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Ingredient Source 911


Anna Blume

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^I haven't seen them at the Bethesda WF or Giant; will check the other places; thanks.

Hmmm. I didn't see any at either the Friendship Hts WFM or the Giant tonight, so perhaps I am (1) remembering what WFM used to carry some time ago and (2) mixing up the Chevy Chase Safeway with that Giant. Meanwhile, no signs of the bottles at Rodman's, one bottle of vinegar at TJ Maxx (same area) and several at nearby Sur la Table.

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My quest: harissa. Can or small amount vs. Cava's at $5.79. I only want a dab or two and used to buy however much I wanted at WFM where they don't seem to carry it as something to scoop up anymore. If need be, I can mix up tomato paste, chili flakes, etc., but...

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Last year I bought an incredible pork shank at Smith Meadow. I've asked and begged but they simply aren't doing that cut anymore.

Any idea where I might find one?

Thanks!

I just found pork shank at Evensong at the Penn Quarter market.

Of course, now I can't find the recipe I used back in December 2009. Sigh..

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What about canned cherry tomatoes? For a while, WFM carried an Italian, organic brand, then discontinued.

Balducci's is a schlep, but I could go to the one out near the DSW shoe outlet in Bethesda if I could be assured a pair of Boggs in my size in the Clearance section to make the trip worthwhile.

Thanks.

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What about canned cherry tomatoes? For a while, WFM carried an Italian, organic brand, then discontinued.

Balducci's is a schlep, but I could go to the one out near the DSW shoe outlet in Bethesda if I could be assured a pair of Boggs in my size in the Clearance section to make the trip worthwhile.

Thanks.

Balducci's is hit or miss. I'd call but I haven't found their customer service record to be stellar.
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What about canned cherry tomatoes? For a while, WFM carried an Italian, organic brand, then discontinued.

Balducci's is a schlep, but I could go to the one out near the DSW shoe outlet in Bethesda if I could be assured a pair of Boggs in my size in the Clearance section to make the trip worthwhile.

Thanks.

I just saw them at Seasonal Pantry on Wednesday and only noticed because it was something I'd never seen before. Unfortunately the hours for the market are erratic these days.

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Very recently, someone told me where I can get 100% buckwheat soba noodles, and I've forgotten both the person and the place. Help?

We are out of them at our place, so I can't check any packages right this moment; but, I will go to the Hana Market and check. It's that Japanese market at 17th & U Sts. They have such a variety of noodles, that I'm sure some of them are 100%. How soon do you need them?

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I wonder how difficult it is to work with buckwheat flour, i.e. turning it into fresh pasta. A pretty healthy and tasty alternative to white flour.

from what I understand, because it has no gluten, it is extremely difficult to turn buckwheat flour into noodles, and which is way 100% buckwheat noodles are hard to find and expensive. and why most soba noodles are made of buckwheat flour mixed with wheat flour.
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from what I understand, because it has no gluten, it is extremely difficult to turn buckwheat flour into noodles, and which is way 100% buckwheat noodles are hard to find and expensive. and why most soba noodles are made of buckwheat flour mixed with wheat flour.

Expensive is right: the Hana Japanese Market has exactly ONE type of 100% buckwheat noodles. It comes in a 200g/7 oz. package for $5.75. The noodles are flat and look similar to linguine in size. All the other types, except those made of rice, contain wheat flour. I also checked at the Yes! Gourmet store on Columbia Road, buy found no 100% buckwheat noodles. They have other GF stuff, though, like brown rice noodles. i expect lperry is familiar with those.

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from what I understand, because it has no gluten, it is extremely difficult to turn buckwheat flour into noodles, and which is way 100% buckwheat noodles are hard to find and expensive. and why most soba noodles are made of buckwheat flour mixed with wheat flour.

"Starch" noodles are made differently from others with some of the flour being cooked first to gelatinize the starch that then acts as a binder for the remaining flour. It's not so much difficult as different, I don't think you can run it through the Atlas at home, but this method is used for all sorts of gf starches. Friends of mine in Beijing have done it successfully with foxtail millet, and I've given serious thought to trying to replicate some mung bean starch noodles I had in China. If you think about the history of noodles, they were invented in China before wheat was there, so they had to have some method in place. It is easier to buy them, though. Wheat tends to be a cheap grain in general, so that lowers the price on soba noodles which are traditionally 100% buckwheat - soba means buckwheat. That's probably TMI, but I find all the different noodles and grains fascinating.

