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I think this 'riffing' is a natural consequence on the simplicity and popularity of a dish. Just think of the mac&cheese craze going on now (though I don't see anyone going crazy over that for not following the original recipe, perhaps because it's traditionally low brow, or perhaps because it's american, and everyone knows american dishes are fair game as opposed to european ones where, should you be so unlucky as to add a pinch of salt, there's probably a frenchman around the corner ready to cut your toes off). I like pizzaglias short note that, even though presumed a longstanding traditional dish, it may have more recent and diverse origins. In any event, I've always had carbonara the way mom made it (Norwegian, in case a reference to a mother might mislead imaginations to old black-clad hunchbacks dragging a jug of grappa up a cobblestoned hill): bacon, egg, parmesan (or if caught unprepared by whiny children, the famous italian cheese Norvegia). The point is, I've always considered carbonara as an inspiration rather than a strict rule set, and that's how I've experienced it in restaurants as well. I also enjoy making things carbonara-esque, such as spicy tagliatelle stirred with creme fraiche, smoked salmon and chevre (yes, I am aware that I may be historically accused of starting WWIII from my kitchen). In any event, one thing I find certain is that you can't make something and even remotely cite carbonara inspiration without a good amount of black pepper.

If coffee apps are of interest, I'd suggest Intelligentsia's app - free, and gives you good step-by-step guides for some of the more 'non-standard' methods of brewing. Great when you're starting out trying a new brew method, and also includes useful timers for different methods with alerts along the way for events (add grounds, bloom time, stir time, etc). Also has some nifty videos. Also, I've played around with Snooth on the wine side, and I'd have to say you're probably better off with google goggles (goggles has superior label recognition, and will probably give you a much better idea of what you have in your glass and where to get more for how much)

Indeed Though considering the amount of attention AW has been getting here, I'd almost want to say that if 'the world' would be condensed to eGullet, she'd win quite clearly. On the controversial side, I could add a regional nominee from Norway: Eivind Hellstrøm. I can guarantee you 90% of Norway knows who he is, would definetely be able to identify him on the street, and has a good opinion on at least one of his many public acts (judging Norwegian Master Chef, having his own 'I'll fix your restaurant, ramsey-style, just being a generally nicer guy in the process', being at the very least co-author of most new Norwegian cookbooks of note, and quitting our most renouned michelen-star restaurant to name..well, too many, but not all). Thing is, Norway has about half the population of Manhattan - and I can almost bet that almost noone in Sweden or Denmark (our geographic and cultural, even linguistic, neighbours) will know him, just as i can name exactly one Swedish, and zero Danish chefs. Oh, and for the record, that swedish chef (no, not from the muppet show, is Marcus Samuelsson, whom I wouldn't have even heard of if it weren't for Top Chef Masters Speaking of which, I haven't seen Tom Colicchio on this list - I would have thought there would be at least some buzz around him considering the profile. Wouldn't place him as a contender for global controvert though

Apologies for rekindling the "America vs. The World" aspect of the discussion, but I think the point of influence is both valid and substantial should a consensus emerge. Controversy in itself implies some sort of disagreement, two images that contrast. The measure of the controversy in question can be formed on the basis on how different the views are on the same subject, however to say that it's a big controversy can't simply mean that the difference of opinion is substantially large - you need a substantial amount of people caring enough about the subject to pick a side. This is, as been heavily noted, where the US has enough influence to sway global scales. You can't have a sufficiently large controversy (at the levels being discussed here), without involving the media. As such, the reach of the media will also have an impact on how many people will make a personal decision to ignore the controversy ("they're /all/ idiots"), or take a side, and potentially propegate the discission. There's only a very few nations in the world with sufficiently popular and syndicated media to qualify as sources for such magnificent controversy, and the US is at the top of that list, both in reach and staying power (eGullet itself is a prime example, there are probably other great forums around the world, but *I* haven't heard of them). In other words, though the chef (or other food-related person) may not be american, he/she will with high probability have appeared notably in American media.

Not hard to source in Norway - even low-price supermarkets usually stock both regular and low-fat Philadelphia cream cheese. Yup, gotten quite popular too - however that wasn't the case only ten years ago.. Still, there are components to traditionally american dishes that are hard to source, especially if you aren't able cook from scratch. A good example of this is pumpkin pie, this is still completely foreign to the average norwegian.

That sounds perfect! I'm sure she'll appreciate it . On another related note, just received a package (opened by customs here) from my grandmother-in-law, couldn't be happier - and considering the freshness of the 12 'illegally produced' chevres, it seems the postal speed in Norway has picked up a bit since the winter (which bodes well for your shipment). Shipping costs are always a bit of a burden, though considering the availability of Modernist Cuisine, I'm betting the investment made on this will give you more pleasure than refreshing amazon

