HKDave

I think I know the kind of fresh sausage aprilmei is talking about... I've had them at the Dollar Meat Store in Vancouver, where they sell them warm and sliced so you can wolf them down before you even get back to the car. They make them in larger, keilbasa-size casings, I guess about twice the diameter of laap cheung. I don't have a recipe for those, but they taste like ground pork, fat, salt, sugar, soy, and a 5-spice or similar note. No water chestnut or cilantro. Here's a laap cheung recipe, not tested yet: http://recipeusa.org/Ethnic/Oriental%20Chi...age%2070832.htm

You were. Nothing goes to waste in a good kitchen... Try to plate a little extra for your student instructors. They'll be chowing down on your extras back in the pastry kitchen while you're sitting down to dinner. Ah, those were the days. Have you noticed the way Chef Tony bounces up on his toes when he says "Deeeeee-licious"?

I suggest you start here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=63558 and follow Pan's links in the second post of that thread for more info.

Exactly. Battered food usually sinks to the bottom of the oil, then rises as it cooks. Once it floats on the surface, turn it over as soon as the lower side (facing the oil) is brown to let the other side brown as well. You can then use the basket or a spider to scoop it all out. I'd only use the Dutch oven if it had enough surface to let all the fish float in one layer. Otherwise, stick with R2D2. And now that you know this, next time your fish will be perfect. Looks like you got a great crust with that batter. Don't give up. The first time trying any new technique is always a bit interesting. Very few of us are brave enough to publically document our learning curve in quite as much detail as you are Try it again (you've got all that fishy frying oil now, so it's not like you're going to be making doughnuts with it - but it would be great for some calamari) and let's see this thread finish with photos of your triumphant Round 2 - Revenge of the Fish Fryer.

Ling, I'm still trying to stop laughing... I'd be still-warm raw meat. In fact, I am. Just call me HKDave sashimi, so fresh I'm still moving.

The traditional medium for deep frying battered fish (and chips), if you want the English fish and chip taste, is beef fat. I know, it sounds weird and unhealthy. But it makes a big difference, and beef fat is still what's used in many chip shops in England (and at least one in Vancouver, where I first learned this trick). The crust comes out crispier and tastes better. I don't know if you can find rendered beef fat anywhere outside restaurant suppliers in Canada, however. It usually comes in 10 kilo boxes.

Moving the discussion from linguistics back to food... I use it in dishes like old fashioned beef and turnip, as a thickener for the stewed sauce. Is this bean paste we're talking about essentially the same as the Amoy-brand sauce labelled 'Chu Hou'? The first ingedient in that is fermented soybeans.

Call JE Hastings' BC sales rep and ask him which local retailers carry that product. He's Stu Wintemute, tel (604) 272-6844.

I couldn't place the sauce. There was a slight fish and chicken undertone to it, but I spent most of the time trying to figure out how it was thickened (rice starch?). The halibut itself is coated in rice crackers. ← I had an almost identical dish last time I was there (just different shrooms), and Tojo said the coating was toasted millet, not rice crackers. But it did taste rice-y. It's an amazing dish, the most memorable of all the plates we had that night. I couldn't figure out the sauce either.

Only thing I could find: http://www.gainesvilletoday.com/2005/02/di...gainesville.asp You might want to try subbing coconut milk for the cream.

Add Hong Kong to that list.... decent cheap sushi available in grocery stores, and what passes for Mexican food is ridiculously expensive. But if Vancouverites are now paying $13 for tacos, we're getting closer.

Nor mei gai (sticky rice in lotus leaf) at dim sum at the Pink Pearl on Hastings. When I come to Vancouver, the Pink Pearl is almost always my first stop after clearing customs. Nobody in Hong Kong makes nor mei gai as good as they do.

