takadi

So is mexican oregano just stronger? Or is the flavor different altogether? Maybe regular oregano with a twist?

An alternative is not to buy the meat at all. I've done a side-by-side comparison with whole chickens (and additional bones) and just the bones. Using equal weights of chicken in each pot, the results have been very similar. Check your butcher shop for chicken feet, necks, backs or bones. Get a bunch and then throw in some wings. ← Interesting...did you roast the bones beforehand? Were the bones already cooked in some manner? I always had the impression that the stock is flavorless without some form of meat.

I've actually preferred electric stoves to gas stoves when cooking with a home stove. I could never get my gas stoves hot enough. I've actually always wondered why it lit on fire on an electric stove instantaneously but on a actual wok stove it took a couple seconds. So I guess it isn't actually from having a hot wok, but just really hot spots. I almost always burned my food with an electric stove. If you don't mind the lack of temperature controls and heaviness, I'd recommend buying those heavy cast iron woks i.e. from lodge. I'm trying to save up for one. I'm pretty sure those pack some heavy heat with their ferocious heat retention. It would be a plus on an electric stove.

I heard buying whole chickens is alot cheaper than buying parts. But what do you do with all that extra meat and parts? What do you do with the meat that's already been simmering in the pot for hours and hours? It seems like a waste to just throw it all away.

Wow I've always wondered about this. I've always done the pan/oven method but one day my brother cooks from a cookbook that calls for broiling. It had a markedly different taste. Whenever I pan fried I always had the trouble of burning the seasonings and imparting that nasty burnt taste. Our broiler was obviously not powerful enough, but for the parts of the steak that were browned, it tasted delicious. I always had the thought that broiling was inefficient because you would never get any sear or crustiness. I'm probably assuming now that broiling, if one has afforded to buy a hot enough broiler, is superior in results.

I myself went through a soy sauce phase where I harbored an interest with them almost like wine. There was only one place I could find white soy sauce though. http://www.whitesoysauce.com/index.html A little redundant, I know. You probably already know about this site I emailed them a while back to ask them if they had any stores they sold it at, but they couldn't give me that information. I pretty sure there are an infinite number of japanese brands, which are labeled as shiro shoyu. I myself have no knowledge of those

For Cha ca, grilled fish with tumeric, normally I would be served with various mints, lettuce, cilantro, and the elusive dead fish smelling herb. There are also tons of others of meats that can be served in a similar fashion with vermicelli and herbs such as Bo Bay Mon (Seven course beef) or Bun Cha (grilled pork with lemongrass). Usually, heartier herbs like the purple perilla are used. I can't really name herbs off the top of my head, but from the website, the only places I've personally seen saw-leaf coriander is with pho. I've only seen huong que, or thai basil used with soups (mostly noodle soups). The rice paddy herb (Ngo Om) is a little mysterious to me, but I swear I saw that in a dish called Gia Cay, which is basically simmered pork's feet that has a noted stickiness from the gelatin. Gia Cay translates to "fake dog meat". I'm not an expert though. I thought houttuynia cordata was called "dead fish vegetable". I honestly have never seen gynura bicolor in a dish before. My experience is pretty limited.

I kind of had this argument with a roommate a while back about the convenience of food vs the taste and quality. He just argued back that it doesn't matter what we eat as long as it's edible and somewhat delicious. Good food was just obsolete in this modern world of money and study. I think that thought pattern represents a huge segment of college students in general, but I'm wondering if it represented American youth as a whole. Of course, I started cooking and stinking up my sleazy college apartment and my roommates deemed me crazy at first. Later it seemed that they caught on and soon enough all of us were in the kitchen chopping up vegetables. It was a surreal and humorous sight. I guess that's why I wanted to explore e-gullet as well. I personally find it very difficult to meet anyone who has any passion for food anymore. Is this an American thing? Alton Brown had once stated in an interview that there are no such thing as "cooking shows" in Italy because it would be so redundant. Passion for food is such a default in Italian culture that the cooking shows would be akin to "how to watch TV" shows or "how to say please and thank you" shows. It's ingrained in their minds since early childhood. I guess the difficulty of finding someone to relate to or learn from has provided some obstacles for me in my process of learning how to cook for myself and for others (especially since I only really started last year). Some people have been cooking their whole lives and it just comes so naturally to them. What goes with what? What flavor turns into this flavor when this is done to it? Sometimes I feel the science of food is important, but when it all comes down to the end, it comes to the art and instinct, which I severely lack.

YES that's it...I guess it KIND of sounds like "kill fish" to me...it might as well be. Why am I not surprised that the info was on viet world kitchen...silly me

I love the huge variety of leaf vegetables and herbs in vietnamese cuisine. I find myself sitting there craving to munch on leaves like some giraffe. I remember my grandmother cooking some leaf vegetable that was TERRIBLE however. It smelled and tasted like urine, but is considered a delicacy. The name of it in vietnamese is translates to something like "dead fish vegetable", but I'm not too sure of it's exact name.

I always loved duck, but I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to anything else than the chinese roast duck. I love it mostly because of the skin and *surprise* the luscious fat. And there is a HUGE amount of fat in duck. I just never thought to actually use it in cooking How is duck stock compared to chicken stock? How is the price of a whole duck compared to a chicken? I'm getting the feeling that duck seems almost superior to anything involving chicken if one has the money.

