Katie Meadow

Agree 100 percent on Pho Ao Sen. I've been going there for years and it is my very favorite pho. The broth is delicate, not fatty, and not on the sweet side. And it comes to the table hot. Plus I'm extremely fond of the homey atmosphere. However, not much else on the menu stands up to the pho. Down the street a few blocks is Pho King. I haven't ever been but they have a reputation for the Bun Bo Hue. Yes, that's right, Pho King is fun to say.

Mmm, those look lovely. I have two ways to do trout, both really simple. In warm weather I use the outdoor grill. I salt and pepper the cavity and the skin (a little paprika is nice, too), and just make sure to oil the fish and the grill well. It does tend to stick a little, especially if the grill wasn't brushed clean well enough, and doesn't always come off the grill looking pristine, but it's presentable. I don't have one of those folding fish holder thingies for the grill, but for delicate fish that might come in handy. When I don't feel like grilling I saute in butter. I use a heavy cast-iron skillet, generous amount of butter, and cook the trout slowly; when they are done the skin is a bit crispy and you can use the pan juices for a buttery sauce. If you cook them gently on a low flame they don't tend to stick. Sometimes I do what Richard does, which is slice up some lemons and put them in the cavity, often with a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary. I never bother to bone the fish before cooking, it's really easy to lift the entire bone structure out in one piece afterwards. None of my guests have ever complained about having the bones in, but we don't have state dinners here. The plainer the better. Just about my favorite fish.

So I'm screwed, with both of these mixers having non-adjustable cords on the passenger side. At least the Viking cord is sort of higher up, which might make it somewhat less annoying. Clearly the only reason I bought the newer KA that I now own is because I was suckered in by the clever 3-position swivel cord set-up. But in every other way it is junk. One of the blades fell out during mixing. In addition, the blades are difficult to lock in and the button that unlocks them for removal requires super-human strength. Oh well, maybe I should consider this as part of a campaign to build up my right biceps.

Okay, one last question for both Waring and Viking users. I'm left-handed. I want my cord exiting from the driver's side of the machine, or at least from the middle of the back. When faced with right sided cords for hand-held appliances like mixers or irons, I want to hurl the thing out the window. I can't find any details about where the cord is on either of these mixers, so lemme know, since this could be a deal-breaker. Thanks!

The Waring Pro WHM 100 10-speed is available at Macy's for $20 right now, not including tax and shipping, which still brings it in at just under $30. Most other sources are currently charging about $39 for it, some with free shipping. This Waring and the Viking both have a 250 watt motor, for what that's worth. Just noticed that the chrome 9-speed Viking is on sale for $85 on Amazon, but that does not included free shipping.

To be fair, no appliance is sexier than a husband who likes to knead bread. It's partly the money, but that's that real reason we really don't need a stand mixer.

Wow, those helicopter blades are getting loud. Is it really worth an adult's time to puzzle out WHY a kid wants cold pizza for lunch? PJ wants cold leftover pizza. You are saying no. Pick your battles, there will be plenty of harder ones. Like when he wants a container of ranch dressing with it; that's when you know it's time for him to start fixing his own lunches. If you make home-made pizza the night before it will be healthy and tasty for those who want it hot or cold.

Pierogi, the Viking sounds impressive. I don't have a standing mixer and can't really justify it given the limited baking we do, but I've been unhappy with the light-weight cheap hand mixers I've used since I stupidly gave my old workhorse KA to my daughter. The Viking comes in a manual 5-speed and a digital 9-speed. Which do you have? The lowest price I could find on the 5-speed was $80 with free shipping from Cutlery and More, although I didn't spend a lot of time researching. The 9-speed digital is $99, also w/free ship. Both are described by the manufacturer as light-weight, but I guess that's relative. The pricier model comes in bright red with a black handle. Like hot lingerie. That must be the sexy one, yes?

