Puff Pastry Or Voul-au-vent?

[Lisa16]

Yes, those peaches are a dream! I also could get really good ones ('hot Thomas peaches") when I lived in GA. We need a better fruit distribution system! That's all there is to it. I also remember the Ag part of UC Davis where they did all the horticulture and experiments. You wouldn't think it would stop a fifth-grader in her tracks,but it did. What a marvelous world (although I could do without the cow with the window in her stomach! Nightmares for years...) Sitck with the peaches, I guess.

I found out the subsidized flours are, in fact, American. It really makes you stop and think think-- we are trying to sell them poison! And we are doing it all over the world. I guess there is a KFC and Mac Donald's in Colombo now. The politics of food are another topic we cover, from labor to marketing to subsidies. It is enough to make you sick, celiac disease aside. The more you know the worse it gets.

We also watch "Eat, drink, man, woman"-- amazing, really. It is an Ang Lee movie set in Taiwan. The father in the film is a chef who loses his sense of taste. I adore Chocolat (the scene where the puritanical mayor ends up in a fetal position in the display window with chocolate all over him clutching a half-eaten bunny!) and Woman on Top is great-- the scene where all the cooking students sniff the peppers is wonderful. We have watched them both. I never thought of MBFGW, but I could use it for the dinner scene when his parents come over and experience Greek food (and ouzo!) Opa!

We also do "Soul food," which is another wonderful film I would recommend if you haven't seen it.

Oh, and Moonsoon Wedding! Divine! We listen to the sound track of that one and dance around the kitchen. It is our happy music. Especially "Allah hoo"! I never thought to use it in class. There are so many good ones!

There is a fantastic one called "The Gleaners and I" in English and it is by a very old French female director and she looks at the practice of gleaning in France and interviews poor people who glean after the Paris farmer's market and she looks at farmer protests there where they just dump an entire crop and people glean from it.... that is really interesting! We use it too. And there are many more.... I guess these movies are becoming more and more popular because every year it seems like a new one comes out.

Lisa

[Lisa16]

OH! And I forgot "A Chef in Love" set in Georgia (the country) during the revolution and "Babette's Feast." How could I?

Well... off to cook some bitter gourd....

[kenlove]

Need to make a list of the movies I've not seen. "The Gleaners and I" sounds great. I had forgot about "Eat, drink, man, woman".

Should rent it again since I didnt see it since it was first out. My wife cant figure out why I like Chocolat as she usually teases me about watching some James Bond movie for the 430th time. Well at the farmers market we do offer a James Bond Breakfast kit in a box.

"Yoghurt, Stewed Green Figs, Coffee very black". Anyway, Chocolat is about freedom of choice is what I tell her<G>.

Greek Town in Chicago in the 60s and 70s was an amazing experience. Hard to hear English spoken there. It's much more touristy now but still a great place to visit. MBFGW hit close to home and I could easily imagine being invited to it. Oh, and I now use windex to kill ants!

take care

Yes, those peaches are a dream! I also could get really good ones ('hot Thomas peaches") when I lived in GA. We need a better fruit distribution system! That's all there is to it. I also remember the Ag part of UC Davis where they did all the horticulture and experiments. You wouldn't think it would stop a fifth-grader in her tracks,but it did. What a marvelous world (although I could do without the cow with the window in her stomach! Nightmares for years...) Sitck with the peaches, I guess.

I found out the subsidized flours are, in fact, American. It really makes you stop and think think-- we are trying to sell them poison! And we are doing it all over the world. I guess there is a KFC and Mac Donald's in Colombo now. The politics of food are another topic we cover, from labor to marketing to subsidies. It is enough to make you sick, celiac disease aside. The more you know the worse it gets.

We also watch "Eat, drink, man, woman"-- amazing, really. It is an Ang Lee movie set in Taiwan. The father in the film is a chef who loses his sense of taste. I adore Chocolat (the scene where the puritanical mayor ends up in a fetal position in the display window with chocolate all over him clutching a half-eaten bunny!) and Woman on Top is great-- the scene where all the cooking students sniff the peppers is wonderful. We have watched them both. I never thought of MBFGW, but I could use it for the dinner scene when his parents come over and experience Greek food (and ouzo!) Opa!

We also do "Soul food," which is another wonderful film I would recommend if you haven't seen it.

