Panaderia Canadiense

They do, and it's true. I've had Caipirinhas made with premium, aged cachaça, and those made with barrel swish. The barrel swish ones are hands-down better in flavour. Although, I'm also a big proponent of using Aguardiente de Caña in place of cachaça when I can't get the latter. Something like Zhumir Puro de Paute (perhaps the best Aguardiente de Caña made in Ecuador) blows something like Cachaça 51 out of the water as long as your limes are really fresh…. And I've been drinking on why this is (this thread prompted me to take a shooftie in the back of my liquor cupboard, and I found a bottle of Puyo High-Test Puro de Caña there - which meant I could test it out!). I think I've figured it: the Caipirinha is not meant to be a subtle or nuanced drink the way that many other cocktails are (hence the fact that most recipes are "unbalanced") - it's meant to smash your brains out in the most pleasant way possible. So using a beautiful, premium, aged cachaça, agricole, or aguardiente añejo as your base spirit defeats the purpose - you're not out for subtlety.

'erbs, 'erbal, pi-men-TON. I have the sneaking suspicion that those of you who say herbs, herbal are the ones who also say BAH-sil. I was taught that Herb and BAH-sil are names for your uncles, 'erbs and BAY-sil are for seasoning your food.

They do, and it's true. I've had Caipirinhas made with premium, aged cachaça, and those made with barrel swish. The barrel swish ones are hands-down better in flavour. Although, I'm also a big proponent of using Aguardiente de Caña in place of cachaça when I can't get the latter. Something like Zhumir Puro de Paute (perhaps the best Aguardiente de Caña made in Ecuador) blows something like Cachaça 51 out of the water as long as your limes are really fresh….

And illiterate means unable to read or write. Not unable speak or pronounce. Most people in the world are illiterate. It doesn't mean they can't speak their own languages or create cultural artefacts. Oral culture tends to drift.....my people speak a Cajun french understood in Paris, but absolutely frowned upon. The pronunciation is suspect, we use the "wrong" words for certain things, the accent is awful to a Parisian ear. So what? It's an oral language--most native speakers of this dialect do not read or write in French; they're completely ignorant of French spelling. Many older speakers have limited English literacy as well. Do I correct an 80 year old native French speaking Houma Indian who says "plarine" instead of "praline"? She makes damn good pralines, whatever she calls them.That's clearly not what's being discussed in this thread, though. Someone who's on TV as an "expert" on food has the means to know better and continues to mispronounce words that they presumably hear others pronounce correctly on a regular basis, it displays something different than cultural drift. Yeah, but we tend to digress. I think we were originally talking about mispronunciation by television "professionals" but we've gone off into another realm here. Now, when we're discussing cultural drift, local pronunciation, and whatnot? I don't think it's so important about pronunciation. But for folks who are supposedly disseminating informational content on a mass-media sized platform? It's incredibly important.

I learned it by egg whites - for 8" use 4 whites; for 12" in two pans, use 8. I've never measured by weight - I normally balance between the two pans because for chiffon cakes I'm normally making filled ones.

Do you not have a glass cutter or pipe-scoring tool? I'd just cut the neck of the bottle clean off and reach in and eat the pear (in fact, I do it all the time).

I wonder whether it has to do with the much larger corporate trend of "dumbing down" informational or edutainment shows in general…. I mean, think about it - these are the same corporations that brought you Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo-Boo, so maybe what they're going for is a "down-home" feel aimed at the lowest possible common denominator. (And I'm sorry if this offends, but I've all but given up on the "educational" networks because they're pandering to what really feels like a 6-year old mindset, and I personally find it insulting to me that network execs assume that's the average level of education of their viewers.) Hence, I'd look at it as mispronunciation in a coordinated and researched effort to seem less educated and more down-to-earth, because these are words that the viewers themselves are likely to be mispronouncing in the exact same way - and the hosts doing it is less likely to alienate the mass target viewership with their highfalutin' grammar and syntax and proper pronunciation and whatnot. Now, I think that's incredibly sad and a depressing commentary on the state of North American television programming, but it's probably also what's going on.

Here in Ecuador, 14 Feb is Día de Amor y Amistad (the Day of Love and Friendship), and it's approached more as a festivity celebrating that we have friends and loved ones and less as a holiday centred on "romantic" love. However, chocolates and bonbons remain the most popular food-oriented gifts, as they are in North America. As such, I don't generally do anything special on the day other than sell massive quantities of chocolate cake, cheesecake, and bonbons - and this leaves me craving something really simple for the night of, whether I'm in a relationship or not (and this year it was odd - I have someone, but he's geographically distant so we sent greetings and pictures of ourselves eating chocolate bonbons; there was no special dinner or anything). To wit, I had lazy-bastard beef stroganstuff and a leftover piece of cake then collapsed into a choconarcotic state in front of a rom-com.

I'm very curious as to the flavours of the yellow one.

Do you have a pair of large metal bowls that nest one into the other? You can make Helado de Paila with this plus a wooden spoon and some ice…. Pack the larger of the two bowls with ice and a bit of salt, then nest the smaller of the two into it, allow it to chill down, and give the smaller bowl a spin. Pour your base into this and keep spinning and scraping down the sides with the spoon, until you've got ice-cream. You get quite a fine texture this way, although it won't be as stiff as what's made in the machines (but you can always pack it into the freezer to firm it up.)

