torakris
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Posts posted by torakris
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torakris - What an excellent post. Tell me, why didn't the use of spices fade in Asian countries like India and Thailand? How come the de-spicing of cuisine is a European phenomenon?
Most of the Asians countries are where these "foreign spices" are indigenous plants, thus they have fused them selves to the culture, and simply if they are growing all around you and taste good why not use them? Also a lot of these areas are tropical climates whose peoples are still living not much different then their ancestors and food preservation technigues are still utilized out of necessity.
In Europe is was mostly the nouveau-riche of the middle ages that brought the spices into fashion, they were new and exotic and only affordable by them., but eventually the novelty wore off and they moved back into more moderate spice usage. Preferring those spices which were native to Europe.
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taro has many varieties, the kalo used in Hawaii for poi (and taro chips) is quite large and purple.
The satoimo in Japan are small (golf abll size and a little bigger) and round to oval in shape, there is another variety in Japan that is called kyoimo that is bigger but longer, closer to the size of kalo but white in color.
My husband and I used to live on Maui and I had a hard time with poi the first couple of times but soon learned to love it!
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Thanks! I will give that a try.
I have tons of mung bean noodle, I keep picking up a pack thinking I am not when I am really not?!
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by the way,
I love spices and I can't eat foods unless they have been quite heavily spiced.
the thought of eating a baked potato with nothing on it...............................
I can't even go there!
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Even setting peppercorns aside, spicing is not restricted to cuisines which developed in hot climates. The food of Eastern Europe and Russia uses spices. German food makes some use of spices, as does Scandinavian. I don't know much about the indigenous foods of the northern part of North America. But spicing doesn't seem to be a hot climate thing. Most cuisines feature spices.
The historical development which, to an extent, drives this discussion, is that French, British and Italian cuisines, all of which once used a lot of spice, largely stopped doing so.* Why? (Oh, I'm sure I've read books about this, but it's Friday afternoon - somebody spoon feed me).
* Edit: Hard though it is to believe, even I'm talking nonsense now. If anyone runs their eye over a list of spcies, as I was just doing, you'll realize how widely used spices are in all those cuisines, even today.
This is quite an interesting thread for someone with an anthropological background (such as me!
)My main study is of Asia where spices were used as preseving agents (mostly salt and pepper) and to cover up the taste of food that had gone bad (the more aromatic spices as well as herbs).
As for as Europe, salt had been used as a preservative pretty much since humans started eating, and pepper had been used by the Romans. "foreign spices" started coming around the middle ages (mostly from India and the Moluccas) As these were expensive they were used more or less depending on social rank and beyond banquets they were presented to heads of stae, used in dowries, and even could be traded in the palce of gold.
By the end of the Middle Ages the demand for spices rose to new heights and thus the age of discovery began.
Between the 11th and 17th century spices dominated European taste, then at the end of this time spices lost there supremacy in world trad due mainly to the fact that the market was satured. The highly seasoned dishes, once a sign of high social ranking, no longer appealed to the European palate. With the French leading the way European cuisine became like the one we are familiar with today, much more moderate in its use of spices.
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made something last night that was bettter than laab! (hope this doesn't get me kicked out of this thread
) I guess you could call it salmon laab if you really wanted to, basically the same ingredients (chillies, shallots, nampla, lime, sugar, coriander, mint) it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts instead of roasted rice.
A piece of salmon is marinated in soy sauce, left to dry on a rack, then seared until rare and flaked into the salad with salmon roe (ikura).
Check out he dinner thread for more info!
you're dismissed.
but actually, that's not much unlike another larb-like dish. i forget the name. but i think it's on the thread somewhere. as i recall, jason perlow had it and posted, and i turned out that i happened upon it the same day.
anything larb-like is good (and that includes yum woon sen, my second favorite dish).
I was quite worried I may have lost my goods standing among the followers of the laab thread!
Please elaborate for the unknowing, what is yum woon sen?
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they are normally a blue-ish grey color, though it was hard to tell because of the red sauce.
They are round and look like tiny crabs (pinchers and all), I honestly don't know if I could have eaten them if they resembled cockroaches.
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made something last night that was bettter than laab! (hope this doesn't get me kicked out of this thread
) I guess you could call it salmon laab if you really wanted to, basically the same ingredients (chillies, shallots, nampla, lime, sugar, coriander, mint) it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts instead of roasted rice.
A piece of salmon is marinated in soy sauce, left to dry on a rack, then seared until rare and flaked into the salad with salmon roe (ikura).
Check out he dinner thread for more info!
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I just pulled out my noritama pack and read the label, wow!
27 ingredients (and that is counting all of the various fish and meat extracts as one!)
I don't even know what some of those Japnese ingredients are, of course I probably wouldn't be familiar with the English equivalent either.
Oh I love poke! need to make it again soon!
I always avoided putting the furikake on it because I don't really care for it.
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Thursday night dinner:
the last day of my Thai Food marathon
pomelo salad --this was actually so bad it wasn't even touched, the dried shrimp was overpowering.
kamja namul --stirfried potatoes with a soy-kochujang sauce sprinkled with shiso (Ok this was Thain but i just got a new book Essentials of Asian Cuisine and had to try it out. Wonderful the kids really loved it)
cucumber salad with a sesame dressing (Ok this wasn't Thaineither but since the pomelo salad was so bad I needed something to make up for it, and this was quick)
the hilight of the evening (everybody turn your books to page 358)
salmon and roe salad-- this was incredible (and the picture does it no justice) --a piece of salmon is marinated then left to dry, later it is seared to rare (I used a griddle pan) then flaked and tossed with nampla, lime, sugar, chilies, shallots, mint, coriander, peanuts, and salmon roe.
