Human Bean

Um, er, silicone is used in things like Silpats and breast implants. Silicon dioxide is very different. But, that said, a very quick google search of heat capacity for water vs. silicon dioxide showed conflicting units, so I gave up... I think that sand has a greater heat capacity than water, but I'm not sure. Heat capacity of breast implants is (ahem) left as an exercise for the reader.

Lump charcoal burns hotter and faster than briquets. Lump charcoal is essentially pure carbon; there are basically no volatile flavoring components in it. Briquets have lots of junk in them - binders, sometimes coal dust, sawdust, and possibly other things. These additives will add flavors that plain charcoal won't (but the worst possible 'additive' is charcoal lighter fluid - never ever use that, unless you want to ruin the food). My favorite brand of briquet, Royal Oak, has plainly visible sawdust in it, which helps add some flavor when I'm not using chips of some kind. I'm only doing grilling at the moment, not barbecue but real barbecue in an offset smoker or pit generally uses wood, not charcoal of either kind. For a water smoker, it's probably easier to use briquets (I used to have an electric bullet smoker that I hated).

Returning for the moment to the subject of the original post, I have a bottle of "VANDEVI COMPOUNDED ASAFOETIDA." It's in a yellow plastic bottle and is diluted with gum arabic, wheat, rice flour, and turmeric. If I hold my nose right next to the bottle, I can smell the asafoetida, but not otherwise. If I open the lid, it's certainly potent enough. The perfume hasn't made it's presence known over a large area. I've never had a problem with cooked (or raw, in moderation) asafoetida; it seems to be one of those things like durian or fish sauce that smells not so good but tastes fine.

Not really of interest to those outside of Portland's "boring western 'burbs," but anyway... Looks like it's New Seasons for me now. I went to the Beaverton Natures (er, Wild Oats) today for some flax oil, vitamins, and hardwood charcoal. Oops; they're going out of business. Not much left there, even though they're supposed to be open until the end of the month. The assistant manager manning the register said that there was more competition at that site than at any other of their stores. Well, Trader Joes is across the multi-lane highway, but that isn't really the same; he also mentioned GNC, which has lots of vitamins and stuff, but they're grotesquely overpriced. I cannot say whether the Wild Oats buyout of Natures had anything to do with this, but it might be a factor. This is kind of sad; back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Natures was semi-militantly organic, and staffed by genuine (ex-)hippies. More recently, employees have tended towards gen-Y people with lots of tattoos, and that's fine. My only complaint is that they were close and had what I wanted, which was either not available or too expensive elsewhere. So, looks like New Seasons in Hillsboro gets my business now. Interestingly, the assistant manager mentioned that New Seasons was started by ex-Natures people that somehow managed to avoid a no-compete clause when they left.

Quite so; I do have window screens, and living on the ground floor tends to make the flying-kitty scenario less likely, but the attempting-to-escape at the first opportunity thing still exists. My front door is adjacent to the kitchen, so opening that door is very helpful if there's a danger of the smoke alarm going off; I've managed to devise barriers thus far that have been successful in keeping the cat inside. Edit: Because I felt like it.

Thanks; I'm quite sure you're right. I know about activated charcoal, and the idea that a dishwasher would do it any good is quite absurd. Unfortunately, locating another charcoal pad for this filter would be approximately equal to locating another complete filter assembly for this hood, and as I mentioned before, I'm too laz...er, I mean, busy to do that. Nonetheless, it's worth a try, and I'll have a look. Thanks also to phaelon56 for the same suggestion. Looks like I have some work to do, and I'd recommend the same to others in this situation.

Fair enough; I retract that part. After skimming through again, I'm not really sure what I was thinking about at the time. Now that I've seen ExtraMSG's pics, that's readily apparent. And I guess it IS May now, so more and more stuff should be becoming available. I think I've been too busy to actually pay attention to trivialities like what month it is. Sigh.

I've followed all the whining (and praise) these past few days; I had no idea that the Portland Farmer's market was open this soon, given that there really isn't all that much local produce available this early in the season. With that, it still seems like I'm missing out on some good stuff; I like good 'que, but am indifferent to pastry and chocolates (sorry). Even though I'll probably have to work on Saturday/Sunday, I guess I'll have to make it to the market.

