Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with food

Cold nights, warm lentils, yes please!

anderjen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:45:59 -0800

While visiting San Antonio last month, I ate at Liberty Bar on Metafilter's recommendation and fell deeply in love with their warm lentil salad. I would love to recreate it at home for a fantastic winter dinner. Please help me do so. The dish was very simple, ingredients-wise, but I need some assistance in figuring out what spices/seasonings to add, and in what order I should cook/assemble everything. I'm pretty sure I tasted cumin, but have no idea what else might have been in it. The menu describes it as "sautéed lentils with spinach, bacon, onion, and garlic."

It doesn't have to be an exact replica of the salad I had; I'm sure anything with the above ingredients would be delicious if you have other ideas on how I might put them to work.

Bonus question: I really wanted to try the warm chickpea salad as well, but could not persuade my dining companion to order it. It's listed as "sautéed chickpeas, carrot, celery, garlic, onion, spinach, and feta cheese." Any idea what spices I could use to recreate this?

Thanks for your help!

Throw 'em yolk recipes at me!

kitchencrush — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:17:49 -0800

How can I use leftover egg yolks? I want to make a chocolate mousse from a recipe that calls for a large number of egg whites but I feel guilty about just throwing the egg yolks away. So... please give me your best ideas and recipes for what to do with the yummy yummy yolks, folks.

Examples, real of fictional, of food being framed as elitist or snobby?

loping — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:25:27 -0800

I'm working on a video project about the backlash to Obama mentioning the price of arugula at Whole Foods. Can you think of any other examples, real of fictional, of food being framed as elitist or snobby? I'm putting together a video project about the ways certain foods get framed as elitist/liberal/snobby. I've thought of some examples:

The faux Whole Foods in Baby Mama
John Kerry getting called a snob for asking for a cheesestake with swiss cheese
Obama getting attacked for making a comment about the price of arugula.

I'm looking for more, particularly ones that are audio / video.

Yet another "should I eat this?": black beans

k. — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:33:13 -0800

Should I Eat This? Filter: cooked black beans left in a pot overnight. Yesterday I was waiting for the pot to cool before putting it in the fridge, then forgot about it, leaving it there (with the cover on) until this morning when I put it in the fridge. There are no meat ingredients.

Catfish Tikka Death

sully75 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:02:00 -0800

I may be my own personal typhoid Mary. Food safety questions inside. 1) If I make a big pot of soup, lately this is Mark Bittman's African Chicken Peanut soup (which is friggin awesome), sometimes I make about 1.5 gallons of soup in a big pot. So, when it's done, it's usually hot (duh) and it's at night. So rather than decant it into tupperware things, I leave it in the pot on the stove to cool. In the morning I pour it into tupperware and put it into the fridge.

So question: is it ok that it's sitting out at night, probably after it's cooled down, for a couple of hours? If that's not ok, what should I do differently?

And how long can I eat this tasty soup for? Last time I froze half. After I unfreeze it, how long would it still be good for?

2) I'm going to try to do a chicken-tikka-masala recipe but using catfish instead of the chicken. Again, I will be making several portions, maybe 3-4 meals worth. Can I store this in the fridge or freezer? What's my best practice for not poisoning myself or my friends?

Hook me up with yummy breakfast fixins.

the luke parker fiasco — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:29:25 -0800

Where can I buy specialty grains in Vienna during the upcoming holiday season? I will be in Slovenija and Austria over Christmas/New Year's this year, and would like to buy some steel-cut oats and quinoa. Can anyone speak decisively to whether there are shops where a) these items are sold, and b) if they will be open around the holidays?
(Specifically I will be in Ljubljana and Stara Fužina in Slovenija, and then Hallstatt and Vienna in Austria, but I'm guessing that Vienna will be the best bet.)

Giving the gift of deliciousness

sararah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:32:56 -0800

In previous years I've made a lot of cookies to give away to friends and family around the holidays. This year I'd like to do something a little different, but still make it a gift of food. So I've done my holiday-cookie-palooza for the last three years or so, and I'd like to change it up a bit this year. For one, making all of the cookies tends to be a lot of minutiae since it is like 10 different recipes. Also, a lot of people (including yours truly) are trying to eat better, and there are more than enough holiday cookies that will make their way on to our plates throughout the season. I recognize not all of the ideas below are "healthy," per se, but some of them will last a lot longer, are used in small quantities, or are freezable for enjoyment after the holidays.

