basquecook

still waiting for this to be answered... You said, significant portion will be over cooked.. Then you use physics and science to prove your point. What are the numbers that you are referring to. I am saying, 80 percent of the time, people make up facts to prove, 32 percent of their arguments.

lunch today at the hotel attached to our office. tofu with pork bone sauce. Spicy bamboo with hot green peppers,tiny shrimp and some mushrooms.. It's so rare to find fresh bamboo in new york. It's awesome.. Beef with dumplings and pickled and regular hot peppers.. Clams with cucumbers in a broth. there were also some pickled peppers in this i believe. they ate here two nights prior to my arrival and the waitstaff forgot to bring out this pork dish.. So, as we were eating here for lunch they brought out an extra dish.. Pork belly with bean curd..The bean curd was twisted into knots.. My first thought was they were serving tied intestines but, it was bean curd.. sweat rich sauce.. very lovely.. Rice was served at the end of lunch.. It's 8 pm, i asked to skip dinner tonight and may just grab some bbq on the street later. it also wouldn't kill me to skip a meal either. there was also more greens but, no photographed. bean curd knot.

all your telling me in this story is, you don't know how to grill a burger. i use sous vide when frying chicken for over 12 people... I sous vide the chicken to proper temp and then crispy the skin... I get it, i understand... it takes 12 minutes to fry chicken and I can't fry chicken for 100 people properly without sous vide.. But, when you are talking about grilling burger for 4 or 6 people, i don't understand. If you were grilling burgers for 20 people who all needed to eat at the exact same time and you didn't feel like breaking a sweat, i could see your point.

ok, so assume someone has the ability to cook a proper burger, what portion of the burger does physic say will be "medium to beyond well done" compared to what portion of a deep fried, grilled, boiled burger will be. Obviously, there is a number because it's science and physics involved. And you said significant.. So what are the numbers. To be honest, it sounds very much like those infomercials where the woman is having trouble cracking an egg without her fancy, plastic egg cracker selling for $19.99.. .

Ok, so this is where we disagree. and this is where, proper cooking skills come in to play.

yeh, it was banana.. it was strange, i didn't eat it as i have already had three bananas today.. But, it was peel and all on the grill.. they ordered three of them and I passed.. they peeled the banana and it had a nice caramelization. maybe you can see on the menu sheet? you can see it in the photo above the fish skeleton on the furtherest part of the pan. i can assume it was rubbed with oil and grilled.

i am so interested in this as I just think a lot of this comes from lack of basic skills. (obviously not the posters, i am not saying that at all) Being able to cook meat at a proper temperature is like a corner stone of cooking.. I love the experimentation of cooking but, I just am concerned a lot of this experimentation comes without getting down the basics.. But, really, who gives a shit what i think.. I am fascinated by this and would love to see photos and follow the whole entire process if the original poster would indulge us.. I would also love if he would do a control test and just serve a proper cooked burger the traditional way to compare the two.. But please, if you can post photos of the process that would be great. I should also mention I have had one of those Poly Science immersion circulators for about 10 years.

Perfectly, meaning, for those without the proper cooking skills? I don't what perfect means to you.. when you say perfectly, i am assuming you mean evenly. but not necessarily providing the best results flavor or texture wise.

that looks really good.. do they ever top that with Cilantro.. Is that similar to what i was served at lunch with the wraps? So I got to roll with Robyn again tonight... How cute is this kid? I brought him his teenage mutant ninja turtle hat this afternoon and he met me for dinner wearing it tonight \\\\ He's my buddy for sure. \\ Went for BBQ tonight on Yummy Restaurant Street in Yangzhou Yang means lamb.. So, it's very fitting. This is serious business \\\ This was one of my favorites.. Wheat something or others.. Then came lamb, fish, garlic, bread, broccoli, banana, chicken wings \ A whole bone in leg of lamb. All covered in cumin and pepper and a really lovely spice mixture.. they gave us these long knives to carve the meat.. i am so full.. geeze.. awesome though.

can you talk about the meat a little more.. what sized patties. also what is the point of sous vide'ing a burger.. what are you hoping to achieve.

