Dejah

It's taken me THIS long to make something I really enjoyed! Here's the zhua fan I made using my friend Ping's oven method with Fushia Dunlop's recipe. I didn't have any sultana raisins, so I used chopped dried apricots. It was delicious, but I think I miss the plump sweetness of the raisins. No subsitutions next time! I used arborio rice.

Made the Blueberry - Peach Spiced Pecan Crisp from Fine Cooking again - this time with frozen blueberries as I couldn't find any fresh. It turned out fine!

The yellow beans are salted, smashed, sold in jars/cans as "meen see". I use it when I want to make Cantonese roast duck (haven't for a long time tho'). It's a cool autumn-like day and I've been cooking food to take to our daughter's house in Winnipeg. We're going in to help her move, so we'll need lots of energy! So far, I've got beef rendang, veggie lasagne. And, for Chinese food, I've got baby back ribs marinating for char siu pie gwut, and finally, I made Zhua fan combining my friend Ping's method and Fushia Dunlop's recipe for Polo (lamb pilau). I didn't have sultana raisins, so I used chopped dried apricots. I miss the plumb sweetness of the raisins. Next time there'll be no subsitutions! Will post picture of finished product in the zhua fan thread in a bit.

July issue #93 has a terrific recipe for peach and blueberry crisp with spiced-pecan topping. I just picked up another case of freestone B.C. peaches to make the dessert again for this weekend. Unfortunately, blueberry season is at an end, and they are selling at $2.99/pint. Has anyone else made this recipe? Would IQF blueberries work as well?

I've never seen the name "pork fu", but from your description, it's what my kids would eat right out of the container. Most often, we eat it as a topping for congee - rice gruel - Chinese chicken soup - comfort food.

Last spring, I made rullupyslsa with my friend Inga. She used beef flank, and it turned pinkish from the saltpeter. It was delicious! For dessert, you could make vinarterta, ponnukokur, or cheesecake made with skyr. Inga makes hundreds of ponnukokur for the Icelandic Pavilion at our Winterfest. She lent me a cookbook: The Culinary Saga of new Iceland: Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg by Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns. It's very interesting reading. Let me know if there is a specific recipe you need. It might be in this book.

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!