Kent Wang

Yeah, Chinese limes suck. I think there isn't even a Chinese word for lime, only green lemon. But the "green lemons" sold in stores lack the acidity and roughness of real limes. I think you have to get Brazilian or Vietnamese limes. I've had varying luck buying them from City Shop and Smart Direct. I think I'm going to try Taobao next.

Yeah, I just went to Rhumerie Bounty a few nights ago. Lots of crap drinks, but they do make a good ti punch with Damoiseau agricole. It was filled with French people. They seem to love their rum. Carrefour (French supermarket) also has a good selection of agricoles, St. James, Damoiseau, Rhum JM. I'm thinking about getting bread delivery from Abendbrot. I see they also deliver to Suzhou.

Do you attract a lot of attention when you go to the wet market? I doubt many foreigners go there. I would love to see what these look like! Well, I never actually buy them but I get them in restaurant dishes. Generally a mark of a good Sichuan restaurant. They're on the stem, a bit more plump than the dried ones, and green. Wow, I haven't actually tried these other than in the form of haw flakes, which was a candy that I (and many Chinese) ate as a kid. I like to shout "haw! haw!" when eating them. What, you have a sugar cane juice source near you? I have to trudge 3 subway stops to get it. How much do they charge? For those that haven't had it, fresh sugar cane juice is amazing. It's sweet (of course), rich, vegetal, a little piney (hmm, this sounds just like my description of the fresh Sichuan peppercorns, though trust me they're completely different). I'd love to try it with some rhum agricole—I think that would be especially appropriate as rhum agricole is made with sugar cane juice instead of molasses. Sometimes I wonder about what it'd be like to work at an agricole distillery in Martinique. Fresh sugar cane juice and rhum agricole flowing freely. They must have some wicked parties.

Great to see you blogging, fellow expat in Eastern China. I'm curious to see how you eat differently from me. I know Suzhou is much smaller than Shanghai, but of course still very populous nonetheless. Would you say that you've been to most of the good restaurants in town or have just scratched the surface? Just curious, do you buy any food items off Taobao? (For non-Chinese: Taobao is a Chinese Amazon-like site with tons of individual vendors, but the major different is that shipping in China is very cheap, usually about $2-3 for even 10kg orders). I recently bought some whole lump wood charcoal. Today, I'm scoping out some pomegranate juice, blood oranges, lots of stuff that I can't find in shops. Yes! You can even get really fresh green ones that are still on the stem. I like these the most as they have more of a vegetal, piney, fruity flavor than the dried ones.

Arg, hard to choose between Thai and Japanese. Japanese would probably be the healthiest. I think a lot depends on the quantity and quality of the cuisine that you have experienced. I think if I lived in Vietnam or Mexico for a year I'd learn to love it more. You also learn about the great regional variation within those countries.

Haha, is it yourself, Erin? Or maybe it's me.

Mitch: How much time do you spend apart from your wife? My girlfriend just went back to the US for two weeks and I already miss her. Tell us more. What's it called? I love Billington's, which is also from Mauritius. What is the advantage of the muddling spoon over just a muddler?

Mitch, are you familiar with the Italian term sprezzatura? You could say you have pezzatura.

This will be my first Chinese New Year in China since I was five or six. Most Chinese, including my family, will be going to a restaurant.

I used smoked hocks, which are cheap and tasty. These hocks have very little meat, mostly skin. I simmer for a few hours, then break it up to expose more of the meat and tendons, then simmer for a few more hours.

Maybe it's some of the New Yorkers.

For cooking purposes, is it better to use a chilled or room temperature egg? Of course, in the winter here if you leave them on the counter it might be even colder than the fridge.

Does this work like the rabbit?

There are two transit hotels at the ends of the terminal. One or maybe both of them have a Korean restaurant inside called Matina that is pretty good. They take USD or credit card. I've tried this twice. Towards the middle, there's a food court with several counter restaurants, but the Korean one I tried was not as good.

Surely better than the present will be the future, when we will have even more high-tech tools and maybe genetic engineering will bring us even more delicious foods.

I love durian. Don't mind the texture at all. It seems quite normal and common to me, not unlike ripe banana. If you like the taste of durian but not the texture, you can try it in other forms like durian ice cream, smoothie, or freeze-dried chips. How about pig ears that have been cooked a long time so that the cartilage is very soft?

Dan, what I do is save all my empty 375 bottles and when I open a new big bottle I immediately decant them into the 375s and vacuum out the air. I read that this strategy works well for wine, so I imagine it should as well for vermouth.

I don't see much white in that photo. Did any of that fall out or is it just very translucent and look like the yolk?

I've read that a lot of US chicken feet is exported to China. Another example to consider is if chicken were very rare, like $80/lb, would it still be enjoyed as a delicacy? I think so. Sure, it's very common now, but if you evaluate well-cooked chicken in a vacuum, I'd dare say it is extremely delicious and would be willing to pay a lot for it.

I just read this Straight Dope article "Why is cheddar cheese orange?" Sure orange is easy to spot, but how about yellow? The Kraft American cheese is probably dyed, but I've also had Tillamook (which I think is a pretty good product) that's yellow. Of the more artisanal cheeses it seems all are much less yellow, more like a beige or cream, with the exception of hard cheeses like parmegiano -- I assume because they're more concentrated they take on more of the color. Does dye have any effect on flavor?

I went once and thought it was as about as good as the other Central Texas places. Certainly it wasn't as great as Louie Mueller on a good day, but definitely still very good.

I used to buy 1.75s and store them somewhere else and have 750s in the bar area. When they ran out I would refill from the 1.75. Save a lot of money that way. Oddly enough, I don't think I've seen a single 1.75 in China.

What I gather from the responses here is that culture is not a determinant of texture omnivore-ness, but rather since most Asians eat a wider variety of foods (and textures) we're more open to a variety of textures. For me texture is very important; I certainly wouldn't say I'm insensitive to it -- quite the opposite. I simply love all textures. Just tried natto at a restaurant recently and loved it. Texture was not a problem and really enjoyed the nutty taste. A dining companion described it as like eating wheat paste, and not in a good way. I think that's only with sea cucumber that's been dried out too much. Good, fresh sea cucumber is not crunchy at all. Still pretty soft, like tofu -- or mucus.

What model is it? The NB-G100P? I would also like to get a toaster oven that is good at toasting bread, instead of a dedicated toaster.

Could you provide some samples of prices of items you're buying on your trips and restaurant bills? I'm curious how it compares to US prices, I think pretty close now that the two dollars are close to parity. I'm also curious about wine pricing. I'm considering a trip at some point and would like to work out how much it'll cost.