I know this thread is old but speaking for the way I've seen it done in Peru. They usually eat ceviche as raw as possible. U can let it marinate if u like ur seafood "well done." When u order it in Peru, u kinda pick out what seafood u want and it gets tossed in the pre-made marinade (leche de tigre) and then some gets spooned over. I know that shrimp and octopus are blanched beforehand but really the only marinating/cooking it does is while u put it together. And its nice to add a little fish stock to the marinate to round out the flavors.

Sweet, thanks guys. I actually live in mid-city. I usually leave Walmart for dry goods. Their produce section isnt' huge and i usually buy meat in bulk which i cant' do there. Think Im' going to check out the Hong Kong Market. Sounds like exactly what im' looking for. What is Mr. Walton's Place?? i cant' seem to find it looking it up online

Hello all
I just moved into town a few days ago, and i am looking for a cheap supermarket. I live within walking distance to a Rouses but i am looking for something cheaper. I have a car so i can drive if the cheaper places are outside of the city. I used to live in hudson county, NJ. There I could find asian or latino supermarkets that were a little on the ugly side but allowed me to wind up with a lot of produce that I would eventually have to freeze because I bought so much, ha.
Also the meat at Rouses isnt' too cheap either. Im' used to buying a bulk portion of pork or sirloin and having the butcher section it off into filets, chops, cubes, ground etc.Take home and freeze. My roomate also just moved here and he said its' because we are in the city, well in NY you can at least take a drive to the outerbourghs. Im' more of a person that grocery shops once a month and stocks up. Rouses id' leave for little things here and there. If anyone can help this poor college student out please. A 20-30 minute drive is perfectly doable. thanks!!!

Canned beans taste of tin to me, so I usually make very large batches of beans and freeze. Defrost them when I need them with rice, purée them to add to various things or for retried beans. I usually leave them just firm enough so they can be thrown in a salad when defrosted if needed.

This thread is pretty much dead but Karl S, I must seriously agreed with u. I was waiting to say it the whole time too, was just hoping that the thread would make the jump from 2006. if u wanna learn the history of cuisine and in turn decipher the great cuisines of world, study world history, not food history. Everything done in the west was basically already covered in the east, we migrated from around mesopotamia and followed the ocean to asia where we found spices. Chinese cuisine is definetly the most important player in asian cuisine.I find it to be very varied, developed, and highly influential to the areas around it.
In europe I think the same of jewish cuisine. Just as varied if not more than chinese. They had a major influence from central and eastern europe down the balkens through turkey into northafrica and up into the iberian penisula, most importantly the mediteranian.

Whenever there's a western european dish that calls my attention I usually try to back track it through the more temperate eastern europe into countries ending in -istan or south through middle east towards india.
the last most important cuisine has to be mexican its the only developed one from the new world. While it did receive influence from colonial europe, its also the best example in the americas of resistance to european influence, much unlike the rest of latin america.

I Did skip the middle bulk of the posts but I feel like I might be the only person who salts just in between. I def don't salt pasta water so it tastes like the sea, (only leave that for boiled veggies) but just about the same as one would for rice (western culture) or any other grain. I also use much much less water than most people because I use the pasta water to thicken whatever the pasta is going with. By this I mean the pasta is still very crunchy when combined and I then continue ladling and reducing, ladling and reducing until I get the desired texture and taste. This would be impossible with overly salty starchless water. The water has such a nice nutty flavor/mouthfeel and is so good, I save it for other uses or find myself sipping it before it goes in the fridge. I would never sip ocean water.
So back to my question, does anyone kinda go in between on salt levels with their pasta water?? For me it just needs taste, its covered in sauce after all, and I usually aim for the sauce to be on point salt-wise.

My kitchen is also extremely hot in the summer.if u don't need many tomatoes. What I do is slice an X in the bottom of the tomato and use a cheese grater all ur left with is the peel in ur hand. Works with peppers too,its how u start a basic sofrito.