KennethT

McMacaron??? McFromage??

I'd seriously check a bunch of YouTube videos... you can have a major problem if done wrong and you could get hurt really badly.

Wow this thread is old, but I didn't know where to put this. Just made a first attempt at chili oil, including copius garlic, ginger and fermented black beans.

Yeah, but I was in 7th grade! (and my mom still did my laundry... hehe)

When I was a kid, the one time my mother made spaghetti squash, I wound up sneaking it off my plate and into my pocket, for later disposal in the toilet. Of course, I didn't realize it would SOAK my pocket and jeans I was wearing, so it was a bit suspicious when I came back to the table wearing a different set of pants... that and the little pieces of squash still left in my pocket that I couldn't get out!

I think it varies greatly by airline. I had some really good food in Economy on Singapore Airlines, and it's always tasty and serviceable on EVA to Taiwan.

Also, in a restaurant situation, the water is reused for all the pasta all day long, so the water is MUCH more starchy than you could ever get at home, unless you want to save your pasta boiling water like a master stock, that's a real PITA. Some people here have experimented in adding starch to the pasta water, but I don't remember where the thread was or who did it, or even the result... sorry. Personally, I think there's a huge difference in flavor between pecorino romano and parmigiano reggiano - it's much sharper... I think doing this dish with parmigiano would be tasty, but it wouldn't be cacio e pepe. Also note that some restaurants will add some butter or cream to help the cheese emulsify, and make the dish a little richer.

Personally, I'm not a fan of knives that have a large flat handle that is perpendicular to the blade. I used to go to a high end restaurant in NYC that had them, and they drove me nuts because the knife would always flip over when resting on the plate or even on the table since the large flat handle wants to lay with the flat side on the table - so you wind up with the blade either facing down on the table or facing up - or if you rest it on the plate edge, in invariably spins around the moment you let it go, and sauce can go flying..,,

Does peanut butter exist in China?

Is it common to find lesser ginger? In Thailand it is called grachai.

I'm no expert, but I would imagine it would be a chocolate sauce (sometimes called chocolate syrup), not melted chococlate. Keeping melted chocolate melted and pourable over a long period of time may be problematic.... Plus, chocolate syrup is easily available (don't have to make from scratch) and is inexpensive.

I love pea shoots, and was investigating growing them as when our (dearly departed) sichuan restaurant (closed due to fire) did have them, they were quite expensive. Now that the restaurant is gone, we don't see pea shoots unless we go down to Chinatown. But that's not the point... it seems like the variety used for vegetation is not the exact same variety used for the pea pods, which I guess makes sense.

@heidih I wonder if that's why the english name is fish mint - as mint in general will take over a garden also

I just got some Pixian doubanjiang (among other things)! My wife and I used to eat a lot of sichuan food until the awesome sichuan restaurant right near us burned down. All the others that we've tried (that are close enough to deliver to us) are horrible by comparison, so I figured we could try to make our own.

I've had the fish mint many times in Vietnam - I found it quite stinky - but only when chewed and the smell is in your head - I never smelled them through the air. I like it when in combination with other herbs, but on its own, I try to avoid it.

I can't help you any with your problem, but I am crossing my fingers hoping to see some photos of where you wind up going!

I used to go to an Austrian restaurant in NYC from time to time... I loved their kasekrainer....

Last night I cooked chicken thighs in a master stock, recently refreshed with garlic, ginger and green onion... These thighs will be featured in a Hainanese chicken rice later this week. The stock that the chicken was cooked in will be boiled briefly and then have the impurities strained, and will go back into the master stock container and refrozen for future use... but some of the original stock was watered down a bit and will be turned into the chicken rice.

Jeez @FeChef - no need to be snippy.... OP was asking if the water would prevent the bones from developing a grilled flavor. The OP did not say that it was not wanted, just if the water would prevent it.

What do the sweet potato shoots taste like? I've seen them in my local Korean/Asian store and have been curious, but not curious enough to take the plunge without hearing what someone else thinks!

So I'm prepping to make mapo tofu, and one of the ingredients is fermented black beans. I haven't opened the package yet, but they look like they're preserved in salt. Do they need rinsing or soaking before chopping them up?

Right - gai lan is called "Chinese Broccoli" sometimes in the USA... also, keep in mind that gailan is the Cantonese for Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra (from Wikipedia). The stems are much thicker and hardier than what has been pictured above so far.

@liuzhou Very true... but I was also comparing the price of the cai hua to the spinach... it's almost half the price.

wow that cai hua is cheap! It's like $0.60 per pound!

Just make sure you wash anything you pick in the park - who knows how many dogs could have peed on that chrysanthemum!