markk

I was hoping to take them to my local Chinese restaurant and ask them to add them to my food. Any thought on how many (or few) they should use in a dish?

I'm in New Jersey (which they claim is technically part of the U.S. still), and that was my original question: how can they have them if they're illegal? The guy at the place said that they're imported from China.

I acquired some Thai Birdseye Chilies. Does anybody know what they are? I was buying the Szechuan Peppercorns (also shown) and asked for other very hot things (and was told that the Szechuan peppercorns were NOT hot, they are just incredibly aromatic and they numb the tongue) but that the Birdseye chilies were the hottest pepper they carry, so I ordered them. Does anybody know what they are and how they're used? I'm wondering (hoping against hope) that they're the little pepper that Grand Sichuan International in NY uses.

I use the same pan-searing technique whether I'm making a very thick rib steak, or a rib-roast, and sometimes there's not really a difference - this photo of a rib roast is sort of my idea of a thick steak anyway, more or less. But I treat them the same, and there is a LOT of smoke involved. I don't use cast iron because I have an electric stove, so I use the heavy bottom Cuisinarts pans. I have the butcher give me some extra white fat (or I trim it off the steaks) and reneder it in the very hot pan until it's sizzling. Then I lay the steak (or roast) in it sizzling furiously until it crisps, and do the other side. (I have befriended a chef in France who makes a similar steak, and he uses clarified butter, and that works just as well. It may even be slightly less smoky.) For the larger cut (the roast), I'll then put it into a very hot convection oven to finish cooking - I use a temperature probe set for 120 and have it shut off at that temperatrue. During the rest it comes up to beautifully rare. With a steak of let's say an inch or an inch and a half, what I do is take a small cake cooling rack and heat it up in the oven while the steak is sizzling. When both sides of the steak are well crisped, I lift the steak up, put the rack in the pan, and set the steak down on the rack. It's hotter than a resting area would be, and the residual heat of the pan finihses cooking the steak as it (in effect) rests as well. Because of burning at these temperatures, I don't put any seasonings on the meat before I cook it. But some butter and truffle oil afterwards are sublime on a charred steak (so is just butter and salt, and sometimes so is olive oil and lemon with salt). But there is a LOT of smoke, and I've had the fire department at my door; in fact, one time they wouldn't leave until they saw the smouldering steaks and were convinced nothing else was on fire. So I try for a good draft - I open windows at both ends of the apartment, and that usually does the trick, at least enough to keep the smoke out of the hallway and the neighboring apartments. Sometimes not, though. But I vote for the highest heat you can sear at, and the best attempt you can make at ventilation.

Thanks indeed for the tip. I too just ordered (in fact, just received) my shipment of Szechuan peppercorns from them. But there's a ton on this thread (I think it's this thread) about how, because of Citrus blight, they are illegal to import. I asked the guy if he grows them here, and he said that they can only come from China. Any explanations? I also ordered some little Thai Birdseye peppers that he said were the hottes peppers they carry (which sounded good to me!). Does anybody know these?

Well, when I asked about the foods they were serving, they explained that it was "Shanghai and Cantonese" cooking. Obviously the dumplings with the soup in them are a Shanghai dish, and obviously the things with Shanghai in the name are as well. The lobster had a dark brown sauce with ground up pork, and some exquisite fresh green beans that that waiter referred to as fresh peas, although they weren't round. We got into a discussion with him, and he said, revealing a sense of humor that turned out to be very useful, that Cantonese dishes were mostly ginger and scallion and that Shanghai had lots more flavors. I've also seen in my readings that Shanghai dishes feature a lot of braised pork. Two of the dishes on the China 46 menu were: H13 Honey Glazed Ham Chinese Style Virginia ham steamed in aromatic honey sauce, served with mini bread. H14 Superior Ruby Pork A giant pork shoulder with mixed herb simmered for hours. Served very tender as melt in your mouth. Another dish is listed as: H6 Tofu Lover Silky tofu slowly simmered w. hand picked meat from Maryland Crab. A notable cooking art: 2 simple elements to create the real treat. So I realize that a lot of the dishes I had were Cantonese, expertly prepared, and I was delighted about this as I just love Cantonese cuisine. And of course, I obviously didn't have many of the strictly Shanghai dishes, although I would like to, in the hopes of discovering something new. Does anybody reading this have any experience with the three dishes I listed above, either at China 46 or other Shanghai restaurants? I'm off now to see on a map where these various regions are, how close they are to each other, and to see what else I can learn about them.

