Will

I never buy the pre-peeled kind. That's interesting about letting the garlic sit for a minute - I had always thought you were supposed to cut garlic as close to the time of use as possible, and cover it in lots of oil if you're pre-chopping more than a very short amount of time ahead. I usually de-germ garlic, especially if I'm using it raw in a recipe. I don't find the peeling part of garlic to be the time consuming bit. I chop off the root end, and whack it with the blade of the knife (or press a little more gently if I don't want to smash it). Takes about 10 seconds. Chopping can be a little more time consuming, especially if it needs to be really even.

The 1970s-80s GYG are fairly different from the 1960s ones stocked by Hou De, Essence of Tea, and other vendors; the 60s ones may (according to some) have puer type maocha from Yunnan, though GYG is not really puer. My understanding is that the later ones are made entirely with leaf grown elsewhere (in Guangdong province), and that there may be some intentional ripening used to partially "ferment" or ripen the tea, similar to the process used for making shu puer. That said, the blend I had did not brew like shu puer or other ripe hei cha, even aged shu - the durability was a lot better, and the taste quite different. I have not tried the 60s type myself. Today, two Wuyi yancha, a medium fire Dahongpao from 2007 or so, from a Malaysian shop (Evergreen). A decent amount of oxidation without being overly astringent, the roast sufficient, but not overpowering, and a slight amount of greenness / freshness, with a sweet scent and lingering aftertaste. Then an aged tea (age unknown, but older than 1995). I believe the varietal is jin liu tiao; I've never seen this varietal for sale except for this one. This seems fairly old, hasn't been re-roasted, and has been stored in Malaysia; not surprisingly, it's a little bit sour, but the taste is still pleasant, though the aroma isn't that strong. The sourness fades in later brews.

I think Persian cucumbers seem to give the best result for this dish, at least based on what's usually available at Chinese markets here in the LA area. I've seen lots of regional variations of this dish. I've seen cucumber and peanut dishes at a lot of restaurants, but I don't know if I've ever seen them together.

Two of my friends each picked up some of this blend in HK. At the time (probably 3-5 years back), it was still fairly cheap, maybe $100-150 US / jin (and this is a HK jin, so 600g). The price has gone up since, but it's still a decent value for something that, while not infinitely complex, is a very pleasant and comforting tea to drink. Assuming the blend (broken up chunks of cakes) is a good enough quality, I'm hoping to get some more of it, because even at the higher price, it's a nice tea. The durability was also quite good; much better than I expected. I used maybe a little more than half of the pot by volume (with the leaves expanding to around 3/4 full), and I was drinking this thing all afternoon, even brewing an encore round this morning. The first 7-8+ rounds after the rinse were quite dark and thick, and even after that, it didn't taper off sharply.

Today is a medium fire, fairly oxidized Da Hong Pao from Best Tea House in HK. Yesterday, an aged Wuyi Shui Xian and a phenomenal Guang Yun Gong -- a blend of GYG chunks, I think mostly from the 70s and 80s. Sweet, medicinal, thick, completely lacking in bitterness, sourness, astringency, or mustyness. Very pleasant tea, and kind of sorry I wasted most of the sample I had on just myself.

I will rarely do more than two dishes for two people, but I pulled off 4 or so dishes in about an hour and a half (had some help on the actual cooking of one dish), and I'm not as fast with a cleaver as I'd like to be. The trick is mostly to have some simple dishes in your back pocket that are quick to prep and quick to cook, and not to try to do too many really complicated dishes in one meal. I prep everything and pre-mix sauces first, and we've got a pretty hot flame, so it's not too much of a challenge to then cook all the dishes right before serving - in this way, you can cook 4 dishes in about 12-15 minutes max. Making some dishes that can be made ahead and served cold or at room temperature also helps (cucumber "salad", Shanghai style kau fu, Sichuan style pickled yard beans, bean sprout salad, and so on). And of course, soup can sit in a pot on the stove until it's ready to be served. A few simple dishes that don't take too long to prep: leafy green vegetables with garlic (or fermented tofu), tomato and egg, vegetarian kidney and basil, potato strips (so many interesting regional variations on this). Washing and completely drying greens can be almost the slowest part for me about making leafy greens; I use a salad spinner, but if it's possible to wash them ahead of time, you can save yourself some time this way. My girlfriend's parents (Chinese) often cover dishes with saran wrap after making them, or, if it's something that can handle being put in a low oven, you can keep the dish warm that way. But I've found that I know that Grace Young claims that wok qi disappears quickly in her book; personally, I'm happy if I can get a little of that flavor in my dishes at home, and I've got a pretty high flame. Either way, I agree with others here that the flavor doesn't really seem to go away as much as she's saying.

