sandra

Thanks for the nice post tryska; I was waiting for some mexican city specialties to surface and knew that the knowlege was out there. I've recently become a fan of posole; have had it in New Mexico and have tried a recipe at home (pork and green chile). Do you know how the Pozole Estilo Jalisco from Guadalajara is made? thanks! Pozole estilo Jalisco has hominy, pork head, pork loin, pig feet, chicken, and garnishes - basically you cook all the meats together and then serve a bowl of the broth with meat pieces, hominy, and garnished with shredded lettuce, chopped onion, lime, radishes and hot sauce.

Tampico - Carne a la Tampiqueña (grilled with beans and rice and guac) Oxaca - Queso Oaxaca (stringy cheese) Oaxaca - Mole Negro Oaxaqueño Cajeta de Celaya - (goat milk sweet) Acapulco - Ceviche Acapulco (marinated fish & shrimp with tomato sauce) Patzcuaro - Pescado Blanco de Patzcuaro - (fried fish from Patzcuaro Lake) Guadalajara - Pozole Estilo Jalisco

Oh yes!! Just had this in Engelberg, 1.5 hours outside of Zurich - amazing dish, so simple, but so perfect... and after skiing, who cares about the calories, right?

You can also roast pieces and serve whole, with the mole poured over, sprinkled with sesame seeds and some white rice and black beans on the side - this is the plated version...

Dead fly stuck to bottom of shu-mai

Flan Napolitano Thanks, Sandra. And may I say that "Flan Napolitano" sounds sooooo much better than "Gringo Flan." Ya, either way, it ain't too Mexican, eh? I do make it though, I like the little holes it comes out with, like little nooks and crannies for the caramel...

Flan Napolitano 3/4 cup sugar 14 ounces canned sweetened condensed milk 1 cup whipping cream 1/2 cup milk 4 eggs 1 cinnamon stick *Heat sugar in a 7 inch skillet over medium high heat. When the sugar begins to melt, reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook sugar, stirring occasionally. When sugar is melted and browned, immediately spoon over the bottom and sides of a shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish or mold. Set aside for caramel to cool. *Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). *Combine condensed milk, cream, milk and eggs in the blender. Process until thoroughly mixed. Pour into the baking dish lined with caramelized sugar. Drop the cinnamon stick into the middle of the mixture. *Place the baking dish in a baking pan. Pour hot water into pan halfway up the sides of the baking dish. *Bake about 1 hour 50 minutes or until a knife inserted off-center comes out clean. *Cover flan loosely with foil if necessary to prevent excessive browning. *Remove baking dish from the pan of hot water. Cool, then refrigerate at least 3 hours. *To serve, run a knife around top edge and invert flan onto a serving plate. Serve it with a BIG dollop of cajeta or dulce de leche on top....

yes, horribly wrong....

Just this past weekend we had tobacco flavoured chocolates at the Fat Duck...

Ditto for Costco in London... And we can get wine AND cigarettes here...

Yes, cajeta is delicous, and there are several varieties of it, BUT it is an entirely different animal, it's made with goats milk - this is the big difference between it and dulce de leche. So maybe goats milk not so good in cow milky tea or coffee.... Try both cajeta and dulce de leche rolloed up in crepes, or spread over a chocolate cake.... or spread on a chessmen cookie.... Dulce de leche ice cream in South America is not what you know from Hagen Dazs with the swirls of the stuff, it's even better, it's used in the base and it has a caramelly colour throughout....yum...

orange or carrot (or both together) juice with lots of ginger - matzoh ball soup hot and sour soup spicy things to burn it out... feel better soon

Yes, and they use water from a hose (or worse) for making their salsas and aguas (drinks) I know plenty of Mexicans (including me) who have gotten sick eating on the beach - stick to cooked foods and avoid the salsas and raw veggies/fruits...

What's salad cream? Miracle Whip....

For something different: El Hotelito Desconocido Puerto Vallarta - they have a section for weddings...

tortillas

pasta with tomato sauce - lots of grana padano or parmesan...

This method, using olive oil, is great for scrambled egg sandwiches in baguette...

Caster sugar is just finer grain sugar, you can use normal sugar as well if you can't find it...

These are very light and cool after a huge x-mas meal... Clementines in Vanilla Syrup 12 clementines 150 grams caster sugar 250 ml orange juice 1 vanila pod Peel the fruits, making sure to remove the thick membrane and also the light spongy cores. Place them in a shallow baking dish and set the oven to 150c. Cook sugar to a light caramel over low heat - remove from heat and stir in the orange juice, using a long handled spoon, as the sugar will spit - return to heat if necessary to liquefy the mix. Split open the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds - add the seeds and pod to the syrup. Pour the syrup over the clementines and bake, uncovered for 20-30 minutes, basting with the caramel sauce a few times, longer if you want them more caramelised. The clementines will get soft, but will retain their shape. Remove, cool and chill until ready to serve. If you like add some liqueur in with the orange juice.

Ah see, that is why I like it, it gives all the classics and then more ways of varying them - it's always good to have the basics... This was essentially my textbook in Patisserie, we made most of the book in one class or another - I have never had a recipe fail out of it... I think you'll find that most of those cakes and pastries can still be found in pastry shops everywhere, alongside the more modern stuff... Oh, and I agree with the tree rat comment, I also think pigoens are just flying rats...

AHA! Le Cordon Bleu Baking book ... one of my favourites, it has everything you could possibly want... and then it tells you the variations!

I still think you will need a translator to go with you.. you know.. for those "difficult" words...

Here is what I am doing.. Biscuit a rouler 4 eggs 125 gr caster sugar 75 gr flour whisk eggs over bain marie with sugar til blood temp, then remove from heat and whisk until they reach ribbon stage. Fold in the flour all at once - spread in baking tray greased and lined with parchment. Run finger around the edges and bake at 180c, 6-7 minutes. Cool on a rack with a tea towel covering it to keep moisture in. The biscuit does not have to be soaked, (I hate soaked cake) but it can be, with whatever you like - cut off the edges before rolling For the filling I am using dulce de leche, and for the frosting I am using either fudge icing or a creme fraiche ganache. Decorations will be meringue mushrooms and snowmen, and marzipan holly.

WOuld you mind abridging the Bon App recipe & posting it here? I can't buy it in the UK & nobody I know is going to the US / returning in time. I love eggnog and really want to make something eggnoggy for Christmas. I'm thinking of ice cream too...so any eggnog ice cream recipes would be most welcome (though come to think of it, the last time I tried to make an ice cream with alcohol in it, it didn't work even though I burned off all the alcohol... ) Maggie - there's a magazine shop off portobello road (opposite Christopher's deli) that does the US cooking mags (Saveur, Gourmet etc) if you're ever in the area. Also Harvey Nicks has allt he American magazines, on the fifth floor with the food and wine.