Hassouni

That is the reddest salmon I've ever seen! Do you know if it was dyed? Also I must confess my envy that in November you still have peppers and similar things fresh from the local farm. Here in the frozen east, summer vegetable weather seems like ages ago.

This may be sacrilege, but I may have added a small glug of Thai fish sauce for more umami. I do that quite often with soups and stews, which ragú sort of is. A small enough dose provides a glutamate boost without being detectably fishy.

From what I understand, the full on ragú just uses a different cut of beef (vs straight-up ground) and adds pancetta (or guanciale? something bacon-esque), and goes for a longer cooking time right?

Updates: So I have a 3-cup Panasonic rice cooker, so I used 2 cups of haiga brown and 1 cup of uruchimai. The brown cooks in the same time so I wasn't worried about that. I added some freshly made kombu+katsuobushi dashi up to the 3-cup line on the rice cooker, and added a splash each of shoyu, sake, and mirin. On top of this I layered (not necessarily in this order) julienned ginger, small pieces of kabocha, julienned gobou, slice shiitake, thinly sliced konnyaku, sliced abura age, and some sliced carrots. On top of this I placed 1 fresh, cleaned, and briefly seared sanma cut in half. All of these additions were piled up to reach the lid of the cooker, which I'm thinking is why I ran into the problems that I did.... I heard the cooker click into the off mode after what seemed like an awfully short time, 15 minutes maybe. Skeptical, I opened it up to investigate. the vegetables were still mostly raw and the rice was VERY al dente. I let it breathe a minute, put the lid back on, and turned the cooker on again, but it went off after another minute. Giving up on the rice cooker, I pulled down my large Korean ceramic jjigae pot, which by a previously unknown coincidence seems to have as much room as my rice cooker. So I put the jjigae pot on the stove on medium heat, removed the layers of veg and fish from the rice cooker, and dumped the rice into the jjigae pot [wrong forum, but is there a name for these in Korean?], and packed it down to mimic how it was in the cooker. I then put the vegetables back on, and added an additional ladle of dashi. After I while I saw some steam + smoke coming out from under the lid, and I turned the heat to low. At this point it was pretty much done - the rice was fully cooked if a bit soft, and the vegetables and fish suitably steamed. There was even a solid layer of okoge, though I guess the heat was on too high, as it was mostly burnt. The final taste was nice, but having to switch cooking vessels was a pain. What's the deal for making these in a rice cooker? Use less than the maximum capacity of rice? So, in my case, say 2 cups? I'm guessing that with everything packed up to the lid, there wasn't enough room for steam to circulate or something.... Alternatively, what's the procedure for making one in a pot not dissimilar from a donabe?

What timing! Does sugo di carne, the dumbed-down, quicker ragu, count? Because I made a big batch a few weeks ago, had some then, froze 2 more meals' worth, and had some of the frozen leftovers last night! No pictures! By God it was good though....classic mirepoix softened in a mix of olive oil and butter, some garlic thrown in, then some ground meat, white vermouth, pureed tomatoes, milk, and nutmeg, simmered about an hour+.

So today I found these at my local Super H Mart Seeing just three ingredients, I bought the jar, being sick of umeboshi with all sorts of other preservatives and crap. When I took it home, the package was unsealed. Not a broken seal, but no seal at all. That white top pops right off, and the cellophane is not attached in any way; it simply floats off. Is this normal for Japanese goods? Everything else I've bought imported from Japan, foodwise and otherwise, has been immaculately packaged and sealed.

Got some Yamama Masudaen (based in Shizuoka) branded Fukamushi Cha Asuka sencha from Super H Mart today. $5 for 100g, but the tea physically looks to be higher quality than any Japanese green I'm used to, and the taste, as just brewed now is in a league above the Ito En bancha I finished up. It's a really beautiful color, clear and mossy, and the taste is bright, not so grassy, and the merest bit astringent. Really really nice. For the record I measured out 8g into a 10-12 oz mug with a strainer insert, using water that was off the boil until bubbles stopped forming. Didn't measure the temperature, but I'm very happy with the results of the first infusion.

3 questions: 1. If I'm adding a bunch of ingredients to the rice, do I use the same quantity of liquid as if I was just cooking rice? 2. Does brown rice work well for takikomi gohan? I have some genmai that cooks about as quickly as white rice. 3. What's the difference between this and maze gohan?

Adding my love for awesome crunch the half-popped! A whole bag does sound like overkill though...

