Vanessa

Shellfish stalls. Eels - both jellied and with mash. v

Vanessa - you should be. Huddersfield is my home town, and although I don't get up there often enough, I've written with enthusiasm about Stephen's place - the Weaver's Shed - at which I've been eating, although only occasionally - for over ten years. It's very good Adam Adam - written where? - on e-gullet or elsewhere? Can you provide a link? v

You've just reminded me of something I once read about the origins of certain types of Italian restaurants in London - maybe this will ring a bell with someone because I can't remember the details at all, but the history seemed interesting. The article was lamenting the demise of Valchera's restaurant in Richmond, a truly old-world Italian restaurant that was replaced by a McDonalds. It went into the history of this genre of restaurant - apparently you could tell by the name and the style of the place, and how they were dying out in London. Was it that they were Swiss Italian immigrants? Or Swiss German? There was definitely a story there. Did they all come over at a specific time early in the 20th century? I recently walked past a similar type of place behind Marble Arch - nearly next door to Green Valley. v

Lovely review, thank you Stephen. Makes me even more keen on a trip up to your neck of the woods. v

I'm bringing this post up again in the hope of some input from vserna, which was the reason I started it in the first place. A return visit from Madrileno would be much appreciated as well. Further to the points I raised previously, I have noticed that my Spanish friends rave about British cheeses but don't seem so enthusiastic about their own native cheeses. Is this simply the case of the grass being greener over the channel, or a general lack of appreciation in Spain of their own cheeses. Or, perhaps, as mentioned by someone here on e-gullet, a lack of a really appropriate 'forum' within the context of the Spanish way of eating, for the proper appreciation of cheese. To put it in a simpler way: at what meal, at what stage in the meal, and in what form do the Spanish generally eat cheese. Or is it a snack thing? v

I've been putting off posting here for a while. I'm no believer in the concept of 'favourites' - I have no favourite food/cookbook/music/whatever. But of course there are cookbooks/authors that have been important to me over the years, that have had an real influence on me. It has been very interesting looking at the posts on the thread - checking out which titles have mattered to people. I feel the greatest sympathy with cherrypi's choices. When thinking about cookbooks I realised that there were different categories - some books are all about cultural education, while others are about the recipes. But when I tried then to list according to these categories, somehow it didn't work. The following list of authors is in no particular order. Also, I may not have used certain of these books for 15 years or more. But at some point they have been key to me: Madhur Jaffrey Ken Hom (his recipes really work, he has two categories of book - the no-brainer popular stuff and the more serious, personal) Edouard de Pomiane Marcella Hazan Elizabeth David Jane Grigson Mark Miller Madeleine Kamman Anton Mosimann (the first chef recipes I ever used - a revelation - pistachio icecream comes to mind in particular) Diana Kennedy Maria de Lourdes Modesto (Portuguese) Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz Sri Owen Jacques Pepin's La Technique (if only for the instructions on how to chop onions) Claudia Roden San Francisco Symphony: Taste of San Francisco Janet Searl - Cooking in Spain (wonderful source of info on Spanish ingredients) Alan Davidson Yan-Kit So Meera Taneja (many years since I've seen her books in print - I learnt a lot about Indian food from her) Paula Wolfert (personally I think her recipes are no good. But the culture side is wonderful) David Thompson (I've only cooked from his first book, but my perception of Thai tastes has changed forever) Barbara Tropp A French trio that were very influential in early years: Roger Verge, the Troisgros brothers, Michel Guerard Ann Willan Ingle & Kramis: Northwest Bounty Lynne Rossetto Kasper George Lang Rose Levy Beranbaum Deborah Madison Robin Weir & Caroline Liddell: Ices (you will never need another book on icecream) Julia Child If I thought about it much more this list would just carry on to infinity. v

