C. sapidus

Ann_T: So sorry to hear about the break-in, but so glad that no one was hurt. Um, get a new camera soon, OK? Nakji: Oh, my, that looks and sounds incredible! We had red-braised chicken, stir-fried mushrooms, stir-fried snap peas with garlic, and jasmine rice. More info: Chinese eats at home (click).

Tonight we had red-braised chicken, stir-fried mushrooms, stir-fried snap peas with garlic, and jasmine rice. For the red-braised chicken, I started with XiaoLing’s description from Introduction to the Culinary Delights of Wuhan (click). I added chile bean paste, star anise, and five-spice powder, and substituted palm sugar for sugar and chicken stock for water. Abso.Lutely.Dee.Licious. Everyone in the family loved it. I don’t usually improvise dinner, so I was quite tickled that the chicken worked out so nicely. Thank you, XiaoLing!

I assume by this you mean it's not worth growing your own? ← Yes, I meant growing garlic. I don’t mind peeling it – we go through several heads of garlic a week, so I have become a reasonably efficient garlic peeler. Phiddlesticks. Remember that nakji is in Vietnam, where (from what I have read) most folks go out for pho. Would you make your own bagels if you lived in Manhattan? I promise not to be shocked if the answer is yes.

As much as we enjoyed the banh mi, I would probably just buy one for a buck fifty if that option was available. Thanks for the inspiration to make the carrot and daikon pickle. Mrs. C and I loved it, younger son liked it, but elder son continues to prefer raw vegetables (even raw daikon, surprisingly). We nearly finished the whole batch, so next time I’ll double the amount.Speaking of inspiration, I am still hoping to make the garlicky roast chicken, perhaps this Sunday if our volleyball tournament finishes early enough. Thanks, and sorry – I can definitely sympathise about driving 40 miles for an ingredient. No leftovers – the char siu plate was thoroughly cleaned (and, I suspect, licked ). Even if we had leftover char siu, bao-making is probably at the outer fringes of my limited baking skills. Your char siu bao looks so good, though – maybe I’ll make a double batch of char siu some weekend and experiment.

Michael: Thank you! This version had no breading, and I prefer it that way. Next time I'll use more tangerine peel and get the oil a bit hotter before deep frying. It definitely had plenty of hot pepper, though.

For summer, I think of fruits and berries, picked ourselves and still warm from the sun – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc. Similarly, fall means locally-grown apples, especially Stayman and Ida Red. Doesn’t matter how they are prepared – apple crisp, apple pie, or just eaten plain. Apples = fall. Fall is also when our vegetable garden typically recovers from the ravages of summer and starts spewing forth tomatoes. I try to remember all of the special dishes – Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, and Italian – that excel with fresh tomatoes. One other summer favorite: the crab feast. Steamed blue crabs, newspaper on the table, corn on the cob, cheap cold beer, and spending time with friends and family. Yes, I know that you can get crabs most of the year, but without 90% humidity it just doesn’t seem right.

Priscilla should get royalties on that characterization. That looks so elegant, so civilized, so good. Glutton? Nah....I agree - just beautiful. What a lovely turn of phrase. Vietnamese dinner tonight – details on Vietnamese Food, post #296 (click). Char siu pork (thit xa xiu) Banh mi

We adore Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It seems to cover northern Vietnamese dishes more thoroughly than Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, but I have been quite pleased with both.Not coincidentally, tonight’s dinner was from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I started marinating pork shoulder this morning for char siu. This evening, while the oven was warming up I made the everyday daikon and carrot pickle (do chua). When the oven was up to temperature I threw in the pork, dipping the it in the marinade every ten minutes. I had never made char siu pork before and it was absolutely delicious, especially the caramelized sweet-spicy crust. Now I feel compelled to try Chinese char siu for comparison. With the sliced char siu pork, the daikon and carrot pickle, crusty baguettes from the store, mayonnaise, Maggi seasoning, cilantro, and thinly-sliced cucumbers and jalapeno chiles, we made banh mi. Another first for us, and another clear winner. Char siu pork (thit xa xiu) Banh mi

Radishes have been braised on Cooking with "All About Braising" with Molly Stevens. With a stovetop braise, you can control the texture pretty easily. Mrs. C did this once, and the radishes were very good.

