Katie Meadow

Yo, Margaret, wish I had something like that so close. But that's why a Banh Mi is such a great sandwich: you can make a very "authentic" and delicious one without having to go to Chinatown or even an Asian market. For those without easy access to Asian products, between hispanic markets, a deli and your favorite protein source, you could probably get what's needed. If you don't want to make some type of bbq pork, any grilled shrimp or chicken with an Asian flavor works well. Crispy pork or chicken skin is always a plus, but for friends who only eat seafood, quick sauteed marinated prawns cooked in a skillet make a very worthwhile Banh Mi. On the subject of authenticity....well, I just can't get too worked up about it. Creativity and cultural mash-up is the heart of this sandwich. As for bread, if you love those Viet rolls and they are easy to come by, by all means. I'm extremely happy with an Acme rustic baguette. I know people who sub the Mexican bolillos rolls. When it comes to the pate, recipes I've seen appear equally distributed between chicken liver and pork liver. I agree that a smooth spreadable pate works better in a Banh Mi than a chunky country-style, but franky I find a smooth chicken liver mousse to be more appealing than a smooth pork liver spread. If I were ever to make a more traditional chopped chicken liver spread I wouldn't be above trying a Bahn Mi with the leftovers. The deli I frequent sells a basic chicken liver mousse pate, and a truffled one. I did splurge once and use the truffled on a sandwich, but since the price is about double and there are so many strong flavors in the sandwich already it doesn't seem like an important upgrade. It was very good, though.

David, your pork belly looks fantastic if not traditional. And yes, I have used roast duck purchased in Chinatown for banh mi as well as home made char siu, the red BBQ pork stuff from Chinatown, grilled chicken and grilled shrimp. I have found that buying roast duck necessitates a little labor, since the meat (and some crispy skin) really does need to be pulled off the bones before assembly. I suppose one could make one's own roast or grilled duck breast and solve that problem, but I am far too lazy to do that, and besides, it is easy for me to get to Chinatown Oakland. And I'm guessing it's cheaper than purchasing raw duck breast from your butcher. As for the carrot daikon pickle, Andrea's recipe has never failed me. After experimenting with the coarse vs. fine graters on my processor I definitely think coarse is better, and it retains its crunchy texture quite well. Thanks Bruce for elaborating your grilling process. I will take your advice and make sure I have a generous amount of the marinade when I get it together to make my sandwiches. Oh, just a note about pate. I like to use a simple relatively smooth chicken liver pate, french style. There's one my gourmet market sells that I like very much, and, honestly, it wouldn't occur to me to look for it in Chinatown. If you are willing to use a regular baguette or a mexican roll and make your own Asian style grilled meat a terrific and traditional banh mi can be made without the need for a Chinatown or even an Asian grocery.

C. Sap: That looks beautiful. I have made Andrea's Char Siu in the oven, but never thought to grill it. How long did you marinate it before grilling? And then you dipped or basted every ten minutes? Did you have the meat over direct heat the whole time grilling?

What does "wrong" mean? Personally I find excessive attention to plating a turn-off. First of all, I don't like the idea of someone playing with my food. Second, if I order food that I expect to be hot, I don't want to discover that recreating a freshly dug bed of root vegetables or "casually perfect" seascape on my plate has resulted in lukewarm food. There's a lot of difference between a plate that looks delicious and a plate that looks like someone consulted a blueprint. On the other hand, really good food rarely looks like a train wreck.

If I have no tomato sauce I prefer some type of cauliflower curry. If I have some tomato sauce available (and I like a simple Batali style vegetarian sauce) my favorite way to eat cauliflower is with a red-sauced pasta. Cut cauliflower into bite-size florets. Sautee over moderate heat in butter or olive oil, adding salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes halfway through, and some minced garlic for the last few minutes until the cauliflower starts to turn golden but is still toothsome, not too soft. Remove from the heat. Have some spaghetti sauce heating on the stove. When the cauliflower is to your liking, rewarm it for a few minutes in the hot sauce and then top your favorite pasta, sprinkle on grated pecorino or whatever hard cheese you like. I used to garnish it with crispy carmelized onions, which is yummy, but this is what I usually consider a pretty lazy meal, so often I don't bother with that. Excellent dish if you have vegans or anti-cholesterol people to feed, since cheese is on the side, or if you just don't want anything rich. And if I am really lazy I don't even make a salad, although something green along with makes a perfect meal.

