huiray

This is NOT a valid comparison. It simply isn't. This is a valid comparison. ----------- Why you (BK) would think that a "comparison" between one manufacturer with one process and a different manufacturer with another process would "demonstrate" the difference between brass dies and non-brass dies is beyond me. I must profess my bewilderment at your "comparison".

This week's food/grocery shopping, most (but not all) of it; a fair bit of re-stocking. Goose the Market Finocchiona, sliced thinly. Debreziner sausages. Pistacchio gelato. Pasta: Fusilli col buco [Rustichella d'Abruzzo] Broad Ripple Farmers' Market Silverthorn Farm: Baby daikon radishes. Yeager Farms Produce: Japanese 'Mangan' eggplants, Shishito peppers. Fields Farm Fresh: Standard tomatoes, Japanese Trifele tomatoes. Eden Farms: Collard greens (hydroponic). Funny Bone Farm: Red chard, Red Russian kale. Norman Mullet Farm: Standard orange carrots, smaller/gnarly ones. Annabelle's Garden: Fresh oyster mushrooms. The Fresh Market EV olive oil [House brand, 'Novello', Italian, 2012 harvest]. EV olive oil [California Olive Ranch, 2012 harvest]. Pasta: tagliarelle [Cipriani] & tagliolini [Cipriani] On sale!. Pasta: Capellini, linguine [both Ferrara] On sale!. Pasta: Spaghetti [Garofalo]. Maille mustards (Dijon, Old Style) On sale!. Asia Mart Soured pickled mustard [Pigeon brand (Thai)]. Dried snow fungus. 'Shaoxing cooking wine' (紹興花雕酒) [Lam Sheng Kee] A kind of "Shaoxing cooking wine". 'Nuerhong cooking rice wine', "fish/seafood" variety, Premium Matured [Gold Plum] (金梅陳釀 優質紹興料酒) Another kind of "Shaoxing cooking wine". Luscious soy paste [Kim Lan]. Slender bamboo shoots [Asian Taste]. Slender bamboo shoot tips [Evergreen]. Mango nectar [Gina]. Beef & tendon balls [Venus]. Soft tofu & regular tofu [Hinoichi][House Foods]. Fresh pork spare ribs (short cut). Fresh beef shin. Fresh vegetables: Mung bean sprouts, Taiwan bok choy (a variety of "Napa cabbage"), green onions, fuzzy squash (Chinese hairy gourd), bitter melon.

I see the connection between salt cod and Macau in its use in fried rice, and its origin in Macau as you say - but with regards to the more "normal" Chinese ham yue I don't think of it always as "sparingly used as an intense seasoning". After all, there are all sorts of salted fish, of different "saltiness", many of which are soaked to remove some of the saltiness before use; and in many dishes the salt fish is used as a major component, not quite "sparingly as an intense seasoning". The Chinese-type salt fish is also definitely used in some iterations of fried rice here and there in SE Asia and E Asia, so even that is not a new thing. :-)

Cashiers? Supermarket bags? Dunno, that doesn't ring a bell with me. :-) I've consciously seen Brussels sprouts on the stalk only at Farmers' Markets around here, not at conventional supermarkets. Also, the stalks around here are pretty thick and big. (Maybe Trader Joe's has them, but I do not shop at that place and probably have gone into them no more than a half dozen times or so in maybe 10 years) I just finished off a stalk, about 3 1/2 ft long/tall, with the stalk itself about 3 inches or so in diameter; not that skinny teeny stalk shown in the Trader Joe's picture. I very much doubt I would cook the sprouts on the stalk in my case or with similar stalks I would find at my Farmers' Markets. :-D

Try using some fresh ginger and rice wine (say, something like Shaohsing wine) to ameliorate/cut down on the fishiness. It seems you always bake or fry/BBQ your fish. Do you ever steam your fish? Or eat it off the whole fish at the table (meaning you get to look at it looking back), rather than flaking it off the frame and presenting it as lumps of flesh on a plate?