Thursday: Time to get away from HK for a few days. The trip starts off right when Cathay upgrades me for the flight to Singapore, so my in-flight meal is actually edible. More Champagne, please. On arrival, I buy a stored value 'e-z link' card at the airport MRT (US=subway, UK=tube) station, and I'm set for transport. About S$2 later I'm at Orchard Road MRT, and it's a short, hot walk to my hotel, the Goodwood Park. This is an old, low-rise hotel in the middle of town, and although still considered quite high-class, it hasn't been restored to the point where it's a theme park (see: Raffles). On the other hand, it's not exactly 5-star any more, and things don't always work. But it has a personality, and I like it. On line you can get rooms for about US$120/night, but my travel agent found one even cheaper. However, my room is the absolute worst, smallest, most remote room in the house. That's what I get for getting a cheap room. It's mid-afternoon, and time for a quick walk up the street to Newton Hawker Centre. What's a hawker centre? When Singapore cleaned up their unlicensed street food stalls years ago, they did something very smart (as opposed to Hong Kong, which just shut them down). They set up semi-outdoor malls where groups of food hawkers could practice their trade with a degree of supervision. They are all over Singapore, and each centre has a variety of hawkers, each selling their specialty. The way it works is that you get a table, note the number on the table, then order from whatever stalls you want. They bring the cooked food to your table, and you pay when it arrives. Some stalls are marked 'self service', meaning you wait for your food and carry it back yourself. There will also be a few stalls selling drinks, and they usually come around the tables to get your order. Hawker food is cheap. Dishes are usually S$3 for a one-person size, and $4 or $5 for bigger portions. I'm feeling like an oyster omelette to start, and although there are several oyster omelette vendors open (Newton St is more of a late night market, so many stalls are still closed) I find the busiest one, based on his the stack of empty egg trays. My rule at hawker markets is if you don't know the best food at that particular market, go for the busiest stall that specializes in making just one thing. Singapore oyster omelettes are made from eggs and a batter, stirred and fried until crispy. The oysters are added at the end and are just barely cooked. It's more like a cross between scrambled eggs and a pancake than an omelette. The garnish is chopped cilantro, and there's a little dipping bowl of the house chilli sauce on the side. Ask for a second bowl of the chilli. One is never enough. This stall's omelette - I think the stall name was 'Kwee Heng' - wasn't bad, but was too greasy for my taste. I noticed they were frying with a product called Fatty Oil. Nice. Back to hotel, grab a clean shirt (you're going to sweat a lot if you're following me around Singapore), and it's soon time to hook up with my good friend Mr B. and his family. Once all 3 generations are assembled, it's off to No Signboard for crabs. Their original shop had no signboard, hence the name. They now have several outlets and everyone tediously says they're not as good as they used to be, blah blah blah, but if you're from Hong Kong they're good enough. We're at the No Signboard on Mattar Road, on the edge of the Geylang red light district. Seating is outside in a parking lot at plastic tables. Nothing fancy (although they do have an air-con 'VIP' room, phone ahead and be prepared to pay more if you want to sit there), you're here for crab. There are 6 of us, and we try 3 different classic crab preparations: black pepper (excellent), white pepper (good) and chilli (too soupy). Plus some fried tiny octopus, chicken, some veg and tofu dishes... it's too much food, we can't even finish the crab. Total with a couple of beer for S$130. Mr B feels like a night out, so we regroup at 11:45 and head to classy Bar None, under the Marriott. Mr B used to be a bar manager in Singapore so we immediately run into people he knows, and as a result I am forced to consume Chivas with a very happy man, his wife and a transvestite who turns out to be the part-time lead vocalist for the excellent house band. The night is young, so we then head to an obscure raunchy bar called something like 'Moonrock' to try to see what is reportedly Singapore's best rock band, Ministry of Rock. But after driving in circles for half an hour we can't find the bar. Everyone we ask, even taxi drivers, say "Tras Street? Oh, it's very close to here" but that doesn't help us. By the time we find it, it's closed. So we head to Orchard Towers, an office complex by day, and, to use the local expression, "4 floors of whores" by night. The clubs in there are open very late. We're looking for a bar called Zombie, which has live rock music. After we determine it's temporarily called Zodiac due to a 'licensing issue', we head in for the last set from the band, and then head for Ipanema, a blatant hooker bar that also has a rock band. It is rather difficult to explain to the friendly, and in some case quite very direct, multiethnic girls young-enough-to-be-my-daughter floating round this place that I'm here just for the music and some beer, but eventually I learn the trick - zero eye contact, and don't react when someone gropes you. The band, called something like "Shag-Gies", is excellent. They finish about 3:30am and I head back to the hotel. Alone, of course. What were you thinking? Friday: Happy, screaming children fill the hotel pool at 7:30am. My room is right beside the pool. I stumble down to the hotel coffee shop, get some coffee and toast (included in the room rate, usual 4-star Asian hotel breakfast buffet stuff in a noisy and not very well managed room) and promptly go back to bed. At noon I wake up for real, and head to Ng Ah Sio, 208 Rangoon Rd, for bak kut teh, or pork rib soup. They close at 2pm, or whenever they run out, so come early. Closed Monday. This is the most famous bak kut teh restaurant in Singapore, and again, some say "it's not as good as it used to be, blah blah blah" but the fact is that it's great. Bak kut teh is the perfect thing to consume after the night before. Then it's about a 15 minute hot walk from there to Mustafa Centre, a crowded 24 hour department store in Little India, about 2 blocks from the Farrar Park MRT station. The reason to come here is on the 2nd floor, where they have a supermarket with one of the world's best selections of ingredients for Indian cooking. I'm here looking for Aeroplane Brand lime pickle, which they unfortunately don't have (does anyone know where on Earth to get it? PM me if you do). I then wander through the lanes of Little India, at one point finding a group of sidewalk dildo vendors (huh?) in a lane next to street selling mostly piston rings. Even by Asian retailing standards, this is weird. Back to hotel for a shirt, and then to Maxwell hawker centre (on Maxwell Road, about 1/2 way between Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar MRT stations) for chicken rice. You want the legendary Tian Tian at stall #10, accept no substitutes. Chicken rice is ubiquitous in Asia, it's on every hotel room service menu after the club sandwich and before the burger. But at its best - and Tian Tian is its very best - it's sublime. Open 11am - 8pm, closed Monday. Suppertime already? Mr B and family and I head to Lavender Street hawker centre (on