ajanhelendam's Profile

The white button mushroom is the result of a mutation within the species.

Personally, Criminis taste the same as button. Any difference is probably due to age as you suggest as the flavor changes the older the mushrooms get. I prefer to buy the ones where the caps haven't opened yet.

Since they're priced the same at Costco where I live, I buy which ever is freshest.

I'm not sure who Paula Deen's audience actually is, but I seriously doubt it represents a large portion of America and thus I don't think she's that influential in American eating habits.

Let's face it, Food Network and any food related TV is not mainstream America. People are probably more influenced by food commercials while watching sports and the like.

I disagree with Bruni's assessment in regards to change. The markets change to reflect the demands of the consumer. For example, while the FDA has approved the use of rBST for increasing milk production in the US, the top 3 grocers which includes Wal-mart have opted not to sell such milk. In this case rBST it is banned for use in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the EU and thus probably contributed to consumer demand for milk produced without it here in the US.

I still believe the key to changing the American diet resides in the education system. I think the large part of the problem is what has been taught in the past and what had been omitted. This information is then passed onto the parent's who have little reason to disbelieve. The only problem is "getting it right" given US history regarding nutrition. Science apparently was often not part of the equation, so I'm not wholly convinced that we've done our due diligence yet.

All the talk about salt being a flavor enhancer while true is sort of misleading by omission. Anything that works primarily on taste is going to be a flavor enhancer. Salt just happens to be the most common and that could also be the reason why it's paired so often with pepper, because it's the most common as well.

While I don't use pepper in everything since I didn't grow up "salt and pepper to taste" or "salt to taste", I do often pair a taste with a smell more often than not.

Another alternative, though not so green is using Pledge, which is pretty good at dissolving grime while leaving a basically lubricated surface.

It might deter some wasps, but the paper wasps near my house in Austin, TX could careless if the ceiling was a light blue (Rain Drop - Behr) or it's prior shade of a medium gray. Went with a lighter color to reflect more light and thus make the space brighter.

All the cultivars I know have white flowers; however, regular chives do have purple flowers. While regular chives have round hollow leaves, nira (garlic chives) are flat and not hollow.

Though garlic chives are invasive in that they spread very easily from seed and are prolific seed producers, there are plenty of ornamental alliums grown for their flowers. I'm not sure what the culinary worth of the ornamental varieties are. For example, ornamental sweet potato vines, though edible, apparently don't taste very good.

BTW, garlic chives are very easy to grow and are very tolerant of the conditions. They can be grown indoors and are definitely well suited to a container environment. If you dead head them, they won't spread.

For all the other names it could be going by in the ethic markets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_chives

@kate_kate22 American Neufchâtel typically has 1/3 less fat than American Cream Cheese and tends to be softer.

That place is ancient. The area surrounding that store was pretty ghetto in the 80s. I'm glad the city rebuilt/rehabbed the area during the late 80s through early 90s.

The reality is that the majority of American's aren't that big on seafood when compared to beef and chicken. Even on the coasts the seafood counter seems to be the smallest if it even exists. It really seems to depend on the demographics of the area or of the target consumer. Generally, fresh seafood is positioned as "high" end with stores such as WholeFoods as an example. Unless you find a large Asian market, in which, seafood is more important than beef. Actually, beef gets the least space. The pecking order is usually: Seafood (when available), pork, chicken, beef; the reverse of what I normally see at the big chain supermarkets.

I've used several different types of rice cookers and the design does make a difference, sometimes a very big difference. Though cooking rice isn't complicated, it does require consistency and the right size pot relative to the amount you're making on the stove.

I often eat about 1/2 cup of rice per meal. Cooking 1/2 cup of rice on the stove frankly is a pain in the butt considering I don't own a pot quite the right size and there's going to be issue of controlling the heat correctly when cooking that small of an amount.

Granted, most rice cookers on the market don't do well when cooking as little as 1/2 cup, but my Zojirushi 5-cup Neuro Fuzzy does so admirably. In fact it's so good at compensating that I don't have to presoak most rice, except for basmati which really benefits with at least an hour soak if I'm recalling correctly.

Furthermore, unlike the mid-range non-stick cookers, the rice is pretty much consistent from the bottom and the sides as to the center. No crust what so ever. So clean up is a snap.

Since it's microcomputer controlled it adapts quite well to cooking different types of rice, plus grains and other legumes. Cooking glutinous rice is no problem. Don't have to soak this one either. The current model, I believe, has specific setting for these specialty rices, so they probably do even a better job.

Once you figure out the ratios you can cook all sorts of rice dishes and what not. So yeah, instead of buying a small pot to cook rice and pretty much nothing else, I opted to getting a fancy rice cooker so I could make small amounts of rice, congee, glutinous rice, etc. Plus with the timer I can have things ready ahead of time.

Now, if you don't cook rice often then learning how to do it on the stove makes more sense than picking up rice cooker, even a cheap one; however, those microwave cookers are great for the occasional user and don't take up much room. If you use a casserole dish and lid, make sure it fits well so it keeps enough steam; otherwise, you're going to end up with boiled rice rather than steamed.

FYI Choy, Choi, Tsoi are transliterations for the Chinese word (and related languages) for vegetable.

Choy Sum (literal translation: vegetable heart) which refers to the inner or tender stalks and tips of more than one type of vegetables depending on region). Cantonese use it to refer to the Yu Choy (Edible Rape) which is not pictured. Since mature Yu Choy can be tough, what you see in the market is Yu Choy Sum. For Cantonese speakers it ends up being just Choy Sum since that's the most popular type of Choy Sum and Yu Choy for Mandarin speakers. The other common Choy Sum is Bok Choy Sum which is pictured. I've seen this labelled as Taiwanese Bok Choy in the US, so I'm not sure if Choy Sum for Mandarin speakers refers to Bok Choy Sum in general or not.

Bok Choy (Chinese Cabbage, Snow Cabbage) comes in a lot of different cultivars which includes tatsoi also known as Rosette Bok Choy and the all green variety known in the US as Baby Bok Choy or as I prefer Shanghai Cabbage since "Bok Choy" means "White Vegetable". Technically speaking, Bok Choys are all the same species Brassica rapa which includes Nappa Cabbage, some varieties of Mizuna and Common Turnip. You can think of them like you do for all the varieties of Lettuce out there.

I don't think I've seen Amaranth labelled as En Choy yet. It looks like it this particular transliteration comes via Austrailia? Yin Choy might be a more popular translation of 苋菜. Most of the time I see Amaranth labelled as Rau Dền (Vietnamese).

Kang Kong [Tagalog/Filipino], Ong Choy [Cantonese] (Water Spinach, Swamp Cabbage) is the Chinese Spinach I'm more familiar with. I'm guessing it's more popular than Amaranth since I've yet to see Amaranth served in an Asian restaurant.

Sweet Potato Leaves. I have yet to see them in US Asian grocery stores. Not all cultivars have pitchforked leaves; some are just heart shaped. It's pretty easy to grow your own by just buying a sweet potato and planting it. There are also ornamental varieties sold at nurseries. Just make sure it's Ipomoea batatas. Wild Sweet Potato Vine is a different species and poisonous.

Taro Leaves. Haven't seen time in the US yet either, but I do see the stems and of course the tuber of the Taro for sale.