HKDave

Hmmm. Her recipe is a teaspoon of white peppercorns, but I use more like a tablespoon, and mine is definitely not too hot. This isn't a spicy dish. Are you crushing the peppercorns? I don't crush them, I use them whole and let them (and the coriander root, ginger and onion) perfume the dish kind of like a bouquet garni, but I don't necessarily eat them. That's the usual way it's done; I think McDermott's 'pesto' style is a bit strange.

Jason, are you sure it was rice noodles? The dish you describe sounds like goong ob moh din, better known as goong ob woon sen, which always uses beanthread noodles. I'm not aware of a similar dish using rice noodles. The dish uses ginger, not galangal. The McDermott recipe Chris mentions can be found here: http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Goong%...read%20noodles) It's reasonably authentic, however I would never use black peppercorns in this dish; they really should be white (and ideally, Thai - Thai white pepper does taste different). The method I was taught is not to make a paste, but rather to stir-fry bashed coriander root, ginger, whole white peppercorns and a thin sliced white onion; move to a mixing bowl. Add soaked/drained noodles and remaining seasonings and sauces, toss. We always used whiskey instead of cooking wine. Smear the hot pot w/pork fat, drop a couple of slices of ginger in the bottom, dump everything in. You can line the hot pot with a cabbage leaf to prevent burning. It's common in Thailand to put a few slices of pork fat in the hot pot as well, although that will gross out most farangs. About 10 min hot oven. You can do the same dish with crab, in which case it's called Po Ob Woon Sen.

I wouldn't do straight garlic. I'm traditional: raw egg yolk, Dijon mustard, a drop of Worchestershire (which gives you a little garlic and anchovy) and/or Tabasco, chopped shallot, s+p. The idea is to taste the raw beef, and that is a pretty subtle flavour; many restaurants put so much in the tartare that all you taste are the additives. Serve with fries and green salad as a main, or toast as a starter. A nice presentation for individual plates is to serve just the meat with a little well in the middle containing a quail's egg yolk (or not, for the egg-averse), and then let everyone season their own. I prefer to chop by hand (well, knife) and serve immediately. Obviously, you want to use the freshest beef you can get, and remove every scrap of connective tissue. Wine-wise, the usual recommendations for tartare would be a Beaujolais or maybe a Sauvignon Blanc.

I'd go to a small, cheap, excellent intensive short-program school like this one: www.nwcav.com (which I did) and then take the $20 - 40,000 I saved from not going to CIA or FCI and spend the next several months traveling, eating and staging (working for free) at restaurants and magazines to gain real-world experience. With that kind of money, you could cook your way around the world. You'll be able to land stages on your own if you've got your head on straight, you're not shy and you're willing to work; you don't need the school to help you get 'externships'. You'll emerge with a better culinary education than if you spent a year or two at one school, an interesting resume and an armload of contacts. Then write a book about it and become famous, and Bourdain's your uncle. Before you go ahead, spend a few days in a busy working kitchen, even if it's just washing dishes or just observing. If you can't handle that, you probably won't like culinary school (which is mainly about preparing you to work in a restaurant kitchen) and you certainly won't like pro cooking.

I mentioned Rex twice on eG last year - in the 'Vancouver Steak Houses' and 'Truth be Told' threads - but they do seem to have stayed under the radar. You're right, Rex is all about the Bentall office crowd: slammed at lunch, dead at dinner, closed on weekends. Excellent prime rib; best in town IMHO, but if you order it at dinner it probably won't be available rare (they have so little traffic at dinner that they cook it at lunch and hold it). Good service, nice little bar, and they know how to mix a drink. If you're in the area on a weeknight and want a nice slab 'o cow for dinner and don't mind that you might be the only customer, this place is worth it. I like. Edited to add: I've eaten at 7 of the places on the 2005 list, and I've cooked briefly at 2 of them.

We've been growing western herbs (rosemary, basil, sage) on the windowsill in HK for several years with moderate success. It's cheaper than buying fresh herbs flown in from Australia, anyway.

Saltlik?

