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Welcome to Edmonton! I am located just off the downtown of the city, conveniently close to both of my jobs and to the city's one significant natural landmark, the North Saskatchewan river. The river was Edmonton's original raison d'etre; like most of our western capitals it began life as a Hudson Bay Company trading post. In the glory days of the fur trade, it was possible to ship furs by canoe from the modern-day Yukon territory all the way to Montreal with no portage longer than 10km (far enough, with the loads they carried!). Today the river is primarily a tourist attraction, playground, and occasionally the instigator of insurance claims for flooding. I will take you for a quick stroll through a part of the river valley within the next few days, as weather permits (the lengthy drought broke when we moved here two years ago, though I can't take credit for that...). During the appropriate season there are many berries to be gleaned there, and it's always a pleasant walk. Photos will be a bit late in coming. My digital is painfully old and low-end, and essentially only works in perfect lighting. To supplement it I've bought a simple film camera, but that of course involves processing and scanning time. I hope to start posting some pics by Thursday evening (Friday at the latest), so please bear with me. I am not nearly as active on the board as some of the recent bloggers, so I'll provide you with a bit of context. I am a career changer, 41, originally from Halifax Nova Scotia. A couple of years ago, in one of those epiphanal moments, I realized that I'd just drifted into sales when I was young and had coasted ever since. Verging on 40, I thought that...just maybe...it was time I gave some consideration to what I wanted to do when I grew up... The choice was fairly obvious. I've been a dedicated home cook and baker since I was an adolescent; and while I knew going in that the life of a professional cook is a hard one, I reasoned that at the end of the day if you're doing something you love for its own sake you're ahead of the game. So I went to school. I took my first year at the Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax (honours) and my second at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (honours). I have been working, since my arrival in Edmonton, at this this respected fine-dining restaurant; upon graduation from school I added a full-time job in this popular market/lunch spot. Last summer, while still fresh out of school, I was inspired to blog a typical work week, for the benefit of the insatiably curious. It seemed that there was a lot of interest in how foodservice jobs work in practice, and I thought it might be of interest to many among the community. And that's where it would have stayed, except that a few weeks ago SobaAddict in his role of Foodblog Czar asked for those who are bakers or pastrychefs to step forward. Since I run the instore bakery at my day job, I thought that perhaps I should volunteer. So, here's Chromedome II...the return of the career changer. A few points to clear up at the beginning: for one thing, this is a serious "pot luck" blog. I have one or two special things I'm hoping to squeeze in, but I don't know yet what shifts I'll be pulling over the weekend. That means real life, folks...on the home front you may see souffles or you may see mac and cheese. I promise you I eat better than Wendy ( ), but her work photos are a LOT more interesting than mine will be. Still and all, this is what it looks like. I cook for my family, and they get what I have the time and energy to make. So...we'll be looking at some shots from one job at least, possibly both; my baking at work and at home; my garden; and to the extent that it's pertinent, a few bits and pieces of the city. My budget (wife, two kids, two student loans, the highest utilities in the country, etc) does not permit of special ingredients or excursions to the city's restaurants, and my kitchen is at the opposite end of the envy-inducement scale from Daddy-A's starship bridge and Jackal's vintage AGA. It's a come-as-you-are foodblog! From the subtitle of this blog (and the tone of the teaser Soba posted on Jackal's blog), you may be wondering just how I'm feeling about my career choice. Well...I'm still enjoying myself, but it's most assuredly not for everyone. I'll elaborate further in the course of this next week, and naturally I'm more than happy to answer anyone's questions about that or any other food-related topic. For now, though, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow morning is sneaking up on me, and it's got a cudgel in its grubby little clutches...

Good morning! Greetings from Cambridge UK. Here is the view from my study window, over the herb garden: The bright yellow you can just see in the distance under the rose arch is oil seed rape in the field next door. Thanks to Soba for dropping me in it - its going to be really hard to follow such a wonderful blog, actually such a wonder run of the recent blogs. I'm not sure what I can tell you or what more there is to say after my previous two blogs http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=33730&hl= and http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=51320&st=0 Nor am I sure about his advance billing of "spend a week in the countryside and get reacquainted with the glories of English cuisine amidst summer's bounty". Where we are is not really proper countryside. We are about 5 miles outside Cambridge on the edge of a village, in the soft south of the country - more suburban than real countryside. My cooking is a mixed metaphor, and rather plain rather than a glory of English or any Cuisine. As for the promise of "Strawberries and clotted cream", Strawberries will certainly feature, but its the wrong side of the country for clotted cream. That is more like Devon or Cornwall. Here we eat Strawberries plain, or with pouring or whipped cream, or as Eton Mess (strawberries, meringue and whipped cream all mushed together). Let me explain where we are in the academic year to give some context to the week. This week the undergraduates are taking exams. Traditionally the weather is hot, but its unusually rather cool today. In Cambridge your degree depends mostly on the final examinations, assuming the other requirements, such as residence have been satisfied. Very few subjects use continuous assessment. There is a nice tradition that examiners can ask any question they feel appropriate, regardless on whether it has been taught or not. It's therefore quite a tense and stressful time for the students, and towards the end of the week I will have piles of exam scripts to mark. Then all hell breaks loose, and May Week begins. May week is, of course, a fortnight in June. It used to be in May, way back when, but then the University term got longer. Many garden and other parties are held, outdoor concerts and play, much Pimms and other summer drinks are drunk, culminating, in two weeks time in the May Balls. These are lavish affairs given by the colleges (some every other year), Black tie, and champagne all night. My college's May Ball menu: http://www.emmamayball.com/menu.php Clare May Ball: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/claremayball/2005/?taste Trinity: http://www.trinityball.co.uk/menu.html Fortunately that will be after the end of this blog, and the weather will traditionally turn cold and wet to dampen their ardour. I used to supply fireworks for the Balls. I can't resist this snap. I apologise for the quality. Its a copy of one that hangs in my study The building is the Wren Library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, at Trinity: I lit that one. I don't do fireworks for the Balls anymore, as its a young persons game, and the budgets aren't enough anymore to get me out of bed. After the Balls, term is over, and the undergraduates go on their way. Its a bitter-sweet time, as student friendships romances come to an end or are fulfilled, and the students go out into the big wide world, or at least until next academic year. Left behind are the residents, the graduate students and those of us who have to teach them - I'm teaching an MBA elective in Entrepreneurship for the next few weeks. They have brutal 3 hour classes, instead of one hour lectures. Let me mention my book that is the basis for the course "The High Tech Entrepreneurs Handbook", Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-273-65615-5. Its very good. Back to the subject of the blog. On the first Sunday of May Week (called Suicide Sunday), in the evening, Trinty College Choir takes to punts on the river and sings sweet Madrigals (and a little babershop). If it doesn't rain, which it normally doesn't, God being a Trinty man, it a beautiful and romantic occaision. If you are there (8pm) come and say "hi". I help punt the choir with some friends and wine stewards of the some of the colleges (some wine will be taken), and we arrange a serious picnic. In a way this blog is a slow build up to the Madrigal picnic. Your suggestions please for what we should eat. Finger food, cold for a dozen or so people, easily transported and eaten on the river. So far I've planned a surprise loaf filled with smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches. Others will supply Asparagus, Anne's famous Brownies (very gooey and slightly coffee flavoured), and of course, strawberries. What else should we have, especially for the protein component? Tea Eggs? Fishy balls? Chicken legs? Ideas please. Now comes the complication. To make the smoked salmon sandwiches I intend to bake the bread (naturally), and smoke the salmon (lox). I've recently discovered how to use my brick oven as a smoker. While I'm smoking I'll make bacon.More about that later. What else should I smoke? This is cold smoking - not above about 90F, so not chicken or the like which is hot smoked. Also this week I hope to potter in the garden, and with luck persuade Daniel Clifford, the chef at Midsummer House (which I started, now Michelin 2*) to share some time. That might not happen, as he is frantically busy this week, so may get tagged on the end. Fat squirrel has just come to vist to see if we have left any bird food out, and I mut prepare for my lecture, and this afternoon's discussion on how the University should treat IPR, currently a hot political topic. Are these pix too big? This will probably be an image intensive blog, and I don't know how good people's abndwidth is out there..

