FoodMan

How can a thread die with comments like these !! I love that matter of fact discussion of what the possibility of sickness is. I actually might give it a shot. I have not posted in a while also because I've been repeating things and because I had a good stash of sausages and such in the freezer. In the near future I am hoping to try out some new stuff namely: - I recently bought the book by Andrea Nguyen, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, to make some excellent Viet food at home and was pleasantly surprised to see a chapter on Charcuterie with 6 or 7 classic Viet charcuterie preparations. So, I have to make some of these and apply my experience from this thread to make perfect fillings for Viet sandwiches. - Another great book i bought is Michel Richard's Happy in The Kitchen and I am learning so many fantastic techniques from it. He also has a recipe for almost fat free chicken sausage that I am itching to try and use natural casing for instead of the plastic wrap he is so fond of. - A Lebanese Makanek recipe And that pate does look perfect Dan. Next give the one with pork tenderloin inlay a shot. I have pics of it somewhere in this thread and it was the best I've ever made.

BTW, I also took some Pho to go that day for my son and it is almost inedible because the broth was so salty. We only ate the noodles and meat. I'd avoid that. Go figure...

and the comments

I made the Brown Sugar Bundt cake again this weekend with much better results. When I made it before a long time ago, I followed the instruction not to grease my silicon baking pan and it was a sticking disaster. It tasted good but was horrible looking. This time I greased and floured the pan. I also followed someone's advice upthread and used half the quantity of pears for a lighter cake. I love prunes and along with pears and hazelnuts this beauty is a winner. I've been eating it for breakfast with a sharp cheese too...

To wrap Le Marche up (as well as a final shot at the Trabocchi book) this weekend I made the Bostrengo rice cake. I made half the recipe since the thing is BIG. The recipe works good here...no excess eggs or loose batters. The result while good, was not what I was expecting and since I have no idea how a real Bostrengo is supposed to be like I have no basis for comparison. The cake has arborio rice, lots of caramalezied fresh apples and pears, cocoa, honey, raisins and dried figs. The flavor was richer than what I expected and reminded me a lot of the chcocolate and dried citrus peel 'Xmas keeping cake' I made in the E-R region. Probably due to the fact that this one has fresh lemon and orange zest in it as well as rum. Also, all that tasty mild caramelized fruit was just lost in there and overpowered by the rest of the strong flavors. My vision was for a lighter flavored cake...more like a rice pudding cake with chocolate. Cooled cake Served it with a scoop of vanilla gelato and some homemade Seville orange marmalade Me thinks the Le Marche book might soon be written off and sold at Half-Price Books in exchange for something useful.

yes, both 163 and 164 have been solved already.

Very nice stuff Abra. Glad you enjoyed it and that the recipes worked. I admire your patience with using the unpeeled fava and peeling it yourself. It's not difficult, but a bit tedious. I always have the peeled ones on hand.

New Puzzle: BBQ. Mainly ribs featured more than once in this movie. The main character seemed to savor them very much from a certain BBQ shack.

I do not trust someone who does not like cheese...or chocolate. Very odd. (yes I am kidding...sort of ) I think a Big Mac tastes horrible and wonder why on earth are all these people waiting in line to get one for lunch. It is not a burger, it's a Big Mac..evil...very evil thing. McD's French fries that every American and his mom seem to think are great taste like old grease too.

Great writeup, pics and commentary Ludja. My next 'to try' recipe from the book has been the chicken wrapped in cabbage and ham stuffung...but I still have not gotten to it. Another is the Gateuax Basque, so the suggestion to use the plastic wrap is very much appreciated.

petite tête de chou- This is getting to be too much! . Do we watch the exact same movies? You are correct again. I'll have to think of real obscure films just for you now .

MELOKHIYA!! Is that what I think it is ? Talk about international cuisine Kris. How did that taste? BTW, any particular brand of Tofu you'd recommend here in the US? I love tofu when done right and am trying to cook it (or not I guess) more often. My go to preparation and guilty pleasure is the spicy szichuanese recipe with lots of chile and pepper and pork. I am dying to try one of these cold, quick varaitions now though.

I think you may have identified one of the best aspects of eGullet: conversations we have had over a number of years. But, to go back on topic: You have probably done the job of many a book editor, you've figured out what makes a regional cookbook work. That sense of place. You have to wonder why its so elusive or difficult. ← Because some editors/authors think it won't sell?? Just a thought. Kevin- Why do you say that Mario gets his recipes from Callen? Just curious.

nope

correct again

I'm thinking Oldboy. If so, *fantastic* Korean film!! ← Correct and it is a Fantastic Korean movie (you know that Octopus was real and still alive...no props there). That second sentence was too much of a give away I guess . this is fun...

