nakedsushi

That doesn't sound weird at all. My grampa is the same way. He won't touch traditional spicy food, but he can go through half a tube of wasabi in a week. I used to be like that until I started eating more chili-spicy foods. I think it's because wasabi is spicy in a different way. To me, chili-spicy foods are a "hot my mouth is burning" spicy, but wasabi is a cooling "help my nose stings" type of spicy.

I first had this delicious edamame appetizer in a restaurant near Berkeley campus and tried to recreate it myself with some success. Stir fried unshelled edamame For the sauce, I mixed together: soy sauce, grated ginger, chopped garlic, and sometimes, chili paste (siracha works as well) I usually use frozen unshelled edamame for this. Throw it in a wok with some hot oil and stir fry till they're mostly done. Pour in the sauce, stir to coat, fry it till the outsides of the edamame are only slightly burned, and then they're ready. I guess I could do this with shelled edamame, but it's easier to eat as finger food when they're in the shells.

I've loved this dish since the first time I remember my parents making it. I think you got the order of making it mixed up though, or maybe it was unclear. I usually cook th scrambled eggs slightly under-done first, set it aside, cook the tomatoes, and when the tomatoes are done, throw in the scrambled eggs for a quick mix. Doing the tomatoes first and then throwing raw eggs in afterward always led to "hey, what happened to my eggs" disaster for me.

No, I bought the pre-made ones from the market. It was such a pain to separate each layer that in the future, I'm just going to make the wrappers myself.

The BF was craving tsang fun (the rice crepes thing you get at dim sum restaurants). I've only had experience helping my mom wrap a similar food, banh cuon, so I offered to make him some since there's no chance of finding a vegan version anywhere in LA for him. My presentation is sloppy and this was my first attempt at making this on my own (much less a vegan version). He liked it ok, so I say, "mission accomplished!" Instead of the usual meat/shrimp filling, I fried up some finely chopped fake-meat char siu, onions, garlic, and dried salty cabbage.

I think I've had something similar. It was just plain white turnip cake cut into long pieces (like fat fries) and stir fried with scrambled egg and green onions.

I've seen those 1 pc steel ones but they look like they're covered or coated in some type of shiny coating. I'm afraid of that flaking off and getting into the food or melting in high heat. ← Are you talking about the coating that you have to wash/burn off before seasoning a new wok? ← I'm not sure. The wok I'm talking about has the entire thing (handles, outside, and all) covered in some sort of shiny black coating that doesn't rub off. Are you supposed to wash/burn that whole thing off? How do you burn it off the handles? I see them a lot at restaurant supply stores, so I guess they should be safe.

I've seen those 1 pc steel ones but they look like they're covered or coated in some type of shiny coating. I'm afraid of that flaking off and getting into the food or melting in high heat.

Are those round bottom? I need to get my parents a round bottomed wok but they'll yell at me if I get them a wok over $10.

Was it crispy/crunchy? If it was a light green with darker green leaves (kind of like bok choy's coloring) it might have been chopped and preserved mustard greens.

How fitting! I had an unexplained craving for it last week so picked up one of the little tubs from my local Ranch 99. I know it's fermented and all but does jiou niang ever go bad? Or is it like kimchi where it gets more delicious with age? I'm tempted to try to make this myself, but I always feel like self-fermenting stuff is unsafe.

I also bought a wok from Tane Chan and used the salt seasoning method first, then unsatisfied, seasoned it using the gas stove-top method. The problem is, the outside of the wok isn't seasoned at all. I figured there's no reason to season the outside, since no one cooks on the outside of the wok (do they?) but the BF keeps telling me I need to season it on the outside. The problem is, my oven isn't working right now, so I can't exactly do the bake method. How would I go about seasoning the outside without my kitchen catching on fire? I would thinking spreading any type of oil on the outside of the wok and then putting a flame to it would be um...dangerous?

Piggy backing off of this. I'm also visiting China sometime this October. I will be mainly visiting Shanghai, Hanzhou, Suzhou, and maybe Beijing. I can eat just about anything there and I'm salivating just thinking about the shenjianbao's, but the BF is a vegan. Will he be able to eat anything other than stinky tofu and rice there?

Wow, who knew a little distraction I made to poke fun at frou-frou menus would propagate onto eGullet! I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. I added a (very primitive) wine pairing as well, but I'm still working on the syntax logic behind most of it.