SylviaLovegren

Now look what you've done! I've got drool all OVER my keyboard.

It's not that it's high in fat, sodium, carbs, etc. It's that it's BAD food. It doesn't taste good, it has no connection to real food or to the real animals and plants that it came from. Edible products (I won't call them "food") like Lunchables train kids to have no respect for that very important thing that all humans have to do, which is to eat. It's tough to know who to "blame" for the sorry state of affairs that leads to anything like Lunchables. But I used to work in an elementary school and saw what parents would send to school for a kid's lunch. Lunchables was bad, but not the worst. One mom used to send every day a lunchbox packed with 4 or 5 different kinds of cookies, 2 or 3 different candies and a juice box. That was it. I always wondered what the family's relationship to their dentist was.

Where did you end up going? I haven't been in LA in 20 years so my old favorites are either probably long gone or decrepit. although I should have thought of the Apple Pan in West L.A. which is a unique experience and has excellent burgers, shakes and pies. I'm told it's still there and still good. Sorry I forgot!

Mitsuwa is really good but expect to pay Japanese prices. They are catering to Japanese executives and their families who are in NJ/NY for work and who are used to high prices. You can buy a cantaloupe at Mitsuwa for $10 or go down to the street to the Stop N Shop and get it for $3. But Mitsuwa does have pretty much everything you ever thought you might need for Japanese cooking. The bakery in the food court there also sells delicious almond pastries. I've heard that their "jelly" donuts stuffed with red bean paste are excellent, too, but I loathe red bean paste so I couldn't say.

Grilled lettuce? It never in a million years occurred to me. Wonderful post. Keep it coming!

Jam-filled donuts are popular in N.A., too, but they're called "jelly doughnuts" and are usually cut in flat squares or circles rather than being round, for some reason. Doughnuts started out here mostly just rolled in sugar. Then came the sugar glaze (my favorite) which is a sugar syrup that dries to a crackly, slightly sticky sweetness. The glaze led to flavored glaze, which led to frosting. My two favorite frostings are maple (very big in Canada, obviously, but also for some reason in the Pacific NW of America) and chocolate. I can leave off the pink icing with sprinkles. It's interesting that the Guardian article you link to about donuts does not include any rings, just dough balls. No one knows who invented the ring donut (or when, for that matter), but it was an obvious idea to increase the crispy fried shell while also making sure there was no soggy uncooked dough in the center. In North America, doughnuts probably came from the Dutch settlers with their "oily cakes" but those were definitely round balls and not rings.

I only know a 'donut' shop opened here in China and all the American ex-pats were praising it to the skies, so I went. I couldn't find anything I would call a doughnut. What do you call a doughnut?

In North America (Canadians are very "into" donuts as well I have happily discovered), a "cake" doughnut is made with batter raised with baking powder. A "yeast" doughnut is made using yeast as the leavener for the the dough. Krispy Kreme are mostly yeast donuts, although they probably sell some cakes. In North America, cake donuts are often sold at fairs, roadside apple stands, etc., fried fresh on the spot and rolled in sugar and cinnamon while still hot out of the fat. They are delicious -- for about 15 minutes. Once they cool, they are stomach bombs. Yeast donuts are lighter. One of my favorite doughnut memories was from a shop in Eastern Ontario where they used high protein flour -- the resultant yeasted donuts had a wonderful unique chew to them.

Were the ones you had as a kid cake or yeast donuts? I'm just curious.

Really? I loved the Krispy Kremes we'd get in Savannah, GA. Especially the chocolate frosted ones. Was it that you didn't like KK donuts, or that you don't like donuts at all? Is there much history of donuts in the UK?

I still use the first Greens cookbook by Deborah Madison. It has some superb recipes and is really timeless. http://www.amazon.com/Greens-Cookbook-Deborah-Madison/dp/1906502587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361630594&sr=1-1&keywords=greens+madison

Beebs, maybe rutabaga is the next big thing! I recently got some (for the first time in years), cut it up in chunks and roasted with olive oil and salt. It was delicious, creamy and soft with a warm, sweet flavor. Really enjoyed it and the husband and kid begged me to make it again.

You wouldn't be expected to eat each thing. It was like a served buffet. Very tough on the kitchen, though. I love that everything was served in a "vase" -- what does it mean? A trendy idea to serve in a flower vase, with all the little fish heads up? Or was "vase" just a fancy word for a kind of bowl?

That sounds right up my alley. What's the title?

I've put rum in American-style baked beans, and sherry is a traditional finish to Cuban black bean soup. I'll sometimes add some wine if I'm making beans with "mediterranean" flavors. I wouldn't add wine to Swedish split pea soup tho. Except for the Cuban soup I don't remember seeing booze in bean recipes. But maybe I don't get out enough...

How about some crisp salad greens with lightly toasted walnuts or pecans with salt, tossed with some very good olive oil, no vinegar. Sprinkle at the last minute with pomegranate seeds for a bit of zing and color.

Two mugs of coffee for breakfast. Then another about 1. After that tea. Right now I'm on a genmaicha kick, but normally Earl Gray or a Darjeeling.

I'd third tamales but I can't get masa or corn husks where I live. Every place I've found them online that will ship is in the U.S. and charges 2 - 3x what I'm paying for the product for shipping to Canada. So tamales are no longer something I do. Same problem with banana leaves... so I'll be faking it a bit if I do tha kalua pork. Where do you live in Canada? The No Frills in Cabbagetown in Toronto carries masa, I was very surprised to see the other day.

Were the bananas sweet or more like plantains? Trying to edit again: I googled and found this recipe in "taste of portugal" page: http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/grouper-or-sole-delicia-with-bananas/ It doesn't specify what kind of bananas, so I'd assume standard American supermarket sweet bananas. Is this at all like what your friend remembers?

We've been pretty much low carb for 2 years, mostly because my husband wanted to try it for some health issues. We basically did what you said -- just cut out starches. No pasta, no potato, no rice, no bread. Instead of the serving of potato or whatever, we'd have an extra vegetable. It wasn't particularly hard, just a little boring sometimes because it was easy to go to the "Grilled Meat Thing Two Veg Salad" every night, rather than try an unusual stew or soup. Dessert would be a small piece of fruit or some very dark chocolate.

I'm pretty sure medieval cooks would have figured out the problem fairly quickly. Flat gingerbread would be authentically medieval. And you could make "wastels yfarced" -- which is just "buns stuffed" -- in the above case, with eggs, currants, saffron and sheep fat...but you could probably come up with something a little bit of a bigger sell. No need to boil (seethe) them, unless you want to make dumplings. But you could call your stuffed buns "wastels yfarced" for fun! Stuffed dough things -- like empanadas, spanakopita, or pirozhki -- would be good and "authentic". Quiche-type tarts, as mentioned above, would be good. Figs stuffed with walnuts or almonds and honey with cinnamon.

I love Brazilian coconut shrimp stew -- it's easy, unusual and delicious. Here's a recipe very similar to what I make: http://www.grouprecipes.com/67773/dandhas-brazilian-coconut-milk-shrimp-stew.html I usually finish with some lime juice and cilantro and have been known to add a bit of hot pepper as well.

About 3:30-4 in the afternoon. Tired time. Tea time.

I suppose an occasional discreet photo is fine but... I have an in-law who is forever taking pics of everyone at the table with her phone, then uploading them instantly to Facebook, then commenting on FB with her friends about the pics, then texting her other friends about the pictures on FB and what she's eating, who's at the dinner, etc. etc. This drives me mad. She is, sadly, well old enough to know better. Perhaps we should be like knights of old but, instead of checking our weapons at the door (of a restaurant), we'd have to check our technology.