Katie Meadow

I second this recommendation for the Char Siu in Nguyen's book "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen." I would add to it only the caveat that you make sure to cut the pieces at least as thick as suggested before roasting (1.5 inches); the idea being to allow enough time in the oven to crispy-char the edges of the meat without overcooking the interior, which would make it dry and less yummy--which is what happened to a couple of my smaller pieces. I used it on a Chinese-style noodle salad and in a Viet sandwich. I would definitely garnish a wonton soup with it.

The people I know who have kids spend the late afternoon and evening scrambling, juggling, carting equipment of various kinds from one activity to another. Sometimes a pizza comes home with, but usually one person cooks while the other helps with homework or gives a bath to someone--IF it's a two-parent household. Maybe you go out on the weekend for modestly priced Vietnamese, but even so, going out is at least a little special. My in-laws have a very different life. They have two high-power jobs, no kids. They eat out in their expensive neighborhood all the time. Nothing special, it's just what they do. How can a discussion like this avoid the main topic, which is economics? We no longer have a kid at home, but keeping her in college doesn't allow us to eat out very often. I cook. Just about every night. So, my perspective is that going out is a special occasion because it's not a typical one. And in addition, maybe because money is tight, I hate the idea of spending it on mediocre food, or anything that I could do better. So I would rather scrounge for leftovers or eat an omelet and save my dining-out dollars for something really good less frequently. That's a personal decision, but absolutely informed by my lack of funds. That said, for a restaurant to ask,"Is this a special occasion?" seems downright weird. As far as I'm concerned, any restaurant worth its salt (usually far too much salt) should consider that its job is to make my occasion special. Awright, I'm unrealistic, I know, but I'm more than a little sick of restaurants with a "We're so great" attitude. Bring me my dinner and let me decide if it's special, how that? Yow, I sound cranky. Love Alex Witchell, though.

My mother has decided to throw herself a 90th birthday party and would like to do it in a restaurant. She lives midtown and is hoping not to travel too far for the party, but that's a secondary consideration. We're talkin' 25 people. I have checked out some other threads, and Becco sounds good. Has anyone had a party there recently? I don't know what her price range per person is, but I am guessing that Grammercy, Blue Hill, etc. isn't in it. I have eaten at Craft and liked it, but that may also turn out to be too pricey for her. She likes the idea of a limited choice menu rather than the full restaurant menu. I am not sure she has yet considered there is usually an extra price boost when you have a private room. Are there any restaurants that would work that don't have private rooms? Most of the guests are younger than she is, but I am guessing she still has a few older friends left who might need a quieter space to hear eachother, so perhaps the private room idea is a good one. Any other suggestions? I'm in CA, so my experience dining out in NY is pretty limited, as you can imagine.

Okay, now that I know what to look for I am seeing lacinato and dinosaur all over the place. So far I have tried two simple ways of cooking it, both very good. The first thing I did was a test to see how it behaved in soups the way I usually do big curly kale. I added it, roughly chopped, to a vegetable bean soup that's really my version of Batali's bean soup from Molto Mario. He cooks the cavolo nero longer than I like. I find it to be delicate and sweet--and needs even less cooking time than regular kale. I threw it in about 20 minutes before the end and I think it only really needed 15 minutes. Delicious in soup. Then last night I tried the greens-on-toast suggested by so many upthread. I did prep the c.n. by cutting out the lower thicker stems but I agree that with very fresh narrow leaves it probably isn't necessary. I sauteed it with garlic, the usual suspects and a pinch of red pepper flakes (does Mario get paid by the red pepper flakes board? When I say a pinch I mean something that fits between two fingers; his pinches have to be trucked in), til wilted, then added a splash of broth and covered it, cooking til the liquid was absorbed, maybe ten minutes. We spread it on garlic-rubbed toast, sprinkled with oil and it was yummy. If I had thought about it I would have served it with a drift of grated pecorino but I forgot. Tougher greens like collards I like to blanch, but I don't think anything as tender as this stuff needs blanching (which is always an annoying step, as far as I'm concerned.) This is one happy vegetable! Curly, how do you make kale and butterbean soup? Sounds fabulous.

