Will

Got another jar. AGV (愛之味) Shacha sauce. Good with raw egg as a hotpot sauce, or in rice porridge. If you look at the symbol on it, I'm sure you can guess what it's called in our house.

BTW, a lot of recipes mention this, but it should be rinsed before using.

I've never even heard of such a thing. As it is, bread (at least the typical bread that people would make at home) is pretty healthy, no? A wetter dough will typically give an airier crumb structure, if that's what you're looking for. I think if you're concerned about weight and / or health, using as much whole grains as possible or as is palatable to you would be a good start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_preserved_vegetable

Just east of Los Angeles (city), still in LA County.

I personally really like the results from doing it this way, and I agree that in my limited experience, you get different results (in terms of texture) from par-boiling or not. I like fingerlings (even waxy ones) done this way.... parboiled in very salty water and then roasted. How do folks feel about "crash hot potatoes"?

This is an old picture, but roughly the same as my current work tea setup. Not pictured are a bunch of pots and cups, tins and pouches of tea leaves, and some other random teaware. Our work's filtered water isn't great (kind of flat tasting), so I usually bring in either bottled spring water or filtered water from home.

I remember someone claiming that the main differences are psychological -- that in a blindfolded test, most people can't tell the difference, either raw or cooked. I just searched to see if this was published anywhere and couldn't find it. I've always been a little nervous to test this theory on myself. I do think that the red onions have something slightly different going on in terms of texture and appearance (raw, the red part seems to have a little "snap" before the crunch of the white part). I'll often use red onions in uncooked dips / sauces, when pickling along with beets, sometimes for grilling / caramelizing, or on the rare occasions that I use onion instead of shallot in salads, but tend to use white or yellow in other applications. In a pinch, though, I've substituted red onions where I'd normally use standard ones, and don't think it makes too much difference to the final application.

There are both small and big (小 and 大）variants of this one too. I believe the big ones are usually more expensive. The difference in size between the twyp types is pretty great, though not sure how it compares to a cigarette pack.

Wikipedia has most of the greens we're talking for (just search for the Chinese characters, and usually has the scientific names for things. In fact, I think I've even seen them on restaurant menus (Capsella bursa-pastoris, anyone?), probably due to auto-translation software.

One other thing to keep in mind is that many of the products used in restaurants and in processed foods have multiple flavor enhancers (even some "MSG-free" mushroom seasoning powders come with other flavor enhancers). Some of these apparently have the effect of multiplying the flavor enhancing effect of MSG or other glutamates already present in the food. The "Traditional Hong Kong Recipe" Knorr Chicken Powder, for example, contains both MSG and Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_5%27-ribonucleotides), or, as they say it, E621 and E635*. So even if folks don't have a bad reaction to naturally occurring glutamates or pure MSG, it's possible, even if not scientifically documented, that some of them may have reactions to other ingredients frequently combined with them, or to combinations of ingredients. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavour_enhancer

This is the bane of my existence, though for different reasons than wanting to avoid flavor enhancers. I'm vegetarian, and eat at (non-vegetarian) Chinese places a lot; chicken stock / chicken base / chicken powder is almost ubiquitous, and while the words are different in Chinese (see above), restaurants tend to use the terms interchangeably, so when I ask for "no Chicken MSG", a lot of times, I think they're thinking "oh.. another white person who doesn't want MSG". Yes, some of the brands don't actually have much or any animal ingredients, but most of the stuff contains chicken and / or beef fat, or other animal-derived ingredients.

Sad when these threads come up, because they usually devolve into a lot of name-calling (in fact, Chowhound usually deletes comments / threads about MSG for this very reason). Good timing on this thread, because I was just reading this thread earlier tonight: http://www.chow.com/food-news/69604/youre-not-allergic-to-msg-and-6-more-culinary-secrets/ Overall, I do think people are right to be skeptical of those with MSG "allergies", and of course, if these same folks don't have problems with other foods with comparable amounts of glutamates, they are probably full of it, barring a sensitivity to something used to produce the MSG, or another ingredient (the current popularity of chicken base or chicken MSG vs "traditional" MSG complicates things further). Some of it's a naming / branding problem. In China, where MSG (and these days, chicken MSG or chicken base) are ubiquitous (and MSG allergies almost unheard of), the name sounds a lot better (味精 - "wèi jīng, or 鸡精 in the case of chicken MSG) - an overly literal translation might be something along the lines of 'flavor essence'. Of course, there are lots of ways to technically have "no MSG", but still add a savory / umami component to food as flavor enhancers - hydrolyzed soy protein, mushroom extract, etc., not to mention other flavor enhancers. More personally, though, I had an experience while on INH (narrow spectrum antibiotics), where almost all foods high in glutamates and / or tyramine would trigger horrible headaches. I didn't realize why until I read the detailed information about possible side effects a few months in. Apparently, folks on MAO inhibitors also may have problems with these foods. I would get headaches not only from foods containing a lot of MSG, but also foods with high amounts of glutamates and / or tyramine (fermented soy products like soy sauce and miso, nutritional yeast, foods with concentrated tomato flavoring, etc.). Of course, this is anecdotal and not a double-blind study, but it was very reproducible for me, and it seems clear that there are at least some credible evidence that certain foods can be migraine triggers for certain people [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1842472/ seems to have some studies, for starters]. Given that the two have a lot of overlap, and that Chinese food uses a lot of soy sauce, it's entirely possible that tyramine sensitivity is part of the problem for some people. Since being off the meds, I notice fewer of these problems, but still occasionally find that too much of these foods seem to still be a headache trigger.

