KennethT

I also find it interesting that you don't have limes in China - even as close as you are to Vietnam - but that you have lemons. Many times I have been in SE Asia (where there are no lemons, only true limes) and servers have called something lemon, even though it was a lime. But I attributed that to a language issue - every time I saw that, they had never heard of the word "lime", but only knew "lemon" as a translation for the Thai (most times it happened in Thailand). But the fact that they used the word "manao", which I know to be true limes told me it was a language issue.

I've never seen such an active slingshot market!

If you do a lot of airbrush work, I would get a compressor with air tank and a long hose as suggested by @dcarch. The motor may be loud, but it won't run all the time - once it reaches pressure, it will just run for a minute or two when the pressure in the tank drops below a preset level. In my facility (it's not a chocolate facility, but we do paint spraying) we keep our pressure in the lines at about 100 psi - but the spray gun only needs 25-30 psi, so we have a filter regulator at the spray booth to clean the air (there are filters that will filter all water and oil) and maintain proper pressure for the spray gun.

Wow - that wall of windows is great!

@Ann_T I wanted to like this, but I'm sorry to hear about Moe... I hope he's doing better and will make a full and speedy recovery!

Chocolate mousse?

Meringue?

I don't know if the trend was started by Batali, but he was certainly an avid follower. All of the Momofuku restaurants in NY (except for Ko since I've never been there, but it may be the case there as well) were ridiculously loud as well - as well as many many others. I have always thought that part of the reasoning was to make people feel like they don't want to linger, thereby allowing the restaurant to turn the tables faster.

I imagine you'd need a knife though, unless you're doing it caveman (or cavewoman to be precise) style!

Here in NYC, the birthplace of the egg roll, the classic is "duck sauce"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_sauce In Hong Kong, soy sauce was served with spring rolls - although some places seemed to add some stuff to it - maybe a dash of black vinegar or some sugar or both.

@liuzhou For a moment, I thought the second dish was something in a fried corn tortilla... but then came to my senses...

@liuzhou Was that tom yum soup made with coconut milk or anything? It looks more opaque than I'd expect..

He looks exactly the same!!! In addition to being an incredible chef, he seemed like a really nice person, and had a great sense of humor. I miss going there - it was expensive, but worth it.

Is that the same Sushi Yasuda that used to be in NY? Years ago, my wife and I would go there from time to time and sit at the counter with Yasuda-san... no matter how infrequently we went there (once or twice a year?), he always remembered us - even our fish preferences! His sea urchin was always amazing, but no matter how great the quality of all of his fish were (they were all awesome), one of the things I loved most about his place was the texture of his rice.

Our now traditional Thanksgiving dinner... Peking duck (it's actually Cantonese roast duck served with steamed buns, hoisin sauce and celery/carrot/green onion, but then again, the old school restaurants in NYC's Chinatown are all Cantonese). We got the whole duck which comes in 2 courses - the meat and skin served on top of shrimp chips, then the carcass meat stir fried with oyster sauce and veggies, and stir fried pea shoots with garlic.

I might disagree with this also. The US FDA only allows import of 2 brands of jamon iberico de bellota, and they're both relatively mass produced "supermarket" bellota in Spain. The last time I was in Spain, I found that the best stuff never left the area...

@liuzhou Thanks again for putting in all this effort to document this - I know the effort involved, and I'm sure I'm not alone in how much I appreciate it!

This is a new addition to our neighborhood...

A branch of this mini-chain recently opened in my neighborhood. The service was a bit slow and the waiter barely spoke English and seemed really tentative dealing with us (everyone seated around us was speaking Mandarin) but overall the food was really good and it's a very welcome addition to the 'hood. Shredded potato salad Zha Jiang noodles with pork Signature beef noodle soup

I'm not in the food business, but I think that in many respects, all businesses are the same - it's just the details that change. To answer your question, I'd ask the following - what does your proposed customer base want? All consumers, at all price levels, want a perceived value. Those with lots of expendable income may be willing to spend a lot more, but they still want to feel like they are getting a good deal and value for their money. In general, a dessert-only place has to sell fun and pleasure. No one eats dessert for sustenance or nutrition - you go because you want something tasty enough to overcome any feelings of unhealthiness associtaed with the empty calories - it's all about pleasure and fun - so make the experience of getting the treat fun too! How commonly found in your area are the items you plan to offer? If they are very uncommon, you could be successful offering a relatively mediocre product just based on the sheer novelty of it. Plus, if most of your consumers have never had a truly great version of your offering, then they will have no frame of reference by which to judge it - other than to say that people know what tastes good - so as long as it tastes good, it doesn't necessarily have to be the best specimen ever. If your offerings are available elsewhere nearby, how do you plan to differentiate yourself? Cheaper, better quality, novel packaging, novel experience, etc. Sometimes, it's better to specialize in a few items, rather than having a long menu, especially if you have limited dessert experience or your workers are not very experienced. Also, try thinking of ways to spin some perceived negatives into positives. For instance, in another thread you were talking about making donuts using waffle batter - rather than trying to pass them off as a true donut, you can market it as something unique - give it a catchy name, some good photos and it could be the next craze so long as it is tasty and different.

To me, western broccoli belongs in the same category as corn does to @liuzhou.

My concern of the abv didn't have to do about getting a buzz, but more about the marinating/frying properties. Sort of like adding alcohol to a batter to make it crisper, I didn't know if the alcohol content did anything for the marinade.

I think you're right - some friends were going there a few years ago and I was looking for it for them, but all the info I could find was about stores that closed... Too bad, that place was a gem. But I do like your idea of the smaller neighborhood mercados... very easy to find good picnic stuff there...

I understand this, but whenever I have cooked with shrimp paste, I could smell it throughout my entire apartment and into the hallway... How far away does the wet kitchen have to be?

Do you have a helper who comes and cleans all those little dishes?!? I can't imagine them not flying around the dishwasher....