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I can't resist asking you: Don't they have decent maps you can use? I hope you do get a chance to try some pastries. I'm guessing they might be more interesting than the bread and sandwiches you've been having. Nothing Islamic-sounding about them. Good luck on the adoption.

I heard an American who had served in the military in Iraq say on the News Hour on U.S. Public TV on July 4 that his base was so deluged with food donations that they had to try to find a way to give it away or throw it out. No further comment except that I recommend you all keep this in mind.

I love the "God willing" (Inshallah) at the end of the recipe. Somehow, it seems a very appropriate way to end every recipe, knowing as we all know that there are many variables involved in cooking. Would any of you like to talk a little about "paynemayn or wastel brede"? I've heard of wastrel bread, I think, but I can't place the other one.

Ned, I'm glad the waiter acted properly after you had a word with him, and I'm glad you did talk to him. What he did would have bugged me a lot, but I would feel fine about returning to the restaurant after the side dish was comped, and I, too, would have reflected the comping in the tip.

You're talking about the char siu? Yes, in my experience, lots of fat in char siu is authentic, though not invariable. I of course remain to be corrected by someone who's more knowledgeable. Do you recall what else you had?

Julia, I'm just awed at the hours you keep, working two jobs plus your business, and now you're generously taking more of your time to share your week with us! Yes, I want to know what a Chef Tournant is and does and would have asked that.

Yeah, I miss Louisiana, too. Perhaps just a bit pricey for what it served, or at least people from New Orleans thought so, because it was bar food to them, but it was good and what huge portions they served! I liked their jambalaya, their shrimp creole, their crawfish etouffee, and their really rich, big desserts. They didn't skimp on the chili, and it was a good place to eat at the bar. Plus, friends of mine (as well as various other good groups) used to gig there regularly and I would sit in from time to time. Bayamo, on the other hand, is a place I never went back to after they decided not to keep friends of mine on. They're in an excellent charanga group, and I spent a lot of money to support their sets, as did others. But yes, I enjoyed the food and drinks. I remember in particular a dessert of platanos maduros flambeed in rum, with dulce de leche ice cream. That was great!

But if so, does it make American great? ← Great has many meanings. Defined as superior in quality or grand? No, not in my opinion. But defined as powerful and influential or outstanding in its significance or importance, absolutely. Every major city around the world that I've visited has American fast food chains and/or local fast food restaurants trying to emulate American fast food or at least the processes and procedures used to create it. I don't want to drift too far off-topic so I'll leave it at that. ← I respect that. I'll only say that defining McDonalds and such as food that makes America great would be totally outside of -- not to say opposite from -- the spirit of the article, which talks about foods that a food-lover like jbonne feels are great. Many people feel that McDonalds et al. have done a lot of harm to the standards of taste that are behind exactly the kinds of traditional foods featured in the article.

But if so, does it make American great?

Adam, you refer to wet hessian. What is that?

Yeah, you're right; scallops. I haven't had any identical dishes before, with the corn and everything, but I have had other dim sum dishes with mayonnaise, and this was the best I've had. I ate half of one. I should add that there were a bunch of other things that looked really interesting but we were too full to eat on this trip.

The place's name is now World Tong Seafood Restaurant: 6202 18th Av. (62 St.) Brooklyn, NY 11204 (718) 236-3721 jogoode, mascarpone and I joined eatingwitheddie and five other people in Ed's party for dim sum there today. Ed is a regular there and did most of the ordering for us. jogoode, mascarpone and I all enjoyed the meal and were more or less impressed. We met the dim sum chef, who is only 36 but, we were told, has been working at it for 25 [sic!] years. I felt that the food ranged from average for New York dim sum eating halls to great and far better than any other dim sum I've had in New York. Among the highlights: Fantastic moist, wonderfully delicious fishballs, possibly the best fishballs I've ever had anywhere. I don't know what all was in them, but a cilantro taste was evident. Really flavorful fried chive dumplings, best of the fried leek/chive type I've had in New York. Lovely pork dumplings with spinach, really superior quality Breaded/fried, stuffed mildly hot green peppers -- just enough bite to come on as a perfect aftertaste. Shrimp/pea dumplings with finely chopped peas. Whenever I've gotten these elsewhere, the peas were whole and a little mealy. These were far superior. Fried black sesame paste-filled balls -- perfectly crisp exterior, perfect thickness, delicious! Also good: Dough-stuffed wide noodles -- crispy, with a nice sauce (a little like the wide noodles without filling I had at Prince Restaurant, q.v.). Char siu (made by a different chef than the dim sum chef, we were told). Har gow Siu mai Dessert of coconut sponge cake filled with light-tasting cream and tangy pineapple pieces Piping hot little puff pastries of apple and little bits of pork, a kind of take on apple turnovers The chicken feet were nicely cooked but tasted of cod liver oil, a universal casualty of the way non-organic chickens are fed in the US. The diced clams in their shells with baked mayonnaise sauce were the best of their kind I've tried, but I don't like that dish much. Ed loves the spring rolls, but I find them too oily. The spare ribs in black bean sauce were the only item that struck me as below average, compared to the big eating halls in Manhattan's Chinatown like Jing Fong. I arrived around 11 and the place was full with people crowding the entrance waiting for tables the entire time. All in all, a very pleasant meal, excellent for New York, and I really enjoyed meeting Ed and his wife and friends. Thanks for your hospitality, Ed. As a point of interest, I had a short conversation with a man who told me he had come down from Flushing to visit relatives. I asked him what place he recommends for dim sum in Flushing, and he answered East Buffet without hesitation. I mentioned Prince Restaurant; he said they were OK but the real stuff was East Buffet. But he couldn't remember the cross street, so that's the next thing I'm going to find out.

