CoconutMilk's Profile
Cooking from around the world.
vietworldkitchen.com is Andrea Nguyen's web site, and I'd say she's pretty much the best Vietnamese cookbook author around. She has quite a few recipes on her site. Mai Pham and Corinne Trang are also pretty good. A book from any of those three would be the best start.
If its possible I would go to a restaurant first. It can be hard cooking food from a cuisine you've never tried because you don't really know what to aim for.
Cooking from around the world.
I choose a different country every week and try to cook most of my food for that week as if I could only make food from that country (I've started this madness within the last year and it doesn't always work out but its fun).
I've done Persian, Spanish, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Lebanese, Turkish, Moroccan/Tunisian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, and too many others to count.
It's hard to pick even a few that I like over the rest-- which is why I switch it up week to week. On the whole I probably cook Indian, Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese food the most.
Fish Sauce, do you find it overpowering?
Any recipes with 3 tbls of fish sauce and soy sauce better be huge and contain tons of other ingredients because thats an awfully salty starting point.
I love fish sauce, but contrary to what other people are saying, the only times I get offended by it are in cooked preparations. Sometimes a cooked dish has fish sauce added to it at the last minute and it is pungently salty and has a fishy aftertaste. This sort of thing happens at bad Thai or Vietnamese places. I always find it delicious when its used uncooked as part of a dipping sauce or marinade with sweet, spicy, and sour flavors to mingle with it.
Food Project: Chicken & Rice Around The World
I've only attempted biryani a few times-- and none of the recipes I've tried turned out other-worldly, which is what I believe a good biryani should be. But if I were to try it again I'd go with one from either Raghavan Iyer (His book "660 Curries" is easily my favorite Indian Cookbook) or Julie Sahni or Madhur Jaffrey.
Food Project: Chicken & Rice Around The World
Some others....
-Paella- this can be a chicken and rice dish if you want it to be.
-Biryani- certainly one of the best chicken and rish dishes ever.
-Persian "Polows"-- there are a whole class of Persian rice dishes that can be made with chicken (lubia polow, adas polow, kalam polow, baqala polow and the maybe the best of all...zereshk polow--- just to name a few).
-Khao man gai-- thai chicken and rice.
-Jollof Rice-- West African kinda thing.
-Chinese clay pot chicken/rice dishes.
There are many others. Basically any culture that cooks with rice has a chicken and rice dish-- usually several.
Best farmers markets in the mid-atlantic region?
Haha. I'm well aware of that list. I was going to direct the OP to that as well but its not up to date at all. There are many, many vendors not listed in it.
Best farmers markets in the mid-atlantic region?
Yes, Babes in the Woods is at the Cville City Market. I buy from them on occasion. Good stuff.
My favorite veggie vendors are Radical Roots, Waterpenny, Whisper Hill, Appalachia, and Broadhead Mountain...although there are many others. All of the fruit vendors seem pretty comparable. The sheep's milk cheese from Everona Dairy is superb and the samples are plentiful (and the two nameless vendors next to him-- a woman with some produce and a woman who sells a ciabatta-like bread-- are also great).
Most of the prepared foods are overpriced and underwhelming. Most of the scones, treats, cookies and what not are skippable. There's a popsicle guy that has cool flavors with local fruit. Very good but not cheap. "Jam According to Daniel" is pretty much the best jam I've ever had, but its also not cheap (sample them all-- some are too sweet but some are nice and tart-sweet, which is what I prefer). The taco stand is crowded but is just ok (there are much better tacos down the street from the market at a place called La Michoacana).
If you come down to cville and your into markets and local stuff you might as well check out Feast as well-- its a speciality foods store that, while ridiculously overpriced, does have good local cheeses, lots of cool salumi, and usually a good selection of free samples.
Best farmers markets in the mid-atlantic region?
Check out Charlottesville. Only 2 or so hours away and the Saturday morning city market has over 100 vendors. There's produce, meat, cheese, crafts, wine, popsicles, tacos, bread/baked good, saltenas, samosas, pickles etc etc. Its insane. A little overwhelming, actually. But definitely something to revolve a day trip around. Its twice the size of any market I've been to in the DC suburbs.
I'd happily list some of the best vendors if you decide to head down there.
casual but delicious between UVA and Manassas
I can't vouch for it personally but the Barbecue Exchange in Gordonsville gets excellent reviews-- super casual I presume and certainly less than 75 bucks for 3. Closer to Manassas is Afghan Famous Kabob (in Gainesville-- a slight detour, depending on where in Manassas you are going). Very cheap and pretty decent Afghan food-- extremely casual (no waiters, order at counter). There are a few higher end places in Culpeper but I've not been to them.
Where to get fresh spring produce?
