Pan

I haven't been to Umbertide; my father's old friend wasn't reachable until I had to leave and ran out of time. I know another artist who spends or at least used to spend summers somewhere between Gubbio and Umbertide, come to think of it. It's really beautiful countryside -- for those of you who are familiar with the rolling hills of Vermont and other parts of New England, Umbria is something like that, but with the additional picturesque elements of old stone Italian farmhouses and vineyards.

I thought the placement of the ice cream was intentional, too. Great work as always, Ling!

Buon giorno, hathor! I could continue in Italian but won't, out of respect for the others. I'm very happy to see you doing an Italian blog as a sort of sequel to the New York blog you did some time ago. My father has a very old friend who lives most of the time in the countryside near Umbertide but retains an apartment in Rome, and when I was studying at the Academia Chigiana in Siena, I spent a long weekend visiting friends who spend every summer living in an old farmhouse in the Gubbese countryside and painting landscapes. Their two sons are fully bilingual. The cities I've visited in Umbria are Gubbio, Perugia, and Orvieto, and also spent 10 days at a flute master class in Spoleto. (I have yet to make it to Assisi.) I like those Umbrese dishes with mushrooms and black truffles, and I also like the acqua minerale from Nocera Umbra.

Somewhere on these forums is a discussion of asyura/ashure, also shortened to "sura" on the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula. This sweet sort of viscous...hmmm, I can't think of the term for this (in Malay, it's sometimes called a form of bubur)...exists in various parts of the Muslim world including Turkey (and, I think in some form, some part of the Indian Subcontinent?). The East Coast Malay version of it is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. It's highly complex and rich, and includes chicken among various and sundry ingredients. Unfortunately, my mother doesn't know where the recipe she got from one of our erstwhile neighbors is. [After Googling:] OK, I found the discussion of the Malay version of the sweet. It's in the Kuih / Kueh thread, and I've revived the discussion of sura in order to inquire about an interesting Malay-language recipe I found while Googling. The Turkish version is discussed somewhere in the Greek V Turkish Food thread. I'm not suggesting that you try to reconstruct a wondrous traditional foodstuff you've almost definitely never tried, but if more light can be shed on it, it might give you some ideas.

About Sura : I've asked my Terengganu friend about Sura (she pronounced it as soo-rer like surer). It is a variation of the Bubur Asyura I mentioned BUT in Terengganu is not prepared during the Ramadhan but rather in welcoming the month of Muharram (which is really tradiditonal custom) Bubur Asyura serves as a reminder of how our Prophet Muhammad and its people had to make do with whatever bits of food they had during wartime but could still prepare a delicious and hearty meal. Therefore, Bubur Asyura has lots of ingredients. And is usually prepared in quantity so it can be shared by many. Bubur Asyura is also made by the Indonesian Muslims. It is however not a required Islamic rite. According to my friend, the Sura in Terengganu is not like the porridge type that I know of. It is like what Pan said, more solid (like Talam - basic savory talam is simply rice flour and coconut milk & salt mixed and steamed, and then topped with pounded dried prawns and chopped celery). Sura is cooked until it is very thick so that it solidifies when cooled. Bubur Asyura is more watery like rice porridge. There are 2 types of Sura in Terengganu. One savory and the more traditional one, sweet. The savoury kind (according to her) does not contain chicken but rather is served/eaten with a kind of 'sambal' that has coconut and chicken or fish. It also has fine sliced omelette as topping. She said the younger generation does not how to prepare Sura from scratch now and rely on the 'rempah Sura' that is sold during the season of making Sura. Just like people do not make curry powder but rely on the prepared curry mix. This is one variation of the sweet Sura/Bubur Asyura recipe: Bubur Asyura ingredients: 1/2 kg rice, soaked overnight and finely grounded 1 kg sugar, melted and strained 1 kg brown sugar, melted and strained 2 kg thick coconut milk 600 gm small sago pearls, soaked 10 'pisang emas' or 'pisang raja' (bananas), chopped 1 kg mung beans, boiled till soft 1 bowl of corn nibblets 1 kg sweet potato, cubed 600 gm peanut, toasted and skinned 10 pcs jackfruit, cubed method: 1. add thick coconut milk into a ig pot. gradually add rice flour and mix in until all rice flour is incorporated and the mixture is smooth. 2. add the sugar syrups (i think the sugars are cooked with a little water) 3. add corn nibblets, sweet potato. cook until semi-soft. 4. add in the rest of the ingredients 5. stir over low heat until mixture thickens. the mixture will start tu pull away from the pot when cooked. 6. cool in a pan and cut into cubes to serve. * you may also add raisins, candied fruits, etc ..... I have surfed the Net and posted on Malaysian forums to get a recipe for the savoury Bubur Asyura but no luck yet. A good recipe is secretly guarded. I will have to ask my MIL for her recipe. But amongst the ingredients for the savory Sura would be ginger, lemongrass, galangal, fenugreek and other spices. ← As a followup to this discussion of sura/asyura, I'd like to discuss this recipe in Malay in Ely's Recipe Book. She calls for "daging cincan." What kind of meat is that? I have to say that while I can understand the ingredients and most of the cooking directions, I'd still need a little help to be able to fully execute the recipe (if I were so bold). Also, the funny thing is, when I see the word "kacau" I think "bother"! (It means to stir, right? So the other sense is something like "stir up.")

