SuzySushi

Haven't seen anything labeled "A vegetable" here and am curious as to what it really is. Going slightly off-topic but in the same vein, a lot of Chinese restaurants here serve something called E-mein. What does the "E" stand for? Is it a transliterated Chinese name? One website called it "yee mein," but the waitress at one local restaurant told us the "E" stands for the English word "egg."

See? There's that ugly prejudice against FOH workers that drives them to destructive behaviors. Can't we all just get along? Actually, given his zig-zagging between being a bit of a spaz and extremely anal-retentive when he locks onto something, I fear that if he ended up behind the line he'd either cut most of his fingers off within the first month -- or go into pastry, two equally frightening outcomes. (Ducks and covers while pastry chefs come at him). ← Well, if he goes into pastry, he won't need the Wusthof!

Ooops... forgot to report back on the mochi at Costco. They had only a few packages left when we got there. Two assorted varieties, both made locally by Kansai Yamato: "Plain" rectangular strips of mochi (like chichi dango) labeled "Red and White Mochi" -- only in more than just two colors/flavors -- white, pink (red), green, and sand-color (chocolate was listed as an ingredient, so I assume these were the chocolate mochi, though they'd been whitened by their starch dusting). Red-bean-filled mochi in assorted flavors and colors. Some pieces were coated with regular or black sesame seeds.

Memories. . . I grew up in NYC, so I fondly remember. . . From my childhood: Horn & Hardart. I loved their macaroni & cheese, and their baked beans with hot dogs. Chock Full O' Nuts. On shopping trips into "the city" with my mother. I was never much on the cream cheese sandwiches, but I'm old enough to remember when they offered lobster salad and crabmeat salad sandwiches (real lobster or crabmeat -- this was before the days of surimi) for all of 35 cents!!! And their donuts to dunk in a cup of coffee as a special treat. The lunch counters at the 5-and-10s, particularly Kresge (sp?) on 14th Street near 5th Avenue. My first taste of baking powder biscuits and banana splits. The waitresses wore white uniforms, frilly white aprons, and hairnets. I was never a Schraftt's girl, but I do remember their popovers. Dubrow's Cafeteria. We ate at the branch on Kings Highway in Brooklyn. Overstuffed deli sandwiches on onion rolls, or kasha varnishkes (buckwheat groats with bowtie pasta). Howard Johnson's. There was one near my grandmother's house, where I got ice cream sodas (my favorite combination was pistachio ice cream with chocolate syrup). And remember the ice cream scoops were cone-shaped? And my mother sometimes used to buy their frozen fried clam strips. When I was older: Zum-Zum. Yes, their wursts. And their birch beer. Their restaurants were good for me to lunch on my own because they had counter seating and were reasonably priced. The Magic Pan. My favorite place to meet friends. I'd usually order the spinach crepe and mushroom crepe combo, and a chocolate-topped ice cream crepe for dessert. I also loved their mandarin orange spinach salad. And, yes, I remember the Chicken Delight jingle too, though we never ordered their chicken!

Holding a "straight" vegetarian view, Suzy, no. They wouldn't use dried shrimp or oyster sauce. There is a "vegetarian oyster sauce". I don't know how they make it but must not be extracted from oysters. Most Chinese who observe the "no killing" rule on the first day of CNY would eat "Gai" [Cantonese], which means vegetarian dishes. And many of them are made to mock up like meat/poultry. Mock chicken, mock intestines, mock goose, etc.. Their consumption is vegetarian's but their mind is still not! You might have seen the "gai" dishes Tepee posted in the China forum. They looked great. And I think Kent Wang had posted some pictures from his visit to one vegetarian restaurants in Beijing and those look fantastic! ← Thanks for your thoughtful reply! If you ever get out to Hawaii, I can take you to a very good Chinese vegetarian restaurant here called... Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant!

← Sheena, you might be thinking of oshiruko, the red bean soup the Japanese eat at New Year's. It's made from sweetened azuki beans, and usually served warm with mochi balls floating in it (much like Americans top hot cocoa with marshmallows).

Also, not quite the same thing, but can you use beancurd skins, paper-thin egg crepes, or Vietnamese rice paper wrappers? The first two can be folded over the filling as packets, or tied with a chive "ribbon" as bundles. (Haven't tried tying rice papers and don't know how they'd hold up.)