Oh, and Moonsoon Wedding! Divine! We listen to the sound track of that one and dance around the kitchen. It is our happy music. Especially "Allah hoo"! I never thought to use it in class. There are so many good ones!

There is a fantastic one called "The Gleaners and I" in English and it is by a very old French female director and she looks at the practice of gleaning in France and interviews poor people who glean after the Paris farmer's market and she looks at farmer protests there where they just dump an entire crop and people glean from it.... that is really interesting! We use it too. And there are many more.... I guess these movies are becoming more and more popular because every year it seems like a new one comes out.

Lisa

[Lisa16]

Maybe if you are really brave you can use it on the DH! (just kidding.... I bet it would really hurt like heck. I get it too. )

Greek food is another wonderful thing. One of my friends in college was Greek and she actually told me that Greek cooking is very labor intensive as it was designed to keep women at home cooking! I do not know if this is true (she did have anthro articles to back this up.) There is a pastry with cherries that I dream about.....

[kenlove]

Haha maybe not a bad idea -- windex on DH.

INteresting about the way it was designed. I always read that in Ancient Greece the chefs were male and protected by guards so that they were not killed by invaders. It can be labor intensive, for pastries like Loukomathes. I miss those too!

Maybe if you are really brave you can use it on the DH! (just kidding.... I bet it would really hurt like heck. I get it too. )

Greek food is another wonderful thing. One of my friends in college was Greek and she actually told me that Greek cooking is very labor intensive as it was designed to keep women at home cooking! I do not know if this is true (she did have anthro articles to back this up.) There is a pastry with cherries that I dream about.....

[Lisa16]

well... it was a women's college, after all. Maybe there was some kind fo shift from men cooking to women cooking after the middle ages. I bet there is a good paper topic in that!

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how a food from your childhood can produce such strong emotions and waves of nostalgia. It sounds like the Greek food does that for you. I know for my mom it was her Polish mother's cooking-- stock with yellow chicken feet bobbing inside or cherry kolachke or the blue eggs laid by the Polish chickens.

I once saw a Cuban man break down at a food conference when he reminisced about his mother's special dish. He was so surprised (and probably a little horrified that it happened in public). Other people in the audience started talking about their childhood foods emotionally too and it was quite a nice experience. We truly are what we eat-- it is our identity. And I suppose in a way we spend our whole lives somehow trying to recapture the joyful feeling associated with that special food.

There is a cool movie about this (to some extent) by Jaglom-- it is simply called "Eating," but parts of it are painful because it also deals with eating disorders. I don't use it, but it is interesting.

I feel so lucky in my life! I have gotten to try a lot of different foods and met a lot of wonderful people from all over and connected with them over food. There was the older Japanese lady in Honolulu that I met on the beach who didn't speak a word of English but who laughed like a maniac when I pointed at the little fish nibbling at my legs and said-- "sashimi!" Food transcends petty human divisions and little things like a language barrier.

And I feel like even though I have this disease I can still enjoy so much of the world. And there is so much left to explore! Thank you so much for the delightful chat!

[DingoGirl]

I used to think it took a long time to cook, but this is not really true. Some of the best stuff is super fast. And I guess I would rather spend my mornings or weekends cooking multiple dishes that make me happy than reading bad news in the paper. It is about the same time.

For example, the curry I made didn't take long at all-- it was a coconut-based mango chicken curry and I bet it took all of 20 minutes. I think the hardest part is having the ingredients. But once you start buying them for one tradition of cooking, it seems like there is a kind of base flavor-profile and you can use them for lots of other dishes too. And all of a sudden you are cooking that food every day.

Cooking is such an art form.....and my creativity, unfortunately - since due to Celiac I am now required to cook nearly every day - takes its flight in so many other media.....cooking is just drudgery to me! I WISH that I enjoyed it more......but chopping, measuring (or not - I only measure when I bake), the acquisition and preparation of food has alwyas been the LEAST interesting facet of life to me.

And yet, for years, way before the cooking channel was invented, all I did was watch cooking shows on PBS for hours on Saturdays, quite often. I am fascinated with it as an art.....have seen nearly all of those movies you two have mentioned (I even own Chocolat - and I only own about 10 DVD's!).......have got The Gleaners on my Blockbuster queue.