It's very interesting to hear from some people in Japan. The day of the NYT article the Japan Fisheries was very quick to publish a refutation of the amounts and effects of mercury in their tuna. Certainly the Japanese have major experience with methyl mercury disasters--Minamata, as mentioned above, and one other as well. Until I looked it up this afternoon I couldn't believe that mercury was pumped into the wastewater for more than 30 years and that over 2,200 people in the minamata area were diagnosed with mercury poisoning. I guess I have a very cynical viewpoint. Should I not assume that the more the Japanese and others overfish bluefin tuna the higher the price they get per pound? Get it while the getting's good. Yes, big tuna have more mercury than small fish; toxic metals build up in the system. I guess that's why the site quoted above by helenjp suggests that eating "young bluefin tuna" is fine. Of course their risk assessment is pretty lax, since they don't see a problem with albacore, either. My understanding is that when it comes to canned tuna, that's why chunk light is preferable to white or Albacore--because it is from smaller fish. I like that Monterey Bay Aquarium site. It offers lots of clear information and is well organized with re to different ways of evaluating health and/or environmental risk.

A Nebraska ex-pat with limited equipment cooks shark just like everyone else: in a pan or on the grill--and with the latest health info in mind. Shark is very high up on the list of fish to avoid for two reasons. One, it's the third highest in mercury levels, coming in just below Tilefish and Swordfish. Is there a lot of shark eaten where you are? As a med student it's worth knowing that current recommendation is that children and pregnant women avoid eating shark entirely. Two, it's severely overfished and often caught as a biproduct of fishing methods that are not environmentally sound. That said, I'm sure it looked nice and fresh in that wheelbarrow. A great source of info about fish that are safe and fish to avoid is the Monterey Bay Aquarium site.

Would it help if I supplied the recipe? I have no idea where/what publication it came from. It has a dubious and perhaps alarming quote attributed to Tennessee Williams, which is that the result of making this pie "is good enough to slap your Mama." Perhaps she's the one who was doing the weeping if her own son slapped her. Here it is: after filling the pie shell with the crumb crust, mix 1/2 c lemon juice, 1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk (no help as to size of can and I assume this is sweetened) and 1 egg yolk. Pour that into the pie plate. In another bowl beat 6 egg whites, 1/2 tsp crm of tartar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extr and 3/4 c sugar until stiff white peaks form. Pour over lemon mix and top w/fresh grated lemon zest. Bake in the oven "at moderate heat" (does that mean approx 350 to you?) just long enough for meringue to brown, about 20 minutes. Cool to room temp, put in fridge til "ice-cold." I made this twice (not in the last few years, though), most likely following the recipe, since I don't bake a lot. Needless to say I don't carry a torch. My memory is that it was good, but not exactly right. I do have a vested interest in the filling being tart and not eggy. I try to avoid using a lot of egg yolk. According to some of the comments above, the meringue topping in this recipe has an awful lot of egg white and an imprudent amount of sugar. I would be happy to reduce the suger as well. I am relatively new to eG and don't fully grasp the cook-off thing. How does that work?

The picture of the Banh Mi sandwich in "Into the..." looked so yummy that for my second project with this book I decided to make sandwiches. I've never ordered one of these Vietnamese sandwiches, altho they are certainly available around where I live, so I had nothing to compare it to. I got a very nice piece of pork and started by making Char Siu. It came out almost perfect; the only caveat being that it's important to make sure the cut chunks start out at least 1.5 inches thick when they go in the oven. I think some of mine might have been just a little thinner, so by the time the outside was nice and crisped along the edges the interior of a couple pieces was just a bit overcooked. Next time. I made the simple daikon and carrot pickle using the medium shredder on the cuisinart which turned out just right. For the chicken liver pate, which I was not about to tackle (the kind of cooking I don't like to do--whizzing meat), I found what I think is an excellent one from my local deli: it is very smooth and with a pleasant not too in-your-face chicken liver taste. Then I followed direx, using everything as suggested. Fabulous! One night we used the sliced pork in a tossed noodle salad (more Chinese, really) but for the next two days both my husband and I ate perfect Viet sandwiches for lunch and dinner! All I needed to do was buy one baguette per day and we were set. If the weather wasn't so cold I would have made iced Vietnamese coffee to go with at lunchtime. I love this book. And I got a very sweet email from the author in response to a question and comment about one of the restaurants recommended on her website.

Thanks Renn. That is not the kale I have been buying. I haven't seen it at the Berkeley Farmers Market and my husband, who does the Bowl run, claims he's never seen a label for it there either, but now he will know what to look for. I'm not quite ready to take the ferry for this stuff--yet.

