nibor

Go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez and type the word chocolate into the search box.

Often when we were served Züri Geschnetzeltes only half of the rösti would be plated, along with half of the veal. After devouring that, the second plateful would appear. I always swore I couldn't eat it all, but always did.

Thank you for the Züri Geschnetzeltes recipe. Why do you consider yours to be unorthodox?

Dear Chef, I moved back to California from Zurich two weeks ago and am longing for that yummy veal in cream sauce that goes so well with the rösti. Can you recommend a recipe?

Fat Guy, is this trip really hypothetical, or are you hitting the road?

We had a horrible dinner at Osteria Enoteca last fall. Pretentiously plated and expensive. But the food ranged from tasteless to tasting like cat food.

Going to Pearson’s Port was one of the first things on my to-do list after having just gotten back to Orange County after a year in Europe. I can’t believe I’ve lived within a couple of miles of this place for almost 20 years and didn’t know about it! I told the young man in charge that I had heard about Pearson’s Port on the internet. He pointed to the recent Russ Parsons LA Times article that was prominently displayed on the counter. I said, no, from a web site that people from all over the world use to talk about food. He was surprised, thought that was cool, and asked for the eGullet url. Pearson’s Port is so incredibly charming that it is worth a visit even if you hate fish. Just a shack out over the water, with a half dozen salt-water tubs of live critters and some dead ones on ice. To give an idea of how in-the-drink this place is, well, it is a good thing they laminated the Russ Parsons article. The breeze was streaming in off the Pacific, the sun was shining. Just being there made me want to blow off work, rent a kayak (which you can actually do, next door) and take off to do some fishing myself. Worth the soul-crunching drive from wherever...

I posted elsewhere last week about this, but we saw Americans taking photos in a restaurant in Zurich recently. They were also loud, as Americans (myself included) so often are. Anyway, they clicked and posed and flashed and basically distracted and irritated everyone around them. They didn't seem to notice, or perhaps they did notice but didn't care. And if they thought that no one minded they were wrong - their neighbors were just being polite.

I think it tastes like candy. My husband thinks it tastes like popcorn. Neither of us can stop eating it.

I once had a checker (in Princeton, New Jersey...) ask me to identify a vegetable for him. It was a cucumber.

I consider my own chicken stock to be high quality. I freeze it. It isn't that much fun to make, though. More of a chore. So what is the difference? If someone else would do the work for me, and get their high quality product into the freezer section of my local grocery, I would probably buy it.

Terrasanct, what makes your little bars hold together? The fact that you have to put them in the fridge makes me wonder what happens to their consistency after a couple of hours at room temp. Do they taste good? My husband practically lives on Atkins chocolate peanut butter bars, which cost a fortune. I think they taste awful but he loves them, as if they were candy bars. If I could make something for myself that I actually liked, I would do it.

Terrasanct, I ate low carb for many years. I felt great, lost the extra baggage that had been accumlating with age, etc. I didn't feel it was hard to do. But then a bunch of crazy life-events started up that included a lot of travel and stress, and I just started eating whatever came my way. I fell off the wagon. Now I want to start up again and am trying to think what is stopping me. You say it is hard. It must be hard or we would both do it all the time. But what is so hard about it? Buying the right food, or giving up the forbidden ones?

I posted on another thread recently that I have lived in Europe for two years and had never seen anyone photograph their food in a restaurant. Well, I have now - the other evening in Zurich. People on both sides of us were posing and clicking and flashing away. It was distracting and thus irritating. One group was also quite loud - my fellow Americans, of course. At one point they actually yelled across to us to ask what we were eating. They seemed totally oblivious to the fact that they were annoying everyone around them. But Americans are almost always readily apparent here - and I am speaking for myself too, I’m afraid. Talking and gesturing in what would be a normal way in the US here often comes across as demanding and aggressive behavior; it attracts attention (distracts) and thus invades the personal space of those nearby. I have been practicing toning down my own behavior, and I like it. It is pleasant. Anyway, when we got home we looked in Frommer’s, and sure enough, the place was listed. I consider this a new use for travel guides.

Our most recent 3-star dinner was in the French countryside, rather in Alsace. L’Auberge de L'Ill in Illhaeusern. Dress was formal. My husband was glad I made him wear a tie. I could have dressed a bit better myself. The cheese course arrived on a wheeled two-level trolley. It held at least 40 cheeses. There were only about 40 people dining that evening. The cheeses ranged from untouched to demolished by the time we got to them, and we were among the first to finish. So I would find it hard to believe that all those cheeses were new at the start of the evening. And why should they be?

When we moved to Germany last year the first thing we did was run out and buy pork chops. I threw them in hot butter in the frying pan, and out came nicely browned, incredibly tasty, food of the gods. Not a drop of water. When I move back to the US next week finding real meat is one of the first things on my to-do list. After buying kitty litter.

Mikeb19, in talking about returning to older methods/styles of cooking you mentioned that you were interested in what was going on in Germany. What might that be?

Independent butcher shops? Whereabouts in S. California are you talking about andiesnji? ← I live in Lancaster. .....(followed by much useful info) ← Thanks!

I would also like to know how much oil you are using. When I learned on a recent thread that this was the eGullet most-loved-recipe-of-all-time, I tried it. It took forever to bake and came out dry. More oil. Right. Of course. I need to get rid of a ton of duck fat before I move next week. Mmmmmm

It is totally ok to ask for help. But you might want to provide a little direction, such as asking for regional cheeses that they are especially proud of, perhaps in a range of sharpness. Also, I hate to say this, but showing absolutely no preference might tempt someone to unload cheese on you that hasn't been moving.

Independent butcher shops? Whereabouts in S. California are you talking about andiesnji?

Do you have to buy a brick of cheese? At my local deli counter I often see extremely old women (who I assume live alone) buying very small amounts of cheese. Like 3 slices.

I have never tried this, but you might ask your hotel to pack a lunch (a sandwich to your specifications, some fruit, yogurt or whatever) for you to pick up at breakfast. If the timing works out, that is. When I stay at hotels for conventions we sometimes have outings, and hotels always pack box lunches for the group. On these long trips it also helps to sleep if you can. You may be anti-drug, but if not, well, people take various things, all the way from Ambien to Valium to Benadryl. I sleep easily on planes but sometimes take as little as half or a quarter of a Dramamine. It helps to keep me from waking up when things get noisy. And since you said you are queasy, it might serve two purposes for you.

I take a lot of similarly long trips, and yeah, starting from a hotel is a problem. I usually try to avoid the airplane food not just because it is icky but also because it is almost 100% carbs. Spending an entire day eating sugar while simultaneously being strapped down in a hard uncomfortable seat makes me crazy. I take cheese, Atkins bars, nuts. Apples can help choke the cheese down - after about 12 hours it starts to get gummy, and I am also getting pretty sick of it. However, I have also found that due to my aversion to bad food I don’t eat enough during these trips. Which can also make you feel pretty horrible. On one recent flight I took the above snacks and also ate most of what I was served just to see. I think it helped. Lastly, I highly recommend taking some good chocolate. I dole it out to myself every couple of hours for good behavior.

I cut out recipes and tape them onto pages in a 3-ring binder. Every couple of years, in the middle of a cleaning fit, I throw out all of the pages containing recipes I have subsequently never bothered to try. Which is usually most of them. This is sort of like cleaning your clothes closet using the "if you haven't worn it in the last year get rid of it" rule.