Dear Judy, thank you for making me feel like I'm no longer a freak . By the way, I have 3 rooms-full plus hallway like you. I used to keep a record on computer, but the computer died and it was too much like hard work to start again. My book acquisition rate has gone right down in the last year or two, mainly due to space considerations, but also financial. I am in the early stages of lending books to e-gulleteers - not a problem as yet, but I can foresee the need for a special e-gullet lending library thread to keep track of books and their borrowers. v

Ahh - the wonder of e-gullet. I will take your advice. v

Tissue - you are a treasure The recipe I intend to make is based on pork spareribs, with garlic, tung kwai (optional), cinnamon sticks, star anise, black & white peppercorns, sugar, dark soy sauce, crisp-fried shallots; soy sauce with red chillies for dipping the spare ribs and rice as accompaniment. Possibly also Chinese crullers to dip in the soup if I can find them. It calls itself Pork Rib Tea Soup (Bak Ku Teh) and comes from Chris Yeo's 'The Cooking of Singapore'. Is one hour's cooking OK for the Tung Kwai? v

I am intending to cook a Singaporean recipe (of obvious Chinese origin) for a soup which includes the above as an ingredient. I have ascertained the Latin name from Terry Tan's Cooking with Chinese Herbs and understand that it is a dried root, mainly used by the Chinese in broths and soups for medicinal purposes. Has anyone had experience of the stuff? e.g. Does it in fact taste so foul that I would do better to leave it out? Or the contrary? And how easy might it be to find? Could I get it in a Chinatown supermarket or do I need to go the the Chinese herbalist next door? Of course I can find out all these things myself by trial and error, but I would be interested in any knowledge from others. v

OK guys, hold your breath: in the region of 3,500. No longer possible to count. v

Most interesting - thank you Steve On the subject of gelatine - my feeling is that leaf gelatine has a less negative impact on flavour than powdered gelatine. Would you agree? v

Madrileno - thank you for an informative post and welcome. Hope to hear more from you. Also a new topic from you on the subject of Madrid tapas would be really appreciated v

Oh, I feel at home here. I almost never cook the same thing twice. Call it a very low boredom threshhold. I cook a lot from recipes - they are my inspiration. As mentioned a long time ago, I liken recipes to music and I have a classical music education. There is no shame to playing from music and the same goes for cooking. A recipe can produce a work of genius or a load of rubbish, it depends upon the interpretation, as well as the quality of the 'music'. That doesn't mean that someone who plays/cooks from ear is any less capable. There is no value judgement here. v

marktyner & stellabella - please be sure to report back v

The only time in my life I had a piece of clothing custom-made - a suede shirt - it fit so badly I refused to buy it. I can only presume that he used another person's measurements. v

and just how many cocktails have you had when these things happen? [wrote a version of this post this morning and it disappeared into the ether - not you guys, it's our crap IT system at work . Now I have to try and resurrect] Charlene - if only A conversation with Bapi last week reminded me of why I so love cocktails. He was referring to how a good martini just 'hits the spot'. It is the hitting the spot factor which is so addictive - that sensation, on the first sip of a good cocktail, of 'ah', and a gentle sigh of relief. What creates that factor? A correct combination of flavours, appropriate levels of dilution and temperature which create magic. I had a cocktail at the weekend that achieved just this. Don't laugh - it was a peach daiquiri. Made in the blender with white rum, peach liqueur (not peach schnapps), half a shrivelled, over-ripe, wonderfully flavoursome peach (yes, at this time of year!), sugar and plenty of lime juice to give zip. The end result a perfect marriage of alcohol, sweet and sour. Which brings me to one of the golden rules of cocktail making: I always have a stock at home of lemons, limes and oranges. Never use ready made juices, except of course for pineapple juice. I'm sure this morning's post was better - but what the hell. v

Yes, definitely. I had one brought me as a present from Spain some time ago. When ripe the inside goes completely liquid so the sides of the cheese come wrapped in cloth to keep the whole thing together. Very good although a bit too much for me. Best for a large household - I think it is a traditional Xmas thing. There are several similar Spanish cheeses with slightly different names. Very similar also to Portuguese Queijo de Serra (cue Chloe..) v