Another year or two of making lunches and you will be so happy to have some cold leftover pizza from the night before. Cold pizza was a treat for my daughter. And since I don't particularly care for leftover pizza, especially cold, I was always so glad she wanted it. Talk about easy. Those tuna and turkey and PB & J sandwiches can get awfully tiresome. (Of course those were the days when peanut butter and guns were allowed in school.) Sad to admit, I was never the bento box kind of mom. At least I wasn't like the mother of one of my daughter's friends in elementary school. This woman used to actually call me up at 7 in the morning and tell me she ran out of bread, and could I please make Zoe a sandwich! The truth is it makes college life a lot easier if you like cold pizza. Not exactly relevant here, but we just made a discovery this year. Microwaved leftover pizza is pretty awful, and reheating in the oven takes too much time, and we have never had a toaster-oven. But pizza, if not a thick, piled-high type of pie, actually can be put by the slice into a toaster and turns out pretty well. Weird, I know.

Greetings from Oakland, Scotty. I was away for a few days and have now caught up to your blog. Glad it's you and not me, but so fun to see pix of my neighborhood. Sounds like you prefer Monterey Market to Berkeley Bowl for major shopping. I like it too, but it's a bit farther to go (and I shop on four wheels, not two!) For seafood I agree, there's no place like Tokyo Market; the only fish counter I know that will clean fresh sardines for me without making me feel like a crank. Ah, Market Hall and the Pasta Shop. Spoiled we are. When I lived in that neighborhood (probably before you were born) Market Hall was just a weedy empty lot. Most of the year my neighbor was allowed to park his overflow Cortinas there. In Nov and Dec it was a Christmas tree lot. Now you can't turn around in that space without knocking over a hunk of $30 lb cheese. Good, though! No wonder my daughter had to work her way through college. I've never been to Brown Sugar Kitchen, but it sounds like fun. What do you like there besides the chicken and waffles? I'm not a chicken and waffles kind of gal, but any place with shrimp 'n' grits works for me. I took a look at their menu. Interesting. The menu changes somewhat day to day and on the weekends; certain days are grits days, and others not. Lovely blog, lovely food.

Daisy's sofrito includes a mix of cubanelles, ajices dulces and one red bell. Finding specifically PR peppers and other ingredients is not easy around here; even the giant Mi Pueblo market, which carries many different kinds of fresh and dried peppers, carries mainly Mexican staples. So I used the best available peppers that I could find without going far from my usual haunts. I'm sure that growing up on the upper west side in NY I could have easily found PR foods, but that was long before I was interested in cooking. My mother pretty much shopped in a triangle that included Barney Greengrass, Lichtman's bakery (gone) and Williams bbq (still there, dunno?) There were loads of little Latin groceries all around us, but you can believe that my mother never bought anything she didn't easily recognize. She has lived most of her 93 years in NY and has still never eaten anything from a truck, didn't know what a tuna melt is until I made one for her last year, and has never eaten a falafel. This time of year the quality and variety of peppers at the farmers' market is fantastic, but they are often unmarked, beyond "sweet" or "gypsy." There are all colors and shapes, and mostly delicious. Probably they grow different types of seeds near to each other and they cross pollinate, I have no idea really. I simply bought a variety of sweet peppers (not bells) from two different vendors, and since they seemed so mild once I got them home, I added a couple of jalapenos that were already in the fridge. When I say they were hot, that would be only in relation to what a jalapeno is usually around here, which is mild verging on tasteless. Nothing like the heat of a habanero or a Hatch New Mexican or what used to be available in NM and sold as jalapenos, which had some kick.

I like Sifton's writing, but I think I prefer his food writing to his restaurant reviewing. The weekly reviews don't seem very interesting or lively these days. Major Pete Wells fan here; dunno how he would be as a restaurant reviewer, but I'd be happy to find out. Especially if Dexter goes along for the ride. He could do a tandem review for each of his dad's and zero in on the more critical issues.

When I was a 20-something I couldn't have defended making high-end dining and having a social conscience exist in the same reality either. I find it touching, to tell you the truth. And as a poor grad student it is an attitude that serves her well. Right now she needs some help to replace her bike and is no doubt not in the mood for upscale dining. She bought a new road bike when she got to Atlanta last month and it was stolen on campus while she attended a talk by Jimmy Carter. Someone must be stalking the Emory campus with a heavy duty bolt cutter. After Atlanta we head on to NY for a few days, and she won't be there to adjust my moral compass. I'll be sure to let her know about the Ethiopian places, she's very fond of injera and likes eating without utensils!