The hotel thing has been cited more than once as an analogy here, but not quite precisely enough, in my experience. Hotels generally charge you if you don't show up, and haven't called to cancel by 6:00 pm on the day of your reservation. That seems a reasonable policy that gives both sides - customer & hospitality industrialist - plenty of leeway. Strikes me as perfectly appropriate for restaurants too. ← 6PM on the day of?? I've never seen a hotel that accepts anything less than 24 hour notice..most are 48 hours.

#123- Mostly Martha?

two more, both should be pretty easy * Duck l 'orange is served with a picture of the dish, but no actual duck 'pieces' visible * Grains are currency. Corn is very highly valued

Sorry if I'm doing this wrong. I'll admit I have not read through all this thread. I'd like to add a new puzzle and hope it was never discussed before. Puzzle: Dumplings play a big and important role. They are a key to solve a mystery for a man's incarceration. Hope this is all you need.

I agree with you completely Kevin, and your point is not tiresome. with both books by Schwartz and Kaspar I was actually confused as to what to cook because most recipes felt so region-specific. With FT's book it's the other way around..I mean how many times have we seen a fillet of fish poached in tomato sauce or a grilled Orata.... For Abruzzo Molto Mario might be one of the best resources honestly.

I enjoy very much cooking recipes from the Thompson book and feel like I learned so much specifically because of the scaling up of recipe which I do often. Like Gabriel mentioned, the cardinal rule should be taste, taste taste. I had a problem initially with the salt scaling up and the shallots since I think my shallots are bigger than the one he uses. So, now I go slow and I usually never use more than twice the shallots if I am quadrupeling the recipe. As for the food processor, I am planning on giving it a shot to chop everything next time before pounding in my mortar and pestle and compare the result. It certainly is no substitute for the M&P though. After all if the Thai had a food processor a few hundred years ago...I'm thinking they would've used it .

It's funny how these threads have their own personality and are a bit different from each other in the focus. Well of course they are regionaly focused, but some of them seem to be a dissection of a recipe (ragu, carbonara) others concentrate on the local color (ligurias 'greenness') and some on ingredients (say Sicily and seafood). All that to say that Le Marche seems the only one that we've used to criticize recipe writing and a book in particular, Trabocchi's 'Cuisine of Le Marche'. At least that has been my impression and some might not agree with any of my points above. In any case, FT's book has many failings that we've already discussed, mainly the seemingly untested recipes. Another negative to the book I've noticed after reading through it a few times is that most recipes just do not seem to give me the feeling that they are traditionally regional...stuff like grilled pork chops with honey or stewed squid with tomato sauce. Maybe the cuisine is really very simple and so is not that unique. On the other hand the few recipes that are true uniquelly from Le Marche, FT goes and 'alters' them for the American palate. I am talking of the recipe for Vincigrassi in which he says he eliminated all offal (gizzards, sweatbreads, liver,...) that make it truely Marchigiani and uses the innoucous ground veal instead. The dessert recipes in the book look like they are more regionally specific and many of them sound tasty. Too bad few of us made any dolci from this region this month and I am hoping to squeeze a couple in before long. This weekend I tried the 'Fritelle Di Melle' (apple fritters) and actually followed the recipe with no alteration with very good results. The apples are cored and sliced then macerated in sugar and FRESHLY ground cinnamon. I've never thought of grinding my own cinnamon on a microplane grater from a cinnamon stick, but now I will at least in some cases. The flavor of the cinnamon was very pungent, peppery and delicious, almost like a spicy cinnamon candy. The rounds are then dipped in batter and deep fried. Dipping them using a chopstick Served with vanilla gelato and cinnamon sugar Served with vanilla gelato and honey I like the honey version better, but both were very good straight out of the fryer with a fluffy slightly crispy batter around the soft apple.

The dinner looks and sounds great Mitch. I like the way the Bordetto looks as well, reall hearty. As for that Fig salami...well I guess I was expecting an actual pork salami with figs mixed in there not a dried fig log! Sorry it was not worth it. Pontormo- Both of your writeups are so detailed and descriptive that I can almost see the food. I agree with your assessment of FT recipes. They are certainly not for an inexperienced cook and seem like they need a lot of tweaking here and there. I made a dessert of his recently but have not managed to upload the pics yet, so I'll reserve my comments till then. It is quiet a different story cooking a Paula Wofert recipe, huh? I bet the soup you made tasted great and needed minor if any adjustments.

A friend of mine speaks very highly of Van Loc on Milam across the street from Mai's and their fried Tofu with roasted garlic and lemon pepper dipping sauce. So, we met there today and he is quiet right. That is one of the best tofu I've had. It's cubed and as far as I can tell breaded with rice flour and deep fried. The soft sweet garlic works great with it. Their Vietnamese spring rolls and summer rolls were great too.