trillium

The Pacific Northwest is actually having a real winter (with snow and freezing temps..gasp!) and that lovely stir-fried luffa, fresh water chestnut and shrimp just doesn't seem right when it's this chilly out. So now I've been doing lots of cold weather stuff like braised shortribs with anise, chun pay and red tofu or lap yuk with taro. What are some favorite cold-weather dishes that you've been cooking (or would like to cook)? regards, trillium

? And ? sorry, they don't eat out because they say all the restaurants have watered the food down for american tastes. They, however, have the benefit of talented wives. Honestly, the food i've had at their houses barely resembled the food i've had at the viet restaurants. If I had a talented Vietnamese wife cooking for me at home, I probably wouldn't eat out either! For what it's worth, Oregon Pho is always running at about 95% Vietnamese customers. That being said, they don't do a lot of things that I learned to love from a Vietnamese friend, so I make them at home. regards, trillium

I did my gulleteer duty and went to both Oregon Pho and Pho Hung in the same week. We ended up at Pho Hung about 20 minutes before closing, which as noted, doesn't make them very happy. I don't know why they just don't close earlier if they don't want to cook near closing. They didn't try telling us they wouldn't cook anything though, but yelled at my mum when she took more than 60 seconds to decide what to order. That irritated me enough that I probably won't go back, since I didn't think the food was fantastic anyhow. The portions are much bigger than at Oregon Pho, but the food is greasier and less seasoned, the soup more sweet and msg heavy and the nuoc mam isn't the greatest. Combined with the surly service I'll stick to Oregon Pho. Speaking of which, I can't remember the name of it, but another favorite dish at Oregon Pho is the vermicelli with veggies, shrimp and pork on skewers. I think it's better as a warm weather dish though. regards, trillium edit to add: The lemongrass chicken at Oregon Pho is more like what you might call a curry. It really reminds me of nonya chicken curry, but with less tumeric and more lemongrass.

Just one other thing...you will not find "Singapore noodles" as such in Singapore, contrary to what nearly every Cantonese oriented cookbook will claim! regards, trillium

Hmmm..... I wouldn't. Not everyone here is a lawyer who wants to be a food writer, you know (wink). regards, trillium

? And ?

Very nicely put, thank you. It's not often I read something written by a lay or professional that puts the state of nutritional science so succinctly. But I have to point out that saying Science is a peer-reviewed journal is sorta like saying Everest is a tall mountain! regards, trillium

Hi Jill-- Nice to see you here! I was with a friend who originally hails from Oklahoma at Yam Yam's, and has spent quality time in the south eating bbq. She says that the dinners are never the way to do it, you always order a slab or two and side dishes seperately. A slab and 2 sides fed 3 very hungry people, we gave two away to other folks at the table and we took two ribs home (yes, I ate them for breakfast). You might keep that in mind if you ever end up back there, she was giving her partner grief about his insistance on having a dinner seperate from ours and he was sorry in the end. I think we're in agreement on Delta Cafe, although my fried chicken was good when I was there. It's hard to mess up fried chicken unless you cook it ahead of time or don't keep the grease hot enough. I hated the dried herb taste the pervaded the sides. I'm out in Clackamas for cat food and Costco runs often enough that I'll give Campbell's a try, if only I can resist the torta truck. The sign freaked me out, as I've posted before, it seemed like a big ole sterotype, but I'll just shut my eyes and walk on in. regards, trillium

I cast my vote for the filling from the first recipe and the pastry from the third recipe then. regards, trillium

The moon festival is considered the Chinese "thanksgiving" at our house too, and the ethnic Chinese contigent is from SE Asia. The moon festival was a huge deal at home, kids got to get hyped up on sugar sodas and eat fried foods...it made a big impression. regards, trillium

Sometimes the medicine shops will have the compressed yeast, just fyi. If you can't find it, I think you could use the dried kind that comes in a package, but my guess would be to NOT use the super rapid rise kind, since the yeast might crap out too soon. regards, trillium

I'd use a pastry recipe that had lard, for sure, it makes a really flaky, flavorful crust. I've never had them with butter in the crust, but maybe that's a more homestyle version. As for the filling, I guess it depends on what you like in a dan tat. I like them really eggy, so I'd go for the recipe that has a good amount of egg and egg yolk in it, and less dairy. Do let us know which you end up making, I'd love to benifit from your experience. regards, trillium

I wanted to revive this thread to say we found ourselves at Yam Yam's on Saturday night. A friend was visiting from out of town and was craving bbq so off we went. 3 of us split a full slab of pork ribs and a fried okra and macaroni and cheese side. The ribs were good, but I wish they'd spent a little more time with the bbq sauce on them, they get put on a plate and doused with sauce and then brought to your table. They had a nice smokey flavor and didn't have that awful fall of the bone thing going on from ribs being pre-cooked before they're smoked. One of my favorite places back in Chicago was run by a guy from Carolina and I loved how they smoked them and then warmed them on a grill while basting in the sauce, instead of the steam table approach that Yam Yam's uses. The sides rocked, I'm a big sucker for southern style mac and cheese and this was a great version. 2 other people got the dinner plates which I think is not the way to go. One was brisket, one was chicken, and the portions seemed kinda small. The sweet potato pie was also really good, nicely flavored with spices and a little lemon zest I'm guessing. I really want to go to the Sunday brunch, I guess they make a lot of things that aren't on the regular menu. On the way there we saw a grand opening sign that said "soul food" on it in big letters but I didn't see the name of the restaurant. Could be good. The only other place I've been for southern/bbq is Delta Cafe out on Woodstock, which is more of a hipster version of southern food for Reedies. They have a little barrel smoker in the parking lot, but serve a lot more than ribs. The ribs the night we were there sucked, they were really dry, which is a bad sign, but our friends said the ones they had the last time were much better. The fried chicken I had was really good but I didn't like the sides so much. The mac and cheese was overpowered by the taste of dried herbs, which have no place in that dish! The fried okra was decent. They have an extensive and interesting cocktail list, but the one I tried sounded better on the menu than it turned out to be. Other people had better luck with theirs. regards, trillium

