djyee100

Berkeley Bowl sells sea salt in its bulk dept/ baking dept. Ask at Customer Service if you don't see it. IIRC, it's pure sea salt. If you want canning salt specifically, also ask for it if you don't see it. That store has so much stuff tucked away in the weirdest places. good luck.

Thanks for this forum, Steven. It's been a source of great information and online good times. My condolences to Steven's family and friends.

Can you say why? I'm in Boston only once or twice a year, for family visits, and that's when I eat at Legal Sea Foods. When I've been there, the food's been fine. I go to the Legal Sea Foods in Cambridge.

When in town I go to Legal Sea Foods, a local chain (but nice), family-friendly, with good seafood. I'd recommend Regina pizza in the North End too. Regina has long lines, and the parking in the North End can be tough--just to warn you. If you're in the area of Faneuil Hall, the marketplace is one big food court--you could check it out. Sorry I can't tell you more about Faneuil Hall, but I haven't been there in ages. For fine cheeses and other specialty foods, there's Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge. I haven't been to Formaggio in a long time, but I remember it as superlative. Next to the Boston Common is the Boston Public Garden, with the famous swan boats. My brother and I loved the swan boats when we were kids. Other sights in Boston, maybe for another visit: the USS Constitution at the Charlestown Naval Yard, and the Boston Museum of Science. The Museum of Science is very kid-friendly.

In the links I posted above, there are reviews from customers in the U.S.--recent reviews--that raise serious questions about this company's business practices. These concerns are not limited to the UK or Australia. When I read the bios for the U.S. winemakers on the website, I thought many descriptions were thin on specifics such as where these people have been working, for how long, and in what job. Being in the trade doesn't mean they were doing winemaking in any significant way. They could have been assistant winemakers (good) or they could have been doing sales, hosting events at the winery, or hauling barrels out of the cellar (not so good). And yet these people are asking you to "invest" in them through your purchases. Hmmmm. I can't tell you much about capitalizing a new winery, except to state the obvious: Californian winemakers are not an oppressed group, and California is not a third-world country. I would assume there are conventional sources of funding available, even some angels closer to home who have hit it big in Silicon Valley and are looking for good, profitable places to put their new money. Nevertheless, I'm sure that under the best of circumstances capitalizing a new business is no fun ride. If this model of crowdfunding works for the nakedwines winemakers, more power to them.

Here's one recipe in English. I've seen them named as cake salé and cake aux olives. Real good, though maybe a little heavy-duty for morning pastry. http://lapetitepoele.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/ham-and-olive-cake-recipe/ Anna, since you like to bake bread, have you considered sweet breads and rolls? You can make ahead, freeze, then defrost before service. If your son-in-law has access to an office microwave, he could warm the breads or rolls before service. I'm thinking of something like this, cinnamon knots that are popular at a local bakery: http://www.supereggplant.com/?p=415

Try googling "beef on weck california". Perhaps one of those restaurants can ship rolls to you, or suggest a supplier. Any Eastern European delis/bakeries in Palm Springs? Perhaps they may have suggestions.

So far we've been talking about popular Western foods. If your son is interested in Native American foods, the Arkansas Archaeological Survey has put out a paper on that topic, with modernized recipes at the end. (I realize this may be more than your son wanted to get into, though it does go "past the expected.") http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/Native%20American%20Food.pdf

Idaho potatoes are most well-known for those big russet potatoes, that are ideal for baking or mashing.

I thought about emailing Bill Clinton about Arkansas food, but he would probably say "doughnuts." Also, I might not get a reply until next year, and your son's project is due sooner than that. Has your son seen this website? http://www.arkansas.com/dining/restaurants/southern-cuisine/

Some additional thoughts. Perhaps we should clarify that boiled stock is typical for the SE Asian soup that the OP wants to make. In Western-style cooking (based on classic French methods), the stock is simmered on low heat, even for beef and pork bones.

My post was referring only to chicken stock, which is the subject of this thread. I hope this clarifies matters.