I wouldn't expect much for a couple of weeks in terms of spring produce. My two favorite area markets are the Falls Church market (saturdays) and the Arlington courthouse market (also saturdays). Both should have ramps, spring peas, plenty of greens, and garlic scapes. Not sure about the favas, though. Some of my favorite produce vendors are Potomac Vegetable Farm (at both), Wheatland (courthouse), Red Rake (courthouse), Musachio Produce (at both), and Tree and Leaf (at falls church).
All kinds of changes at Taste of China in Charlottesville
Taste of China continues to add new dishes, but honestly I have yet to come across one that is really a home run. I know there is potential at this place. Part of the problem, I think, is that so many of the so-called signature and recommended dishes are deep fried. I can't stomach a meal that consists of 2 or 3 plates of fried food.
Has anyone encountered a truly great dish there?
Top Chef All-Stars - Ep. #8 - 02/02/11 (Spoilers)
I don't get what's so wrong with dried pasta. I remember watching Mario Batali on "Molto Mario" back in the day and practically every episode he would talk about how in Italy dried pasta isn't viewed as inferior to fresh pasta at all. They're just different. And I agree with him. Fresh pasta can never get the al dente bite that dried pasta gets. Some sauces are better with dried pastas (aglio e olio or a simple marinara), and some are better with egg-based fresh pastas (butter and parmesan).
This episode was somewhat lame. Lorraine Bracco is pretty annoying and I agree with the previous poster about the overkill fo the whole "Italian food is about letting the ingredients shine."
Your favourite "magic" few-ingredient recipes
There are tons of tasty, simple things that involve few ingredients. But when I think of a dish that "transforms" a handful ingredients into something special it's got to be mujadarra. The whole time you're eating it you're thinking, "how could onions, rice, and lentils taste this amazing?" Onions slow-cooked-then-fried-and-caramelized in copious amounts of oil, thats how.
All kinds of changes at Taste of China in Charlottesville
This place is adding new dishes to the menu seemingly every day in the post-Peter Chang era. Some are Szechuan dishes and some aren't. Today the specials board had red-cooked pork, dumplings in red oil, shanghai soup dumplings, beef with cumin, "triple spicy" chicken and all kinds of stuff I can't even remember from all over China. The owner said many of these specials will make there way onto the regular menu. She is extremely proud of these new dishes.
I tried the "triple spicy" chicken and soup dumplings at the owners' urging. The chicken was a dish I feel like I've had before, I just don't remember the Chinese name-- lightly sauced white meat chicken (possibly fried) with some szechuan peppercorns, copious amounts of whole dried chilies, scallions, and fresh bamboo shoots. It was well executed for what it was but wasn't spicy at all.
I'm not a soup dumpling expert, having only had them twice before. These were served with a sweet and sour gingery brothy, which I don't think is traditional at all. Nevertheless, they tasted fresh and were full of porky, fatty goodness. I think they were homemade and I'd be interested to see if any area soup dumpling aficionados have tried them and could say how they stack up to the real deal ones.
***whoops...this is supposed to be on the mid-atlantic board. my bad. i can't change it.
Duangrat Market in Bailey's Xroads- Easily The Best Thai Food Right Now
I think thats the menu for the restaurant itself, not the market around the corner with the same name that everyone is raving about.
Cooking from the Time-Life "Foods of the World" series of books, anybody?
I'm in my 20s and had never heard of these but I was at a massive used book sale today and a couple of tiny spiral books caught my eye. I leafed through the Middle Eastern and Latin American books of this series and I was blown away at how good the recipes looked. I was like-- what????....this is from the late 60s/early 70s???? There was nothing out of date about the volumes and I purchased the pair for a mere 50 cents. I feel like I've struck gold!
Lobio (Georgian bean dish)
I've never had the dish but have always been intrigued by it. Both the sweet and savory recipes appear in Paula Wolfert's well-researched and underrated book, The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean (which has quite a few Georgian recipes in it). If you're looking for recipes I'd go to her first.
Which Cook Book Would You Recommend?
If you're making your own wrappers and you suck as bad as I do at wrapping...then its pretty time consuming. But the beauty of this book is that so many dumplings freeze UNBELIEVABLY well. In fact, I prefer them cooked-from-frozen (they are less doughy because the gluten has fully relaxed--at least thats my theory). So you can have a day of cooking tons of dumplings and then have reserves for weeks to come. Its really a well-thought-out book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Vegertarian Pasta Dish served with Meat Sauce Side
yeah....i think something along those lines also. Maybe a pasta with broc rabe or kale and tons of garic, olive oil, chile flakes and breadcrumbs. Then you could have some browned up sausage that is an optional fold-in...not even a sauce, actually, just sausage bits.
