Food, glorious food

I drrrreeeeeammm of you, little Chinon!



(thewanderingeater's photo)

Sigh. Payard was my fave neighbourhood pastry shop. IT CLOSED. I have no reason to go back...

Robert

My current cheese obsession: Morbier!

Robert

re 1-4: I just can't eat plastic

Lol@Robert

That's why men marry! So someone can cook for them and spare them such junk!

#3

Looks wicked good. In some ways it's good the cheese selection here is so underwhelming... in more tempting circumstances, I'd be capable of suicide-by-cheese.

I'm having a treat today--at least it better be--broiled real red snapper, in an effort to imitate a dish I almost never have here--grilled fresh fish. A little oil, a little lemon, a cup of wine, and Thee...

One of the big disappointments of adulthood was discovering that "seafood", in North American parlance, doesn't necessarily mean "fish, from the sea, the salty sea". No, it can be "food" from rivers, swamps, fresh water, brackish water, yard puddles...

No, it can be "food" from rivers, swamps, fresh water, brackish water, yard puddles...

And nastyass catfish. You know how I feel about nastyass catfish...

Count yer blessings, Lola-Lola.

My 7-year old has become quite the connoisseur of the chicken tender. In pursuit of the perfect c.t., we visited a new joint here in town. In the parking lot, an old pickup with a do-it-yourself camouflage paint job and two bumper stickers: GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, ESPECIALLY THE SNIPERS and EXTREME RIGHTWING. Inside, you order your burger or chicken, or the deep-fried mysterie du jour as your are enveloped in a mist of soft Christian rock, whilst gapeing at uplifting quotes from the Bible and - yes, believe it - G.K. Chesterton stenciled on the walls.

And, in one of God's little winks at his stray sheep Maki, a table full of off-the-clock employees in the next booth, swearing like drunken missionaries in a Bangkok whorehouse...

Did I mention that the mercury topped at 110 in Phoenix today? Enjoy your snapper.
;)

I have just read about shonka, and I crave a big plate of it.

Robert

Hey, maki -- we've been going through that same heat wave. Although, where I live, it's not unusual to have a few days in the 105-110 range each year (we live about halfway to the desert from the coast), what is unusual on those hot days is for there to be any humidity. The hottest days in SoCal are usually bone dry. This last weekend, however, was different. We went to a family picnic at one of the local lakes. It was 114 degrees...and humid. Nothing turns a Californian into a baby more quickly than humidity. I'll take 110 in the shade any day...provided that it's dry heat. Heck, you can even through in a quake or two. But put me in the middle of that 90/90 weather that they get back east and I'll whine and complain all day long (not to mention not want to do anything).

Mak, that's practically an argument for illiteracy. Get that kid out of school!

#12

Shonka, it is what?

What is shonka? I would like to know the answer to that, but if I had to choose I would take a big plate of it without knowing what it is.

With a flourish she plonked before me a gross sausage the colour of rubberwear and as full of lumps as a prison mattress. It was little larger than those things in Bavaria that just fit into bowls the size of chamber pots.

"is shonka"...I...gingerly poked it with the point of my knife. There was the sound of a boil being lanced. A squirt of boiling fat shot across the table...The contents of the sausage, bright red with paprika, lay there before me like an anatomy lesson. "My sister Marja she send from Voynovia. We eat like this, Gerree." Cheekily she speared one of the lumps on my plate with her fork, dipped it into a pot of black treacle and held it playfully to my lips.

Mechanically I opened my mouth and allowed it entry but thereafter there was nothing mechanical about my chewing. It was exactly like trying to cross a hot beach barefoot. When I say black treacle I only mean that was what it looked like, though I'm damned if it really wasn't mainly molasses. What the rest was, I cannot say, but my impression included saffron, pickled walnuts and lavender, with perhaps a pinch of plutonium. The only thing missing, surprisingly, was Fernet Branca.

Once one mouthful of shonka and sauce was down a kind of local anaesthesia set in and the next forkful was marginally less lethal. And you know how it is, l'appetito vien mangiando and all that, it wasn't long before I had eaten a good two inches of the thing with a mere yard to go...my shonka which, as I progressed, increasingly resembled in its effects the hemlock they gave poor Socrates to drink. A curious numbness began in my extremities and slowly converged on my heart.