When I was nursing of course I tasted it. Once, and that was enough. Yes, it's weirder than cow or goat or sheep. About as far back into childhood memory that I want my ice cream to go is Cereal Milk Ice Cream.

Daisy Cooks is, I believe an early book, tied to her original PBS series. I haven't seen her on TV since that series, which was really fun to watch. I used her recipe for sofrito and then proceded to make her Yellow Rice, subbing a little knob of the achiote paste for oil. Her ratio for making the oil is 1 c olive oil to 2 Tbsp seeds. I definitely will keep looking for annatto seeds, and try making my own oil. Although the paste did the job and imparted great color and earthy flavor to the rice, as far as I could tell it contained more salt than annatto. Luckily I tasted it first, so I didn't add more salt to the rice. The end result was very good. My sofrito was pretty spicy, due to a couple of jalapenos that were actually quite hot (mostly they are so bland around here!). Once I figured out that the achiote paste needs to be mixed with something acidic in order to dissolve it everything worked fine. At first I tried just melting it into the olive oil in the pan, and that didn't work at all; it turned the paste rather stubborn and rubbery. I then mixed some with a small amount of lime juice and added it to the oil and the sofrito already in the pan--and that was magic. Love the flavor of annatto; it's very different from saffron or paprika. And I'm not sure why this is called Yellow Rice, since the color is more brick. Thanks to all for the help.

Okay, not exactly an oddity, but I have found it's pretty hard to get a great HALF-SOUR pickle outside of NY. When I was pregnant here in CA I would have killed for one; instead I had to content myself with Japanese pickles and those peculiar sour gummy candies. Yes, I was a walking cliche. Also, and less typical I suppose, I craved BBQ pork in my middle trimester. If I had been living in NY, and if it had existed then (which it didn't) I would have been a regular on the line at Momofuku for one of those pork belly bun thingies. For what its worth, my daughter doesn't like sour pickles, nor does she like animal fat. She must have had more than enough her first few months of life. Just curious, but what exactly qualifies as odd? To me, odd is when out-of-towners want to go to Gray's Papaya. The papaya drink is okay, but I think the hot dogs are terrible. Apologies all round in advance to the many fans of Gray's; I don't mean to be incendiary. In its favor is price.

A friend loaned me Daisy Martinez Cooks and I'm trying out a few recipes. Daisy uses achiote oil in lots of dishes, which sounds easy to make: soak annatto seeds in oil. My local Latin grocery seems not to have annatto seeds, but does sell achiote paste, so I grabbed some. My understanding is that achiote paste has other spices in it besides the annatto seeds. How do I use the paste instead? And how much paste would be the rough equivalent of oil?

Thanks, Blether. According to Wiki, Bonito is typically smaller than Albacore by about three or four feet. So true Bonito (aka Katsuo or Skipjack) is a smaller type of tuna than Albacore, but Albacore is smaller than the big three, which must have the most mercury. Little did I know that I've eaten fresh bonito; I caught a Skipjack in Hawaii a lifetime ago.

I buy canned Ortiz Bonito del Norte from Spain. Don't know where I picked up this notion, but I hope it is true: Bonito is either a small fish like tuna or it is a small type of tuna, I'm not sure which (anyone clear on that?) but the operative word here is small. In other words, less mercury than most canned tuna. And I think it tastes better than most other canned tuna I've tried. Packed in olive oil only, and not cheap. For less mercury I will pay. Tell me its true. In addition to tuna salad and tuna melts, I like tuna in a warm or room temp rice salad. I mix it with cooked long-grain white rice, celery, roasted red peppers (usually I roast them myself or I buy Spanish piquillos in the jar) a little red onion, sherry wine vinegar, olive oil, parsley and a garnish of toasted pine nuts and a dusting of paprika, smoked or not. Sometimes I add some leftover cooked beans or even edamame. Would be good with favas too. In warm weather it makes a great meal served with gazpacho. I've done this with fresh tuna, but that negates the idea of making a meal from pantry stock, which is what canned tuna is all about.

I wouldn't say that exactly. Gnocchi, to the best of my ability (no expert here) are typically made with potato and flour as the base, with variations on that theme. Malfatti are mostly a leafy green (blanched, drained, dried and chopped) plus ricotta. There is some flour added, but not a lot. Many recipes use spinach, but I prefer the flavor and texture of chard.

