stellabella

*sigh* tighe, nice write-up--thanks for that. god, that water looks beautiful. i'm so glad that we're getting more and more traffic re: mexico, one of my favs.

i bought a bag of dried beans--they are the most beautiful beans i've ever seen--they're speckled and marbled and multi-colored--i asked different people what they were called and they said, "frijoles" then i asked if they were a particular type of frijoles. no, just frijoles joy--yes, the spices are intensely aromatic. while you're in the markets if you feel inspired to purchase something, do. even if you don't bring it back, you might enjoy the transaction. i'd like to add--i am grateful that i spent some time in the food stalls, not just wandering through, but actually buying. it was a great opportunity to practice the language. it was fun to talk to the abuelitas. it was interesting to get an idea of how much things cost, for "real" people. of course i was often charged a tourist or gringo price, but nonetheless, the food stalls are dirt cheap compared to the artesanias--it gives you a sense of just how poor the economy is. and i am sure one would typically bargain for food, but i didn't. when the smiling grandmother asked me for thirty cents, i couldn't bring myself to say, nooooo....twenty-five

thanks, mark--i'll print this out for my trip in june. great info--thanks for names, addresses, etc. joy and others-- i always bring back food. from ecuador last month i brought chocolate, raw cacao beans, cumin, anise, achiote, corn meal and corn flour and dried beans. in the past my husband has brought home dried peppers. we have never been stopped or questioned about bringing back food. we got stopped at customs for having so much luggage coming back from guatemala--we bought a ton of stuff. i think it depends on you--if you are in a hurry or a light traveler, you'll want to bring back less. as far as getting stopped for having dried peppers, the most they'll do is take them away from you. our family motto: make 'em tell you NO.

yes and no--it depends. my guess is that porkpa looks for good local places when he has the time. is this one of the functions of the regional boards, too, for people to post about good local foods, and also for travelers to find out where to eat when in X-ville?

a girl could get lost in the mustache. warmly, a fan of magda

hear, hear. no paper napkins in this house, except when mom-in-law visits, who thinks it's silly to use cloth cuz, well, then you have to warsh them. 'kay, mum.

porkpa, i am not going to flame you, and i adore ron so i am not going to flame him either, BUT i live in a small town 50 miles from atlanta and i have searched endlessly for the "great local cuisine" and it doesn't exist in some areas. conyers, GA, is a good example--without exception, this growing affluent atlanta burb is one crappy chain after another--local cuisine? oh, there's glenn's pit barbecue--seems promising at first, but trust me, you'll regret it. chianti's italian? it's all totally middle-of-the-road pedestrian food, the locally run places no better in any way from the chains--maybe not even as good. porkpa, i gave this topic a lot of thought a couple years ago when my husband & i drove from GA to PA through W Va and could find no place to eat breakfast--we finally ended up at a Bob Evans. if you're passing through this part of GA and want to find good food, you'll have to eat at someone's house.

ditsy, it's not Food Lion, it's FOOD LIAR. winn dixie is the nasty local chain in GA. WD brand stands for, What dis? anyway, enough of my condescending humor. my mother owns stock in Dollar General. she believes it is the answer to all social problems. she says, You might be poor, but you still need toothpaste.

women's groups and church cookbooks are the best place to start--what's missing is as telling as what's there. i have cookbooks in which ingredients are listed, then oven temp and baking time and that's it. my first response could be, UH, exCUSE me? what do i do with the ingredients? but some recipes are so "local" and so "common" that it's just assumed anyone using the book knows how to fold egg whites into cake batter, etc. and you often get about five variations on one recipe--like squash casserole, which some people like to top with crushed lays potato chips, and others with crushed cheezits. i love the church cookbooks with comments after the recipes, like one my mom included for an ambrosia salad, "Men love this!" i have to ask myself, Okay, and how does she know? but seriously, malawry, my knowledge about southern cooking has come mainly from growing up in the south and eating in my family's house. the notion of a regional "cuisine" occurred to me when i was real young--i grew up in east TN with a sorta hillbilly culture on my dad's side. my mom's people live in rural Delaware--i spent my summers there and couldn't understand why we never had buscuits for breakfast. i hated toast with my eggs. etc. the food was diffferent--for example the pizza--what would pass as "good" pizza in the south would have been laughed into oblivion up there. my family never took the kind of cool fun family vacations that all the other kids took--to myrtle beach, disneyworld, etc. we pulled our holiday rambler trailer to charleston or to the dessert southwest and camped and looked around. as kids my sisters and i hated it. we thought it was totally nerdy and stupid. looking back now i realize how much our parents exposed us to, in terms of showing us the country, the different regions, peoples, foods, rather than taking us on a boat ride through It's a Small World. i was 16 when we stayed a few days about 30 miles outside el paso, our van broken down. we hung out at a local diner and ate giant steaks and burgers and stewed antelope. i may as well have been in another country. it was one of the first times i realized that food was exciting.

