Sushi: É o mais famoso prato japonês no mundo. E o mais popular entre os japoneses, que os preparam em ocasiões especiais. Basicamente, o sushi pode ser definido como um bolinho de arroz coberto por peixes ou frutos do mar crus. Há, no entanto, vários tipos de sushis, que mudam de nome conforme a forma de preparo ou os ingredientes utilizados. Confira os tipos mais conhecidos:

Nigiri: Pequenos bocados de arroz recobertos com fatias de peixes ou frutos do mar crus, sendo os mais comuns os de atum, camarão, enguia, lula, polvo, salmão e ovo frito;Gunkan: Arroz enrolado por algas marinhas e recheado com peixe cru, frutos do mar, ovas de peixes ou legumes;

Norimaki: É um sushi às avessas. Neste tipo, o arroz recobre as algas, que, por sua vez, são recheadas com vários tipos de peixes, legumes e até frutas. No Brasil, a manga é utilizada na confecção deste tipo de sushi;

Temaki: Cones de algas recheados com arroz, peixe cru ou frutos do mar e legumes;

Chirashi: Frutos do mar espalhados por sobre o arroz de sushi.

Sashimi: Fatias de peixe cru degustadas com shoyu (molho de soja) e wasabi (raiz forte). Os japoneses comem alguns diferentes tipos de peixes crus. É óbvio que o peixe tem de estar o mais fresco possível.

Os mais populares tipos de sashimi são:
Maguro: atum;
Toro: atum gordo;
Ika: lula;
Tako: polvo;
Ebi: camarão ou lagosta;
Saba: cavala (espécie de peixe);
Sake: salmão.

Como comer: Ponha um pouco de shoyu em um pequeno prato. A maneira correta de embeber o nigiri sushi é virá-lo de cabeça para baixo, com a parte do peixe cru para baixo. Poucos tipos de nigiri sushi devem ser comidos sem o shoyu. No geral, você deve comer o sushi de uma vez, enfiando-o todo na boca. Você pode utilizar as mãos ou os hashis para pegar os sushis;

Como comer grandes pedaços de comida: Ponha um pouco de shoyu em um pequeno prato e acrescente um pouco de wasabi (raiz forte), misturando-os em seguida. Embeba as fatias de peixe ou de frutos do mar crus na mistura e coma de uma só vez. Alguns tipos de sashimi são comidos com gengibre ralado em vez de wasabi.

Tempura: Frutos do mar e vegetais empanados e fritos em óleo fervente. Foi introduzido no Japão pelos portugueses. Hoje em dia, tornou-se um dos pratos mais populares do Japão, e também bem conhecido no mundo todo.

Algas: As algas (kaiso) são uma importante parte da dieta japonesa, por ser muito rica em minerais. Várias espécies de algas são comidas de diferentes maneiras.

As três mais conhecidas são:

Nori: É a mais comum. São lâminas secas e finas de algas usadas nos "rolinhos" e outros tipos de sushi ou como condimento para o arroz;

Wakame: É comumente usada em sopas como a de misô ou em alguns tipos de saladas. Hoje em dia, wakame é vendida na forma seca, mas ela se expande quando a põe na água;

Konbu: É a mais usada como ingrediente básico de sopas.

Wasabi: É o principal tempero japonês. Feito de raiz forte, costuma ser servido na forma de uma pasta verde, utilizada como condimento em sashimis e sushis. De qualquer forma, wasabi é também muito usado em outros pratos japoneses.

Saquê: É feito de arroz e água. Há vários tipos regionais de saquê. Sua graduação alcoólica varia entre 10 e 20% e pode ser servido quente ou gelado. Costumam ser servidos em pequenos potes ou em um recipiente especial chamado massu. Atualmente, já são vendidos em embalagens tetra packs (de papelão reciclável).

Vinho de ameixa: Tipo de bebida alcoólica muito doce feita de ameixas.

