KennethT

here, a common osmanthus dish I see in dim sum restaurants is glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame, floating in osmanthus syrup. My wife and I love black sesame anything and while the osmanthus syrup is usually not that sweet (which is good), it's not necessarily something I'd order if it didn't have the black sesame.

What did you think of the frozen ramen noodles?

Is that iceberg lettuce or some kind of Chinese variety? I think this was discussed sometime in the past but I can't find it - do Chinese people eat salads? Other than what I believe was raw Celtuce tops in a salad in a donkey meat restaurant in Beijing or a smacked cucumber salad, I don't recall hearing about too many. If not, what would Chinese people typically do with that lettuce, stir fry it?

But the plural of thesaurus?

ah! I had originally thought there might have been uses that specifically called for the dried version... In the past, in the pre-tree days, I used to freeze what I didn't use right away after purchase - I thought they froze well. I'm curious as to why you would freeze some and dry others.

It's crazy how different your photos are to what I remember. I was there for lunch in March 2006 and I remember a lot of dark wood around and a charcoal brazier brought to each table. When you got to the table, there was a laminated sheet of paper lying there saying (in English) that there was only 1 dish and the price. I'm sure we were on the 2nd floor by the window (unless they have a third floor?) as I distinctly remember our cyclo driver (we took one to get there as a novelty) waving and shouting to us from the street below "yoo hoo!!!! I wait for you!!!!". It still cracks us up.

What do you do with the dried curry leaves? I've only used them fresh

Do you get the SE Asian type of garlic where you are? The type with the really small cloves?

If that type of lunch is typical, no wonder everyone needs a siesta aftwards!!! ha!

I wouldn't say no - I really have no idea. Unfortunately, I'm not friendly with anyone in the NYC Chinese community and have never been invited to a hot pot in someone's home But now that I think about it, I definitely see a lot of thinly sliced meats (mostly beef) in the refrigerated case at my local Korean (and other Asian) store and also in my local Japanese grocery (labeled typically for Sukiyaki or Shabu Shabu, which is a form of hot pot). I haven't been in a true Chinese grocery or meat market in a long time since Chinatown is more of a schlep than either of the other stores, both of which are around the corner from me.

I've never seen them in stores in my Chinatown here - not that they may not be tucked away somewhere, but I've never come across them. I also haven't specifically looked for them though, but I don't know how many people are making hot pot at home here.

Braising in water won't make the meat watery, but the meat will leach flavor into the braising liquid. You're basically making a stock with your braise.

I think I threw up a bit in my mouth just now...

In stores in Chinatown here, I've never noticed any rice that's not either Jasmine or sticky... I've never seen a "plain white rice" - unless you're in a normal grocery store and they have a domestic rice. I didn't know it existed in China!

Do you know if the Dai use curry leaves? I have a friend who lives in my building who is Burmese but left Burma when he was 18. At one point, he was the chef/owner of a Burmese restaurant in NYC. Anyway, I met him when I was giving away herbs that I grew - he was particularly after the curry leaves and the laksa (but I gave him sawtooth also). I can definitely see the curry leaves in that beef with herb dish - especially young leaves that are tender and edible.

I've heard of Burlap and Barrel - I go to Yellow Rose like once a week to pick up (we're addicted to their salsa - and everything else is really good too) and they have a few shelves of products for sale - some of which are some B & B spices as well as Rancho Gordo beans... But, no, it didn't answer the question - other than the small farmer, etc discussion, do you find it differs from regular cumin in a noticeable way?

I've been thinking of the Dai beef with herb dish linked to on the Chinese Herbs and Spices thread considering I have copious amounts of all of the herbs needed (laksa, sawtooth and thai basil) and I'm always looking for new ways of using them because they grow faster than we can eat them. What would this dish be served with - jasmine rice or sticky rice? Something else entirely? I'm guessing that it would be sticky rice since it's so close to northeastern Thailand/Laos/Burma and sticky rice is common there, but I'd like to know for sure....

Wild mountain cumin??? Do you find it very different from normal cumin?

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you.

Thanks. I just remember being taken to a Yunnan restaurant in Beijing and one of the dishes was beef rolled around a bunch of mint... which is why I was curious. This is it here:

I seem to remember that the one I had in Hanoi was made either with catfish or basa or something like that. I gussied it up using halibut, but that wouldn't be common (or even exist?) in Hanoi.

I had thought that mint was pretty common in Yunnan and other areas close to the Viet border?

Dill is VERY prominent.

Over the weekend I was going through some old photos and came across some photos I had taken in Hanoi back in 2006. Ever since, I couldn't get the memory of a certain dish out of my head, so I decided to make it - even though I've never seen a recipe that looked even close to what the real thing was. It seems like everyone in the US knows about Cha Ca La Vong... which, in itself, drives me crazy and makes me want to strangle the first person here who started it. The name of the dish is Cha Ca (or more specifically Chả Cá). La Vong is the name of the restaurant that either first made it or popularized it, depending on what you read. But when people call the dish, "Cha Ca La Vong" it drives me nuts... just my pet peeve. Anyway, the rest of the lore is true - the name of the street is Pho Cha Ca (Pho = street) and there are several restaurants selling Cha Ca on Pho Cha Ca. But this is pretty common in that section of Hanoi, where many streets are named after the preponderance of shops that sell it. For instance, there is Silk Street, where there is silk store after silk store... Sort of like in old NYC where we have the Garment District, the Diamond District, the Lighting District, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have a charcoal brazier for my apartment, and if I did, I'd probably set off every smoke alarm in the building.... But anyway, here's my Cha Ca Halibut: Please excuse my use of the wrong rice noodle - I thought I had rice vermicelli, but when I took out the package, I realized they were mung bean noodles which are not interchangeable. So these are like Banh Pho - like the noodles you'd see in Pho. Just for fun, this is the only photo of mine that I could find of the real thing:

I love how they made the supporting column look like a tree!