Yeah - qing cai is just like saying 'greens' (meaning dark leafy greens) in English... generic term. Ah, but maybe in this case, it's short for '青江菜' (qīngjiāngcài), another word for Shanghai bok choy. Noticed this at the store the other day, but the store had a typo on one of the characters, making it take a while for me to figure out the name. It looks like the really small ones may sometimes be labeled as '青江菜苗' (qīngjiāngcàimiáo), with miáo being 'sprout' (as on dòumiáo).

I think you mean cōng / yáng cōng（葱 ／ 洋葱）(rather than tong) for green onion and onion. yang is used much like xī to precede certain vegetables to denote a similar foreign version; for example, carrot is 'foreign radish'. As best I know, at least here in the US, cong by itself refers to green onions, whether or not it's prefixed with small (xiao). "Spring onion" is confusing, because it means different things even in the west. Some people use it as synonymous with scallion / green onion (especially in the UK). In the US, I most often see it refer to very young actual onions, with the stalk attached... bigger than even a large green onion. I think if you're going to call anything "Chinese leek", it should be 韭菜（jiǔ cài）and not scallions / green onions, which already have a name in English. In case it's helpful for some folks, basic information on how to pronounce Hanyu Pinyin is here: http://www.1morepeat.com/knowledge/mandarin-chinese-pronunciation.htm Pinyin is not designed to be pronounceable as in English or other languages; it's just a way of representing a set of sounds using the Western alphabet.

Yu choy is yóu cài （油菜）in Mandarin. In English, you'd probably just call it 'rape', but it's different from most of the Italian versions (i.e., rapini). It's roughly the same plant as the plant that canola oil is made from, though my understanding is that the plant used for canola oil has been hybridized to reduce levels of euric acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola). Another really common green is kōng xīn cài (空心菜 - "hollow heart vegetable"), referred to as 'ong choy' in Cantonese (ong (蕹) being wèng in Mandarin). I've also heard it referred to as water spinach. It has a very crunchy stem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_aquatica

[i'll use Hanyu pinyin, with tone markers used at least the first time I reference something, and mostly simplified characters, with one exception, below.] Yeah - qing cai is just like saying 'greens' (meaning dark leafy greens) in English... generic term. I think these are just baby bái cài (bok choy in Cantonese) - I usually see these labeled as 小白菜. There are of course, regional differences too - some places call Napa Cabbage "大白菜' (big bok choy) or even just '白菜', whereas others call it 黃芽白 (huáng yá bái). I believe the vegetable more commonly known as bai cai / bok choy in the West can also be called 清江白菜 (qīngjiāng bái cài, with Qingjiang being a river in Hubei). There is also 菜心 (choy sum in Cantonese), which is cài xīn in Mandarin. This is the heart of some vegetable, usually bai cai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choy_sum). Another source of confusion is 'jì cài (荠菜 ／ 薺菜)', vs 'jiè cài (芥菜)' vs. ‘jiè lán (芥蓝)’. Not only is the phonetic sound of the first two similar (though not the same), but the tones are the same, and if you look at the simplified character for 'jì' (on the left in the example above), it's very easy to confuse with the one for 'jiè'. Jicai is an herb, frequently used in Shanghaiese cooking, as a filling for buns, dumplings, and also stir-fried with niangao (xuěcài aka xuě lǐ hóng (雪里红), a kind of mustard green) is also used instead sometimes). Jie cai is, I believe, a general term for mustard green, though the Chinese, like us, have different kinds of mustard green (and different names are often used when the greens are preserved). Jie lan is Chinese broccoli -- more commonly known in the US by the Cantonese name, gai lan.

