jawbone

These seem to be sold out everywhere I have checked. Where did you buy yours? Anyone have leads on a Canadian source?

I find it interesting that most salt-pack anchovy tins tell you to keep refrigerated at all times (i.e. even unopened). Yet some stores don't. Whether Rancho Gordo's (unopened) tin has been refrigerated these past years could make a big difference to their condition.

I have tried the pickled onions (Carol'd Pickled Onions). They were fantastic. I made them to stuff the gougeres (with bacon and arugula) but ended up eating them by the forkful.

and what about soaking chick peas with baking soda? has this been discredited?

Another Asian mushroom that I am curious about is the wood ear or tree ear. I see them called for in recipes but don't know what they look like and can't read the signs/packages in the Asian groceries. A class on Asian ingredients--that had pictures of every item--would be fabulous.

My dear clueless-in-the-kitchen wife did this when she was in high school: Following her mom's scribbled-on-an-index-card recipe for chocolate cookies, she saw one of the ingredients was "1 cup c." For some reason she assumed that "c." stood for cinnamon and not cocoa. She baked the cookies. The house was barely inhabitable for a few days. (And yes, her mom shops at Costco).

The Magnum is fantastic. You can also get a mini version, which is about 3 inches tall, comes in a little pouch, and is very cute. Good for the road. The grinding mechanisms on these are fabulous.

I'll put in another vote for the boxed stuff. But better than the Kraft is President's Choice White Cheddar--great flavour sans scary orange colour. Not sure if it is just a Canadian product. I ate crates of the stuff thru university. And, yes, milk was often too expensive. I've made it with water, sometimes just lots of margerine, or mayo (not so good), or italian dressing (interesting)... The CI baked mac and cheese is great--just in a different league.

When Cooks Illustrated tested HearthKit a while back they at first thought it made very little difference--but that was in their professional-quality test ovens. When they took it home and used it on "normal" stoves, Hearthkit made a significant difference. It apparently helped the oven maintain its temp when the door was opened and minimized the effect of hot/coolspots.

It is a bit of a mystery. By some accounts Toronto already has great supermarkets. I worked at Whole Foods for a few months when it first opened in Toronto. The regional supervisors who came to train us and get the store set up were very impressed with the quality and variety offered by other supermarkets in town. They seemed a bit worried that Whole Foods wouldn't stand out from the competition like it apparently does in many parts of the US. They saw their T.O. competition as not just "gourmet" places like Pusataris but big chains like Loblaws (in particular). T.O. was a very attractive market (at least at the outset) and they were already planning more WF stores in the city. I doubt the entrance of all these new big boxes will be a problem. The good little places that deserve to survive will endure and prices in the chains will be forced down.

The place a few doors south of The Cookbook Store--the Kitchen and Glassware Place (or something like that)--is great for glassware and good for gadgets. I bought a Bron mandoline for $169 there a few weeks ago (it is $200 to $220 in most other places). Superb service. Placewares in St Lawrence Market is good for inexpensive gadgets. Zesters, spatulas, cannisters, cutting boards etc. A few doors south of Fortune (on Spadina) is Tap Phong, which has an amazing array of dishes and cheap cookware and a good assortment of small appliances. Best (if not only) place in Toronto to get sticky rice steamers and huge Thai green granite mortar and pestles. Williams and Sonoma is also good and suprisingly cheap. For example, many stores are selling the large Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinnner for $45 to $50. It's $38 at W and S. Nikolau's is also great. They have a couple ISI foamers that I am eying. Caynes (way up north somewhere) is a great place for very low prices on small appliances. (I've heard). Happy shopping.

Thanks, Sladeums (and everyone else). That is exactly the info I was looking for. The U.K. Chile-Head site is now bookmarked! Chile taxonomy is a bit complex, eh?

I recently had a martini made from vodka infused with berry-flavoured tea. Does anyone have suggestions for the best way of making tea-infused vodka? I'm assuming that some sort of heat will be required to extract the tea flavour?? And how does one do that without causing the alcohol to evaporate? Any help would be very welcome.

Thanks for all the help. I do have sichuan peppercorns. I guess I will just poke about more carefully in Chinatown--or try to find an acceptable substitute. The chiles in the photos in her book don't look like the tien sien and are instead short, boxy (as tommy and Jon describe) and have a smooth thin skin. I imagine the trick will be to find a chile that when used in the copious amounts called for lends plenty of chili flavour and quite a bit of heat but without the incendiary burn that using an equivalent amount of Thai bird chiles would cause (I also really like the way the sichuan chiles look in dishes like kung pao). If I was to substitute a Mexican chile (when size/shape isn't a factor--making chile oil, for example) does anyone have an idea of what heat level (in scoville units) I should be shooting for?