Shochu: É um tipo de aguardente, feito de cereais, bem mais forte que o saquê, mas menos difundido.

O chá: É uma das bebidas mais populares do Japão. O chá verde é bebido em qualquer lugar e em qualquer ocasião. Diferentemente do chá inglês, o chá verde é servido em canecas sem a asa e nunca é bebido com açúcar ou creme. A maneira correta de beber chá verde é segurar a caneca com uma mão e apoiá-la embaixo com a outra mão. Há vários tipos:

Gyokuro, sencha, bancha: O chá verde mais comum feito de folhas secas de chá, que apresentam três níveis de qualidade;

Houjicha: Chá verde feito das folhas torradas do chá, que lhe dá uma colocação marrom;

Matcha: É usado na Cerimônia do Chá e tem o sabor mais amargo. É feito das folhas de chá moídas;

Chá chinês: São chás aromáticos, como o 'oolong' e o de jasmim, etc.;

Kocha: É o nome do chá mate inglês.

Faça sua reserva no Yamaai pelos fones: 11 3845 0641 / 11 8150 6923
Rua Julio Diniz, 158 • Vila Olímpia • São Paulo • SP

When we stepped out of the airport on Sunday in Raleigh I commented to Erin that the air smelled sweet, perfumed by the pollen of nearby trees.  When we stepped out of the airport yesterday in Chicago the air smelled of cigarette smoke and diesel exhaust.  Home is no longer where the heart is, but that's been the case for a while now.

From the airport we drove to downtown Raleigh, which was pretty inactive due to it being a Sunday morning.  There were signs of life though around the bus station, in Moore Square and at various restaurants setting up outdoor seating.  We walked around the area, my legs heavier than lead from service the night before that ended about 9 hours previously.  To feel the warmth of the sun was worth it all though.

Eventually we decided to get in the car and drove west on Hillsborough - a street we'd read had some restaurants on it.  It does, right around NC State, but mostly just college stuff.  On our drive west we came across a flea market (apparently not just a flea market, but a weekly event held at the State Fair Grounds) which Erin decided we'd stop in at.  We wandered around awhile, looking at the various stalls that were set up, but our stomachs were now telling us that they needed to be fed.  So we drove around some, finding a Border's to use the bathroom at - and to buy a (marginally) better map than that provided by the car rental place.

Finding a suitable restaurant when you don't know an area is one of the most annoying activities I can think of.  Eating at chains is unacceptable, and amazingly, we didn't see one BBQ joint.  Even if we had seen a BBQ place it would have been closed due to it being a Sunday.  Ultimately we drove back to downtown and ate lunch at The Big Easy, one of the restaurants we noticed setting up outside earlier.

After a pretty good meal - who knew our first meal in Raleigh would be cajun/creole? - I asked our server if he could recommend a BBQ place.  After consultation with the kitchen staff they came to a unanimous decision, but couldn't remember the name of it and could only remember roughly where it was.

With full bellies and a couple of beers we checked in at our hotel in Cary and proceeded to take naps.  Mine was less nap than it was outright sleep.  Erin woke up considerably sooner than I did and thankfully did some research for dinner.  When I arose we headed to Glenwood Avenue and walked around.

For some unknown reason I was really craving something with a Mediterranean bent to it.  I can't explain it.  We walked around some, checked out 518 West Italian Cafe (it looked good and was pretty full but was too traditionally Italian) but decided to continue on.

Ultimately we decided on (or rather my weird craving decided on) Enoteca Vin which suited my Mediterranean craving just fine.  To start we split the baby arugula salad with shaved fennel, endive, goat cheese and roasted red onion.  It was a nice, light way to start the meal.  Erin decided to have the special of tagliatelle with white truffle and rabbit sausage.  I decided to have the duck confit with stinging nettle gnocchi, mustard greens and roasted tomatoes and was served in a broth of some kind.  For dessert we split the vanilla panna cotta with strawberries.

