nakji

You know - that wasn't the last pig leg we saw, either. Yesterday, I counted three different families going into flat in our apartments with them. It must be the gift to give for New Years. Actually, I looked up the regional menus that Yan-Kit So provides in the "Classic Chinese Cookbook" a baked ham hock is included, so maybe its a Jiangsu thing. I do appreciate the amazing food here, but on some days I feel like I could sell my soul for a blueberry muffin and a drip coffee. But the feeling usually passes, especially if I feed it a baozi.

It is upside down because in Chinese, upside down sounds the same as "Arriving" So it is " Blessings Arriving". Also, Check out this amazing video on youtube while you are enjoying your New Year's meal: ... dcarch Thanks! I knew it had to be something like that. And thank you for the video. I'm going to do some canal walking this afternoon, so I'll see if I can get some real-life shots for everyone.

I do re-use them, until they get bent out of shape. I don't think they're very expensive - a pack of 10 costs around 10 RMB - slightly over one USD? I love the grated onion trick. My mother used to do it for poppyseed dressing when I was a kid, but I find it works for a plain lemon dressing, too.

Good food knows no borders!

Two recipes discovered this week: Papas guisadas - stewed potatoes. Would be wicked for brunch. Pineapple upside down cake from epicurious.com- perfect. Fudgy and pineapply. Take my advice, though - reduce the cardamon to 1 tsp., if you keep it all.

Thanks - I realized this is one of the best holidays I've had in a while - just staying at home and tackling some kitchen projects I've been meaning to get around to.

I'm sure there are laws on the books - but in practice, it's likely even the people manning the customs desk don't know the extent of them. Information is a difficult commodity to come by, even for officials. Calling and asking would yield you different answers on different days. Suzhou is a beautiful city; I feel really lucky to be living here.

Yes! I salted aggressively throughout, thinking that would help. I added some lemon at the end, too. I'm thinking the age of the chilies was a factor - even though I had them in the freezer.

Pickled mustard greens, I believe. Perhaps the most consumed (in terms of quantity) of the pickles in China. You'll often just chop it up and toss it into various stir-fries. I took a cooking class in Oaxaca on how to make moles. So once you get that Vita-Mix (or Blendtec, that may be cheaper and/or better) I'll come over and tell you if it tasted right. The big variant of course is which chilies you get. I think you could even do fairly well if you just use dried Chinese chilies. You know? I was thinking that when I was prepping them. Which ones, do you think? I've seen Vita-mixes on Taobao. Hmm.

Friends from last night showed up again tonight for a re-take on our New Year's meal. I rounded out the dishes with some other additions. First, I have to flog Jaymes' salsa, which I first read about in our Diana Kennedy topic. It is simplicity itself, takes all of three minutes to make, and usually sends people I make it for into flights of superlative. What I like best about it is that it doesn't have pesky chunks, like those bottled salsas from the 90's, that end up littering the landscape around the rim of the bowl with sad little chunks of discarded bell pepper. So yeah, I served that with lime tortilla chips /shame/ (Everyone is seeing every dish I own - over and over. That's the pork claypot from last night.) The star of the night: the potatoes - Bruce, you only had faint praise for this? Day-um. I need to cook more from this book. This recipe has the benefit for me of not having any ingredients that I have to hand-carry into the country in it. Well, I substituted Holland chilis for serranos. Please, no one tell Diana. I'll be making these again. I shall not make again: (as I used up my complete chili supply on it - except for a small bag of cascabels) The mole: Hmm. I expected it to have more heat. Since I've never tried a mole before, I was surprised. The process reminded me a lot of putting together African Chicken, which - being honest - I think I like a lot more than this particular mole. I'll have to try a range of different moles. A salad from vegetables I had in the fridge: Dressing made with blended onion, lemon juice, sugar, garlic, salt, and oil. The Huevos: This recipe threw me. She says break up the eggs, but not to beat them. But then to stir them into the chili sauce? Are they supposed to remain whole eggs? Or are they more of an omelet? I semi-scrambled them, then let them set. I'd appreciate any guidance. They were delicious, either way - this proportion of guajillos to pasillas made an excellent sauce. And the mahogany red of everything makes this quite an auspicious meal, from a Chinese standpoint. Ahem. No hope of masa, so I served the lot with white rice rather than corn tortillas. We're only now getting comfortable enough to consider dessert.

And to dinner prep: I finally cracked the spine on Diana Kennedy, which I've been hanging on to since my birthday last July. I bought chilies in Toronto before I even had the book, and hand-carried them, along with raw pumpkin seeds back into China. Never mind packing, you know clothes, or anything in my luggage; I have my priorities in order. Thanks to Bruce, I chose pollo en mole rojo sencillo, from "Art of Mexican Cuisine"; Huevos al albanil; and papas guisadas. Prep: Roasting tomatoes: Well-travelled chilis and pumpkin seeds: I'm beginning to think I should invest in some oven pans, too - after seeing all these tin pans in my pictures. Hmm. The wok becomes comal: I really am going to get that Vita-mix. I've sold myself on it already. Seed paste together with chili paste: The final sauce, ready to be cooked down. Thanks to the mole, my range now looks like an out-take from Dexter. Spatter analysis says: guajillo with traces of pasilla.It definitely got wiped down today.

