huiray

I'm inclined to do the simplest and cleanest thing with them and to savor them for themselves...simply boil them in salted water, slip off the skins, slice them up and eat as-is, maybe with a drizzle of the best balsamic vinegar one can get; slowly, each bite to be concentrated on, the simple taste of the beets, to remember what it was - till the next time.

Today: Broad Ripple Farmers' Market • Silverthorn Farm - Carnival squash, Delicata squashes, leafy-type celery, Tuscan kale, coriander w/ roots attached. (Yay! He finally came through with some stuff where he sequestered stuff before his harvesters cut the roots off...he mentioned that he chose ones with nice roots - thanks, Nate) • Fields Farm Fresh - standard tomatoes. His last harvest, brought in before the first hard frost of the year a few days ago. • Annabelle's Garden - Maitake mushrooms (2 different cultivars, both also different from the one I got last week), oyster mushrooms. • Schacht Farm - eggs. Funny Bone Farm - daikon, std orange carrots. • Whipker Azalia Farm Market - Carnival squash. Goose the Market Merguez sausages, prosciutto ham (this one is much redder than normal, I think the manager said something like it being "Prosciutto rosa"...?), Finocchiona salami, Belgian Chocolate gelato, local yellow carrots. Asia Mart Fresh ginger, fresh turmeric, Opo squash (浦瓜), Taiwan Bok Choy (台灣白菜), scallions (lots), a small striped bass (live from the tank, head bopped & gutted there), stewing chicken (frozen), fish meat "emulsion" [Venus brand], fresh skinny wonton noodles, Kimchi bowl noodles [Nong Shim] (a case).

Heh. Cheese Pound Cakes? Hmm-m-m...

If one looks at the goramen.com link I posted above (the second hyperlink) and clicks on the "Ramen Dreams Short" link in the menu bar at the top of the landing page one goes to Keizo Shimamota's website and a video showing his passion for ramen - and shots of what goes into that broth used for a bowl of ramen!! His Facebook page is also linked to from that webpage. Oh, under 'Popular Posts' is a link to "Ramen BurgerTM Debut" which has, at the bottom of that webpage, "thanks" being given to Sun Noodles and Burger Maker, which pretty much tells one what he used. ;-)

Actually, what I was hmm-ing about was that "bergamot" appears to be used by some in Thailand (and maybe other places) as a name for what is otherwise actually "kaffir lime" or makrut lime, and that those bumpy "bergamot" limes in both Google image sets were also identified as kaffir limes in their descriptions. The "bergamot" leaves (such as in that link I gave) are "double" leaves that look a lot like kaffir lime leaves (whereas the smooth-skinned bergamots from other images in the first image set have the "single" leaves, so far as can be seen, on the branches/trees)

Here are some squashes I picked up at my local farmers' market this morning: The two on the left are both "Carnival Squash" cultivars, as labeled and sold by the vendors (two separate ones). [The two on the right are Delicata squashes]. Pic of the two "Carnival Squash" examples viewed from the side: Here's a website with some info about "Carnival squash", with info (according to these folks) about the origin of the squash: http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Carnival_Squash_998.php Note the two "sightings" reported at two supermarkets in Shanghai, China. :-) Just throwing some additional tid-bits into the discussion.

Hmm. The images on the Google answer set that show bumpy "bergamots" - such as this, this, and this appear to have been taken by someone with a Thai name (the copyright holder). Then there's this. Also this, where "bergamot" leaves from Thailand are offered, a.k.a. kaffir lime leaves. There's also a Turkish website that claims to offer "bergamot trees for sale, with a pic of fruit in a basket that looks like citrons, as well as the same pic as here (linked to above) which I wonder if they had bought for their use or ripped off and plastered their logo on. Then there's this. FWIW, Wikipedia also has a statement (last paragraph of the introductory section) about bergamot orange being confused w/ citron... According to the author ("brett") on this blog article of his, in the comments section, kaffir lime is sometimes identified as bergamot (in Thailand, according to the context as I read it). OTOH, most other pictures of the smoother/rounder "bergamot" fruits in that Google answer set show the typical single-lobed citrus-type leaves on the plants... Hmm.

