nakji

We have a topic on Elizabeth David's works here. I picked up this particular book and have enjoyed reading through it, as I do with most regional cookbooks, with a particular eye for sourcing ingredients. It's fascinating to get a look into a time and place where sourcing Parma ham would have meant a trip to Soho and explicit exhortations to not trust butchers trying to pass of Bayonne ham as the same product. I imagine there might still be places where this is the case. I've only gotten through some of the antipasto chapter, but have already decided I'm going to blame Ms. David for my British father's love of making salads with raw button mushrooms. Of course, his were always made with Kraft dressing and not good olive oil and lemon, as her recipe calls for, so perhaps my blame should be tempered. It's one of the first recipes I'm going to try, I think. It's nice to read through, just as a book, without getting tripped up with standard recipe format over lists of teaspoons and weights; I'm wondering if it's equally easy to cook from?

Can I ask what weight of chicken you usually use? A smallish Chinese one, or a western roaster? Is it just me, or do you find colour an unreliable indicator of temperature? Whenever I roast my chicken, I'm always careful to bring it up to 155 at the thickest part, but there's still some pinkness on the bone and in the juice. The flesh is so delicious at this point that I always eat it anyway, to no ill effect so far.

My husband is a huge fan of fried rice in his bento, too. Some cold blanched broccoli florets and a boiled egg make it a fairly well-rounded meal, too. When I pack cold rice, I like to add a squeezy tube of thinned gochujang to jazz things up. It really pops broccoli. If that's too spicy for PJ, you can cut it with mayonnaise, or simmer some soy, sugar, mirin and ginger together for a rice-pouring sauce. That really makes the rice a lot more interesting to eat, rather than just plain soy. I usually put it in a salad dressing container.

I'm thinking a large pot, lots of boiling stock, and a relatively large chicken. If I don't uh, chicken out, I'll post the results here. I tried to load my book onto my Eatyourbooks.com bookshelf, but the copy I have is called "Sichuan Cookery" - I was under the impression that the two are the same book, and "Sichuan Cookery" is the UK version - and they say it has been indexed. Does anyone know if the two are fundamentally different books? Amazon is mysterious on the subject.

There's another chain I've noticed around Beijing - Origan's or something similar. Papa John's looks upscale, but the pizza is still pretty cardboard-abysmal. For staff events at school, or Principal often has Pizza Hut and KFC brought in. The pizza looks even less like pizza than it does in Canada; although of course, it's meant to be catering to local tastes. It seems popular with our Chinese staff, so it must be working.

Just (finally) picked this book up, after having a transforming Bang Bang Chicken at Da Dong last night. I'm really looking forward to attempting this dish when I get home. Has anyone tried it, and can they tell me what kind of chicken they've used, and if anyone has attempted her suggested method of bringing the chicken only to a boil, then leaving the lid on to poach the chicken gently? The meat I had was so silky and smooth, that surely some sort of revolutionary method was used; I suspect the one she describes is it.

It's a popular chain with salad bars? But people do this in Korea, too. We used to make layered pies out of the side dish salads. Start with a base of sweet potato salad, add a layer of strawberry yogurt on lettuce, build with some sweet corn and pickles, top the whole thing off regular potato salad. Playing with your food is irresistible.

I couldn't find many English language hits on "Wulong Wang" either, although I did find lots in Chinese. Unfortunately, my Mandarin was not up to reading them. It's Google translate for me, I guess. I get a lot of really nice TGY in Suzhou; I'm in Beijing for a few days over Golden Week, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for some more toasted-profile wulongs.

The attitude that some travel-food writers have, that "you have to be there to get the true experience" annoys me. I mean, in some ways, it's true - some things just don't travel well. But good pho can be reliably reproduced in a variety of locales, no need to get on a plane. Interestingly, the pho shop they recommend is a chain, Pho 24 - and they're right; it did have a reliable and broad meat selection. I know there are pho shops in Hanoi that have proper seats; I ate at many of them when I lived there (although mainly for the aircon). But more often than not, pho stalls in Hanoi have indifferent seating at best. If you want the "I'm on a street corner! Motorcycles are whizzing by!" Bourdain experience, like, if people think that adds to the soup somehow, then sure, go for it. My point is; I like the soup just as much in Toronto as I do in Hanoi. The more annoying thing about this article, as many of us have pointed out, was that they didn't get the basics right. I'm in Beijing right now; a cursory glance at my guidebook and a brief post here let me know that DaDong is more favoured for duck. But whoever the writer was didn't even bother with that, and went with Quanjude.

