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To add fuel to the fire, or more confusions to the confusions... Mandarin speakers up north (which is like the majority of China's population) know nothing of "jook" - which seems to be only a Cantonese nomenclature. Though they don't really have "jook" as Cantonese know it. They have xi fan - literal translation of "diluted rice".

Instant gima wu packages. Add water and heat up. Yes! So would shoe shine waxes!

The apples (left, second) (are they apples?) are 385 won per what? 10g? (Couldn't read it). I am wondering why they wouldn't make that per 1kg to make calculation easier.

Everybody has an interesting story to tell about his/her moniker.

Speaking of gui hua tea and gui hua syrup... reminds me of my trip to Guilin. They have gui hua everything... gui hua candies, gui hua tea, gui hua syrup, etc.. Should have known... the name "Guilin" in Chinese means forest of gui hua trees.

Looks like you just sit on the floor? Do they provide cushions or you just sit on the hard wood floor? Is it typical of all Korean restaurants? Or just the barbeque ones?

This is wonderful, Doddie! It's my turn to sit back behind the lime lights... errrr... behind the breakfast counter to cheer you on! Blogging is a lot of work. (Hmmmm... How do I know that? ) Do Koreans typically eat rice for breakfast too?

The question is: is this oatmeal portridge still considered "jook"? I too have seen the packages of "instant jook" - something like just add water and heat them up - but I couldn't tell you how they taste... never stimulated my wish to try them.

I cannot visually imagine what this dish is. Is it still called "jai"? "Jai", which simply means a vegetarian dish, is typically a mixed stir-fry like what sheetz had or some wheat gluten or pressed tofu cooked with some sauces.

Translating this to Cantonese: "Gwai Fa", "Gwai" sounds the same as the "Gwai" as in "expensive" (but different Chinese characters).

I agree. Although one can use a wok to do steaming, I would strongly advise not to. Unless that wok is already retired from stir-frying. Boiling water leaves a lot of calcium kind of deposit (from tap water) on the wok surface. Buying a separate steamer, which is pretty inexpensive these days, for steaming is better.

Hey... there is a big piece of flesh missing on this fish! You keep torturing us with your beautiful pictures of gorgeous looking food! So unfair!

Some Chinese food ingredients, like aged red wine and brandy, are more precious the older they get. Examples: chan pei (dried mandarin peels). (But I don't know about pei dan - "thousand year old egg"...)

We do have this AFC brand in Sacramento. Perhaps it's because we have many Vietnamese here? I did try this brand a few times. I like it where the bean curds are really soft. But the flavor does seem less intense as other brands. Perhaps that's why you need to add salt and rice wine? With the other brand I use regularly, you can see crystalined salt when you pick up a cube from the jar with chopsticks.

How many cubes of "fu yu" do you get in a 2oz jar? (I have not seen such a small jar.)

I don't think it is that simple. For one thing I think you need to introduce the right kind of microbe.

Maybe I have misunderstood something. Are we talking about the fermented bean curds? They are heavily salted. And you need to add salt to improves its flavor?

We already have... our round body! So much to eat in CNY...

Beautiful! Is it common to mix niu lan with wontons? (It is common for Hong Kong Cantonese.)

Yeah. Add some broken dry beancurd sheets to it while you are at it. Another simple sweet soup is cut up a yam (sweet potato) - either slices or cubes. Boil with water and add some rock sugar. Then add the tang yuen.

Ha! I didn't even know what "Pocky" is under I started seeing the postings on eGullet. I don't notice them in our Asian markets here. Perhaps they are not that known to Vietnamese-Chinese.

May not be as common in home cooking. In restaurants I have seen them do this all the time. They always have a big pot of hot water next to the wok. They will dip the vegetable in the hot water, just for a few seconds, then on to the hot wok. This is more efficient.

lswswein: Dark soy sauce is not as salty as the light soy sauce and has a rich, bodied flavor. 1/4 cup to 1/2 of dark soy sauce would be about right but you can adjust to your personal taste. I am glad you like the dish.

Absolutely Michael! How can I ever forget! I spent my first 4 years supporting VAX and VMS operating system - unfortunately... destined to be a dying breed in the early 90's. A "RA81" disk drive - no kidding, just the disk drive not the computer itself - has a capacity of 465 MB, but is bigger than your washing machine! Now you can place a 100 GB hard disk in your shirt's pocket! Thousand times higher in performance, hundred times smaller in volume.

Got a little bit of "post show" time. Let me answer some remaining questions: Abra: I don't know what "pork fu" is. It's hard to pick up these thing from a translation. Perhaps if I see a picture of the product, I will know.