Dear FG - can you please tell me what is Afuega'l Pitu. Thank you v

I posted on this subject in the Regional Foods forum, admittedly slightly off-topic, so am acting on FG's hint. I would be most interested in vserna's feedback on my questions here. Please note that I am not posting about the relative merit of Spanish cheeses vs. French cheeses or any other such nonsense. However, for those who would assert that Spanish cheeses are all rather similar, I would venture to say that requeson, torta del casar, manchego, montenebro, cabrales - just to mention the first 5 that enter my head - couldn't be more varied in style. Here is the original post: QUOTE (vserna @ Feb 16 2003, 09:47 PM) Here are the 81 most common cheeses in Spain. According to what I've read, they're mostly manchego in disguise. Amazing how they can disguise them - small, big, cow, ewe, goat, hard, soft, cured... Yet, as you've heard here, they're all manchego. 81 Spanish cheeses, actually all of them tasting like manchego. Vanessa: Now this is getting interesting. Before you posted this, I just got off the shelf Simone Ortega's 'Tabla de Quesos Espanoles'. A book I think you have some knowledge of, judging by the list of contributors . This was published exactly 20 years ago. In the introduction the author states that there are 115 named varieties of Spanish cheeses, plus a number of unnamed varieties, adding up to an estimated total of 150, not counting Spanish-produced imitations of foreign cheeses. The web-site you have linked to gives 81 varieties, but perhaps does not include the more unusual? When I go to the web-site of UK's best importer of Spanish foods, Brindisa, I note that the majority of the 11 cheeses they list are not included in Simone Ortega's book. I haven't compared them to the 81 varieties listing. So, my questions are: has the variety of cheeses in Spain increased or decreased over the last 20 years? Is it that some have acquired names or new names, while others have fallen by the wayside? In the UK the case is that we now have innumerable cheeses which did not exist 20 years ago - a true renaissance of cheese. Has overall quality of cheese in Spain improved? v

Oh yes, I had something like 20 years of lids raining on my head . Until last year when I got the brilliant idea of keeping the lids completely separate in a plastic ziplock bag. It's never difficult to match them up. I do the same with lids to glass jars as well - but separate from the plastic lids. v

Corn Cakes from the Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery: 2 cups cornmeal, 1 heaped tbs flour, 1tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1tbs melted butter, 2 eggs, enough buttermilk to make a batter. I halved the quantities, using a standard size carton of buttermilk (10fl oz?). Cooked on griddle, served with butter & maple syrup. Yum. Much more salt than I would normally use - but I stuck to what it said and found the result worth it. Something about the saltiness against the butter and maple syrup... v

Other cocktail mishaps to beware of: 1. The opposite problem to Kiku's - when the parts of the shaker decide to separate in mid-air, resulting in sticky liquid and ice flying in all directions 2. Feline/human displacement of full cocktail glass - with same multi-directional results as above. Especially annoying when on-line to e-gullet as the full replacement of computer keyboard is sometimes required. v

I believe it's quetsche, which I also believe we call the damson plum. Both mirabelle and quetsche are delighful in the 750 ml bottle as well. In terms of portability there's a great econony in distilling the essence of a fruit that way. Mmmm, eau-de-vie de mirabelle - heavenly stuff I started a thread a while ago about pectin (and potatoes I believe - the two being unconnected). In the UK you can only buy liquid pectin or jam sugar with pectin mixed in in supermarkets and I was looking for the powdered stuff for a coriander & honey jelly recipe from Helen Witty. In the end I found (for a monstrous price) pure apple pectin powder from the US vitamins/minerals co., Solgar, in a whole food shop. Apparently it has some use for health nuts as a source of fibre? I shall report back when I get around to making said jelly. v

My single contribution to this thread is from the point of view of an avowed espresso drinker. To the extent that I do not believe I have ever had a capuccino/latte in my life. The worst espresso I have ever had was in Starbucks, opposite Richmond station. v