CFT

Thanks for the ideas Cheryl.

Good stuff. Trying to get ideas for my 5-yr old son's packed lunch. He's allergic to milk which rules out cheese (chunky cheese triangles look nice). He's also turning his nose up at ham and tuna, so a bit limited. He loves tortillas and has recently accepted humous, so I've been making humous and vegetable wraps ("crudite rolls"!). Soften tortilla wrap in microwave, spread lightly with humous of your choice. Cut thin batons of carrot, cucumber, red pepper, cherry tomato quarters. Layout in middle of tortilla and wrap up like a spring roll. Cut in half diagonally. Pics to follow.

Halloween mask!

There's more to vegetable consumption than antioxidants. What about vitamins that may be broken down by the cooking process? Ideally we should eat a wide range of foods, cooked and/or raw.

Diana, try this link: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi...ch.php?q=%B5%B0There are 2 ways to pronounce the character for "jook". Listen to the sound file against the zuk1 pronunciation.

Have you tried brushing the scored skin with alcohol? Vodka seemed to work well if I remember previous posts correctly.

You don't need to coat the tofu parcels in corn starch before frying but you might want a little in the hollow to make sure the minced meat sticks to the tofu. Otherwise just fry in some oil meat side down to begin with and then other way for the tofu. You could add garlic, ginger, spring onions or whatever herbs you like. Personally I would add some oyster sauce at the end and cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.

Should that be wai-san (huai shan) - 淮山? I wouldn't call it a spice, it is a tuber.Not sure what "chi-tzu" might be - maybe gei zi (goji berries).

Sounds like the preparation for "kau yook".

Sorry, I'm not aware of any sites like that. Probably some of the Chinese language foodie sites, but I don't visit those in general.

· "ngaang" (hard), "ngaang gwuk gwuk" (very hard) - 硬 · "ngun" (tough & chewy) - 韌 · "you jiew tou" (has a nice chew) 有嚼頭

Not sure about the rest.Does anyone use the word "pun jui" (sounds like "blow out mouth") to describe the astringent taste of persimmons?

We should totally compile a list of textural descriptions! Maybe "song" or "cheui" would be a better describing word for fresh shrimp?Speaking of "daan nga", man, I miss the good fish balls in HK... I don't think you would use cheoi (脆) to describe prawns. I would use it to describe crispy pork crackling. Nyum nyum, chicken thighs - probably the most under-rated part of the chicken. You can keep the breast, even the vaunted drumstick. Does anyone use sweet (甜) to describe their soups, even though they are savoury soups?

My uncle like to use the term "daan ngaa" 彈牙 (bouncing teeth) to describe the sensation of eating good fresh prawns/shrimps.

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-can/search.php?q=%BA%EAClick on sound file (loudspeaker icon) for zung3.

Glutinous rice "cakes", boot zai gou (缽仔糕).Here's a recipe in: Chinese: http://blog.5d.cn/user7/carrie/200608/295366.html English: http://schneiderchen.de/328Steamed-Rice-Cup-Cake.html Change the sugar for different colours.

Isn't this "ling zhi" (靈芝, Ganoderma lucidum) ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%81%B5%E8%8A%9D

Has anyone tried just roasting a duck leg or breast? What were the results like?

海底椰 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_de_mer Translated page: http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E5%BA%95%E6%A4%B0

Ah Leung, do you know why they are called "ocean bottom" coconuts?

煎 - http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi...ch.php?q=%B7%CE (sound file) 堆 - http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi...ch.php?q=%B0%EF (sound file)

Yes, I do. Today, where else can you find mango pudding as readily as at a dim sum restaurant or a Chinese bakery? I think the fact that it is called a pudding (布丁) is a dead giveaway. Otherwise it would be a 'goh' (糕) of some sort.

I was eating stuffed cheung fun (steamed rice noodles) in London, UK in my childhood - at least the mid-70s. Did the dim sum scene change so much in just 10 years (from the 60s)?

Not my cooking, but someone posted a picture of king prawn chow mein on another forum I use. Have you ever seen such BIG prawns!!!

That does not sound at all much to me!