coastcat

I like Seven Seas in Rockville for fresh seafood preparations (on the red menu - the black menu they usually hand to non-Asians is just the routine stuff) and their crispy duck. Mama Wok And Teriyaki (Rockville again) also offers fresh seafood and good homestyle dishes (and sushi). Yum, A&J... love those spiced pig ears! One day I'll trick my bacon-loving (but squeamish) husband into trying these. The best Chinese food in Rockville (at least for those who can't read Chinese characters) may be Joe's Noodle House and their Szechuan house specialties. Amazon has restaurant menus online (go to their homepage and scroll down to "Amazon.com Services" for the link); reading through the NY and SF restaurant menus makes me weep with envy.

Ironically I just mentioned one PMS necessity on another thread... homemade chocolate chip cookies with a 1/2" (well, sometimes more) layer of whipped cream on top. Otherwise, I don't crave sweets at That Time, instead turning to salty and/or starchy foods. BBQ Fritos and Utz Kettle Classic potato chips are my preferred weapons. But... This is just between us ladies, right? And you won't judge culinary skills or tastes by anything we post in this one particular thread, in the understanding that our hormones sometimes make us do unspeakable things? Okay, confession time. What I really, really crave - and eat - is something that combines saltiness and starchiness in a dish that I'd never let others see me eat, let alone taste for themselves. Saute cooked macaroni (plus one sliced-up hot dog - this is optional) in a ridiculous amount of butter (three or four tablespoons) until the macaroni is a tiny bit crispy. Squirt in enough ketchup to give the macaroni a soft orangey-red glow. Add a generous amount of black pepper and way, way more salt than my doctor would want me to consume in a week. Turn off the heat, put macaroni into bowl, and swirl in a final squirt of ketchup (for a little temperature contrast). Yum...

That's frightening. And yet... I wonder how Oreos coated with Nutella would taste? my hormonal imbalance cure: homemade chocolate chip cookies slathered with 1/2" of whipped cream

Most of my favorites have been mentioned already - Cake Bible, The Way To Cook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. Two favorites which haven't been mentioned yet are The New Making of a Cook by Madeleine Kamman (intimidating but educational) and Death By Chocolate by Marcel Desaulniers. DBC is my standard dessert book, and my friends expect to see the Espresso Fudge cake at any party I attend. His chocolate chip cookie recipe (from Death By Chocolate Cookies) is another "please bring them or we'll cry" recipe. Now I've got to try out some of the cookbooks y'all have listed!

To me, purple is a much more spring-like color than sky blue or yellow. Come spring, I'm surrounded by purple - we have a wisteria trellis and a lilac bush. Oreos just aren't my thing, unless they're the fudge-covered variety. Well, yeah, I'll eat Oreos if they're around, just to keep down the clutter... When I'm craving store-bought sandwich cookies, I go for Keebler's E.L. Fudge - which also comes in spring colors.

What, no Kobe tenderloin sukiyaki? I'm just not a big beef enthusiast, and when I do eat it, I want a thick, exceedingly rare bone-in steak or braised short ribs. Now if my mother had changed the recipe to use thin slices of pork, well, I'd have jumped for joy. Pork broth brings me happiness. (yes, I'm a simple gal) Since we've finally dug out from the snowstorm (23" in our front yard! Eeep!), I can go out this weekend and indulge in the yosenabe craving that this thread has prompted. Being snowed in wasn't all that bad, since I spent much of the time eating pork gyoza spiked with Korean garlic-chili paste...

My sentiments exactly. My mother frequently made sukiyaki, but it was never a favorite of mine. Yosenabe makes winter weather bearable, even welcome.

Could it have been Baxter Road, which Calvin Trillin wrote about it in Travels With Alice? Gosh, that book made me hungry.

I was the one who brought this up in that thread, and must admit that I haven't had it for a long time either. It freaks out my husband too much - not surprising, since this is the man who won't eat dark meat chicken because it has too much flavor. No, really. And I married him? There are times when you simply crave fat and starch, and one of my favorite ways to satisfy the craving is leftover gohan sauteed in way too much butter (and a little black pepper).

Mmmmm, furikake. I like any version with shaved bonito, although anything with fish roe is also a delight. Here's my favorite breakfast during childhood: Mix a raw egg into hot rice, add a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkle of Aji-No-Moto (a.k.a. MSG), and shake furikake on top until my mother scolded me to stop. shouldn't there be a drool smilie?

Hey CK! I would have posted this over on the Fool's recipe board, but I like it here better. America's Test Kitchen rated blenders last year (click here to read the ratings, free registration required - this is probably what Dave The Cook was thinking of), and preferred the lower-end models over the fancy ones. The top rated ones were the Oster 6663 and the Hamilton Beach 54200R, both about $40. I like our Oster, but don't use it for anything more strenuous than the occasional milkshake.

Bim = el-cheapo dried salted cod (the lowest graded fish) Pinchgut = a person who skimps on food. You know, the sort of person who would serve his guests bim. Rumper = turnip Swish = Pour hot water into an empty screech barrel. Any alcohol in the wood gets leached out into the water. Drink the alcohol-infused water. That's swish. Sounds nasty. Flacoon = pancake Lassy = molasses Proggins = collective term for food, similar to "grub" Hunchy = darned if I could find a definition anywhere Fish, pork, pancakes, molasses, and rum... I don't think Newfie food has much of a shot at being the next trendy cuisine.

Thanks, and you're welcome! Nope, I'm just a D.C. girl who's good at searching the net. Okay, I do have this odd fixation on Canada and food - even honeymooned in Vancouver to get the best of both...

Stogger = steamed pudding; also refers to a hearty serving of food Peaseduff = steamed or baked pudding made with peas (duff = pudding) Barm = bread starter made with yeast and flour (think sourdough) Vang = melted pork fat, eaten with cod Dogs Dickey Loaf = "dickie" is Newfie for "rooster", so maybe it's a chicken dish? Clingy Squizzled eggs = not a clue - I found a reference to squizzled bacon, so maybe it's just fried or scrambled eggs Crubeen = pickled pigs' feet Dunch = molasses-sweetened cake containing pork fat; also refers to improperly risen bread It's amazing what you can find online - like this Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

I must admit that I cringed when Malawry wrote about cleaning chicken backs. But it wasn't because of the cleaning part - I was more horrified by those wonderful chicken backs being relegated to stock! When I cut up whole chickens, the backs are saved as "cook's treat". They're wonderful roasted (450F) with salt/pepper or a mild spice rub, with the skin patted dry and then oiled to crisp it up a bit. The neck and gizzard go into the roasting pan, too. And that's lunch. (But I've always tossed the kidneys... never even occurred to me to taste them. Perhaps next time?)

I always order gyoza, even though I regularly make it at home. Tempura is hard to resist (especially the sweet potato tempura), and in cold weather I usually end up with some sort of udon in broth. Grilled/broiled/teriyaki fish cheeks are also a major temptation. Hubby has, as Calvin Trillin once phrased it, a Naugahyde palate. He sticks with yakitori and negimayaki, but I consider it a victory that he's even that adventurous.

Regarding kitchen supply places... the question came up during Kim O'Donnell's live chat on 1/14, and there were several suggestions from the chatters. The transcript is here. I agree with Malawry about Kitchen Etc. There's a large selection of some things (dinnerware as far as the eye can see), but there's not much there for the serious baker. (I'll stick with Cakes Plus in Laurel for baking supplies) Granted, Kitchen Etc knows how to be tempting - when you step off the escalator you're immediately faced with an array of All-Clad! drool