[Pictorial: Joong/Jongzi-Sticky Rice/Bamboo Leaves]

Anyone else wrap them this way?

Yes, my mother wraps them in rectangular pillow shapes. I don't like peanut ones either. I like the pork belly ones with green mung bean and salted duck egg yolks (been ages since I've had one so the duck egg might be a false memory). I think chestnuts would be a good addition.

[The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 1)]

Meant to post this photo too - after all it is food related and was amost next door to the restaurant where we ate:

Is the offer to massage a tuna or could we have elected to be massaged by a tuna? Would a translation help?

It is a mis-spelling. The common transliteration is 'tuina', a form of Chinese massage. 'Tui' means push, 'na' means grasp.

[Blenders: A Tip, Tip Speed]

You can use an adjustable speed strobe light to measure rpm: http://www.ehow.com/how_5021934_use-strobe-light-measure-rpm.html

Basically adjust strobe frequency until the blade appears stationary.

[Capturing the essence of another cuisine]

Read Fuchsia Dunlop's book: "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A sweet-sour memoir of eating in China"

Best to sample the food culture for yourself in the native environment and form your own opinions.

[Dinner! 2011]

Pollock in the style of Pollock. You've got to love it!

["Too hot to put into the fridge"?]

Don't rely on daugther & s-i-l to deal with the leftovers!

[Dinner! 2011]

Those quesadillas look mighty fine!

[Scrubbing Your Fruits and Veggies (MERGED TOPIC)]

I've never heard of washing fruit and vegetables to this degree. I usually just rinse with cold water.

I must be ignorant, or lucky, or both!

How do you cope with mushrooms?

[The joy of a still-warm hard-cooked egg]

Hmmm, Worcestershire, never though of that, might be nice. My go to is mayonaisse, it's something I learned from my father, a hardboiled egg in a bun with mayonaisse, it's one of those guilty pleasures that I refuse to feel guilty for.

I like that too. Do you chop the egg up or slices? I like an egg between soft and hard boiled. Yolk not runny but also not 'paste-y'.

[Talking toast]

I like my toast well done too but with a soft/chewy middle. Some more porous bread get very crunchy, such that it is impossible to cut into smaller pieces for children without shattering into a zillion bits.

I think the reason why people might prefer cold toast is so that the butter doesn't melt and hence spoil the total crispness of the toast.

[Genuine Cantonese & Dim Sum Come To North Essex]

some exceptoinally good dim sum (£6.50 for 8)

What was the dim sum?

[Chinese Eats at Home (Part 3)]

Dejah, that looks lovely. What is your soup base? Chicken stock?

[A unified theory of perfect roast pork belly]

Check out origamicrane's posts from page 2 on this thread: Siu Yook (Roast Pork Belly)

[Okara]

Check out Hiroyuki's blog for posts about okara: http://hiro-shio.blogspot.com/

[Short/long soups]

There are different 'classes' of soups served in the home setting though. One which is a quick boil of the ingredients, like tofu, leafy veg. etc. Then there are those which require low heat, long simmer like the medicinal ones (yerk choy). Oh maybe even 3 classes if you consider those which are steamed inside a separate container like dong guai.

[Dinner! 2011]

How on earth can chicken, butter and grapes look so luscious?

[Soy sauce noodles?]

Isn't it just 銀絲炒麵 (Silver thread stir fried noodles). The silver threads being the beansprouts.

[Sneaky Product Downsizing]

Is that why my can openers don't work on some cans?

[Breakfast! The most important meal of the day (2004-2011)]

To wit - oatmeal congee. I like rice congee but often don't have the time or the will to live required to make it in the morning so make a quick version of it with oatmeal. Here we have a specimen with (anticlockwise) green onions, leek flower sauce, crispy fried shallots, lao gan ma black bean chilli oil, a drizzle of Sichuan pepper oil, white pepper, a puddle of soy sauce, and a healthy teaspoonful of duck fat.

That's just porridge with Chinese accompaniments right? That looks like a heck of a lot of extras!

[How Do You Crack and Empty Eggs?]

Mjx, a tip to fishing shell fragments out: use the empty shell halves as a scoop.

[Marketing "Gluten-Free"]

My son is allergic to milk and my wife chooses not to eat dairy for health reasons. I was quite excited (I need to get out more) when I noticed lots of signs in cafes in our regular holiday haunt offering soya milk lattes. I didn't realise until much later that it was appealing to the "healthy eating" (calorie counting) crowd. I just thought, in my blinkered viewpoint, that they were catering for dairy intolerance/vegans.

Most free-from products are inferior to the originals in my opinion.

[Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen]

Oven gloves and safety glasses.

[Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen]

So now the question is whether there are things that are cool/interesting enough to try using the stuff. Those of you who have used it at home, what did you do with it?

I thought ice creams and sorbets might be the extent of it. I'd like to know what else you could do with it too.

[Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen]

I am wondering if you fill your refrigerator with Nitrogen, how much longer your food would stay fresher.

I think there is a distinct possibility your refigerator might go KAPOW!

[Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen]

I used to use LN for my graduate research (characterising semiconductor materials at low temp). There used to be a big pressurised tank of it in the basement of the building. Every so often I would trundle down with a large spherical dewar (polystyrene stopper) in a wheeled mount that allowed it to be transported and allowed tipping out. This was my "stash" - can't remember how long it lasted - maybe a week or two.

On a "per experiment" basis, I would fill a big polystyrene bucket with as much LN as I needed to fill a small cryostat. I was aware of the oxygen/air displacing properties but the lab was sufficiently ventilated.