tmso's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
Need lactose-free milk in Paris
Matin léger is one brand, Valio is another. And of course there is always goat's milk. Carrefour, Monoprix, Auchan ... any of the usual supermarkets should have something.
Chowhound Post
Are there foods you won't eat because you consider them too dangerous?
No, it seems you've only "read and studied" way too much fear-mongering on the subject. As I said above, if the fear-mongers were right, there would have been an epidemic of C-J following the mad-cow scares. The good news is, they were wrong.
Chowhound Post
Thanksgiving in Paris
Nah, I wasn't trying to get anyone feeling all multiculti and tolerant. I was trying to allude to the fact that when done well, cranberry sauce closely resembles the different berry sauces that are often served with game in germanic countries. If one likes those, one would probably like the type of cranberry sauce that I think of as good. If it's from a can, it's crap.
Confit d'oignons sounds like a great compromise, though.
Chowhound Post
Thanksgiving in Paris
Mine of maghrébine or alsacienne origin tend to like cranberry sauce, as do the germanophiles.
Chowhound Post
Why are organic wines so bad?
I agree, but that was kind of my point. In discussion of things like, "why are organic wines bad?" I think it would be more useful to use terms like "natural production" rather than "organic vinification" precisely because of the disconnect between the terminology of different parts of the winemaking world. I do think that US organic wines are generally undrinkable, and yet so many of the best wines are either biologique or öko.
Chowhound Post
Paris--best pastries to try
In that case, I would suggest you look for them in Paris. We have a lovely Algerian pastry shop, La bague de Kenza. The main store is on the rue St-Maur, but there are a few other locations around the city. Things to try would include cornes de gazelle, cigares, skandriates, maqrout-el-louz, droits de Kenza, and galb-elouz.
For Tunisian pastries, there's a boutique Masmoudi on the bd St-Germain. Baklawas, melfoufs, mlabes, tajins and dawamas would be good things to try.
Chowhound Post
Spoiled Seattlite looking for good coffee roaster in Paris
Water is also an issue. They have sweet water on the west coast of the US, and to my tastes you get poor results if you use it in a caffetiera. When in California, I use bottled mineral water.
Chowhound Post
Spoiled Seattlite looking for good coffee roaster in Paris
Just to be contrarian, the Instituto nazionale says it should be 25 ml. And that's total volume, so if you have a good crema, I could see the black part of the coffee being as little as 15 ml. In any case, you know you've found a winner if the bar doesn't fill the cup to the top; it's easier to find a proper espresso in Bavaria than it is in Paris ...
Chowhound Post
Why are organic wines so bad?
Sulfur is used in organic agriculture, I don't see why one would object to its use in an organic wine. Sulfur, chapitalisation, filtering, and more, are all manipulative techniques that clearly render a wine not "natural", but except for saying "that's what the FDA requires" (and it's a bizarre exception to the global rule here), I don't see why that would necessarily make a wine less organic.
Chowhound Post
do you eat American style or European style?
Do people in Dubai really consider the Maghreb to be part of the Middle East? At least from the vantage point here (France), it is a distinct part of the arabic world separate from the Near East (not all of which, as you mention, is part of the arabic world).
Chowhound Post
Ideas for white asparagus?
And besides the ubiquitous Spargel-Risotto? If you put them in a roasting pan with meat, you get a nice flavor transfer both ways. You can brush them with oil and bake them in a hot oven. Poached in wine and water, they're wonderful as is, or with a fried egg. Or poached again, you can toss them with pasta, using some of the poaching liquid for the sauce. Pureed, they can go inside stuffed pasta or form the top of a parmentier.
Chowhound Post
Why are organic wines so bad?
You refer to organically made or organically vinified wines, but this really just exposes a weird terminological problem in American English. If a winemaker uses only organic sugar in their chapitalisation, the result is a wine that is not naturally made, but how on earth is it less organic? I think the distinction in French terminology makes infinite more sense: agricultural products are issued from organic or conventional production; wine-making techniques are natural or not.
The problem of course is the FDA's embracing of organic+natural=organic, organic+manipulated=/=organic. But I don't see why one needs to accept that strange conflation, which basically says that only non-manipulated wines are Really Organic, in conversation about wine. All it does is encourage further misunderstandings on the part of those who only read part of the conversation.
Chowhound Post
Paris--best pastries to try
Although I'll gladly second the general recomendation of Gugelhopf (my tastes in pastry go more towards the germanophone Alps), it's a very non-French style of pastry and not something widely adopted either. It never would have occured to me to ask, but if anyone has a recommendation for Dampfknödeln...
Isinicki: since we're talking non-French pastries as well, do you have access to arab pastries where you are?