I'm someone else who, er, feels your pain, so to speak. After moving from a house with real kitchen ventilation, I'm stuck in an apartment with a similar non-ventilation situation. There's a hood with a fan that blows through a wire-mesh filter(?) then a thin activated charcoal pad and back into the kitchen. I haven't had problems with excess hydrocarbon residue outside the kitchen, but I've had to disconnect the smoke alarm occasionally, before it told me what I already knew. Looking at the 'filter,' it says, "To clean, flush monthly in warm detergent solution." Okay, sounds like a good idea, and I haven't done it yet. I think I'll try the dishwasher; I don't know if it would do any good or harm to the charcoal, but finding a replacement filter seems like too much work. I'm still limited in my ability to deep-fry; the oil smell lingers too long even if not making a noticeable deposit on the surroundings. And opening all the doors and windows has certain problems when you have a cat that is officially retired to indoors, but still thinks that going outside is a good thing.

Oh, I almost forgot about slugs. I've read/heard that copper wire or tape at ground level around the beds makes slugs sufficiently uncomfortable that they won't cross it. I've never tied this. The stale beer trap is also supposed to work. I've had good luck with the 'pet-safe' slug bait though, which AFAIR uses iron compounds to kill the obnoxious beasts without harming any pets that might happen to drop by and be a bit peckish. [Of course, the local pets might also be classified as 'obnoxious beasts,' but I was referring to slugs above. If local cats take too much of an interest in your garden, as a last resort, you might try duct tape, adhesive-side up, on the ground; this should prove highly effective, but your cat-owning neighbor might disagree after seeing the results. ]

I can add an enthusiastic recommendation for Steve Solomon's "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" (originally "Growing Organic Vegetables West of the Cascades", you might find the older version at the library; both are good, but the original version had a bit more about organic growing). This book has more useful information about growing vegetables in the Northwest than I ever thought I'd need; it's also useful for other areas. It's a standard reference; buy it, or at least try the local library, and wait for it to become available if necessary. As for seed sources, Territorial Seeds is a company founded by Steve Solomon, and dedicated to varieties that do well in the Northwest. though their test garden (in Lorraine, Oregon) seems to be a bit warmer than in Portland or further north. In Portland, my local Natures/Wild Oats has seed racks from Territorial; YMMV elsewhere. I've had good luck with seeds from Territorial. Another seed source recommended in the book is Johnny's Selected Seeds. Although they're located in Maine, the book says that their varieties should do well in the Northwest. I've never tried their seeds, so I cannot comment on them. I've also used Ed Hume seeds before without problems; they seem a bit mass-market though. (I think they sell okra seeds, which might be a bit too tropical for the Northwest). I can add another enthusiastic recommendation for Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon; a very good source for herb seeds, as well as vegetables. They're mail-order only AFAIK, but they're another excellent source for seeds that do well in the Northwest.

I was very surprised when my grandmother told me that in my childhood, before I can remember it, I apparently said, "Shrimp not 'licious." Today they're one of my faves. (Scampi-style shrimp is comfort food).

I use it for heating; cooking, dunno? In fact, just moments ago, I used it to melt butter to put on my Reuben sandwich for dinner. (Yum). I often use the nuker to speed defrosting also. But cooking? Does popcorn count??? Edit: Drain Bamage

Agreed on the taste part, unpleasant personal associations aside. I once had a fan of Yukon Jack suggest that I try it. Same damn stuff as far as I was concerned. No emesis from the Yukon, but it was still nasty.

Although not completely relevant, I find the vomiting = never again thing to occur quite often with liquor overdoses. For a lot of people it seems to be tequila for some reason; for me, I still can't drink Southern Comfort, even though I was quite young at the time, and it was a long time ago. The second part reminds me of a story that my (Chinese) ex- told me about a time not long after she came to the US. She prepared a roast chicken, with head (and feet?) intact. Her American guests were horrified. I wasn't there, so I don't quite know the full details, but I think she hastily amputated the unexpected parts and disposed of them.

