nakji

That recipe calls for firm tofu, which surprises me. I usually make mine by adding doenjang to gochujang, then thinning it with sesame oil and adding a touch of sugar. What's the point of the tofu? Does it add body?

I was thinking about buttercream frosting, I guess, which requires a lot of beating. Softening the butter in water is a great idea, though. My flat's so cold, it's hard to get anything to soften without sticking it in the microwave, which invariably ends up melting some part of the butter, while having other bits remain rock hard.

That's an interesting question. I travel a lot, but never to visit top/famous restaurants. I'm usually travelling with others, who often have other goals for the trip. Even though I could afford to visit "destination" restaurants, I doubt I'd feel very comfortable in one. There's only one that springs to mind that I would really, really love to go to, and that's Momofuku.

Oh, wow, that brings back memories! My family did the same sort of thing, except we used just plain old white bread from the bag. My job was to make "garlic toast" - I'd toast the bread in the toaster, then nuke some butter with a crushed garlic clove (we always had garlic cloves in the house) in it. When the toast came out of the toaster, I'd spoon the butter, avoiding the garlic clove, over the toast, and cut it into triangles (never squares). One of my first jobs in the kitchen! Later on when we were first dating, my husband and I would make a split loaf of garlic bread - a baguette, cut down the middle, spread with melted garlic butter, topped with tons of grated mozzarella, and run under the broiler. drool. Oh, to have that metabolism back. If you want to avoid the garlic pieces on the bread, why not just gently infuse melted butter or olive oil with several smashed (not chopped) cloves of garlic. Fish the cloves out after about five minutes, and use the butter on the bread then? I agree that sometimes, especially if you broil the bread, the garlic pieces are too strong or can burn and taste bitter. Or you could use garlic powder.

My husband's birthday is next week, and I'm baking cupcakes to take in to work. (We both work at the same school) He doesn't like anything chocolate, and I don't have a mixer or hand-mixer; nor am I likely to get one before the day. I was just going to throw my hands up and use canned product (I know, I know), but the shops are all out. I'd just whip the butter by hand, but the ambient temperature in our flat is about 15 degrees, and I'm not keen on whipping hard butter for a half hour. So: I had resolved the easiest thing to do was to make a white-chocolate ganache; lo; the shops have also picked this weekend to run out of white chocolate. I'm feeling pretty frustrated. Do you have any ideas on a butter-based icing that doesn't require beating? He likes coffee, lemon, caramel...anything like that; just not chocolate.

I'm not sure how it would come out with jasmine rice, but my house white is japonica rice - either from Korea or Japan. Sometimes, I'll even cut in about 25% mochi rice if it's hanging around. Is it exactly the same as a risotto made with arborio? Not really - arborio seems to be a longer grain, and seems more, "ricey" when I've made risotto with it. When I use the short-grain rice, it comes out very creamy and smooth. I like it, and it's a lot cheaper, so that's enough for me for week-night dinners.

I laughed at this. I was supposed to, right? That's a good sign?

Actually, this is something I've been thinking more and more of starting lately. I started to really buy nice bottles of wine - and by nice, I mean more than $20 a bottle - obviously I'm a beginner, here - only in the last two years or so. My husband and I became interested as we had a really good wine shop that was able to offer thoughtful recommendations in our price range. Now we no longer have such a resource, and we're going to have to start developing some opinions of our own, and some idea on how to choose wines. What kind of information, other than maker; year; taste; rating/preference might be relevant?

The first beer I ever enjoyed was a Leffe blonde. For the first time, I realized beer could actually have a flavour other than weak toast. I love the wheat beers, however. Hoegaarden is all over Asia (although Erdinger from Germany is starting to edge it out in distribution - I wonder why?), and it's one of my favourite wheat bears. I think of it as a "morning beer" - so if I'm at a brunch or on the sort of holiday where beer is being considered before noon, it's a go-to beer for me. I've heard it described as having citrus or coriander notes, and that also (apparently) makes it go well with curries. I made a great biryani last weekend from the BBC Food magazine that had in the drink notes a recommendation for Hoegaarden. Oddly enough, a Nepalese restaurant opened locally that specializes in Nepalese, Chinese, and Northern Indian curries, and they have Vedett on tap, another Belgian wheat. So if you want to try and pair some of these with food, try wheat beers with spice.

