I_call_the_duck

What one will do for a free t-shirt. I do! I do! ← Me too!!

You lucky New Yorkers. You've got everything--the Union Square Greenmarket, Whole Foods, Balducchi's, Citarella, Zabars, Fairway, and now... Trader Joe's to Open in New York

Mainly stir-fried. Growing up in a Chinese household, I love my veggies crispy. Favorite methods of preparation: Broccoli is blanched then stir-fried with garlic, oyster sauce and a bit of sesame oil. I do this with (wilted) bok choy, collard greens, and Chinese broccoli as well. Pontormo, my dad used to throw out the broccoli crowns. I was in college by the time I realized that you could eat them.Spinach is wilted, and I add fu yee (fermented tofu), sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar. I also do this with blanched string beans. My fav. Cauliflower gets a brown bean sauce. Also good on long beans. Cabbage is sauteed with dried baby shrimp. Works well with green squash too. When my lettuce is wilted, I boil it, and add either soy sauce and sesame oil, or the fu yee combo that I use on spinach. When I'm not cooking greens Chinese-style, it's usually spinach or broccoli that is sauteed with garlic and EVOO. Squash gets sauteed with onions and EVOO,and a bit of butter is added at the end for more flavor.

Along those lines... A man goes to a diner. Waiter asks, "what'll you have?" Man replies, "chicken soup, please." Waiter shouts, “one chicken soup!” Man then says, “I changed my mind. I’d like pea soup instead.” Waiter says, “hold the chicken, and make it pea!”

I loved your story, Yah-Roo. I feel for you. I remember—not fondly—of the “interesting” men I met before I finally met Mr. Duck. In my dating days, one’s love of food was very high on my priority list. I may have even gone as far as saying “picky eaters need not respond” on my personal ads. I once rejected a guy because he said something along the lines of, “…pesto, that’s a sauce made from chopped basil...” I didn’t bother telling him that not only did I know what pesto is and made it a great deal, but you can make it with other things besides basil. He said other pompous things as well during the course of the evening, but that one stuck. Good thing that didn’t happen to the Toyman…it would only have made him more enamored with you.Aunt Jemima!! When I were in college, we used to call Mrs. Buttersworth and ask why she tasted so good. And to this day the eight year old in me still chuckles about that. Good luck, Ya-Roo. (BTW, my brother is available…very sweet guy. Loves kids and dogs. Not into toys.)

Thanks for the pics and descriptions, philadining and percyn. Everything of course, looked absolutely incredible. I say this every time someone posts pics, but it looks like Shola has outdone himself again. This should satisfy my SK cravings until I go there in a couple of weeks.

I'm with Sandy. Good Eats is probably one of the only shows worth watching on the Food Network these days. (I'm wavering on Iron Chef America.) Congratulations Sara, on your new home at PBS, and welcome to egullet.

Ain't anal retentive if it works. I like the idea of the color coding system. Much more efficient when it comes to digging stuff out of the freezer. Frosty is very cute.

Exactly how much did you guys drink last night? The last (well, the first too) time I did SK on a school night, I was not a happy camper having to get up at 7am to go to work. philadining, where are you?

[Gov. Ed] Rendell Tells Convention Group What's in a Real Philly Cheesesteak Apparently he loves his cheesesteak, and considers himself an expert.

Mmmm...flaky. Thanks, Melissa!! Interesting bit of info about the crust. They're always my favorite part. But I suppose the tin would make it less appealing.

Might this work for you? Curried beef pasties certainly looks good to me ... ← Thanks GG. I looked over the recipe and it doesn't look half bad but the ones I remember from Thailand are more like indian samosas. Wierdly enough it was always some chinese ah ma selling them on her street stall though so I associate it more with chinese food/snacks. I faintly remember ground beef and potatoes (heavier on potatoes) in a curry sauce wrapped in a pastry. It usually had quite a bite from white pepper (I think). Man now I have a craving..... ← Thanks GG. The recipe looked good, but the pastry is a little different than the one I have in mind. It's more like a puff pastry--very very flaky, and probably made with lard. Looks like I have to experiment myself. Yeah, I have a craving now too...and I was even in Chinatown this afternoon.

What nerve! I don't suppose he left a note or even a few bucks to replace the berries.

