Pan

Squeat, Daniel Rogov is the Israeli in that group. He's well known in Israel as food critic for Haaretz, and is also a member of eGullet.

Wow, this is a surprise! Craig, it's really been nice getting to know you a bit. You have been an imposing figure here and your leadership and contributions will be hard if not impossible to replace (though others will no doubt do a great job, not by filling your shoes but standing tall in theirs), so I do hope you'll continue to participate when time allows. Godspeed on all your ventures!

Ed Schoenfeld is, of course, eatingwitheddie on eGullet, a most valued and valuable member. Thanks for the link, Laksa.

herbacidal: I've been to Shanghai twice (1987 and this past August) and liked it both times, though it was almost completely different the 2nd time. It's an exciting, fast-paced city with a vibrant, futuristic, science-fictiony skyline that reminded me somewhat of Kuala Lumpur but much more so, with a big river to boot. International city? You bet your bottom dollar! It's a cosmopolitan, outward-looking city, as a major port city normally is, but it sure is odd to put New York and Paris in the same sentence with an implication that they are somehow generic. They aren't, and neither is Shanghai, though you can go to a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant while you're there, if you really want to (I sure didn't!). One caveat, though: One of the reasons the view from the top of the Weston Hotel is so good is that it's one of the only places in Shanghai where you can't see that stupid building! Hey, every big city has to have some dumb big building, I guess.

Marlena and Jack, thanks so much for the accounts and pictures, which I believe really did give me a good deal of a sense of what it was like to be there. Now, if there only were taste-a-vision.

From their website: And I'm glad all of you are still here, as well!

Right. Thank you. My memory did fail me.

Jack, I hope you don't mind a "me too" post. What beautiful bread, and what beautiful pictures of it!

Saganaki is a good dish, and while the cheese isn't deep fried, it is browned on all sides before being flambeed. I've also had an Italian type of fried cheese. I'm not talking about Italian-American mozarella sticks, but something more authentic. I don't remember the name of it, and I found it overly buttery (because of what it was fried in and how much sauce was spooned over it).

I've had deep-fried cheese before, and I can imagine having the right cheese with hot sauce or perhaps (this is a bit harder for me to imagine) sweet sauce.

Cheese as a substitute for stinky tofu???

I don't know, but for damn sure none of the Terengganu and Kelantan Malays I knew used lard in it! They'd be scandalized by the idea!

I just found the card of this establishment. Its English name is Unique Pastry, and on the back are listings for all their varieties of sesame buns: Cabbage with Black Mushroom & Dried Baby Shrimp - $1 Mustard Green w/Black Mushroom & Dried Baby Shrimp - $1 Chinese Cabbage & Pork - $1 Chives & Pork - $1 Chives & Egg - $1 Pork with Scallions - $1 Spicy Pork - $1.25 Chicken - $1 Spicy Chicken - $1.25 Beef - $1.25 Hot & Sour Vegetables - $1.25 Spicy Beef - $1.50 Pork with Bamboo in Red Wine Sauce - $1.50 Vegetarian - $1.50 Red Bean (Sweet) - $1 Taro (Sweet) - $1 Lotus (Sweet) - $1

That place sounds fun! Have you been there? Also, what can you tell us about Peter Meehan? I'm unfamiliar with that name. What's his main gig?

Laksa, I see from doing a search on the Latin names you provided that cassava and taro are two different things, and that cassava=yuca=ubi kayu. But I still don't think we've resolved what taro (Colocasia esculenta) is called in Malay. Unless nomenclature is very different in Sarawak than in the Terengganu dialect and standard Malay I learned, or unless my memory is failing me, ubi keledik is simply potato, and ubi keladi/stela are sweet potato. Are you positive ubi keladi was used for taro and not sweet potato? I thought it had another name. (For everyone's information, "ubi" is the generic Malay word for "tuber." It seems that "ube" is the word for "taro" in Tagalog.) But since this thread is on general, I'd also like to solicit comments from far and wide about the other varieties of tubers you like best or find most interesting. I know that there are all kinds of interesting tubers in South America and Japan.