Lavender Street, duh) for some serious benchmarking of the classic hawker dishes. We get mee Siam, Hokkien fried mee, a deconstructed rojak, bbq stingray (actually skate wing) and more... but the char kway teow lacks laap cheung, the essential dried sausage. The surprise hit is from the stall called Albert St Prawn and Pork Mee. Mr B orders the combined prawn and pork version, and it's great. And we had a failure in my 'always go for the busiest place' theory: the long line ups at Kok Kee Wan Ton lead to some mediocre and overpriced (S$4 - who are they kidding?) noodles. Singapore wan ton is very different than Cantonese style won ton, and this is one category where HK kicks Sing's ass. I'm not a dessert guy, but Mr B introduces me to a couple of local standards: soursop ice jelly, which is as titled, and mango ice kachang. An 'ice kachang' dessert is a mound of shaved ice with flavoured syrups, and in this case, mango puree on top. Both are great for beating the heat and go down well. Hawker centre desserts are S$1.50 - $2.50. This night I go to the Hard Rock to catch their house band, and after they finish I head over to Zombie for the band's last set there. Zombie has semi-professional pole dancers between sets on Friday nights. Pole dancing seems to be a big thing in several bars in Singapore these days. I'm back at the hotel by 4am. Saturday: The screaming kids hit the pool at 8am, and the day begins as before: coffee, toast, back to sleep until lunch time. Lunch is at Ah Kow Mushroom Mince Pork Mee. Thanks to some lousy directions, I get a 45 minute walk in the noonday sun looking for a place that's less than 5 minutes from an MRT station. I'll make it easy for you, because you do want to find this place. Take the MRT to Chinatown station, and take the exit to Chinatown Point. You'll be on the corner of Cross St and New Bridge Rd. Walk down Cross St past the Delifrance, and turn left down the walkway between Chinatown Point and the next building, which I think is Block 531 of Hong Lim complex, a group of government flats. Behind that building is Block 531A, and it has a hawker centre on the 2nd floor. That's one floor above the ground level, for any Americans reading this. Ah Kow is at #02-43. When you see #xx-xx in a Singapore address, the first 2 numbers are the floor and the second 2 or 3 numbers are the stall or apartment, so #02-43 is 2nd floor, stall 43. They only make one thing, bak chor mee (mince meat noodles), and they make it 2 ways, either as wet noodles with a bowl of stock on the side, which they seem to call 'with chilli' even though it isn't; or else as soup with everything in one bowl. I suggest to get it the former way. If you get it as soup, the noodles continue to cook in the soup and aren't the right texture by the time you get to the bottom. Plus you have to select what type of noodles you want. They have five types on display, and I like the kway teow style flat white rice noodles. Then the master assembles your bowl, from stock, mince pork, homemade (made by his wife at the table in front of the stall) wan ton, mushrooms, greens and a little fish skin garnish. Help yourself to the tasty chilli sauce, or fresh chillies if you're brave. I like an extra shot of vinegar in mine as well. It's sooooo good. I really want a second bowl, despite the fact that I'm dripping sweat from a) my 45 minute walk, b) the fact that I had just consumed a hot bowl of noodles in a non-aircon environment and c) the fact that I had spiked the bowl with a huge amount of the yummy house chilli sauce. But further food adventures beckon. After a stop at the hotel for a dry shirt, it's time to find a better oyster omelette. The best in Singapore is supposed to be Ah Chuan's in Block 22 Toa Payoh, so I optimistically assume that if I go to the Toa Payoh MRT station I'll easily be able to walk there. Wrong. Toa Payoh station is in a large shopping mall in a huge government housing estate with over a hundred apartment buildings, and there are several bus lines running through the maze. I get directions to an estate map from a young lady. As I am confusedly looking at the map, a uniformed schoolgirl comes by and asks me to participate in a survey about plastic bag usage in Singapore. The fact that I've been in town less than 72 hours doesn't discourage her. I offer to participate if she can get me on the right bus. But after completing the survey, it turns out I've been conned - she has no idea about the buses. But she gets me to the station Bus Control Room, where 2 people swing into action - they seem bored and I may be the most exciting thing that's happened all day - and they get me on to the right bus. A few stops later and I'm near Toa Payoh's hawker centre. I locate Block 22, #01-25, and order my omelette. While waiting for it to be done - the stall has a serious backlog, even though the rest of the market is quite empty - two Malay women also waiting at my table ask me where I'm from and why I'm here. I guess I do stand out a little, as I haven't seen another westerner since coming to Toa Payoh. I explain that I'm from Hong Kong and I'm on a quest for the best oyster omelette in Singapore, among other things. They think this is a little weird, but say that I've definitely found it. They also insist that I try some of the other things they've picked up at the market, including a kind of fruit I've never seen before, and some Malay dishes that I can't remember the name of. The omelette arrives, and it puts the Newton omelette to shame. This one is crispier, less greasy, and has very fresh-tasting Korean oysters, and a great chilli sauce on the side. Toa Payoh is a long way to go for a S$3 oyster omelette, but if you want the best in town, here it is. Now that I know where Block 22 is, I am able to walk back to the MRT with no trouble. Another stop at the hotel and it's time to think about supper. Man does not live by hawker food alone, and I feed the need for a good burger. This is not as easy as it seems. My sources advise that the best burger in Singapore is at Blooies Roadhouse, which also has a rock band Fri/Sat night. Sounds ideal, but Blooies has 2 locations, and nobody has ever heard of either of them. Both some distance out of downtown, and not near any MRT. I start on a bus toward the location at Science Park 2 but get stuck in traffic, so I bail and grab a taxi, whose driver gently rips me off (Singapore taxi drivers are apparently exempt from the government orders to not cheat tourists) but deposits me in the right place 5 minutes before the kitchen closes. I order a bacon cheeseburger and a beer and settle out on the patio overlooking the silent, empty and dark 'science park' (= industrial estate without industry but with nice landscaping) with the few other diners, while the rock band pounds away to the empty house inside. This is a bizarre location for a restaurant. http://www.blooies.com for locations and hours. The burger is indeed superb and is worth the taxi ride. I think they've got ground onion in the mince, and I'm going to have to try that trick myself. The 170g patty is thick and juicy, despite being more than medium done. I finish and join a Harley-riding expat at another table for some deep and meaningful discussion and quite a bit more beer, before heading out into the darkness to locate a taxi. It's now after midnight, so the taxi driver is going to be happy - fares go up 50% after midnight, and I'm in the middle of nowhere. I still want to see if I can catch the Ministry of