I've made chicken stock entirely from wings, at a time when I was buying and cutting up whole chickens, and saving wings in the freezer until there was enough for stock. The wings made a flavorful, gelatinous stock--very good. Usually I buy chicken backs from my Whole Foods, which are quite meaty, and I throw in a chicken leg for additional flavor. I was once told by a cooking teacher not to use all bones for a premium stock, the stock needs some meat in it for the best flavor. Method is as important as ingredients when making stock, BTW. When you say "boil," I hope you mean a low simmer, like slow bubbles in a fish tank. Real boiling will release those cloudy proteins into the stock, and your stock will neither look nor taste good. I would also caution you about time--more is not necessarily better. I once cooked a batch of stock to death, thinking somehow that would max out the flavor. All it did was soften and dissolve the bones to the point where they leached into the stock--not a good result. These days I start checking my stock after it's been cooking about 4 hours. I look for a bright sunny yellow color, I taste for a full flavor, and then the stock comes off the stove. I strain the stock off the bones ASAP. Then I let the stock cool, and refrigerate it overnight so that the fat hardens into a cap I can easily remove. The stock is then ready for storage in ziploc bags in the freezer, or for cooking immediately. That's my method, anyway. I 'm sure others make stock by their own successful methods. If you ask 10 people for the best way to make stock, you'll get 11 answers.

As for the Hawaiian plate lunch, I have a hard time with macaroni salad and rice side by side. It would have to be one or the other. Everything else on the plate, I would chow down. Perhaps more than you would ever want to know about the plate lunch, here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/dining/12plate.html?_r=0 All this talk about the Hawaiian plate lunch reminded me of another regional delicacy, the "garbage plate" from Rochester, NY. A foodie friend was passing through, tried the garbage plate, and raved about it when he got home. Maybe all that traveling he was doing made him extra hungry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Tahou_Hots

Not just plain ol' spam, either. Spam sushi.

We've had rain in Northern California since I last posted here, TG, what a relief, so I'm back to more challenging cheeses. I was at the Cheese Board in Berkeley today--I was supposed to buy bread--and while I was there the worker at the cheese counter was putting out some beautiful little goat cheeses. Of course I had to taste it, and after I did that, I bought one. The cheese is called Bonne Bouche, from Vermont Creamery, and I had never tried it before. It's a mild cheese, very much in the French style, and not goat-y tasting (something that puts me off). I'm not much of a goat cheese fan, because of the animal-y taste they sometimes have, but I like this one. More about Bonne Bouche here: http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/library-of-cheese/bonne-bouche A few weeks ago I also tried Bent River camembert from the Alemar cheese company in Minnesota. I was so pleased to find an artisanal cheese from Minnesota sold here. I had mixed feelings about this camembert, though. It's assertive and grassy, compared to more typical buttery, mushroomy camemberts, but it's definitely a good cheese. I have to be in the mood for this kind of camembert, and sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. Earlier this week I attended a class at the Cheese School of SF about matching red wines with cheeses, not an easy thing to do. Three cheeses stood out for me: - La Tur, Alta Langa, from the Piedmont region in Italy, that was paired with a nebbiolo. This mixed-milk cheese is rich, soft, and creamy and doesn't try to fight red wine. The nebbiolo match was OK. The next time I buy this cheese, I'll try matching it with some other red wines, including that mainstay, a juicy cotes de rhone. - Fenacho from Tumalo Farms in Oregon, a gouda-style goat cheese with fenugreek seeds in it. It has a nice caramel-y note, and it was paired with a zinfandel (2012 Hobo Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel from Sonoma, California). - Testun al Barolo, another mixed-milk cheese from the Piedmont in Italy. It's a semi-hard cheese with nebbiolo grape must pressed into it. Very showy and mysterious on the plate. It's traditionally paired with barolo, or another nebbiolo-based wine. Our teacher chose the zinfandel because she thought it would make a good match, something different, and I was very pleased with it. Pix here of this cheese: https://www.google.com/search?q=testun+al+barolo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=HlA2U6mYFe6uyAG-g4G4CA&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=909 I was especially impressed with the fenacho and the testun al barolo cheeses, because I'm not that much a fan of zinfandel, and these two cheeses definitely enhanced the wine.

Good point. I've seen experienced bakers use knives (regular and serrated), lames, razors, all with success. I've tried all of 'em, though more often than not I use a plain single-edge razor for the simple breadbaking that I do. Dcarch, slitting can be violent, as regarding the throat, for example. When Zorro slashed people with his sword to make his "Z", did he even break skin, or just slash clothes? That's not violent, though embarrassing. Not to argue with you, just my thoughts on usage and the lexicon. Such as it is.

