judyfoodie

sorry if I was offensive in any way. Do not mean to imply backwards or anything as you suggest. Its just that I love down home cooking and find little family run places more charming than those sleek white table clothed ones.

I love morels, chanterelles, dried porcinis and of course Hen of the Woods (grifola fronderosa). Last year, I found enormous quantities of everything.............. this year.......... a whole lot of nothing. Boo-hoo!

Thanks for the responses. But really need a gumbo or jambalaya place. I want to shoot the prep/cooking process and dont want to do any frying. Also, one hours drive from New Orleans would probably be the top end of distance from New Orleans. Sorry to be so specific. Just that with my crew, they'll have been shooting for several very long days up to the point we'd shoot this food segment(!) But really many thanks and if you have any other ideas, I'd appreciate it. :-)

I am looking for a roadside shack type place with a lot of rustic charm which makes great jambalaya or gumbo to shoot a short video at. Must be within short driving distance from New Orleans since we'll be there shooting other stuff. Any ideas please???

I went to Babbo for my birthday this year and loved it. Its funny because I had just gotten back from a trip to Italy days before my birthday and thought maybe a trip to Babbo or any italian place not in Italy would be disappointing but I was really pleasantly surprised. The pasta dish, gnocchi was so light and perfect and the other dishes were all fantastic. The service was also very attentive without being overly intrusive. If you could get out of town....... Blue Hill Stone Barns is absolutely fabulous. Nice day trip and meal. I took some out of town friends there for a brunch and they were blown away by it all.

I actually truss pretty much everything I'm roasting these days. If I'm cooking in a friends kitchen and they don't have cotton string, I just use dental floss. It works like a charm. I find that when I truss birds and even tie up all my pork and beef roasts, it cooks nicely and the shape is much more manageable and looks great too!

Rachel Ray does not have a cooking degree. She is part of that whole movement at the Food Network these days where they're bringing in people with good screen appearance and sex appeal as opposed to people with solid cooking skills. It's about infotainment more than anything else. There are probably lots of people who would be made *very* happy to hear that, if they did post it, based on commentary about Rachel one can read. I'm not sure anyone would want to turn down her bank account if it were offered them, though. P.S. Did Rachel go to "cooking school"? Does anyone know? And if she did, did what they taught her or did the credentials she carried away from it make her who she is in terms of her success? Interesting thought. I always did wonder if universities were set up to create job opportunities for teachers. But then I decided that really, they were rather, set up to create job opportunities for football players. ←

Hey Out of curiousity have eGullet members been going to Epicurious.com to see their new video content? They have for the past 10 weeks had a weekly reality series http://www.epicurious.com/features/cia/ The series is about 4 students who attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Viewers get a glimpse into their classrooms and lives of the four.

Thanks Pan. I realized after I posted that I was in the wrong thread. And thanks for the tips. I went to the threads as you suggested and found some good info. I am excited about all the great food in China. Judy, welcome to the eGullet Society! I would suggest that you look through these search results of a site search of topics in the China forum with "Beijing" in the title. If you would like more recommendations, please feel free to ask in a relevant thread. For what it's worth, I had wonderful Beijing ka ya at the Li Family Restaurant, but that's really high-end cuisine. Here are pictures from the second-best place, which was way cheaper....But back to food histories of non-Toysan people. (And, in case you didn't realize it, there is a thread on the Food Histories of the Toysan People and also one that starts with Ben Hong's wonderful Childhood memories of a Toysan Village. I thought that particularly since you're Toysanese, you'd want to know.) ←

Hi. Since you're living in Beijing I wonder if you could help me. I will be in Beijing for a few days with my sisters (4 women!) before going south to Toi Shan for a wedding. We are looking to eat the best Peking duck while in Beijing. Any suggestions? I've been to Liqun Duck restaurant on another trip and it was very good but was wondering if there is a better place you can recommend? Thanks!

Hi All My parents are both from ToiShan or "Hoi San" if you're really from there! My dad immigrated from the White Water area (Bok Suey) in 1923 and my mom came from Hoi Serng in 1940. I am actually going to visit the ancestral homes this month. Going for a wedding to meet all these relatives I've never known before. Does anyone know of any good restaurants/food stalls in Hoi San and in Hong Kong which I should not miss? Will also be in Guangzhuo for a bit so any food tips will be much appreciated. This might be a nutty question but with all the avian flu business going on, would it be rude not to eat duck/chicken at the wedding banquets? Thanks.

Does anyone know if there are Chinese/Asian vegetable farms in the tri-state area? A friend said that they're actually not grown in the U.S. but in south america. Also, if there are farms which grow chinese veggies, are any of them organic? Thanks!