In the same general family, Vietnamese ginger-lime dipping sauce or nuoc cham are wonderful on roasted or grilled chicken (or pretty much anything else). For something really quick and easy, try a mixture of Sriracha and hoisin sauce.

Several food items jump to mind immediately: Fish sauce (think about it) Shrimp paste (ditto) Soy sauce (to save $1.79 USD? I don't think so) Aged cheese Garlic (nearly “free” already) Things that grow on tropical trees (exception: kaffir lime leaves) Toast and tea (nah, just yanking Brooks’ chain) Edit: fixed link

Tonight’s dinner was improvised five-spice chicken fried rice. The original plan was to grill five-spice chicken but when I opened the package it had a “foul” odor. Whoops, my bad – time to improvise. We had chicken tenderloins in the freezer and leftover rice. I thawed the tenderloins overnight in the five-spice marinade, and stir-fried the chicken with the marinade. Wow, the aroma was absolutely incredible – I definitely see five-spice chicken stir-fry in our future. Mrs. C made an apple, pear, and strawberry crumble with sugar-roasted pecans, crystallized ginger, and chipotle powder. She also made a sauce from the extra juice. The crystallized ginger gave the crumble an incredible kick. I know what I’m having for breakfast!

Doddie: Thank you for a delicious and delightful week, and for teaching us so much about your lives. You shared a diverse array of mouth-watering food, wonderful images, a talented husband, and cute-as-a-button kids, while providing a vivid slice of Korea and the Philippines. I need to try your “eternal” garlic fried rice, (probably with jasmine rice), but I’m still reeling from the array of banchan you showed at the restaurant. Maraming salamat (which I hope means “thank you very much for a fascinating and highly enjoyable week”, or something like that).

to look so good! ← Dejah: Thank you! Credit to Ms. Dunlop on the recipe, of course. I have yet to be disappointed by anything from Land of Plenty. After seeing XiaoLing's incredible CNY spread, I need to get Ms. Dunlop's Hunan cookbook, too.

Here you go, Dejah: spicy beef slices with tangerine peel (chen pi niu rou). I can't wait to see your feast tomorrow.

Dejah: Beautiful bao! Sheetz: I would love to see your curry turnovers. I smoked up the house seasoning a new 16-inch cast iron wok. The seasoning isn’t finished, but I used the new wok to stir-fry baby bok choy and broccolini while Fuchsia Dunlop’s tangerine beef simmered away in the old wok. Friends showed up for dinner, so Mrs. C made cheeseburgers, rice, and sweet potato fries. The tangerine beef was delicious, and the “generous handful” of dried chiles ensured that Mrs. C and I shared the dish without competition. Although too involved for a weeknight meal, tangerine beef will make an excellent spicy appetizer for dinner parties. I still feel strange taking dinner pictures when we have guests, but I will try to get a decent shot of the few morsels that were left over.

Agreed. Ample evidence demonstrates the steel in my mother’s spine, but some types of steel are more visible than others. My mother would chew off her arm before making others feel uncomfortable in any way, much less “brooking no nonsense, suffering no fools, kicking ass and taking names”. I'll keep an eye out for loquats this spring. Thanks for the article, and the kind words.

That would have been my mother, shelling peas or knitting to prevent idle hands and forestall the wrath of a formidable British aunt, who apparently made an indelible impression some seven decades previously. This amuses me greatly, as my strikingly mild-mannered mother belongs to the AAUW.You paint vivid word-pictures. Nicely done! I cannot recall trying a loquat before, but now I am curious. Do they travel well, or would that be missing the point?

