peanuttree's Profile
Soup?? manalapan area
Shanghai bun on Rt. 34 in Matawan serves great chinese noodle soups
Maybe Wegman's soups are good? Wegman's is the supermarket with the big food court. It's on Rt 9 somewhat north of freehold's downtown area
Good Cantonese (like Shanghai Bun in Matawan) in North Jersey?
There's this place called Shanghai bun in Matawan that is awesome cantonese food. It's a lot of noodle soups and other stuff, but it's all really authentic cantonese food that isn't just dim sum. They even have the special real wok burners that use buttloads of gas. On the weekends, they even have cantonese breakfast, you can get the fried crullers, soybean "soup" sweet or savory, radish su bing, etc.
That is, really good cantonese food OTHER THAN dim sum.
Any place like this in North Jersey? Or Rockland or Westchester county? Or Hudson county?
and anybody know what kind of chili oil they use as a condiment? It's smoky and aged tasting, whereas whatever I buy has too much of the stinky fermented flavor, too strong. The chili oil they have on the table is clean tasting and amazing. Where do i get chili oil like this?
Condiments and Eggs
hot sauce. And you know what works surprisingly well? Taco sauce. Like the kind at taco bell, the thin, cuminy sauce, nothing chunky or salsa-ish. The flavors work well together
Forget dogs, how can you *eat* rabbits?
indeed. Bunnies are adorabel, soft fluffy, gentle, magical little animals. I used to have a pet bunny. Since I know longer do I don't care as much
I could eat rabbit served to me as a dish, and would even like to try the rabbit showed just recently here on chow at that Italian place in manhattan, Il buco or something. But I would have to stop eating rabbit if someone's pet rabbit were in front of me and I pet it/hold it, I would then feel bad.
Get rid of yeast smell/taste in dough products
OK, so a long slow rise
thank you everyone
Get rid of yeast smell/taste in dough products
just normal twice rise plus pre-bake bench proof, using the normal active dry yeast. The yeast that you proof with warm water and sugar
Making a good Chinese chili sauce
So, at Mr. Chow's, one of if not the best restaurant I've ever been to, where every ounce of food is better than I thought could be possible, with subtle nuances maginified that you didn't even notice were in the foods you elsewhere normally eat, they have this amazing chili sauce. It's saltier and has a richer or fuller flavor than the stuff you can normally buy with the rooster on the bottle. That is the chili paste with the seeds in it, NOT sriracha - the rooster company makes this stuff too.
One noticeable difference is that it's saltier than the store-bought stuff.
The chili sauce at the Dim Sum places in NYC also have a sauce that is similar/better than the store-bought.
So what's the secret? Anybody know? Any way I can tweak the normal store-bought chili sauce to match it? Maybe add some oil? Obviously any oil would add a richness to the flavor. I've tried adding sesame oil and it... might be the same? Or just better?
Anybody know?
Get rid of yeast smell/taste in dough products
So, I know how to make bread and dough products appropriately.
What I don't get is, everytime I make anything like that, the yeast smell is in the bread, instead of the rich, wonderful bread smell (like when you get really good bread - I get it at Kings here in New Jersey). You know that smell when you open up the yeast packet or jar? The whole bread smells/tastes like that.
Also I can't get the slight sourness, and just the rich taste in general that comes with a good bread
So what is it that bakers do, yeast-wise, to make such good bread when it's really good?
Is it that they use that fresh yeast cake stuff? Instant yeast? Is it that I have to use a starter - the flour-water-yeast mixture you leave for a few days?
What is it? Anybody know?
Unattended Dutch Oven Cooking?
you could use a thermal cooker. They're popular in China/Asia
They're basically a pot that has a larger vessel you can put it into. The larger vessel is a vacuum flask, so there is very little heat loss. The idea is you put your food into it boiling, and it stays at that temperature for a while.
I bought one but haven't actually used it for cooking yet. But with my test, I put water in maybe 2/3 to the top after boiling, and 2 or 2 and a half hours later, the temperature was down to 165 farenheit. So it doesn't work perfectly, but it's still a viable option if you can spare the time to re-boil every 2-3 hours. You could cook something but still do errands let's say on the weekend when you're generally around the house.
