Piers

South Asians call them naga chillies and Lamb Naga is delicious, so if you like very hot curries...

Something with lots of garlic and chillies: an eye-watering gai pad grapow (Thai chicken fried with holy basil), or a garlicky Indian curry. Dal. Spinach stir-fried with garlic and ginger. Tom yum goong (hot and sour prawn soup). Sweat that mother out!

Check out Fuschia Dunlop's "Sichuan Cookery". There's a recipe for Strange-flavour Chicken in there that uses what she describes as a 'dark, toasty sesame paste' used by Sichuan cooks. There's also a recipe for Lettuce in Sesame Sauce. Funnily enough, I bought a jar of black sesame paste a month ago after reading those recipes and after eating a delicious dish of cucumbers dressed with what tasted like chilli bean sauce, sesame paste, vinegar and sesame oil. It was in a Sichuan restaurant in London's Chinatown (New China, if you're interested - they also do it at Bar Shu). Now I'm going to have to open that jar...

Check out Fuchsia Dunlop's new book on Hunan cookery, "The Revolutionary Cookbook" - I now have a huge jar of homemade salted chillies sitting in my fridge. Incidentally, if anyone in or near London wants to try some Hunan food, Shangri-La in Colindale rocks (try the Bear's Paw bean curd or the minced pork with coriander). For those in the U.S., few of the recipes use Sichuan pepper, if that's still a problem...

Pretty much - I just bought a 3-pint one for £5 (US$9)

You guys are the best. I'm off to get my plane. I aim to return heavier. Thanks for the suggestions and the links. I'll report back...

Sorry - did I post this in the wrong place? I'm something of a chatroom virgin, so be gentle with me

Wow. Thanks.

In the UK we call it coriander and it's widespread in British supermarkets and restaurants, probably due to the massive popularity of South Asian cuisine. I love it - I throw it in soups and pasta and it goes really well with cheese (try making an omelette filled with coriander, melted cheese, fresh chillies, shredded ginger and spring onion , or sprinkled over cheese on toast with black pepper or a little chilli oil - it's the nuts!) Chinese? I've had steamed whole fish dressed with soy sauce and peanut oil and served on a bed of whole coriander sprigs, but I'm not sure we were meant to eat them - although I did , but that's pretty much it. However, in Ken Hom's The Taste of China (great book) there's a recipe from Kunming (Yunnan) for Stir-fried Goat with Coriander. It's delicious! Use lamb, if you can't get goat. According to Hom coriander is a standard in southern China, but I wouldn't know. If anyone knows any Yunnan or other southern eateries in London or Hong Kong, tell me!

If anyone has any favourite eating experiences they'd like to share, I'm going to Hong Kong for a week, I eat anything that's not endangered, I prefer cafes to fine dining and I'm staying in Tsim Sha Tsui (Miramar). I'm always up for something hot and pungent - any places out there like to fool with the fu yu?

Chicken feet... with black bean garlic and chili peppers? You are on! Pier! We toured workingmen and social clubs in Yorkshire area, County Cleveland, as a band in 1976, 77 and 79. We loved it! Shaftsbury Street, Gerrard Street in Soho had good cheap Chinese food in those days. How about now? ← Funnily enough, the three of us have just come back from there...duck and rice at Wong Kei's on Wardour Street (just opposite Gerrard) and my son scarfed most of the choi sum... His mum wanted to kick off the start of our holiday with a treat!

Dejah You were in Northern England? Where? I lived in Yorkshire for eight years - one of my favourite places. If you're ever in London (where I live now) let me know - we could share some chicken's feet

Thanks Ben. Good job there's a vacation coming

Sorry - make that QUICK delicious stock. Is that a contradiction?

Well we're a gai choi family now! I cooked your braising recipe, hzrt8w, but after what Dejah and Ben were saying I threw some ginger slices in first to flavour the oil and then finished off with a splash of rice wine and light soy (my six year-old likes sauce ). And the gai choi isn't bitter at all! Raw, it's mustardy, but not when cooked... I think I was expecting something like bitter gourd (which I like, but not the rest of the family. Not YET anyway ) I'm going to try the soup another time - now does anyone know a quick way to make delicious stock? Or is that sacrilegious talk? Thanks again everyone - I have another vegetable to play with!