sanrensho

First things that come to mind: Marble bundt cake, madelaines, any variety of pound cake, chiffon cake, turnovers, rugelach...

Mont blanc!

I forgot to suggest cilantro, and the bun/rice sticks might need some oil (such as sesame oil, or scallion/garlic oil) to keep from sticking together. Oh, and roasted peanuts are a nice touch as well.

Yup, sardines are the big 'uns and anchovies are the little ones. Funny story about the fruit sock/net, my little one also does the same thing.

Thanks for catching my error (I meant to say anchovies)--my excuse is that I had sardines for dinner tonight. Personally, I usually eat Asian pears with the skin on, as long as it isn't too tough. We often get smaller pears from our friends' trees or organic ones, so I don't find the skin particularly bitter or tough. I am really not fond of peeling almost all fruit as is the custom in Japan. Especially since we don't often get the huge fruit that they get in Japan. If I peeled everything, there would be very little left to eat.

That meal looks good. Especially the salmon and miso soup. As the days get colder, you might want to look into heartier variations like tonjiru (made with pork) and miso kenchinjiru (tofu and vegetable soup, but with miso added at the end). These are two of my favorites during the colder months. Other ingredients we often use in miso soup are sliced onions, eggplant, daikon and potatoes. You can also up the umami factor by crumbling some of the little dried anchovies into the soup. Corrected to change sardines->anchovies (sorry, I had sardines today)

Thanks for your input. I think the word you are looking for is "craftsmanship." BTW, what is the Chinese pronunciation for moon cake? (I only know the Japanese pronunciation--"geppei.")

I don't know if you might be able substitute one with the other. My gut instinct says "No" but maybe someone else has tried it?

That was my educated guess as well. Maybe I phrased my question poorly. I was wondering if there are specific skin preferences (thin vs. thick) for HK moon cakes. Since those are what I'm most likely to get here in Vancouver. I guess your comments above answers my question. I was also wondering if there are regional preferences in skin thickness, such as thicker skins being preferred in other parts of China. Maybe not?

"Glutinous rice flour" is rice flour made from sticky glutinous (sweet, mochi) rice. "Rice flour" is made from regular rice. They're sold as separate items AFAIK.

I have a general question about moon cakes, of which I've eaten my share over the years. Is it generally considered a virtue for a moon cake to have a thin pastry skin, or a thick one? What is considered better for Hong Kong or Cantonese moon cakes? Is it a regional variation, or just personal preference? I have to say I prefer to buy the small moon cakes or regular-sized moon cakes with thicker skins, because I feel it results in a better ratio of pastry to filling.

For the rice sticks (called "bun" in Vietnamese cooking), you could make the ubiquitous Vietnamese summer rolls and a dipping sauce with some of the hoisin. For a cold (or warm) tossed noodle dish, you could just toss the cooked bun with a sauce made from the hoisin, reconstituted tamarind juice, shrimp paste and whatever else you want to add--such as Sriracha for heat and/or fish sauce for saltiness. Adjust the sauce according to your taste. Not necessarily Thai or Vietnamese, but could be pretty tasty nonetheless. I'd throw in some other ingredients for crunch--roasted peanuts, chopped scallions, fried minced garlic, bean sprouts, etc. Add protein of your choice if you want something heartier. My first inclination would be fried tofu (firm).

I am sooo jealous of those bagels. I've had a lot of bagels from a lot of different geographic locations (including NY), and nothing compares to the bagels I had in Montreal. I can still recall those bagels like it was yesterday, even though it's been over 15 years since I had them.

Same here, my two girls (Japanese descent, both raised here) would both choose dim sum every time. Dim sum is a "special event" meal for them, and nothing under the arches can compare with a basket of har gow.

Note that the original poster already has a rice cooker and probably doesn't need to be convinced about the merits of a rice cooker. Furthermore, I'm not aware of any microwave with both a timer function and constant warming function. The volume of rice eaten by Indians vs. Japanese is really quite irrelevant to this discussion!

Maybe you could pick up a no-frills Western brand of rice cooker (T-Fal, Hamilton Beach, etc.) for $50 and put up with that until April. Give it away once you get your IH cooker. Or borrow someone's backup rice cooker? Like AndieSenji, we also have our older rice cooker and occasionally lend it out. We certainly won't go back to using it as our main rice cooker. If you were in my city, I would be happy to lend it out, because I know that these cookers are exceptionally durable under normal use. If you do pick up a 100V rice cooker when you're in Japan, do remember to use it with a step-down transformer, as I mentioned in the other thread.

As a user, I would also "Yes," provided that it's within your budget. (I bought my IH cooker quite a few years ago in Japan, so I really have no vested interest in pushing/defending the advantages of IH.) Since we cook rice at least 4 or 5 times a week, the difference in the cost of an IH cooker was minimal when measured over the course of more than 5 years of use. In my experience, I've found Japanese rice cookers to be quite durable and have personally never had one break down. So the life expectancy of these units may also factor into your decision. The only thing you might find is that the coating on the inner bowl might start to break down. Ours has lost its coating in a few spots where we managed to scratch the coating. Here's a more recent thread where we discussed IH rice cookers http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...&hl=rice+cooker

Glad to hear it did the trick. If you're worried about it getting grainy again when cool, you could do something similar to a temperating test. Apply the ganache to a sheet of parchment or wax paper, put in the fridge to cool, and see how it fares. The butter and corn syrup that CB suggested are also good ideas if you don't mind slightly thinning out your ganache.

Sorry to derail this thread, but who has good prices for cocoa nibs, in quantities up to a kilogram? I need to order some this weekend. Shipping to Canada is not an issue, as I will be picking them up in the States.

I'm not sure that I've ever had a problem with ganache going grainy, but if the texture isn't what it was, then I reheat and stir as necessary to revive it. This has always done the trick for me. I use the microwave to reheat.

Sure, I'll try to get to it this weekend. The basic instructions for the roll bread are in the original recipe from James Oliver. He originally covered it in one of his episodes for the Naked Chef ("At the Beach"), if you can track it down. But it's really simple. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_18055,00.html Heck, nothing would please me more than to hear that others are doing the same thing. I can't emphasize enough how doable this is for a bunch of small kids. I do have some logistical tips if anyone is interested, such as cutting parchment squares labeled with each kid's name (too bad I didn't follow my own advice for the older daughter's birthday). I also tried to explain about the role of each ingredient as we measured them out. Meanwhile, I'm thinking that another possible party theme will be to make soft pretzels. Lots of possibilities for making fun shapes there! http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pretzels

Did you try gently reheating it and whisking again?

*Groan*

Possibly the most exhaustive pantry-slash-fridge tour we've seen to date on eGullet. Impressive. No umbrage but I'm curious about one point. When you say Korean curry, do you mean that the packaged roux formulas taste notably different from the Japanese ones? (Bearing in mind that both Glico and S&B are Japanese companies.) Is the heat level just higher? I had always assumed they were the same or at least pretty similar.

That's a great suggestion. I could see sending the girls home with little Chinese take-out boxes of homemade cream puffs. But they'll probably eat them all first. By coincidence, I was considering a last minute switch to croquembouche for the older daughter's birthday cake, although I ended up making a zuccotto as originally planned. With the pate a choux, I would be worried about getting the dough to rise. I've never had a problem with it myself, but you never know with a bunch of ham-fisted kids... Do you happen to know of a "foolproof" (easy) choux recipe? I would need a recipe that the kids could whip up from scratch. Thanks.