Mjx

With you on the misery. Except I can't even bring myself to throw them away, because when I was a kid, all the old people around me taught that waste is evil, so I'm stuck looking at my failures for days, until the last one has been ingested.

My cousin (who lives in the area) mentioned that there are buses that do rounds of the vineyards in the area, but I never did look into it. I imagine they're at a reasonable price point, and would also mean that you needn't worry about watching your wine intake super carefully, the way you would if you were driving.

Sugar is supposed to effectively remove onion smell from hands; I haven't tried it, but I mentioned it in a recent topic on that, and someone else tried it, and said it was effective.

I'm wondering whether this change has anything to do with the fact that in Scandinavia, you can get most of those things at every newspaper kiosk/supermarket.

Naaah... A little clever marketing ('hand-crafted!' 'exclusive, very limited edition!' 'heirloom style'), and jacking up the price to about 250% of the cost of the ones that came out right, would have these bad boys flying out the door. There's one born every minute...

When I hear 'coffee cake', I expect: no frosting (but possibly icing on the top); less sweetness than the cake used in frosted cakes; spiced to a greater extent than usual in layer cakes and such. Apart from that, anything goes.

Eating the last few of a nearly extinct species will ward off starvation until what, next week? Yes, I get it, you don't think that about that sort of thing when your kid is wasting away before your eyes, but when you are outside the situation, simply contemplating it, it's not a compelling sort of example. Frankly, I find ALL the extreme points of view on this (actually, any) topic remarkably tedious, shortsighted, and spectacularly ignorant. It's as though everyone is so over-invested in their stance, the option of discussing the topic objectively and rationally is just out of the question. The inverted snobbism of the 'just folks' crowd is at least as nauseatingly dishonest as the wilfully naive and preachy elitism of of the overprivileged, self-appointed finger-waggers. Yeh, I know: Moderation is boring, but does anyone actually believe that embracing some extreme fringe outlook is going to fix things? The whole concept of 'honest' food is even more laughable, when framed by the hypocrisy of those who produce it.

I'd model my approach on making trifle, since cake breaks down in moisture more easily than bread. What sort of flavours were you thinking?

This past weekend, I was listening to The Splendid Table and I heard Lynn Rossetto Kasper pronounce it "bru-SHET-ta." I always thought this was a mis-pronunciation but she's Italian and I'm not. Is this a regional thing, perhaps? Lynn Rossetto Kasper is American. However, she's spent plenty of time in Italy, so I have no idea why she would pronounce 'bruschetta' that way; 'che' is always pronounced 'keh' in Italian.

They can't hide behind the 'Oh, but we're not professionals' tree, if they set themselves up as critics with a wide audience. It isn't at all unreasonable to measure them against the standard for all restaurant critics. If you want to play with the big boys, even by implication, you need to expect and accept the big boy rules.

The Little Chihuahua has tasty and filling Cal-Mex food, and Miette has lovely sweets (not cheap, but if you're ever struck with a 'let's have dessert for breakfast/lunch/whatever', it's worth it).

Heck, I would have been fine with (in fact was trying to get her to tell me) the Vietnamese name. I'm guessing she felt embarrassed, which I can definitely relate to, so I didn't press it. In Denmark, the name wouldn't be likely to be regarded as offensive (major pork producer). I need to get the ingredients together, and start experimenting. If I can get my hands on some decent rose water, well, I've been a little obsessed with trying a cacao and rosewater version of this.

It seems a likely candidate (BonVivantNL mentions it, upthread), and I was hoping that if I just asked for the name of this sweet today, it would clear that up, but for some reasone, she declined to say. I toyed with the idea of trying to say 'banh da lon', but had doubts about getting some of the more forcible sounding vowels pronounced correctly, and had visions of the shopkeeper rolling about on the floor, convulsed with laughter. So I chickened out.

Don't know how long as it's been going on, but I can recall this going back at least as far as August of 1989, in NYC. It always made me giggle.

In theory, at least, the closer the food is produced to where it is sold, the less fuel is needed (and by extension the less pollution is produced) to transport it; at a cumulative level, this can make a difference. Also, you might argue that supporting local (or as local as possible) sustainable agriculture is simply good for the community. Clearly, if you want lemons and live in in Denmark, you're going to be importing. But importing them from Italy has advantages over importing them from China (also in terms of being better able to monitor the labour and hygiene standards in place at the point of origin). This is largely fallacious. As I said, 'In theory'. I'd want to see hard figures from very, very credible, firsthand sources, and lots of them, before reaching any firm conclusion. The issue of being able to have a better idea of the labour and hygiene practices involved in the production of food that comes from closer by is less theoretical; it's much easier to have an idea of what's going on in your neighbour's yard, than in the yard of someone you've never met, in the next city. But what is troubling me increasingly is the sense that 'honest' (with regard to food) is being used to imply 'better', in any or all ways. If someone wants to say, 'X and Y practices/ingredients/sources make for the best/my preferred food', I can accept that. When someone starts babbling about food being 'honest', I just want to beat them to death with my copy of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

Actually went back to the shop again to day, and asked the woman who keeps the shop what it was called; I was told 'coconut cake'. I asked for the Vietnamese name, and she just laughed and shook her head. I'll crack this one yet.

