Will

I'm not sure you will find much in the way of cookbooks, especially in English. There's only so much out there in English even about famous Chinese cuisines. Online, you may be able to find a few things. Chaozhou / Chaoshan cuisine is in some ways a subset of Cantonese cooking (since Chaoshan is technically in Guangdong), but the style is slightly different, partly because of its proximity to Fujian. If there are specific recipes you are looking for, that might be a good place to start, since those could probably be found online. Starting with some basic Cantonese cookbooks and trying to incorporate the seasonings / stocks mentioned in the Wikpedia article might also be worthwhile (as would learning to make the style of congee / rice soup mentioned in the Wikipedia article). I believe Andrea Nguyen has the recipe for Gu Chai Gue (jiu cai guo) in her book (these "dumplings" are made with Chinese leek / garlic chive, and the outside is the wheat starch wrapper used for har gow / xia jiao, not the one used for normal jiaozi. Chaozhou cuisine has been pretty popular in some places (like HK) for a while, but where I live, at least, most Chaozhou restaurants don't purely serve the cuisine of that area, but also have either more straight-ahead Cantonese food or Vietnamese food. There are a lot of people from that area who have settled in SE Asia (Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.), so you see a lot of that influence. You could take a look at http://thelittleteochew.blogspot.com/ -- the name refers to the person, not the cuisine, but but you will find a few recipes and some information about the cuisine there. Learning to make the Muay (plain rice porridge) mentioned in the Wikipedia article would also be a good idea. I'm not sure whether it's made completely white (without stock or fish) or whether Chinese dried scallops are used in the cooking. I would assume you use sticky rice, as with zhou / jook, rather than cooked rice (as with the xi fan made in some other areas). I think you'll find a bunch of recipes on this site (a friend mentioned it recently, and came across it again today while responding to this post): Are these helpful as a starting point? http://rasamalaysia.com/teochew-braised-duck-lo-ack/ http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-eggs-with-preserved-turnip/#more-5422 http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-radish-cake-recipe/ http://thelittleteochew.blogspot.com/2009/05/homemade-radish-cake.html http://roseskitchen.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/koo-chai-kueh/ Hopefully, if there are any folks from that area on this board, they will grace us with some of their home cooking recipes.

Puer usually is brewed with boiling water; some people so like to brew young sheng (which is, after all, essentially green tea) with cooler water, however. Partly, it depends if you want to stress the tea to determine how good it is, or whether you want to make it more palatable (reduce bitterness and astringency). I personally don't prefer to drink young sheng puer, but when I do, it's mostly to determine if I want to buy something, so I tend to use boiling water. Even with greens, things aren't that absolute. Good quality tea can usually tolerate fairly hot, if not boiling, water, and standard competition tasting almost always uses boiling. If you are trying to compare the teas, I would try a couple different things, assuming you have enough tea leaf. First would be competition style brewing - 100 ml of boiling water, 3g, 5 minutes, poured into a bowl at the end (this is difficult, though not impossible, if you don't have the cupping style sets or at least 3 identical gaiwans). This makes it easier to compare the teas head to head, and the long infusion with very hot water stresses the tea in a different way from brewing with lots of leaf and less water. Then I'd try brewing the teas "normally", with 5-6 g of leaf and 100ml of water or so, and multiple infusions. Young sheng brewed this way doesn't change much between infusions, and will last almost forever if the quality is good, so this can get kind of boring. You can experiment with cooler water

For what it's worth, I think zha cai or ya cai are more common, at least in most versions of gan bian si ji dou and similar dishes that I've had. I haven't cooked with mei gan cai myself, but my girlfriend's mom uses it sometimes. I think you soak it first, as Dejah suggests.

