pim

Interesting. My Greek friends would scream disagreement, and I am with them. Young milk lambs I had in greece (and they were just about a size of a standard dog) were amazing. They were entirely free of that wet dirty rag odor of bad lambs.

This is not a recommendation about food, but I found it so much fun I had to recommend it. A colleague who's never been to Paris before found out about a Paris tour on a Segway (aka Ginger & It) while researching touristy things to do. Of course the geeky side of me had always been interested in this machine, so I went with him and boy was that a fabulously fun time!! The Segway was a hoot. It truly was one marvelous machine. The tour was almost 4 hours long, for a pittance (70E). We went from near the Eiffel Tower all the way to the Notre Dame and back on a different route. It was great! The company that does this is called Mike's Bike Tour. They are on the web. enjoy

I'm in Paris at the moment so I keep having new recommendations... Had two lunches already at L'Atélier de Joel Robuchon. Maahvelous food, for a quarter of the price I paid for dinner at L'Arpege. Plate for plate Robuchon kept pace with Passard's IMHO. The service is of course no match, but the food...WOW. What ever you do, don't miss the Caille Caramelisée dish. And how about Timgad for some cous cous? I haven't been yet, going to tomorrow, but it has been separately recommended by a few Parisian foodie friends.

an address would have been nice in the last post, no? Le Bambou 01 45 70 91 75 70 rue Baudricourt 13e

I will be camping tomorrow in front of Pièrre Hermé's patisserie on rue Bonaparte and ingest one macaron after another until I could no more. Should I be chanting something too you think?

I had dinner at L'Arpège last night. It was delightful of course, the highlight of which was an entrée of Lobster hidding under a paper thin slice of turnip in a slightly sweet/sour sauce, the chef's specialty. Also wonderful was a roasted chicken from Bretagne. But dear Food God....what have I done to offend thee??? I am proud of my ability to eat anything...anything I tell you, brains, tripes, everything.......Well, everything but beets, that is. So what do you think appeared on the dégustation menu--in not one but TWO courses? Yes, ladies and gentlemen...beets. Batterave en gélée (Beet Gelly) and Batterave Rôti in a crust of Sel Gris from Bretagne. I tried a bit of each, but really couldn't finish. Beets have this distinctive aftertaste that reminds me of a taste you get in your mouth after a dip in a swimming pool, Chlorine in other words. To look on the bright side, now I won't ever to eat beets again, ever. Friends always encouraged me to try their beet recipes or dishes, claiming this or that would be the dish that changed my mind. Not wanting to offend them, I often obliged. No longer. Now I can tell them if Alain Passard himself couldn't make a beet dish I like, no one else could. Has this ever happened to you? Especially those of you who claim not to be a finicky eater (perhaps about McDonald's and such, but not about certain types of food.) Also, Anyone has an offering for the Food God you can suggest? I think that was a serious sign of bad food karma, and I'd like to rectify it immediately!

If you're looking for a respite from long meals at French restaurants, try Le Bambou in the 13e. I was just there earlier tonight actually, after a few nights of serious French food, this meal was a delightful (and deserving) break for my tummy. I always order their Pho Doc Biet (#2)--a fregrant soup with beef/tripes/tendon/etc.. and of course the Bahn Cuon (#21), which is a sort of ravioli made of very thin steamed dough with pork and vegetable. The Vietnamese crêpe is very nice as well. Vietnamese food in Paris is way better than anything we get in the US, even in California, so I always make a point of going there every time I'm here. Incidentally, in the Laab thread I tried to explain a particular kind of herb that is the ingredient which differentiate a laab salad from other type of salad. The herb is called Saw-tooth herb. I was reminded today that Le Bambou, and other authentic Vietnamese places, always serve them together with some basil and beansprouts when you order a bowl of Pho. Next time you make a laab, chop some of those up and add them at the last minute to your laab. You will notice an amazing improvement.

sorry...no. I don't think we do that in Thailand. I think I saw that program as well, it was Bourdain, wasn't it?

As promised, here's my Nam Sod recipe. At my house Nam Sod was always served with Kao Tod (fried seasoned rice patties). enjoy!

