Transparent

Actually, I've always used both baking powder and yeast. To my knowledge, double acting baking powder doesn't require additional acid to leaven. At least, that's the principle that I've been working with all this time...

Haha, deep frying mantou dough and deep frying mantou are totally different. How did the steamed batch go? Did you use baking powder exclusively in the recipe? I've always used yeast in mine.

Looks the the yuk bang middle-aged Chinese men eat all the time. I don't know why they like super-salty ground meat so much.

Are you sure they are GMO? They are packaged as organic. In any case, they were always more like a vehicle for mustard & onions. To be honest, since I went back to eating meat I just eat real hamburgers made from real (albeit local grass-fed organic etc etc) beef. But I still prefer tempeh reubins to real ones! I dunno, I outgrew a lot of convenience food at a certain point, I really have no idea why. For the most part I find it just as easy to keep frozen pizza dough in the freezer, defrost a day ahead & throw together when I get home. Take up less freezer space, too. Plus I find cooking relaxing for the most part. ← It's organic GMO soy. Funny, isn't it? There are so many loopholes in labeling and packaging of products.

Ah, the boca burger. I tried it a few months back, and it was great. I went to costco and bought a big pack. I tried one just as I remembered it. As I ate them, their taste got worse and worse each time. Eventually, after 4, they tasted like dirt. Thinking it was something that was wrong with my box, I bought a smaller pack at the local grocery. Dirt. No more GMO soy for me.

Mmm, deep fried mantau sounds excessively unhealthy and delicious. Awesome. :D I don't think you would need actual restaurant equipment to deep fry bread though. I mean, super hot temperature would make the oil smoke. A bit off topic: Steven Chow's(from Shaolin Soccer) new movie is out. Kung Fu Hustle. It's supposed to be extremely funny.

Hehe, I took the day off from school today. I thought that the meal for CNY was on the eve of the actual new years? New Years day is supposed to be all vegetarian, right? Well, my "feast" was a small meal with my family, but the dishes were wonderful, with dishes I haven't tasted in a while. Mmm. Leftovers tonight.

Cool, this is only the second recipe I've seen for wife cookies. I've found one in Martin Yan's Chinatown but I'm not sure how reliable it is. If the picture of a wife cookie next to it is any indication, it'd be super flaky and wonderful. Shame that the filling in Martin Yan's recipe is made from candied papaya nad pineapple.

Don't you need special steaming equipment and tons of it at that? Each rectangular steamer you have only does 1 thin sheet. You'd need quite a few to make what you would need for a meal or appetizers.

Oh man, definately the steam oven. I'd need a proofing oven thing as well... Otherwise, I'd be happy with the waring pro deep fryer and an ice cream machine.

Oh dear god. Those blocks of lobak goh look like you could build a house with them. How can you even lift them up? They look delicious though. I think I'd have multiple comas going through one of those "bricks" of goh. Yuki, that looks great as well. I've never seen a coconut goh sweetened with brown sugar slabs before. I think I saw a whitish goh wrapped in a leaf and plastic wrap while shopping for CNY candies. It was dotted with darkish orbs (I couldn't make them out; I was in a hurry). I wonder what it was.

Lobak goh is awesome. I made some two weeks ago and overloaded with goodies in the form of lap yook and dried shrimp. I think a plain version would be the best for frying though. Oh, I have a question about nian goh/neen goh or any the variations in pronunciation: What types are there? I know there is the one made of brown sugar slabs, but I'm sure there are many more types avalible. I'm pretty sure I saw one that was white in color wrapped in a leaf the other day.

I like eating them straight after being soft-boiled, but you can do a tong shui in a clay pot. I'm not sure what the method of boiling a clay pot with soup in it is called though. It's similar to poaching? Anyway, here is a sort of "pictorial essay" on how to do it with pears: http://food.gd.sina.com.cn/foodiaryDetail.htx&id=185609

My parents do the whole boiling in a separate pot (in our case, a wok) for the butcher-bought pork used in soups. It does get the scum out, but I agree, it's pretty pointless.

Oh wow, I just remembered this. My parents and especially grandparents wouldn't allow me to eat any eggs left overnight. I always would ask them why, and they would yell at me and say "No!" I always snuck them anyway - especially the dan tat my grandfather brought home. I wonder... Is that why people call me "girly?"

I remember a time in my childhood where there were tangerine peels hanging around the place. In fact, I think there was a tangerine peel in my backyard hanging from a string. I wonder what happened to it. I'm thinking it got lost in a snowstorm?

http://www.galaxylink.com.hk/~john/food/co...n/dongborou.htm This could be what you're looking for.

长崎蜂蜜蛋糕 Hope that helps. If you go to a more Kantonese style bakery, they won't have it. The more Taiwanese ones have it. ← Ah, Chinatown is mostly Cantonese. For Taiwanese, I'd have to go into Flushing. Thanks. I guess I have to keep my eyes peeled for it the next chance I get to go to Queens. EDIT: 蜂蜜蛋糕 in google yeilds a ton of results. Definately looks like kasutera.

I'm known by my family to stare at the displays of the Chinese bakeries that I pass by. I don't have I've ever seen kasutera over here before. And if I have, I need to slap myself for not trying it.

What is castella, anyway? Google nabs me some great pictures, but it doesn't give me any info other than "Japanese styled cake." It looks delcious though, and now I have a craving for it - whatever it is.

Just scoffed one warm. I used Florence Lin's recipe for the dough. I didn't have any butter or whole milk, so I had to go the oil route with 1% fat milk. Yep, it's definately time to stock up on butter again. Good thing I'm going to costco tomorrow. My whole milk had gone bad, and all I had left was a pint of 1%. Not that great of a start for a baking day. Overall, I found it kind of dry; most likely because of my reluctance to go out in the cold to buy ingredients. The filling was my own creation. I based my proportions to Mrs. Lin's recipe. It tasted great. I probably could have eaten it straight up. Bakeries here in NY seem to use the universal sweet dough for their baked char siu bao. I might try that approach the next time I make it. Edited: Spelling

Hm, maybe I'm confused about the types of woks. Carbon steel has more a shine than cast-iron, right? My wok is completely black and pratty damn heavy. I assumed it was cast iron... Edit: Looking at The Wok Shop's site, the "cast iron from china" wok look exactly like mine. The carbon steel ones just look too "smooth." I'm comparing it to the parts of my wok without the patina, by the way. The more I look at it, the more it looks like mine...

Carbon steel and cast iron seem to be the most popular choices in woks. Stainless steel and non-stick are just... crap. But, I'm wondering - is there any difference in use between a carbon steel and cast iron wok? I think the cast iron would impart more wok hay, wouldn't it? And the only woks I've seen restaurants use are cast iron. What makes carbon steel better for the home cook?

My family and I use a traditional Cantonese wok that's older than I am by a few years. It's around 13", I think (haven't measured it ever). And it pretty much does everything. Steams, braises, stir-fries(of course), deep fries. You name it, it can probably do it. Doesn't serve as a weapon as well as a cast iron skillet would, but is great as a shield. It really depends on what you plan to do with your wok, how often you're going to use it, and your stove. Breath of a Wok by Grace Young has an excellent primer on woks in the introduction, and more info is spread throughout the book.

Fantastic pictures! Your loaves look incredible. I've been keeping an eye on this book, and waiting for it go on sale. So far, it hasn't. But once it does...!