Happy New Year!!!! Hello from almost smack-dab in the middle of Kansas! I was so excited to be asked to blog. I didn't think anyone would be able to guess it was me, but my last picture tipped at least a couple of you off. A little bit about me: I'm 36 and have been married to a wonderful man for 11 years. We got married New Year's Eve 1999....due to all the hype about the world ending in the year 2000, he figured he wouldn't have to be married long that way. We live way out in the country on a farm. No livestock, but plenty of crops such as sunflowers, wheat, soybeans and corn. Corn will be our primary crop in 2011 followed up by wheat. Here is what the outside of my house looks like during the summer months:

Hello everyone, eGullet was nice enough to invite me to write a food blog chronicling what I've made or eaten out for one week. I'm so excited about it! Thanks guys. About me: I dream about food, I wake thinking what's for dinner and I'm so excited to share it with you. I'm part of the food world in New York. By that, I just mean that I'm so fortunate enough to be invited to great events where I get to eat great food. I'm also a nerd and a part of the technology world. I produce, edit and sometimes host food related web videos and I'm also a part of the tech world. I'm launching a website called Please, Pass the Gravy. www.pleasepassthegravy.com We let you create a menu, invite friends and then collaborate on that menu. Never host another potluck with 8 pasta salads. You could use it now, but we're alpha launch, it works but it's ugly. It's my ugly baby. So, if you use it be kind and message me if you have improvement ideas. I thought it would be ok to write about it here because it is food related. I live in Brooklyn with a lovely guy who likes to eat and a small corgi mix dog. I cook pretty much every night and do a nice brunch on the weekend. I am not a crazy dog lady, but I do admit to cooking food for the dog. I have an excuse, beyond doting, he had seizures that have stopped since not feeding him dog food. Foods I cook: Spicy foods! If you look at my blog I have a simple papaya ketchup with habanero that is pretty darn good. I love great cheese. This may be the week for Beer Cheese Soup. I try to limit carbs, though I do cheat. In any given week C. and I probably eat cauliflower, broccoli and green beans as a side. Tonight's dinner will be Vietnamese inspired. We'll see how it goes. I'll post about it as soon as I can. Any requests? Questions? I'd love to hear from you. -Grace

*deep breath* *gulp* I'd like to thank the Academy. Oh wait....that was LAST weekend ! Yes, Heidi, Darienne and Nickrey got it. I did sort of know that the Dodger Dogs and the Polish cookbook would give it to y'all. Your guest host this week is little ol' moi. I am so thrilled to invite you into my kitchen, and very flattered that eG thought me worthy of a vaunted Foodblog. Or, if there were no other takers, I'd prefer not to know ! Let me live in my fool's paradise To address a couple of comments from the "coming attractions" thread, Prasantrin, the first Mexican angel is indeed an ornament, not jewelry. She hangs in my kitchen, as does the print of the angels baking. Robirdstx, hadn't thought about the connection to LA, but I LIKE it since Long Beach is, in fact, the largest "suburb" of LA. If we were anywhere else but 30 miles south of downtown LA, we'd be a big city on our own, but here in LaLaLand, we're but a suburb. Actually, the angels are because I collect angels, and those particular ones also were making or offering food. Which, or course, speaks to my soul. Chris Hennes, Heidi nailed it. Your "mountains" in the distance is, in fact Catalina Island....26 miles across the sea, as they say. And that's the Port of Long Beach, with downtown Long Beach in the far foreground. There's a hill in the middle of Long Beach, which is an independently incorporated city, called Signal Hill. It's where a lot of the old-time oil operations in the area was based. That picture was taken from the top of Signal Hill. You can also see downtown LA from there, but it was a bit too hazy to make it out clearly the day I was there. Anyways, back to food. Tomorrow we'll get into the throes of the week. As a last teaser, here's some of the resources we'll be using to cook our way through the next few days. And yes, there will be a few field trips, and probably (more than) a few gratutious cute, furry dog shots. Hey, THEY eat my cooking too !

Hi all. Time has sprung forward, so its time for My Spring Break Blog to begin. Today, DH and I will be going down to Galveston Island, but first let me welcome you to our home and show you around a bit. Please take a seat and I'll show you my kitchen. We are fortunate to have a good sized kitchen with lots of counter space and lots of cabinets and drawers. See my new rice cooker. Love it! The double ovens come in handy. The top one has a broiler and is self-cleaning. Time to make some breakfast. I'll be back soon.

Welcome everyone to my week of cooking. Talk about hard acts to follow: coming straight after the very successful blogs of Shelby and Chris Amirault. I hope I can provoke a fraction as much discussion and interest. For those people who tried to guess my identity, Pam asked for photos that would make it somewhat obscure. Seems I did too good a job. Let’s go through them. This first photo was not actually a sauce as some guessed. It was Crème Anglaise and it is sitting in an ice bath. The colour is not a photographic mistake. It was made using Joël Robuchon’s recipe, which uses twelve egg yolks. Along with the cream, sugar and two vanilla beans, this mixture went on to be a delicious ice cream that we enjoyed with Chistmas pudding. The second photo is the view from Balmoral Beach through Sydney's heads. Yes Erin, you got that one right. The tree that seemed to stump people is a Eucalyptus. Australia has over 700 varieties of Eucaplyptus and it is one of our most common trees. This beach is a five minute drive from my place, which in turn is only a few kilometers from the centre of Sydney. I try to go walking at Balmoral most days. The third and fourth photos are of a small part of my cooking bookshelf and my sous vide rig. Those of you who read the sous vide thread will know that I am a sometimes contributor. This brings me to the subtitle of my blog. I use many different types of cooking styles from classical to modernist. It’s really a matter of what gives the results that I want to achieve. The jazz part of the title comes from Charlie Trotter’s analogy of food with jazz and creative music in general. This concept took my fancy. Now on with the trip. As a note for those of you in North America, we are 19 hours ahead of the West Coast. That means it is 6.30pm here on Sunday and 11.30pm there on Saturday. If it seems like I’m posting at odd hours, that should explain it. Also, please bear with me if I don’t reply to your posts in what seems like a timely fashion: I may be sleeping.

Five years ago, I had a foodblog. It was a terrific experience focusing on Providence food culture and on our family's daily cooking and eating during a pretty typical fall week. A lot has changed in five years. That little kitchen I used to cook in? Well, we moved into my dream kitchen. Though 1950s applicances, lighting, and so on present plenty of problems, and though the suburban commute is driving me nuts, the new kitchen is my Disneyland -- the happiest place, for me, on earth. A few more changes. Take liquids. Though I didn't know it was a bandwagon exactly, prasantrin is right: my tea selection has changed quite a bit. It's no longer quite so Tazo dominated: In addition, my drinks repertoire has expanded beyond this sort of thing: Not that there's anything wrong with a bit of Wray & Nephew neat, but several years of developing my cocktail chops, including BarSmarts Wired training and several months of work as a bartender and bar consultant, means that you'll see a broader array of libations. Much of that bartending experience has unfolded at Cook & Brown Public House, an award-winning new restaurant in Providence that we'll surely visit next week sometime. Meanwhile, these two? They grew. A lot. While they are on light KP and tasting duty regularly, it's vacation, so I'll need to pull out all of my skills of persuasion to get the two of them, now a kindergartener and teenager, to play sous chef. What else? I bought a lot of cooking equipment, spent a lot of time curing and smoking charcuterie, delved into Southeast Asian cooking, and indulged by food jones as much as I possibly can. Much more on that to follow. Finally, there's these here eG Forums. For years, I've been lucky to collaborate with a great team of volunteers to make eG Forums as vibrant and lively as possible. I've learned so much from Society members, and I hope to give some back over the course of the week. I'll also need some help: I've got some tricky stuff to negotiate, and will need you at the ready! As I said last time: At least for me, Andy Williams was right: this is the most wonderful time of the year. Starting later today, I'm off through January 2, and the vast majority of my waking time is consumed with cooking, shopping to cook, planning to cook. At the very least, I have Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas dinner, a Night Before New Years Eve party, and New Years Day cassoulet to prepare. In addition, I have a few surprises planned, including some time with some chef friends in town and a trip with at least one other Society member exploring our Biggest Little State in the Union. I'm really thrilled to be able to spend the week with you. So let's get started!