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/09/the-best-salt-and-vinegar-chips-tasting-brands-most-acidic.html

Your point being? I am merely pointing out that many of these types of news stories are spun to create greater controversy.. It is the same thing in reverse to the whole christian boycott of starbucks because the CEO is supposedly anti-traditional marriage and doesn't want their business. Very few people actually took the time to find out exactly what is said, instead they relied on the inflammatory spin to base their outrage on. Sometimes I think without facebook and twitter no one would know what to be outraged about next. . That you appeared to tie his voicing those sentiments to his being in a Catholic country, implying that in a Catholic country (i.e. any Catholic country) his sentiments of a family as he defined it was normal and definitive, and that same-sex married couples would not be accepted. If so, that would be incorrect. As for what he actually said, it *has* been reported on and carefully described, word for word, in far more places than Twitter and Facebook. Including on Snopes.com. All you have to do is look around. Your logic doesn't follow. The civil laws of italy or those other countries are a moot point. The canonical law of the roman catholic church is very clear on the articles of faith for catholicism. In a country that is ~96% catholic , hearing that an italian male from a prominent bussiness family will only use representations of the traditional family in his companies advertising is about as shocking as being told water is wet, or that rice is often eaten in asia. The information is as glaringly obvious as the sun in the sky at noon on a clear day. You are mistaken. There is a great deal of relevance regarding civil marriage and religious marriage in a practical sense in any modern country. That one can focus on the religious aspects of what a "traditional family" is fine, in a certain sense, and the canonical injunctions upon same-sex marriage; but when you tie that to a Catholic country you are incorrect. There is still much Sturm und Drang in the USA, for example, about same-sex marriage, but it is coming from RELIGIOUS quarters MOST of whom are NOT Catholic. There isn't something about being a "Catholic country" where Guido Barilla's comments are "to be expected". It is about being a religiously-driven/reactionary country (ISLAMIC INCLUDED) that precludes religious acceptance of same-sex marriage. As a practical matter, one's religious marriage matters not a whit in a practical sense in most Western countries nowadays unless you are also married CIVILLY by the State. Every church wedding in the West also requires that pesky CIVIL/STATE MARRIAGE document - but perhaps you have forgotten that. When Guido Barilla says what he did he basically thumbed his nose at the fact that civil marriage, the one that counts in a practical sense even in Italy and which would be the one that gays and lesbians are striving towards, is to be disregarded by his company, the largest producer and maker of pasta and a company which he, as the head, has influence over the imagery of what constitutes a family in modern times. Yes, he is free to say what he did. I am free to react to it as I will. One is also free to consider that it was "to be expected" for him to say what he did, and I am free to disagree with that proclamation. In any case, the church *didn't* get involved in marriages in earlier times and only got into the game much later - but that is a subject way beyond this thread. For that matter, in France, an example I quoted in my previous post and which is overwhelmingly Catholic, it has been reported that up to two-thirds of the public (despite being Catholic) are accepting of same-sex marriage even though there was all that frenetic arm-waving from the Established Catholic Church-driven forces there. In this regard it has been pointed out that Italy is, indeed, in a different place than other countries which have accepted homosexuality and same-sex marriage in society at large, whether that society is largely Catholic or not, and *that* would have been a more pertinent aspect to wonder about, rather than saying that it was to be expected "in a Catholic country".

This is from a book published six years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Planet-What-World-Eats/dp/0984074422 I remember reading an article with extracts from the book (basically that photo slideshow) in Time magazine, and discussions about it on, uhh, another food forum years ago. (I just checked, yes, those discussions are there. ;-) )

Heh. Quite striking pics of those eyeballs, Liuzhou. Yes, do tell us of more details of how folks around your parts cooks these things. On a slight tangent, I found it hysterical (and somewhat obnoxious, in a certain sense) that these two recipes (amongst others) are named PIG EYES recipes, when they have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with actual pig eyes: http://breakfast.food.com/recipe/pig-eyes-375529 http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Pig-Eyes-Recipezaar In my books they clearly fall into the FALSE ADVERTISING category of spurious oh-so-cool giggly-named recipes.

