Favorite Specialty Food Items

[mr drinky]

I've been trying some specialty food items lately that I have grown fond of:

* Preserved Meyer Lemons. I've gone through two jars in two months.
* Ortiz Bonito Canned Tuna from Spain. I have a subscription off of Amazon, and they send it ever couple months.
* I also picked up some interesting spices at Williams-Sonoma (meyer lemon peel, blood red orange peel, ras el hanout, sumac, zahtar, and french lavender). Can't find those in my neck of the woods.
* And lastly I just found online Pommery Green Peppercorn mustard from France. I used to get this all the time in Europe and can't wait until it gets here.

k.

[apicius9]

This one made me laugh, I could have written that same thing. Finding Meyer lemons (well, finding out first when they are in season) to salt them is one of my planned summer projects, as is canning some tuna because I can't affort the Spanish tuna in larger quantities from La Tienda - and Amazon doesn't ship food items to HI. I would love to get a whole tuna to take it apart but still feel a bit intimidated, would prefer to do it together with a pro first - maybe I should ask Morimoto who hangs around in Waikiki often

And green pepper or tarragon mustard are among my favorite things. Oh, and I just bought some sumac and have no idea what to do with it...

Other than that, I need to stock up on a few basics, good olive oil, a few vinegars etc. Running low on salted capers, I have to see where I get those. No anchovies in the house, squid ink of undefinite age needs to be replaced, low on dried morel mushrooms etc. I also wanted to stock the freezer a bit, was thinking about ravioli with braised oxtail, soup dumplings, sauce bolognese etc - things a working guy can fall back on instead of getting take out stuff...

What worries me a bit is that I have all these plans and it's mid-June already. Summer just flies by, it seems...

[ecchef]

Uni. Followed closely by good Spanish lomo.

[MadMel]

Echire Butter, it's expensive and quite hard to find here. Next would be cheese.

[Craig]

The latest in a never-ending series of these for me has been Cuban honey. I'm still trying to put my finger on what the flavour is in it. Some kind of citrus or clove or something. I'll tire of it eventually, but it was well worth the buck I paid for a jar.

[mhlee]

This one made me laugh, I could have written that same thing. Finding Meyer lemons (well, finding out first when they are in season) to salt them is one of my planned summer projects, as is canning some tuna because I can't affort the Spanish tuna in larger quantities from La Tienda - and Amazon doesn't ship food items to HI. I would love to get a whole tuna to take it apart but still feel a bit intimidated, would prefer to do it together with a pro first - maybe I should ask Morimoto who hangs around in Waikiki often

And green pepper or tarragon mustard are among my favorite things. Oh, and I just bought some sumac and have no idea what to do with it...

Other than that, I need to stock up on a few basics, good olive oil, a few vinegars etc. Running low on salted capers, I have to see where I get those. No anchovies in the house, squid ink of undefinite age needs to be replaced, low on dried morel mushrooms etc. I also wanted to stock the freezer a bit, was thinking about ravioli with braised oxtail, soup dumplings, sauce bolognese etc - things a working guy can fall back on instead of getting take out stuff...

What worries me a bit is that I have all these plans and it's mid-June already. Summer just flies by, it seems...

Stefan:

If you can find someone who has a mature Meyer lemon tree, they may have fruit throughout the year. However, generally speaking, like most citrus, Meyer lemons are a winter fruit.

[mr drinky]

Echire Butter, it's expensive and quite hard to find here. Next would be cheese.

I'm heading to Paris in August for a few days, and I am hoping to bring back some beurre bordier.

http://www.lebeurrebordier.com/les-beurres-bordier.php

And I also recently bought a 2-3 year old meyer lemon tree. I'll see how much fruit I can get.

k.

[Line cooked]

While you are talking about citrus I am a big fan of KALAMANSI or CALAMONDIN. It is difficult to find fresh in N. East but thera are some concentrates availabe. It is a nice sour component for dressing up things and excellent in cocktails.

[DwarvenChef]

After cutting Bacon out of my regular diet and making it a special treat now and again.... I have been searching out different makers to tryout. Currently working through the non-nitrite/nitrate ones I find in the 1 lb amounts I'll cut them in half and wrap them up 3 pieces at a time and freeze em. Keeps me from getting to crazy with it.

[mr drinky]

While you are talking about citrus I am a big fan of KALAMANSI or CALAMONDIN. It is difficult to find fresh in N. East but thera are some concentrates availabe. It is a nice sour component for dressing up things and excellent in cocktails.

That is good to know. With my meyer lemon tree I also bought a calamondin tree and it has a crazy amount of fruit growing on it right now (easily 100+). When they turn ripe, I might try to preserve some calamondins. And when the tree is in full-bloom, it smells amazing.

k.