Katie Meadow

I wonder if there was any hot chili in the air around the old plant, or if the size of the new one means you can't hide the evidence. None of the articles I read about this noted how close to a residential area the old plant was. The new one is just enormous. Some people are more sensitive to smells that others, and a number of people interviewed said they were coughing and choking from the residue of the plant. If that's true, it's pretty serious. When I'm roasting 10 chiles in a pan the air in the kitchen can get pretty inflammatory. I love Sriracha, but I wouldn't want my throat to sting when I walked out of my house. Personally I know I couldn't live over a hamburger joint that spews greasy smoke all day. Yes, anything is better than a paper mill, but I would be more likely to give the residents of that neighborhood the benefit of the doubt than assume we should all have to chose between one irritating emanation and another. Just read Andie's last post, above. Sounds like adding insult to injury: not only do some of the workers at the plant have to breath roast chilies for 8 hrs a day, but they get to take their work home with them as soon as they exit the building and live with it until they clock in for their next shift. I wouldn't want to say how bad it is before standing in their shoes.

I'm looking to buy two Chinese green teas: Jasmine Pearl and Yong Xi Huo Qing. Can anyone suggest an on line retailer where I can get both teas--good quality and reasonable prices? Thanks much!

Shel, I go to TJ's on Lakeshore in Oakland. Which one do you go to? I only buy a limited number of things there, but so far have had no problems. Then again, I don't typically buy fresh produce or dairy. I do buy the Empire kosher chicken once in a while but check the date and try to get the latest packaging. I notice that one product with a short shelf life that I like is the TJ brand organic cherry juice that's not from concentrate; it's far tastier than the non-organic 100%cherry juice from concentrate, which lasts longer in the fridge and costs less. The following is my list of other TJ's regular purchases: chocolate biscotti, Valrhona 71% dark chocolate bar ($2.99 for a big bar!), Barbara's Puffins and Oat Squares, TJ's frozen in the pod edamame and Bulleit Rye, all of which seem to be consistently okay. For fresh products we usually go the the farmers' market or Berkeley Bowl.

I don't eat chicken very often, but when I do I go out of my way to buy high quality kosher chicken or organic. Foster Farms is ubiquitous here in CA supermarkets and I have steered clear of it for years, not that I have based my decision on anything other than intuition and taste. The older I get the less meat and poultry appeal and the fussier I am about where it comes from. By no means am I a fanatic about organic only foods, but I guess my feeling is that if I am going to shop for it, cook it and ingest it I might as well reduce the unknowns and try to maximize the benefits, whether those benefits are from lack of antibiotics or choosing sustainably and humanely produced foods. Unless you are willing to go to the farm and the kill floor to check it out you still won't have any guarantees.

I would love a bit of clarification about nixtamalization, so Steve, please chime in as one of your comments confused me. Does nixtamal the name for alkaline treated corn that has not been ground? My understanding is that nixtamalized corn is whole corn that has been treated with alkali such as lime, then cooked or soaked and washed. Then it gets ground and becomes fresh masa. At that point it can be used to make tamales and corn tortillas, or it can be dried, which is the product we buy as masa harina or instant masa such as mass produced by operations like Maseca. So if the tortillas in NY are made with Maseca or instant masa flour they are still nixtamalized. They just won't be as good as freshly ground nixtamalized corn (duh), but they still have some of the benefits. Is this not the case? We've been making home made tortillas, and although I can go out of my way to buy fresh masa here in Oakland, the fresh stuff doesn't keep, so if you want spur of the moment decent tacos, making them from Maseca is def better than buying packaged corn tortillas. Now, let's say I wanted to go half the extra mile. Could I take Rancho Gordo hominy (yummy--made posole with it many times) and grind it to get a better product than Maseca? Would I treat it like Maseca and just add water to make tortillas?

Tomato sauces made with butter: for some reason just that one idea created a sea change in the way I cooked and tasted food. Can't even explain it.

Inspired by this thread I made pickles last week. I checked out the Bittman recipe, the Mark's Daily Apple and the treatise by the fermentation god Sandor Katz. I like the Bittman time frame better; I can't imagine leaving the pickles out to ferment for 10 days at room temp. I thought they were perfect after less than 24 hours partially covered, and then good for a week in the fridge as directed. I prefer a half-sour crispy pickle and these were great. Hard to find half-sours outside of NY! Good advice is to buy the freshest pickling cukes you can find and pickling them right away. Also cutting the pickles lengthwise in half allows more pickles per jar.