Rock band, so I get the taxi to drop me as close as possible to that Moonrock club. As usual, the taxi driver has only a vague idea where Tras St is, so I end up wandering around Tanjong Pagar sweating in the early morning hours. In any other city on Earth this would be asking to be mugged, but this is Singapore. Eventually I spot a group of very well-groomed boys who all appear to be stoned as ducks. Remembering that Singapore's hottest gay club is also on Tras St (since you asked, it's the place with the blue lanterns out front, and no sign) I follow them and sure enough, end up locating Moonrock or whatever it's called. But after all that, the doorman tells me that the band is off this weekend. Damn. Yet another taxi, and another gentle taxi rip-off tour of Singapore at 2am, and I'm back at Zombie for a couple of chill-out Tigers. It's my 3rd night here, and I have apparently bonded sufficiently with the staff so that my beer is open and in my usual spot before I even make it to the bar. The band's last set is all-request, and the small crowd is asking for Zep, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Pat Benetar, AC/DC, Police, Santana, Cream... it's all good. The air smells like clove cigarettes, the same girls are on the bar doing their semi-amateur pole dancing, the bartenders are practicing their flair moves, BJ the shaved-head bouncer comes over and introduces himself. This is my kind of bar. On the stumble back to the hotel, I end up following a dweeby-looking westerner arm in arm with a gorgeous, um, ladyboy. How to tell? The Adam's apple trick doesn't work any more, they do that as part of the operation. Look for a) too good-looking, b) too tall, c) feet too big and d) wrists too wide. They turn in at the Hyatt. I wonder if the john ever knows. Sunday: Next time I'm asking for a room that doesn't face the bloody swimming pool. I do the usual hotel breakfast/sleep again/lunch thing, and today it's going to be the famous Katong laksa for lunch. As with most hawker food, you can now get this all over Singapore. But the original came from a stall on Marine Parade in the '40s, which relocated to East Coast Road in the '50s. There are now a strip of shops from #43 to #57 East Coast Road all claiming to be 'the original Katong laksa'. Just to confuse everything, the first shop (formerly called Marine Parade Laksa, now called Janggut Laksa) was at #49, then at #43 and is now at #57. When they moved, others moved into their old locations and now claim to be the 'original'. I don't know any of this, so when I arrive at the right area (bus #14 from Orchard Rd, ask the driver to let you off just after Katong Centre, before you get to the old 'Red House' bakery) I ignore the touts and do some investigating. I track down the one at #57 (just by the pedestrian overpass) and get a bowl. It's good, but not Earth-shatteringly good. The main difference is apparently that they use fresh coconut milk, and that does make the gravy very tasty without the stodginess you get from cheap laksa. Plus they cut the bee hoon noodles short so that you don't need chopsticks. And the laksa leaf is fresh cut. I was offered the option of cockles, and I accepted, but didn't get any. Chatting with a local guy at my table discloses that all the shops on this corner have fairly similar laksa, but he feels Janggut has a slight edge. That evening Mr B and family have their housewarming party, so I travel to their place. It's located in one of the new towns on the outer edges of Singapore, where hundreds of government apartments, each unit equipped with its own bomb shelter, loom in the squeaky-clean silence. I feel like I'm in the Matrix. Mr B manages restaurants for a living, so he's smart enough to leave the cooking to the pros, and has the gig catered. The food is buffet style, and it's excellent - a classic mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian dishes that make up the Singapore's main food cultures. The beef rendang is especially yummy. After watching Arsenal beat some loser team that nobody cares about, I head back into town. It's around midnight and time for a small emergency backup hamburger before commencing drinking, so I hit Burger King. This may sound boring, but we don't have BK in Hong Kong, and they're better than McD's. However, I'm at a halal BK, 2 minutes before closing. That means that it takes quite a while for them to put the burger together because they've already started cleaning up, and that they don't have onions, and that the bacon is 'turkey bacon'. Yuck. I get what I deserve. Next stop Zombies. There's a cover today but my new buddy the bouncer comes over so it's all good. They're also out of Tiger, so I end up drinking the display bottles on ice. This is not recommended with any beer that doesn't come in a brown bottle, by the way. Beer is sensitive to light, so beer in clear or green bottles does not last long outside the case, and display bottles would get very skunky in short order. You have been warned. My relationship here has solidified to the point that even though they know it's my last night in town, I get comped. Nice. I'll be back. A bartender coming off shift from another bar stops by and gets talked into giving a flair demonstration, and he's astonishing. Just another night in the big city. I'm back at the hotel by 2am. Monday: I have to get an early start today, so the kids in the pool are an effective alarm clock. Usual coffee and toast for breakfast. I would like to hit Tian Tian for a farewell chicken rice but they're closed Monday. But Ah Kow is open, so I head there again for a quick bowl of mince pork noodles before Mr and Mrs B pick me up to take me to the airport. We're going to get some Muslim food for lunch, and end up at 56A Zion Rd, across the street from the Zion Rd Riverside Market hawker centre. There's a stall here called M. Noor Mohamed Muslim Indian Food, and we order biriyanis. I get one with chicken and mutton. The mutton is tough as rubber, but tasty. Nothing wrong with the chicken. The amount of rice provided would feed several people. The best part of the meal was when the old guy at the stall got us our cutlery, by picking it up from the 'clean' end, he found a spoon that wasn't up to his standards and wasn't able to be cleaned by rubbing with his fingers. So he put that one back in the clean bin and got another one out, again by picking it up from the clean end. I don't think the M. Noor Mohaned Muslim Indian Food stall is going to win the 2005 Singapore hygiene awards. Soon, Mr B's friend arrives and informs us we're at the wrong restaurant. The good one is apparently Mayang Sari at 54 Zion Road. Oh well. We console ourselves with dessert at the hawker centre across the street - soursop ice for me. Amazingly, Cathay upgrades me again for the flight back. I almost forget how much I don't like Cathay, especially after the damage I do to the bottle of Johnnie Gold on board. Plus I score a bottle of Antinori's reliable 2001 Peppoli Chianti at the airport duty free at a (by HK standards) decent price. The flight was catered out of Bangkok and the food on board is not that great, but I'm not hungry and settle in to watch 'Sin City' on the TV and start to psych myself up to returning to work tomorrow. Singapore rocks. I need another visit, soon. Thanks to makansutra (www.makansutra.com) and aprilmei for recs, and a very big thanks to Mr B and family for their hospitality. Sing $ was about 1.66 to the US$. Edit: removed some of the raunchier bits.

