Ridiculous questions re: Spain, cochinilla, can't miss foods

Thanks, MesaChow and JuanDoe. Logroño is actually the town that I had intended to visit in Rioja. Sounds great! Anyone have any other thoughts onthe merits of cochinillo (I guess I had cocinita pibil on the brain when I called it cochinilla) and where to eat it?

mmmmangos in Spain/Portugal

Ridiculous questions re: Spain, cochinilla, can't miss foods

My husband and I are in the lucky position of taking a short-notice trip to Spain in a couple of weeks. The plan is/was to go to Barcelona and San Sebastian, spending at least 4-5 days in each area, maybe also stopping somewhere in the Rioja region if we felt like it. Awesome. This will be our first time in Spain, and the husband is unbelievably excited about jamon and shellfish.

But then he saw a photo of the roast suckling pig in Segovia, and suddenly Segovia is on the itinerary. This makes things way more complicated. So, I ask: how awesome is this here pig? Worth rearranging our plans to try it? Can a great version of it be found outside of Segovia? It seems to me that if we go to Segovia, that means we would go to Madrid, which is not a bad thing...it would just make the trip more hectic.

This leads me to another question...if the roast suckling pig is *not* worth an itinerary overhaul, what Spanish regional dishes (if any) *are* worth it? We just happened to see a photo of the cochinilla. (Oh, and I don't mean El Bulli-type dining experiences; I'm really asking about casual, non-splurge items.)

So, I know...ridiculous. But I am genuinely interested in your responses to any of the above questions, so thanks in advance.

mmmmangos in Spain/Portugal

Easy Indian Sweets?

You might look into a semolina halva/halwa, which I think is sometimes called sooji halva. It's less complicated than the carrot halva recipe you linked to and doesn't use dairy apart from butter, although unfortunately I don't have a recipe. I know it's semolina (or Cream of Wheat), butter, sugar, cardamom, raisins and slivered almonds, if you've got them. I believe the method is similar to making a soft polenta, and the consistency is similar as well. It's not at all fancy but soooo comforting!

mmmmangos in Home Cooking

Help! Too many ripe avocados! Need recipes fast!

In case you ever have this "problem" again, I have a couple friends from the Philippines who LOVE LOVE LOVE avocado milkshakes. Looked up some recipes online...some are as easy as avocado, milk, lots of sugar, and ice. Some used condensed milk. Some used ice cream. Holy richness...I've never had one myself.

mmmmangos in Home Cooking

Sorting & Quick-soaking beans - novice question

So, for the first time in my life, I am using dried beans! I've got a bag of small red beans which I picked over, and noticed many looked wrinkled. I tossed all the ones that were clearly yucky as I sorted. I'm now doing a quick-soak method I read about, where I boiled the beans for a minute in plenty of water, and then I leave them to sit for an hour. They're doing this soak as I write.

Here's my question. As they came to the boil, about half the beans floated to the top and looked wrinkly. Are all these floaters bad??? That's my suspicion, and if so, I'm really annoyed that I've got less than half a bag of usable beans (and it also makes me wonder if the whole lot should just be tossed).

Thanks, experts!

mmmmangos in Home Cooking

What foodstuffs should I buy to bring home?

Hey metaphora, I live in LA too, and Cost Plus currently has the Zapp's Spicy Creole Tomato chips (they have the Tabasco logo as background on the bag), along with several other flavors. Zapp's are my favorite chips--I spent so much energy bringing bags of Zapp's back from my trip to NOLA last year, making sure they weren't crushed en route, that I just had to laugh when I saw them at Cost Plus.

FYI, they also have Abita root beer at the moment, which is deeelicious. If only they had Hubigs and Camellia's. I'm trying to figure out how to get back to NOLA asap.

mmmmangos in New Orleans

Breed Street evening food vendors - still there?

Thanks for the excellent news! Yippee!

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Breed Street evening food vendors - still there?

Thanks. The person who told me nearly everything was gone went last weekend, I believe.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Breed Street evening food vendors - still there?

I haven't been to the weekend evening Breed Street street food deliciousness in a few months. An acquaintance went recently and said nearly all of the vendors were gone. I really hope that's not the case. Anyone been recently (like this weekend or last)? Has it indeed changed, or moved, or is it the same? Does one evening/time of day have more vendors than another?