Does Popeye's use the same sort of packet for their jam in the US? I remember getting biscuits at Popeye's in Korea and they had these sort of packs, but with strawberry jam in them instead. I remember thinking at the time that it got rid of the need for knives..clever. If this confuses people, I can't imagine there being much hope left for humanity. /Pictures people, frozen with indecision; poised over their fries - "Do I dip? Do I squeeze?...!?"/ Actually, there may be an ad campaign in there somewhere.

I make risotto with regular white rice.

I always found the bottled stuff was more likely to be carbonated than bowls I was served in a restaurant. I'm not sure why, but I quite enjoyed the carbonated effect. How do you drink your makkeolli? Neat? With food? I couldn't imagine drinking it without a nice kimchi pancake on the side.

This? Is genius. I'm lamenting a lack of fish sticks right now. I enjoy mine best with peas and oven fries, and if we're in Canada, it has to be Highliner brand, merely for nostalgia's sake.

Crazy! The sugar I use on the mainland is "Tai Koo" brand. It never occured to me (despite the spelling) that it had its origins on Hong Kong.

Thanks anyway! Too late for this trip, alas, but there is more Hong Kong in my future. Actually, I was at that very train station, which kills! My friend lives near there. Perhaps you can tell me - what came first, the sugar, or the place name? What are the tenets of molecular cuisine, and do they conflict with (all) Asian cuisines? How so? This is a very interesting question, but I don't know enough about either cuisine to comment thoughtfully. I'd like to hear what others have to think about it, though.

Part of the ability to be creative and menu plan on the fly depends on how broad a selection of "staples" you keep on hand, I think. I always have in the cupboard/fridge: Fish sauce dark/light soy sauce miso mirin gochujang oyster sauce black bean sauce olive oil peanut oil sunflower oil sesame oil cooking sake Shiaoxing wine cheap white wine Dijon mustard some sort of chutney garlic lemon ginger cumin chili gochugaru bay cinnamon star anise sichuan peppercorns sesame seeds garam masala sea salt pickling salt sugar pepper sticky (mochi) rice plain rice long-grain rice canned tomatoes dried penne parmesan cheese sherry vinegar smoked bacon butter stock (homemade or powder) Any of these things runs out - it's an automatic re-load. Fortunately, they don't run out at the same time, or it would cost a fortune! Experience has taught me that if I want to run a flexible kitchen, this is my range. It's not very deep into any cuisine - I can't make a biryani or a Thai curry without buying specific things. But from this, I can make anything from a nice roast chicken to dry-fried green beans, depending on what's on sale or in season. So when I'm at the market, I can look at a pumpkin and think - Pumpkin with sesame - Japanese. Or Curried pumpkin soup. All I need to get is the pumpkin. Usually I go through my cookbooks at the weekend and decide. If ingredients are fragile, like tofu, then I plan to shop the day I want to cook it. I always try and keep a "cupboard" dinner - pasta amatriciana is a good one for that - for later in the week, or for days I can't get to the market.

Since I have a fairly limited range of things to buy from - no processed foods; and very little selection of traditional western staples like cheese or beef - my decision making process is pretty simple. I work within a range of recipes that can be executed with the ingredients and substitutions I have on hand. On the weekend, I usually go through my tabbed cookbooks to see what dishes I want to make that week. I have a whiteboard in the kitchen, where I schedule the meals, based on what's happening in the evenings during the week. Usually I choose dishes that will yield leftovers for a packed lunch the following day. Right now I'm on a roasting chicken kick, because I want to get good at roasted chicken. So I buy one once a week, cook it on either Saturday or Sunday, then have to do something to address the leftovers and the stock it yields. Last week it was a curry and Thomas Keller's lentil soup. This week I think we'll do risotto (using a mix of glutinous and plain rice) with the stock, and maybe tackle a chicken pot pie recipe. I buy meat, bread and any staples on the weekend. During the week I pick up vegetables on an as-needed basis from the wet market on my way home from work. If I didn't plan, I'd never be able to cook at home. Supermarkets in China don't invite contemplation of the ingredients to decide something on the spur of the moment. They're too bustling. I need a game plan when I get home in the evening, or I'll just give up and grab something on the street.

