nakji

Whatever works, right? I agree about the taste. If you get enough lemon juice, balanced with the tahine and the eggplant, the flavour is on the same street as addictive. I've been smearing my first batch over fresh cucumbers and bread heels, but my second batch might necessitate some home-made pita.

From the article: Seriously, if I wanted to watch hosers cooking, I'd have just put a mirror in the kitchen. Interesting that the critic for the Village Voice noted that he thought Scripps should have oriented it more as an international food channel: Is a Canadian show about cooking Indian food substantially more "international" than Di Laurentiis cooking Italian food? I am interested in seeing them get a chicken's head off a dead chicken, as promised. My chickens come head-on, and I often struggle to cut the thing off with one clean whack.

Right, well an advantage of living in China is the powerful gas range you get in your kitchen. I set a couple of long eggplants on the burner turned to half-wok blast this evening while making dinner, and roasted them to a crackling black. My exhaust fan barely shrugged at the smell, too. A quick whizz in my blender with some third-rate export olive oil and some first-rate Israeli tahine; some lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and I was wiping the damn blender walls down with bread trying to get each last schmear. The eggplants were pure smoke. I strongly recommend this method.

My father's a big fan of this strategy. He's always after his local meat department to cut him off fresh steaks or cut down ribs. Now that he's retired, he prefers to shop every day like he was used to growing up, so he's built a relationship with the manager of the meat department at his local Loblaws. The store workers don't seem to mind, especially as he's there in the middle of the day when they're not so busy anyway. When I'm back in Canada, I'm always having to wander to the back of the meat department to ask them for Asian-style cuts, like for hot pot. The only time it's been a problem was at a local "whole foods" imitator. They only had pork loin for sale on display, so I asked if they had a fattier cut in back, as I was making caramel pork. The clerk looked at me like I was nuts and asked if I was "..following a recipe or something?" Um, yeah. Something.

Can't argue that one. Also: Soju cocktail.

You could also use that pan to make takoyaki, if you also happen to like octopus fritters. Looks like it, anyway.

I wonder if you use white beans...is it still hummus? Is it wrong?

I usually rinse it in the fine mesh infuser that comes with my teapot. I usually use cold water to rinse - should I be using warm?

Trying to use up some Bi Luo Chun gifted to me by a student; I find it hopelessly dusty, no matter how I rinse it. The flavour is good, but I wish I didn't 500g of it. I like my Longjing better.

So...still using up my tahine. Do I keep the skins on my eggplants? Yogurt or no yogurt? I prefer eggplants to chickpeas any day, and here I've had tahine in my house weeks before even thinking of baba ghanoush. Don't get up; I'll fire myself.

I'm making hummus and cucumber sandwiches for lunch tomorrow to use up the rest of my uneaten hummus. My fruit shop had the season's first cucumbers! The promise of a hummus lunch is the only thing keeping me from attacking the remainder with a spoon right now. I'll have to remember to sprinkle a little paprika on for zest - if only I had some feta.

Yeah, I never have pork fat on hand. I eat it up too quickly. Fuschia Dunlop strongly recommends lard for her recipes, but I never seem to have the time to render my own, more's the pity.

That is a stunning plate, just waiting to have some pita wiped through it. Oh, gosh, I did forget to mention the garlic. I added two cloves, grated first on my Japanese ginger grater. I find that gives the finest possible mince, removing the remotest possibility of happening across a painful chunk of raw garlic. Fresh mint is an utter, utter impossibility where I live. I miss it. I used the chickpea broth from the can - it was an Italian brand, and the broth doesn't taste tinny at all.

Sounds great! I have all this in my fridge right now. Any other vegetable combinations it goes well on?

I have a nice, dry cup of Spring 2010 Longjing from Hangzhou; needed to clear the barolo hangover from my mouth.

