polenta

I totally agree with Dragon and Baldur but of course it's only my taste. Cakes from Austria or that area (Germany, Switzerland and Hungary, remember the Austrian-Hungarian Empire) are the BEST OF THE BEST.

French cuisine is excellent but with all due respect they have a lot of puff pastry (the one that has many layers???) and it's not my favorite.
As for the Mexican "churros" I can't believe it!!!! It's a Spanish recipe. It's good but it's fried. We have them here too but it's not as refined and tasty as Austrian sweets.
So Chinese people eat sweets in their main course. Well, so far then it's Austrian..........................................And Middle East sweets are too sweet, full of honey, it's just once every blue moon.
How good it would be to listen to Strauss's waltzes in Vienna drinking tea or coffee and eating a piece of cake!!!

polenta

Thanks Login for your apple cake.
It's good, not very sweet and apples are cheap everywhere.
I forgot to tell you about Uruguay. I think our pastry isn't so bad.... but of course Austrian is much better. What I like about ours is that you can buy what we call "masitas" at a confectionery or bakery. It's like very, very small pieces of cake, maybe 15 in one pound or 500 grams. In this way, you may eat three or four "masitas" and have many different tastes in your palate. Maybe this also exists everywhere, I don't know.

You can see only a few kinds of "masitas" in the third and last photo in this address where it says TODA LA LINEA DE MASAS Y SALADITOS. The variety they sell is several dozens maybe.

http://images.google.com.uy/imgres?imgurl=http://lamiraonline.com.uy/guia/wp-content/uploads/2 009/06/fo3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lamiraonline.com.uy/guiacomercial/comercio.rbx%3Fcomerc io%3Del-horreo-panaderia-confiteria-rotiseria&usg=__Tkj2jwvUv3pdjSIlU36h47X1f3c=&h=346& amp;w=575&sz=75&hl=es&start=48&um=1&tbnid=Gzs26dmK6_cerM:&tbnh=81&t bnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmasitas%2Bde%2Bconfiteria%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26start %3D40%26um%3D1

polenta

I think the address above doesn't work.
Maybe this one will

http://images.google.com.uy/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_b5T-Rd5V_SM/SDCd4HW_NFI/AA AAAAAAAuA/DVzHohSx8vU/s400/masas.jpg&imgrefurl=http://recetasbandini.blogspot.com/2007/08/m asitas-finas.html&usg=__9RsRvT3yiZnBc58qVmq6m6mantg=&h=266&w=400&sz=41&hl=e s&start=8&tbnid=_l3mYigNL_QexM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmasitas %26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DG

polenta

Sorry, these two addresses don't open. Maybe you could see some images under MASITAS on your own. SORRY

belladonnis

Hey polenta,
I looked up MASITAS and I say where some are prepared with pork? It was all in spanish and I couldnt read it. I did find this one at the Cafe' Colvmbvs. Could you tell me what these ingredients are? They looked so good!
300 gramos de harina leudante (0 harina 0000 con polvo de hornear) 2 huevos (eggs?) 100 gramos de manteca, jugo de una naranja oel equialente de lech, 1 pizca de sal, Azucar para espolvorear. Queso mantecoso o creoso.
They looked almost like apple tarts.

belladonnis

Yea I couldnt get the pages you had to open but I did see a picture of the masitas, they are almost what I would call Petifores, which are small bite size cakes.

inked_gemini

Vietnamese sweets are actually not very sweet. For the most part, dessert foods in Vietnam are made from rice or beans sweetened with coconut milk or some type of sweet bean curd. Rice cakes are common but not the crispy types that you can get at the grocery story. They're soft and spongy, and they're sweetened the same way--with coconut milk. Sometimes they're deep fried in batter and rolled in sesame seeds. For this reason, I'm not a huge fan of Vietnamese pastries or cakes. The sweetest foods in Vietnam grow on trees (or on bushes or out of the ground): papayas, mangos, jack fruit.

There is this rice pudding that I'm quite fond of though. It's just like any rice pudding really but mixed with whole black-eyed peas and topped with whipped coconut milk. the first time I tried it I was a bit wary of black-eyed peas as dessert, but the starchy and sweet flavors compliment each other quite well I think.

matthew

BELL...

300 grams self-rising flour (0 to 0000 flour baking powder) 2 eggs (eggs?) 100 grams of butter, an orange juice or equivalente milk, 1 pinch of salt, sugar for dusting. Buttery cheese or Creos.

matthew

Belladonnis, yo no hablo español, pero sé cómo utilizar traductor de google ... usted debe probarlo ... http://translate.google.com/#

belladonnis

Thanks Matthew!

marius

Polenta, have had Japanese sweets or "desserts." My sister-in-law hails from Japan and had them sent over special for Xmas. They were beautifully wrapped and looked delicious but were much as inked-gemini described Vietnamese desserts ... made with beans, rice. They barely tasted like anything - just texture is what I recall.