i share in your joy. there was a time when i actually used to bellow in a monstrous voice, upon discovering a tiny nub of green pushing it's way through the muck, "It's ALIIIIIVE!" it's been raining for three days and my ox-eye daisies are fixin to bloom. we have dutch iris blooming as well as the sturdier, invasive bearded iris, which will reach their peak in about a week.

oops, elyse and sandy, 2# means two pounds, and it was four thigh/leg quarters, but she cut them apart so that there were four legs and fours thighs floating in the dish. medium-low heat i guess is about 275. good question. i never use a thermometer, and my oven is not accurate, so i have to chant with prayer beads for pot roasts, etc. i'm not claiming to be an expert on cassoulet, but the person who made it is. she openly admitted to cheating, leaving out the crumbs, substituting approximations because the preferred ingredients weren't available. perhaps i could have made that more clear. "cassoulet" is a pretty scary word that gets bandied around a lot here, though most often as a passing reference. my friend had just returned from france and said, Hey, i'll make a cassoulet--come watch and help me. wow! what a generous offer. i thought i'd pass it on to others who also are new to this somewhat intimidating dish. as for cassoulet's serious, deeply imbedded cultural meanings, these too were discussed at length around the table, as A. told us in great detail what the dish would taste like if we were at her husband's house in france, how his daughter makes it, how he makes it, how the mother made it, etc. quite an education we all received, from yet another generous lover of food!

hopleaf, in fact i've been wondering about you lately. spring seems to be full on us here in GA and we've already had to mow the lawn. my hub has planted leeks, garlic, chard and kale so far. hoping against a late frost i set out some early basil and cilantro plants, just as an incentive, but in about a month we're going to plant rows and rows of annual herbs [and tomatoes and etc]. this is a happy time of year. our birdbaths are heavily trafficked these days, and the yard is crawling with nest-building robins fat with eggs. sometimes i sit on the back porch and i wonder at the world. hopleaf, i hope your garden brings you lots of joy, and dirty nails, and brown arms, and a full table.

magda, i like your style, and i hope egullet gets more of you, dahlink.

A. didn't bother with the bread crumbs, in the interest of time. She didn't use confit duck legs because, well, there weren't any handy. And the French sausage, alas, not available either. Don't think we didn't all get an earful about the paucity of ingredients available here as compared to France. But it was her version of cassoulet, and, as A. said: "not bad for French beanie weenie." All tongue-in-cheek aside, folks, it was lovely, and though it requires a couple days' planning, it's not as "difficult" as I would have guessed, depending largely on the quality of ingredients available to the cook. Wilfrid, she added the soaked, not cooked beans so that the meat WOULD fall apart--I rather liked the effect. I was amazed that the beans maintained their form and didn't turn to sludge. A. is half polish, and hence the predilection for eastern european sausage. Well, I guess I'll head back to my trailer now. I guess here at the "new" egullet overt classism is the last safe bastion of the food elite.