I just found out that scallions have a native Japanese name (wakegi) but leeks are just called leeks (リーキ), which suggests that they aren't so traditional. (edited to say, for those that may post links in Japanese: no, I don't really speak Japanese, only a little bit, and I only know hiragana and katakana, and a few kanji.)

I know the translation is Welsh onion, but that doesn't really mean anything to me. From an American/European supermarket standpoint, are they closer to scallions/green onions, or leeks? My local Korean supermarket has 3 such items - regular scallions, big western style leeks, and then something that looks like a cross between the two, like a very slender, very long leek, or a fat, long scallion. No idea what they call it in Korean, but does that sound like negi? Also, are negi used instead of leeks and scallions in traditional Japanese cooking, or alongside?

Sounds like an interesting background and looking forward to seeing what's to come. Even though you no longer own it, is the brewery still running?

Egad, I may have discovered a new favorite drink! Kraken old fashioned. I was wondering if the Kraken would play nice in such a simple drink, and by God it does! 2 oz aforementioned dark-as-death spiced rum, a splash of turbinado simple, 2+ dashes of Angostura, a dash of Regans' Orange, a lemon twist, and a homemade Luxardo cherry. Amaaaazing. The spices in the rum have a real synergy with the bitters. Oddly, there are faint traces of Dr Pepper or maybe root beer in the finish....

Bruce is based in Frederick, MD (greater DC area)...

Made a variation on this kale, sausage and potato soup from Serious Eats. I added some sliced fennel to the onions, as well as some gochugaru, and used sliced fingerlings. Really, really good! M

My early afternoon drink was an aviation, with Plymouth, Luxardo, R&W, and the dried cherries I've been soaking in Luxardo for several weeks

As far as light rums, Flor de Caña 4 Extra Dry and Brugal white both toast Cruzan in the white rum department. They're also as cheap if not cheaper. Can crappy gin be run through a Brita?

Song Que is indeed in the corner (right on front of the new fountain they built), next to Viet Royale, the one whose storefront faces ultimately Wilson Blvd, and it's the biggest such deli. If that's the one you mean, yeah they definitely have the best banh mi. I like Pho 75 (been to the Rosslyn and Herndon ones),but a) Eden Center is closer to me, and b) I don't like how they ONLY have pho, not even cha gio or goi cuon (crispy spring rolls and the soft salad rolls). Also Pho 75 only takes cash and I tend to operate on debit. I think the best places are on par with Pho 75...Pho Xe Lua may be better. Hai Duong is not perfectly consistent, sometimes the broth is knockout, sometimes not quite so much, but it's always very good. Almost any of the pho places in Eden Center will be good, even if not quite as good as Pho 75.

Wow, that sounds pretty similar to what the Syrians and Lebanese call "Arabic coffee" as sold by street vendors

Having grown up in the area, I can't think of much besides the Ben's half smoke with chili (great in certain circumstances) and jumbo slice (which is beyond foul even after lots of drinks). The only real thing I haven't seen in other cities I've been to is Salvadoran and Ethiopian food. I think if you made a kitfo pupusa, you'd have a signature DC dish.

This may be the obvious choice but RAY'S! Best burger anywhere. Sloppy as all hell, but so worth it. I'll typically avoid significant quantities of red meat for a week or two before going (10 oz is a lot of meat for me).

Queen Makeda is great, especially from a value-for-money standpoint. The quantity of tej they serve is staggering. Also, Shashemene is quite good, as is this basement place, Little Ethiopia. Etete is of course great, but the best thing there is the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, unavailable most other places. (All locations on 9th St. On 14th &...Q?, Lalibela is pretty good too)

So I go to Eden Center often once a week or more, partially because I love the place, and also because nothing cures a slight hangover like pho. My general purpose low-key place is Hai Duong, who do a great pho, bun cha, and banh xeo. Best pho overall that I've had there is probably Pho Xe Lua, but they're more expensive and only take cash. For all purpose Viet food in a nicer setting, I like either Viet Bistro because of the outdoor seating, or in bad weather, Viet Taste. For banh mi, the best is Song Que, but I think one the delis around the corner to (the middle one, there are 3 then Sonq Que) does the best sinh to (smoothies). There are still dozens more restaurants there, of which I've been to maybe 4 (Viet Royale, 2 other pho places, and one tiny place serving non-pho noodle soups as highly recommended by Tyler Cowen, plus a couple other delis for sinh to). What are your favorites?

These look fantastic! How were they made?

You may be right about the Syrians, I saw it more in Tripoli than anywhere else, which is full of Syrian workers