fifi

God, I love this thread.

I have always wondered about this MSG issue. From a chemical standpoint, MSG is just the sodium salt of a common amino acid, glutamine, found in a LOT of foods. Glutamine will convert, in the body or the cooking pot, to monosodium glutamate as a matter of course. When acids contact the basic ion, a salt is formed. In this case, sodium and glutamine make MSG. I don't get it.

While I haven't seen the whole article, I find it unfortunate that it appears that they took AB's methadone clinic remark out of context. His 13 points were right on, in my opinion, and bravely stated. The points are a roadmap to credibility.

Snowangel... If I had overheard that exchange, the normally passive fifi would have gone into Mr. Hyde mode and caused another one of these "worst things you have ever heard" incidents. Unbelievable. (It would have been quiet to spare you any embarrassment but no less vicious.) I have told this story before but it was pretty funny in retrospect. I was part of two couples in a Steak and Ale one night. At the table next to us was an elderly couple. They seemed kind of strange so we kept glancing over. The woman suddenly slipped off her chair onto the floor, landing against the wall in a semi-sitting postion. One of the guys at our table immediately went to see if he could help and the rest of us went to get a waiter. Through all of this confusion, the guy just sat there oblivious buttering his bread. A new family saying was born... "I'm just butterin' my bread". Turns out, they were plastered. The restaurant called them a cab and sent them home. Sad.

Patron: Waiter, what is a fly doing in my soup? Waiter: The backstroke? [Cymbel crash] OK, it is an oldy but a goody.

This is one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. That is absolutely brilliant.

Just found this thread. AAAAHHH! Memories. Yeah... and the nectar snowballs, too.

I wasn't surprised that your favorite region is Oaxaca. I like it too. But the "Gulf Region" is the cuisine that I could eat every day and not get tired of. Do you drift that way in your cooking to take advantage of our Gulf seafood? (I include Tampico, Veracruz, and Yucatan in "Gulf Region". Yes... I know Yucatan is partly Caribbean. )

I have actually found stock lost for two years or more and rinsed off any dehydrated top layer and it was just fine.

Oh my... this is an interesting topic because it is so quirky. For my first pregnancy with my daughter 34 years ago, I hardly had morning sickness at all. My OB attributed that to the fact that I was working for FDA at the time and we were analyzing pecans for E. coli and aflatoxin during my first trimester. Somehow we ended up snacking on pecans all the time and the additional vitamin B6 was his answer. However, I had a really hard time handling raw meat throughout the pregnancy. This is from a woman that had routinely cut up chickens, big pieces of pork, whatever. For some insane reason, veal was particularly noisome. With my son, three years later, I didn't have a hard time at all... with anything as to food. (Lots of other troubles, though.) A good friend of mine was having a baby fairly late in life and the one thing that got her back to eating was a baked chicken that I do with citrus and coconut milk. (Sorry that recipeGullet is down right now or I would point to it.) She said that the tart tang was what appealed to her. I had she and her husband over to dinner and she just about devoured half of an 8 pound roasting hen. That was a happy dance occasion due to the fact that my cooking had never been appreciated quite to that level. I will go back to the word quirky. That is what it is and you never know what will work. Just roll with it. There will be lots of stories to tell later.

From the point of view of pure taste, what is your favorite regional cuisine and why? Thanks so much for this interesting discussion.

Now I am wondering what "Mr. Bill" is getting from all of this. Are you getting what you were seeking? This is an interesting topic. I am just hoping that it is covered to the extent possible. Are we missing anything?

Mottmott... Thank you for the wonderful post. You have articulated really well the challenges of cooking for one. You have given me some really good ideas. I do find myself aquiring that smaller Le Creuset, smaller gratin pan, etc.

(You deserve that, Richard) Seriously, I don't think two hours is too much to ask of the Parson's method. I did do a pot some time ago of a package of Great Northern Whites and they took about that long. They had a date that indicated that they were not old. I think it has to do with the size and the characteristics of the bean. While a good batch of pintos reliably comes off at about an hour and a half, I have had some (navy beans) take less and some take more.