My neighbor's sister made a huge cassoulet for my neighbor's birthday dinner last night, and invited me to watch her assemble it on Friday. Sister is married to a Frenchman and spends about half the year in France--this is the technique she learned most recently. It was amazingly non-fussy, quick to assemble, and heart-breakingly delicious served with a light fresh salad and lots of home-made bread & whipped butter. For eight folks, four duck thighs, 4 duck legs [in retrospect she said she should've used more duck], 4 Italian sausages, 2 kielbasa, 2 bratwurst, the sausages cut into 2 inch pieces. First she browned 4 slices of salt pork, cut in half, in about 2 T of olive oil on top of the stove in a large roasting pan, then added the rest of the meats to brown. After 10 mins she removed the meat and added 1 minced oinion, a few cloves of garlic [careful, she said, if you have garlic-y sausages], and a couple shallots, all finely minced, and softened in the fat. Then one large carrot cut in chunks, and a couple celery stalks, de-threaded, cut in chunks. Then the meat went back in, along with 2# of small white beans, soaked for about 4 hours--Great Northern beans, because she wasn't able to get the French beans she prefers. Then, she added enough water to cover the beans, and a few sprigs of rosemary and parsley from the yard [she said sage is good, too], and about 1/2 cup strong tomato sauce--she said the best thing to use is the very concentrated tomato paste from a tube--and, she said, ONLY a small amount--this is more for color than anything else. Don't salt it, because the salt pork should be sufficient. The roasting pan went covered into a medium low oven for, well, hours, and she checked it periodically to see that the beans were cooking and the water not getting too low--if so, she added more. When she was satisfied it was done, she skimmed off some of the excess liquid--and they like to eat that as a light soup for lunch. Her husband says it's best to reheat the cassoulet a couple times over the next couple days, before serving--to bring the flavors together. The result was meats that melted on the tongue like communion wafers, in a flavorful stew of perfectly cooked beans.

Does everyone remember Bourdain's estimation of Ecuadorean sous chefs? That wasn't lost on me. As it turns out, Ecuador is facing an emigration crisis right now, similar to what's happening in many parts of Mexico [and other LA countries, too, of course]. Latest estimates are that almost 2 million Ecuadoreans are working overseas, and that's out of a population of just over 12 million. The vast majority are in NYC and Spain. In some of the communities I visit, there are entire families in which only the females are still living in the country--all the men old enough to work are gone. And now many women are trying to leave, too. On this last trip I was approached by three families asking if M. and I would bring their daughters back to the States with us to live and learn English. I would LOVE to do it, but I also can't imagine it. Last time in NYC I was unable to get out to an Ecuadorean restaurant, but I have met Ecuadoreans cooking in many other restaurants. I always wonder if they are homesick, if they miss their families, and it makes me sad. Big Bear, after I try my humita recipe, I'll post it here.

those who have eaten helados in Mexico, for example, know that they tend to have a smoother, denser consistency, flecked with small ice crystals, than our commercial ice cream here in the States. the hacienda helado mora was creamy and sweet and very smooth, but still tangy, and a beautiful deep purple color--a generous scoop in a parfait glass on top of a bed of tangerine cream, this last being the true delight: it had the consistency of a creamy whole milk yogurt, flecked with bits of pulp, very sweet, creamy, pudding-like, cool, but not frozen--so the effect then was a spoonful of thich dense tart berry ice cream in a puddle of thick tangy citrus cream--great texture contrast. i don't go for desserts in ecuador, but this one was very good.

