KennethT

I thought of you yesterday when making the mapo tofu. I was out of c0rnstarch and used potato starch instead...

salad? In China? Also, how was the mango? I wonder where they're getting ripe mango from right now....

Dai style bison with herbs (7 herbs, 5 from the garden) with sticky rice.

Bison mapo tofu with Korean leeks (like a giant scallion) and cucumber salad.

@Duvel Thanks! That's my belly laugh for the day!

How does one drink from the funnel? Is the bottom sealed?

This is so sad. I remember her talking about her son Matt, so I am pretty sure it's real. She had so much to deal with near the end of her life - from issues with her aged father and his wife to son's medical problems as well as her own. I will miss her interactions - she always had something interesting to say and I will personally miss discussing plants and gardening with her of which she was passionate and very experienced.

Last meal of this batch of kapitan chicken curry with homemade roti canai. This is definitely the best roti I've made - even though the dough was made in a batch of 8, after stretching they were all frozen. When frying, I think less is more when it comes to heat for a relatively slow fry which left the inside chewy and moist with a crispy exterior.

How common are lemons in China?

Love these. As I'm sure you've done, I remember buying them from a kid on the beach in Thailand. They were usually mounted on a stick for easy eating. How they'd peel and eye them in front of you in around 30 seconds continues to amaze me.

Out of curiosity, how did you make sticky rice without a steamer? Was it a pot of water with a steamer insert?

I checked it out a couple weeks ago. The fish area was a madhouse as they were breakingdown a whole tuna and giving out samples as well as people taking enough photos to fill a Sears catalog. I actually did try some of the premade sushi - for the price, it was actually pretty good. I wasn't very impressed with the produce selection, although they had a few of my staples and their prices were significantly less than anywhere else that I know of. But since they don't have everything, I probagly will continue to get most of my produce at Hmart so I don't have to go to two stores.

Sichuan fish....

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken

Is the elephant real jade?

The turmeric is really taking off now.

Beer duck a la @liuzhou. I also added some dried green Sichuan peppercorns as I thought it would go with the doubanjiang.

Ha! Damn, I'm predictable.... sorry - I completely forgot that I already asked you about this.

what do you use for a recipe for da pan ji?

Chicken pho made with the wrong noodles. The broth was 90% done before I realized I didn't have any real pho noodles.

First - beautiful job on the bacon lattice! What type of wood did you use to smoke the leg quarters? How long did they smoke for since they were already fully cooked and tender?

Do you have any photos of these? I'd love to see them.

I personally feel that if you have something that's ivory, that was made a long time ago, it's best to just enjoy it. Throwing it out or not enjoying it would not help the elephant it came from. I have 2 things made from ivory that I adore and you'll have to pry them from my cold, rigor mortis induced grip - a pre WWII piano with ivory keys (it was my grandmother's) and a cast bronze elephant statue with ivory tusks made in the late 1800s I think. My other grandmother was a big fan of antiquing and picked it up probably some time in the 50s maybe. I don't support buying anything newly made with ivory - not that you could probably even find anything.

I wonder if it's because the fake porcelain ones are easy to clean and reuse? They can put them in those chopstick sterilizer machines that I saw all over Beijing. Not that wood or bamboo ones are expensive.... even here in the US.

South India via Singapore fish (headless) curry.