Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The issue of the nose of the cheese proved to be my most embarrassing moment on my first trip to France on a school exchange when I was 14. At home, my best friend's Dad is French and he had drilled into in all my friends and I that one must not cut the nose off the cheese. And because there was always a hunk of brie or most often reblochon knocking around at his house, we were well versed in this practice.

So when lunch was finished around the family table in that apartment in Lyon, a piece of Roquefort was produced and I was kindly asked to serve myself first. Don't cut off the nose, whatever you do, I told myself. But disastrously the piece of Roquefort wasn't the same shape or position as the reblochon I was used to -- it lay on its side. In a moment of panic, not wanting to appear to hesitate, and trying to figure out how to cut the damn thing, I summarily sliced off nothing but the precious inner core of the cheese and as soon as I had done it, realised what had happened.

I looked up and saw my exchange's surly older brother giving me the filthiest look a Frenchman has ever given me. I shot my eyes back down, for all the world trying to play ignorant, and perceived the Maman kicking her son under the table.

Great drink! We'll be deploying this for new year's eve (Gregorian) ;-)

The first time I made this I had another of Paul's recipes up in a different window and by mistake substituted Port for the Reisling.

I'm here to report that the result was very similar to - and almost as good as - a nice drink from The Stork Club bar book:

Victory

1/2 ounce orange and lemon juice mixed in equal parts with several dashes of grenadine
1 ounce French vermouth
1 ounce Italian vermouth

Shake with ice, serve in a cocktail glass.

Here's to a great new year - keep 'em coming, Paul!

Turkish Delight is the usual for my family every year at Christmas, Cadbury even make Dairy Milk with Turkish Delight in.

ewe, soggy bread

They have chocolate covered Turkish Delight here in the UK that's not very good but I like it with pistachios.

Thank god...I thoughtI was crazy. I often wondered why friends would have an apple to tide them over until a meal. I feel like I haven't eaten for days right after I eat an apple. I always thought the pectin was supposed to make you feel full, though. Makes me want to eat a cow.

This is so funny! I've mentioned this to several other people and they have all looked at me like I'm crazy. Granny smith apples are my favorite, but they make me the hungriest. Also, a couple of people mentioned feeling hungry after eating carrots....does anybody else get hiccups from them, too? I love snacking on baby carrots, so i have to just accept the hiccups.

YES!! In fact, I just had one yesterday and I remember that afterward, even though I had had lunch just an hour or so before I ate the apple, that I was more hungry after I ate the apple.

How bout crossed chef knives?...or a diagram of a cow and all it's edible parts?

Quite the collection.
We just did a round up for Edible Brooklyn's Fall 2008 issue.
http://www.ediblebrooklyn.net/content/pages/issues/lowsummer2008/ink.pdf

I totally agree about eating the apple with something else. If I eat an apple with my english muffin for breakfast, I stay full way longer than an english muffin alone. But I long ago learned I can't eat just an apple for breakfast or I feel just awful all day long.

@Mares - could you clarify this statement: "... you wouldn't get fat eating apples, because the natural sugars in the fruit are pretty much used up breaking down the fiber."

That's not making sense to me -- "fiber" is basically non-digestible carbihydrates including cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin (there are other forms, but these are predominant in apples). These fibers form the structure of the plant cells and basically keep the intracellular contents from leaking out. The sugars are stored in the vacuoles of the plant cells. If the sugars can break down the fiber, the apple would literally digest its self - the sugars would break down the cell walls, and eventually you would be left with a pile of mush even before it left the grocery store shelf.

Apples are about 14% carbohydrates of which is fiber (2.4%), fructose (5.9%), sucrose (2.1%), and glucose (2.4%) (Source: USDA National Nutrient Database).

The digestion of sugars and fiber from the wee apple are completely different processes:

The sucrose is cleaved by sucrase (secreted by the small intestinal cells) to form glucose and fructose. The glucose enters the blood stream to be used immediately for energy, refill glycogen stores, and the rest of stored as fat (the amount in an apple will likely all be used for energy).

The fructose goes to the liver where it is metabolized to glyceraldehyde (GA), dihydroxyacetone (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P). The GA and DHAP create glycerol-3-phosphate which makes the backbone of a triglyceride (fat). The G3P is converted to pyruvate, then acetyl-CoA, and then enters the Krebs Cycle where it eventually is turned into palmitate (free fatty acids). Three palmitates attach to the glycerol molecule to form a tri-glyceride -- the body's storage form of fat.

Thus, the metabolic fate of fructose is fat, whereas glucose is (typically) energy.

Humans can't digest fiber (if they could it would be called carbohydrate). Some of the fiber is partially broken down by the bacteria in your gut to form short chain fatty acids which are absorbed and used for energy. The rest passes to the feces giving it bulk and absorbing bile on its way (this is good - it helps protect against colon cancer and can help reduce your body's net cholesterol burden).

As for constipation... that's due to the fiber adding bulk to the feces. But apples are special because they contain more pectin than many other fruits/veggies -- pectin is a soluble fiber, so it absorbs water giving stool greater bulk and making it easier to pass.

a strawberry :)