恭喜发财! Greetings from Suzhou, and Happy New Year. I've been living here since August 2009, since moving from Japan. It's a pleasure to be bringing you the beginning of the rabbit year, as I'm 2/3 of the way through a full cycle in the Chinese zodiac, having moved to Asia in 2002 - a Horse year. Will I make it all the way through? I'm not sure yet. I'll be blogging to bring in the new year this week from Jiangsu, Suzhou as we say around here. To put that on a map for you, it's about 20 minutes on a high-speed train outside of Shanghai. Suzhou's famous for its gardens and canals - locals are fond of quoting the famous saying, "Just as there is paradise in heaven, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou on Earth." I'm not sure how close Suzhou is to paradise, but I've been pretty happy living here. This week, I'm not quite sure what we'll be seeing, as I haven't stayed in China through the holidays. Last year, to bring in the Tiger, my husband and I took some time off to tour around Malaysian Borneo, but since the Rabbit year is meant to be more quiet, I've decided to hang out at home, soak in the atmosphere, and blog for you. The New Year is a time when many shops close and most people journey back to their hometown. I say "journey" because it often takes several days to negotiate the traffic and crowds to make it home. Trains and buses are often sold out completely, and planes aren't much better. That's why I'll be staying close to home - no sights of Shanghai for us, I'm afraid. I've stocked the larder, so if every restaurant shuts down, and the market is deserted, there'll still be food to see. Through the miracle of the Earth tilting on its axis, I've actually already lived Sunday, and am now recapping my first day for you. I'm going to take you on a brief tour of my high street and my daily shops, brunch at my local Cantonese place, and a "Kitchen God" inspection of my kitchen. You all, of course, being my kitchen gods - although I'm warning you now, I have not set out any cakes. Since I'm not Chinese, there's a lot that I see and experience here that I don't have much or any understanding of - I hope that everyone who does can weigh in on things. Part of the joy of living in a foreign country is learning about the cultural traditions your host country has to offer, and living in China is one of the richest and most exciting experiences I've had overseas so far.

Well, it's time to get the party started since I'm already awake on this freezing Sunday morning in New York City. I know, I know; there are plenty of you who are undoubtedly in colder climes, but that doesn't mean it's not shivery here. This week you'll all get to join in with not one eGullet food blogger; not two eGullet food bloggers; but three eGullet food bloggers as johnder, slkinsey and I take you on a foodtastic tour of no less than two of New York City's five boroughs. (There might even be a trip to a third or fourth borough sometime during the week). Let me give a quick explanation of the 3 pictures of mine which were used over in the coming attractions topic: This rather small Pez collection resides on a shelf in the corner of our galley kitchen, using up room which would otherwise be taken up by more darn kitchen stuff, no doubt. But it's fun, and I've had the collection for at least 25 years, so for now, it stays. Then there was this: Indeed, Pierogi, that is Washington, D.C. My wife's (Significant Eater, btw) job is in D.C., and we have an apartment down there; that's the view of the monument from our rooftop. And finally: What could be more New York City than that universal street food, the pretzel (okay, Philadelphians, relax!)? This was taken at the Hester Street Fair, a flea market/food fair that takes place every weekend from spring to fall on a little piece of our co-op's property. So props to gfweb, lancastermike, Kent Wang and prasantrin for their outstanding guesses. As well as to all the eGullet food bloggers who have come before. Hang on to your hats - it should be a heck of a week!

Hi, keefkun, ça va? Or, for the more hip: Bonjour habibi, how's it going? Yes, with such phrasing, it can only be Lebanon! First off, let me give you some background to the trip and myself. I go by Chris and Hassaan - whence Hassouni, the Arabic diminutive of Hassaan (note, not Hasan/Hassan, this is a different name. For those that can read Arabic, it's: حسّان). Arabs/Persians/Turks generally call me Hassaan, others generally call me Chris. Hassouni is fine by me too I am, despite the bilingual name, NOT Lebanese. My father is American of mostly German extraction, and my mother is 100% Iraqi. Her family is Iraqi through and though (except for her one Turkish great-grandmother, as well as other genetic traces of the myriad peoples who have crossed Iraq since history began 5000 years ago there). They had done quite well under the Mandate period and later the Monarchy, but as soon as the republican revolutions happened (and there were several in the late 50s and 60s), my mom and her immediate family fled to Beirut, which was THE cosmopolitan city of the region in those years. They stayed there until 1975 when the civil war broke out, and really Beirut is and was much more of a home, to my mother and her brothers at least, than Baghdad was. To this day, she can switch between Iraqi and Lebanese Arabic mid sentence, which I always find hilarious (they're about as different in vocabulary and accent as, say, Cajun English and Australian English) In the mid 1990s, after the war, her parents, living in the DC area and London, moved back to Beirut, and since then it's become their permanent home, with my mother spending more and more time there as well. This is my 9th trip there, and the 6th since Summer 2009, so Beirut is quickly tying London as my own second home. In any case, I love it to bits, despite all the aggravation of being there (like the most horrific traffic and insane drivers anywhere), and my own skills in the Lebanese dialect are growing. I guess they're getting pretty good, as a few of my Lebanese friends have dubbed me "honorary Lebanese." I arrived here yesterday and will return to DC March 7. Secondly, let me explain the teaser pics The first, of course, is an Iraqi/Turkish style tea setup, as I mentioned on my very first post here. Mimicking the the effects of a samovar without the expense. My favorite style of tea, though somewhat of a hassle to prepare. This was basically just to identify me, and sadly there probably won't be much of that, as Beirut is not a good city for tea drinkers A Beirut taxi and a symbol of the city as much as Black Cabs are of London. 10 years or so ago they were all ancient Mercedes that had survived the 15-year civil war. Now there are a lot of other cars, some new Mercedes, most small, crummy, micro-compacts, which makes very little sense for a taxi. The old, stick shift, diesel powered Mercs are where it's at for me, and I'll wait longer to snag one. Next is the beautiful Turkish coffee presentation at Café Hamra, in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut. I think Nikkib made a passing reference to it once - I really like the place. Decent if not fantastic food, really good deserts, great coffee, and good argile (hookah/shisha). Hopefully will spend some time there this trip When Kerry Beal said lahmacun, she was basically right. This is the Arabic version, lahme b'ajin, from which the name lahmacun derives. This is a late night shot from the legendary Barbar in Hamra, a 24/7 bastion of Lebanese street food that spans a whole block - shawarma, kababs, falafel, mana'ish, lahme b'ajin, fresh juices plus western snack bar type food, and pretty good gelato. After a night out in Beirut, this is unequivocally the place to go. Finally, Raouché, the Pigeon Rocks, or as my Mom swears they were called in the "Lebanese Good Old Days," Suicide Rocks. One of two sea stacks just off the cliffs along the Beirut Corniche. If there is one symbol of Beirut, this is it. As for this blog, I have no agenda. Although I'll be spending plenty of time there, I'm not staying in my family's place, because its jam-packed with people, so I'll be sleeping in a hotel nearby. This means I won't be cooking anything, but even if I was staying at home that would be the case, what with my aunt and the housekeeper running the kitchen on lockdown. However, I will definitely be showing plenty of home-cooked Lebano-Iraqi dishes. Furthermore, Beirut is Cafe City and one of the best places to eat out, so expect plenty of delicious coffees, teas, and meals out, as well as shots of street food like Barbar and my favorite, manaa'ish 'al saaj. I have a hunch that I'll be going north up the coast as well as into the mountains at some point, so I'll be sure to document any tasty treats from there. If you have any requests, I'll do my best to fulfill them!