Poll: Would you eat a dog
are dogs animals just like all the other animals we eat?
Well, let's see, cows, pigs, and chickens aren't known for knowingly and willingly saving people's lives, even at their own risk, like dogs are. So in reality they're not the same. Hell, one dog, Balto, saved thousands of people because he did his job (brought medicine to remote area of Alaska)
not to mention the intelligence aspect. Our family dog once listened in on my Mom on the phone, and when she said to her sister, "OK, we're coming over" WITHOUT doing any obvious "Let's go to AUNTIE'S house!" to Crystal (our dog), she already knew that they were going out and was excited and went to the garage.
I'm pretty sure a cow's intelligence never really goes above "walk over there, eat some grass". Especially since that makes sense, since evolutionarily speaking they don't need to be any smarter than that.
What exactly is Native American cuisine?
you're supposed to run water through acorns to remove the toxic tannins that make them bitter, the native americans did this
What is "American food"?
I think one theme that is in the background here is that American food isn't very deep. We have a bunch of dishes, half of which are some sort of typical diner fare or sandwich. Our cuisine is working-man's cuisine. Specific dishes at diners (quick places), like tuna sandwich or BLT, or simple dishes for busy housewives, like grean bean casserole. etc.
And you know what? That's OK, it's refklective of our culture, and it's not unique to America. From what I know, Mexican food is the same way. A lot of it is another form of some sort of combination of cheese and/or meat, beans, and something made out of masa. Whenever I hire laborers they usually just eat sandiwches for lunch.
These are the cuisines of more modern-developed countries, with working-man cultures/capitalist cultures. Our people have been/are busy a lot more than other places historically. Time has been and is limited for most of us.
yeah, we don't have the detailed, dense food cultures of let's say Thailand or France. But on the other hand, we've also never had an aristocracy that basiaclly enslaved everyone and spent decadently to force their slave-chefs to create magnificent dishes. And we have had the monety and resources to do other things. Like I mentioned above simple dishes for housewives - but why simple, when in theory a housewife would have time to make more complicated dishes? Because it's a lot of work to take care of a large house that you can afford. And things being farther apart makes commuting to shopping or anything else take longer, whether it was post-war wives with their own cars or before that when everyone took the bus. Again, leaving less time for more complicated cooking, or learning about cooking, or experimenting with cooking.
All cultures are different. All countries have some things better and some things worse - the people are stick with or choose their trade offs.
What is "American food"?
well this makes sense, since America as a whole was more recently developed, and is a much more decentralized country with population centers being farther apart. Innards and such spoil very rapidly, so large numbers of people getting them isn't feasible. So most American recipes for innards are from rural areas, such as scrapple or chitlins. The eastern seaboard/urban areas just haven't had innards as much of an option
How do you clean a pizza stone?
you should not clean pizza stones with water or any chemicals
and you can just use those terra cotta planter plates/bottoms as pizza stones instead of spending an arm and a leg
my custom-pizza adventure
So... I guess I don't really have a question, just wondering what people's thoughts are on this.
I really like capers cooked on a pizza. That is, put on the pizza raw and then cooked with it, as a topping. The delicious saltiness and robust aroma and flavor. Awesome. Also love tomato slices on a pizza. But making a pizza myself would be tedious, and anytime I make any yeast raised bread it always tastes like the yeast. I don't know what bnakers and restaurants use, but that weird smell of yeast always permeates the bread I make - that smell you can smell when you open the package.
So last week, I got some tomatoes from south jersey from a farmer's market, so I knew they're actually red-picked tomatoes (you can actually see the guy's fields at this place). Then on Sunday, at like 4 PM, when I knew there would be few customers, I went there with some of my capers (the brand you buy matters - go for the salty kind, a lot of the fancier ones use more vinegar than salt, and it's more of a sour than salty flavor), tomato slices I sliced from the tomatoes I bought that I sliced with my mandolin, red onion slices I also sliced with my mandolin, and I didn't have to buy any italian sausage, I knew they would have it. So I had them make me a pizza with tomatoes, red onion, capers, and sausage.
