lemniscate

On a previous ramen thread, someone turned me on to Myoko (sp?) brand ramen. I found the Tom Yum version and duck version. The Tom Yum is great, there are 3 little packets, one with dried spices and shrimp(!) and fishcake(!), one soup base, and one spicy oil. The noodles are the mung bean glass noodles. I honestly couldn't figure out what to add above the included goodies. Man, that was good good good! I prefer the glass noodles over the yellow noodles now, they are so delicate. I think its a Thai brand. I haven't tried the duck version yet.

Powdered sugar (use the spice mill with white sugar) Brown sugar (use molasses with white sugar)

This is a huge hydroponic operation near Willcox, Arizona. I've been waiting for them to start giving tours, I think it would be fascinating to see the growing process. My local Costco occasionally carries the Roma tomatoes too. They are fantastic.

I'm curious. Is the gaminess truely inherent to the meat of wild-living animals, or is it a by-product of the extra hanging/aging used to make the meat tender? ← I've never had venison that tasted game-y, I prefer to call it venison-y. The farmed venison I had in New Zealand was a flavor unto itself also, definately not like beef or elk. Our native deer here travel alot for a meal. There is no fat, it's all muscle and they eat desert and scrub plants. Back in Michigan, the deer on my Dad's farm were corn and soybean fed. Bet they tasted a bit different from the Arizona deer. I think it mostly diet that flavors the meat, age certainly makes a difference. Ours was a young male and he was dressed out quickly and correctly. I still have the loin to cook, that cut will surely determine the true flavor of the meat. I will be soaking it in buttermilk first. As far as gaminess, wild rabbit takes the prize for me. Such a strong flavor, nothing like farmed domestic rabbit.

I made a Vietnamese sausage from my husband's deer (blended with ground pork to add fat and a softer texture). The deer in Arizona are small, 75 lbs, and eat a dry diet mostly. The sausage came out very well and the most popular use I've found for it is potstickers. I just use premade wonton skins. I cook them as traditional potstickers, and lately have been adding them to a wonton soup. The shrimp paste, galangal, lime leaves, ginger, cilantro, etc .... really seemed to cover any gaminess that might have been in the meat. I cannot discern any off flavors.

I've been so happy lately because my local Costco is selling a Belgian sampler case with a six each of Leffe Blond, Hoegaarden, and Stella Artois. $18.99. Recently, a BevMo opened nearby, first one in Az, and they carry the Boont, Pranqster, and the Unibroues we enjoy too. They also have a great daily price on Alaskan Amber, our mainstay brew. Yay for Beer!

Bridgestone quoted: "P.S. - it's a southern-Swedish holiday tomorrow (not a bank holiday but a traditional one...). It's called Mårtensafton and goose is traditionally served. So, be on the look-out for restaurants with set menus, probably containing: 1) svartsoppa (or, black soup), made with goose blood, stock and the good ol' Swedish gingerbread spices, 2) roast duck, 3) some sort of apple pie/cake dessert." Wow! My Polish grandmother made a soup out of duck's blood called czarnina, which I loved as a kid. We called it "Chocolate soup" due to the color. I know there was allspice and clove flavors, along with vinegar. She did not make it with dried fruit as others do. Man, I miss that soup. I'd love to try svartsoppa. Is it only served on the Holiday?

Calbee Snapea crisps. Yum!

It's the same size as a regular Costco, but has furniture, beds, cabinetry, rugs, lighting, countertops, flooring, home theater, art, outdoor furnishings,.................decorating accessories, seasonal decorations, collectibles (Lladro, limoges, ceramics...). It's quite the overload when you go in the first time. And all of the furniture is staged, so there is not so much a warehouse feel. It carries anything from $5 pillows to $25,000 chandeliers.

I saw a set of four veggie mini casseroles at the Tempe Costco Home for $99 a couple weeks ago.

I use the vacuum containers to seal chopped romaine in the fridge. I am sure I get at least 2-3 more days of non-browned romaine using it. The containers came with the Tilia package I bought at Costco. I've also used one container for brown sugar storage and it stays soft and moist in between uses. That's in the pantry. Just my testimonial, but I believe vac sealing for the fridge works too.

it tasted mushroomy.

I had a huitlacoche soup in Mexicali last year that was fantastic, memorable. I had no idea it was corn smut until I researched it later. I grew up on a farm with both sweet and field corn and we had no use for corn smut (nor could I have imagined eating it). I remember it was anywhere from black to light grey colored. We did make corn silk tea, and were considered a bit "hippy" by the neighbors.

I have a Fagor Classic (marine) PC, which is marketed toward the boating crowd. I can pressure fry chicken in it (yes, it is designed for pressure frying, which I think is broasting), dry roast (which I have not tried) and distill water. Truly a desert island model I guess. I find it dead easy to use for soups, stews, sauces, potatoes etc..... The time savings is significant. I was scared of PC's also, but now I respect them, don't fear them. The drawback on this Fagor is the price, it's expensive.

Some pics of the food from the 2006 Alaskan State Fair. We went heavy on the seafood. No disappointments. Halibut Cheeks Husband got into the bacon wrapped scallops before I could take the picture My first ever Cheese Curds, had never heard of them before this eGullet thread. The other item is a porkchop on a stick which Husband loved. And, in the tradition of the Alaskan Giant Vegetable Contest.....BIG Kohlrabi! They were just setting up the display, so there weren't that many giants on display yet.