I've always assumed that Brooke Bond (Lipton yellow also?) is basically Assam, but it's probably a blend of stuff to assure a consistent taste. It's been quite awhile since I've had a really good Assam, so I can't really compare.

Woohoo! I just got a Shun 10" chefs knife. It certainly feels and looks awesome; no reason to think it won't work just as well, but time will tell. I've done 95% of my everyday cutting with a 7" stainless Chinese cleaver, which is also awesome though without much aesthetic value, and had considered a good chef's knife for awhile to see how it might substitute for the ol' reliable cleaver. Even though the knife is made in Japan, Kershaw (the importer) is local (Oregon), and they're sponsoring Caprial's (Oregon chef) latest PBS show, so local chauvinism suggested I give it a try. I wasn't going to buy a knife without being able to handle it first (note below about Global) and I found a local retailer that had the knives (at full retail price, grrrr), but I'd pay the premium over mail-order since actually being able to try the knife for fit before purchase is more important than getting the best price. I got the 8" chefs knife, brought it home, and decided it was too small, even though it was longer than any everyday knife I'd used before. The 10" seems like a winner, even though it also seems huge at the moment. Mathematically, it doesn't seem like two inches would make much difference, but it really does. I don't consider out-of-the box sharpness as particularly important; a good sharpener makes it irrelevant. Nonetheless, it was quite sharp as shipped, but will still probably take a ride on the Edgepro. (Knife geek stuff: readily shaved hair and the rubber band test had at least two pieces on the first try, one piece (cut the rubber band) on a second and third try. The guy at the store decided to slice a piece of paper at the store to demonstrate it's sharpness; ugh! Cutting paper is hard on an edge, but I guess it impresses the rubes). While I was at the store, I tried a Global 10" knife, since they also had those. It didn't seem to fit my hand quite right in a pinch grip, and the handle seemed slippery (the slippery handle seems to be a common criticism of the Global knives; I could possibly overlook that if it weren't for the fact that it just didn't feel right in my hand). Sigh; I still prefer any Japanese knife I've tried to any of the German ones; definitely a case of YMMV.

Around here, Lipton green label and Brooke Bond are readily available; I haven't seen Lipton yellow label yet. Lipton green label seems to be cheap Darjeeling; it's okay but certainly nothing special. Brooke Bond is...weird. I don't really like it much at all. I'm not even sure what it's made of; instead of leaves, it seems to consist of tea dust somehow 'glued' (well, clumped) together into crumb-like particles. Very strange looking and not particularly pleasant-tasting, to me anyway, but given it's apparent popularity I guess I'm in a minority for not liking it. I drink my tea straight; no milk, lemon, sugar, spices, etc, BTW.

I can't think of any canned or jarred salsas that I particularly liked. Herdez Salsa Casera was almost okay, but WAAAY oversalty, IIRC. And none of them are particularly hot - to me anyway. Almost the only pre-made salsas I've bought in the last few years are more-or-less locally made salsa fresca in a plastic tub from the refrigerated section of the market. And most of those are not that great, just better than the overcooked jarred stuff. Chips? Tostitos, whatever. It's too much work to fry them myself, and my kitchen ventilation is essentially non-existent, so the oil smell lingers for days.

Okay, you'll be at Jantzen Beach; that's roughly equivalent to saying that you'll land at Kennedy, and want to see NYC, even though the distance is smaller. Jantzen Beach isn't especially close to Portland via mass transit, AFAIK. There is a Max (commuter train) from the airport to downtown, but I don't know about Jantzen Beach access to the train. (I commute on Max every work day, and am reasonably familiar with it). Given your limited time, I think a car might be your best bet for exploration in Portland, even given the tragically limited parking downtown. Once you're in the city (downtown), most restaurants are within a mile or two, but the city is divided by the Willamette (Wi'-lam'-ett, not Will-a-mett' river, and Oregon is Ory-gun, not Ora-gone, BTW) river, and although downtown is on the west side of the river, much of the funkier stuff is on the east side (Caprials' bistro, for example, if you happen to be PBS fans). Mass transit is good, but perhaps not as good as NYC if you want to pack the maximum experience into the minimum time. You're unlikely to be mugged in Portland, but you might be panhandled, depending on where you go. (I guess I've just blown my chance for that job at the tourist board. ) Hope this helps, and feel free to ask for better advice.