This is less of a, "What should I do with this?" question (obviously, I just opened it and drank it) and more of a...Huh. WTF? Pabst Blue Ribbon World War II Chinese Commemorative Tribute to The US Army Can. It says, "Yes, we can." on the side. I immediately went to Wikipedia to read up on the American Army's contributions in China during WW II, so chalk one up to beer for actually contributing to education for once. I'd never tried Pabst Blue Ribbon before, either, and found it easily drinkable. Malty, but nice.

My cousin e-mailed me back in June and said, "I'm coming to Shanghai during National Week! Suzhou's near Shanghai, right? Can we sort out some train tickets?" Some frantic booking and one missed train due to station confusion later, I spent the weekend with her and her husband seeing some more sights around Suzhou. We went first to Tongli, a Song Dynasty "water village" on the outskirts of town. It's a canal town, with gondolas that will pole you around the old streets. There are lots of little tea shops along the canal that have fine tea lists. We stopped for a cuppa char, as my mum would say; the choices were jasmine tea, "grandma style" tea, Tie Guan Yin, and Long Jin teas. We opted for some TGY and enjoyed the view: There were lots of snacks on offer for the October 1st holiday crowds, including an assortment of Suzhou-style dumplings. The white ones have a simple pork filling with a rich soup gravy; the green ones are made with some sort of herb worked into the dough, and have smoked tofu and mushrooms inside; the pouches have glutinous rice with "eight treasures". We didn't indulge. The dumpling master looks in askance at his apprentice: Was he taking the cover off wrong? We'll never know. I didn't indulge because I was saving myself for some chou doufu. (Oh no you didn't! Oh yes I did!) Okay, I didn't actually have chou doufu (stinky tofu) at Tongli, I had it the day before in the city centre. But this picture is so much prettier than the knock-off alley behind a discount drugstore where I had my first stick. For those who are uninitiated to choudoufu, it's got a pungent odour which I personally liken to the smell you get off a brown streak on a baby's diaper. It was one of the more difficult things I have put in my mouth. I would like to report it tastes exactly like it smells, for those of you who may have read the opposite. That being said, despite gagging to get it down, I could see the appeal. If I could eat three or four more sticks, I'm sure I could snack on it happily. It had a really compelling, definitive taste. And the texture was great. I'm far more sensitive to texture. But the first time was like licking the floor in the KFC toilet of the long distance bus station. And it was really salty. The great thing about eating choudoufu, though, is that while I couldn't say I enjoyed it, every time I smelt it afterwards, I found it much less striking a smell. Like I had been innoculated somehow.

Heavens to Betsy, the Lower Deck served food? Was the Pair of Trindles next to the old Chandler's Shop?

Last night I picked up what my local tea shop was calling a "Wulong Wang", from Fujian, Anxi. Loosely translated - King of Oolongs? A quick internet search didn't turn up much but that it is probably a TGY mix of spring and autumn leaves. I brewed up a pot last night for some guests. It had a much browner, darker colour than TGY, but retained the floral taste of TGY overlaid with a bit of roastiness. Anyone ever tried a "Wang" tea?

Some of my favourite Japanese dishes! I didn't know they dated to the Showa era. Percival, it sounds like your find compares negatively to the Time Life Foods of the World book on Japan, which I think treated Japanese food rather directly. Who do you think the audience was meant to be for "Japanese Country Cooking"?

Eh, these lists are just crap marketing tools designed to make you feel bad about yourself for not travelling more. I've had just as good pho as I've ever had on the streets of Hanoi in pho shops in Toronto and Shanghai. The only thing missing was that I wasn't balanced on a crap blue plastic stool trying not to break off one of the legs and collapse into a heap of gutter lime peels and pink paper tissue pulp. My butt thanked me for it. If you like the atmosphere, sure go get on a plane. If you like soup, go find your local Vietnamese community. It's probably closer to you than Hanoi. After all they go on about carbon offsets? I cry foul, Guardian.