I guess I should find out if they have a later set, so we can have dinner elsewhere first (or, maybe, after that 7:30 set). [Edit:] Looks like there's another set at 9 P.M. Oddly enough, the phone number listed for them on CitySearch is the payphone! I just talked to the same woman twice, on the payphone and then on their real phone, and she sounded like a different person the second time!

Hi, everyone. I'm thinking of going to Caffe Vivaldi tomorrow to hear some jazz. The set is at 7:30. Is this a decent place to have dinner, or should I get dinner elsewhere and just order drinks or/and dessert at Vivaldi?

That parenthetical note is amusing to read. Who's trying to force out the fish market? The developers or/and some branch of government?

Those chefs party hearty, eh? Thanks for all the great photos and reports!!!

Whoa! That was fast! Do you know where you're going next, or who is replacing you? Good luck in whatever you do. You are a truly inspired pastry chef!

Alternatively, get the pineapple jam when you're in Seattle. You will probably find some in most any supermarket. Strange that it's so hard to find in Vancouver.

No paprika?

We must have grown up in different circles. Various companies make pineapple jam - the usual suspects like Polaner and Smuckers among them. I used to eat a lot of it on bread with or without peanut butter.

They used a sweet little orange tomato as one of the fruits garnishing the cheesecake, didn't they? Nice touch.

A woman I know in Nantucket Found an oyster so big she can't shuck it Its liqueur she prized But she soon realized That she might as well put down the bucket

Which one has the bell peppers? The Kung Po or General Tso's?

Well, I agree with all of that, but yelling "Doomsday" is still excessive.

Do they grow lemons in Indonesia? Or is "Indonesian lemon" really some kind of lime, such as limau purut (kaffir lime)?

I had a reason to be in the neighborhood, anyway, but I got there just before closing time tonight, and spent $21.36 on a medium container of mujadara, a small container of dolmas, a bhujia (I think it was called - split pea fritter), and a pound of medjool dates. I finished most of the savory stuff for dinner plus a midnight snack, and my mother had the rest. Most of the medjools remain.

No it doesn't.

Am I the only one who can't get too excited about this? Foie gras is delicious, but I have it less than once a year. Its banning would be highly regrettable on many counts, but would hardly end fine dining! Isn't the thread title a histrionic exaggeration?

That meal at Annisa looked really great! I love rhubarb, so I'm sure I would have loved the rhubarb soup. Is it unusual for you to have this many upscale multi-course menus in a week? Kalustyan's is awesome, and I have indeed seen dried ancho chilis there. I haven't really concentrated on that part of their offerings, though. I tend to get their wonderful mujadara, the Armenian string cheese (I like the kind with chili as well as nigella seeds), and some of their nuts and flatbreads.

Those feuilles croquants, I guess they'd be called, are very impressive to look at!

I thought it was just me and my inferior taste buds. ← Perhaps it's just the way my favorite chinese restaurant makes it, but I've always thought the sauce for General Tso's Chicken had a definite "kick" to it. It's spicy and not at all comparable to the mild sauces in Sesame and Orange Chicken. ← Orange flavor chicken is supposed to have plenty of dried hot red peppers in it, I think. Not so?

Why is tripe bleached? If anyone feels this would be better discussed in another thread, but all means point us to that thread, but I really wonder about this. I never knew tripe was bleached. And I guess my next question is, how do they make sure to get the bleach all out completely before the tripe reaches diners? I find chlorine bleach really gross in any context.