I did try it tonight, and I'm writing to thank you. It was outstanding, and just what I was looking for. We had the Shangai crab and pork dumplings to start. Then we had a dish which I think was "pork ding" that was neither here nor there, really. But the waiter, Paul, was wonderful, and helped us order up a real feast. We ordered the blue crabs Shanghai style, and he came back a momenet later to tell us that they had just sold out of them thanks to a large party that had just departed. So we had lobster Shanghai style, soft shell crabs (salt and pepper), steamed Tilapia with ginger and scallion, and sauteed Ong Choy (Chinese Water Spinach) with garlic. Everything was outstandingly good, and we will definitely return. I think I've probably read elsewhere on egullet the other dishes you've enjoyed there, but if you wouldn't mind listing them again (for my return visit), I'd be most appreciative. Thanks. I had just posted elsewhere that I had a very disappointing batch of soft shells last week at New Lok Kee in Flushing. I think I will save myself the drive from now on, and stop at China 46 !!!

I think I'll pass on the escolar. And there was an article in the NY Times some years ago explaining this potential Escolar side-effect in detail. However, I was in New Oleans a number of times in 1997, and Escolar was featured regularly on the Emerils menu then. I had never heard of it, and had no idea of it's "dangerous" side, and ate it on several different occasions. It was very delicious, and I'm happy to report that I had no bad effects from it, whatsoever. The subsequent Times article was scary for sure, but having eaten it so many times (my dining companion as well) - we'd have to say that this effect may be played up a little out of proportion.

Since we may be exhausting this topic, I'd like to post a related story - related in terms of how one can deal with problems in a restaurant. Before I do, I'd like to point out that in response to the original question, I have already replied that if I simply don' like a dish I'm served, I tell the server nicely, and make it the restaurant's problem, on the theory that as the paying customer, I have a reasonable expectation that I will enjoy the food served to me. As people have been saying, this doesn't actually happen all that often (and I learned years ago that at a certain type of restaurant, it's diner beware anyway, so I take that into account as well). Some years ago I was in a small Canadian city with a singer friend who was appearing as the guest artist with the local symphony in a few concerts. I am highly allergic to smoke, and he has to avoid it like the plague when he sings. So it's normally room-service for him when he's on the road. Still, we thought it might be nice to have a dinner out if we could, so I drove around in the afternoon checking out what looked to be nice restaurants for their smoking situation. This was years and years before the current bans on smoking. I found one place that actually had a totally separate no smoking dining room, and when I explained my needs to the manager, he showed me that the bar area and other dining room where smoking was allowed turned out to be in another wing of the building - this room really was going t be a smoke free environment (many places think and say they provide that and then when you check it out you find that it's something like a plant separating the two spaces). So he made us a reservation for the no smoking room, and we returned that night. The food looked quite interesting and we ordered up a nice meal. Just as our main courses arrived, the room filled with smoke. We found that behind us, in a large circular booth, were eight people who had just lit up. My friend fled the room, and I stood in the doorway and called for the waiter and the manager. The manager was gone, and the waiter was an idiot. His explanation was that the smoking section was full and as it would be a very very long time before a table for eight opened up, he sat them in this room. I explained why this was wrong, and he basically didn't care, and asked if we wanted to move a few feet across the room and finish our meals. I explained that we were leavng. He insisted on bringing me a check, and I said that while that would take a lot of nerve on his part, I would certainly pay him for the appetizers we had - there had been no beverages. He insisted that the main course would have to be paid for as well since he served them. I didn't want to stand in the smoke and argue, and so I told him to get the check to me as quickly as he could. When it arrived, I totalled it out. In the space on the credit card slip where it said "Tip" I put some big fat zeros - then I circled the word "tip", drew an arrow to the margin, and wrote in the real tip: "Next time, dont seat smokers in the no smoking room." Perhaps that made an impression on him or his boss or whoever saw my comments. I don't know. But it was something.