There's a wonderful recipe in Batali's Molto Italiano for a hearty bean soup with cavolo nero or black kale. I've started to vary the recipe, using lentils, black beans, whatever I have. I have not seen anything labeled "Cavolo Nero" here in the East Bay, nor have I seen anything called "dinosaur," so I have been buying the large kale with the very frilly tightly curled leaves. Which kind is that? Will the real cavolo nero please stand up? Could someone post a picture? Anyway the kale I am eating is not bitter at all. I find that adding it to any soup about 25 minutes to half an hour before the end works really well. I made a sort of chili with black beans, leftover smoked ham shank and tossed in a bunch of roughly chopped kale and it was great. I'm going to try some of the ideas above so it can star in its own movie.

I bake brownies a lot. One of the most dependable recipes is the Joy of Cooking Brownies Cockaigne--and I think it's one of the best. If you follow the direx carefully the only thing that can go wrong is if you over or under cook them, which of course isn't the fault of the recipe. The recipe uses melted chocolate, no cocoa. It's old-fashioned bakers chocolate, nothing fancy. I've tried subbing expensive chocolate and like the standard bakers better. The only thing I change routinely is the sugar--I don't like anything too sweet, so I cut back by about 1/3 cup. I like to use a 9 x 13 pan for "chewy and moist" brownies as the recipe suggests instead of a 9 x 9 pan for "cakey." The texture is very good--I like my brownies dense but not gooey or fudgy. I do mess with the ingredients just a bit when I feel bored: sometimes I add a couple of Tbsp of instant espresso to the hot chocolate/butter mixture. Sometimes I add a handful of cocoa nibs or a half cup or less of chopped high quality chocolate at the end when the nuts go in. I might use Valrhona bittersweet orange or a dark mint chocolate. Other than making sure to cool the chocolate/butter mix before adding and to also cool the brownies well before cutting into them, this is a very forgiving recipe and takes kindly to customizing.

For basic brownies I am utterly committed to the Joy of Cooking original recipe for Brownies Cockaigne. I follow the technique religiously and go with a 9 x 13 pan as suggested for "chewy and moist." BUT I do make some alterations. I don't like anything very sweet, so I always cut back on the sugar by about 1/3 cup. Sometimes I add a couple Tbsps espresso powder to the chocolate-butter before it cools (brownies for homework assistance!) I do not find that using high quality chocolate to replace the bakers chocolate is an advantage, but I do chop up a modest amount of good quality dark chocolate and add it when I add the chopped nuts at the end; sometimes I go with flavored chocolate, like Valrhona orange or a dark mint. The Cocoa Nib Brownies came about when my daughter (college student who can't boil water) brought me some Sharffenberger nibs as a gift. Needless to say she had no idea what they were. And I had no idea what to do with them, so we threw in a handful along with the nuts. There was no espresso or additional chocolate in that batch, so it was a good test. The result was excellent, though no one could have guessed what was in the brownies. There's a great thread of food quotes on eG and someone is quoted as saying "Mo' buttah, mo' bettah." When it comes to chocolate my motto is "Mo bittah, mo' bettah."

Thanks Susan, that recipe uses pretty much the same technique as mine, altho the filling has more egg yolk and the meringue less egg white and less sugar. I can't remember exactly how mine was (I haven't made it for years) but the meringue must be awfully high and corrosively sweet with 6 egg whites and 3/4 c sugar! I think I will try yours. It turns out that my husband's memory of this pie isn't exactly like mine (what else is new?) and he now wants lemon buttermilk sorbet and cocoa nib brownies for his birthday dinner. That's good, since I can make brownies in my sleep and he's Mr. Sorbet. Frankly I'm relieved: I was having a hard time imagining how sparkler candles would fare stuck into a meringue. Unless the meringue turned into cement, but then... Now that I am fixated on this icebox pie clearly it will happen in the not too distant future.

That's a good idea. If memory serves it did weep, so perhaps baking the meringue after refrigerating instead of before refrigerating would help. Strictly speaking that would really make it not an icebox pie and it would not be eaten cold. I did a little research and it sounds to me like this pie is really a lemon mutation of a key lime pie w/meringue, which is baked twice as you suggest. Refrigerating in between trips to the oven would be unnecessary but convenient, no? It makes sense that on becoming an icebox pie the pastry crust was dropped in favor of a crumb crust. When I googled Lemon Icebox Pie very few recipes included a meringue topping, so I think my Tennessee Williams Lemon Icebox Pie may be of quirky origin. Maybe he invented it during an August heat wave, when you want your head in the fridge along with your pie. Enough bourbon and who cares if your pie is weeping--you're probably weeping too.