I'm not ruling out cookies entirely, and I may still make a few favorite batches. I'm not really interested in making the jars of brownie mix/cookie mix or whatever, I feel as if those often go unused.

Some ideas I have rolling around in my head:
-Breads: either a sandwich-type loaf or a sweet fruit bread
-Jams: I have recently learned how to preserve and have successfully made strawberry jam and apple butter. Considering making pumpkin butter, cranberry jams/chutneys or some sort of citrus jam/marmalade as oranges, etc hit their peak.
-Frozen baked goods: fully prepared pies, scones, chocolate chip cookie dough or cinnamon rolls that you would just have to bake.
-Granola
-Would be awesome but also a lot of work: homemade bacon

So I'm wondering what you would personally like to receive in a holiday-themed gift basket of food? Have you ever done anything like this or received one from a friend? Ideas on clever packaging are also welcome.

help me use my cranberry sauce

acidic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:41:51 -0800

What can I make using a can of jellied cranberry sauce that not only doesn't involve a turkey, but doesn't involve an oven or (most) cheese? I have two cans that are expiring in a few days. Turkey is hard to come by in my country and I don't have an oven. I can find mediocre cheese: cheddar, grated white pizza, brie, camembert. I can make ricotta and goat cheese. I have pots, pans, a grill, and a blender. I looked at this question but most recipes didn't fit my constraints. However, the smoothie idea was intriguing-- what flavors would it pair well with? I do have a loaf of pumpkin bread, so I'd appreciate non-turkey sandwich ingredients.

Experiences with Schwan's Delivery Service

inturnaround — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:20:57 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with Schwan's Food Delivery service? Are they a good value? I had never heard of the company before I saw them mentioned on Top Chef, so I checked them out and saw that their delivery charge seemed actually more than reasonable. Is it really or is the idea of $1.00 too good to be true?

Has anyone tried them before? Are they a good deal? What's a must-order?

Is Green Tea Good for You even when it's cold?

lynnie-the-pooh — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:09:17 -0800

I heard Green Tea is extremely good for you. If I drink it cold, will it give me the same benefits as hot green tea? I like the Snapple Green tea drink you can get in a glass bottle and you drink it cold. Thanks, Lynnie-the-pooh

Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie (for beers)?

ClanvidHorse — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:13:27 -0800

Give me your recommendations for good bars in Berlin and Hamburg-with a few provisos! We are going to be in Berlin and Hamburg this week and we already have our sightseeing itineraries worked out. We would like to complement this by going to some great bars when we are there. Five people are going.

A few considerations that I hope you can take into account:

-ideally we would like to go to areas that have a concentration of bars/nightlife. A great bar in an isolated area may be great in it's own right, but being in a group, we would like to be in areas where we can bar-hop and move from one place to the next if the current one's not to our taste.

-we would like the bars to be quite lively.

-we like good dive bars, a little bit scuzzy is good.

-we would rather listen to rock music/electro than hard techno.

-we would like to drink nice beer.

-somewhere that sells great food is good.

-hipsterish is both good and bad. If you know a good hipster bar, please tell me, if you know one to avoid, please tell me.

-any other info such as subway stations, best times to visit an area, anything else that you can think of would be most appreciated.

I've been to Berlin before, read a few of the Berlin websites and previous threads but anything you have to add would be great.

Thanks

Yelp a Paris?

kenzi23 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:48:48 -0800

Is there a Yelp-type site for restaurants in Paris (or Europe, as a whole)? Ideally I'd like a restaurant guide for Paris that is based on user reviews, is easy to search and bookmark like Yelp to make my meals in Paris a breeze. I'll even take a blog or a list if that's all I can get. Any suggestions are welcome.

Where can I buy this hot sauce?

tucsongal — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:39:57 -0800

Where can I buy this hot sauce? There is this change of Mexican fast food places in Arizona and Southern California (well, San Deigo area) called Filiberto's. They have all types of salsas and hot sauces but it seems like their signature sauce is this simple 'red' sauce. Its really good and I was wondering if anyone knew if it was something 'off the shelf' and thus you could buy it someplace.

Again, here is a pic of the sauce as it comes from Filiberto's.

Help me find Kaya (coconut milk spread from Malaysia) in Seattle, WA or the US.

dcruzin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:09:13 -0800

Where can I find this delicious Malaysian Coconut Milk Spread called "Kaya King" in Seattle, WA or anywhere else in the United States/Canada? My friend brought me back this amazing coconut milk spread from Malaysia that is great on toast called "kaya" that's made by the company "Kaya King."