The big weekly shopping is Berkeley Bowl, and my husband goes alone, with a list made by me. I'm embarrassed about this, but I am a tad phobic about the Bowl. I know it's fabulous but I find it overwhelming; it's so crowded and I tend to lose the cart and I don't have the store mapped out in my head the way he does. I do all the cooking, so it seems fair enough. We go to the farmers' market together, mainly because it's more fun and I like talking to favorite vendors and seeing what's new and beautiful and partly because I don't trust my husband to come back with ripe fruit and perfect tomatoes. At farmers' market prices that's important! Misc errand shopping gets done as needed by one or the other of us at a variety of venues closer to home.

Stone fruit, especially peaches and nectarines and plums (and hybrids thereof) are really my weakness, so I would have to say July and into August. Corn, tomatoes, fresh garlic and onion, baby yellow watermelons and potato fingerlings are also at their best. So....I would say mid-summer! The peaches are now watery and bland, and I am suffering serious withdrawal.

I have Caesarstone coutertops in a dark color. So far I have had no staining problems and everything has cleaned up well with soap and water. If I had issues with staining the first thing I would do is go the website for the product and read about cleaning and care. I would also call the dealer who installed it and ask them. Perhaps even slight stains show up on white counters, but Caesarstone is marketed as really low maintenance and non-staining. As someone pointed out above the product is not simply quartz. It is an aggregate of quartz in a resin or plastic base, so treating it as pure stone might not be the best way to go.

Baselard, can you direct me to a recipe for the smoked buttermilk sorbet? Thanks!

If he's inclined toward Tex-Mex food availability of ingredients where he lives could be a big plus. He can buy prepared flour and corn tortillas and probably there are interesting hot sauces around. If he learns to make good rice and a pot of beans he will have a lot of options. Rice actually seems to stump folks who don't already know how to cook it their liking, but once you get it down it is incredibly useful. Same goes for pasta; it's amazing how many ways there are to mess it up. Since there are still good heirloom tomatoes around here in the east bay learning multiple ways to use them would benefit greatly. A raw tomato sauce using just salt and oil or butter and maybe an herb or two goes a long way on rice or pasta. A decent pot of chile can be made using good quality red chile powder instead of jumping through hoops to roast and soak dried pods. Lots of Tex-Mex recipes call for Ro-Tel tomatoes, so he might be gratified to actually be able to find them. Also learning to make a good Italian style red sauce from canned tomatoes is like money in the bank. And if he seems to be interested in the idea of Tex-Mex, maybe when he gets home you can send him a copy of Homesick Texan. Some of her recipes are very simple, and she's forgiving about using some shortcuts, like canned beans and so forth, as time and ambition allow. I learned to cook when I lived in New Mexico in the late sixties where ingredients were very basic, I wasn't buying a lot of meat and didn't have a lot of kitchen equipment. But like so many above have already pointed out, motivation is key. But new found confidence can go a long way toward feeling comfortable in the kitchen, so don't scare him!

High blood pressure and high cholesterol are two of the not-so-wonderful things I got from my Dad, or at least as much as that's fair to say. I tried all kinds of dietary mods for the high blood pressure, including limiting salt, but it made no difference so I went on meds. My doctor had a very peculiar theory based on her own high blood pressure and other patients and prescribed Toprol XL (generic is metaprolol). Her theory derived from the fact that she had great results using this drug with Ashkenazi jews. Go figure! Anyway it works like a charm for me with no side effects and I've resolved not to resent that I take a drug for high blood pressure. As for the high cholesterol, dietary changes made an enormous difference, so I have not had to go on meds for that. Everyone is different, and just because you may have a genetic propensity for a condition doesn't mean that changes in diet won't work. And they may not work even if you don't. Just luck of the draw I think, but always worth a try if you can avoid one more drug. The Dash Diet looks to be a pretty standard diet for cholesterol control. I never heard of it before but it's one of those hard-to-argue-with regimens and is pretty much the way I eat now, although I cheat once in a while--as is only sensible. I don't believe it has helped my blood pressure, only the cholesterol.

I adore succotash. Now is a great time to make it, especially if you can deal with the bother of cooking fresh black eyed peas or other fresh shelling beans--the bean people are out in force at the Berkeley farmers' market now. The corn isn't perfect, but I find that late season corn works well in dishes where it gets scraped off the cob, mixed with other things and lightly dressed. Lends itself to loads of variations, bacon or not. When lazy or early in the season I have used 5 minute frozen shelled edamame instead of more traditional beans. They sort of look like fresh green lima beans, right? I like my succotash as a warm side like the ones above, but I also like it more like a salad at room temp, so I might cut up tomato, or use tiny cherry tomatoes, a little red onion and an olive oil based dressing. In that case I might be inclined to simply blanch the corn briefly (but sauteing in bacon grease is yummy too) and add pre-cooked cooled beans, everything remaining a bit toothy.

