Dejah

Give the legs, front and back ones to some older Chinese folks. The tendons are prized for medicinal soups in building strength in the consumer's legs. A friend of mine went hunting with a group and gave my cooks 40 legs! They worked for hours stripping the tendons. These were cleaned, dried, then takened back to China on one of their visits home. The soup is cooked slowly with specific herbs - often in "double pots".

Bought my tin of 4 mooncakes last week: 5 nut and single yolk. It's from a company called Riwie - through Toronto (Wish we had a source like Mary Elizabeth's photo). I love all the seeds, and I can taste maybe tangerine peel as well although it is not listed in the ingredients. We've eaten one cake and it's still 2 weeks to the festival!

Kau Yuk is my mom's favourite dish. I made it for the first time last year from Tepee's recipe. Mom was thrilled as she hadn't eaten it for many many years. Taro is in the flyers this week in anticipation of Mid-Autumn Festival. I'll have to make it again - using Prawn's Mom's directions. Thanks, Prawn's Mom!

Aren't salted duck eggs kind of solidified though? ← If you buy fresh salted eggs, only the yolk is solidified. The whites are actually runnier than fresh unsalted eggs. In our Chinese grocery store, I can buy only cooked salted duck eggs. In Superstore, I can usually buy uncooked salted duck eggs. I had to use cooked ones last year when I made joongzi. What a waste(how much cooked egg white can one eat? ), and what a pain to extract the yolks. The joongzi were not as good as this year's when I was able to buy fresh salted eggs.

I've always heard these two words used together: "sun seen" to mean fresh as in quality and taste - taste would indicate umami sweetness.

chocomoo: Yes, "teem" is used to not only describe sweetness but also to describe "full of natural flavour".

I don't have any knowledge of Chinese characters, so will do the best I can phonetically: "fow"- light in texture "num" - tender "ss-own" flakey "ss-an" slimey as in pig-skin spinach "gnung" - hard

Prawncrackers, thanks! I will keep an eye out for duck eggs on my next H-Mart pilgrimage. You described the effects of brining far better than I did. I brined shrimp for a Thai salad tonight, and the texture matched your description again. The shrimp were firm without being tough, with a texture reminiscent of a ripe grape bursting with juice. ← I don't brine shrimp, but I do soak them in cold water/cornstarch solution for about 15 minutes, rinse off the use with whatever recipe. This also produces "song" - mouth feel as Prawn describes. I'll have to try your salted egg trick! Bruce: Your cooking is always so pict-o-licious! I know they'd taste delicious too.

Thank you so much for the compliment! Can I ask how "joong" is pronounced? I am embarrassed to say that I don't know (although mine may not technically be "joong" since they have a phony filling ) I actually don't eat any meat, except for chicken, but others in my family do eat meat, so the next time that I make these, I think I will make several different fillings. It seems like a versatile technique and I just cannot get over how much flavor the bamboo leaves imparted to the contents! ETA: My local market did not have any salted eggs, but they did have some eggs that were labeled "preserved" and they were solid black (both the yolks and the egg white). ← Joong is pronounced like the name "Joan" except with a "down accent" if that makes any sense! You can make rendang with chicken instead of beef if that helps. The shop owner did the right thing shaking his head. The preserved eggs are for eating out of the shell with pickled ginger or diced to put into congee (Chinese rice porridge - comfort food). They definitely would not be a good addtion for joong. I am so far away from my supply of joong at the moment, and I want some!

These I thought were dried daylily flowers and not tiger lily flowers. Gum Jum means golden needle which is another name often used in recipes. I usually soak them if they are very dry. If they are used in soups that are simmered, then I don't think soaking is necessary. It is a good idea to wash them tho'. As for lowering cholestrol, have you tried making a tea with dong goo - dried Chinese mushrooms. This was suggested by my gi-gong master who is also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. I am away from home at the moment so I can't give you the exact recipe, but I seem to remember it as simmering about 3 rehydrated mushrooms.

Your first attempt looks delicious! I love how the ingredients look juicy and melding into the rice. The chorizo would add a nice spicy flavour. If you don't eat pork, you might try a Malaysian version with beef rendang that Tepee suggested many posts ago. The recipe can be found thru' google, but I used the one from Cradle of Flavour. If you've never eaten joong before, then the rendang wouldn't confuse you the way it did with my family who are used the traditional version I usually make. It didn't stop them from devouring all the packets tho'!

Beef Rendang would get first from me everytime. The Javanese cucumber and carrot salad goes well with everything.

Have you heard about a sushi place opening in the MTS building basement? It's called UMI Sushi. One of my Korean student's husband has been hired to work there. He was working at a sushi restaurant here in Brandon for a while until a disagreement about counter height made him leave. Any news about the new location for Ashahi Sushi?

My daughter would agree with you on the greasiness, and that Victoria Seafood is still the best. I will be very interested in your report on Noodle Express. Have you tried the xiaolongbaos at Victoria Seafood? It was a new item when I was there in the spring. I wonder if they've kept it on their menu.

As mentioned up-post, make congee (Chinese rice soup - comfort food)with a chicken carcass for stock. Add marinated chicken "tenderloins" or fish. They would add lots of protenin and flavour.

Daughter has bought a house on Elgin. She mentioned a new branch of Young's grocery will be opening one block from the house soon. Have you heard anything, Rona?