I don't think there's really a good translation, simply because (AFAIK) jiucai isn't common outside of Asia. "Chinese leek" usually means jiucai, at least in regards to English recipes for Chinese cooking. I usually say "garlic chive", just because I think that to people in the West, "leek" usually implies something more like the leeks we're used to, and jiucai is really more like a big chive than like a leek. The Wikipedia page has "garlic chives" as the main translation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_chives Interestingly, "Breath of a Wok" by Grace Young seems to imply that jiucai, jiuhuang (韭黄), and the flowering kind (don't know the name, mabye 韭花?) are all separate plants (at least, she only recommends using the standard one for wok seasoning). My understanding was that they were all the same thing, just with certain differences, with jiuhuang being covered to prevent sun exposure, and the flowering chives just had been let grow long enough to flower. Would love to hear some authoritative information about whether or not they're all the same thing. What are the other things you're talking about? Is it just green garlic? We can get that here in the US when it's in season, but I believe that is an actual young garlic stalk.

My understanding is that these are usually kept for aging tea for medicinal purposes (mostly to help with digestion, I believe). The tea probably ages differently in here than it would in a tighter canister. I am not sure to what extent the oils from the pomelo make it into the tea (probably partially depends if it's skin in or skin out). I have seen these a few times, but I highly doubt that they would have been exported or that westerners would have come into contact with tea stored / aged this way. This is totally conjecture, but I kind of doubt that it has anything to do with Earl Grey. Side note... a tea acquaintance has actually tried doing this: http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-tea-grapefruit-step-by-step.html

It's kind of a "cheat", but I usually use liquid smoke when I want that kind of flavor for greens. I've been vegetarian more than half my life, and never grew up eating Southern style greens, so luckily, I guess, it's not a flavor that I usually miss. I find that with certain greens, onions actually hurt rather than help the taste. As far as people's suggestions for Tuscan kale / cavalo nero / lacinato kale, I really like Suzanne Goin's version from AOC: http://www.latimes.com/features/la-fow-sos28-2009jan28,0,3039776.story If done properly, the texture will be a little dry and oily, and not that soft (it's better than it sounds). Last time, I think I blanched it too much, and it was delicious, but a little too soft for me.

We recently purchased Cascade (here in California) which, according to the label, contains some amount of phosphates. Compared to Seventh Generation grapefruit dish gel, it's a lot more effective (and no, we weren't using too much in either case). The grease and bits of food, even with very lightly soiled dishes, simply didn't come off. I hope to experiment more with more environmentally friendly dishwasher detergent, but so far, my friend's recommendation to get the "good stuff" seems to have worked well.

I don't find them that spicy using her method. However, there are some slight differences between the version of that exact recipe between her memoir and the cookbook... mostly in the quantity of sesame paste, and maybe the quantity of dark soy sauce? The memoir is newer, so I've been assuming that's the correct one. I was going to email her to ask about it, but didn't want to bug her. A few notes: 1) Dunlop doesn't say anything about this, but based on the dan dan mian I eat and like at restaurants here, I think that adding a little pasta cooking water helps give a better texture and flavor. When using fresh noodles, I use a pretty short cooking time (30-40 seconds), or the noodles get too soft. 2) Probably doesn't apply to you, but just a general note for folks who are interested... make sure to use Chinese sesame paste. Tahini (whether raw or roasted) is not a substitute.

Are the leeks you're using actual leeks? I don't have the book here with me, but if she said Chinese leeks, I am assuming she means garlic chives (韭菜； jiǔ caì / gow choy); probably the standard green variety, which doesn't have any white part.

Some past / present "hits" from my holiday menus. * Wild mushroom risotto (lots of chanterelles around this year) * Stuffed squash gets mentioned a lot as a "main dish" type thing - we did one for thanksgiving with a quinoa filling, which I thought was pretty good * Beet "tartare" with dried cherries / candied nuts (I usually use a modified version of this method, adding the cherries and nuts, and sometimes omitting the cheese) http://www.artisanalcheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NP1014). You can cook the beet greens much like chard for an extra side * Roasted root vegetables or roasted cauliflower () * Slow-cooked Tuscan kale (http://www.latimes.com/features/la-fow-sos28-2009jan28,0,3039776.story - w/o the chicken broth, of course) * Eggplant caponata appetizers * Lentil-walnut "pate" (http://the-dairy-free-diva-recipe-exchange.yumsugar.com/Roasted-Wild-Mushroom-Lentil-Walnut-Pate-689523) * Olive tapenade * White bean spread w/ crostini

Just note that they've changed locations recently, and are by appointment only. It's wise to give them a heads up, esp. since they're not always around during the holiday season.