Laksa

Well, as the resident chopper of chicken in my house, I gotta say that chopping well ain't easy. The biggest challenge is chopping through the thigh and leg bone. If I don't bring the cleaver down from above my shoulder, my chop is too feeble to cut through the bone. If I raise my cleaver high to generate adequate force, my aim suffers terribly. Another challenge is to keep the cleaver horizontal from tip to handle at the point of impact, so that you don't make big nicks in the cutting board. So what I've been doing to compensate for a lack of chopping skills is to use a two-step approach. I first chop with a compact swing, which improves accuracy. My compact swing isn't usually strong enough to cut clean through, but the cleaver will cut partly through and lodges itself in the bone. Now the piece of drum or thigh is attached firmly to the cleaver. I then raise the cleaver together with the piece of chicken and bring it all down with the force of a falling meteor. The sound from the impact should startle children and small animals within 2 miles or you're not doing it right. Best done on a dry cutting board. Learnt the hard way. The drawback to this method is that I sometimes get a few bone shards. It will help to have a really sharp cleaver.

Expat Melburnians will appreciate Melbourne bitter and VB (Victoria bitter). I have never seen these two beers outside of Australia. Rocky road and fruit flavored liquorice from Darrell Lea. My relatives go crazy for Golden Boronia nougat from Perth. Bundaberg rum will be something different for friends who drink.

ShaoXing is home to many brewers who make many grades of wine with different drinking qualities. The "Hua Diao Jiu" that's commonly used to cook works pretty well as a drinking wine.... if you can find a bottle without added salt. I was told that just about all the "Hua Diao" imported into the U.S. has salt added, I presume to qualify for cooking wine status and thus escape taxes or duties of some sort. It's a lot easier to find distilled "baijiu" (80-120 proof) the States than it is to find the less alcoholic "huangjiu" from ShaoXing. Now that I see trillium's post, do you know if the ShaoXing with "no added salt" is sold at a higher price?

They may if you pack them in ice in an insulated box. That's how a lot of travellers pack fresh abalone (a few years ago) to take home. They even sold abalones plus packing material at the airport. Tasmanian soft cheeses are worth checking out. Have you considered vegemite as a souvenir? On my last trip to Australia, I brought back bags of chocolate bars and biscuits to give away. Violet Crumble and Crunchie bars are honeycomb candy (not really honeycomb) dipped in chocolate. Cherry Ripe bars are cherries and coconut in dark chocolate. And biscuits/cookies like Tim Tams, Iced Vo Vos and Kingston. (All hard to find the U.S. Not sure if they're widely available in Toronto?) I also brought back licorice allsorts, but they were the least popular item with my American colleagues. I can go on and on about common, everyday Australian snacks and lollies... Passiona (soda), Caramello Koala (another good one to give away), Anzac biscuits, "Shapes", Twisties, Burger Rings, Picalilli.... but I won't. These items hold nostalgic significance for me more than anything else. But most of them are uniquely Australian, and they're certainly different.

The few times I've had Indian Chinese food have been immensely enjoyable. I.C. isn't anything like Malaysian food. Some of it can taste a little like Thai. I have often wondered though.... is the Indian Chinese food served in the U.S. much the same as what you get in India? Recalling my I.C. experiences (in Edison, NJ), I noticed on occasion accentuated sweetness, and the promiscuous use of corn starch. Is Indian Chinese food in the U.S. picking up bad habits from Americanized Chinese food?

Billy, I wasn't thinking at all of 失面 when I wrote that. Please don't take it the wrong way! It was intended as a pun on simian (of or relating to apes).

AzianBrewer, are you saying Leung Mein Wong is not the crispy Cantonese style noodle that's demonstrated here? Because that's what I got the last time I ordered it at Noodle Chu in Parsippany. (Actually, now I remember they call it 双面黄 shuang mian huang). Or are you saying that Leung Mein Wong has origins in Shanghai? Could you describe for us the Shanghainese Leung Mein Wong?

Sure they did. The noodles they made were known as si mian (丝面).

They call it "Leung Mein Wong" in some NY/NJ restaurants too. So it's an American thing, huh? Interesting. I like the mental image the name conjures... one of frying the noodles on "both sides", like a pancake.

I've been told by relatives that my mum was taught most of what she knows by her mother-in-law, but that's probably something unique to certain cultures, and it's a rarer occurrence today even in our culture.

You know, I wonder how many young women of an earlier generation were experts in the kitchen pre-matrimony, and how many actually learnt to cook after getting married? Edited to remove point already made.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Millet can taste pretty awful.

Why wait till noon? I allus has wan at eleven. *hic*

Saying "men can't cook" would be just as sexist. But it won't get anywhere near as much attention. The reason we get so riled up about Ramsey's statement is because we acknowledge that cooking has traditionally been done by women.

I thought it's rather obvious. Cooking at home has traditionally been a woman's responsibility.

Does anyone know if there's difference in stickiness of polished stainless steel compared to brushed stainless steel? HSN featured a set of Roy Yamaguchi cookware with polished stainless steel cooking surfaces last night. The majority of cookware out there (all other ones I've seen) seem to feature brushed SS cooking surfaces. The presenter or Roy himself sort of suggested that polished stainless steel offers better stick-resistence. Would like to know if there's any truth to that, or if polished SS offers any benefit, apart from the ability to stare at one's ugly mug while cooking.

If you share my sentiment: 不辣吃不下！ Bu la chi bu xia! (No heat? I can't eat!) Then you should order this way: 全部加辣！越辣越刺激！Quanbu jiala! yue la yue ciji! (Make everything extra spicy. Nothing arouses like hot chillis) Edited to add translation.

Have you tried the Glenfiddich Solera Reserve? It's Speyside, not Islay, but it's pretty sweet, and more oaky than smoky. Seems to be sweeter now than when I first opened the bottle 6 months ago. BTW, does whisky deteriorate once the bottle is opened? If so, how long should it be kept?

SG-, would appreciate it if you can find out the name, and if it's available in KL. There's so much good beef here that it's a shame not to use them for rendang.

spaghetttti! Glad to see you posting again! What a cool looking oven! Have never seen anything like it.

What!? The Olive Garden doesn't float your boat? I have to disagree with Dryden about Saigon Cafe. Perhaps it's good compared to Vietnamese in Sandusky, Ohio, but not really comparable to NYC Vietnamese. The Umami Cafe is okay... I find many of their dishes a little too sweet. The Hyde Park Brewery is worth checking out for casual dining. Haven't tried any high-end places in the area. Not really willing to risk disappointment when NYC is only 1.5 hours away.

Dunno how I missed your post earlier Tepee. Beautiful pictures. Sibu olives are also called buah dabai (Iban). Once you get hooked on these, you'll always be wanting more! I can see a lot of EM trips in your hubby's future. I've been told that the other fruit is called Terap (Artocarpus elasticus), and Google seems to be in agreement. (Google knows everything, he's so smart!) The Sarawak Forestry Dept list Terap and Bintawak (Artocarpus anisophyllus) as wild fruits but don't go into details. Both are in the same genus as Cempedak and jackfruit.

Those are wheat noodles, no eggs. We usually eat the eggs hard-boiled. The birthday boy always eats two eggs (or an even number of them).The rice lees are added for flavor; the red color is just a lucky coincidence.

Long life noodles are a must at every Foochow birthday celebration. The chicken is pink from being stir-fried with red rice lees before going in the soup.

That makes perfect sense, but then I'm reminded of well-known classics like Singapore fried noodles and ma lai gou.All I'm saying is that at just about every HK-style dim sum restaurant I've been to, I was offered (and more than likely ate) chiu jow fann gor.