C. sapidus

Susan was wonderfully supportive when I did the foodblog, even though she was clearly squeezing in her administrative duties between life’s other demands. For purely selfish reasons, I hope that Susan can find the time to once again brighten the pages of eGullet with her elegant meals.

Nishla: Your flavor combinations sound wonderful, especially the chili and the spinach salad. Did you add anything sweet to the salad, or was it good as is? Marlene: Apparently, your have put your free time to good use, overcoming your bread challenges and making Asian food that looks absolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing.

This may be too late to help RDaneel choose knives, but perhaps others are facing similar decisions. As of a month age, these were our main knives (from back to front): Chicago Cutlery paring knife Tojiro DP 150 mm honesuki (chicken boning knife) Chicago Cutlery 250 mm slicer Ittosai Kotetsu 180 mm gyuto (Mrs. C’s main knife) Hattori HD 240 mm gyuto (my main knife) Heavy cleaver I badly chipped the blade on the Hattori gyuto by doing something stupid. We replaced the damaged gyuto and the Chicago Cutlery paring knife and slicer with the following (back to front): Hiromoto AS 270 mm sujihiki: I wanted a long knife that would slice meat thinly without sawing back and forth. Our old slicer dulled very quickly, so I wanted a blade that would hold its edge. I also wanted to try a high-carbon blade with stainless cladding. Ryusen Blazen 240 mm gyuto: I loved the Hattori's handle and ergonomics, and the Ryusen is configured similarly. I hope that the powdered steel blade is more resistant to chipping, but I also plan to be more careful with it. Tojiro DP 90 mm paring knife: a petty seems unwieldy for paring and peeling. The Tojiro DP line provides a lot of bang for the buck, and offers one of the few Western-style paring knives with Japanese steel. We used the new knives for the first time tonight, and they were delightful right out of the box. The package from Japanese Chef’s Knife showed up in 3 days – amazing! We will probably keep the Chicago Cutlery boning knife to do stupid things like chopping up blocks of tamarind (note evidence of learning behavior ). When I get time, I’ll probably play with the chipped gyuto to see if I can make it useful. Edited to explain why we chose each knife.

This started out as a Yunnanese stir-fry and morphed into something else. Thinly sliced pork loin, marinated with soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch, stir-fried with tomatoes, red bell peppers, and Poblano chiles, and then finished with sesame oil. Marinating the pork with cornstarch produces a plush texture, a nice contrast against the still-firm peppers. For the second batch, I added a few bruised Thai chiles for heat. This was a nice way to stretch meat – a pound of pork loin will probably make two meals. After picture time, I jazzed up my portion with hosin sauce and Sriracha. Corn on the cob, cukes, and basmati rice on the side.

Yes, I make jasmine rice on the stovetop, but Mrs. C makes basmati if she is on rice duty. I bought some sticky rice to try this weekend (I hope).

Allright, Susan! I like your picture – it’s got that depth-of-field thing going on. Cucumber salad and ribs sounds like a great combination. I’m glad to hear that country-style ribs work in this recipe. I’ve had problems finding pork riblets, but mostly I’ve had problems finding the time to cook anything other than quick stir-fries. The boys’ basketball season ended tonight, so I have cooking plans for the rest of this week (after which track season starts, but only on weekends until daylight savings time kicks in). That’s awesome that the folks in your Asian market are looking out for you. Did you use jasmine rice?

Fresh turmeric is easy to chop or grate, although it stains like the dickens – our food processor and cutting board have a permanent orange tinge. In Cradle of Flavor, James Oseland calls for fresh or ground turmermeric in several recipes. One would be hard-pressed to taste the difference between fresh or ground in a highly seasoned curry, but perhaps one could distinguish the difference in a more delicately seasoned dish. Have fun with your turmeric, and please do report back.

Lots of information about choosing and caring for woks on the China and Chinese Cuisine forum: Chinese woks and cleavers (click). We have a 14-inch spun carbon steel wok with 20 years of seasoning and a dangerously loose handle. It probably cost less than $20 USD. I just ordered a cast iron wok from the Wok Shop (click). I hope that it will be $17 USD well spent. Properly seasoned, a carbon steel wok is extremely non-stick and enables you to sear food properly. Nonstick coatings inhibit searing; they also break down and release fumes at the high temperatures necessary for stir-frying properly. If you have an electric stove, a flat-bottomed wok will heat up more quickly.

I had a similar experience, described here (click) (scroll past the picture of caramel chicken). I will leave it to the sugar experts to explain why this happens (or if you like I could make up something that sounds fairly plausible ). It may not be "right", but I prefer to start with dry sugar when making caramel. Dissolving the sugar in water before evaporating all of the water seems overly complicated; perhaps it is necessary if you want to make a very light caramel. And do be careful when adding water to hot caramel.

. . . very much like dishes I've had at Grand Sichuan here in New York. ← Michael: I appreciate the feedback - we do not have any local Sichuan restaurants, so I’m glad to hear that our gan ban ji at least looks plausible. Not long ago, I saw ma la something on the menu at a local Chinese-American restaurant. When I asked if they use Sichuan peppercorns, the server looked surprised, grinned, and said “no”. We have not visited NYC in ages, but Grand Sichuan is on the list for our next trip.

Ah Leung: I respect your ability to draw connections between a railroad track, a highway overpass, and the history of China, North America, and your family. Beautiful. Thank you for this week. I have enjoyed the mouth-watering food, your quirky sense of humor, the history and culture, and of course your wonderful pictures and pictorials. What you have taught us about Chinese food and culture encourages me to learn more. I wish you good health and good fortune in pursuit of your dreams.