The advantages were, again, the tediousness avoided. Also, they make really good pizza there. None of that yeast smell. And there was no one around and they make the pizzas sort of right in front of you, so I could tell them how much to put (which was only an issue because this place piles on the toppings - for some reason they don't have the sense to use less amounts when there are more varieties of toppings). Also, I didn't have to buy an entire package of sausages just to make one pizza.
So yeah... So is this a genius idea... or a tribute to ultimate gluttonousness?
And I wonder, can they technically do that according to health codes? It's not really an issue unless a restaurant makes it an issue if they want to follow the health code down to the T - but realistically no one's going to complain, and I doubt I'd end up going there the one time the health inspector wanted a pizza, too, and he'd like "catch" us. Hell he might not even care if he's not on the job. Anyway, luckily this is a small restaurant in a small Jersey town, run by some jersey Italians, so I guess they were like ay! why the hell not?
And oh yeah, I tipped the guy who made the pizza $5, since this was a special thing, and he listened to my comments when he was putting the toppings on (when I said that's enough for each ingredient). So it was a $15 pizza, plus $5 tip, makes it $20. I'm still eating the slices for my lunches at work.
Enough with this "presentation" silliness
and as to the "mostly unheard of foodstuffs": Am I the only one who notices that they're not actually unheard of, they just use fancier names? Jams become "compotes", any time there's cheese or breadcrumbs just say "au gratin", etc. etc. It seems like half of being a "chef" is just using fancy names for food.
I could say "A semolina pasta casserole with an aged cheddar mornay sauce, served au gratin" and all I'd be talking about is mac n' cheese
Grass-fed beef vs. Grain Fed beef
no cows are fed exclusively grain. You're right. Cows aren't meant to eat only grain. If they did, they'd DIE. They're fed a diet WITH a LOT of grain, but not SOLELY grain. Their diet MUST have plant fiber in it, and plenty of it. Often what they'll do is give the whole grain plant for the cows to eat - so the cow gets the nice grain at the top of the plant that will make her fat, but she also gets the fibrous stem and leaves, which she needs on a regular basis.
Who really invented the sandwich.
So we've all heard the story of how the sandwich was invented. The Earl of Sandwich (in England) was attending a card-game tournament. He was hungry, but wanted to continue playing while eating, so he needed both hands to stay clean and he needed one hand free to hold up the cards. So he told one of the servants to fetch him some slices of roast beef and put them between two slices of bread. The other royals noted this and eventually started ordering "what the Earl of Sandwich came up with". Eventually they just started calling it a sandwich. And thus was born the sandwich.
Awesome story. But here's the thing. The Mexicans/Aztecs/Mayans/peoples of Central America had been holding food in tortilla wrappers for years. They used corn tortillas and filled them with the ingredients they had, like avocados, turkey, squash, fish, etc. But they wraps/sandwiches any way you slice it. So you could most certainly say that they were the first inventors of the wrap. But depending on how you define it, or what you choose as the main defining characteristic, a wrap is just a kind of sandwich. If you focus on the convenience of the food; that they provide you with a dry, edible surface to hold to allow you to eat a variety of things but not get your fingers wet/greasy, then a wrap and a sandwich are just two forms of the same thing. And in both cases this convenience seems to be the driving force behind the invention and subsequent popularity of these foods.
So what does everybody think?
The rumors are true: WholeFoods is coming to Closter, NJ
what's a matter with you all? Why is A & P or stop and shop so terrible? They're normal supermarkets like any other. At least they're there close by in Closter - don't have to drive so far, and they're affordable.
And the CVS ruined the character of the town? That one CVS they built? Nitpicking much? Cresskill is still teh pwnage like Closter and the other small old-timey towns in our area. It would really take a lot to destroy the character of these towns - more than the planning boards or voting citizens would ever let happen. Unless of course you nitpick about every new building, in which case you won't be happy anywhere on earth, let alone Closter/Cresskill.
does anyone know of a product that.........
they're not bogus claims - they either use oil or coconut-oil bases or use trans-fat-free shortening which is made by using FULLY hydrogenated oils mixed in with regular oils to produce the solidity while avoiding trans fats (fully hydrogenated fats are fully saturated, so by definition can't be trans fats). There is trans-fat-free crisco, also. It's the one in the green can.