I can't believe I'm responding to a baking query, since I'm at the top of the list of inept bakers, but isn't 175 degrees a tad low for baking cupcakes?

Hi Dave, Monterey Market is still there. I too miss Pig by the Tail. And it still gets my vote for best named charcuterie, although the Fifth Quarter, an operation that puts up a tent at the Berkeley Farmers Market is a pretty good name too. Fatted Calf used to be at the Berkeley Farmers Market and I liked their products, but now they are only in SF. They used to make a fantastic rabbit pate, but I think they don't do that one any more, due to rabbit sources hopping away or whatever. Americans don't seem to like rabbit that much.

mmmm......Bayless mushroom tacos, but only because I'm obsessed with home made corn tortillas with veg fillings right now. I guess I wouldn't freeze them fresh, but I don't see why they wouldn't freeze perfectly well after being cooked, for instance if you made some type of mushroom topping or sauce that would go on spaghetti or in a lasagne and then froze it in useful portions to be used as desired. Dunno for sure, but I imagine that fresh-frozen would end up a soggy mess when defrosted. Just curious, where do you live that you have fresh chanterelles right now? I used to love going out and collecting them here in northern CA but got tired of the poison oak than often accompanied the best patches.

I was eating stir-fry all the time for a while, inspired by living on the border of Chinatown SF. For years I managed well enough with a traditional round-bottomed carbon steel wok (at least I think that's what it is--I bought it in Chinatown 40 years ago), a ring, and underpowered gas stoves. But even though I turned out some nice stir-fries, I was always conscious of the fact that a little more heat would be a lot better. I never found the flat bottom woks to be very effective, but it never occured to me to use one on gas stove; I thought they were designed for electric stoves. Finally I treated myself to a Viking stove once we moved to our own house. One option was a "wok burner" which we went for immediately. It is made of the same heavy cast iron as the others and is easily switched in as needed. It allows the wok to sit very firmly and lower to the flame than any ring would allow. So not only is the flame higher and hotter on the Viking, but the wok sits down further in it. Short of a more professional wok set-up this works pretty well. Perhaps there are other ranges now that have replaceable wok inserts even if the don't have more btu's. That might go part way toward more heat.

Okay, just a dopey anecdote about my husband, who went beyond brown bagging in his frugality. He works from home now, but for the nearly 35 years we've been together, he religiously took his lunch, and yes, in a generic brown bag--which he brought home and reused. Lunch was always 2 sandwiches per day and fruit, cookies if we had 'em. One was typically PB & J, the other turkey or lunch meat with tomato and lettuce and the occasionally exciting tuna or egg salad. Many of his colleagues at the newspaper did the same. If he was invited out for lunch, which was not very often, he would bring home the full lunch bag, throw it in the fridge and, you guessed it, take it the next day. I thought it was disgusting, but in his defense, instead of being a martyr about having to eat a soggy miserable 30-hrs-old sandwich he was simply pleased that he didn't have to make lunch the next day. Our daughter also took her lunch every day K-12 (those were the days when peanut butter was allowed in the schools and no one heard of bento boxes for kids.) We all ate toast for breakfast, so there were a lot of years when I was buying a large loaf of bread a day. I've probably eaten just about every kind of bread baked locally in the East Bay. My daughter must have had a reputation for consistent lunches, because during elementary school there was a friend's mom who once in a while was nervy enough to call me at 8 am and, cutting to the chase with no apology, would say "We don't have any bread, can you make an extra sandwich for Zoe?" Okay, so two anecdotes.

I grew up having mandatory milk at meals. My daughter drank milk with meals and she liked it. With a meal I usually have water or iced tea w/ a little added cherry or pomegranate juice but I might have whiskey for cocktail hour or a nightcap. My husband has either wine or beer with dinner. For some unknown reason when we make tacos or burritos I often crave a root beer. Maybe during my years living in New Mexico (a 20 something) I drank soda routinely with my enchiladas or bowl of green; I remember the food really well, but not the soda. Most of our New Mexican meals out were eaten from a little window or a family restaurant that didn't have a beer license, although that's mostly just a guess.