The food was good, really good, and was amazingly pretty cheap.  Everything came to $70 - which included a handful of drinks.  In Chicago we'd have paid around $120 for a comparable meal.

After a full day we retired to our hotel room for the night.

!!!

Day 2 - Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh

Our second day began at the Waffle House just in front of our hotel.  I opted for hash browns with biscuits and gravy while Erin had hash browns and a biscuit of some kind.  It was delicious.  Oh how we've missed you Waffle House.

Armed with two shitty maps and pretty much no plan, we drove on I40 to Chapel Hill to have a look around.  There was a restaurant I was aware of that I was possibly eager to check out (at least see) because I knew they were open for lunch and open on Monday's, but I couldn't remember the name or where it was located.  Turns out it's in a strip mall we drove right past.  Incidentally it's called Jujube.

We ended up parking on Franklin Street, paying a meter and walked west.  For a town with a population of just 50,000 there is certainly a ton of shit to do, though this is probably due to the presence of UNC.  Two restaurants that caught our eye (but were closed) on Franklin Street were Elaine's and The Lantern.

After walking around some we got some beverages - Erin water and me lemonade (by the way, what's up with places not carrying Mountain Dew, afterall I was in the south, no?) and headed north towards Durham.  It didn't take us long to get "lost" - have I mentioned how bad our maps were? - heading north towards I85 through some pretty rural areas.  Also, we still had yet to come across a BBQ joint - how was this possible?

I was at least aware that Allen and Son BBQ was near Chapel Hill but didn't have the faintest clue as to where it actually was, plus we were still full from our breakfast.

So onto Durham we went.  We made an attempt to find Duke, which it seems we skirted by.  The woods surrounding the campus were certainly beautiful though.  And then we found our way into downtown Durham, which was as we were prepared for - depressed and ugly.  I'm sure Durham has it's nice areas, it's just that we didn't find them on this trip.  We did however locate a Whole Foods across the street from the East campus of Duke which we went into to get some bananas.

Wandering around was pretty revealing.  They had the largest spring onions I've ever seen, sunchokes a plenty, mustard and collard greens, in fact, all sorts of shit you can't find in Chicago.  Hell, they even had dried kombu on prominent display, not exactly an every day item in the American diet.

By now we were decidedly becoming hungry, so we thought we'd attempt to find the BBQ place our server from the previous day had recommended.  We drove on I40 for a while but decided to get on route 54, which would take us through the Research Triangle Park, Morrisville, Cary and then into Raleigh.  In Morrisville we noticed our first BBQ place!! and both thought to ourselves, is that the place they were talking about?  It seemed a bit far out, so we continued on.  Eventually (like 20 or 30 minutes later) we hit Hillsborough and looked at each other.  Wasn't there supposed to have been a white building on the right just before we hit Hillsborough?  We turned around, there was no such place we decided, so we drove back out to Morrisville to the BBQ place that we'd seen about 40 minutes previously.

Starving, we pulled into their parking area and got out of the car.  My initial reaction was "Why don't I smell it?", but after about two steps my nose was assaulted with the smell of smoke and fat.  Aahhh.  We entered, ordered and sat down (I lost Erin at one point but the woman who took our order was kind enough to help Erin out).  When our food was brought out I noticed the sign indicating their hours - M-F 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Our first reaction was to think of the limited hours of Hot Doug's and how we thought he had it good.  I then pulled out my phone and noticed it was 1:53 and felt somewhat like an asshole.  There were at least a few other people there, and not once were we ever made to feel like we needed to hurry up. 

As for what we thought of the food, it was delicious.  The pork was actually pulled, not chopped, and was excellent.  Hush puppies come as a side with two other choices - Erin chose baked beans and mac and cheese while I went with coleslaw and potato salad.  If anything our hush puppies were a little cold, but we did get there 10 minutes before they closed.

The name of the place is Smokey's BBQ Shack and we'll be back whenever we find ourselves in the area permanently, just not when they're closing.

