huiray

Heh. I should try that if it's still available to see which side of the fence I come down on. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/mixed-reviews-alaska-pollock-mcdonalds-fish-mcbites http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/mcdonalds-fish-mcbites_n_2680255.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2013/03/12/mcdonalds-fish-mcbites-flounders-new-product-line-doesnt-hook-consumers/ Interestingly, the Fish McBites does not appear on the McDonald's website full menu... http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/full_menu_explorer.html

Chillies are also fruits. Perhaps what the question should be is whether "culinary dessert fruits" can be used. As differentiated from how tomatoes are vegetables in the culinary sense as it has been ruled.

Nor is it the fat or the sodium per se. (And egg yolks are fine too) Only if you have too much of them is there a concern in a general sense. All things in moderation, no? Hmm, time for a couple of Filet-O-Fish with fries...(and Wendy's fish sandwich too, before Lent is over...)

I think there is nothing wrong with old-fashioned dishes. It would be lovely to see a post here showing a nice Tournedos Rossini in its full complete glory. Perhaps from those with access to unlimited supplies of truffles...? Heh, some may remember the NYT writing about it and showing it not so long ago...

They come that way. Here's a pic of the package of the ones I used (on the left of the pic): http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=30903

Is that (melting) ice I see on the Savoy cabbage? If you are there again this month (with temps still in the around-freezing-range) I'd be curious for a pic of what Silva Orchids (see pdf) offers at this time... How does the Union Square stuff compare with, say, the indoor Chelsea Market (or other indoor Winter [Farmers'] Markets) in NYC?

Lunch on Tuesday: • Fried rice – with sliced garlic, very short-cut Chinese long beans, pre-steamed wine-flavored “Lap Cheong” [Chinese sausages] cut into small rounds, sliced de-stringed Western celery, eggs scrambled in situ, day-old Basmati rice. No soy sauce. Liquids from the steaming of the lap cheong added to the rice while being fried. • Snow fungus & wood-ear fungus, both rehydrated; and trimmed scallions in chicken broth.

• Lotus root & pork spare ribs soup.§ With garlic, jujubes, raw peanuts & fresh "Far Koo". • Bone-in chicken¶ stir-fried/sautéed with garlic, Napa heart & hot green chillies. • White rice (Basmati). § Short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed w/ lightly crushed garlic cloves plus some salt till fond is well developed then water added. Simmered for 10-15 minutes or so, sliced lotus root & jujubes‡ added, followed shortly by the fresh "Far Koo" mushrooms (flower-patterned thick cap shiitakes; quartered) and peanuts and the mix simmered till done, about 1+ hour or so. ¶ Chopped-up chicken pieces pre-marinated w/ Shaohsing wine (Wei Chuan), fish sauce (Red Boat), fresh ground black pepper, sesame oil (Dragonfly). The smashed, chopped garlic was tossed in the hot pan containing oil, the chicken + marinade tossed in quickly, the mix stirred/banged around; followed by the sliced hot long green (ripening to orange) chillies and trimmed leaves of the heart of a Napa cabbage ("Wong Nga Pak") almost at the end - the idea was to just barely cook the Napa cabbage and retain the crispiness/crunch of it as far as possible. ‡ I used "大南棗" today, a.k.a. "Blue Dates". They're not actually blue in color but are very dark black-red visually, are larger than the more common "red dates" and have a smoky smell to them. Side note: The currently accepted name for Chinese dates/jujubes appears to be Ziziphus jujuba, rather than the Ziziphus zizyphus previously used which is recognized as a synonym. See: http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2470699

rotuts, Yes, that's the fish cake. No wrapper, sorry, it would have been repackaged from bulk anyway. Yes, those are chopped scallions/green onions and carrot bits you see in there and yes, it is pre-fried. Usually I get them frozen, I haven't picked up freshly made ones in a very long time (I don't live in the right place for that, too). The non-restaurant commercial ones come in several sizes and shapes - commonly one also sees flattish rectangular pieces rather than the ovoids you see in my picture. Chinese preparations and Japanese preparations of these fish cakes also vary, in some cases very considerably. [cf Japanese Kamaboko] The "Southern Chinese"/HK/"Overseas Chinese" varieties often have these scallion and carrot bits in them but not always. Sometimes there are also peas in them. You can use them in soups, with soupy noodles, even in fried rice or stir fries, rewarmed/refried (briefly) by themselves w/ a dipping sauce, say...usually sliced up in each case.

