Salt Creep

Well, I told my dad how to do it and so he decides to cook it himself but forgets to add the seasoning! We drizzled the seasoning on top after everything was cooked and it came out great anyway. Now we want to try the other flavors! Thanks, Ken

Thank you! I'll let you all know how it goes. Ken

Hello, I just bought a packaged mix, but I'm afraid I don't read Japanese so I'm not quite sure how to cook it! Can someone please help? Do I add the mix to the rice after I put in the usual amount of water, or do I add the mix first THEN add water to the level it's supposed to be in the rice cooker? The packaged mix sure seems to contain a lot of liquid. Here are some photos of the outer package: Also, how much rice per package? Thanks, Ken

I didn't really keep count, but I think it was around three or four pulls between each photo. I just compared with Jason's video, and the thing I did different is that I only made one loop between pulls and kept the loops short, while the guy in the video pulled out long and made several loops between pulls. I'll try that next time. Ken

I only made that one container, plus a few more that we snacked on. I ended up tossing about half the strands when I felt they were starting to stick together too much. I probably should work faster. I can't eat very many myself, especially the way it ended up. As my sister said, it's good but it gets tacky enough to pull your fillings out! I'm going to have to try and get a thinner layer of the threads over more of the filling. It was fun though! Jason, I'm going to have to watch that video over and over and practice some more! The professionally made stuff sure has a better texture. Thanks! Ken

Well, success at last! Sort of! Here's what I did: First I boiled the maltose until it started running off in thick sheets from the spoon I was mixing it with. Then I poured the batch into a silicone mold with a hole in the middle, just to ease getting the pulling started. After letting it cool and harden overnight, I unmolded the maltose ring into a tub of rice flour. The pre-formed hole made it easy to start pulling. then then and finally By this time the threads were starting to break, so I figured I ought to start wrapping the filling. An unexpected glitch came when I tried using scissors to cut the threads; for some reason the cut ends ended up welded together! I tried pulling the threads apart instead, but couldn't get them to break evenly. The strands were all sort of blonde too, rather than white, but when I pulled instead of cut the threads apart, then stretched a bit more and turned white. Wrapping up the filling was more difficult than I thought it would be too. Too much threads and the outside was too chewy, too little and the filling fell out. Shaping them will take practice too. I ended up with a big mess on the table. Behold... cocoons! At least now I know I can probably make noodles. Ken

My replacement camer battery finally arrived, so I'll be taking pictures with my next attempt! Or rather, I'm going to have to get someone to take pictures for me because my hands will be covered with flour. Jason, could you describe the spiral movement? Thanks, Ken

Well, I came this close to getting it right! I boiled the maltose until it looked thicker (couldn't find my candy thermometer, but it hadn't reached the hard crack stage as far as I could tell) then put it in the fridge after it cooled down. The next day the mass was rock hard, so I zapped it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and it became nice and malleable. I started looping and pulling away, and even got as far as making some fine noodles! Alas, in my excitement I forgot to dust in flour just ONCE, and the hair turned into dreadlocks and there was no fixing it! Microwaving the mass softened it all enough to form another ball, but with the rice flour already mixed in, the strands tended to break easily. I finally gave up after I got too full eating bits of dough rolled around the peanut filling. I guess I'll try again next week, maybe! Ken (now with soft smooth hands)

Has anybody tried making dragon's beard candy at home? I haven't seen the candy in years, and in fact never even knew what it was called. The first time I saw it was in a supermarket in Monterey Park, CA. Mom and Dad were shopping in a Chinese supermarket, and there was this old gentleman in the front pulling what I thought was dough, making long fine noodles. He then wrapped the noodles around chopped nuts and sesame seeds, and Dad got me a box. YUM!!!! We stopped going to that supermarket when another one opened up closer to home, and I eventually forgot about the candy for a while. Then one day I was reading eGullet and came upon the thread about hand pulled noodles, which led to this page. After watching the video clip, I went "THAT'S IT!!!!" and decided to try making the candy myself. I found a recipe online, and another article about using maltose instead of Karo syrup for the sugar noodles. Since I knew that the local 99 Ranch market had maltose in little tubs, I figured I'd give it a shot. Got myself a tub, plus two bags of rice flour, and a bag of chopped nuts. Well, I found out pretty quickly why there isn't some guy making dragon's beard candy in every Chinese supermarket! I figured that the maltose was thick enough, so I didn't boil it like I would with the Karo syrup. I stuck it in the fridge overnight, and scooped (pulled/dragged/wrestled) out the sticky mass onto a tray of rice flour. Unfortunately, things went rapidly downhill from there! The problem was once I reached a certain point, the sugar mass started getting a bit runny and the noodle threads kept breaking under their own weight. I ended up with a tangled mass of micro-spaetzle instead of nice long strands of capelli d'angelo. I even tried compromising and making little candy siu-mai using circles of sugar dough (the result of kneading the maltose in the rice flour) but the weight of the crushed nuts would make the dumpling collapse. It tasted good but I ended tossing the sugar mess, and had nothing to show but the yummy filling and a pair of oddly smooth and soft hands (is sugar a moisturizer?) Anyway, tomorrow I'm getting another tub of maltose. I like it because it's not very sweet, but this time I'm going to boil it until it reaches the hard crack stage. I think I'll get a non-stick silicone cup too, to harden the sugar in. Wish me luck! Ken

Thanks for the suggestions! I guess we'll skip Moroccan then. What about something like a tapas bar? Ken

I had such good luck last time with everybody's recommendations that I'm back to ask again! I'll be visiting again at the end of April. I'm looking for good places to try: Dolsot bibimbap Tonkatsu Pho and other Vietnamese food Morrocan food Raw oysters Dimsum All preferably in the North Bend/Bellevue/Redmond/Issaquah area, but we're willing to go further out! Also, there was this Korean restuarant I went to a while back, and for the life of me I can't remember where it was. They served the panchan buffet style, so you could pick what you want and eat all you wanted. I go the impression it was in some sort of office complex. Any idea what the name of the place is? --Ken

Hi, When I first started reading this thread, my mom's fresh sausages came to mind. They are either steamed or fried depending on the casing. The ones that are in regular sausage casings are steamed, and I think what makes them distinctive is the use of 5-spice powder and water chestnut starch. The same filling mixed with spring onions can be wrapped in soy bean skin and fried. The original recipe came from my dad's family, and for some reason only the daughters-in-law bother to learn it (I guess to please the sons with cooking just like mom's?). My dad's family originally came from Fukien. I remember back when mom used natural sausage casings, she had to wash the intestines in vinegar, inflate them, then dry them outside on a clothesline. They were quite a sight! Ken