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My office loves to eat. People bring in treats frequently and we have lunch or breakfast potlucks here at the office a few times a year. Most everything gets eaten quickly, but I did notice that someone had brought in homemade oatmeal cake last week and there's still half a pan left. I had a slice and it's quite good but perhaps too healthy-tasting. Someone brought two huge boxes of very good locally-made donuts yesterday and those are almost all gone. However, the big winner in recent treats brought to the office are grocery store iced sugar cookies (soft kind made with shortening) from this morning. The cookies were all gone by 9:30. I admit to eating two cookies because they were too adorable to resist (barnyard animals); however, they really weren't very good. The shortening left a funny feeling in the mouth and the cookies had too much baking soda.

Excerpt from the newly-published Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan: "Korova was the name of the milk bar in Stanley Kubrick's classic film, A Clockwork Orange. It was also the name of a restaurant off the Champs-Elysees for which Pierre Herme created these cookies. The restaurant is gone, but the cookies are still a specialty at Pierre's patisserie" Seems that Ms. Greenspan knew well ahead that Korova would be closing.

I've had Paris Sweets for about 3 weeks, but I haven't tried a recipe. I've been enjoying the read too much. I read the Poilane section twice this week.

Broiled chicken breast with tarragon beurre blanc, sauteed garlicky bitter greens and steamed peruvian blue potatoes.

I think there's a box somewhere in my fridge for this Japanese "mirepoix" curry blocks. I've use bits of the stuff a few times and it's not too bad once you add fresh veggies, meat and additional seasoning. As for ketchup in sweet and sour sauce, it really doesn't taste much like ketchup once it's cooked with the vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. If you really don't want to use ketchup, here's a recipe from epicurious.com that uses pineapple juice. My mom used to make something very similar to this and it was delicious. Click

Thanks for the mabo tofu recipe, Jinmyo. I actually have most of those ingredients and I'll give it a try later this week. My dinner last night and lunch today: lamb chops with garlicky tahini sauce, roasted sweet potatoes with zahtar, wholewheat couscous and half an apple (other half went to my puppy).

Your whole menu sounds delicious, but the mabo tofu, in particular, caught my eye. What are the three kinds of tofu and what other spices/flavourings do you use?

It depends on how finely you grind your rice. I usually grind mine very fine, so it ends up the same as the rice flour. Asian markets also sell toasted rice powder and it's the same texture as the home-roasted rice flour but doesn't taste nearly as good. I use home-toasted rice flour in yam neua (sp?), larb and yum woon sen more for flavour than texture. How finely do you grind your rice? P.S. I completely forgot that larb + glass noodles = yum woon sen. And I cook the latter more frequently because I don't eat much meat.

I sometimes add thin cellophane noodles to larb. You pre-soak the noodles, cut them into short lengths and add to the meat while it's cooking. A shortcut to grinding your own rice powder is using glutinous rice flour (Mochiko). Once you toast the powder, it tastes almost exactly like the freshly ground and no messy coffee grinder.

I used to have a Food Saver and it worked so well that my parents took it for their own use. I have a brother who goes salmon fishing a few times each summer and the salmon has to last sans freezer-burn until next fishing season. I haven't bought a new one for myself because I'm still trying to convince myself that I don't need the one with the jar attachment. Asians have been using something similar to the AirCore for a few years now. The best Chinese chicken soup I've ever tasted was made in one of those thermal pots. BTW, I think it's the "comedy" team The Mommies that do the AirCore informercial. Anyone remember their sitcom from about 8 years back or so?

I also saw Food Finds last night and didn't see chocolate shells anywhere. I was a bit sleepy and only paid attention because I remembered this debate. They showed Katrina heating the cream with spices and making the ganache by hand in small batches. The ganache were formed into balls then placed in empty trays with little rounded cups. I suppose to help them firm up into a rounder shape or to just keep them safe while waiting in line to be coated? Then, they showed the ganache balls running under the coating machine. A final step for one flavour of truffles was decorating them with small pieces of hand-shredded fresh rose petals. It sure looked like an artisanal chocolate operation to this untrained eye.

I had friends over for a casual lunch yesterday: homemade wonton soup with noodles, sweet potato and shrimp fritters. For whatever reason, not a single Chinese restaurant here can make decent wontons. They all use the thicker gyoza wrapper and fill them with minced bbq pork or ground pork flavoured with hoisin sauce. Then, they drown them in bright yellow, salty bouillon water.