Next we drove to the JC Raulston Arboretum off of - guess which road - Hillsborough.  What seemed like a small and disappointing garden turned out to be considerably larger than our first impression gave us.  It was also nice to walk off the lunch that we had.

Afterwards we drove around Cary trying to find an asian market that I'd located on-line.  After driving through a number of strip malls (these things are huge) we gave up and went back to our hotel room to locate it on-line.  I also did some research to try and locate the bbq place that our server from our first day had told us about.  We had success on both fronts and headed back into the car. 

Not five minutes later we were wandering through the Grand Asia Market in Cary.  The produce was good but it was the meat selection that was stunning.  Pork belly, beef tendon, all kinds of tripe, tongue, bung from some kind of animal (it's exactly what you think it is) that I can't remember, beef hooves, duck feet, boneless duck feet, whole birds (head and feet attached), pork kidneys, pork livers, testicles and penises of various animals, etc.  I was fascinated.  I don't even know where to get this stuff in Chicago.  Most of the asian markets here don't seem to sell meats, only fish and poultry along with other products.

We then found the elusive bbq joint and then drove to Glenwood Ave to enjoy some beers and alcohol.  Neither of us were all that hungry, so drinking was our only mission.  Our first stop was The Hibernian Pub.  We'd have sat there for a while but the bartender was a meathead (I just noticed his photograph on their website), so we walked across the street to Stool Pigeons and enjoyed a few beverages.

Our next stop was at a Harris Teeter where we purchased some salads and beer for the hotel room.  On our drive we noticed it had just rained and rolled the windows down to enjoy the smell, which was so much more powerful than I could have imagined.  The smell took me back years and brought up so many memories.  Chicago, with all of its big city sophistication has nothing like that to offer - just a simple drive down a two lane road with the sun setting and the windows rolled down.  It's not that I don't like you Chicago, it's just that I've outgrown you.  I need a better, cleaner existence, for my body, for my soul.  I need to live somewhere where people look you in the eye when they speak to you, where doors are held, where people say "please" and "thank you", where I didn't hear one person honk their horn.

Day 3 - Raleigh

Our 3rd - and final - day began at the State Farmer's Market.  We wandered aimlessly through the produce building - yes, building and were pretty much amazed at the quantity and quality of fresh produce available at reasonable prices.  One stand demanded that we try their strawberries - "Just pick whichever one you want".  So we obliged, it wasn't hard to find one that looked good - it was fresh and delicious. 

We talked to a couple of the vendors who all encouraged us to move.  Erin was talked into buying a slice of seven layer cake.  Between this market and the Asian market we may never shop at traditional grocery stores ever again, except for things like toiletries.

Our next stop was the Mordecai area of Raleigh, just northwest of downtown.  We walked through the park and surrounding neighborhood, noticing the houses for both rent and sale.

We then ventured on to that BBQ place that had been haunting us since we arrived, called Ole Time BBQ.  We each had the bbq pork.  The hush puppies were delicious.  Erin's sides were fried okra and mashed potatoes without gravy.  I had collards and potato salad.  The main difference between this pork and that from the previous day was that this was chopped and not pulled.  A minor difference really, but I think I preferred the pork from the day before a little more, though both were good.

After lunch we headed to William B. Umstead State Park and hiked around for quite some time.  This was our first proper hike in nearly 8 years.  In Illinois all the parks have paved trails - sad, isn't it? - so we don't really count that as hiking.  We ended up hiking for a couple of hours through the woods, coming across some toads and lizards and a creek that you can only eat the fish from once a month (if you dare at all) due to the PCB levels.  Sounds delicious.  For some unknown reason (at least to us) there's a site in the park where there used to be a mill.  It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, and there really wasn't any explanation as to why there used to be a mill at that site and how people actually got there.

After heading back to our car we headed back towards downtown Raleigh, drove on the east side of town, since we hadn't done so yet.  There didn't seem to be too much there but we didn't really try that hard to find that much either.  We then parked back downtown and walked around, where there were all sorts of TV cameras set up - presumably because of the primary election that was taking place.

