Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Most of time when I bake, something goes wrong. The cake batter boils all over the oven...the glaze is not solid enough and is just super-soaked cupcakes...the cupcakes fall in...etc.

But I made strawberry filled cream puffs because of the opening day of strawberry season here in Maine, and no problems arose! Success!

Erin, I just got back from Greece last week, and you're right about the coffee and cigarettes. Some of the hotels we stayed at gave us breakfast, and we joked that our breakfast (even the sparse looking toast with jam and juice) was a bigger breakfast than over half the Greek population's. For one breakfast though, we splurged on some amazing Greek pastries and fresh squeezed OJ. Also, enjoy the fact that 90% of the restaurants you see there will be traditional Greek. No other ethnic cuisine from other countries. It boggles my mind when some travel guides (*coughfrommerscough*) will suggest Mexican, Italian, and Japanese restaurants. Wander the back streets for the local, non-touristy restaurants when you can and get seafood if you're by the ocean. Fresh caught fish is the best, but read the menu carefully - the restaurants are fairly nice about informing you if their seafood (mostly the cephalopods) are not fresh, but frozen. Enjoy some horiatiki and tzatziki for me, I miss it too much already!

At Portland, ME's Farmer's Market, there's a farm run by these two gentlemen who have amazing produce, both fruits and vegetables, but what makes them stand out from the rest is that they also make their own preserves and pickled vegetables. Their hot garlic sour pickles just can't be avoided, they must be eaten!

tomatoes and cucumbers would probably what i'd like to start canning

A good chicken tandoori!

At the last bbq party we had at our friend's house, a bunch of us were plopping corn and meat patties and what have you onto the grill. Somebody also put on a couple veggie burger patties for our vegetarian of the group. About 10 minutes later, someone stopped to nudge the stuff around a bit and remarked, "Hey...why is the plastic still on the veggie patties?" We're still not sure what the ratio of melted plastic to veggie patty was that day.

@sammie, there's only 2 of us in the Portland, ME area it seems! I guess we're just going to have to represent Portland's budding foodie community ourselves!

On my last trip to Taiwan, we paired the trip with a couple days touring around Japan. That was amazing with all the different kinds of Japanese food we had. I still remember making that stop and making our own tempura to fry individually.

I'd agree with you about bringing in the fiction, putting away the news. Scrolling through a PDA for latest NY Times articles always made me tenser and "seriousfaced." Ironically, one of Portland's magazine's did a news article earlier this year on the merits of eating alone:

http://themaineswitch.com/story/view/2268/

a foil pouch on the grill or baked in the oven with a chili-miso marinade, quite tasty. =D

My soups! Miso soup doesn't really need meat, but if you drop in a fish head, it gives it a really nice flavor (you usually don't eat at the head, although my mom sure loves to pick at it). And hot and sour soup is one that really doesn't need any meat to it. The vinegar, mushrooms, and green onions do such a good job with packing flavor that the thin strips of pork or chicken that people usually see in restaurants, don't really do much...

Chinese curry, but not before drinking some of the soup before converting it curry. My mom would always let me sneak a bowl of the delicious soup, and now I find myself giving myself a generous taste before I change it from a soup to a curry. =P

It's just like how my college roommate would get grits from the dining hall for breakfast, and put soy sauce and a fried egg on top. It was a weird marriage of the South and Asia.

Speaking of congee, I think I will make some!