yimay

go to La Onda for the Taco Envuelto. ok maybe not, but look for this dish! it's a carne asada taco with a fried cheese tortilla instead of a flour/corn one. delish! also, imho, Hacienda de Los Morales' food is overrated. The atmosphere is great and service is wonderful. The food is very good but nothing outstanding or what you can't get in the States. so i think i'd prefer to eat the authentic food served in the street markets.

sounds like you are trying to make You Fan (oil rice). you need to stir fry all of the ingredients together BEFORE steaming. you need to soak the rice overnight, or however long and then stir fry it in some oil with the other ingredients and soy sauce. then you can steam it in a rice cooker. you don't have to use a wok. you can use a large frying pan or any kind of pan with a large cooking surface. sometimes if you've soaked the rice long enough just the long stir frying itself steams the rice enough to eat and there is no need to steam and this will keep the rice grains separate. it will inevitably become mushier if you steam this mixture after stir frying. also, don't eat too much. glutinous rice is not good for you digestive system in large quantities. <a href="http://www.holyshitake.com/archives/2003/12/oh_christmas_duck_oh_christmas_duck_how_lovely_are_your_juices.html">here</a> is a link to my mom making braised duck with you fan stuffing, or Ba Bao Ya.

Pig feet can be tasty if done properly. In Hong Kong, typically pig feet are simmered in a broth made with dark soy, red vinegar, rock sugar and whole ginger for hours. Perhaps some five spice? I am not sure. ← oh i love pig's feet. that's how my mom prepares it ever since i was little! red-braised pig's feet! mmmm, i love mom! the idea of the pig's feet just being boiled though, really sounded unappetizing at first. but then when i tasted it, it was delish.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm!! dou hua is my favorite!

i thought it was just cheddar cheese, but now that i think about it and look at the picture, i really have no idea.and i forgot, i have a picture of it and an entry about it on my site <a href="http://www.holyshitake.com/archives/2004/07/the_atkins_taco.html">here</a>.mmm, it was so good.

the chinese have wonton skins that are made out of meat. really! i'm sure they are bound with some kind of starch. they are tasty!

i went to mexico city last july with a friend who used to live there and we went to a place called La Onda. the food wasn't that great, but my friend wanted to visit since she loved it as a teenager. my soup was disappointing but our friend that lives there knew what to order and got a taco that had a tortilla made of fried cheese. it was called Taco Envuelto and had chopped steak inside. it was delicious topped with lime and chile sauce. we dubbed it the Atkins Taco. i couldn't find any information about this kind of taco online. anyone ever heard of it and know anything about it? i believe it might have been called Taco Envuelto en Queso Crujiente.

last february i went to taiwan with my mom. my uncle took us to GiLong, a bit north of Taipei where my mom and her family grew up. we went to a restaurant (i'm sorry, i don't know the name of it) and had pig's feet. i know it sounds unappetizing, but it was probably the best meal of that whole trip and i still think about it to this day. apparently this place is famous for its pig's feet (my aunt said people drive to gilong just to get pig's feet to go). it's just boiled and served in its own tasty broth, with a big bowl of noodles and this unbelievable spicy sauce that goes over the noodles. it was so good. can't explain it.

How about dessert ingredients as part of the meal? To this day, I still cannot get used to the idea -- and the habit of my parents -- of cooking rice congee with sweet potatoes, congee with green mung beans, or congee with anything that I normally would only eat in a sweet soup or dessert, and eat them with savory dishes.I wonder if anyone else out there does that. ← is sweet potato considered a dessert item? i think most people eat them with savory foods don't they? (think thanksgiving!) there is a chinese dish of steamed pork ribs in rice powder that are usually steamed with sweet potatoes for a savory/sweet combination called Fen Zheng Pai Gu. i've yet to see any mention of this while searching online. so last month i posted my own recipe <a href="http://www.holyshitake.com/archives/2004/11/steamed_ribs_in_rice_powder_with_sweet_potato.html">here</a>

uchi, actually, i find a disappointment. i was told by friends to go back and order off their dinner menu only, which is supposedly outstanding. the sushi is not impressive at all. honestly, musashino has the best sushi in austin. it's a shame you don't think so. i'm interested to know what you consider to be "real sushi." maybe i'm missing out.

i don't know. i think it's unfair to say only new york or los angeles has 'real sushi'. one of the best sushi places in the U.S. that i've been to is in a strip mall near irving, texas (between dallas and fort worth). we ran into Shigeki Maruyama, the famous japanese golf player, during our visit who apparently goes there all the time when he is in texas for a tournament. the chef was expecting him and his pictures line the walls because he is a frequent diner. all sushi restaurants have western-inspired rolls and entrees. you can make your experience as real as you want it to be by doing some careful research and ordering and eating accordingly. i think musashino is pretty authentic. now i'm not an expert and i've never had sushi in japan, but the quality of their fish is always top notch. the service can be bad, but the food is always excellent. the most outstanding sushi i've ever had was in taipei (pretty close to japan!) at the chrysanthemum room. after eating sashimi there, all i can say is austin is pretty lucky to have musashino.

i live in austin. there are no soup dumplings to be found. sadness falls across the land. since i'm the chinese one, my friends have decided that i should try to make soup dumplings for them to eat. has anyone made them before and have a recipe they can share? i've found recipes online, but i'd like to try one that someone has already made and can attest for. my mom told me the soup needs to be made with aspic, frozen, then cut into little cubes and wrapped with the meat. but i found a tasty recipe online that calls for the thick soup to just be stirred in with the filling, i suppose it will just dissolve from the meat when it's cooked. any experience doing this? i already know how to make the dough and roll out and wrap the little suckers (thanks to many summers cooking with my aunt!), i just need a good, tasty recipe for the filling/soup.

No, it's not an American Chinese thing. We ate that in Hong Kong all the time. The closest translation is "Almond Jello", although it's not really jello. Actually the tranlation from Cantonese would be "Almond tofu". Yes, it is considered as a dessert. in mandarin it's called Xing Ren Dou Fu. the way we make it really is just like jello. instead of water we use milk, add unflavored gelatin, sugar and almond extract.

i'm not really sure that chinese really eat desserts very often... usually just ending meals with some fresh fruit (like the italians!) sweets are usually just mid-day snacks. anyone else want to chime in on this assumption? my favorite chinese sweets are Dou Hwa (soft tofu in a ginger syrup with sweet boiled peanuts). i also love all the red bean, green bean, longan soups either by themselves or as Bao Bing, over shaved ice. i can also always go for chinese pastries, especially anything with taro in it. Ye Zi Xi Mi Lu, coconut and tapioca soup, is also very tasty. i also love those boiled sesame seed balls surrounded in sticky rice dough. Everything seems to be soupy, huh?

oh man i love el pueblito! i haven't been there in years. yes the fish is so good. and i love the pineapple salsa. i brought a friend visiting from mexico there once. she absolutely hated it. nothing ever really tastes like home i guess.

. Yes. Guo = pot / Tie = iron / potsticker. I wish my characters would transpose! ← actually it's guo1 tie1 not guo1 tie3 tie1 = stick tie3 = iron so guotie literally means "pot stick"