I have a so-so recipe for this pie and I am looking to improve it for a birthday dinner party. Anyone know this one? My recipe uses a crust of crushed vanilla wafers and salted butter (!) which I have changed to a basic graham cracker crust. The filling is simple: lemon juice, condensed milk and one egg yolk; then a meringue on top. It bakes til the meringue is browned, like 20 minutes, then it cools, then into the fridge it goes til very cold. The lemon layer is quite tart, which I like, but the resulting pie isn't very dependable structurally, and sometimes it's better than other times. It usually tastes far better than it looks. Maybe the meringue part needs improvement? That's 6 egg whites, 1/2 tsp cr of tartar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extr and 3/4 c sugar beaten to stiff peaks. I'm not much of a baker so my meringue experience is very limited. Any suggestions or recipes out there? The rest of the menu is moderately southern and I definitely want a lemony dessert. These are old old friends who have had my OTHER lemony desserts many times. Oh, since the pie is supposed to be chilled very well, would it suffer if I made it the night before?

Thanks Terra! According to Wiki, bergamot is a cross between something called a "pear lemon" and a seville orange--or grapefruit--so even they don't exactly know. They do seem confident on where it's grown: Calabria, Italy, and apparently no other place on earth produces a good one. They are available in our favorite market here in the Bay Area for less than a month each year, and that's now. Outside of my first batch of marmalade and the drink my husband and I invented (at least we like to think so) called the Bergamotini, I only know that flavor from Earl Grey tea, which is usually made with bergamot oil--I assume from the rind. That unique flavor must be inherited mostly from the pear lemon (whatever that is) and the Calabrian soil, since no sevilles or grapefruits hint at anything like that. The Bergamotini is based on the "Leap Year Cocktail" from the Savoy, which is misleading since it implies it's only available every four years and which uses lemon--certainly available year-round in the UK, altho perhaps it was invented on a British warship where they broke out the lemons very rarely. Clearly I don't know what I'm talking about. Our proportions were as follows: juice of approx 15 small sevilles, 1 meyer lemon, 1 bergamot and one half regular lemon. The cut peel included only half the bergamot peel and no regular lemon peel. As you noted, it was indeed tart. That must have been due to the half lemon and the very stingy amount of sugar used. We tend to under-sugar everything. Dunno what happened to me when I was pregnant 20 years ago. I couldn't get enough sour, and it stuck. And by the way, Terra, your marmalade was quite good, so I hope when you say "evil" you mean that in the best possible way.

Rude, I agree. Let this one go! Life is too short. Free dishwater tea is a given; if you are served something better it's a nice surprise. If you are charged for the bad tea, that's annoying, but so it goes. Order a beer, drink the water. Often the tea isn't just bad it's lukewarm, but you can ask for a hot pot without being insulting--and give a nice tip to show you appreciated the reheat. Maybe the next folks through the door will benefit. Drink whatever it is and enjoy the food!

And don't forget to take an old chianti bottle and stick a drip candle in it! I would go with the clam smoothie for lunch and this for a romantic dinner. A little ambience and voila--Sexy canned clams! Oh, does anyone have any insight about why canned clams might have more iron than fresh? I hate to think it's something leaching out of the can... or is it just a quantity thing?

My secret love is the Belgian chocolate made by Neuhaus. Their plain dark bar is very very good; I don't know the cocoa percentage. For eating I usually like something in the 64-75 percent. Valrhona seems nice for cooking. Altho I am not a big baker, I do like to add it to brownies to bump up the chocolate factor. I certainly wouldn't be unhappy if someone gave me any of the french bars mentioned upthread. I think Green & Blacks makes a pretty good product too; I like their unsweetened organic cocoa for hot chocolate or baking. Altho Sharffenberger is local to me I find it lacking in....emotion. Does that make any sense?

I spent about two years when, for some strange reason, those New Zealand whites were the only ones I drank. I liked them when they tasted like grass. I drank them with just about anything except red meat, which I pretty much wasn't eating at that time. By some quirk of fate I developed a congruent fondness for risotto ("Oh...risotto again?"). The bottle was opened just as I started the onion sauteing. The first glass went into the pot after the rice cooked for a minute. The next glass was consumed during the annoying stirring/broth adding time. The third glass my husband drank when he got home and got the cheese-grating job. The second half of the second bottle was my cocktail hour the following night--it's very good with salty peanuts! And fish. Or even creamed spinach. But you are having high summer right now, so I would make a date with a dozen oysters and a hot porch and a very cold bottle. Then I would put some shrimp on the barbie. Wait--I''ll be there in 14 hours! It's dark and windy and rainy here in CA. My Sauvignon Blanc/risotto phase was about ten years ago and I thought the value of those wines was great. The prices have really gone up here the last few years, so you're lucky...cheers!

