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eG Foodblog: therese - Hey, wanna play a game?


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Okay, so I've just read the linked threads on the DeKalb Market.

Please take us piggies to the market and snap lots of pictures.

I'd be interested in learning how much of the food sold there comes from local sources and if patterns shift over the course of the year, that is, if there is higher percentage of produce from nearby farms during peak growing seasons, etc.

How big is organic farming (including dairies, etc.) around Atlanta? Do you know if there are still any small farms or new ones set up by disenchanted stockbrokers wishing to dedicate themselves to goat cheese instead?

Finally, are local farmers from established farms growing new things for people coming from Asian, African countries or lands south of the US border?

* * *

My stepfather moved into 18th-century cottage in New England with massive exposed wooden beams in the three original rooms downstairs. Sitting on the couch during a visit, watching the telly and eating Christmas cookies, we were--or I was--startled by a blur of grey above our heads accompanied by scrambling sounds. Stepmother explained there was a flying squirrel living with them for the season. They'd see it every so often, but had no luck in getting it out of the house. You're quite lucky your creature left as quickly as it did.

"Viciousness in the kitchen.

The potatoes hiss." --Sylvia Plath

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Welcome Therese!

You've started by immediately getting me hungry for some bone marrow.  Perhaps you would be able to tell us if it's "good for us" in any way.  I've always imagined (rationalized) that being it's bone, it must be a good source of calcium, and that I should eat a lot of it because I have osteoporosis.  :biggrin:

I also like it that you began with the always much anticipated fridge shots.  I'm sure that will please a lot of the eG foodblog fans.

As for the famous restaurant, I guess we can rule out McDonalds, huh?

Susan - I have been making osso buco lately - http://cookingdownunder.com/articles/2006/225.htm - and no one at my table will touch the marrow (me included). Gross is probably the word I would use for it. Bit late to post it to you, I guess :wink:

I wish I could take some of the marrow off your hands for you. (Nice looking plate of osso buco!)

Getting a late start this AM (it's almost 10:00), but with good reason.

So far I've managed to provide several of the key ingredients of an eG foodblog: fridge shots and Pocky shot. Because I don't have pets (and won't, ever, because I'm very allergic) I haven't been able to show pics of any furry little darlings

Until now, that is.

Very early this AM, while I was lying in bed awake worrying over my busy week to come, I heard what sounded like a small animal scrabbling over our roof. Our house has a mansard roof, so we can hear things more easily than we might otherwise, but still, I don't usually notice them. As it continued I decided that it was perhaps in our attic, a dismaying thought as it meant we'd need to do some investigating and patching, and the mansard roof means that our attic is actually more of crawl space.

By this point my husband was awake, and I told him I thought the sound was coming from the attic. He thought it was just the roof, and then pointed out a small shape perched on the sill of the fanlight over the door to the balcony. At first we thought it was outside, but as it started to move we realized it was actually inside.

So, here's our new friend:

gallery_11280_2981_8509.jpg

After photographing him we opened the door to the balcony and got back into bed and turned off the lights. It took him a few minutes, but he finally managed to get out.

I'd never seen this animal before, but had a good idea of what it might be based on its large eyes and broad, flat, furry tail (which you can't see too well in the photo). Even though it's not strictly a food inquiry, I'm going to make this a trivia question:

What animal interrupted my night?

I would like to say it's cute, but it looks too much like a mouse for me, which gives me chills.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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.

There's also a cool display case of dried this and that:

gallery_11280_2975_107031.jpg

Dried WHAT? There's a FACE in there!!

I'm reasonably certain that the left picture is abalone, but I've no idea what's the stuff in the right bottle.

Great blog Therese!

I know what the dried stuff on the right is called in Cantonese...it is something from a young bamboo shoot, I believe. It's one of my favourite vegetables! It has a really "soong" (crunchy?) texture when you bite into it, even though it's soft and holds a lot of sauce because it's so porous.

And yes, the one of the left is abalone.

Edited by Ling (log)
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P.S.  Nice shot of candied ginger, though ginger's a bit pale.

Were it ginger it would be pale, but it's not.

I just happened to have some candied ginger in the house (leftover from a Christmas party, where I served it in a crystal bowl on the dessert buffet along with dried figs, very pretty) and have taken a picture for comparison:

gallery_11280_2981_299037.jpg

Can you pee in the ocean?

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Come on I think I got the meats but....but.... Carrots?

tracey

Well, that's a start. What was Carmela's main dish?

So, Carmela's waiter describes her dish as "Canard croisé cuit sur son coffre, cuisse confite aux épices, jus de miel citronnier et fenouil"

I wasn't able to catch the "confite aux epices" part of it, but managed to find the full description by plugging "canard croisé cuit sur son coffre" into google and came up with this description of a wine dinner at Le Grand Vefour. The entry is from September 2005, so I gather that the dish was being offered there at the time the episode would have been filmed.

So, based on this hint, does anybody recognize an earlier reference in the same episode of The Sopranos to some component of this dish?

