Text 19023, 73 rader
Skriven 2007-08-14 20:54:55 av Carol Shenkenberger (3:800/201)
  Kommentar till text 18929 av Joan Macdiarmid (1:18/200)
Ärende: Re: TORTILLAS   70612
=============================
*** Quoting Joan Macdiarmid from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Want a laugh?  I've seen Masa Harina in Sasebo at the commisary.  Yup,
 CS> the 'wierd food isle' stock has it at times.  It's sold next to the
 CS> Matzo meal here.
 CS> Glen, in the USA, lots of flours abound and that's one of them.  It
 CS> gives a cornmeal like taste but the texture of a wheat flour in
 CS> cooking. I think though it's low in gluten so doesnt rise much.  It's
 CS> made normally into tortilla like things or thicker solid breads like
 CS> pita sorts.

JM>  Sasebo IS a stretch of the imagination! I made a

That it is!  Any wonder why they are yet again it seems about to win the
world-wide award as the best small commisary?  For it's size, it's fantastic. 
Sure lots of things cant be gotten, but lots of odd things show up for a
little bit and you can grab your fix then.  Like, Jicama is back!  Potatoes
went sky-high (gather the manager had a choice of 5$ a lb or more or Jicama at
a reasonable 2$ a lb).  He stocked the potato bin with Jicama.  We emptied it
the same day (one of my buds gave us one).  He refilled the bin and we bought
it all out again.  He's laughing.  I do believe it's only the second time i
have seen Jicama here, but we adapt well.

So yes, I have seen Masa Harina here.  Not often, but it's one of the things I
can get when it's in and i think they stock it once a quarter roughly?  Like
Matso meal and gefelte fish and a host of other things.

When you have a smaller shop, you notice every little corner of it after a
while.

JM>  point to look for it in Wegmans on a recent shopping
JM>  trip, and satisfied myself it wasn't something I
JM>  had just failed to notice, either among the flours
JM>  or the "Goya" brand display of Hispanic foods. With
JM>  the increase in Hispanics among US residents, I am
JM>  sort of surprised the stores are not stocking it.
JM>  Maybe not here because most of our local Hispanic-origin
JM>  people are Puerto Rican, and I don't know if their
JM>  cooking involves corn products as much as that from
JM>  Mexico.

Definately a non-puerto-rican-thing am afraid.  Corn didnt travel east that way
to a flour base.  Anyway masa harina is nice but not all that special except a
few recipes, nothing else will work 'right' for that flavor.

JM>  Glen visited me for a week or so before the Maryland
JM>  Picnic, and I had laid in a jar of grape preserves
JM>  (though it didn't include skins or any whole fruit)
JM>  so he could try it. He said it was OK, like many
JM>  other jams and jellies. I think maybe our grape
JM>  jellies and preserves are different from others in
JM>  the world, because they are made of native American
JM>  grapes, different in character from the European
JM>  grapes which are very good for wine-making. I suspect
JM>  the flavor characteristics of our native grapes which
JM>  make them less suitable for winemaking are exactly
JM>  what makes them very good for jellies, fresh grape
JM>  juices, and just eating, as they are quite sweet and
JM>  fragrant, with assertive flavor.

I think you are right.  Our grapes (native especially such as the muskydine)
make jelly but the wine isnt special as they were not bred for ages for good
wine making characteristics.  Sure, we grow those types too (imported vines)
but what the common grocery store has, is an eating grape which is suitable
for jelly as well.

It could be the grapes in OZ are more wine making types and do not lead as well
(most of them) to jellies?

                                       xxcarol

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