Neither Amazon US or UK has it. Do we know if it's been published in English? I was led to believe from this article in the Sunday Herald that it was, but that may just have been wishful thinking on my part; does anybody know for sure? Sunday Herald story about Michelin book If anybody's looking to order a copy in French quickly and easily, and fairly cheaply, it can be ordered from the wonderful French book site alapage.fr for 14.25 Euros. (Their shipping is fast and reasonable too, and even if you don't choose the express shipping the books always come within the week. I was turned on to this place some years ago when looking for a French restaurant guidebook that just couldn't be had, and in fact, this place had it, charged me in dollars, and got it to me within the week - I order from them all the time.) If anybody knows of an English version, please post!

Absolutely. There is some kind of presumption that the restaurant food you're paying for will be enjoyable. This said, there are a few things that even I take into consideration. I would never order a dish whose description listed ingredients that I know I don't like. And depending on the type of restaurant it was, I'd let my instincts guide me as to how adventurous to be in my ordering, whether to order any sauce on the side, etc. But over all, I just assume, nicely for sure, that I'm paying money for food that I will enjoy. if it's not enjoyable, I tell the waiter that I don't like it. What happens next is of course out of my hands. If they change it (and change it for something better), I'm ahead of the game. If they reply "well, that's too bad", well, I haven't lost anything. But when I'm the paying customer, I always speak my mind - nicely, as I've said, but always. (And not just in restaurants, either.)

I second the recommendation !!!!! The Monsieur Pamplemousse series is absolutely wonderful. A suggestion, though: start with the first one in the series "Monsieur Pamplemousse: A Gastonomic Mystery" and work your way through them. I've bought tons of them for friends. They're always available on half.com for around a dollar, and they're a must.

HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT ?!!!!!!!!!! (By the way, Applebee's reblets indeed, indeed!)

I'm very familiar with Cantonese cooking, and very fond of it (and make the trek to Flushing from NJ now that my Chinatown favorite is gone) and I'm also familair with what has pased for Szechuan food and now quite addicted to Grand Sichuan International. But I don't know anything about Shanghai cuisine... would anybody care to explain it, and suggest some various dishes, specialties, favorites to try? Thanks.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jacques Pepin's "The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen" - it's written with great humor and for great enjoyment.

I've felt the very same way about questions I've posed in other forums. Just the other day, I ordered some "Pure Cap" liquid capsaisin from Peppers.com Incidentally, I posed a question about this in an e-gullet topic and got a disappointing batch of responses, many just ridiculing me. I asked if people had experience with this extract and could share them. There's a chinese restaurant that I go to regularly as part of a group dynamic, and the food's overly sweet and not really hot enough for me. I sometimes bring them habanero and serrano peppers to add to some of the pepper-based dishes, and wondered if a drop of this sauce might not work for the other foods that don't necessarily need a very peppery taste (although in this restaurant, killing the sweet taste of a lot of their food with pepper just wouldn't be the worst thing either). Still, if anybody here has any experience with liquid capsaisin, I hope they'll share it. I didn't mean to change the thread, but as the author has already declared "thanks", I hoped it would be okay.

I also loved David Rosengarten's "Taste", and while I don't get to see Alton Brown that often, I found his early shows wonderful and itelligent. And I'd like to propose a theory, and a plan... My theory is that in the days when the food network was introduced, when it was at its most intelligent, the number of cable companies carrying it was so limited that the original programming never really got the chance to prove itself. I think to myself that surely there are enough sohpisiticated foodies out there that they were correct with their original vision - and then I remember that even in NJ we didn't get it (a friend in NYC used to tape it for me) and I also remember learning from a Julia Child comment that it wasn't carried in Boston either in the early years! Maybe in fact, now that it's everywhere, enough people would prefer the original content to "Top 5" and the like. Now don't laugh me off here - could we organize a letter writing campaign? It would be easy enough, and even if there were only 16,000 of us, I think that if the new President of the network were to get the same letter from all of us, basically "can the "Top 5 and bring us back the intelligent shows" she might sit up and take note, and it would be easy enough to do... Would somebody out there like to draft a letter, or could we do it together online, and then we'd all print it and mail it in the same week? It'd be easy enough, and interesting to see the results, I think.