If making one or two sandwiches I just sprinkle a bit on top of the mayo. If I'm being efficient and making a number of sandwiches I might just put some mayo in a bowl, drizzle in the Maggi and swirl it in, then apply. I don't use a lot of either, just a thin layer on both top and bottom halves of baguette. If you just taste a drop of undiluted Maggi you can guess just how much you think you will like on your sandwich; you wouldn't really want the end result to taste like Maggi. It packs a wallop and yep, is mighty salty. Since I have not found any other use for Maggi besides banh mi, I'm still on my first little bottle. With all the crap (and I don't really want to know what) that's in it I assume it's preserved for life.

No doubt my experience with banh mi is peculiar: these sandwiches have become a staple in our house, but weirdly, and despite the fact that some great places (by reputation) abound here in Oakland, I've never even once eaten one out. If you have never made or eaten one, I suggest a good place to start is with Andrea Nguyen's Viet World Kitchen website. Recipes are given for the carrot-daikon pickle and for roasted pork as well as a master recipe for putting the sandwich together. The essentials as far as I know them are: pate, roast meat, sliced cucumbers, a source of heat, such as fresh sliced jalapenos or sriracha, fresh cilantro, a mild fresh pickle such as carrot-daikon and a good baguette-type bread. I do use mayo and I take Andrea's advice and spike it with a drizzle of Maggi sauce. I have made banh mi with various kinds of meats; my own char siu pork roast (Andrea's recipe) or if I am lazy, roast pork purchased in Chinatown. I've done it with grilled leftover chicken and with grilled or broiled prawns. I'm a big fan of using some type of pate as well as roasted meat. I have used the Viet rolls that can be bought in Chinatown but honestly I am partial to an Acme baguette, which I can get easily at the places I usually shop. I don't make my own mayo or my own pate. I've used a variety of pates that can be purchased and find that a relatively smooth chicken liver pate works really well and is a good foil for roast pork. Once I used a fabulous coarse duck pate but I'm not sure it's the best use of expensive charcuterie. Nor have I ever used pork belly, but I'm sure that would be heavenly.

Of all the cheeses on your list, by far my favorite is Stilton. A great lunch or light dinner when pears are in season is Stilton on a plain cracker, a juicy pear and a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale or some other medium-dark beer. And for a decadent treat, try spreading a little sweet butter underneath the Stilton. Heavenly. I'm not big on cheese for dessert, but Stilton drizzled with honey and a scatter of toasted hazelnuts is pretty yummy. And with that I would want a nice cup of tea.

Worse. It isn't chicken.

When you serve a cheese course do you have crackers with it? If so you might not want apps in which crackers or bread play a role. For a no-spreading or no dipping (and no dripping) cocktail go-with I like edamame in the shell, marcona almonds, olives, fried chick peas or just a plate of exotic crudite--veggies that aren't all that common, like kohlrabi cut paper thin with sea salt, interesting looking radishes, some of those odd-colored little purple or orange carrots, whatever. For a light and not messy toothpick food, pickled shrimp always seem to go fast. I'm in favor or any pre-dinner snacks that don't require utensils or plates, just a stack of napkins. My mother always used to serve celery root remoulade, but that involved utensils, plates AND napkins.

I take a few lavender buds and make a lavender simple syrup which can be easily kept in the frig. I add a splash to iced black tea or to lemonade.

Totally concur--I plan for guests to arrive 45 min to an hour before we sit down to dinner. My friends pretty much expect this when they dine chez moi. But it is important (and nice!) to make sure guests know this. I simply tell them, "We will probably eat around 7:30, so come around 6:30 for apps and drinks." It lets those who don't know me well know what to expect, and it allows those who run late kind of a grace period. If my fabulous cheese sticks are gone by the time they arrive, or if they are too late to score one of my husband's Manhattans, well, how sad for them. It's been a while since my relatives and friends had small kids, but cocktail hour was why the VCR was invented. And I do mean VCR.