Expensive is right: the Hana Japanese Market has exactly ONE type of 100% buckwheat noodles. It comes in a 200g/7 oz. package for $5.75. The noodles are flat and look similar to linguine in size. All the other types, except those made of rice, contain wheat flour. I also checked at the Yes! Gourmet store on Columbia Road, buy found no 100% buckwheat noodles. They have other GF stuff, though, like brown rice noodles. i expect lperry is familiar with those.

I knew they would be a little pricey, but I've kind of given in to that being the case for most gf items. Since a Japanese friend told me soba noodles with wheat are "inferior," (make a disdainful face for full effect), I've been wanting to give them a try.

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I knew they would be a little pricey, but I've kind of given in to that being the case for most gf items. Since a Japanese friend told me soba noodles with wheat are "inferior," (make a disdainful face for full effect), I've been wanting to give them a try.

Actually, that $5.75 is a fairly good price for pure buckwheat soba. I know I've seen these Eden Foods 100% Buckwheat Soba before at a price around $6, $7...somewhere. If I find them again, I'll let you know. (Huh, they even have jinenjo soba...haven't seen that since in a long time. Getting hungry...)

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Very recently, someone told me where I can get 100% buckwheat soba noodles, and I've forgotten both the person and the place. Help?

lperry,

I went by MOM's in Merrifield this evening and they had King Soba 100% Buckwheat noodles for $3.99. That seems a pretty good price for 100% buckwheat. (They also had, I think, their pumpkin, ginger, & brown rice noodles as well. But I could be wrong.)

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Does anyone know if Penzey's (in Rockville) has high quality flavored and non flavored sea salts? I've been looking at gift sets online and realized I could probably do something cheaper by buying mason jars and bulk salts and making it on my own. Would also allow me to add some spice blends instead of sticking to just one or the other.

Anyway, salts that have caught my eye have been matcha, mushroom infused, and any herb infused (rosemary, herbs de provence, anything like that) as well as plain ones like pink himalayan, etc.

Or can anyone suggest any other salt/spice shops in our area? I'm in MD so for location and price alone Penzey's is probably best, but I'm open to ideas.

And while I'm blabbing on, any particular spice blends from there that people like? I made my own version of Sunny Paris for a stew recently that I liked,but don't know much about what they offer. Anything that isn't spicy as my mom doesn't go for that sort of thing. Thanks!

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Penzey's has a few flavored salts, I think, and if they are on the website, the stores should have them. They have various sea salts, as well as a few salts that have seasoning mixed-in (4S, seasoned, Sichuan pepper, shallot, etc., search for 'salt'). If you want smoked salts, they don't have any of those that I can see.

It's not local at all, but when I want to try interesting salts, I buy them through the Savory Spice Shop which was my Penzey's when I was in Colorado (before Penzey's opened there). They have both spiced-blended salts and varieties of smoked and other salts. Frankly, they seem to have more interesting blends (say onion-free), other spices like long pepper and period as well as some oddities like frankincense and myrrh.

ETA: Huh. A search around the 'net has turned up The Spice and Tea Exchange in Georgetown which has various salts. Never been there before though.

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Penzey's has a few flavored salts, I think, and if they are on the website, the stores should have them. They have various sea salts, as well as a few salts that have seasoning mixed-in (4S, seasoned, Sichuan pepper, shallot, etc., search for 'salt'). If you want smoked salts, they don't have any of those that I can see.

It's not local at all, but when I want to try interesting salts, I buy them through the Savory Spice Shop which was my Penzey's when I was in Colorado (before Penzey's opened there). They have both spiced-blended salts and varieties of smoked and other salts. Frankly, they seem to have more interesting blends (say onion-free), other spices like long pepper and period as well as some oddities like frankincense and myrrh.

ETA: Huh. A search around the 'net has turned up The Spice and Tea Exchange in Georgetown which has various salts. Never been there before though.

Thanks, I had searched for salt on their site and came up empty. Doesn't look like they have what I have in mind. But I bookmarked Savory Spice Shop not long after I posted here - found them through one of my paleo sites looking for recommended spice blends so I may just go with that. Someone else just mentioned to me that Whole Foods has flavored sea salts, but don't know if you can buy them in bulk (by bulk I don't mean large quantities, just loose, rather than in containers that would drive the price up). Anyone know on that one? Sadly I doubt I'm making it down to Georgetown.
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The cheapest place I've found to get sea salt (plain) is at A&H Gourmet Seafood Market on Bethesda Ave. in Bethesda --next door to Bethesda Crab House. They sell 1.5 kilo (3.3 pounds) bags of Portugese sea salt for under $5. They also have smaller containers of flavored Spanish salts for considerably more money.

