nakji

Watching "Top Chef" recently has opened my eyes to how small many professional kitchens are, making me feel a lot better about the limited space I work in. However, I need some new "small-space" coping strategies in my new kitchen in China. Which, tragically, is even smaller than the one I had in Japan. The main problem: the cupboards are basically unusable due to dampness/mold problems. First, I've a counter-top rubbish bin for food prep that I empty out each evening. The space under my sinks is unusable, and there's not enough floor space to have a big bin going, so I've adopted the "garbage bowl" principle. It works. I also installed some of those bars from Ikea for spice storage. I've got a cupboard unit from Ikea as well for dry goods storage, which I've left against an indoor wall in my dining room. I've also got a counter-top rice bin near the range to keep my rices dry. However, I have a large collection of oil, sauces, and vinegars that won't fit in the fridge that have to be left on the counter, and I think they're driving my husband mad. How do I corral them? The oil jugs in particular are quite large - about 3l each.

And this is bad how for their business model? "People are using too much of our product, so we're going stop selling it?" I'm unconvinced.

I was just reading through my Saveur December issue when I came across the article "Home for the Holidays". One sentence caught my eye, Then, again, in the David Lebovitz "Baking" topic, a couple of people mention that some of the recipes get nicer over a couple of days. And of course, there's our Fruitcake topic, where everything ages gracefully. I'm not much of a baker, but I guess I'd always assumed most cookies, cakes, and pies were always best fresh baked. Now that I give it some thought, though, it makes sense that some flavours take time to develop. Cake hardly lasts long enough to age in my house, but it's nice to know if you had to make dessert a few days ahead. I can think of some things that DON'T seem to age well for me - like my meringue, which always seems to weep. But things that DO age well - what are your favourites?

Nothing, now that you've said that. Please take pictures.

Excellent. I'll pick up some tomatoes later this week and give this a try out. I had been doing it backwards to your method - cooking the tomatoes first, then tipping them out and doing the eggs; adding the tomatoes back in at the end. I'll try it the opposite way, and with more oil. My tomatoes usually come out to my liking; it's the eggs I really need to work on.

I never would have thought of putting eggplant and potato together - do they cook at the same rate? Everything is better with panko.

I got another pumpkin today. I'm intrigued by the kaddo bourani recipe, but scared off by the three cups of sugar. Three cups? Also - my pumpkins are quite small - nowhere near three pounds.

Starbucks introduces a 31 oz. "trenta" size for cold drinks. I mean, how dehydrated would you need to be to need that much iced tea? Or, in the great tradition of American takeaway drinks, would most of it just be ice anyway?

My Dad was a huge "Wok with Yan" fan. He grew up in Singapore and Hong Kong, but when he moved to Canada with my Mum, the town they lived in had very limited Chinese food offerings, let alone any other Asian options. But there was one Chinese grocery he used to take me to as a treat on Saturdays, and we'd always get (frozen) char siu baos and ingredients to make dinner. He had a lot of fun (although - I would say lovingly, little success) in recreated sweet-n-sour pork, broccoli beef, and other dishes. If he and mum were feeling really ambitious, we'd all have a go at making egg rolls. Wow, I hadn't thought of egg rolls in years.

对！ Rather nice and soupy like that, with largeish curds/ribbons of eggs. Did you make that one?

I've only ever had crunchy pigs' ears - usually as a part of salads in Vietnam. There they're not so bad, since they're together with other thinly sliced crunchy components.

Oh yeah, I used to get those all the time for breakfast in Hanoi. There was a stand just down the road from my house. If you can get the pancakes thin enough, please post pictures here! On my street, they had a dedicated pan-type thingy that they could smooth the crepe batter out over - are you going to use a pan?

A Fuchsia Dunlop recipe, actually, and now how I mostly always deal with the cucumbers that come my way. I get the small pickling kind, rinse them and scrub the skins with salt; rinse them again, and lay them on the cutting board. Then I smack them with the broad side of a cleaver until they splinter into irregular chunks. I dress these with some salt, sesame oil, and Chingkiang vinegar. You can add chili or garlic to them, if you like. The texture is much nicer than sliced cucumber, I think.

I have a banana tree in the garden - can they be used right off the tree? I know they have to be toasted/warmed up to get pliable, but are they treated any other way?

I made mince pies for Christmas this year, as many of my co-workers are from the UK and enjoy the taste of home. When I was younger, my mother made mincemeat with deer my father had got, but these were made with jarred M&S product - meatless.

Okay, here's my attempt at this curry: Vietnamese dinner (with Chinese characteristics) Curry, with fried greens and garlic, and smashed cucumbers; jasmine rice. I found a packet of curry powder from my last trip to Malaysia tucked into the back of my cupboard, so I used that. My husband is going to Vietnam in a couple of weeks, so I going to get him to pick me up a pack of a local mix then. I'm always picking up spice mixes when I travel, but the mostly just orbit around the inside of my cupboard, avoiding me like cockroaches. It was satisfying to use this one.

Thank you! This has brought back great memories of all the food I had while travelling about Australia.

That's the sort of genius I could have used last night when I was staring down two heads of broccoli from my CSA. I ending up steaming them and tossing them in a lemon vinaigrette, which worked out, but that's next on my list if I get any more.

Have you got a brand name for that oil, rarerollingobject? Also: Kalonji seeds. I put some into a coleslaw last week to excellent effect. They really bring out the nice earthy flavours in cabbage.

My first attempt: I used jackal10's quick gratin dauphinois from Recipe Gullet, because I was late getting dinner started, and I didn't want to wait around an hour and a half after getting it in the oven. Random Chinese potatoes. Fairly waxy/wet. I don't have a mandolin, so I had to rely on my crack knife skills. Mixed in with cream - I used double, since I couldn't find single. I didn't have any milk in the fridge, but I think I should have thinned it out - maybe 1 cup double cream, 1 cup water, because the resulting dish was rich, to say the least. No fresh thyme, so I sprinkled in a few leaves. No onion in the house, either, so I added some thinly-sliced baby leeks. That cooked for ten minutes on the stovetop, which quickly tenderized the potatoes. Then I tipped it into my incredibly posh gratin dish. I did NOT dot with butter, due to the aforementioned double cream. Finished gratin: Served with a Vietnamese-French beef with mustard sauce, roasted tomatoes, and a nice pinot noir. Problems: my double cream was just too rich. I like a drier gratin, so in the future, I think I'd dial the proportion of potatoes up and the liquid down. This is a great recipe if you want a gratin on the table in 30 minutes, though. The top managed that cheesy-flavour-without-cheese that makes Dauphinois such an incredible dish.

I thought that must be the case. It does however, in my opinion, make the glasses more painful to pick up.

Cartilage is the texture I can't handle. Mushy, slimy, pasty - all okay. But cartilage, especially together with bone and nail, like in chicken feet? I just can't enjoy it.

Ah, looking at that gorgeous coffee your daughter has made - here's another question to ask - why is coffee served in thick glasses in Australia? My favourite coffee/breakfast chain in Shanghai (Waga's) is Australian, and they serve theirs in the same sort of glass you have. But I've never seen it done anywhere else. Is it just the style?

Ad Hoc. I don't have access to a lot of the ingredients required for the recipes; especially the cuts of meat. I hope to cook from it some day, though.

I never thought of putting pickled onions into a salad. huh. Sounds good. But why the red food colouring?