I thought I'd use blog-eve as chance for a brief introduction. I'm Rob. I live just outside a village, around 35 miles North West of Cardiff, in Wales. For those of your not familiar with the principality, it’s the blob of land attached to the left of England. Mostly hills and mountains that tends to flatten out towards the coast. I have an 80 acre farm on which I keep an ever growing flock of Welsh-Mountain sheep, plus occasional Tamworth pigs and Welsh Black cattle. I'm not a farmer though, as any of my farming neighbours will attest to. I pay the bills “doing computer stuff” for a big telecommunications company, although mostly I can work from home which is great for me. I grew up in London, England, but have been living in Wales for nearly 20 years. I share the house with my wife and two small children. Food wise, I’ll eat and drink pretty much anything. I particularly like to investigate offal, although Mrs Sheepish isn’t so keen. So this week I’m going to try and show you the sort of things we usually eat, with a bit of bias to Welsh ingredients and recipes where possible. I’m very keen on Sichuan food too though, so there’ll be some of that. Plus Mrs Sheepish has a birthday next Saturday and as has become traditional I shall be attempting to knock up a relatively fancy meal for 2, so there’ll be a fair bit of prep for that. Oh, and Mrs Sheepish is Irish so there’ll be a bit of influence from even further to the left. Here's a couple of library pictures to give you an idea of where we are. Track from the farm towards the village Looking down from fields to the village Last year's Tamworths I’ll leave it at that for now. Tomorrow, food! And hope you don’t get bored until at least Tuesday.

Good morning from Norman, Oklahoma, home of the University of Oklahoma and suburb of Oklahoma City. For reference, Oklahoma is the state just north of Texas (no, it is not a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein… that's Oklahoma! with an exclamation point. No one puts an exclamation point when they are talking about the state). Hopefully you've all heard of Texas, anyway, even if Oklahoma and Idaho and Iowa are all a blur. It is, alas, somewhat less idyllic than what Sheepish treated us to last week. Nevertheless, I eat well here. Not a whole lot of lamb, though! It's been a few years since my last foodblog, and life has changed more than a little. Some things, however, have not changed: OK, so that's a tiny change. Same mug, but now I brew pour-over rather than French press. Different coffee brand as well: Storyville Coffee sends me bi-weekly shipments of fresh-roasted beans. In my opinion, using fresh-roasted beans trumps any other factor when it comes to coffee quality. About some of the teaser photos Heidi posted: as someone who posts a ton of photos here at the eG forums, I had to work hard to find things to post that weren't dead giveaways! It's probably not well known that I love yogurt. The Fage is for eating plain, the Yoplait is for smoothies. Yes, the crocus was just meant to be a sign that it's spring here (I have dozens in various colors in my backyard blooming now, and the daffodils are just beginning to bloom as well). So, no saffron from them. Not that I don't love saffron. I just don't grow it. I think it's also not well-known that about a year ago I decided to try to learn to appreciate white wine, having been a red-drinker my whole life. So, a wine fridge. What you can't see in the photo is the identical wine fridge next to it that I use for curing salume. The wok? Well, I have a Big Kahuna wok burner, which you'll see a bit of this week. And the cookbooks are mostly what I'm cooking this week. I seldom actually plan out a week's meals when I'm not doing a "cooking through X" project, but just for you guys, this week, I have a plan. Let's see if I stick to it now…

[font="Trebuchet MS"]Hi everybody. Welcome to what we believe is the first eG foodblog from New Zealand. Due to time differences it’s a little late in the day now for me, but shall we start with some breakfast? Those are from Joanne Harris and Fran Warde’s book [amazon=0060893133]The French Market. The only change I make is to omit the egg wash – I find it gives a slightly ‘wrong’ taste; bitter, perhaps. And I have no trouble getting them brown enough (apologies for these ones – they’re slightly more brown than I’d like. That’s what happens when you put them in the oven just as you’re serving dinner, then forget …). I usually make a batch and freeze them; then they’re available at a moment’s notice when breakfast calls. I hope I can satisfy the anticipation you displayed in your reaction to the teaser photos. It’s going to be an interesting week for me, anyway. Shortly I’ll tell you about the City Market here in Wellington, where we’ll meet some very dedicated food people. Tomorrow we’re visiting a local gin distiller, and I’m taking you all to Valentine’s Day dinner (don’t read too much into that!) at my absolutely favourite Wellington restaurant - we’ll meet its chef at the market, just to get you in the mood. We have people coming to dinner on Wednesday (which is unusual, but I’ll manage it somehow), so you can sit in on that for a classic, if maybe predictable, dish (any guesses?). At some stage I’ll take you to a few of my favourite Wellington food shops, and next Saturday, weather permitting, we’re having a picnic with some of my work people – I have some very traditional New Zealand food planned for that. And there’ll be a few other bits and pieces thrown in as we go. Just as well I’m taking the next couple of days off work – I don’t think I could cope otherwise! Finished your croissants? How about some coffee before we go? Yes, Peter, I made one for you. While you’re enjoying that, let’s get some of the dry, factual stuff out of way, shall we? New Zealand is that funny-looking little group of islands way down at the bottom of the South Pacific (no, not that far down – that’s Antarctica). The two largest islands are imaginatively named the North and South Islands. Important note: if you’re ever talking about them, it’s always THE North Island or THE South Island – don’t forget the definite article. There’s also the West Island where Nick (nickrey) lives, but we won’t say too much about that. Wellington is the capital city and is at the bottom tip of the North Island, near enough to the geographical centre of the country. Greater Wellington has a population of 370,000 or so, of which Wellington City itself makes up around 180,000 (New Zealand’s total population is somewhere around 4.5 million – roughly the same as Sydney. Or Boston, apparently). The New Zealand dollar is worth around $US0.76 (or, to put it another way, $US10 buys $NZ13), and any measurements you see in the photos will be metric. Our time zone (we have an hour of daylight saving in effect at the moment) is 12 hours ahead of Europe, 18 ahead of California and 21 ahead of New York – that’s if my amateur time calculations are to be trusted. 10am here is 1pm yesterday in LA, anyway. This creates some difficulties doing a blog like this; I’ll try to make it sound like real-time, but in fact I’ll be well and truly shut down and in bed before many of you start thinking about reading it. Ethnically we’re quite a mixture. Most of us – it’s hard to say how many; the census figures are complicated by people claiming multiple origins – are of European ancestry – we have English, we have Greek, we have Irish, we have Italian – you name it, they’re here! The rest of us are of Maori, Pacific Island or Asian descent, with plenty of cultural mingling. That does make for an interesting food landscape, although I must confess up front: my palate leans very much towards Europe. I can’t help it; Asian tastes just doesn’t do it for me. Partly in recognition of this, our dinner tonight is going to be as traditionally New Zealand as it gets. I'll get that in the oven a little later and show you how it turned out - probably tomorrow (my time). A technical note, for those who are interested: the photos were taken using a Canon EOS 300D, most commonly with a 50mm f1.8 lens. I bought the lens, a fairly inexpensive one, specially for this blog and I can thoroughly recommend the joys of a fast lens for food photography. And yes, we must mention the teaser photos. I suspect there may be the odd smartypants out there who can use Google, so the quote in the second one probably wasn’t as hard as it might have been. But just so everybody knows: This one, I grant, could be anywhere. In the foreground are some nibbles I make for almost every dinner party we have. They're a very simple El Bulli recipe; peeled cherry tomatoes and balls of watermelon, separated by a basil leaf. The ones in the photo are shown not-quite-finished - there's a drizzle of basil oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper to come. In the background, a loaf of the bread I make from the subject of this thread, and very good it is too. This one is part of the Wellington Writers' Walk along the waterfront. The quote is from a poem by Bill Manhire, who among other things teaches creative writing at Wellington's Victoria University. This one is over the roof of our house, looking towards Evans Bay. The airport is in the middle distance towards the right. It's often said here that you can't beat Wellington on a good day. This was one. And this one gets the obligatory Lord of the Rings reference out of the way. Remember the part in the first film where the hobbits are hiding from the Black Rider? That was filmed on Mount Victoria, in these very trees, maybe half a kilometre from home. Enough already. Let’s go to the market.