Friday/Saturday food shopping this week. Asia Mart Lemongrass, 2 fat stalks Pull Mustard (雪裡紅) Thai basil Malunggay leaves Chinese long beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) White beech mushrooms (bunapi shimeji) Pea tips Young (pink bract) ginger, packaged; a little older than what I got last week at the CFM Duck wings (raw) Cantonese roast duck, 1/2 a bird Frozen pre-made crab shumai [JFC] Frozen pre-made har gow (shrimp dumplings) [Prime Food] Fried bean curd [Water Lilies Food Inc.] Fried soy bean curd (Japanese; [Daiei]; 'zen sushi age') Ryori-shu [Morita] Yibin ya cai (Suimiyacai) (四川宜宾 碎米芽菜)/(四川宜賓 碎米芽菜) Jinjja Jinjja "Flamin' Hot & Nutty Noodle Soup" instant ramen-type stuff [Nong Shim] Goose the Market Hawaiian Ono (Wahoo), nice large fillet Debreziner sausages Culatello [smoking Goose], shaved thinly (made w/ Red Wattle Pork) Freshly-baked Shagbark Oatmeal Cookie [H2O Sushi; locally renowned cookie] Broad Ripple Farmers' Market Bloomer's Greenhouse: 3 1/2 ft long fully packed stalk of Brussels sprouts Silverthorn Farm: 1 bunch baby leeks Fields Farm Fresh: Regular tomatoes (for soup), Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes Eden Farms: 1 head young Tuscan kale (hydroponic) Carmel Farmers' Market Nading Farm: 1 bunch Chioggia beets Brotgarten: 1 loaf walnut-cranberry bread

I've always thought Volt was one of the best places around, and I have always enjoyed Table 21 at Volt immensely. Several times.

It might be an idea to just simply go to this "Dram Shop" next time. Just a thought. :-) (What is this place? This one?)

Heh. I alluded to its not being a "new thing" back here.

I believe that they sold infant formula to Africans.More than just to Africans. http://www.notefromlapland.com/2010/08/the-nestle-boycott-whats-that-all-about-then.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

Ah, but one may view the discrimination against gays and same-sex marriage as an injustice. I do. It's more than simply "political correctness".

Interesting meal, Liuzhou. What were those greens, exactly? (Was it simply the one known in many parts as "choy sum" 菜心 or "yu choy sum" 油菜心 ?)

Your point being? I am merely pointing out that many of these types of news stories are spun to create greater controversy.. It is the same thing in reverse to the whole christian boycott of starbucks because the CEO is supposedly anti-traditional marriage and doesn't want their business. Very few people actually took the time to find out exactly what is said, instead they relied on the inflammatory spin to base their outrage on. Sometimes I think without facebook and twitter no one would know what to be outraged about next. . That you appeared to tie his voicing those sentiments to his being in a Catholic country, implying that in a Catholic country (i.e. any Catholic country) his sentiments of a family as he defined it was normal and definitive, and that same-sex married couples would not be accepted. If so, that would be incorrect. As for what he actually said, it *has* been reported on and carefully described, word for word, in far more places than Twitter and Facebook. Including on Snopes.com. All you have to do is look around.

Regarding "...a largely Catholic country...": France (76%), Spain (94%), Portugal (88%), Brazil (65%; and numerically the country w/ the largest number), Argentina (92%), Uruguay (77%) are all also "largely Catholic" countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country In all of these countries same-sex marriages are legal and the definition of a family therefore officially encompasses these same-sex families. ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_same-sex_marriage

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/LucretiaPruitt/barilla-pasta-anti-gay_n_3995679_287701216.html

Depends. Most versions will be broth-like. The "dry-type" version, often associated w/ what is called the Klang version (but is not universally meant when one talks about "Klang BKT") will have a thick sauce.

http://video.takepart.com/previews/UreyFVMO-kqXsAI7f

So Douglas Keane won it. He deserved it, but I'm a little sad that Bryan Voltaggio just missed the top honors again. He would have been a worthy winner too.

A quick reminder to those interested: Season premiere is on Wed. Oct 2, 10 pm eastern time/9 central.

Bak Kut Teh. Here's an example I made shown here on eG. (You can use just the star anise, cloves and cinnamon and skip the rest of the herbs) You might also consider "braising" meats in a Chinese-type style ("炆"/"燜"), which Western/French cuisine purists might consider more like stewing than braising. I do my "braises" this way mostly, where I cover the meat (cut up into smaller pieces frequently (or not - e.g. smaller pork hocks are done "whole")) completely with the "braising" liquid and simmer it but allow the liquid to evaporate off (non-completely-sealing lid) and concentrate over the cooking time, turning the meat as needed. This is all done on the stove top, usually in a metal (SS) pot, not in the oven. See here and here and here (scroll down) for some examples.

Thanks, Tri2cook. Very interesting - and yes, the comments about liver and tripe were useful. Helps to form an idea, of sorts, of the taste profile you favor/disfavor.