Elissa

marinated over night with sliced (i like them raw, halved and at an angle) spring squash and zucc, shrooms, scallions, garlic, parsley, evoo, snp, lemon juice. with toasted pumpkin seeds or almond slivers and an aged goat cheese on a picnic astride roast dove and a bourgogne.

a moorish tradition too, no? much fish and meat grilled and cooked buried in sand with fruit preserves through out the algarve as well as iraq have you seen the andalus cookbook adam balic posted?

How wonderful! He's home! Congratulations. For good beta carotene, which is pre-Vitamin A and the liver's dearest friend, also sweet potatoes, collard greens, kale and pumpkin among the best sources. I think that Corn has too much sugar, in spite of its good beta carotene; it also has an enzyme that blocks digestion, which Central American natives disarm by adding lime. So I always add lime to corn, but don't eat it much. May eGulleteria's plethora of love and hope for your father's quick recovery bring a drop more light, happiness and spice into your home. I'm honored and delighted to think my little post may be used in the process.

The Radio Prague site (link above) says: the Czech name Budweiser ("The Beer of Kings" was their slogan, as kings dug it) was lifted by the American brewer Adolphus Busch in 1876. When the Czech brewery, a few years later, wished to begin exports to the New World, Budvar had to be given a different name and for a while was sold in the US as Crystal. The companies are currently entangled in a trademark dispute: Budvar, "The Original Budweiser" V. the American "Bud" as its been referring to itself in recent years. There are outstanding trademark lawsuits in Portugal, Egypt and Italy. Or were. Or will be... Anheuser-Busch, along with some 40 other foreign firms, has been trying to buy a stake in Budvar since 1989. The Czechs are wary of foreign investment, but the world's biggest brewer (Anheuser-Bush annually brews 5 times as much beer as all the Czech breweries together) lacks no alacrity. The company spends thousands of dollars in Ceske Budejovice every year, funding everything from pre-schools to beer festivals to win over the locals.