I bought a dried rice product called "rice flake" from the supermarket. It's a two inch shaped square and made with only rice flour, salt, and water. I used it twice for chow fun and it actually worked pretty well. I didn't have a problem with sogginess at all. In fact, it turned out to be almost crispy and tough at the end. Perhaps my wok was too hot or I didn't cook the noodles enough. It doesn't taste exactly the same as regular ho fun, and it does have a tendency to curl up as well, but it might be a good substitute (once I perfect some techniques)

I love viet world kitchen. I find the recipes on there are the most "authentic" and have the best balance of ingredients without going overboard. In terms of canh, the term is pretty generic but for me, it's one of those must haves at every meal to finish off any rice at the bottom of the bowl. It's kind of comparable to miso soup in Japanese home cooking. I'm not too sure what my Grandmother uses, but she does use a huge variety of unknown leaf vegetables. My favorite one has a slimy texture almost like okra. There's also one that has a red tint to it (I'm not sure if this is the same as the slimy-textured one). She also has her share of "medicinal" canh which she claims to have some healing property. The best tasting ones I've had is one where she uses lotus root and another where she uses those tiny chinese red berries, beef broth, and that herb you use with boiled duck eggs (hot vit lon). Sorry if I'm a little sketchy with definitions and names, I'm pretty bad with my vietnamese.

According to "America's test kitchen", for crushed tomatoes they highly recommend Progresso for a "sweet and slightly acidic finish" and Muir Glen Organic for "clean tomato flavor". For diced tomatoes, they recommend, S&W, Muir Glen, and Redpack. For me, I just wonder how the different "cuts" and preparations of tomatoes affect quality and flavor. Wouldn't it be more logical to buy the whole canned ones and process them yourself?

I love this thread! My grandmother lives with me but she is off in California (I live in DC), so I haven't had any of her cooking for a LONG time. My mom, with good intentions and all, will only cook if it only requires reheating or slapping something in a frying pan. Thus, my daily diet of pork chops, cheap steaks, and chicken breasts is making me miss some of my grandmother's food. Man I wish I had a camera so I could show you the magic she works. I'd have the say her best are Bun Rieu and her infinite combinations of canh (just dollop in a scoop of white rice and it makes a snack that can beat any hot pocket). Man I am so hungry right now...

I used to love mcdonald's, but it was just the fact that everytime I ate there, my breath wreaked of this extremely strong almost fishy stench and I would feel very sluggish and nauseous. Also, I've noticed the prices of the burgers have gone up dramatically (or has it always been that way?). If I'm going to pay 3 dollars for a puny little fish sandwich, might as well make my own.

I've always used chicken and pork fat for everything, but I have never considered duck because I have an illusion in my head that it's fairly expensive.

From what I'm getting, it's really not sous vide without lab equipment. If anyone can prove me wrong, don't hesitate.

Hmm that looks interesting. Is the wok actually attached to the unit? Is there a wok ring it can stand on? I might be a little concerned with stainless steel, but for stir fries, if it gets hot enough and if your technique is fast enough, you can settle with stainless steel. Just as long as you keep stirring your food, you'll be fine. With stainless however, the low conductivity might have you prone to burning food and it probably will be a little more difficult controlling surface temperatures of the wok, especially with charcoal. Charcoal will be alot more different in temperature control than gas. However charcoal and other biomass fuels are the fuel of choice for many chinese. Most of them use either cast iron or carbon steel though, especially cast iron. Alton Brown also uses a grill to heat up his wok in one episode for pad thai. It looked like it worked pretty well, but I'm not too sure how that worked out. I've actually been interested in charcoal for wok cooking and have been trying to find suitable units. Other than one particular one called the "volcano stove", most of them are only available in Asia. Other than that, if you have a weber already, it looks like a pretty interesting way to utilize it.

Ahh, in the modern land of America, your problem is solved!

Eh, must have not been paying attention in science class. I was always under the impression that copper was magnetic ala the copper wires that were induced with electricity with magnets. And I always thought aluminum was magnetic as well. Perhaps I am confusing ferromagnetism with paramagnetism? I was never good at chemistry Okay okay, so I get it now! So I get detention after school and no recess?

[double post]

I've been wondering...what's so special about swans down cake flour or cake flour in general that makes it so desirable? Is it the low amounts of gluten compared to other wheat flour? So what if I used all purpose or even semolina flour in the noodles? From what I've read, the purpose of adding wheat flour is to toughen up the noodles, but does the toughening come from the gluten or the fact that wheat just results in a firmer texture in general? If it's because of gluten, wouldn't it just be more logical to add flour with higher gluten content like semolina? That way, I don't have to use as much wheat flour to get the same firmer texture and it would keep the proportion of rice flour higher. I'm not prepared to do anything like that, but I'm just curious to how flour proteins might affect the final product (which I'm assuming might not be too good since cake flour probably already produces ideal results).

Well I'd like to say two things: One, I probably over exaggerated the lack of quality my product had. It actually burns quite hot, and isn't bad for 40 dollars. Yet, I still feel it has below par construction. The owner of the website I bought it from gave very prompt and polite responses, so that was a plus. I do plan on getting another wok burner once I find a suitable one. A nice one that isn't too expensive (which I think it shouldn't), with a nice range of temperatures (from low simmer to white hot), a high quality high pressure regulator with a cast burner that isn't cheaply built. Oh yea, an built in igniter would be nice too.

I agree that safety is ALWAYS first. I'm not so concerned with animal rights issues, but quality and taste are important. I think good ethics and high quality come hand in hand anyway. If a cow was treated miserably and the meat was handled like garbage, I bet you could probably tell the difference if you've been eating good meat all your life.