Mjx

I'm not sure what you mean by my having to take them at their word. If they eat in my home, I'll honour their wishes and take care to ensure they don't get that food. I'll not prevent them from taking on whatever diet they want. In fact, I point out new GF food sources around town that I trip up over to my GF friends. But I most certainly will not accept it as true simply because they said so, nor will I necessarily 'agree' with them by keeping silent if keeping silent would indicate consent. Self observation is pretty close to hopeless. If people want to try out various things and make their conclusions, that is ok, but you can't expect everyone to roll over an agree just because those people have found comfort. I wish I could explain exactly why this offends me so - this, and many of the other posts on this thread. First of all, please do a little reading and have some idea of the facts. There is no test for gluten sensitivity, or other food sensitivities that don't rise to the level of an allergy or celiac. You go on an elimination diet, you see how you feel, and your doctor tells you not to eat what made you feel sick. There is NO TEST. The science has not caught up, and it remains a guessing game. You do not have to agree with what I think or what I eat. My doctors agree with me, and that is more than enough. It is my body and I will eat what I want. I'm not asking anyone - including restaurants, or you - to make accommodations for me. But the constant denial of my experience on these boards - and that of thousands, if not millions, of other people - is beyond insulting. Just because there's not a test to prove to you that I'm right doesn't mean I'm not. To Country's and Darienne's point, allergies (as well as autism - another phenomenon there is no explanation for) have skyrocketed in recent years. Our food systems are practically beyond repair, and grains are often genetically modified. Is it truly surprising that there might be a backlash? I would think that there have been enough posts on here and elsewhere reflecting experiences similar to mine for some of you to have a little more consideration for what we are saying. My experience does not depend even remotely on whether or not you agree, but it would be awfully considerate if you could open your minds and ears a little. I'm a bit curious as to why the questioning and scepticism offend you. I actually have some food sensitivities, and agreed, there is no test for them, and all you can do is eliminate things from your diet, and see how that goes (it's only really effective if you arrange with several of your friends to sneak the potential problem ingredient into your food at some point, so when you test your reaction, it is unbiased by your awareness of its presence). However, I'd love for someone to prove to me that I'm wrong about my apparent reactions some of my favourite foods, that my failure to, say, chew a specific number of times is actually responsible for my symptoms, or that some (fixable) psychological issue is at the back of them. Most people are unscientific in their thinking, and the media/public tendency to simplistically stamp various substances as 'bad' actually undermines the credibility of those who genuinely have celiac disease, or various other sensitivities/allergies: legitimate questioning is not inconsiderate, it's crucial. If we reject questioning, science cannot ever address this field, because science is an approach, a process to which questioning is intrinsic, not just sets of imposing sounding results.

I like blueberries with yogurt, even more so if vanilla is involved. I can't think of anything else that really adds to the yogurt experience; I sometimes get fruit yogurt, then sort of wonder why. Don't regret it, but there's no love there, either. Sliced fresh fruit seems somehow too wet to mesh nicely with yogurt. But if you like it, why not (that goes for foie gras, too)? On one occasion, I did have an (initially) inexplicable, pressing craving for strawberry yogurt and artichoke hearts (not as a mixture, however). And no, I didn't go there.

Never tried this particular brand, but in my experience, the best you can expect from chocolates packed in a plastic jar and coloured cello is 'acceptable'. This isn't to say that I believe fancier packaging to be any sort of guarantee of good chocolate (I've had some mediocre chocolate that was packaged and priced like fine jewellery), but cheap packaging does seem to live down to its promise.

I'd be inclined to go with the egg nog, if I had to choose just one, possibly because a new chocolate shop downtown has the most amazing egg nog and saffron chocolates, and although they sounded good, they taste even better (three of them were my breakfast, a couple of days ago).

If you reserved for yourself alone, the error is in their assumption, and I don't see how it is even legal for them to charge a cancellation fee. I think this should be discussed with the manager.