Varmint, thanks so much for sharing this week with us. It's great how much your kids obviously like people and evidently enjoyed being part of this blog, and how much they appreciate good food and don't seem to take it for granted (do they?). You all seem to have a really pleasant life together. Enjoy the festival!

Is there any way to get around that law? Some kind of special permit or something?

What about Flunch? Really cheap sandwiches and stuff. My fellow students at the Academie d'Ete de Nice ate there all the time, but I was on a per diem from a fellowship, so when I got a really upset stomach the first time I tried eating an 18-franc sandwich at the Flunch near the Nice train station (this was in 1992) that tasted no better than lousy college cafeteria food in the US, I never ate anything there again and got 40-franc pasta lunches in cafes instead. I'd be a bit surprised to hear that Flunch has improved much since then, since the whole premise of the place was to serve really cheap versions of what you could really enjoy if you went to some store and paid just a bit more. Also, for whatever it's worth, I've found it a lot easier to find lousy food in France than in Italy, though I do agree with the general premise of this thread.

Sugar maples are an import to what's now the United States? I know you didn't mean that.

What's that refer to, sides in a dispute?

San Diego kicks ass in this category of Mexican. It's not as well represented in LA. Senor Fish is pretty good, they do a deep fried scallop burrito that carried me through my first pregnancy. ← JY, if you have some recommendations of places to get good fish tacos in San Diego, please post 'em here. Thanks.

I did a web search and was unable to get any results for chalchalesh. What is it?

Modern recipes also contain errors, sometimes serious ones. Experience helps cooks to figure out what is missing.

Adam, what a great idea for a thread! I look forward to the next fishy post.

Chris, I indeed look forward to whatever you can come up with. And I certainly see your point about measures. Sometimes, one has to go beyond the obvious when dealing with ancient notation. When I was in graduate school, one well-known musicologist who shall remain nameless taught a course in early plain chant notation. His claim -- and according to my schoolmates who took the course, the main basis of the course -- was that it was absolutely impossible for anyone to figure out what the duration of the notated notes was, though their pitches are clear. This might be analogous to dealing with ancient recipes that give ingredients but lack obvious written amounts. And I submit that the nameless professor's approach is a non-starter and no basis for useful scholarship or thinking at all. For the performer and the cook who desire to revive in a workable way ancient music and dishes that have come down to us in a less-than-obvious notation, while they should concede that it will never be possible to know whether their solution is in fact how someone might have executed the recipe in those days, throwing up their hands at the futility of it all is nihilistic. Don't get me wrong: That doesn't mean that anyone has the personal responsibility to undertake the challenge. But a worthy challenge it is, and there are ways to go about it. I have a better idea of how to do this with music than with cooking, but I do think the analogy has some basis, and I'm sure Adam will have comments about the challenge and pleasure of reconstructing dishes from more or less vague-seeming recipes.

C_Ruark, there's already a body of historical recipes on the web. I Googled "Elizabethan food" and found this site: Elizabethan Food and Cooking I then Googled "Elizabethan recipe*" How's this? A basic medieval cooking bibliography (some clickable, in English translation where originally in another language) And here are results for a Google search on "ancient recipes." Some of the ancient recipes you'll access from the first page of results have already been covered on preexisting threads on this site.

I misinterpreted "burse," but I understood everything else except "codling." What kind of fruit is that?

If it was a local DC joint I'd savage it by name, but in a gesture of truce with Red State America I will leave it nameless.[...] ← First reaction: That's magnanimous! Second reaction: It might be a good idea to ward off future potential patrons. Third reaction: It's up to you.