Olive oil, butter, bacon fat, duck fat, lard, walnut oil, peanut oil: all great in their own way. Even Mazzola has its uses (I like it to pop corn.) But when it comes to plain yummy bread on the table before dinner, sweet butter (cooler than room temp) is my favorite. And I don't believe I would want plain white rice with olive oil and salt, but rice with butter and salt is deeply satisfying. I also have a soft spot for poultry fat on rice. As for pie crust, I've had great pie crust made from all butter, part butter and crisco and part butter and lard. As far as I know I've never had a lard-only pie crust, but I'm sure spectacular ones have been made. I like fruit pies to have at least some non-butter shortening, but I like chicken pot pie crust to be mostly butter. Go figure. I never use soybean, canola, safflower or sunflower oil. They taste a little like cotton to me. What are they used for?

I finally took the plunge and made my first batch. I used the recipe for swiss chard malfatti in Amanda Hesser's NYT book, but, being me, I couldn't help tinkering with it. Frankly the specified amounts of butter and eggs were frightening. I used the basic ingredients and technique. My first problem was that the chard purveyer at the farmers' market didn't have a scale, and the recipe specified 4 lbs. I went away with two enormous bunches, which I figured might weight close to 3 lbs. I don't have a scale at home either, so I just winged it and used it all; when it was well drained and chopped it seemed like a fair amount. I used almost the amount of ricotta and flour specified, but literally half the butter and half the egg yolks. The end result was far better than I expected for a first try. They were not stiff but rather delicate, but they did just hold their shape sitting on a board for a couple of hours before cooking. They were very chardy, which I liked, light and tasty. I served them as suggested, with a brown butter sage drizzle. Next time I might try them with a fresh tomato butter sauce, or a cooked tomato sauce in the winter. I checked a few other recipes and it seems that they all are wildly different. Some use bread instead of flour, some use no eggs, some use lots of whole eggs, others mostly yolks. And they also differ as to cooking time, even allowing for the fact that the size of the dumplings varies somewhat. Most all recipes say they are done when they float; some recipes say that will take about 3 minutes. Amanda says 8-10 minutes. Mine floated at about 2 minutes, so I left them in to simmer another 5 minutes, which seemed fine. What's your experience making malfatti? Are the quantities of ingredients as flexible as they seem or was I just lucky? Gnocchi seem much less forgiving.

Serious planner. This is probably easier to accomplish (or necessary) if you don't often eat out. And I happen to be in the camp that loves to have leftovers, not only because I have no objection to eating the same entree two days in a row, but because I have an anxiety attack when I look at wasted food and because leftovers is, well, a free lunch. This does not mean that I only shop once a week. We do one main grocery shopping and one supplemental farmers' market trip each week, but I often make some stops on other days for things that need to be fresh, such as meat and seafood or baguettes, etc. And I've developed some quirky attachments to certain edibles and ingredients that I can only get at specialty shops or ethnic markets and that my regular stops don't carry. This doesn't mean that if I see something unexpected that looks great or that I can't resist I don't go for it and figure out how or when to use it later.

I have my share of hardware store Pyrex: pie dish, standard 8 x 8 and 9 x 12, a loaf pan, measuring cups etc. Everything is at least 15 to possibly 40 years old. Two weeks ago we were having dinner and heard a scary noise. My trusty 2-qt pyrex measuring cup that was sitting quietly on its shelf simply cracked into three pieces with no help from anyone. There were no previously visible cracks or flaws in it that I'd noticed. This got heavy use, primarily as a mixing bowl. It was typically hand washed, drain dried and put away. I certainly hadn't used it any differently recently than I have in the last two decades. Poltergeists? I bought a new one; we'll see how long it lasts.

I used to like making a dish called "Cauliflower Pizza Flavor." It consisted of roasting large florets under a layer of pizza sauce and then a topping of grated mozz. It was easy, especially if you had some leftover home-made pizza sauce. And it was a good way to dispense with a lot of cauliflower. And of course it eliminated having to make a pizza dough, so it's questionable that it can be called a true non-pizza pizza, but it satisfied the pizza urge, included a healthy serving of cruciferous vegetable, tasted good and was relatively fast to produce. Chez moi, BYOR.