Wayne

I purchased the book when it was released, cooked maybe 20% of the recipes, then left it behind for newer books and other projects. I think it's time to go back and take a fresh look.

Had to google Aussie slang for that one .

The items in the last photo are, I believe, king oyster mushrooms.

Thanks for posting the photos. I think I'll be making dumplings and lotus leaf packs this weekend. I'll be following the Seoul thread although I'm not as familiar with Korean cuisine as I am with Cantonese. Cheers.

Thanks for the link to that series, and beyond, of those videos. I'm surprised that my French is still good enough to easily follow along so they were/are a fun watch and may be the seed of a future project. Kudos on your completed project. Cheers.

There are only 10 episodes. The PBS Shop has the Season 4 DVDs for sale with 10 listed episodes. C'est la vie. There will be a season 5.

Still on board. Recognize everything except 'cream soup dumplings'. What are they?

You might want to add Philip Caputo's 'The Longest Road: overland in search of America from Key West to the Arctic Ocean' to that list. A perspective of a post 2008 U.S.

That was a bit of a surprise and disappointment. I assumed season 4 would have 13 or 14 episodes as did the previous 3 seasons.

@Anna N I agree on the availability of ingredients in Mississauga. I do go to T&T, PAT and the Mississauga Chinese Center and while they don't quite compare to spots in Toronto, Markham and Richmond Hill they are worth the trek. It's really only something I can do on a Saturday morning as a round trip, including shopping time and excluding traffic delays, can be 3-4 hours (and I'm a fast and precise 'surgical strike' kind of shopper).

My reading/review list of fall 2016 cookbooks (some may pre-date fall). All are available at my local public library. Anthony Bourdain's 'Appetite': Interesting read. Characteristic Bourdain prose. None of the recipes really stood out for me. John Currence's ' Big Bad Breakfast': Heard the author interviewed on NPR's 'Louisiana Eats'. Lots of great breakfast dishes if you're an extremely hungover university student and not a great deal of 'story'. Carolyn Phillips's 'All under Heaven": A broad ranging and very informative book and a good read. Recipes look very interesting however I'm limited with respect to ingredient availability. Naomi Pomeroy's 'Taste and Technique': I really can't put my finger on it but I didn't like this book. Leave it at that. Alton Brown's 'Everyday Cook': Didn't really care for this one either. Vivian Howard's 'Deep Run Roots': This was this season's keeper for me. Looking forward to cooking with it in conjunction with next season's gardening season. Marcus Samuelsson's 'The Red Rooster Cookbook': Started this yesterday evening and it has my interest. Reminds me of Howard Mitcham's 'Creole Gumbo and All That Jazz' written about Harlem rather than New Orleans. Dorie Greenspan's 'Dories's Cookies': Saw this on the library shelf and impulsively took it out. I'm not a desert person and rarely eat cookies but I will give it a look. Future reads currently on hold: Nancy Silverton's 'Mozza at Home'. Fuschia Dunlop's 'Land of Fish and Rice'. Looking forward to this one. Naomi Duguid's 'Taste of Persia'. Signe Langford's 'Happy Hens and Fresh Eggs'. Ronni Lundy's 'Victuals: an Appalachian Journey...'. Read @btbyrd mention of it yesterday and found my library had two copies. Should keep me occupied for awhile .

The Loblaw's President's Choice Umami paste was wildly overpriced and wasn't all that great. A product I use for a stealth umami hit to a dish is shrimp paste: http://canada.lkk.com/en/Products/FeaturedProduct/featured_product_20138 I use it in preparations where you may have added a few chopped anchovies. The strong flavour of the raw paste disappears with continued cooking.

Great photos! What is the dish with the razor clams? I only know of one place to purchase them fresh and their availability is sporadic.