A few more 'good cheap knife' suggestions... most of us are familiar with Victorinox/Forschner because of the Swiss Army Knife connection and the repeated Cook's Illustrated plugs, but there are several other European professional-quality 'stamped' blade / molded handle brands that are similar, just not as well-known or as widely distributed in North America. Here are a few worth considering. You're more likely to run into these at restaurant or butcher supply houses. I've used and liked knives from the first two, and heard good things about the next three. Geisser knives are from Germany. They're better known for butcher's knives, but some culinary schools now use them in their student kit. Their chef's knife has a similar handle to Victorinox but a deeper blade. Nice. http://www.giesser.de/www_e/index2.html Sanelli (mentioned upthread) from Italy. Their 'Premana' line has strange-looking but comfortable handles, and I really like their santoku. http://www.sanelli.com/sito/premanainglese.php Swibo knives are made by Wenger - the 'other' official maker of Swiss Army Knives. They claim to have invented the molded handle knife. http://www.wenger-knife.ch/scripts/page839110.html Frost's, from Sweden. http://www.frosts.se/index_2_uk.html Icel of Portugal's 'Horeca Prime' series: http://www.icel.pt/ingles/cozinha2.cfm?cod=32

Glad to hear your Tojiro's fit and finish are excellent. Mine has several flaws, although they are minor, but no where as good as a Wusthof. The rivets aren't quite even with the handle surface, for instance. ... ← Ditto. Just got 4 Tojiro DPs (2 gyutos, a petty, a santoku) from Koki. Excellent service. Ordered Thursday, shipped Saturday (was going to ship Friday but found they were short one style, and advised me that there would be a one-day delay), arrived Hong Kong Monday morning. A couple of the knives are near-perfect, but the finish on the others is such that I wonder if they're seconds... several minor flaws, including rivits not flush. Definitely not Wurstof quality. Not bad enough to send them back, but enough to give me pause about buying more of these by mail order.

You don't need to match your steel brand to your knife brand... Forschner doesn't even make that steel, it's made for them by a supplier in England. Despite what that link says, it doesn't have a Fibrox handle, just a generic plastic one. That seems like a decent price. I have the same one, plus one of their diamond steels, and like them both; I also have (and don't like) a cheaper Chicago Cutlery steel.

'Evil Prince' is a fairly well known Thai dish. I think Evil Princess is just someone taking liberties with the name. It comes in both a meat (usually chicken) and veggie version. BarbaraY has the ingredients right, below. fodgycakes, I would not recommend a mussaman curry paste for Evil Prince; the taste would be very different. Start w/ 2-6 prik kee noo chilies, 1/2 stalk lemongrass, 2 kaffir lime leaves, mortered or blended to a paste. Saute the paste with a bit of oil 1-2 min. Add a little coconut milk - this should not be a very soupy dish, more like a thick sauce at the end - then add about 4oz sliced chicken and cook it in the milk. Finish with about 12 Thai basil leaves and fish sauce to taste. Serve over finely shredded cabbage. Veggie version is similar, just add the veggies (hardest first - so in your case carrots first, then later the yard-long beans) instead of the chicken and omit the fish sauce (and in your case, finish with peanuts). Other veggies to try include asparagus, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, cucumbers, eggplants, baby corn, mushrooms, tomatoes, water chestnuts or zucchini. The cabbage in this dish is usually used uncooked as a base, not an ingredient. Carrots are unusual, but why not? As with any similar dish, cut the harder veggies smaller to reduce cooking time. This maybe should be in the 'Elsewhere in Asia' forum? That's where most Thai cooking questions end up.

The more, the merrier. Send a PM closer to when you plan to arrive. I'm travelling at the moment but will be back in town around the 24th. I'm not a fan of the dim sum or the service (or the prices) these days at the Zen in Pacific Place, although the decor is a step up from the norm. Never tried the Festival Walk location. That's in Kowloon Tong, not Mongkok.

The Templeton, 1087 Granville: "3 Cheese Organic Macaroni aged white cheddar, gorgonzola, Italian parmesan, topped with fresh tomato salsa, side organic mixed greens - 10"

There's a SuperStar on Prat Ave? I didn't know that... or do you mean the branch in TST Mansion, on Nathan Road near the mosque? I've been there a couple of times for both yum cha and dinner, but I'm not a regular. Nothing wrong with the place, it's a well-established Hong Kong chain, but I wasn't blown away.