Parsley, dandelions and mint, chopped as minimally as possbile if at all. Parsley is a nutrient powerhouse w/ high levels of beta carotene, vitamin B12, chlorophyll, calcium, more vitamin C than citrus fruits, and just about all other known nutrients. Physiologically: restores digestion, supports the liver, kidneys and adrenal glands, purifies blood and body fluids. Helps body’s defensive mechanisms; chokes negative bacteria. A great immune booster. Parsley is just like an immune-enhancing multi-vitamin and mineral complex in green plant form. It is one of the most important herbs for providing vitamins to the body. Parsley is made up of proteins (20 per cent), flavonoids (maintain blood cell membranes, antioxidant helper), essential oils, iron, calcium, phosphorus, manganese, inositol, sulphur, vitamin K, beta carotene, and especially vitamin C. Parsley is a ‘warming’ food, pungent with a slightly bitter, salty flavour. It is moistening, nourishing and restoring. In addition to providing essential nutrients, it balances and stimulates the energy of organs, improving their ability to assimilate and utilise nutrients. • Parsley enriches the spleen and stomach, thus improving digestion. • It enriches the liver, thus nourishing the blood and body fluids. • It benefits the kidneys and uterus and has a beneficial effect on the adrenal glands. The high vitamin C, beta carotene, B12, chlorophyll and essential fatty acid content render parsley an extraordinary immunity enhancing food. If you want to boost your immune system, then parsley is the answer. Valuable Nutrients Parsley contains particularly high levels of the following nutrients: Beta carotene It is an adequate source of beta carotene, which the body needs for the correct use of protein. This nutrient will benefit the liver and also protect the lungs and colon. Chlorophyll Parsley is abundant in chlorophyll, thus purifying and inhibiting the spread of bacteria, fungi and other organisms. When tested in laboratory research, chlorophyll from parsley showed slight anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity. Thus, it may be used to enhance immune response and to relieve mucus congestion, sinusitis and other ‘damp’ conditions. A food which exhibits anti-bacterial activity can, therefore, aid digestive activity. Gastrointestinal organ function is not choked by negative organisms. Parsley may be used medicinally in cases of cystitis, since it has an anti-bacterial effect, and the ability to flush out waste. Chlorophyll, high in oxygen, also suppresses viruses and helps the lungs to discharge residues from environmental pollution. Vitamin B12 Parsley contains traces of B12 producing compounds. Such compounds are needed for the formation of red blood cells and normal cell growth, important for fertility pregnancy, immunity and the prevention of degenerative illness. The action of vitamin B12, however, is inhibited by birth control pills, antibiotics, intoxicants, stress, sluggish liver, and excess bacteria or parasites in the colon or digestive tracts. Parsley helps to counteract these inhibitors. Fluorine Fluorine is an important nutritional component abundantly found in parsley. Fluorine has an entirely different molecular structure from chemically-produced fluoride. Tooth decay results from a shortage of fluorine, not fluoride. It is the combination of calcium and fluorine which creates a very hard protective surface on teeth and bones. Fluorine also protects the body from infectious invasion, germs and viruses. Essential Fatty Acids Parsley is also a source of alpha-linolenic acid, an important essential fatty acid that is too frequently deficient in today’s diets. The Therapeutic Benefits Digestion Parsley is an excellent digestion restorative remedy. It promotes intestinal absorption, liver assimilation and storage. A vast majority of people today have weakened digestive function and impaired toxin elimination, Therefore, any extra help in that area is a welcome addition. Because of its high enzyme content, parsley benefits digestive activity and elimination. The parsley root in particular strengthens the spleen, and can, therefore, treat malabsorption, bad breath, weight loss, loose stools, anorexia and fatigue. It also improves the digestion of proteins and fats. Liver In the Manual of Pharmacology, physicians claimed that parsley is very effective in remedying liver disease. It enriches the liver and nourishes the blood. Parsley helps reduce liver congestion, clearing toxins and aiding rejuvenation. Stamina loss and low resistance to infection, point to a sluggish liver. This can manifest itself in blood deficiencies, fatigue, a pale complexion and poor nails, dizzy spells, anaemia and mineral depletion. In women, parsley improves oestrogen and nourishes and restores the blood of the uterus. Conditions like delayed menstruation, PMS, and the menopause (dry skin, irritability, depression and hair loss) can often improve. Kidneys Parsley is effective for nearly all kidney and urinary complaints. It improves kidney activity. Parsley is not a treatment for severe kidney inflammation, but it can help eliminate wastes from the blood and tissues of the kidneys. It prevents salt from being reabsorbed into the body tissues; thus parsley literally forces debris out of the kidneys, liver and bladder. It helps improve oedema and general water retention, fatigue and scanty or painful urination. It is an eliminant that used in conjunction with complete nutritional programmes to aid the dissolving of gall stones and in cases of gout. Dandelion nutrients include: biotin, calcium, choline, fats, gluten, iron, linolenic acid, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, B1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 12, E, P, zinc, A, and C. In China it is called huang-hua-tii-ting and is considered one of the six most important herbs in Chinese medicine. Culled from various sources. All my wishes for a quick and complete recovery Suvir.

I believe it was "A Short History of Wine" that claimed wine was FIRST made in Mesopotamia, by women preserving grapes... In "Cooking the Middle Eastern Way" Christine Osbourne says that the zenith of Middle Eastern cooking was achieved by the Abbasid chefs in Baghdad, in the era of Sheherezade and the 1001 nights. Days of banquests with tables and tables of roast partridges, ducks and francolins (?) marinated over night in curd, milk-fed kid and spitted gazelle. Platters of sweetmeats... Timman zaf'ran: ground meat, raisins and nuts. Khouzi: a whole lamb steamed on a domestic stove then bbq'd over rice in a tanour. Suspended head down, the fatty tail constantly bastes the carcass as it melts. Mashgouf: a whole fish slowly smoked around an open fire. Copious fish and dates. May peace return to Iraq before civilization is irrevocably destroyed.

