Dakki

I'd exchange members of my immediate family for a deep freezer.

Is a scale commercial?

I could have sworn it was dirty eggshells contaminating the egg itself at cracking, and then using the raw egg in mayo. As for veg, I sanitize everything. Even if the potato or whatever arrives at the market perfectly clean, the standards of hygiene of the 20,687 shoppers who checked it for blemishes before I did is open to question...

Rancho Gordo - I was going to click "like" but then I noticed this wasn't Facebook. Chris, if you are still experimenting - have you tried using lukewarm water and letting the dough rest 10-15 minutes before pressing? EDIT: Yeah I need to look at the rest of the thread before replying.

Paul I also dislike how our society puts anything faith-based beyond debate but as I said before I think it's ingrained in our culture, probably as the result of some pretty horrible historical stuff. As a survival strategy it seems to work, too. Maybe one of the reasons for the comparative dearth of tasty Western veg dishes is that we just haven't had enough time to develop a cuisine around it? Vegetarianism is a fairly recent phenomenon in the West. PS: I wear comfortable shoes all the time and I like girls. Coincidence?!

Hypothesis A: Hypothesis B: Sorry guys I just don't see A. And I don't even like Bourdain. Edited to bold.

I didn't know that! Does Mr. Bourdain?

Respecting other people's religious views is a big part of modern Western cultural heritage, no doubt because we spent a few hundred years killing each other en masse over such vitally important matters as the nature of the Trinity and the doctrine of transubstantiation, not to mention what language the Mass should be conducted in. Secular views do not get the same free pass. (Yeah there are a few people who still take exception at the practice of religious freedom but those guys are outliers). That said, I think Bourdain is being an ass on this particular topic. If someone refuses a slice of my cheesecake because ZOMG DAIRY my reaction is "heh, more for me" not "HOW DARE THIS HOLIER THAN THOU SON OF A BACHELOR". Catching an earful about the oppression of our dumb chumbs would be another matter entirely but it hasn't actually happened since my peer group went past the college years.

8.39 MXP for a 1 kg bag. Comes out to a bit under 70 US cents per kilo (retail). I should export the stuff.

I guess you got the right thing after all. As Pierogi said, there should be instructions on the package. As for "mix," (and "masa," which is Spanish for "dough") I'm going to guess they call it that because simply calling it "cornmeal" would invite confusion with regular non-nixtamalized cornmeal as used in USA and I suppose Canada.

Those are intended more as a standalone snack food than a platform for other stuff I think. Rub them with half a lime and sprinkle with chili powder or use it to eat salsa or pico. Here (Northern Mexico) we get white, yellow and red, ranging from very thin and crispy such as you described to dehydrated which are hard but comparatively very chewy. Drying tortillas in a low oven gets you the same result as the last and is a good use for tortillas that have gone slightly stale. Is what is sold as "masa" up there prepared dough (that's what we would call "masa") or dry meal? The standard brand around here for dry meal is the Maseca brand, although generics and store brands have made some inroads in the past few years. I'm not sure I've ever seen prepared dough in a store.

I guess we use a lot of nonstandard definitions in the food business. There's organic salt for sale, which has nothing to do with this organic salt.

I get "unsustainable" and I kind of get "non-artisan" in this context (assuming it means the ranch hands don't all roll their own cigarettes, don't ride horses all day, don't wear Stetsons and so on) but will someone please explain to me how the heck you make cattle "inauthentic"? I'll wait a few years before chiming in with my opinion on this topic.

You can add it to all beans. Supposedly it cuts down on the gas thing. I personally don't like it, maybe someone who does can comment further.

I pickle jalapenos regularly but my recipe (shamelessly stolen from the PROFECO website) specifies half vinegar, half water by volume, onion, carrot, salt, sugar and spices. The resulting liquid isn't something you'd want to use as a condiment I guess.

Thanks guys! I'm going to try this out right now (with the bay leaf added) and let you know how it comes out.

AUTO/MACRO, no flash, natural light from the left and a white cutting board on the right as a reflector. Shrimp ceviche again, I wanted to try a different presentation to make it more interesting. Not too happy with this, I think it overexposed in some parts and is still shadowed in others. Plus, you can see the cutting board reflected on the glass, on the right. Any tips on shooting glass and avoiding this dark/light cutout nonsense?

I forgot to ask if the vinegar needs to sit after being poured in with the peppers! Also, would you add something else (salt, a bay leaf, whatever) in the bottle.

kayb: could those be "sport peppers"? I remember seeing those in thin-necked bottles, which would make perfect sense if you're supposed to consume the liquid rather than the peppers. Would the technique work with something hotter like habaneros if I wanted something with a stronger kick? nakji, I'm ashamed to admit my favorite vinegar is really cheap stuff, the Ciervo brand of apple cider vinegar. It just tastes *right* to me. I have some bottles of premium white and red wine vinegars and balsamic gathering dust on the shelf if that helps my image any.

Lack of regulation, I think. There's nothing stopping anyone from labeling anything they want as "local." The place I shop at least has the honesty to call the stuff "regional." I don't know if they define that as same landmass, same hemisphere or what.

T-FAL pressure cooker. Bought without knowing anything about pressure cooking with a vague idea of canning in-season vegs. This piece of junk does not reach the 15 ft/lbs of pressure required in many, many pressure cooking and canning recipes and should be renamed T-FAIL.

Same story here. My grandma still makes her own hot vinager and keeps it on the table. Living here in Eastern NC, the mention of vinegar instantly brings barbeque to my mind. I have to admit though, while I do love vinegar based sauces on my barbeque, in just everyday cooking I will almost always reach for a lemon before vinegar to add acidity to a dish. Keeping some vinegar handy to finish dishes sounds like a good thing to try. I'm curious about these hot vinegars. How exactly does one go about making them? What kind of vinegar works best? What chiles would you use? Yeah I'm such a noob.

Very nice Fujito. How was this lighted?

Counting fish only, I consume tilapia, mullet, tuna and snapper, in that order. All seafood would include squid, shrimp and octopus. Squid would actually be my no.1 purchase by weight. I agree it would be nice to have a bit more variety but my first worry would be relieving pressure from overfished areas and species, not necessarily discovering some currently ignored, delicious variety of shark, and I think the way to do that (from the perspective of feeding an ever larger, wealthier world population) is more and better fish farming. Or am I nuts?

A shot of apple cider vinegar in salsa. Vinegar-pickled chiles gueros in ceviche. Touch of appropriate vinegar in a pan sauce. Don't knock it till you've tried it.