I work under similar time constraints; even worse, in a typical Chinese kitchen with no room for anything other than my two-burner gas hob. Obviously we eat a lot of wok-based dishes. For that, Prepping/chopping veg after the dinner is done for incoming meals is a great strategy - one I hadn't thought of before. I kind of do it accidentally sometimes, when I get a whole bundle of long beans and prep the lot of them, only to use half. I'm going to start working that into my plan deliberately from now on. Two things that I have found very useful: Nabe/hotpot - everything goes in a pot at the table and cooks while you sit around waiting and snacking on (pre-prepared) side dishes. You need a table-top burner for this, which can be had rather cheaply at an Asian market if you don't already have one. Great in winter, although supervision necessary for the younger set, of course. Side dishes - kind of a Korean panchan thing. On Sunday, I usually make a quick pickle of whatever vegetable's on hand. This goes into a bowl on the table when we get home for snacking while dinner gets prepared. The other good thing to do is get a miso or vegetable soup or similar out to the table right away - something you made earlier and that can be nuked and put out to quell grumpiness/hunger pangs - even if it's just for the cook! Rely on some pre-prepped items. I have one or two good quality Japanese salad dressings and pickles; a good bottle of olives and feta cubes; a pack of hummus and baby carrots when I'm in Canada - boom, onto the table for everyone while I'm in the kitchen getting the main dish together. Has saved family relationships and feeling numerous times.

Sweetened Condensed Milk. Spoon for me, but I have to wrest the can away from my husband.

Where are they coming from?

Good meat for me is difficult to find and expensive to buy. I also find it more boring than vegetables. I rarely cook a large joint of meat at all. Usually I may buy two or three pieces of meat and use them throughout the week as the basis of vegetable dishes. For example, a packet of mince gets tossed with green beans or some other green vegetable. Two chicken breasts may go into a curry that will last for four meal. A little bacon or smoked ham will be the basis for a potato soup or a pasta. Two or three days a week I don't eat any meat at all, and I have to say, I hardly notice.

I call them "cheese feet". Kinda gross if you think about it too much, though.

What struck me about the article was, and Vegetables do take a little more time than bunging a chicken breast and potato in the oven. However, I never feel like I have to schedule my life around veggies. If I can't use them, I try to pop them in the freezer. It takes a little organization. I still throw out one or two veggies a week, but I figure it's a decent investment in my health just having them around. One mistake I feel some veggie novices make is that they think they have to be only boiled and steamed, to keep them "healthy". Who wants to eat boiled kale? But kale roasted in olive oil and sea salt? For example, tonight, I had pumpkin pasta. I sauteed the pumpkin in a healthy dose of olive oil and a judicious amount of salt, before tossing it in pasta and grated parmesan. Delicious. Better for my heart than a cheese-stuffed and breaded chicken breast. But there's no way to get around the time it takes. I had to be there with the pasta the whole time - with the pochicken meal, you can wander away and do laundry or whatever. I know the last thing I want to do after a day standing in a classroom is go stand in my kitchen for another 45 minutes, but, again, I'm putting that time in for my health. One thing I'm trying to do is add greens to our diet - at least three times a week. They're more hassle to clean free of grit, and they cook down next to nothing, but I can see what an emphasis people in Asia put on having greens regularly, and I must admit I do like the taste after a saute in peanut oil and garlic.

I agree, although what I wanted to highlight, I guess, is that the diversity of sandwiches in America is related to the diversity of peoples there, not simply that Americans are better at coming up with sandwich ideas. If some other countries pursued similar immigration patterns, their sandwich diversity and culture would rise accordingly, I would think. Or would they? Look at the UK, which also has diverse immigration and a native sandwich tradition. They, arguably, have a poorer sandwich culture than the US. But - then, the UK has a lot fewer people overall than the US. So again, perhaps it's just a size thing. Of course, I can't just say that larger countries are by definition going to have large and rich sandwich cultures, or I'd be rolling in sandwiches in China, and that's clearly not the case.

That looks beautiful. I don't have any pitas, but I guess some other flat bread could stand in for it. I see cucumbers, mint, olives and pickled chilis...do you use chopped boiled eggs, too? And do you chop your garnishes, or put them on whole?

I ordered a bag of dried favas from my local with them - foul mudammas sounds nice, but I don't have any dip or small-eats related events upcoming to make it for - or can it be served with rice and vegetables for a meal? Alternately, I was wondering if anyone had tried to bake these after an overnight soaking and peeling? I was thinking with some onion, canned tomatoes, olive oil - maybe some lemon, too?

Great! We're staying at Opposite House, and their website says there's a Da Dong about 4km away. They also recommend a place called, "Made in China". Anyone been? As for the Omakase, very interested. Are there sake pairings? I enjoy a good hunt for "hidden" restaurants! Of course, no set of directions in Asia is complete unless it goes something like, "Go out Exit 6 and walk until you see the China Mobile shop. Turn left down the alley until you come to the house with open window and the red and green thermoses on the desk. Walk through the door and out into the alley opposite, and follow the length of hedges until you get to a garbage tip. Look for the house with birdcage opposite, and..."