shain

Polenta, not overly rich, some milk, Parmesan and a little butter, fresh thyme and nutmeg. Mixed mushrooms pan fried in butter, a little reduced wine, a bit of garlic, thyme, plenty of pepper. More parmesan and a soft egg. Syrah for a drink. Salad, some fresh cheeses and pickles.

Finally some really good avocados. Here with a mashed egg, salt, pepper. On toasted light sourdough.

Black rice noodle salad, stewed tofu, grilled corn, grilled onion, edamame, chilies, basil, mint, scallions. Coconut cream, palm sugar, lime juice, lime zest, fish sauce, garlic.

I think Heidi's right in comparing five spice to generic "curry mix" - it's easier for those unfamiliar to a cuisine to just take a single blend and use it to color it all, it might taste good, but it will all taste the same. It applied to other cuisines as well - French is not all meat, butter, potatoes, wine and cheese. Italian ain't just tomatoes, cheese, oregano and garlic (actually, it's usually light on the garlic), Thai is not all coconut and curry pastes. Most are aware of this, but it's still easy to fall into sticking to the easy and familiar. That said, it should be noted that five spice is particularly easy to abuse because it's A) delicious and B) most good blends don't have a dominating note, meaning that it's hard to ruin a dish with. So if a recipe would usually call for (e.g.) anise and peppercorns, using five spice instead would probably still taste good, it's just taste like any other dish you'd use it for. I like using it as an easy way to add a bit of spice-complexity to dishes that may already have some of its ingredients in it.

Actually some of the fruits were very ripe and custrady but the rest much less so, somewhere between the very custrady ones and a lychee.

I love sweet potatoes paired with nutty flavors - tahini and thyme, cream cheese and pecans, coconut (for example Indian chutneys, particularly with methi). Here the dream is mostly for the looks. I usually toast it in a pan before usage. It has a wide range of flavors depending on the darkness it is roasted to. Light it is sweet and nutty like Lebanese tahini and halvah. Reddish, it is carmely and sweet-bitter like Asian sesame paste and some of the darker tahini pastes. On the extreme it is almost burnt and tastes like more like sesame oil, this is often the level used for zaatar and the one achieved on breads like kaak and simit. Black sesame tastes very different, it shares herbal-bitter notes with poppy seeds and black quinoa. In my opinion they are not interchangeable (at least not without making the dish something new). It works very well in sweets. I love gochujang, I'd make sure to try and use it with sweet potatoes.

I missed on posting this one. We had roasted sweet potatoes with a glaze of miso, butter, five spice powder, soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and brown sugar.

Annona, gift from a neighbor. I didn't know that they come in red (only ever seen the green type). o good. To me it tastes like pears and vanilla ice cream.

Zapekanka. A cheese cake of Russian origin made of tvorog (farmers cheese) and sour cream with semolina. Flavored with vanilla and orange zest, along with various inclusions - I added brandy soaked raisins, prunes, candied orange peel, Amarena cherries, candied blueberries and dark chocolate. I like it best when served slightly warm.

Iraqi Kubbeh in butternut stew. The kubbeh is made of semolina dough and filled with carmelized onion, chickpeas, crumbled tofu, baharat, and egg as a binder (the traditional filling would be meat, onion and spice). It is cooked in the stew which is slightly sour and sweet, made of squash (or a more traditional pumpkin), celery, chickpeas, onion, tomato, spices such as bahart, all spice, paprika, turmeric, chili, pepper, cinnamon, herbs, lemon. Some raisins and silan for sweetness.

Olive pastries. Made with farmers cheese and Gouda, sesame seeds, and filled with an olive each. Inspired by a pastry we in Israel call "ba-it la-za-it" lit "home for the olive". This pastry is usually made with a drier dough made with sour cream and butter.

Those are probably Maya mangoes. Those are a somewhat recent variety, very popular for export (farmers here export most of the best produce, the local market often gets the grade B , though I'm partial to our home grown mangoes, nothing beats fruit harvested when ripe).

