Pan

Interesting report. I think your threshold for perceiving spiciness is much higher than mine. Either that, or they toned down the spiciness for you.

Thank you, TP. I wish the same to you and indeed to all!

I really empathize. I was sick all weekend. Let's all have good health in the Year of the Pig! Is there a traditional Chinese wish of health in the New Year? We Jews always wish each other a "Happy and Healthy Year" at our new year, Rosh Hashanah.

Fascinating. I have to imagine that it's very difficult for most Chinese people to give up rice (and I can't remember a Malaysian giving up rice). I haven't mentioned this yet on eGullet, but right now, I'm recovering from a respiratory illness that also had digestive symptoms, and while I was sick and couldn't do anything much else, I took stock of my life and have decided to drastically alter my eating habits, mostly by eating much smaller portions but also by having a somewhat low-carb diet (not drastically low-carb, but with the carbs mostly coming from milk and vegetables) and changing some other things (less fat, and unfortunately, less spicy food, at least for now). In the long term, though, I think it would be hard for me to give up rice and noodles, so I would rather just eat none of them in some meals and less of them than before in others, etc.

Nice-looking chicken head! Who ate the head?

Megan, the eel dish that I really like at Yeah is from the specialties menu. The waiter puts boiling sesame oil into just before it's served, and it comes with Chinese chives. I'm sorry I wasn't there because I would have suggested some other mains, but it seems to me you did pretty well. Yeah's cold dishes are generally very good. Your picks were good, but since you've had them, try the beef tendon, the kao fu (whatever they're calling it now), and the seaweed next time. I love that look of delectation on Emma's face!

I haven't read Angela's Ashes. I don't think my father drinks coffee anymore, but he sprinkles stevia on sour raspberries sometimes.

I understand that our ancestors had a lot of free time. But, and I mean this all friendly, you didn't answer what my mind is trying to grasp. How did they even know that things had a "desired substance", and which ones did, and then, once they did, how did they know to grind and brew certain things and drink them, and dry and ignite other things and inhale the smoke? Did they systematically grind and brew, and dry and smoke everything around them? ← Well, considering that people were trying to smoke banana peel in the 1970? (Remember the line from "Mellow Yellow": "Electric banana is the very next craze"? Some people took that as a cue to try smoking banana peel, without it getting them high, I understand. ) One thing that hasn't yet been mentioned is observing other animals eating things. If they can eat things, those things may still be toxic or indigestible for humans, but then again, they might be good. So, for example, was it the tiger that first introduced human beings to the durian? Maybe.

For you, white sugar does seem to be poisonous, and you do seem like a recovering addict. And I figure it is like that for some people and not others, like alcoholism, but with the caveats I posted above. Can't agree with you about stevia, though. My father uses it, and I find it fine in complex dishes (such as Indian ones) that ask for an amount of sugar. I think he has to half the amount.

Kate, thanks for the citation of the article on the Society for Neuroscience site. Very interesting. I wonder if you get withdrawal if you eat starch, though. Besides, you really don't want to avoid sugar completely -- you'd eat no vegetables and no fruits if you did. And the thing is, carbohydrates are necessary for brain function, so it's not like heroin, or even alcohol, both of which people can live without forever very healthily.

Why's the museum closing?

Megan, do you know whether Room4Dessert makes its own cocoa crispies, crackerjack, and nutella or uses commercial brands thereof?

Gung Hey Fat Choy to one of my favorite eGullet members! (And to everyone else who's celebrating.) I've hoped for a long time that you'd blog. You're brave to blog during such a busy week! Have fun.

What are the ingredients in that cocktail?

Well, I find the claim that sugar is a hard drug like heroin very dubious. I don't suffer from withdrawal symptoms if I don't get a pastry on a given day. But I'd like some comments, and I'm especially interested in knowing what article in what journal the unattributed quote is from, and its context within the article. Water isn't nutritional, but a medium for nutrients to be dissolved in and transmitted throughout the body.

Would any of you like to comment on this article? The most eye-catching quote is: No specific citation seems to be given. Has anyone read the article obliquely referenced in the story in the Guardian?

[nitpicking mode]"Pommes vapeur" should mean "steamed potatoes," not boiled ones.[/nitpicking mode]

I've always called that simply a "divider." I like the word "flopcorn"!

Maybe "arugula" is more a New York or East Coast thing? Little Ms. Foodie, boy do you and TallDrinkofWater eat well!!!

What hood?

This may astonish some, but a single word often has more than one meaning. "Arugula" has unfortunately become American English, but "rocket" is still a perfectly usable word for the salad green. Our English cousins manage to use the word in both the blast-off and the salad sense, without becoming hopelessly confused. "Arugula" isn't even proper Italian; why should we accept it as good English?[...] ← Because, regardless of origin, it is standard American English. And for whatever it's worth, I didn't know that it was called "rocket" in British English until I started reading food websites, so that should bring you some pleasure in regard to the usefulness of sites like this in bridging the divide in our common language. But if anyone wants to continue with this tangent, they should probably take it to the alt.usage.english newsgroup on USENET.

Yeah, the "h" usually is not pronounced, as in "honest," "honorable," etc. And in the U.S., "rocket" is something that blasts off. Arugula IS American English.

That's funny, Brooks! Yeah, the Duck Pond.

I think garlic is a fragrant vegetable. I certainly WOULD eat crispy roasted or fried garlic straight.

I forgot star anise. That's a great spice, too.