I'm not so dubious, at least when the consumption of gluten-containing substances is taken in conjunction with the amount of food people have been able to – and do – eat in the Western world today. I'm basing this conjecture on very limited, empirical evidence, but I think it is suggestive. I have unpleasant problems with wheat and a number of other starch-based substances: no suggestion of celiac disease, but instead, upper respiratory-tract symptoms, alarmingly rapid joint swelling, and a sense of general malaise. However, if I've fasted the entire day, I can eat a bunch of croissants, or a big batch of potatoes, and suffer little more than a runny nose. I know about a dozen or so other people who have problems similar to mine (if we get together and indulge in those things that we love but with which we have problems, the gathering looks like a hay fever convention), and who respond similarly to the overall amount of food consumed over the course of the day, which does suggest that this plays a significant role in individual response to problematic substances in food. Hardly conclusive, but a suggestive pattern. For thousands of years, even 'enough food, most of the time' was inconceivable for most. Most people ended up fasting fairly often, and those who couldn't handle that presumably were less likely to survive/reproduce. Today, overeating can actually be difficult to avoid, and with that, it's hardly surprising that people's overloaded systems are responding far more emphatically to potentially problematic substances in our food. Given the pervasiveness of both overeating and wheat (anyone who reads ingredient labels is aware of how pervasive wheat is, even where you wouldn't expect to find it), that allergies and intolerances can worsen over time with ongoing expsure to the allergen/irritant, increased awareness of the condition, and improved diagnostic techniques, the apparent explosion of celiac disease diagnoses doesn't seem surprising. You'd lose weight too if you were faced with the choice of gluten free bread or nothing. I admit that gluten-free bread (like most would-be substitutes) is relatively wretched, but the weight-loss aspect goes beyond that: I've lost breathtaking amounts of weight, even with not-infrequent breakfasts featuring a lot of bacon and sausage (Wasa and carrots are involved too, but that doesn't cancel out the other items... and I don't do 'lite', 'lo-cal', or fat-free).

Is it this model (e.g. http://www.amazon.de/Rösle-Küchengeräte-Passetout-Siebeinlagen-Edelsthl/dp/B003HIK7K0/ref=sr_1_40?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1317491427&sr=1-40, on German amazon, which would be my best bet, since I'm in Denmark)? I don't mind paying a bit, if the product quality is good.

skyhskyh, leaving aside the 'touch' bestowed by the magical caffeine pixies, before you make any decisions, you need to be clear on what you consider 'a good cup of coffee'. Neither spending nor saving a bundle is going to do you much good if the end result is simply a kind of coffee you don't happen to like.

Giving this a major bump, since I'm planning on getting a food mill, and the prices are all over the map, which I have a hunch has more to do with the various brands' perceptions of themselves, than (necessarily, anyway) actual quality. Who's making reliable units these days?

The dough looks a bit warm/the butter may have been a bit thick (but it's a bit hard to tell). More details, please?

There is no 'best' kind of coffee maker, just 'preferred'/'reliable'. I like a moka best, but for some reason, have never been able to get predictable results on a glass-ceramic stovetop (the only sort of stovetop to which I have access these days), so I'm now happy to rely on the Silvia (which, incidentally, I got my boyfriend for his birthday--many thanks to weinoo's recommendations--so I wouldn't give up hope yet, PassionateChefsDie).

As a general rule, if I use the sink or any surface for cleaning/prepping something that may bear pathogens (produce, meat, whatever), I just clean very thoroughly after I'm done, and forget about it. On the surface-materials front, I go with non-porous surfaces that can withstand high temperatures and chemical abuse (i.e. plastic and wood surfaces are only used for things that can be safely eaten 'as is').

Seconded.