Can you pee in the ocean?

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Come on I think I got the meats but....but.... Carrots?

tracey

Well, that's a start. What was Carmela's main dish?

I do believe Madame had the Canard

and fennel.... hey I took italian

t

Edited by rooftop1000 (log)

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

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Okay, so I've just read the linked threads on the DeKalb Market.

Please take us piggies to the market and snap lots of pictures.

I'd love to, but can't. Photos are prohibited inside DFM, just as they are inside Super H Mart. And unlike Super H Mart the rule about photos is very clearly displayed. I went ahead and shopped at DFM on Saturday (before the blog started) with that fact in mind. I will show you items that I bought there this week, though my husband's decision to stain our deck this weekend is putting a bit of a crimp in my plans to do a lot of grilling. It's hot as the dickens here right now, so he's taking a break.

I'd be interested in learning how much of the food sold there comes from local sources and if patterns shift over the course of the year, that is, if there is higher percentage of produce from nearby farms during peak growing seasons, etc.

Because DFM sells such an enormous amount of produce they only use local producers if they can get a guarantee of sufficient supply. So the local stuff will be at DFM when it's at peak, often just for a couple of weeks. When they can't get decent volume of excellent quality they just don't stock it all. Right now there are peaches and Vidalia onions, but we'll soon see corn and beans and so forth, and late summer brings muscadines, one of my very favorites. Because much of our produce comes from the far south of Georgia (where it's flat) I don't consider Florida produce much of a stretch.

How big is organic farming (including dairies, etc.) around Atlanta? Do you know if there are still any small farms or new ones set up by disenchanted stockbrokers wishing to dedicate themselves to goat cheese instead?

There are lots of farms in the area, many of them near Athens, GA (where the University of Georgia has a big ag program; I visited several of them last summer) and many of the farmers come to Atlanta on Saturday AM for the Morningside Market. Local produce (all organic), eggs, flowers, and a limited selection of meat. Until last weekend I was doing a CSA with one of the farmers there, but finally got fed up with his lack of business skill and some not great produce, and decided to terminate the agreement. It wasn't worth getting up early on Saturday AM, frankly.

I will probably go to Morningside next Saturday if I've got time and take some pics.

The best example of a local dairy is Sweetgrass Dairy. A serious operation, with goat, sheep, and cow's milk cheeses. I buy them across the street from Morningside Market at Alon's. It's too far from Atlanta for a convenient day trip, unfortunately.

Finally, are local farmers from established farms growing new things for people coming from Asian, African countries or lands south of the US border?

Not really, as the immigrant population doesn't live anywhere near the Morningside Market, and aren't likely to drive into town to buy very, very expensive bok choy. Were it not so close to my house I probably wouldn't shop there either.

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and fennel....

hey I took italian

Which is going to come in very handy indeed in this instance, though it's unlikely your Italian teacher taught you this particular term, or at least not in this particular context.

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I know what the dried stuff on the right is called in Cantonese...it is something from a young bamboo shoot, I believe. It's one of my favourite vegetables! It has a really "soong" (crunchy?) texture when you bite into it, even though it's soft and holds a lot of sauce because it's so porous.

And yes, the one of the left is abalone.

Help identifying the other items I photographed would be welcome:

gallery_11280_2975_139561.jpg

Can you pee in the ocean?

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Flying squirrel?

Excellent work, patti.

Yep, a flying squirrel. You can find some more information about them here.

Did you recognize it from having seen one before? Or, like me, did you figure it out from its appearance?

We still have no idea how it got in the house, of course. :wink:

It had a squirrel face to it, and I thought maybe you quanitified that it wasn't a "tree" squirrel as a clue. I googled flying squirrel and that seemed to be a match. No experience with them, and I hope my first experience won't be in my bedroom during the night!

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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It had a squirrel face to it, and I thought maybe you quanitified that it wasn't a "tree" squirrel as a clue. I googled flying squirrel and that seemed to be a match. No experience with them, and I hope my first experience won't be in my bedroom during the night!

Yeah. I'm relieved to not be giving at eye witness account of the little guy's gliding prowess. He was pretty scared, and had we not been standing in his way would likely have swooped over to our bed.

So as to keep this at least nominally food-related I'll point out that flying squirrels are omnivores, and are themselves an important prey animal (presumably for owls).

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Those look like the chewy bits usually served on top of patbingsu - ice and fruit and chewy bits served with red beans during the summer. McDonalds always did a nice one with vanilla soft serve, as I recall. Does anyone know their official name? Zenkimchi? Are you out there?

They were always multi-coloured when I got them, though.

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Those look like the chewy bits usually served on top of patbingsu - ice and fruit and chewy bits served with red beans during the summer. McDonalds always did a nice one with vanilla soft serve, as I recall. Does anyone know their official name? Zenkimchi? Are you out there?

They were always multi-coloured when I got them, though.

I don't know the official name either, but yes, that's what these are. The small English label on back describes them as "Bingsu Rice Cake."