I've heard 'Lanna' used to describe a style of Thai cooking, but the dish described does sound like Lard Na. Here's a recipe: Lard Na Moo (Fried Noodles Topped with Pork Sauce - this is the classic combo, but you can sub any other protein for the pork, and any other green veg for the kale) Ingredients 150 g wide fresh rice noodles. 1/2 T dark soy sauce. 2 T vegetable oil. 1/2 T garlic, finely chopped. Preparation: Separate the rice noodles and mix well with the dark soy sauce. Heat oil in a frying pan or wok over a moderate heat until it starts to vaporize. Stir-fry the garlic until golden. Add the noodles; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Plate and set aside. Ingredients for Topping 100 g pork fillet, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces. 100 g Chinese kale, cut into 4 cm pieces. 1/2-1 cups stock. 1T tapioca flour, dissolved in 1/4c water. 2-3T vegetable oil 1T garlic, finely chopped 1T fermented soybeans 1/2T oyster sauce. 1/2T light soy sauce fish sauce, sugar, ground white pepper to taste Preparation: Marinate the pork in the light soy and oyster sauce for 20 minutes. Stir-fry the garlic in hot oil until golden. Add the pork and fry until just cooked. Add fermented soybeans, stock and Chinese kale. Season to taste with fish sauce, sugar. Add the dissolved tapioca flour, stirring until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Arrange the noodles on each serving plate. Pour over the topping and sprinkle with white pepper. Serve at once with condiments on the side: chiles in vinegar, ground dried chiles, fish sauce and sugar. Does that sound like it?

I've eaten at both places several times. I like the food at Isola, and I like the open kitchen, but I find the vibe to be a little pretentious. And damn, is that some expensive pasta. Isobar, their lounge upstairs, is very nice and draws from the same kitchen. Disclosure: I'm friends with staff here. The Steak House at the Intercon (formerly Regent) was a fave for a while - I live 3 blocks away - but I got tired of the captain there always assuming I was a gweilo tourist and trying to seat me at shitty tables all the time. The steaks are good, as they should be when they cost as much as a small car. Their sides are hit and miss. The mac and cheese was in a cream sauce, no cheese detected. I think they've renovated since my last visit and I haven't seen the new salad bar. To their credit, they kick the ass of their nearest 'expensive steak' competitor. That's Morton's, in the Sheraton, which is an embarrasment and should be avoided. If you're after fine dining Italian, check out Toscana at the Ritz Carleton. That's the best, IMHO.

Pork shoulder (=butt in USA) is the usual cut for grinding, but these days shoulder is only about 18% fat. If you're grinding for sausage or most forcemeat, you'll need extra fat. I wouldn't grind in a food processor unless you're just doing a very small quantity. For any grinding, trim all connective tissue first. Cube and chill everything (some people par-freeze to stiffen the meat), then grind.

saltylj, I also have flat feet and have found Crocs or Holey Soles work for me. I suggest Holey Soles - basically the same as Crocs (they used to be made in the same factory, and they're now suing each other for copying each other) but usually can be found cheaper. www.holeysoles.com Most of the other Crocs-style brands are not made from the same compound, and are more slippery and/or wear out faster.

The school Fuschia Dunlop attended in Chengdu is called the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. Link here: http://www.shic.edu.cn/shic/newsite/index.asp As far as I know, other than the odd day class run through tour operators, they teach in Mandarin; and I've never heard of any foreigner other than Fuschia (who is fluent in Mandarin) attending there. Her cookbook is excellent.

I'm also in the coffee grinder school, and I haven't found anything it hasn't been able to cope with. Mine's a Braun. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'proper' electric spice grinder.

Curls your toes good, or curls your toes bad?

Emily beat me to it... Yorkshire pudding, Christmas pudding, frying spuds. It's also great for browning beef for stews and roasts.

I assume you mean California Culinary Academy? I'm not sure about that... I think they just teach the Cordon Bleu program. Of the major US culinary schools, the only one I know of that offers scheduled Asian classes is ICE (formerly Peter Kump's) in New York, and that's just a recreational one-week program. Details here: http://www.iceculinary.com/recreational/asian.shtml

Oregon State has a decent .pdf primer on smoking fish here: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/PNW/PNW238.pdf Another one here, with suggested times and temps: http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/smoking.htm And another: http://www.3men.com/threemen1.htm

As far as I know and that is what I am currently doing. I just bought a Mafter 24 cm skillet. I washed it well with hot water and soap to begin then dried it and put a very very thin coating of oil on it. Since then I have just been cooking with it (using duck fat) and cleaning with hot water and a scrubber. ← Ditto. After washing, I only oil my steel pan if I won't be using it for a long time. And that is the case these days, because I rarely use it any more... non-stick works better for eggs, and at home I use well-seasoned cast iron or stainless for almost everything else.