Thanks for added information Liuzhou. That is really interesting.. So last night in Zhangjiagang.. leaving for Yangzhou shortly, then off to Chengdu The lawyer guy owns a piece of this Hunan Restaurant so we went there last night.. I stayed away from Rice Wine,, it was a lot more tame, to say the least.. We worked late and shut the restaurant down.. We drank wine from various fruits.. it was a low alcohol percent. You can see that large bone display.. That is half a steer head, to display that we were eating a large plate of cow head.. My two favorite dishes were the fish head with spicy green peppers and spicy pork kidney.. Apparently, it is vary good for men's virility. Spicy bamboo This had a fried egg on the bottom of the pan and then bean noodles, various peppers and red onion. This was the pork kidney you can see to the right of the peanuts another interesting dish.. Stinky, stanky tofu. It was pretty extreme for me. It was covered with ginger and garlic which helped mellow the taste.. I enjoyed it a lot like that.. I tried another piece on it's own and it was a lot more strong... When i thought of it as it was a blue cheese, it helped me enjoy it like that as well.. I would not seek it out but, i don't mind it either.. There was an author dining with us and he bagged up the leftovers.. that made me feel good 8 more days! off to yangzhou

another lunch. It's kind of cool, kind of disconcerting to my Western sensibilities.. It's kind of like tapas except, entire bowls of food that then make up smaller dishes are sitting out in 90 degree weather with the local insects buzzing about.... Have I mentioned yet, it's hot as hell here yet? No, that's not Matzah Ball Soup.. More lion head meatball soup.. fried vegetable fritters.. there was onion, lotus root, carrots, a few other things.. my Americaness reaches for salt, there is none. but, it was really tasty.. Fried tofu in hot chicken broth with some scallions pieces of pork rib surrounded by glutenous rice.. always delicious.. my wife would swim to China for this.. fish.. this was super salty.. i think they may have messed up.. but, good none the less. a plate of mushrooms in a hot broth and also some more water spinach was not photographed.

Yeh, I pretty much drink beers, eat pistachio nuts and Sichuan Peanuts while having a glass of tea every 20 minutes though out the day.. We get here around 730 am leave close to 730 at night. lunch is at like 11:30.. I try to rattle them and tell them I am not hungry. they hold out as long as they can. But, like 12:30 lunch for them is bordering on obscene. I like to start negotiating around lunch time. They will often just fold in order to get to lunch. I do this for however many days I spent at each place and then go to the next factory and it starts over.

no, they are essentially, like wraps.. I was saying, the wraps are similar to what you would find served with Beijing or Peking Duck. each wrap contained vegetables and sauce.. The only variant was whether it had, duck, sausage, chicken, or bean curd strings. It was from like a fast food healthy place supposedly.. last day at this one factory.. we gotta get things done. tons of tea, a few beers.

worked through lunch basically, these are peking duck pancakes (pinyin ?) filled with various things. from chinese sausage, to chicken, to duck. I had a sausage and a like a bean curd string one. Hot tofu. a little cilantro makes it pop Sweet bean.. Not a fan of this stuff. it's not bad but, it's not good either. not good for me, that is

I would also highly recommend against going to B and B.. I have tried it three times now.. Have spent tons of dough, it has been bad each time. Why go three times you ask? I have forgotten I had been there, each time.. It was spaced out of over the course of a few years.. I think this time, I am finally going to remember i have been there..

beef shin, tripe and sour vegetables. peanuts with fish, cucumbers and super spicy chicken. Sliced fish and tofu Pea shoots and cumin lamb. awesome dinner. place was bumping.

Heads: Peanuts and sweet dried fish: Sichuan Dumplings sitting in spicy sauce: Soft dumplings with pork. House made skins were super delicate but, yet held together.. There was hints of sesame oil.. Delicious: Spicy cumin lamb with green bell pepper, jalapeño, scallion, sichuan and red chiles.The lamb was sliced in strips and covered with cumin, then wok tossed with these peppers. Holy cow, if I just ate this dish I would have been so happy with the dinner.. The lamb was so tasty, the best cumin lamb I have had. Sliced fried fish tossed with chile peppers: Unbelievable. A large bowl of rice: Fried spareribs.. Here the ribs still had a little bone. The ribs were fried and got to the temperature where all the sinew and fat liquified. There was a little bone that easily disconnected from the meat with a some little mouth work. Again tossed with peppers. It was amazing how many of the dishes appeared to have the same preparation but, were so uniquely different. Eggplant.. It was served piping hot, the eggplant was super melty. The sugars came out of the eggplant and it was just so wonderful. One of the better eggplants dishes I have had in a long time.. It was just so expertly prepared. I love eggplant but there is such a margin of error for me that often times I am left very disappointed. This was perfection. You have to have some greens: I am almost embarrassed to admit how much the three of us ate. There were two dumplings, a little eggplant, some greens and then just plates of dried chile peppers left over. I wish i lived closer to this place, i would probably go here once a week. Service was so nice, prices were very reasonable. I can't wait to go back and try the numerous dishes that we had to pass on. I have eaten with these people all over China and we have unanimously decided this was among the best places we have eaten.