If that's the only thing they object to, mala hotpot is only one type, and if you get one of the split style pans, you can have an herbal or non-spicy broth on one side, and the good stuff on the other side. If you start with a basic broth of some sort, and add some of those pre-packaged Chinese herb packets and some goji berries, should taste pretty good. You can use the same base broth on both sides, and add the mala seasoning for hot pot that comes in little jars to one side (it's really concentrated). BTW, I don't know if you're making the broth or buying packaged base, but, especially in China, I would be wary of the packaged stuff. I've heard some sketchy things about the oil that makes it into some of the packaged hot pot bases. We do use the packaged base sometimes, and I'd guess that most of the stuff that gets imported to the US is Ok, but....

Sorry - didn't have a chance to look earlier. I think Giusto's "Type 55" style flour is the "Baker's Choice" and "Organic Baker's Choice". I believe they make a type 75 also, but unfortunately, they won't sell it in small bags. Would be interested in getting some if anyone ever wants to order a 50# bag as a group buy, though. I don't know how they stack up to imported French flours, but we have had fairly good results with the Baker's Choice flour at home.

Giusto's also makes a type 55 style flour. http://www.giustos.com/

I make mine similar to the Jerry Thomas one. 2:1 Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth to gin, dash of maraschino, and Boker's Bitters. I use the Ransom "Old Tom" gin, which is fantastic. Probably this drink is sweet enough not to require it, but if you don't use Old Tom style gin, you may want to put a few drops of simple syrup to approximate it. A "perfect" Martinez (with half dry vermouth and half sweet) is also pretty good, IIRC. I've also made a twist that I call the Dirty Sanchez, replacing the Maraschino with Cynar, and flaming an orange peel over it, sort of like how the Little Italy is to the Manhattan (I leave the bitters in, though): http://www.runawaysquirrels.com/2010/03/cocktail-the-dirty-sanchez/

I assume folks might already know this, but there is at least one cookbook based on the "Little House" series [edit: now I see that it was mentioned in the other thread linked up above]: http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Cookbook-Frontier-Ingalls/dp/0064460908 When I was a kid, we had this cookbook, and even had a "Little House" party, which featured a bunch of the recipes in the book ("churning" butter in a glass jar is my main memory from the day).

Wouldn't "serve" suffice?

I got my girlfriend the Hario hand grinder for Christmas (it seemed like the best thing available without spending insane amounts of money for something we don't use often), and she seems to really like it, though she has no basis for comparison. She uses it mostly for Viet style coffee. It is a little time / labor intensive, but she doesn't seem to mind so far. It took her some trial and error to get the right size grounds.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla, it's because the literal translation of the Korean for Shiso (들깨) is "wild sesame". The plant is not related to sesame, though.

I haven't had the exact thing you're talking about, but my girlfriend's mom makes a coconut milk and mung bean dessert which sounds similar (I think she got the method from a co-worker). I think you just put the (cooked) beans in a dish and pour a (heated) mixture of coconut milk, rock sugar to taste, and a pinch or two of salt, with a small amount of agar dissolved (I don't think it matters if you use the powdered kind or the stick kind, but the powdered kind is very potent). Then put it in the fridge to set. If you want a more precise recipe, there are some online if you search for 'red bean coconut agar'. Using too much agar will result in an unbelievably dense final product.

Even though it's called tea oil (茶油) or tea seed oil, I believe it's typically a different camellia than the tea plant (c oleifera vs. c sinensis). I have been using it on my carbon steel cleaver recently. Seems to work very well for that... after I wipe it off, it doesn't leave a sticky residue at all.

You can make them too, but it takes about 3 weeks to a month. We make our own.

The food in the airport itself is not bad. I even found some reasonably vegetarian stuff last time. I don't know the names of anything - just look around - whatever's close and looks tasty should be decent.

I would take these ratings with a very large grain of salt, considering how few of these places are where lots of Chinese people live / work. I would guess that there are either fees to enter, or that actual Chinese places don't bother to enter. I don't even see how useful these rankings are, given that most people live near only a small fraction of them. Also, the criteria surrounding decor etc. will disqualify some (though certainly not all) "authentic" restaurants, especially the more down-home sort.