From pages 28 and 29 of Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson. I personally think that he doesn't have the fine control over commas that a professional writer should have, but he can still make my mouth water from my head to my toes.

Robert

Silent, I live right on the coast down south from you and I swear we have not had a day over 78 degrees F. all year. It's been remarkably mild, not excessively grey nor too bright, and exceedingly pleasant all summer. I keep thinking the winter will be a bad one just because these last 9 months have been so temperate.

About the only place on earth I think is half as lovely in terms of weather as San Diego is Sydney, Australia. Everywhere else pretty much sucks donkey balls!

Of course, weather is pretty much all San Diego has going for it. Other than that, well...there's not much here to interest anyone. (Sydney, though, is an awesome city and a place I highly recommend visiting.)

Of course, weather is pretty much all San Diego has going for it.

For a Phoenician, that's enough. This is hardly a hub of cosmopolitanism.

Hee hee, Maki! I actually have friends/refugees from Phoenix living here. And, yeah, they ain't never going back to Arizona! ;-p

Other than that, well...there's not much here to interest anyone.

You do have an active theater scene...I've driven down south for plays at the Globe, the Civic Theater and the La Jolla Playhouse (nothing recently, though...)

I'm making lemon ice with California's famed Meyer lemons, which finally appeared in my grocery store.

I wonder how close they are to Iranian sweet lemons?

Meyer lemons are wonderful but they're very different than Iranian sweet lemons, at least the ones I've had. To me, limoo shirin have an indescribable flavour: sort of citron-like and sort of perfumey and very low in acid. Meyer lemons are definitely more "lemony", sweet and ripe-tasting but also bright and acidic, and they don't have the floral character generally found in limoo shirin. Here in Southern California we can get the Iranian lemons at Middle Eastern groceries (which, in my area, are almost always owned by Iranians, Kurds or ethnic Armenians from Iran and Azerbaijan). If you have Iranian groceries in Toronto, you might want to look for them there.

My dear, you're SO right! (Are you ever wrong?!)

I've had Iranian lemons before, that's why I was especially curious about Meyers, the shape reminded me of them, but like you say, Iranians are much paler (not sure how well it comes out in my photo), and less acidic, and there's something something extra to the taste:



An Iranian friend brought them as a gift and then I pestered him to buy me a bag every time he went grocery shopping.

The ice was FANTASTIC btw. I'm afraid I went through the whole batch in three days.

I love lemons and use them for everything. I am particularly fond of North African preserved lemons (and have two different methods for preserving them, one Tunisian, one Morrocan). The Morrocan method - packing the semi-quartered lemons with coarse salt - results not only in deliciously spicy lemons to be eaten alone or in tajines, but a tangy confit for dipping with bread, etc.

Could you post the recipe for the Moroccan preserved lemons, Ben? I've never really been happy with the pre-made preserved lemons I've tried but haven't yet attempted making my own. What you describe sounds like it would be worth any effort involved.

Lola, in the spring and summer I like to make a lemon-buttermilk ice milk with the Meyers. Sooo good and really easy:

Lemon Buttermilk Ice Cream
Serves 8

2 cups superfine sugar
6 large lemons
1 quart buttermilk

Put the sugar in a medium size bowl.

Grate the zest of 2 or 3 lemons so that you have 2 tablespoons of grated zest.

Juice as many lemons as needed to get 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Add the zest and juice to the sugar in the bowl and mix well.

Add the buttermilk and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Chill 4 hours or overnight.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Buttermilk ice cream! I don't think I ever had such a thing.

Is the ice cream maker a necessity? I slightly fear acquiring one--I can resist most anything sweet EXCEPT ice cream.

Well, I suppose, if you're a lot less lazy than me and willing to freeze and stir and then freeze and stir and freeze and stir some more (!), you could probably make this without an ice-cream machine as the texture is rather ice-milk like anyway.

