PCL

The fly-catching crap in Karate Kid is totally outclassed by some brilliant displays of constrained violence and aggression in some mid-80s - mid-90s Kungfu flicks. Chopstick daggers, chopstick poison delivery, chopstick blow pipe, plain chopstick eye-gouging... plain chopstick vs sword/spear/chains/nunchakus... chopstick catapult hurling beans at warp speed... Going to DVD store after work in Chinatown.

One day ahead here in Aussie-land. So Happy New Year to you all. Kung-Hey-Fatt-Choy and all that. Dinner was okay last night. Our favorite restaurant seemed a little overwhelmed by the occassion, so a couple things were amiss. However, it's all about family and fun and lion dancing. Of particular note was the crayfish noodle. Very good. The fatt-choy was good too. The fried neen goh was ethereal. T'was all good.

Candied fruit would make great party favours. Fireworks, yes, fireworks, lot of them. Big Bang time. Make of all that what you will. Sedate CNY dinner tonight with mum, dad, sister, wife, and possible outcast cousin.... see, politics already... can't wait... hungry, not eating lunch today...

I am seriously considering the Sous Vide approach, but cooking at home to prepare it seems, uggghhh... too much hard work. NASA grade products should work well for the time being...

While I am now buff and dashingly debonair, I still answer to fei-jai.

Righto duda/dudette... My 0.02 worth is the following: Go traditional, don't say nuthin' and surprise them. It will be fine, unless you got some really difficult types. Provide a flowing glowing narrative as the dishes are presented, telling their story, and hopefully, inspiration to be adventurous should follow closely behind... I know I"m conservative, and perhaps may come across as a tyrant, but as we all know, Caesar didn't conquer Gaul with a pen. Kung-Hei Fatt Choy.

What about pork belly?? Then it would be confit inside and out... double fattening equals double happiness!!

I'll try to speak to the Forbes people re:aging. This is a very good question. Why don't you post it on the general forum? I'm lazy and will be doing some work this afternoon!

Chill pill dude. By dumbing down I was referring to like, short ribs and stuff. I don't like neen goh much either, but I still cram it down my face to please the ancestors, LOL... Like a lot of the Chinese diaspora, I do a lot of these things as insurance... you never know if what grandma keeps telling you is true or not, so you eat the 'goodies' and hope the New Year brings luck and prosperity...

Hope people recognise that most of the CNY dishes are symbolic. Neen Goh is extremely important. I for one wouldn't be dumbing down a CNY dinner. It's like dumbing down a Thanksgiving meal for instance. ROOTS MAN!!

Well, the high heat cooking thing with wagyu doesn't seem to generally work. If it's a fillet/steak of any other description, it's best done on a teppanyaki style hot plate, where the steak is seared, then sliced then rotated quickly, then sliced etc so that you end up with bite sized cubes of steak each one individually treated like a mini-steak, oozing with sweetness and the fat totally integrated with the meat. The last minute covering of the mini-steaks to bake it slightly also helps. This was how they did wagyu at the teppanyaki place next to the ANA in the Rocks. It's also how Steingarten describes it in The Man Who Ate Everything. As for the brisket, it's used in Shabu Shabu, gentle poaching of the meat in superb broth. Or even Gyu Tataki, or treated like skirt steak, thin, a'la minute. Apparently when raw, the fat melts at 32 degrees... or so I'm told by the farmer. If you were to do a whole steak apparently in the way we are accustomed to, it ends up tough. Or so I'm told. The crux of it is, I'm gonna go see these cows, enjoy some honest country hospitality, and then eat the bastards and bring some home to experiment and play with and ultimately, enjoy the hell out of 'em.

A good quality portable gas stove is most appropriate and not to mention safe. Charcoal, though, provides extra flavor from some of the smoke that inevitably ends up on the food... I know, I know, stating the obvious...

Was at a wedding this weekend, and met a couple who raise Wagyu cattle in Forbes (sp.??) NSW. I was going to look it up on the map, as it's apparently an 8 hours drive from Melbourne. Anyhow, the mature animals are exported live, back to Japan, with hardly any of the animals making it to the abattoir for the local market. I've seen the stuff cryo-vac'ed in David Jones, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for stuff I can't smell or touch. For the record, it was close to $60 for a 300g piece of fillet. Couple things to consider: - the fillet isn't the best part of the Wagyu, the brisket and flanks are sooooo good. (for the record, I don't eat fillet much anyway... it's boring) - rib eyes are good too - Wagyu's have little rump to speak of I'm going to be visiting these dudes soon, as soon as my wife decides its okay to upgrade the 4x4. It's not an 'event', just good fun. The promise of seeing these animals, and eating them right there and then is too good to resist. Apparently there's some rare breed pork too, with FANTASTIC marbling, and after the slow roasted belly for tea tonight, I'm keen to check out the pigs as well. As per the Wagyu, these pigs do not make it to the local market. Any thoughts on local Wagyu and where you'd get them in town, be it Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, wherever, and have you tasted the stuff, and how was it done?? Guys, I'm excited.