Is that cheese sliced up in the above bento? What kind is it? It looks like a thoroughly satisfying lunch. I continue to make myself and my husband's packed lunch every day, much to the bemusement of our co-workers, who usually eat in the school cafeteria or at the local noodle shops around our campus. We usually end up having to work through our lunch, however, so I always make something we can eat at our desks while marking. Mostly these days I've been making soup, but this week I had tried out some new recipes from a Harumi Kurihara book I'd picked up in Hong Kong over the term holiday. The leftovers suited a bento perfectly, along with some leftover pork loin I'd made. Pork loin with pumpkin in sesame sauce; rice with dashi, carrot, and pepper. I forgot how satisfying a well-made benot is for lunch, although I wish I'd had something green on hand for contrast.

Can you freeze them? I remember taking a cooking class in Thailand, and the cook recommended freezing the herbs over drying them, as they retain more of their flavour that way, supposedly. I've never tried it, as that was the last time I saw holy basil. The same goes for kaffir lime leaves, I recall.

As in - "I'm going to Keller-up these carrots by sprinkling fleur de sel from a height of 30cm." Yeah, that works. Also: why so much fennel in this book? Am I only noticing it because I can't find any?

Right, the first recipe I tried was the lentil and sweet potato soup. I had to halve the recipe, as I don't own a large enough stockpot for soup-making. My largest pot only holds two litres, as a matter of fact, so I had to make do. My raw ingredients: Plus I used random green (brown?) lentils found at the western supermarket. It was my first time making lentils, and they were much easier than I thought - for some reason, I thought they'd be tricky like beans, but they weren't at all. I was quite happy with the texture. I had some rather run-of-the-mill end of season sweet potatoes, too, not pictured. What made this soup for me was the really excellent pork I was able to use - Chinese smoked pork. I think you've really got to use a good pork product to make this soup really worthwhile. If you've just got supermarket bacon, I don't think the flavour will really come through. (Husband:"Eating lentils just feels so virtuous, doesn't it?" Me: "They've been coated in pork fat, soo...") I had a quick bowl the first evening, with crispy bacon on top. The rest came to work with me on Monday and today for lunches.It was at its best today, and I got to torture my co-workers with soup-smell, something I like to do on semi-regular occasions. Although usually the weapon in question is from Marcella Hazan.

So...is it a worthy practice for the home cook? Will it make my grilling more efficient or more tasty? Or should I just leave it on the grill as is?

That picture of the curries sent me scrambling for our eGCI course on North Indian breads - which includes a method for paratha. I'd never tried one before last year, and now I'm hooked - especially after three weeks in Malaysia eating roti canai every day for breakfast.

I like how you're noting what skills you're learning along with the recipes. I'm sucking up the courage to start breaking down my own chicken, since it seems like an incredibly useful skill. I need to get some poultry shears to help. I've been reading this book through extensively, hoping to avoid that kind of frustration. I'm saving most of the recipes for Sunday afternoon cooking, until I get used to them. I'll need the time. The first recipe I want to make is the lentil-sweet potato soup, followed closely by the cauliflower soup. Only I can't find beets where I live, so I suspect I'll make sweet potato chips as a substitute. Also, no applewood smoked bacon to be found anywhere, so I'll be using Hunan smoked ham. Probably not what Chef Keller had in mind. The other thing I was wondering while reading through the pork loin recipe - the pork available in China is quite fatty and rich - not at all lean like it is in North America. I wonder if I need bother brining?

I'm just back from Hong Kong with four more - I'll have to start a new shelf! The Essential of Classic Italian Cooking, Ad Hoc, Everyday Harumi, and the Taste Bible. I'm not sure how I'll keep a record of all the recipes I want to try.