Brandon has 2 farmer's markets: one at the Riverbank Discovery Centre down the hill from my house, and the other in the parkade of the downtown mall. I haven't been to the one downtown, but have frequented the riverbank one every summer.The latter is only on Saturday mornings, and the riverbank is every Thursday evening and Saturday morning. Like Fortwhyte, there isn't much available yet. I didn't get there last week or tonight, but the organizer, Jesse, sent some garlic scapes up with my son who does massages at the market. I've read about the scapes on eGullet but haven't had them, so it was a new item to enjoy. They were really pungent when I was peeling the stalks and cutting them up, but they didn't taste as strong as they smelled after stir-frying. I liked them. By the end of next week, there should be lots more vegetable varieties, flowers, plants, beewax products, local honey, baking, strawberries from the Portage farm, organic black Angus beef and bison. Quite often there is a young musician busking. Jesse and his wife grow a lot of different vegetables: various squashes, ground cherries, etc. There's always something new every week. I enjoy trying whatever they recommend. Prices are a little higher but well worth it. There is also a "u-pick" about 5 miles from my house. It's runned by an elderly couple. I've been going there for years picking peas, beans, carrots, corn, raspberries, beets. This was before the farmer's markets started. I loved spending a morning there and usually end up way more than we can eat fresh, so I share with my elderly neighbors along our street. The couple stopped for a couple of years due to health problems, but it seems they've started up again.

Deep fried mung bean noodles (glass noodles), colourful shrimp chips, julienne some wonton wrappers then deep fry them itno crispy shreds, calendula or chrysanthumum flower petals.

Peter, Every one of your travelogues is an education. Thank you!

If it's fresh I love lad nha, using large rice noodles. Usually they are sold here in the State refrigerated so they are hard. Then I will make sure to have HIGH heat and seperate them a little in some lukewarm water before stir frying. The only problem then is that they are TOO wet. You have to be careful of that too. But only if using fresh IMHO. ← ETA my response! Whether using fresh/refridgerated rice noodles - hor fun - I presume, bring the package out of the fridge a couple of hours before you cook them. Unwrap the package then cover the noodles loosely. Letting the noodles come to room temp will separate and soften them - making stir-frying easier. If you forget to take them out early, open the package, warm them for a short period of time ( 1 minute?) in the microwave. I like to separate the noodles before toss them into the wok. If you rinse them with water, you will rinse off the oil that already coats the noodles. Then you must drain them really well so they would cook up "dry" and not gloopy. With egg noodles, I really watch to avoid over-cooking. Then, I rinse them quickly under cold running water, drain and chill before frying. This cooling firms them up and keeps them separate rather than goopy, even when I add sauce to them

Been to the Clay Oven on Inkster. I thought their meat entrees were REALLY skimpy on the meat. Did it used to be a donut shop or some other fast-food chain? What's your recommends for Indian? Only other place I've been to was IVORY - for the buffet. Quite a large selection, but I'm not experienced enough to know if it's good - poor quality. Good way to try different items.

My daughter recently took me to Asahi Sushi on Broadway. The owner said they were moving this month - June - to where...I can't remember close to Assiniboine Park area? My kids seemd to enjoy the food there and had become regulars. Daughter's BF works close-by so he will miss his frequent sushi lunches. I don't know much about sushi, but what I had what really fresh and yummy. THE BOY ordered deep-fried salmon head - to test my bravery: "Will she eat the eyeballs?" I did.

Spent the weekend in Winnipeg with the kids after I dropped hubby off for his flight to LA. Daughter and bf took me to Victoria Seafood for dim sum. We had 13 items: shark fin dumplings, seafood special siu mai, har gow, sticky rice, VS special pork siu mai, bean curd wrapped veg, shrimp and scallop dumplings, curried baby octopus (we argued squid or octopus), tripe (just for me), BBQ pork buns, HK rice rolls? (crueller wrapped with rice noodle), one other dish I can't remember, and their new item: xiaolongbaos! I'm not sure what the xiaolongbaos are supposed to be like, but I think they should have had more soup inside. The dough was very soft and the meat was substantial and tasty. Everything was well done and hot. I think we all had burnt tongues as we were hungry and had a hard time holding ourselves back. The only disappointment was the HK rolls. They obviously had no idea how to do these. The crueller must have been wrapped with the rice noodle then the whole thing steamed! It was a crueller that didn't puff up. It was flat, hard, and chewy. The kids said Kam Ho topped VS in this item. Three-people was the perfect combination for one dish of everything. I really liked the texture of the shrimp in all the dumplings containing shrimp. It had that "crunch".

Fu yu is cubes of tofu aged in rice, wine, salt brine and spiced with chilis. It's also called "Chinese cheese". They are sold in jars in Asian stores.

The Chinese red melon seeds must be hulled like sunflower seeds before eating. The hulls are harder than sunflower seeds. They are a pain to eat, but they are a traditional snack during lunar new year, weddings, etc . The red symbolizes good luck, joy, happiness, and the seed themselves symbolizes fertility. The meat is often used as part of the filling in moon cakes. Other than that... I would be interested to see other suggestions. Don't think I've ever seen them hulled as with bags of sunflower seeds. Can't imagine trying to collect enough to add to a dish. In the recesses of my mind, I seem to remember seeing young children and women using little hammers, cracking the seeds, collecting the meat. Not sure if it was one of the many "cottage industires' or for personal consumption.