Jeez...Oregon Pho is one of the cleaner more family oriented places we go to for Vietnamese. They don't spend a whole lot on ambiance (ok next to nothing, except for the Buddha alter), but at least you don't have to wash the chopsticks before you eat like at some places! There is a noodle dish I really love eating in warm temperatures but I don't remember the name of it, I'll write it down next time I'm there, I think your wife would enjoy it. I'll try to stop by Pho Hung while I have wheels, it would be cool to go to both in the same day and the partner would be even more into it than me! One of the problems I have with Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese food here in Pdx is that a lot of the restaurants are run by people serving Vietnamese interpertations of what they imagine Americans think of when they think "Thai" , "Chinese" or "Vietnamese". It's not always bad food, but it can be frustrating to sift through some of the really boring stuff on the menu. regards, trillium

I like the Rip van Winkle rye the best of the ones I've tried, Jim Beam the worst. The Rip has a great rye taste, the Beam is too harsh. The problem with the Wild Turkey rye is it tastes like the inverse of their bourbon. A little more rye than corn, but still a lot of corn, which makes it too sweet for what I want in a rye. If I'm going to drink rye instead of bourbon I want to know I'm drinking rye. The Overholt isn't bad for mixing, but I wouldn't go out of my way to sip it straight. I looked for Sazerac at the good liquor stores in New Orleans while I was there and couldn't find any, so it's not very available. regards, trillium

For what you're proposing, I'm guessing Excel would be all the software you needed.... Spotted on a bulletin board at work today... volunteers needed for a study of equestrian safety or some such thing, they wanted to track the injury records of people who worked at rodeos and belonged to horse clubs. I was just thinking "sheesh, the things MDs come up with to study" but now I think the object of my bemusement has been replaced by the sociologists. regards, trillium

I like Oregon Pho a lot. The partner always gets the pho with all the tendons and stuff, I flit around the menu. It's not as consistanty good as say, the places I used to go to in the Tenderloin in SF, but some of their dishes are great. A favorite with both Vietnamese and those not so familiar or comfortable with asian food is what is billed as a "pork chop" in the rice section. It's not a loin chop, but maybe a shoulder chop, and it barely qualifies as "chop" as it is usually rather large. It's marinated in a wonderful garlicky sweetish sauce and then grilled until crispy with a few charred bits, but still moist on the inside because of the fatty cut. Served with fried green onions on top, rice, the mandatory sipping soup on the side, nouc mam and some fresh veggies. I think it checks in at around $6. Check it out. Another non-seafood one (you're not a seafood lover if I recall) is what I call the piggie plate special. It's one of the most expensive things on the menu (I think it's $7) and it comes with tripe, a "meatloaf" of ground pork and mung bean vermacelli with a thick egg wash on top, and a skewer of pork treated the same way as above, and the requisite "broken" rice. It's not the best version I've had, but it's not the worst either. regards, trillium

Oasis Date Gardens in southern California does mailorder. There was an article in Saveur about them a few months ago. regards, trillium

The Oregon white and black truffles taste nothing like their European counterparts. That isn't to say they aren't delicious, just that you shouldn't expect them to be the exact same thing. They do have an amazingly intoxicating odor, it's just not the same as their cousins across the pond. More on Oregon truffles and mail ordering here. regards, trillium

I like lo mai gai with black mushrooms, chicken (with bones) and a little lap cheung, but only if it's the good stuff, not the nasty dyed red stuff that comes sealed in a package. Dammit you guys, I'm still at work and now I'm really hungry...sigh. regards, trillium

I've never worked up the courage to make woo gok but I've been told by them that know that the secret to a nice lacy crust is lard. I also suspect most places use taro powder not fresh taro. I'd love to hear how you make woo to cake, how is it different than lo bak, er, turnip cake? regards, trillium

Infusing booze with sour cherries is popular in the US too. It goes by the name "bounce" and is usually done with bourbon and some extra sugar. After years of experimentation, we like including the pits, but not crushing them, and leaving the cherries lightly smashed as opposed to pulverized. regards, trillium

I used dried black mushrooms, cloud ears and lilly buds in a steamed dish in my eGullet culinary institute class here. I included a photo of what they look like dried, and properly hydrated. regards, trillium

Add me and mine to the canola smells fishy camp. For high heat stir-frying it sucks, I hate it, and you can't get me to ever try it again. It took nearly a week to get that godawful smell out of the apartment. When you just can't bring yourself to use peanut oil, sunflower works just as well, tastes hundreds of times better, and some varieties even beat out canola in the monunsaturated:polyunsaturated:saturated fatty acid ratios. The ones that don't, come close. regards, trillium

For them that cares (I like knowing apple lineages), I looked them up at home last night and found that they were developed at the Experimental Station at the University of Minnesota from a Macoun and Honeygold cross. The Honeygold cross is a Golden Delicious + something else. regards, trillium