better laws than Europe for importing Tibetan products. The price here is comparable to that of parmigiano reggiano. I have never seen or heard of it befroe, and I always keep my eyes open for new cheeses to try at the cheese shops around here. Have any of you heard of it or tried it?

I learned how to make fabada asturiana in Spain some 35 years ago and have been making it from memory ever since. Looked at the link to JA's recipe and noticed a couple of things to coment on. 1. He doesn't use morcilla (blood sausage). Neither do I, for two reasons. First, I don't like it; don't like eating blood anything. Second, it is unavailable where I live, and if not here, unlikely available anywhere in the US except perhaps tienda.com or in NYC. 2. He adds onion, not in the recipe I was taught. 3. He uses different forms of pork than I do (see below). I went to cocinavino.com to check recipes there (this site is based in Spain and in Spanish only; also uses only metric measures). Like JA's, all the recipes offered there are made with white beans (fabes in Asturiano, or habas blancas in Spanish). JA's entire head of garlic is in line with the entire heads called for in recipes there. The pimentón, saffron and chorizo afree with those recipes. Spanish recipes also call for punta de jamón (tip from jamón serrano) and and lacón (a boiling type ham similar to ours from Galicia and Asturias), both of which I always use when making fabada here. The bacon is not in the recipes there; the ham hock is in a minority of them. The pimentón and saffron JA calls for are part of what I learned and the cocinvino.com recipes. Hope this helps.

I like Cantimpalos best, and wish it were available here. I miss it!

Agreed. ← Totally agreed! I've been happily ordering from tienda.com for nearly a decade when I first heard about it through a Spanish teachers' e-group. Everything has arrived well and in perfect condition! It's the only place I know in the US to get horchata de chufas!

No need to apologize! Lots of us share your outrage!

FWIW, I stopped in DiBruno's on Chestnut on Thursday. The "10-year aged gouda" they sell is from Noord Hollander. AFAICT, this cheese is imported to the US by Cheese Land, Inc., of Seattle--the Cheese Land web site address is printed on the Noord Hollander label--but there is no evidence of this cheese's existence on that web site. ← The plot thickens!

Do you have a website so I can find and visit your restaurants when I'm in the DC area?

José, you seem to be looking north and east for the wine that excites you. During the years I lived in Spain, I grew to love wines from the south and center. I love golden white Misa from Sevilla! And had a delicious local white in Ronda, Málaga drunk right at the vineyard. Gredos is lovely. You mention Garnache de Madrid, lovely! The wonderful Valdepeñas wines seem scarecely known outside Spain. I wish I could find them here. And the treasures of Málaga! What a delight they are! BArely known here and certainly never available in the wine shops, at last not here in PA. But then, we suffer under the yoke of the PA LCB monopoly. >:-( Grrr! And the PLCB seems only interested in Rioja. Are Spanish wines any more readily available in other states?

You and I know the kinds of vendors in our own cities that sell this kind of product and would be open to selling Spanish items. Philadelphia has at least a dozen outlets where Spanish products would sell well. There are places where those of us who know the products can publish recipes and reviews to encourage people to buy them. Some of also are aware of places in cities across the country where such products would be appreciated. Maybe Spain needs somebody to commit to a year of visiting these places and raising awareness! I'm open to the job if anybody is interested!