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Not sure where you got your information from. US export chickens to China, not the other way around. Here in NYC you can get true free range (not cage-free) chickens in Chinatown. Chinese famous "White cook chicken" requires free-range chickens. dcarch

Of course, BD. Carbon steel and its variants are definitely out now following a few days of "I'm only going to use the SS DO and see what happens". It's almost perfect, works well for my current cooking style, keeps foods contained, deglaze anything stuck without worry, no need to season, etc. Here it is, it's actually 6Q, not 8Q like I thought. Several years ago, a coworker remodeled his kitchen and gave me his wolf cookware set (I thought I posted about it here but I can't find the topic, oh well - I gave a family member most of the pieces since I didn't have room for it at the time and I kept the 2qt saucier and this DO). The DO is still a bit large for making 1-2 portion soups, which is what I'm going to focus on for now. I've borrowed a family member's old "Williams & Sonoma Hestan Essentials Pan" to test shape and size later this week.. it's 5QT, not nanobond, and has that saucier style rounded bottom. I really like the shape but it is large and quite heavy, so will go look at 3 and 4 qt rounded-bottom pots to see which size I would prefer. I'm keeping an eye on all-clad second hand store as well.

You didn’t ask me but I follow the Zuni Cafe Cookbook recipe which uses ~3/4 teaspoon sea salt/pound of chicken. It goes in the fridge, loosely covered for 24 hrs-3 days. Before roasting, it’s blotted dry, but not rinsed. The upper surfaces are usually nice and dry (as is the goal) but there’s often some moisture underneath and inside that needs to be blotted off.

@weinoo, sorry to have a sieve for a brain, but I don't remember what you said - I put rather a lot of salt on the chicken I've dry brined. I'm thinking I should wash it off before cooking. Right?

There was nothing actively wrong with it, but tossing apple wedges in butter and sugar (and cinnamon and booze!) to caramelise, and served with a nice crème anglaise, would've been the same amount of effort and achieved something similar... but better.

@Pete Fred thank you for that ref. on British Puddings . An interesting read.

‘Endangered’ British puddings - love it!

Rats! Those photos look just fabulous. I was sooo looking forward to making what I was imagining to be something very tasty. ☹️

The Guardian recently ran an article where an American writer tried his hand at making some endangered British puddings (i.e. dessert rather than starch thickened custard). His favo(u)rite was Malvern pudding, which is simply apples and custard. My trees had three apples left on them - exactly what was needed, it turns out. So, having never made Malvern pudding before, I was compelled to give it a try... It was fine, but ultimately no alchemy ocurred to make it more than the sum of its parts.

This batch of dough had been in the fridge since Sunday and taken out last night around 8:30 AM. Baked a number of small sourdough rolls. Moe had been smelling the bread baking since just after 4:00AM and couldn't wait until they had cooled so I cut one just out of the oven with an electric knife and slathered it with butter. That will keep him going until breakfast.

I was cutting up some ham pieces for a ham and cheese omelette when I spied a half of an heirloom tomato from last nights dinner. I changed direction and made a caprese omelette with mozzarella and basil. Since the ham and cheese were already cat, I had them too. next time I’ll try salting the tomatoes early to reduce the water content.

Couple of household staples. Kale pesto and a NYT plum torte

youve see Lunch , now dinner : more naan-ish pizza ; Benton's bacon , always a treat. I might have added 30 seconds , and more B.B. next time . plated. lower sodium salami . still plenty of salami flavor , even when i remember to soak in ice water for 30 minutes. this is not something I need to do these days , but in my experience , those days might be coming, so why not work it out now ? ( I take HCTZ ) and a thank you to @Duvel for pointing out salami ( vs pepperoni ) . Salami has interesting flavors . tabasco add heat and tart. this one was done in the AF a little longer . I like the char. when using naan-ish , the issue is the crust. a little two long and the crust becomes cracker like. finished , on the plate. I love the flavors of the chipotle tabasco.

To my horror, one local (not very good) bakery chain is disgracefully selling innocent people the execrable Luosifen mooncakes again. However they are faking their advertising. The Chinese character on the cake's top, 螺 is that for the luo part of luosifen, but the image of the cut cake is something else entirely. The real cake interior looks like this: Foul.

Last night. Shepherd's Pie. I forgot to take a photograph, so this is one I made earlier - looks exactly the same.

Noor’s Black Lime Tofu from “Flavor” by Ottolenghi - as most of the time with Ottolenghi a few components done in parallel and than everything brought together. Thinly sliced red onions are pickled in apple cider vinegar and superfine sugar. Cubed extra-firm tofu is mixed with cornstarch and deep-fried until crispy. The base of the dish is made from onions, garlic, cumin seeds, tomato paste, sugar, finely grinded black limes and water. The deep fried tofu, parsley and baby spinach are subsequently added. The dish is served over rice and topped with the pickled onions

Just realized why I love potatoes so much. They are perfect vehicles for my 2 favorite food groups: fat and salt. Supper is a baked potato with butter, onion, sour cream and shredded cheese. Yum!

There are two doughs in this process - a water dough and an oil dough. Each gets formed into a ball. The oil dough is smaller, and then you flatten the water ball into a disk, and encase the oil ball inside similar to wrapping a baozi. Then you roll out, coil up, roll out a second time, and coil up a second time. So, yes, it is a form of laminating I suppose where the oil dough would serve the purpose of the butter layer, but steam isn't released in this process like it is in laminates. FWIW I thought I would try and do the math on this but I doubt I am correct. encased ball smooshed down = 3 layers. First rollout and coil up averages 3 coils...That should be 27 layers. Second rollout and coil up with same 3 coil average...isn't this a basic exponential equation? 27x27x27=...but that seems way too high. Anyway, you get the idea and someone else can do the math for us.

Tuna salad sandwich with "super spicy" kimchee, "sweet and spicy" pickles, minced white onion, and mayo, served on toasted and buttered potato bread. Truth in advertising! I was craving vegetables but kimchee was about the only option, and I love tuna salad for an infinitely variable quick meal. Probably more kimchee and pickles than tuna.

Salmon dusted with Tajin, peach salsa, and “chunky” caprese. ETA: I wanted swordfish but it looked gross.

Is the dough laminated?

I'm still playing around with ideas before I make my gifts. These are double filling - black sesame and black bean (ala red bean...but black) teochew style.

@gulfporter Id gobble up both of those Ok Ok 1.2 of each , and have a big smile on my face.

The Camarones Francese sounds like something you'd get at 3am in Glasgow

Out for lunch at our Plaza. It is the first place we ate when we first visited here in 2007 and basically the same exact menu. French dip is always excellent, served on a local buttery bolillo. The "Camarones Francese" is shrimp salad (mayo forward) between 2 slices of bread, dipped in batter, then rolled in corn flakes and deep fried. No idea why or how it got on a menu of a small outdoor eatery in an equally small village. I don't recall ever seeing it elsewhere in MEX or in the US. Or in France for that matter.