This was true years ago, for those that could afford it. I can't remember the last time I saw a bottle of XO on a dinner table here. That trend has thankfully been fading out, and now serving Cognac with the meal would be considered old-fashioned or even gauche. You are more likely to see wine being served at a classy Chinese dinner in HK these days. When Frescobaldi hosted a recent wine dinner in HK, they did it in a Chinese restaurant. The best wine selections in HK Chinese restaurants are indeed the ones in hotels or clubs, where they can draw off the same list as their western F+B outlets. I haven't been to any with a great selection by the glass.

I can not seem to find that article, the link sends me to the front page. Any chance I could get a link the the Suck article? ← Correct link here: http://www.egullet.org/tdg.cgi?pg=ARTICLE-davevent (found by typing 'maximum suck' into that little Google Search box at the top of the page)

You've managed to abstain from abstaining 6 times already, Chef! Seriously, as long as you're not shilling, what's the problem? Post on....

If you haven't tried Olympia Oyster and Fish (as recommended by annanstee upthread) yet, don't give up hope. At 820 Thurlow, just south of Robson. They were located around the corner on Robson for years. They fry in beef fat, which is a good thing. My "standard", although of course YMMV. I was also a fan of Go Fish, except that they often were out of whatever fish I want when I arrived, and weren't open much past mid afternoon. That was during the winter, so selection (and hours) may have improved. Very good fish, better than Olympia, when they have it. Plus eating F+C outdoors in a Vancouver drizzle adds that certain je ne sais quoi.

There's wine at the table during the meal, but not at the stove. Maybe if you snuck something in a water bottle? But remember not to drink all the wine. There will be some thirsty culinary students who will be staying late after your class to do the dishes and clean up, and they will be hoping you'll leave a glass or two... They'll also be eating your extras, so cook more than you need!

In the case of Pho 24, their website claims it's because they use 24 ingredients and it takes 24 hours to make the broth. http://www.pho24.com.vn/ Umm, maybe. I think it may have been because they originally planned to be open 24 hours. I have a vague recollection that they may have been when they first opened - anyone remember? But these days they're 7am to midnight, at least at the location I most often frequent.

