stephenc

those white plates are weird. Having eaten a bunch of tapas in spain, they always came in brown, red, or orange ceramics. Clean glistening white plates seem a bit too high brow for bar food. but I guess that's the current "in" thang.

Try using deep fried tofu sold in squares. They are great for soaking up the juices! ← i was thinking that, but the tofu in the picture doesn't really look like dried or fried tofu.

Dunno how to make tofu "spongy" Freeze-thaw it maybe? Reconsittue the dried mushrooms and woodears for an hour in water. chop lots of garlic, lots of ginger, green onion you can marinate the tofu, or not. you can marinate it in soy sauce, pepper and corn starch. stirfry the tofu with a good amount of oil and hi heat. remove the tofu. add garlic, ginger, fry, add woodears and mushrooms, fry. add a little soy sauce or oyster sauce, salt, sugar, sweet soybeen paste. Add tofu. Stirfry a little more, add green onion, sesame oil maybe

My opinion is that Lakeside isn't the best dim sum in Philly.

I think there's a bit of a difference between a domestic pet and an agricultural animal. Maybe in certain cultures, different animals may be considered a pet, such as the cow in India. But as far as I know, in China, cats are still considered pets, and cows are considered livestock/agricultural.

It's a mix of Fujian, Hakka, and Shanghai cooking. Taiwanese people eat a lot of bubble tea, stinky tofu, beef noodles, and fast food from 7-eleven. They also eat at lot more kimchee than other chinese. The food in Taiwan is pretty good. Like others have said, it's usually pretty intensely flavored.

mushrooms, water chestnuts and pork. that's my favorite.

that's some ghetto college steez right there. These are my favorite potato chips. Compared to other jalapeno chips they're atomic. Almost impossible to find though.

Shiner is good, but Yuengling is better.

noodle soups and hot pots I guess. Dunno any other uses. Sounds interesting though.

that nari, whatta sassy girl

Eating 20 cent pretzels dipped in a dollar whiz cup while drinking a forty with S. Philly art punks at 3 in the morning at the Pretzel factory on washington is fun too.

Sweet lucy's is a pretty sweet barbeque place in the near NE. Pretty unusual for a place like Philly. Picanha is a pretty sweet brazilian rodizio that sells skewered meat. I went there two weeks ago and it was a pretty good deal at 20 bucks compared to the $40 all you can eat in places like NY. It's also in the North East, way out near Pennypack. Last week I ate at a vegan place of all things called Horizons, in queen village, which just may be the best vegan food I've ever eaten. I had no idea what seitan was made out of, but it sounds like "satan" so I gave it a try. speak of the devil, it was good! If you really want to go slightly off the beaten path, eat Mexican or Vietnamese food down on Wash. Ave, African food in W. Philly around Balt. Ave, or any random place in Chinatown. If you REALLY want to go off the beaten path, eat Latin American food in North Philly and the lower Northeast, Eastern European food in Port Richmond, and Korean food in Cheltenham/Olney and Upper Darby. And not off the beaten path at all, I hear Amada is pretty good. Of course, there's been nothing written about it so I may or may not be sure.

it's usually in fan tuan. You can also put it in man tou, along with egg or meat or other stuff.

looks tasty

The best shiao3 long2 bao1 are served up by the little hole in the wall shops for about a dollar per long2 I've had some really good ones near shanghai, and I've had some really good ones in Taiwan.

yikes. 75 pounds spent on a ma la hot pot? I remember spending 40 RMB in Chendu a couple years ago. I guess living in London, you're gonna be spending London prices....

Do they have duck blood or kidney dishes?

Go to big bowl for chinese food. They have good lunch specials. I like their beef-noodle soup, pork chop/rice, and pork belly/rice. Absolutely dirt cheap.

Call Pats/Genos touristy all you want. I actually prefer their standard "cheese with" to the equivalent at Tony Lukes or Johns. The bread at TL is too crusty and french-bread like for my liking. Pats/Genos use "chewier" rolls.

Yeah, as was previously stated, you're probably overboiling the potatoes. Or you're not using enough oil. Peel and cut the potatoes into halves. Boil for about 4-5 minutes. Let them cool a little bit and lose some moisture. Then slice or chop the potatoes however you want. Potatoes should still be pretty firm. Then pan-fry. Here is my question; How do you replicate that extra crispy "texture" that KFC has when making fried chicken at home?

How are you handling the exhaust for using such high-heat cooking? My kitchen exhaust fan (and it is rigged to vent to the outside) can barely keep up as is. I would imagine doing wok cooking would require some pretty big blowers.

Neat. I like wontons. I wrap them a little bit differently. Instead of smushing the top in like a siu mai, I fold it in half into a triangle, and then connect the two corners, similar to a tortellini.

I'm not sure whether people know this in NY or not, but when ordering the omakase at Morimoto, right before hard-selling their bottled water and sake, the waiter will ALWAYS ask you if you have been there before. You tell him that yes you have been there before, and yes you have had the omakase before. This way, the restaurant doesn't give you the standard, by-the-book, "safe" SSO-approved omakase, the one pretty much everyone in Philly who has gone to the restaurant has experienced, you know, the one that ends in sushi and thinly sliced Kobe beef. The more "imaginative" chefs-choice is where you start getting some of the cool stuff. By the way, the haterade is strong in this thread. Are New Yorkers so satiated by fine restaurants that they are actively rooting for new restaurants in their city to fail?. I'm flabbergasted. That's not a good omen for the local economy, even if it is the Big Apple. I mean, this is a good-looking sashimi platter, and apparently it tasted good too. I wouldn't wish failure on anyone who could make raw fish tissue look so good. http://augieland.blogs.com/photos/uncatego...ori_lounge3.JPG

My grandfather loves spaghetti carbonara, hold the cream, if you're going the italian approach. I'm pretty sure a lot of Chinese people will happily eat BBQ, so if you can do something remotely BBQuey, that would be a pretty good idea.