HKDave

Electric spark ignition... at least that's how mine works.

I may be a little out of date - been living out of Vancouver for a long time now - but I still remember the fresh Italian sausages from Columbus Meats on Renfrew as setting the standard for their kind. They were as good as I've had in Italy, or anywhere else for that matter. Columbus made (and hopefully still makes? can someone confirm?) both regular and spicy. Many of the Italian specialty food non-butchers that carried fresh sausage - such as Scardillo's on Hastings - got their sausage from Columbus. Columbus also is/was the best place to buy osso bucco. For German style fresh sausages, I used to make a weekly trip to Black Forest Deli in Park Royal. They also sold a great dark bread (from an outside bakery) called 'Steinofenbrot' or something like that - I never did find out where they got that from.

Most unforgettable? Gary at the Fireside Lounge, in the back of the Peppermill Coffee Shop on the Strip in Las Vegas. He was behind the bar on my first visit something like 17 years ago, and he's still there. A man of few words - unless he's dressing down a new cocktail waitress for not calling an order in the Gary-approved sequence, which seems to happen at least once a night - but he runs a totally professional bar. I don't need much conversation from a bartender. I just like to sit back with a well-mixed drink at the end of a long day, and the Fireside is great for that. It was even better before they added all the TV screens....

Celadon is very nice, and if you want a 'white tablecloth' Thai restaurant it would be a good choice. I was there a few months ago with a large group and they did an excellent job on both food and service. Most of the other 5 star hotels also have expensive 'soothing' Thai restaurants - the Regent has Spice Market (not my favorite, but others like it), the Oriental has Sala Rim Nam (good food, if you like dancing shows with dinner). It would be hard to go too far wrong for a first-timer in any of them. They all tend to err on the mild side as far as seasoning goes, so specify if you want it otherwise. Hopefully your friend will adapt to Bangkok quickly and you can start to feed him outside of the hotels...

Yes, sadly the Erawan was torn down to make way for a (multi-story monstrosity) Grand Hyatt. But the Erawan temple is still on that corner. And there are still flame trees on Wireless Road. The stretch of Wireless behind the US Embassy and Lumpini Park still sort of looks like it used to, if you're looking in the right direction and ignoring the traffic and pollution.... If you're looking for a good deal on a place to stay in your old neighbourhood, there are some newer 5-star service apartments on Wireless Rd and Soi Lang Suan that have quite good rates. Most of them rent by the day. You'll probably want to stay walking distance to the Skytrain.

I don't make the connection between your neighbour's drug intake and not wanting to eat at Earls. The front of house at any Earls I've been to has been very professional, and I don't care what the cooks do on their days off as long as their food is good. Given that Earl's is a 3-ring binder type of restaurant, I think they do a great job.

The stubby was the only shape of bottle for most of my life in Canada ('60s to '80s), with one exception - the few years in the '70s where Heidelberg somehow was allowed to use a unique bottle. I switched to Heidelberg for those few years - it made my beer easier to locate at parties! The stubby had another advantage: it kept your beer cold for a longer time. Thicker walls and less surface area. I guess it made too much sense to survive.

Agree, agree, agree. In Bangkok our plastic cutting board got so uncleanably (is that a word?) ripe we had to throw it out after a month, while our (cheap, non-end-grain) wooden one lasted for years. A local cook's trick for 'sterilizing' a wooden cutting board is to rub it with salt and a cut lemon or lime (use the husk of one you've just squeezed), then rinse. At home we follow a few very basic food safety practices: - change kitchen towels often. These are the #1 breeding ground for bacteria in a home kitchen. - keep the fridge as cold as it will go without freezing anything. - do meat prep (esp. chicken and fish) first, then clean everything including hands in warm soapy water before continuing, and switch to a fresh kitchen towel. - clean as you cook - don't leave food or dirty dishes lying around. Plus, because most veg here comes from mainland China, we do more thorough washing of anything to be eaten raw than you would in the West. But we don't obsess about it. In China or Vietnam I routinely eat in places that would make a typical Wet-nap addict cringe. Chicken in Hong Kong is often bought live and killed in front of you, isn't always refrigerated, and never is cooked anywhere near what an US health inspector would call adequate. But we haven't got sick from eating it for the last decade. Our first trip to Mexico, the delectable Ms. A ordered a raw scallop cocktail at a street restaurant for her very first meal - even HKDave thought that was pretty hardcore (why I love her...). But you only live once, and boy did those scallops taste good.

I'm pretty sure the washing instructions are for the metal mesh filter only. The charcoal filter probably needs to be replaced - I don't think those types of filters are washable.....

Similar to Korean bulkalbi, but different: slow marinate w/ dark rum, lime juice, sesame oil, brown sugar and onions; bbq. If there was a Korean West Indies, this would be the national dish. I think I originally got the idea from GQ food writer Bob Shacochis' book 'Domesticity', but my copy of the book is on another continent at the moment so I can't check the recipe.

There are still duck rice places in Bangkok. My favorite is the one beside the coffin shop on Soi On-Nut (aka Sukhumvit Soi 77). All they serve is duck rice and some dim sum. No air con, sorry I don't know the address - it's maybe a kilometre up from Sukhumvit on the left hand side of the soi, just past the coffin shop. You may find that things in Bangkok have changed - a lot - since the '70s. I did a longish Bangkok report on another board last year - http://www.chowhound.com/boards/intl5/messages/19208.html Most of the info is still valid. Hope nobody is offended by the link - those were my pre-eG days....

Not sure if you saw this, I did a SLC mini-report in the forum a few months ago: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=38408

I like bao bao cha, but only with the appropriate food. It's standard issue in many Sichuan restaurants in China, and works very well with spicy/oily flavours. Your cup is re-filled with hot water many times during the meal, and that's why rock sugar is used instead of regular - you need it to dissolve slowly enough so there's still some sweetness after several re-fillings.