The great thing about buttermilk is that a) it's tangy and a great complement to fruit and b) it seems to freeze up in a way that allows for some natural creaminess without the need for a custard or tons of fat as in regular "ice cream"). You can use limes in this recipe and tangerines might work too (they'd need to be pretty tart, though). I tried grapefruit once and it was a disappointment (rather surprisingly) so I wouldn't recommend those. I've heard of people adding herbs like lemon verbena to this as well and, though I haven't tried it, I think that might be good.

Now, share your ice recipe, please!

26: The method I was shown was to take the lemons and slice them in quarters to the base (i.e.: so the lemon opens, but does not separate) and pack them with a coarse kosher salt. Place them "upright" in a large jar and seal it as tightly as possible. Around 3 months later, they're ready for the tajine or use in chutneys, etc.

Here is an online recipe (I am certain Meyer lemons are best, but ordinary lemons work well enough):

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_preserved_lemons/

Oh, the ice is simple, only... you do have to freeze & stir a few times! ;)

It's the first thing grandma taught me.

Granita al limone

6-10 lemons (the more the better to my taste)

0.5L water

500g sugar

lime, if liked

grated lemon peel

Prepare syrup (melt sugar in boiling water), let cool, add juice of lemons, lime and zest, stir, freeze 8-24 hrs, breaking the ice and mixing it at intervals (I usually do it about three times).

Take care not to add the juice and zest to too-hot syrup, it can cook the lemons and make the taste a bit off.

I make strawberry ice the same way, 500g strawberries and 1 large lemon.

P.S. Oh yes, with the Meyers I used their juice, but for the zest I grated an ordinary bitter lemon.

Coming late to this thread I just noticed Lola's lament about the sorry state of fish in North America. It reminded me of the time my Japanese wife remarked to me, having surveyed the fish case in a California supermarket, how surprised she was that in America markets sold rotten fish.

Oh, hilarious.

Ah, the fishies of my youth... never to be met with again...

I'm making a tub of most excellent lentil soup, the last of the season, unless it's suddenly winter again.

It's the cumin that makes it, I think. That, and Dalmatian sweet laurel, and coriander at serving.

Can't wait to start gazpachoing, though.

So I'm reading about how incredibly tasty raw frozen fish is, and I wonder--why not try the raw frozen fish from the supermarket? It must have been frozen fresh. Like the Eskimo fish and seals. Killed and frozen. What's the diff?

Now for the rest of possibly stupid questions: first thing that strikes me, raw frozen fish seems awfully hard. Do I just bite into the thing, or try to flake it or slice it?

Next, which fish is likely to be the tastiest, frozen and raw? I have the choice of haddock, pollock, red snapper, perch, cod and salmon. But let's say something other than salmon. Ideas?

Please don't tell me it won't taste the same unless I first run next to a dogsled for fifteen miles...

Well, I guess that would work up an appetite at least.

How do I keep my tongue from freezing?

Sorry. I've had raw fish, but never frozen, so I'm out of my depth here.

Shallow waters, eh? Never took the plunge, eh?

Plunging into shallow water isn't wise ;-)

I'm part Indonesian (like many Dutch people) and prefer my food hot and very spicy.

I remember as a kid, on hot Southern California summer days, sometimes, having ripped the paper off a "big stick" (as the popsicles were actually called), licking the thing a bit too eagerly and having the saliva on my tongue freeze, bonding it to the frozen imitation fruit flavored whatever it was.

So you'll want to be careful with the frozen fishsicles.

I got a great tip in another thread--Norwegians flake frozen cod! So, cod, and flake it!

Did you know that in the Adriatic we too have sushi (sashimi actually), only we call it crudo (Ital., raw)? Probably because it's a typical fisherman snack, and not something one would think to serve in the restaurant, that little fact isn't well known.

You eat it WITH YOUR EYES!

I have brain freeze just looking at it.....

On a much more accessible level, if you're partial to a good salt and vinegar hit i thoroughly recommend, at the risk of seeming horribly human, Tesco's salt and vinegar peanuts. They are painfully hot and left me sweating under the eyes, my tongue was so badly burned by the chemicals therein that i could drink tea nor coffee for two days afterwards, wonderful.

Yesterday I roasted long sweet peppers--pre-peeled stage...



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