Here, here! I wish I would have seen that on the menu when I was there recently. It sounds good regardless of the purported hyperbole.. ← Not to rub salt in your wounds but I was there recently and had the tasting menu and the shrimp noodles were part of the Tasting. I can tell you honestly and without exaggeration..... it's fabulous!

I love those dollar stores. I always buy stuff from them; namebrand toothpaste, namebrrand aluminum foil, ziplock bags, etc.. They also sell paper "lunch bags" which I use for mushroom hunting. As far as I know they're a great deal and I am a true bargain hunter! It's definitely worth a dollar since the same stuff at the supermarket down the block is usually 2x or 3x the price.

Just a touch of sweet potato to give the dough a very subtle sweetness and golden glow. Try it out!

I think with Toisanese, and Cantonese people in general, they tend to look down on the other Chinese regions' culinary traditions. They think everyone else's cuisines taste like crap! lol ← While I think ToiShan/Cantonese food is the best in China, you have to admit those Shao loong baos (soup dumplings) from Shanghai are incredibly delicious. Also when I was in Beijing they had these chive filled pattys that were so incredibly tasty. Street food in Shanghai really kicked butt too. I had so much fun wandering the streets and spending a few pennies for delicious scallion pancakes or vegetable baos.

Hi Ben, I have to dig out my ToiShan map but my fathers family is from Bok Suy (white water). And our specific hamlet is Look Hong. But we were always told that we id ourselves by saying we are : Bok Suy Lo Hom - Hom family from the white water area.

Thanks for the warm welcome. If you get to learn how to make Gai loong, you'll have to share the recipe with me please! It was one of my favorites growing up and I so miss my mothers gai loong. I also love the Hom Tee which was chock full of chinese sausage, dried shrimp, scallion and bits of preserved turnip. The stickiness of it was crazy how it would glue itself to your plate and later your palate but well worth the work! If anyone has a good recipe for that I would most certainly welcome it.

Hi as per the maps (which unfortunately in China is not a definitive answer on things) i bought while in China and visiting Toysan, it's TOI SHAN. which makes no sense since in our dialect it's pronounced TOY SAN and without an "H" sound.

yeah, the ones in the restaurant are never as good as moms! I kind of remember that my mom boiled sweet potatoes and mixed that in with the dough for the gai loong and it became even more golden brown and delicious than everyone else's. To all of you who still are lucky enough to have your parents on this earth, pay attention to all the traditions, the tales and of course, the recipes. Don't make the same mistake as my family did and take it all for granted until it's too late. Now we're scrambling to try to recreate all of mom's recipes! The crappy thing is that I am a filmmaker by trade and I could have easily filmed mom making all her specialties! I am a goofball.

Thanks Ben and Dejah for the welcome. I'm proud of the fact that the Toisanese have been everywhere in the world. Ben, I'm looking forward to your future posts. ← Thanks Ben for starting the thread! I am NYC born Toishanese and both my parents are from ToiShan. My dad is from Bok Suy Look Hong - White Water Green Hamlet. Growing up I was always told to respond to inquiries as to where my family is from that the proper response would be Bok Suy Low Hom - Hom family from White Water! It's funny that I just came across this site because last year around xmas I ran into an acquaintance at a party. I hadn't seen him in years and he too is Toishanese. He lost his mom 2 years ago and I lost mine in 1996. we were both lamenting about how we miss the traditions and such so he threw a Toi Shan pot luck new years dinner where we all tried to make dishes our mom's made. I made sticky rice (naw my fan) It was so great to be with others of the same background and the first good new years I've had since I lost my mom.

I haven't eaten it in Beijing, but you're right, if it's made properly (with mui, or sour plums) it can be excellent, entirely different to the awful stuff you get in the Sates with ketchup and canned pineapple. ← Hmm. . .I thought it was just vinegar and sugar that they were using. ← It might be, in Beijing; as I said, I haven't eaten it there. "Sweet and sour" as a concept isn't just restricted just to one area of China. It's made in lots of areas (so I've heard) although they might not always call it sweet and sour. It doesn't have the be the garish, bright red stuff; I have heard of "white" (or rather colourless) sweet and sour, which might be the Beijing version you're describing. ← I just came back from a year of living and working in Shanghai and it seems like sweet and sour is a big thing there. In fact, if I had to describe the cuisine of Shanghai in one or two words it would be exactly that, "sweet and sour"! It's so amazing the complexity and the variety of food in China. Very cool.

Hi. I'm toishanese too! Born and raised in NYC. The cantonese word for Gai Loong is "Hom Sui Gok". If you go to restaurants in Chinatown and ask for Hom Sui Gok you'll get what we know as Gai Loong! It's funny my mom used to make these every year at new years and since my family lost her several years ago we have only been buying them. This year, my oldest brother asked that I try to make them since he knows I love cooking so for the last few days, I've been gathering up recipes and the ingredients to attempt to make them. Wish me luck!