We then treated ourselves to some beers at Tir Na Nog, attempting to kill some time before dinner.  We then drove over to Glenwood Ave for dinner, but had to kill some more time before the restaurant opened up.  We walked around, found a house Erin had found on line that's for rent, visited The Cupcake Shoppe Bakery for Erin to get a cupcake - I got one too and it was tasty and had some more drinks at Stool Pigeons.

Finally, the restaurant we wanted was open, so we headed over and sat outside.  The name of the place is Zely & Ritz, a small plates restaurant that has partnered with Coon Rock Farm just outside Raleigh to provide the restaurant with fresh, local and organic produce.

For dinner we had the cheese plate with camembert, "pig in pajamas" roasted CRF bratwurst wrapped in puff pastry with mustard dipping sauce, tuna tartar with radish, scallion, cilantro and passion fruit sauce, pan seared farm raised cobia with shrimp and lemon grass broth, creamy risotto with local asparagus with asiago cheese.

Everything was good, or better than good, but the number of beers I'd had had taken a toll so my judgement may have been slightly off.

Stuffed and tired from a long day we headed back to our hotel where we ate our cupcakes.

Yesterday we had our last breakfast at the Waffle House before heading to the airport.

So now that we know that we want to move to Raleigh all sorts of shit has to happen.  Upon returning to Chicago we inherited a cat - Jerry - from our neighbors and landlord below us.  So he'll be moving with us whenever it does happen.  We're both confident that we'll have moved before the weather turns cold again.  We both just have a few hurdles to get past before we can leave Chicago though.

Não sabia muito acerca das alcachofras, e, ainda não sei muito. Investiguei um pouco e vi que se cozia... hehe, e, que se devia cortar o caule, as folhas, e que esta flor pertence à mesma família do girasol e das margaridas. Muito interessante.  Dizia também numa das páginas que li na net, que, se devia raspar uma tal barba... que só descobri quando já estava tudo cozinhado e depois de ter descascado tudo na mesa e durante a refeição.

Uma novidade que fiz, foi, além de ter espremido 2 limões e ter juntado ao tacho, juntei ainda 2 metades de um limão (ou seja, um limão inteiro né?! hehe ) então aproveitei as casacas do limão depois de ter espremido no espremedor. lavei bem a casca antes de meter no tacho.

Eu acompanhei com arroz intergral com algas kombu, e, lentilhas com pimentos e cebolas na panela de pressão. Tudo uma granda combinação.

Boas comidas!

Estufado de Alcachofras

Ingredientes ( serve 2 pessoas )

• 4 alcachofras
• 1 colher de sopa de sal marinho
• 1 colher de chá de açucar
• 2 colheres de sopa de polpa de tomate concentrado
• azeite muitoooo que é tão bom
• 1 cebola grande
• 1 colher de chá de gengibre em pó
• 1 colher de café de piri-piri em pó
• 1 colher de chá de uma mistura de especiarias que tenho ali, desculpem... não sei o nome
• 2 limões
• 2 metades de limões bem lavados

Como preparar

Bem, não acrescento muito ao que já escrevi lá em cima. Lembrem-se de cortar o caule da flor, e, com uma tesoura, ir cortando as pontas das pétalas da flor até ficar tudo um botão mais uniforme. Corte ainda o caule mais para dentro da flor, ou seja, corte um pouco da bade da flor e não só o caule. Pode ainda ( deve ser o que vou fazer da próxima vez) tirar totalmente todas as folhas da flor e deixar só a base, irá ver uma especie de barbinha, pode cortar também isso. Ficará só com uma parte da alcachofra. Mas precisamente a parte que se come. Eu não tirei nada disto, e, no prato fui comendo e tirando as folhas uma a uma, e foi chupando tido comer camarão, pois as folhas mais perto do coração têm já um pouco de tutano :D . É tipo chupar as cabeças aos camarões... hehehe

Eu aproveitei duas metades da casca do limão depois de ter espremido e pus mesmo para dentro do tacho. Ficou mesmo muito bom, um sabor a limão muito bom mesmo.

