skunkbunny

Usually, as I understand it, the stock that is incorporated into the pork filling is gelatinized using pig trotters. If you were using frozen stock you would be able to get around the step of enriching your stock. So cheaper and less time.

perhaps a liver-lawn fusion

What is Xiao Long Bao?

I've had the XLB at Asian Legend and am wondering if anyone has somewhere better to reccomend?

they misspelled foie gras

HengHeng on St Laurent south of Renelevesque, the 1st shop after the parking lots on the east side of St Laurent. (I hope they're still there Otherwise "Supermarche Hawaii" way off in the middle of nowhere,or the shops (as Ian said) on St Denis south of JTalon, east side.. or if all else fails Mr DeVienne in Marche JT will probably have (for a price). Any leaves you don't use you can put into zip lock and freeze, just use them direct from the freezer to add to curries or whatever.

Hi Mary, Aga at Chinese Cooking Workshop (cookingworkshop@gmail.com tel:1370 1873 243) may be able to help you out. I havn't taken the courses but have heard of no others... that said I've only been here a week so... They also have a website: http://www.chinesecookingworkshop.com/index.asp?cp=cu Please let us know how/if it turns out. M

Butter tarts: definitely with currants, not runny and better the next day when they've gooed up the pastry a bit. Definitely lard in the pastry (lard should be everywhere). Good point about the salt in pastry too. What about chopped walnuts? Not a lot and in small pieces, the size of the currants. Tarte au Sucre doesn't have sirop d'erable in it just brown sugar. If it's made with maple syrup then it's a Tarte au Sirop.... mmmm maple syrup.... that said butter tarts are really good if you use half brown sugar and half Grade C maple syrup. But they're probably not butter tarts by then.

Tampoyak= fermented durian After I tasted this sauce it like infected my mouth for 3 hrs... could not get that lingering durian flavour out of the mouth. Gideon: thanks ver very much for the tip, I will most definitely give her an email. Can I ask how much you paid and if the guesthouse was nice? Cheers Michael

would anyone have any reccomendations as to shops or markets selling SEA ingredients in Shanghai, especiallly herbs and fresh ingredients (lemongrass, lime leaves, galanga)? My brother is having a Thai curry jones. Thanks Michael

Hey Austin, We're in Borneo right now. Heading to Bario for some rice and then to Mukah to eat raw fish and sago worm ... ambuyat (in Brunei) was nastyness itself, especially with what I think was a fermented durian sauce.. blech. Thanks for the heads up I will search out Yannick. Back in BKK soon. Cheers Mike

Hey Austin, We're in Borneo right now. Heading to Bario for some rice and then to Mukah to eat raw fish and sago worm ... ambuyat (in Brunei) was nastyness itself, especially with what I think was a fermented durian sauce.. blech. Thanks for the heads up I will search out Yannick. Back in BKK soon. Cheers Mike

Does anyone have any recommendations as to cooking classes or schools in Vientiane or Luang Prabang? Or, any restauranteurs who are willing to offer classes. Cheers.

Here's a bit of the food from Myanmar. www.trippinmag.com/pages/mainNav/food.html

Just got back from the month long trip. Internet was available in Yangon although it was slow and the guy had to show us some hacks to get around the censorship. Mandalay internet frustrated us so much that we just abandoned the cause until we got back to Bangkok. Most people at the Internet cafes just do Google Chat (google has a Burmese language site believe it or not) and there doesn't appear to be much emailing. As Austin said, the food was unique but very greasy. Shan food and South Indian were some good breaks but not that common. The lephet salad was nice and quite potent. Mohinga was good but had nothing on the Oo No Kyauk Swe, breakfast noodles with a chicken and coconut milk gravy and some onion bhajia like garnishes. It was a bit hard to find but well worth it, and either way anything was better than Burmese Guesthouse Breakfast... Eeeeeek, I shudder at the thought of that horrible margarine and crap white bread toast. I too am happy to be back in Bangkok and have some ungreased vegetables and herbs. I'm writing up some stuff. Will have a link within a day or two with some reviews and pics. Thanks again Austin for the reccomendation.