prasantrin

Has anyone in the SFO area tried Tcho chocolates, yet? I just read about them in the NYTimes, and now I'm curious. Alas, their chocolate will be unavailable to me for quite some time, so I must live vicariously through others' experiences...if there are any!

Well, the day has almost come and gone. I still haven't done any of my marking, but I have made my hum sui gok! The good thing is...I survived. The bad thing is...I probably won't be doing this again. I now understand why not all Chinese restaurants do dim sum--it's a heck of a lot of work! As for my hsg, the filling is OK, but not really what I like. It's a lot drier than the type I've had at dim sum places. Also, the casing is quite flavourless--I like it to be a bit sweeter. And for the record, splatter guards don't actually prevent oil from splattering up, they just lessen the amount of hot oil to scald your skin! ETA: pics will be up tomorrow or perhaps next week if I forget to bring my camera to work.

In 2008, I will eat more vegetables I will find a Greek restaurant in my area, but should that fail I will make my own Greek food I will learn to make xiao long bao from Dejah's upcoming tutorial I will travel to Vietnam, just to eat I will not give in to my craving for convenience store nachos if I go home next summer

Oooooh!! Thanks! Luckily I know the kanji for both bird and potato, so I may be able to find them! If I can't find them in my immediate area, I think we're going to Kobe tonight so we can swing by Chinatown there. But that means today's dim sum extravaganza will be limited to char sui bao today (like that would be a hardship ). I kind of like the idea of using lotus root, though. I love lotus root! And then I could have my hum sui gok today! Good to know about the bamboo shoots, too. I don't think I'd have looked for them in the fresh veg. section! Shredded ones might be OK for me, since they're going to be in small pieces.

It's pronounced as one word--like ee-voh (in IPA, it's something like [i:vo:])

Does anyone know what water chestnuts are in Japanese? I saw that torakris mentioned that kuwai are similar, so I suppose I could use kuwai if I can't find water chestnuts. But I'd prefer to use water chestnuts if possible. If not, are kuwai available canned? Or would I have to process them somehow before using them? (I'm making har gau and hum sui gok, and both recipes call for water chestnuts.) And are takenoko readily available (ie at most large Japanese supermarkets) canned? I'm getting ready for my dim sum extravaganza tomorrow, and I'll need to run out and get some ingredients tomorrow morning!

Instead of going to yoga, I stayed home to make triple-cooked fries using some Kita-Akari potatoes. Big mistake! They sort of fell apart during the boiling part, but I went ahead with the first fry (130C). They held up OK, I guess, but the second fry was a disaster! I put the first batch in at 190C, and the oil boiled over! That has never happened when I used May Queen potatoes! I think I lost 1/3 to 1/2 cup of oil. They still crisped up and browned nicely, but since there were no whole pieces, and only a few little pieces, I had to eat most of the "fries" with a spoon. It was mostly potato crumbs, I guess, but I kind of liked it. Lots of crispy little bits mixed with some kosher salt...yum! I'll try danshuku, next, unless someone can recommend a better widely available potato that can be both boiled and fried. May Queen, by the way, also falls apart, but not nearly as much as the Kita-Akari ones, and it doesn't cause my oil to boil over.

Kimukatsu is a chain based in the Kanto area. Torakris has discussed it in this topic before, and I think she was the first to mention it (quite some time ago, if I remember correctly). The Kimukatsu I visited was in Kobe.

Yesterday my mother and I went to Kimukatsu for a late lunch. I had the Genkatsudon, which is their katsudon cut into cubes in a bowl of rice, topped with an onsen tamago . Looking at their website, I think I should have had a beverage and dessert with my meal, but I didn't. My mother had the Ladies Set, which was a bento with simmered kabocha, potato salad, cabbage, chicken sasami stuffed with cheese and pork katsu stuffed with tofu. She got dessert, which I think was almond doufu. Both meals came with rice and miso soup, and mine had tsukemono while my mother's didn't. I loved the katsudon, but at Y1300 it's a bit expensive. My mother's meal was a better bargain, I thought, at Y1400. We had a late lunch (eating around 2:30), so that meal ended up being our dinner, too, since we were both too full to eat anything else. If anyone wants to eat at Kimukatsu, I suggest going for lunch rather than dinner. The genkatsudon is only available for lunch, as are the bento-type sets, and the prices are a much better value. Most of the a la carte katsu are available at lunch, too.

I think Thursday is the big dim sum extravaganza day, if all goes as planned (it's a "home study day" for students, which usually means I can do my marking or other work at home). There have already been a couple of hiccups in my dim sum plan, but I'm going to do my best! The nor mai gai might have to wait for another day, though. I think I'll just do char sui bao, hum sui gok, and maybe har gau for Wednesday. I'm definitely the wrong person to ask, but I'll let you know what happens!