When her parents came to visit, I showed up with a big bag of "turtles," the quality-kind made with cashews and GOOD chocolate, caramel. Her parents loved them. As they spoke only Japanese, I don't know if they'd had chocolates before but it seemed they had not ... they were talking with great animation as they ate up most of the turtles! : )

polenta

Yes, PETIT FOURS in French. Maybe it's the same. Like little pieces of cake. I saw images of MASITAS. We have dry MASITAS (like biscuits or cookies) and creamy MASITAS (mostly in small paper baskets). I'm talking about the latter. They might be the PETIT FOURS you mention. Here it's an institution and you see them in all the parties, get-togethers, etc.

marius

Polenta, do you have recipes (in English) for masitas? They sound yummy!

And, here is a "cultural difference" that surprised me.

Many years ago I worked at an outdoor education facility. We taught classes, or programs, outside. We had a curriculum for each class. One day a woman professor (from India) brought her Environmental Education college class to learn about native plants. That's when it started.

The woman LOVED our class and wanted us to give her the curriculum so she could bring her students and lead the class herself. (Why should she pay us when she felt she could lead the class herself ... if only she had the curriculum!) It didn't seem to cross her mind that we'd spent countless hours and amounts of money to develop our award-winning curriculum and that our primary income came from the classes we offered! The woman visited many times, made many phone calls and it seemed that nothing would dissuade her. And, I was getting angry: how many times do you have to tell someone, "The answer is, NO!"????

Finally, I shared this story with a friend. She laughed and said, "No wonder you are angry. You don't know what you're dealing with. The woman is bartering! What you're dealing with is a CULTURAL issue!" I said, "It may BE cultural, but it's also rude."

My friend said, "Define rude!" That led to a lively discussion and I was reminded that what is rude to some people is not rude to others! My friend patiently explained (because I can be very dense) that in some places "no" does not really mean NO! She said that in some places "bartering" is considered great sport and actually reaches a kind of "art form." And, from what I gather, the word "no" is simply part of the bartering ... not a signal that the transaction will not occur.

Gee whiz. I would never survive in a bartering place. I just want to buy something, or not, and be done with it.

maddyjean08

Masitas do sound yummy!

mouse

Hi, I'm fairly new to this site but would like to add my thoughts on good sweets. All the "talk" has made me hungry for Moms pie . The very best dessert I have ever eaten is warm ( just out of the oven) , deep dish, blackberry cobbler with a little sweet milk. My mother used to make it a lot but alas I failed to write down her recipe . She didn't measure anything . She'd say- a pinch of this and a handful of that. Mine tastes nothing like hers. But the memory remains so sweet.

Dragon

Oh that sounds good mouse. I love blackberries but don't eat them very often 'cause I don't like the seeds. Blackberry cobbler with sweet milk sounds like something they serve in heaven!

polenta

How sweet what Mouse said about her mother's cooking. It's because she did it with love.
Marius, I don't have any recipes of masitas. I don't think anybody makes them at home. That's all the joy, you buy them at a confectionery or bakery. How could one person make so many different things at one time?
As for the cultural differences you must be ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. We can make mistakes when dealing with people from other countries. My husband studied in USA for one year when he was young and he says that there people are very sincere. If they say NO , it's NO. Here if I go to someone's house and they offer something to drink I might say YES but I might also say NO and only accept the second time they offer it to me. We are a little shy.
As for bartering or negotiating, I'm sure no American does it, but it's ALWAYS done if it's among businessmen or companies or even governments. LOL

polenta

Yes, it's the same or more or less the same as PETIT FOURS. I can't believe I've lived all my life and I've never know our masitas were petit fours. Does everybody buy them in US as often as here too? Because here they're an institution. Thanks, I've learned something.

belladonnis

Petifores, that I have seen, have mostly been served at baby showers and at some wedding showers. Some bakerys do sell them in boxes. I feel that in America bacause we have become such a "mellting pot" of so many cultures that so many have lost what was unique about their ancestors homelands, foods and traditions. Its sad to say that fast food my be the american institution you are refering to. Thats why I love to hear about all the customs and traditions from so many different places.

marius

And Polenta ... I AM dense. (What a hearty laugh to start my day!) Of course bartering is done in business, government! I knew that. And, years ago I bartered with a dentist: his two girls got "free" piano lessons for several years and I got my teeth fixed. : ) This is too funny. Guess I should say I only like bartering when I understand that's what we are doing! : )

Now finally, think I know what Petifores, Petit Fours, and masitas are! We have a German baker who makes these tiny, little, expensive, delicious cakes ... and his store is the ONLY place I've ever seen any thing like that. He goes to Europe every year to buy special chocolate for his cakes because he says we don't "sell the best" in the USA. I think I'll have to drive over to Wally's and buy some today!

And ... don't recall reading this ... but aren't they rather mild in flavor? Not overpowering with sweet sensation? Yes?