Chimayo Joe

I've only(fairly recently) had Oregon Strawberry in Tillamook's ice cream sandwiches, and I've also had Tillamook's vanilla ice cream sandwiches. I thought the ice cream was pretty good, but I wasn't as fond of their sandwich as a whole. They use a waffle cone type wafer that tastes okay but is too hard and causes the sandwich to fragment and pushes the ice cream out from between the wafers when you eat it. Strawberry is one of my two favorite ice cream flavors(the other being chocolate.) I don't eat ice cream as often as I used to, but I'm sure I'll eventually get around to trying more Tillamook ice cream. Haagen Dazs Strawberry and Haagen Dazs Chocolate are my usual purchases, and occasionally Haagen Dazs Dulce le Leche, but I've been on an ice cream sandwich kick for a while when buying ice cream. Sandwich favorites are Fat Boy Vanilla(don't know if they make anything but vanilla) and Klondike Oreo. I like the wafer of Skinny Cow, but the low fat ice cream lets it down. Just googled Fat Boy, and it looks like they make many flavors of ice cream sandwiches. I'll have to check them out if my supermarket carries them.

Very informative. Thanks. Is there a different name (or names) for an assortment of spices, curry leaves, asafoetida, etc. that's fried in oil at the beginning to which other components of the recipe are added? An example would be this recipe for Batata Nu Shaak: https://www.tarladalal.com/Bateta-Nu-Shaak-Batata-Nu-Shaak-601r Would the initial fried spices not be called tadka or the other names you mentioned?

Thanks for mentioning those. I tried them last night and agree with you.

Here are a couple of my quirks. I love garlic, and I love mashed potatoes, but I don't like garlic mashed potatoes. I like mint, and I love chocolate, but I hate mint chocolate.

I'm not a fan of tilapia either. Whenever I've had it, it's tasted like bad catfish. Yeah, muddy.

Water is actually my favorite beverage. When I was a child it was all that was available to me other than iced tea which I didn't like then and still don't really enjoy. There are a few flavors of SOBE Water and Vitamin Water Zero that I like, but I was really looking for fizzy in this thread. Diet Squirt has been the top find so far. I'm surprised I hadn't tried the sugared or diet version before now. Fresca (which I have had decades ago) is okay too, but for that sort of soft drink, I prefer Diet Squirt. It has a bit more carbonation, and the bite (though not the flavor) reminds me a little of Coke Classic(which was what I drank most before I decided to cut the calories.) Tried and rejected: Pepsi Zero (not much flavor) Cherry Coke Zero (didn't care for that cherry flavor--prefer regular Coke Zero) Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper (surprisingly weak cherry flavor, not much flavor overall) Diet Mountain Dew (just not something I'd want to drink very often--i always felt the same about non-diet Mountain Dew) In the past I've tended to stick with one particular soft drink at a time, first Coke Classic then Dr.Pepper Ten. Now I think I'm going to go with an assortment: Diet Squirt (and probably sometimes Fresca), Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, Diet A&W Root Beer,, and Diet Vernors Ginger Soda(though my liking of that one has faded a bit.)

Epazote supposedly helps with that. I would think that it shouldn't be too difficult to find in New Mexico. You might give it a try if you are okay with the flavor. Legumes are a big part of the way I eat. I guess I've adapted because I don't have gas problems. Dunno if epazote really helps or not. I've never cooked with it.

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't tried any yet, but I will get to them eventually. I looked for Bundaberg diet ginger beer, but my supermarket didn't have it. I ended up bringing home Vernors Diet Ginger Soda (aspartame sweetened). I have had the non-diet variety long ago and didn't remember disliking it, so I thought I'd give the diet version a try. It's good, but I'm not sure if it's something I'll want on a regular basis. Also tried La Croix Pineapple Strawberry Sparkling Water and Simple Truth Strawberry Watermelon Seltzer Water(zero calories for both of those). I didn't like them at all which was a bit disappointing because I usually like strawberry flavored drinks.

