Hest88

I'm so jealous. For years I've been trying to find a place for crawfish boil here in the Bay Area. I don't think one exists. I can eat about four pounds all by myself.

Are you venturing west at all or just staying near the Caribbean? I had my dream soup, a Caldo Tlalpeno, at the restaurant in the Hotel El Meson del Marques in Valladolid. (The city is also the site of a great cenote.) If you continue along into Merida you'll be in a vibrant, colonial city with many authentic and higher-end restaurant choices.

Thanks for pointing me to another restaurant...to STAY AWAY FROM! I love the honest, beefy taste of rib-eye. (And yep, I'm a flank and skirt fan as well. I wonder what he would do to those?!?)

I don't know if it's habit so much as sheer laziness, but I hand-mix anything I can. I *hate* washing up so I'd rather beat egg whites by hand or mix things together until my forearm is exhausted, or dice copious amounts of veggies by hand rather than break out the food processor or the mixer.

Spiders, if talking about eat or die foods. In real life, liver/kidney. (Unless it's foie gras, which tastes totally different.)

Makes sense, since pork bone is much denser and harder. I would think Slkinsey would have no problems at all if it's just confined to poultry. With all this talk I'm tempted to buy a new electric grinder. Mine is about 7 years old and there are better ones out there. It's still going strong, though, so I guess it would be a needless waste of money. I also just found a woman who sells whole ground rabbit to pet owners up and down the West Coast so I'm tempted to try her in order to save myself some work!

I grind rabbit (bone and all) for my cats and have been using a Moulinex for well over 5 years to grind both rabbit and whole chicken. Another good one is the Maverick Meat Grinder. Whatever you get, make sure it has a reverse function. It's really helpful for the times you stuff too much down the tube.

In the places I go to, here in the Bay Area, the broth usually has the meat, noodles, cilantro, and onions. The condiment plate has bean sprouts, lime, and peppers. The hoisin sauce is always just in a squeeze bottle in the same way the chili sauce is. I've seen cilantro used as a substitute for basil, though, but only when the the restaurant has run out of basil.

Passionfruit - Gosh I wish they weren't so expensive or so small. I just slice off the top and eat them with a spoon. And mangoes. This past summer was the first time I really got into them. Previously I was rather take 'em or leave 'em, but something happened to me this summer and I couldn't get enough. I don't like guava or cherimoya or the like. I like fruit that's juicier. Probably one of the reasons I stay away from bananas too.

I dislike cilantro as well, so I certainly understand. I tolerate it, the way I tolerate raw tomatoes, in things that mask the taste sufficiently. (I guess that would mean, uh, basically salsa.) Otherwise I pick it out.

Liver/Kidney (they taste the same to me: vomitous) Bell peppers Raw sprouts

As per my usual modus operandi for non-company dinners, I sliced them in a rather crude manner. I just cut off the stem, sliced the head in quarters, and then sliced each quarter thinly. The result is rather uneven, but quite servicable.

Yuck. I really can't stand this idea and know that most of my favorite ethnic restaurants are nowhere near up to par. So what? We both maintain the illusion that we think the place is clean, and we're both happy. Personally, I think this stems from a society that values cleanliness over food. (I also think that many of the things ethnic restaurant do that alarm health inspectors are mitigated by the fact that these cuisines often cook their food thoroughly as opposed to serving it raw.)

Okay, I've been bad and neglected to reply. I hate making grilled cheese sandwiches because I invariably burn them or burn my fingers when I'm flipping them over or the bread slips or something. We got our toaster bags and they work great EXCEPT one really has to have one with a variable grate. I had to shove them into our toaster and, yes, they got completely scraped. So now I have an excuse to buy a new toaster.

Ribs

LJC, I asked them and they hired a wedding planner named Isabel Pais (weddings1@prodigy.net.mx) who does a lot of Zihua destination weddings. They were married at La Casa Que Canta, which is gorgeous of course. There seem to be many alternatives in Zihua, including getting married on La Ropa beach.

That's not an elopement; it's called a destination wedding. I actually know a number of weddings that started out as secret elopements with just the bride and groom or that also included one bridesmaid and one groomsman that ended up turning into a destination wedding. I agree that you're going to have to go with one of the more exclusive resorts. Maybe a place like Maroma? You could do Playa as well, and just have guests stay as different hotels that are within walking distance of the wedding site. I know a couple who got married in Zihuatanejo who did that.

This is fascinating. I remember complaining about the quality of bread at the Italian restaurants in suburban NYC that my FIL took us to. I just assumed it was a suburban NY, northern New Jersey thing. Maybe those restaurants were actually just being true to their Italian roots? ;)

My mom doesn't make anything anymore, except for the requisite vegetarian dish. She pretty much buys everything or has her sisters (who have been in U.S. less time) make things. We had our temple visit last Saturday to close out the year and will be visiting the temple to "open" the year this coming Saturday. On Wednesday we'll have our pre-New Year's dinner at a local restaurant. On Friday night I'll do most of my visitations to older relatives and then pop over to my parent's for our New Year's "homecoming" feast. My mom said she's buying takeout for all of it except the vegetarian dish. She's already supplied me with my citrus and and I have my red melon seeds. She's going to give me my fish and my "lian go" for the frig when I see her on Wed. I don't know what's going to happen after my mom dies. I don't really get visitors to my house for New Year's and our generation really only celebrates it with the older generation.

Back when I thought we'd be re-doing our kitchen, I did a whole bunch of research on countertop materials. As I recall, I'd concluded that the most durable, maintenance-free materials are engineered quartz (such as Silestone), the darker granites (the lighter ones need to re-sealed every so often), and New England or Vermont slate (slate from other area is of inferior quality and is quite a bit more porous).

I dislike non-stick for another reason; I like being able to push what I'm cooking up the sides of the wok to isolate certain ingredients that may not be cooking as fast as others or to let something brown or, if there's too much lliquid, to let some liquid evaporate quickly. Can't do that with non-stick without everything falling back down.

Thanks Melkor. I made reservations and specified that we wanted omakase. Anything else I should know about? A restaurant called KISS seemed most appropriate for Valentine's Day anyway. ;)

I think we've debated this before and decided that, like many dishes, there are many regional variations. I remember having the flu in Hong Kong once and asking my relatives to find me great hot and sour soup. They took me to an authentic Sichuan place that served me a distinctly non-Cantonese verson that was more sweet than sour, very red with chili oil, and brimming with cubes of pig's blood. Not exactly what I was craving...

Chestnuts that peel like tangerines. And pomegranates with a greater juice to seed ratio. And sweet potatos that bake faster.

I'm thinking about KISS for Valentine's Day, but now I have to add Ino to the list as well.