I have been inspired by our old-fashioned cake topic to make dessert for dinner tonight. I'd picked up a fresh pineapple yesterday at Carrefour with the intent of making it part of my five-a-day, and what better way to pad your five-a-day than with cake? I'm pretty sure this is the intent of that program. I found this elegant little recipe online that called for fresh pineapple. I really liked how half the pineapple is the topping, and the other half is juiced for the cake. I didn't have a seasoned cast-iron pan, so I baked it in a regular pan. The recipe called for dark rum, so I substituted bourbon, which is pretty much the only liquor I reliably have in the house. (And a crusty bottle of Cointreau I use for cooking - but I didn't think that would strike the right note.) With ground cardamon and fresh vanilla bean in the cake, I was having second thoughts about even getting it into the oven. What can I say, cocktail guys? I drink wine. The finished product: Actually, kind of reminds me of the pork from yesterday.

Washing the rice.

I wanted to swing by a local baozi window for lunch, but they were shut - the only baozi available on the street were from the convenience store, which are worst-case-scenario-on-your-way-home-from-the-pub-Mr.Dibbler-sausages-baozi. So I just carried on to the wet market. I was a bit worried after that that it would be shut, but fortunately it was quiet but open. I have a particular booth I always go to - I think as a market shopping strategy, you really need to be faithful and establish relationships. There was a window selling sesame cakes and egg pancakes, but they weren't hot off the grill, so I decided to wait for home. It was nice to see my regular vendors and wish them "Happy New Year" - before I started the vegetable delivery, I saw them every day, but I still see them most weekends. It's becoming fairly obvious to me just from writing this blog that I spend a lot of time sourcing vegetables. They were very gracious and agreed to pose for photos, although halfway through the Missus' she shouted, "Wait!", and when I jumped and said, "Sorry." she said, "No - no - I was wearing my apron - let me take it off" and we had a good laugh and tried again. The Laoban - As you can see, they're a reliable source for beansprouts. Their beautiful selection: Some more pickles for Helen. Kent, do you know what this is? And when I got home: lunch. A different sort of pickle: Cheddar and Branston sandwich.

The sky is lit up...like the fourth of July, I guess. Happy real New Year! First thing, I decided to run out to my local wet market to pick up some fresh tomatoes for my Mexican Chinese New Year feast. On my way out the door, my neighbours were putting up their "antithetical couplets" for luck. The diamond has the character "fu" - "luck" on it. I'm not sure why it's posted upside down. Anyone?

I brought it with me from Canada - I bought it bulk at a health food shop, so not sure exactly what kind it was. I'll have to experiment - there's a smoked pork loin that I use for soups all the time. Yes, there's a sizable community in Beijing, too; isn't there? Of course, they could all be going out for Chinese tonight.

A lot of my friends who don't cook at all fear this part of cooking the most. I've had a lot of friends say to me, "I don't know how you plan everything to be ready at the same time." Practice, grasshopper. Practice.

This week I have a lot of free time, since I'm off on vacation. I'm tackling a lot of "recipes" I've bookmarked as wanting to try, and since I have the time to go through some complicated processes with a reasonable sense of attention and a clear mind. Contrast that to my normal state of mind when I get home in the evening - I need to get dinner on the table in under an hour and reading anything, let alone a set of directions, is going to grind things to a halt. Most of my cooking involves opening a refrigerator; seeing what's there, and cooking straight from the hip, using methods and processes I've long ago committed to memory. Vegetables cooked in olive oil to make a sauce; pasta. Ground meat with ginger-garlic-green onion- chili base over a green vegetable; rice. Pan-seared protein; pan reduction sauce; mashed potatoes; salad. On the weekends, I may try a new recipe - if it's simple enough to commit to memory, it'll get rotated into the weeknight repertoire. But I'd say for me, I'm generally lucky to add one new recipe to that mix a month. How often do you try new recipes, versus just plain "cooking from memory"? Do any of us attempt any of those "weeknight kitchen"/"30-minute meals" recipes?

Oh, I don't know...ten or so? Someone said in China, even if you're one in a million, there are still a thousand people just like you! Or something like that. As I've proven, math is not one of my stronger skills.

I forgot to show you our fireworks from last night: This one is actually on the ground: Beam me up, Scotty: Happy New Year!

Thanks, Bruce! I've got Diana Kennedy out, and dog-eared to those recipes. Today, I attempt the mole, the bricklayer's eggs, and the potatoes with tomatoes on the other side of the page from the papas chirrionas, since I don't think I can get tomatillos, somehow. Wish me luck.

Glad you're enjoying it! Mapo doufu is perfect for cold weather, and when you get a sign like that, it's time to act. You're right about the chips. Although I'd probably also give the lamb-cumin a go, too.

That was me again! I do think the Sichuan Cookery one tastes better (more syrupy and sticky) but the biggest attraction was not having to make a caramel first like the Revolutionary one has you do, which I kind of hate as it's hard to get right in the claypot I use. The two kinds of sausages I always see sold together (both in Chinese BBQ shops and Chinese supermarkets), in Sydney anyway, are 1) pork and 2) duck liver. So duck liver lup cheong are pretty common but usually a little darker than the ones nakji showed - these may be liver-less. You're right about the recipe. Making caramel in my claypot is tough, too, as you can see it's really dark, so it's difficult to tell what stage the sugar is at. And the palm sugar was a real keeper. As for the sausage, there were darker sausages next to these balls - I probably just grabbed the wrong ones. But I liked the ball for its unusual shape.

I'm not sure the ionic charge of Chinese dish detergent.

Well, you were one up on me. Shelby, I didn't see any more of those Lemon Iced Tea chips today, although I will admit - I didn't look too hard. I really wasn't....I'm not very good at math I suspect that they've removed that flavor from the shelves. I may go out today to find out. They're too crazy to be missed.