Yep. I think that yellow split peas had recently became one of my favorite pulses. I was not used to cook with them and had split peas mostly associated with lentil soup. In spreads and dals, I find them to be a good background for other flavors. And for some stews and cold servings, they can be cooked al dente, without being starchy like most other pulses (for example, I use them this way for example khoresh bademjan).

Santorini fava two ways. Traditional with capers and onion in red wine vinegar. With smoked mussels and dill. I found this combination quite interesting, though I would have add more mussels if I had some, and perhaps slice them. Peas salad with feta, sirene, almonds, mint, honey, pepper.

Cross post from the breakfast topic. Oatmeal (rolled oats made with water and milk) with peanut butter swirled in, some salt and a bit of sugar. Bananas and toasted walnuts coated (not cooked) in a brown sugar and butter syrup, a bit more salt. Orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon. Bananas being the one fresh fruit I actually enjoy in oatmeal.

Oatmeal (rolled oats made with water and milk) with peanut butter swirled in, some salt and a bit of sugar. Bananas and toasted walnuts coated (not cooked) in a brown sugar and butter syrup, a bit more salt. Orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon.

@LeaSim Beautiful pictures. I sure do like tofu when done well. How did your home made tofu stands against the shop bought ones? I'm sure is tastes much fresher, but how is the texture? If I recall nigari tends to produce firmer tofu sometimes a bit crumbly.

This is going to be a fun read. I understand your distaste of misinformed content, sadly, much of it exists for every cuisine, and frankly almost any subject. The raise of web content, and particularly this of small content creators has obviously brought a surge of it. But on the other hand, it also brought much more valuable, articulated and authentic content. For those able to discern between the two, this is a great thing; and for those who don't, cereal with five spice doesn't sound half bad (at leas without the soy sauce). I'll also point out that I see no wrong in taking ideas and flavors from a cuisine and applying them outside of it, as long as one is aware of the difference between "Chinese" and "Chinese inspired". Also, I'm not sure that it falls within the scope of this thread, but I'd love to learn more about the building blocks of regional Chinese cousins (e.g. what makes Guangxi's cuisine distinct in terms of flavors, food pairings, cooking style etc.). If people here are familiar with good structured sources or are willing to share of your knowledge, I'd be thankful. Same for other countries by the way.

Home made corn tortillas with cheesy baked beans, sour cream and some salsa.

A recent light supper. Baked sweet potatoes with tahini (paste, not tahini sauce), thyme, pepper. We also shared scrambled eggs, the usual salad, and fresh/brined cheeses.

A local brand started importing vesuvio and radiatori at 2.3 euro. Barilla is going for 1.5, it is usually the cheapest pasta other than the cheap-o brands that always turn to mush.

Sadly, over here it's neither cheap nor easy to get. So that was my first time trying smoked shellfish. My conclusion is that I'm not a fan of smoked mussels (at least not this product, or until it might grow on me). I think that's mostly because their smell reminds me a milder version of smoked fish, which I never liked. This is why I made pasta, it doesn't hide the mussles, but it dilutes the smoker fish taste to a level I can enjoy. I enjoyed the combination with a small amount of tomatoes, as well as garlic, lemon and herbs. I did find the long pasta from last week to work slightly better texture wise. The mussles are added at the end so that they don't overcook. Some of their canning oil used for frying the garlic. It's a different beast from pasta with fresh shellfish (how I wish I had some of those at hand). I also got a can of non smoked, I'll see if I like them better unadorned. Tl;dr, if they're cheap and you enjoy them, do try throwing them on top of pasta as a quick meal.

Rehoused mussels. Conchiglie pasta with smoked mussels with a bit of tomato, some garlic, lemon zest, chili, dill and parsley.

Knife shaved ice cream. This one is yogurt, banana and silan (date syrup). I love this kind of shaved ice - it's fluffy and light.

Quick supper. Greek flavored cottage muffins, with beetroot, dill, and a few more spices. Those are super juicy within and nicely crisp outside. Added olives to the regular salad to feel extra Greek We didn't feel like ouzo, so wine it is.