mrbigjas

well, i decided to do the curry thing. and it was good. i'm going to get these things more often. i always like them whenever i have them, but just never thought of buying them for myself. and they cost practically nothing!

ok home now and checking the package: fried fish ball recook before eating contents: fresh fish whiting, seatrout, corn starch, egg white, peanut oil, msg, water, sugar, black pepper so i wasn't remembering wrong! edited because i crossposted with annachan--thank you! i may do just that!

i think they're fried, or at least i thought it said that on the package, which of course i don't have in front of me, so i can't confirm it. a hotpot sounds like a good idea. is there anything else people do with them besides put them in soup or serve on skewers with chili sauce? edited because i crossposted with onigiriFB there. green curry, huh? i didn't know that. i've always had them in soups. that sounds like a great idea.

OK so at the asian store this week, i bought a package of fish balls. these are the already fried kind, refrigerated in a vacuum packet, but they say on the package 'recook before eating.' what should i be making? googling recipes turns up all kinds of recipes for making the fish balls, but none that i can find for recipes including pre-made ones. are there recipes involving these fish balls that aren't soup? or that don't involve 20 other ingredients that i can't get before tonight? any kind of pointers from anyone would be greatly appreciated. anyone? (i'm not sure whether to post this in the china or the elsewhere in asia forum, so i'm going for cooking. i may repost...)

you don't say.

mano, i wanted to respond to this thread sooner than now because it was a breath of fresh air, but i haven't had the time until now. i've read a hundred threads here on eG and on many other boards where people have been horribly! unforgivably! wronged! by the horrifying! degrading! dehumanizing! treatment in their local establishments. of course they're never the problem. their attitude is never an issue. it must, of course, invariably be the restaurant's problem. naturally, there's a bit of both going on in the world. but for once it's nice to see someone admitting that they were the ass. anyway, good story. thanks.

there's a wawa at the intersection of the northeast extension and rt. 80. i'm sorry to say that i'm not familiar enough with the area that i know exactly where that is in relation to the skiing areas, but it's not far... there are a couple of breweries up there--barley creek is one that i've had a few beers from; they were good. but again, i'm not sure where that is in relation to where you are specifically...

jason, i don't know if there are any closer to you, but for future reference, culantro is almost always available in vietnamese markets. it's often served with pho. i don't have a big hispanic market near me, so the ajices dulces were right out for me. thanks for the clarification on this recipe, bux. i was wondering about the carrots and celery, but i didn't see the show where she made it--if she had said something like, 'this is my version of ropa, it's not traditional' or something like that, i probably wouldn't have included them. since i hadn't, i just followed the recipe as written.

katie, that's just crazy. i hadn't realized that this thread wasn't updated in so long--for some reason, i don't know why, i looked and i coulda sworn i saw a couple bottles at either 19th or 12th & chestnut, not that long ago. it used to be on the PALCB website as a specialty item; now it's not only SLO, but it's $27.99--it was $24.99 when i bought this bottle not six months ago. i recommend posting on that thread i started for bugging deirdre about LCB questions; see if she can't hook it up. if people are buying it... until then, i will be happy to hook you up with enough of it to experiment if you can't find it. it's powerful stuff, like bitters--just a dash or two too much and your drink is ... not sweet, but syrupy. not, like, sour, but ... it's hard to describe. it'll kick most other booze's ass, as far as strength of flavor. really i have to say that in the last six months since i got it, i've gradually become more and more interested in it. and i can't say i've had anything quite like it. and i want to find other things like it in the world, because it's unique and interesting. and while i like the aviation just fine, the fancy-free really could be the perfect cocktail, in my book. savory/sweet from the bourbon. orange and angostura bitters do... that thing they do. combine that with the weird maraschino thing... i mean, it's a drink that, like a good italian hoagie, is more than the sum of its parts. pm or email me if you want some for experimentation till you get a bottle of your own.

ooo, i do like that one. i have a salter aquatronic, up to 11 lbs in 1/4 oz increments. like russ, i'm not a baker so that's good enough for me. from what i can figure, its liquid measuring ability is just a simple arithmetical gimmick, since 1 cc of water = 1 ml = 1 g, and from there it's just a matter of multiplication or division to get fluid oz, etc. i guess it could be useful for some, but i don't find it that great, and hope that whoever got it for me as a gift a few years ago didn't pay extra for it.

i found that i didn't actually taste the olives in the finished versions of either of these dishes. since they're chopped and cooked along with the other components, they don't stand out the way they would if you were serving them in a salad, say. they just add kind of a salty, savory aspect to the dish, not a pointedly olive-y one.

But to eat dessert they would have to stop drinking beer.. that was my thinking anyway. ← now that's just not true...

sorry about that--i thought closeups were a perlow family tradition! i could take a more distant pic tonight, but i'm seeing the value now, and thinking that maybe those show the final result better. besides the plates i have right now make nearly any dish look unappetizing. i really have to do something about that. i used the sofrito fresh, but i have a confession to make: the italian frying peppers i used for it were red, not the pale green ones. so my sofrito was a lot redder than hers. that could be the source of the color difference. did i mention how great the rice was? i saw the show where she made that recipe, and was wondering about the whole step where you put in water to cover and then rapidly boil it down till the water hits the rice level, before covering and steaming it. i still don't know what the science is behind the technique, but damn was that good. edited since i crossposted with anna: as far as ingredients, i don't know how big a presence goya has in suburban ontario supermarkets, but most of her ingredients are available in a goya version--or are substitutable for goya versions. as far as liking the stuff, i've found puerto rican and cuban food to be some of the most accessible to all palates. it's generally flavorful without being excessively spicy or incorporating odd flavors; it can tend toward the greasy but if you're careful it isn't too bad.