Oden is one of the traditional foods in Japan, people would usually have it once a month. While in cold winter, they would have it more frequently. Oden is kind of like hot pot/ Shabu-Shabu, the only difference is oden do not have meat, mostly the ingredients are vegetables, eggs, and fish ball.

It seems like really simple to cook oden, but the boiling time and the soup base will make a strong different of it. In Japan, there are oden restaurants and oden vendor stores. Especially in winter, Japanese like to have oden and with Japanese sake or beer. This is one of the traditional cultures in Japan. Except the original sauce of oden, mustard is another sauce that people will serve with the oden. In the past, using mustard is to kill the bacteria, but now it becomes a habit.

Due to different habit and characteristics in different cities, some cities have their own style of oden. But the ingredients are mostly the same.

Ingredients:

Chinese/Japanese Carrot (JAP: Diakon) -- Unlike having the Chinese/Japanese Carrot in hot pot and/or Shabu Shabu, the carrot in oden are not cut in slide but thick.

Chikuwa – This taste like Chinese fish ball.

Boiled egg

Konjac

Toasted Tofu

Hanben – In Chinese, it means “half”. Most Japanese will serve this with hot pot.

Kombu

Ganmo – this is fried tofu dumpling that included vegetables, egg white, and sesame.

Satsuma age – This is fried fish cake. Used the fish meats and then fried with fish starch.

Oden in Japanese convenience stores -- Oden is really popular in Japanese convenience stores too. But the choices of foods are not as many as restaurants and vendors.

CM of Oden in Japanese convenience store:

Oden can – This is a popular can product in Akihabara which sell in vending machine.

　Oden sauce – The sauce is made by kombu and dried fish. With this oden sauce, people are able to cook oden at home.

My Rating:

Recommend restaurant:

Kuroyuri Oden restaurant – 1/F Ajiwai-kan, Kanazawa-byakubon Street, 1-1 Ki-no-shinbauchou, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. TEL: 076-260-3722; Business Hour: AM 10:00 – PM 10:00

2) Oden Museum --

Oden street @ Aoba (in Aomori City)

Right now, I fear I will catch what the hubby has (fever, aches, and coughs). He never gets this sick usually. I’m keeping him hydrated, and made rice porridge (not the one pictured, that was from weeks ago). By the time he’s better, my immune system will probably give in. And this will be his instructions. I don’t expect him to be able to make anything more than just the rice porridge part.

Rice porridge

• Dashi:
• 2 quarts water
• 5x8inch piece of kombu
• 1/2 cup bonito flakes

• 1 1/2 cup white rice (long or short grain)

 small cooked piece of kombu, used bonito tea bag, pack of tea bags

Put water, kombu and bonito flakes (in tea bag/dashi bag/or tied up cheese cloth) in pot. Cover, bring to a boil on medium, let simmer for a minute or two, then turn off heat, and remove the kombu and bonito package. Kombu will expand when cooked. For a vegan dashi; use kombu and one dried shitake mushroom. Or simply make it with only water.

Rinse rice with cold water and add to dashi. If using a regular pot on stovetop, bring to boil and let simmer on low for 90mins to 2hrs. When using a rice cooker you can just put it in and let it run on porridge mode, but make sure you know what the maximum capacity for porridge is. If using a pressure cooker (making sure you are well with in the max fill line) secure the lid, and bring to a boil, locking in the lid. On medium low, let it cook for 20-25mins. After turning off the heat and letting the pressure dissipate, take the lid off, stir (add more water if it seems to be too thick) and simmer for another 5-10mins.