Congrats! After the first three months (when I could barely keep a cracker down) I really started to enjoy myself. The only thing I was religious about was the no caffeine thing. I drank wine once in a while, on special occasions or when I really couldn't resist. I ate almost everything and I gave in to my deepest craving, which was anything really sour: grapefruits that would make your teeth curl, sour candies, etc. I went to Japanese restaurants and ordered a whole plate of pickles. I also went through a month of BBQ rib cravings, which is something I almost never eat. I tried to avoid raw fish sushi, but did break down a couple of times (and only at a popular place with high turnover where I knew the fish was best quality and fresh.) I did eat a lot of grilled eel sushi. My daughter is 19. She drinks moderately at college and loves Japanese food. I'm in the coincidence camp. If your instincts tell you not to eat something, go with that. Not necessarily because it's bad for your baby, but mostly because you don't want to eat anything that might cause regret or worry later. There's nothing you can't live without for nine months, so enjoy eating for two. I'm not sure such indulgence is worth emulating, but Candice Bergen, who was married to the director Louis Malle, was living in goose country in France during her pregnancy. Yup, she gained 60 pounds and it must have been fun. I wouldn't eat raw eggs, but I don't eat them anyway. And I do concur about mercury. Stay away from tuna (canned or otherwise I think) or other mercury-laden fish. As for nursing, I envied moms with plenty of milk. I couldn't keep up with my kid, and I discovered that beer was my savior: nothing lets down milk like a glass of beer. Does my daughter like beer? Yes, but not to excess. And she likes good beer, not swill. So stay away from Bud Lite.

I think of Cambazola (blue brie) as a good blue to introduce to those who don't like strong blues. Also very mild is Blue Castello from Denmark--creamy (triple-cream I think) and easy to like. Of the milder blues I think Saint Agur is a knockout cheese: creamy, mild and pricey, if I remember. I've taken to eating my Stilton with mostarda, but the fresh pears are really good right now. I can easily make a meal of Stilton, pear and ale. For heart-stopping decadence I used to put a very thin layer of sweet butter on the cracker and top that with Stilton. I'm pretty sure I only did that in private. I also tried something recently that I saw a mouth-watering picture of in a magazine (dunno which): a chunk of blue cheese drizzled with honey and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. Not bad with a blue strong enough to stand up to the honey, altho I'll stick with my mostarda.

My new favorite is Belgian Chocolate. it's like regular chocolate ice cream with ground cocoa nibs in it. probably the least sweet chocolate ice cream i've ever tasted. I loved Mayan chocolate at first taste, but I thought the fudge swirl made it waaay too sweet. ← Belgian Choc sounds good. I'm not a huge ice cream fan--mostly I find it too sweet. When I do get a yen, like in hot weather, my pick is always HD Coffee. The vanilla is my standard for a la mode. A long time ago--like maybe 15 or 16 years?--HD came out with a flavor called Cappucino Commotion. Anybody remember that? It knocked me out. It had a bold coffee/espresso flavor, a little cinnamon, maybe something more....it was really really good; sadly, a flavor before it's time. They yanked it as soon as I became addicted. If they had any brains they would have brought that one back when Starbucks started producing ice cream.

Thanks to all on this inspiring thread who recommended Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I did in fact receive it for a holiday gift and last night made my first recipe: chicken, lemongrass and potato curry. Instructions were clear and it was very easy. I admit to tweaking a bit by adding some Kale for the last 15 minutes of cooking, since I had some in the fridge and wanted something green. I used the lesser quantity of coconut milk, added some white breast meat cooked for a shorter amount of time to please my finicky daughter. It was delicious. I am already planning my next meal. Since I have to make a major shopping expedition to Chinatown I'm curious to know what people on this thread prefer in the way of fish sauce. There is a fish sauce thread that is not Vietnamese specific in which there is some bashing of "Three Crabs" for it's additives, although Andrea Nguyen seems to like it. Which one do you like for Vietnamese food? Nguyen implies that imports direct from Vietnam--which would be the best--are hard to come by. Is that your experience?

Yum I agree, these peppers have an affinity for tuna. You may not use up a whole jar this way, but I like ttry a simple rice salad with either leftover cooked fresh tuna (or good quality canned) and a generous amount of slivered peppers. I add minced red onion, capers, celery, radish, parsley, toasted pine nuts, whatever. For a dressing I use Spanish sherry wine vinegar, a little of the tuna oil, maybe a little of the pepper oil and some good olive oil. To finish dust with smoked paprka if you like that flavor. This makes a great emergency dinner--if I can remember to keep a jar of roasted peppers around.