Their owner has been anti-salt for quite a while, IIRC. However, I did notice that they're selling salt (Diamond Crystal kosher salt, if memory serves) in their retail stores.

Haven't made them in a while, but this beet recipe (from Mark Bittman) is fantastic. http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/beets-mexican-style/ When bitter oranges are in season, I'll use them if I can get 'em, but works fine with a mixture of other citrus to approximate the taste of bitter orange.

I have a humidor (non-cedar interior) used for storing puer tea, which really should have somewhat higher humidity than is normal in Southern California. It's custom built by a cigar humidor manufacturer. I keep it around 65-70% usually. The main thing that's a pain is that the humidifier wicks can get a little moldy, and have to be cleaned / changed frequently. The reservoir also has to be cleaned. You can see the humidifiers sort of at the bottom of the first photo, and the controller at the top of the second. The outside is black walnut, with mahogany interiors. It did take a while for the wood smell to go away, even though mahogany isn't aromatic like cedar. It was made by Aristocrat Humidors [click for larger image]

Haven't been to either (I don't live in NY), but you can also check out Luh Yu and Fang Gourmet Tea if you can make it out to Flushing. I know folks who have spent time at both places. By the way, Tea Gallery's new location is a joint venture with an old friend (Tim of http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/ and http://www.themandarinstearoom.com/) who also sells his teas there, and who is sharing his work space with them.

I still drink tea when I'm sick because I'll get a headache if I don't, but if I'm congested, the taste / aroma won't be as enjoyable, so usually I stick to something that's just Ok, so as not to waste tea. Sometimes I will have just plain hot water, an herbal tisane or hot water with lemon and honey (and / or whisky), though. Not to be overly pedantic, but I'm not sure you quite understand what homeopathy is (I didn't either, until last year).

I absolutely agree that "by feel" can be precise (maybe, in certain ways, more precise, as you say), for bread especially. But it takes time and practice to get to the point where you can do it by feel and achieve consistency. And I think for pastry stuff (vs. bread), even professionals will usually weigh everything, no?

My girlfriend (not a professional pastry chef) rarely follows recipes exactly, and routinely bakes (bread, more often, but occasionally sweets or quickbreads) in an... improvisational manner. Bread, in fact, she almost always does strictly by feel. Of course, there are occasional mishaps, but more often than not, the results are excellent.

I rarely leave teas for more than a few hours, but overnight is often Ok. I don't worry so much about safety, but certain teas won't taste that great after resting overnight. With certain teas (really old puers), I will brew a couple days in a row, in some cases, maybe even boiling the leaves to get the last bits out. I have heard those who know more than me say that "it depends on the tea" as to whether you can do this, but no one has offered an exact explanations of what criteria make a tea suitable. Yixing pots are also said to keep the leaves well overnight; I've certainly left leaves in the pot overnight and then cleaned it; however I live in (relatively dry) Southern California, and not sure I'd risk damaging my pots with mold if I lived somewhere extremely humid. As far as the number of infusions a tea can take, I think the amount of leaf used relative to water (no shocker there) is a very big factor. If you use a ton of leaves, you can get a number of infusions out of green or red ("black") teas as well. The quality of the tea matters too; certain teas may last 15-20+ infusions when brewed in a fairly concentrated way; others will give out after 3 or 4, even with the same brewing parameters. When brewing for myself, I typically use a fairly small (50-125 ml) brewing vessel, which means that usually, there's no need to keep leaves longer than a few hours, even when I'm drinking at a slow pace while at work or something.

I don't think there are many multi-ply ones for that price, and there may be one or two stainless-only ones (I think there was an article a while back that suggested one, maybe the Cuisinart stainless-only model), but I'm not sure if they'd work as well as aluminium or aluminium / stainless steel (maybe folks with stainless-only roasting pans can comment; I haven't found them to be that great). I have a very thin Vollrath stainless roasting pan which was not expensive, but it's definitely not heavy duty. A little over your budget, but the Cuisinart MCP117-16BR is around 90 on Amazon, and it's stainless with aluminum core.