Chowhound Post
Are there foods you won't eat because you consider them too dangerous?
As Bryn said below, cooking won't neutralize prions; they're actually proteins folded into a more stable shape, so unless you're planning on burning the food into charcoal, it won't neutralize them. And the bad news is that Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (ie, prion disease in humans) can be acquired from food, notably from venison.
In the 1990's there was a big scare about C-J, due to truly disgusting practices in raising beef in the UK, US and Canada leading to cows with prion disease sometimes finding their way into the food supply. The situation was particularly bad in the UK. Fast-forward to the end of the 2000's and the feared epidemic of C-J never arrived, thank goodness, and all those Britains who ate all that meat, head cheese, oxtail, etc., from contaminated cows have brains for brains, not jelly. So empirically it looks like there's not much to worry about from cattle.
Chowhound Post
spicy food near Gare de Lyon for a Monday lunch
I'm 95% certain that they're open on Mondays. They draw the lunch crowd from the small firms in the area. As for the distance ... it's about 10 min from the quais if you take the metro 1.
Chowhound Post
alternative to champagne flutes?
Since it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere else in the thread: if I have more people than flutes, my second choice is arab/turkish tea glasses.
Chowhound Post
spicy food near Gare de Lyon for a Monday lunch
Café Seoul, 19 rue Fbg St-Antoine isn't too far away. The barbecue is good, as is the bibimbap, and things like kimchee-tofu soup are okay if nothing special. It's pretty informal and plain, but clean, tastey, inexpensive and they've usually got K-pop playing.
Chowhound Post
Best hamburger in Paris?
« Hamburgers, like pizza, have no place in France. »
BS. What is that even supposed to mean in a country that is the number 2 consumer of McDonalds after the US, and the number 2 consumer of pizza in Europe?
« You want different, have sushi. »
It's no easier to find good sushi than it is a good hamburger or pizza.
Chowhound Post
Are there foods you won't eat because you consider them too dangerous?
I've never known anyone to get sick from Mett (a german dish of chopped raw pork). I'm sure it was a very bad idea to eat it in 1600, but in modern times it's just a question of having a clean, safe foodchain.
Chowhound Post
Are there foods you won't eat because you consider them too dangerous?
I have no intention of eating wild fugu, as with you it's a calculated risk that doesn't seem at all worth it to me, but I'm quite curious about farmed fugu, which is raised in an environment without the toxin-producing bacteria and is thus safe to eat.
Chowhound Post
berlin - recommendations for a solo traveler
The food at morgenland is great, but it's way too busy for my tastes (or was the last time I was in Berlin). I totally concur on Istoria, though.
Another, totally different but very Berlin option would be Cafe Morgenrot on Kastanienallee, also in Prenzlauerberg. Tasty vegetarian food in a lefty, punkish environment.
Chowhound Post
Sampling Macarons in Paris
I'll have to check out Paulette next time I'm back in the Bay Area. It's not that surprising, since the main thing you get with, for example, Pierre Hermé vs a good neighborhood pâtisserie is more guarantee of a consistently good product, not necessarily a better product when they're both good.
Could other SF hounds confirm that Paulette is somewhere I can send Bay Area friends/family after they decide that they love macarons based on the experience in my neighborhood bakery?
Chowhound Post
ISO wine to go with Indian food...
Petite Sirah is a good match with lamb, so that sounds like a good match to me. Myself, I like Châteauneuf-du-Pape with rogan josh.
Chowhound Post
Best Coffee Candy
They're coffee-chocolate cubes with sweetened liquid espresso inside.
Chowhound Post
PARIS NYE OYSTERS
Yes, there is a market on Bd Richard Lenoir on Thursday mornings, and there will be oyster vendors there without a doubt.
Chowhound Post
ISO wine to go with Indian food...
I like wine with Indian food, yes, much like how I like wine with Italian food. Yes, there are other good pairings.
Chowhound Post
Good asian in Paris tonight?
I've become quite fond of Le Pacifique, 35 rue de Belleville. Steamed noodles, lotus sticky rice, etc., are correct. The quality varies a bit more than I'd like, though. Overall it's quite solid cantonese food.
Chowhound Post
Radish greens -- do you eat them?
Radish green and potato soup is fantastic. The recipe in the other thread doesn't look very good to me; I make mine more simply: radish greens sauteed in a little butter, then add cubed potato, salt and water, simmer for a half hour, puree, and season with pepper, a little nutmeg, and a spoon or two of crème fraîche.
Chowhound Post
Individual bottled wine/champagne cocktails for brunch?
Why not do a champagne cocktail? Buy individual bottles or cans of champagne, bring a plastic container of sugar cubes, douse them with bitters and hand them out.