It's illegal to export most of it to the US, and the divine liquids don't travel well anyhow. But has anyone drunken their way through Bohemia's many distinct, flavorful, complex, unique beers? Each town in Bohemia crafts several of its own: Nova Paka and Stara Paka in the north, Ceske Budejovice in the south...over 80 beers in the area. Perfect agricultural conditions for growing hops must be Bohemia's secret. 1100 years ago, in 903, Bohemian hops were so prized that King Wenceslas ordered death to anyone caught exporting the cuttings, from which new plants could be grown. In 1088, the first Czech king, Vratislav II, decreed that his estates should pay a hop title to the church. The U Fleku microbrewery in Prague has been in operation since 1499 and is still going strong. I'd venture that Czech beer puts everything from Germany to shame and that even Belgium is hardpressed to compete. Granted, lighter beers are my preference, black and chocolate being most often too heavy for my palate. But after spending over a year in Bohemia drinking the stuff, I returned to the States largely incapable of stomaching American beer, except the occasional (6-pack or two of) Bud and the delicious Blue Heron when I'm in the NW. In my experience, even the most earnest US attempts to make a palatable beer pale pathetically.

46 food 12 wine which here makes me a minimalist...

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I agree. I completely forgot about garlic shoots because I don't find them in the stores too often. One of my favourite ways of eating them is sauteed with rice sticks and shredded chicken -- very simple but comforting. Garlic shoots are often called garlic scapes. In NYC the best place to get them is at the greenmarket during the springtime. What do garlic shoots look like?

What's this please? Don't know ! It was some kind of flowers with small leaves - I had these in HKG mostly. Never quite saw anything like it in the markets here in NYC. I'll probe my HKG friends if they can translate to an occidental equivalent. HKG hong kong garden? Flowering greens : may I ask how you'd prepare them simply, steamed with a soy sauce, piece of fish and timbals. Or if you would.

one leonine-roars-from-my-stomach clickable smiley please not that i know what boti-kebab, sookha or haldram are. my tummy's growl or howl is more wolverine when i read: is that why they call you the jackal?

oui ou non? (and if one ought not use soap in wine glasses, might other things better off too: cutting boards, knives etc.

Dear Jaymes, Sounds rough. But look what a character you turned out to be! May we all confront adversity with such munificent results.

The pork ribs Divine on Tuscan beans, whose taste balanced between remarkably authentic and aware of its remove, of itself as well done Tuscan. Grilled greens also deeelish: radiccio and lettuces. A Catalan fish soup I didn't try but would like to. Elegant new digs too.

May I ask what those of you familiar with them think of Cooks Ill's "The Best Recipe" and "America's Test Kitchen" series? Would be interested to know. Kind thanks.

Dunno. Just got a call from my mom (historically verifyable alarmist) saying she wants me to go stock up on water and to be sure to have food for a few days blah blah. It hadn't occured to me til then. On the otherhand she has been right before. I am of the school that says we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Yet anxieties have a way of snowballing....

Do ducks really flock to tape or is it better to have a closet full of Poland Spring and nonperishables for the doom to dawn? What's on your shopping list this week?

Castel del Remei of Spain makes wine called 1780 which is well under $100 but ummmmmmmmm simply divino.

Anyone know the name of the Italian on the south side of 22nd Street, east of '22' which I think is 2nd Aveish? I cannot remember nor locate on the web but it is quite fine indeed.

Chocolate bacon or its equivalent in the form of an old St. Joseph syrah. Perhaps bacon in Scharfenberger chocolate fondue? Pork chops in port sauce w roasted shallots/onions. Double fistfuls of roasted, salted cashews. Dandelion greens w poached egg, bacon and shaved reggiano. Two days to go....

So: what did you decide after all that???

Oopsi i was thinking of Post House, not sparks, re: UES.

Sent back a steak at the Old Homestead - overdone and rather without flavor - and the steak they sent in response was 800% better. Which makes me imagine that its likely good to toss 'round some weight for attention first, but I was indeed impressed by what appeared the second time. Plus, its atmosphere makes the Homestead feel as if Joe Mitchell might be sitting at the next booth. In contrast, the Striphouse has more of a bordello vibe: a steak house's copious red velvet and mirrors, but here more elegant and au courant at once, and crowded louvre-style with black and white framed photos. After a bottle or two of wine, the Striphouse would seem to readily lend itself to table-top dancing and the can-can. Great place for a party. Good service and at times mediocre meat. Once went with a known-to-the-manager sommelier and the steak was great. Next I returned with an unknown fancypants and found the steak not extrordinary at best. Sparks, in my opinion, lacks the soul of either, but if you like your steak au jus d' Upper East Side then this may indeed be your best bet. How does Les Halles measure up? Never had a steak there. Though I'd like to. Right now, for breakfast. edited for style and content