I have just returned from Ecuador,again, and on this trip was finally able to make some sense of the food culture. First I will try to describe the food; then I will give a little list of places I stayed and ate, in case anyone decides to go [i highly recommend it]. Los Andes: Trout farms are very common in many regions in the Andes, so trout is almost always an option in restaurants, either con ajo [garlic sauce] or a la plancha [grilled]. Ecuadoreans also eat a lot of corvina [sea bass] and ceviche [corvino, octopus, shrimp], the latter, of course, being both outstandingly delicious and extraordinarily risky--if you're eating in a hotel or nicer restaurant it shouldn't be a problem. Flank steaks or "filet mignon"--always well-marinated and grilled and absolutely tender and delicious, served with deglace or an Ecuadorean version of bearnaise. Guinea pig--much talked about but really not as central to the food culture as some think--more of a "special" dish, and if it is on the menu in your restaurant, it may require several hours or a day's advance notice. Pork: for example chunks of shoulder meat grilled til crispy, or a chop. Always flavorful. Potatoes and corn and everything else: Don't expect much imaginative presentation of produce or side dishes. Your plates will be accompanied by some type of potato [boiled, fried] and or hominy and or rice, and maybe a slice of avocado, and a serving of "bird's eye"--how I designate the carrot/pea/green bean medley that seems to accompany every meal, and looks like frozen vegs from a bag--but isn't. Specialties: *mote pillo is a popular breakfast or meat accompaniment in Cuenca--eggs scrambled with hominy and cheese. *churrascos--a plate of grilled flank steak topped with two fried eggs, a side of fried potatoes, rice and avocado. Sounds lardy and unhealthy, but after the guy sitting next to you orders it, as you watch his face brighten with pleasure, you'll wish you had, too. *llapingachos--potato pancakes stuffed with cheese, usually served with grilled pork. Ecuadorean cheese is mild white soft fresh cheese that crumbles easily. Sometimes you get little strips of it on the side of other plates. *humitas--Ecuadorean tamales, basically pureed fresh corn and milk and sugar pudding steamed inside corn husks til the mixture sets--literally the most DELICIOUS food I have ever put in my mouth in Ecuador. It's the corn, largely--it's sweet and chewy, more like hominy, which is also very popular in the Andes. The best humitas are available at the cafe in the Tianguez Gallery in Quito. *alfonjares--I found these cookies at the bakery in the Monasterios de las Conceptas in Cuenca--a tiny shop with baked goods prepared by the nuns who still operate the convent. A short pastry [i will SWEAR it is made with lard] cookie sandwich, with a thin smear of dulce de leche in between, dusted with powdered sugar and rolled in toasted coconut. Knock yourself out. El Oriente: If you are planning to visit the Amazon, you'll enjoy a very different food culture. If you get meat, it'll be stewed capon or hen--you won't know the difference because the foraging free range birds are all scrawny--but the meat is delicious--it's essence of chicken, very different from the fat tender juicy huge pieces of meat we force here in the States. You might get fish, little tilapias caught, say, five minutes ago, wrapped in bijao [palm] leaves and steamed with heart of palm. You'll always have rice and fried plantain, either tostones or maduros, and some sort of soup--made with potatoes or plantain dumplings. Sliced avocado. Heart of palm ceviche, chopped and steeped in lime and sugar with a little tomato or aji--delicious. Yuca--one of my favorite rainforest foods, and the staple of the rainforest diet. I love it cut into thick strips and pan fried til it's crispy at the edges, then eaten with a small dab of aji con sel--the local mined salt mixed with dried aji, very hot peppers from the jungle. Some say fried yuca tastes like nothing, but they are muy loco. Bebidas: Wherever you are in Ecuador, you need to drink the jugos offered at every meal: thick pulpy liquidos made from naranjillas [tart equator citrus], tree tomatoes, moras [blackberries] pina, naranja, mango, papaya. Canelazos are hot cocktails made with sugar cane alcohol and sugar, lime, cinnamon. And if someone is offering shots of the sugar can alcohol--drago--take one. You'll feel the heat of the jungle and the strength of the mountains coursing through your body. Good places to eat: Quito: Hotel Sebastien's Cafe Mistral--high quality organic produce, one of the best breakfast buffets anywhere. Otavalo: Hotel Casa de Hacienda--the trout was grilled to perfection. And a homemade blackberry ice cream with tangerine pudding that can't even be described--I ate two. Termas de Papallacta: If you can drag your ass out of the hot baths, the food here is always very good. We had trout and flank steaks, and a creamy mushroom gravy was passed around the table. The full breakfast buffet includes eggs, pancakes, sausages, tiny yeasty croissants and huge fruit platters. Cuenca: Hotel Crespa serves a very good breakfast--a huge plate with a chunk of banana, watermelon, pineapple, mango and canteloupe, accompanied by a glass of sweet whole milk yogurt, huevos al gusto, a basket of hot fresh pastries, including the tiny croussants that the Ecuadoreans do so well. The cafe con leche is very good here, too, the milk so rich that fat floats on the top. We ate supper here and had coctel de camarones y aguacate [one of my favorite dishes in the world--a half of avocado with chunks of steamed shrimp and a marie rose-type sauce, cream and paprika], also the cazuela de mar--a seafood casserole, hot creamy base with huge chunks of corvino, camarones, octopus. Vilcabamba: we stayed a couple nights at the Madre Tierra spa [i had a 30-minute steam sauna followed by a full body sea salt exfoliation--for $17.92]. This is a fun and pretty place, but in general I have to say the food here really sucks ass--especially the coffee, which is unabashedly instant and weak [very typical of Ecuador]. You get a bowl of granola and fruit and an egg for breakfast, then a plate of food for supper--we had pot roast one night, tough and cold, a meal of depression, and fried fish and creamy potato casserole the next which was much better. But the hotel does have it's own bakery and serves a hearty dense pan integral that makes up for the rest of the meal. If you get hungry during the day you can order sanduches--huge flavorless buns with a microscopic slab of unidentifiable meat or "tempeh" or cheese inside. Just order fries, and get the bartender to mix you a killer capairina or capairoska--he makes each one slowly, meticulously, with a huge handful of juicy lime from the tree next to his cabana. I spent the first hour in the Otavalo market walking through the food stalls, buying spices and ground corn and quinoa from the local women. When I got home yesterday, every item in my bag smelled of the fierce ground comino [cumin]; I bought blocks of canela--unrefined sugar. I also bought some dried canela sticks, steeped them in hot water last night and bathed til weary in herbs. Ecuador--shungo--tierra de mi corazon.