I always shop to a list or lists, depending on ingredients and where to get them. It isn't really budget conscious, but it does seriously cut back on waste; my impulses often result in "what was I thinking?" territory. Usually this involves a vegetable that requires a lot of shelling or peeling and which forces me to confronted my own laziness. Fresh beans in the pod, how lovely! When faced with a large bag of fresh black-eyed peas at 7pm I might just cave and have a G & T and some popcorn for dinner. I start by coming up with approx a 5 or 6 day menu, requirements for which are typically available at one of the three or four places I usually shop. I make some impulse purchases and sometimes change a dish or two midstream, depending on availability and what looks appealing. There is a sometimes an imbalance in protein, since I like to use whatever fish or meat I buy as quickly as possible. Usually the last few days of a shopping week are vegetarian meals or kitchen sink meals, which is fine with me, unless I plan on securing fish or something midweek. Toward the end of a shopping week we are more likely to go out to eat if supplies are thin. My latest trick is making corn tortillas; with a bit of cheese and a few misc veggies or leftovers a reasonably good taco can be had. I'm the kind of person that has an anxiety attack if someone invites me over for dinner and I have just come back from buying fish or have 2 day old chicken in the fridge. Without a plan and a list I would be shopping every day. I'd way rather cook than shop.

No ideas about German potato salads, but I do make all kinds of potato salads regularly. Personally I would not use russets for potato salad. In a pinch I might use yukon golds, but I don't think they are ideal either. I like a waxy potato that stays firm and doesn't get mushy at all for my salads. Since you are in Berkeley and shop the farmers' market, why don't you try using the french fingerlings? They are fab for potato salad--great flavor, great texture. I boil them and take them out of the water while they still have some bite. The Pasta Shop usually sells speck as well as the very similar Niman Ranch jambon royal, which I like better. Both are smoky and both are cheaper than prosciutto and maybe even more appropriate for a potato salad. Comments above about speck being just fat doesn't jibe with what I have tasted.

The power of nostalgic foods is pretty complex, especially when you factor in what I think are the two biggest variables: how memory alters perception and how your palate has changed over time. What I was trying to get at was the fact that if you have experienced lots of variety and new foods and broadened your tastes since the last time you tasted X, and if it's been years since you tasted it, your expectations or memory might not jibe with your perception of X now. There's no accounting for memory, it's so very personal and quirky. And it depends on whether or not you have eaten that food periodically over time. I can count numerous examples of things I remember fondly from many years ago or from childhood and which when tasted years later were surprisingly awful. Not everything, but probably most things that were highly processed. Often what we remember loving was conceptually great; few would debate what a brilliant idea the s'more is. But have you tried one with home-made graham crackers and dark Belgian chocolate? Awesome, just as I remember--only not what it actually was! The example of yellow mustard on a hot dog is an interesting one. First of all, does an example of "better" yellow mustard actually exist? I eat hot dogs once in a blue moon. But last year I went to Papaya King and had the juice and the standard dog with sauerkraut and yellow mustard (don't believe dijon was an option!). That juice drink can't be improved, whatever it is. And that hot dog would taste really silly with dijon mustard. However if Bill Klapp offered me the quality sausage he made his guests, I might think twice before putting French's on it.

It would be hard for me to believe that Wonderbread or other average supermarket white bread makes a better sandwich than a plain artisan white bread (or the white bread my husband bakes) with anything between the slices. Put up a tomato sandwich with mayo on white bread for a test: home-made white bread, a perfectly ripe seasonal heirloom tomato and your mayo of choice vs Wonderbread with a winter tomato. I recently made Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Fudgesickles. Fantastic! I used high quality dark chocolate and cocoa and my favorite organic 1% milk. It's probably been 20 or 30 years since I had a commercial Fudgesickle, but I am guessing I'm not missing much and that my upgrade actual makes the original stand the test of time--in memory. So, my theory is if you don't want to be disappointed make whatever you are craving with the best ingredients and use your gut instincts and it will taste like it used to--or at least it will taste like you remember: great and familiar. At least that works for me. Of course if you love ballpark nachos and don't think they can be improved on then go for it. They can be easily duplicated at home for a lot less money than at the ballpark by using bulk commercial chips, velveeta and canned jalapenos. For that je ne sais quoi.

I do pretty much the same as weinoo. In a pan over med high heat, modest amount of oil (I use corn oil, but I would use grapeseed if I had any) a couple of test kernels. In the beginning I do shake a bit to make sure all the oil is distributed, but I find I don't need to shake after that, since anything that pops goes up and unpopped kernels remain at the bottom near the heat. I don't allow any escape valve and put on a tight lid. The organic multi-color popcorn which my local market sells in bulk pops up well. In the last few years I have completely conditioned myself away from butter topping and usually use just a little gray salt and sometimes a little pecorino.