Mjx

I don't know about that... I really doubt I'm alone in the 'take it or leave it' camp, with some foam-involving incidents experienced as peachy-keen, others being altogether underwhelming, and most being entirely unremarkable one way or the other.

If you like this idea, but are thinking 'Ostrich eggs... yeh, right...', I've seen them at Whole Foods.

This depends on your personal preference: I like them very simply seasoned, just a little butter, a bit of salt and pepper, and some fresh marjoram, just a few things to bring out their flavour.

But... preventing fermentation during the soaking time would just mean more unfermented carbohydrate in the colon! It also seems as though the bicarb. might affect flavour in some way; does it?

You might want to go with a gelling agent that gives a firmer, more flexible gel, such as konnyaku. You'd need to dissolve that in hot water, but the dilution of the honey may give you better control over the final product. Also, do you absolutely need to start with fresh honey, or could you use honey granules dissolved in a little water, with the gelling agent added to that? This seems as though it would give an even more controllable product (and would still use pure honey, albeit in a dried form).

How does the softening effect come about? I can't imagine the sodium bicarbonate would do anything useful to mitigate flatulence, since that's primarily caused by the presence of indigestible (to humans) carbohydrates that are subsequently feasted on by gut bacteria; fermentation of the flatulence-causing carbohydrates itself can actually reduce the problem.

I don't know easygoing your guests are (as vegetarians go), but as the renegade in family of vegetarians, I've found that Italian (primi are often not meat-based) and Asian restaurants are generally pretty good bets (I don't know Dallas at all, but it must have some good restaurants in these categories). My family is vegetarian for ethical, not health reasons, so 'taking a night off' isn't an option, but they don't grill waitstaff (so the presence of well-hidden meat byproducts is likely to be off their radar), and they do eat eggs and dairy.

First things that sprang to mind are the eggs with edible shells, and something like Chocolot's chocolate tulips.

To Kalustyan and Penzeys I'd add the Integral Yoga shop on the south side of 13th, between 6th and 7th Avenues, because they sell from bulk, which means you can get really small amounts of things you are curious about, but not necessarily committed to. You can also save the little bags, and reuse 'em. You just have to give things a quick sniff to make sure they haven't lost the fragrance, which can happen with some of the less popular selections.

ATK hated the Eva Solo model, which I got my boyfriend as a birthday present, but I have no problem with it at all, and would say that it meets your first two criteria (admittedly, the glass holder is not a good solution for storing garlic, but does make a pretty good bud vase), although the equivalent of USD80 (I bought it several years ago, so it was a little cheaper) is fairly ridiculous for a garlic press, even here, where everything is expensive and has 25% sales tax. If you see one on sale, I'd recommend snagging it.

Saturday, I had some (apparently) crack-crusted peanuts, which were unbearably difficult to stop eating (the humming in my ears helped). In order to save myself, I rather callously offered to share the rest with some friends who normally stick to minimally processed foods. It was a little frightening to see them go from politely sampling what appeared to be a rather dull snack, to feverishly shovelling them in, and frantically dabbing up the residual MSG/spice dust scattered over the bottom of the bowl. Given that I felt fairly diseased after eating about a quarter of a bag, I'm compelled to conclude that they were not the healthiest things going, but damn, they were good. I have to say, Duyvis makes some fine-tasting peanut snacks, especially their paprika-flavoured offerings.

Or prune whip or lemon or pineapple fluff (all from the '50s) Hold on. Are you saying that people today wouldn't complain about- or at least make fun of- prune whip? Prune whip? Really? I know quite a few people, mostly men, mostly all transplanted southerners (with one Newfoundlander), who are very serious about prune whip. Their mama's and grandmama's made it and they really, really like it. Laugh, at your peril. I think I tried prune whip once... I believe I liked it, too. As foams go, it's fairly dense, right? I don't think I'd complain about being served the stuff; prunes really don't get much love in the US, do they?

Second that... I can definitely taste the food colouring, and, to be honest, the colour kind of freaks me out. Of course! Consider our friend, red lead However, I am inclined to favour dyes that have a long history of fairly unproblematic use, which do tend to be natural (and were organic) by default (owing to the level of technology that existed at the time they were first used).

I'm sorry that I missed this post last week. I hope this helps. It's out of print but you can find several listed at ABE Books at reasonable prices. I've had mine since 1984 and it is signed by both authors. It is the first edition published by Ticknor and Fields which was a division of Houghton Mifflin. As far as I know, there was only one edition. The wine recommendations are of course dates to 1980 when the book was being written so are well out of date now. It is fun to read them and imagine........ I've purchased a lot of books from Castle Rock in Las Vegas and they give accurate descriptions. If all you want is a reading copy, there is no need to spend a lot. Thank you! I somehow missed your reply until now. I wish I'd seen this a couple of weeks ago, since there was a chance I would have been able to find it while I was in NYC.