Hi all, I recently purchased Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty" and am anxious to begin cooking from it. But many of her recipes call for sichuan chilis, which I have been thus far unable to find. I live close to Toronto's Chinatown but haven't seen any chilis labelled "sichuan"--do they come under some other descriptions? Perhaps there is some Mexican chili that I could substitute?--what would be most similar in flavour/heat? Thanks for any help.

I recently had a martini made from vodka infused with berry-flavoured tea. Does anyone have suggestions for the best way of making tea-infused vodka? I'm assuming that some sort of heat will be required to extract the tea flavour?? And how does one do that without losing alcohol? Any help would be very welcome.

I imagine that mashed potatoes with a higher proportion of butter/cream/sour cream/etc would hold up better than leaner incarnations.

From what I have heard, it is closed this summer (except for some special events) but will reopen sometime this fall. Sorry I don't have any specifics.

The Magnum Plus was worth every dollar (even the shipping cost to Canada). Super adjustable, huge capacity, very fast. Even cooler is the Mini-Magnum, which stands 3" tall and comes in a little pouch to take with you on the road. It's very cute.

I've had falafel break apart on me, too, but it seemed to occur when I tried cooking too many falafel balls at once (relative to the amount of oil) or when my oil temperature was too low. Also, the falafel recipes I have had the best luck with use dried chickpeas that have been soaked for a good long while but have not been cooked. Most other recipes seem to call for cooked/canned chickpeas. This seems to result in a wetter, mushier falafel. Do you have one of those falafel making scoop-type things that many falafel joints use? They make it easy to get a consistently sized and well-packed ball. Good luck.

I think part of my problem is that the first cookbook I ever bought was from Cooks Illustrated. Ingrained anal retentiveness. Once you have read their "taste test" of fresh garlic, minced, dried, powdered, juiced etc. it is hard to shake that nagging guilt ("this is less than the best...").

I have to confess that not too long ago I would turned my nose up at some of Monica's confessions. I have been a "foodie" now for only 4 years and am still in the purist/extremist phase. I have also been a student/grad student for the past four years and have had the time to indulge those purist tendencies (you can make a great dinner if you start cooking at 3 -- in any case, it sure as heck beats writing papers). But now I am working. When I get home at 5:30 I am hungry and want food fast. So, I have been buying bagged salads, rotisserie chicken, bread (I used to bake my own -- I even made sourdough). That said, I don't know if I could bring myself to buy minced garlic. I love the aroma of fresh garlic and enjoy casting garlic skins far and wide and annoying my wife :). Interestingly, Monica's premise (what would mom think) doesn't really apply to me. She uses garlic from a jar, lemon juice from a bottle etc. Maybe that's why I won't use garlic in a jar. If she found it in my fridge she would know that I had given up my fervour that had led me to chide her before (I am kind of embarressed at some of my early zeal). There is a part of me that will continue to love striving for perfectly authentic, made-completely-from-scratch dishes but I am learning to relax and take things a little less seriously.

Thanks also for your welcome, Monica. The sheer quantity of recipes is impressive. I am curious, though, what you mean by "interesting" -- it's one of those words that can cover a multitude of meanings.

Thank you for your welcome, Suvir. The Indian Forum is one of my favourite places to lurk. I have read virtually every thread here on Indian cookbooks but had never seen this book or author discussed and wondered if that signified anything (is she not worth mentioning or did she get inadvertantly overlooked?). The book does look impressive and the IACP counts for something (as does skchai's recommendation of her, thanks) so I might go ahead and buy it. I will, of course, look into Monica's and yours (when it comes out). The wierdest thing about the book is the third reviewer's blurb on the back. In addition to Madison and Silverton's bits, there are accolades from Michael Jackson (yes, him of the surgically enhanced face). He is described as an AWARD-WINNING ENTERTAINER AND INDIAN FOOD LOVER. How bizarre...

Released late 2002. Gets good review blurbs from Madison and Silverton, for what that's worth. Any thoughts from Suvir or others on her and this book? I have Sahni's Classic and Jaffrey's Invitation and was looking to expand my repertoire and find more recent recipes. Thanks!