D'you mean the "Ching Ming" festival (Qingming Festival) which would be in Spring? If so, perhaps that might be an offshoot of that Day of the Dead thing going on in the Traditions subforum.

Well, the judges did yell at Travis (Captain Vietnam) for his odd idea - but they did remark that the sauce wasn't that horrible by itself and if it had been served with meatballs would have been a decent Italian dish. :-) The shrimp, OTOH, was mangled, it seems - and according to the judges' preferences...and it is frequently the case that poor execution send someone home over almost anything else. I'm guessing that if the dish had been perfectly done it would have been a different matter? OK, I just went back and reviewed the JT for the losing team - and Eddie Huang faulted the concept (for the shrimp dish) the worst, Padma Lakshmi faulted the rice the worst, Tom Colicchio faulted the shrimp the worst...and "Head Judge" wins out, it would seem. The tomato sauce was semi-defended by Emeril Lagasse as being equivalent to some generic sauce and indeed the comment about adding some meatballs and it would have been OK was said at the table. Shirley's dish was not really "Vietnamese" - again, according to the judges - although she did say back to them that the folks on the docks told her repeatedly that they used butter in cooking their shrimp. In his blog, Hugh Acheson talks about her dish being a successful Viet-fusion dish; and when she was declared the winner Eddie Huang described her win as the best "capture of the spirit of the Vietnamese community in New Orleans". That formulation of the rationale for the decision did catch my notice.

Hmm. I think I've seen this at my local Chinese grocery - or maybe I'm thinking of a similarly striped/colored Korean (sweet) melon they have occasionally which is more elliptical in shape... Can't help with a Western/Latin binomial name yet, sorry - but I must assume you have seen these two articles? http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=bIPfbD7DXDvoh89gavSmZIhNmkRlspnjjMeWdCjxyM7idpa2ZzWU0kk34od6Y9DMKJ2JGqPcAsGvz8gyXbMKSq http://www.ycen.com.cn/content/2012-06/27/content_1113897.htm (The latter one does say the examples the reporter was chasing down was imported from Taiwan)

More updates about the Chicago Eataly. "Parking Included"! http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2013/10/24/eatalys-full-service-restaurant-baffo.php

Heh. Like these compilations? http://www.thebraiser.com/eddie-huang-hugh-acheson-twitter-fight/ http://storify.com/TheBraiser/hugh-acheson-and-eddie-huang-get-in-weird-fight I have to say I'm not a fan of Huang myself. On this episode of TC he did not help his image, IMO. I also smiled a bit when Captain Vietnam disparaged Huang's Vietnamese food bona fides even if he himself wasn't quite the expert himself.

Episode 4: Hugh Acheson's blog is up, and I think it's a good one with some brief chit-chat about the Vietnamese presence in N.O. and some snark about Eddie Huang. :-) He also has good comments about various issues raised on the episode. http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-11/blogs/hugh-acheson/hugh-acheson-i-love-the-smell-of-lemongrass-in-the-morning A Vietnamese food challenge - no QF - with a tour through Vietnamese places and shrimping operations for the cheftestants. As BH says, a nice one. However, I thought it a little odd to find that many cheftestants had close to zero exposure to (or experience with) Vietnamese food. One comment that the lady from Saloosha made while they were shopping also made me furrow my brow a bit - when she was surveying that rack of cooking utensils and containers and accessories and said "...there's everything but there's nothing...". I wonder if it was that she was looking for some specific things (according to her mental ideas of whatever they were) and it wasn't there (and she couldn't imagine a way to use what they had on the shelves)? Just speculating. @Brown Hornet – Captain Vietnam - heh. Yes, perhaps his understanding of Viet cuisine is not as excellent as he thought. Justin continues to impress me. So - deep-fried battered shrimp covered w/ hot (temperature-wise) sauce (=overcooked mushy-batter shrimp) goes home...but LCK offers a way back in. :-)

The first episode of "Last Chance Kitchen" has been posted on the Bravo Top Chef website. All five of the PPYKAG chefs (so far) face off together, only one advances. (Guess who)

Hmm, on Jorma Koskinen's website (linked to above for the citron and kaffir limes entries) "ethrog" is listed as Greek citron (Citrus medica 'Ethrog'), one of the varieties around, with other old varieties such as the one (Citrus medica 'Cedruna') originating from India. The citrus pages at MMPND (Univ. of Melbourne) lists Citrus medica L. var. ethrog Engl. -> Citrus limonimedica Lush. (The MMPND website also appears to have a good opinion of Koskinen's website) On Koskinen's website there is also listed (and shown) Citrus medica 'Bajoura' - probably the same as the "bijora' I wondered about upstream? Sylvia, if you can get "their" name from them, ask also which language/dialect group that name is in. Note the variations on the full MMPND page (at the top) that has the entries for Citrus medica L. .