My solution to dinner parties where more than one or two close friends/relatives are invited is to make dishes that can be prepped way ahead. A fancy lasagne, like an artichoke lasagne or a meat lasagne can easily be oven-ready a couple of hours ahead. So can a stew or braise which benefits from sitting in the juices at room temp. Coq au Vin is one of the most appreciated meals that can be cooked way ahead, except for the rice it gets served on, and that's easy to time. Same goes for dessert: pies baked ahead, things that can be chilled in individual servings or things served with fruit sauces, since those can be made ahead. Or something that gets unmolded at the last minute but can made way ahead; usually a crowd pleaser and gets points for visual appeal. Chilled fruit poached in wine with home-made cookies is always a winner. Even pizza can be prepped mostly ahead: toppings cooked or chopped as necessary, dough made several hours before; it does take some fancy footwork in the kitchen at the last moment to turn out several pizzas for a crowd, but at least you can spend cocktail hour with your friends first; I agree with the poster above though, that if it's really warm indoors and you can't bake the pizzas outdours, best to have another option. I guess the most important thing for me when having people over for dinner is to make something that doesn't frazzle me in any way. If I am cooking something that needs to be done last minute or during cocktails, typically somebody will find me and keep me company while I do it. Although I really don't want help with the actual cooking, it's nice when a guest volunteers to pour water or carry out soup plates. I'm always touched when young people volunteer to help and I try to find something for them to do. My husband has gotten it into his head that his job is to entertain the guests rather than help, and he would continue to chat in the living room even if black smoke was pouring from the kitchen. That's why pizza isn't a bad option in our household, because he is the dough guy and peel expert and HAS to be in the kitchen. I appreciate the impulse of people with a bad sense of time to entertain or reciprocate your last invite, or who get unbalanced by putting a big meal on the table but still want to do it. They may not realize that this creates an awkward evening for some of the guests. I have many friends who never reciprocate and I am totally fine with that. For some people it's just too hard or they really don't like to cook. I think it's important to reassure those friends that you like doing it yourself and they should just keep on coming over and bring a nice bottle of wine. People who feel it is their duty to return an invitation are the most likely to be a mess over it.

Make a compound butter using fresh dill--it's great on boiled fingerlings or new potatoes, great as a finish for simply cooked salmon and great for scrambling eggs. If you like radishes with butter, try radishes with dill butter. Egg salad or deviled eggs with dill, very nice. Mixed with sour cream / crema / yogurt to accompany savory pancakes of various kinds.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for the chronically late, whether they have an inflated sense of their own importance and don't think about how their actions effect others--or just have a very bad sense of time. It's no different than people who are always telling you how busy they are. Everyone's busy, get over it. And everyone has a cell phone. How hard is it to call ahead if you are going to be late? That said, when entertaining friends and expecting to have some fun, who wants to get angry or resentful? One thing I find helps my guests is to suggest a time to come, but also tell them when you expect to eat. This can help people who have some sense of time but also provide a little flexibility. If talking to your friends honestly about their tardiness hasn't worked, tell the chronically late to come half an hour earlier than everyone else. Or eat as planned without them and hope they get the message if they walk in and you are serving dessert. If children are involved (your own included) even more reason to set some boundaries. If they bring their children when you are slicing the pie tell them you are so sorry you've already eaten, but you would love them to sit down and have dessert.That should make the kids happy and put the late parents off balance. After all, they weren't invited because they were busy and couldn't get it together to feed themselves. In the end, there are chronically late people who never get it, so do whatever doesn't make you (or your other guests) annoyed.

Making a blanket yes or no statement about stews being better the day of or the day after seems senseless. What kind of stews are we talking about? Some meaty stews or braised dishes like briskets, coq au vin various types of slow cooked shanks hold up really well and often seem better the next day. For me that is the result of ingredients that only gain from resting and the fact that often the next day means a labor-free opportunity to simply appreciate what I made without a lot of prep work or clean-up. Things I find less appealing the next day are soups or stews that include rice or noodles and delicate vegetables, soupy bean-pot dishes that tend to thicken up, or anything that tends to suffer in textural quality after sitting around. Generally if I don't love leftovers at least I appreciate them; the exception is any dish made with fish or shellfish. Seafood risks getting overcooked just sitting for an hour in the stew-pot and definitely underwhelms after suffering overnight in the fridge.

Kohlrabi opinion number three: I love it, it's wonderful---does NOT taste like broccoli stems or any other part of broccoli, which I can't stand. I like kohlrabi as an app with cocktails: slice paper thin, fan out the slices to look lovely, sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Also very nice on a plate with deviled eggs. I grew up thinking it was a particularly Jewish vegetable because my dad used to say it meant voice of the prophet (or song of the rabbi.) Apocryphal no doubt, since that would be kol, not kohl, but still an outstanding vegetable. It is plentiful in Chinatown; no idea how Chinese cooks use it, or if they eat it raw. I could imagine it being good in a stir-fry, but I've never tried it.