1. Seasoning in dishes where ají or other capsicum spice is too unsubtle. 2. Yes. 3. No - I use my mortar and pestle 4. Moot point. The grinder is full of mixed peppercorns for finishing; for single types I always use the mortar and then grind to the consistency I want for the particular dish. 5. I use a deep-jungle grown peppercorn from Orellana (i.e. domestically grown pepper), for both my black and white pepper needs.

You may be right, but that's not generally the point- having a cheese course means you can finish the glass or bottle you drink with the main course before moving onto something better suited to dessert. I can't imagine having beer with a cheese course. It seems wrong. Plus, it means switching from wine back to beer, which is never a good idea. J, the point of beer pairings is that you're never drinking wine at the meal. Just the different beers….

There's an Ecuadorian recipe called Seco de Chivo which is, depending on where you eat it, either kid goat or spring lamb, adobado for a day or so in a paste of pilsener-type lager (the "national beer" is actually called Pilsener), carrots, tomato, garlic, and onions, then slow-cooked in that same paste made a bit more liquid with more beer. I'll see if I can dig up a recipe somewhere. EDIT - and of course if you're going beer-themed, what about the beer breads which generally use ales or porters as the liquid? There are both quick (soda/baking powder leavened) and yeast methods for these.

Maraschino-Amaretto Nanaimo bars with almonds and fresh coconut, Caoni gran cru Amazon 55% dark milk chocolate.

The "blue" fishes only stink when they're not fresh. Alas, because of their high fat content they deteriorate faster than white-fleshed fishes, so unless you catch them yourself or have a good fishmonger within a few hours drive of the dock, don't bother. Of course, the cured, smoked or pickled versions hold up very well, and then I find the aromas attractive. To me, the "blue" fishes stink just as bad when they come out of the water as they do from the monger (where they're always impeccably fresh) - it's one of my own personal olfactory peccadilloes. So, no mackerel for me. Another on the stinky side are Maracuyá, which most of the rest of the world just calls "passionfruit" - their aroma, as anyone who's ever been trapped in a car with a sack of them will tell you, is strong and penetrating even if they're not opened for slurping. I happen to like this smell, but many others do not. Very ripe Mangoes fall into a similar category, as do Carambola (star fruits).

Oh, and if you've got Spanish set as an alternate language in your browser, it will autocorrect Ocoa to Ochoa (the latter is a last name.) Those are beautiful, Alleguede! I may steal some of your decoration ideas for the upcoming Valentine's cheesecake orgy that is my baking life...

The King of Stink, namely the Durian. Soooo tasty, but such an awful odour! I'll also nominate the "blue" fishes (Mackerel amongst 'em), the mould-striped, riper than ripe cheeses (Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Brie, Bleu, and your friends - I'm looking at y'all!). Oh, and cuy. I adore the flavour of cuy but it's one of the rankest-smelling meats going.

For my 2 cents, it's either well-scrubbed, skin-on Cecilia (gold) or Super Chola (red with gold patches), baked in a ceramic casserole with a drizzle of olive oil and some spices, until they're fork tender. Then again, 99% of the spuds in my area are organic smallholder grown, and I've never seen the Ecuadorian cultivars anywhere but here, so YMMV.

Aren't they super sodium filled? Yes, but for some of us that's not an issue…. I also save those little bouillon packets from the noodles for times when my rice needs that extra boost. Otherwise, I use either stock I've made myself (there are always jars of it in the fridge) or water, because the kind of thing Shel's asking about isn't available in Ecuador. I also use a brand of very clean (i.e. no MSG or long-string chemicals) powdered bouillon called Caldo Ranchero for when I don't have ramen flavour packets....

Another vote for salt, and after that the barley.

Here's a few of the notables for the new year. Salads: Palmito and Olive, Chicken Teriyaki, Wine Chicken Caesar, Fowl Dishes: Fingers, Ginger Chicken; Christmas Dinner (technically, this is turkey) Meaty Things: Beef in Wine-mushroom reduction; Pizza; Meatloaf with a nod to Paul Bacino's braided bacon barding method Seafood things: Shrimp in Mango Chutney Sauce; Wahoo Nuggets

Here are mine. From left to right: a cheapo s/s with red plastic handle that came free with a package of ramen noodles; a shallow s/s from India; a deep nylon one; my two cake icing/sauce dosing ladles, both s/s, with smaller bowl capacities. I use the nylon one with nonstick pots and where I need a big ladle capacity. It doesn't scratch, and I've used it in high-temperature sugar solutions without any sort of weirdness or warping.

What is "really good brown sugar?" Interesting comment about maillard reaction. Something to look into. Thanks! If you want the last word in brown sugars, though, look for Piloncillo or Panela. These are sugars where the molasses and other minerals that give dark sugars their distinctive flavour were never removed in the first place.

What is "really good brown sugar?" Interesting comment about maillard reaction. Something to look into. Thanks! Really good brown sugar is in the eye of the beholder, but I'd suggest that the criteria for judging it include moisture sufficient for the sugar to clump slightly when pressed, a pleasing molasses or caramel scent, and a balanced flavour profile.

Zabaglione with amaretti cookies; light gelatos and sorbettos (particularly the fruit flavours), preferably in Pizzelle cups; also Cannoli di Pizzelle which are the same thin cookies filled with flavoured cream; spumoni; tartufo; pignolati. Hmmm. I'm quite attached to the freddos and semifreddos, it seems...