Forgot one!! Oceania at the Footscray Market... they supply 95% probably, of all top sushi bars/restaurants in Melbourne. Worth a visit, if only to chat to the owners.

I'm assuming that you mean a huge pot in the middle of the table and you're dipping bits of food to be cooked in the broth? In Cantonese this would be called 'Ta-pin-lo' and like, there are spiced versions like Szechuan style etc... ...but without a dipping sauce, I simply do not see the point. The dipping sauce is like the ultimate accessory... ...like a pearl necklace without a neck to put it around, why eat stuff out of the broth and not be able to enhance it as you wish??... ...sorry for being emotional (I'm not really) but you really do need at least ginger/spring onion (cilantro)/soy/sesame/red chilli in a dipping bowl next to you... or Sriracha, whatever... I don't believe it possible to enjoy a 'hot pot' without dipping sauce of SOME KIND!

Bon Ton's original owners still have the old site, but it's now called Top-Hat after their signature Nonya appetiser. INMHO it's one of the best restaurants in KL. Scalini's is like, dirt poor for quality and the prices extravagant. I'd avoid anything on Jln Sultan Ismail, save for Xin!! Isn't Frangipani in Bukit Damansara? Another bungalow conversion a'la Bonton aka Top Hat?? Pan, you're good... very good... Can't wait to hear from Shiwie though!!

The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. Just ask a tram driver. The Wednesday night market there is fun, but for the full fresh food madness, arrive early in the day. Weekends are great. The South Melbourne Market is good too, as is the Prahran Market, but the Queen Vic, as the name suggests, rules the roost.

In reply, the sister city thing was raised a couple years ago I seem to remember, but I could be hallucinating. It's not a culinary thing, it's one of those international goodwill pairing things. From my experience in Vancouver, it's a very similar city to Melbourne. Foodwise, loved the steaks. Salmon was cool 'cos I caught my own, but then again, I get to do that here too, like Snapper & Flathead from the Bay, Trout and stuff in the High Country, the occassional rabbit when I get to play sniper. In the wine stakes, not all is oaky and jammy. Really. There are numerous 'boutique' winemakers out there who are starting to make what they themselves would like to drink. I'm content with what we get now. Produce-wise, I've never had a problem. I don't care about the km's, that's part of living in a great spread out land. Half the fun truly is in the journey. Even better when you have to go off-road, so anyone knows of any inaccessible producers/markets let me know!! But in terms of banned foods, what really really gets up my goat, and where Canadians have an advantage, is the availability of foie gras. It's a fucking shame really that we don't get the real stuff. I think geographically, Hongkong might be the closest destination if you want to indulge. Though, someone I know, who has no name, and I probably dreamt it, did produce a single whole liver from a goose one year. It was an honour to eat it, and it was good.

We had rib-eyes on the bone for two. One steak was seasoned with home-brand kitchen salt, the other with Maldon. No discernable difference. Some texture left over from the Maldon, also resulting in some degree of over-salting where it clumped. The pink stuff is interesting, if only for the looks. I don't use the good stuff for pasta water, don't see the point. Interestingly, I know of someone who swears by sea water for boiling pasta. Weird. Comes out too salty. Funny that. I stick with Maldon because its always what we've done, but there's nothing better than fine salt for pommes frites.

Groovy man. Didn't know you could get ingredients for much on Hoth. May the Force be with You.

This thread is proving inspirational already!! Lone Star Pinto Beans will be on the menu next time... probably in a couple weeks! And kiliki, I should have qualified my original post with the fact that the food I've written about is for 'journey' camping. Hiking trips are much more compact, high tech with NASA space food in those cool foil packs, and of course, a small plate to grill fish with if any are caught. There is however, not much to beat an open fire roasted corn on the cob. Or marshmallows, or indeed chilli in a pot! We ventured out last weekend to a favourite spot and ate loads of pot roasted beef and grilled lamb cutlets.

LOL Vancouver & Melbourne might be unofficial sister cities, but I agree with FiFi. Going from the thread going on in the Vancouver forum, apparently all is not lost!!!

Funny that, because I'm almost always nearly blind AND in need of a feed after a tasting.

Mary, can you please elaborate on the pork on the nose? In my post I mentioned petroleum on the nose, but upon reflection, it could also be classified as licorice on the palate. Did you have any food with it?

Been wanting to go to The Brasserie, but spousal unit has been relentless in refusing to even entertain the idea due to the Crown factor. I'm planning on sneaking a 'working' lunch in there soon. Off topic, but nonetheless a timely reminder.