First of all, I am very excited to be blogging – a little nervous, but excited. I have a lot of things planned, but I am sure I won't get to all of them. Most of all, I hope to have a lot of fun blogging this week and introducing you to some of the food that is not the typical things people hear about – which is all about the Creole food from New Orleans and Cajun food from southwest Louisiana. There's more... there's good old country food that most of us grew up eating. How did I come up with the name of Honeysuckles and Huckleberries? It's the name of a cookbook I put together for our family. What the name means to me is country living and home. Growing up I remember Mama loved the sweet, sensational smell of honeysuckles. It was her favorite flower. They grew wild on the fences around our property. They were always pretty and fragrant, and I would pull the stem from them until it came out of the bottom of the flower all for one drop of juice, which tasted out of this world. One of my dreams then was to have one whole glass of honeysuckle juice! We also had a pond that had turtles, fish, snakes and everything else that intrigues children. There were also wild blackberry bushes. In the summertime, we would take our buckets and pick blackberries all afternoon. We were told not to eat the berries until they were washed, and our blackberry-stained tongues would tell Mom, “No, ma'am. We didn't eat any.” After a little lecture, and after the berries were washed, we would smash the berries in a bowl and add cream and sugar and eat them with a spoon. Then, she would make us a blackberry cobbler for dessert that night! So... blackberries aren't huckleberries, but they're close enough, and they remind me of Huckleberry Finn and little boys having adventures growing up on the Mississippi River. Brett, my brother, had his own adventures growing up in the country. He hunted, fished, skipped school to go horseback riding all day, etc. Whenever he would catch a fish, he would excitedly run into the house and say, "Cook this for me, Mama!" It was a wonderful place to grow up, and while we were a family of very modest means, we always ate well – just like most of the people around here. What I hope to do in this blog is introduce you to a little bit of Louisiana country living. There will be a few field trips to some interesting places. Food will be cooked, of course, but I am going to do my best to stay away from the standard fare that everyone hears so much about (except jambalaya – there will be jambalaya) and cook old time country favorites, and by the end of this week I would hope that you would feel like a welcome guest in our home.

Left from Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver - destination, Qualicum on Vancouver Island. Arrived in Nanaimo, had a quick visit with a friend who is in a care facility for traumatic brain injuries there, then headed to our accomodation, stopping briefly at a grocery store for breakfast fruit, yogurt, etc. Arrived at our beachfront condo, unpacked, had an extended happy hour and decided to just walk next door to a diner type place. Upon arrival, the owner greeted us, and let us know that they were slammed and we were welcome to come on in, but the food might be a while. We were fine with that, their Monday special was double Margarita rocks for 6.00. Food was good if basic. My beef dip was elevated with a garlic/horseradish aioli. Back to the condo for a champagne toast to the sunset

Saturday, July 9th was my 63rd birthday. And since the trip out of town to Florida and SC was so satisfying, I requested another adventure. Only one day and close to home this time. We’re in the Richmond VA area and only one hour and one and a half hours respectively from the charming little towns of Charlottesville and Staunton, VA. I asked for an off-the-interstate drive, a wander around the lovely Staunton, lunch and dinner at old favorite places, a visit to Reunion bakery, and chocolates from our own @Jim D.. The only thing that didn’t happen was Reunion. Sadly, they were closed that week for their summer break. Still, it gives me a good excuse to get the family on the road again and make another visit to Jim. I didn’t eat a bite of breakfast because I wanted to be good and hungry for lunch. This was difficult to accomplish as our first stop on the way to Staunton was at the Albemarle Baking Co. in Charlottesville: Incredible place! I wish we had something comparable in Richmond. We bought a few things that fit into breakfasts and snacks over the next couple of days. A sampling: Back in 1987-1989 when Mr. Kim was in grad school at VA and we lived in Charlottesville one of our favorite places to sightsee was a store called Food of All Nations. I say sightsee rather than shop because we were, of course, broke. Our name for it was Food of High Prices. But we loved to look and did treat ourselves occasionally – my beloved English candies, HP sauce, German sausages, good bread, etc. We almost never go to Charlottesville without stopping and this time was no exception. A good wander through the aisles, a search for Tiptree Little Scarlett jam (none there), and a little stash of candies: I can’t find the treacle toffee here in Richmond anymore and haven’t had liquorice toffee since Callard & Bowser stopped making it. Then it was on to Staunton for lunch and neighborhood crawling and CHOCOLATE! (Back to Charlottesville for dinner). Lunch was at Wright’s Dairy-Rite, a classic drive in (with actual car hops). When Mr. Kim was in grad school, I worked at a private social service agency, inspecting day care homes for the USDA meal reimbursement program. One of my responsibilities was observing meals served at day care homes that were licensed through our agency. Every home had to be visited once every six months, so about half my time was traveling around central VA meeting day care providers and children and helping to serve breakfast, morning snack, lunch, or afternoon snack. When I would find myself in Staunton, I always ate at Wright’s. I’d sit in my car, order a cheeseburger and a shake, and eat. I could read a book, smoke a cigarette, and enjoy some quiet time! They have a pretty wide assortment of food (including a highly recommended Reuben, funnily enough) but we stuck with the classics. Jessica had a double cheeseburger and crinkle cuts: Mr. Kim had another double with jalapenos: I had the “Superburger” and onion rings. Basically, an early Big Mac, but with excellent, flavorful burgers: The burgers were just our style – thin and juicy. Let’s just take another look at those onion rings: These were among the best onion rings I’ve ever had. Maybe I had some better ones when I was a toddler, but not since I became an adult have I had any better ones. They were NOT tempura, which is what everyone seems to do nowadays. They were crumb coated, but thinly. The onions were completely cooked, but still crunchy. I cannot say enough good things about these. Two weeks later, we’re still talking about them. The day just kept getting better. Next, we got to meet @Jim D.. He was so gracious and invited us into his home for a little visit and “get to know you”. We had a lovely time and really enjoyed meeting Jim and hearing about his late arrival at chocolate making. Mr. Kim had arranged for me to receive this gorgeous assortment of chocolates: I was stunned at how lovely they were but was truly stunned at how delicious and inventive they were when I tasted them. I’ve done a more in-depth post about them here, and you should definitely go look at that. After a leisurely drive around the lovely old neighborhoods of Staunton and a little antiquing, we had a snack and a drink at Clocktower Eats & Sweets. A lovely coconut cake: And the saltiest soft pretzels and beer cheese we’d ever tasted: 😵 More neighborhood wandering, then we took the long way to Charlottesville – my favorite drive across Afton Mountain and Rockfish Gap and beside lovely old homes. Dinner in Charlottesville was at our family favorite, Al Carbon. I’ve talked about this restaurant before and shown almost identical photos. Most American cities now have the Mexican/Central American rotisserie/charcoal chicken places, and they are good. But most of them that we’ve been to are basically Mexican restaurants with rotisserie chicken. This is miles above any other place we’ve ever tried. The chicken is astonishingly good, and the sandwiches and sides are unlike anything I’ve ever had. This is a chicken tamale and the beef cemita: Don’t know why I neglected to undress the tamale before taking the picture. The cemita was loaded with breaded slices of beef, Oaxaco cheese, ham, and avocado. It’s my favorite thing there. The elote and the incomparable chicken: It’s even excellent cold the next day. Sweet potato and fried plantains: The sweet potato is cooked in a sweet, creamy sauce and is slightly caramelized and the plantains are perfectly cooked. Dessert always presents a dilemma. Al Carbon makes churros to order. BUT just outside, in the parking lot is a frozen custard stand. I had a flash of genius. Considering that it was my birthday and that you are allowed, actually ENCOURAGED, to go big that day it occurred to me to do both. We ordered churros and took them across the parking lot and created this on the spot: It was utterly divine. And we were a happy family:

