Ce'nedra

Oh wow your aunt is a Hui? That is awesome! Would you be able to ask her for some authentic recipes please (if it isn't too much of a hassle)? I do love lamian (拉面)! I've only had it once though -and it was awhile ago -so I don't remember too much but I do know it was de-li-cious! I have a question if you don't mind. Being a Hui means she's a Muslim and generally they are really restrictive with the fact that you should marry a Muslim yourself...so is your uncle Hui too? Or maybe converted? Wait...is she your aunt by blood? That's a very interesting family you have there Hui, Manchu, Han, who knows what else Thanks for your knowledge of all those Uighur foods. I wish I could eat some more! I'm going to eat out at a new Uighur restaurant over here some time soon once my friends and I are all free at the same time. Will try to order as many dishes as possible! AND I shall take pictures for you guys too The noodles in tomato and lamb based sauce is of particular interest to me. I've had it once before -can't wait to try it again! Oh btw, do you think you might know the answer to my question? Here it is again: Also, what's the difference between Hui and Uighur cuisine? And what kind of aspects/dishes in Peking cuisine do you think is essentially Hui?

Thanks for your contribution I can't wait for you to come back with stories about Manchu food -please do remember! Did your grandma ever cook authentic Manchurian meals for you? Or did she pass down any recipes to your mother/father? How would she serve the millet? I've never eaten it before unfortunately. I'm very much fascinated by Manchu history and cuisine -maybe partially by the fact that it's slowly disappearing. Which I find to be fairly upsetting Oh you're right about the Imperial Cooking. This wasn't just the Manchus though; the few Mongolian influences were ridden of as well. Basically anything of non-Han origin as you said. With that said, the mutton eating and hot pot were not essentially Han, were they? Some say the practice of hot pot was introduced by the Manchus, other say it was the Mongolians. I'm sure there are more than a few other food contributions from various ethnic minorities too.

I love Tokyo ramen too. I eat it at this place here called Ichiban Boshi and it's wonderfully done. Simple and elegant as you say. I've never had Kyo-fu ramen but I imagine I've had something very similar judging by the photo. Ramen with thin slivers of pork, shoyu stock and the delicious soy soaked eggs are perfect. The originals are always some of the best

Hiroyuki: Your meal looks both delicious and healthy I'm getting alot of Japanese inspiration from you. Oh and how in the world did I miss your Chicken thigh teriyaki et al meal above?! Looks wonderful -shall try to make that too. Btw, komatsuna no goma ae reminds me alot of Korean food for some reason.

You should be able to get it at Borders for $50 (normal RRP is $70), and I would think that K-Mart and Target will also be selling it at a heavily discounted price. ← Oo thanks for the notifcation I never knew Borders sells books for cheaper? Is this a special because it's a new release or has this always been the way it was? I do prefer the variety of books at Borders much more than say, Angus & Robertson or Dymocks. And yes, you're right, K-Mart and Target are definately cheaper than the lot!

nonblonde007: Those shrimps look gooood! For the ponzu sauce, did you make that from scratch or was it store bought? If made, how did you do it? One day, without my parents at home, my sister and I decided to make good ol' Chicken and Corn pie. I assume we made it 'family' style because it isn't all that 'attractive' Funny thing was, we didn't even make the pastry from scratch (I told my sister to buy some kind of pastry I forget it's name) but sis still managed to get the WRONG one. It turned out tasting fine in the end but still...I was furious at the time! You can see there are holes... Oh and we ran out of pastry and I was running around doing a whole 360 going nuts...SO I finally thought...hey, maybe we can substuate milk/egg/breadcrumbs to make the topping? Result? Not as good as the orignal but hey, it worked...sort of The 'better' pie well and done My slice A big chunk of chicken hanging out Our 'alternative' pie All in all, it was pretty darn delicious! Plus it was getting very late (we took ages to cook) and so we also very hungry... Served it up with some nice Aussie tomato sauce

I use a grater for the palm sugar. That's worked out well. Before that I was going nuts trying to use the stuff. ← Thank you for the answer! I remember I was using a knife...in which was hell for me because it took a verryyy long time to get the amount I needed. Grater it is then Wait...I better check if I have one at home, otherwise I've got to buy one..

Oh silly me. I'm just living under a rock probably Is it fairly popular/widespread these days? And about grapeseed oil again, I hear that while it has a clean, relatively no-taste, it's still slightly nutty, which is often likened to peanut oil, which in turn is often used in Asian cooking...THEREFORE, grapeseed oil sounds like a good substitute for Asian cooking (which in my home, we do mostly of). Hmm makes me wonder yet again...

Oh and another thing, I read that with grapeseed oil, much less of it is needed for cooking, such as frying and so on, compared to other oils. Reason for this? No idea Maybe someone can provide me with an answer

Ok maybe due to its popularity, canola oil has also stirred up some sort of controversy. Some link it to the Mad Cow Disease (though most professionals claim this is BS and I too think it is) but more recent news is that the omega-3s found in canola oil are transformed into trans fats during the something called the 'deodorisation process' (what's that?). And then there's something else about canola oil causing vitamin E deficiency............. I've got no idea what is true and what's not but it does make me question the oil a bit now...

rasamalaysia: I have a question For the palm sugar, do you buy it in block form? Because that's the sort we have and it makes it really frustrating to use when recipes call for a 1 tbsp, 2tbsp, etc. Do you shave the palm sugar? I have no idea how to get the right amount when necessary arggh!

