Hassouni

I'm guessing it would handle bancha and houjicha quite well too?

Really looking forward to this, can't wait!

Mashallah! These look awesome. I don't think I'll ever do this (multiple reasons why), but this looks a LOT better than the bastirma I can get from the Lebanese and Turkish shops. How does it compare to the best in Beirut?

Well, I drink Japanese green tea (ito en or yamamotoyama asian supermarket stuff) more than anything except strong Iraqi style tea, and I'm wondering if a kyusu will really produce better tea than my mug and strainer basket approach.

So, 6 years later..... I make masala tea every now and then, and I never seem to get the same degree of spice intensity as I've got from restaurants and tea shops in the US, UK, and Persian Gulf (as close as I've come to India). Last night I boiled coarsely ground spices (about 5 cardamoms, 3 cloves, some cinnamon, 3 peppercorns) and water for about half an hour and it smelled lovely, but when I added milk and tea, I could barely taste the spices. Tonight I simmered about double that in some milk thinking the milk fat would extract the spice better, but I just got thick, milky, sweet tea with only a hint of spice. What is the secret to really making the spices stand out?

Ooh I love bastirma/pastırma. Can't wait to see how this turns out!

That sounds really good, I'd love to see it.

Would beer work as a liquid for the same effect?

Jimbo your site has been a great resource for me since I started seriously collecting rums this year. I've tried all the Neissons, and I find them all to be very harsh and gasoline-like, all requiring ice to settle the burn. The Barbancourt 5 star I have on the other hand is subtle, sophisticated, and fantastic drunk neat. I know the arguments for and against Barbancourt's non-Agricole status, and I think it's just French bureaucracy more than anything else. The flavor definitely has more in common with Agricoles than molasses-based rums.

So you've decided to go for it?

I just saw Richard Kilgore's latest tea tasting thread, where he asks tasters to brew in a gaiwan or kyusu vs a Western-style teapot. I pretty much only use Western-style teapots or brew directly in the mug (I have a gaiwan but I find it a pain for every day use). How do different vessels affect the tea differently? I would imagine as long as the water can be kept hot while brewing, it's all basically the same. Anyone care to explain?

Tabboule has to be REALLY good for me to like it - super fresh parsley, chopped very very small, with a good amount of olive oil, eaten with either Arabic bread or Lettuce leaves as a wrap. I tend not to order it outside of Lebanon.

I'd try misting with oil then roasting, as well as roasting then misting to see which is closer to the product you like. I can't imagine there are too many other ways to do it. You might try a heavy pan instead of the oven, though.

I haven't, but I've seen it and wondered what exactly it is. Care to enlighten me?

Seriously, I echo everything Scoop has said. Expiration dates are often meaningless. If it smells and looks good, buy it!

Not that I've made any bread recently, but as of a year ago I was making variations on Bittman's no-knead bread fairly frequently, often experimenting with various kinds of flour, including whole wheat. I was never able to get a crispy, crackly-crusted loaf with majority whole wheat without the bread being EXTREMELY dense. I was in Switzerland recently, and had the best bread I've ever had anywhere - it was dark-ish, seemed to be whole wheat, with a great crust and nice open-holed crumb. Is there a way I can do this at home simply?

Does it slowly lose dissolved oxygen as it heats up and by the time it hits boiling there's none left, or does it start shedding oxygen at the boiling point?

Isn't the level of oxygen in water constant, H2O and all that? I'm not a chemist, I'm actually rather curious about this

Do any of you live with non-cooking types who keep and continue to use several old, crummy, never been sharpened and essentially worthless supermarket knives despite you having a proper sharp knife living right next to the crappy ones? I'm recovering from an injury and can't cook much right now, and tonight, at dinner, I saw the most messily cut spring onions, clearly the work of one of these dull knives - the proper knife cuts them with no trouble. I don't understand this at all. Why use something so clearly inferior? Does anyone else know someone who prefers to use a dull knife when the vastly better option is 2 inches to the right? I just don't get it.

I think it's your imagination. I do this all the time. The water here isn't good enough for me to be fastidious about it

I mean all the Spanish restaurants I've been to have their jamon hanging up in the air on a slicer on the counter, so I dunno

I imagine if you can keep it cool and dry it'll keep for quite a while in the open, I mean it's not as if it wasn't hanging up for months anyway right?

I second everything Scoop says, and if you're really at a loss, you can mail us samples

Also, I don't know why I never thought of a bookshelf for liquor bottles..

Does anyone know any good links or videos for Japanese knife/cutting techniques?