annachan

I make fried rice regularly and never used chicken stock powder or any other powder. I don't find it necessary. I doubt adding liquid stock would work as you will ruin the texture of the rice. Adding liquid to cooked rice will make it bloom like it does when making porridge. If you want to use stock, I would use it to cook the rice initially. That way you get the flavor without messing with the texture of the rice.

Haven't had Triscuits for a while, but they are great. When I was in middle school, I used to love taking Kraft cheese slices, put them on the Triscuits and melt the cheese in the toaster oven. I had that as a snack quite often. Wish I can make some now....

Let me know when you're next coming to Sydney and you can teach me how to make marshmallows on mine! Sure thing. As I recall, it's really easy in the KA. Off the top of my head, it's just whipping egg whites in the KA. Sugar mixture cooked on stove till a certain temperature, then slowly add to the egg whites and let that whip in the KA for about 10 minutes. And you get marshmallow! If I have to replace my KA here, I'll definitely get a Kenwood Cooking Chef. That way, I won't even have to cook the sugar on the stove as I can do so in the machine.

I believe I've had version with lu shui beef.

Marshmallow! Can't imagine using another machine for that.

I tried Giada De Laurentiis' Parmesan Fish Sticks once and they turned out better than expected, quite tasty in fact. I like that it's not fried but was still crispy.

It's colcannon pie for us today. Left over colcannon from last night in puff pastry.

Just got some ling cod from the market this morning. Anyone know if it's good for frying fish and chip style? Or is it better pan fried?

Me too! I just got some beautiful flowers at the farmers market this morning. Still deciding what to do with them....

I wonder how that taste. It's not the $25 for the bottle of sauce I worry about, it's the shipping cost to Australia. Currently, I have Tabasco (original), Sriracha, sambal and chili oil. Will need to explore some local hot sauce. BTW, a little sriracha makes cheese toast better!

I always use my rice cooker. Why? Because: 1) it doesn't take up space on the stove, 2) I don't have to time it, and 3) (perhaps the most important) my husband can deal with it! We cook jasmine, medium grain brown, basmati, and brown basmati rice in the rice cooker and they come out perfect. It's also good that you can steam stuff while you're cooking the rice. I have cooked rice on the stove. The only time it stuck is when I made Mexican/Spanish rice. That really has to do with the tomato sauce....

How does My First Vegemite compare to regular Vegemite in terms of flavor? Is it just less salty or actually has a different taste to it?

It's supposed to be coming to Australia. Interested in trying it out.

There's no need to travel to Berkeley for that as he can get the same thing at Arizmendi (sister bakery) in SF....

Another one who grew up in Hong Kong here....my grandmother, who was a very good cook, used corn starch. My aunts also. Yeah, it's used to thicken sauces when needed to, but it's most often used in marinating meat before stir fry. I've kept that tradition going. Also, corn starch is used in frying. I don't like to batter my food, so I often just dust the meat in a thin coating of corn starch and then fry. It works really well in sweet and sour type dishes. The corn starch on the meat actually helps thicken the sauce without a slurry.

It'll be nice to make a curry beef. You can do curried cauliflower and/or potato. Puff pastry is the easiest for me, but you can make your own pastry or even use filo. If not curry, a mixture or garam marsala and cumin would be nice as well. If your guests are fine with eating eggs, frittata is another idea.

When some of my guests are vegetarian, I usually like to make a main dish that is vegetarian so that they aren't just eating side dishes. I think a vegetable stew may work well in your case. Maybe something like a ratatouille. A vegetable lasagne may be good, filled with mushroom, roasted vegetables or butternut squash. If you're looking for something that can be served room temp, maybe some hand pies. Just roast some vegetables with seasoning of your choice as a filling and put them in puff pastry (I used store bought) and bake. They're good both hot or room temp.

Go figure. But for decent, cheap food in an otherwise pricey neighborhood I think it's still worth recommending. I'd eat there again if I were in the area and on the same budget. Actually, I never found Pasta Pomodoro (I think it's been renamed to just Pomodoro now) to be cheap, especially for the quality of food. You can find better food cheaper elsewhere in SF. Thinking of the different Pomodoro locations, I'm quite sure you can get better food at the same or lower price range close by. SF may be an expensive city, but it has a lot of good, cheap eats options.

I am somewhat a cooking/food show junkie. I watch just about any of them. The only one that makes me turn the channel is when Sandra Lee comes on. I do like Nick Stellino. Yeah, the show can be cheesy at times, but some of his stuff is quite good. I've been using one of his mushroom recipes for years when I entertain and have never had leftovers. That is saying a lot as I always end up cooking way too much food, enough to feed double the amount of people there.

One of my favorite versions from a bakery has tomato, ham, egg, cornichon and parsley in it.

We went to Prospect for dinner last September. Everything was spot on, from food to service. I don't think you can go wrong with it.

Coi has a limited menu that changes often. It took me a while, several years, to get over to Coi because I don't always care for what's on the menu. And when I do, I couldn't get reservations. I finally did get there for dinner when I really like the looked of the menu and it was a fantastic meal. I've also had dinner at Quince and loved it. We had the tasting menu and it was great. It's hard to pick between the two as the food is quite different. I suggest going by which menu you fancy more.

Looks like we'll be having Tapas and Paella at a friend's housewarming. Not a bad way to go....

Apparently, there are quite a few of these (fill in the blank) savers. I remember seeing one for onion, one for avocado, etc. Aren't they really just a container? I don't need them in funny shapes.

Don't forget about the great food you can find at farmers markets other than the one at the Ferry Building. You can get some great food at the Alemany market and the Stonestown market. Alemany: El Huarache Loco has some of the best Mexican food around. Anything with Alambre (mix of beef with bacon, onion, peppers and cheese) is great. The pambazos is a favorite. The huevos divorciados is another. The pupusa stand is another great stall with pupusas made and grilled right in front of you. Stonestown: You can get handmade, pan fried dumplings, onion pancakes and lamb skewers at Happy Dumplings. The dumplings are wrapped and fried up pan by pan. The wrappers are on the thick side, somewhere between boiled dumplings and steamed buns, with juicy fillings inside. For dessert, get a Belgium waffle over at Golden Waffle. If you like pretzels, Octoberfeast has plain ones, cheese ones and pretzel croissants.