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Thanks for posting, John B. With all the talk about specialty wines, I was imagining the prices would be high for most everything there.

I'm not sure I understand. In previous generations, the cooks for the wealthiest (and before that, the king and his court) didn't think each ingredient should be the finest? And I'm not sure I understand about cooking enhancing the natural flavor as something new. I'll look forward to your explanation.

ADM is also known for price-fixing, and one problem I have with US law is that while felons often lose the right to vote -- sometimes in perpetuity, even upon release -- corporations can continue to lobby and make huge contributions to political campaigns even after being essentially convicted of felonies, sometimes repeatedly. Anyway, a web search on ADM + "price fixing" resulted in a lot of hits, and this one is interesting: What that means is that Ajinomoto was also involved in the crime, a fact I either never knew or forgot about. So this is about more than companies based in or with very large holdings in the US -- unless Ajinomoto has huge holdings in the US that I don't know about, and that wouldn't amaze me. Read the rest here.

Thanks for the heads-up. What's so good about them?

That reminds me of a couple in Colorado who got on all the junk-mail lists they could and fueled their fireplace all winter with the resulting catalogs and such. But most of us New Yorkers have no fireplaces.

Rasam, but I don't make it myself; I get it from Madras Cafe. Nice spinach soup from there, too, but not as spicy.

Chef Corelli, thank you for your detailed answer to my question and all your other answers! I'm really enjoying this Q&A.

Since Monsanto's name has been repeatedly mentioned in this thread, you'll want to have a look at an Asia Times article. It's relevant to this discussion, though it's about GM cotton and pesticides, rather than food crops. Here's an excerpt of this long article: The rest is here: The seeds of a bribery scandal in Indonesia

First thought: Cape of Good Hope. Second thought: Cape Cod. Third thought: Or is it another cape? Let's all remember that this is an international site. I'm guessing you meant Cape Cod, but I wonder if all our members in India know where that is.

I never liked the placement of commercial flyers on cars, either, because people would at first think they had gotten tickets. But there's a difference between finding something annoying and assaulting someone over it! I'll bet that super has previously gotten into fights with people over other stuff, and I wonder what kinds of things the tenants in that building would have to say about him.

Are those beef sausages in that photo?

I haven't been to the Sea Grill, but that's evidently the place you're thinking of, and various members have recommended it.

Thanks, Jenny. Greenwich Village is just "The Village" to us natives. But anyway, carry on . . .

Undoubtedly. But there are neighborhoods like the East Village that are mostly tenements, and we have only a buzzer and a couple of doors separating us from the outside. I think video intercoms are uncommon in this neighborhood, too. It seems to me that for whatever reason, deliverymen have been putting gratuitous menus under my door a lot less in recent months. I caught some of them doing that while I was at home and told them not to do it, but I somewhat doubt that made the difference.

I agree, Sam, but I'd emphasize the filling more than you are. You're right that a thick, pasty wrap can screw up a dumpling even if the filling is good, but it's so common to get vegetable dumplings that are insipid. I like a nice variety of finely diced, fresh-tasting vegetables (some can be dried-reconstituted if sufficiently tender) in the filling, including a good hit of mushrooms, and some clear noodles are nice. Also, the wrapper should be thin but shouldn't self-destruct immediately when the dumpling is picked up with chopsticks and produce a mess (though that's forgivable if the filling tastes good). I don't think I've had great vegetable dumplings on this side of the Pacific (try some on your first trip to Malaysia, China, or some other East or Southeast Asian country some time, and it may well be a revelation to you), but I like the ones at Nice because I enjoy the peanuts they include in the filling. Unfortunately, the rest of the dim sum on offer at Nice hasn't led me to conclude that they're one of the best dim-sum-in-carts places in Manhattan (to be fair, it's been a while, though), but the strength of their regular dishes helps, if you decide to order a big plate or two during your dim sum lunch.

What's GV, Jenny?