Here's the whole package:

gallery_11280_2981_594643.jpg

I decided to get some because I can't get patbingsu readily near my house, and I don't particularly like the versions I can get. I don't like the inclusion of ice cream, and the fruit's often not fresh (and typically includes, horrors, canned fruit cocktail), and the serving's way too large, and I like a bit more rice cake, and well, I'm just picky.

Unfortunately I didn't buy any more sweetened red beans, and apparently I'm out of sweetened red beans. I'm wondering if perhaps the kids decided it would go nicely with ice cream...

Just as well, though, since I breakfasted on tea and:

gallery_11280_2981_126308.jpg

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I know what the dried stuff on the right is called in Cantonese...it is something from a young bamboo shoot, I believe. It's one of my favourite vegetables! It has a really "soong" (crunchy?) texture when you bite into it, even though it's soft and holds a lot of sauce because it's so porous.

And yes, the one of the left is abalone.

Help identifying the other items I photographed would be welcome:

gallery_11280_2975_139561.jpg

I can try...the first one is "sert yee" (snow fungus in English?), the second one I see all the time but I don't remember what it is. I was going to guess shark fin but the pieces look too small. The third is just Chinese dried black mushrooms...you use them in soup or you can braise them in sauce and serve them on a bed of Chinese greens, and the fourth one I'm also not quite sure about, but it looks ike "fish maw" or "fa gao" in Cantonese (fish stomach? fish bladder?) and it's used in soup. Fish maw soup is one of my favourite Chinese soups, but only if it's of excellent quality. I like it even more than shark fin.

Edited by Ling (log)
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Lunch today was from "deli" equivalent of Super H Mart.

Stir-fried fish cake:

gallery_11280_2981_864415.jpg

Vegetables. I think of these collectively as nah mool or na mul or however you want to say it. I don't know if that's strictly correct. The label on the container "Three Wildweed" and lists only bean sprouts and spinach. I think the brown stuff is some sort of fern, as you occasionally run across a fiddlehead.

gallery_11280_2981_263362.jpg

Lychee fruit for dessert. Fizzy mineral water to drink.

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I can try...the first one is "sert yee" (snow fungus in English?), the second one I see all the time but I don't remember what it is. I was going to guess shark fin but the pieces look too small. The third is just Chinese dried black mushrooms...you use them in soup or you can braise them in sauce and serve them on a bed of Chinese greens, and the fourth one I'm also not quite sure about, but it looks ike "fish maw" (fish stomach? fish bladder?) and it's used in soup. Fish maw soup is one of my favourite Chinese soups, but only if it's of excellent quality. I like it even more than shark fin.

The white fluffy fungus is the one that's used in desserts, right? At least that's what it seems to always show on the package.

I've yet to have what I'd describe as excellent quality fish maw soup. So far it's left me cold.

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Another trivia question...

gallery_11280_2981_339019.jpg

I really like this stuff. I'm cooking some into a compote to eat later this week in my lunch, along with vanilla yogurt (which I make starting with plain yogurt, as I don't like commercial flavored yogurts).

What is it?

What medical condition do I almost certainly not have?

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I'm also making some soup base (to which I'll later add fresh basil or arugula or leftover corn or whatever I feel like) for lunches this week). I'm using the following ingredients:

gallery_11280_2981_214763.jpg

What word on the red mesh bag label is covered by the onion in front of it?

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Your picture is of rhubarb, but I've yet to figure out what medical condition would preclude the eating of rhubarb.

Am I right?

Ah, I figured it out - if you have kidney stones, you shouldn't eat rhubarb, spinach and the like because of the oxalic acid.

Edited by saskanuck (log)

I don't mind the rat race, but I'd like more cheese.

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What word on the red mesh bag label is covered by the onion in front of it?

Vidalia?

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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Your picture is of rhubarb, but I've yet to figure out what medical condition would preclude the eating of rhubarb.

Am I right?

Ah, I figured it out - if you have kidney stones, you shouldn't eat rhubarb, spinach and the like because of the oxalic acid.

Two for two. The oxalic acid/oxalate is also what makes your teeth feel funny when you eat those items. It's also one of the few nutrients that's primarily absorbed in the large intestine rather than the small intestine.

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What word on the red mesh bag label is covered by the onion in front of it?

Vidalia?

Yep.

Vidalia onions have changed in appearance since I first saw them (probably 20 years ago). Back then they were they were virtually always pretty small, and "flatter" than usual onions, so there was much less yield of usable onion per item and per pound. They also went bad much more quickly than other onions.

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Other things I bought at Super H Mart yesterday:

gallery_11280_2981_75602.jpg

gallery_11280_2981_178120.jpg

gallery_11280_2981_64752.jpg

My purchase of this last item is the sort of thing that makes my husband think that I'm just a wee bit unhinged. I brushed my teeth with it this AM, and it does taste a bit salty: a little like baking soda toothpaste, a little bit like clay.

I always buy toothpaste when I travel.

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