Thanks in advance. This was such a great LA eating experience, and I hope it remains so.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Help build our dream restaurant weekend in New Orleans. Please.

Hey, ViniferaNYC, are you back from your trip? Would love to hear your feedback because I have a trip to New Orleans coming up soon and have many of the same food interests!

mmmmangos in New Orleans

Los Angeles coffee - I'm calling you out (many boos, and one hooray)

I'm no coffee expert, and this is not quite in L.A., but this weekend I did notice that Koffi in Palm Springs offers brewed-to-order single varietal coffees. I believe there were 4-5 choices under the label Red Estate, or something to that effect. Sorry for the absence of details--again, I'm no coffee aficianado!-- but I thought this might interest some people reading this thread.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

St Benoit Yogurt in LA area???

Seriously, THANK YOU for this. Nice to have a choice aside from Liberte, especially since I'm constantly terrified that Gelson's will stop carrying it.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

LA to San Diego - where to pick up lunch?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think we'll take the 5 but we may end up on the 405 depending on how traffic looks. Das Ubergeek, REALLY helpful tip about getting banh mi veggies on the side - thanks! Schrutefarms, unfortunately Temecula is not on our route, but I suspect I'd really like Toms Farms. Another time.

I'll look into Tutor and Spunky's as well. Will probably decide en route. Thanks again!

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

LA to San Diego - where to pick up lunch?

My husband and I will be driving down to the SD Zoo on Friday morning, and thought we might pick up lunch along the way. I was thinking of getting some banh mi around Westminster --there's an awesome little bakery we've bought banh mi from in the past (i know it's well known on CH), but I can't remember its name. I'm also thinking of checking out Mattern Deli in Orange, which I had read about on another site. I'm concerned that banh mi may not keep well. Thoughts on these ideas, or any other suggestions?

We plan to go and come back as quickly as possible, which is why I'm not looking for a San Diego recommendation. Thanks in advance!!

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Anything Chow Worthy near Theo Chocolates (SEA)

Just a heads up - if you are going to Seattle soon, call ahead to make sure Paseo is open. I really wanted to eat there but they were closed last weekend, and I think they're closed most of January.

Also, do make an advance reservation for the Theo tour. I tried to take a tour on Saturday -- I met a Theo employee at DiLaurenti's market on Friday, and she encouraged us to do it -- and it turns out the tour was fully booked. Apparently weekend tours fill up about a week in advace.

Have fun!

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

4 days in Seattle - need help prioritizing my list!

We just returned from a wonderful trip made all the better by your advice. Since you were kind enough to provide suggestions, I thought I'd better report back! We didn't make it to all the places we wanted, but almost every place we went was fantastic.

Salumi - lived up to the hype. The salami stunk up our hotel room (in a good way) whenever we opened the fridge. Porchetta, meatballs, hot soprasetta, salumi - all great. They are only open Tuesday-Friday, in case any other tourists plan to visit!

Matt's in the Market - really, really good. Went for a late lunch so specials were sold out. I had soup & salad (great); hubby had the fried catfish sandwich based on the recs here. He really liked it despite generally hating catfish, so that's high praise! I would have liked to go back.

Txori - Great tapas and reasonably priced, I think. Better than any I've had in L.A. so far. I like how it really felt like a friendly, casual neighborhood cafe (as opposed to a lot of LA places that try to be sexy and smoldering). Braised pork, chorizo & chocolate, pa amb tomaquet, and the tortilla espanola sandwich were the faves.

Crush - JUST. EAT. HERE. Really. This was the best dining experience I've had in so long. The food, service, and wine suggestions were all perfect, and it was a fun place to eat as well. I had a hamachi and asian pear appetizer (best hamachi ever) and a fantastic gnocchi main course...the lightest, fluffiest gnocchi I've ever had in a wonderful creamy herby sauce. The hubby had the foie gras "steak" appetizer and the sous vide short ribs, which has ruined him for all other short ribs. We also were able to try the soup - parsnip leek perhaps? - in any case, delicious. God I love this restaurant.