This thread on Cantonese desserts spun off a discussion on tubers, which I'd like to continue here. We were discussing taro, sweet potatoes, and the meanings of "yam." My understanding is that these are three different things. Taro, which is called "Ubi Kayu" in Malay, is cassava or tapioca root, and is a staple of Polynesia, where it's used to make poi. It's very starchy and doesn't have many other nutrients. Sweet potatoes in the U.S. and other places I've been to come in two varieties I've noticed: One that may have somewhat darker skin and be larger and has orange flesh; and the sometimes lighter-skinned, smaller kind with yellow flesh. I don't recall a white variety, which has been referred to in the linked thread. In Malay, sweet potatoes are called "Ubi Keladi" and also "Ubi Stela." "Stela" is short for "Castela"=Castilla, Spain, because apparently, the Spanish brought them there initially. As for yams, the way I understand the word, it refers to a type of tuber that I believe is originally from Africa, a starchy kind with purple flesh that has a different and much stronger taste than the bland tapioca root, which I also call taro. I do not call this kind of tuber "taro." These exist in Malaysia, but I don't remember their Malay name.

I want to discuss tubers more, so I'll start a thread about them in the General Forum.

Yep. And thanks for the heads-up on the ramen place on Cooper Sq. Maybe I won't go there. Todd, I used to go to Go mainly to have tempura soba or something, just because I felt like having some late-night noodle soup.

Yeah, that would make sense. But the next question is, does "yam" mean the purple kind or the orange sweet potatoes, or either?

At first, I thought "toro" was a typo. I think of that as a fish or a bull. What's its third meaning?

I still think apples are wrong for tourte blette, but maybe that's only because the example I liked to buy in Nice didn't have any. Pignoli and raisins, yes. Apples, no.

This looks like something you can get on the streets of Manhattan's Chinatown and Flushing. The tofu is steamed in a big wooden container with a tight-fitting lid. You order a certain amount of it and it's given to you in a plastic container, with sauce poured on top. The sweet sugar-and-ginger sauce seems most common, but a place I know on Roosevelt Av. in Flushing will give you either sweet or hot sauce. The hot sauce is red and also has scallions in it, and it's very nice. As a sweet dessert, the tofu is very soothing. I've never seen 5 different sauces with it, though!

Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of.

I haven't tried sushi or sashimi at Go, but I've had a bunch of other stuff there over the years (though perhaps not the cabbage pancake). It's reasonably inexpensive and open late, but I don't find it impressive. Yes, if you're awake at 2 A.M. and want some noodle soup, the ramen they make with miso broth, sliced pork, and corn in their outside late-night section might hit the spot. But great food, it ain't, as far as I'm concerned. And their tempura is sloppy, with thick batter. I have to say that ever since Minca opened, I haven't had any desire to go back to Go. I realize that Minca isn't open as late, nor have I in fact been more than once yet, but I know it's there, I know how good it is, and I can't bring myself to go back to a mediocre place when there's a great place in my neighborhood. I'll sooner try someplace I haven't been to yet (like the ramen place on Cooper Square between 7th and St. Marks) than go back to Go.

A happy, healthy, successful, and good eating year to all! And no more hurricanes or tornados! I went to a Rosh Hashanah dinner tonight at my godmother's, uptown. I had brought first fruits from Chinatown - 1/2 lb. of longans; 2 small, yellow striped melons that tasted like honeydew, a big Chinese pear that was crunchy and kind of watery but not bad (not as good as a good comice, though); and a beautiful large dark green melon with black spots that we didn't eat (she'll keep it for her Shabbat lunch, when she's having company). Others brought some little green fruits (Central American, I think, but I forget the name) with thin skin that you suck on and then spit the pit out, and a big papaya. For the dinner, there was some gefilte fish, and of course other traditional foods like apples with honey, raisin challah sprinkled with salt and dipped in honey. Other dishes were a Brazilian black bean soup, spicy but not very peppery at all, with optional mild salsa, and the main course: A tagine-like Moroccan chicken with dates, which was accompanied by tri-color couscous and sliced carrots, which I'm afraid must have been cooked with margarine. For dessert, aside from the fruit, there were also kosher baked goods: A very good pie with raspberry jam, raisins, and walnuts; good raspberry rugelach with plenty of lemon juice in them, etc. There was some fruity, floral Carmel white Zinfandel that I liked and drank exclusively during the meal. Everything on the table had some symbolism to it, and all 10 of us read something relating to some food item or other. We should multiply like fish and be the head and not the tail of the fish in the coming year, we should have the sweetness of the honey but not forget that life needs a little salt (I think it is, but nothing was read about that), our enemies should be crushed like the dates (though they weren't particularly crushed), the carrot slices represented gold coins, and I forget what the prayer about the beans was, even though I read it. But hey, it's 3:19 A.M....