Last week, Liuzhou government invited a number of diplomats from Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar/Burma, Poland, and Germany to visit the city and prefecture. They also invited me along as an additional interpreter. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday introducing the diplomats to the culture of the local ethnic groups and especially to their food culture. First off, we headed two hours north into the mountains of Rongshui Miao Autonomous County. The Miao people (苗族 miáo zú), who include the the Hmong, live in the mid-levels of mountains and are predominantly subsistence farmers. Our first port of call was the county town, also Rongshui (融水 róng shuǐ, literal meaning: Melt Water) where we were to have lunch. But before lunch we had to go meet some people and see their local crafts. These are people I know well from my frequent work trips to the area, but for the diplomats, it was all new. So, I had to wait for lunch, and I see no reason why you shouldn't either. Here are some of the people I live and work with. This lovely young woman is wearing the traditional costume of an unmarried girl. Many young women, including her, wear this every day, but most only on festive occasions. Her hat is made from silver (and is very heavy). Here is a closer look. Married women dispense with those gladrags and go for this look: As you can see she is weaving bamboo into a lantern cover. The men tend to go for this look, although I'm not sure that the Bluetooth earpiece for his cellphone is strictly traditional. The children don't get spared either This little girl is posing with the Malaysian Consul-General. After meeting these people we went on to visit a 芦笙 (lú shēng) workshop. The lusheng is a reed wind instrument and an important element in the Miao, Dong and Yao peoples' cultures. Then at last we headed to the restaurant, but as is their custom, in homes and restaurants, guests are barred from entering until they go through the ritual of the welcoming cup of home-brewed rice wine. The consular staff from Myanmar/Burma and Malaysia "unlock" the door. Then you have the ritual hand washing part. Having attended to your personal hygiene, but before entering the dining room, there is one more ritual to go through. You arrive here and sit around this fire and wok full of some mysterious liquid on the boil. On a nearby table is this Puffed rice, soy beans, peanuts and scallion. These are ladled into bowls. with a little salt, and then drowned in the "tea" brewing in the wok. This is 油茶 (yóu chá) or Oil Tea. The tea is made from Tea Seed Oil which is made from the seeds of the camellia bush. This dish is used as a welcoming offering to guests in homes and restaurants. Proper etiquette suggests that three cups is a minimum, but they will keep refilling your cup until you stop drinking. First time I had it I really didn't like it, but I persevered and now look forward to it. L-R: Director of the Foreign Affairs Dept of Liuzhou government, consuls-general of Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos. Having partaken of the oil tea, finally we are allowed to enter the dining room, where two tables have been laid out for our use. Let the eating, finally, begin. In no particular order: Steamed corn, taro and sweet potato Bamboo Shoots Duck Banana leaf stuffed with sticky rice and mixed vegetables and steamed. Egg pancake with unidentified greenery Stir fried pork and beans Stir fried Chinese banana (Ensete lasiocarpum) Pig Ears This may not look like much, but was the star of the trip. Rice paddy fish, deep fried in camellia tree seed oil with wild mountain herbs. We ate this at every meal, cooked with slight variations, but never tired of it. Stir fried Greens Our meal was accompanied by the wait staff singing to us and serving home-made rice wine (sweetish and made from the local sticky rice). Everything we ate was grown or reared within half a kilometre of the restaurant and was all free-range, organic. And utterly delicious. Roll on dinner time. On the trip I was designated the unofficial official photographer and ended up taking 1227 photographs. I just got back last night and was busy today, so I will try to post the rest of the first day (and dinner) as soon as I can.

It's that time of year again, for a KennethT SE Asian adventure. This is our first trip to Asia since COVID. We'd been looking to go to Penang for a long time - it's nickname has been the Pearl of the Orient since colonial days, but more recently it's more commonly referred to as one of the street food capitals of the world. In order to get there, we flew non stop from NY to Singapore, detailed here: We had a few hour layover in Singapore, where we had dinner. Terminal 4 of Singapore's airport is relatively new and smaller than the other terminals, but they have a hawker stall type of food court with a lot of different choices. To get in the Malaysian mood, we decided on a place that makes nasi lemak - coconut rice with a lot of stuff with it: Chicken curry with spring roll, ikan bilis (small dried fish with peanuts), sambal, cucumber and shrimp chips. Requisite neon yellow "lime juice" - this was a barely diluted concentrate! Yikes.... Same thing but with sambal chicken which is a different sambal to the one they put on the side. Both meals were pretty tasty - especially after sitting on a plane for 18 hours. Our flight to Penang (about an hour or so) got in around 10PM, so there was nothing else until the next morning.

Off we go on another adventure! I'm still here in NYC, about to get in a taxi to take us to the airport. Unlike the past few trips, we are not flying EVA connecting through Taipei, but flying Air Canada, connecting through Toronto. I don't know what to expect, since this is the first time we've flown to Asia during the day, rather than leaving around midnight or 1AM - but the benefit is that rather than taking about 20 hours to get to the final destination, it's a short flight from NYC to Toronto, then a 13 hour flight to Beijing... the downside is that since we're leaving in the late morning, there's no chance of sleeping on this flight - maybe we'll catch a few hours before landing in Beijing, since we will be landing at 4AM NY time (4PM Beijing time) but I'm not counting on taking a sedative and sleeping for 6-8 hours mid-flight. I don't know how much I'm going to post while I'm there, but I'll try to put some teasers up if I see something incredibly interesting. Also, I don't think we'll be straying too far from the tourist trail this time - even recommendations from my wife's friends living in Beijing were similar to what I've read all around. But, we'll be getting together with 3 of them on 3 separate nights, which should be a lot of fun.

