His Nibs

On the tip of wetting the paper, I would use the base liquid that you infuse in rather than water. Water might 'crash' out some of the water insoluble organic materials.

Seeing that most french presses are just pyrex beakers with a strainer and handle, Ikea has one for relatively cheap compared with bodum and other brand names (like half the price of a comparable bodum).

Highland Park 12 has slightly overtaken Macallan 10 as my current favorite. I prefer some smoke and peat in the whiskies but Islay malts are like drinking liquid smoke

You know you are rated expert in drinking french press coffee when you instinctively know when to stop drinking to avoid the sludge. You think to yourself, "SELF! Is it worth it to have a mouthful of mud just for a little more coffee?" And you wisely put the cup down.

I usually get the fried, salted peanuts whenever I had congee in hong kong. A good accompaniment would be to blanching the gai lan and then drizzle the oyster sauce over it. The classic 蚝油芥榄。

Seeing as the mooncake festival is fast approaching, I was wondering about making some ping pei mooncake myself. Anyway, I was thinking about flavors to incorporate into the skin and was hoping that maybe... just maybe I can add coffee to it. Now my question would be whether to make the coffee and add to the flour mixture as the liquid component or use instant coffee powder as a flavor additive ala matcha powder.

It takes some years for the seasoning to take place. One word of advice is to brew the same type of tea in a particular pot. Oolongs are usually recommended.

Don't think upton teas ship internationally (or at least only to canada) I second the chinatown option if you are into chinese teas. Tian Ren (天仁) or Tian Fu (天福) is a pretty good chain for purchasing teas. Hopefully you have these stalls down under (as they are sprouting all over the place in the states and even china).

Hmm... quick stir fry with lots of garlic and minced pork. Man.. i can eat this veggie all the time. It's also good in making a quick soup. Boil up some water with ginger slices and about 20-30 dried anchovies (or use a knorr anchovy cube). Add the veggies and dish up when the veggies are done.

Actually for singapore, you can find wet markets in almost all the HDB estates. The big ones are of course those at chinatown, tekka as well as geyland serai. But if you are just visiting and not purchasing, I would suggest going to the one closest to your hotel if you are pressed for time. Oh.. don't forget to partake in the local offerings in the always ajoining hawker centre. If you are going to chinatown, I would suggest the Hill Street Char Kway Teow and the Nasi Briyani at Tekka (go for the one with the longest line).

Yay! Tepee to the rescue! Can we also rehydrate them by placing them between moist towels? I think that was what my mom used to do when she hand made the ngoh hiang!

Quick question regarding bivalves (eg clams and mussels). Do people still purge them? Reason for asking was I bought a bag of live mussels from costco and went on to do a mussels in saffron dish. The mussels were gritty and thus distracted from the enjoyment of the meal. I believe they were farmed mussels and thus did not purge them.

You can also use them as a wrapper for various stuffed items. Spiced meat rolls or 五香 are quite popular.

nice mac knives! No sane male of chinese descent will be caught by the lack of LKK sauces (especially the black bean with garlic)! Great Blog!

Nightsoil = human waste (the best form of organic fertilizer! e.coli poisoning notwithstanding.) All in all... we chinese (counting all minority groups also) eat some really wierd stuff.

I make jook whenever I'm down with something. Makes it easier to swallow

Oh... the chinese also eat those grub worms. I had it steamed in egg. edit: the minority groups in Yunnan Province eat some really wierd stuff.

Braised cat , raccoon in guangdong province. 'Nuff said.

Contary to logic, dark soy is sweeter than light soy. So a mixture of both will get some sweetness and saltiness but most important of all the color of the dark soy will dominate. You can try to light it using a long gas lighter.

Heh... what's wrong with the good ole mortar and pestle? Not the ultra smooth porcelain types (those can't grind) but those made out of granite which weigh close to 10 lbs.

That's a pretty looking tea

The only one I can think of is the ultimate chinese banquet: 满汉全席 Where you can eat like an emperor for oodles of moolah.

Americans tend to classify Sake as rice wine. Hmm, I remember seeing junmai daiginjo going for 20-80 USD at the japanese supermarts in san diego. So that's like 2000-8000 JPY. I have tasted some nice ones at a resturant for USD 45 per 1800ml bottle. Edit: they were of the ginjo variety and not the junmai daiginjo variety. http://www.zeus-ec.net/special/sake/yamaga...ginjyou_02.html

Really? I find it makes a whole lot difference (adding the century egg together with the raw rice). Creates a very nice background flavor. You can also add more century egg before serving. Hmm... that USD 20/lb conpoy is converted from HKD sorry I ferry dried goods back to the states whenever I leave the states to go back to asia. My personal best is bringing back 1 big packet of real 新会果皮 during a visit to the PRC. Makesmy 红豆沙 so much better.

Chairman Mao did away with some redundant characters when he made simplified radicals the de facto standard for the PRC. That may be why certain characters only show up in the traditional character set. I've learned mandarin the simplified way (thanks to the Singapore educational system) but can read traditional radicals thanks to a dictionary and chinese martial arts novels (武侠小说) Cantonese uses traditional radicals with some special ones that are only found in that specific dialect group. Oh.. Emperor Chin did consolidate the written language but it evolved into a lot of regional dialects over time and it wasn't until the Qing Dynasty that Mandarin got adopted to be the lingua franca. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese