[I confess: my X isn't as good as Y's]

My homemade pizza never EVER comes out as good as the pie from the local pizzeria.  Even when I use fresh dough that I buy from said pizzeria, and I use my pizza stone and everything else...never comes out as good.

Then again, I don't have a giant oven cranking out 1,000,000 BTUs.

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What temperature are you baking at? How long do you preheat your stone?

Burgers.  My homemade burgers (grilled, fried, whatever) never taste half as good as a decent restaruant burger, not even as good as the burgers from the mediocre bar across the street.

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What are you making your burgers out of?

[Pad Thai: Cook-Off 6]

i hacked apart Moulton's recipe to give you what i think you want. The pickled radish is really integral to the dish. The key to making great pad thai is control and the ability to rapidly bring the dish together so i suggest your mise en place is perfect and you read this whole thing before starting. I would also be ready to add more or less of the ketchup/vinegar/sugar mixture for a wetter or drier pad thai depending on your tastes. Fried garlic is extremely great as a pad thai garnish, too. Let me know if you have any questions or don't understand this. It's difficult to adapt this kind of street dish to home cooking with such different equipment, and get the same results. I'm thinking you are after the typical american lower-end thai restaurant style pad thai.

Hacked Pad Thai Recipe

Ingredients

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Thanks for the detailed post. How much pickled radish do I add?

[Pad Thai: Cook-Off 6]

Looking for something that doesn't include tamarind.

[Everyday Santoku]

I've been looking for a Santoku knife for some time now.

Might I recommend a Chinese cleaver instead?

[Re-using oil for deep frying]

A coffee filter with disposable paper filters might do the trick as well.

[Foodborne illness, scallops]

Would frozen scallops be any better for little cooking?

[Need an ethnic soup]

French onion is the first thing that came to mind (after I noticed that you didn't want anything from the Asian or Latin regions).

[Foodborne illness, scallops]

Are there any dangers when consuming uncooked scallop, either fresh or frozen? There are recipes that call for searing such that the center is pretty much only warm when done.

[Turkey Brining]

can ya do chicken parts brined too?

can it be done in an enamel pot?

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Yes. It can be done in pretty much anything, including a 5 gallon plastic bucket (please use a food-safe plastic bag).

Note that a brine doesn't contain any acid. Once it does, it's considered a marinade. Can you marinade in enamel? I have no clue.

[What to do w/ Swiss Chard]

Alton Brown shows shredded chard cooking in a cast iron skillet with duck fat, though I imagine you can get the same effect with pork fat (say, from pork chops). In his show he had browned a duck, so it was the rendered fat and the residual heat that did the cooking.

When the chard just starts to wilt, add some shallots and balsamic vinegar.

[Cooking with aluminum . . . bad?]

Even anodized aluminum can be damaged by acid, so I would suggest keeping to non-stick aluminum or stainless steel otherwise.

[Why Jews Like Chinese Food]

I learned that the Cantonese salted and dried foods because they mostly lived on boats with no refrigeration.

Hong Kong is mostly comprised of Cantonese-speaking people, so I suppose the people living on the boats might do that, but there's a huge number of Cantonese in mainland China as well. I think for most Cantonese, salted and dried foods are made for about the same reason anybody else would have them made.

[Minimalist No-Knead Bread Technique (Part 2)]

Looks like I'll be heading down to the Chinese supermarket to pick up a clay pot.

Is there anything that can get me the shape of a batard without the cost of the one linked to ($50)?

[Pictorial: Tomato Beef]

What kind of wine is the Shaohsing? Rice wine?

[Where do you find xxx]

I know this isn't an ingredient, but has anybody seen a decent saucier pan? I'm looking for a 2-2.5 quart version.

[Chef's pan/saucier in Toronto, ON]

Does anybody know where to find these in Toronto? I've looked in a bunch of stores, both specializing and non-specializing in kitchen equipment, and I can never find anything that'll fit a whisk. I'm looking for a 2-2.5 quart version.

Thanks