I'm still trying to repeat one of my attempts to reconstruct a pumpkin chestnut soup I once had at someone's club, but for which I never got the recipe. On this particular occasion, I inadvertently completely reduced and caramelized an entire pot of chicken broth in which I was simmering some chestnuts (got sucked into a detective novel, and didn't look up until a delicious smell yanked me out of a small English village), which I then pureed (apart from the half dozen or so chestnuts I ate right out of the pot because they tasted so fantastic). The soup was incredible--not identical to the one I was trying to reproduce, but even better. Unfortunately, I'd paid little attention to what I'd added to the broth in terms of seasoning, or the amounts of chestnuts or broth, so I've never been able to reproduce those results. Hell.

I alternate between planning my grocery shopping like D-Day (only more detailed), and suddenly realizing that I need to get groceries, and running out and getting... something (anything from a tin of beans and one of crushed tomates, to a whole rabbit carcass, half a kilo of mushrooms, new potatoes, five kinds of fresh herbs, and some grappa). My life in a nutshell.

Yes, and usually under the same sort of circumstance, that is, I'm incorporating various odds and ends, random collections of things I don't even measure, but toss in just to use them up. Kills me, because the results are so good.

Those are some beautiful prawns. Makes me crazy that it is so difficult to get them fresh here, even though it's a port town... you're really lucky! An espresso spoon makes it pretty easy; I remove the roe with a spoon, then use it as a garnish.

Ditto for in-line skates; whenever I travel with mine, I pack any delicate objects inside them.

Well it is your list so do what you want but it seems to me that you mmay have a hard time judging what has strong regional appeal outside of your jurisdiction. Maybe you should spell out some more specific groundrules. Hm, I thought this was (essentially) just for fun? Also, are there no special annual culinary events in Asia, Africa, Australia or New Zealand..? Someone must have something to recommend!

Definitely. I was thinking about this on a recent flight, when the plane hit some impressive turbulence as the beverage service got under way: The person sitting on the aisle in my row was clutching the seat rests, and generally looking tense, when the flight attendant looked at him, smiled, and said 'Hi! May I spill hot beverage for you?'. The passenger laughed, and relaxed visibly. If this had been a tipping situation, I think he'd have tipped well for that alone (this seems sort of relevant, since the the flight attendant was functioning as a server at that moment).

Brilliant! Even though it does mean that up-to-date, ongoing CI index turns out to have been sort of a waste of time...

Using canisters (with a layer of bubble wrap or something inside, for a bit more protection) should do the trick; I've also seen inflatable protective sleeves for wine bottles. The bottles will probably be fine, but you might want to take a picture of your bag, showing the bottles' packed position. It may sound overcautious, but I learned the hard way that the TSA is a little... unpredictable, shall we say, in it's treatment of the contents of bags (on my last trip, they managed to bend two metal candle holders--no idea how--that had been carefully wrapped to protect other objects near them), and if you file a complaint for reimbursement, the first thing they do is suggest you failed to pack things correctly, so evidence of care in packing is always a good thing.

You asked for information and got opinions, which is pretty much the usual thing, when any potentially controversial ingredient is discussed (might have made your life easier, if you'd simply asked about making ice cream from milk with a low solids content). Your relative may be the image of health, and have a surplus of milk that she is happy to donate to your culinary explorations, but human milk has very charged associations for most, and it isn't the kind of thing that is likely to be regarded with detachment; it really isn't that surprising that people responded in ways that mostly reflected their discomfort with the topic. But you just can't let yourself take this so personally... and why not post the results?

Found this--http://changents.com/geoffrey-day/blog-posts/basic-food-safety-guide-to-scallops-with-roe--which mentions the usual STX issue, but... that's about it. Then, there is this exciting essay, courtesy of the US government, which is also not remarkably helpful, although it does include a sort of checklist for determining whether or not a given seafood product present a significant hazard: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/Seafood/FishandFisheriesProductsHazardsandControlsGuide/ucm257113.htm.

Hey, the Potbelly Stove did it, so why not this place? Not sure what you mean by oddities, but on the south side of 49th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, just off the corner of 49th going west, there's a shop that sells Japanese sweets. If your frame of reference is US and EU sweets, these would definitely fall into the unusual and interesting category, and are also delicious. Nearly every time I go back to NYC, I head there first, luggage and all.