I live in Seattle, WA. Where can I buy this either locally or get it shipped to me or imported?

Any leads/tips or friendly people who live in Malaysia welcome :)

It's also distributed in Singapore.

Menu planning and grocery shopping

mudpuppie — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:47:57 -0800

I need help buying groceries. I'm going to try really, really hard, oh yes I am, to stick to a grocery budget this month. Pretty much all of my end-of-month poverty is due to the fact that I'm stupid when it comes to buying groceries. Instead of shopping post-payday at the beginning of the month for staples and such, and developing a meal plan from that, I tend to end up at the store almost every day in order to buy foods that satisfy what I start craving while I'm sitting at my desk at 3:30. This needs to stop -- it costs me too much money, and it means that I start cooking at 5:30 or 6:00 and I don't eat until after 8:00.

What works for you? How/when do you buy groceries? How/when do you plan your meals? What foods or staples do you keep around all the time so that preparing a meal at the end of the day doesn't require a grocery list of more than one or two things? What meals are on your no-grocery-shopping menu?

Just for informational purposes, I eat very little meat (and no seafood), and almost no processed foods. Pre-packaged "convenience foods" aren't something that would help me. Some frozen stuff is okay, though. I also really enjoy cooking, so ease of preparation isn't really as important as not going to the store every day.

Not-so-Fantastic Plastic

Miko — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:19:55 -0800

Can you help my household kick the plastic habit? I've been reading all sorts of creepy things about plastics lately, and really want to stop using them as much as possible, especially for food storage and heating.

I've been using Pyrex refrigerator dishes for leftovers for a long time, and have a bunch of old-school Thermoses that still work well. I've become aware of round metal "tiffin" containers, but haven't bought any yet. We store a lot of grains, beans, and spices in canning jars in the cupboards.

Beyond that, I'm still searching for solutions. Things like: when I want to pop a bowl of dough or something in the fridge with an airtight cover, what can I use? Are there reusable sandwich bags or food wrap of some material other than plastic? What about sandwich-shaped containers? What can go into the freezer and provide a real seal - as for frozen pizza dough, leftovers, etc?

A lot of cosmetic products come in plastics, too. Any ways of getting around that?

Thanks all.

If you like it then you should have put an egg on it

CharlesV42 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:48:46 -0800

What foods are commonly (or rather, uncommonly, i.e. not necessarily breakfast foods) served with a fried or poached egg? Making a list of foods that sometimes come with eggs on them. Any and all would be appreciated. So far:

- Corned Beef Hash
- Bi bim bap
- Pizza
- Hamburger
- Pasta carbonara
- Croque Madame
- Fried rice (sort of)
- Ramen

Any more delicious ideas?

When did people stop being ok with soup just being itself?

Lutoslawski — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:27:42 -0800

When, why and where did people start putting crackers in their soup? Oyster crackers, saltines, and more exotic varieties of crackers are now ubiquitous and 'traditional' companions to a bowl of soup at diners everywhere. Why did this start? Where? When? Was there some sort of culinary evolution - like people used to put bread crumbs in their stew and now we have this oyster cracker skeuomorph? Answers or directions to good resources regarding the history of crackers and soup are very welcome.

"Sop you up with a biscuit."

bardic — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:47:05 -0800

What words for food are also words for affection? In English we say sweet nothings to our honey, sugar, pumpkin, sweetie, sweetie-pie, dumpling, and cupcake.

What food-words that double as affectionate names am I forgetting, and what are examples from other languages?

Momma always told me food tastes better when someone else makes it...

coppermoss — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:25:46 -0800

Help me get my head straight about cooking! It's not that I don't like it, per se... I'm not exactly wild about it, though. I have a very few recipes I'm comfortable making, because I know they're going to turn out well. These include spaghetti sauce (for real, not from a jar), macaroni and cheese (again, for real, not from a box), salade nicoise, roast chicken, bean burritos, pasta carbonara, and risotto. I don't like trying new recipes because I don't know if they're going to be good, and it seems like a waste to spend all that time cooking only to discover that your efforts have been in vain. I'm afraid to cook without a recipe, because I totally lack creativity when it comes to food. I don't know what tastes go well together, for example.

My roommate is a total foodie, and he does most to all of our cooking. On nights that I cook, he usually comes up with the meal plan. Most days, he'll ask me what I want for dinner, and I can't even begin to think of anything.

