Hassouni

How come?

Don't worry, you haven't. See above

Nigiri is most emphatically NOT "nijiri." Every "g" in Japanese in pronounced hard, as in "go" Gewürztraminer (correct spelling) is more like "Geh-vooa-ts-tra-meena" but see what PhatJ said about the ü, and with the throaty German/French r Bruschetta has a double T, so it's "bru-SKET-ta" Ditto gnocchi with the double C - "nyok-ki" To be really pedantic, phở should be pronounced like "pha?" with a rising tone, but that only will impress Vietnamese

So I've always wondered, is it safe to keep an opened can of condensed milk outside the fridge? I mean, it's so sugary it has to keep, right? I ask because I only use a small amount on a daily basis, and it's much better in liquid form because dealing with a tablespoon when it's semi-solid is rather annoying.

Got my new kyusu in from ryu-mei.com, who offer anything from the Tokoname catalog direct from Japan, so here it is, a 320 cc plain unglazed kyusu with sasame. Seems made well, very understated and nice. The pour is very smooth, as is the resulting tea - my Ito En ichibantsumi sencha has zero bitterness and only barely detectable astringency after the inaugural steeping. Very pleased! I know it's only 320ml but this thing is TINY! Here it is next to my phone: Filled to the top, its enough to fill a mug to the lip, but I hear the kyusu experts here recommend not filling the teapot up all the way. Why is that? Also, I got this to use with sencha, and it's unglazed. Any other teas I can use with it without offsetting the flavors, or should I just stick to sencha?

Cool. This is from the Korean supermarket, where they're not very helpfully labelled in English, and I can't read ANY Korean....

Well, Borough market is open year-round, and that's pretty fantastic if you've never been. This isn't really cutting edge, but over in Fitzrovia (Goodge Street or Charlotte Street perhaps) there's a row of really excellent Spanish places, very authentic and excellent food. I think I mention them because here in DC there isn't that much Spanish to be had.

So is this proper negi?

and why was East Asia so high?

well I got a new, different bag, shook it around a bunch in the store to see if anything was visible through the window of the bag. All clear, so took it home and froze it last night. Here's keeping fingers crossed....

This will happen if the retailer and/or wholesaler they use has poor turnover. Find a supplier with a shorter and faster pipe from the farm to you, learn basic best-practice home storage methods, and you will have few infestation problems with whole grains. If and when critters appear, Jenni's comments are apt. I buy from Super H Mart, they have hundreds if not thousands of people coming in on a daily basis, so not sure that's a problem.

mmmm manaaa'iiiishhhh

Nothing lined up for Thanksgiving week?

New package of Ito En Oi Ocha Ichibantsumi (first crop), or in other words, shincha, according Ito En themselves. Very, VERY nice! very bright yet mellow, zero astringency, extremely smooth, somewhat vegetal and grassy, almost more Chinese in character than other, cheaper Japanese teas I've had.

So I've been brewing a lot of green tea in a pyrex measuring cup and straining it out into my mug (my tokoname kyusu is en route). I've been using measured amounts of tea and water, and precise timing. Until a couple weeks ago, I never did this, I just threw tea in a pot or in a strainer inserted in my mug, waited a minute for water to cool down a bit, then splashed water in. With the more measured approach, I've noticed that the leaves hold on to a LOT of the water. This never seemed to be an issue when brewing with a strainer directly in the mug. I'd say from 200ml of water put in, about 150ml came out only, just 75%. So if the instructions for the tea say add 4g leaves for 200ml water, would you add more than 200ml and the same amount of tea to get 200ml of final product, or would you add more of both?

My second backup bottle of Mount Gay XO, since the Montgomery County, MD monopoly has had it on blowout for $35 since late summer and the sale is about to end...(yes, I now have 2 unopened bottles) Kraken because apparently I was a good host and spent most of my original bottle on guests, and it's almost gone A full 750ml Cointreau to finally replace the 375ml I bought over 2 years ago And, on sale for $11, St Remy XO French brandy. Never heard of it, but $11 for an XO? OK! Sipping it now....I have never had something so smooth and yet so devoid of major character. It tastes like a generic aged brown spirit, maybe with some sherry or wine notes, but not much else. Still, I'm going to be using this for Sidecars, Japaneses, etc, so I'm satisfied enough.

So twice now I've bought genmai and it had bugs crawling in it upon opening the package! These were well sealed, plastic zip containers, not the paper sacks. Is there any way I can tell if my rice is pest-free?

Maybe you can convince the tourist industry in Turkey to serve that to clueless visitors instead of that elma çayı garbage....

I have those exact same coffee cups! A dozen for 3000LL....

Wow, I love kangkung. So hard to get in the DC area except in huge bundles at one Viet store. So, the chili crab, eaten with the hands or what?

I thought in Malay, cili means chile, as in "cili padi" - paddy chiles (paddy is a Malay word). This is what bird's eye chiles are called.

That's smaller than a normal chicken, so roast as if doing a small chicken. However, I highly recommend brining overnight and then covering with bacon (barding? larding? I always get confused).

Wow, a 25 dish dinner? How many partook?

Sad to find out that the area's really good, and only, North Korean restaurant, Pyongyang Soondae, went under, I was interested to find out from Tyler Cowen that it is now a Korean place specializing in goat. From his review: "Now they specialize in goat dishes, done three ways, spicy or not. Soft, tender, and juicy meat, try it even if you don’t like goat. Goes with excellent greens, and good cold vegetables with the meal, especially the tofu. At the end they pour some rice into the simmering sauce, pour in some black sesame seeds, and pour in some extra spices to make a Korean fried rice dish which is one of the area’s best, very theatrical too. The goat is first-rate and overall this place is highly original...Right now this is probably the best “specialty” restaurant in the Korean section of Annandale." I love goat, and went for the first time tonight. I was blown away: One of my dining buddies enjoying some first-rate daikon kimchi, and the spread of panchan and dipping sauces The massive pot of goat (the #2 special), gochujang, enoki mushrooms, scallion, watercress, chives, and other seasongs A delicious, tender morsel of goat with the supplied dipping sauce The biggest haemul pajeon I've ever had, though not the crispiest. Still good though Overall, the service was delightful. What appears to be the manager or owner stood by our table for much of the time cooking our goat, explaining about goat in Korea, and chit-chatting about other things. Another waiter frequently offered to refill our various panchan before they even ran out. They make you get a minimum of two orders of goat, so three of us got those 2 orders, plus the pajeon, and a bottle of soju, all for $64. I highly recommend it!

That Subway smell exists in Subways all over the world, and it's exactly the same everywhere. I can smell it from half a block away and it is truly awful. I'll say this, at least whatever they do to make that smell is consistent!