Which Cook Book Would You Recommend?
Andrea Nguyen's newish book Asian Dumplings is pretty incredible-- easily the best book on dumplings I've come across. If you're at all intrigued by dumpling making I recommend it. Most of the recipes are a litte time consuming, but if you're unemployed that might be a good thing : )
Arlington - Need help finding specific pickles
I havent been this year, but last year at the Wednesday Clarendon Farmers Market, Saturday Falls Church Farmers Market and Sunday Columbia Pike Farmers Market there was a vendor called Oh! Pickles that I believe had pickled watermelon rind.
My boyfriend challenged me to a "lets use all this food we have in the house" battle
1st course.....a big salad with butter lettuce, big homemade croutons from the baguette, some tomatoes, avocado, and cukes with a lemony vinaigrette, or will grilled chicken on it...or some kind of chicken-avocado butter lettuce wraps with a dipping sauce (depends on whats in your pantry though)
2nd course....maybe fresh pasta with small-diced roasted apples, roasted brussel sprouts and parmesan cheese, thats kind of fall-like....depending on the spices you have, a coconut-milk based curry with the shrimp or mussels or both
3rd course....fruit compote from the frozen fruits with greek yogurt....assuming you have rice, maybe a coconut rice pudding.....if the baguette is old, a bread pudding for dessert....depending on how many lemons you have, maybe a lemon curd with the mascarpone or the greek yogurt folded in with like crispy sugar dusted whole wheat flour tortillas thingies--that would be wacky and innovative.
Harissa - should it be so bitter?
I've had canned harissas that are unpatalably bitter as well. I think part of it is the canning process and part of it is the bitterness of the types of peppers used in the paste. My homemade versions have also been a little bitter, which I suppose comes from the guajillo, ancho and other dried chiles I've used. I keep telling myself I need to love harissa because I generally love any spicy condiment but I have yet to find a brand that is worth buying or a version that is worth making again,
Elephant Walk - Thai in Falls Church
Has anyone been here recently? I'll be coming to the Falls Church area from Charlottesville and am considering a visit as opposed to going to some of my old standbys when I used to live there. I'm intrigued by the green curry with roti appetizer and some of the salads (especially the signature "Elephant Jumps Salad" with coconut, shrimp, lime and shallots). Any other good orders?
Have a lot of concord grapes. Good ideas? And tips?
I've made concord grape pies a few times and in my experience once the pulp has been boiled a few minutes you will be able to simply push it through a sieve to separate out the seeds-- I don't think you need a food mill for that task at all. I just keep squishing it with a wooden spoon and all the slimy/liquidy pulp makes its way through, leaving nothing but seeds behind. Concord grape pie is a must-make, though. So good.
Moving to Charlottesville...Cheap Eats
I've lived here two months now and only recently made it out to Taste of China. I was totally underwhelmed. The "spicy beef rolls with cilantro" that I'd read about were salty beyond reason and the eggplant with garlic sauce and "dry spicy and tasty" chicken (which was promised to be very ma la) were forgettable. Their version of szechuan cold noodles was pretty good, though. I guess I ordered poorly, huh?
La Michoacana remains the best place I've been to, though at times the meats are a little overseasoned and I'm thirsting for water hours later. I also had some surprisingly good drunken noodles and larb gai at Lime Leaf.
Eden Center Vegetarian
Song Que has a chili-and-lemongrass marinated tofu that is really excellent on a banh mi. I think its better than their chicken/pork offerings.
Gluten-free binder for zucchini cakes?
maybe some crushed up rice crackers. rice-based products are quite light and probably won't give a heavy texture to the cakes.
Seven Corners/Eden Center rec?
In the Eden Center, I'm partial to Huong Viet, which isn't the most adventurous of places but is the most consistent and best across the board imo. The cha gio (spring rolls) are a must-order-- the definitive version in the area along with Minhs in Arlington. I also love the banh hoi platters with grilled beef or pork (or get the combo). They also do a good job with lacquered quail, lotus root salad, and other staples like shrimp with chilies in a caramel sauce or lemongrass chicken with chilies and ginger. Lots to like over there.
Stay away from Pistone's. If you don't go to Eden I'd go to HKP for Szechuan or Rabieng for Thai, which are both right down route 7.
Help me sift through the Charlottesville City Market
I just moved here and visited the Saturday market for the first time today. It is totally overwhelming. One vendor told me there are 110 stands at the market and I believe it. It's just absurd.
There were donuts and saltenas and tacos and tarts and pies and biscuits and asian breads and jams and everything in between, not to mention loads and loads of produce.
What are some of the best bets at the market. Do any particular produce vendors stick out in terms of tomatoes or corn or peaches? What are some of the can't-miss prepared foods?
Thanks for any input.
