nakji

They are a feat, aren't they? If you turn the egg while the top is a little less set, the layers should fuse together more. You can add chopped cooked spinach; more sugar and shoyu, or chopped green onions to jazz it up.

Hmm. I just bought a bag of pasta flour on impulse when I saw it in a shop a couple of weeks ago. I'd been avoiding it, wondering how I could possibly get dough rolled thin enough - but Chris, those strips are fairly thick. I think I could manage them with a rolling pin. Orecchiete are my favourite shape.

Gorgeous! I note you were able to get your pork belly in the pot in a single layer, too. I think I must cut my pieces too thing to stand up properly.

Well, it's more about not being able to afford the replacement I want than not being able to forgo the ten dollars I spent on the first one.

Substitutions. All over the place, as needed. Fortunately I have now been cooking long enough to know what makes a rational substitution and what doesn't.

Interesting. II wouldn't have thought of boiling them - I just rehydrate mine in boiling water. But a shake of chicken Maggi powder at the end often "elevates" the dish. Or - I imagine making them well ahead of time, and then re-dressing them right before you were going to eat them would give it a bit more depth, too.

My blender, too. It's a no-name brand, but I use it every day. In fact, if I'd known how much I was going to use it, I would have bought something better. Like a Vita-mix. Now I just have to wait it out. At least it only cost me ten bucks.

So true! Like I said, I hope that these alleys do get preserved architecturally, but that the people who live in them get carried up by the rising tide of prosperity into more modern accommodation. Watching the women wash clothes in the well water in January has been particularly difficult for me. I'm thrilled to hear this. One of my hopes in volunteering to blog was to show what a lovely place China is, and how much the people here care about good food. The sheer number of places to get good, fresh produce and ingredients even in my little neighborhood makes me appreciate living in a high population environment. Please enjoy your trip! It's really been our pleasure. Thank you, and thank you for all your individual responses, to me and others, from which I learned a lot and got some great ideas. Thanks for reading - it was gratifying to seem your name at the bottom of the topic, following along. Please come and post your inspirations in the China forum. Thanks! I think I might, too! You're welcome. It really is the best.

Thanks! I'm going to pour myself a large drink, put my feet up, and relax - and not cook again for a couple of days!

Ok - the "Last Supper", if you will. The market is still shut, so I went foraging back to my vegetable hut again. I got some back alley pictures, but my flash died before I could get the hut. Here's the alley next to our complex - When the clothes go up first thing in the morning, I have to run quickly under each pole to avoid being dripped on. The courtyard homes will probably - if things go well for everyone - be converted to galleries and posh coffee shops in ten years. There's no running water, or heat, which in the winter is extremely difficult. Here's the neighborhood well: Tonight's vegetable hut take: The vegetable selection is getting limper and and browner each day. Hopefully the market will reopen tomorrow. Spinach, a zucchini, a carrot, some fresh bamboo shoots, and some (unpictured) red chilis. For my last dinner, I wanted to make a couple of Korean dishes. I had some wood-ear mushrooms and some sweet potato noodles I've been meaning to use for a while, so japchae seemed like the thing to do: The prep: Japchae is a noodle dish that's a popular home-cooking noodle dish in Korea. It's sometimes served as a side-dish at restaurants, and it's one of my favourites. It's another dish that can be served hot or cold, so it makes great leftovers. It can be made with whatever vegetables you have on hand, but spinach, mushrooms, and carrots seem to be the most common. You can put beef or pork slivers in, but I didn't have any, so I didn't. I first blanched the spinach in some water with soy sauce in it - a trick I picked up from a Korean friend. Then I cooked the noodles in the same water. In my wok, I started with some garlic in peanut oil. Then I stir-fried the vegetables, starting from the hardest (carrot) to finally the spinach. Then, I tossed in the noodles, along with a healthy glug of light soy sauce, another healthy glug of sesame oil, about 4 tbsp. of sugar, sesame seeds, and fresh ground pepper. Using scissors to cut the noodles is the Korean way! And it saves fighting with them. The finished noodles: And on the side - fried zucchini: Dredged zucchini slices in seasoned flour; then pan-fried. On a plate with some black sesame seeds, Maldon salt, and a Chinese characteristic - sprinkled with black vinegar. And that's it. My New Year week in food. Thanks everyone for coming along for the ride!

Squares. Of course. Noted.

Thank you! I'm glad I inspired you to try baozi. They are perhaps my most favourite food in the world - the one that reminds me most of my Dad, who is another baozi fiend. I'm trying to get good at making them this year so when I go back this summer I can make a lot and put them in the freezer for him. I am also very happy to spread the daikon/lobak/luobo/white radish love. You also might like to try the excellent radish kimchi you no doubt have readily available to you in LA, which goes by "kkakdugi" - if you like spicy things. Ask for it the next time you're at a Korean restaurant. Or, try it in some chicken or pork broth with shiitake mushrooms, seasoned with a bit of soy sauce and a little mirin. It's a subtle and lovely dish. It's the vegetable that keeps on giving. If you get one fresh from someone's garden, you can blanch and eat the greens. Or...(and I could keep going here...) save the peels (well-scrubbed), chop them in strips and stir fry with sesame seeds, chili flakes, a bit of soy and sugar, and finish with sesame oil. You can use every part! I'm not sure about family vs. restaurant on New Year's Day. It's my impression, based on talking to friends and observing that most restaurants here are now shut, that people stay at home for a meal. But Kent - you said your family goes to a restaurant? So I'm not sure. But then, I'm a stranger here myself. It's been a real pleasure showing off my corner of Suzhou to everyone.

