I wanted some bad enough I could hit Amazon or send Neekha to
Edmonton's Chinatown

We might be able to get you some of the watered-down (anyhow, irradiated) stuff that we have available to us.

Please don't bother; with just a little effort I can secure my own.
And since we don't have citrus crops here to protect, ours need not
be irradiated.

Anyhow, the current prophylactic treatment
kills some of the yumminess while retaining
the less wonderful characteristics. That's
not just golden-age filing-the-edges memory
talking, that includes experiences of the
real stuff within 2019.

there any prohibition against sending it across the border?

There shouldn't be in theory as long as it's in its original
packaging and still sealed. Home grown materials or baggies full of

There's sealed and there's sealed. Speaking of
which, what's to prevent the bacteria from
being transmitted through the outsides of
the packaging, put there by the grubby hands
of the people doing the packing? And on another
tangent, do not believe what you read on the
Internet; the proper genus name is Xanthoxylum,
not starting with a Z, a similar devolution to
the species name of the Habanero, which is now
commonly spelled chinense or chinese, whereas
it's really sinense.

things scooped out of a bulk bin wouldn't get across. But it's all
very mysterious as I have had two packages of things I've mailed to
the USA not arrive at their destination in the past.

The USPS delivers approximately one piece of
nonbulk mail per caput per day. What's two
in a lifetime? [har]

Raisins and olives in a meat dish again ,,,

Commoner than most gringos think.

This gringo has liked it since he first encountered it. I have

It plays on sweet/savory, fruity/vegetal,
overripe/underripe (in these dishes it's
mostly green olives being used). It doesn't
in general move me to tears or anything, but
an empanada de picadillo without both will
bring me to tears in a different way. Capers
don't cut it as well as chopped olives.

mentioned this before, years ago, but there used to be a hot dog
shack near the beach in Hay River that was open from May 24th (Queen
Victoria Day and the first three day weekend of the summer) to
Labour Day weekend. It was run by a Chilean lady who had another
beach shack in Miami that she ran in the winter months. Carmen had
Chilean dishes on the menu but you had to order ahead as she didn't
stock all the ingredients all the time. One of her standards was a
meatloaf with layers of sliced potatoes and onions and another of
pimento and corn between three layers of ground beef with diced
onion and peppers, cumin, chilies, raisins and chopped green olives.
And as I recall just a hint of brown sugar in the meat mixture. It
was delicious and I make a similar version here at the house once in
a while.

That's picadillo forced into a form. I don't
do the potatoes nor particularly care for them
here, but I'm not a potatohead to begin with.

El Trapiche, a restaurant I had been looking
forward to returning to.

You were in Panama, right? I found several restaurants with the same

Panama, yes.

name on the net, from all over Latin America.

They grew sugarcane all over as well. Funny things.
So we were at Albrook, and Bonnie was dying of hunger,
and we did a tour of the place looking for a sitdown
restaurant before giving up and hitting Carl's Jr.
Later, looking at the placemat or menu at Via Argentina,
we noted that they have opened a branch right in the
Albrook Mall. Whoops, missed it. And there's one in San
Francisco, she noted, we didn't have to come all the way
here to get this food. I pointed out that our tickets
here didn't cost any more than flying to San Francisco,
and anyway, they meant San Francisco de Panama.

... Minor surgery is when they do the operation on someone else, not you.

Appropriate for us in this conference, these days.

Picadillo
categories; Main, ingredient, Cuban
servings: 6 to 12 depending on use

2 Tb extra-virgin olive oil
2 md yellow onions, peeled and chopped
2 oz dried chorizo, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 1/2 lb ground beef
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or
- 28 oz cn whole tomatoes, drained and crushed
2 Tb red-wine vinegar
1 Tb ground cinnamon
2 ts ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1 pn ground cloves
1 pn nutmeg
2/3 c raisins
2/3 c pitted stuffed olives

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pan on medium-high.
Add onions, chorizo (M says omit), and garlic, stir,
and wilt 10 min.

Add the ground beef, and allow it to brown, crumbling
the meat with a fork as it does. Season.

Add tomatoes, vinegar, cinnamon, cumin, bay leaves,
cloves, and nutmeg and stir to combine. Lower the
heat, and let the stew simmer, covered, for 30 min.

Uncover the pan, and add the raisins and the olives. A
llow the stew to cook for another 15 min or so, then
serve, accompanied by white rice.

Sam Sifton, NY Times
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