There are plenty of low or no-trans fat margarines - they use such low amounts of partially hydrogenated oils that it doesn't matter. The problem with these is they might not be so stable at room temperature.
I would recommend lard, as that's a natural fat that doesn't have trans fats, but that's not kosher (and most lards you buy at the store have been hydrogenated somewhat). Maybe try some suet? You may need to render it first, but it should work like shortening. It sounds gross, but it is mild enough to be used in desserts; mincemeat pies and christmas puddings are made with it.
Maybe try topping your cakes with icing instead - that is, a liquid sugar mixture that dries on. Or how about streusel topping, like with coffee cake? That's pretty good too.
broader suggestion - if you're eating cake, ignore the trans fat thing, since you're eating cake anyway. Having it every once in a while won't kill you, at least not more so than having cake every once in a while.
Include bone marrow when making stock?
When making stock, when you think about it, shouldn't you NOT include marrow?
This question really only applies to beef and veal stock, since chicken bones are too small for you to be able to scoop out the marrow.
I've been thinking, shouldn't you scoop out the marrow before you make stock with bones? Won't the marrow just make the stock cloudy and/or add weird little chunks to it? And most of the gelatin and flavor comes from the meat and bone - it seems to me, as tasty as marrow is, it would be an "off" flavor in stock, which is just supposed to taste meaty. And marrow will just add more to the fat that needs to be scooped out later. Does the flavor of the marrow even go into the stock? Wouldn't it not since oil and water don't mix (and marrow is mostly oil/fat)?
Any thoughts?
You don't like that?!
it's one thing not to like certain things, it's another to refuse to try new things. You're not 5 anymore, you should understand that having a bad taste in your mouth for a few seconds isn't going to kill you. The only significant thing that can happen from trying a new food is getting a new food that you like and can/will eat from then on
Sweet Potato?
it's technically a kind of sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas - it's just a specific variety associated with the Caribbean/South America
with a lot of staple crops there will be a few broad types of it for different climate regions - like how in North America white corn varieties have always been grown, but in Mexico/Latin America they can grow yellow corn because of the warmer climate
Mangosteens in NYC
I guess this is a little late to mention, but they've been selling fresh mangosteens (irradiated) in Manhattan's Chinatown this summer at most of the stands for $7 a pound. Just in case anybody didn't realize and was missing out.
I also saw a jackfruit at one of the stands this Spring, but that was the only time.
I assume sugar-apples are coming soon again, as I've bought them before in late summer. Does anybody know where to buy soursop or atemoya in NYC? How about the local fruit pawpaws? Anybody know where to buy any other obscure fruits? The only thing I haven't found yet that they apparently have is breadfruit and guineps in the West Indian markets in Brooklyn.
Difference between Persian and Middle East Food
I forgot about the arabic cooking part. I guess the difference is that most of the arabic countries have a MUCH hotter, drier climate, basically dessert. It's not what you'd call a European-type temperate climate. So they don't use all the herbs and fruits and vegetables that Iranians do. Seems it involves more chickpeas and meat. And that description that the other posters gave of having more hot, oily flavors would seem to be true - Iranian food would be the farthest thing from hot and oily.
It's the vegetation thing that makes the biggest difference. You can't grow mint and parsley and apples and quinces and walnuts in a desert. I don't think you get the fresh herbs and vegetables platter in Arabic cooking with every meal that you get with Iranian food, for example.
And yes I understand that not of all the arab countries are deserts, but they're a lot closer to that than Iran is. Like I said, Iran is closer to Europe in climate and subsequent ingredients.
Difference between Persian and Middle East Food
I've grown up in a Persian household, so I know about Persian cooking. Persia and the Arab countries have very different climates. Persia is a temperate climate, more like Europe. They use a lot of vegetables and herbs in Persian cooking. Persians are culturally really still Zoroastrians. They recite old Persian poetry that talks about fruit-tree flowers and stuff and believe in tons of stupid herbal remedy stuff - every herb heals something or every food is good for something, without any real explanation. My grandfather always recites this poem that goes something like "My girlfriend's cheek is red like the radish and the white of her eye is white likes it flesh" The best analogy I can come up with is medieval Europe.