In my first apartment in San Francisco, the kitchen was HUGE--a size of a good size living room. The problem was it was without a parking space. Late last year I moved into a new apartment whose kitchen was the size of a postage stamp! It came with a two car garage and storage space, however. Anyone who's ever circled the block 20 times every night looking for a parking space in Pacific Heights will understand why I moved. So I gave up my nice kitchen for a garage----will anyone here still talk to me? I've fed 40 people from that stamp-size kitchen though, really I have!

Jackfruit is very common in Thailand too. It is mostly eaten fresh, like most fruits, but you can also find them in certain curries. Young fruits that are not quite ripe are sometimes used as accompaniment for certain relishes as well. Let me know if you want recipes. Pim

Should you ever want to expand your South American food experience, I suggest Mi Lindo Peru in Bernal Heights. Be sure to try their Chupe, shrimp chowder, superificallydelicious I tell you. As for Dim Sum, I agree with PeokoePeony and Hess88 about Yank Sing. It is way too americanized for my taste. The place I go most frequently is Harbour Village. They most closely resemble my familiar Hong Kong dim sum experience, and I am definitely partial to the Chiu-chow chilli sauce that they give you (if you know to ask that is). The chilli sauce is spicy, hot and complex tasting. I can't have a proper dimsum without it. I also like Tong Kiang, though find them a tad too Taiwanese for my Hong Kong bias. Readily available parking at the Embarcadero buildings as opposed to driving ten times around the block searching for a space in the Sunset was another plus for Harbour Village. I am not a big fan of dimsum in Chinatown. We tried Y Ben House at lunch today with a disastrous result. I started a review thread on it. Koi Palace is very good, I just don't make it out there very often.

You are ever so obliging, all of you. Sounds like I won't starve after all. I might even make it to Ducasse's. :-) Loufood, if I could pack up some cool breeze from San francisco for you when I go to Ducasse, I would. sorry. I am ever so grateful. Now I can happily go back in my kitchen and cook up a storm in preparation for my (and Mamster's) upcoming Thai Cuisine class at eGCI. A shameless plug, I know, but check it out. I think it will be very informative for anyone interested in Thai cooking. I don't normally use recipes for Thai food, so I have to make everything I intend to use in the class now in order to write down the recipes for eGullet--and also for the photos. All these before I run off to Europe in two days!! Hopefully the heatwave will let up some before I get there. Thanks again, Pim

Thanks Lou for the info. I haven't had his food since the Crillon, too long ago. I have been enjoying the foods of the gang of young(-ish) chefs he's trained though, at l'os a Moelle, la Regalad, and La Repaire de Cartouche. I definitely will pay le maître himself a visit when I'm in Paris in a couple of weeks. thanks again for the pointer. Pim

I'm trying this again. My schedule is now firm, I will be there on the third week of August. Can anyone please tell me which restaurants are open during that week? I've checked a couple places and they are closed, like L'os a Moelle and La Repair de Cartouche. How about others? Thanks so much for you help. I'm getting quite desparate. Pim

Toast and Nutella--with or without Kobe Brian on the jar. My one childhood addiction that still afflicts me.

The dinner Soba and I had was definitely pleasant, though nothing to be wild about--but for the company of course I think my general reaction to the meal was similar to Soba's. It was sort of hohum. The only I definitely like a lot was the Lemon Parfait. I wasn't so wild about the eggplant caponata. I found it a bit off balance, with the sweetness a bit too assertive. I like the roasted culliflower quite a bit. I even like the anchovies, but then I like pretty much *anything* with anchovies so you probably should just ifnore me on this one. The Testa was yummy enough, though the texture was a bit loose and the serving temperature a bit too warm, which gave it a very oily mouthfeel. It would have been better at a slightly colder temperature in my opnion. My pizza margherita was quite nice. Crunchy--perhaps a bit too much so--and good balance on tomato sauce and tasty fresh buffala mozzarella. I would've preferred the basil to be shredded, but that's just nitpicking, isn't it?

Jasmine rice, crispy fried egg (Thai omlette), Nam-la Prik (fish sauce and chilli), or Sriracha sauce.