If I read the op right, the issue is about what jam or jelly is favored with pb. My preference is raspberry jam, on the tart side.

Thank you HC, perfect instructions. Did the bit with the salt-water (non iodized sea salt) and cornmeal for two hours (which was really all the time I had before cooking) and the clams were incredibly clean. Also incredibly tender and sweet. The variety and the quality at Citarella always kills me. As for quantity, I got less than I planned because there was beautiful boned shad, so the clams were more like a large appetizer. We don't see shad on the west coast, ever, so I couldn't resist. And yes, I'm pretty sure I could eat two lbs of steamers all by my self.

I'm in NY and for my last dinner I'm hoping to score some steamers at Citarella. The 3rd Ave store is walkable from where I am staying. Not talkin' about hard shell or littlenecks, but the ones that, if they could see themselves in the mirror, might feel bad about their necks. It has been years since I had them and even more years since I made them. What are direx for simplest cleaning and steaming? Do you use beer or water? My memory is water, but I am open to suggestions. Does anything else go in the steaming pot along with the liquid? All I know is that the show is basically clams, broth, melted sweet butter, in that order. How much liquid so everyone has a generous bowl of flavorful dipping broth? Is the ratio of 1 lb per person + adjustment upwards for long-time deprivation sound right?

I love the idea that hash is for leftovers. But what do you do with leftover hash? Two days ago I made hash from leftover partially cooked potatoes and leftover cooked chard and onions. Very tasty, crispy, cooked with a healthy dose of smoked paprika. Yesterday I made a spaghetti fritatta (tortilla espanola, take your pick) with leftover hash and leftover spaghetti. Excellent use of leftover crispy highly flavored potatoes; a labor intensive sub for tater tots no doubt, but then I don't remember the last time I craved a tater tot omelet. Perhaps never, not that it couldn't be good. The fritatta was way better very warm out of the oven than room temp later, but generally that's how I feel about any baked egg-type thing.

Basmatti is what I typically make and pretty much do as Emily, above: 1 cup rice to 1.75 (or even slightly less) water. I do it in a pot on the stove, and saute the rice briefly in a little butter or fat and salt to toast it before adding the water. When it starts to boil I turn the heat way down, cover it, and cook it undisturbed. When all the water is absorbed and the rice is just starting to stick to the bottom of the pan I turn off the flame and leave it alone with the cover still on for at least 5 minutes.

We make marmalade in February and March when Sevilles become available in northern CA. The method we use is closer to Andie's description--I wouldn't call it quick, but it takes only three or four hours start to finish. The oranges are juiced first, pulp with pips saved. The juice is cooked down w/a bagful of pips. After 20 minutes or so the fine-cut rind is added. A second stage boiling occurs after measuring liquid and adding sugar. The most annoying and tedious job is scraping the peel. My preference is for as little pith as possible. The orange halves from the juicing get cut into wedges, and a sharp knife cuts away the thickest part of the pith. Then my husband has the hideous job of scraping the peel clean. We have found that a serrated grapefruit spoon is pretty effective, but we aren't making commercial quantities. He scrapes, then I cut the peel into fine shreds. If I found a tool that would make at least one of these two jobs easier I would be really interested. But getting the peel prepped has always necessitated two steps. I've never tried the long soaking method. My experience is that depth of flavor in our marmalade comes from whether or not we partially caramelize some of the sugar before the final boil-down, resulting in somewhat thicker, darker and less delicate marmalade. At least that's the only way we have been able to change the flavor without ruining the texture. I like marmalade both ways--light and delicate, or more burnt caramel. In either case I find any white pith left on the peel only interferes with clarity and makes the taste bitter. I would love to exchange marmalades with anyone who does the long-soak method, just to see how that changes the taste.

Could you describe the operation you hope to perform? What exactly is a marmalade cutter?

Cajun Grocer carries Steen's and I ordered some other stuff as well. Their price for Steen's seemed good compared to several other on line sources, but I didn't do a very thorough search. After tasting the Steen's alongside corn syrup and Lyle's, I can imagine subbing equal amounts of Steen's for corn syrup, or at least trying it before making an adjustment. I bet Steen's is yummy on steel cut oats and I'm sure it will be great in my Chipotle Ketchup recipe. I never make candy, so I'm thinking I don't have to buy corn syrup ever again. Tasting the corn syrup by itself was thoroughly unpleasant; quite different from the experience of dipping into cane syrup.