This was the kind of dish that you eat in a restaurant and then go home and just can't get it out of your mind, so you end up at the restaurant agin the next night thinking you would never be able to create it at home, well the good news is that you can and it is relatively simple.
This may very well be my dish of the year!
Anyway to dessert:
Mia, Julia and I made some cookies very highly adapted from their new children's cookbook.
We cut shapes (flowery) out of frozen puff pastry, then with a rolling pin slightly falttened them while at the same time coating the bottoms with a mixture of crushed hazelnuts and sugar. These were then baked and then after cooling the plain side was spread with nutella and and another cookie was palced on top.
These wer really good!
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I too, was on the great tiramisu search about 10 years ago (not in NY though), every time my boyfriend and I traveled if tiramisu was on the menu I always ordered it. It got to the point that we we only go to Italian restaurants because I had to have it. The sad thing is I always came away disappointed, it never matched my expectations.
then I made it myself one day.....
I will never eat it in a restaurant again!
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I agree with Margaret, taro is especially good with simmered (nimono) style foods.
I haven't seen them in dessert form in Japan yet, but then again I haven't eaten everything!
and I tend to prefer western sweets. -
Tonight I tossed asparagus with evoo and kosher salt then wrapped them in thinly sliced smoked prosciutto. A wonderful heaven.
were they cooked?
before or after the wrapping?
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what? moist not dry buns, filling heavy on the pork rather than fillers though some pieces aof shiitake, bamboo shoots, etc are a welcome addition, filling also moist rather than dry.
where?
Almost any vendor in Yokohama's Chinatown (sorry have never beent o any other China towns and the ones sold in Japanese supermarkets can be quite bad)
steamed, definitely steamed.
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Yuzu-cha is a Korean product that is becoming very popular in Japan. It is similar to a marmalade (it usually contains, thin slices of yuzu, yuzu juice, sugar and honey) and can be used similarly, though it tastes great drunk as a tea.
In Japan it can be found at some large supermarkets, "international" type superkarkets or other import stores as well as at the kimchi counter of most department store basements. Outside of Japan I have never had a problem finding it in a Korean grocery.
Yuzu cha looks like this (sorry Japanese website, couldn't find anything in English):
http://www.hokuchin.co.jp/webkounosyoyuzucha.htm
As the the mushi pan mixes I have not used them in a year or two, but I think you just add some like water and then steam them. I have recently noticed some package specifically for the microwave, but have no intention of giving them a try.
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Lat night we just finsihed off the crab kimchi.
These tiny freshwater crabs about the size of a large thumb are kimchi-d whole, claws and all.
They were incredibly sweet and the combination with the spicinesss was incredible.
I may have cut my tongue i na couple places trying to chew the claws but it was worth it!
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Made it last night
Thai Food version
Excellent
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Has anyone ever used furikake as an ingredient in a marinade?
I can't find it now but I ran across 2 recipes a couple days ago (in either a Thai or Chinese cookbook) that called for furikake as a marinade ingredient.
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I was at the supermarket yesterday and noticed the kewpie bacon-mayo on the shelf, closer inspection of the product revealed it is a "seasonal" product, since when is bacon seasonl?
It is a "spicy" flavor with lots of black pepper, I was almost tempted to give it a try, but passed.
I ahve had the tuna-mayo at my MIL's house and it was quite nasty!
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Weds night, still working from Thai Food:
laab --served with red leaf lettuce and cucumbers for scooping
rice noodles with chicken and Chinese broccoli
leftover crab kimchi
1/4 of a head of tuna (given to us by my FIL), sprinkled with salt and pepper and broiled
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mushi pan are truely wonderful. I wasa ctually going to make these 2 days ago but never got around to it.
I don't know anyone who makes them from scratch, since the instant mixes are quite good.
The only recipeI have (and the one I was going to make) is for yuzu-cha (Japanese citron "tea") mushi pan, I'll give them a try today and let you know how they go.
mushi pan and meron (melon) pan, my two addictions.
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butter on pop tarts?
eeeewwwww!
I like them best straight out of the box! no toaster for me.
I almost cried the first time I gave my (born and raised in Japan) children a pop tart and they didn't like it.
How could they not love it? I begged for them as a child
They didn't like kool-aid either.
I see these both as good things now!
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Tuesday dinner:
sprouted mung bean soup with sesame seeds and a splash of sesame oil
panko breaded and deep fried fish with lemon wedges
wild mushroom salad with lime-nampla-cilantro-mint (from Thai Food)
chijimi (Korean savory pancake) with garlic chives and pork served with a kochujang-soy-sesame dipping sauce
crab kimchi --tiny whole crabs about the size of a large thumb, kimchi-d, this was purchased
Dinner! 2003
in Cooking
Posted
Friday night, my husband had a dinner meeting so I made a quick dinner for the kids and I:
iridofu --"scrambled" tofu with green beans, carrots and dried shiitake seasoned with soy-sugar-dashi
liver and garlic chive saute
Japanese rice
dessert:
bought icecream