The flesh firms up as it cooks, so you can learn to tell the degree of doneness by touching. They usually suggest that you turn your hand facing up, and then push lightly on the area between your thumb and forefinger with the forefinger from your other hand, noticing how it tenses as you move your thumb in and out. Meat that is very rare will feel like you hand at its softest - when it has the least resistance. As the meat gets more and more done, it will feel like the flesh of you hand as you move your thumb and the resistance of the flesh tenses. You can learn this by trial and error if you have a meat thermometer, which never lies. Use one when you cook meat to your desired doneness, and spend some time testing and prodding the meat with you finger - you will learn what the different donenesses feel like. Two important things to learn are that meat needs to rest in a warm place (110-120) and NOT on a cold plate or rack, so that the juices that come out of the cells during cooking can redistribute and be reabsorbed. And when you have a proper 15-20 minute rest, none of the juices will run out onto the plate when you cut the meat. But remember that the meat continues to cook during this time as the residual heat in it travels inward, and you need to stop the cooking time accordingly. A small piece of meat like a steak will go up a few degrees while it rests, a large roast will go up a good 10 degrees, so however you like it done, consult the chart and stop its cooking that many minutes (degrees) earlier, and let it rest somewhere that's about 120 degrees (an oven that was on for fifteen minutes and turned off, a heavy roasting pan that was heated up, etc.) Hope this helps. It's how I learned it, and it works every time.

THANK YOU! I will certainly try this and let you know.

peppers.com

No, I'm using never-frozen, no-water-added scallops. I'm getting the pan really really hot, and I'm getting a great sear, and in retrospect, I wonder if, had I heated the plate I transferred them to, I would have solved the "running" problem. Is there a reason that I have to finish them in the oven as opposed to letting them cook through after I turn them on the skillet?

My pan is blisteringly (or screechingly) hot, as they say, and I'm cooking them for just long enough that I get a nice golden color on the outside and until they look cooked through. But as I play back last night's meal in my mind, I realize that I didn't serve them onto hot places, and am wondering if that would have done it. They ran before they were cut. Still, I'd like all the advice and suggestions that people can share on cooking scallops other than deep frying them.

I'd like to suggest some of the white wines of Alsace. There are some delightful Pinot Blanc, and in particular, places like Sam's in Chicago are selling the Alsace Willm Pinot Blanc for under nine dollars, and it's thoroughly delicious, especially for summer. Alsace Willm also produces a wine blend called Gentil which incorporates some of the "spicier" grapes like Muscat and Gewurtztraminer, so you get a white that even stands up to spicy Asian foods - and for under eight dollars! These wines, and especially this winery, should not go overlooked.

I'm trying to learn how to cook scallops without deep frying them or baking them in a cream sauce. When I sear them (and I only use the "no water added" variety), I find that once I serve them, most of the very delicious scallop flavor is in a small puddle of juice on the plate. When I cook a steak or a beef roast, I've learned how to sear it and cook it through, then let it rest thoroughly somewhere warm so that not one drop of juice leaks out into that famous - but I can't apply what I've learned to scallops! Any thoughts, hints, cooking suggestions? My goal is a scallop that doesn't have the extra calories of deep-fried or cream-baked. Thanks.

I bought some pure capsaisin based on the desscriptions I found that say: "A Scoville rating of 500,000 units! This is the original Capsaicin Extract on the market. Adding it to anything will turn on the heat, but will not effect the flavor. Capsaicin Extract, Vegetable Oil; Designed for the food service industry, Pure Cap is virtually pure capsaicin. This is strictly an additive for adding heat to large quantities of food using an eye-dropper for better control and repeatability. A few drops will add heat to an entire vat of chili. At 500,000 Scoville Units, this is NOT hot sauce. Please use this product responsibly; Real Person Red says, 'I use this stuff to make my Chicken Wings supper spicy because it doesn't change the flavor of my sauce. It just add supper heat." Has anybody tried it? Does anybody have any experience with it?