Tamarind Tree - I'm really glad we went here but I suspect we ordered the wrong items, even though we asked the waiter for advice. I wish they had a more limited menu! We ordered the Tamarind Tree spring rolls, which were good, and I ordered a lemongrass/pepper tofu dish, which was pretty good but rather dry/oily, and my husband got the Hainan chicken rice, which he said was good but not the best he's had. It seemed like the thing to order was their enormous crepe to wrap up in greens...those looked great! The drinks were great (fresh lemon sodas), as was dessert.

Boka - this was attached to our hotel, so we thought we'd try it late one night because they have a late-night happy hour. I was really underwhelmed by the food and would have found the space annoying for a proper dinner. I'd skip it and go pretty much anywhere else. Can't beat a $3 Guinness, though.

Elliott's Oyster Bar - I almost forgot! We went at happy hour and sat at the bar. We are oyster novices and we couldn't have asked for a better education...three dozen oysters later, we know what we like. I think we tried 5 different kinds? That really was a blast, and delicious, and we would never have gone there if not for this board, so thanks again.

We didn't make it to Lark or Quinn's, which is too bad, but the food we did have was so great that it's hard to complain. Crush seemed to use a lot of local, seasonal ingredients as well. Other things...we grabbed breakfast most days at Piroshky Piroshky, because it was convenient and tasty; I enjoyed Beecher's cheese; Bavarian Meat Deli was a worthy stop; everything I tried at Le Panier was yummy; we ate honeycrisp apples every day...life is good.

Anyway, thanks again, Seattle Chowhounders! I never expected such a generous response to my questions. Your city is delicious.

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

4 days in Seattle - need help prioritizing my list!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of these suggestions. I am writing all of these down. Though some are pulling ahead of the pack, I won't rule anything out...it sounds like it will be hard to go wrong, which is a nice dilemma to have.

I will also check in advance whether Paseo is open. Thanks for the warning! (And it's true; L.A. is lacking a really good tapas place).

One last question, if you'll indulge me. Of the Lark/Sitka & Spruce/Art of the Table type places, which would be the "easiest" to visit? It seems that there are a lot of tiny, no reservations places in Seattle and I'd prefer not to spend ALL my time waiting for tables! :)

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

4 days in Seattle - need help prioritizing my list!

Wow. This is such great info. I will def. add either Tilth, Sitka & Spruce, or Lark to the list. Thanks for the feedback on all the places, and the Monsoon brunch suggestion sounds good as well.. Will pass on Dinette. Something about Quinn's really appeals to me, so I may keep that as well.

Equinoise, glad you had some good food experiences in L.A.! Lucques and Jitlada are both great. Haven't been to Parks BBQ but I've heard good things.

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

4 days in Seattle - need help prioritizing my list!

Yay! 2 votes to get Juanita off the list, and 2 votes for Wolf! These suggestions are very useful.

Are Tilth and Sitka & Spruce similar to each other, or would either be a good replacement for anything else on the list? Harvest Vine...to be honest, tapas would not have been my first choice, but it seems to be a huge favorite so I added it to my list.

Bavarian Meat Deli just sounded like fun...a place to pick up cured meats for later, but not for a meal. Same with Ballard market. My hubby saw something about pork belly sliders at Spur, so that was also put on the list (so perhaps Quinn's can get crossed off).

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

4 days in Seattle - need help prioritizing my list!

My husband and I will be visiting Seattle from L.A. for 4 nights at the end of the week. We've got 4 breakfasts, lunches and dinners to eat - hurray! I'd like a mix of delicious cheap, casual eats and a couple of nicer places. Based on Chowhound, Yelp, and the Seattle Weekly, I've developed a list but I need help in figuring out what's a don't-miss and what's all hype!

I especially need help prioritizing the non-cheap eats, since we do want to make our splurges count. If anyone is familiar with LA, we eat at a lot of hole in the wall ethnic joints, but we also like Grace, Lucques, and Father's Office, for example. Also, coming from Los Angeles, I decided to leave Mexican, sushi, and Vietnamese places off the list. But please do let me know if there is a can't miss place serving any of these cuisines.