Arne, any knife lessons would have to be pre-Martini! Deborah, the school has an (excellent) Chef's Choice electric sharpener, and if your knife is dull, you can get someone to run it through that. Steeling doesn't really sharpen a knife (unless you have a diamond steel) but it does keep it from getting dull. I can't remember for sure, but I'm pretty sure Chef Tony shows you how to steel on the first day of Foodie, and I bet if you bat your eyelashes at one of the hunky assistants, they would be happy to give a more personal demo. The only knife you need for Foodie class is a basic chef's knife, around 8-10". If you have a paring knife and a steel, it wouldn't hurt. No need to buy anything else. (I miss you guys, too... Life back in HK is good, despite the fact that I'm not in a kitchen. Did a quick cooking course in Bali a few weeks ago, and here's what I was up to last week: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=70383 )

Nothing serious. It's difficult to enjoy Vietnamese food if you're not willing to eat uncooked veg/herbs, which come with just about everything. On this trip I also ate raw eggs, fish and oysters, plenty of poultry and runny fried eggs (despite bird flu), and had ice in my drinks. YMMV, significantly. I don't eat like this all the time, or everywhere I travel, but most of the places I went to this time I had either been before or heard good things about. I think it also helps that it was the rainy season - produce and water tends to be cleaner. I spend a good portion of the year travelling and eating in Asia outside HK, and I get 'stomach issues' about once a year. That's an acceptable risk to me. Re the lack of photos, well, I'm not much of a photographer, so I carry a (paper) notebook instead of a camera. I like writing (and cooking, and eating) rather than taking pictures. For photos, head over to noodlepie. He's got plenty of Saigon food porn photos on his site, including photos of several of the restaurants and dishes in the report.