I believe it's used in often used in youtiao (lit. "oil stick"; the Chinese "creullers").

Just avoid the dried Thai ones (I think Dunlop has a note about that in the book) -- they look similar, but are a lot hotter. Chaotianjiao ("Facing Heaven" peppers) are probably most appropriate, but I think they're a little hotter than the normal Chinese or Mexican dried red chilis, and harder to find. They are fairly spicy, but also have a pleasant flavor. I usually do take some of the seeds out, especially when cooking for people who aren't big spicy food buffs. You know you're not supposed to eat the chilis, right? Having tasted a fair bit of reasonably authentic Sichuan food, I think it's fair to say that Dunlop's book already tends to err a bit on the side of toning down the spice for the Western audience, and the dish is pretty much just chicken and hot peppers, so there are probably better dishes to try if it's too hot. I don't eat meat, but when I see this dish in restaurants, there are a lot of red chilis on the plate. For what it's worth, your experience with the fumes is not unique. I have a pretty powerful range hood, but when those hot peppers are in the wok the fumes can get pretty toxic.

I use the small Chinese eggplants, but I still slice them fairly small. There are a number of different ways to cut the eggplant for this dish, and I don't think any of them are necessarily "correct". But most methods I've seen do involve fairly small slices. The big disadvantage of small slices for doing this at home is that the deep frying can take longer; if you're at a restaurant or own a deep fryer, this is obviously less of a problem.

Today, a roasted (and fairly oxidized) Tieguanyin from an old HK shop, and an unknown (very) wet stored sheng puer from the early 00s (via the generous marshaln. Yesterday, a very nice aged liu an, also courtesy of marshaln [below is probably the fourth or so infusion, not counting two rinses].

What's wrong with just drinking the wine the old-fashioned way?

Preserved Meyer lemons are great. My friend put her method here: http://www.eatsipchew.com/?p=1809

Two puers from the late 90s this morning; a wetter stored orange label Menghai 7532 from 1996 (I believe "orange in orange", but I don't know for sure), and a slightly drier brick from '98 -- "zhengshan daye" (正山大葉).

Experimenting is always good; personally, I find the aroma cups a little fussy / precious, and especially with puer, where aroma isn't quite as much of a thing. This is one reason why puer cups are usually wider, larger, and flatter than the cups used for tasting oolongs. You can also get an idea of the fragrance in the cup just by smelling your tasting cup directly after you're finished. It's not quite as concentrated as a tall, thin aroma cup, but you will get the general idea.

Beet greens and chard are very similar (as others have kind of alluded to). Only bad part about beet greens is rinsing them, since they're usually really sandy and gritty. Once cleaned and trimmed, I like to microwave them (covered with plastic wrap) very briefly, and then toss in a pan with some garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil, breadcrumbs, and maybe some lemon or lemon zest.

I don't quite follow this point. Traditionally, many Yixing pots tend to be small, and pots of 70-120 ml are certainly common (and useful for those of us who don't drink tea in large groups often).