Ooh, those soups sound delicious. I love spicy citrusy coconut milk soups, and Mrs. C licks the plate whenever we have peanut sauce. I love our local Asian market, but after seeing yours I have serious Asian market envy. I would love to have that variety of seafood available – we can’t even get head-on shrimp around here. Re narcissus/paperwhites/daffodils: all belong to the genus Narcissus. Paperwhites usually refer to the overpoweringly fragrant types forced into flowering during the winter. Common English names for Narcissus include daffodil and jonquil. To keep it food-related: don't eat Narcissus because they contain toxic calcium oxalate. Awesome blog - I will be very sorry to see this end.

You made "summer" roll in -50C weather? ← Ah Leung: I'm sitting in front of my computer, flipping through a thesaurus for the proper superlatives to describe Dejah's amazing display of food, while you give her a hard time. I hope this means that I get invited over for dinner before you do.

Chef Bradley: That's some good looking chile with all the fixings and then some. Ann_T: I was trying to pick which picture to copy and couldn’t – both look absolutely fantastic. We had Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan ban ji); boiled salted cabbage with ginger-lime dipping sauce; cukes; and basmati rice. More on Chinese eats at home (click).

Man, I'd be fighting the dog for that. Tonight we made Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan ban ji); boiled salted cabbage with ginger-lime dipping sauce; cukes; and basmati rice. Younger son had a friend visiting, so we also made frozen pizza. Younger son and his friend topped the pizza with Sichuan chicken. The friend ate dried chilies without complaint, so he is welcome back any time.

Christian: Ooh yes, I would eat a lot of your shrimp. I like the idea of working in bean sprouts with the shrimp for some crunch (and as a stealth veggie). We had an impromptu dinner party for a couple that is new to the area, so we served our usual Friday dinner fare (fried rice). We had a pork loin that needed to be used, so I stir-fried thin slices after briefly marinating in soy sauce, oil, white pepper, sugar, and cornstarch. We added the pork loin to the fried rice at the end. The pork was quite tender, so I’ll probably make it this way again. We also made two batches of wok-seared shrimp (tom rang toi ot): one with bird chilies and one without. The couple preferred the chile-laden shrimp, so we look forward to having them over again. No pictures, but I did get a better sear on the shrimp this time.

Marlene: Wow, I’m honored! Hubby did a fine job on the stir-fry. Do I get a sample or anything? Pressed for time this evening, we made a simple Vietnamese rice soup with chicken (chao ga). More here (click).

Does your “cow town” include an Asian market? A lot of Asian ingredients can be stocked up, mail ordered, or grown (soy sauce, fish sauce, frozen galangal, spices, chiles, etc.), but it is nice to have access to fresh herbs and veggies, especially in the winter. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet and Into the Vietnamese Kitchen are excellent recommendations. I will add two specialized suggestions: Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop for Sichuan; and Cradle of Flavor by James Oseland for Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Happy book shopping!

Rice soup with chicken from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. For a dinner squeezed in between basketball practice and middle school orientation, this was pretty good. I made the rice soup base a few days ago. Tonight I re-heated the soup, marinated chicken in fish sauce, sauteed an onion and the chicken, mixed everything together, and garnished with cilantro and scallions. Wham bam dinner, with cucumbers on the side. Next time I'll probably add something with a little texture, like stir-fried or parboiled long beans. Rice soup with chicken (chao ga)

Thank you! Yes, time is a precious resource. I hope you get some time to cook, because I would love to see what you make and compare notes.

Steamed salmon with garlic and ginger (ca hap toi gung), cabbage and egg stir-fry (bap cai xao trung), and fried potatoes with bacon. The first two were from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Mrs. C improvised with leftover baked potatoes, and the results were delicious. My part of dinner was less than a complete success. Between catching up on Mrs. C’s day, helping elder son with his science fair project, and trying two new recipes, I goofed up the sauce. I was supposed to saute the garlic and ginger, add the liquid ingredients (soy sauce, oyster sauce, black pepper, and sugar), bring everything to a boil, and spoon the sauce over the salmon before steaming. Instead I, um, struck a bold new path. It turns out that the sauce pretty goof-proof, but we picked off the ginger because it tasted pretty raw. The salmon was good, though. The cabbage was super-simple: garlic, cabbage, fish sauce, one egg, and black pepper. The boys like cabbage, so we have been making a lot of it lately. Edited to add one egg.

Kim: Great to see you back in the kitchen! Mrs. C skipped the ice cream, and had a very moderate amount of the pineapple.

Ann_T: Thank you! If you put it that way, I guess I am a fan of Ann. I hope you enjoy Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I certainly don’t blame Moe for requesting chicken souvlaki again – it looks absolutely scrumptious, all crisped and spice-flecked (and the perfectly browned, hole-y sourdough too, of course).

Thank you Marlene, but you are way too kind (and way too modest).

Marlene: That looks incredible! For dinner tonight, Mrs. C roasted pork loin stuffed with dried apricots and coated with a mustard-panko-herb mixture. The pork loin was very tender and flavorful. She also baked potatoes (no picture). I made the side dishes: Napa cabbage soup with dried shrimp, and Sichuan dry-fried green beans. The boys love this soup – six cups of broth and nearly a whole head of Napa cabbage disappeared. The beans were a bit salty, but tasted great in the soup. For dessert, Mrs. C served vanilla ice cream topped with baked pineapples and a brown sugar, rum, vanilla, and pineapple juice syrup. Edited to fix picture.