Yes, I remember those, they are call Goong Shu-Shee (Shu-shee-Goong works too). they are delicious. I won't be much fun for that, I'm afriad. Not only because I don't live in (or near) LA anymore, but I'm an insufferable snob when it comes to Thai food. :-) Haven't been to the Thai temple in ages but I bet the food is pretty good, since it's mostly for Thai people. I'm not sure though, I went to Thai temple in Berkeley the other day and found the food pretty mediocre. The mango/sticky rice and Kanom-Krock were delicious, but the other food was so so. The padthai was just horrid!

My research led me to believe that the proportion is half and half by weight and not measure. I would let the pros say for sure though. Am I right? thx, Pim

Well have we got attitude! No, the mixing part is not too taxing. It's the grinding the almond that's a little tedious. I used my good old food processor, which work adequately, but as Rickster kindly pointed out, the almonds were not grind to a uniform size. I don't like it that when I make Macarons, I could still bite into chunks of nuts. I'd like to see if there's any place I could order a patisserie quality TPT, or even just almond flour so I could save myself some time. Nope, not a waiter from The Restaurant, just someone who occasionally has better things to do than wasting an hour roasting/grinding almond. BTW, Tan319, I will try the grinder attaching to a kitchenaid, that's an idea I haven't heard of before. Thanks.

Nam Sod is not really a laab, unless you're extending the concept to include any meat-base salad. It is a Northern regional food, while Laab is Northeastern. I know they don't sound that different, but trust me the cuisines are quite substantially different from one another. Mamster is right about the pork skin or rind. Also Nam Sod has steamed rice in it, not ground rice powder as in Laab. It is not fermented, however, as the word Sod in Thai means fresh. Nam (without the Sod part) on the other hand, is fermented and is usually done in a form of uncooked sausages. It is a famous local food of Chiang Mai-Chiang Rai region of the north. I have a Kao Todd- Nam Sod recipe I can post when I get back to California. Nam Sod is often served with a fried rice ball (or rice patty) in Thailand. The recipe I have of rice patty (Kao Tod) has lemongrass and lime leaves in it. Quit yummy if I may say so myself. You would have to be brave and do use the pork skin, however, otherwise it wouldn't really be a Nam now would it? :-) Perhaps Varmint can save us some skin when he cooks his pig....

Okay, guys. This whole discussion about lemongrass continues to amaze me. There is *no* lemongrass in laab. I, and a few others, said so many many posts ago. I abandoned the laab discussion when it veered into laab burger. The Thai soul in me was too stunned to muster up a reply. The american urge to put anything one could in between a bun will never seize to amaze me. Again, there is no lemongrass in laab. Nor is there Kaffir lime, ni leaves, ni rind. There are other types of salad in Thai cuisine that has lemongrass in them. Plaa, and Yum came to mine. Not Laab. Repeat after me, NO LEMONGRASS IN LAAB, again, NO LEMONGRASS IN LAAB, com'on it's not hard. again..... I think I'm going to do a tutorial on Thai salads in Mamster and my Thai class at eGCI to get you folks all straighten up!

But wait, we haven't even gotten into the pork at Yai. And you didn't mention Ruen Pair. If you insist. Ruen Pair was pretty good at Isaan (northeastern) dishes if my memory served me correctly. I wouldn't put their curry over Jitlada's. Somtum and Laab, perhaps. Have you been to those japanese places I was talking about?

And to get away from just talking about Thai food. Has anyone been to a tiny Yakitori place on Sawtelle and Olympic? It's on the outside of a small (mainly Japanese) mini mall on the second floor of which is that famous Japanese noodle place (whateverthenameis). It's on the west side of Sawtelle, almost at Olympic. That Yakitori place, if it's still around, was great. Authentic japanese grilled yakitori, where you can get every part of a chicken on sticks. The Liver was velvety and the heart (which was not on the menu--ask for it) was so tasty. They also have a great Japanese beer and sake list. I remember rerely seeing a non-asian patron there. Also the Shabu Shabu place in Japan Town. I know where it is but not well enough to explain it here. But there's got to be an LA eGulletteer who knows about these two places.