We are madly spoiled with this produce here, and in fact, take it for granted. Eighteen peaches in one day????????????? We see them all over the place and so to us, they're quite ordinary, as are the wonderful citrus fruits. A good mango I get excited over.....we buy all the stone fruits all summer until we're sick of them....there is a Japanese grower a good 20 miles away from me, worth the drive for his tomatoes at peak season.....nothing like them.

Stewed figs? What are you guys talking about? I"m not much of a fig lover....maybe I don't know the right kinds? We have SO many figs here, also.

That chart of fruits - - mygawd - absolutely gorgeous. I have been a botanical illustrator (by avocation) for over 20 years - - what I couldn't do with some of those specimens!

I feel so lucky in my life! I have gotten to try a lot of different foods and met a lot of wonderful people from all over and connected with them over food. There was the older Japanese lady in Honolulu that I met on the beach who didn't speak a word of English but who laughed like a maniac when I pointed at the little fish nibbling at my legs and said-- "sashimi!" Food transcends petty human divisions and little things like a language barrier.

funny!

Anyway, I wish I could just hire you two to be my personal chefs. It just seems to come quite naturally to those who make it their profession.......the rest of us - we're just appreciators.

I lived in Monterey for seven years and worked in the wine industry........those were the days....I ate out from one to three times a week.....some of the best restaurants in the world, but even just the neighborhood bistros everywhere were fabulous. Great to live there and not be Celiac (or - not KNOW you're Celiac).....

[kenlove]

Sute about the Japanese lady. Something I can imagine. Your grandmothers cooking reminds me of my grandmothers cooking. She was born in the US but her family came from the Polish Russian border area. I do remember the chicken feet she always talked about. Also remember the first KFC in Singapore. They had people waiting in line to buy chicken feet! Not something that would go over in the west any more.

Your right, it is amazing how food triggers memories and emotion. At our market or my fruit park I often meet teary eyed immigrants reminiscing about some fruit they remember from their youth in Vietnam or Columbia or Haiti.

Like you I feel extremely lucky to experience these things and the wide range of emotions they conjure.

Like you I dont want to let celiac get in the way of things too.

When people ask what I want to do when I retire, I just laugh. If I live to be 300, I cant do all the things I still want to do!

take care

well... it was a women's college, after all. Maybe there was some kind fo shift from men cooking to women cooking after the middle ages. I bet there is a good paper topic in that!

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how a food from your childhood can produce such strong emotions and waves of nostalgia. It sounds like the Greek food does that for you. I know for my mom it was her Polish mother's cooking-- stock with yellow chicken feet bobbing inside or cherry kolachke or the blue eggs laid by the Polish chickens.

I once saw a Cuban man break down at a food conference when he reminisced about his mother's special dish. He was so surprised (and probably a little horrified that it happened in public). Other people in the audience started talking about their childhood foods emotionally too and it was quite a nice experience. We truly are what we eat-- it is our identity. And I suppose in a way we spend our whole lives somehow trying to recapture the joyful feeling associated with that special food.

There is a cool movie about this (to some extent) by Jaglom-- it is simply called "Eating," but parts of it are painful because it also deals with eating disorders. I don't use it, but it is interesting.

I feel so lucky in my life! I have gotten to try a lot of different foods and met a lot of wonderful people from all over and connected with them over food. There was the older Japanese lady in Honolulu that I met on the beach who didn't speak a word of English but who laughed like a maniac when I pointed at the little fish nibbling at my legs and said-- "sashimi!" Food transcends petty human divisions and little things like a language barrier.

And I feel like even though I have this disease I can still enjoy so much of the world. And there is so much left to explore! Thank you so much for the delightful chat!

[kenlove]

Sure sounds like your enjoying things there too. We take mangos for granted here and would kill for a real peach at times -- or apple.

At the USDA collection in Davis they have 139 types of figs planted in a field and another few hundred they plan to put into a new field.

Amazing collection. Besides the 18 peaches, I ate 126 different figs over 2 days and rated them for both culinary use and horticultural attributes. I have a 3 year project to test 30 to 50 varieties here in Kona. We jar stewed figs often to use in sauce reductions. Just figs sugar water and usually some cinnamon which I shave off the tree outside. Some figs are just like raspberry jam and if you tried them side by side it would be hard to tell the difference, others like honey. There is such wonderful diversity out there. Have 50 types of bananas too.