Smithy: Thanks for the education It made me think more thoroughly about my oil use (just found out I'm using olive oil at home...even in stir fries!....?). I'm kinda tossing up between canola oil and grapeseed oil. Apparently (I just read this) grapeseed oil assimilates flavours really well but it's also relatively expensive because there is not as much oil to extract from the seeds. How is the flavour for canola oil? I hear it's also a pretty good in that it has a very clean, no-taste. The benefit here is that not only is it one of the healthiest oils, it's of a more reasonable (cheap) price than grapeseed. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Still...can't decide between the two...I hear alot of good stuff with grapeseed... Sony: Thanks for that -you got me reading on monounsaturated fats. I had no idea about it! Avocado oil is supposed to have the highest level of monosaturated fats. Canola oil has about 57-60% which is considered good too. I wonder what's the percentage for the avocado, just for the sake of comparing hmm... About the transfats, avocado oil is supposed to have a very low level (some brands boast none) of it. Now I'm reading alot of positive things to do with avocado oil too aiyayayay! Now I can't decide between canoila, grapeseed and avocado! Btw, is the avocado oil a 'new' oil? I haven't heard about it much. andiesenji: Thanks so much for your insight Your story about the virgin organic coconut oil is really fascintatin -it must be doing something right if your health has lifted so much! However, Smithy above said that it contains 92% saturated fats, which is not considered a very healthy fat, so it makes me wonder...is the coconut oil you using any different from the usual kinds?

People eat pig uteruses?! Wait...people actually eat UTERUSES?! Ok because of Lindacakes recent education, I just looked it up -trying to see if it was in fact true (hey, I'm shocked) -and this is what I found: ...ok... you can read more (and there's a picture of it) here: http://www.starchive.com/Fear_Factor/gross...12_uterus.shtml

Well she's Australian so that sort of makes sense hehe BUT I would have thought her books are sold in the US considering her cooking show is viewed there?

Everyone here is just about right. I'd have to slap myself because Chinese regional cuisine is much MUCH more complicated than that. In fact, after just reading a bit of 'Food Culture in China' by Jacqueline M. Newman, I realised that it's difficult to even define what is native and what is not. With all the travelling and mixing going around in China, people seem to have adopted far too many varieties of cooking styles, famous dishes (and further refined them), etc for us to even specifically label as Southern/Northern/Western/Eastern/other Chinese. In that case, it's hard to compare one regional cuisine to the other because the lines are extremely blurred. Oh and the book also says: surveys show no matter where they live, the Chinese are increasingly eating similarly than differently. Thus making it even more difficult to make generalizations and/or divisions. Apparently the only main difference is the wheat and rice divide. Beyond that, no ingredient or flavour is exclusive to any particular region. Anyway, I really recommend reading Jacqueline's book on Chinese regional cuisine (or the lack of) -just found it online woohoo! It's very thorough for a 'preview' of a book (not that I'm complaning). http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Jt6u8R...eQToGu7VWU-Ry_w

Kylie Kwong recently released a new cookbook named "My China". Has anyone purchased it yet? I'm thinking about it but considering it's fairly pricey atm (well it did JUST land on the shelves), I want to know what are people's responses so far

Has anyone tried the new versions with chocolate fillings and all?

Hmm I prefer ramen to udon and soba so I'm different to you I guess. But I do agree with your 'newer' versions of certain foods concept. For eg, I did try numerous 'westernised' ramens out of interest, such as the butter corn ramen and boy did I NOT like it! Such a waste of my money and food -it was a HUGE bowl and I couldn't finish it because I felt so sick! Far too creamy for what is supposed to be ramen...I shouldn't have mixed the butter into the soup. In fact, I should have scooped it out before it melted arrgh! Oh well, it was an experience I had to face I suppose With that said, some 'newer' ones I do enjoy included kimchi ramen and tantanmen (not really considered a ramen but ehh). I think this is because I do enjoy alot of Asian fusion flavours (the first being Korean obviously and the latter Chinese -it's actually dan dan mian in Chinese) but some things are really not meant to be altered! I hold this belief with most noodle soups and all the really 'homey' Asian dishes. I have nothiing against fusion food that attempts to be a new 'breed' of cuisine but something like Westernised ramen or pho?! YUK!

Looks like what Medusa's head would have looked like if a wild bird decided to turn it into a monster nest of some kind Klingonesque!?! That is a very special nerd word - you have exposed yourself! Take two Romulan ales and go to bed. ← HAHHAHHA! NERD!

Domestic Goddess: Looks very homey and healthy as well What does it taste like? I'm very much interested in Filipino food because I never had the chance to try it before.

Love your description

Yes! What kid wouldn't be fascinated with these dishes from Mission 261 in San Gabriel? http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderingchopsticks/374029605/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/automaticsweetheart/436026991/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/stutefish/34125044/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/stutefish/341...in/photostream/ ← OMG those are so cute! This is in LA? Shall make a trip there (hopefully) next time I return to LA

Thank you! That was my first time making ramen Oh how can you not take ramen seriously? It's one my favourite foods of all time hahha! I love Japanese curry but I guess it's not for everyone hehe.

ELVISH food!

Thanks so much for replying everyone I've also noticed that most chefs use grapeseed oil and so I've been interested about it for awhile. Does it have a high smoking point? I do like that it's supposed to be entirely flavourless. About the canola oil, this seems to be one of the most popular ones that people use. Does it have any trans-fats? Are its health benefits average compared to the others? MomOfLittleFoodies: How was the rice bran oil compared to the canola oil? I'd like to know more about the rice bran oil and it's benefits. Is it relatively more expensive? andiesenji: The avocado oil is of particular interest to me from the variety you use. Is it relatively expensive? Would it more healthy than say, the coconut oil?