More likely, you are going to have basil flavored ice cream. The biggest problem with storing the herbs in oil is that they can diffuse to other foods, not the other way around. I use the half cup wide mouth mason jars. Nothing can diffuse in our out of the glass or metal lid. Being an oil base that doesn't get ice cube hard, it is even easy enough to spoon out what you need and put it back. And, if you want to use the whole half cup, the wide mouth allows you to easily plop it out. Those jars are great for demi-glace also. Since you already have cubes, just thaw them out and put the stuff in the jars. I wouldn't even think of immersing the cubes in water. How would you get one out without it being a real pain, not to mention a mess?

I guess that I learned to love leftovers from my mother, grandmother and great aunt. That means since I was a little kid. We have always had a thing about wasting food, even when money wasn't tight. It was just the way we were raised. And, yes, there was always a leftover plan starting with the Sunday dinner. When my grown son lived with me for a few years, that was exactly our strategy. Usually, he was on his way home after me. He would call on his cell phone as he neared the grocery and ask if I needed anything. At that point I had had a chance to look in the fridge and decide a strategy for the meal. "Hey... Get some mushrooms." We had a repertoire that included Thai curries (pre-made paste), salads, fritattas, pasta sauces (red and cream), anything wrapped in tortillas, quesadillas. I can't say where I got the ideas. For instance, I think that several years ago I ate, read about or saw on TV the concept of a fritatta and said... "Hey, that is a great thing to do with leftovers." I saw a lemon cream recipe for pasta sauce on FoodTV once and had some leftover PNW style smoked salmon, added that and some capers to it and a family classic was born. When I found this recipe for posole in Mexico, I had to have it to use leftover smoked brisket or pork butt. I guess I am always in the mode of exploring the possibilities when contemplating a recipe or a technique, from whatever source. Grown son is now in Chicago. I can't wait to tell him that the Bill Daley is here. Good luck on your article.

Please do. I think the editor may have slipped up on including that whine without the name of the restaurant. When I sent a whine (more like a rant) about muffalettas a couple of years ago, it got edited down to a sniveling whine and some restaurant names were removed. I don't think it was done for space considerations. I never did figure out the logic of the edit.

There are a couple of pictures here of some pigs on a spit. They might give you some ideas.

I get that, sometimes with a swallow of water. I am told it is an esophageal spasm. Yes... It hurts. But, if it only occurs with certain foods, there could be an allergy thing going on.

I am wondering if there is any thought being appied to this critical situation.

When it comes to passion fruit, I have to say that there is great variation. Being a forager, I have picked wild growing passion fruit in Hawaii when there. There was a lot of difference in tartness and taste. The sapote picture is from what was called a sapote at the fruit stand on Kauai. It may be a mamey but that is what they call it there. Yes, the flesh color reminded me of the many varieties of papaya that I had in Hawaii. However, the texture was more like an avocado but with a touch of sweetness that was enchanting.

Carrot Top... You are going to love this one. I like traveling and eating alone. I do it fairly often. I like traveling and eating with the kids and my friends as well. I consider them two different things. Well... back to my most bizarre. I was in Hawaii alone, on Oahu at the time. I had driven to the beaches on the northwest side of the island to watch the waves. The place is totally deserted and I have some snack food in the car... shrimp chips and such. There are these two albatross sitting in the sand clacking their beaks and generally carrying on. They are obviously an item. I am sitting there on the bumper of the car munching my snacks watching them when they quit their beak clacking and waddle over to me. They looked me straight in the face with a look that said... "Well... Are you going to share?" We continued for some time to exhaust a whole big bag of chips. I had dinner "alone", human-wise, with a devoted albatross couple. That would have never happened if I had been traveling with other people.

Thanks so much for the research. I think that recipe explains the mayo I have had to dip my fries in at the most popular street stands in the Netherlands. It is lighter in texture and not very tart. I am thinking that if you are using a blender, food processor or mixer, that whole egg will give it a bit of fluff as well. I really want to try this one. Sounds like you finely found a potato salad to love.

Katie, that was the first thing that I thought as well. I was having trouble making the transition from the plate symbol to that graphic. I really like the motion. And, the grayscale is growing on me.

I am not sure that these meals are the absolutely most memorable, but they were pretty memorable. I think it was the challenge of creating good food with limited resources and trying to creatively "use things up" before we vacated Kauai for the next island. It was a lot of fun, we had some dynamite picnic lunches and the whole experience added immeasurably to our trip. Cooking in Kauai