I had never heard of funeral potatoes (what a name!) so I looked it up online and found this recipe: http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/2011/02/recipe-mormon-funeral-potatoes/ Wouldn't you know, I've tasted funeral potatoes, or its close cousin, at a potluck I attended years ago--in Ca, not Utah. I saw people milling around one dish on the table, so of course I had to try it. It was a rich, cheesy potato au gratin with chicken stock in it, and people were gobbling it up. I thought it was darn good too.

I basically do Mjx's method, and I don't have a problem with air pockets. OTOH, I've never done this with very stiff doughs, only fairly soft doughs like choc chip cookies or pecan sandies. I spread a glop of cookie dough in a thick, rough line on a big piece of parchment paper; fold, roll, and squeeze the parchment paper over it to form a tube of dough of the right diameter. Then the whole business goes into the fridge or freezer. When I slice the cookies, I don't unroll the dough, I slice through the paper. Then I throw away those little squiggles of cut paper.

This book was written by the daughter of Norwegian homesteaders in North Dakota, with descriptions and recipes of foods from her childhood. A lovely family story, also. http://www.amazon.com/Prairie-Cooks-Glorified-Three-Day-Original/dp/0877457174 Alaska--some kind of smoked fish. Or maybe something sourdough, if you want to bring in history and the Alaskan Gold Rush. Plenty of good tales about the "sourdoughs." See History of Sourdough, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough I grew up in Boston, Ma, home of the baked bean and the cod. Baked beans..meh. Too sweet. Cod was OK. I remember scrod, the amorphous tail end of some kind of white fish. Interesting story there about scrod. You can't catch that fish, but you can serve it on a plate. My fave, though--Cape Cod clambakes. Dunno about the quintessential Californian food. Have you decided? In & Out Burger?

I notice that this business sells wines from all over the world. Are you only interested in their low-cost California wines? I don't know anything about this company, have never done any business with them. I did a google search for "about nakedwines.com" and checked out the first links in the list. Some reviews of this company are disturbing re: their business practices. (1) http://www.trustpilot.com/review/nakedwines.com (2) http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/905569 (3) http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/01/naked-wines-ad-banned/ (4) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/8750035/Is-Naked-Wines-a-genuine-innovation-or-just-another-club.html There aren't many bargains in California wines. The good winemakers know what they're making, and price their product accordingly. While the Naked Wines winemakers may be young and talented, they may also be on their own as winemakers for the first time, and inexperienced in that regard. Then there's the vineyard--are the grapevines young or well-established? Where is the vineyard located? No matter how talented the winemakers may be, they are limited by the quality of the grapes they can buy or grow. I suggest you find a winery or two that you really like, and join their wine club if they have one. That way you're getting a discount on the wines and supporting a winemaker you like. Does anybody else have suggestions for buying California wines?

You could layer the mole between cooked lasagna noodles, along with some shredded manchego cheese or mild goat cheese, for a Mexican/fusion "lasagna." Heat the whole business in the oven so that the cheese melts and the flavors combine. Hmm...I want a green note in there. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro on top before service? Or maybe put slaw on the side for this, too. It sounds good. Only some ideas in my head. I haven't tried any of this. I'm leaving the experimentation up to you. Pls let us know what you decide.

I suggest you check out June Taylor's class on making preserves. She keeps the sugar amts low and doesn't use commercial pectin. Actually, she makes her own pectin, when necessary, from citrus fruit peels. For most of her fruit preserves, she doesn't use pectin at all. If you've ever tasted any of the preserves she has on sale around here (Pasta Shop, Cheese Board) you'll get a better idea of what the class is about. I attended this class many years ago and I found it very useful--I still follow June Taylor's methods for making preserves. The 2014 schedule hasn't been posted yet. You'll have to email for details. http://www.junetaylorjams.com/events/events.htm Amanda Hesser's article on the website is worth reading for Taylor's methods. http://www.junetaylorjams.com/misc/nytjams.pdf

I was interested in the rhubarb wine that Max101 mentioned upthread. For anybody else whose curiosity may have been piqued, an article from the Iowa Arts Council about this traditional regional wine: http://www.iowaartscouncil.org/programs/folk-and-traditional-arts/place_based_foods/assets/amanacolonies.pdf Max101, which winery did you buy the wine from (if I may ask). I'd like to try it.

I've never heard of this wine from the Amanas. Live and learn! Was your wine sweet or dry?