Random tidbits, all IMHO: I don't generally eat canned soup, except while ill or unsurpassedly lazy. I don't have any on hand at the moment, but I have lots of chicken stock (and some pho broth) in the freezer. Campbells condensed is uniformly awful, unless you happen to like colorful, extremely salty water. I don't eat their cream-of- stuff at all, so I have no opinion of those. Campbells chunky soups are a comfort food when I'm sick; even the sirloin burger. They're a cheap, nearly effortless source of almost-palatable calories. I always add something else to them though. I tried the Campbells jarred non-condensed soups (Home Cookin'??) when they were introduced - they seemed better than the condensed stuff, but didn't make enough of an impression to make me want to buy them again. Progresso is still much better than Campbells condensed soups. I used to use their tomato soups as a base for a better soup (w/ added meat and veg), but haven't done so lately. I always add something to canned soup. Maybe just fresh-ground black pepper, but usually some dried (or fresh) herbs appropriate to the soup to, er, kick it up a notch. Almost always some red pepper flakes and/or Tabasco to add some needed flavor. Often some chopped parsley from the garden as a garnish. Progresso Manhattan clam chowder is good, but rarely seems to be available locally. (Their NE chowder is passable, but (again, IMHO) I consider it a heart attack in a can due to the partially-hydrogenated gunk in it). To make the Manhattan clam chowder better, add a can of chopped clams (we're already doing canned stuff here, so no point in adding real clams) with some of the liquid, some red pepper flakes, black pepper, and chopped fresh parsley if it's at hand. The canned clams are probably comparable in price to the can of soup, but adds some more protein, if not taste. I tried the Wolfgang Puck Manhattan clam chowder once; it didn't make much of an impression, good or bad. There's a price premium for it, but I'm already making Progresso soup more expensive by adding extra clams. I don't see that the Puck soups have anything that a suitably enhanced Progresso soup doesn't also have, if you want canned soup.

Minor nitpick: The Max trains go within a block or two of the Chinese garden in Chinatown/Old Town. There is a Max stop at the Zoo (Washington Park), but the Japanese garden isn't within walking distance. I think there's a bus between the zoo and Japanese gardens though. Of the two gardens, the Chinese Garden is probably world-class, largely due to the general scarcity of classical Chinese gardens. The Japanese garden is okay, but no competition for the Japanese garden in San Francisco. I don't remember the Japanese garden having any food; the Chinese garden has food IIRC, but there are several decent dim sum restaurants in the neighborhood that would be a better bet if the timing is right.

Do outlet malls have good prices? Maybe good; probably not spectacular; I dunno. Maybe on discontinued stuff?? I live in PDX, and there's a Le Cruset store at the outlet mall in Woodburn (south of PDX, and far enough away that they MIGHT offer better prices). There's a mega-outlet-mall in Centralia; not especially close to SEA, and I don't know if they have a Le Cruset store. There's probably an outlet mall closer to SEA, but, again, I have no idea about prices; I strongly suspect that Amazon at the right time might be the best bet if you're not in a hurry.

Skin on. But I remove it after cooking and don't eat it, even though it's de-scaled. Feel free to tell me that I'm making a big mistake. I don't eat chicken skin either, no matter how crispy and delicious it's supposed to be.

Interesting that this topic should come up - just yesterday, I had a cow-orker tell me that although he's not a big wine drinker, he's a sucker for an interesting label. I think he even mentioned one with a rooster; not sure if it was a 47 pound rooster though. Personally, I don't particularly care about the label; some are certainly eye-catching, but I don't think I've ever purchased something unfamiliar just because a label looked particularly attractive. And as for 'cartoon' animals on labels - two words: Joe Camel. How long will it be until the moralizing busybodies decide that cute animals on wine labels are leading youth to a life of drunken debasement [drunk in de basement??? ] and call for those labels to be prohibited?