SC - Where's the beef, or, where's the sacrificial lamb?

[Stefan li Rous]

Lucrezia said:
> 	Adamantius wrote:
> 	Oooh, baby! I've got some cubes of beef shin simmering in stock with
> 	black mushrooms, ginger and a scallion, to serve with egg vermicelli
> and
> 	plucked cilantro, probably with sauteed snow-pea greens on the side.

What is the definition of "vermicelli"? Is it period? If so, how close is
the modern stuff to what you buy in today's store?

I don't think I've had vermicelli before, but this past weekend when
we went to a chinese/vietnamese resturant I decided to try a bowl of it.
But the noodles in the bowl looked very similar to the white rice(?)
noodles I had in other soups like Pho-boc before. I thought from seeing
vermicelli in the package in the store that it was a long, very thin
tannish noodle but this was pretty white. Is it a general class of noodles
rather than a specific one? 

> Lucrezia, sitting here in "I Don't Eat Beef Country aka Eng-madcow-land

Obviously this is a very regional thing. I checked out the lamb in our
grocery over the weekend. There were only one or two packages and the
price was several times that of the similar cut of beef. So I ended
up with pork chops. :-)

I didn't get an answer before, so let me try again. What part of the
pig are pork chops from? Is this cut of pork mentioned in any period
recipes? I noticed several different types of pork chops in the store
last time. It might be nice to try a period recipe with some.

- -- 
THL Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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