Marlene, I'm shocked that you skimped on Mr. B's gravy! What kind of hostess are you?? I can assure you, if Mr. B ever makes his way to my house, I will be a much better hostess!

France isn't known for its Mexican food, and I remember bleudauvergne having people bring ingredients for her. Where did you (Abra) get your stuff? Did you bring some chiles and stuff with you, or have you found a source?

I'll have you know I'm wide awake, and very jealous! It's really not kind to force people to be jealous so early in the workday. My poor students will be paying for your mean-ness all day! This is going to be a good one!

Along a similar vein, someone I know used to like eating comfortably in bed (think of eating Roman-style while lounging on chaise). Anyway, she was lying on her side, propped up on an elbow, gnawing the last of the meat off what was probably the bone from a lamb shank or some other big piece of meat. After a very short time, she thought, "Something seems strange," and she looked over to find the dog gnawing on the other end of the bone. While she's normally very protective of her food, she let the dog have it.

But now you're really good friends with the woman who "got it", right? I think if you had done a taste test, starting with cheap store-brand "balsamic" vinegars, they'd have been more appreciative of the real thing, or at least would have understood the differences between them. I used to have a friend who insisted that all chocolate was the same--there was no difference between Hershey's and "better" quality (and "better quality didn't necessarily mean much more expensive) brands, so you'd think a "better" quality brand would be wasted on her. But then she had a "better" quality brand shortly after (a few days or maybe a week) having Hershey's, and it was a revelation. She would still eat Hershey's after that, but if a better quality bar were available, she'd go for the better one.

Here you go. Thanks so much for the info, by the way. I was reading about someone visiting Mulot's workshop, and I was trying to figure out how I could do that if I ever went to France. But thank to you, I now know how!

My mother just ate a fuyu persimmon, skin and all! I didn't think the skins were edible, but my only experience with persimmons has been in Japan (where most fruit are served peeled). Generally speaking, do you eat your persimmons peeled or unpeeled?

Thanks, but it wasn't so good. The bottom layer of phyllo was quite greasy, while the top layer was very dry. I don't know what happened. I think if I make it again, I'll have more phyllo/filling layers, like you do for your method. I might also make different cuts--maybe using diamond-shaped cuts would help distribute the butter more evenly??

If you can't find a local source, Ippodo ships internationally. They ship via EMS, but I don't think the shipping prices are unreasonable, especially since 50g of gyokurocha will actually go a long way.

I turn my knife upside down, but interestingly, I think I learned that trick from a TV chef. I can't remember which one, though--maybe Sara Moulton? Someone on FoodTV once suggested hanging freshly-made pasta or egg noodles over your kitchen faucet. I don't know how clean your kitchen faucet is, but I certainly wouldn't want any food hanging off mine, even if I had just cleaned it.

You never tip in Japan. Even if you think the service is outstanding, and you really want to tip, don't. Don't even tip the cleaning staff at your hotel or the taxi driver. Some restaurants (hotel restaurants and higher-level kaiseki places, for example) might have service charges included in their prices, but there is no need to add anything above what is on the bill.

Can this be a joong and nor mi gai topic, or shall I break off to ask my nor mi gai questions? My mother arrived last night with all the ingredients for our dim sum extravaganza, and although customs took away one of her packs of Chinese sausage, she managed to get away with at least one!

teasers! A little something to whet my appetitie, then go in for the kill! I can't believe your 21 days is almost done. It seems so short! But I'm really looking forward to reading the full report of your journey (and food!). By the way, I was just wondering if there's a particular name for HK ex-pats who return for holidays. In the Philippines, ex-pat visitors are called "Balikbayan", I think.

Awesome! My mother would kill for some of that torrone, and I'd love that arancini (but with a little more cheese in the middle, please). Here's a direct link to your original post to make it easier for people to find (not that it wasn't easy). I want to go to Rome!

I'm not RuthWells, but when I made them, I used the end of a wooden spoon handle to make the impression before baking (I made it quite deep, but not so deep for it to go all the way through the cookie), then after baking I used the same thing to re-imprint the cookies--but I pushed a little more lightly so I wouldn't break the cookies. You can see mine at the top right, and bottom left and right corners. As you can tell, mine were deep enough to hold the jam, but I did crack my cookies when making the initial imprints. My dough was quite dry--possibly because of the time of year (it's hard to get butter soft in Feb./Mar. in Japan, because it's quite chilly even inside homes).