Time for another week in Saigon... it's been a while. Day 1: Less than 5 minutes after clearing customs at the airport, it's lunch at Bun Cha Van Anh on the corner of Truong Son Street - that's the main street to the airport - and Song Day Street. tel 8486308. No air con, no menu, no English, no toilet, no walls - just bun cha Hanoi (grilled porky bits with cool rice noodles, soupy stuff and fresh herby veggie stuff that you mix together with condiments to form whatever you like) and bun nem cua (same, with deep fried spring rolls instead of porky bits). Had both. Both very good. Hard to spend more than a couple US$ here. Dinner at K Cafe, which, [sarcasm] as you can obviously tell from the name [/sarcasm], is Japanese, and is not a cafe. 74/A4 Hai Ba Trung, District 1, tel 824 5355. Very confusing to find, as the whole block - across the street from the Hyatt - appears to be variations of #74, and there are a few other Japanese restaurants in there. Don't be fooled. #74/A4 is further up the block, and is clearly marked K Cafe. Run by a Vietnamese woman who (I'm told) is fanatic about freshness, and her Japanese husband, who (I observed) is drunk as a skunk and very fresh with the young waitresses when his wife isn't around. Anyway, the food is great. If you want the same boring Japanese stuff you get everywhere on Earth, don't bother. They have it, but come here to try whatever's on the chalkboard. Don't miss the soft-shell crab rolls. Expensive by Saigon standards (most dishes $3 - $8, dinner for 2 with a decent sake was around $50) but cheap by Japanese food in any other city in Asia standards. Best in HCMC, totally worth it. Day 2: Breakfast at Pho 24. My hotel is equidistant from about 3 or 4 of their outlets, so that's an easy choice. Less than $3 for a big bowl of some of the better pho in town plus an iced coffee, and it's even air con. Ok, so it lacks the authenticity of street pho, and costs - gasp - 3 times as much. But it's good, so who cares? Plus you can't beat their catchy advertising slogan: "Delicious, clean and air conditioning". It's not actually much cleaner than any street stall - I've seen staff here brushing chopped onions retrieved from a table back into the mise bins and then putting the bowl in the 'clean' pile, while the 'chef' puffs away on a cigarette while stirring the stock - but it is indisputably air conditioned. I still give Pho Hoa Pasteur (260C Pasteur, Dist 3) the edge as the best pho in Saigon, but they're not that close to the hotel. Lunch with ecr and Mr. ecr at 2 of their local faves, both no air con, no English. I respect people that don't restrict themselves to one restaurant per meal. First Bun Bo Than Noi Hue, 47 Tran Cao Van, Dist. 3, tel 829 9473. This one is fairly easy to find. Second was Hong Hanh, 17A Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Dist 1, tel 827 4245. This one is up the steep, tiny stainless steel staircase on the right as you stare at the empty-looking storefront. Both are closed in mid-afternoon. Now, in the interests of science, I am going to attempt to describe some of what we had, even though I didn't take good notes, and this will no doubt draw out some of the more pedantic f*ckheads to correct my spelling and descriptions and the like. If you don't speak Vietnamese (I don't) and don't have friends that do (I usually don't, but this time did), order by pointing at stuff that looks good on other tables. But since you asked: I think at the first place we had bun cua - crab patty soup, bun cha cua - crab spring roll, banh cahn - a thickened noodle soup with lots of stuff, and at least one other thing that I forgot. At the second, we had bun thit nuong - noodles with grilled pork that reminded me of char siu, banh cuon - rice noodle rolls which are apparently the house specialty, another banh cahn just for comparison purposes which was indeed better than the previous place, and at least 2 other things that I forgot. Plus we spotted something on another table which we had to order and turned out to be tiny clams with basil, chilli and possibly fresh turmeric which we scooped up with big hunks of rice cracker. And next time we definitely have to try their 'roll your own' rice paper salad rolls. Yes, this was a ton of food, but cost very little. These places don't get tourists, and when you stay off the air con/English menu circuit, Saigon is a bargain. Now, just so you know what kind of rock star ecr is, after this 2 restaurant, at least 8 course marathon lunch, she wanted to go to get some banana dessert thing nearby. But sadly they were out, which is good, because I couldn't eat any more. Dinner... well, I didn't need much dinner. But my friend B. was coming in from Shanghai, and I hadn't seen him in a while, so we ended up at my usual spot, Underground, 69 Dong Khoi, Dist. 1. This is an expat bar that has much better Western food than you might expect. Chef Thierry and his crew make a huge selection of great bar food, and the occasional classic French dish on the specials list. I had a confit duck leg on lentils with a shot of balsamic here last year that I'm still thinking about. Tonight it's just a burger, and a damn fine one at that. Much Tiger beer was consumed. Plus I picked up the tab for B.'s soup and ribs. Total $23. Given the amount of beer, this seemed like a good deal to me. Day 3: Woke up late, no time for breakfast, headed for work.... so it was an early lunch in the factory manager's canteen, and in a Korean owned factory, anywhere on Earth, that means Korean food. Soup, seven kinds of kimchee (all made in house by the Vietnamese factory cooks, and they do a great job), rice and a couple of spicy mystery meat dishes. Yummy. Back at Underground for dinner, and cous cous is on the special list. Tonight's version has a slab of lamb, a grilled chicken breast, a couple of merguez sausages and a bunch of stewed veggies. Chef Thierry comes over and asks me if I want more soup with it because he thinks it's a little dry, which it is, but like most food at the Underground it's better than I expect and I leave happy. Day 4: Banh mi for breakfast, from my favourite banh mi cart, across the street from HSBC, near the cathedral. Banh mi are baguettes, stuffed with pate, Laughing Cow cheese, roast pork, other mystery meat or fried egg, or a combination of the above. The only common factor is that you get some mayonnaise-like fluid, herbs and chillies, and everything must, by law, be unrefrigerated for as long as possible, and ideally exposed to direct vehicle exhaust and flies. I had two banh mi, one mystery meat combo and one egg. They're about 30 cents each. I love the name if the egg version: banh mi opla. For some reason, 'opla' makes me think of lederhosen. Lunch at the factory again... Korean food ditto ditto ditto, except today it was a couple of fish dishes instead of meat. One was an unnamed white fish, salted and fried in chunks, and the other was tiny dried salted anchovies with garlic and green onions. I like salt. And I'm really enjoying their sesame-leaf kimchee. Dinner at Underground again (do you detect a pattern?) this time for their pizza, which is the best in Saigon and far better than anything in Hong Kong, and costs about 1/3 as much. Three sizes, thin or thick crust, imaginative toppings... just tell them to leave off their 'caramelized' onions, which aren't. I went for the goat cheese and bacon, small size, and promptly kicked myself for not ordering a medium. No problem. After a few more Tigers, just to make it respectable, I ordered another identical pizza. It was just as good as the first. Day 5: Pho 24 for an early breakfast, and yes, it was still "Delicious, clean and air conditioning", especially after I turned off their scratchy radio blaring hits from about 1968. The staff all looked quite relieved when I did this. Then it was off to brunch with ecr at the world famous (well, famous in Saigon, anyway) Chao Vit Thanh Da, 20/1 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Thanh Da Dist. Or else the competing Chao Vit Quan Thanh Da at 118 Binh Quoi, also in Thanh Da Dist, which is where we actually ended up. We're blaming pilot error, because it would be embarrassing to admit we didn't realize we were at another restaurant until after we had finished eating and I began wondering why my ride was taking so long to arrive (my driver had been sent to the other address...). The chao vit is basically the same at both. They are a 15 min drive from Dist. 1 but worth it. Chao vit is rice porridge - aka congee, aka juk - with a side of roast (actually more like poached) chopped duck, and the usual suspects: a dipping sauce and a some raw herbs and chopped veg. The rice is stewed with the duck stock and a faint soupcon of MSG, and is staggeringly delicious. ecr recommended we order some banh tran - toasted rice crackers - which provided a perfect texture contrast. Culinary highlight of the trip. Period. No air con, no menu, no English, but since basically all they serve is chao vit it's kind of hard to screw up when ordering. Cheap, like under $1 a person. I skipped lunch at the factory. Dinner was once again at the Underground, this time for a blue cheese and merguez pizza. Yummy. Why can't anyone in Hong Kong make a pizza this good? The soup of the day sucked, however: a delicious sounding asparagus and crab soup turned out to be canned white asparagus stems and not very well picked through crab bits in cornstarch thickened bland stock. First total miss at the Underground, and this is a place that still makes tomato soup from scratch... Day 6: Another breakfast of champions at Pho24. Another Korean lunch at the factory. And for dinner: Ngu Vien, 40 Ky Dong, Dist 3, tel 843 7670. Ngu Vien specializes in Hue cuisine, and although nobody there speaks English, they do have a photo book of most of their popular dishes and an English menu. Plus they have a couple of aircon rooms. Dinner for 4 with a few beer was $30, and that was for more food than we could eat. For some reason, people persist in going to the awful, overpriced 'fancy' Vietnamese restaurants around Dong Khoi St. Instead come to a place like Ngu Vien, where they have tablecloths if that sort of thing turns your crank, the food is vastly better, and it's 1/3 the price. Plus you can try dishes that maybe you wouldn't find back home. I mean, you didn't come to Saigon just to see if the salad rolls taste the same as they do in Peoria or Stuttgart, did you? Everything I've ever had at Ngu Vien has been good, but I especially like the rice vermicelli salad with crab, the Hue style spring rolls, the stewed catfish... there's no point in my going into detail, because it's been done better: if you Google 'ngu vien' you'll find several links to Ngu Vien reports on noodlepie's blog, complete with photos of many of their dishes. And head to his home page at www.noodlepie.com for more info on Saigon restaurants than you possibly have time to read. Day 7: Breakfast at Caravelle Hotel, the most expensive meal of the trip. Five star hotels in Asia love to rip you off on breakfast and Saigon is no exception. But a business meeting beckoned, so there I was. The Caravelle does have an excellent breakfast buffet, and for $20, they damn well better. The tables are so close together than you can't help but try on your neighbour's underwear while you eat ("Oh, excuse me, I didn't realize those were your panties"). My neighbours turned out to be a bunch of culinary students from Orange County, whose chef/instructors were telling them incorrect things about the food (no, you idiot, that fish isn't mackerel, and no, the cheese on the buffet isn't all unpasturized...). But I was a culinary student not so long ago, so I kept my mouth shut. The only thing a culinary student needs to say is 'Yes Chef'. Lunch. Korean at the factory again... the protein variable of the day was thickly breaded shrimp, and the kimchee and rice was same as always. Last supper at the Underground. One of the regulars at the bar there tells me the duck liver special is damn good, so I ask if there's any left, but I'm out of luck. But would I be interested in some (off the menu) duck confit instead? Damn right I would. Chef doesn't have any lentils today, so it's served on sauté spud slices and grilled tomato with a green peppercorn sauce. Yum. That dish was about $8. You don't find stuff like that in bars back home. Day 8: Overpriced breakfast at Sheraton (surprisingly, slightly cheaper than Caravelle) and then to the airport. Quick stop at the supermarket to pick up some of the world's best fish sauce (Nuoc mam ca com from Phu Quoc, 40 degrees or higher), some Vietnamese peppercorns, some rice paper and crackers. Time to go back to HK. I'll be back in a couple of months. Big thanks to ecr and pieman for recommendations. Edit: spelling.