I can personally attest to this - what we've got is bland, boring, and tasteless. Again, making something from available ingredients won't be the same either - chocolate is not 'chocolate' (hence the hershey bar suggestion from my previous post). Exactly the idea - anything that you identify with 'home', she will as well. A little note on the 'avoiding customs' bit - the only thing you should avoid when sending care packages to norway is Wine, or any alcoholic beverage of any sort (yes, budweiser costs $6.50 per can here, but you can expect twice as much in tax on collection if you put a can of bud in the package). Aside from that, if you do decide to include some utensils - save yourself some precious space and potential customs hassle by removing any hardware from its original packaging (i.e, make it look like it's not brand spanking new). Additionally - unless it's blatantly humorous (i.e. ensure that it's not going to be easily misinterpreted for something official), try to avoid using the official emblem of the red cross or other NGO's. Firstly, if you send a package that looks like food-aid (though humerous), it will definetely catch the attention of customs agents ("isn't this going in the wrong direction?"). Secondly, the Red Cross especially has a pretty clear policy on misuse of its emblem, and while I sincerely doubt any harm will come of it, it's better to 'make up your own' than to use something existing. How about something like "[yourFirstName]CARES" with the subtitle "expat survival kit"? None of our packages (except the one where my great-grandmother-in-law decided to add a bottle of local table wine) have ever been applied any additional tax to, even though they've contained clearly labeled valuable foodstuffs and some cooking equipment. Same goes for a package we received from some Canadian friends in January - filled with clothing and candies (<3 candies). In fact, the canadian package was clearly marked with value (over 100 canadian dollars), and went through customs inspection (opened and resealed), without any penalties applied. In other words - I would honestly not worry too much about that. Customs officials are people too, and they know the difference between a care package and resale imports. Additionally, I'm hoping to find a course in eGCI relating to 'how to express yourself in response to others in such a manner as not to force the consumers of said response to have to read through walls of text which reiterate the same message'. Perhaps it's called 'short reply' or something

Aha! Just signed up yesterday and got my account activated today, so what better way to use my first post than (to at least attempt) to help someone out. Just to give a slight bit of background: I am Norwegian, though I've been growing up in various places, among which 6 of my formative years in New York (Larchmont, Westchester County to be precise). When I returned to Norway in 1997, I was 16 and thoroughly Americanized. However, my relationship with American food was pretty much the standard supermarket mass-produced fare, and I wasn't too interested in food in general (a kid knows what he likes, and it's generally what he's used to and for no other reason than that). However, that might actually be beneficial to the discussion since that's the essence of a care package - comfort and familiarity, and not necessarily the top unique ingredients from their favorite store. Speaking of care packages, I'm lucky enough to be somewhat experienced on that front as well. My wife is French, and has been living in Norway for the past.. well, 2+ years or so. There are quite a lot of things you simply don't get in Norway. In fact, a recent study (which even more recently has been the cover stories of a few of the major Norwegian newspapers), has stated that Norway has the highest prices and worst selection in Europe when it comes to common supermarket fare (check this out for reference: http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/norwegian-supermarkets-overpriced-and-under-stocked/, and you might actually forward that site to your sister-in-law so she might have some hope of knowing what's going on without having to ask ). In any event - when it comes to the content of the care packages from France, it's generally included everything from cheese (comte, chevre, tomme, and the like) - which may not be entirely recommended (though it does guarantee rapid expedition from the local post office), to duck confit, various pate and terrine, to simple things such as cookies, baking chocolate, and even flour (the french are quite particular about their bread..). Basically the point that I'm making is that what you want to send can be put into three categories (as far as I can think right now that is): Things the recipient has expressed a true desire for Things the recipient would like, regardless of local availability Things the sender would like to communicate to the recipient. For instance, when seeing Nibor's post, it's fairly clear that the jar of chunky peanut butter would most likely have fit well into the first category, probably into second, and the sender would have the distinct pleasure of the third. Firstly, what you should be thinking about is - what does she like? What meals have you had with her before she left, and what has she expressed enjoyment over? What things does she have a tendency to 'over-use' (a particular spice mix?). Anything from memory there will help you figure out good potential candidates. Secondly - you want to fill the local availability gap, and luckily for you, it's not really that hard to do that in Norway . We do actually have a relatively.. well, I was about to say 'decent', but let's write 'poor' with the intonation of 'decent'.. selection of american goods, or at the very least american-style goods. It may be that the hot sauce you're wanting to send might actually be found in some dark recess of one of our stores, or a small specialty corner store somewhere - but it's highly unlikely. What's more important than that though, is actually what makes our French care packages so worthwhile. It's not necessarily that we can't actually get the cheese, or especially the duck confit in Norway. It's started to pick up a bit (even though we still can't get the exact quality we want here). The big difference is price. I've seen a bottle of trader joe's barbecue sauce here - but the price.. well. A small bottle (don't know exactly how much was in it, but definitely not something that would 'last a while') cost 330 norwegian kroner. That's $60 USD. For us, comparing to France, we've calculated that 8 tins of Confit de Canard actually compensates the price of a cheap flight to France in savings. So don't worry too much about what you might possibly find over here, focus more on what she might actually be craving for (first point), what she might actually appreciate (second point), and what memories you might have shared together that you want to bring up (third point). For the third point, simple suggestions like kool-aid, graham crackers, hershey's chocolate, are bang on. It's amazing what makes your eyes well up when you haven't been exposed to it for a while, regardless of your perceived devotion to it under normal circumstances. In any event - I've overdone this reply, so I'll end off with a simple question to get some ideas as to what might be available around her: Does she live in/near Oslo, or not. Accessibility to 'exotic' foods (like, you know, pop tarts) is almost non-existent outside our capital. In general, we have some things, but we never have extremes - we don't get the absolute low-end of anything, but we rarely have a selection in the specialties or peculiar variations on the theme. For instance, if you consider mustard, we do actually have some few stores which carry typical american yellow mustard (of the French's variety), in addition to 4-5 types of dijon, and 5 or 6 locally produced variants, but you don't get any of the variations in there. Same things with pop-tarts: I've seen them, but I've only ever seen the strawberry pop-tarts. So if you're planning on sending something, try to send something ever so slightly different than the best-selling variant - that will secure you a guaranteed 'can not find'. Right, for the third time - end of post. Sorry for making you read all this