How are large (over 4 inches), extremely tough and stringy okra cooked? I've seen people buying them at farmer's markets and I made the mistake of buying them once. They were freshly picked and the tips had a nice snap, so I thought maybe big okra aren't always tough. I was very wrong. They were hard and completely inedible even after braising for hours. I wasn't going to eat them afterwards, I was just checking to see if they would ever soften.

Definitely "sophisticated-but-accessible." I haven't looked through the book in a while, but I'd guess that about 15-20% of the recipes are unique with the rest having Payard's own spin on classics. He seems to like coconut and has at least 6 recipes with coconut. I don't think Paris Sweets is available at stores until the end of the month. I bought mine from The Good Cook Book Club at several bucks more than the $15.60 at Jessica's Biscuit.

I'm a fan of avocado and cream cheese sandwiches - nutty whole wheat bread, lots of sprouts (preferably spicy radish sprouts), avocado slices, a little cream cheese and s&p. I don't think I've ever used avocados for anything else other than sandwiches, shakes, salads and guacamole.

I attempt making Chinese Fish-Flavoured Eggplant every now and then, but I don't have a recipe because I'm still tweaking to match the best I've ever tasted in a Chinese restaurant (same for Ma Po Tofu). Anyone have a recipe they'd like to share?

My mom adds ground meat (pork, meat, chicken, etc.) to the eggplant fans. One of my favourite dishes as a child. As for pakbet (or pinakbet to me), my preferred recipe is pretty much the same as Soba's except I always use the skinny asian eggplants and I add yard-long beans. I sometimes add a little coconut milk, but then it's not pinakbet anymore. In the Philippines, it can also be made with anchovy paste rather than shrimp paste depending on the region. If you don't want to make the bagnet, just use chicharonnes that have a layer of skin, a layer of fat and a layer of meat.

My copy of Paris Sweets arrived in the mail yesterday. It's a slim book, but the recipes, although nothing new, look good. I read the introduction and first chapter on cookies last night. There's a few paragraphs about each Paris patisserie before each of their recipe contributions. These anecdotes alone are worth the price of the book. This book reminds me of Payard's Simply Sensational Desserts minus notes on technique and photos. They both progress from simple cookies to weekend cakes to the more decadent and complicated desserts.

I do mine the same as Wilfrid when I'm deboning a whole chicken. I scrape the meat, pull the bone towards the body of the chicken and invert the leg. This way, I find it easier to chop through the bone to leave the little knob at the end. Also, if it's a whole chicken, I only have to sew down the back of the chicken and not along the wings and legs.

I like the Bruce Healy & Paul Bugat books: The Art of the Cake: Modern French Baking and Decorating, The French Cookie Book: Classic and Contemporary Recipes for Easy and Elegant Cookies. I own the first and I borrow the 2nd from the local library. I've made several recipes from both and they've all turned out well for me. These books aren't just recipes; they explain the why's and how's of French pastry with good line drawing illustrations and some photographs. They also have another book, Mastering the Art of French Pastry, which is out-of-print and I haven't been able to find one at a reasonable price.

Thanks for the great post, Toby. It made me miss home. I have the great fortune of having many Cantonese friends due to growing up in Vancouver. My memories are very much like yours. My Cantonese friends are the ones who fueled my food obsession and made me appreciate subtle flavours and textures. These friends have been getting married the last few years, so I go to a delicious Chinese banquet at least once a year.

Pagliacci's was one of my best dining experiences. However, I was only about 14 at the time with very unsophisticated taste buds (not that different from today) and I was ravenous from having played at a field hockey tournament the whole day. I had a very rich and creamy pasta with pancetta and peas.

Thanks for another great review SouthernGirl.

I'm glad your middle eastern dessert was a success, Suvir. Galaktoboureko is basically a semolina custard wrapped in filo. I've had it wrapped eggroll style, layered like baklava or in purses. Greek and Turkish acquaintances sometimes enhance the basic recipe by adding chopped pistachios to the custard or adding rosewater to the glazing syrup.

There's the filo pastries -- baklava or galaktoboureko. Baklava can be tricky sometimes; galaktoboureko is much easier to prepare. If it's a casual dinner, just prepare the galaktoboureko in layers in a pan. If you want to get more fancy, make them into little purses and serve with poached fruit or a fruit sauce.