Kent Wang

Any explanation for those other traditions?

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we are the pioneers of this trend as so many knowledgeable people I've spoken to have never heard of these sugars. Very few people truly appreciate the value of fine sugar -- yet. Gabriel: They are widely distributed by the HEB grocery chain here in Texas. They carry the demerara (which I've commented elsewhere is the most beautiful food word), muscovado, molasses, golden granulated and perhaps one or two others. I can't remember the price exactly but it is around $3-5 per bag. The aroma of the molasses is heady and intoxicating. I've also baked pies with Billington's sugars. There is a phenomenal difference with pumpkin pie, especially, as the recipe calls for so much brown sugar. Baking with the molasses the pie comes out a dark brown color, which many people have mistaken for chocolate. Those other sugars you mention sound very exciting. Do you think I can find them in your typical Mexican grocer? cdh: This is intriguing as well. Do you think I could find them at homebrew stores or will I need to mail order?

Daikon, I presume. I believe nearly all radish used in Chinese cuisine is daikon. My guess is that the jellyfish is cooked (after having been processed, treated and brined before purchasing), cooled, combined with blanched daikon and tossed with vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce. It is very similar to a salad in its crisp texture and cool temperature. Yes, I thought the color was odd, too. I didn't like them very much, the rice flour was a little tough and dried out. Yes, cold appetizers are one of my favorite aspects of Chinese cuisine. They come out very quickly and are priced affordably. During my month-long trip in China last year we ate out every day and that can take its toll on your body. During off-days when we weren't being feted at a banquet I'd usually order only cold appetizers as it was much healthier and not nearly as greasy as the main dishes. It's a shame that so many restaurants in America offer only a few of them. Pao's may have more than anyone else in the Austin-area, a testament to the authenticity of their cuisine.

If one could characterize Shanghai cuisine with only one ingredient it would be sugar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_cuisine The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the "secret ingredient." The most notable dish of this type of cooking is "sweet and sour spare ribs" ("tangcu xiaopai" in Shanghainese).

I'm not much of an expert on Indian cuisine but I do find this place a better value than Clay Pit. A lot of the meats are a little overcooked though, especially chicken, but I find that very common with Indian restaurants.

Ah, yes, tallow was the term I was looking for. I found more information in the Wikipedia article. Just to nitpick, sheep (ovines) are indeed bovines but horses (equines) are not.

I love baby octopus as well. How did they season and prepare them? How did they achieve such a red color, sriracha? BTW, 'octopuses' is the most accepted plural form of 'octopus'. See usage.

Why do animal fats, especially duck fat, taste better? What trace elements give duck fat its duck-ful character? Why have I never heard of rendered beef fat?

We had a pretty good dinner on Sunday here in Austin at Pao's Mandarin House. See thread for many more beautiful photos.