In theory, at least, the closer the food is produced to where it is sold, the less fuel is needed (and by extension the less pollution is produced) to transport it; at a cumulative level, this can make a difference. Also, you might argue that supporting local (or as local as possible) sustainable agriculture is simply good for the community. Clearly, if you want lemons and live in in Denmark, you're going to be importing. But importing them from Italy has advantages over importing them from China (also in terms of being better able to monitor the labour and hygiene standards in place at the point of origin).

In Emilia Romagna, goose prosciutto has a history going back to the 1400s. If you could find a reliable recipe for this, it might be possible to adapt to other poultry, although chickens and turkeys would present a couple of additional challenges, including the risks presented by various pathogens (e.g. salmonella), and the absence of the thick layer of subcutaneous fat that waterfowl have.

I had frog's legs once, and they were fine, although I don't think I'd make myself nuts getting my hands on them again. I'm guessing that (as with anything) it's mostly about quality and form of preparation. I'm sure there are frogs-leg dishes (and other amphibian- and reptile-meat dishes) that are the stuff of heavenly dreams.

Bingo.

The jamon looks gorgeous, but even vacuum packed, I'm not certain how it would survive the (admittedly shortish) flight. On the other hand, since my boyfriend is reading this, he's probably going to return several punds heavier. Brilliant, thanks Chris! But I'm starting to think I should have suggested going along with him. I was slammed with work during the planning stage of the trip, and didn't pay much attention, or I would've started fluttering my eyelashes persuasively. So. About those baked goods... can you think of any that may survive the rigors of a short, but two part flight with a possibly longish layover between segments?

My boyfriend is heading off to Barcelona, and asked the inevitable question: 'Anything I should bring back?' My reply of 'Anything that looks delicious or interesting' didn't help much. I've never been to Spain, and have no idea of what sorts of edible/drinkable things are worth finding and bringing back. Various sites promoting Spain/Barcelona aren't that helpful, since they push what they want to sell/figure will appeal to tourists, and those aren't likely to be the most interesting or noteworthy things. We're interested in everything from low-end, mass-market items, to high-end specialties, as long as they can survive and are permitted on short-haul, EU flights (some of the more durable seasonal produce, perhaps?). Also, since my boyfriend will be spending the majority of his time at a conference, he's unlikely to have a chance to do any really intensive or out of the way hunting, unfortunately. Anyway, if you have have suggestions (things you ate there/brought back/wished you'd brought back/were given by someone who'd been there), I'd love to hear about them!

The reason recipes specify "lye water" is because that's the most common English language label on bottled jianshui, and a simple sodium bicarbonate solution made at home won't be strong enough. Could jianshui be a solution of sodium carbonate, that is, heat-treated sodium bicarbonate (AKA baking soda)? According to Cook's Illustrated (January & February 2012, p. 31), spreading sodium bicarbonate in a layer on a baking tray, and baking it for two hours at 250 F° (121.1 C°) will increase its pH 'from about 8 to about 11' (lye has a pH between 13 and 14). A solution of sodium carbonate gave a result very similar to that of lye, when preparing soft pretzels, without the risks associated with the use of a lye solution.

I use rice flour for every flour application in which gluten structure is not important (frying, kneading dough, velveting, thickening sauces, roux, etc.), as well as a replacement for potato or corn starch/flour; it also makes for pasta with a great texture (extruded forms, and gnocchi, at any rate). I actually go through it really fast! Unfortunately, my boyfriend dislikes recognizable anchovies, although he does appreciate than in tiny quantities, they add a lot. Which means that unless I want to eat every bit of something that has noticeable anchovies, I use an average of an anchovy a week (at most). Those are the ones I get, but surely it can't be okay to keep them in the refrigerator for over a year, once they're opened? Then again, I'm not sure why not. The ones I currently have list a salt content of 43%, and I always refill the space up to the rim of the jar with fresh salt.

Trenchers? You effete degenerate! You'll eat it from your bare hands, and like it! Food itself is honest, regardless of what it is or who made, and from what. Food preparers (from chefs, all the way down to the kid dumping chicken nuggets in the the fryer at a fast food place), maybe not. What it comes down to is whether or not preparers are presenting the food as what it is, and acknowledging their actual feeling/beliefs about it: If he or she is willing to acknowledge 'Here's a bunch of fried, breaded, composite, chickenoid substance, made with ingredients of unknown, possibly dubious origins, and I'm cool with that', or 'Here is a bite and a half's worth of locally sourced, organic and foraged foamed parsnic and a cube of eel, very pretty, and I had fun making it, although it is a little bit silly', that's 'honest' (really, 'honestly presented') food. You start saying either of those things is other than it is, and honesty (and in my opinion, credibility) goes out the window. The whole 'down-to-earth, locally foraged, cooked over a live flame' thing is fine (to a point; I've seen what some of those idiots can do to a bed of ramps, and I'm not seeing much respect for nature, there), but implying that it makes for more 'honest' food is just another form of snobbery.