Finally had the chance yesterday evening to view 'City of Gold'. I enjoyed the film and feel it was extremely well done. The film is about Los Angeles, narrated by Jonathan Gold, as seen through the prism of his role of a food critic. It is also quite obvious that Gold loves the city he grew up in and lives in. The film does touch on the immigrant experience and the physical sprawl of L.A. I found it interesting that one of the talking heads, Dr. Michael Dear UC Berkeley, refers to Gold as a "critic of urban living". Another facet that I found interesting was the discussion on the role of the professional food critic, with respect to both responsibilities and limitations, by both Gold and various talking heads. These concerned the amount of preparation and repeat visits that ultimately contribute to a review, the need to approach those visits with an open mind, and comments on Yelp type reviews. It was nice to see an appearance by Calvin Trillin and David Chang's comment on wishing New York had a similar critic stood out. Some random observations and comments: The scenes shot in his home made me laugh. Go to IKEA and buy some bookcases . That said I wouldn't say no to having a look through his 'library'. With respect to the comments by @blue_dolphin and @Thanks for the Crepes concerning his training in the arts and music and how they contributed to his present career did stand out for me. Particularly his commencement address. I have a rather broad appreciation of music that includes, but is not limited to, jazz, rock, classical and opera however my defining genre is punk and it's nice to see a kindred spirit. I'll be picking up "King Georges" https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_georges tomorrow: a documentary on Georges Perrier of Philadelphia's Le Bec-Fin. Well reviewed.

Also noted from the article that they are filming the fifth season. Good news indeed.

My local library has received their copy of 'City of Gold' and I should be able to view it by next weekend. Looking forward to it. It was timely that @blue_dolphin posted the above link to 'The Migrant Kitchen'. Although, as stated, the documentary is LA-centric the individual episodes describe experiences that would be commonplace in many large urban areas with culturally diverse populations. They would certainly be commonplace in the cities where I've lived. Well worth watching.

I got home today with about 1.5 hours of daylight remaining and decided to pull the plug on my tomato and pepper plants. Tomatoes weren't ripening although the plants were viable. The pepper plants were droopy and shedding leaves and didn't look happy with the cold nights and short days. Ended up with about a half bushel of mixed green hot peppers and tomatoes (I'll decide what to do with them tomorrow) and the plant material in the compost. I still have lettuces, kale, collards, kohlrabi, daikon and all of my herbs except basil and thai basil. I'm planning to recondition the beds tomorrow or Sunday, plant garlic and work on the last of the tomatoes and peppers.

The photo of the sandwich accompanying the article looks pretty decent. If it was offered here I'd be tempted to try one.

These are some of the fermentation/pickling projects both finished and in progress: From the left: i/ A completed whole lacto-fermented hot peppers (mix of ripe Aji Limo, green Jalapenos, ripe Habaneros, ripe Cherry Bombs and green and ripe Portugal Hot). ii/ A 2 day old ongoing lacto-fermentation of a mix of green Habaneros, Cherry Bombs, Aji Limos, Portugal Hots, garlic and palm sugar (I'm not a big fan of green hot sauces but since I needed to harvest I'll play with this one. Probably finish with mango and ....to get a fruity component into the sauce to balance the vegetal flavour). iii/ A completed lacto-fermentation of green beans with garlic and dill. iv/ @HungryChris refrigerator green tomato pickle (modified with garlic, mustard seed, black peppercorns and tarragon. v/ Refrigerator pickle daikon and watermelon radish with garlic, mustard seed, black peppercorns and Aji Limo hot peppers.

Solutions: #5: David O. Russell's "Three Kings". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCUMom0hWBY The milk scene at 1:09. #8: Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" from Jon Krakauer's book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTIibbq1xd4 for apple quote. #10: Barry Sonnenfeld's "Big Trouble" from Dave Barry's novel.

The Dude would be proud. I'll throw out one more clue for #10. Dialogue in a restaurant scene: "...there is no rule that says I can't come over here and fart on your entrée. But I don't do it. Why? Because it's not good manners..."

@liuzhou Thanks for posting the photos. Generally what's available in my area is regular shading into old ginger. Interesting that your photos show clear healthy 'eyes' on the rhizomes.

Growing ginger is one of my projects for next season's gardening. I'm a pretty fair horticulturalist so it should be interesting to have young ginger (very difficult to find in my area).

7 is indeed 'Winter's Bone'. If there isn't any traction on 5, 8 and 10 I'll post the solutions.

Not the correct film. Another set of clues: 5. Beef jerky opened but not eaten. 7. Protagonist uses a .22 rifle and has something in common with Katniss Everdeen (this should give it away). 8. Foraging can be fatal with too little knowledge. 10. Fritos and a sandwich in a tree house.