A recent late dinner: • Sockeye salmon, steamed w/ Shaohsing wine, mirin, vegetable oil, black & white pepper, lime juice, bit of salt, scallions, ginger, pear puffballs. • Leftover fried rice - w/ garlic, long beans, scallions, celery, eggs, salt.

Do the folks in the store call it "BIJORA"? See here, here, here. Are any of the leaves available? Were there any around when you picked this up? (The leaf shape & size would help in the ID) One picture here seems to suggest that there can be pretty big kaffir limes (the one of a stack of limes besides that glass). The citron pages at that website are here. I picked up knobbly "limes" not so long ago at my Chinese grocery - sold in the "limes" bin. I still have a few. They look somewhat like yours and are also about the same size; except that there is a more noticeable sort-of linear ridging to the bumps such as seen in the pages for citron linked to above. The juice of the ones I have tastes somewhere between a "standard" Western-type lemon and an almost-smooth-skinned lime.

Some lunches from the last few weeks. -------------------------- • Fried rice. Made w/ Chinese sausages (lap cheong; liver & wine-flavored varieties), smashed chopped garlic, broccoli florets, day-old Basmati rice. -------------------------- • Red chard, “stir-fried” w/ minced pork, garlic, plus splashes of this-and-that (don’t exactly remember what now). • Spaghetti [Garofalo] w/ leftover “Marcella Hazan” tomato sauce. --------------------------- • Fresh wood-ear fungus (muk yee; 木耳) sautéed w/ small fresh Chinese mushrooms (shiitake-type; tung koo; 冬菇), scallions & coriander leaves. • Romaine hearts stir-fried w/ garlic & fermented bean curd (fu yee; 腐乳). • Leftover Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh (from here). • White rice (Basmati). ---------------------------- • Chinese rose wine & shrimp soup. I had been thinking of this off-and-on since Anna N’s post and finally got around to it. • Fried rice w/ chopped Chinese long beans, lots of chopped scallions, chopped celery, farm eggs scrambled in situ. (Not pictured)

B'fast today: Another iteration of slow-simmered chicken broth w/ carrots & celery, eaten w/ another brand of "mee sua". (See here for a previous version) The chicken broth was made using chicken legs (drumsticks) only, some pretty big ones, with big knobby joints which gave nice fall-off tender caps loaded w/ gelatin/softened joint caps. :-) The oil droplets are chicken fat (an appreciable amount was skimmed off), no additional oil was added to the stock/broth. The mee sua was a Taiwanese brand [Hung-Ming].¶ ¶ The package is labeled 台灣 (Taiwan)(white characters on a red ellipse) 手工麵線 (big red characters)("handmade noodle threads"). There is no English name on the package, neither front nor back. The 'Nutritional Facts' panel (on the back) is in both English and Chinese; but there is no ingredient list in English. The name of the distributor in the USA is in English. (p.s. This is sold in a large-ish Chinese/Asian grocery where the clientele is overwhelmingly of Chinese extraction, probably 95+%)

Fun recaps in a "modern format" seen with some frequency. :-) http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/10/top-chef-new-orleans-cartoon-recap-episode-3.html http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/10/top-chef-new-orleans-cartoon-recap-episode-2.html http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/10/top-chef-new-orleans-cartoon-recap-episode-1.html

Indeed you did, and I was merely pointing out that it may not be the best way to assess a restaurant, any restaurant, even with something as basic as that Chinese-American dish called General Tso's Chicken. To each their own. For that matter, even in "Chinese-Chinese" restaurants, the strengths of the chef(s) is a factor, and one may have a horrible meal in such a place if one ordered the dishes that the chef did not do well. One often goes to certain places and orders the dish that the chef is known for, rather than a dish that is simply on the menu because it is expected to be there.