So their food is based on this reverance for temperate herbs, fruits, and vegetables, but with a complete lack of any cooking skill or logic. They just take a bunch of vegetables and whatever they have lying around and throw it into a pot. They also add this dried lime thing that makes everything taste horrible, and they add it to like half their dishes. I really doubt if there are any Iranian cooks who know barely anything about cooking, the most they ever know is how to make good kebab. For example, whenever my father roasts hazelnuts, he coats them with lemon and salt, but he roasts them IN THE SHELL, so I try to explain to him that none of that flavor will actually go onto the actual nut, but he just insists this is the way they did it back in Iran. I've asked if maybe this is so that you can suck the shell sometimes to get the salty tart flavor, but sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no, and either way he doesn't suck the shell, so it's still pointless. The only way he can answer is that this is what they did back in Iran. Iranians truly don't know how to cook other than direct copying. My mother spends who knows how much on authentic Iranian saffron, and everyday uses it on rice that she makes undercooked, dry and mealy. They'll regularly have no idea what it even is they're putting into a dish - they'll just buy the herb/spice mix package - they know that it's the right mix for the dish, but if it weren't pre-packaged, they wouldn't know what ingredients to buy to make it from scratch. They either severly undersalt the food, or don't salt it at all, because they honestly don't understand that they need to. Every dessert has the same pistachio-rosewater-saffron taste, no matter how different they look. In short, Iranians are like the opposite of the French or Thai when it comes to the kitchen.
I understand that when you go to a Persian restaurant, it usually tastes good, but you have to understand these are catered to American tastes, and everybody only really kebab there anyway. Plus they're running a restaurant, so they HAVE to make it taste good or they'll go out of business. Outside of the restaurant industry, Iranians are horrible cooks, as described above.
The only real part of Iranian cuisine that would taste good is the fruit. The fruit in Iran is probably amazing, since they have a good climate there for temperate fruits, and they probably have good-tasting, old varieties. They also have a wider variety of fruits there - they still eat Medlars, which the West hasn't eaten since like medieval times, and they eat other fruits that have been lost to time for us (cornelian cherries, hawthorn, jujubes, etc.)
As A Chowhound, What Did You Get For Christmas?
an herb-saver thingy to save excess fresh herbs from the supermarket - it's a little pot you put water in to keep the herbs' stalks in, and it has a glass housing to keep the humidity up
Exotic fruit in Palm Beach area?
Sometimes, I come down here to Palm Beach with my family for vacation, and sometimes when I'm down here I drive down to the Robert is Here fruit stand to get tropical fruit.
But that's like a two hour drive. I'm sick of driving all the way down there. Does anybody know of any places in the palm beach area that sells exotic fruit? I'm looking for real exotic fruits like sapodilla, passionfruit, soursop, tamarind, eggfruit, white sapote, jackfruit etc. like they sell at Robert is Here - not just citrus. Citrus is not exotic - everybody knows what citrus is and can get it at any supermarket anywhere dangit! I'm sick of places that advertise they sell "tropical, exotic fruits" that really just sell citrus.
Exotic fruit in Palm Beach area?
Sometimes, I come down here to Palm Beach with my family for vacation, and sometimes when I'm down here I drive down to the Robert is Here fruit stand to get tropical fruit.
But that's like a two hour drive. I'm sick of driving all the way down there. Does anybody know of any places in the palm beach area that sells exotic fruit? I'm looking for real exotic fruits like sapodilla, passionfruit, soursop, tamarind, eggfruit, white sapote, jackfruit etc. like they sell at Robert is Here - not just citrus. Citrus is not exotic - everybody knows what citrus is and can get it at any supermarket anywhere dangit! I'm sick of places that advertise they sell "tropical, exotic fruits" that really just sell citrus.
Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes
I've heard they can give you really bad gas - has no one experienced this?