Where to spend the real first summer vacations after the Covid hiatus - definitely not an easy question to answer. For reasons that might be disclosed later the Duvel family opted for Scotland. It was not an unanimous decision … Nevertheless, there is sufficient food content that makes me feel comfortable to share some parts of this trip with you 🤗 Stay tuned …

The first week of November are „autumn holidays“ in the area where I live. We wanted to use that time to go to Paris, but when my parents-in-law somewhat surprisingly announced they‘d be coming over from Spain for the whole of November, we scrapped that idea and looked for something more German … So … Berlin. Not the best time to travel (cold & rainy), but with a couple of museums for the little one and the slightly older ones to enjoy together, plus some food options I was looking forward it was a destination we could all agree on. The Covid19 warnings in the Berlin subway support that notion …

Hi Everyone! This blog is going to be a very mixed bag! I’ll be eating out more than in a usual week (not because I’m blogging, it just worked out that way) and I also want to detail a fabulous meal/experience we had at the Napa Rose in Disneyland. First, a little about me: I’m 58 and live in San Ramon, CA (East Bay of San Francisco) with my wife, Ellen, my 21-year-old daughter Rebecca and our dog Max. In my previous marriage, my ex did all the cooking and I did all the cleaning. I always had a good palate and was good at telling you what was in a dish and/or how to fix a dish that was lacking, but never really learned anything beyond very basic kitchen skills. My kids always dreaded the days when Dad had to cook! From 1992 to 2003 I owned a beer and wine brewing shop and also a commercial microbrewery. I designed all of the recipes for the beer kits and most of the recipes for the microbrewery and they were very successful. Our IPA won Best of Show at the California State Fair, besting beers from all over the state including the big guys, and the smaller like Sierra Nevada. The next year we won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for the IPA and a Silver for our Red. In 1994 I wrote and published what is still the definitive (but now very dated) guide to using hops in craft brewing. (Bottom line: I always was good at creating recipes.) I got divorced in early 2007 and during the break-up I was working at Best Buy as the appliance manager. Along with washers and dryers I was selling ranges, microwaves, ovens, dishwashers, refrigerators and counter-top appliances - helping people to outfit entire kitchens. When I bought and moved into my own (and current) place, finding one with a decent kitchen was paramount because I intended to learn how to cook! There were several motivations for that: I wanted my daughter (who was staying with me half time) to look forward to meals, not dread them. It would also allow me to better sell kitchen appliances. And it would save me a lot of money compared to eating out! I now do 99% of the cooking for the family, and my daughter lives with us full time - learning to cook had something to do with that! So I enrolled in a 12 week cooking class at the now defunct Viking Cooking School in Walnut Creek and learned my way around the kitchen. I like the cooking part, but for me the joy is in creating recipes and tweaking someone else’s to my liking and/or methods. I started to upgrade my cookware and counter-top appliances - but that will be the subject of another post! The food I cook tends to be somewhat simple, comfort food. Normal stuff a family of picky eaters will eat! My plating skills are minimal, especially compared to some of you here. Now I work as a graphic designer/marketing person/data analyst at a large financial firm. I also read palms as a sideline. My current hobbies besides cooking are playing bluegrass guitar and sewing/embroidery. Off to work - will post more this evening.

SobaAddict.... tough act to follow. Since I am not a particularly prolific Egullet poster, although I think the length of my posts might have some notoriety, I am going to start with an intro that should give you some perspective on my food background & style. My parents were born & raised in the municipality Union de San Antonio which lies in Los Altos de Jalisco (the Highland region of Jalisco state which is one of Mexico's foremost dairy capitals)... where they grew, raised, hunted, caught & prepared from scratch almost everything they ate from Corn Tortillas to Cheese, Jocoque (similar to Greek or Lebanese Yogurt), and freshly butchered proteins. Read more about the culinary traditions of my parents' hometowns at: As most probably know, Mexico was site of the first national scale adoption of "The Green Revolution" where subsidized petrochemical based farming created massive gluts of food & encouraged one of the world's great mass migrations from farms to big cities. In 1960 my dad's family became part of that exodus landing in Naucalpan, a sparsely populated rural farming area 15 miles north west of Mexico City's historic center. For 10 years, my dad (as the oldest male sibling in the family) built a dairy business that grew to 200 head of cattle & 2 trucks to distribute the milk that my dad, three brothers & Abuelo milked by hand everyday. By 1970 Naucalpan was a densely populated, caotic industrial suburb with running water, paved streets & electricity; my dad's family sold the dairy business and got into grocery retail. That same year my mom moved to Mexico City for allergy treatments where she lived near the Centro Historic with her grand uncle Jose & his wife Lola - a native of the Mexico City area who grew up speaking Nahautl (the language of the Aztecs) as her primary language... remember her she was instrumental in my growing culinary interest. A few years later my parents met in one of many get togethers of people from Union de San Antonio [most migrants to Mexico City formed very strong bonds with people from their hometowns with the same degree of "nationalism" & ethnic pride you might see among Russian, Sicilian or Polish immigrants in New York City etc., ]. A few years later they married, had me & opened up a Puesto de Licuados a market stall selling Licuados [Mex style Smoothies], Aguad Frescas, Fresh Cut Fruit, Eskimales (Milk Shakes) and in the cold months the Mexico City tradition of raw eggs with a Xerez shooter (Mexican Sherry Wine). Success in the Licuados business enabled them to purchase outright a unit in a high rise in the Azcapotzalco district where they shared the fourth floor with families from Monterrey, Sinaloa & Puebla. The houswives apparently got along well and would take turns cooking dinners at each others apartments.. this was the first time my mom was really exposed to gastronomic traditions of other States... she picked up a few dishes but largely stuck to the cuisine she learned growing up.. however, her stories of these "exotic" dishes are something I would treasure & learn from later on. After losing their lease to a redevelopment effort, and a few other investment missteps they decided to come to the United States where [other relatives claimed] money grows on trees. I was months from turning five when the BIG move from Mexico City to East L.A. occurred. My earliest memories of living in L.A were a bit troubling... I started all-English kindergarden knowing only a few words, my parents were perpetually anxious about INS raids and money was not quite abundant. But the worst of my earliest memories was they day we went to forage Cactus paddles in the hills around Dodger Stadium... I was pouting, bratty and wanted the earth to grumble & swallow me up. Life is funny that way... now I think there is nothing cooler than going around town foraging for "undesirable" foods. From a culinary perspective, the move to L.A. really didn't impact my parents all that much. I remember going with dad to shop at Grand Central Market, although small in scale, really could be any mercado in Mexico City. My parents, like most Mexicans (particularly those from rural areas) never cook from recipes.. they have a couple dozen main dishes they rotate amongst; every trip to a market resulted in an instant calculus, balancing price against freshness & quality.... they would buy the least expensive among the quality ingredients available (which was often whatever was in its peak season).. and adjusted their cooking techniques to the ingredients. Growing up in East L.A. it was very easy to develop a sort of ethnocentrism about food.. the best regarded Mexican eateries were within a 5 mile radius of our home.. Carnitas Uruapan which butchered their own pigs & cooked every part of the swine in copper kettles the right way, El Tepeyac (not the famous burrito place) served Jalisco style dishes that attracted people from all over the city, La Chapalita had the best carne asada tacos & tortas in the city, La Parrilla was THE place in town for parrilladas (assorted meats & vegetables served on tabletop grills with real mezquite charcoal, hand patted tortillas & all the fixings).. we also had fantastic Cochinita Pibil as well. In addition, my parents worked their rural connections to score ingredients unattainable to most Angelenos. We had a number of relatives working on dairy farms in Tulare... they would sometimes visit on Sundays arriving in the mid morning with aluminum canisters filled with freshly squeezed, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk. My parents would drink it straight whilie moaning & groaning (I HATE warm milk), then they would make Queso Fresco, Panela (much more to my liking). One of my dad's cousins was a goat dealer.. able to deliver young kid for roasting over mezquite, or pastured mature goat for Birria. Another relative would score suckling pigs... there was a quail hunter etc., etc., Understandably I thought I knew everything about Mexican cuisine. Fast forward almost decade.. we got our green cards (thanks to the Reagan-Simpson-Rodino amnesty) and I made my first trip back to Mexico City as a curious, very hungy 13 year old. It took me exactly 3 meals to realize I didn't know jack about Mexican cusine... every single day of every trip back I learn something new. I estimate that I have consumed well over 1,000 homecooked or restaurant meals in Mexico City, Puebla, Veracruz, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacan etc.. I have rarely eaten the same thing twice, and I feel like I am just starting to hit my stride understanding the cuisine. After two decades of living in the Mexican centric cocoon that is East L.A. and traveling back to Mexico every chance I had; I graduated college... moved to West L.A. experienced a bit of culture shock & integrated to mainstream American society. Shortly there after I discovered Sushi, Indian, Dim Sum, Thai, Italian, Provencal, German, Brazilian and other cuisines.. went through that period of exhileration & amazement. But the more I learn about other cusines, the more it helps appreciate some new facet of Mexican cuisine and with every year I fall more in love with it. My cooking approach is deeply rooted in the 8,000 year culinary history of Mexico yet at the same time modern & pragmatic. As is the whimsical nature of a life... we spend so many years wanting to be different than our parents but in the end we begrudgingly become them. Like them I forage for ingredients, grow some stuff and shop around for great deals flexibily adjusting my dishes to whatever is available... the only difference is that they stuck to 20 - 30 dishes they grew up with... no matter how in love I might be with Mexican cuisine.. I am not from Union de San Antonio.. I haven't plowed & seeded its land... I am something a bit different than my parents... I have cookbooks, cooking shows & recipes as a guide. I am a bit put off by food that is overly architected... I like food that is earthy and looks like food not modern sculpture. I stick to organic, local & seasonal food as much as possible.... I like meals that have a deep story.. but I also love to make crap up from leftovers, odds & ends. Enough meaningless drivel.. my throat is dry... it is time for some mezcal.