Honestly, this is a tough one, and to be honest, probably the wrong place to ask. If you want to sell good, reasonably sized, and non-tacky Yixing pots at a reasonable price, you will probably need to either make some connections a little closer to the source, or go through wholesalers that probably not many people here (myself included) know of. And a lot of the people who do know may think of you as a competitor. Believe it or not, some of the pots that Rishi sells (specifically, the ones made by 经典陶坊 -- jdart.cn) are decent clay and a decent price, though most of the ones Rishi carries are a bit on the large size. There site is weird, and I've never purchased stuff from them, but I've heard Ok things about funalliance.com. Not sure how active they are these days, but worth checking out. Another outside shot, but you could try Aroma in Vancouver (Canadian branch of HK's Lam Kie Yuen -- aromateahouse.com). They have some decent quality shui ping style pots in various sizes which are reasonably priced. Whatever you do, you are wise to do at least some basic tests for product safety, and use your common sense to avoid unnatural looking colors. While I don't want to overstate the risks, there have certainly been some safety issues with some products sold as zisha (though most of the so-called zishagate story seems to have involved slow-cookers and other products, rather than teapots).

Not in Europe, and a bit more expensive than Bar Products (who only recently started adding the somewhat nicer stuff to their selection), but I think they do ship internationally... http://www.cocktailkingdom.com Some of their stuff (and some other good stuff) is also available direct from Japan http://www.naranja.co.jp/common/english/index.html

I've always been curious about the assertion in the Wikipedia article that Chaozhou cuisine is famous for its vegetarian dishes... is there any truth to this? Folks I know who are from this region or visit this region don't seem to be aware of these dishes, though I'd love to hear about them if they do. Chaozhou is also, of course, famous as the birthplace of gongfu tea, and the region is notable also for its locally produced tea (Fenghuangshan teas such as Fenghuang Shui Xian (different from Wuyi Shui Xian) and Fenghuang Dancong), Shantou / Chaozhou teapots and clay stoves / kettles (all made from local clay).

Amazon also has some sellers who have used copies of this book, though don't know anything about it or how good it is: http://www.amazon.com/Chiuchow-Cuisine-Teochew-Tieguanyin-Omelette/dp/1155665236

For New Years Day dinner, I made this recipe: http://thelittleteochew.blogspot.com/2009/05/vegetarian-chap-chye.html I made a few additions / subtractions - shimeji mushrooms instead of the button, omitted the enokis (because the ones I got smelled a little funky), and added some tofu-skin thingies. No idea if the 'fa cai' ('fat choy') is genuine; 2 stores didn't have it at all, and seems like it's pretty tightly regulated these days. That little package was $7. Prepped and ready to go: Ingredients fried separately (not pictured) and cabbage put on top (I didn't fry stuff in the clay pot): Finished dish:

Should have guessed from the name; unlike most Cantonese rice porridge, the 潮州糜 (mei / mue) is made with cooked (normal) rice, not with uncooked sticky rice. I'll try to find a recipe online when I have more time, but basically, take cooked white rice and cook it with more water (maybe 8:1 as a starting point).

First, fairly high-fire Wuyi Lao Cong (old bush) Shui Xian from a HK tea shop. Currently, drinking a liu an basket tea.

No disagreement here. However, for folks who do want to give this method a try, you don't need to have the specific equipment. 3 small bowls and 3 equal sized mugs should work also. The main principles are * boiling water * equal parameters (volume of water, quantity of tea leaves by weight, water temperature, steeping time) for each tea * separate the tea leaves from the brewed tea after the time is up A ceramic porcelain spoon for each bowl is helpful - you can drink directly out of it if drinking alone, or ladle the tea into a small tasting cup; professional tasters also use the spoon to observe the texture of the tea and smell the back of it to gauge the aroma. Since it uses very little tea leaf, there should still be plenty to try the tea "normally" as well. I find this method very instructional at times, and I am not at all a tea professional.

Seconding all this. I always seem to cut myself if my knife has gotten a little dull and is suddenly razor sharp (same thing happens to me with shaving razors). Keeping the knife consistently sharp is, of course, a very good way to avoid this. I do think that the cut tends to be cleaner and hurt / scar less with a very sharp knife. That said, I have also been thankful some of the times I've cut myself that my knife wasn't sharper at a given time. I think the expression about a sharp knife being safer refers to the fact that it's less likely to slip or require undue amounts of pressure. But you do need to use it correctly to avoid getting hurt; following good technique and keeping your digits out of harms way is the most important thing, whether your knife is razor sharp or not. While this may not guarantee you'll never cut yourself, it will at least minimize the chances, and reduce the damage to your fingers when you do happen to slip up.