Joy--is your trip to Mexico food-based? If so, I understand Puebla is a good choice. I don't like to tell people what NOT to do on their trips, but I would suggest you minimize your time in Mexico City and maximize your time in other smaller cities. My favorite places in Mexico are: Patzcuaro: a wonderful small colonial city with a cool climate and incredible artesanias shops. The local specialty is sopa de tarasco [tarascos are the indigenous group] with a tomato base, ancho chile and cream. If you go here stay at the Mansion Iturbe--it's pricey byMexican standards but worth it--my husband and I always skimp elsewhere ans splurge here. The dining room is gorgeous and in the mornings you get a beautiful traditional breakfast served in the local earthenware pottery, cafe o chocolate, pan tostada, marmelada de mango [locally made and for sale], chilaquiles, huevos al gusto, etc. We always spend a few days here walking [very slowly], eating, walking, eating, sleeping, walking, eating. if you are interested, you can get a local "ecological" tour to small communities surrounding lake patcuaro, visiting for example a small women's textile cooperative, eating locally produced cheeses and meats--inquire at the Iturbe. Guananjuato: a plateau colonial city with a dry pleasant climate, incredible joie de vivre--you can sit on the zocalo every evening, drinking negro modelos, being serenaded by mariachis. and don't forget to visit the mummies. Taxco: a small colonial city nestled in the Sierra Madres--a great place for tourists with a real hippie feel, and of course if you're into silver you gotta visit this town. I don't remeber much about the food except that there were lots of nice local cheap places to sit on balconies or sidewalks and eat tasty breakfasts of granola and fruit, or almuerzos of enchiladadas and aguacates. If you are interested in artensanias, particularly Huichol masks, etc., [as we are] the small villages around Guadalajara [which I call Guadalahell-hole--it's the most goddamn hot and dusty place I've ever been in my life] like Tlaquepaque, are wonderful--in fact maybe better to stay in the smaller village and avoid the city center. I haven't been, but high on my list is the city of Tequila, for obvious reasons. Joy, I am going to Spanish school for the first two weeks of June in Oaxaca. I don't know yet where we are staying. My husband and I are both very seriously interested in one of Trilling's cooking classes. After the two-week program finishes we are heading south, maybe to the coast and then to Chiapas. New territory for me, but my husband has been to Oaxaca and LOVED it--which is why we're doing school there. I've searched on the web a bit and apparantly Oaxaca has incredible local chocolate and mole production--both to buy and eat--and of course, to watch in the process. Have fun. Let's compare notes.