Lost os things to play with which keeps cooking fun.

take care

Cooking is such an art form.....and my creativity, unfortunately - since due to Celiac I am now required to cook nearly every day - takes its flight in so many other media.....cooking is just drudgery to me! I WISH that I enjoyed it more......but chopping, measuring (or not - I only measure when I bake), the acquisition and preparation of food has alwyas been the LEAST interesting facet of life to me.

And yet, for years, way before the cooking channel was invented, all I did was watch cooking shows on PBS for hours on Saturdays, quite often. I am fascinated with it as an art.....have seen nearly all of those movies you two have mentioned (I even own Chocolat - and I only own about 10 DVD's!).......have got The Gleaners on my Blockbuster queue.

We are madly spoiled with this produce here, and in fact, take it for granted. Eighteen peaches in one day????????????? We see them all over the place and so to us, they're quite ordinary, as are the wonderful citrus fruits. A good mango I get excited over.....we buy all the stone fruits all summer until we're sick of them....there is a Japanese grower a good 20 miles away from me, worth the drive for his tomatoes at peak season.....nothing like them.

Stewed figs? What are you guys talking about? I"m not much of a fig lover....maybe I don't know the right kinds? We have SO many figs here, also.

That chart of fruits - - mygawd - absolutely gorgeous. I have been a botanical illustrator (by avocation) for over 20 years - - what I couldn't do with some of those specimens!

funny!

Anyway, I wish I could just hire you two to be my personal chefs. It just seems to come quite naturally to those who make it their profession.......the rest of us - we're just appreciators.

I lived in Monterey for seven years and worked in the wine industry........those were the days....I ate out from one to three times a week.....some of the best restaurants in the world, but even just the neighborhood bistros everywhere were fabulous. Great to live there and not be Celiac (or - not KNOW you're Celiac).....

[TawnyaK]

Lisa, our daughter, who was adopted from India (age 2) in June, was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. My husband is from Sri Lanka. We could never do without Sri Lankan foods. Wondering if you know of other Sri Lankans who are concerned about eating gluten-free. What we need is help in determining whether or not the items sold on kapruka website are gluten free or not - the ones from Larich and Marketing Department.

While it is true that most of the cuisine is rice based, it is also true that there is a long history of wheat based foods such as the Sri Lankan roti and the savories and cakes from the Dutch and Portuguese (e.g., Love Cake). Close family friends own the bakery Perera and Sons in Colombo.

We are mainly concerned with pre-packaged food items - the ones that come in bottles that one would buy at any Sri Lankan grocery store in Sri Lanka or imported and in Asian food stores in other parts of the world or through a distributor like Kapruka, which distributes to the UK and USA. Don't want to have to make seeni sambol from scratch or brinjal pickle, for example. Have you contacted the manufacturers in Sri Lanka?

Do you know any Sri Lankans with celiac disease and/or other Sri Lankans like your boyfriend who is connected to you so is concerned about a gluten free lifestyle?

Thanks,

Tawnya K

He is from Sri Lanka. We are a real East meets West (I was born here) couple and it makes for a refrigerator full of interesting ingredients and some real winners and some real flops. Wasabi and stinky tofu next to the heinz ketchup.

I often come home to find him slurping fruits I have never seen before over the kitchen sink-- whole wooden boxes of the small yellow mangoes and giant papayas just disappear overnight. But these things are hard to get here. And just as often it is maldive fish, seer fish or onion pickle. I think he is homesick--midwestern food is dust in his mouth. My biggest triumph was finding him some rampe (pandan leaf) here and discovering that moroccan harissa tastes like his favorite chile lime pickle.

I hope I can talk him into a trip to Kona one of these days. I will ply him with spicey food or bribe him with fruit!

Lisa

[TawnyaK]

After doing the research on Sri Lankan and Indian products, we wanted to let you know that it is not advisable to consume any commercially prepared food items that were prepared and processed in India and Sri Lanka. At least in Sri Lanka, gluten is often added and is not always reported on the label and when it is reported, it is not often labeled as gluten. In addition, cross contamination is a real factor. The only substitution is to make foods from scratch. It is ok to consume Sri Lankan and Indian processed foods that were prepared in countries with good labeling practices and in a facility that prevents cross contamination (e.g., Canada, Italy, and the USA).

Tawnya K.