Well, it’s officially Sunday and we have a whole lot to cover this week, so...hello and welcome to Missouri. I’m a troll’s troll. And as much as I’d like to pretend that I actually DO live under a bridge waiting for goats to walk by, I am looking forward to putting my OCD to work and showing you a little bit of “MY Kansas City”. To begin my blog I’ll open it with an absolutely true story…in addition to changing the way I approach food, whether it’s dining in a new city or trying a new recipe, I owe the largest part of my happy life to eGullet. For it was HERE that my lurker wife (I’m sure she’ll pop in here at some point) first spotted my gleefully grammatically challenged wordsmithing and began to stalk me…and it went like THIS- A few months after my gastric bypass surgery in 2007, I hosted a dinner party and talked about it on the Sopranos food thread: The Sopranos Dinner Thread So she saw that and was like “Oh man, this guy is going places!”, and she fell into the vortex that is my blog (which DOES contain adult themes and language…BIG time) after hopping over there to read the extended version of the dinner. My blog is kind of like a landfill and gets about ten accidental visits per day, one comment every three months…it is absolutely shill and self-promotion proof. So in the interest of including some important non-food info I’ll link to a specific post without feeling too bad about possibly boosting my traffic to twenty over the next few days. If you skip to the third comment, that is where this whole story took off after a random dinner party report. My wife-to-be happened to post to something I wrote about online dating...comments complete with John Cusack references. Anybody here have a heart?!?! Isn’t it PRECIOUS?!?!? Thoughts about dating that reeled in a wife... And so thanks to eGullet we were off and running! I was in Kansas City, she was in Richmond, Virginia...and after several months of phone calls and literally hundreds of pages of emails we arranged our first face time. Planning for a worst case scenario, she would drive to DC (which would give her a quick escape if needed), and I would fly in and have three days to eat and drink in that town…with our without her. So where was our official “first date”? Is that a rhetorical question? We were going to be in DC, and you don’t remain a bachelor until almost forty without learning a thing or two about “classy” first dates. So no brainer…minibar. BOOM. You can’t make that stuff up. And my wife mentioned how much she likes it when the eG food bloggers include a picture, so here you go- this is us on that first date, at the bar at Café Atlantico, waiting to be summoned upstairs: We had a small destination wedding in Savannah, Georgia in Whitefield Square’s gazebo. On June 25th we celebrated our second anniversary during a roadtrip to Deadwood, South Dakota (Corn Palace, Wall Drug, the works). We live in Parkville, Missouri, which is about ten minutes northwest of downtown Kansas City (Missouri…there’s another one in Kansas  ). No kids, but we do have three rescue animals...one cute but common decency-challenged cocker spaniel and two one-eyed cats. Overall, life right now is grand. And this is a FOOD blog, but I will add that what makes life so great is making it through a pretty crazy first couple of years...I mean, we did everything you’re NOT supposed to do. Long distance relationship where we both bounced back and forth between Richmond and KC, planning a wedding with the full knowledge that in a few months I would be laid off from my job, getting married and then having her leave home to move a thousand miles away...finally arriving here with no job prospects and me being out of work for what ended up being seven months. 2009 was crazy….five people in my family died that year, I got married, I quit drinking, my whole team got laid off, my bachelor pad was about to be retrofitted for estrogen-friendliness, wife looking for a job, a one-eyed cat thrown into the mix...you don’t realize how crazy it is when you’re in the middle of it. So now I am literally thankful every single day for what we’ve got; we’re both employed (I’m in IT, she’s in healthcare), we have a happy home, great family and friends...and we love our food. When the good times come you devour them, and you pass on as much good as you can to others. And life will always come back and happen to you at some point…and sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, the good times will return. And when they DO return, YOU CELEBRATE WITH A FANTASTIC MEAL! So I just wanted to give that little backdrop to set up what I’m wanting to do with this week. I could have gone a million different directions or just try to make this what I think of as “eGullet-y”. But as my wife told me, there isn’t really any NEW ground to cover on this site, so best to just personalize it and see where it goes. I’m just going to blog how I blog, food-centric and minus the wildly excessive profanity... other than that pretty unedited and full of self-amusement. You’re going to see some good food, I promise you that. I’m going to test your limits with my rambling, horrible photography, and movie references...and I AM the king of the ellipses... but it’s going to revolve around food, who we are, and what makes us love eating in KC. I’ve lived in Arizona and Minneapolis, but Kansas City Kansas is where I was born (on the 4th of July!) and most of my life has happened in the major metropolitan area. I moved to the Missouri side after my broken-hearted return from Minneapolis in 1995, because it is just better than Kansas. Sorry, it’s just true . I’ll have to leave a lot of stuff out that may tweak folks familiar with the area, but I’m always available for questions, requests, and whatever is of interest about food in my town. If it exists here, I’m probably at least aware of it, I am deeply familiar with the current scene, and we eat EVERYTHING, too bad we've only got the week. Like many eG bloggers it will be a big one-off as far as overall dining costs and calories in a seven day span. Oh, and here’s the big kicker...no BBQ. I create world class bbq, I love talking about it, and am happy to chit-chat, but that is one serious all-or-nothing topic. Plus, a Kansas City blog without bbq is just funny. I gotta be FREE! Some NEW stuff! For its size, Kansas City has an amazing food community, and I will give you just a tiny fraction….and please ignore any eye-rolling and fact checking from other KC eGulleters because MY KC is the coolest version...full of folklore and intrigue!!! Oh, and “zeemanb” is a screen name I’ve used since around 1995 when I first got online. Sadly, some from KC think it has something to do with the Z-Man sandwich at Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ…but cheese belongs on bbq about as much as mango chutney or pop rocks…or bbq sauce…so not hardly. I took the name from the character Z-Man Barzell in the Russ Meyer classic “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, written by Roger Ebert. My holy trinity of movie directors would be Stanley Kubrick, John Waters, and Jim Jarmusch...so there is a big clue into my voice and worldview- with deepest apologies. In the morning I’ll detail how we approach hard narcotics, er, I mean COFFEE in this house. We’ve got friends coming over in the afternoon for some Ad Hoc fried chicken, and I am DYING to post dinner from tonight. I know it happened a couple of hours earlier than the start of the blog, but I assure you it is not to be ignored. Gotta hit the hay, so until then here are a few random shots to tide you over: Photo of my favorite spoonrest. And by favorite, I mean my only spoonrest: We find that the best use for the extra plastic grocery baggies we steal is- cheap cat toy: Lastly, before I head to bed, here is some super cool food photography we bought while we were on our anniversary roadtrip: More rambles once I get the caffeine in my veins.....