i hadn't, but i just did, and i know you like the closeups... here's the ropa: and here's the rice: digging deep in my memory, actually, now that i've been thinking back on it instead of paying attention to the recipe, i think the first couple of times i made this dish (it was several years ago), you basically boiled the brisket with some veggies as if you were making a boiled dinner or pot au feu or something. then you'd take it out, let it cool a little and shred it. then that was when you'd fry up a sofrito, put the shredded meat and some veggies in (i mean, there's tomato in the sofrito, and maybe that's what makes me think that daisy's cans of tomato are too much) and recook it long enough for things to come together, moistening it with the stock you made from cooking the brisket as needed to keep it the right consistency. hmm... i might have just committed myself to making it again next weekend, that way, to see if it's more like what i'm thinking of.

as promised, i made it this afternoon--a good dish for a rainy sunday when you're rearranging the basement, because you prep and then stick it in the oven for a couple of hours. verdict: it tastes good. but it doesn't taste quite like what i think of ropa vieja, as well-represented by the restaurant tierra colombiana up in north philadelphia. first, i disagree with her choice of chuck roast. she says she prefers it; as it turns out i had to use it because the butcher didn't have my first choice (i always thought ropa vieja was made with brisket; she says flank steak. i don't know the real answer, if there is even one; googling turns up a lot of different information). it's tender and all, but doesn't have that real stringy apearance and kinda chewy texture that real ropa has. i couldn't find the ajices dulces, but the sofrito is great stuff anyway. anyway, as far as the ropa itself, i have a couple of other issues besides the meat: it creates far too much sauce, and is way too tomatoey. and i never complain about this, but it has too many vegetables in it. if i were making it again, i'd halve the tomato sauce (spanish style tomato sauce is pretty sweet) and cut down on the water. since it's braising in the oven, it doesn't need THAT much liquid. i'd also cut down on the carrot/celery/peas. is it wrong to say it reminded me a little too much of sloppy joe or something? i hope not, because that's where it was headed. now, her rice recipe you linked to, rachel? fantastic. i halved it and it still made a big ol bowl of reddish-yellow rice, exactly like what you get at a puerot rican or cuban restaurant. i agree with you about her salt usage, though--i definitely salted way less than she did and between that and the alcaparrado, it was plenty salty. thanks for finding that one. so yeah, good stuff, but not exactly what i was hoping for.

that's true for commercial tv shows, like on food network or discovery or something. however, shows on PBS are a different story: what i've noticed is that generally the series of shows and the cookbook are kind of a unit. like, 22 shows, with four or five recipes per show, becomes a cookbook with 125 recipes in it. so there's not, like, a bunch of recipes in the book that never made it to TV. take a look at lidiasitaly.com; it's the same thing.

wow. you know, one of the interesting things about you guys going so often is seeing similar bits and pieces of things turn up in different dishes. like the bergamot prunes, the 'olives,' the chicken escabeche that showed up in about four different preparations over the course of several meals a few months ago... and wow, 16 bottles of wine? lord have mercy.

really? it's insanely expensive around here. every time i've seen it it's about three bucks for a little bunch of about four stalks. i've never tried it, for that very reason.

i don't have an answer for you on the washing question, but i'm curious how you like the mukka express? does it work as advertised?

you don't say! will report back tomorrow. ← as promised: this is a pretty good sandwich. i'm not sure i like it as much as either the original roast pork (obviously) or the brisket, but it's good nonetheless. the meat is quintessential pulled pork in texture--shreds of meat, held together by its own seasoned gelatinous juices, with an occasional crusty bit and browned glob of fat. man, pulled pork doesn't sound so appetizing when you describe it like that, eh? anyway,the seasoning, as near as i can tell, is pure dinic's. similar to their regular roast pork. would it make sense to say that it's basically the same as their roast pork, except instead of being a picnic shoulder that's seasoned and roasted, it's a shoulder butt, and therefore pulled instead? probably different roasting times/temps too, but basically that seems to be the difference. one thing i've noticed the last few times i've been there is that their rolls have seemed different lately. the last few months, i mean. i wonder if they changed suppliers or something. but they seem more... supermarkety or something. softer, without the chew that they used to have. i mean,dinic's never used really crusty rolls, but they used to be pretty solid, chewy sandwich rolls, and they've seemed different lately. i was going to ask about it today, and about the new sandwich itself, but they were so busy i felt bad pulling them away from the thronging crowds.

i'm making her ropa vieja tomorrow, actually, and will report back.

was that at jong ga jib, the famous soondooboo tofu place up there? or another one?

you don't say! will report back tomorrow.

if you have a refrigerator at work where you can store stuff during the day, can i recommend stopping in before work? (assuming of course that you work in town--this may not work for, say, sandy commuting out to chester). the official hours are 8-6, and i've found that if you get there 815-830ish, you can find parking, there's hardly anyone in there, merchants are mostly set up, and unlike later in the day YOU'RE the one who's picking over everything before others have a chance to. it's awesome. i keep meaning to get into that habit again like i was for a month or so last summer, but of course i can't seem to get it together.

another note: if you take leftovers home from the palace, they'll put them in a container for you, add some extra salad if you don't have a lot left, and put in a separate small container of nam pla. so considerate. it's damn good stuff. y'all haters should maybe check it out before blowing it off.