Kombu enoki relish

• Kombu leftover from dashi
• 1 large package of enoki (about 1 3/4 cup worth when chopped)
• 3/4 cup water
• 3-4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of mirin
• dash of sansho pepper

Cut kombu into small 1/2 -3/4 inch pieces. Cut enoki into 3/4 -1 inch long segments. Combine kombu, enoki with water, soy, mirin in small pot and bring to a boil, simmer on medium till the liquid is mostly gone and you are left with a syrupy sauce. Sprinkle on sansho pepper at the end.

Nori sauce

• 4 sheets of nori, torn into small pieces
• 2 shitake mushrooms sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1/4 water
• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tsp sake (optional)
• 1 tsp sesame seeds

Combine nori, mushrooms, soy, mirin, sake, and water in small pot and bring to a boil, simmer on medium till the liquid is mostly gone and you are left with a syrupy sauce. Sprinkle on sesame seeds at the end.

Spinach with sesame

• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 2 tsp oil (olive or canola)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp salt

Heat skillet on medium high, add oil, garlic and sesame seeds, then add in the spinach. Stir and cook till spinach just wilts, turn off heat, add in salt and sesame oil, toss and mix well.

Addition sides

• ume (umeboshi)
• fish (hot smoked mackerel or salmon, fish cake)
• egg (hard/soft boiled)
• edamame

Wish spring was here already.

Dashi

Wash a couple of pieces of kombu about the size of your ear in cold water. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and add the kombu. After a couple of minutes remove the kombu and add 3 tablespoons of bonito flakes. Allow the stock to come to a boil and turn it off, let the flakes settle a little, and strain. Use the stock immediately, and any leftovers will keep in the fridge for two days.

Veggie Dashi

Take 6-8 dried shitake mushrooms, break off the stems and wash them under cold water. Wash a couple of pieces of kombu about the size of your ear in cold water. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and add the kombu. After a couple of minutes remove the kombu and add the shitake. Let the stock simmer until the mushrooms are soft and the aroma has developed, around 10-15 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and salt to taste with seasalt.

Gluten intolerance has become a serious modern disease, not just among kids on the autistic spectrum (autism, Aspberger's ADD/ADHD), but among many, many people with chronic digestive problems.

Damage to the intestinal wall causes a condition known as leaky gut or intestinal permeability. This creates all sorts of problems such as toxins being released into the bloodstream and malabsorption of nutrients.

Malabsorpition causes degenerative diseases like osteoperosis in the elderly and can cause failure to thrive in babies.

Most celiac sufferers feel doomed to a life without bread. Complete avoidance of gluten (and often casein -- in dairy products) is the only way they can quell a plethora of symptoms and disorders.

Symptoms of Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance (from the Mayo Clinic):

There are no typical signs and symptoms of celiac disease. Most people with the disease have general complaints, such as intermittent diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. Sometimes people with celiac disease may have no gastrointestinal symptoms at all. Celiac disease symptoms can also mimic those of other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, gastric ulcers, Crohn's disease, parasite infections, anemia, skin disorders or a nervous condition.

Celiac disease may also present itself in less obvious ways, including irritability or depression, anemia, stomach upset, joint pain, muscle cramps, skin rash, mouth sores, dental and bone disorders (such as osteoporosis), and tingling in the legs and feet (neuropathy).

Some indications of malabsorption that may result from celiac disease include:

Weight loss
Diarrhea
Abdominal cramps, gas and bloating
General weakness
Foul-smelling or grayish stools that may be fatty or oily
Stunted growth (in children)
Osteoporosis

The article by Catherine Czapp is very encouraging for the gluten intolerant, as it outlines a protocol for recovery that goes beyond gluten avoidance:

When a patient receives a diagnosis of celiac disease or gluten intolerance, either via laboratory testing or by process of elimination by the sufferer himself, complete avoidance of all gluten-containing foods will often bring improvement of many symptoms in a short time, sometimes as quickly as three days; others may require a month for positive signs to emerge. Finally understanding what was wrong can be a tremendous relief for someone who had likely been struggling with unhappy digestion for quite some time.