Last year, we held a Member-Organized Event at Pao's Mandarin House but I didn't get everything organized in time to do that this year. So I PM'd a few members at the last minute and we rounded up a group of six this Sunday to celebrate the Year of the Boar. In attendance were Luggage386, Yimay, MissAmy and her guest Josh, yours truly and my guest Kristin. Photos by yimay. We couldn't decide on exactly which appetizers to start with so yimay asked that the chef put together a platter of cold dishes. It was so successful that they considered adding it to the menu. Upon hearing this Yimay insisted that they name the platter after her. There's the Lou Ann Platter so why not the Yimay Platter? Center: Jellyfish with radish. Jellyfish is usually served by itself but the radish complemented the crispy texture of the jellyfish perfectly. Jellyfish itself is fairly mild, no fishy taste to it at all. Jellyfish can be a little intimidating so I was surprised at how everybody loved it. Clockwise from 12 o'clock. Drunken chicken. This is mostly obscured by the jellyfish but the chicken was extremely moist. We're all pretty competent cooks but none of us could figure out how they managed to make it so juicy. The rice wine flavor was subtle with no off-flavors, as can often be the case when cheap wine is used. Kao fu. This is one of the most quintessential Shanghai dishes. Fermented tofu with a spongy texture so that it absorbs a lot of sauce, with shitake, woodear mushroom, soy sauce and, of course, for that Shanghai flavor, sugar. Pressed pork. The pork is roasted, sliced and pressed together with the addition of some gelatin and then re-sliced. The point of doing so is to redistribute the fatty parts around so that each slice will have multiple layers of fat cap evenly distributed. Crispy walnuts. Roast duck. Braised beef. Peking duck. They bring the sliced duck and pancakes to the table and roll up each one in front of you. I've never seen this anywhere else -- you usually roll your own -- but I have no complaints. Dumplings. It is traditional to have dumplings for Chinese New Year. These were made with hand-made skins. Winter melon soup with a slice of cured ham. The chicken stock used was very rich and left the broth a thick, opaque color. Steamed whole fish with a soy sauce, ginger and scallion. This is the best way to enjoy a fish, with a light and simple sauce. I'm not sure what freshwater species it was but the flesh was very tender. The eyes are traditionally offered to the guest of honor. As the organizer of this little shindig I was nominated that honor, which, after the ritual denials and displays of humility, I reluctantly accepted. The last time I had fish eye was a year ago in China, so this was quite the rare treat. Our server, Billy, explaining some of the Chinese New Year traditions to everyone. He, and most of the staff, are from Beijing and speak with a Beijing accent. Ti pang. Ham hock that was deep-fried, steamed and then braised for several hours with Cantonese rock candy, another banquet classic. We had to order this in advance as it takes nearly a day to make. Unfortunately, the sauce was too sweet, much more so than last year, and the meat was also a little tough. Mustard greens covered in "black hair" seaweed sauce. Black moss or black hair seaweed is actually an algae and is eaten on Chinese New Year because its chinese name "fa cai" (hair vegetable) is a play on words that means prosperity, as in "gong xi fa cai", which is a greeting exchanged during Chinese New Year meaning good luck and prosperity. The seaweed is mild in flavor but added a thick texture to the sauce. Snow pea leaves. We decided to have a simple vegetable dish to balance out all the rich meat dishes. Eight treasure rice. The most important Chinese New Year dish, composed of eight different "treasures" in sweet, glutinous rice, similar to a rice pudding. I can't remember all eight of the treasures but they included dates, raisins, gingko nuts, peanuts and prunes. Unfortunately, the rice was a little too moist and did not hold together as it should. Nian gao, compliments of the house. Nian is a homophone with the word meaning 'year' and so this is another common New Year dish. The sweet rice flour was stuffed with a sweet paste, which I believe is some rice product. Dinner was fantastic. In terms of food alone, this is the best Chinese meal I've had since I was in China. There were a few disappointments such as the ti pang but overall, the quality of the food was very high. Pao's is simply a higher end establishment than Din Ho or Marco Polo, not just in terms of decor but also the very dishes they make. I had a blast meeting fellow eGers and chatting about Chinese food. Some of us were very experienced with Chinese cuisine but the ones who were not were very open-minded and I'm delighted to have introduced some of the more exotic dishes to them. It was a lot of fun discussing Chinese traditions, even a few that I had forgotten about. I look forward to more gatherings in this Year of the Boar. Gong xi fa cai!

I swear by Billington's sugars, the darker the better. The dark molasses is the one I use the most. It has a deep vegetal character. I make simple syrup with it and use it with cocktails. I will sometimes even just dilute the simple syrup with water and drink it straight. Simple sugar water, yes, but it is better than any soft drink.

Intriguing! I'll have to try this soon. What's it like? Is it very tender?

Very funny how the OCDers are outing themselves in this thread. I must admit that I am one of them as well and look up to Marlene.

http://www.bananabunker.com/ What I want to know is of the four colours available, why is yellow not one of them?

I checked on Google and I am indeed the first person to use this term: Cocktailistry: The art that is practiced by a cocktailian. Has a more artistic connotation than the scientific sounding mixology. Ex: Are there any other bartenders in town that even approach him in cocktailistry, that is to say, you know, mixologically-speaking?

If you've never been to Quality Seafood, enjoy these photos of the lovely murals in the hallway leading to the rest rooms. Octopus with only six arms? Maybe it's a sexopus.

The brief time period when a banana is actually ripe. Any time before it is too green, any time after it is rotten.

I just tried the Metropole and must say that it is excellent. Thank you for introducing it to me. The 1:1 ratio of cognac to dry vermouth makes it a pretty low alcohol drink, which is fine. I think 2:1 or 3:1 would be good as well. Is there more information about the history of the drink, other than what was posted on that thread you linked?

There wasn't a label at Central Market and the worker who told me it was a yellow oyster didn't seem too confident about it. I Googled for "yellow oyster mushroom" and the images that turned up didn't really look like this specimen. I sauteed some up and liked it a lot, more than I like oyster mushrooms.