In all honesty, I wonder why you did order the Gen Tso's chicken when you knew it was a place where these Chinese students ate at and had declared it "authentic". I would think that the place was more concerned with stuff that would resemble what one might get in a "Chinese" meal, rather than a "Chinese-American" meal (which is what Gen. Tso's Chicken would be). Just as you have written about on another thread regarding "Italian-Italian" vs "Italian-American" meals, perhaps you were expecting a "Chinese-American" meal in a place which did not do that well but did do "Chinese" well? (And there are all these discussions about "Chinese-Chinese" meals not appealing to many folks (but not all, presumably) who did not grow up with that but were accustomed to, um, not-quite Chinese-Chinese meals? Just wondering. Of course, perhaps this place did execute all their dishes badly and nostalgia (from the students) influenced their statements. Still, I wonder... BTW, "oiliness" is also dependent on the cuisine and the diner. Some of the stuff I would expect to be "oily" in Chinese cuisine I believe would be thought of as gross by those who did not grow up with the stuff...etc etc.

Pic of the Maitake, Lion's Mane and Pear Puffball mushrooms I got today.

Grocery shopping between 10/12/13 and 10/19/13... Broad Ripple Farmers' Market (2 visits) • Silverthorn Farm: Baby leeks, Tuscan kale, young daikon. • Bloomer's Greenhouse: Brussels sprouts on the stalk, Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes. • Funny Bone Farm: Ripe tomatoes, parsnips, std orange carrots, red Russian kale. • Brotgarten: Epi wheat branch loaf. • Fields Farm Fresh: Trifele tomatoes, orange snack peppers, Romaine lettuce, Red Leaf lettuce, Marconi sweet peppers (green-streaked red ones). • Earthly Delights: LARGE head of cauliflower ($3 only!) • Norman Mullet Farm: orange carrots. • Annabelle's Garden: Maitake mushroom (a large piece) (Grifola frondosa), Lion's Mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus), Pear Puffball mushrooms (Lycoperdon pyriforme). Asia mart Bamboo shoots (whole; and sliced) [First World brand]. Baby "Yu Choy Sum". Scallions (6 bunches @ 3 bunches/US$1). Chinese long beans (Vigna unguiculata ssp sesquipedalis). Coriander leaves (3 bunches/US$1). Watercress. Malabar spinach (Suay Choy). Fresh wood ear mushrooms. Fresh small "tung koo" mushrooms (Chinese shiitake type). Bitter melons. Stewing chickens (frozen). Shaohsing wine (cooking) [Wei Chuan]. Rose wine (Mei Kuei Lu Chiew) [Golden Star]. Sour (pickled) mustard (Harm Choy/Syun Choy). Cantonese roast pork. Chinese crullers (Yau Char Kwai). Fuzhou flour vermicelli, extra thin [sun Kee]. Flour vermicelli, Taiwanese, hand-made [Hung-Ming]. Cellophane noodles (mung bean threads) [Long Kow]. Fine rice noodles (Mei Fun) [buddha brand]. Carniceria Guanajuato #3 Chicken drumsticks. Chicken wings. Beef short ribs. Limes (10/US$1). Bosc pears. This place has a fresh meat counter about 90-100 feet long. Heaps of meats, often at very good prices. Om India Plaza Basmati rice (10 lb) [Zebra]. Basmati rice (15 lb) [Royal]. Shoop (brand) instant noodles: 'Spicy Lemon', 'Bombay Biryani', 'Masala' flavors. Sweets: fresh Ghujia; & Gulab Jamun "sandwiches" (stuffed w/ paneer). Lee Supermarket 'Instant Noodle King' Wonton Soup Flavored noodle packs. 'Dragonfly' Hot & Sour Shrimp Flavor instant noodle packs. Guyabayano (Soursop) nectar drinks. 'Maeploy' sweet chili sauce. Vegetable oil (2.6 L). Plus sockeye salmon fillets and wild-harvested shrimp from my standard Western grocery down the road.

Is it smoked? What you describe does sound a little bit like what is called "Farmer's Ham" in my parts, a.k.a. Bauernschinken - this certainly is bacon-like to me, anyway; and pretty salty at times, depending on the batch and who's making it.