Now that my favorite Dr. Pepper Ten has become impossible to find here, I'm on the hunt for something else. Diet Dr. Pepper is what I've switched to, but I don't like it nearly as much (due to the lack of the small amount of sugar in Ten, I suppose.) Diet A&W Root Beer is good, but root beer is something I only like to drink infrequently. I haven't tried a lot of diet sodas, but I'm looking for something better than Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi, Diet Rite Cola or Diet Dr. Pepper. I haven't had much beyond those. The caffeine free varieties seem especially weak. It's been so many years since I've tried the "flavored" versions of Coke or Pepsi such as Vanilla Coke or Cherry Pepsi that I can't even remember what I've tried and they would have been the sugared versions anyway. i know preferences for this sort of thing are going to be rather personal, but does anyone have any diet favorites or suggestions? (Maybe I should just go to the quick stop and try one of everything, but I thought I'd ask here first.)

I used clothes pins as chip clips for many years, but it's been a long time ago.

I've tried frozen minced garlic and thought it was better than the jarred stuff. Not sure how widely available it is, but I've seen it at Kroger(actually City Market which is what my local Kroger supermarkets are named) and Walmart. Can't remember for sure, but it seems like it was fairly costly for the amount you get compared to fresh garlic. I don't really understand the appeal of either the frozen or jarred.

I'm not sure what to think of the olive oil controversy. The NAOOA more or less implied that the results of the study that kicked off the dispute were manipulated to promote California olive oil. FWIW, here are their certified olive oils. They're no disinterested player either though. http://www.aboutoliveoil.org/qualityseal.html

A lot of people prefer using a knife or microplane grater. I've done that but still like using a garlic press. I've had several over the years, and they've all had one thing or another I didn't like about them--small capacity, finish that wears away, hard to clean, weak hinges, parts that detach and have to be located, garlic pushed to places other than the holes, among other failings. I think I've finally found one that gets pretty close to satisfaction. It's the Joseph Joseph Helix. Interesting design. We'll see how durable it is, but so far the only couple of nitpicks I have are that the cloves need to be peeled and it's not 100% at pushing the garlic through the holes(but still not too bad at that.) https://www.josephjoseph.com/en-us/helix-garlic-press

The Smoky Incan Stew recipe at this webpage is good. https://www.goodfood.com.au/recipes/vegan-recipes-from-isa-chandra-moskowitz-20140326-35igg It's from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's vegan cookbook Isa Does It. She's reliable for vegan recipes. I also like veganized Indian food. Vegan Richa(Richa Hingle)is a dependable source for that. Here's the Indian section of her website if you want to browse it and see if anything there appeals to you. https://www.veganricha.com/category/indian-vegan-recipes Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen Is a nice cookbook. I own both cookbooks I mentioned in this post and can recommend both. They're a couple of my favorites out of the twenty or so vegan cookbooks I have.

I'm not sure where vegans draw the line. Yeast and bacteria are okay. Are there any protozoan foods? If there are, I think vegans would probably rule them out, but it seems like that would be a strange distinction to make.

Honey isn't vegan. I know, it seems extreme, but some vegans are sticklers.

Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis is what I've been suggesting for many years. Doesn't look like it's sold by Amazon currently, but other sellers offer it through Amazon.

Have you read the Serious Eats article on wonton soup? It might provide some insight. http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/04/the-food-lab-wonton-soup.html

Just a word to anyone unfamiliar with asafetida, don't let the odor of it scare you away. Cooking with it transforms it.

I broke my vegetarianism(actually, I eat like a vegan almost all the time, but I'm not a fanatic about it) to try Freddy's when it opened here several months ago. Too dry for me, but I can understand the appeal. I like Smashburger best(if it counts as fast food.) I think Freddy's was patterned on Steak 'n' Shake, but I've never had S 'n' S.

Is this how it was worded in Vegetarian India? "In Andhra, ‘vepadu’ refers to dishes that are either stir-fried or deep-fried until they are crisp" (Curry Easy Vegetarian) I think she communicated poorly and meant "crisp" just to apply to the deep-fried dishes. Stir-fried vepudu is similar to other stir-fried dishes of South India known by various names depending on the language of the state (thoran in Kerala, poriyal in Tamil Nadu, palya in Karnataka.)

The book was published as Curry Easy Vegetarian in the UK. That might be the title to look for in Australia.

That's a Madhur Jaffrey book I'm sure I'll buy sooner or later. Looks great.

Thanks for posting this thread. It's been very informative and enjoyable.

I used to roam the DFW area looking for good barbecue, but all of it fell far short of central Texas barbecue. Two places that have opened since I was there and are likely better than any of the places I went are Lockhart Smokehouse and Pecan Lodge. Sorry, I can't provide any first-hand experience of either place, but they're probably worth a try. http://www.lockhartsmokehouse.com http://pecanlodge.com