I'm pretty sure we'll go to:
Matt's in the Market
Bavarian Meat Deli
Paseo
Salumi
Ballard Sunday farmers market

I'm less sure about:
Cafe Juanita
Harvest Vine
Crush
Spur
Dinette
Quinn's
Spring Hill
How to Cook a Wolf

Any thoughts would be appreciated. We'll be staying downtown, but are willing to taxi elsewhere (still debating the rental car). Thanks so much!

mmmmangos in Pacific Northwest

Providence or Babita for birthday dinner?

I know that Providence and Babita do very different things, so comparing the two is unfair and possibly idiotic. Still, my SO is taking me out and I need to decide! I've never been to either. I eat fish but no other meat, if that swings the pendulum one way or the other.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Nostalgic for French yogurt; seeking recs

er...in my original post, by "la Speza" I actually meant Spega yogurt in the little glass jars...sorry.

mmmmangos in General Chowhounding Topics

Nostalgic for French yogurt; seeking recs

Thanks for the recs. I didn't know Fage made flavored yogurts. I will give them a try! I've also never seen the Emme Swiss yogurt, but I'll hit some of the "upscale" grocery stores to see if I can find it. Ruth, the Italian yogurt at TJ's is excellent (try the Ginger & Cinnamon flavor), but I need some new options. I think I'll end up trying your jam suggestion.

I'll keep an eye out for the YoBaby. One of my issues with most mass-market yogurts is that they add gelatin, which I avoid. The new Dannon Naturals has no gelatin, but it's unbearably sweet. Thanks for all the suggestions!

mmmmangos in General Chowhounding Topics

Nostalgic for French yogurt; seeking recs

I recently returned from a vacation in Paris, and I miss the aisles and aisles of delicious flavored yogurts as much as anything else. There were such fantastic flavor combos that I couldn't wait to eat some yogurt...in the U.S. I have to remind myself to eat it, like a vitamin. Flavored yogurt aficianados, what are your favorite brands, preferably gelatin-free? I have tried the La Speza, and it's delicious, but I'm bored of it. I don't care about fat content. I'm in Los Angeles, so if anyone knows of anything available locally, please tell!

And I know I could just flavor some good-quality Greek yogurt myself, but that's just not something I'd do on a weekday.

mmmmangos in General Chowhounding Topics

Terrible Indian -- Westside -- Sad

I miss Bay Area Indian food too. But I do like India Sweets & Spices on Los Feliz. They fill the Vik's void with all kinds of chaat items, and I think they do have chhole bhatura. It's great. But yeah, it's not the most convenient place to reach from the Westside. I'll also add to the chorus that likes Samosa House. They make a lot of homestyle food that isn't on display...Punjabi kadhi, chhole and the like, depending on the day. For a more proper restaurant, try India's Grill, as others have suggested...I tried it once and it was the only "everyday" sit-down Indian restaurant I considered re-trying. I've ordered delivery tonight--it seems a little pricey for take-out but I seem to remember having TONS of leftovers last time. Good luck; for some reason it IS harder here--my mom has a plethora of good Indian places near her in Contra Costa County, but here in diverse LA, it's a litle tougher to sort out the good ones.

mmmmangos in Los Angeles Area

Recs for a French menu translation guidebook?

I'm heading to France in March and am thinking of buying a menu translator, since my French is pretty basic. Eating & Drinking in Paris gets good reviews on Amazon--has anyone used this or any other books they've liked? Thanks in advance!

mmmmangos in Food Media & News

Help! Out-of-Towner Seeks Fun Birthday Recs for Mom

My mother's birthday is this Friday, and I was just informed that she wanted to go to Teatro Zinzanni to celebrate. Typically, whatever mom wants, she'd get, except that there are no tickets left at this late date. Can anyone suggest any other fun, lively restaurants/outings that might be appropriate for a birthday dnner? (Kitschy is okay as long as it's genuinely enjoyable!) Mom is in her 50s, vegetarian, lives in the East Bay but would prefer to celebrate in San Francisco.

Any suggestions are appreciated. I haven't lived in the Bay Area for a long time, so I'm clueless. Oh, and Saturday daytime suggestions are fine as well. Thanks!

mmmmangos in San Francisco Bay Area