Procession, then? I don't know, I just made it up. My tea changes flavour over the day, too, but because of the various infusions I do. I have a modern Chinese tea thermal cup. In the morning, my tie guan yin leaves go in, filled with hot water. I refill the same cup over the day using the same leaves. I get as many as ten infusions out of the leaves, which I think is good value. The first cup is usually too harsh, but the second cup is magic - all floral and sweetness with no tannins. The tea gets less floral and more "tea-y" during the day, but never develops any harshness. If only I could figure out the name. I'll have to snap a picture of the label the next time I go into the shop.

I made hummus successfully for the first time in my life this week. Previous attempts had resulted in what could only charitably be called chickpea spread. A friend bought me back a litre (!) of tahina from Israel so I could make some "real" hummus. Following his family recipe, I whizzed a tin of canned chickpeas (sacrilege, I know) in the blender with lemon juice, ground pepper, salt, olive oil, and several spoons of tahina. I included the water from the can, and it made an incredibly light, almost fluffy hummus. I did not peel the chickpeas, as I wanted to include the fibre to offset all the fat. Tragically, we have no pita bread, so we've been eating a lot of crudite. What else can you do with hummus?

I use peanut oil for deep-frying, too. Anytime I make anything wok-based, basically. Except if I'm stir-frying greens; then they get sesame oil.

The East is Red!...hum Great to see that protesters have to eat, too. My favourite is the pomelo...just the thing to cut the street heat, and doesn't come back to haunt you like street draught beer.

And as I recall, Moscow Mules were very trendy. Don't know if those are popular in the US as well, though.

Spring cabbage is back! I've been getting a head a week from my CSA. This week was red, and I pulled out Marcella Hazan for inspiration, since we were sick of coleslaw. She did not disappoint, with "Smothered cabbage, Venetian Style", from The "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking". The cabbage is cooked slowly in olive oil over about an hour, with some garlic and salt as seasoning. At the end, you pour in a tablespoon of wine vinegar for seasoning. My only twist was to take the cover off at the end of cooking and allow some of the cabbage to crisp up in the olive oil. As good if not better, in my humble opinion, as roast cauliflower. As a side dish, I can't imagine a better use for cabbage.

Lately I've been getting a weekly bag of produce from a local organic farm, The May Farm. This week was: Red cabbage Grape tomatoes a couple varities of lettuce daikon indeterminate mushrooms and peashoots. I've gotten peashoots every week for the last month, in fact. What to do with peashoots? I've stir-fried them with sesame oil and garlic, and thrown the leftovers into fried rice. (delicious) I've put them into a Korean hot pot in place of chrysanthemum. But I don't know what else to do with them. Has anyone ever substituted them for kale or the like? I'm thinking of making a peashoot and bean soup.

Ah, chicken fat. I never have enough of that laying around, but when I do, it goes right on my greens. How about duck fat? I know duck fat and potatoes, but what else....?

It might be fun to pick up several teas and try a tea "flight" as it were, working through various levels of oxidation for one tea. I'll read up on those sites you've suggested, Richard, thanks.

Well, we're being assured on a daily basis that a wave of foreign visitors is going to hit Suzhou as a result of the wildly anticipated Shanghai World Expo 2010. (New City! New Life!) So..if you're in the neighbourhood, there are a few decent places to eat. Suzhou is mainly famous for its formal gardens (not food), and one of the nicest places in town is a restored street of traditional housing - Ping Jiang Lu. It's lined with a number of nice teahouses and places to eat. One of my favourite houses has a terrace to sit out on the canal, where you can watch traditional canal boats poling by, and enjoy one of their many teas by the leaf. On a recent visit, we sampled some Hangzhou longjing I tried the bi luo chun, in an attempt to find one I like, but I'm just not a fan. A young couple runs this house, and they have an eclectic selection of teaware that is matched to each of their teas. They also offer fruit and flower teas, which are quite trendy now. You get your leaves and a giant thermos of hot water, so you can while away an afternoon in the sun reloading your cup and reading. They also have wi-fi.