Nabeyaki soba. Never really liked the udon version, but the first time I tried it with soba it was love at first bite. Got to have a raw egg floating in it, poaching in the hot soup... and heavy lashings of S&B Nanami Togarashi. There's a restaurant here in HK that makes its own soba. Very nice stuff...

Jack, great info. Thanks. I've played with moderate temperatures (like around 110c) and combi (convection+steam) cooking for roasts recently with good results, but you've convinced me to try to go all the way down to McGee/Blumenthal levels. I've got a few questions.... I've always thought gigot a sept heures is cooked in a closed casserole to keep it moist. Did you do it this way, or in an open pan? And if open, is the meat drying out? I use a combi oven, so it can steam, convection, or both - but can't act as a normal non-convection oven. It works great at low temperatures in convection mode (obviously no steam below 100C). How will using convection affect timing at 65c, and potential drying? Seems to me I could be creating a great dehydrator here. Thanks again. I've got a gigot here that I'm planning on cooking in the next couple of days.....

Have you ever tried wild Alaskan salmon? It's far superior in taste and healthier than the farm raised, ie, less fatty, with a much lower level of pesticides and other nasty things. I will give Alaskan a try before I dismiss salmon. I was wondering if it was an Atlantic vs. Pacific thing. I bought the fish from the most reputable fish monger in this Florida town, but it was the first salmon since moving here from No. Cal. Does anyone know anything about east vs. west coast salmon? I agree with Merstar - the biggest difference with salmon these days is wild vs farmed. Your fishmonger should tell you what you're getting. Wild salmon is more expensive and will almost always be labelled as such. Another giveaway is the invariably perfectly sockeye-red flesh, which often indicates the dyes used in farmed salmon feed. The red in wild salmon comes (I'm told) from their eating shellfish, and in most species tends to pinkish rather than perfectly red. Another rule of thumb that seems to work is the colder the waters, the better the salmon. The salmon I use here is from Tasmania (south Australia) and is comperable to northern BC or Alaskan.

Butter is our friend everywhere.

That's one of my favorite menus! I've cooked almost the identical meal (sans dessert) a few times recently. That salsa verde recipe is great with a little bit of anchovy fillet or paste - I know, it sounds weird, but it works very well with the salmon. The salsa also works with arugula (aka rocket) lettuce instead of some of the parsley, gives it a slightly peppery flavour.

I should have added above - I'm assuming your cast iron is properly seasoned. If not, you can get food sticking to the bottom, then burning, and that means smoke. If food is sticking, make sure your pan is seasoned. If you're not sure how, there are some threads on the topic already.

Seasoned cast iron pans shouldn't smoke much more than any other pan. It's usually the heated oil that smokes, not the metal. I live in an apartment and cook on cast iron daily - just pan-grilled a couple of Aussie rib-eyes tonight. Do you only have this problem with cast iron, or is it with other frypans as well? If it's just with the cast iron, maybe there's still oil on the outside from when you seasoned it. Clean the outside and maybe reduce your temperatures. If you get the same problem cooking the same recipe in other pans, maybe try using an oil with a higher smoke point - canola or peanut, not EV olive oil. But there are limits - no way to do a blackened steak on cast iron in a sealed apartment without the fire dept coming.

Bleudauvergne, that was simply.... amazing. I wonder if I'm the only one re-thinking my life's priorities as a result of this week? On the downside, you've set the bar for foodblogging so high we're all scared to even attempt to follow! Again, thank-you.

I'll chime in again with the cast iron - Wagner in my case. Saute pan, big chicken fryer, ridged grill pan - cheap, lasts for generations, and easy to cook in. Love 'em. Plus I get a free workout whenever I lift them. My expensive German cook's knife is now catching dust because I did what every Chinese cook in this town does - got my butt down to Chan Chi Kee Cutlery and bought one of their own brand knives for US$10. Ok, it looks like something from the last century (and the design probably is), and it's carbon steel, but it works great, holds a razor edge, and it's less than 1/10th the price of your Global. Newly arrived Western chefs in this town all wonder why the guys on the line in their kitchen are all using these weird cheap knives.... but they all eventually see the light, pack up their expensive knives and convert. And you pick up a little plastic handle paring Victorinox there for another $5 for fine work and you're all set. Good enough for the pros, good enough for me. http://www.chanchikee.com Edited to add: the knife I'm talking about is the one on the top right in the first picture on the web page, the smallest wood handle one. It's about 8" long. Those are knifes, not cleavers - don't get fooled by the shape.

If you used dried chilies, just leave the chilies in, and the oil will keep for weeks or longer without refrigeration, and many months with refrigeration. Ditto if you used fresh chilies, then strained. If you want to keep the fresh chilies in the oil I'd be tempted to refrigerate just to be sure. You might want to taste a few of the chiles in the oil to see if they're still very hot - if not, there's not much point leaving them in. One reason for making this with dried chilies is that you can get a lot more concentrated flavour. I suggested 1/3 cup dried to 1 cup oil - I don't know how many fresh chilies it takes to make 1/3 cup dried, but I'd guess it's over a cup. So if you make this with fresh, you probably need a lot more chili to get the heat. That might be why yours came out so mild.

Bicycle Lee, you're talking Sichuan peppercorns, MarkK is talking Sichuan dried red chilies - two different animals, although often used together.

I keep mine in the fridge, but most restaurants keep it on the table and it seems to last for a long time - weeks if not months without refrigeration. The commercial oils (like Lee Kum Kee) don't have preservatives.