Lunch on Saturday: Mettwurst¶ with sauerkraut§. Eaten w/ Cherub tomatoes & scallions. ¶ Freshly made, from my local German butcher. (Claus') § Kühne Barrel Sauerkraut, jarred. Usually I get it in bulk from Claus' but on Friday they only had the jarred on hand. Metts browned in olive oil (Unio Arbequina EV), the kraut added (barely drained, so lots of retained liquid), tossed a bit, adequate water and a few bay leaves and a scattering of whole white peppercorns added followed by a dose of brewed rice vinegar (Marukan) plus some sea salt, and the mix simmered till "done". [No, no beer or caraway seeds (not keen on either). Yes, a bit cross-cultural. :-) ]

I never eat ANYTHING that's not plated correctly! Looks delicious So it looks delicious - but will you EAT it? :-) I suspect you might have limited options with dinner invitations if you did not eat anything that was not plated correctly. :-D

Ah, thought you were in Seattle --- from the discussion on another thread... [Heh, I should have looked at your profile]

No fresh squid available to you in Seattle? http://www.pikeplacefish.com/buy/specialty-fish/show/whole-squid/ http://www.freshseafood.com/fresh-scallops-and-squids/fresh-squid.html http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i1920e/i1920e02.pdf - See pg 62

I forgot to mention this list omits one spot that is frequently overlooked by many folks...including on here...the Sunday buffet brunch at Shaw's Crab House, either downtown on Hubbard St or out in Schaumburg. Maybe because it's not new or "cool" enough for eater.com. :-) Also, brunch at North Pond; or in The Lobby at the Peninsula; or some others... Some links - here, here, here; & etc.

Breakfast today: Most of the second schnecken-bratwurst I cooked yesterday; w/ wonton noodles tossed w/ the leftover pan-fried onions & madeira sauce; and "Gai/Kai Lan" stems w/ florets blanched in lightly oiled boiling water.

As others have said here, I like them in creating some pasta sauces too, amongst other things. I tend to want to have the "tomato-ey" flavor they bring in the forefront (or as a major taste), however, rather than blending them in with a great number of things - so I might sauté some shallots or onions, maybe a small amount of garlic, add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes with its oil into the sauté plus something greenish that is complementary (fennel bulb is nice), toss all around, add some water or stock or even some fresh tomatoes as well, toss some more and then add in my pasta. I much prefer flattish pasta for this - linguine would be perfect for me. :-) [Adding in something like shrimp towards the end is also nice...]

Just curious - Why?

I forgot until just now that I previously posted in the "Lunch" thread about using dried (& salted) cuttlefish in making "Choy Kon/Gon Tong". :-) http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143989-lunch-whatd-ya-have-2012/page-3#entry1905355

Lunch today (Friday): • Schnecken Bratwurst - from my local German butcher.¶ Pan-fried in the pan residues from frying onions, plus extra oil. Pan residues deglazed w/ Rainwater Madeira (Blandys) diluted w/ a little water & w/ a few nuggets of rock sugar added into the simmering liquid; the resulting liquid used as a sauce for the schnecken & potatoes. • Above-mentioned pan-fried sliced onions. • Western celery pan-fried in the residues after deglazing w/ a little more oil. • Boiled fingerling potatoes, drained & tossed w/ butter. • Oven-roasted carrots & parsnips - tossed w/ olive oil, salt, thyme, sage; before going into the oven. ¶ Claus' German Sausage & Meats. Website.

Ah. So you're going to show us a delicious Cuttlefish dish! No, the world wide web will do that quite nicely. One just has to think about the food world beyond the shores of the USA.

You forgot about CUTTLEFISH. In SE Asia, it was more common to eat cuttlefish. (See also: Geographical range of cuttlefish)

Some other places to consider for brunch currently, as compiled by chicago.eater.com: http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2013/03/07/where-to-eat-brunch-in-chicago-right-now.php

Fresh wood ear mushrooms, fresh white beech mushrooms, fresh flower-cap shiitake mushrooms (quartered), cauliflower florets, trimmed green onions - sautéed in Maussane-les-Alpilles olive oil w/ pink Himalayan salt. Another bowl of the "jook" from yesterday, with chopped green onions & cilantro only. (no pic)

Very late "dinner" last night/early a.m. -- Chicken & shrimp wontons [Prime Food], blanched "Yu Choy Sum", skinny wonton noodles, chicken stock simmered a short while with some whole dried anchovies then poured off from the fish.

Lunch today, Wednesday: • Rice congee ("jook"; 粥; Yale: juk1) with short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed with lots of julienned fresh ginger (a large fully heaped handful's worth plus a bit more!) (the ginger is sautéed first till just beginning to brown, then the ribs added). Lightly salted, tossed around; water added and the mix simmered for about 30-40 minutes. Long-grain rice (I used Basmati) (ratio water:raw rice ~ 10:1) added, stirred in, simmering resumed for about 1/2 hour or so more till desired consistency was reached w/ occasional stirring. Eaten w/ chopped scallions & cilantro, plus "Tung Choy" (Tianjin preserved vegetable) and deep-fried shallots. • A form of mustard common in Chinese cuisine, often called "pull mustard" in English, Chinese name usually "雪裡紅" (Yale: syut3 leui5 hung4); a form of Brassica juncea. (See here also and the Google Translation) There are frilly-leaved varieties and non-frilly-leaved varieties which appear to go by the same name of "雪裡紅"; the form I usually see and buy and use is a non-frilly form, see pic below. Today I simply stir-fried it with sliced garlic, tossing in a mixture of oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee), fish sauce (Red Boat), Shaohsing wine (Wei Chuan) and a dash of sesame oil (Dragonfly) towards the end.