apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I went bike riding in Chicago years ago and had an unforgettable lunch of shrimp. made into a paste and grilled on sugar cane that comes with mint and other things that you put together in rice paper wraps. Recently I found the same thing in Durham and I am craving it. So delicious and light. Chewing the sugarcane gives you all the flavorful juice. The restaurants are Vietnamese.

a shiso-miso-hot pepper condiment with vegetables is the last really new to me thing I made/ate
I liked it so much,
I made it just about every week this summer

We had a great dinner in Queens at a Greek restaurant. The dessert was galaktoboureko,a cool custard on pastry which made me think of "klactu boradu nikto", I want to make Greek food and watch The Day the Earth Stood Still.

This sounds really basic - almost dumb - but I discovered the absolute AWESOMENESS of really extra-sharp cheddar and crisp fresh slices of Granny Smith apple - together. Use the apple like you would a cracker with the cheese. Pure heaven, and it's been my snack all summer long.

I know, it probably reminds a lot of you of snack hour in preschool, but it's new to me.

Also, try wrapping quartered matchstick pieces of fresh garlic in a thin slice of strong Swiss. Amazing.

Faith, how was the rice seasoned? and proportions, if possible, please (if you care to share!)
Kate, love galaktoboureko. We call it "intergalactic burrito" for fun. And we've discovered a different (new to me) form of galaktoboureko - it's made in a pie plate, with phyllo covering the pan, then filled with the custard, then more phyllo to cover (the phyllo part is sweetened with a syrup). It's so good!

Leeds,
I made very simple sushi-ish rolls yesterday as well! I cooked 1-1/2 cups of sushi rice and then (at the same time) simmered 1/2 cup of rice vinegar with 1/4 cup sugar and 1T salt. When the rice was done I just folded the liquid in to the rice. The recipe is from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and was very tasty!

I've been making quick pickles of all sorts of veggies-- cukes, carrots, radishes, green beans. I've added herbs and spices according to the taste of the veg (ie, thyme with the carrots, lemon and basil with the beans).

the last unusual thing i tried was probably the chapulinas--mexican fried grasshoppers--at chile y chocolate in brooklyn.

my latest culinary accomplishment was making and eating my first soft-boiled egg. i am trying to overcome a longstanding aversion to the little ova, and bought myself a dozen to experiment with. i also made the spanish olive-oil-fried eggs that were featured on this site a while back. so delicious.

next up is poaching. if anyone has any advice....

The two advices I have you've probably heard already:

Slide the egg into the boiling water from another small dish;
and
Put a tablespoon of vinegar into the water.

Congrats on successfully soft-boiling, it's harder than it seems!

I've had Vietnamese summer rolls before, but for the first time I tried making them at home. I'd always been intimidated by the thought of using those delicate rice paper wraps, which you have to submerge in water first. But it actually ended up being easy and quite fun. The burrito aspect of your hand rolls reminded me of them.

http://www.howtoeatlikeabird.com/how_to_eat_like_a_bird/2007/08/a-summer-roll.html

I discovered a new type of steak over the weekend.

...man, I haven't experimented with food in a WHILE.

thinkingwoman - how long do you boil a soft boiled egg?

i used to eat these a lot when i lived in France because that's where i got the freshest eggs - my "host mother" (although we were more like sisters) would make them for me perfectly every time. a couple of weekends ago i remembered them and ended up eating 3 hard boiled eggs before i gave up on account of wanting to vomit from eating so many eggs.