Jinmyo

Yellow udon noodles in Chinese celery and spinach broth. Stir-fried Napa cabbage with ngoc mam. Roasted pillow tofu triangles and shaved red pepper and bamboo shoots with Guilan chile sauce. Shattered chicken (chicken meat torn from thighs and drumsticks) with huagu (flower mushrooms), sesame chile oil, and much ginger and garlic. Mustard green pickles.

I think that depends upon when and where we were 19. 19 years old in the 1950s, 60s, 70s is a much different age than in the 1980s and 90s.

Akiko, no I think not. I must mean furikake. I haven't purchased any in years but make my own so don't bother looking at packages.

Vic Chanko's Virgins.

Akiko, what's that stuff called? I usually just refer to them as "sprinkles".

I agree. I think that the various chefs they feature all try to get across, with varying degrees of success, techniques and approaches instead of just recipes. I think it's pound for pound better than any other show on. Which doesn't say much, really.

This is rice with ocha (green tea) poured over to end a meal. I didn't know any restaurants specialized in this. It's like wiping a plate with a piece of bread to catch leftover gravy.

Yes, the dye is really bright. The daikon pickled with rice bran is more the original colour, though not flavour.

The story about takuan. Takuan Soho zenji (1573 - 1645) was visited by a daimyo (lord) who expected a meal and tea. Zen Master Takuan seated the daimyo in the main room of his hermitage and served him tea and then left the room. After a few hours he returned to find the daimyo yelling and threatening him. "You're hungry?" Takuan asked. "Of course I'm hungry!" the daimyo shouted. Takuan left the room and came back with a pot of rice and a bowl of stinky yellowed daikon pickles. The daimyo ate several bowls of rice and all of the stinky pickles. "That's the best meal I've ever had," the daimyo exclaimed. Takuan zenji said, "Hunger is the best sauce." I love takuan pickles. And gari. But my next favourite is kimchee, a Korean pickle.

S'okay. You win.

Col, that block seems way too low to use comfortably and with full strength from what I can gather by the picture. Glad that you like it, though.

Well that sounds like a stupid plan. Can anybody fix this? Ummm... /looks at keyboard, wiggles mouse Nope. Not from this end.

That sounds like a recipe off one of the packages.

Jay, you skinflint. You only went for the cheapo lunch special. Thanks for the link.

Hm. I remember trying red glop around 40 years ago and not liking it at all. What is it, Ed?

Jay, if you are comfortable in doing so and have the time could you please post a link to your review?

Ooooh. Love fried wontons. But in a soup? Nosir. Lose the angelic wings waving in the broth that way.

Egad.

So do I. Mandoline, double-fry, sea salt.

I had egg rolls in Beijing. But filled with lamb and mushroom. Street vendor.

Wah. I've never seen this on a menu. And love it so make it. But then ong choy (water spinach) stir-fried with silken tofu often overpowers making the soup.

mamster, enough with ripping off recipes from books. Just do it. Earn your pancetta. Looking forward to the next installment.

torn tommy, Use it. Sand it when needed.

Of course "food writing" should be about food. And of course, to be good food writing it must be well-written. Further than that, food writing that I enjoy or that you enjoy might well be very different things. I don't want to read recipes. A description of ingredients, techniques used, proportions, cooking times are welcome. But if I'm told that it's crispy and dense to the tooth but giving and tender within, I know how to do that. But I'm not interested in the trivia, unless it has to do with the specific kind of wood-burning oven used or an unusual cooking vessel. Larousse Gastronomic's few lines about a dish are enough recipe. What I really want is an informed discussion of the dish. This should ideally be not just inforrmation about the dish, but be informed by how the author is engaged by it. What it brings forth from her, how it infuses her. What the dish contains within itself of its history and place and where that is for the author and where that might be for others. I want to learn bot only about food but also about what constellations of meanings these might have for others. I want to learn about it through what it means for the writer. If some of this involves learning the writer's spouse's name I want it to have to do with how the writer understands the food that's being written about. But then I also like recipe books with purty purty full page pictures.

I love hot and sour but, like Ed, lust after wonton soup. The tender curves of the dumplings cupping the broth...