Oooo I love the curried beef pastries. You wouldnt' have a recipe would you? ← Sorry, Onigiri. I just eat 'em. I haven't tried making them yet.

Nathan's and Boar's Head makes franks with the natural casings, and those are my favorites. I love that little snap I get when I bite into them. If I were to choose one without casings, it'd be Hebrew National.

Despite my father’s constant admonishings that I should keep away, I dragged the kitchen stool as close to the stove as I could to watch him cook dinner. Also, the highlight of my Christmas vacation when I was about eight was when I cut my finger helping with dinner. Julia and the Galloping Gourmet were some of my childhood friends. I ignored the Highlights magazines in my doctor’s office and went straight to the cooking magazines.

Tropicana Homestyle (sans calcium) is my OJ of choice, but we don't drink it very often. Mr. Duck likes it with a shot of vodka before dinner. I much prefer fresh-squeezed and if it's offered at brunch, I'll generally order it. As for making it at home, it is something that we should do on a regular basis, at least on weekends when we're both not rushing off to work.

If we’re talking of hand-held fast food, I'm sure many of us are familiar with the Chinese Char Siu Bao (roast pork buns)--either baked or steamed, but there are other varieties, such as a version with chicken or beef, or (what my family calls) a Dai Bao or a Char Siu Gok. (Please note that when I say "what my family calls", I’m talking about the hybrid Chinese that I grew up speaking, not realizing that other Cantonese-speaking people, or anyone else for the matter will understand me.) A Dai Bao is literally translated as "big bun", which is a steamed bun wrapped around a pork meatball. A Char Siu Gok would be the closest equivalent to the Cornish pasty, empanda, samosa, and Jamaican Beef Patty. It is the Char Siu Bao filling wrapped in a lovely flakey pastry (also comes in a curried beef variety).

AFAIK, gizzards aren't all that bad for you. A gizzard isn't really an organ or gland like a liver, heart or kidney. A gizzard is simply a specialized, very muscular "pre-stomach" that is found in birds and other animals that lack teeth. The idea is that the chicken swallows bits of gravel which stay in the gizzard (aka "craw") and act in place of teeth to grind food into small pieces before they are passed to the main stomach. So, fundamentally, a gizzard is just a piece of tough muscle. I don't think they're particularly high in fat or anything like that. ← Thanks for clearing that up, slkinsey. I was under the impression that they were organ meat, therefore bad for people with high cholesterol. (That of course, wouldn't necessarily stop me from eating stuff high in cholesterol, but I must do so in moderation.)

I do exactly what my fellow duck-named eGulleteer does. I especially love the gizzards! When I was a kid, my mother would simmer the gizzards right along with the couple of chickens they came from, and then we kids would fight over who got them. With long gentle simmering they become pretty tender, though they still have a bit of chewiness, which I happen to like. In Yiddish the gizzard is often called a "pupik," which word I believe more accurately translates as "belly button"! I also note that simmered gizzards, sliced and served cold, are one of the many Sichuan-style cold appetizers served at what is fast becoming my favorite Chinese restaurant here in San Diego, Ba Ren. They're only mildly spicy compared to some of their much more firey offerings, but with that same tender/chewy texture that I so enjoy. ← Mizducky, After posting this, I was wondering if I was the only one here that ate food that normally goes to the dogs. Mom is the only one in my family besides myself that really loves the gizzards. She used to braise it in a soy-anise mixture. One recipe I was reading said to discard the back, neck, and gizzards. "The recipe's telling me to throw out the best parts!" I fumed to my husband. He just looked at me like I'm crazy. Must be a duck thing.

If I'm making a soup or stew, the neck, gizzards and heart are thrown into the pot and given to the cook as a treat. If I'm roasting the bird, I simmer them in a bit of water and use it as a base for gravy. The livers are frozen until there are enough to make a batch of chopped liver. ETA: If they weren't so bad for me, I'd cook up a whole batch of gizzards and have it for dinner.

Thanks for a great pictorial, Ah Leung. So delicious, yet so simple.

Grammar nit: It's a "cheesesteak, whiz wit." ← Thanks, Sandy. Sorry if I offended any Philadelphians.

Thanks, Cadbury. And Klary, I love this thread. I can't wait to try some of these dishes. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Cadbury, what was the temperature of your oven? I'd love to try the Oliebollen, but hate the mess that deep frying makes.