The "local vs. agribiz" differs in only the amount of population affected by the product. We were a smallish truck farm. We irrigated directly from a surface river, downstream from several dairy farms where the cows watered and walked directly in that river (and a couple smalls towns treated effluent water went into the river also). This was not an uncommon setup in southern Michigan. So the chances of introducing e. coli onto the produce was about equal as the "agribiz". If e.coli had been introduced, only a local population would have been affected. There are no controls on small producers that I am aware of either.

It looks like the internal vs. surface contamination of the spinach is up for debate. http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?...id=022000GR4RS2 bullet point: It's unlikely whether FDA will ever know if the E. coli bacteria was on the surface of the tainted spinach or inside the greens themselves, because it was ground up for testing, Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told reporters Monday. Hopefully they will amend their testing process so they can find out if the e.coli is cellular to the spinach or just lying on the surface.

You're correct in that a simple rinsing off of the recently recalled E. coli contaminated spinach wouldn't have worked. In this specific case, the water used to irrigate the spinach was contaminated. No amount of rinsing would have sanitized it. Regarding the sanitizer you linked to, note that it wouldn't have been able to remove the E. coli either. The description states that it removes anything from the surface of the veggies. So you would have still been up the proverbial creek without a paddle if you owned this gadget. As to whether you should buy the gadget, ask yourself if it would bring you peace of mind regarding the cleanliness of your fruits and veggies. Would you be better off with it, or without it? Only you can answer that question. ← That's a great point about surface contamination. So, was the e.coli internal to the leaves? I can't recall that ever being covered in the news reports. Was the spinach "juice" the carrier of the e.coli? I've always rewashed my bagged greens because I've been surprised by grit in my teeth while eating supposedly triple washed product. I take the extra step of rinsing because I just don't trust that it's all gone.

Ok, I am not a food worrywort. I grew up on a farm and ate vegetables/fruits right off the vine without washing them first. I keep a relatively clean kitchen, not spotless. I believe in being exposed to bacteria sometimes can boost the immune system. BUT, that being said....I buy bagged greens and have always rewashed them in a colander before consuming. In light of recent recalls, I don't think simple rinsing alone helps wash away e. coli. Now I am concerned with what's in that bag of romaine/leaf lettuce/spinach. So I got this email from Sharper Image promoting this product: http://sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__TS600 I have to honestly say I'm considering it, but I do have questions on how they know how 'santized" the food gets. I didn't see the usual microscopic before and after photos of creepy crawlies. So I have reservations about it of course. This could be the new "magnet therapy" scam of the early 2000's. Anyway, what do you think? And how has your technique of washing fruits/veggies changed in the last few weeks?

a juicy roast turkey thigh.......... Hida beef cubes on a stick from the Takayama Farmer's Market....gawd if I only had a teleporter....

I'm hoping someone may know a clone recipe for Girard's Champagne Dressing. It is my favorite dressing and I'd like to be able to make it at home for two reasons: the bottle is about 4 bucks retail (which I think it a bit pricey for the amount I use regularly) , and my local supermarket is almost always out of the Champagne due to its popularity. I've suggested they stock more, but deaf ears apparently. I've tried googling recipes for champagne vinegar vinaigrettes and nothing seems to come close to the original.

I've been making kefir for about a year now with the grains. It is very easy. My husband was lactose-intolerant until he started drinking a little kefir on a weekly basis. Now it seems he can eat any dairy without any of the discomfort he used to have. I know it's just testimonial information, but kefir has more of the active cultures than yogurt does, so maybe it can help with the lactose digestion. I tried to make a cottage cheese out of some really sour kefir I had, but it didn't coagulate. I think I needed to try something other than skim milk. The dogs enjoyed the failure immensely though. Haven't tried making kefir cheese yet.

btw, in case you were thinking I was some old person who lived thru the depression and blah, blah, blah. I'm 42, so these experiences were in the 70's and early 80's.

I grew up on a mid-sized farm about 30 miles north of Detroit. For a large part of the time, we were a "truck" farm. That means we grew fields of different vegetables for wholesale and retail local markets. The wholesale was done EARLY (2am-7am) weekday mornings at Eastern Market where we sold large orders of bushels of green beans, sweet corn, pickles, etc... to the local supermarket and larger fruit and produce stands. There was always haggling at this level because as a farmer you had to figure out what the other farmers were offering their green beans for and price yours accordingly. The supermarket buyers of course wanted the best deal. I liked this market the best. On Saturdays, we were at Chene and Ferry Market with a stall. Here we sold by the pound or by the dozen. There was always haggling here too. The dumb hagglers would show up early, some would make comments about the "low" quality, "how could you ask that price for such junk". Our vegetables were pretty darn good. Not all, but those are the idiots I remember the most. We gave special pricing on volume. The smart hagglers showed up late, just before the market closed and generally got great deals. What was left we didn't want to take home, maybe the premium veggies were gone but the stuff left was still pretty good. If we took the stuff home, we generally would feed it to the cow herd. I hated the early hagglers, I didn't mind the late hagglers. Some of those early hagglers were downright mean. This time frame was when I was a baby to about when I was 13 when we quit doing the truck farming and went into soybean farming. These people would haggle with a child. Alot of the clientele was D.P. (Displaced Persons from WWII that had settled in the Hamtramck area), I think the "tradition" of haggling came over from those Eastern European cultures. You'd think I'd be a haggler, but I'm not. Haggling takes up time. I just want to buy what looks good and move on. Back when I was on the farm, there was no such thing as "artisanal" and "organic". It was a way to make a living, a tough way to make a living.

Grimbergen Blonde Ale, a Belgian. Citrus top note, medium bodied, light finish. A nice, nice summer beer. Only 1 left from the 6 pack :-(.