Michael: I agree – I love to see pictures of Ann’s baked goods. Percy: Mmm, eggs and chorizo. What kind of chorizo did you use? I had an odd breakfast, but one of my favorite Mexican veggie dishes – chayote with shallots, chiles, and cilantro, topped with feta cheese and a squeeze of lime. With a nibble of a sausage patty that younger son made, that should hold me until dinner.

Gruzia: Mmm, enchiladas. Blether: Thanks! Wendy: Beautiful picture! Tonight we had chicken fried rice with sorta-Sichuan flavors. We stir-fried the chicken separately after marinating in soy sauce, toban djan, sugar, oil, and cornstarch. The boys’ batch of fried rice had garlic, ginger, chiles, shallots, roasted chile paste, fish sauce, egg, and scallions. Our batch had all of the above, plus edamame and cilantro. I enjoyed mine with Sriracha, hoisin sauce, and a squeeze of lime.

In Japanese it's called "mabo nasu". ← Awesome! Thanks, Rona. And the list of things to try grows longer . . .

I have many favorite eggplant/aubergine recipes: fish-fragrant eggplant from Land of Plenty; makhua oop (“best eggplant dish ever”) from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet; and broiled/grilled eggplant with rosemary, garlic, and olive oil from Marcella Hazan. Asian Week (click) has plausible-looking recipes for the first two. Mrs. C makes an addictive babaganouj. It must be fairly labor-intensive because she hasn’t made it for a long time even though I drop regular hints about how much I like it. I wonder if eggplant could be substituted for tofu in mapo dofu (mapo makhua?). Gruzia: Your description of Georgian eggplant is making my mouth water.

Joe: Beautiful S&P shrimp! Kim: Have you tried using a small beanbag (or bag of rice) to steady your camera? As an, um, frugal person, I brace our point-and-shoot camera against any convenient solid object, usually the kettle handle. To keep this post on subject, yesterday’s dinner was stir-fried chicken and shallots over jasmine rice, and stir-fried cabbage with chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. Hmm, we have had many monochromatic meals lately – time for some fresh spring colors!

jmsaul: I’m not trillium, but we have been very happy with the Malaysian, Indonesian, and Singaporean recipes in James Oseland’s Cradle of Flavor. Here is an eGullet-friendly Amazon link (click). Tonight we made stir-fried chicken and shallots from Breath of a Wok, served over jasmine rice. This was my first experience with fermented black beans. They gave the sauce a fantastic depth of flavor, and the shallots provided a nice oniony contrast. For a veggie, we stir-fried cabbage with dried chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, and a pinch of salt and sugar, finishing the dish with soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, and sesame oil. No leftovers.

Until my mid-30s, water polo and other activities burned up so many calories that I could eat as much as I wanted. This was freaking awesome. After breakfasting on multiple bowls of Total or Product 19 cereal with whole milk, I would usually eat one huge meal and two light meals over the course of the day. The huge meal could be lunch or dinner, depending on the day’s activities. I often left the house early in the morning and returned home after midnight, so I became adept at navigating interstate highways while balancing Styrofoam containers of palak paneer, yedoro wat, or jerk chicken. I had a rubber-bottomed travel mug that endured a multi-thousand dollar rear-ending without spilling a drop of coffee. *Sigh*. I miss eating like that. Nowadays: Dinner: We eat our main meal together as a family, scheduled around the boys’ evening activities. Lunch: My wife and I usually eat workday lunches together. Cafeteria food or soup and salad are most frequent, but occasionally we enjoy a lunch date at a restaurant or grab a quick meal at home. Breakfast: Like Maggie, I often breakfast on protein-rich leftovers to prevent a mid-morning sugar crash. During the winter, steel-cut oatmeal with nuts also works well. Oddly, skipping breakfast and nursing cream-and-sugar coffee throughout the morning also does the trick. I can no longer manage carb-laden breakfast cereal, even those varieties that are reasonably low in sugar. Ah, well, no great loss. To summarize: 1) No more breakfast cereal. 2) Similar balance of protein, veggies, and carbs, but less cheese these days. 3) Greatly reduced overall volume of food. Edit: summary