It is important to remember, though, that the impaired digestive capabilities of someone suffering from this autoimmune disorder will not automatically return to full healthy functioning by merely excluding gluten from the diet, nor will longstanding nutrient deficiencies be corrected unless they are actively addressed in a recuperation protocol designed with care and insight into the needs of the individual. Celiacs who have been severely afflicted should expect significant renewal of health only after one or more years of concerted effort.

What does she recommend for recovery?

Bone broths! The gelatin in homemade bone broths actually repairs the intestinal walls.

She ventured beyond the average bone broth, though, adding things like kombu, shiitake and nettles -- which also help to soothe and repair the gut:

I had been pottering away in my kitchen experimenting with bone broths. I had become entranced by the extraordinary nutritive and recuperative properties of highly gelatinized broth made from the long simmering of bones, and I wanted to have a good storage of it. I improvised my brews by adding astragalus root--a nutritive immune system enhancer--to some pots, and kombu (a brown kelp) to others for its contribution of minerals and soothing mucilage. I added vinegar I'd made from shiitake mushroom stems--another immune system booster--in others, and nettles I'd grown on the burial ground of spent fish bones in another.

Nettles have so many nourishing and energizing attributes that one can barely enumerate them all, but I had been counting on their ability to pull minerals from the soil to augment my bone stocks. I only recently have come across a reference to their ability to actually promote the growth of intestinal villi!

Note: she does not recommend storebought broth. It must be homemade from the bones of chickens, cows, fish, or other animals (or purchased from someone who made it from scratch).

She goes on to discuss homemade sourdough bread and how it may be tolerable by celiacs. She says her recovered dad has been eating it for years with no ill effects.

She describes an amazing study wherein celiac volunteers ate sourdough bread and had no reaction:

A study published in February, 2004 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology with the tantalizing title "Sourdough Bread Made from Wheat and Nontoxic Flours and Started with Selected Lactobacilli Is Tolerated in Celiac Sprue Patients," describes the results of an Italian research team which, encouraged by preliminary findings of their earlier work in vitro, designed an in vivo experiment to test their findings. The team's premise was that lactobacilli, chosen for their ability to hydrolyze or sever protein (gliadin) fractions might be key in processing wheat flour so that its toxic properties would be neutralized and therefore not harmful to celiac patients.

Their experiment included 17 subjects, all celiac patients who had been consuming gluten-free diets for at least two years and no longer exhibiting symptoms. The experimental bread was made from a combination of wheat (Triticum aestivum), oat, millet and buckwheat flours, 30 percent of which was wheat. The flour was mixed with a "broth" of four lab-obtained lactobacilli, a dose of baker's yeast and tap water in a continuous high-speed mixer. When the dough was allowed to ferment at about body temperature for 24 hours, almost all of the toxic peptide fractions in the wheat protein had been hydrolized. The bread was then baked and fed to the celiac volunteers (who also bravely ate breads made with plain baker's yeast as "controls"). After consuming the simple yeasted bread, analysis of the volunteers' gut permeability was made, which showed a change in permeability normally associated with celiac response. No such response was noted when the volunteers ate the 24-hour fermented sourdough bread. The authors of the study are cautiously enthusiastic about the results of this "novel bread biotechnology" and its implications for celiac patients.

Note: we are not talking about that faux sourdough bread you find in the grocery store. This is real homemade sourdough made from a fermented starter.

The article concludes:

Rather than condemn celiac sufferers to a life without bread, how much better to offer a healing protocol followed for life with the right kind of bread. In fact, how much better for all of us to take our cue from celiac sufferers and consume only bread that has been prepared by artisans--with attention to detail and lots of time.

The same old refrain. Modern food production is causing health problems that can be reversed by going back to eating foods raised and prepared traditionally.

There is nothing I love better than a house filled with the odors of fresh baking bread and a pot of homemade chicken stock simmering on the stove. To me, that's home.