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Hmmm.... Tepee... I need to suggest you to live in Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen for a few years to retrain your Cantonese pronounciations... the official, proper way. No, no, approximation doesn't count. I would imagine that the spoken "Cantonese" in Malaysia or Singapore have transformed somewhat over the centuries. I can see that being a master of 5 Chinese dialects, it's easy to get confused. The orthodox Cantonese pronounciation for beans is a D. And for "white", it's a B. Not a cross of B-P. Pure B. I may be a banana in thinking... but my linguistic training is based on official Cantonese.

Welcome, mflo. I look forward to reading your perspective of Chinese cooking. One small note: In Cantonese, as in Mandarin, the pronounciation is "Dau" (with a D instead of a T - In Mandarin it is Dou) for beans. "Dau See" [Cantonese] - fermented black beans.

There is a whole thread on how to hold chopsticks a while back: Adventures in chopstick etiquette

You guys are bad. I am good. You guys go ahead and do cook-offs. I will do eat-offs... just watch and eat...

Mid-Autumn Festival... aka Mooncake Festival... Chung Chou Geet [Cantonese]... Lantern Festival... 8th month 15th day on a lunar calendar: September 18, 2005 Just 10 days away. Or 9 days if you are in M'sia.

But... but... Tepee, I only saw the description of drying the meat (in the oven with low heat - 100F? such a low temperature does not kill the bacteria I believe)... is this the same as cooking? Some pork yuk gon are not grilled.

The grilling add charcoal flavor to the yuk gon. Very tasty!

Tepee: When you make pork yuk gon, is the pork also raw? Do we need to worry about e-coli and other bacteria for eating raw meat? You said the meat is roughly grounded. How can the ground pork hold up in sheets?

If I want to make beef jerky, do you cook the beef first? Or just leave it raw with the marinade, then dry it in oven? Also, how "low" is "very low" temperature-wise?

Thanks for the explanations. That's intriguing. I thought that the rocks are used to throw at customers who did not pay their bills! They use plastic sheets, not plastic bags. How do they wrap it up? Would the sauce spill all over? The char Hokkien noodle looks very much like the Hong Konger's Gon Chow Ho Fun. Do they cook on a real charcoal stove? Would it be hot enough? It looks like there is an air pump or something blowing from underneath the bed of charcoals.

Great pictures, Tepee! One question: Why were there a few rocks on the stainless steel kitchen counter? (And the stacks of old newspapers) How did they used the rocks and newspapers? (Just seemed a bit out of place, but must have practical reasons.)

If you are a fan of restaurants named after the TV networks, you may want to try out NBC: NBC Restaurant, Monterey Park, CA NBC also serves dim sum. I had been there in the 80's, and it was the only game in town at the time (Monterey Park, just a 10 minutes drive from Downtown LA along I-10), with a 30-60 minute waiting list. Haven't been there for over 10 years, not sure what it has become. But the eateries in this vincinity are very authentic and competitive. Harbor Village used to be on Atlantic X Garvey, another good dim sum place. But I heard that they had changed hands... Where are the ABC and FOX?

And I thought Las Vegas was popular with the Chinese because of the gambling... ← Gambling first! If you win big, you dine at the 5-stars eating abalone and drinking shark-fin soup. If you don't... well, you can at least stuff yourself up on the house!

I passed by the 99 Ranch Market in Richmond last weekend. I saw a small eatery selling joongs. Couldn't resist, I bought a couple of them to try. They were labelled as "Taiwanese style zongzi". They shaped more like a long pillow than a triangular pyramid. (Sorry, no pictures). I opened up one. The glutinous rice is dark brown. It looked like in Taiwanese style, they mix soy sauce with the glutinous rice before boiling. The saltiness flavor is already there. No need to drip on soy sauce. I must say that I was quite disappointed. There was only one piece of pork inside the joong. No mung bean, no black mushroom, nothing else other than glutinous (with soy sauce flavored) and pork. Is this truly the Taiwanese style zongzi? Seems too simplistic. Dejah, what is your mail order address again?

I think it is more than the soft drink. The fast food industry is boosting the consumption quantity at an alarming rate. 20-30 years ago, a big mac was a "not-so-big" mac and a whopper was a "normal size" whopper. One of these would be considered a lunch. Nowadays, not only do you find the extra large "value" meal, you also find these triple decker hamburgers, these Six Dollar Burgers, along with the extra large bag of french fries, washing it down with a 32-64 oz soft drink. Once one chain starts doing it, all other fast foods follow. Can you imagine eating xiaolongbao the size of your fist? Or wonton that's the size of a tennis ball? Or 2 plates of rice for your pick-up-stick lunch special? That's the direction America is heading.

Why wait? Just go and cut one up right now! Leave 1 for your family, you have the rest that's in the box.

I think he was hallucinating from hunger - deprived of mooncake crumbs.

Yeah yeah. We worship the moon every moonth during the 15th 1/30 moonth in a lunar calendar. And every 12th moonths, in the 8th moonth of the 12 moonths, the 15th 1/30 moonth, we get together and eat moon cake to celebrate. Teepee is the mooncake wizard. Dejah is the apprentice wizard. hz is just a waterbody.

Yeah. We can finish off each other's sentences...

Oh, Dejah, you are asking for it.....

Jack: you made it look so easy! Tempting tempting!!!

Price of a box of Mooncakes around the world I am very curious: how much are they selling a box of Mooncake around the world? The price is driven by the market: supply and demand... whether there is a lot of demand or a lot of competition, and the local cost of living, etc.. To get some comparison, let me just use the "single yoke, lotus seed paste mooncake" as the sample. In San Francisco, USA: A box of 4 is typically around US $18 to $20. There are older, more famous brand name (e.g. Wing Wah) which sells at US $25. And less-known brands selling at $15. AprilMei/HKDave: How much is a box of 4 mooncakes in Hong Kong selling for? Tepee: In KL, Malaysia? Torakris: Do you see Mooncake for sale in Japan? I would imagine they might be $$$$$. Opps, sorry, YYYYY. Origamecrane: How about in London China Town? Did you buy any? 20 BP a box? Kangarool/PCL: How about downunder? See them in Chinatown? jo-mel, Laksa, herbacidal, et. al.: Is the mooncake price about the same in the East Coast? mudbug/sheetz: in the not-so-asian-populated areas in the USA? Dejah/Ben: In Canada? Anybody in Paris or other European cities? How about Taiwan, other cities in Mainland China, or other countries? Please cite the local currency and the exchange rate to US$ for a comparison. Very curious...

Maybe because Eastern is the emptiest store of them all -- no line, no bustle hustle! Even on a Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm (where AA would be jam-packed). And that the store attendants speak very well English. I agree that the action is moving away from China Town. I like dining along Clement. Many choices, much easier parking. There are a few good and inexpensive Chinese restaurants in the Sunset district (around Noriega and 34th). There are some in Daly City and many new ones in Milbrae. Also, I recently have been to Richmond along I-80. There are a few restaurants around the 99Ranch market anchor. They are pretty good too. More choices!

Abalone and oyster in a mooncake? You are kidding me, right? How can seafood manage to get in a mooncake? They wouldn't even last a couple of days in a fridge. May be reconstituted dried abalone and oyster? Still, seems a bit unusual.

Maybe we are all just guessing. My guess is to use more oil to make it translucent? I had made har gow a few time... but long time ago. I only used wheat starch and boiling hot water without any other mix. The result was pretty good. Emphasize that the water needs to be boiling, and you pour the water onto the wheat starch in a mixing bowl. A bit hard to work with because it's so hot.