Today's New York Newsday has an article about an assault on a delivery man who wanted to leave menus for a Chinese restaurant inside a residential building: Menu drop-off ends in severe beating I don't think any Society members will react with anything but repugnance over what sounds like a despicable assault. I wish Mr. Ping a speedy recovery and hope the alleged perpetrators, if duly convicted, receive a jail sentence or/and punishing fine for their misbehavior. And I'll note that even assuming that Shala's lawyer is giving an accurate account, you don't have the right to beat up a deliveryman for "trespassing" in New York. That said, the issue of menus in residential buildings is a sensitive one in New York. In the East Village, there are many establishments that deliver. Some buildings provide envelopes (originally packing slips from UPS or some other mail company) marked "menus" to facilitate the orderly placement of delivery menus in the entryway; others do not, and I've noticed some buildings on the Upper West Side in particular (I think) that have "No Menus" signs, often in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Some establishments take it upon themselves to tape up paper containers with menus in them and leave those just outside the entrances to buildings in the East Village. Others leave menus on the floor of the entryway, which is messy. And then there are the places which, when sending a deliveryman to one apartment, put menus under the doors of other apartments (that annoys me, as I'm almost never interested in those menus and just have to throw them in the recycling bin). Another annoying thing is when faraway places leave delivery menus and when called say that they have a minimum of $20 or more for Chinese food, for example. If you don't deliver reasonably-priced food from such a distance, why are you wasting our time with your menus? I'll note that Sammy's seems to have realized they were wasting their money leaving menus this far east, so that problem is somewhat self-limiting. My feeling is that ideally, there should be a place for menus to be left on the ground floor in an orderly fashion. "No menus" is unhelpful to people who in fact benefit from delivery menus (and don't have Internet accounts enabling them to go to menupages.com). I don't want menus left on the floor of the entryway, and I don't want deliverymen leaving gratuitous menus under my door. But to assault someone over menus??!

I like dried turmeric, though it's somewhat musty. Fresh turmeric is wonderfully earthy. If you can get fresh turmeric, use it for any number of Malaysian recipes; it was a standard part of the rempah (spicy paste) on the East Coast of Malaysia in the 70s, and I imagine people with turmeric plants still use the fresh stuff.

Ciao, Igles, e grazie per parlare con noi! I've spent parts of three summers in Italy and the rest of my family spent a year in Firenze before I was born, so memories of Italy (theirs and then mine) and Italian food have always been part of my heritage, regardless of my ancestors having come from elsewhere. I've always loved Italian food and a delicious Italian meal is still one of my favorite things. Anyway, I think that when most Americans think of "Italian food," what they're really thinking of is Italo-American food based on Southern Italian heritage (Campagna, Calabria, Sicilia, etc.). And what I think of first when I think of Italian food is regionality. Anyone who's been to different regions of Italy knows that every region has its own specialties and all regional cuisines are distinct from the others. So my question to you is whether you feel that there is any commonality that makes a dish or a type of cuisine Italian to you, as opposed to Piemontese, Toscana, Calabrese, etc., or whether the differences between Northern and Southern Italian cuisines may be greater than the differences between some regional Italian cuisines and, say, Provencal style. A subsidiary question could be whether there are some nationwide newfangled trends nowadays. I look forward to your answer.

Come up and visit us some time, Jenny! Fat Guy, I do recommend the soup dumplings at Yeah, though I think China 46 -- out there in the Midwestern corn fields -- has better ones.

I want to address jsolomon's point about the political use of food exports. I think it's barbaric to use food or medicine in economic sanctions, first of all. Those are necessities for life, unlike various technological products like airplanes and so forth. Secondly, it is grossly unfair for countries that are wealthy (even if not all their citizens are) like the US to subsidize food exports. By doing that, other food-exporting countries like Canada, Australia, and Argentina are undercut. My feeling is that it is reasonable to provide subsidies to farmers in times of disaster or severe economic downturn, because self-sufficiency in food is a worthy goal for every country that can attain it, and a great benefit to each nation's security and independence. One example is that a very worthy form of aid for areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami would be to subsidize farmers who have lost crops or are being undercut by food aid that had to be rushed in on an emergency basis. Similarly, wherever there is a drought and food aid is needed to prevent famine (as in parts of Africa), part of that aid should be a temporary subsidy to farmers, so as to guard against the end of productive farming and its replacement with long-term dependency on food aid. But to send handouts to huge agribusinesses in the form of subsidies seems highly unethical and unfair to me.

Sounds painful! Seriously, thanks a lot for your post! I look forward to the next one. Do you know what's next on your list yet?

Well, DDT did help a lot in the fight against malaria, didn't it?

Where is it?

Yes, A&C is the name of the place. Thanks.