In the next couple of years, I'm planning on moving in with my boyfriend, who also likes to cook but isn't as fond of it as my current roommate is. I want to expand my repertoire and boost my cooking confidence by the time we move in together, so the labor is more equally divided. (Yes, I know I'm thinking about this waaaay far in advance, but it's also not the sort of thing that resolves itself overnight, is it?)

How do I become more creative in the kitchen? Since I think a large part of my mental block about cooking is a confidence issue ("But what if it's gross?"), how do I become more confident about cooking? For you people who know by 2 PM what you want to eat in 6 or 7 hours, how do you know? What's the thought process that accompanies that realization? Most of all, how do I get over this enormous reluctance to cook anything more complicated than a fried egg for dinner?

Thanks, guys.

Do I have food allergies possibly?

k8t — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:03:44 -0800

Food allergies. Is this a possibility? I think that I have food allergies. Please help me sort this out. I may be creating this idea in my head.

- Was "allergic to milk" as a child. Not sure what brought about this diagnosis. Liked cheese and ice cream too much to ignore dairy as an adult.
- Have reactions (rash, itching) to any perfume/dyes in any lotion, detergent, soap. Can't wear makeup.
- Lips turn red and throat dry from wine and berries.
- Feel "hyperactive" after eating wheat products.
- When I live in Armenia (many times, for months at a time, for 10 years on-and-off) and eat a completely different diet from my American one, I feel a lot healthier and happier and less hyperactive than I normally do.

- As my 11-month-old tries new foods, I see rashes appearing after eating certain things. I try to keep a diary, but he's in full-time daycare now, so it is harder. But seeing his reactions (ex. acidic food = welts all over his butt after a BM), made me reconsider both of our potential food allergies. (Ped said not to worry about butt welts, but daycare workers comment on it all the time as being abnormal. They see a lot of butts, so I take their opinions seriously.)

I am beginning to think that there may be relationships between all these things. Does this sound like food allergies to you?

What are my next steps? I have terrible grad student health insurance, so I need to know what to ask for in terms of testing in order to get what I want/need. Should I start keeping a food diary for myself?

And, of course, YANMD.

What's with all the Raclette?

Hands of Manos — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:10:43 -0800

I'm looking for a decent Raclette grill around the 60 dollar mark. Can anyone make a recommendation? My girlfriend's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'd considered having a fun dining experience for her and her kids. A German friend of mine said she liked using her Raclette grill for parties.

It'd only be the 4 of us so a smaller raclette grill would work but before I buy one, I wanted to know if someone recommends one over another.

Also, do you have to use Raclette cheese or can you use another type (it's in short supply where I live).

Need food ideas

pulled_levers — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:42:18 -0800

I've decided to stay and work in my on-campus studio five days a week. I live off-campus. What low-price food can I bring/prepare each week (lunch & dinner) that doesn't necessarily need to be refrigerated? (though I do have access to a microwave) I'm an art student who has been spending more and more time in her studio studying. Unfortunately, when I get hungry, I will always end up in Chick-Fil-A. This is a pretty expensive habit. Last semester I made pb&j sandwiches to tide me over but I'm getting really sick of those.

My studio can only be accessed by about 18 other people, all of whom are my classmates and I'm not too worried about people taking my food if I store it in there. We do have a small, departmental communal fridge, so I can technically bring food that needs to be refrigerated but I'm wary of my food disappearing.

I thought about bringing snacks (wheat thins, fruit snacks) but since this is lunch and dinner, I also want something more substantial. So far all I've got are ham &cheese sandwiches and pb&j that I make at home and bring to school.

I'd appreciate any and all suggestions as I am someone who has a terrible time focusing when she's hungry. Thanks!

What is delicious in a cold tortilla wrap?

Lorc — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:19:53 -0800

What is delicious in a cold tortilla wrap? Other than chicken. I've discovered that tortilla wraps make for a great sandwich alternative for a packed lunch. So far my ideas have all been chicken-centric and I think I've run that particular meat into the ground.

What else could I do? Duck might be tasty , but it's such a pain to cook. Would strips of steak work (and if so what with)? I'm open to vegetarian options too.

What are the most efficient foods for the body to process?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:04:31 -0800

What are the most efficient foods for the body to process? By efficient, I mean foods that, when eaten, produce the least waste.

Are these foods the same as the most nutritive foods?

Anonymous because this is essentially a question about excrement.