Clockwise from top-left. Groezinger German bologna - Smooth texture, mild in all respects. My least favorite of these three though I'm not a fan of the archetypal bologna. Schaller & Weber Krakaur - Typical bologna texture with larger chunks of meat mixed in, which I find preferable to standard bologna. Heavy garlic note. My favorite of these three bolognas. Karl Ehmer bierwurst - Pork and beef content, not as finely ground as Groezinger bologna. Faintly sweet with mild vinegar-like acid. Principe tartufotta truffle ham - Ingredient list does not list truffle, only "natural flavor". Substantial truffle taste, though lacks the full flavor profile of proper truffle.

Reconciling markk's comments with HKDave's, shouldn't Italians have the lowest rate of heart disease then if they (presumably) mostly olive oil?

Yimay and I had dinner at T&S Seafood last night. We picked all the exotic dishes that we can't order with American friends. Photos were taken by yimay which, I must say, are much better than what I'm capable of. Fish maw soup with small bits of shrimp, squid and other seafood. Fish maw was OK, not as crispy as I've had elsewhere. Quantity of fish maw was also a little stingy but a good deal considering the price of $6 for four bowls. Pork intestine stuffed with ground shrimp on bed of pickled cabbage. I'm not sure why the crust is orange. The texture of the ground shrimp works nicely with the intestine. Pickled cabbage was drizzled with a bit of chili oil but unfortunately cooled the intestine down very quickly. They should have instead served the intestine on a warmed plate. Duck feet with black mushroom hot pot. Duck feet is delicious as always, along with the huge pieces of shitake mushrooms. Duck feet was cooked to proper doneness so that the skin could be easily removed. The sauce, unfortunately, was very plain, just soy sauce, sugar (Shanghai-level quantities -- strange considering T&S is Cantonese) and garlic. It could've benefited from (more) fermented black beans, ginger, oyster sauce, cooking wine and other ways to add depth. House special bean curd on sizzling plate. A pretty conventional stir fry with seafood, veggies and baby corn (yimay hates those). The tofu, though, was superb. Extremely soft on the inside, fried to a crisp on the outside. It also doesn't have the somewhat foul odor and aftertaste common with store-bought pre-fried tofu. I wish they would cut out out all the other ingredients and just fill the plate with more tofu. This was also quite expensive at $9. Overall, it was a decent meal, fairly representative of T&S quality -- though dim sum is another matter entirely. Cheap ingredients, stingy quantities of proteins, limp sauces, relatively high prices, expert frying, terrific soft tofu. I used to go to T&S a lot but I think I prefer Asia Cafe, Pao's and maybe even China Palace and First Chinese over it. Nevertheless, T&S still has one of the best dim sum, second only to Pao's in my book. They also stay open until 1 am. My favorite (non-exotic) dishes are fried soft-shell crab with salt and pepper, walnut shrimp (yes, very untraditional) and double lobster in scallions and garlic (two lobsters for $40, sometimes $30 on special).

I've noticed that nearly every Chinese-American I know in Texas loathes Mexican food -- which is probably just Tex-Mex and not real Mexican -- and most like Italian. I'm not sure why Tex-Mex is disliked, certainly not because of the spice as the Chinese that I know love Sichuan cuisine, which is often much hotter than Tex-Mex. Maybe the beans and cheese are turn-offs. I'm also uncertain about the affinity for Italian. We have noodles and rice in common but not tomato sauces. Or it may simply be that everybody loves Italian. I also find that there is a surprising amount of dislike for Southeast Asian cuisines as well. In my experience Westerners like Thai, Vietnamese, etc a whole lot more than Chinese do, even though you'd think we'd be more used to it. I theorize that we're more closed-minded about Asian cuisine having grown up with it, while Westerners approach it with a tabula rasa. I'm curious if there are other cross-cultural affinities. What do Italians like, do Mexicans like Chinese? How about the French?

February 8, 2007 Austin Chronicle Bess Bistro on Pecan. By Claudia Alarcon. Sandra Bullock's new restaurant. "I'm not going to waste space discussing the famous owner or complain about the "please, no cameras on premise" policy. Instead, I'm here to tell everyone why Bess Bistro is my favorite new place to go for a hearty meal, a glass of wine, and a fun time either alone or with friends."

Capitol Brasserie sold. From Austin Chronicle. The Dry Dock at Canary Nest Opens on 5800 Burnet Rd. From Rob Balon. Brazilian Bakery and Coffeehouse “Bossa Nova” opens on E. 6th. From Rob Balon.