[Favorite cooking aromas?]

anything on a charcoal grill, or even just the charcoal. Freshly toasted sesame seeds being ground in a mortar and pestle, onions, veal stock, coffee even though I never have had it, and a fresh out of the oven graham cracker crust. List could be endless.

[Potatoes in Chinese Cooking]

I work in a classic chinese restaurant, and the only potato we use is sweet potatoes. I make a dumping out of them, cooking the potato, mashing, then mixing with rice flour and fill it with curried pork. It is fried until dark golden brown, and is delicious. A woman I work with says the sweet potato with curried meat is popular in Taiwan, and some parts of SE China. Regular potatoes have yet to make an appearance

[What are "salt potatoes"?]

Here in New England they are mandatory with steamers or a clambake. Well, for me anyways, and the people I grew up around. Steamers, salt potatoes, butter and corn are the ingredients that make summer. Ahhhhh.

[Tiny Thai, Winooski VT]

I live right next door and thoroughly enjoy eating there. At lunch they have a "tasty trio" which is a beverage, app/soup and lunch sized entree. It's $7-9 for that, I can't remember exactly. Good deal and BYOB.

[Comfort food]

I'd say chicken and biscuits, chowder or chili with fresh bread/oyster crackers, mashed potatoes with any meat-roast, ham, steak, a chicken- bowl of beef pho, my step-mother's blueberry buckle and pizelles on Christmas morning, or any time for that matter

[Parmigiano Reggiano -using the rind]

Using rinds to make a broth-and you can make two broths out of the same rinds, the flavor still comes out- and using that broth instead of chicken stock makes a slammin' risotto, especially for vegetarians.

[Ostrich Eggs]

ostrich eggs have pretty much the same taste as a chicken egg, just a lot larger. They shouldn't be smelly, maybe the one the lioness was eating was no longer being taken care of and had turned. Yeah, from my experience, they taste the same. You need to drill a hole into it and scramble the egg inside the egg so it will come out. The shell is very thick. I'm sure it could be cut open with a dremel tool, but I've only seem a chopstick or skewer inserted into the hole to scramble and help drain it. Hope this helps. If I had one at the local market I would buy one, if of course it was less than 10 dollars. How much are they asking per egg?

[A walk down memory lane in Burlington, VT]

I live in Winooski and work in a Burlington restaurant. I love Al's, especially for their prices, but have grown to love the cheapness but great bar food at Vermont Pub and Brewery. The toad in the hole is a must have. I have especially grown fond of all the Vietnamese restaurants popping up, most are just great. Plenty of new restaurants, but the some of the great old ones do still remain.

[Cooking as a Career]

You are still very young, and although I am only 29, I have been doing this for almost ten years. It seemed like a good idea, but after climbing the ladder to chef, I got out quickly, as I had no time for family, myself, or even holidays, which are all important. I have started college again, to major in food science/dietetics/nutrition, so I will still have a career based around food, but I will hopefully give my knees and back some time to heal before I become too old. I am still cooking full time while in school, and I do love this job I am in more than any other job I have ever had, but I have no responsibility. So the money is livable, but if you want to make over 35k a year, you will have no life, unless you work for corporate or state kitchens. Always remember that you can change your profession at any time. Knowing how to cook in a professional kitchen, and do it well, is a skill that will always get you a job.

[Eggplant Marinated in Oil]

I worked at an authentic southern Italian restaurant, and we served a sandwich with the marinated eggplant on it, as well as put it on the antipasti plate. Peel eggplant, slice as thin as possible with a knife, we used a slicer, about as thin as a cotton shirt. If it is too thin, it will disintigrate when the vinegar solution is added. You will need enough liquid to cover the sliced eggplant, so make a mixture of 1:1 water to white vinegar. Add whole garlic cloves, oregano, chili pepper, bring to boil, add to eggplant, let sit at room temp overnight. Strain, squeeze, add olive oil, ground garlic, chili flake, oregano, touch of salt. Mix and refrigerate. As long as it covered with oil, it will last indefinately! Can even be jarred/canned. Enjoy! Add a touch of salt to vinegar solution if desired, and the solution can be reused, it just needs to be fortified with more vinegar and whole garlic.

[I need to make an all-purple dish]

How about a ravioli dyed with beet juice, purple potato juice, or blueberries for color. A Ukranian dish of purple pierogy(dyed with beet juice) Filled with Purple potato and farmer's cheese with some juice mixed in. Our family has potato and farmer's cheese pierogy every christmas eve. Plums retain their color as well, even after cooking. Where I work we make dumpling skins with beet juice and fill them with beef and beets. A total purple appetizer.

[Systematically educating your palate]

I just watched a NovaScience now episode about the science of taste. A study of elementary school children was done to see which kids could taste a certain bitter chemical found in broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. Their mouths were swabbed, and the scientists tested their DNA, and determined which kids could taste bitter, which couldn't and which could taste it a little. They administered a clear liquid with the bitter extract in it, and the kids all reacted the way the scientists thought. Also discussed in the episode was why we eat so many simple carbs, and in turn become overweight. Simple carbs provide immense amounts of energy, and thousands of years ago, if we were to come across, say strawberries, we would eat all of them, and store the rest of the energy. Never knew when such an energy source would become available again. But fast food simple sugars are so plentiful and our bodies haven't evolved yet, so we continue to "need" them.