Jinmyo

Korean cuisine is a rich and diverse gathering of native tastes (a fondness for chiles and pickles) with ancient Chinese and more recent Japanese influences. Think delicate Japanese cuisine, drunk on sozu, and loud-mouthed with chiles and garlic. There are many threads on eGullet on Korean food. Do a search for kimchee and for bibimbap. The Japan board has a bit of stuff also. Here's the bibimbap thread to start you off.

Mexican and Latin cuisines are marvelous. Unfortunately, living in the frozen wastes of Canada, much of it is irrelevant (oops) to me as the ingredients and "terroire" are not really available. There has been a tremendous growth in the availability of chiles and peppers in Canada over the last decade or so. Poblanos, cubanelles, and habaneros are as common as jalapeno now. There is a local shop called Chilly Chiles which trades in dried chiles such as chilhuacle negro and hot sauces and such. So I wind up using ancho powder and freshly made chile pastes quite extensively in grilling. I'll sometimes used smoked Latin style chiles even in Southeast Asian or Indian style dishes. But tinned cactus is kind of pointless. Oh well. (Great thread, Jaymes.)

Disclaimer: Professional kitchen, staff of three. Still, please try this at home. Huge sea scallops, drained, dried. Seared in butter. Spinach, wilted with butter in the scallop pans. Pour in reserved scallop liquid. Add lardons of double-smoked bacon. Scallops served atop spinach. Roasties. (Yukon Gold potatoes parboiled, drained, dried, then roughly cut into chunks, salt and pepper, EVOO, grated parmegiano, roasted for one hour at 425 F.) Horseradish aoili for the roasties. Ancho marinated huge cremini mushrooms roasted.

Shock to remove the skins, marinate in hot vinegar and herbs. Then caramelize in butter or duck fat.

Arugala with seared radicchio and pearl onions?

nightscotsman, condolences and congratulations.

Emma, that sounds like a very good arrangement.

I work where I live and live where I work so I have no office to go to. But I had a thought about people eating at their desks. It seems to me that it could be quite dire with the meal brought in under the low ceiling of the work day and its various associations; or it could wonderfully reframe one's orientation about the workspace. In the former case one dutifully consumes rations; in the latter the desk becomes a banquet table or playground. Is this relevant to your experience?

So sorry, tommy. My mother made the world's most monochramatic dish: Dover sole with bechamel, mashers, creamed cauliflower. Yours sounds wonderful. Roasting stuff is great.

I've had romanesco broccoli. It is a weird splice between broccoli and cauliflower. It was at all the shops and supermarkets a few years ago in Ottawa but I haven't seen it since. Disclaimer: Professional kitchen, staff of three. Still, please try this at home. "Pueblo Polenta". (I just call it this to distinguish it from the other styles of polenta I do.) Very soft polenta made from white and yellow corn meal with roasted whole and mashed corn kernels, sauteed poblano and jalapeno chiles, diced white onion, and red and green bell peppers seasoned with toasted cumin and mustard seeds, garnished with fresh coriander (cilantro). Served with a swirl of chipotle paste round. Roasted radicchio and zucchini batonettes with balsamico. Roast bone-in pork loin roast, served cut into chops. An ancho powder spice rub for the crust, served with a swab of ancho paste. Fresh corn tortillas filled with chevre and toasted pumpkin seeds, deep-fried, sliced on bias, lime dipping sauce.

I'm relieved that the Oeuf en Cocotte issue was resolved. It sounded like such a nice dish.

Because it's brown rice?

STELLAAAAAAAAA!

coolranch, as I don't do recipes, no. But I've read of it and it makes sense to me. I'm with you on savoury French Toast as well.

Me too.

Simon is of course correct. Suvir's your man. Indian cuisine can be tremendously elegant even at its simplest and most inexpensive.

Marlene, I would only eat cantaloupe with salt. And fresh black pepper. And creme fraiche. Or with roe.

nervousnelli, how about bibimbap?

And it takes thirty seconds to eat an anchovy. Bet you can't eat just one.

Disclaimer: Professional kitchen, staff of three. Still, please try this at home. Cavatapi pasta with a wild mushroom cream sauce (morels, lobster, gypsy, porcini, huagu, honey, matsutake all reconstituted, a few fresh cremini). Soup of romano beans with sofritto and parmegiano. Slices of rare lamb's kidneys with a few drops of aceto balsamico tradionizale. Savoy, red, and green cabbage slaw with celery seeds and a lemon vinaigrette. Pecorino cheese frito with walnuts.

Great photographs, Cathy. Thank you.

awbrig, don't worry. Trotter makes sure the mice wear rubber gloves.

Yup.

Yup.

The lactic acid in milk cleans out the salt much more thoroughly than just water. Same reason one soaks kidneys etc in milk. edit: Don't question Saint Mario. He knows.