There are some knives at the chef's station you can borrow in a pinch, but you should bring your own. Buy a 8" or 10" Victorinox Chef's knife at the VCC downtown bookstore (or Ming Wo during a sale) if you want a cheap but good one. The Foodie class doesn't go into great detail on knife technique. You learn the proper way to hold a knife and do some basic cuts, but there's a limit to how much they can teach in the time allotted. If I was back in Van. I'd be happy to teach anyone knife basics in return for Martinis... and it's already been proven that I'll sharpen knives in return for kolachys. Chef Tony usually runs the Foodie class, and everyone in the classes I was assisting at last winter seemed to have a blast. He can handle a group of eGulleters, don't worry about that! If you want to get some people together to get specific training on knife skills, any of the Chefs could teach it, but I'd ask if Chef Ian is available to do a seminar. He's the 'technician' of the 3 instructors.

I'll second Beatty St B+G - unless I'm mistaken, their food comes out of the same kitchen as the William Tell. It's definitely better than your average bar food. Plus some decent beers on tap. I've eaten at the bars at both Wild Rice and Chambar, pretty quick service both times even though Chambar was slammed as usual when I was there. Wild Rice is open all afternoon, Chambar opens at 5:30pm.

Hey Chef, you've de-lurked! Welcome to the forums (and thanks for the stage back in March - much appreciated). I still remember your demo at school, because they made us all cook it immediately afterward: potato-wrapped smoked sablefish with winter veg and mussel broth. Northwest costs $6 grand for 3.5 months, plus about $600 for uniforms and textbook and application fee (all mandatory, unless you buy the text on Amazon for 1/2 the school cost, which I did). Plus another $400 if you buy your knife kit from the school (which I didn't, although the school kit is decent). So figure it will set you back about $7 grand all in. This is a good deal compared to Pacific or AI, and is almost free compared to some of the US schools I looked at. Re VCC, I think they've improved on the local ingredients thing. They were using local wild salmon when I was observing in the kitchen there, and the Chef said they only use wild now. Re Northwest's 'Serious Foodie' class, it's a lot of fun, but it's not for pros. I was an assistant teacher for one class last semester, and it does cover some of the material that they cover in the Pro classes. It in no way would prepare you for a restaurant kitchen, but I'd recommend it for a home cook that wants to step up.