Anyone heading to Vegas that is in to Sichuan Food, i highly recommend Yunnan Garden. I get to vegas for like 10 days, twice a year, that is always one of my go tos.

Thanks everyone.. I appreciate you following along.. Unfortunately, i do not have access to the NY Times in China.. But, on a search, i noticed the article as well.. The last link you sent, is exactly what it was.. I did not notice the flavor as it was masked by the heavy ginger dressing. it was more textural than anything.. I also have been fighting a cold for the last week. I vaguely remember the Chinese name being something like Bingcao, or Bingao. I always get excited to try something new. I don't know if i mentioned this or not but, i am heading to Chengdu in the next week.. I leave on June 3rd. I am fortunate enough to have been in touch with another egullet member, Peter Green, who put me in touch with a guide for that portion of the trip! Really looking forward to that.

A side story.. I was in the elevator, I had just entered on the 30th floor, heading up to the 32nd floor.. A mother and her young song, perhaps 2 years old is standing in the middle of the elevator.. I am only going 2 floors up.. Within that time, I am splashed on the arm with liquid. I look down and see the little kid standing there, peeing in a bucket, they type you would bring to the beach, that his mother is holding.. The kid is peeing in a bucket, in the middle of the elevator in a 5 star hotel. Good times.. Another fun story, after i just checked into the hotel i am currently in, i met a customer down in the lobby.. as i was walking down the hall, i was passing the maid who was delivering my fruit plate.. She dropped the entire fruit plate on the floor and picked up the apples, pears and cherries on the ground.. I watched her casually pick it all up and continue on her way to my room.. I expect nothing less..

Good nights make for bad mornings.. It was a really fun night and a full on feast.. A guy who ran a trucking company, a lawyer, a few other professionals in this group meet in nice restaurants and eat like champs. Also, through out the night, people from other rooms come in to meet the American and challenge me to a drinking contest.. Whether it's jugging a beer or finishing a large glass of rice wine.. It's peer pressure on a Global Level. I must say, i can't hang with the rice wine.. It destroys me.. It is pure rot.. I can and do drink anything. It's just this rice wine stuff ruins my next day. It makes for fun nights but, really it's not worth it for me. (saying this now with drinkers remorse) I even brought a bottle of whiskey hoping to coax some folks into switching teams.. It did not work.. It's an international hotel with some Japanese influence. I have eaten here many times and the food is exceptional. Not a traditional chinese dish.. Actually, it was the first time for everyone at the table trying this.. it's called ice lettuce.. Its so good, such an awesome consistency. Fat branches that are crispy and filled with a fresh cold liquid. It's like an Asian Pear lettuce branch. Japanese ginger dressing Sliced cold beef: Crunchy cold cartilage like fish.. No idea what the hell this is.. I never tried it.. Pork belly: Pork belly: water bamboo and like chunks of fat more chaos. potatoes and beef i think fried sweet pork on bone Fried chicken, fried peppers, sichuan peppers. So good sliced fish: Fish: more fish: This is "special fish" in fresh green peppercorn with noodles. at one point during the evening, whenever we noticed a certain fish on the table was spun around and facing a person, that person had to drink their wine.. There were also these fried beef cubes with fried duck liver.. that was a new one.. We stayed there for close to 5.5 hours.. It was an awesome time.. damage done:

Thanks so much. Yeh, mantis shrimp, they are. A lot of work for not much pay off. I remembered eating these on the street in Hong Kong many years ago.

Tasted like a less sweet shrimp but, the meat attaches itself to the shell tightly and there is not much meat. Good But, a lot of work.

That evening in Qingdao, the second time we were there, after arriving back from Rizhao, we went back to restaurant street. more clams: more greens more bbq chicken more lamb: more dumplings these guys are new.. i wanted spicy sauce but, they came out just steamed, i dipped in vinegar.. These look like a snail and a shrimp had some really ugly babies. And obviously lots more beer.. The fresh beer on tap in Qingdao reminds me of the beer in Cologne almost.. Just super fresh. I ordered a bottle to compare the two.. I am very scientific you know?