i was just reading up on chocolate and found this: http://www.chocolateandcocoa.org/Health/cravings.htm we crave it because it tastes good

yoga and psychopharmacology have delivered me from many of the physical woes of the child-bearing years. i used to like hot chocolate with whipped cream. now my cravings have shifted and i find i simply want protein--in any form, really, but preferably with a little fat and crispy skin, say roasted duck. i get sleepy, too, so i might crave more caffeine. i am trying to temper that by drinking lots of water and simply--hell, it's so obvious--taking a nap. here's a tip for women who really suffer: if you can commit yourself to really strengthening AND stretching your psoaz muscles, you will notice a huge improvement in discomfort. sit-ups alone won't do it--you have to stretch and lengthen those musclles, too. here's a good one: lie on your back with your knees bent so that your lower back is off the floor and your pelvis is tilted forward. now, arms to the side and relaxed, lift your legs together to the "chair" position, knees still bent. now, keeping your knees pressed firmly together, roll your pelvis from side to side. imagine that your pelvis is a basin filled with water, and that you are tilting it side to side to pour a little out. each time you come back to center, you are refilling that basin from an imaginary fountain. the idea is that the movement originates from the pelvis, and when you start to focus you'll notice that you're really working those deep abdominal muscles. it is tremendously relieving of menstrual discomfort. i used to have to take about 2000mgs of ibuprofin to kill my pain. i have almost no pain now. after working your psoaz, your reward is a chocolate truffle and a glass of wine. breathe deeply. you're beautiful, mamacita.

i agree with stefany's definition of "yuppie"--but i think the term can be used in other ways, too, and i interpreted nina's use of it to mean that maybe the food at diwan [i've never been] is more"upscale" than in other indian restaurants? IOW, it's not everyday home-cooking indian cuisine, which might be available in other more "authentic" restaurants? ron, are you in NYC? or planning to go? please take it from me--you can get anywhere. i was honored to have some very nice egullet escorts, but even on my own i've been able to get into the bronx and parts of brooklyn. the subway system is great and it takes less time & trouble to get out to the boroughs than you think. you'll be glad you made the effort!!!!

shaw, i just realized that your avatar...it really scares me. you look like you could kick my *mm*. the letters to the editor sections in both harper's and the nation are often as interesting to read as the features. sometimes the readers really get down and dirty with the authors. but, it is true, we are getting a broader forum here. i trust that steve klc is feeling appropriately chastised. or maybe he's feeling confused, like i am. or maybe he's rolling chocolate truffles in cocoa powder and licking his fingers. this, IMO, would be the best way to handle the whole situation.

If you can be bitchier than Schrambling, why aren't you writing for the New York Times? I'm so glad you asked! I am not writing for the NYTimes because I am .....lazy. There--I've said it. Seriously. Why aren't you, Dave? Why isn't Ivan? Not to betray my prejudices, or anything. There are lots of skillful writers participating here. There are lots of good writers out there, too. The question is: do they have audiences? There's another slant, too. My students just read The Lovely Bones in their book club. They all asked me, "Why is this book, like, so, like, popular? I mean, it's like, good and all, but it's not, like, great." I agreed with them. But it sold in part because it got some good reviews and it was promoted. Had it been a matter of spreading by word of mouth, we might not have selected it for our club. All my friends in journalism have told me the same thing: the slant is key. Schrambling must have one--

hm... i'm "confused." of course. for a moment there i was feeling very lucid, very intelligent, very rational. i thought klc's piece was a post. no wait, i thought it was a cover story on the web zine. no, wait, no, i thought i was making the point that a cover story on the webzine should stay focused on issues, not resort to ad hominem attacks. no, wait. stop. what i thought i was saying was that even in the heat of an argument people can stay focused on issues--people can be heated and provoked and stay on issues. we always have choices about what we say. but then i got an estrogen surge, and now i'm back to being perpetually addled. oh, i'm being sarcastic. and when it comes to bitchy.... i could make schrambling look like St. Catherine. but i'm trying SOOOO hard not to be bitchy. dave the cook, you did make my point, better than i was able to. now it seems like we might be able to draw forth the germane, unstated or half-stated points from mklc's story and begin to discuss and clarify. now that he's got all that ranting aside, let's talk, people. why is it that someone so half-skilled and caustic is in such demand? short answer: "bitchy" is not a skill--it's a talent. i think that's what ronfland was trying to say.