President's Choice, which is Loblaws umbrella private label brand. (Not "politically correct," unfortunately!)

You shred the ends of the scallions with a sharp knife, then drop the scallions into a bowl of ice water. Magic! (You can make carrot curls by dropping long strips of carrot -- easiest way is to make with a vegetable peeler -- into ice water, too.)

WOW! Sheetz, you have my deepest admiration for not only attempting but succeeding in making the stuffed chicken like this! When I first saw the photos, I (like several others here) thought it was a galantine (which is hard enough to make -- at least for me!) where the chicken is boned and stuffed, but the meat is left attached to the skin.

No way! I don't even get fresh mochi at my Costco in Japan! I wonder why... ← We're going over there this afternoon -- I'll report back on the selection. I know they carry several types; don't remember if they're all from the same maker (at least one of the makers is local...)

Thanks, Sheena! Glad to know the difference.

Yes, the Costco (and Sam's Club) stores in Hawaii carry a large selection of popular Asian and local foods. The shelf-stable area has at least one side of an aisle with Asian ingredients, such as large tins of soy sauce, bottles of oyster sauce and Sriracha sauce, various types of seaweed, dry Canton noodles, rice and/or bean thread noodles, dried shiitake mushrooms, etc. Asian brands of rice are sold in 20- to 50-pound bags. The deli section has one row of cases with Asian and local specialties, including manapua (aka char shu bau), Kalua pork (shredded smoked pork), Asian pickles, tubs of the aforementioned "ocean salad," local Portuguese sausage, chunks of char shu, etc. The fish department sells trays of sashimi in addition to prepared sushi (which, to my dismay, is made not locally, but by a commercial sushi packager on the Mainland!!!) However, there's usually a staffed "poke bar," where fresh poke (local-style raw fish salad) is sold by the pound. And the bakery sells fresh mochi rice cakes.

Crosnes and nettles are so "over" that they never made it over to Hawaii as a trend in the first place! Fiddleheads are used in some traditional Korean and Japanese dishes, so they've always been around.

I have a question about CNY vegetarian meals. You used dried shrimp and oyster sauce in your dinner. Are those ingredients typically considered "vegetarian" for CNY? (The most popular dish for CNY here is jai.)

It's hard to believe that anyone doesn't lik your cooking. What's wrong with them?

Butternut squash, "delicata" variety like it says on the sign. It's similar to pumpkin, acorn squash, and kabocha. These look to me like what's sold here as "Korean melons," a mild cucumber-like squash, though I could be wrong. Perhaps they're the sprouts of red onions -- the stems do appear a bit red.

Oh, my, does that look good!

Megan, thank you so much for blogging! This is certainly a different view of the NYC food scene than what I had when I last lived there (16 years ago) or visited there (6 years ago). Wow!

It's not certain that Fernand Point went to Japan at all, much less that he was influenced by Japanese cuisine. See this eGullet thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=66521&hl=

No shopping bags at Costco stores in Hawaii, either. Remember, Costco, Sam's Club, etc. originally began as warehouse clubs targeting small businesses buying items in quantity. A lot of their membership now is individual households, but their merchandising policies generally remain the same. It's part of the "warehouse club" atmosphere.

From the list of outlets on the website, it would appear bicyclists and golfers!

Well, it's about time! I'm so glad you're food-blogging this week, sharing your holiday and your always erudite, always interesting knowledge. Gung Hai Fat Choi (or whatever your favorite transliteration of the Chinese characters is)!

To clarify the Barbara Tropp/velveting argument, I have in front of me the first edition of The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. Her first reference (and the major discussion) of "velveting" is on page 137, in a recipe for "Hoisin Explosion Chicken" (note: she also gives the name of this dish in Chinese characters, but I can't read them or type them on my computer). She writes: Her description and the use of the term "velveting" in quotes leads me to believe she knew very well the difference between the methods and terminology in Chinese (she was a China scholar before she became a chef), but chose to adopt this term in English as an easy shorthand for Western readers. [edited to correct spelling]

IMO, the development of Japanese influence on Western cuisines is linked less to Westerners traveling to Japan than it is to waves of Japanese businessmen (and yes, it was mostly men) being sent to the USA and Western Europe for several years to establish subsidiaries of their companies here. Japanese restaurants sprang up in the 1970s and 1980s to serve these expats, and Westerners became more exposed to these foods as a result.