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Eggnog without junk additives - just cream, sugar, etc. - preferably with dairy from pastured cows in MD? I know I found one that at least didn't have the crap added (may have been from Horizon or the other similar organic milk producer you can find relatively easily around here whose name escapes me), but I can't remember where I found it. I do remember that it was a chain store like Giant or Safeway, rather than a specialty place like Whole Foods which would be nice for ease of acquisition, but I can pop down to WF in SS if needed. Thanks!

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Citric acid?

I thought someone else was looking for this recently, but can't find the post. At any rate, I seek this vs. rennet for making cheese. Thanks.

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If anyone else has been disappointed when searching aisles at Whole Foods for the Maldon salt they used to carry for the best price, go to Balducci's. The smoked and original flaked salts are around $5 less expensive than they are at Cowgirl Creamery.

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Best okra I have found in the area is sold frozen at Fresh Market. Today's Market brand, distributed out of Birmingham, AL. Don't know their source.

It always used to intimidate me to make okra gumbo because it took so long to break down the okra. I can use this brand and break it down the way it needs to be by smothering it in a covered Magnalite pot in an hour, stirring every few minutes.

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Anyone know of a local source for Pagoda brand Shaoxing rice wine? Attempting Fuschia Dunlop's xiao long bao over the next couple of days.

I have a bottle from Great Wall (in Merrifield) that has a pagoda logo, but everything is in Chinese so I don't really know what brand. It's good though. Great Wall is your best bet for Chinese ingredients in NoVA. Very good produce section as well. Avoid it on the weekends if possible. Parking can be a challenge.

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Has anyone seen frozen guava concentrate? My family is from Hawai'i and for special occasions we make Guava Chiffon Pie. My grandma has to shlep this stuff back from the islands in a lunchbox because she can't find it here.

Recipe please!!! I am sooo craving this--kind of convoluted story here. We were at Global Market in Gaithersburg yesterday and I was hankerin' for some Hamentashen, but I am allergic to stone fruits so I was thinking guava would be good in them. So we bought "guava paste" and will see if that works out. But buying that got me dreaming of the guava chiffon pie and wondering if the paste could be used for it. And then I was trying to think where I could find a recipe for it....

(and might you have a good recipe for sweet potato/haupia pie as well?) :)

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Has anyone seen frozen guava concentrate? My family is from Hawai'i and for special occasions we make Guava Chiffon Pie. My grandma has to shlep this stuff back from the islands in a lunchbox because she can't find it here.

I've seen it in the past with the rest of the frozen fruit pulp at both Shoppers and Grand Mart.

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I've seen it in the past with the rest of the frozen fruit pulp at both Shoppers and Grand Mart.

Well Mr S says that the guava used in the chiffon pie should be a puree--with no sugar added. And the frozen pulp, as well as the paste we bought, both have extra sugar added. So much for that! But I still want the recipe!

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I have a bottle from Great Wall (in Merrifield) that has a pagoda logo, but everything is in Chinese so I don't really know what brand. It's good though. Great Wall is your best bet for Chinese ingredients in NoVA. Very good produce section as well. Avoid it on the weekends if possible. Parking can be a challenge.

Another reason to avoid Great Wall on the weekends is that some of the prices on meat/seafood are higher than other (slower) days of the week. Although the last time I went on a wkday morning there were buses bringing shoppers in from out of state -- didn't affect parking, but sure did affect the wait time at check-out :angry:

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Well Mr S says that the guava used in the chiffon pie should be a puree--with no sugar added. And the frozen pulp, as well as the paste we bought, both have extra sugar added. So much for that! But I still want the recipe!

Ah, our family recipe calls for the guava concentrate (like orange concentrate) that has the the sugar in it, which is what's hard to find. The recipe has no sugar in it I think, and I suggested to my Grandmother that we buy unsweetened and add sugar. The paste is a different consistency altogether, but I might have more luck with the frozen, unsweetened pulp I've seen at Grand Mart (though is this really the same as concentrate? Concentrate is concentrated & really sweet!)

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I have a question about socca. I made a batch of batter yesterday around 2pm using Bittman's recipe, which calls for it to sit for up to 12 hours. Plans changed, socca didn't get made for dinner. Can I go ahead and use the batter tonight, or should I just chuck it and start over? The only ingredients in it are the chickpea flour, water, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

ETA: it's been sitting on the counter, covered by a towel, the entire time.

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