Yes, a bit of a gimmick, but still a good beer. Not that I know of. I'm not even sure if Chinese ever eat runny yolks; my parents always made it well done. I do exactly what you do. I'll usually make up a big batch of fried rice and whenever I reheat some I'll fry up an egg (or two if I'm filling decadent) to put on top. In Mandarin, it's luó​ bo ​gāo (萝卜糕, literally "turnip cake"). It's probably in the top five most essential dim sum dishes. I share your sentiment though, it's not crunchy, and just seems like a big block of starch, which feels you up and prevents you from eating other dim sums. Sometimes it's mixed with some finely diced ham, which makes it a bit better, but I still don't order it often. A fried egg on top of fried rice - any kind of fried rice - is one of life's great gild-the-lily moments. On my last trip of Malaysia, I made it a bit of a photo project to chronicle all the different varieties of fried-rice-with-egg I saw there. I'll admit to being dim sum greedy, too. I basically only want to eat really fussy dumplings or fried things when I go; stuff that I'd never make at home. Like xiaolongbao.

Yeah, that's why I almost always pickle mine - although when the cake is fried, it does get a bit of a crunchy crust, doesn't it? Oh, I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Ah! I've had that before - at the extremely excellent Crystal Jade in Shanghai. I liked it, but the best part of white radish for me is the crunch. Does that steamed cake freeze well?

Radish, Day 2:

I thought so, too. For me, though, I think it's just because it's quite old, and I associate old places with Europe. Actual Europeans may feel differently! The building limits downtown also mean a lot has been preserved, which I have found is not always true in other Asian countries - especially the ones that are developed.

An early lunch, as I've got another lesson this afternoon to get to. And some homework to finish before that! I hated fried rice growing up. That brown stuff from the local takeaway? Yuck. My Dad would labour over one on Saturday nights to go with sweet and sour pork and broccoli beef, and I hated that, too. He used prawns, which I wouldn't eat until - oh, I was say 24? I was a picky eater as a kid. I'm making up for lost time, now. Then I moved to Korea, and discovered kimchi fried rice. Now I probably make fried rice once a week to use up leftovers. I often make it using the dregs of whatever was for dinner, mixed with the leftover rice. It's never the same twice. I put it into our lunch boxes, and top it with a fried egg the next morning. As long as you poke the yoke first, it heats up in the microwave a treat. I had some leftover rice from dinner last night, and some of the baozi filling. I don't like my egg scrambled in - I prefer it fried on top and then cut in after, like you find in Korea and SE Asia. Do they ever do that in Chinese cuisines? I don't think I've seen it in Suzhou. I sizzled the baozi filling in some peanut oil in the wok, tossed in the rice, and fried it all together. The salt from the pickles in the filling is adequate to season it. A little bit of chili sauce is essential, I feel to finish it off. I could have put some of that duck/pork sausage in, but didn't feel like actually chopping anything.

I can't believe it's been a week! Last breakfast: yogurt with maple syrup. Very Canadian of me, I suppose. Growing up, I hardly every had proper maple syrup - too expensive! Now I buy it each year for Christmas breakfast, which is always French Toast chez Garnhum. This is the leftover at the bottom of the bottle. If I'm feeling quite productive later today, I'll use the spoon of yogurt left in the bottle to make some more.

Report back! I'm curious. It looks good.

I'm not sure. But if I had to recreate this dish, I'd, after the ears are soaked, probably very briefly fry them with some oil infused with chili and garlic. Then tip them out of the wok and dress with black vinegar and sesame. Then let them come up to room temperature. Were they sweet at all?

Thanks, guys. The dough had yeast in it, but I didn't give them a long enough second rise - only ten minutes. The recipe called for twenty. Ben, did you poke holes in your parchment paper too? Or did you just put it in in a sheet?

When I have a ton of cilantro, I whizz it with a chili, garlic, ginger and yogurt. You can use that to marinate then bake chicken pieces.

I'm the same way, but limited by my raw ingredients. Still, most traditional cuisines have a focus on fresh vegetables that I'm almost always able to find. An inevitable by-product of this style of cooking. Some hyper-organized people, I hear, keep kitchen notebooks to record things like that in. I envy them.

Nice to see I'm at least on the right track with BBC Good Food. I'll keep an eye out for Delicious. About ten years ago, my aunt used to save me all of her Sainsbury's magazines, and ship them over with travelling relatives. I loved them, mainly for their exoticism, I suppose. Do they still put a magazine out, and is it any good any more?