Pan

I've been wondering what percentage of vegetable (or fruit?) matter a dish has to have to be a composed salad. Is Nasi Lemak a composed salad? I've never heard anyone say it was, but what do you all think? For those of you who don't know what Nasi Lemak is, click on that link for the results of an image search in yahoo.com. Note that though it is quite fatty (nasi lemak means "fatty rice" or "rice and fat" in Malay), it typically includes cucumber and often pineapple slices among the sambals (side dishes to eat with the rice).

project, I'm pretty uninterested in marketing. I'm a no-BS person, and generally speaking, I care only about the product. And in that spirit, I would never let any concern about marketing or image cause me to decrease my ingestion of good brie and think it's a pity that you are letting what I consider unimportant things like marketing and image impel you to deny yourself a gustatory pleasure. Then again, I never gave a damn about fashion when I was growing up, either. Being "cool" (or whatever the current youth slang is now) is really important to many people, but never was important to me. Liking the latest fashion because it's new and hip is all BS to me, anyway.

Arturo's isn't far from Little Italy and has an old-school feel to it, so that could be a good option for you. Get the clam pie; you won't regret it!

I always liked my mother's casseroles, and looking at this photo reminded me of them. I don't think I've ever had fried green tomatoes. Is it possible to describe the difference in taste between green and ripe tomatoes?

I didn't know the expression "li hing mui," so I did a web search ad found this site.

My guess is that you probably won't get that point across, and might as well embrace the title "picky eater."

If we're going to include things you bathe in, squeezing limau nipis (a kind of fragrant lime) into bathing water is a traditional treatment in rural Malay medicine. A bomoh (traditional healer) prescribed that as part of a cure for symptoms my mother experienced after being released from the hospital after a month as an inpatient for mononucleosis (then a very rare disease in Malaysia), and it really refreshed her and helped her get well.

You bad girl!

I had a latish lunch at Han Bat today with an old friend of mine from grad school and her 22-month-old daughter. I thought it was worth mentioning because the waitresses really doted on the little girl. My friend from grad school liked the food very much -- as did the toddler! I was impressed that little Mia -- not a Korean at all -- enjoyed her kimchi! She also enjoyed the seaweed banchan and had a lot of fun with the seafood pajun, which really are nice -- savory pancakes with dough that's slightly sweet from caramelization. (Maybe there's a touch of sugar in it, but I think it's mainly the way the pajun are cooked that causes the caramelly sweetness of the crust.) It was funny that Mia decided when she was finished eating that it was time to go, and ran to open the doors so as to walk outside by herself. Of course, her mother put an end to that quickly.

Will the blog-cookbook have recipes indexed by category and alphabetical order? I think those would be the most important things to do in order to create a useful reference.

I used to make really tasty scrambled egg dishes. When I think of one thing that I like and simply can't get unless I started cooking again, that's it. I usually made them in an Italian-influened style. I started by frying chopped onions in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil, then added minced garlic. Later, I added chopped tomatoes and fresh basil or Italian parsley. Then, I added the eggs (at least two but usually three) and stirred everything up. I then added some tasty cheese (fior di latte, provolone, parmigiano) in pieces, mixed everything up again for evenness, stirred in some ground pepper and dried basil and oregano (if no fresh herbs were available), then added wine. Once the cheese was fully melted, everything was fully mixed up, and the sauce was reduced, and my taste buds told me the proportions were good, I toasted some whole wheat or sprouted wheat or oatmeal bread (at least two slices), and scopped the cheesy, eggy, tasty mixture on the toast, adding more pepper to taste. The best version I ever made included a certain amount of leftovers of a Portuguese-style (I think) beef stew my mother made with red wine, and I unfortunately was never able to duplicate that (all amounts were always approximate in this dish), but I made good ones many times. It was a very hearty brunch or lunch on weekends or other days when I had time to make it.

The menu doesn't seem too weird, but their philosophy is bizarre, to say the least.

This thread has been very instructive so far. Another question: Do you also eat out at the places you get takeout or/and delivery from? I do, especially Teresa's, where I had dinner tonight.

Some of us usually wake up too late. Love your picture, as always.

Actually, banh mi is Vietnamese, but your point is made. project, I'm wondering where you grew up, because I don't think a city like New York fits your descriptions. It may well be that it would be hard to sell pomegranates in Kansas or some other place in the real or mythical Heartland; I frankly don't know. What I do know is that I had a middle-class -- not by any stretch rich -- upbringing, and pomegranates were part of my childhood. Endives aren't a huge big deal in New York, either. And alfalfa sprouts -- if that's what Starwich is using for sprouts -- have been humble foods since hippie days. It seems to me that Starwich is trying to offer their customers lots of options. If you are one of their customers and you don't feel like trying pomegranates or endives, you don't have to, right? But really, a lot of non-rich New Yorkers have enjoyed things like that, know very well what they are, and if they're men, don't feel the least bit emasculated by eating them. Nor are New Yorkers riding off into the sunset on their trusty steeds.

Aiyah, all this reminiscing about the food in Ipoh! I can get good food in New York, but if only Ipoh were a little closer...

What are cactus fruits called in Arabic?

I agree that melofunk's post was a kind gesture, but I wouldn't think that melted ice cream would be the fault of the back of the house, in any case. It seems safe to assume that the ice cream started off frozen, but the dessert sat too long before it was delivered to the table. In that case, even if the server wasn't to blame for that fact, s/he should have noticed that the ice cream was melted and asked for the dessert to be replated. Isn't that right?

For what it's worth, if I had seen that picture in any other context, I wouldn't have thought "salad." It looks to me like cold cuts plus roasted asparagus, with some other things for good measure/decoration (especially the hard-boiled egg quarters). I think what makes Thai salads with meat in them salads to me is that the ingredients are more evenly mixed together, but if they are, I guess that is contrary to the concept of a composed salad.

The easy answer is "taste." Of course, taste actually includes a very important component of smell, as we all know. One counterpoint to that, though, is the durian, which is legendary for its horrible smell, yet -- to those who like it, including me -- can taste very good. And we could talk about stinky tofu, stinky cheese, etc. Surely, people aren't eating those things because of their inviting smell? (Well, maybe some of you weird foodies are. )

Whatever happened to "Tak ada cili, tak ada rasa" [No chili, no taste]?

Michael, it's still loud as hell there. I usually sit in the back, though, at one of those long tables--the speakers aren't as loud there, and my girls and I can hear each other pretty well. I'm going tonight, so I can report more fully if y'all would like. ← Sure. Maybe it deserves its own thread.

Yeah, I've been reading your thread on how sad you find the food situation in your town. But this is in fact a thread on the New York forum about New York takeout. Anyone is free to start a similar thread on any other regional forum, though.

That's a really interesting and well thought-out post, project. I have to say I'm not so sure how often I'd want to pay $9 for a sandwich, considering that I can get a fantastic banh mi or banh mi gai (spelling?) for $3 in Chinatown and that I can get a lunch special at Teresa's for $7 -- cup of soup, complimentary bread, main dish with one side, iced tea. Etc. But having said that, you really owe it to yourself to try things like pomegranates. Endives are kind of nice, too -- a somewhat sweet, cabbage-heart-like thing.

I think chocolate gelato would go really well with cantuccini aka biscotti da Prato. Or you could use some thin butter cookies. Or how about if you put some hazelnuts in it? I could go on...