Kent Wang

I like your plating effort. Definitely not something we see much of in traditional Chinese cooking.

Very thorough and informative review.

One sees a lot of Asian clientele at Sea Dragon, Tien Hong and Marco Polo, too, but it doesn't necessarily mean the quality is good. Well, Marco Polo is the best out of those three but it's definitely no Din Ho or T&S. In fact, T&S has a lot of non-Asian clientele. Bummer about TC Noodle House.

Having to pay sales tax on top of shipping makes the out-of-state vendors more attractive.

Good question. In Chinese, it's called yan shui ya zhen gan (my pin yin is a little shaky on this one), literally salt water duck gizzard. There is no "pressed" in the Chinese name. Another common dish is yan shui ji, literally salt water chicken, but is often translated as salt-pressed chicken. The preparation technique is similar as the chicken is salted for a few days. I believe "salt-pressed" is just a quirk of translation; it shoud simply mean salted and placed in a container for a few days.

Fleur de sel is a type (maybe a brand as well) of French sea salt that is commonly in Western cuisine. It is has a nice crunch to it, unlike cheaper sea salts. One can use any sea salt or even regular salt but I recommend one that has a nice texture to it. I've updated the recipe to indicate this.

I bought a whole pound of gizzards from the Chinese supermarket, confited half and used half for this recipe. The gizzards don't absorb much salt flavor so a bit of extra sea salt at the end is necessary. You can always salt to taste.

Pictorial Recipe Salt-pressed duck gizzard This is a common dish served as a cold appetizer anywhere from common working class joints to fancy restaurants. The gizzards are salted, spiced with star anise and Sichuan pepper, drizzled with sesame oil and mixed with sea salt to add a little extra textural interest. Serving Suggestion: 3 - 4 Ingredients: - 0.5 lb duck gizzard - star anise - Sichuan pepper - Chinese cooking wine - salt - ginger - scallions - sesame oil - sea salt Start with .5 lb duck gizzard. Trim fat. Cooking wine, salt, Sichuan pepper, star anise. Crush up the star anise, Sichuan pepper a bit. Add star anise, Sichuan pepper, 2 tbsp salt, 1/2 up cooking wine. Mix and refrigerate for a few days. Wash off the salt and seasonings, place into pan. Add ginger, scallions, 1 tbsp salt, cooking wine. Fill with water to immerse, cook for 20 minutes with lid on. Strain and cool, slice into pieces. Add 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tsp sea salt (I'm using fleur de sel). Done!

There is a significant gift giving culture that causes certain items to have very inflated prices, like tea, liquor and cigarettes. It is not uncommon to give new business contacts 100g containers of tea that cost more than USD 100, Panda-brand cigarettes that are USD 9 a pack (of course no one gives a pack, you have to give a carton or two) and of course moutai liquor. Foreign liquor like cognac and whiskey are also gaining in popularity. What I meant by "the emperor wears no clothes" is that moutai, really, is a low quality liquor and yet everyone pays exorbitant amounts for it. It is very similar to vodka in taste -- and you should know that premium vodka is a scam. Just how much taste can a 150-proof liquor have?

The Chinese love fish brains. I've never had the brains of such a large specimen, though.

The emperor wears no clothes.

That's pretty much how I do it. I like to drizzle some chili oil. The spiciness balances well with the bitterness. I'll write a pictorial recipe soon.

If this is legal, I'm going to ship a bottle of Scotch by coating it in chocolate!

This is a beautiful sight. By how much did you reduce the stock?

Oyster shot. Or oyster juice -- dunno about it exactly but the Canadians love clam juice (for their Bloody Caesars) so I'm sure oyster juice would be just as good.

Escolar has been nicknamed the ex-lax fish. It is pretty good cooked but sublime raw. It is one of my favorite sashimi.

In my family we've always used the terms lao jiang (literally: old ginger) and jiang (ginger) interchangeably. In Chinese, it is preferable for nouns to have two characters instead of one; I think this is just a case of that, and so it is just a quirk of the language as opposed to any actual difference in the age of the ginger in question.

Sadly, no. I have had beef xiaolongbao before and rather disliked them. I think most Chinese (except those from the frigid northern and western parts of the country) strongly prefer pork over beef. For the Chinese, pork is much more loved than it is in America and even most parts of Europe. The term rou, meaning meat, refers by default to pork. For example, you would refer to pork dumplings as simply rou, but if they were beef you would specifically specify that they are niu rou (cattle meat).

If you are able to perfect this dish -- which is no easy feat -- do you realize how many Chinese people you will have beating down your door?

Adverb form, come on. Velveetaly yours, KW

I have small four-inch square towel "pads" that are perfect for grabbing hot pans. Easier than folding a big towel.

I'd imagine that the infusions would significantly lower the smoking point. It would be better to stir-fry with a purer oil and then add the infused oil later.

As tapas becomes more popular in the US, I've also noticed the rise of numerous non-Spanish cuisine restaurants that serve typically American cuisine in the format of tapas: small dishes often accompanied with wine. Here in Austin, we have 219 West, which you can see their menus online. I would guess that there are similar establishments in DC with which you are familar. Do you think this movement embracing smaller dishes is a positive change for the US dining scene? Are there fundamental elements of the tapas format that these American restaurant are failing to consider when designing their dishes -- or in other words, what criticism would you offer to these restaurants?

Nanxiang, and all the places in the Temple of the City God are total ripoffs. I had some of the worst xiaolongbao in my life there. They bus in all the tourists there -- shame! To think that so many visitors think that is what xiaolongbao are all about. When I was in Shanghai this spring I had some terrific xiaolongbao at a cheap breakfast place right around the corner from my grandmother's. Realistically, it is probably hard to truly judge who makes better xiaolongbao. Both Shanghai and Taipei are huge enough cities that the best five xiaolongbao from each city are probably of equal quality. You are right in saying that the political and cultural attitudes are really what is at play here.

These are pretty soft and mushy, not what you would expect from the heart. I've had chicken hearts and they are of similar consistency to the gizzard. The only other organs would be liver, kidney and spleen, but since I've never heard of poultry kidney or spleen I'm thinking liver is a safe bet.