I'm not so certain that the 'spit' argument is so easily dimissable, since rather a lot of people have this specific, visceral reaction. And, gut reactions are often beyond the reach of reason or sophistication, so attempting to reason with them is doomed (e.g. in my own case, mayonnaise in my sandwich will make me retch, possibly be sick; I've tried to think my way out of this, but this sticks, despite the fact that I enjoy making mayonnaise, and have decisnstructed the stuff countless times in my head).

Your best bet would be to keep your eyes patiently open for one of the smaller used commercial units, like those made by La Parmigiana (they come in sizes that have a footprint as small as about 30"x30", although they do require floor space, owing to their height). Consumer models are underdimensioned, and just don't hold up well. I got my boyfriend a Simac Pastamatic 1400, which is supposed to be a fairly good consumer model, and although the (thinnish) bronze dies extrude okay pasta, the force of the dough passing through and against the die actually caused the die to tear through the front of the retaining nut. The company replaced it, but it's a nuisance, and cleaning it is a pain, involving toothpicks and soaking (it hasn't been used in over a year, I think), and I've been urging my boyfriend to put the damn thing on eBay, and get the La Parmigiana he's been lusting after.

Damn, those are gorgeous... Suet is [from] the fat around the kidneys, and renders harder and whiter than tallow, which comes from... elsewhere on the cow. Fact is that we used rendered kidney fat for the recipe, and that is what we recommend. Fat from other cuts will also work, but kidney fat is usually a bit stronger flavor. If it's rendered carefully (very slowly, over low heat, so you hold off on the Maillard reaction), kidney fat/suet is virtually flavourless. Not hearsay: I've rendered suet a couple of times, and have a large chunk of it in the freezer.

Fair point, but you can't assume that foam is going to be asthetically pleasing to the diner, especially in substantial amounts. Much as I appreciate an artistic presentation, my reaction to foam on my plate is that anything more than a few, small, fairly fine-textured bits of foam miss the character of the stuff, move from playful to heavy-handed, and frankly evoke a number of things that aren't particularly appealing from any standpoint, whether we're talking about visual aesthetics or textural experience.

If it's Australia... Chris Taylor?

Here, rabbits are mostly grazed. I had friends who used to raise rabbits for meat (they divorced, and the one with whom I'm still in touch didn't feel like bothering any longer) because it was easily the cheapest source of meat going. I miss their bunnies.

I associate 'tallow' with candles (probably has to do with the literature I go for), and 'suet' with the fat that's used for cooking. I looked this up, and added the initial findings to the wiki.

Congratulations! This is brilliant, good thing your wife was thinking on her feet!

Yes! It was amazing, so different, and ... American. I was a little kid, then, and fresh from Florence, where they didn't run to health food stores, although they did have erboristerie. To me, it was one of the astonishing novelties of NYC. It was (I think it's now gone) on the Upper West Side, not far from my grandafather's place. West side of Broadway, between 108th and 109th Streets, or perhaps one block up. No recollection of the name. The people who worked there partially confirmed my pre-exisiting impression--based on the backpackers I saw streaming through Florence--that Americans were either cowboys or hippies (apart from my parents, and a couple of their friends, who were 'parents', and thus part of another distinct species). That health food store had a very intriguing scent, and the place fascinated me. My mother tended to stock up on boring things like soy flour, while my brother and I had had our eyes on various sweets, which we generally weren't permitted to have, and tended to be on the disappointing side when we did get them (this was still the era of the truly gnarly granola bar).

Suet is [from] the fat around the kidneys, and renders harder and whiter than tallow, which comes from... elsewhere on the cow.

Eh, not so much (just no cigarette, in my case). This morning I was reminded of the fact that there is also breakfast cereal in the flat, which I overlooked, yesterday. When we installed our oven about a year ago, we had to reorganize the kitchen to accommodate the overflow from what had been the most convenient shelves in the kitchen, making a fairly minimalist kitchen landscape a distinct asset (trying to find something at the back of dark cabinet while crouched over and holding a flashlight would have to be even worse, if there was a lot of stuff to shuffle through). Be very afraid , Mitch. My coffee beans live in the freezer and I've been known to refrigerate gin. What kind of Society Shibboleth have we flunked? I don't think I've done a weekly shop in my life; no matter the clutter of condiments in the fridge door, my Barren Wasteland is: nothing to cook for dinner. Weinoo assures me that moving the coffee from the fridge/freezer to room temperature creates condensation (which is consistent with scientific observation, except in our kitchen between October and March, when there's virtually no difference between the two temperatures), and refrigerated gin doesn't dissolve ice effectively. I've realized I'm going to have to shop today, since I'm sick of capers for breakfast... they're awful with coffee. The cereal doesn't look much better.